In his later years King Solomon was a “glass empty” type pessimist. “I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: like fishes taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11, 12)
Ecclesiastes (“The Preacher”) is pessimistic. King Solomon had experienced pretty much all there was in life and had come to the conclusion that it was meaningless. We Christians view life much more differently, knowing that bad things happen to good people and that good things to bad people. It’s how we manage both that matters. (By “both” I mean that a a person who has no idea as to how to manage money and wins a lottery can end up as damaged financially as a person whose house has been destroyed in a storm.
Solomon’s father, King David, was no pessimist, but he too nearly stumbled over the same plaintive question — “Why?” (Psalm 73).
In the old days of newspaper reporting, articles were edited from the bottom up to fit the available amount of page space. Reporters wrote their stories on (1) What? (2) Where? (3) When? (4) Who? They left (5) How? to columnists and weekly magazines.
The copy was edited from the bottom up, according to space available on the page. “Why?” was left to weekly news magazines like “Time” and “Newsweek” for comment and possible explanation.
Soothing words are of little help to those whose properties have been burned to the ground. At such times religious platitudes of any kind are best left unsaid. I’ll try to avoid both when I say that there are no answers to many tragedies, and that “miraculous” wind shifts that spare some houses and not others close by fit Solomon’s “time and chance” theory.
I believe in miracles of the supernatural kind: those resulting from overruling words of spiritual authority in the face of looming disaster, and those resulting from people exercising God-given faith. Other than these, the answers to “Why?” are probably best left to the understanding that often comes with time, and the revelations that are certain to come with eternity.
Meanwhile, everything is new in the Son, who makes every day meaningful. So, why have Solomon’s “nothing new” pessimistic outlook on life when you can have a life that’s not just full but overflowing in the Lord Jesus Christ? (John 10:10)