God is not an insurance agent - GBC Bulletin Column #19

A lone person walks down a debris-strewn street in war-ravaged Syria 

A classic of science fiction, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is presented as the first-hand and factual account of a Martian invasion of Earth at the turn of the nineteenth century. The invading army of Martians - aided by highly advanced machinery and extremely destructive weaponry - start from their landing site near Woking in Surrey and begin a devastating advance across the country leaving behind only charred ruins and the remains of the slain. The unnamed narrator of the story, who is trying desperately to return to his wife without falling prey to the invaders, is joined for a significant part of his journey by a clergyman fleeing Weybridge. Instead of being a source of help and hope to the protagonist, the clergyman becomes quite the hindrance and a harbinger of doom. Variously described as “lethargic”, “unreasonable”, and “timorous”, this “spoiled child of life” possesses a “stupid rigidity of mind”, and is “as lacking in restraint as a silly woman” who “would weep for hours together.” He carries on an “endless muttering monologue” interspersed occasionally with louder exclamations of utter helplessness as he repeatedly questions why God would permit such terrible things to happen, after all, “What sins have we done?” “I tired of the sight of his selfish despair”, writes the narrator – and well he might! Over the course of the book, he reacts in different ways to his miserable companion, but perhaps his finest moment is when he sees the pathetic excuse for faith and the man-centred view of God the clergyman has: “Be a man!” said I. “You are scared out of your wits! What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? Think of what earthquakes and floods, wars and volcanoes, have done before to men! Did you think God had exempted Weybridge? He is not an insurance agent.”

Wells’ clergyman bore no signs of possessing a spirit “of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). The faith he had was not one that is proven strong through difficulties and his religion did not produce care for the afflicted but crumbled under affliction due to a faulty view of God. God is not an “insurance agent”, protecting those who buy his plan from the painful realities of life in a fallen world. I am not aware of any promise of deliverance from evil’s very presence this side of glory, but only a prayer for deliverance from evil’s violent power, pleasure, and Person (Satan) when its presence is all around (Matt. 6:13). The times are harsh: wearied bodies with broken emotions and confused minds stumble on in a seemingly futile attempt to evade utter destruction. It is sad that in this spiritually deprived and morally depraved culture, many insist on following the cowardly curate of Weybridge in mutterings of helplessness instead of looking to the living Light of the World, Jesus Christ, and his marvellous faithfulness.  Job was in pain and he said “Blessed be the name of Lord” (Job 1:21). David anticipated walking through “the valley of the shadow of death” but said “I will fear no evil for you [the Lord] are with me” (Ps. 23:4). Jeremiah had seen great affliction, but sang “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases” (Lamentations 3:22). Micah sat in darkness yet shouted at his seemingly triumphant enemy “when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me” (Micah 7:8). At the time of writing 2 Corinthians, Paul had endured 39 lashes from his own people five times, three rod beatings, one stoning,  three shipwrecks, a night and a day adrift at sea, frequent journeys, “danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” to say nothing of anxiety for all the churches. He took courage from the sufficiency of God’s grace and the perfection of Christ’s power in weakness: “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). 

You see, God never promised to protect his people from suffering or even to alleviate the accompanying pain, only to preserve them through the suffering and to purify them by the pain. He does not always choose to protect us from the storm, but he is present with us through it and gives us the perseverance and peace to endure. God is not an insurance agent. He is “The Lord…my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 27:1). 

This was printed in the worship bulletin of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) on 01/09/2013.