Where is God when innocent people suffer?
 
In The Massacre of the Innocents – Where Is God in Suffering?, this sermon examines one of the most disturbing events recorded in the Gospels: Herod’s slaughter of the children of Bethlehem in Matthew 2. Rather than avoiding the horror of the passage, the sermon confronts it honestly, allowing Scripture to speak without sentimentality or evasion.
 
Drawing from Matthew’s Gospel and tracing the theme of suffering across the Old and New Testaments, this sermon explores how the Bible addresses evil, human cruelty, and the suffering of the innocent — without offering shallow answers or philosophical abstractions.
 
The sermon examines:
The historical and biblical context of Herod’s massacre
The fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy in Matthew’s account
The reality of evil and its opposition to the work of God
The place of suffering within a fallen world
Why Scripture does not conceal or minimise the suffering of the innocent
How God remains sovereign without being the author of evil
How the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ speak directly to the problem of suffering
 
Central to the sermon is the recognition that Jesus Himself entered a world marked by violence and injustice from the beginning of His earthly life. The massacre at Bethlehem stands as an early sign of the hostility Christ would face, and of the cost bound up with God’s work of redemption.
 
This sermon does not attempt to justify suffering or explain it away.
 
Instead, it places suffering within the larger biblical narrative, showing how God works through history — even in the presence of profound evil — to bring about redemption, justice, and ultimate hope.
 
Format
Digital booklet (PDF)
Booklet size: 5 × 8 inches
Prepared from a sermon originally preached at Living Waters Church of God
 
Scripture Focus
Matthew 2:16–18
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under.”
 
About This Sermon
This booklet forms part of the Sermons in Print series from Living Waters Church of God and has been prepared in written form for those who wish to read carefully and reflect deeply on the teaching of Scripture.