Interventionist God?

I have been a blogger for many years, and one post in particular seems to keep attracting visits. It is an initial exploration of whether or not God intervenes in our daily lives. There are a range of perspectives on this question, and I suspect that it is of nearly as much interest to those who do not profess to be Christians as it is to those who do. In the face of grand scale tragedy, the question "how can God allow this to happen" is never far from people's minds, regardless of where they sit on the philosophical fence. Similarly, in the state of high stress and danger, the plea "God help me" is often mouthed. Perhaps there is something innate within humanity, to look for something beyond ourselves when we find ourselves in crisis.

Nick Cave sings "I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I know darling that you do".  He then asks God to then direct his lady love into his arms.  It is a tender song.  Nick Cave is no unintentional theologian.  His poetry, songs and essays have much to contribute to theological discussion, if nothing other than to hold a light up to re-examine beliefs, mysteries and inconsistencies within Christianity. This song rather obviously raises the question of whether or not God intervenes in the smallness of our lives and loves.

In my last hub about the book of Job I wrote about the dialogue between God and the Satan. If we take the story on face value, it seems as though God likes to stir the pot, allows things to happen, but does set limits (the Satan was not given total free reign with Job).  The picture here is not so much of an intervening God, but of one that has made up the rules, and watches with interest to see what happens.  It reminds me a little of the gods in Pratchett's disc world novels, and even more ancient views of divine amusements.  I do believe that God can intervene. God would not be God if this was outside divine capacity.  God could have stopped Job's sufferings.  But he did not.  Why?

This question is not easily answered.  It plagues skeptics like Nick Cave and fundamentalist Christians alike.  Why doesn't God intervene when we pray, when atrocities happen in the world, when someone I love contracts cancer?  For some, the argument of free will suffices for explaining why bad things happen.  Open Theism suggests that God doesn't know the future because it doesn't exist to be known, and therefore does not intervene to stop what is not yet known.  You can read a good overview of Open Theism here.  For others, this question may be responded with an additional one - who are we to even ask why God does or doesn't do something, or to question divine plans.  I take comfort from the fact that Job did, and survived to tell the tale.  And was even extolled by God for having "spoken rightly".