We distinguish between our sufferings in general and evil or wickedness. The persecution of the believer is constituted ‘sufferings.’ The killing of many people in Las Vegas is evil. It is the evil of man . It has always been so. We recognize the difficulty in saying that God knew of such an evil and did nothing to prevent it. We do not know, first of all, how much God did actually prevent, so it is pointless to speculate. We must acknowledge that God is on control of all things, even the evil of man. If God did not then he is not God. To say that God does not care or God did nothing is to seriously misrepresent all that Scripture reveals about God.
God most certainly does care, otherwise he is not the God of the Bible. Jesus answered this issue in Luke 13:1-5, “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
So where does Jesus go with this issue. He personalizes it in the light of eternity. Have we paid attention to the far greater issue of being right with God, lest we perish in a worse way? Moreover, God knows all about suffering. Jesus suffered and died. There was a separation between Father and Son at the Cross – a suffering of the deepest kind. Yes, God does know and God does care, and God is always good. But we grieve and sorrow in the midst of unspeakable horror and tragedy. This is what sin does in the heart of man. It has ruined all of us. God has dealt with our sin at the Cross, and eternity lies before us. That is what we must prepare for.