Between a Promise and a Reality

The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word "love", and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake. "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the divine love may rest "well pleased".

We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it.

I'm not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering.

I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that he gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect. CS Lewis

SUFFERING AIMS TO EXPOSE AN UNBELIEVING HEART

Exodus 4:29–31 ESV

Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Exodus 4:1–23 ESV

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’ ” The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.” Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

There is a clear principle taught throughout Holy Scripture; all faith will be tested.

Not so that God might know its genuineness but so that we might know.

Peter also points out that while we indeed ‘suffer grief’ (Gk. lypeō) as a result of ‘all kinds (Gk. poikilos) of trials’, they all have the purpose that our faith ‘may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed’. He compares this process of testing to that of gold being refined in the crucible.

1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

When the Lord Jesus listed differing responses to the ‘seed’ which is the word of God, he included those who, when they hear the word ‘at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately, they quickly fall away’

Mark 4:16–17 ESV

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul notes two things which to him marked their conversion as genuine: they recognized the word which they had heard as God’s word, not man’s and their reception of that word was tested by suffering

1 Thessalonians 2:13–14 ESV

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,

Peter instructs us not to think trials a ‘strange’ (‘foreign’, Gk. xenos) element in normal experience—our calling is to be made like our Saviour in his sufferings

1 Peter 4:12–13 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

James goes even further, urging us to count trials ‘pure joy’ because they are part and parcel of the way forward to maturity

James 1:2–4 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

and Hebrews reminds us that educative discipline (Gk. paideia) is inseparable from being a beloved child of the Father

Hebrews 12:7 ESV

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Deuteronomy 8:5 ESV

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

The mocking voice of Satan poured scorn on Job’s faith, claiming that the Lord had made life all too easy for him and scoffing that if he were to lose all that made his life pleasant, he would ‘curse [God] to his face’

Job 1:10–11 ESV

Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Job’s faith, however, was proved true, and he was confident that

Job 23:10 ESV

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

In the light of even this small selection of Scripture, we see that ...

When the word of God arrives in our hearts and lives, testings and trials come too as God’s appointed way for his children to grow spiritually and to come into the arena of Christlikeness.

Even our poor understanding of such things can see that this must be so. Many Christians are given the opportunity in Sunday worship to affirm, ‘I believe in God the Father, Almighty’. This is all well and good, but we do not actually know that we truly believe in such a God until Monday faces us with experiences which suggest that he is far from almighty and pretty unfatherly! Testing has its place and purpose, and this applies not only to the outward trials of adversity and circumstantial difficulties but also to the individual realities of besetting sins, temptation and the ceaseless warfare of the spiritual life.

Unless, therefore, we are prepared to rewrite the Bible, we must face the fact that Israel, having sheltered beneath the blood of the lamb, launched out into pilgrimage to face the wilderness in a divinely planned programm to test obedience, bring loyalty to light and prove the faithfulness of God

Deuteronomy 8:1–4 ESV

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

1 Corinthians 10:6–13 ESV

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

SUFFERING AIMS TO EXERCISE A BELIEVING HEART.

FAITH DOES NOT SHIELD US NOR DOES OBEDIENCE SAVE US FROM SUFFERING.

Acts 14:22 ESV

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 2:20–23 ESV

For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

FAITH DOES NOT A CREATE A BUFFER ZONE AGAINST SUFFERING. FAITH DOES NOT INOCULATE OR INSULATE US FROM SUFFERING. IF ANYTHING IT INVITES AND INSURES ITS APPEARANCE.

WE DON’T OBEY SO THAT WE WILL BE SECURE. WE ARE SECURE THEREFORE WE OBEY.

TESTING AIMS TO EXERCISE OUR FAITH BY TEACHING IT TO TRUST THE LORD’S STRENGTH AND TO STAND FIRM IN HIS PROMISES.

Psalm 34:19–20 ESV

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Psalm 119:67–68 ESV

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.

Sin has robbed our world of security and it further deceives us into seeking its apprehension. We expend ourselves on foundations that cannot survive and erecting shelters that cannot stand. Christ has come and offers himself as a sure foundation and a shelter of security.

“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: But joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

Exodus 6:1–13 ESV

But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’ ” Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the LORD said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

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