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The Gift of Suffering pt III


Last Friday as I was working on this morning’s message, it occurred to me that between our little congregation and the folks at Harvest Time, more than half of us have been put by God into His dreaded “Furnace of Affliction,” and most of the rest of us are just outside its door. In one way or another, all human beings have their own divinely ordained challenges which they are contending with, but most of them pale in comparison to those who actually remain in the furnace for a long time. Everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, can attest to the truthfulness of an observation made by one of Job’s bumbling comforters’, who told that suffering man:

Job 5:7 (NIV) 7 “… man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”

Regardless of whether or not they actually know God, every thinking person can’t help observing that human beings possess a strong, indomitable and resilient spirit. We have all seen first-hand or learned about this fact as it was manifested in the lives of many women and men and boys and girls, and we marvel at how some of them are able to endure so much pain and suffering. Bible believing Christian’s aren’t mystified by this reality, because God has revealed the answer in the Scriptures.

Proverbs 18:14 (AMP) 14 “The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble,”

Human beings have been endowed by their Creator with a spirit strong enough to sustain them, but only up to a point. Case in point—commenting on these verses, Charles Bridges writes: “David, in the most fearful circumstances, ‘encouraged himself in the Lord his God,” (1Samuel 30:6). Job could bless God under [his] accumulated external trials.” For instance, he:

Job 1:21 (AMP) 21”… said, Naked (without possessions) came I [into this world] from my mother’s womb, and naked (without possessions) shall I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed (praised and magnified in worship) be the name of the Lord!”

“The apostle Paul “took pleasure in infirmities:”

2 Corinthians 12:10 (AMP) 10 So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).

“The martyrs “were more than conquerors” under the most cruel tortures, (Romans 8:37). Outward troubles are tolerable, yea—more than tolerable if there is peace within the person.” (A)

The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble,” Nevertheless, as I alluded a moment ago, there is only so much a person can endure, especially non-believers. For instance, speaking of them, Bridges commented: “There is a hell for the wicked on this side of eternity. Man becomes a burden to himself. Cain’s “punishment was greater than he could bear.” (Gen. 4:13.) Saul was given up to the blackness of despair, (1 Samuel 28:15). Zimri [in a fit of] rebellious madness threw himself into the flames, (1Kings 16:18). Pashur was made a terror to himself, (Jeremiah 20:4). Ahithophel and Judas “chose strangulation rather than life, (2 Samuel 17:23; Matthew 27:5). Thus are the torments of eternity before it’s [actually] entered into. One hell is kindled within [a person here on earth] before [he or she] enters into the other [hell in eternity]. Such is the foretaste of hell—only a few drops of wrath—for a few moments. What will be the reality—the substance—for eternity?” (B)

But you and I know there is a vast difference between how those ungodly men dealt with their torments and the manner in which God’s children did. And it wasn’t because the furnace God put them into was mild in comparison, because nothing could be further from the truth. Consider those of Jeremiah, “the weeping prophet” who was no stranger to that horrible furnace. Read along with me this particular mournful lament which ends with a pitiful question.

Jeremiah 20:14-18 (AMP) 14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! Let not the day on which my mother bore me be blessed! 15 Cursed be the man who brought the tidings to my father, saying, A son is born to you!—making him very glad. 16 And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent. Let him hear the [war] cry in the morning and the shouting of alarm at noon, 17 Because he did not slay me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great. 18 Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?

Consider also another former tenant of “The Furnace,” a godly man named Job and his equally excruciating sorrow as well as his questions, which no one but God can answer? After experiencing a rapid fire series of horrendous losses,

Job 3:1-11 (AMP) 1 “… Job opened his mouth and cursed his day (birthday). 2 And Job said, 3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night which announced, There is a man-child conceived. 4 Let that day be darkness! May not God above regard it, nor light shine upon it. 5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it for their own; let a cloud dwell upon it; let all that blackens the day terrify it (the day that I was born). 6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize it; let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Yes, let that night be solitary and barren; let no joyful voice come into it. 8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are skilled in rousing up Leviathan. 9 Let the stars of the early dawn of that day be dark; let [the morning] look in vain for the light, nor let it behold the day’s dawning, 10 Because it shut not the doors of my mother’s womb nor hid sorrow and trouble from my eyes. 11 Why was I not stillborn? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bore me?”

Have you ever felt like that? Perhaps not, but there are times that you may have come to the conclusion you would be better off dead than alive. Job was tormented and devastated by a multitude of awful losses God had planned for him to endure, one right after the other. So much so, that he teetered on the edge of despair, and wished he had never been born. He and Jeremiah could have taken their own lives such as those unbelievers I cited earlier. But he and Jeremiah didn’t. How can we explain the difference between God’s children and those who aren’t? What do we have to do to connect these dots? Let’s take a closer look at that verse again.

Proverbs 18:14 (AMP) 14 “The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble,”

Now let’s read the rest of that verse.

but a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear?”

The spirits of those unbelievers grew weaker and weaker until their spirits were finally crushed. They got to the point where each man couldn’t bear his divinely ordained affliction anymore, and he just gave up. And I might add each of them did exactly what our Creator back in eternity past planned on allowing them to freely choose to do in the course of human history. But why didn’t God’s children do the same thing? Did God intervene and prevent them, as He did Abraham the time He stopped him from running the sword through his son Isaac? The Apostle Paul gives us the answer which I shared with you folks last week.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

By the grace of God and only by His grace; after his devastating losses, Job didn’t take his wife’s suggestion to “curse God and die (Job 2:9). Instead,  as we read a moment ago, Job had previously acknowledged the fact that everything he had, and everything which had been taken away from him, had been given to him and taken away from him by God (Job 1:21). When the heat in that furnace is getting hotter and hotter and we experience painful losses, it’s often easy to forget this fact. That’s one of the reasons Christ gave us His church. He brought us together in order that we would have a relationship with one another, and not just for an hour or two on a Sunday. He wants us to be there throughout the week as well, to comfort and encourage one another and to remind each other of God promises. It isn’t that we don’t know our Bible. It’s just that we’re human and sometimes we become numb from our trials, so much so, that we can’t even think straight. Those are the times when God gives us knowledgeable Bible believing brothers and sisters in Christ who know what it’s like to be in that dreaded furnace so that they can jog our memory concerning the truths I’ve been sharing. He wants the members of His family to pray with and for each other, to bear each other’s burdens, to lighten their load and to cry with each other and comfort and encourage one another; even if the brother or sister has succumbed to the devils temptation, and has withdraw from formally fellowshipping with other believers. He wants us to seek out and find wandering sheep to comfort them, and gently lead them back into the fold.

Paul, in reiterating Job by saying, “Blessed be God,” was also praising Him for who He is: “God the Father of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” But this isn’t the only reason Paul blessed God. He knew that God is the Father of all mercy and as such He is the God of all comfort who showers down upon His afflicted child and mercifully drenches him or her with comfort in their time of great need. Then the most natural reaction of a truly grateful Christian after having experienced a painful loss and also receiving our Fathers comfort; is to praise God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, every human being has been given a spirit within them, some stronger than others. The human spirit enables him or her to hold up under difficult circumstances and not cave in, but they can only endure so much. Unless there is a letup in their affliction they will grow weaker and weaker and eventually throw in the towel and finally give up. I’m not suggesting they will take their own lives. But they most likely will go into such a depression that those closest to them are apt to believe he or she would be better off dead than alive in order to get out of their misery. King Solomon observed this fact when he wondered aloud: “… but a weak and broken spirit, who can bear?” And Paul answers Solomon’s question when, speaking of God the Father of all mercies, Paul tells us that He “comforts us in all our affliction,” Not just some, but all!

One of the most painful losses we experience are the loss of something or someone we love or depend upon very much. It can be very frightening time when, through death of a loved one or a divorce or other losses such as that of our health or job which can rob us of our peace of mind. If we let it!  Naturally we become concerned. However, we may cross over the line and become very anxious and worry up a storm. Jesus addressed this very real possibility and offers these comforting thoughts and instructions on how we can overcome that temptation.

Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The current issue of World Magazine contains an article in which its author, Vern Poythress contemplated the night sky and the sheer wonder of God’s infinite universe and how, speaking of its Creator, wrote, “He threw out galaxies like sand, as far as the Hubel Telescope can see.” Among other interesting facts in the article, Poythress was reminded of the truth of Jesus driving home the reality of His people worrying about tomorrow when He asked them,

Matthew 10:29-31 (NIV) 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Elaborating on Jesus’ teaching, Poythress continues, “God does not reckon importance by size. He is infinitely great, and so He is not impressed merely by physical dimensions. In His greatness He has time and energy for what is small. He has time for you. He even has time for the hairs on your head.  Do you want to know about God’s care for your hair? Hair is made of a protein called keratin. Wikipedia explains: “Keratins have large amounts of the sulfur containing amino acid cysteine, required for the disulfide bridges that confer additional strength and rigidity by permanent, thermally-stable cross linking.” So God has thoughtfully engineered your hair for toughness-down to the molecular level.”

“The most remarkable instance of God’s concern for apparently small people has been around even before the dawn of modern science. God Himself came to earth, and became man. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus came and even died because God cared. And Jesus is God. This is the awesome of all wonders, dwarfing the Andromeda Galaxy in its splendor. God came to this galaxy, to this planet Earth, and became man. And for whom did He care? Not only the proud and mighty, but lepers, lame people, infants, the blind, and a demon-possessed man so tormented that he lived naked among the tombs.” Poythress concludes: “So when you look at a night sky, remember that the God who displays His majesty there has committed Himself to you. (C).

Our Father is a merciful God. He’s so filled with mercy that He can’t be any more merciful. It’s His nature to be merciful every bit as much as it is for Him to be kind, loving, patient, forgiving and all the rest of His divine attributes. In other words, Our Father must be merciful towards each of His children because He is the God of all mercy and comfort. For Him not to extend mercy is impossible. If He didn’t, He would cease being God. He comforts His children in all their afflictions. Not just some, but all! And He does this through His people. Please don’t forget to remember Paul’s answer to Solomon’s question concerning a weak and broken spirit and wonder who can raise up a fellow Christian who is struggling with an awful divinely ordained ordeal. The apostle says it’s every single child of God without exception who has accepted the comfort of “…God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Notice Paul isn’t saying that in order for one Christian to comfort another, he or she must have endured the exact same kind of affliction such as having lost a job or gone through a divorce or whatever. On the contrary, it’s the Christian who has been in any kind of affliction which will enable him or her to be used by God to bestow all the comfort the person needs to lift up the afflicted person’s spirit and sustain them in the most trying of times. But you and I know that one of the most distressing and challenging experiences He has planned for His grateful children to endure is that when they attempt to comfort others with the comfort he or she has received from God, the suffering sister or brother in Christ resists all their efforts, much like a sick child wanting to get well, but stubbornly refuses to take his or her medicine. Lord willing, soon…”

———————-

(A) A COMMENTARY ON PROVERBS, by Charles Bridges published 1846 and reprinted 1968 by The Banner of Truth Trust, page 291.

(B) Ibid page 292.

(C) WORLD, November 15/22, 2008, page 31.

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November 16, 2008 Posted by Categories: Uncategorized No comments yet


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