Suffering- Part 1

If one were to follow Old Testament thought from the book of Genesis, one could easily pick up on several themes that seem to come front and center.  One of them I want to discuss a bit.

Many times, especially in the book of Judges, we hear God say something to the effect of, "If you follow my commands, you will be prosperous and live in the land that I have promised you. If you disobey my commands, then I will allow you to be overtaken."  This is not a quote, but a para-phrase of the theme.  It would be easy to read a "prosperity gospel" out of this thought process.  If I do what God wants me to do and obey his laws then good things will happen to me.  If I do not, then bad things will happen to me.  One could also jump to the conclusion that if bad things are happening in my life, then I must have done something bad or sinned against God.  We see this several times in scripture.  Job's friends (I will post more on them later) asks Job to repent so that his life can be restored.  We even see this thought in the New Testament.

In John 9:1-5, we read, "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

So even the disciples wondered about this and the text gives indication that they potentially thought along these lines.  Notice Jesus' answer...neither this man nor his parents sinned.  This person's blindness had nothing to do with sin at all!

Biblical scholars and Jewish scholars throughout history say that this is why we have the book of Job.  It is strategically placed in the Old Testament to be a story and a theological statement that bad things happen to good people, no matter how righteous you are.  As we discussed on Sunday, suffering levels the playing field for everyone on the planet.  If you are richest of rich or poorest of poor, you will suffer.  If you have the most power in the world or the least, you will suffer.  If you are the holiest person in the world or worst sinner in the world, you will suffer.  So Job is situated in the Bible to remind us that suffering in our life is not determined by what we do or do not do, it will happen either way.

Now, hear me say this, there are choices that we make that could potentially lead to more or less suffering in our lives.  But the thought that if I am a holy person everything will be good and if I am a sinful person everything will be bad is not Biblical whatsoever.  

One more observation of the 1st few chapters of Job.  Have you noticed that God does not cause the suffering.  He is not the one that puts it in Job's life, but he does allow it.  Once again, I think that this continues the thought from yesterday's sermon (sorry if you did not get a chance to hear it...it should be loaded on our church web page tomorrow sometime).  God did not get rid of the darkness but rather speaks into it.  He doesn't get rid of the chaos but rather speaks in the midst of it.  

So, what I feel like I must come to terms with is that I am on this journey called life.  This journey has many ups and downs...many twists and turns.  My job, in the midst of it all, is to be who God created me to be and know that His grace is sufficient for any trial or hard time that may come.  I can't expect to act like Christ in the hard times if I can't act like him in the good times.  So, what I must do is strive to be like Him every second of every day and when persecution or suffering happens in my life, I will not have to ask "What Would Jesus Do?" but hopefully that would happen naturally because it is what I am becoming, not just something to do or a questions I ask myself every now and then.  Being Christlike is a daily journey and the only way...THE ONLY WAY...that I will be like Him when everything around me falls away is if I am trying to be like Him daily!

So, as scripture says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)  In good times and bad, seek to serve Him in everything.  When you have plenty and when you have none, seek to serve Him in everything.  When you wake up and when you go to sleep and everything in between, seek to serve Him in everything.  Then, when suffering comes, your faith and hope will be in the very person who enters into the suffering with you...Jesus...not in your ability to cope or handle the situation alone.  

Suffering is going to happen.  I wish I could say it is easy, but then it wouldn't be suffering.  I am not sure there is any study or blue print for knowing how to act or what to do when suffering happens.  I can't say I have done everything right.  I have, however, tried my best to be faithful to Jesus and who I believe He created me to be.  The current situation we find ourselves in is no where close to over.  So, I will wake up tomorrow and seek to be who God has called me to be tomorrow...currently that is all I have the ability to do.  All I can do is live one day at a time.

More thoughts on suffering tomorrow.

Grace and Peace