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The Glory of Suffering
Old Testament
Suffering
There are five major ideas discovered in the Old Testament with regard
to suffering.
1.
Men are afflicted because Yahweh is displeased
2.
How is God's powerful goodness reconciled with the cruel injustice of man's
experience?
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A covetous man prospers — a generous man suffers tragedy.
Needed people die young — worthless scoundrels reach a ripe old age.
Some children are blessed from birth — others are cursed with idiocy or
disease.
Of two families of like quality and conduct, one experiences habitual good
fortune — the other continuous adversity.
3.
Man's happiness and misery come from God as the evidence of his favor or
disfavor.
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Whenever men are fortunate it is owing to having been virtuous.
Whenever men are afflicted — they must have sinned.
Therefore — all human suffering is punishment for sin.
All wickedness brings trouble, but not all trouble is penalty for wickedness.
Sinners in the end suffer, but not all suffers are sinners.
4. If suffering, sacrificially borne for others, is redemptive, then suffering
is redeemed.
5.
All suffering is demonic in origin.
Satan is only mentioned in the Old Testament 3 times in connection with
affliction.
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In afflicting Job — Job16-12; 2:1-7
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Tempting David to number Israel — 1 Chronicles 21:1
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The symbolic adversary of Israel — Zechariah 3:1-2
New Testament
Suffering
The New Testament does not contain a single idea about suffering that is
not found in the Old Testament.
There is a difference in mood and feeling between Old Testament and New
Testament Scriptures.
Jewish Thinking
Looks backward to previous conduct as the explanation of suffering.
Christian Thinking
Habitually looks forward to the high spiritual uses of suffering.
Punishment
Some human pain and torment are punitive.
1.
This is a one-way argument
From sin to the consequential trouble
Never from trouble looking for the sin
Luke 13:4-5 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and
slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in
Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish.
Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust. The processes of nature are impartial.
Matthew 7:24-27
The storm beat with equal incidence on both houses.
1.
Not all trouble and suffering is the result of sin.
John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man,
or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this
man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest
in him.
There were three crosses on Calvary:
Flagrant and blasphemous criminal
A penitent thief
Christ
Ecclesiastes 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the
righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the
unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is
the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an
oath.
Discipline
Even Jesus learned discipline (obedience) through the things he suffered.
Hebrews 5:8
Rejoicing
Suffering was not so much endured as rejoiced in by the early Christians:
Jesus emphasized CONQUEST, not explanation!
Jesus is never represented as saying, “I have explained the world.”
But he did say, “I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Primitive religion uses its gods for ulterior purposes:
It seeks to gain control over them and win material favors from them.
Mature religion rests in God himself as greater than any of his gifts;
therefore, God (not his gifts) is an end in himself.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields
shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there
shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will
joy in the God of my salvation.
Plenty of Trouble
The New Testament is filled with troubles.
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It begins with the slaughter of innocent children
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It is centered in the crucifixion
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It ends with a vision in which the souls of martyred saints under the altar:
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Revelation 6:10
Suffering was considered punishment for sin in the Old Testament, but in
the New Testament we read:
COMPARE
At the beginning of the Bible we find the practice of religion the means
of escaping suffering.
But at the Bible's end, the practice of religion is a sure means of getting
into trouble.
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Matthew 10:16
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Matthew 5:11
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Matthew 24:9
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John 16:2
Always, in the organic world, it is the best who can suffer the most.
Man outranks all lower orders of existence.
The kingdom of God is future in its consummation, but — it is also immediately
here:
The kingdoms doors are opened wide to men and women of the kingdoms quality.
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