What about our suffering? The topic came up again this last week. Psalm 102 was the source, which led to Psalm 44, then to Genesis 3 and Lamentations 3. Biblical texts that say that God reproves and disciplines us were also in the midst of the conversation (see Prov. 3:12; Rev. 3:9-12; Heb. 12:1-11). The question: Can God really be the source of our suffering and the experiences we typically categorize as evil, as these texts seem to say? And does He really use it for good, shaping and forming our lives in holiness?
Here is the show stopper: “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and evil go forth?” (Lam. 3:38) Wow. Reading Lamentations 3 is like getting a bucket of ice water in the face, consisting mostly of ice. Can this really be? Is God really the source of our suffering and grief? In a word, YES. And what’s more, He must be the source if he is indeed God.
Let’s consider the alternative. Satan is the other possible source of suffering and the grief that joins our experience of loss. If Satan is the source of our suffering, then when we pray for God to deliver us out of the circumstances that are the cause, and He does not, it must mean one of two things: Either God is not as powerful as Satan (why wouldn’t God deliver us from his hand?) or our faith just is not strong enough. The first is unthinkable; the second relegates us to a life with a God where everything depends on us. It is actually far more comforting to realize that God is God not only of all our blessings, but all our struggles as well. This is the consistent biblical testimony.
How do are we to understand this? All of our suffering is a consequence of our sin, either our own sin, the sins of those around us, or the fact that we live in a broken creation. Satan’s power? -he only has the capacity to tempt us into unbelief and the behavior that joins a choice to live contrary to God’s commands and direction. The consequences however of unbelief and choosing to sin do in fact produce our suffering and loss. Genesis 3 is clear about this. Lamentations 3 is consistent with this understanding of God. Satan is responsible for temptation; we are responsible for the choice to believe his lies; the consequences are God given and necessary in order for God to defend His glory, but also necessary for us to stand a chance of deliverance. Parenting is a helpful analogy. Parents must find consequences for the choices their kids make that transgress the boundaries they have set. The consequences defend their position as parents, and they give the child a chance to realize they have walked down the wrong road. The same is true for God; the consequences defend his glory and are for our good, leading us back to His grace, mercy, and goodness. Like most truth, this is relatively easy to understand, but very difficult to live in the face of sufferings that are catastrophic, shaking us to our core.
Since our suffering is a consequence of our rebellion, and God is the source of those consequences, God responds to our cries for deliverance in one of two ways: He either delivers us out of those circumstances, or he delivers us through them. The latter is the harder way because it means waiting to see how he uses our suffering to accomplish his promise, purpose, and plan for our lives. But it is also the Jesus way. Jesus wanted out of his pending suffering and death, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. But God chose to deliver Him and us through his suffering and death.
I would much rather be delivered out of my suffering, which he sometimes does. But His norm seems to be to deliver us through our suffering, like Jesus. This seems to be the means by which He forges in us His holiness, righteousness, and an eternal weight of glory.
From and Through,
St. Vincent of Saragossa
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