Job reminisces about his prior life,“when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil” (Job 29:56). Job encourages himself to remain steadfast and guard his faithful trust in God: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance for no godless man would dare come before him!” (Job 13:15 –16). Although Christ had not been born yet, Job declared boldly, “I know that my Redeemer lives/And that in the end he will stand upon the earth/And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God/I myself will see him with my own yes, I, and not another, How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27). Job knows his God and God knows him. Even death can’t separate him from His God. His Redeemer is Christ. Christ, would die and be resurrected, was the one who would redeem his suffering. No matter what life deals him, he knows that God will ultimately have the last word and redeem his life with eternal life.
Job valiantly declares, in the face of all that would shout the opposite, “My intercessor is my friend/As my eyes pour out tears to God/On behalf of a man he pleads with God/As a man pleads for his friend.” (Job 16:20-21). Hebrews 7:25 declares that Christ ever lives to make intercession for us. He goes before the throne of God and pleads on our behalf as our High Priest. The truth is that ,“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). The pain we experience in this world is to work to conform us to the image of Christ. For even Jesus learned to be a Son through what he suffered: “Though He was God's Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. ... though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
C.S. Lewis states emphatically, “God shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Malcolm Muggeridge poses a hypothetical situation, “Suppose you eliminated suffering, what a dreadful place the world would be, the world would be the most ghastly place; everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man, to feel ever-important and ever-pleased with himself would disappear. He’s bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.”
As Dr. David Jeremiah warns that it is easy to adapt the outlook that once one becomes a Christian life will become easier, but that simply is not the cause. In reality, “God has something for us to learn that will make us wiser or save us from some worse pain in the future. Or it may be a door-opener, unlocking new possibilities in our lives,” but we must wisely ask God what is that I am to learn. Paul exhorts us, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).
Paul exhorts us, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). He warns in Romans 2:12, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
In this imperfect world, it is good to know that pain does not have to be wasted. It can connect us to the eternal God, the one who truly matters. Even more, it is wonderful to know that Christ lives to intercede for us and to assist us as we walk through this vale of tears.
Remaining Teachable,
MJ
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