Job – Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament

When a Preacher is Downcast
by Charles Spurgeon

The Almighty God revealed himself to Job. How simple that encounter seemed to be, and yet, how profound were the implications of that revelation. In a moment, Job’s attitude changed. His life was flooded with purpose, with hope, and with the expectation of healing. God healed Job by bringing him out of his anxiety into acceptance of his situation, an acceptance that brought peace to Job’s life.

God’s purpose was not only to heal Job, but also to instruct him. God asked Job several rhetorical questions which were beyond human capability of answering.

God wanted Job to catch a glimpse of his work in creation so that Job could realize that his suffering was insignificant when placed next to God’s work in the world. At the end of God’s questioning, Job recognized the vast gulf between God’s wisdom and power and his own ignorance of the many mysteries of life. The greatest lesson Job learned was that God was sovereign over his creation and that divine sovereignty governs all reality, including Job’s own life.

From:
The Suffering of Job and Divine Justice – Part 2
(link to Part 1 is at the top of that post)

HT: ve’al timkor

Homesick For Heaven

Being in the bottom of this (at night) is what depression is like. But God does lift us out to see above it, if not now, certainly after wards. What a great photo in any case.

Psalm 103:1-5 TNIV
1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits–
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Photo by mm767cap

Why Me? Why This? Why Now? Why?

I do believe that focusing on “Why?” questions can lead to confusion and despair if we demand answers from God that He has not promised to give us.

–David Sunday (pastor of Grace Community Bible Church)

You can read the end of the book of Job to see that God doesn’t answer why in that situation and often doesn’t.

See the context at Between Two Worlds

As David Sunday says, we should ask, ‘“Who is God?” “What does He want to teach us?” and “How can we glorify him in this?”’

(I’m not so sure God always tells us what He wants to teach us either.)

This reminds me of a quote I’ve posted before:

“But what kept me going more than anything else was my confidence in the character of God.”

–Ravi Zacharias quoting Charles Cooper

When I Am Afraid: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Fear and Anxiety by Edward Welch

From there you can read sample pages.

He also wrote Running Scared which is a well regarded book that I have but haven’t read yet.

by Martha Snell Nicholson

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

HT: Justin Taylor

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NLT
So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Pastor says cancer gives him chance to suffer well

I thought ’suffering well’ was a term I made up but nothing in this world is new.

Jesus: “Some of you they will put to death. . . . But not a hair of your head will perish.”

For decades, this verse has challenged me personally. Derek Kidner in his commentaries often refers to it. It shows that modern people have a view of happiness that is defined as a life that is going well, when often the Bible defines happiness as a life that is lived well. One ounce of sin can harm us more than ten tons of suffering, because sin ruins our soul, while suffering (if handled well) only makes us more Christ-like and joyful. So Jesus is essentially saying, “I won’t keep you from suffering, but I’ll keep you in suffering so you can triumph over it.”

–Tim Keller

See more context at Justin Taylor’s blog.

That’s a strange sounding subject line.

I suffer from very bad dreams every night. I used to have night terrors every night which are beyond description if you haven’t had them. An antidepressant has helped just enough so that I don’t wake up with my heart pounding out of my chest.

I have tried everything physically, medically (medications, sleep study that God provided the means for etc.), dietary (almost), psychological, spiritual (I still pray about them every night as long as I remember to) and they still persist every night. I had never met anyone with quite this problem or even read about anyone online.

I was reading a message board on fibromyalgia that I frequent and someone explained their sleep and dream life and how it affects them everyday. It was my exact story. Then a whole page of people said it was their story too! I knew that fibromyalgia (somewhat synonymous with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which I can’t be sure is an official diagnosis for me because of other conditions, but it’s probable) causes bad sleep but I didn’t know that so many had it this bad.

Somehow this is comforting. Partly because I know there may be a cause, even though nobody really knows much about fibro, and partly because I know I’m not being beat up in an unusual way.

The Bible comforts us in this way too. After reading that message board I immediately thought of 1 Peter 5:8-9: “Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world.” (HCSB)

As far as resisting Satan, I found Thomas Shreiner’s comments in his commentary on 1 Peter pertaining to these verses helpful:

[R]esisting the devil means that believers remain firm in their faith, that is, in their trust in God. Believers triumph over the devil as they continue to trust God, believing that he truly cares for them and will sustain them until the end. Perseverance until the last day is accomplished from first to last by faith.

–Thomas Schreiner, 1,2 Peter, Jude NAC, pg 243

James 4:7-8a HCSB
Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

I know that the context of the audience of 1 Peter was mainly persecution but I think it would apply to all suffering.

These things don’t make my dreams any better but they do provide some comfort and I can know that I’m not being ’singled out’ in a unique way and that God will grow me stronger because of it.

I can just imagine all the things that so many people are going through and feel completely alone whether it’s something major or a nagging problem that someone can’t seem to get rid of. This may be comforting and also encourage people to find others with similar problems.

Interview with R.C. Sproul on His Latest Book – Part 1
Interview with R.C. Sproul on His Latest Book – Part 2

If you benefit from stories of how God uses suffering, here are three posts with three videos on Randy Alcorn’s blog. Jim Harrell is mentioned in his book If God is Good.

Randy Alcorn tells us that Jim Harrell died recently.

Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, part 1
Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, Part 2
Jim Harrell, Perspectives in Suffering, Part 3

 
In case anyone from Florida is interested in this I thought I would post it. I’m not sure if it will be available online or not.

Making Sense of Suffering
(Not to be confused with the book by Peter Kreeft)

Join R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas on January 22-23, 2010, at Saint Andrew’s in Sanford, Fla., as they discuss suffering and the sovereignty of God.

There is an excerpt from a previous conference on that page.

 
The Invisible Hand: 2004 Seattle Conference

You may listen to this entire Conference online for free.

Playlist:

1. Introduction/ Questions and Answers #1
2. The Meaning of Providence
3. The Doctrine of Concurrence
4. Providence and Evil

Dave’s wife Becky Lynn Black is dealing with cancer and has written quite a bit (along with Dave) about cancer and suffering.

The main page to look for articles is here:
Columns

Some examples would be:
God Didn’t Make Me to Suffer!
God Didn’t Make Me to Suffer! (Part 2)
God Didn’t Make Me to Suffer! (Part 3)

There is a lot to explore there.

A Word for Worriers at Between Two Worlds

“The Counseling Solutions Group is a worldwide non-profit organization helping people who are in situational difficulties. This is accomplished by using Christian principles to train leaders to competently counsel as well as by providing practical and compassionate counseling to individuals in need.”

This site has a lot of good articles.

Counseling Solutions

HT: Challies.com