The 4 j’s of suffering
I read in an old book somewhere “There is nothing new under the sun” and, as much as we would all like to think we are original, we really are not, because “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. . .” (Eccl 1:9).
Sometimes we pick something up along life’s way and ponder it so much we begin to take it on as our own.
Such is the case with this posting. I know I read this somewhere and I know this is not original with me, but I just don’t remember where I read it so the footnotes will be quite sparse! Having pondered these thoughts as long as I have, they do start to feel like well worn clothes.
With that said, and not knowing who to credit with the original thoughts which inspired this, let’s consider The Four “J’s” of Suffering.
Jonah, Joseph, Job and Jesus
Four very different types of suffering for four very different reasons.
While these are nifty categorizations which have certainly helped me in considering and enduring suffering, oftentimes we do not know which of these types of suffering we are experiencing until the suffering has ended and we are able to look back on it. The first type of suffering we will examine is probably the easiest to find a reason behind and that is the suffering represented in:
1) Jonah
His book cuts straight to the chase and wastes no time on history, context or introduction other than to tell us the name of Jonah’s father.
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:1-2.).
Short and sweet! Jesus said “Go,”
Jonah said “NO!” and tried to “. . . flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (v. 3).
Unfortunately Jeremiah had not yet written, “‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:24) or Jonah might have read that in his morning devotion and realized, there is no hiding from God!!
But, Jonah ran and thought if he went 2,000 miles to the West, then maybe Jesus would forget about Nineveh, 800 miles to the East. But Jesus doesn’t forget.
Four times in chapter 1 we are told that Jonah went “down.”
Down to Joppa.
Down to a boat.
Down to the belly of the boat.
Laid down to go to sleep.
Notice also that when Jonah was running, he had to “pay his own fare on a boat.”
When Jesus sends you, transportation might be unconventional (like maybe the belly of a fish!!), but the ticket is cheap!
But it was in the belly of that fish we find Jonah’s suffering, his realization of the cause of his suffering, and the remedy Jesus provided.
The cause of Jonah’s suffering was, simply put, To Punish Past Wrong.
The trip from Jonah’s hometown to the seaport in Joppa was at least a four day journey. He knew he was running and with every step during those four days, he had the opportunity to ponder the disobedience his trip represented.
What does four days of conviction feel like to you? How miserable do you feel after four days of, knowingly, disobeying God?
The Holy Spirit makes certain to convict God’s kids of “sin, righteousness and judgment to come” (John 16:18) so there is no way Jonah could have made it all the way to Joppa without having been convicted to check his compass and turn its needle. But he kept going and found himself in the belly of a fish where his suffering could have a beneficial effect. Our good friend, Joel Stachowicz, gave these four realities of Jonah’s suffering.
1) Loneliness.
“Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4).
Jonah was alone in the fish, Elijah was alone in the cave, Jacob was alone on the wrestling match and Jesus was alone in the desert. Loneliness is a tool the Holy Spirit uses to draw us closer in relationship with the Father.
2) Darkness.
There is no way we will ever be able to hide from God, but when, in our sin, we turn our backs on Him, things get real dark real fast!! Jonah’s suffering involved darkness so there would be no doubt that deliverance came only from Jesus, who is the light. No matter Jonah’s efforts, he came to truly believe, “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” (Jonah 2:9).
3) Discomfort.
The storm was terrifying. The loss of all the cargo was certainly distressing for the sailors, and Jonah was the cause of their loss. The prospect of drowning could not have been pleasant. And I would wager partial fish digestion is less than enjoyable! But the discomfort has a purpose!
“A good thrashing purges evil; punishment goes deep within us” (Prov 20:30.)
4) Consciousness.
When suffering is to purge us from past wrong, the Holy Spirit makes certain we know why we are there (Philippians 3:15). Jonah knew his life was fainting away, he knew he had regarded his own ways more than God’s ways, and he knew he needed to keep the vow he had made (Jonah 2:7-9).
Jonah’s suffering was for the purpose of punishing past wrongs.
This type of suffering is probably the easiest to recognize because Jesus never corrects without telling us what we are being corrected for. The parent who punishes a child without explaining what the punishment is for, is a brute and an abuser. We have a way better Father than even the very best parent any of us could have ever had or been, and He makes certain we know what He is calling us to repent from.
1) Jonah: To punish past wrong.
Let’s turn now to our second “J,”
2) Joseph
To be abandoned, to be forgotten, is a painful experience. My sister Bonnie was “forgotten” on a trip one time when she could not unlock the bathroom door at a gas station. When there are 5 kids in a family, it is not impossible to mis-count, which is what my parents had done when they drove away without Bonnie. A few gas stations later I was having difficulty with the bathroom door myself and I still remember the terror of thinking I might be forgotten.
Joseph was not abandoned and he was not forgotten. With far greater sting because of the intentionality of the experience, Joseph was rejected.
It was not passive absent-mindedness which led to what Joseph experienced. It was an active contempt on the part of his brothers for this starry eyed visionary, and Joseph took a twisted path to the dungeons of Egypt.
Sold by his brothers to passing slave traders, he found himself elevated in the home of Potipher, a high Egyptian government official, until Potipher’s over-sexed wife went wild over the bronze chiseled Hebrew young man.
When Potipher had Joseph, wrongly, thrown into prison, like cream in a vat of mile Joseph, once again, rose to a position of trust and became overseer in the prison.
Joseph was obviously gifted with great leadership skills and the truth of the Proverbs was proven in his life when we read: A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before the great (Prov 18:16).
And: Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men (Prov 22:22).
But “Cellblock Leader of the Month” was not the kind of success his High School class would have had in mind had they voted him “Most Likely to Succeed.”
Now, how to get out of leadership in the jail house and into leadership in the king’s house?!? That was when those dreaming skills Joseph’s brother’s found so aggravating came in rather handy.
Pharaoh had thrown two of his servants, his baker and his cupbearer, into the same prison Joseph had been given oversight of and both of them had a dream on the same night. Joseph interpreted the dreams telling the cupbearer he would be restored to his place of honor, but the baker would not have as pleasant an outcome.
When the cupbearer was returning to Pharaoh’s service, Joseph asked him to “remember me, mention me and GET ME OUT OF THIS (jail)HOUSE!!!” (Gen 40:14). But did the cupbearer remember Joseph?
“Not on your tintype, girlie girl!”
While Joseph was struggling to get out of the locked bathroom, the cupbearer drove away!
For two more years Joseph languished in that filthy prison still not knowing the purpose of his suffering. Suffering without purpose is torture, but when we understand the purpose of suffering, difficulty, discomfort, we can find meaning in the circumstance. When there is meaning we are able to lean into and benefit from even the most difficult conditions.
Two years after the cupbearer’s restoration to his former position Pharaoh had a dream, and the cupbearer’s memory was jogged.
Joseph was cleaned up, shaved up, dressed up and brought up to Pharaoh where his dream of cows with eating disorders was laid before Joseph.
While Joseph might have been foolish in how he interacted with his brothers, he was not living in known sin. Joseph did not suffer as Jonah did, To Punish Past Wrongs. The purpose of Joseph’s suffering was To Prepare for Future Trouble.
As a young man Joseph had been loved by his father, he was gifted with visionary insight and he sported a really cool wardrobe! He must have thought his future was secure and would be on a constant upward trajectory. How could he be in prison for so long? What had he done? Were the visions of his youth a cruel joke? Were his anticipations of influence and significance totally unfounded? It would be hard to imagine having a lasting impact on celestial events (with all those stars, moons and planets bowing down to him) from the confines of a stinking Egyptian prison. How easy would it be for you to lose hope in similar circumstances?
Most of us have lost hope in far milder circumstances!
But after years of slavery, after all the dashed hopes, after all the wondering “why, God? Why?”, Joseph finally had an answer.
Consider Joseph’s skills.
Receive and interpret dreams.
He was a world traveler. (Well, you get the idea.)
Micro and macro management skills.
Hobnobbing with those who hobnob with nobility. (Of course he would have rather met Pharaoh’s cupbearer at the opera than in prison, but nonetheless!)
A great listener.
Muscle memory with those dormant interpretation skills.
And after all this, it only took two more years for the cupbearer to remember him.
All these “coincidences” conspired to equip and position Joseph to be “in the right place at the right time,” so God’s purposes of him feeding the world could be fulfilled.
Joseph had no clue seven years of famine were coming, until he saw those skinny cows.
Joseph had no clue seven years of plenty would prepare Egypt to feed the world, until his suffering positioned him, and his gifts equipped him, to step into the calling God had given him from birth.
Joseph’s childhood dreams WERE accurate.
He HAD heard God.
It was NOT his imagination. He DID see his brothers bow to him.
And he DID oversee the feeding of the world! But the fulfillment of his calling and his ability to prepare a nation to feed the world, came only as a result of many steps which felt, at the time, like suffering.
This form of suffering is frustrating, indeed.
2 Corinthians 1 tells us we endure hardships for the express purpose of being able to receive ministry from God. But we are not a cul-de-sac! The ministry we receive is not to pile up in our driveway for no one’s benefit but our own.
Our lives are through streets. We receive ministry to equip us to be able to minister to someone else who goes through similar situations.
“Well why can’t they get their ministry straight from Jesus and leave me out of it?!?!”
I suppose they could, but is our goal in life truly to have less interaction with Jesus and to experience less of His direct involvement in our lives?
All too often we can be tempted, as Joseph must have been, to wonder what God is preparing us for. Generally we are not able to see how the pieces fit together until we are looking back on life from a perspective of age and experience.
Keep serving. Keep using your gifts. Keep being faithful. God just might be allowing those struggles,
To Prepare You For Future Trouble.
1) Jonah: To Punish Past Wrong.
2) Joseph: To Prepare for Future Trouble.
Let’s turn now to “J Number 3.”
3) Job
We are probably all familiar with the story of Job. He was a man blessed with many material and spiritual blessings. Lands, livestock, servants, children, Job had it all, until one day when he didn’t.
As one messenger brought news of one disaster, another messenger arrived with reports of yet another disaster. This continued until all the livestock was dead or stolen, all the servants were dead except those delivering the messages and all Job’s children were killed under a collapsed building. Job was not having a good day.
All this was brought on by a wager between God and Satan where God was bragging on the faithfulness and righteousness of His servant Job. After Satan was given permission to strike Job’s stuff, but not his body, I doubt Job felt very righteous. At the end of the last message,
“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:20).
Wait a minute! What was that last word? Worshiped?!? Is that what it says?!?
Wow. Maybe God was right when He said, “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and
upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8).
Then Satan asked for permission to mess with Job’s body. “Let me torment him in his body. then let’s see if he still worships You.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life (Job 2:6).
It was when Job had traded his Lazy-Boy for the ash heap that his wife reached her limit.
“Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).
We give Madam Job a lot of grief for this expression of frustration, but we would do well to remember that she had lost everything also. Her lifestyle had been completely up-ended, her children, the children she carried and bore, were all dead, her husband was racked in misery, and there was nothing she could do about it!
But in the face of everything he had lost and endured,
“In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).
And then his friends arrived! To endure suffering is one thing. To endure insufferable “friends” is something else altogether!
The friends had arrived to help Job identify the sin he was hiding which had led to his suffering. The only problem was, there was no hidden sin!
That fact did not, however, prevent the friends from trying to prove how right they were and how deceptive, or deceived, Job was.
We do not know how long the badgering continued, but all four of Job’s “comforters” used every means at their disposal to convince him of his treachery.
His friends accused him of sin.
His wife accused him of stubbornness.
Imagine the strength required for Job to continue to claim innocence and to declare, with no shame,
“I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days” (Job 27:6).
And: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;” (Job 29:14).
We have heard the report of friends and family. Now let’s hear the report of the Father.
Job’s suffering was not To Punish Past Wrong as with Jonah.
It was not To Prepare for Future Trouble as with Joseph.
The suffering Job experienced was: To Reveal the Glory of God.
From Job 4 through Job 37 Job’s four friends take turns trying to convince Job sin had caused his suffering and his refusal to confess his sin was cause for continued suffering.
Then, in Job 38, God shows up.
The friends had presumed to know God’s intentions, but God knew Job, He knew Job’s intentions, and, even more frightening, He knew the friends!
Imagine the scene.
Job. His wife. His four friends.
Not one of them knew about the conversations between God and Satan in chapters 1 & 2.
Not one of them knew God’s opinion of Job was that he was “. . . a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8).
In fact, you and I know more about the cause of Job’s suffering than Job did!
There is no record Job was ever told about the wager in Chapter 1.
It was not until the last 5 chapters of the book that Job found out what an honored opinion God had of him. Job was one of the great ones. Job was one of the ones God was most proud of. Job was righteous and God allowed the furnace of suffering only to prove the purity of his righteousness.
Job’s suffering was not for the purpose of resolving any lingering doubts God might have had concerning Job. God knew Job better than Job knew Job!
Nor was Job’s suffering to bring clarity or enlightenment to Satan. He did not care.
It was Job who needed to hear what God thought.
It was Job who needed to hear God rebuke the “friends,” not once, but twice, when He said to them, “you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7 & 9).
God was, in fact, so proud of Job He ordered the friends to make a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for them because, “. . . I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly” (Job 42:8).
If you were Job, how willing would you have been to pray for those tormentors?
Job’s wife was not corrected for her lack of faith. There is no definitive reason as to why she was not addressed, but aren’t we glad “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities (Ps 103:10).
Instead,“. . . he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14).
But, in addition to Job, there are others who needed to hear those last 5 chapters. Those others are the millions who have read Job over the past 3,000 years, who have been encouraged by his faith and challenged by his faithfulness.
Some of you reading this article are among those millions who have needed to hear the affirmation from God in those last 5 chapters.
Job’s suffering was to Reveal the Glory of God, all the way through today to the very end of the age.
In those times when we are not suffering because of past wrongs and we are not being prepared for future trouble, it is an enormous relief to be able to see the entire picture in the life of Job and, at the end of it all, see Jesus lifting the life of Job as He would a diamond for everyone to see.
This is the meaning of that verse which says: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps 116:15).
The word “precious” means, “of great value, prized, splendid, weighty.” The Father holds us up and says, “Look what I have made. I have caused this one to be conformed to the image of my Son (Ro 8:29). Look at all the facets which reflect Jesus so perfectly!”
Since, in Job we see the end result of the work of God in our lives, we should, “. . . greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
The day of the revelation of Christlikeness in you is coming. Learn the lesson of the fire. Submit to the shaping of the Father’s hand. “. . . hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,” (Heb 10:23a) because, “. . . he who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23b).
Our deliverance and the affirmation of our faithfulness to God is not something we have to protect or prove. He is the One who promised and He is more than faithful to accomplish His purpose (Ro 8:28), which is, Christlikeness in us (Ro 8:29).
And here is one last thought concerning the sufferings of Job. All the loss he experienced, the livestock, the houses, the children, the servants: they were all restored. Everything was restored to Job, and in greater number than he had previously owned. That should bring at least a degree of relief.
But let us never forget, no child can be replaced. Those children who were lost in chapter 1 were never coming back. The children Job and his wife received in later life would have brought their own joys, fulfillment, sorrows and excitement, but they would never be able to replace those children whose portraits hung on the walls of Job’s heart.
The loss he experienced was similar to Jacob’s limp after he wrestled with the angel. With every step he took Jacob remembered he had wrestled, he had prevailed, and his name was changed.
The loss Job experienced was a life-long reminder of the presence of God in his life at a horrifying time, just as we find solace in the mercies of God when we are reminded of the suffering we have endured.
Every time Job remembered those children who were lost, he remembered when God showed up and defended him to his accusing friends.
He remembered the presence of God.
He remembered the provision of God.
He remembered the protection of God.
And he remembered the goodness of God, even in the face of severest loss.
1) Jonah: To Punish Past Wrong.
2) Joseph: To Prepare for Future Trouble.
3) Job: To Reveal the Glory of God.
And now for the one you all knew was coming, you just didn’t know how I would bring in:
4) Jesus.
We can’t have this study without the Capital “J” Himself.
While Jonah tried to run from the call God had placed on his life, Jesus did not. He certainly was open to the possibility of “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. . .,” but having known this was the will of the Godhead, Himself included, from before the foundations of the earth, He was quick to add, “ . . .Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
While the penalty for our sin was a price a human OUGHT to pay, it was a price only God COULD pay, and Jesus, the complete and perfect God-man, satisfied the requirements of the law. The One who had never committed a sin suffered as the very embodiment of sin.
Neither did Jesus suffer as Joseph did because, while an eternity apart from God is certainly a future filled with trouble, the trouble Jesus came to address is not a future banishment awaiting those who refuse God. The trouble Jesus came to address was a trouble introduced into humanity all the way back with our proto-parents and which every one of us have engaged in, with reckless abandon. It is the trouble of, in complete knowledge and understanding of God’s command and will, and saying “No” to Him and “Yes” to ourselves.
A future of separation from the One who created and loves us is not the problem. That is the by-product of the problem.
No, Jesus did not suffer after the manner of Joseph, to prepare for a future problem.
Now it could certainly be said that Jesus did, as in the sufferings of Job, reveal the Glory of God. In fact, it is stated, clearly, that in turning the water into wine at Cana He, “. . . manifested his glory” (John 2:11). It is almost as if the miracles of Jesus were bursts of glory breaking through the armor of His humanity.
Most assuredly, Jesus lived a life, died a death and experienced a resurrection, all of which manifest the Glory of God, but I would argue there was a purpose in the sufferings of Christ which goes beyond even this. The suffering of Jesus, which sets His suffering above even that of Job, was to provide salvation for those who reject Him, who betray Him and whose sins nailed Him to the cross.
Jesus suffered for The of Blessing Others.
There is no escaping the fact that Jesus suffered for the blessing of others.
One of the four “Servant Poems” of Isaiah deals with the Servant as “The Suffering Servant.” Isaiah makes it abundantly clear that the Servant suffers because of the needs of others.
It was our griefs and our sorrows He carried. It was because of our transgressions He was pierced, it was our sin which crushed Him, and our peace came at the expense of His chastisement.
Any healing you receive, whether spiritual, physical, emotion or mental, is the result of the wounds He bore (Is 53:4-5).
And notice the word “all” in Isaiah 53:6. It has been said our salvation is the result of entering that verse
through the first “all” and exiting that verse through the last “all” when it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
It does not require much reading to realize Jesus did everything He did for the sake of others. Imagine, the King of Eternity, the Creator of all things, the One before whom the angels eternally worship and humans lie prostrate in His Glory, did not come “. . . to be served but to serve. . .”
And what was the expression of His service to others?
Certainly He fed the multitudes and healed the sick. He raised their dead and defended the oppressed. But miracles were performed through others before, and after, Jesus.
Moses gave them manna and water from a rock.
Elijah raised the widow’s son and even a dead Elisha’s bones caused a dead man to breathe again.
Rivers were parted, flaming chariots were ridden, other worldly strength was hidden in hair, furnaces were rendered balmy and even fish were used to transport wayward prophets.
As amazing as the miracles are, they are not the primary service for which Jesus came.
Jesus served in a way no other human could ever be credited with because Jesus came to “. . . give his life asa ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves and no one else could ever do for us.
Often times the divine authors tell us WHAT Jesus did:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. . ..”
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. . ..”
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. . ..”
And then, in the same verses, they tell us WHY Jesus did what He did:
“ . . . so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
“. . . that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
“. . . that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Jesus suffered as He did for the sake of others.
Jesus paid the righteous penalty pronounced against the sin of others.
Jesus experienced the rejection of the Father so others could experience the acceptance of the Father.
Jesus was sent by the Father and lived His life for the sake of others, and then He looks at us and says,
“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
Donna (my wife) hung a quote from Susannah Wesley (mother of John and Charles Wesley) above the cribs of our babies which said, in effect,
“You are not here for yourself. You are here for others. Go and change the world.”
A life lived for our own consumption is a life not fully lived.
There is nothing in all of life we can take with us to the other side, except the eternal investments we make in the lives of other people. And just like the sufferings of Jesus were for the sake of others, our sufferings, also, equip and prepare us to be a blessing and ministry to others. Paul makes this clear when he tells us, “. . . the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, . . . comforts us in all our affliction. . .,” (2 Cor 1:3-4) but He does not comfort us for our sakes alone.
Our suffering takes on meaning when we recognize its two- prong effect.
1) By our suffering we are transformed into the image of Christ (Rom 8:28-29, etc).
2) Our suffering equips us with the tools necessary to be a blessing to others in their suffering.
Paul continues with 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 by telling us the proper result of our receiving God’s comfort in the midst of our afflictions when he says, “. . . so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
The suffering we experience drives us to the comfort only God can provide and prepares and equips us to provide the comfort we have received to others who experience the same kind of suffering.
Paul told the Philippians everything that had happened in his ministry, including sitting in the prison where he wrote his book to them, “. . . actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Phil 1:12).
Imagine a life of shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, abandonment and imprisonment.
Then remember this, Paul, who experienced every one of those, had also been to the third heaven, the very throne room of God, and had seen things he did not have language to describe.
Now, if you had both prison and the third heaven in your bundle of experiences, which would you prefer?
Would you choose heaven? Or would you be content with Milwaukee?
Imagine the sacrifice necessary to be able to say,
“I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.”
The purpose Paul found in the suffering he endured was that it brought life to others around him. It was the realization of his personal “win-win” situation (serving here is amazing, and heaven is amazing) which caused Paul to begin this passage with, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21-24).
It was a life lived for others which enabled Paul to be able to say, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24).
The Four “J’s” of Suffering
1) Jonah: To Punish Past Wrong.
2) Joseph: To Prepare for Future Trouble.
3) Job: To Reveal the Glory of God.
4) Jesus. For the Blessing of Others.
All of us have experienced each of these four types of suffering. We have all reaped what we have sown, we have all been equipped for future trouble by past experience, our lives are to be given for the Glory of God and if we are not a blessing to others, what are we doing here?
The question which remains would be, have we allowed these sufferings to have their intended effect in our lives?
How should we respond in each of these sufferings to gain the most benefit from the experiences God has entrusted to us?
Let’s consider each example, the type of suffering they experienced and our possible response
1) Jonah: To Punish Past Wrong. Repentance.
T. D. Hall said: “The key to a Spirit-filled life is immediate repentance and complete obedience.”
There was plenty of time between Jonah telling God “no” and his ending up in the belly of the fish for him to have repented, turned around and headed back to Nineveh. He did not have to become fish chow, and neither do we! Let’s not presume on the goodness of God to send us a fish when immediate repentance and complete obedience would turn our entire circumstance around.
2) Joseph: To Prepare for Future Trouble. Engagement
I have experienced seasons in my own life, as you have in yours, when I was being prepared for something in my future of which I was totally unaware. Have you found yourself in the time of usefulness and wished you had engaged the process of learning more willingly? The years in the prison are miserable, but they are preparing us for future effectiveness. Let’s engage the process and learn everything we can.
3) Job: To Reveal the Glory of God. Patience
It is referred to as “The Patience of Job” for a reason. I believe one of the most profound statements of faith in the entire Bible is the last verse of Job 1: In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong (Job 1:22). I know I have told God I deserve better. Job, in all his sufferings, never accused God and, in that absolute trust in the goodness of God, brought glory to God which has spoken for 3,000 years and which will resound for an eternity more.
4) Jesus. For the Blessing of Others. Intentionality
If God chooses to entrust to me the blessing of being His instrument of encouragement to others, I want to learn the lesson to the best of my ability so I can reflect Him well. That is not always my desire in the middle of this type of suffering!!! But it is my confession today. And I know it is your deepest desire as well.
Whether we can identify the type of suffering we are experiencing while in the middle of it or not, we can certainly apply any, or all, of these four responses to be sure our motives are pure and we do not waste a single sorrow.