Blessed as we are to be given such a promise, it is tragic that we should ever have needed the promise to be given, and not rather to have continued in that uncorrupted, happy state to which man was first created. Blessed as we are that the brunt of the Creator's fearsome wrath against sin fell upon His own innocent Son, the heat of that rage which so burned Jesus' soul is felt a little by all men in the vanity, difficulty, and necessity of labor (Gen. 3:17-18; Eccl. 5:15-17), and in the certain knowledge, and painful foretastes, of death (Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 2:17-26). And though "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the (promised) glory", until that glory is given, these present sufferings must be dealt with. For in righteousness response to man's disobedience, the Creator has so ordered this present earthly life that for every soul conceived into being, suffering is an inescapable certainty. There simply is no such thing as living on earth without being hurt. In overwhelming measure, God has defined this life with pain, loss, hardships, and disappointments (cp. Eccl. 1:13). As a consequence, one's attitude toward suffering cannot be estranged from one's attitude toward life. And undeniably, one's attitude toward life cannot be estranged from one's attitude toward the Creator and Governor of life.

   What a man thinks about God penetrates and colors every act of his living. In particular, it plays a determinative role in his ability to endure and to overcome the suffering which will certainly confront him. There are misunderstandings about God which make the overcoming of suffering more difficult. The greater the misunderstanding, the greater the difficulty. On the other hand, there is a divine understanding which promotes and hastens victory over suffering, an understanding which is demonstrated in the faith and patience of Joseph, Job, our Lord Jesus, and others. From the testimonies of these holy men we may learn how to face with stedfast hope the difficulties which will certainly rise against our lives and try the fiber of our faith.

BELIEVING WHAT THEY BELIEVED

    We are exhorted by the writer of Hebrews to be "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:12). But if we are to follow those of greatest faith, must we not know God as they knew Him? For faith is a trusting. It is not a vague hoping, nor is it reliance upon a nebulous, divine Somebody. Faith is a real knowledge of, an assured looking to. Then, in order to be followers of their faith, must we not trust God to be what they trusted Him to be? Yes, if we are ever to be of like faith with them, our understanding of the object of their faith-God-must be like theirs. After all, it is what God is which serves to form the foundation, the reason, for true faith.

   The faith of the holiest men and women did not rest upon presumption or empty theology. The hurt and loss inflicted upon them was far too real ever to have been endured, except that their faith was anchored in an equally real knowledge of God.

   This is more than a collection of the stories of suffering saints, for we will pay careful attention to what they thought about their suffering and about God's part in it. Otherwise, we might only stand on the sidelines cheering them on, but not really understanding the game.

    This first book in the series entitled ALL THINGS focuses on the suffering of the righteous, rathen than the suffering as chastisement for sin. What is the righteous to do, say, and think, when he or she has done what is right, yet suffers? In order that more of the saints will give answers to this question consonant with the answers given by the biblical saints of greatest faith, is the objective of this entire work. In shaping our faith to theirs, we will surely not fail to partake of the healing and deliverance which crowned their determined trust in God, knowing, as they kenw, that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to his wise and often hidden purpose.

CHAPTER ONE

Injustices

   Joseph was only 17 years old when his envious older brothers sold him to foreign slave traders. All his pleading and weeping did not move them from their decision to rid the family forever of "this dreamer." What anguish of spirit Joseph must have suffered! As the camel caravan carried him away from his sneering brothers and the familiar green fields of Canaan, the young man must have been torn in his soul and tormented at the prospect of slavery and death in some distant land. The reader of Joseph's story is easily drawn to empathy with him and to feel indignation toward his wicked brothers. It is the reader's first, natural response to want them to be held responsible for their wicked deed.

   But the mistreatment of Joseph by his brothers is only the beginning of his sorrows. Having become chief servant to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officers, Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar's adulterous wife, when she could not lure Joseph to her bed. Innocent Joseph was summarily condemned to the dungeons of Egypt. Again, it is easy for the reader of the story to feel disgust for Potiphar's deceitful wife and to feel continued indignation for the injustices suffered by this righteous young man. Yet, Joseph's afflictions still were not ended. After Joseph was cast into prison, Pharaoh's chief butler was cast in there, too. Through a series of events, Joseph's righteousness and innocence were demonstrated to him, and prior to the butler's release and restoration to the personal service of Pharaoh, Joseph implored him:

   Who has not felt the quick stab of contempt for the released butler when the following terse report is read?

Responsible

   When we read Joseph's story, our sense of justice is provoked by the injustices inflicted upon him. Our spirits are heated with empathy for Joseph and resentment toward his persecutors. Should we translate such feelings into words, they would be something like, "If I were God, I'd slap those evildoers down and take suffering Joseph in my arms and comfort him." And we justify ourselves in such feelings with the certain knowledge that Joseph was suffering, and that those who made him suffer were evil.

   But the spirits of "righteous indignation" which the reader feels while reading Joseph's story are the very spirits which Joseph had to overcome in order for God's will to be accomplished in his life. The authority of Egypt's throne, which God intended to place into Joseph's hand, was of such magnitude that it could not be entrusted to Joseph as long as there remained in his bosom any of the ungodly spirits of self-pity or desire for vengeance. But Joseph could not resist those spirits as long as he felt mistreated. And he could not help but feel mistreated as long as he held his brothers and the others responsible for his miserable condition.

   This was, and is, one of the Almighty's most terrible disciplines, reserved for those ordained to the highest callings. But by the grace of God, along that agonizing journey into Egypt, or perhaps at some time in prison, in those desperate, lonely nights of half-sleep and weeping, young Joseph wrestled the spirits of self-esteem to the dust and, as his fathers had done before him, dared to believe in God's purpose in all things, even in those things which seemed to be against him. Because contention comes only where pride grows (Prov. 13:10), Joseph was liberated from all contentiousness-even toward those who hurt him most - when through bitter disgrace and sorrow the stubborn, flickering sparks of pride were finally extinguished. By his own experience Joseph had to learn, without having any Scriptures to confirm it, that "the Lord trieth the righteous", and that if the Lord had chosen to use Joseph's brothers, or anyone or anything else, in the process of that trial, well, that was the Lord's prerogative. In one of those peculiar twists of truth, Joseph had to humble himself to confess that whatever happened to Joseph was none of Joseph's business, that Joseph's life was not his own, but God's. In the light of that revelation, malice vanished. How could Joseph resent what had been done to him when he realized that his own God was responsible for its being done? Whom any longer could he not love, regardless of what part he had played in God's plan for Joseph's life?

It Was Not You

   Twenty-two years after being sold as a slave, Joseph, now thoroughly subdued under the mighty hand of God, and having become ruler of Egypt, faced his brothers again when they came to purchase food for their starving families. His words reflected the mystery of faith which he had learned:

"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go our from me. And there stood no man with him while he made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither: for GOD DID SEND ME before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And GOD SENT ME before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now IT WAS NOT YOU THAT SENT ME HITHER, BUT GOD......." (Gen.45:4-8)

IRRELEVANT

   None of this implies that Joseph's faith required him to pretend that there had been no harm done to him. But Joseph's faith in God inspired Joseph to believe that those who were doing him harm were not in control of his life. He knew his brothers made the deal to sell him away, but he committed his life into the hands of God and would not allow vengeful spirits to persuade him to believe that his brothers could have sold him without God's knowledge or without God's will. Therefore, even though Joseph had been unjustly hated and abused both as a child and as a man, the very same things which man intended for evil against him, Joseph trusted that God also intended to happen - but for good!

   Because Joseph understood his enslavement to be God's work, he was able to serve his master Potiphar "as unto the Lord." Because he saw his imprisonment as God's work, Joseph could be the humble, hard-working prisoner he was. In both places, Joseph was acknowledged by those who ruled over him to be honest, capable, and devoted, as a servant, to them (cp. Gen. 39:1-6). This is what patience is: unrelenting continuance in well doing, in times of suffering as well as in times of pleasure. Joseph's continuance in well doing, his patience, was the expression of his faith in God. Through his brothers' cruelty, Joseph found himself a slave in a strange land, yet he became the most diligent and trustworthy slave Potiphar ever had. Through a wicked woman's deceit, Joseph found himself a despised prisoner, yet he made himself the hardest working and submissive prisoner in the king's dungeon. Joseph demonstrated his complete trust in God by his good works to men, obeying, thousands of years before, Peter's holy exhortation:

"...let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." (I Pet. 4:19)

   Yes, Joseph believed that it was God who sent him into Egypt as a slave. It followed then that God was responsible for Joseph's being cast into prison and that is was God who let him linger there, forgotten by men, while with the firey knife of suffering He engraved mercy, truth, faith, and patience into Joseph's trouble spirit. And it was God who at last raised the bruised saint up out of the brambles and made him "a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt" (Gen. 45:8). Joseph learned to see God's hand in it all.

    The human beings who carried out the various details of God's plan for Joseph's life were not worthy to bear the responsibility for what happened to him. It was God's plan. And to God belongs all the glory. As far as responsibility is concerned, it is irrelevant that Joseph's brothers thought it was their idea to sell him into slavery. As far as responsibility is concerned, it is irrelevant whether or not Potiphar's wife or Pharaoh's butler felt any guilt for Joseph's long imprisonment. And before God gave Egypt's power to Joseph, God mad certain that Joseph knew that. Otherwise, upon seeing his brothers, Joseph probably would have slain in a fit of vengeance the very ones whom God had all along intended for him to save.

   So far as the judgment of others is concerned, that wasn't Joseph's place. God alone was responsible for what He permitted others to do to Joseph, and God alone knew to what degree, if at all, any of them should be punished. When their father Jacob died, Joseph's brothers became fearful that Joseph would at long last retaliate for what they had done, but:

"Joseph wept when they spake unto him... and Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." (Gen. 50:18-21)

Joseph was able thus to love and to care for his brothers because he never lost sight of God's love and care for him. Joseph did not believe that his brothers were responsible for selling him into Egypt and that God only later managed to work it out for good. No, from the beginning, God "meant it unto good." That is to say, God controlled and had a purpose for every event which befell Joseph. Joseph wouldn't have wanted it, and God wouldn't have allowed it, to have been any other way.

Conclusion

   For all their faith in God, the biblical characters of greatest faith were always those, like Joseph, of greatest suffering. Who suffered more than Jesus, or Job, or Paul, or David? Yet, in what is possibly the most astonishing paradox of true faith, all these holy men, who knew God best, looked to Him not only as the Giver of life and hope and healing but also as the Designer of every suffering which they faced. Hardships never caused righteous men and women to doubt God's power over their lives. On the contrary, hardships always served to remind them of it.

   But why? What revelation of the Almighty inspired such a faith? After studying the stories of suffering saints which you will read in this book, I realized I didn't know. To acknowledge that Joseph held no one but God responsible for his sufferings is not the same as to understand why he did so, or why it was right for him to do so. So then, what did Joseph know about God which inspired him to believe what he did and behave as he did toward those who hurt him?

   Please don't expect any high and mighty theology. There will be none. For, like the proverbial man who pursues happiness around the world, only to return home and find it, the revelation of God which inspired the faith of the righteous biblical characters, I found, after long search, to have always been before me in full, clear view truths so simple that their very simplicity causes them to be overlooked and their value to suffering saints to be vastly underestimated. The rock from which rose the highest and mightiest faith is the revelation contained in the very first words of the Bible:

   To the saints who found themselves in the darkest pits of suffering, what that single truth taught them about God's goodness and power and wisdom formed the foundation upon which all their hopes were secured. The revelation of God as Creator, when rightly understood, is of such commanding majesty that it demands utter faith even as it inspires it. That wondrously simple, majestic revelation is of such purity and holiness that it purifies and sanctifies the very faith that perceives its meaning. To that end, now having Joseph's faith as a point of reference, we take time to consider the meaning of the revelation of creation. Then, entering into the stories of Job and Jesus, we may more fully appreciate their labor.

CHAPTER TWO

THE CREATOR

   He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with gladness.

The Goodness of God

   An astute and witty observer of life has speculated that the last reality which a fish would discover would be water. A fish could easily notice the water plants swaying with the currents. Other fish gliding around him, obviously, he would see. Sol's bright light and the dark floor beneath him, the fish would easily perceive. Even garbage, carelessly tossed into the fish's home would attract his attention. But that unseen, life-sustaining, life-enveloping substance surrounding him, that absolute necessity for his very existence - water - a fish might well never discover at all.

   Of course, this is a parable concerning mankind. For in a sense which is not far from literal, we all do swim out our lives in the pervasive, sustaining, enveloping goodness of God. To the philosophers of Athens, Paul said of God:

    As with the fish, the mundane realities of our world hardly escape our notice. Other people and the concerns of daily living demand much of our attention. Human garbage, literal and figurative, is commonly and easily seen. But that upon which our very life rests, that "first cause", that elementary reason for our being - the goodness of God - is often among the last things realized or appreciated by men. Some, alas, never discover it at all.

    Nevertheless, it is only of God's goodness that life on earth continues. It is God "who giveth rain unto the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields" (Job 5:10). It is God who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good" (Mt. 5:45).

   How true are David's words:

Because God Is Good

   If mankind merely evolved, if our existence is the result of pure chance, then we do not live because God chose for us to live. If mankind is simply another plateau of an ongoing evolutionary process, then God is just as pleased that we not be, is just as pleased as some other specimen of evolutionary impulse exist in our stead. There is not in that case any bond of love between God and man. It is said that in the evolutionary scheme, the odds against our coming to exist are virtually incalculable. Certainly, anyone who could, and then would have stacked the odds against us to that degree could not have been eager for us to live, could not have dearly loved and provided for our kind.

   But God did create us. And He created us only because He desired to create us. It is of immense spiritual value for us to appreciate that. In creating us, God was coerced by nothing. He had nothing suggested to Him, was advised by no one as to how or to what extent creation was to be accomplished.

   We human beings did not have to be. There were no laws of physics which demanded our formation. We exist only because God wanted us. Out of the endless possibilities available to his mind, God chose for us to be. Of His own heart, He conceived the idea of man and then made a conscious choice that man should live. We are creatures of His design, our contours fashioned by His hand. And grace upon grace, He was pleased to bestow upon man the sacred honor of being created in His own image. Man has dignity and wisdom and dominion in the earth because it pleased God to give it to him. We are man only because God is good.

On Purpose

    It is compellingly clear that God created what He wanted to create, no less and no more. On the seventh day, He did not scan with remorse His completed creation, ruefully wishing He had done something better or differently. Quite the opposite is true. As the sun lowered upon the sixth and final day of creation, God paused to look,

   In accordance with this, we must acknowledge that when God created man, He created man the way He wanted man to be. It pleased Creator to make man healthy and sinless and to give him dominion on earth. It was His heart's desire that man should be greatly and continually blessed. There is comfort available to us in the knowledge that God created man well and happy on purpose.

    The men of greatest faith believed that the goodness of God - His mercy, His justice, His compassion, etc. - were as certain as life, for life itself was irrefutable proof of it. In whatever evil circumstance they found themselves, they could not surrender hope, for they had committed their lives into the mighty hands of their unchanging Creator, believing that His will, as it was in the beginning, is that men should be happy, healthy, and pure.

The Power Of God

   As creation itself is the surest and most constant witness of the Creator's goodness, so it is with His terrible power. That God wanted to create is one thing, but that God could create what he wanted is altogether another. To believe in God as Creator is to believe in a good God of incalculable power and authority. So awesome is His creative power, that God cannot lie. It is a power so terrible that whatever God says, is. Even the breath that proceeds from His lips performs deeds.

   The magnificent implications of this truth are being decreasingly appreciated by the saints because (1) the doctrine of creation is increasingly allegorized or neglected and (2) we confuse ourselves by applying the term "creative" or "creator" to men. Biblically, to speak very strictly, it is idolatrous to believe that man or any other created being can create anything. Man can invent. Man can rearrange particles of what God has created. But there is only one Creator, and there is none other even remotely like Him. Any being who can lie cannot create.

No Other Source

   King David's reflection upon the power of the Creator which was demonstrated in His creation inevitably led him to marvel at God's providence for men. Of particular interest was God's delegation of power to the beings which He had created.

   As David observed, man's dominion on earth was graciously granted by God. The great King Nebuchadnezzar was given the mind of an animal and for 7 years ate grass with cattle in the fields until he learned, in Daniel's words,

   But concerning dominion and the delegating of authority by God, there is much more to be considered than governments of men. For just as certainly as man would be powerless on earth had God not given him power, the same may be said of every other creature in every other realm. Whether earthly power, heavenly power, or powers of spiritual darkness, all life and all power exists only by the will of the Creator. There is no other source.

   Every physical or spiritual strength of man, of nature, of fallen or faithful angels, even the power of Jesus Christ himself, all power, all authority, all strength, is subservient to God's power. No person, beast, or spirit has any power of its own or has received power ultimately from any other source than God. It came from God. It is a gift of God. And all creatures, great and small, carnal and spiritual, owe him all fear and thanksgiving for it. To fail to pay that debt is sin.

To Bless Or To Curse

   Numerous gods with various fabricated personalities were worshipped and feared in the ancient world. Not just the way of isolated barbarians, polytheism dominated the entire ancient history of man. The learned and the ignorant, the noble and the base, governors and the governed - virtually all men in all nations - were immersed in this kind of spiritual darkness. The dying request of Socrates, an intellectual giant among men, was that an offering be made to the gods for his sick friend, Plato. The businesses associated with idolatry were both prosperous and secure (cp. Acts 19:23f). Among the most famous buildings on earth in those days were temples dedicated to particularly revered gods, such as the brilliantly sculptured Parthenon in Athens.

    But the idolatry of the ancient world did not actually lie in the erecting of idols or temples or even in the performing of worship rituals for those other imagined deities. Those things were only the outward expressions of idolatry, for idolatry is a spiritual disease. The real idolatry, the real disease, lay in fearing that those gods had power, that they, like God, could do whatsoever pleased them, that they, like God, could determine and effect changes in the circumstances of the universe, that they, like God, could bless or curse whom they would. In short, the real spiritual disease of idolatry is believing that there exists another like the Creator. Pleaded Jeremiah concerning other gods:

   The revelation of God as Creator overcame the idolatrous spirit of those ancient times because included in that revelation is the truth that all power, whether to heal or to afflict, to lift up or to cast down, to save or to destroy (and therefore all fear and all worship) belongs to God.

   It was during a blunt condemnation of Israel's fear of other gods that the Spirit of God, through Moses, proclaimed these stunning words:

   It was neither God's nor Moses' intent to intimidate or harass the Israelites. God's goodness rules that out. The purpose of these words was to remind the people of the Creator's absolute power over His creation and, so, to expose the foolishness of fearing or serving any other but Him. And the faithful in Israel rejoiced that that was true:

   Hannah gloried in God's power because she trusted in His love. But how did she glorify Him for His power? By acknowledging His authority over every circumstance of human life. Throughout Israel's history, in opposition to the idolatrous spirits of their times, the prophets declared the singular power of God:

   Strange as it may sound to our ears, the righteous men of faith would not have so much as considered the possibility that their whole lives - including their sufferings were being directed by any other than God. It was the idolatry of believing that other gods were at work in their lives which ruined Old Testament Israel, as it was the righteousness of proclaiming that Israel's life was in God's hands alone that set the prophets apart.

   This truth is of such abiding authority, however, that it not only challenged ancient idolatrous notions about God, but challenges modern notions as well. It is as distasteful to many modern ecclesiastical palates as it must have seemed queer to the ancient world, for the saints to confess that God is God of all. But it is irrefutably true now as it was then. And we are not of the same faith, not followers of that faith of the holiest and wisest of men, until we see, as they saw, all our sufferings as well as all our comforts to be determined for us by God. Anything short of that is too reminiscent of the ancient world not to be labeled idolatrous.

   For the saints living now, this is probably the most difficult truth to believe about God. For we are living in an era wherein, as during the latest Old Testament times (cp. Mal. 2:17), the Creator is characterized as being ever gentle, never stern, ever loving, never doing harm. The power of God to afflict is virtually denied by the spirit of our age. Satan, instead, is almost everywhere honored with responsibility for the suffering of the saints. Unwise instructors have taught the saints to believe in God only as the God of all blessing and , in effect, to trust Satan to be the god of all discomfort. But you will never find any such doctrine in the mouth of righteous biblical characters. Later, we will speak more fully on this matter.

The Wisdom Of God

   Faith in God's goodness and His power, as secure a foundation as those provide, is not enough to sustain us in the hardest trials. For if we know only of God's desire that we be nothing but blessed and of His power to accomplish that, then there is room for bitterness that He does not go ahead and do it. It is "a threefold cord" which is not easily broken, and when with faith in God's goodness and power we are bound to Him with faith in His wisdom, there is no seat left in our hearts for any disconnected visitor.

   God has promised that he will end all suffering forever for those who love and obey Him. "He will make an utter end", wrote Nahum the prophet,

For the faithful in Christ, the Apostle John foresaw that neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat:

    There are, of course, questions as to why we must wait for those promises to come, and why we must through all our lives be confronted by sorrow, disappointment, and pain. We know that Jesus himself was "made perfect through the things that he suffered" (Heb. 2:10;5:8-9) and, so, that we might be made perfect is one of God's reasons for suffering to continue. But that is actually beside the point, for even though some answers to our questions concerning suffering are revealed, we could rejoice even if we were completely ignorant, so long as we knew that God knows all things. And it is the revelation of God as Creator which assures us that He does know all things, for He could not have created all things without His own knowledge.

   It is only by God's wisdom that birds take their flight (Job 39:26). Only by His wisdom do the stars gather in the evening skies (Job 38:31-32). By His wisdom do the clouds darken to water the earth (Job 38:25-27). By His wisdom, microscopic unions form successive generations of men. By His wisdom seasons change, beasts of the earth are nourished, men and women can think and feel and ask, and fires can turn leaves into rising columns of white and grey.

   In contemplating the heavens, King David was not being an impractical dreamer, neglecting the weightier matters of his kingdom. Nor was Jesus promoting indolence when he enjoined us to consider the lilies. The most unforgettable spiritual lessons contained in the Holy Scriptures are those based upon natural phenomena: a vineyard, the rain, fish in the sea, the wind, the planting of seeds. Wise Solomon was made still wiser by observing the ant (Prov. 6:6-11). The ephemeral quality of grass instructed Isaiah's heart in the wonder of eternity (Isa. 40:6-8). By His own immaculately wise design, the Creator's fingerprints remain, with subtle starkness, upon every article of His creation, and within even the smallest element of creation is hidden the potential of revelation of the God who created it.

    Pondering creation, King David was enamored with the revelation of God in the rain, or in the animals of the forest, or in the daily labor of men (cp. Ps. 104). To David, there were testimonies in the trees, sermons in the silence of the stars. As if in a language both foreign and understandable, the skies to David seemed to be incessantly evangelizing the inhabitants of the earth.

    Oh, let us recapture this lost, holy sense of amazement at the Creator's labor. Let us with childlike wonder join in the prophet's song of praise:

Even Our Ignorance

   Like chapel bells in winter, echoing loud and clear against cold and closed buildings, the exhortations of the ancient men of faith rebound against the empty confidences of proud mankind:

   Known but to God, there is a measure for that which men call the measureless. There is in His heart the knowledge of that which men call the unknowable. There is a hope beyond what men have dreamed or can dream (Isa. 64:4; I Cor. 2:9).

   But there are worlds even within our own we know nothing of, secrets in the seas which man may never discover. On distant stars, what epic scenes of beauty and violence must surely play, beyond the realm of man's cognitive, even imaginative capacities. And all these imperceived, mysterious realities declare the glory of our Creator every bit as much as did the discernable heavens to David's awe-stricken heart. For everything we do not know is a reminder of the awesome knowledge of our Creator. In a curious twist of His fathomless wisdom, God has determined that even our ignorance, along with every other part of creation, should bear witness to His wisdom.

God's Purposes

    I know perfectly well that regardless of how much a parent loves a child or how much power a parent possesses to provide for a child's needs, both that love and that power can be unwisely demonstrated. But God is never like that. He is the perfect Father. He didn't have to learn to be a good parent. He was good from the beginning. He doesn't make mistakes. Regardless of how much goodness and power Joseph trusted God to possess, had Joseph not trusted in the Creator's wisdom, he would have wondered if his suffering was really necessary, if it was serving any good purpose.

   We as a congregation are letting slip from our grasp that thrilling sense of God's purpose in all things. To the eyes of faith, the sun doesn't just shine; it shines because the Creator has a purpose for its shining. To the eyes of faith, the sky itself never gives rain (Jer. 14:22); only God can do that. And when He does it, He does it for a purpose. "All things are full of labor"(Eccl. 1:8) because all things are fulfilling the often hidden purposes of God, and, oh, that He would ever keep that truth alive in our hearts! Jesus encourages us to trust in God's purposes with these amazing words:

   Jesus' meaning is not that after you were born, God came while you slept and counted the hairs on your head. Rather, it is that the hairs on your head are numbered to you by the Creator, the point of Jesus' words being that God's care for us is so complete that every circumstance of our lives is contemplated by Him before it happens. That is, no circumstance, either pleasant or otherwise, is ever permitted into the lives of His children that does not fit into His plan for their lives, or that is not tailored by Him to match their faith (I Cor. 10:13). The reliance upon that truth during times of great suffering was the one act of faith which most clearly set the righteous apart from their idolatrous times.

Conclusion

   Some may ask why, if all the circumstances of our lives, including our sufferings, are determined by God, should we desire to be delivered from suffering? The most obvious answer is that suffering hurts, and sane people do not enjoy pain. The prophets knew that God sent famine upon their land (II Kgs. 18:1), but they didn't pray for more famine. They prayed for rain (cp. I Kgs. 8:35-40), in humility and fear before God.

   Secondly, we should desire deliverance because the suffering which God determines for us is not an end in itself; it is never intended to last forever. It is only used now to serve God's purposes. Therefore, it is never wrong to want, or to pray for, or to expect healing. Indeed, it is wrong not to want or expect healing, because that betrays either an ignorance of, or worse yet, unbelief toward the Creator. It is always right to pray for healing, not only because healing would make us feel better, but also because God's purpose is always inextricably entwined with our healing. We cannot pray for healing without, at least implicitly, praying for God's purpose to be accomplished in our lives, for they are too much of the same thing. Joseph's deliverance from the dungeon cannot be separated from his rise to Pharaoh's throne. And when he was praying for the one, he was working with the will of God toward the accomplishment of the other.

Thirdly, we should pray for deliverance because when things are made right in our lives, and when God's purposes are accomplished, God receives glory. And risking the appearance of too much Spiritualality, let me suggest that to bring glory to God may be the best reason to pray for healing and deliverance (cp. Ps. 30:9-12), even outweighing one's desire for personal comfort. Certainly we could not be wrong in attributing that depth of holy commitment to our Lord Jesus, whose only purpose in coming to earth was "to do thy will, O God" (Heb. 10:7).

To conclude then, I must say that to believe in the Creator is to believe in healing, in being made whole. I cannot imagine how we could know and trust in God without expecting good things to happen to our lives; goodness is so much a part of what He is. The very reason faith asks for healing is because faith knows God. Faith seeks for God's "way of escape" from every temptation (I Cor. 10:13) because it believes there is one. Faith knocks on the door of deliverance because it believes that door has hinges (Mt. 7:7-11; Lk. 11:5-13; 18:1-8). Regardless of the bleakness of the situation, the men of greatest faith still possessed the faith to call upon God for help. Indeed, our heavenly Father bids us to do so:

   All the righteous from the beginning of the world have heard that compassionate voice of the Creator, beckoning all who would to come find shelter in His care. In the ancient, forgotten land of Uz, the Lord chose a man named Job to demonstrate for us the value of following after that voice.

CHAPTER THREE

JOB

The Hand Of God

    I evidently offended the concept of spiritual good taste which some held, when at a home Bible study I asked, "Who was responsible for the sufferings of Job?" The expected answer was either "Job" or "Satan", but my answer, "God", was neither appreciated nor welcomed. Nevertheless, as even a simple reading of Job reveals, it was never so much as suggested, either by Job or his comforters, that any other than God was responsible for Job's misery. The heated debate between Job and his friends centered on an entirely different matter. To wit, was the Almighty afflicting Job because Job had provoked Him by sin to do so, or, as Job maintained, was God afflicting him "without cause"? From either point of view, Job's suffering was rightly seen to be God's handiwork.

In the first chapter of Job, there is described a meeting of the sons of God, among whom was the creature named "Satan." When asked of God, "Whence camest thou?" Satan replied:

   Let us examine this situation. For an unspecified period of time, Satan had been traveling and observing the inhabitants of the earth. God, of course, was aware of that. Included among those whom Satan had been observing was the righteous man, Job. God already knew that, too. Had Satan possessed standing authority and power to destroy or even to trouble Job, certainly he would already have done so. But Satan had during none of that time assaulted Job, nor could he, of himself, have done so. Both he and God knew that.

   Please notice that it was God who brought up the subject of Job. I dare say, Satan would rather have discussed another subject, something less galling than a man who "was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1). Nevertheless, God brought up Job's name, and He did so because, in His fathomless wisdom, at His own time, and for His own purposes, He had ordained a trial for Job which would match Job's transcendent faith, and had chosen Satan as His instrument of affliction.

God's question to Satan," Hast thou considered my servant Job?", was not asked by God to find out if Satan had considered Job. God already knew the answer to that and every other question He may ask. By bringing up the name of Job, God was setting in motion the beginning of Job's trials. And upon sensing that, Satan responded:

Up until this moment, when God gave it to him, Satan had no power whatsoever against Job. Satan knew that he never could touch Job, unless and until God ordained it to be. The fact that Satan was, in this case, God's agent of destruction has led some to believe that Satan was carrying out his own plans against Job's life. Not so. This was altogether the determination of God, Who is neither advised nor coerced in His decisions concerning His children, any more than He was advised or coerced in His decision to create man in the beginning.

Following this heavenly meeting, the dam in Satan's heart which stores up envy for righteous men was relieved a little of its burden, as a torrent of tragedies pummeled innocent Job. But at the control of the floodgates was Job's Redeemer, and everything that happened to Job happened according to God's ordination, with God's limitations, in God's predetermined time. Satan knew that. God knew that. Even Job knew that. It was God's hand, not Satan's, which was stretched over Job. In his bitterness, Job cried to his friends:

   In one day, Job suffered the loss of his children and virtually all of his many possessions. It was a crushing, heart-rending experience, but not one that was able to crush either Job's faith or his love for God. The agonizing man "arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped." He and his wife mourned for their children and came to know well the humiliation and frustration of poverty.

   An indeterminate period of time passed, and then Satan was given permission by God to torment Job physically - but not to the point of death. Huge boils covered him, expanding with their piercing throbs until they erupted with foul-smelling, worm-infested corruption, which matted his clothes to his body (7:5; 3:18). When he sought refuge from his misery in sleep, gruesome nightmares chased him back to consciousness (7:3-4; 13-15), leaving Job exhausted, confused, and, in time, prematurely wrinkled (16:7-8). Demonic fingers around his throat would seal tight his breathing passages (9:18), leaving Job sprawled in his own squalor, kicking in desperation for breath, forgetting for the moment the constant pains which returned with renewed fury when he was allowed to breath again.

   Hardly a soul could bear to be around him. Virtually all his friends forsook him. His servants ignored his plaintive cries for help. His wife, in utter frustration, offered the advice she considered best for him: "curse God and die." With neither strength to provide for himself nor anyone to provide for him, Job wasted away to a stick-man appearance. "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth" (19:20). Contributing also to his dramatic loss of weight was an excruciating bowel disorder (30:27) which prevented normal digestion. Moreover, crippling bone and muscle diseases tortured Job with relentless pains (30:17,30). Day and night, without rest, weeping Job cried out for respite, even for death (but death was not allowed), and month after month no respite was given.

   Oh that I were as in months past when God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness. As I was in the days of youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the Almighty was with me, when my children were about me, when I washed by steps butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.

   The young men saw me, and hid themselves. And the aged arose, and stood up. The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace...When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me, because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

   The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy...I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor...and I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his mouth.

   Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. After my words they spake not again, and my speech dropped upon them. They waited for me as the rain... I sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army.

Excerpts from Job 29

   Formerly the paragon of success and integrity, Job now grovelled like a dog for crumbs from his master's table. In appearance almost inhuman, Job now was mocked by heartless low-lifes in the community. "Children of fools", Job cried, "Yea, children of base men. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face" (30:8-10). Job, weeping and bleeding, was cursed and physically abused (30:11-14). A repulsive and ridiculed shell of a man, he was repeatedly accused of hypocrisy by his three closest friends for hiding what they believed were secret sins. They accused him, supremely confident of being in the right, because according to their doctrine righteousness is evidenced by one's wealth and being in the right, therefore, sickness and poverty proved Job's guilt. While asleep, then, Job was tormented by demons, and while awake men joined in the vicious attacks. And whether awake or asleep, always pain. Always pain.

   Most grievous of all, and adding weight to the heaviest of his burdens, was the inexplicable silence of God. Why did He hide Himself? This was the hot knife's edge of Job's sufferings. This was the point whereat Satan waited to see Job's faith fail. But this is what he saw and heard from Job concerning his God:

    "God is faithful," wrote a man of God long after Job's time. "He will make a way of escape" (I Cor. 10:13). Job found his "way of escape" by following the road which leads out of all suffering: the road which Isaiah called "The Way of Holiness" (Isa. 35:8). By refusing to do evil and persisting in doing good, Job finally overcame all the evil which befell him. "Till I die," he firmly argued through his searing pains, "I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live!"

Charging God Foolishly

   As if Job's "miserable comforters" failed to accuse Job enough, some believers today are still finding fault with this incredibly righteous man. "He deserved what he received," some have said, "because he said that 'the thing which he had greatly feared is come upon me.’" But "the thing" which had come upon him, "the thing" which he had greatly feared was the hand of God! (Eg. 1:1) I find no fault in that. Indeed, it is a serious fault in anyone not to fear the hand of God, as both David and Paul taught (Ps. 36:1; Rom. 3:18), and as the author of Hebrews admitted, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31).

During his sermon, a pastor friend of mine accused Job of "teaching false doctrine" for holding God responsible for taking away his children, possessions, and health. He couldn't agree with the meaning of these words of Job, which are among the most quoted of all scripture:

   Have you ever before noticed what Job was and was not saying here? He was glorifying God for both having given him blessings and for having taken them away. A man who does not know that God loves him cannot do that. A man who does not trust God's wisdom cannot do that. And a man who believes in other gods, including Satan, as having power to determine destruction for the saints, cannot do that. Job knew his Creator too well to believe that Satan could take God's blessings away, unless God Himself determined that it should be done.

Yet, of even more importance than Job's saying such words is the Bible's immediate commentary:

    The Bible's judgment concerning what Job said was that it was not sinful, was not foolish, for Job to attribute responsibility for his suffering to God. In effect, this is God's judgment concerning Job's words. For us, my friends, the question is, is our understanding of God such that we do not agree with Job? That, for us, is the whole issue. Are we of like faith with this righteous man? Does our faith rest in God, as He was to Job's mind, or to Joseph's? Do we think that God is not what these holy men knew Him to be? Is it our doctrinal position that they really didn't fully understand their situations?

   Job's knowledge of God made sure his faith in God's goodness and power and wisdom. Nothing could move him from that faith as long as it was anchored in that knowledge. When his wife's counsel was the Job should "curse God, and die," Job's answer reflected his hope and faith in God's providence:

And again, as if to assure us most firmly of divine approval of Job's words, the Bible immediately adds this note:

   Unquestionably, it behooves us to agree with Job in believing that he received evil (meaning here "harm") from the hand of God, if the Holy Scriptures confirm it. Or do we fear that somehow we would be wrong, were we to believe what Job believed about God?

Without Cause

   Job's friends were disgusted to hear Job say that God was destroying him "without cause". But what would those wise men have thought, could they indeed have heard God "open his lips and speak", as He did to Satan after Job's afflictions had begun:

   Now, I should quickly note that for God or for Job to say that his suffering was "without cause" is not at all to say that his suffering was without purpose. Job, believing in God's purpose, spent much of his time of suffering in prayer, trying to discover what God's purpose was. To say that Job's suffering was "without cause" is only to say that Job had not by committing sin provoked God to afflict him. But that there was at least one purpose in his suffering, thousands of saints throughout salvation's history, who have been strengthened to faith in the face of sorrow by Job's example, can bear witness.

    Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar vehemently disagreed with Job because they did not believe that God would cause suffering without being provoked by sin to do so. Unfortunately, many of the saints today would disagree with Job, too, principally because we are being bombarded with the insane notion the God will not cause suffering under any circumstances. But surely we can admit that Job was right in saying God was afflicting him without cause, if God Himself said the same. It is the least we can do to confess that God spoke the truth, even if it is difficult to bring ourselves to confess that Job did.

The Greatest Commandment

    It was the knowledge of the goodness and power and wisdom of the Creator, constantly affirmed in His creation, which so firmly upheld the faith of Joseph and Job under enormous pressures. Any other foundation would have collapsed. Had they been any less understanding, they could have found some other god or person to hold responsible for their suffering. But to look to other sources was the heathen way of believing. It was the heathen way to hold grudges against men, to hate, to seek revenge for being mistreated. It was the heathen who had gods of love and kindness and gods to cause suffering, wise gods and foolish gods, a god to hold the keys of hell, a god to pull the sun across the sky, gods who lived and governed in the seas, and gods who ruled upon the land. That is how they believed, being chained to ignorance of the Creator. Their love, their worship, their fear, their faith, their whole lives were divided in their ceaseless efforts to keep the gods appeased. What a liberation, what a joy was the revelation of the truth!

   It is no wonder that Jesus said this was the greatest commandment contained in the Holy Scriptures (Mk. 12:29-30). It is of the highest spiritual benefit, of first importance to an unadulterated faith, to know that there is but one God Who is all things to His beloved people.

The Other God

   Of course, the kind of idolatry which dominated the ancient world is all but gone, but there exists in its stead another, more deviously subtle kind. For, to many believers, Satan has, in effect, replaced those gods which once were thought to have tried the hearts of men. Whereas God was, even by many of the Israelites, thought to have been one among many gods, now He is believed by many in the congregation to be one of only two. He is still rightly trusted to be the God of love and healing and truth, but at the same time Satan is thought by many saints to be the god of our suffering. He has become, for all purposes, the "other gods" of the congregation. And it is made none the less idolatrous that the saints are taught to dislike Satan for doing them harm. There were unlikable gods in the ancient world, too. Personal feeling for or against others gods has nothing to do with the fact that it was idolatry to believe in the power of those gods to determine circumstances, either in the lives of God's people, or in any other part of God's creation. Why, it is the fear of, faith in, respect for, or any other form of reverence for any other god, which is the very first thing forbidden in the ten commandments! the fear of the Lord, and no other, is the beginning of all wisdom (Prov. 1:7).

God Is God

   I overheard an older saint attempt to woo a young girl to Christ with these words, "You don't ever have to fear God, honey. But you'd better be afraid of that old devil." I caught my breath in disbelief. What kind of doctrine is that? In whose power was this saint persuading that young girl to believe?

   Oh, that God would circumcise the ear of our souls to hear words of the men who walked by God's light! It is, to me, as though Job were screaming the truth, so that he might be heard, even by us, over the din of confused tradition:

It was Job's understanding of God which gave him the faith to say those things. That those things were true was actually his only hope. For if God had not destroyed him, then who had? And if Satan or some other god were responsible, where had God been when it had happened? No, either God was responsible, or God is not God. But Job knew that God was responsible, and that God loved him and would be glorified in his complete deliverance (Job 13: 15-16), if through it all he would wait for that salvation in the way of righteousness. That is perfected faith. That is faith that is rooted in the unshakable foundation of God's goodness and power and wisdom. That is the beauty and benefit of the knowledge of God as our Creator.

    And should there remain any doubt that Job's attitude concerning his afflictions was correct, serious consideration should be given to God's final appraisal of the faith which Job had shown. Speaking to one of Job's "comforters", God said:

Jesus

    The life of every one of God's people is the sole responsibility of the Owner. He may use it or leave it upon the shelf. He may brand it, break it, twist it, or melt it. But whatever happens to the Master's instruments is determined by no one but Him. Faith, when it is matured, rejoices in that. Who better than our God to be in control of our fate? This is the faith which guided Joseph and Job to victory over suffering, and it is the faith which guided our Lord Jesus through his sufferings to eternal glory.

CHAPTER FOUR

JESUS

As A Lamb

   In the first seven chapters of Leviticus, the laws for sacrifice are given. We learn there that before the priest could make the offering to God, the one to whom the sacrificial animal belonged was required to kill the animal.

    The requirement that the owner should personally slay his offering should be kept in mind whenever we think or speak of Jesus as being the Lamb of God. He was not the Lamb of men or of Satan. Only the one to whom he belonged had the authority to "put him to grief."

Isaiah was moved to prophesy of the suffering Savior in just this manner:

   From the beginning, Jesus knew that God's will was for him to "give his life a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28). But his faith in God was such that he thoroughly expected his suffering to be the gateway to eternal blessing and he "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He was never bitter, never vindictive. Rather, by doing good to all men, he demonstrated that he had committed his life to God "as unto a faithful Creator."

Nobody But Jesus

   Some, however, were provoked by Jesus' submissive attitude toward his suffering. Pilate, angered by Jesus' silence, demanded,

   Pilate didn't know that his authority over the Jews at that particular moment in history was a gift from the God of the Jews. But ignorance of God's hand in all these events was not reserved to Pilate. The Jews thought that the crucifixion of Jesus was their idea. They could never have dreamed that the plans they were fulfilling actually belonged to the Father of the victim. Moreover, even Jesus' closest friends were unaware of the terrible truth they were witnessing. When Judas led the evil mob to the garden of Gethsemene, Peter drew his sword to protect Jesus.

   Nobody but Jesus saw beyond the angry mob and the sadistic Roman soldiers. Nobody except Jesus saw beyond the humiliation and horror of his crucifixion to see the loving hand of God at work, providing hope of eternal life for all mankind. Neither Pilate nor the Jews, not even the disciples - nobody but Jesus - knew that what they themselves were doing had been ordained by God since the foundation of the world. Nobody but Jesus knew.

   It was only after Jesus ascended into heaven and the Spirit of Truth had come, that men began to grasp the truth, the awful, wondrous truth: Christ Jesus had been purposely delivered into the hands of wicked men "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23 cp. Lk. 22:22). It was only when the purpose of Christ's suffering was accomplished and his followers were filled with the Spirit of Truth, that the knowledge of what God had done enabled them to pray "with one accord",

   It was a "vain thing" for raging Pilate to imagine that he had power either to crucify or to set free the Son of God (Jn. 19:10). It was a "vain thing" for the rulers of the Jews to conspire against Jesus "to put him to death" (Jn. 11:47-53). It was a "vain thing" for Roman soldiers to guard the tomb, lest the stone be rolled away. All these were "vain things" because none of them to the least extent determined the fate of the One against whom they were directed. The Jew's conspiracy against Jesus was just as vain as was the guarding of the tomb, the only difference being that what the Jews conspired to do, God permitted to be done, and what the guards were sent to do, God's plan did not include. The fact that God allowed some men to imagine that they were accomplishing their purpose, when they were only accomplishing His, speaks only of the greatness of His mercy and wisdom and power, and does in no respect make less vain the evil intentions of men. It is altogether fitting to genuine faith in Christ that we should acknowledge and confess that if God had not sent him to the cross, there are no powers in heaven or in earth that could have taken him there.

   Not of man's design or purpose, the sacrifice of Christ "was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (I Pet. 1:20). "The Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men", said Jesus (Lk. 9:44). But by Whom? "God delivered him up" wrote the Apostle Paul, "for us all" (Rom. 8:32). "The Father sent the Son", John wrote, "to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:9-14).

   Jewish people have been maligned for two millenia by foolish men as being responsible for the pain and death of the Savior. But Jesus said, in reference to his life, "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself" (Jn. 10:18). No persons, or nation, or world of people, are responsible for Christ's sufferings, nor could they be. Indeed, every saint on earth should be thankful to God for the Jews, for it was through that people the God chose to provide a human body for His supernal Son to indwell, the offering of which body opened the doors of salvation for all people. Beyond that, what the Jews, with all the world, contributed to Christ's excruciating sacrificial death was, simply, the need for it. All mankind was in bondage together. All mankind, both Jew and Gentile, to Calvary's magnificent story contributed the disease of sin; it is God, alone, who provided the cure.

   The wisdom which Christ's atonement entailed, the love which inspired it, and the power which accomplished it, are all far beyond man's little capacity to perform. Let us no longer, then, bicker or accuse one another of responsibility for Christ's sufferings. None of us are worthy of it. And who could doubt that if the tender Shepherd would now speak with his beloved fellow Jews, his words would echo those of weeping Joseph, who, too, was despised by those dearest to him:

   Yes, Jesus knew that the Jewish rulers made plans to kill him. He knew that Judas betrayed him, that an evil mob arrested him, and that a Gentile governor ordered his scourging and his crucifixion. His faith in God did not blind his eyes to the reality of Roman soldiers, pounding spikes into his hands and feet. But neither did his awareness of what men were doing blind his spirit to the reality of his Father, determining moment by moment what would and what would not be done to His dear Son. At every point in his earthly pilgrimage, despite what everyone else thought they knew, Jesus humbly maintained that his sufferings were "things that belong to God" (Mt. 16:21-23). But at the time, nobody but Jesus knew.

   It is the very soul of the gospel that what happened to Jesus at Calvary was the will and plan of God. We should follow Jesus' example and never lose sight of that, lest the deceiver deceive us into honoring him with responsibility for what happened at Calvary. Satan, too, despite what he would have us to think, was merely an outwitted pawn in God's inscrutably wise plan. The glorious truth now and forever remains,

   And His accomplished purpose remains with it:

Times

   Listen to Solomon's wisdom:

   In each of our lives, there is a time for all things: birth and death, joy and sadness, gain and loss. It is a matter of unspeakable joy to discover that all our "times" are determined by our loving Heavenly Father!

   When men would have killed Jesus before God's appointed time, they repeatedly failed. And the only reason they failed is, as John wrote, "because his hour was not yet come" (Jn. 7:30: 8:20). Early in his ministry, Jesus plainly told his brothers, "My time is not yet come" (Jn. 17:1; 12:23). Neither men nor demons nor any other creature could have determined the time of Jesus' death. His times were in his Father's hands. He was his Father's Lamb, not theirs.

   It remains for us to consider soberly the truth that we, too, are called to be lambs in His flock (cp. Jn. 21:15-17) and to commit ourselves entirely to His care "as unto a faithful Creator." We, too, can "shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end" (Heb. 6:11). We, too, can "trust in him at all times" (Ps. 62:8). Amen.

All Things

   None of those whom we have thus far studied were mistaken in looking beyond the agents of their shame and suffering to see nothing but God at work, accomplishing His good purposes. Neither shall we be mistaken by following their perfect example. But it is very likely that we shall languish in immature spiritual confusion as long as we fail to trust, and to acknowledge the hand of God to be at work in all things at all times for us.

   In the few sorrows, hardships, and disappointments in which he is personally involved, Satan's intention is to destroy our our faith in God. But the faith which overcomes the world believes that if those sufferings were actually of such weight that our lives would be destroyed and our faith could not overcome them, God would not have sent them our way. "God is faithful", wrote Paul, "Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able" (I Cor. 10:13).

GOD IS FAITHFUL

   Say it to yourself when you are hurting. God is faithful! Say it to the spirits of depression and fear! God is faithful! Say it to those who would have you to surrender your faith and hold a grudge against someone who has wronged you! God is faithful! Concerning the miseries, distresses, and persecutions which confront us, the Apostle Paul asks, "what shall we say to these things?" And then to answer his own question he writes that to all these things we should say, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

   Say it to the spirits which would have you to fear a nuclear holocaust. "God is faithful!" Confess the truth and overcome the world! Look for God's good purposes in the trials of your faith. See them as from His hand and be encouraged, rather than be embittered as though an enemy had broken through His defenses.

    Sometimes I think God has more confidence in our faith than we do. He certainly places us in situations where we wonder if we will ever be healed, or ever be happy again, or ever again be free in spirit. But having already measured that hurt or loss, the Father knows that we will be even healthier, happier, and freer than ever, if we will but trust him and be faithful. If we trust Him through the hard times, we will discover that our greater blessing was His purpose all along. But according to His own will, God has determined that those blessings will be received only by faith. Yes, we can joyously expect all things to be working for our good, but only if we do "love God and are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28). For those who do not love God and are not the called according to His purpose, there is nothing working for their good. Even the pleasant things of their lives will eventually amount to nothing. Solomon noted this in Ecclesiastes 6:

   I believe that the key to this kind of love and faithfulness is a genuine knowledge of God, and that the key to that knowledge is the revelation of creation. When we experience the revelation knowledge of God as Creator, the rope of trust in God is no longer something at which our wondering hearts desperately grasp; rather, faith becomes woven into the fabric of our mind and spirit, so that it becomes part of what we are. It becomes our foundation instead of our goal. Then, growing into this grace and knowledge of our Savior, we survey past experiences which we once denounced as Satanic intrusions and perceive the short-sightedness of such a view. We see those experiences as the very stones upon which we now stand and view the glory of God, as stepping stones which were hewn by caring hands to match our toddling steps. Yes, Satan may have been allowed to shove those stones into our pathway, but he did neither determine the size of those stones nor when in our pilgrimage we would face them.

I am reminded of Jesus' words to the congregation at Smyrna:

    Yes, it was Satan who would cast some of these faithful saints into prison, but why just "some"? And why just 10 days? The purpose of this suffering, according to Jesus, was that they "may be tried", not that "they might be destroyed." Then, whose purpose was this trial serving? Who matched this trial to the faith of these saints so that they could overcome it and be crowned with eternal life?

   It is the proclamation of perfected faith that the Lord both "trieth the righteous" (Ps. 11:5) and "saveth the upright in heart" (Ps. 7:10). The Apostle Peter rejoiced in this and saw absolutely no conflict in saying that the saints were being "kept by the power of God through faith", and in the following verse adding, "though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations" (I Pet. 1:5-6). That you are being tried does not mean that God's power is no longer keeping you. In fact, God's power may be most at work in your life during your weakness and sorrow than at any other time (cp. II Cor. 12:7-10). Wrote James (1:2-4):

    Only a man who knows that he loves God and who knows how much God loves him could pray, as righteous David prayed,

    Our faith must be tried. If we trust God to provide for us only those trials which we can overcome, our faith will be perfected as we struggle through our hurt to understand and accomplish the will of our heavenly Father. If we do not see beyond our difficult circumstances to behold the hand of God at work for our good, our faith will never be perfected. We will always have trouble forgiving from our hearts those who have wronged us. We will always be victimized by bitterness at our "fate", as though God were unmindful of us, or still worse, unjust.

    Is there anyone among us who has been treated more unjustly than Joseph was treated? Is there anyone among us who has hurt more than Job was hurt? Is there anyone among us who has been more misunderstood, maligned, and hated than our dear Lord Jesus? Satan, confident that his purposes would prevail, poured pain like a river into the lives of those holy men and arrogantly dared them to believe in the purposes of God. One by one, each in his turn according to the will of God, they took that dare. They each overcame the evil which befell them with the good which God had taught them to do. Will we? Are we as committed to our Creator as we are to our human spouses, "for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, till death...?"

   God can be trusted with our lives. That means that He can be trusted to be doing the right thing with the life that is entrusted to him. To trust God, that is the real spiritual warfare, not warfare against flesh and blood but against the spirits of this age which are envious of the love and fear and trust which belong solely to the Creator.

    Dare to hope in God's goodness. Dare to rely upon His power. Dare to believe in His purposes. Dare to abandon your life, your circumstances, and your future to His will. Dare to speak to despair, to worry, "God is for me! You can't destroy me!" Dare to say to sickness, depression, even death itself, "God is faithful-and so will I be!" Go beyond the spirits of vengeance, and ill-will. God can be trusted with your life! Dare not to grumble at the trial He has prepared for you. Dare to believe that you will overcome it, that you will be healed, that things will be made right in your life again, and that that was His plan from the beginning. Our Lord Jesus, Joseph, and Job all clung tenaciously to that blessed hope. So should we. We may with every confidence follow their wise, righteous examples into eternal rest in the presence of God.

What to do when Bad Things Happen

1. Remember first that God is intimately involved, completely in control of your life and all that happens to it. He planned this a long time ago and has been preparing you for some time to be able to face it and to overcome it with good. Healing is in your future because God is in your "now".
2. Continue doing what you know is right. Be aggressive with doing good. Your "way of escape" is to "fight the GOOD fight" of faith.
3. Don't feel bad because you feel bad. No one enjoys suffering. Frustration is not a sin. Irritation is not a sin. Complaining is not a sin. No righteous person ever jumped with glee when God laid an affliction upon them. They cried, they grieved, they complained to God. If you don't like it when bad things happen to you, welcome to a club to which even Jesus belongs. So does his Father, who "in all their affliction was afflicted" with them.
4. Don't feel bad because you feel good. When you trust God, even as you hurt there is an undergirding peace for your spirit. Believers sometimes condemn themselves for experiencing the mysterious, sweet strength of Jesus when circumstances don't seem to call for it.
5. Pray. At all costs, pray. Nothing can take the place of prayer.
6. Read the Bible. There is no substitute for it, either. There is comfort and encouragement to be received from the Scriptures.
7. Ask God why. Have you ever heard someone say that he never questioned God? That seems so contrary to faith. Surely God wants us to know Him and His ways! All the righteous men and women in the Bible zealously sought God for answers. The question, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" came from the lips of a man who knew the will of God in these matters.
8. Know that in the heart of God you are of more value than many sparrows. I pray that you will feel loved, because you are loved. Trust your life to that pure love emanating from the heart of your Creator right now. I pray that you do feel the depth and power of it.

    Understandably, some may wonder whether God's love, control, and care for his own, is altered when, instead of suffering unjustly, the believer is suffering because of doing wrong. The Biblical answer is an unqualified and resounding "NO!" God's control and care is ever constant. In the second book in this series on ALL THINGS, we'll find that the Bible gives us many such examples and, with those examples, gives us strength to hope and rest upon the unchangeable love of God in Jesus Christ.