The God Over Suffering
Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” 3Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. 4We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. 5For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.” 6He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, 7and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.
— (John 9:1–7)
I don’t do well with unanswered questions. Yet there’s no way to avoid it. There are many questions in life that go unanswered, none more bothersome than those asked in regard to suffering. Suffering is one of the major issues in life and proposes what could easily be the chief hurdle in our relationship with God.
If someone holds the power to end our suffering and chooses not to, we don’t generally think favorably of them, nor do we choose to grow in relationship with them. We avoid them, speak ill of them, and often hope for their demise. If we’re at all human, we at least are tempted to respond in this manner.
So how do you come to grips when God is the culprit? God has the power to prevent us from suffering. He has the power to shorten our suffering or to diminish it. Even when we have a specific person at fault, ultimately, God is still behind it in some way. It may be easier to deal with when we have a specific person to focus our anger towards, but in the end, God is the one behind the suffering.
I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.
— (Isaiah 45:7)
God has called us to love and trust Him above all others. How are we supposed to do that when He has the power to keep us from suffering, but He chooses not to? If He were a person in the room, we’d sit on the farthest side. We’d avoid eye contact, and we’d sneak out before He could have the chance to speak to us. We wouldn’t call Him on the phone, and we wouldn’t accept the call when His number showed on the caller ID.
In our natural mind, we have no reason whatsoever to want to associate with God since He could have prevented all our suffering, and He allows all the suffering that exists in our world without putting an end to it. It is this very thing that many use as the excuse to have nothing to do with God. And in the natural mind, they have a good argument. There is a great deal of suffering in our world, and it is truly hard to understand why God allows it to continue.
All of this being understood, let’s take a few moments to focus on suffering in scripture and what we can see about God in regard to it. We’ll begin with Jesus and His disciples in John 9. Jesus and his disciples were walking along, as they did on most days it seems, and they came across a man who had been blind from birth. Everyday, Jesus and His disciples seemed to pass by many people who were suffering from all kinds of things — blind people, deaf people, lame people, diseased people, demon-possessed people, lonely people, stressed-out people, emotionally distraught people, hungry people, and on and on. They were on every corner in every town and this day was no different. As they walked there was a man who had suffered from blindness since His birth.
Imagine the suffering that a person born blind would endure throughout their life. They would never know what their mother looked like or anyone else they cared about. They would have great difficulty getting around. Just to do the normal things in everyday life that we take for granted would be a great struggle for someone without sight. Walking through the house, finding a glass or a plate are simple things for us but not so simple for a someone who can’t see. Imagine never being able to see the beauty of the world around us. We went to the lake recently and spent most of the day there enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Many of the joys of going to the lake would be nonexistent if we were blind. Without sight, nothing of physical beauty could ever be enjoyed — not a mountain, a lake, the ocean, a tree, or a starry night.
In the culture that this blind man lived in, he was despised by many because they believed that his blindness was the result of sin. So they looked down on him and would have nothing to do with him. Many people in that day were suffering greatly because of physical reasons-blindness, disease, or something else-and because of this belief of the Jews that it was a result of sin, they suffered even greater. People who are suffering need the comfort that only God can give. When they are turned away from being able to seek that comfort and shunned by the very people who could offer it, the pain must be incredible.
How did God respond to the suffering of this blind man? As in every case where Jesus encountered suffering people, He did respond and it was no small response. Here is the type of God we have in the face of suffering:
The God Who Sees
The first thing that stands out to me about this blind man is that Jesus took notice. “As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth.” Jesus saw him. He wasn’t pointed out by the disciples or the crowd, in fact, it’s quite possible that the disciples and the crowd did not take notice as that appears to happen numerous times in the Gospels. Jesus saw the man because it is in His nature to see suffering and to care for those who are suffering. So Jesus stopped and went to minister to the man.
There is a story in the Old Testament that speaks about this “seeing” as a part of Who God is. It is found in Genesis 16. This is the story of Hagar. She was Sarah’s maidservant. Since Sarah had not born Abraham any children, Sarah decided to try and fix the situation herself suggesting that Abraham sleep with Hagar. Hagar got pregnant, and then the mess began.
Abraham was caught between a rock and a hard place with Hagar and his wife Sarah. Hagar was about to have his child and Sarah wanted Hagar out of the picture. Abraham told Sarah to do whatever she wanted with Hagar, so Sarah sent her away.
Imagine the loneliness, stress, and hurt that would come to Hagar when she was kicked out. Pregnant, betrayed, and forced into the desert to fin for herself-this was certainly no fun place to be. But it was right in the middle of the most desperate moment that God showed up in Hagar’s life:
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. 12He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 13So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
— (Genesis 16:7–14)
God is looking after even the most unlikely people. Someone that we might think as insignificant and lowly, God chooses to have a visit with and to bless. He noticed her suffering and pain and He came to help. This is the type of God we have. He does not take pleasure in people’s suffering and it is built into His character to do something about it.
God knows when people are suffering:
Psalm 34:6 — This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalm 69:33 — For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
Psalm 72:12-14 — For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
Don’t think that God is just ignoring you or not paying attention to the fact that you are going through something bad or that you are hurting, lonely, scared, or worried. He sees and He cares, and He is up to something. His timing is perfect and His plan and purposes are good.
The God Who Is Near
Not only were there suffering people all around Him, but He noticed them, loved them, and gave them His time and attention. Jesus didn’t keep on walking when He saw the blind man. He stopped and ministered to him.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
It may seem because of the suffering that God is far away, but this is not the case at all. One of God’s chief purposes through suffering is to show that He is the God Who is near. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found out. They were obedient to God by not bowing down to the king’s idle. They stood up to the king and were willing to suffer if necessary to do what was right, honoring God. These three men showed some of the greatest faith imaginable knowing that the price for their decision would have them thrown into a blazing hot furnace:
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” 26Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.
— (Daniel 3:24–26)
God did not prevent Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from being thrown into the furnace, just like He’s not going to keep us from suffering in our own lives. The marvelous thing is that God Himself was in the furnace with them. He is the God Who is near, and He is especially near when His people are suffering.
Was God present before they were thrown into the furnace? Of course He was. It was the furnace that revealed to everyone that God was near, and this is the case with suffering in our own lives. The time when God’s presence in your life is going to be the most visible is when you are going through suffering. We don’t even know from the story if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could see Jesus in the fire with them. All we know is that the king saw Him. We might be going through suffering feeling that we’re alone and wondering if God even cares, but those on the outside will be able to see the presence of God in your suffering and could be drawn to faith in Him because of it.
The God Who Gives Freely
The blind man didn’t have to speak to Jesus to get His attention. In fact, he didn’t speak until after he was healed. He was just sitting their begging with no idea that the God of the universe was walking by. He never did anything that could have earned his healing-he showed no virtue and action deserving of grace. He was just doing what blind beggars do. But we serve a God who loves blind beggars-He rescues, heals, and saves based on His own goodness and desire to do so, He doesn’t do it in response to some sense of our earning Him doing so. It’s all based on grace, and He is full of grace and gives it abundantly by His choice.
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
God decides to give grace and mercy and that’s the story. Everyone is poor and needy and desperate, and everyone is unworthy of receiving God’s grace and mercy. But God chooses to give grace and mercy. It is based on His choice and His character, and it is in no way based on our earning it, choosing it, or deciding to ask for it. We never come running to the Gospel, the Gospel finds us. Just like Hagar was sitting broken and hurting in the desert with no thought of God’s help coming, and then the angel of the Lord shows up to offer grace and mercy. So we are lying in the darkened desert desperately roaming about and God shows up with grace and mercy to rescue us and to set us free.
When it all comes down, we are just blind beggars sitting in the darkness on the side of the road of life. We are suffering, we are desperate, and we have no idea the glory that is in our midst. Until God speaks and then everything changes.
The God Who Cares
1 Peter 5:6-7 — Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
No matter what we are going through, we should never forget this truth, that Jesus cares for us and He especially cares if we are going through difficult things. He has not left us to go through our pain on our own but shares the burden with us.
The fact that Jesus cares is demonstrated by the many times He completely stopped what He was doing when a person in need called for Him. Whatever He might have had on His agenda, it was never more important than the person with a need who called for Him. He always stopped and He always demonstrated compassion and mercy.
When Martha and Mary lost their brother Lazarus, Jesus wept because of the difficulty they were going through (John 11:35). When He was mourning the loss of John the Baptist and wanted to be alone, He chose to stay with the crowd and minister to them because He cared that they were suffering (Matthew 14:13-14). Even while Jesus was suffering Himself hanging on the cross, He was concerned for the well being of His mother, telling John to take care of her (John 19:26-27).
One of my favorite passages of scripture speaks to God’s caring nature:
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. 14The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. 15The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. 18The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.
— (Psalm 145:13–19)
That’s the description of a God Who cares, and He not only cares, but He is fully able and willing to show the depths of His care by giving grace and mercy in our time of need.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The God Who Knows that Suffering Can Be A Good Thing
(John 9:2) — And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
This is not an uncommon question. Often we assume our suffering is from our own sin or something we have done wrong, just as the disciples assumed here. But Jesus revealed that suffering comes ultimately for one reason and that is to bring good. We are promised in Romans that “…for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Now there are a number of reasons why we suffer. Here are a few:
- Sometimes suffering is a result of sin.
- Sometimes suffering is a result of a lack of faith.
- Sometimes suffering is a result of disobedience.
- Sometimes God allows our suffering to grow us, mold us, teach us, and to draw us closer to Him.
- Sometimes God allows our suffering so we can be a ministry to others who are suffering.
Ultimately, God can use all suffering for our good, whether our suffering is a result of our own sin, lack of faith, disobedience, or if the suffering is from God’s allowing and has nothing to do with something wrong in us. In all cases, God is working for our good. One of the most important growth steps we can take in our walk with God is the vivid realization of God’s goodness through suffering, a realization that Jeremiah had:
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 3surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; 6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; 8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
13He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. 15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”
19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; 30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
31For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
— (Lamentations 3:1–33)
This passage shows that Jeremiah had a deep revelation about Who God is and His sovereignty through suffering. He is always good, and He even uses the suffering as a means to be good to us. The growth we experience through suffering is one of the greatest gifts and blessings we can be given from God. This wonderful part of suffering leads to our last point:
The God Who Is Glorified Through Suffering
Jesus told His disciples that the reason the man was blind was so that the works of God might be displayed in his life. God’s work was first displayed by his faith to go to the pool of Siloam. It was then displayed in his healing. It was then displayed in his testimony to the religious leaders and the other people in the temple. It was then displayed in being proclaimed and preached about through the ages through its presence in the book of John. It is now displayed in that it is speaking to you and me today encouraging deeper faith and greater trust in our wonderful God.
Suffering exists to demonstrate God’s glory. It may seem inconceivable at first, but suffering is indeed the most revealing tool God has to demonstrate His greatness and His glory. And He does it over and over again without fail.
God not only reveals His goodness through suffering in building our faith, strength, and spiritual endurance, but He can use the worst of circumstances and turn it for His glory. Who would have thought that God would turn the life of a blind beggar into that of a prophet proclaiming the truth of the Messiah in front of the religious establishment. Who would have thought that God would turn a slave/prisoner into the second highest in command of one of the largest empires in history. Who would have thought that God would turn a shepherd-boy/most-wanted man in Israel into the most celebrated king in all of history. Who would have thought that God would turn a man who murdered Christians into the most influential missionary and preacher of the Gospel the world has ever known and the author of the majority of the New Testament. Who would have thought that God would turn the crucifixion of Jesus-the worst event in all of history-into the greatest act of grace, mercy, and hope for all of mankind.
We serve a God who is glorified in everything, and the fact that there is suffering in the world is not a mark on His character. Quite the opposite, it is a doorway to reveal the vastness and awesomeness of His glory, glory that is beyond anything we could think or imagine. His power, grace, and mercy is not deficient, it is all sufficient through the worst of suffering and calamity. When it is all said and done and history comes to a close, the worst events of history from war and famine, murder and slavery, death and sickness, tragedies of nations and of all people will ultimately and unmistakably reveal the glory, majesty, power, goodness, and faithfulness of God. And it will leave no question as to the quality of His character, the righteousness of His judgment, and the all surpassing glory of His sovereignty.
Closing
The apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). If we look at suffering from a man-centered and worldly perspective, we will never understand the great truths to be found through suffering. Additionally, we will lose faith, hope, and trust in God and we will believe things about God that are not true. It will eat away at all the blessings that are possible on the road of suffering and will ultimately give the enemy a foothold to bring even more destruction and death. We need to set our mind on the Spirit, that even through suffering we can have life and peace, that we might see the glory of God revealed.
