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| Job
5.17, 18 (NIV) “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.” |
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| Love may make the world go ‘round, but suffering puts it in motion.* |
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In
Chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of Job, we get the story set-up. In Chapter 3, Job
speaks. Then, for the next two chapters, we get to hear from his buddy,
Eliphaz. This friend offers the dubious comfort of his theory that suffering is “always a form of divine discipline.”* If we believe as he does,
then our bad luck allows us to feel virtuous in our suffering. We like the idea
that we are, in some small way, paying for our sins.
But,
Eliphaz, for all his misguided advice, makes an astute observation in verses 17
and 18. While it is true that God disciplines us for our own good, not all
suffering is created equal. Some suffering is self-inflicted in that there are consequences for our poor choices. You get lung cancer because you chose to
smoke cigarettes or you endure a bad marriage because you didn’t know the
person well enough before you walked down the aisle. Sometimes we pay the price
for someone else’s foolishness: a loved one is killed by a drunk driver or you
hate your job because the boss chooses to be obnoxious. That’s life. As one
writer says, “suffering is inevitable – expect it.”* But,
according to the same source, “suffering is purposeful – praise God for it.”*
Remember the little girl who fell down into a well and
was trapped for days? Remember that they had to break some bones in order to
get her out of the well? Sometimes we have to be broken before we can be
rescued. God loves us enough to hurt us but he also loves us enough to heal us.
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| When God makes sores by the rebukes of his providence he binds up by the consolations of his Spirit.* |
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