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We all know the story of Job. Chapter 1:1 says Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil and he had a regular custom of offering a burnt sacrifice to God for each of his children because he thought perhaps they had sinned.
He was also a very rich man. He had seven sons and three daughters, owned 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys and had a large number of servants. In fact the Bible says at that time he was the greatest man among the people of the East. He was so good and great that God brought him to the attention of Satan as a model. God told Satan that there was no one on earth like Job who was blameless and upright and feared God and shunned evil. But Satan attributed Job's righteous behavior to his circumstances. Of course he loves you; he has everything a man could want. So God gave Satan permission to destroy everything Job had. The response of Job to these calamities is recorded in 1:21. Job said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And then it says, "In all of this Job did not sin by charging God with any wrongdoing. So God says to Satan, Did you consider my servant Job? He still maintains his integrity, though you ruined him. The next strategy of Satan is to attribute Job's righteous behavior to his health. And God allows him to attack Job's flesh. Chapter 2:7 says he was afflicted with terrible sores from soles of his feet to the crown of his head. It was so bad that Job had to take a piece of broken pottery and scrape himself while he sat in the ashes of his discarded flesh.
Then his friends show up and 2:14 says they could not even speak at first because they saw how great his suffering was. One version says, "For they saw that his pain was very great!" Pain - it's always there. It is a part of life. It's a human dilemma. All of us have suffered pain and as we suffered we all had to face friends whose responses to our pain often caused us greater pain.
Job's pain was very great and his friends thought they had all the answers to pain: Eliphaz told Job that God caused his pain, Bildad told him he deserved it, Zophar reminded him that all the wicked suffer, Elihu said, better you than me, and his wife's advice was 'curse God and die."
There are no easy answers concerning pain. But there are some principles concerning pain that are very clear: One principle of pain is that God created pain for a purpose. Pain can be a preventive protection.
Dr. Paul Brand studied leprosy patients in India and came to the conclusion that many of the consequences of leprosy came about because leprosy patients had lost the sense of pain. Leprosy primarily attacks nerve cells, so the gradual loss of the sense of pain leads to misuse of those body parts most dependent on pain protection. A person uses a hammer with a splintery handle, does not feel the pain, and an infection flares up. Another steps off a curb, spraining an ankle, and, oblivious, keeps walking. Another loses use of a nerve that triggers the eyelid to blink every few seconds for lubricating moisture; the eye dries out, and the person becomes blind. Such is the tragedy that confronts those who feel no pain. So some pain can be good for us. Pain tells us to let go of a hot object. A pain in the chest that begins to descend down our arm tells the brain it is time to have our heart checked.
The pain of stress warns us to slow down. Pain is a built in warning system that none of us could live without. The creator God, in his miraculous wisdom has set up this system of pain and allows it to occur just when we need it. All people suffer pain and even Christians are promised pain. Peter said we would have to endure unjust sufferings. He said we would have to suffer according to the will of God. He told us we would become distressed by many trials. The word trials can be translated into many-folded pain. He even called us co-sufferers with Christ. I believe he was informing us that pain is simply a product of living. But pain can be consuming, can't it? Ever get a speck in your eye? A splinter in your hand? Stub your toe? When that kind of pain comes, all of life seems to pause until we deal with the pain. But consuming pain can approach us from other directions also. Pain comes with the loss of a child. Pain comes when we lose our parents. Pain comes with diagnosed cancer. Pain comes with a sick spouse, financial needs, rejection, loneliness, despair, anxiousness, worry, and troublesome memories. Pain can come in different shapes and with different depths and in different ways: But pain will come! One writer said, "Screams are not scarce, they cry from every house in every neighborhood" It can be a mountaintop pain that paralyzes an entire home or it can be a molehill pain that touches the life of an individual every day such as arthritis. But it is still painful and it still hurts, doesn't it? Phillip Yancy wrote a book whose title captured my attention. The title of the book is "Where is God when it hurts". I think that is a question many of us have asked when we are called upon to face pain.
So I want to talk about pain. I want to look at pain and its relationships.
What is the relationship between Pain and God?
James 1:13 says," Let no man say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone." In pain and its relationship to God I want to remind you that God is never the author of evil. He never sends evil - but He does allow pain and free will. An author by the name of Cramer attempted to explain the relationship of suffering and free will when he wrote, "If you wanted to do something and someone kept stopping you, you wouldn't like it very well. Suppose you were learning to ride a two-wheel bike but your Mother told you that you couldn't do it because you would fall and hurt yourself - that would make you mad. You would love it a lot more if she left you to ride even if at times you would fall and become a little bloodied and bruised. But she would always be there with a band-aid to help with the hurts. And the best day came when she praised you for learning to ride." That's free will. As Christians we really don't want to say - please God -never any pain. So He allows free will and offers healing and comfort for hurts. And someday, praise for learning how to walk in life. In her book, Living with Cancer, Mary Beth Moster writes of Anne Jones. Anne was a mother of a 6-year-old boy and was only 32 when she discovered a lump in her breast. I tried to be real brave, at first, she writes. I would show how strong I was and courageous. But then I fell apart. How could God allow anyone to suffer the anguish I was suffering? I began to shake my fist at God and screamed at Him for letting this happen. I became bitter and struck out at everyone who had the misfortune to cross my path. If God is so good and loves us so much, then why does he allow tragedy to enter our lives? How can a good God do a rotten thing like this? Later, Anne writes, God never let me know why specific tragedies happen. Why does a 17-year-old boy lose his arm to bone cancer? Why does a man in the prime of his life succumb to lung cancer? Why do a young wife and mother have to lose a breast? But the Bible did tell me I would have trials in this life. We are, as Eliphaz told Job, born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Jesus told me that in this world I would have tribulation. But God did not leave me alone in the midst of my sorrow. Because He loves me, He provides a way for me to reach out to Him - a way, not out of all stressful times, but through them". The Taylor Living Bible translates Psalm 84:5-7 in this manner, "Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who want above all else to follow your steps. When they walk through the valley of the weeping it will become a place of springs where pools of blessing and refreshment collect after rains! They will grow constantly in strength and each of them is invited to meet with the Lord in Zion."
So - at times God allows pain to enter our lives due to the free will of man and the fall of man which brought with it disease and death. Pain at times is used as an indirect instrument of God. Sometimes pain is used as a direct instrument of God. In II Kings 15 it says, The Lord touched the King and made him a leper until the day of his death. Who caused this pain? God did.
In John 9:1-3 the disciples walked by a man blind since birth and asked Jesus, why was this man born blind? Did he sin or his parents? And Jesus replied, neither - God caused this for his glory. Who caused the pain of blindness in this man? God did. So pain can be sent by God but not for evil. Sometimes it is a method of discipline; sometimes it is a method to display God's grace and glory. What about Pain and its relationship to the world?
Rom. 8:22 says, the whole world groans. Pain, disease, tragedy - all because of the fall of man. C.S. Lewis in his book, The Problem of Pain writes, "Pain is inherent in the world in which we live. When souls become wicked they will use every possibility to hurt one another, and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men. It is men, not God, who have produced racks, whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonets, and bombs. "
So pain is a part of the world we live in. Don't hide it from your children. Or attempt to ignore it. It all started in a garden where a man and a woman first chose their will over God's will. And man is not getting better; they are just better at finding new ways to cause suffering. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. What about pain and its relationship to Satan Himself. I John 5:19 says we know we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. In II Cor. 12 Paul prayed three times to be relieved of pain but the Bible says Satan buffeted him and God told Paul His grace was sufficient for him to endure the pain. Not all pain comes from Satan - but sometimes it does. In I Cor. 5 God allowed Satan to destroy a person's flesh in order to save their spirit. Satan may be given the power to cause you great pain but he can never take your name out of the book of life or your spirit out of the body of Christ. What about pain and its relationship to others. Proverbs 27:6 says faithful are the wounds of a friend. Good friends wound friends when they need it. If a child runs out into the street - you wound them in the seat. If a child of God is running into sin - you wound them by confrontation. If a Christian is gossiping - you wound them by stopping them. So pain can come from a friend and it is for our own good. But sometimes pain comes from the foolishness of friends. We have all been hurt by a friend's words or actions. In this case, God is more concerned with how we react to that pain than the pain itself. Real pain comes with holding grudges. Real pain comes with maintaining tensions.
So at times pain comes from others - if it is deserved, learn from it.
If it is undeserved, forgive it. What about Pain and its relationship to myself?
I Pet 4 says, "don't be surprised at pain as though some strange thing was happening to you; they come for your testing. But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ - rejoice." Why should I rejoice when I have pain? Because He who suffers the most has the most to give. Shelley said of the Psalmist - They learn in suffering what they teach in song. George Wald (Nobel Prize Winner) "When you have no experience of pain, it is hard to experience joy." Shakespeare wrote, 'He who jests at scars has never felt a wound." Dr. Stanley Jones said," If I did not have a cross, I would pray for one". Why? Pain helps me understand God, the world, Satan, others and myself. Pain is the Drano that cleans out the clogs. Maybe you are thinking to yourself, Pastor - don't tell me about pain. What do you know? What have you suffered? You don't know what I am going through. You're right - I don't. But I have walked the hospital corridor with a husband waiting for the conclusion of his wife's surgery. I've sat in a waiting room and watched the pain on a parents face as the life of their son slips away. I've stood by a bed as a wife cried on my shoulder as her husband lay in a coma with no hope of recovery. I've cried alone in my office after people have shared the pain of loneliness after losing a loved one. I have had to listen to the cry of why when a family member takes his or her own life. And in the pain of those moments, God matured me and used that pain to make me more like His son who at the climax of history, at the height of his glorious life - hung on a tree of suffering and pain. I have come to believe that God picks out only his best for pain - to teach the rest of us how to handle hurt. How do you deal with pain? Often, when I have had to deal with pain I have asked for a miracle - and the miracle response I have received is - my grace is sufficient for thee.
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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.