George Wood on “suffering”

The following is excerpted from George Wood’s sermon on Job 42.7-17 titled, “Should We Expect A Happy Ending?”...

“I point you to two passages in the New Testament that are linked close together: Romans 5:3–5 and Romans 8:18–39. Both of these passages of Scripture have four important things to say about suffering. Romans 5:3–5 says, “And we rejoice in our sufferings.” That’s something that Job never really develops. Who is masochistic enough to rejoice in their sufferings? There must be a reason for rejoicing in suffering.

A. Paul tells us why we rejoice. “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us” (NIV). There is a fourfold process, Paul says, regarding suffering. We rejoice when we see suffering coming, because we know as Christians that suffering is never God’s last word. It may be the beginning part of a process that God is attempting to work out in our life. Suffering develops within us perseverance or endurance—staying power.

The word endurance in the noun form in the Greek language can be used to describe a basement, something that is underneath something. Staying power—suffering—produces that. Anyone who has gone through adversity in their life and that adversity has not picked them off the track of their own character and their walk with God has found that they have emerged from that time of suffering and trial a stronger person because they stood the test. Endurance is produced.

Endurance then makes the kind of character that we are. We find that there are situations in life where God does not change our circumstances, but He changes us in the middle of our circumstances. This changing in the middle of the circumstances produces character.

Then the fourth stage is hope. We go through the process and discover that suffering produces endurance which produces character which produces hope. We see that trial has good results to it. When we go through another cycle, we can look with confidence at the suffering and say, “The last time I went through this it worked endurance; it worked character; it produced hope. Now I’m going through it again; therefore, I can anticipate the same result.”

The dilemma that hits many of us when we discover suffering for the first time is that we don’t see anything past the suffering. We can’t possibly see what good God may be accomplishing, so we despair rather than rejoice. Paul meant to give us a little pattern by which to face our suffering. He is saying, “When it happens, rejoice, because certain things follow.” If we let it, suffering is a marvelous character builder. We wish there were some other, cheaper way to build character, but suffering does it. Job’s character is revealed in suffering. Suffering shows us for the person we really are.

B.Romans 8:18–39 gives four steps in helping us when we’re walking through difficult times. I wonder, had Job known these, what kind of difference it would have made in his perspective of life from the ash heap.

The first perspective in verses 18–25 is that the present suffering does not compare to the future glory that is waiting for us. Verse 18 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (NIV). It’s as though Paul were saying, “Think of a scale. On one side you have your suffering, and on the other side you have the glory that God is going to give to you—either in this age or most likely the age to come. Suffering seems so heavy now, but in the future glory it is like a feather; it is of no consequence.” If you could see things as they really are, you will find that the future glory far outweighs any suffering and pain you’re going through now. You won’t realize how the scales right themselves and come out at the end until you stand in God’s presence. But in the midst of going through the suffering, keep this in mind: no matter how intense the suffering, so much greater is the coming glory.

The second thing Paul says to the person who is going through a Job experience is in verses 26 and 27. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our down times. Paul says, “We do not know how to pray as we ought.” There are times we don’t know. Yet there are things we do know. We don’t know how to pray as we ought, but we know we have an Intercessor.

Job was crying out for help. “I wish,” he says, “that I had an advocate in the heavens.” The New Testament is telling us that we have two Advocates. We have an Advocate in the heavens—Jesus Christ—who is seated at the right hand of God and ever lives to make intercession for us. And we have an intercessor in the heart—the Holy Spirit praying through us with signs that cannot be articulated. The Spirit takes over the automatic control of our life when we do not know how to pray for ourselves and cannot intelligently pray because the situation is so beyond us. Paul is saying we have assurance in times like that.

C. The third thing Paul says as perspective on suffering is in Romans 8:28–30: namely, that God is working everything for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That means for the saints, the believers. God is working for the good. On the one hand Paul says we don’t know how to pray as we ought. Then he turns around and says we know. That describes our journey with Christ. There are times we honestly don’t know. But there are some things we will always know in the midst of our not knowing. In the midst of our not knowing the whys, we will always know that God is working things for the good.

As the classic example, we have the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, who is always the model for our life. Even as the strong arm of the Lord raised Jesus out of the dust of death and brought Him into living immortality and life eternal, so God will take every crucifixion of our life and bring it around for a resurrection. And God is working for the good to defeat the design of the enemy in our life. In Job’s case, certainly God was working for the good. Even before everything was restored to Job, he knew when he got to the end of his trial that his faith had stood the test and he was God’s special child.

D. The fourth thing that Paul is saying to a Job-like experience is that nothing can really separate us from God. Note Romans 8:31–39. God has a grip on us. Nothing—things high, things low, the depths, the heights, angels, principalities, powers—nothing can separate us from God’s love. This carries with it the idea that God has His strong hand upon our lives. We’re not going to become separated from Him in the midst of our suffering.

When we think of becoming separated from God, I like to picture myself as a small child in a department store holding on to my mother’s hand. I’m afraid to let go lest I become lost in the crowd. But with all those big people around, someone might jostle me and I might let go because my grip may not be all that strong. It’s more secure if my mother has her hand around my hand rather than my hand around hers. Her grip is such that she won’t let go.

That’s the idea Paul is giving here: God is not going to let us go in the midst of our suffering, and nothing can separate us from Him. Paul is wise enough to know that there are times in our life when our faith fails and we feel like we are losing our grip on God. We’re losing our grip on spiritual reality. And very well we might. But God is not losing His grip on us. That’s the whole point of Romans 8. In the midst of our suffering, in the times we don’t feel close to God, God nevertheless has hold of us and is bringing us through.

I think these are enduring lessons from the New Testament that can well be applied to the Book of Job.”

George O. Wood, George Wood’s Sermons: Old Testament, George Wood’s Sermons (WORDsearch, 2013), Job 42:7–17.