Skip to main content

God is Present in Suffering

I am currently teaching through Nahum at  one of our sister churches. As I was preparing to preach on Nahum 1:12-13 on God's Sovereignty Over Suffering, I came across this quote from Andrew White from his autobiographical account of his life as Vicar of Baghdad, in post-Saddam-Hussein Iraq. Andrew observes God’s unmovable presence in a dangerous city : 
However dreadful the tragedy, My Lord is there. Amidst the greatest havoc I have witnessed in post war Iraq, or in Gaza, or in Bethlehem during the siege, I have still seen God’s glory…I have seen heavens opened and glimpsed something of the majesty, might and love of God. When life is full of despair, it is only the glory of God that truly sustains. There have been times when everything has gone wrong, when friends and colleagues have been killed, and there has seemed no hope. It is at times like this that I ask God to show me his glory…so I circulate among the powerful people in Pentagon, Congress and Parliament, I ask to see God’s glory, and in all these places I have seen it.
The quote is from The Vicar of Baghdad : Fighting for Peace in the Middle East. The teaching that God is present in suffering really sets apart Christian teaching from other religions in this area because God is not a cosmic observer distant but he truly suffers when we suffer. Here is what Isaiah of Jerusalem said, "In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old..." (Isaiah 63:9). In the same book, as he looks forward to the coming of the Messiah he declares, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5). Here again we see the importance of the doctrine of Trinity. God puts on humanity an suffers with us. God with Us. Not only for our sins, but for all our pain and afflictions. Without Immanuel we are still suffering by ourselves. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Incarnation and Modernity

[The Bible] resituate modernity's prejudices within a wider context from which they were originally wrenched, showing them to be reductive heresies of a more complex biblical reality. So whereas modernity privileges an unchanging a-historicity, in the incarnation God enters history at a particular moment to gather a people to be with him not in a Greck eternity of unchanging timelessness, but in a biblical eternity of never-ending and ever-renewed intimacy and relational richness. Whereas modernity subordinates the particular to the universal, the Bible perfectly marries the universal "image of the invisible God" together with a particular first-century Palestinian Jewish man. Whereas modernity seeks the abstract over the material and finds itself painfully akimbo between the twin idols of materialism and immaterialism, in the same gesture the incarnate Christ validates material reality and prevents his followers from ever worshipping it. Finally, whereas modernity secks ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Do Not Be Anxious

Do not be troubled if you are poor - Christ Himself had no place to lay His head. Do not let the prospect of future hard times make you anxious about how you will endure, for "you will not be ashamed in evil days, and in times of famine you will be satisfied." God has said (Psalm 37:19) therefore, you must believe it. Do not be overly concerned with securing provisions for old age, for by all appearances, you may not live to see it. It is more than likely that you will reach your journey’s end sooner than expected. Your body is frail - it is already declining, greeting decay as its mother before it has even fully entered the hall of this world. The supports of your earthly tent are being loosened little by little. Take courage, O my soul, for soon the devil, the world, and the flesh will be crushed beneath your feet, and you will be welcomed into eternal mansions.   But even if the Lord prolongs your days to old age, He who brought you forth from your mother's womb will n...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

You Are A Pilgrim

Remember the brevity and uncertainty of your time. You are a tenant in the world and you do not know how soon you may have to leave. You can take nothing with you. Therefore, having food and clothing (which the Lord does not allow you to lack), be content with them (1 Timothy 6:7-8). You are a stranger on this earth, going home to your Father's house, where the things of this world will no longer be needed. Why, then, O my soul, should you desire more than what will carry you to the end of your journey? Will you set up camp on this side of the Jordan and settle here? Are you saying, "It is good for me to stay here"? Are you so satisfied with what the world is offering that you no longer long for home? No, no! Well then, O my soul, gird up the loins of your mind! You are heading home, and your Father urges you to run and make haste. Go, then, and carry no burden that might slow you down, lest it hinder your journey, and the doors close before you reach home—leaving you out...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →