Old School - Wisdom in Suffering

An essay with thoughts about the issue of Suffering

Old School  - Our Goals

1. To Intro OT Literature
2. See the Wave of Redemption
3. HD Jesus

The Matter of Suffering

How Long O Lord?

• Psalm 13:1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
• Psalm 35: 17 How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions!
• Psalm 79:5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
• Habakkuk 1:2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
• Revelation 6:10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Various Answers…

• Pantheism - Suffering is illusory
• Atheism - God is not real
• Theism - Holding God and Suffering in tension

All fall short...

The Book of Job

Make up of the Book

• Chapters 1 and 2, Narrative Background
• Chapter 3 through 37 – Speeches and Dialogues with Job, His Friends
• Chapters 38-41 – Dialogue with God
• 42 – Job Restored

What We Learn from Job

1. We must not Separate God from Suffering

Job 1:20-22

2. We do not know the Whole Story

The Poetic Dialgoues - They shared true things, but did not speak truthfully about Job's situation. 

John 9:1-9

3. We can Trust God in our Suffering

Job 2:9, 10    

4. God is GOD We are NOT

Job 40:6-14

Responding to Suffering

Our Own Suffering

In Serving Others

Romans 12:12-21

1. Weep with those who weep
2. Let others borrow your faith
3. Show patience with others
4. Don’t go away, but don’t suffocate
5. Don’t over respond to irrationality, Job 3 (I wish I was never born)
6. Hold on to hope together, your presence will show this
7. Overcome evil with good

Jesus – Immanuel, The Suffering God

1 Peter 2:21-25, Matthew 11:25-30

In the Gospel God becomes human and a human who suffers on our behalf.  In Jesus God redeems the world not in spite of suffering but through his own...

• When you suffer and have the thought that God does not understand…HE DOES
• When you wonder if all the wrong will ever be made right…IT WILL
• When you scream at the horrors of sin, evil and suffering…KNOW THAT HE IS THE SAVING GOD
  

Community Meditation Suffering

• Have you read the book of Job? If not, spend some time reading there this week.
• How have you dealt with your own pain and suffering in the past? Currently?
• Do you tend to go to God or drift away from God when you go through various trials? How does community of Jesus help? Not help?
• Why do you think some want to think of God as being unable to help in the face of suffering? 
• How can we be helpful to others who suffer? How were Job’s wife and friends examples for us? 
• Why do you think Christians like to give quick and easy answers to those who are in pain? Read Romans 12:12-21 and discuss how this passage counsels us in suffering?