Meaningless suffering
Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)
Eternity-Inspiration for Thursday 20th November 1997
Meaningless suffering
(Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 NIV) I have seen another evil under the sun, and
it weighs heavily on men: {2} God gives a man wealth, possessions and
honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not
enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is
meaningless, a grievous evil.
This reminds me of the accounts I have read of communist China when
the wealthy were massacred and shot and the intellectuals put to
death and their property taken over by the Party. The swift sweep of
events can mean that all we have worked for is taken away from us and
we are sent to a re-education camp or a concentration camp. For six
million Jews in Europe, for well over 20 million Russians under
Stalin and for 36 million Chinese under Mao (who is in the Guiness
Book of Records as the world's greatest mass murderer) for one and a
half million people in Sudan today and for people in Bosnia, this is
reality. On a lesser scale divorce can have much the same effect when
the other partner has a much better lawyer. All the person has worked
for ends up with a "stranger". Ultimately we are faced with Jesus
Himself - full of wisdom. honoured by many, with a wonderful
ministry, teaching and healing and doing so much good, swept away by
injustice and nailed to a cross. Isaiah points out Jesus' earthly
loss (Isaiah 53:8 NIV) By oppression and judgement he was taken
away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from
the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was
stricken.
Solomon says "God does not enable him to enjoy them" . This is a
peculiar phrase. Is God evil? Does God deliberately withhold from us
the ability to enjoy what He has given to us? Solomon calls this "a
great evil" and I would have to agree. It is a very great evil. Were
the European Jewry or Chinese intellectuals or Sudanese Christians
somehow worse than others so that they deserved these horrors? I
think not! In the very "fallenness of the world" evil happens. (Luke
13:1-6 NIV) Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus
about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their
sacrifices. {2} Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans
were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered
this way? {3} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all
perish. {4} Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell
on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others
living in Jerusalem? {5} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you
too will all perish."
To jump back a little in our verse... "God gives a man wealth,
possessions and honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires,.."
God gives us these good things. These are the natural rewards of
life. While the supernatural rewards are vastly more important these
natural rewards they are still good things and gifts of God. " but
God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them
instead". I have a friend who is a multi-millionaire but quite
mentally ill. His money is being held in trust by his family until he
turns 50. Sometimes he sleeps in his car. He is tormented and
socially isolated. He is now around 45. In a few years he will get
his inheritance - but be just as unable to enjoy it. Why? Why does
God allow this to happen? Why is life so often full of injustice and
oppression. There are many who are ripped off by life.
Wordsworth said it well :
"Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And shares the nature of infinity."
Its this very darkness and obscurity of suffering that infuriates
us. Justice emerges slowly out of suffering and is rarely completed
to our satisfaction. It is when we look back years later that we see
its threads. It is often in the rebuilding after suffering that
God's justice emerges. The rebuilt life has deeper foundations dug
down into the well scoured out by pain consequently a much grander
building emerges. Without Hitler there would have been no modern
Israel. God is into restoration and rebuilding. The Jews needed
reassurance after the terrors of the siege of Jerusalem and the
deportation into Babylon and they found it in the writings of the
prophet Isaiah. (Isaiah 44:26 NIV) Who carries out the words of his
servants and fulfils the predictions of his messengers, who says of
Jerusalem, 'It shall be inhabited,' of the towns of Judah, 'They
shall be built,' and of their ruins, 'I will restore them,'
Solomon only sees the first two parts of the story. The giving and
the taking away. He does not see the restoration. Aren't we so much
like him? I know I was when I went through a very difficult time a
few years back. Like Job we cannot see the light at the end of the
tunnel and we just hang on to God. Job was restored. Hanging on to
God is the right thing to do because hanging on to God is hanging on
to the solution.
Prayer:
Lord the misery of life makes us question Your justice and goodness
and even the truth of Your Word. We see meaningless suffering and
relentless evil and have no interpreter for the loud language of
pain. Lord You can open our eyes, You can help us see what You are
doing in these things. Help us to trust Lord. Give us enough light so
that we can see some sense in this world. Amen.
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