Sin and Suffering

Before we go further into the Ten Commandments as given to man by God personally it would be worth taking the time to understand the roles played by God and Jesus in our suffering and trials.  There are many preachers and faiths who portray God as a vengeful, wrathful God exacting revenge and imposing grave punishments on a sinful humanity.  Yet this is not at all the God portrayed in the Bible.  God Himself and through His prophets speaks very clearly of the consequences of our sinful ways and, particularly in the Old Testament, there are many examples of the people of God being punished for their wrongdoing, for breaking the Covenant.  The Bible tells us that God will send allow us to suffer trials and tribulations but these are not the actions of a cruel and vindictive God, rather they are the corrective actions one would expect to see from any loving parent.

God refers to Himself as the Father in a very deliberate way to help humanity understand His actions.  Those of you who are parents will completely appreciate the analogy.  As a responsible parent there are many occasions when you have to say ‘no’ to your children’s requests and many occasions where your children must be punished for their wrongdoing and poor behaviour.  This is not done vindictively and I doubt there’s a decent parent alive who takes pleasure in having to discipline their child.  

There are also many times when the child perceives themselves to be being punished when in fact the parent is simply trying to help; if you've ever tried to medicate a sick toddler you understand exactly what I'm talking about.  From the child's point of view, the administration of medications or vaccinating injections feels as though they are being punished, yet the parent is simply showing love and care to their offspring.

 

One of the greatest examples of how God interacts with His human children is given in the parable of the Prodigal son.  The son was wilful, impatient, greedy and felt ‘held back’ by the father.  Even knowing the likely consequences of giving the son his inheritance early the father allowed it.  Just like that human father of the parable God will always give us free will, even when He foresees the great hurt that will occur as a result of our decisions.  God will not force us to follow His ways, nor will he force us to make correct decisions.  Just like a good parent, however, neither will He always protect us from the inevitable mess that our free choices will land us in.

When the Prodigal son had learned from his mistakes and returned in humility to his father he was not held in disdain, he was not forced to endure the lecture of ‘I told you so’.  The father, in joyful love at the return of his son, ran out to meet him.  No haughtiness, no forced penance from the father – just a joyful, loving reunion that the son that had been lost had now returned.  What an incredible and yes, almost unbelievable, reaction on the part of that earthly father.  There were no recriminations, instead a great feast of rejoicing at the return of the son.  In fact, when you read that parable the father’s actions can seem almost undignified in his joy at the return of his son and yet that is exactly how God feels about each and every one of us.  That parable shows clearly how God responds to every one of His fallen children.  Return to Him, repent of your sin and He will come running to meet you - He truly does love us that much.

God takes no joy or delight in our trials and suffering, He does not inflict them upon us in an attitude of ‘I’ll teach you a lesson’.  That’s not who and what God is.  God is love and He loves nothing more than His created children whom He plans to adopt into His very own family of godhood.  Our suffering comes, without exception, from only two sources.  The results of our own sinful nature and the torments of Satan who delights in human suffering and wants nothing more than for us to turn away from God and blame God for our trials.

Our other great example of God’s feelings regarding our sin and suffering comes in the Book of Job.  This book has often been misunderstood to seem as though God is causing Job to suffer, and suffer in ways that fortunately few of us ever have to undergo.  Yet if you read the text again that is the exact opposite of God’s intention.  Job was a good and righteous man who followed God’s ways and Satan taunted God by claiming that the many, many blessings God had bestowed upon Job were the only reason for Job’s faithfulness.  God, however, knew better and so accepted, if you will pardon the language, Satan’s challenge and allowed Satan to torment Job.

That is the critical point of the Book of Job – it was not God causing Job’s suffering but Satan tormenting Job to try and get that righteous man to turn his back on God.  Job suffered enormously and, yes, completely unfairly but not because God inflicted it upon him but because Satan set out to break Job’s faith.  As we know Job did not lose his faith in God, did not turn from God’s way even though he felt, quite justifiably, pretty sad and sorry for himself.  Did Job learn certain lessons from the trials and tribulations that he suffered?  Absolutely.  He became even stronger in his faith and realised certain aspects of his own life and character that were not as ‘polished’ as they should be but his sufferings were not inflicted by God to teach Job those lessons.  Job suffered because of Satan.

There is not a human being alive, no matter how blessed their lives may be, who has not suffered or experienced trials of one form or another.  Some of those trials, some of that suffering is the natural, inbuilt consequences of a fallen, sinful life.  Some of our suffering is deliberately inflicted upon us by Satan who would delight in our falling even further from the Father.  But what they are most certainly NOT is deliberate, inflicted punishments by a loving and merciful God.  Like Job we will likely learn lessons from our trials and suffering but sometimes all we learn is to come even closer to God.

The Bible tells us to ‘rejoice in our trials’ – not because we are being punished by God but because we are being sifted by Satan or because we will, hopefully, learn the lessons and consequences of sin.  Remember that no matter how far we have fallen, how far we have transgressed God loves us and like the Prodigal son He waits patiently to welcome us home with a feast of joy and celebration.  

In Godly peace,

Tracey