Two
things struck me today about Job and the subject of the righteous suffering.
First,
God really does see and care very much about His righteous people suffering –
even when He seems to be silent. God
heard the innocent cry of Abel when his brother Cain murdered him (Genesis
4:10). God was with Joseph in slavery
and prison and guided his life all along (Genesis 39:23). God heard the cries of His people Israel in slavery in Egypt (Exodus 4:31). When Saul persecuted the early church, Jesus
spoke to Saul in blinding light and told him, “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus took very personally the persecution of
his followers (Acts 9:4). In Revelation
6:9-11, we read that the souls of those slain because of the word of God and
the testimony they maintained cry out to God, and that He hears them and waits
to bring judgment. So even when we feel
God is silent, God hears. God sees. God cares very much about the suffering of His
righteous ones.
Second,
when we suffer for righteousness or for no fault of our own, we are like our
Master. Jesus never sinned yet bore the
weight of every sin. Jesus deserved no
punishment but paid the punishment of us all.
When we suffer for doing right, we follow in the footsteps of our
Savior. Saul the former persecutor of
Christ became Paul the persecuted for Christ, and he wrote in Philippians 3:10 that
he wanted to know Christ so intimately so as to even share in His
sufferings. When we walk the way of
suffering, we become more like Jesus and we come to know Him even more. Would that we had the courage of Paul to pray
such a prayer and the faithfulness of Job to stand true when we suffer !
Jeremi, the older, shorter music guy
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