Introduction

When we are
experiencing pain, grief, or suffering we tend to ask lots of questions:Why am
I having so much pain? Why did my loved one have to die? Why isn’t God
answering my prayers? What did I do to deserve this? Where is God in all of
this? A well-known television preacher was trying to answer these questions and
is reported to have said the following:“I want you to know that God has
nothing whatsoever to do with suffering and death. All pain, suffering, and
death is the responsibility of the devil.” Do you agree with that statement? No
doubt this preacher meant well in trying to vindicate God, trying to defend God
before people who might be angry at Him because of suffering and death. But I
believe he was very wrong in his explanation. There is nothing wrong with our
trying to defend God against the attacks or hard feelings of others, but we
must do it according to the truth of His Word. The truth of the Scriptures is
that God has everything to do with pain and suffering.

                             Why?

Why does God
allow pain and suffering? And why is it important for us to know why? Our
questions relate primarily to the meaning and purpose of our pain. If we know
there is a meaningful outcome, it will be far easier for us to endure the pain
and suffering. I sometimes wonder how it is that so many women in the world
purposefully try to have more children after having to endure the discomforts,
morning sickness, and sometimes much worse of nine months of being pregnant,
and then experiencing the intense labor pains associated with childbirth. I
believe the answer lies in their expectation of experiencing the fruit of their
labors—the anticipated joy of having a baby—that makes it all seem worthwhile.

                       The
Olympic Games

Consider the
Olympic Games. Why would any man or woman want to put up with the long hours,
the grueling training, the pain, and the risk of injury to train for the Games?
Is it not because of the hope of being crowned, or receiving a medal, or
enjoying a moment of fame? Or for some who may have little hope of winning a
medal, it is the glory, the national recognition of simply being privileged to
compete in the Games. So when we are experiencing pain and suffering, we ask
"Why? What is the purpose in it?" because we want to know that our
suffering is going to result in long-term benefit to ourselves or others.

                       Job—a
Case Study

Let us take up
a case study of the patriarch Job—a man renowned for enduring pain and
suffering. Here is a synopsis of Job 1 and 2:

1. Job was a
God-fearing man (1:1).

2. He had many
children and was prosperous (1:2,3).

3. The Lord
took the initiative, asking Satan about Job (1:6-8).

4. Satan
responded, “Of course Job fears You! You have bribed Job!” (1:9-11).

5. Job suffered
the loss of his children, possessions, and health (1:13-19; 2:7).

Who was
responsible for Job’s loss? God? Satan? the Sabeans and Chaldeans? To some
extent all four shared in the responsibility. God allowed Satan freedom to do
these things to Job. What about the Sabeans and Chaldeans (1:15,17)? These two
groups could not say, “The devil made me do it,” or “God told the devil to make
me do it.” They no doubt had been looking at Job for a long time. Perhaps they
had even attempted to plunder Job’s possessions but God had protected Job and
his property up to this point by putting a “hedge about him and about his
house” (1:10). What is a hedge? An example may be found in 2 Kings 6:15-17.
When the prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian troops,
they found themselves surrounded even more closely by an army of angels
protecting them. Once God removed the hedge around Job, all Satan had to do was
whisper into the ear of one of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, “Why don’t you try
Job again.” On the one hand, they were responsible before God for their own sinful
practices. On the other hand, God used their innate sinfulness to work out his
own purposes with Job. We see the same thing with respect to Nebuchadnezzar.
The Lord refers to the king of Babylon as “My servant” (Jer. 27:6). God made
use of Nebuchadnezzar’s sinful pride and ambition to apply a whipping to the
nation of Israel who had turned away from God. If we get robbed, the robber
will have to bear the consequences of his sinful actions before God the judge
of all; but at the same time, it is possible that the Lord removed for a brief
time, for reasons He knows best, the hedge of protection He had put around us.

In Job 2, the
Lord again took the initiative concerning Job. Satan complained that God did
not give him enough room to work with Job the first time around. Satan says,
“Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse Thee to Thy face”(2:6).

                    Was Job
Treated Fairly?

Let us step
back a moment. Here is a controversy between God and Satan and poor Job seems
to be caught in the middle. Some might ask, “Is it fair for man to be
made a pawn in such affairs between God and Satan? What did poor Job do to
deserve such loss and suffering?” We must be very careful about asking
questions beginning with, “Is it fair?” or making statements, “It’s not fair.”
Let us rephrase the question:“Did Job deserve that God should continue
to give him great prosperity and good health?” And then we must ask:“Do I
deserve that God should bless me and prosper me continually? Does God owe
me anything?” Read carefully now; I am about to make perhaps the most important
point of this entire article:IF WE GOT WHAT WE DESERVED, WE WOULD ALL
BE IN THE LAKE OF FIRE AT THIS MOMENT, INCLUDING UPRIGHT JOB. Job had some
sense of this. He says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall
I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord” (1:21). Again he says when covered with boils, “Shall we receive
good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10). Dear brothers
and sisters in Christ:Do you realize how immensely blessed each one of us is?
God has been so merciful to us! We tend to take His mercies for granted. So
when He occasionally withholds His mercy from us, when someone or something
dear to us is taken away from us, we may get angry at God as if we deserve
to have that precious person or thing. I DON’T DESERVE ONE SINGLE THING IN THIS
LIFE! The only thing I deserve is eternal separation from God because of my
sins! Often when the gospel is preached we are reminded that none of us
deserves the wonderful salvation that God offers to us. But it is more than
this. None of us deserves ANYTHING! All that we have and are is a result of
God’s grace—favor shown to people who deserve the opposite. “Not by works of
righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us”
(Tit. 3:5). If we don’t deserve the greatest blessing of all—God’s eternal
salvation—then surely we don’t deserve any lesser blessing.

                    Are We
Treated Fairly?

Have any of my
readers ever said or thought, “It’s not fair!”? As children, did you ever say,
“It’s not fair! Billy’s piece of cake is bigger than mine!”? As teenagers, did
you ever say to your parents, “It’s not fair! You let Susie stay out till 11:00
and you only let me stay out till 10:30!”? As adults, have you ever said, “It’s
not fair! Mr. Jones has not been with the company as long as I have and he has
been promoted above me!”? When we say or think, “It’s not fair the way I have
been treated,” we are essentially saying, “I deserve to be treated better.” We
need continually to remind ourselves, I DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! That was one of
the lessons God was teaching Job and one of the lessons He wants us to learn
when He tests us and brings us into pain and suffering. This is why the apostle
Peter exhorted his readers, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). This is why the apostle Paul
exhorted young Timothy, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). We need to grow in the realization that
all we have and are is a result of God’s grace—demerited favor—toward us.
Instead of complaining about the things that go wrong in our lives, we need to
be reminded by the occasional set-backs we experience of all the things that
have gone well in our lives, by the grace and mercy of God, and all the things
that will go well with us for eternity. "For our light affliction,
that is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17).

                   A Lesson in
Righteousness

                           and
Mercy

Read Matt.
20:1-16. Here we have a lesson concerning righteousness and mercy. Was it
unrighteous for the master to give only a penny to those who had labored all
day? No, because that is what they agreed to be paid. But what about those who
got paid the same amount for less work? They were recipients of the master’s mercy.
They received more than they deserved. That is how God deals with all of
us each and every day. He gives us more than we deserve. And how much do
we deserve? That’s right, WE DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING! The master says, “Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil because I
am good?” God says, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (Rom. 9:15).

                   Job Brought
Glory to God

Up to this
point Job vindicated God:“Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall
we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). Job
did not curse God as Satan had said he would. Job therefore brought great glory
to God by his patience in putting up with his great loss and pain and
suffering. His patience is especially noted in the New Testament:“You have
heard of the patience of Job” (Jas. 5:11). Job brought glory to God by
declaring God’s sovereign right to do what He wants to do with His created
beings. Here is one reason God allows pain and suffering:it gives His people
an opportunity to bring glory to Him by the way they respond to that pain and
suffering.

                     Another
Kind of Pain

As long as Job
was by himself, he handled his suffering very well. But now we have three more
characters coming on the scene—Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and
Zophar. They had come to mourn with Job and comfort him, and initially they did
weep (2:12). But then they sat down with him seven days and nights and none
spoke a word unto Job. Sometimes we may find ourselves in a situation where we
have gone to comfort a friend or relative, and we cannot find any words to say.
All we can do is sit and hold that person’s hand and perhaps listen to what
he/she has to say. Sometimes this may be the best way of comforting the person—just
being there. Maybe this is what Job’s three friends were doing. But their
speeches to Job in the subsequent chapters suggest that their silence meant
something else to Job. I believe Job detected looks of disapproval and
accusation on the faces of his three friends, even before they opened their
mouths. Job 16:4 suggests that they were shaking their heads at him. Have you
ever had the experience, perhaps with your wife or husband or your parent or
child? You detect a certain look on that person’s face and you ask, “What’s the
matter?” And the other responds, “Did I say anything was the matter?” “No, but I
can read it on your face.”

I believe Job
could read on the faces of his three friends exactly what they were thinking.
And what was that? As manifested later by their speeches to Job, they were
thinking that Job must have committed some terrible sin in order for God to be
punishing him so severely. Was their thinking “off the wall” as we might say?
Were they expounding principles that were contrary to what they knew about God?
No, not at all. It is generally believed that Job lived around the same time as
the patriarch Abraham. Job and his three friends surely knew the story of God’s
destruction of nearly the entire human race in the great flood because of their
wickedness. It may have been in the lifetime of Job and his friends that Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the people’s wickedness. And on the
other hand, they surely knew the story of righteous, godly Enoch being taken
straight to heaven without dying. So the principle that these three friends
were espousing, that man’s suffering is proportional to his sin and his
prosperity and blessing is proportional to his righteousness, was not out of
line with what they had learned at that time concerning God’s dealings with
man. The only problem was that man’s sin and man’s righteousness are not the only
factors that bear upon his suffering or prosperity. The three friends were
totally wrong in applying those general principles to Job.

I believe Job
realized what his friends were thinking and he began to feel sorry for himself.
The only thing worse than suffering and not knowing why, is having your
so-called friends tell you that you must be a really bad sinner because of your
suffering. Job knew he was a righteous man who tried in every way to please
God. The condemning looks of his three friends may have started him thinking,
“What right does God have to punish me so severely? I surely do not deserve it,
as my friends seem to think. What could possibly be God’s purpose in it?” And
so Job, not knowing the purpose and meaning of his great suffering, cries out
at the beginning of chapter 3 and curses the day of his birth. (Note that he
does not curse God, though he comes close to it.) He cannot take it any more.
He wishes he were dead, or that he had never been born! What follows is over 30
chapters of dialogue between Job and his three friends plus a younger man,
Elihu, who comes on the scene later on. The three friends try to get Job to
admit to the great sin of which he must be guilty. Job all the while protests
his innocence. Then he begins to complain to God (chapters 29-31). Note that
Job and his friends start out rather mildly, but progress to caustic and biting
words against each other (compare 4:2-7 with 22:5-9). Just so with us, disputes
that begin over small things can quickly escalate to something ugly. That is
why those who play the role of peacemakers, who seek to restore others who are
“overtaken in a fault” must do their work “in the spirit of meekness” (Gal.
6:1).

                     Physical
Pain versus

                          People
Pain

Let me insert
here the observation that God’s people—like Job—often are able to handle
physical pain and suffering much better than the bad behavior of other people.
We tend to think of the physical sufferings as being from the Lord, but when people
hurt us with their actions or words or insinuations or the disapproving looks
on their faces, we easily take offense. Our human pride is wounded. We feel a
need to defend ourselves. But these “people trials” are allowed by God for our
benefit as much as the trials of physical pain and suffering. Such trials
provide a very good and sobering means of helping us to see the immense amount
of pride that lurks in our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts. So when we
are experiencing a trial as a result of a difficult person in our lives, it is always
well for us to examine ourselves whether there is pride in our hearts that
needs to be judged.

                       God’s
Perspective

Job rehearses
the many good and righteous deeds he performed throughout his lifetime
(chapters 29 and 31), suggesting that God should be rewarding him rather than
causing him such pain and loss. He implies that he is more righteous than God
(35:2). He cries out, “Oh that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is that the
Almighty would answer me” (31:35). God never tells Job why He has caused him so
much pain and suffering. Rather, God responds to Job by saying in essence:
“Job, do you presume to tell Me how great and wonderful your works and good
deeds are? Let Me ask you some questions before I answer yours”:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … Who shut up the
sea with doors? … Have you commanded the morning since your days and
caused the dayspring to know his place? … Have you perceived the breadth of
the earth? … Who has begotten the drops of dew? … Can you …  loose the
bands of Orion? … Did you give goodly wings unto the peacocks? … Does the
eagle mount up at your command? … Shall he who contends with the Almighty
instruct Him? He who reproves God, let him answer it. The Job answered the Lord
and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon
my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will
proceed no further” (38:4,8,12,18,28,31; 39:13,27; 40:2-5).

Job is starting
to get the picture, but God is not yet through with him:“Will you condemn Me,
that you may be righteous? Have you an arm like God? or can you thunder with a
voice like Him? … Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (40:8,9;
41:11). In other words, God is saying to Job, “Who are you, Job, that you
should be telling me about your works and good deeds. I think something
is backward here!” Job responds, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear, but now my eye sees Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes” (42:5,6). Among the other purposes of God’s testing of Job, we see that
there was a root of self-righteousness and pride and self-importance in Job
that needed to be uncovered. He “was perfect and upright, and one who feared
God and eschewed evil” (1:1). But we also read that “Job … was righteous in
his own eyes” (32:1). He had to come to see himself from God’s perspective. Job
was “the greatest of all the men of the east” (1:3). But he had to learn the
immense power and greatness of God and his own littleness in comparison. And
Job did learn these lessons, repenting before God in dust and ashes. Job had
also spoken sinfully and impatiently to his three friends; even though they
were wrong in their accusations against him, he had to humble himself to pray
for them (42:10).

                   The Fire of
Purification

God took a man
who was already perfect and upright before his fellow men, one whom his fellows
admired and looked up to. And God put Job through the fire of pain and
suffering to purify him even more. A goldsmith does not take random
pieces of rock and melt them down to see if there is any gold in them. Rather
he takes that which already gives every evidence of being gold. He then heats
the gold until it melts in order for impurities to rise to the surface. The
goldsmith skims off the impurities in order to make the gold more pure. Just
so, our trials and sufferings often have a purifying effect upon us. The
psalmist prays, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults” (Psa. 19:12). Trials of
pain and suffering may help to uncover within us pride or hidden faults that we
were not aware of. “You greatly rejoice …  that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6,7).

We already
referred to gold that is refined by heat. The quality and value of clay pottery
likewise is directly proportional to the degree of heat applied to it. The
finer pottery that is decorated in different colors may have to be fired
several times, once for each different mineral used to give it color. Diamonds,
on the other hand, are pieces of carbon that have been subjected to intense
pressures. Diamonds in the rough are then cleaved and cut to produce facets
that reflect light in an optimal manner. So nature teaches us that the finest,
most beautiful jewelry and pottery comes only from intense heat, pressure, and
cutting. Likewise, the finest, most beautiful Christians tend to emerge from
intense trials and sufferings.

God chastens us
“for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “All
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). And what is that purpose of God
for His own? The next verse tells us:that we might “be conformed to the image
of His Son.”

                    Benefits
from Suffering

In summary,
there were several kinds of benefits that came out of Job’s sufferings. First,
God was glorified in that Job did not curse Him as Satan had predicted. Do we
love and appreciate God so much that we value the opportunity presented to us
by pain and suffering to bring glory to Him? Second, Job was purified through
the suffering; he learned more about himself (especially his pride and
self-righteousness) and God; he learned to see himself in his proper
relationship to God—God’s intrinsic greatness and his own smallness. Third, God
commended Job for speaking right things about God (42:7,8). Fourth, and perhaps
least, God blessed Job in the end with far more material possessions than he
had at the beginning as well as with long life (42:12-17).

"All
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do"
(Heb. 4:13).

It is a blessed
thing to know that we "have to do" with God (Heb. 4:13). If we are
seeking happiness, where shall we find it, except in God? He is not only the
source of our blessing, but the blessing itself.

Once we really
come to know God, we will know Him as love (1 John 4:8). Then, knowing that
everything comes to us from Him—no matter what the circumstances—we interpret
all by His love. I may be called on to pass through pain and sorrow and trial
as part of His discipline; but everything that comes from God comes from a
source and spring in which I have confidence. I look, through the
circumstances, to Him, and nothing can separate me from His love.

Where God is but
little known, and where there is not therefore confidence in His love, there
will be murmuring and rebellion at circumstances. In such a case, the sense of
having to do with God will cause more fear than gladness.

Is it not true
that we often stop, practically, at the circumstances in which we find
ourselves placed and consider only our feelings and judgment about them? This
is a proof that our souls are not living in the fullness of communion with God.
That with which we should be occupied is, not the circumstances, but what God
intends by them.

There may be
some secret evil working in my heart of which I am as yet unaware. Then God
sends some circumstance that discovers to me the evil in order that it may be
put away. Is not this a blessing? The circumstance does not create the evil
which it excites; it only acts upon what it finds to be in my heart and makes
it manifest. The evil being discovered, circumstances are all forgotten; God’s
end alone is seen.

If there are
circumstances that try and perplex our hearts, let us ask the question,
"What is God up to with me?" The moment the soul finds itself in
communion with God about the circumstances, all is well.

(From Collected
Writings, Vol. 16.)

“We know that
all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28).

God does not
take His people out of the world, does not take them away from the evil, does
not even keep the evil away from them. But He makes all things, both good and
evil, work together for good to those who love Him. He brings good to His
people out of the evil. The trouble is that while God’s people may see the evil
very plainly, they have not the knowledge of God to realize His power over the
evil to make it work for their good.

How often it is
true of us that we look at the evils, at circumstances, at things that are
taking place around us, and base our hopes and fears on them instead of upon
our God, the eternal and unchangeable One. Our worst fears are very often
imaginary, and the evils we anticipate may never come. But God is the real One;
all here is vanity and of the fallen creation. We need to remember that all
things are in His hands; He is good; He does only that which is good; He makes
all the things that take place about us work together for our good if we love
Him.

“All things.”
How much ground that covers:all the bad things, all the evil things, all the
things that seem so hard to bear, all the sorrowful things, all the
afflictions, all the trials, all the disappointments, all the attacks of Satan
and wicked men, all the failures and mistakes of others. “All things
work together for good to those who love God.”

Does not God
take wonderful care of those who love Him? He cannot do too much for them, but
then He does it in His perfect way and time, and that is where the trial comes.
It is our part to believe His words, to trust Him with all our hearts, to cling
to Him whatever comes. And it is His free grace that enables us to do this. He
will not keep any good back from His own faithful people (Psa. 84:11). So we
can rejoice in Him and praise Him with full hearts.

If we look at
that long hero-roll in Hebrews 11, is it not striking that it is for triumph
over earthly difficulties that their names are emblazoned thereon? No doubt
there is in this a lesson for us that is enforced by the principle of our
Lord’s utterance:“If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not,
how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Are we not apt often
to be more sure of the heavenly than the earthly? Are we not more afraid about
things down here than of righteousness and eternal judgment? Why is this? Is
Christ less reliable in His promises as to earth than He is as to those
concerning heaven? Can we be certain as to the future if the present is clouded
with doubt?

The story of
Zacharias in the temple gives us a remarkable instance of the inconsistency of
faith. He is in the presence of God. He is offering incense, without which none
could enter the presence of God and live. Without doubt he is firmly convinced
that it is Jehovah with whom he has to do. Yet, when suddenly on the right hand
of the altar there appears an angelic messenger from God, he is afraid. He does
not tremble in the presence of God, but he trembles in the presence of His
messenger! There are two things that we may notice about Zacharias. First, it says
he was doing what was the custom for priests to do. Very possibly when
he had first offered that incense to the holy God, he had done it in fear and
trembling; but as day after day passed he had grown familiar with the truth
that God would have him carry out, and his fear had taken wings and fled. But
he was not accustomed to seeing an angel, so he trembled.

But he saw
an angel also; God he did not see. Oh how the faint vision of our fleshly eyes
will at times fill us to the blotting out for a time of all the eternal truths
that are summed up in Him who is the living “Truth”!

There are two
things that tend to lead to God’s people being sure as to eternity, but
doubting as to time, and they are just those two things with which we have
become familiar by hearing. First of all we have become well grounded in the
eternal security of the believer. We have grown familiar with the thought that
“Death and judgment are behind us, grace and glory are before.” We have
reasoned much about God’s Word being pledged that heaven is inviting us to
enter into its “love and light and song” through the merits of Jesus’ blood,
but we have not exercised ourselves in the same way about the present. We have
not considered that God’s Word is just as surely pledged as to our security
amid earthly troubles as it is as to safety from the storm of judgment, and
consequently we doubt. How inconsistent it would be if we should be valiant
before the consequences of our sin and all the marshaled hosts of hell while at
the same time cringing before the circumstances of this present life!

The next moment
after his fear we find that Zacharias has so forgotten it that he asks the
angel how he shall know that his promise is true. Again we have a marvelous
inconsistency, but what is the reason? What has made him forget his fear of
God’s messenger and question his word? Why he looks at circumstances. He says,
“I am an old man,” and consequently it seems impossible that a child should be
born. We remember here also that thus, too, had Abraham, the pattern man of
faith, been overcome. How solemn and sad that God has to bring in other
circumstances to convince Zacharias, and so for his lack of faith he is struck
dumb!

O my reader,
has not this dumbness fallen often also upon you and me because of our unbelief.
Have not our mouths been closed and our voice of testimony hushed because we
could not trust God as to the things of daily life?

There are many
degrees of faith. What is your degree? Is it such as those had to whom the Lord
could not commit Himself because it was only intellectual? Or is it like
Peter’s who truly had faith enough to walk for a way on the waters, but whose
faith in the power of the waves presently grew greater than his trust in
Christ, and he began to sink? Do a thousand dollars in your pockets give you
more rest of mind than a check on your heavenly Father’s bank for full supply
of all your need, yes, of everything that is good for you (Rom. 8:28)?
Does the assurance, “My God shall supply all your need,” leave you still
in doubt whether it was ever intended that you should trust Him for tomorrow’s
supply of bread? Do you take anxious thought for the morrow when your Lord has
enjoined upon you not to do so, solemnly asserting that your Father in heaven
knows all about it and will care for it? If it be so, is it not better also for
you to trust that a thousand charitable deeds will do more to save you from
hell than all the pledged Word of God? O dear reader, let us have more faith in
Christ than we do in circumstances!

Let me close
this paper with a beautiful example of how to argue from circumstances and
triumph over them. There was a violent earthquake once that greatly alarmed the
inhabitants of a certain village. They rushed out of their houses, their faces
full of consternation, fearing sudden destruction. There was one old woman,
however, whose face was a marked contrast to those of the rest. It seemed to
beam with joy. One of the villagers was so struck with it that he could not
help asking her:“Mother, how is it you look so happy; aren’t you afraid?” “Oh
no indeed,” came the bright answer. “I rejoice that I have a God who can shake
the earth!” She saw the God who was in it all and well she might rejoice. Oh,
shall we not cry much to God to give us more a simple, child-like trust. It is
a prize well worth striving for and will richly reward its diligent seeker.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 20.)

“For the LORD
God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will
He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man
who trusts in Thee” (Psa. 84:11,12).

“And we know
that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

All Scripture
from beginning to end is a revelation of God. In these two quotations we have a
word from the Old and one from the New Testament. They reveal what God is to
His people. The revelations were suited to the different times in which they
were written, and we may note as one of the wonders of the Book that while
Romans could not have been written before the cross, yet the value of the
Psalms and the whole Old Testament has not been diminished by Christ’s coming,
but increased immensely. Both reveal God’s relationship to those who were and
to those who are His people.

How much is
expressed in the words “sun” and “shield.” Men are learning more and more of the
blessings that the sun brings to mankind and to the earth. Placed at such a
distance away, yet it is the perpetual source of countless blessings to the
earth and all upon it. Its ministry is unceasing. It is the servant of its
Creator. It is a picture of His power, His goodness, His wrath. Around us we
see the blessings brought by the sun. In the torrid zone with its vast deserts
is to be seen the power of the sun to blight and destroy.

Once there were
no deserts, no icebergs, no barren lands. The climate of the earth was mild to
the poles. The science of the day with its unbelief in God and Scripture has
little or nothing to say of this time in the history of the earth because
evolution has no explanation to offer for it, or for why, when, or how there came
about such a mighty change in climate on the earth. Of all the writings known
to man, only the Book of Genesis gives an account of the change and its causes.
God the Creator brought about the change on account of man’s sin.

But God is also
a shield. While the sun is a source of blessing, the shield guards from evil.
And probably no words in Scripture make this power of God so vivid as the
quotation from Rom. 8:28. From some permitted evil source there comes that
which, were it not for God’s constant care, would harm. He simply makes it work
for good. We have the greatest possible example of this in the cross. All
sources of evil unite there to accomplish the greatest crime ever known; and
God glorifies Himself in making the cross the greatest blessing ever known. The
infinite Power that made the cross an infinite blessing can surely make all
other attempts of evil turn to blessing. “There shall no evil befall thee”
(Psa. 91:10) reveals what a wonderful shield our God is.

We have an
example of it in 2 Corinthians 12. Satan was permitted to send a special
messenger to bear evil to Paul, “a thorn in the flesh.” Here the man who wrote,
“We know that all things work together for good those who love God,” got a
perfect example of that great truth. The Lord God is a shield. Anything
that would make a man so used to suffering as Paul was pray three times that it
might depart from him must have been some terrible affliction. But God did not
remove it. He had a far better way. He made the evil into a very great blessing.
Read over again the Scriptures at the head of this article. Place beside them,
“There shall no evil befall thee.”

Do you not get
a wonderful view of the power of God to make all things work together for good?
Evil cannot befall those who are Christ’s because He turns it into blessing!
Could anything be more wonderful? It starts out an evil, but before it gets to
God’s people it is turned into a blessing. Well, now, if in the battle every
stroke of the enemy, instead of harming, only adds to your strength because of
that power in God to thus change it, why should any of the Lord’s people fear?
God has put into your hands the “shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16).

Do you not see
why Psalm 84 ends with “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in
Thee”? Try as he might, Satan could not harm Paul. God made Paul evil-proof.
There simply could not any evil befall him, for when it reached him it was
turned to blessing. “He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My
strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory
in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake:for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor.
12:8-10).

Now, if all
things do really work together for good to those who love God, is not the
knowledge of that power of God the very best thing for God’s people in days
like the present? Everywhere there is a pressure that has never been felt
before. For every one who loves God this pressure means not evil but good.
You can leave every other question out but one:Do you love your Saviour? Have
you His Holy Spirit? “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit who is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). If anyone has received the Holy Spirit
by faith in Christ, then we may be sure all that comes is being made to work
for good to us. It means turning away from self and sin and the world, and
receiving Christ as our only Saviour. That is all and that is enough. It is a
part of the rest He gives.

(From Help
and Food, Vol. 50.)