...NOR BE WEARY: Part VIII of Why Not? - a Perspective on Suffering

A man builds his house on sand. A storm comes with heavy rain and high winds and the house crashes down. (See Matthew 7:24-27) The man has suffered the lost of his house, perhaps the loss of a family member. He also learns a lesson to build his next house on a solid foundation. Out of some suffering comes discipline. If we are willing to recognize it as such, there can then come growth.

But often we refuse to recognize discipline, don’t we? We go our merry way and we get smacked upside the head for it, but instead of changing our ways, we ignore the discipline over and over again. And the smacks get harder trying to knock some sense into us.

Remember that little boy who stole the coins from his mom’s purse. He had a bad case of conscience and threw away the money and worried each day that he would be punished further.  He wasn’t and a

few years later he was stealing again, this time shoplifting “girlie” magazines from a store. This time he wasn’t conscience stricken. But it was their fault he had to steal, because they wouldn’t sell to him; he was too young for such thing. He rationalized his guilt away in order to gain his end desires, but he did get caught this time and he was publicly humiliated, but no further punishment came. He stopped stealing out of fear of being caught again, but he didn’t stop pursuing his lust.

 I will tell you that one day someone saw him engaging in something bad and he was called from class at school and confronted by the police, who threatened him with reform school. He was scared again, tossing in his bed at night again, waiting for his parents to come and punish him again and expecting to go to jail. But none of that happened. He felt guilty and fearful for a while, but them he was drawn right back after his lusts because nothing really bad happened to him. He was just more careful when he did bad things now.

Yeah, sometimes we need a lot of discipline.

So, look at your life and think hard about what is happening when you have to suffer in some way. It may not be some obvious sin you committed and it may not be punishment, it may simply be a nudge in another direction, something strengthening you through discipline.

When we read Genesis 37:12-28 we find a teenager named Joseph out looking for his brothers. They see him before he sees them and what happens? They pounce upon him, planning to kill him, but Reuben says, “Wait a minute, let’s not be hasty here”, so they strip him and toss him in a pit. Next thing you know they sell him as a slave to some Ismaelites and Joseph heads down a long road of suffering, doesn’t he?

Now there was a reason for Joseph’s suffering that we won’t get to for a couple weeks, but sometimes our suffering has more than one reason behind it.

Let’s back up a little and read Genesis 37:2-11. Maybe there is something there that tells so not only how his brothers could have rationalized their actions, but something else as well.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors] But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but  his father kept the saying in mind.

Did you ever stop and think that Joseph might have been a little bit spoiled? Perhaps something of a brat? Someone with a haughty attitude and little full of himself at times? Certainy a bit immature. Maybe Joseph needed a bit of discipline in his life that he wasn’t getting at home. Just sayin’.

What about that kid that stole from his mother’s purse and the newsstand and did other things that got

the police’s attention? Did he get enough discipline?  He didn’t get spanked for stealing by his parents. He didn’t get magazines put in an uncomfortable place as threatened by the news dealer. He didn’t actually get put in reform school. No, he went through some periods of doubt, shame, guilt and fear, but these faded over time and by the time he was in his late twenties he was deep into occultism and Satanism, as well as Adult Bookstores.

Then one week he got very sick. He had never felt so ill before. He really thought he was going to die. He was frightened enough to pray, not to Satan, but to God. He shouldn't have gotten through because he had torn down those communication lines years before, but when he opened his eyes there was a cross on the wall. Not a physical cross, just an image of one. At that moment his fever broke and he got well rapidly. He assumed the cross was a trick of light through the window blind, but had never seen it do that before. He looked for that cross to appear again for several nights in a row after getting well. It never did. It was a guidepost that came in the midst of his suffering and he should have recognized that, but after a while he put the cross on the wall out of mind and continued his hedonistic ways. In fact, he even became an Atheist, an activist Atheist.

On the positive side, Atheists don’t believe in the Devil either, so he threw away his satanic bible, but

on the negative he turned to pure pleasure seeking. He needed a  stronger dose of discipline to get his full attention. It took another decade before he got it and it came with a high cost.

Oh, did somebody notice we didn’t say how discipline fit those Hebrews wandering about in the wilderness for another 38 years, did we?

Well, by now you should know that besides punishment of those adults that wouldn’t cross over to Canaan the first time and now never would, the other thing must be discipline. Discipline for who and for what?

So think about your life and the times discipline may have played a part in your suffering or even now is that what is occurring?

We can fail more than one time, but receiving discipline may straighten us out. There is someone of import in the Bible who failed more than once, was disciplined more than once as well, and yet we certainly look toward him today as a rock of our faith. He is in the New Testament, which may make it easier for you to guess who he is before my next post, no denying that.

There is also one to judge in the Old Testament and he is pretty famous, especially his romance, but boy did he need discipline. Unfortunately he didn’t act very prudently at times and his suffering was very harsh indeed. But beyond his fate, his deeds are a clue to the next reason we may suffer.

NEXT TIME: JESUS, MOSES AND PETER, TOO

References: Matthew 7:24-27, Genesis 37:1-28,  

More what Scripture says about our suffering:

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. Hebrews 12:10

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5

And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.Romans 8:17-18

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

ILLUSTRATIONS:

1.  Fallen House on Ortley Beach, NJ after Hurricane Sandy by L. E. Meredith, 2012

2. The Author at age 13, photo by Ronald Tipton, 1954

3. "Joseph Thrown Into a Pit" by David Colyn, 1644

4. The Author at age 33, self-portrait by L. E. Meredith, 1974

5. Cover of the The Santanic Bible, photo by L. E. Meredith, 1969

DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY...: Part VII of Why Not? - a Perspective on Suffering

Sin brings its own immediate suffering of guilt, fear and shame, which we call conscience. But sin also causes suffering for others. Cain sinned by killing his brother. Abel suffered a short period of pain before he suffered death. Adam and Eve suffered the consequence of losing their sons, one to death and the other to banishment, plus the agony of one child harming another. Then man grew immune to conscience and built up defenses to justify sin. Conscience didn't constrain Cain nor did it make him regretful after the deed.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9

Punishment was needed and punishment entails suffering. Cain was driven away from his home and family to become a wanderer (what the Land of Nod means) and he suffered a life of instability.

Sometimes the punishment was swift and fatal, such as it was for Ananias and Sapphira. Punishment may be a discouragement to others not to commit like sins. It may dissuade the sinner from repeating what they did. Or it may simply put an end to the person's ability to commit a sin through death or imprisonment. Punishment may be an end in itself, but sometimes something else may be in play.
I gave you this passage from Numbers 14:20-38 last time. I will tell you that it added around 38 years of additional suffering to the lives of the Israelites.

Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”

And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.


We hear about the Jews wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, but what is so often glossed over is they could have entered “The promised land” a lot sooner, 38 years sooner, if they hadn’t disobeyed God and brought punishment upon themselves.

Now, did you figure out what the companion to this punishment was; this other thing that also caused suffering over those 38 years?

Will this help?

When my three children were still very young, we began taking them out to restaurants. Most of the

time we took them to a place just east of West Chester called The Ground Round. It doesn’t exist anymore. It was ‘kid friendly” and it was pretty friendly to my wallet as well because they charged a penny a pound for children under 12; so if my child weighted 50 pounds, they got a meal for fifty cents. Obviously this made it a place crowded with families with young children and it tended to be noisy. This was fine with us because if one of ours did act up with all the other distractions no one would be bothered. And there were distractions because in the back was an alcove of arcade games and there were kids wandering about or yelling or standing up in the booths and generally misbehaving.

But not our three, because even though others were allowed to behave in ways you were not supposed to in a restaurant, ours were not allowed to wander around or go play those games. We were employing something so that eventually we could take our children to nice eateries and they would know how to behave. I’m sure sometimes they suffered from our restrictions.

We also made them eat their vegetables, even though sometimes they had to sit at the table for a long time staring at green beans or some other dreaded vegetable. I’m certain that caused them some suffering. (It certainly did Lois and I waiting for them to finish.)

So what is this other reason for suffering we are addressing?

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. Proverbs 29:17

Sometimes we suffer discipline for our own good.

“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:5-11

Suffering from discipline can be minor or great. It may be mild, such as being forced to eat your vegetables as a child, even if you sat at the table for a long time missing your favorite TV show.

It could be much more dramatic.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish." Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." Jonah 1:1-12

Then it gets worse for Jonah. He is eventually tossed into the sea and swallowed by a fish (not a whale). Seems he needed a lot of discipline to get him to do what he should have done in the first place.

Discipline doesn't always entail suffering, but sometimes it does. Good parents guide their children. It may be by example. It might be by explanation. Sometimes it is by inflicting suffering. The child is denied a favorite desert for not eating the vegetables. The child is guided to eat a proper diet. There is mild suffering from a mild punishment, but maybe next time the child eats some of those beans.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

References: Genesis 4, Acts 5:1-11 Numbers 14:20-38, Proverbs 29:17, Hebrews 12:5-11, Jonah 1:1-17, Jonah 2:1-10, Proverbs 22:6

NEXT TIME: NOR BE WEARY 


Illustrations:

1. "Moses and the Messengers from Canaan" by Giovanni Lanfranco. 1621-24

2. My three children in 1987.

3. "After Eden: A School of One Fish" by Dan Lietha, 2003 AIG