Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-128 (Apologetics)

The Cry for a Reason in Suffering (Part 8 – conclusion)

by Ravi Zacharias

——————– THE TRIUMPHAL MOMENT ——————–

There is intrigue and experience beyond anything we might have expected as a closure to this book of Job. Job was now fully cognizant of the fact that the whole problem of suffering was indeed beyond his comprehension and that his knowledge of God as Creator, Revealer, Savior, and Restorer was sufficient to see him through what he did not know. Beyond that, however, was the greatest surprise of all.

Job’s friends were severely reprimanded by God for the part they had played, and they had to come to Job, not only for forgiveness, but to ask him to mediate on their behalf to receive God’s forgiveness. In other words, he who had pled for a mediator in his own quandary became a mediator himself to bridge the chasm between his erudite friends and God.

The Bible says of our Lord that having suffered himself, Jesus is now able to intercede on our behalf. In a small sense, Job was given a glimpse of the heart of God by representing his friends before God. Just as Jesus Himself, having been betrayed by His own, stood in a place of intercession for them, and just as Joseph, betrayed by his own brothers, stood in a position of forgiving and restoring them, so now Job interceded for his friends. Just as his own Redeemer had brought him close to God, so now he played that role for Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Talk about a higher perspective and about seeing it from God’s view!

The Truths That Transformed

We can draw numerous conclusions from this enormous struggle that Job went through. First and foremost, we must understand that suffering, death, disease, pain, and bereavement are all part of life, whether we be righteous or unrighteous.

Second, we see that the role of a friend is very pivotal in seeing people through their times of anguish. Let us never underestimate this point. God’s answer for burdened, hurting hearts may well be the shoulders of a friend as we bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Third, we know that most answers of this nature require a process. The questions must become more selfless before the answers become more personal. For Job, as for us, the process was as necessary as the answer. After I spoke recently at a lecture in Bombay, India, on the subject of God and the problem of pain, a gentleman came to me and spoke of a tragedy in his family. His daughter had been killed in a plane crash a few years ago. He said to me, “I used to think that time was a healer. I no longer believe that. I now believe that time is only the Revealer of how God does the healing.”

Fourth, we have learned, as Job did, that the answer to suffering is more relational than it is propositional. Those who know God personally and understand the cross are better able to find help in the dark night of the soul than those who merely tackle their problems philosophically. And the man or woman who has suffered much is often a redeemer-type figure to those whose lives are devoid of a close walk with God and whose answers may be only surface deep. A renowned Christian leader once told me, “When you are looking for wisdom, always look for one who has suffered much but whose faith has remained unshaken.”

I saw this principle in action a few years ago when I was visiting in Nanjing, China, with a friend. We had the great privilege of spending a couple of hours with one of China’s most renowned evangelists, Wang Ming Tau. His was a fascinating story of imprisonment under Mao Zedong’s brutal regime.

He had been incarcerated for his faith in Christ, and unable to face a life of permanent imprisonment, he had recanted his faith and been released. But as a free man he knew he had betrayed his Lord. Troubled at his failure, he decided that if life in prison was what God wanted for him, then that was what he would gladly accept. With a renewed commitment to his Lord, he walked the streets of Beijing, shouting, “My name is Peter, I have betrayed my Lord! My name is Peter, I have betrayed my Lord!”

As he had expected, he was immediately rearrested. For nineteen more years behind bars, he suffered for Christ. When he finished telling us his story, he asked if he could sing us a hymn that he sang in prison everyday. His body aged and his hands all gnarled, with his wife almost blind sitting next to him, he sang,

All the way my Savior leads me– What have I to ask besides? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

As I sat in his small room listening to him sing, I glanced at the three young men who were seated on the floor, their faces lifted to him as he sang. They had come to visit him, and before they left, they asked him to pray for them. There is something so moving about able-bodied young people seeking the prayers of an old, fragile man or woman. But in the most biblical sense of the term, they knew the principle of redemptive suffering, wherein one whose own life has been touched by the Savior in his or her own suffering can pray more honestly and effectively on behalf of those who have not yet gone through the fire. I could picture Job smiling in approval.

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(“The Cry for a Reason in Suffering” is Chapter 3 of _Cries of the Heart_ by Ravi Zacharias. Copyright 1999 Word Publishers. pp63-90. Used with permission.)