Suffering And Glory

by D. Smith, Lerwick | Category: General | Jun 1972

One of the wonders of God's dealings with men is His choice of certain individuals through whom He can work out His own particular purpose for the glory of His Name, and in their experiences display in measure the character of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only did God speak through His servants of old concerning the coming of the Christ, but He also prefigured His sufferings, death and resurrection in a manner that no one acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures can fail to perceive with great delight.

The wisdom of God manifest in divine choice becomes more astounding when we realize that "the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29). It is not an experiment which may or may not be successful, but rather an infallible election which was conceived in the mind and affection of God before time began. Unlike man, God is not looking on with uncertainty to see how the object of His choice will turn out, but known unto Him are all things, and never will the Godhead be overtaken by the unexpected.

When God chose Abraham it was not that the son of Terah, living in a land of idolatry, possessed some native potential to make him a true friend of God and the father of the faithful to all generations. On the contrary, he was a servant, of other gods (Josh. 24:2), until the God of glory appeared to him and took him from beyond the River.

Like all God's servants Abraham had to pass through the experience of trial, for the Lord tries the righteous (Jer. 20:12). Although God does not tempt any man (James 1:13) He proves those He chooses with a dual objective in mind.

Firstly, that the wisdom of His choice might be fully vindicated in the face of the great adversary Satan, whose ambition is to oppose and obstruct the purpose and working of God. We are given an insight into the methods of the adversary in the first chapter of Job when on a certain day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD and Satan came also among them. On that occasion it was God's good pleasure to submit to Satan the name of His worthy servant Job, saying, "Hast thou considered My servant Job ... ?" (Job 1:8). Thus God staked His confidence in Job, certain that His servant would not be deflected though the adversary would test him very severely. Are our godliness and faith of such sterling quality that God can put us forward to the scrutiny of Satan and to the world that lies in his 'power? We rightly say that faith is honouring to God, but how honouring for us that He should place His confidence in such unworthy creatures and nominate us to bear His trust.

There can be no doubt that as God allowed Abraham and Job to be tried by affliction and to defy the hatred of Satan by their godly trust and patience, so will He ever deal with the men and women of His choice.

The second objective of such trials is to enrich with eternal glory the person so exercised. Blessing followed the trial of Abraham's faith (Gen. 22:16-18), and the "LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12).

The sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them were testified beforehand by the Spirit through the prophets of old (1 Pet. 1:11). Whatever human experience may be, nothing can ever compare to the sorrow and suffering that was endured by the Son of God during His earthly sojourn. At the very outset of His ministry He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness and there in the company of the wild beasts had to face the Devil, whose temptations He duly defied by the word of His God. And that was not His final experience of temptation. Each day of His life Satan sought persistently to deflect His feet from the path of devotion to God. Although surrounded by sorrow He never once succumbed to despondency or 'became the victim of discouragement. But knowing the satisfaction that His triumph would bring to God and the blessing it would bring to men "He endured" and hath now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2).

As it was with the Lord so it will be with those who belong to Him; suffering will be followed by glory. Undoubtedly there are eternal rewards which God desires to confer upon His own but He can only bestow them as the reward for endurance. When passing through prolonged sorrow and affliction it may be difficult to appreciate this precious truth to the full. The much afflicted apostle Paul (2 Cor. 2:4) rightly assessed eternal values when he wrote, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to usward" (Rom. 8:18). Paul compared present suffering with future glory and his conclusion was that "our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). Only by God's grace can afflicted saints realize in the heat of their trial that God is directing their circumstances for their own eternal glory. He sanctifies the various phases of human experience to bring to His own in the coming day an abundance of enduring glory that cannot be received while we sojourn in bodies of flesh.

"The morning shall awaken,

The shadows pass away,

And each true-hearted servant

Shall shine as doth the day."

May God give us grace to endure and with patience wait

"... for the dawning

the bright and blessed day,

When this darksome night of sorrow

Shall have vanished far away.

POSTSCRIPT

"Rise up, 0 men of God

Have done with lesser things;