January 13: "God's Megaphone"

Genesis 28:1—29:35

Matthew 9:18-38

Psalm 11:1-7

Proverbs 3:11-12

 

"…the LORD disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights." (Proverbs 3:12, NET)

 

It's human nature to look for meaning in the face of tragedy. Why did this happen? Who's to blame? How can we keep this from ever happening again? And, frustratingly, there aren't always easy answers to our questions.

 

Here, Solomon instructs future generations that suffering can be the result of the Lord's loving discipline. If we were to read these verses in the original Hebrew, we'd see that Solomon blends his image of a loving father with some legal vocabulary. Solomon is saying that suffering can be a way of restoring God's just and proper order.

 

Yet for many modern Christians, these verses might jostle us a bit. Isn't "blessing" the truest mark of the Christian life? Don't sickness and suffering indicate that we are outside the will of God? Solomon would answer these questions with an emphatic "no." If we see God as merely a pathway to prosperity, then suffering will cripple us both physically and spiritually. But if we allow ourselves to listen for God's voice even in the midst of our pain, then even our negative experiences can be opportunities for growth. It's for this reason that C.S. Lewis would famously say that "God whispers to us in our pleasures…but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." The writer of Hebrews would later quote Solomon (Hebrews 12:6) to remind the church that persecution is a part of God's plan, not some deviation from it.

 

Does that mean that all suffering is brought about by God? On the one hand, all suffering is the result of human sin. After Eden's collapse, suffering and death were set loose upon God's good creation. But that doesn't always mean that every painful experience is the direct result of my personal sin. And so we must not be afraid to affirm some degree of mystery--I can't always know when my pain is a direct result of the Lord's discipline, but I can seek to learn from it nonetheless.

 

Part of this discussion is shaped by the gospel. Grace shatters human notions of "karma," because Jesus willingly suffered for the sins we have committed. On the cross, Jesus took the wounds of God's wrath so that you and I might receive only the wounds of his mercy. And the empty tomb is a promise that one day all suffering will be at an end.

 

Until then, we live with the tension between pain and meaning. Help us, Lord, whatever our circumstances, to listen for your voice.