Meaningless suffering

Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)



Eternity-Inspiration for Thursday  20th November 1997


Meaningless suffering

(Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 NIV) I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: {2} God gives a man wealth, possessions and honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.
This reminds me of the accounts I have read of communist China when the wealthy were massacred and shot and the intellectuals put to death and their property taken over by the Party. The swift sweep of events can mean that all we have worked for is taken away from us and we are sent to a re-education camp or a concentration camp. For six million Jews in Europe, for well over 20 million Russians under Stalin and for 36 million Chinese under Mao (who is in the Guiness Book of Records as the world's greatest mass murderer) for one and a half million people in Sudan today and for people in Bosnia, this is reality. On a lesser scale divorce can have much the same effect when the other partner has a much better lawyer. All the person has worked for ends up with a "stranger". Ultimately we are faced with Jesus Himself - full of wisdom. honoured by many, with a wonderful ministry, teaching and healing and doing so much good, swept away by injustice and nailed to a cross. Isaiah points out Jesus' earthly loss (Isaiah 53:8 NIV) By oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

Solomon says "God does not enable him to enjoy them" . This is a peculiar phrase. Is God evil? Does God deliberately withhold from us the ability to enjoy what He has given to us? Solomon calls this "a great evil" and I would have to agree. It is a very great evil. Were the European Jewry or Chinese intellectuals or Sudanese Christians somehow worse than others so that they deserved these horrors? I think not! In the very "fallenness of the world" evil happens. (Luke 13:1-6 NIV) Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. {2} Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? {3} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. {4} Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? {5} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

To jump back a little in our verse... "God gives a man wealth, possessions and honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires,.." God gives us these good things. These are the natural rewards of life. While the supernatural rewards are vastly more important these natural rewards they are still good things and gifts of God. " but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead". I have a friend who is a multi-millionaire but quite mentally ill. His money is being held in trust by his family until he turns 50. Sometimes he sleeps in his car. He is tormented and socially isolated. He is now around 45. In a few years he will get his inheritance - but be just as unable to enjoy it. Why? Why does God allow this to happen? Why is life so often full of injustice and oppression. There are many who are ripped off by life.

Wordsworth said it well :
"Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And shares the nature of infinity."


Its this very darkness and obscurity of suffering that infuriates us. Justice emerges slowly out of suffering and is rarely completed to our satisfaction. It is when we look back years later that we see its threads. It is often in the rebuilding after suffering that God's justice emerges. The rebuilt life has deeper foundations dug down into the well scoured out by pain consequently a much grander building emerges. Without Hitler there would have been no modern Israel. God is into restoration and rebuilding. The Jews needed reassurance after the terrors of the siege of Jerusalem and the deportation into Babylon and they found it in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. (Isaiah 44:26 NIV) Who carries out the words of his servants and fulfils the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, 'It shall be inhabited,' of the towns of Judah, 'They shall be built,' and of their ruins, 'I will restore them,'

Solomon only sees the first two parts of the story. The giving and the taking away. He does not see the restoration. Aren't we so much like him? I know I was when I went through a very difficult time a few years back. Like Job we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel and we just hang on to God. Job was restored. Hanging on to God is the right thing to do because hanging on to God is hanging on to the solution.

Prayer:
Lord the misery of life makes us question Your justice and goodness and even the truth of Your Word. We see meaningless suffering and relentless evil and have no interpreter for the loud language of pain. Lord You can open our eyes, You can help us see what You are doing in these things. Help us to trust Lord. Give us enough light so that we can see some sense in this world. Amen.

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John Edmiston ([email protected])
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