Post 9--When God Weeps

                                

    “This book is about God weeping over human heartache, his entering our anguish himself, and the love that drives him to let us suffer. It’s about experiencing the friendship of God along difficult paths we don’t even know he walked. Much of it is written from Joni’s perspective because her life is a remarkable laboratory that proves God knows what he’s talking about. “ From Steven Estes introduction to the book he wrote with Joni Eareckson Tada, When God Weeps.

    We don’t often think of God sorrowing. But if I remember correctly, in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, after the crucifixion, a tear from heaven falls to the ground on Golgotha. God weeps for His creation.  John Calsin
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John Writes:
            I recently wrote to Rev. Steve Estes, senior pastor of Community Evangelical Free Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania requesting his permission to use a letter he wrote to Carol and me several years ago. Why? Since I began to co-author this blog, I noticed a (surprising?) theme in many of the posts—suffering, either Dana’s or mine.
            While going through a paper file looking for potential posts, I came across a letter Rev. Estes wrote us after he visited our home, at my request, because we needed some Godly counsel concerning a situation we were facing at that time. We were suffering and needed some help to try and understand why. He not only spent a couple of hours listening and talking to us, but then he got us a copy of his book. And then a week or so later sent us the below letter on suffering.
            While Rev. Estes is not Job, however through his close personal friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada, he is very closely associated, first hand, with suffering, and the remarkable growth that suffering can bring, IF the sufferer comes to not just see God in it, but see God’s hand, His personal stamp, on it.  
            I had forgotten about Rev. Estes letter to us. When I recently re-read it, I think it spoke more to me now, than when first received. (Here is a plug for the writing of letters. They really can mean something, not only at the time they are written, but even years later. So, write a letter to someone today.) Because I had to type it for this post, it gave me time to go over each word and think about what he wrote.
            I feel that his letter on suffering greatly enhances what Dana and I have been trying to say over the past couple of months. I am thankful that Rev. Estes was willing to share what he shared with us. None of us can escape suffering. It will come in any of a myriad of shapes and sizes. There are no quick fixes or easy answers to the universal question of Why? We have to go through it to get through it.
            In my current, daily reading, I am reading Job, in The Message. Eugene H. Peterson writes in his introduction to this ancient Book, “...the ironic fact of the matter is that more often than not, people do not suffer less when they are committed to following God, but more. When these people go through suffering, their lives are often transformed, deepened, marked with beauty and holiness, in remarkable ways that could never have been anticipated before the suffering.”  pg 719
            I heartily recommend both books, When God Weeps and The Message, the Bible in Contemporary Language. God does understand. And The Message helps us understand God.
            To close, in spite of what suffering you may be going through, I would encourage you to remember the celebrated and remarkable leader of Great Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill. In spite of what appeared to be sure and soon defeat. In spite of overwhelming odds.  In spite of his cities being bombed into rubble beyond recognition. In spite of soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians being captured or killed by the thousands. Before becoming Prime Minister, he was a loser, having suffered a terrible defeat in the Gallipoli campaign in the prior war. But Churchill never gave up. On October 29, 1941, he said, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."
            And Job said, “...when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10 NIV
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Rev. Steve Estes Wrote:
February 2014
Dear John and Carol
     I enjoyed touching base with you the other night. Carol, you should trademark that particular proportion of cranberry juice and 7up—it was just right.
     John, I’ve been thinking about your question regarding trusting God in this difficult situation.  Particularly, I’ve been thinking about your question, “Did God, indeed, lead us into this unfortunate situation?” And if so, will he keep his promises? Will he dig us out of this mess?
     As I mentioned in your home, my best shot at these questions is contained in When God Weeps.  (Steven is co-author with Joni Eareckson Tada of this book.  https://www.amazon.com/When-Weeps-Joni-Eareckson-Tada/dp/0310238358 )
     Joni wrote half the chapters (1, 7-11, 13); I, the other half (2-6, 12). None of my chapters address your question directly, but several address them indirectly. I thought about trying to recommend which pages might most relate to your questions, but I found it hard to trace that single thread through the whole ball of yarn. Instead, could I suggest that you simply read chapters 1-6, and perhaps also Appendix A (written by me), and Appendix B (written by another author).
     One more quick thought...
     I think that a major key in understanding God when we experience severe trials has to do with the progressive nature of God’s revelation in the Bible.  I’m thinking here of the way he dealt with Israel in contract to how he deals with Christians. As best I can see it, God’s promises to Israel were largely physical and tangible: “If you obey Me, I will:

• I will give you a long life.
• Make your crops flourish.
• Drive out the Canaanites.
• Give you their cities, vineyards, orchards, etc.
• Make you successful in all military battles.
• Etc., etc.”
   
       In contrast, the vast majority of God’s promises in the New Testament, to Christians, are largely:
   
• A prediction that they will suffer.
• A promise to be with them in that suffering.
• A promise to use that suffering for their eternal good—that God’s kingdom will spread through their sufferings, and that Heaven will be more heavenly because of their sufferings.
   
       I think the explanation for this shift goes something like the following. Hebrews 11:8 talks of God’s call to Abraham to leave Ur and go to the Promised Land.  God’s promises to Abraham seemed largely physical and tangible, as in Genesis 12:2-3; Abraham will become a “great nation”; God will “bless” him;  God will “bless those who bless you” and “curse those who curse him”; etc. We might say that he “lured” Abraham with promises of a land, a nation, blessing, etc., etc. And these tangible promises continue throughout the Old Testament.
       However, Hebrews 11 also makes clear that something deeper was afoot than an earthly land of milk and honey. Verse 9:  “By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents...” Much of Genesis is given to show the non-fulfillment in Abraham’s day of what he had expected. He is always in a tent (not a city). He has to argue with a local pagan leader to get the water rights to his own well (Genesis 21:25-31). He lives “in the land of the Philistines for a long time” (Genesis 21). The whole of Genesis 23 discusses how, when Sarah died, Abraham must acquire enough land to bury her in – a cave and one mere field.
       What is the reason for God allowing these disappointments? Hebrews 11:9 tackles this question: “For he was looking forward to this city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” That is, somewhere along the line Abraham grasped that the earthly promised land was just a temporary stopping place on route to the real Promised Land – the heavenly “city” (not a tent) with “foundations” (not a dirt floor). In other words, the tangible and physical promises of Canaan, while true and real, were meant to be a symbol, a mere taste, a down payment on the ultimate promise of Heaven.
       By the time of the New Testament, God’s promises about physical tangible things grow slimmer and slimmer. Since we have the fuller revelation about Christ, he almost (not to overstate it) fast-forwards our expectations past the good things of this life to the life to come. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2). True, Jesus healed people regularly, and fed the hungry miraculously. But I would argue that he did this to show what his future kingdom would be like. On Earth, Jesus fed a hungry crowd only twice – in Heaven, there will be no more hunger. On Earth, there were many in Israel who never met Jesus, and thus were never healed – in Heaven, absolutely everyone will have a perfect, pain-free body. On Earth, Jesus cast out demons from this-or-that person – in Heaven, Satan will be completely banned forever. The miracles of Jesus, like the tangible blessings of the Old Testament, were a preview, a snapshot, of what Heaven will be like. Jesus expressed frustration with crowds who focused on the tangible blessings and missed the greater spiritual message.
       In short, I would argue that:
   
• God did lead you into the painful situation you are facing.
• He did so knowing that terrible trials awaited you in that.
• He did so in order to use those terrible trials for your eternal good – that your Heaven might be more heavenly, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4:17: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
• How the devil plays into all this? That’s what I try to address in chapter 6 of When God Weeps.
   
       I realize that my points in this letter may seem to be incongruous with Pentecostal theology. But I don’t believe they are. Wayne Grudem is a thorough-going Pentecostal theologian; he argues articulately for the presence today of all the spiritual gifts; but Dr. Grudem would strongly agree with the perspective I’m proposing.
       I certainly won’t be offended if, after reading When God Weeps, you take a different position.  My love and respect for you will not change. But, the thoughts in that book are what have helped me (and Joni) the most to trust God when his promises seem to have failed.
       You’re both very much in my prayers.
  Your brother,
   
  Steve E.
       PS. a quick thought from Acts 26:17...There, God promises Paul: “I will rescue you from your own people and the Gentiles.” The way God fulfilled this promise was to let Paul “go hungry and thirsty... [be] in rags...brutally treated...homeless...persecuted...slandered... [be] the scum of the earth” (1 Corinthians 4:11-13). God rescued him by keeping him alive (sometimes just barely!). God’s goal was not to”bless” Paul in the usual sense we think of it, but to enable Paul to spread the Gospel while suffering along with Jesus. It was this very suffering which made Paul’s ministry so powerful. It was by “always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake” that “life [was] at work” in those to whom he ministered.