God's Perspective of Our Sufferings

How does God feel when we are suffering?

The Bible is full of promises of deliverance. When a father sees a child being attacked or hurt by somebody else, the natural thing would be to step in and stop the assailant and defend the child and in the process, stop the attacks.

But the Bible is also full of God-allowed attacks where there were no deliverances, no defense, and no stopping of the attacks. Instead, these were allowed to go on until the person was completely destroyed.

The best example is JESUS CHRIST.

The question is, what did God feel when Jesus was attacked, humiliated, spat upon, whipped, speared, crucified and finally died?

What did God feel when His Son cried out: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?" which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Have you ever wondered why there were two languages given? When we read the Bible, we usually only read one language, i.e., English. Here, two langauges were given. There are other examples of this dual language use, for example,

Mark 7:34: "Ephphatha", which is 'be opened'."

Matthew 5:22: "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother [without a cause] shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council..."

Most commentators agreed that the Language used was Aramaic, while the NT was composed in Greek. In other words, when Matthew and Mark wrote the Gospels, they wrote in Greek but in certain instances, decided to bring out the original words used by Jesus, such as "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?" or "Ephphatha" in Aramic and then translated them into Greek, which was then translated into English for us without losing the original emphasis.

Why? Perhaps the authors were afraid something would be lost in translation. Perhaps these were instances where the heartfelt words of Jesus to His Father were something we had to take notice of.

Heartfelt words. Dual translated for emphasis. And by the way, of the seven things Jesus said while on the cross, this: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?" was the only one mentioned in two parallel Gospels, Mark and Matthew. Again, for emphasis.

There can be no doubting of the pain, sincerity and cry of Jesus to His Father.

The Aramaic word "šabaqtanî" is based on the verb šabaq, 'to allow, to permit, to forgive, and to forsake'. In other words, "MY God, my God, why have you allowed this? Permitted this? Forgiven (let loose those who allowed this, most probbably referring to the devil) and forsaken me?"

Question is: "How did God feel when this cry was uttered to Him?"

The common intepretation of this cry was that Jesus was fulfilling a prophecy from Psalm 22. To gain a better understanding of this context, one needs to refer to Psalm 22 where many insights are understood. It was a cry of victory. It was a fulfillment of prophecy. But the emphasis I want to focus on is God's perspective when we suffer like this and cry out to Him in genuine sincerity and pain.

Because I believe many times in life, although we may know what the Christian's response in suffering should be, what truly makes the difference is when we understand what God's response is...to our sufferings.

In cell last night, God led the assistant cell leader to come up with an analogy. He surrounded us in a circle and then put a plastic cup on the floor. He then told us to imagine that that the cup represents us and that he was the evil one. And then to look down on the cup as though as we are watching ourselves from God's perspective.

And then he started...trampling on the cup. And squashing it. Again and again. Until the cup was flat, but he continued, until it was torn, but he continued.

And all we did was watched...watched what was happening to us from God's perspective while the evil one was 'allowed, permitted, let loose' to do to us whatever he wanted.

And then we were asked to share what we felt...from God's perspective.

One by one the responses came.

Anger...

Compassion...

Sympathy...

The desire to interfere...

I watched in silence, and then the word came.

"Rejoices". Xi yue.

I said: "God rejoices." That was what He felt. I could find no other words. At first I wasnt sure whether that was what the answer was. But I quoted Philippians 2, about the example of Jesus. And I said, I believe God rejoices because of the glory it brought to Him through our sufferings and when we choose to suffer for Him.

God rejoices.

I wasn't entirely sure where the answer came from, but perhaps it was because I have just been through a week where I have felt humiliated, downtrodden, and my rights abused. But I had retaliated. I had refused to give in. When someone slapped me on the right cheek, I had refused my left cheek. I had fought back, not literally, but in isolation, in icy coldness, and in being arrogant. I had not served, nor tried to understand, nor try to forgive. I had not taken the form of a servant and followed the example of Jesus. In other words, I had not allowed myself to be trodden like that.

But seeing things from God's perspective changed all that. To know that He rejoices over those who suffer silently for Him has given me new insights and courage to continue suffering for Him.

Why exactly is God rejoicing?

He rejoices over us because of the trust we have in Him, that while it seemed that the devil may have free reign to do whatever he wants, it is ultimately God who is in control.

He rejoices over us because in trusting Him, we believe that His love never left us even though we are so tempted to feel that God doesn't love us anymore when things are allowed to go from bad to worse.

And He rejoices over us because He is thinking of the glory He will bestow upon us when we finish the trial...but we have to finish the trial.

He rejoices over us because we believe that "Perseverance must finish its work" (James 1:4)and we believe that only God knows best when the work is finished, and that he will never leave a work unfinished.

And that encouraged me to go on perservering. And trusting. And loving.

And being like Jesus.

Philippians 2:1-11:

"1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded...

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."