Suffering Silently in the Sovereign Hands of God
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Introduction
Introduction
Personal Experience of Recent Darkness
Feeling distant from God
Not partaking in ordinary means of Grace
Feeling exiled
Attempting to make atonement/work my way back to God
Written by Jeremiah during Israel’s Babylonian exile
Chapter 3 written in series of “tricolons” or three successive phrases
Six Characteristics of God in Suffering and Man’s Response to God
Faithfulness of God in Suffering
Goodness of God in Suffering
Sovereignty of God in Suffering
Compassion of God in Suffering
Justice of God in Suffering
Discipline of God in Suffering
Confession and Repentance
“But this I call to mind and therefore have hope.” v21
“But this I call to mind and therefore have hope.” v21
Jeremiah writes these words from a state of despair
11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.
11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city.
Lam 2:11,
20 Look, O Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my young women and my young men have fallen by the sword; you have killed them in the day of your anger, slaughtering without pity.
22 You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed.
Lam 2:
Are we not quick to forget our faith in the midst of suffering?
Puritans called spiritual depression the “Dark Night of the Soul”
RC Sproul “From faith to faith”
Peaks and valleys
Sometimes we may feel as if we are in a spiritual exile
What is the “this” Jeremiah calls to mind?
He remembers the promises of God rooted in the character of God
Six Characteristics of God in Suffering
Six Characteristics of God in Suffering
He remembers the promises of God
1) Faithfulness of God in Suffering (22-24)
1) Faithfulness of God in Suffering (22-24)
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
The Breadth of God’s Faithfulness (v 22)
As an ocean extending to an infinite horizon
The Depth of God’s Faithfulness (v 23)
As a waterfall flowing into an infinite cavern
The living water of God’s faithfulness is our only source of hope (v 24)
Realizing that God is the only source of Hope, Jeremiah changes his tune from his previous mindset of desolation and hopelessness
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
Realizing that God is the only source of Hope, Jeremiah
2) Goodness of God in Suffering (25-27)
2) Goodness of God in Suffering (25-27)
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
It is good for us to wait on God for our deliverance (v 25)
Waiting = Trusting in God
Distrust other sources of deliverance, especially ourselves
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”
isa
This is not a passive waiting
Seeking = Active waiting
Deliberately pursuing God in the ordinary means of grace and pursuing obedience
Content and confident
Content to suffer and confident God will rescue us from exile
We cannot profess our dependence on God and live independently from Him
It is good that we wait quietly (v 26)
a state of silence or expectant trust
we have nothing to contribute to our deliverance
trust that the Lord will save us from our suffering
Realizing the realities of suffering at a young age leads to a fuller life live in service of God (v 27)
yoke = suffering
suffering leads to repentance
the earlier one starts a life of repentance the better
3) Sovereignty of God in Suffering (28-30)
3) Sovereignty of God in Suffering (28-30)
Circumstances for silence are brought on by God (v 28)
overview of first two chapters
over 70 times Jeremiah explicitly says that God is the direct cause of Israel’s suffering
Our response to God’s sovereignty in suffering is twofold:
1. Complete Humility (v 29)
2. Complete submission to God’s will (v 30)
4) Compassion of God in Suffering (31-33)
4) Compassion of God in Suffering (31-33)
Suffering is temporary (v 31)
A call to God’s New Covenant promise and eternal plan
Suffering must end to accomplish God’s eschatelogical goal of a New Heaven and New Earth
We cannot experience compassion if we are not in a position that needs compassion (v 32)
God’s character is to dwell with His people, not to cause them suffering
God does not afflict without a just cause (v 33)
God is not malicious
He is full of mercy and justice
5) Justice of God in Suffering (34-36)
5) Justice of God in Suffering (34-36)
The suffering God causes is just and warranted due to sin
The suffering the world causes is unjust
Our suffering under injustice leads us to hope in God’s mercy and our salvation from corruption and unjust suffering
6) Discipline of God in Salvation (37-39)
6) Discipline of God in Salvation (37-39)
God is sovereign in discipline
God disciplines us because He loves us
19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
rev
God disciplines us to make us like Him
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
God is the source of discipline
Jeremiah is clear about this
Sin causes the need for discipline
Overruled and ordained by God
5 Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
18 “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.
lam 1:
What is our response? (v 40-42)
What is our response? (v 40-42)
How do we respond to:
The Faithfulness of God in Suffering
The Goodness of God in Suffering
The Sovereignty of God in Suffering
The Compassion of God in Suffering
The Justice of God in Suffering
The Discipline of God in Suffering
There is only one response: Repentance (v 40)
Exile was meant to bring Israel to repentance
Suffering brings us to repentance
Acts of Repentance (v 41)
Examination
Turning
Exhibiting internal changes with external practices (hearts and hands)
Verbal repentance (v 42)
James says to confess our sins to one another so we can be healed
1 John says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“Not yet forgiven”
The punishment God has in store for Israel is not yet finished
The nation had sinned greatly
For the elect all punishment is exhausted in Christ
Conclusion
Conclusion
Be content. Suffer in silence and sit patiently.
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
“when the gold knows why and wherefore it is in the fire . . . [it] will thank the Refiner for putting it into the crucible, and will find a sweet satisfaction even in the flames.” - Spurgeon
Receive suffering early on instead of when older
Be humble
Repent
Seek God through ordinary means of grace