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"Thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son" (Gen. 22: 16).
"He that spared not His Own Son" (Rom. 8: 32).
Can there be any doubt that God is intimately concerned with the sufferings of
creation, and of man generally, and of His church? Let the comfort of this fact penetrate
into the very fibre of our being. We do not suffer alone. God Himself calls us into
fellowship with Him.
With regard to the great problem of pain and suffering, we must not magnify the
almighty power of God above all His other attributes. The fact that He chose to create
man in His Own image implies that He chose to do something that inevitably contained
all the potentialities of suffering, even to the extreme limit of the cross. It is for us to see
all things in the light of the purpose of the ages, and the constitution of man as created in
the image of God.
"In all their affliction, He was afflicted."
#4.
pp. 90 - 92
It is our purpose, in this series of short articles, to lead the believer into a deeper
understanding of the character of God, in relation not so much to His isolated and
unapproachable majesty as the Lord God Almighty, but rather His tender mercy and
sympathetic understanding as "The Father", to Whom, in one spirit, we have access.
Theology, listening too much to the demands of Philosophy, has tended to place God
upon a pedestal, far removed from the passions and sorrows of the world. Such a
conception is very far from the truth. We hope that the sheer weight of evidence brought
forward in the article on pages 57-59 has broken down this prejudice to some extent, as
we have seen God "grieving" over the sinfulness of man, being "vexed" by the folly of
His people, and "repenting" over and over again because of the utter failure of His human
instruments. This aspect of inspired truth we must pursue still further, until prejudice
gives way completely to joyous acceptance, and we discover a God Who is not remote or
far away, but intimate and near.
In the present article, we desire to draw attention to two passages from the
Book of Job. We are well aware of the possibility of mistaking the personal opinions of
Job, expressed under the terrible pressure of affliction, for inspired utterances. On the
other hand, we must remember that this book of human suffering and experience is part
of the Scriptures and has been written for our learning. In time of trouble, an apostle
thought well to draw his readers' attention to "the patience of Job", while God Himself
has grouped together Job, Noah, and Daniel as men of surpassing integrity (Ezek. 14: 14,
20). While making every allowance for Job's frailty, and the possibility that he might
have erred in judgment, most readers would agree that there are few, if any, who would