"For the earnest expectation of the creation
eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility,
not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope;"
Romans 8:19-20
Have you ever wondered why there is so much suffering in the world? Have you ever wondered why God made the world the way it is?
Well ...he didn't.
If you read the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, what is remarkable is that after every thing that God created, he said it was "good," and when he was finished he said it all was "very good."
"Then God saw everything that he had made,
and indeed it was very good."
Genesis 1:31
So what happened? Why is the world so far from being "very good?"
It's very important to understand this.
When Adam rebelled against what God had told him, Adam brought sin into the world, and the effects of that were far more vast than most have any idea. At the sin of Adam, DEATH entered the world, and that death was so pervasive that every living thing became subject to it, even animals and plants. DEATH came in through sin and DEATH has reigned ever since. Everything dies. No living thing escapes. Death kills all, babies and old people, all die. Everything living ...dies. This was not the act of God! This was man destroying what God had created good and pure and beautiful.
Sin is a tremendously powerful and destructive force and it can be blamed for all the ills the world lives with. Ignorant men blame God for all the suffering in the world, when it is not God at all behind it, but sin brought in by man.
People rail at God for "allowing" suffering, but God in his wisdom has allowed the full manifestation of the results of sin and death to remain until "the restoration of all things," because it is a visual portrayal to all peoples now and in all the ages to come - of the heinousness of sin and all the death and destruction that sin brings.
It's one thing for a parent to tell his child a principle, it's quite another when the parent allows his child to make mistakes and learn from experience what he didn't "get" just by hearing it from his father. The visual and experiential effects of sin will speak to all generations a principle not read or heard but visually demonstrated. Yes, God does intervene from time to time and heal but for the most part, we remain subject to the fallenness of the creation until the day when he will come and restore all things.
"...until the times of restoration of all things,
which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began. "
Acts 3:21
And that is our hope - that the sufferings from the effects of sin will come to an end. The picture will have done its work and the Lord will bring the story to its conclusion. When Jesus comes all creation will be subject to him and he will restore all things.
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them."
Isaiah 11:6
When Jesus Christ comes, all the destructive effects of the death principle will be abolished, and he will restore the world to the pristine state it was in before the death force entered. It will be the end of sin and violence and hatred and war:
"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore."
Isaiah 2:4
It will be the end of death:
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
1st Corinthians 15:26
Friends, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Make sure your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life so that you will be part of it. You were born into a fallen human nature prone to sin, and sin carries with it judgment. When you surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ you will receive the forgiveness of all your sin and you will be received into his Kingdom to live with him forever in the glorious age to come. If you have not yet been born again, see to it now because truly, the Kingdom of God IS at hand!
MORE ON THIS:
"Born again" - What Does That Mean?
"From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness..." 2nd Corinthians 11:24-27 Many believers have been going through unprecedented trials and some have fallen away. And ...that is exactly Satan's intent when he attacks God's children, especially if they are serving God in any effectual way. Satan means to stop them, to destroy their calling, and he often succeeds. But the Scriptures warn us to be prepared for this and not to be taken by surprise, but rather to understand what is happening in the spiritual realm. "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you..." 1st Peter 4:12 It can get to you when it goes on and on and on for awhile, and again ...that is the intent. Understanding this is necessary for you to be able to stand. Brothers and sisters, when you feel you just can't take it anymore, consider what Paul suffered in his ministry and calling. Reread that passage above. He was perhaps the greatest man who ever walked the earth other than Christ himself, but take a look at the incredible efforts of Satan to stop him. He was beaten and left for dead, he experienced weariness, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, he was cold and tired, very very tired. Yet he knew that this was the cost of serving Christ and he did not allow Satan to discourage him - no matter what. Today Paul is in glory, satisfied with the fruit of the work he accomplished in spite of the ordeal that was his lot as he toiled. One of the most amazing passages in the Bible is the account of Paul and Silas when they were hurled into prison. They had been beaten with rods, their backs bloodied and were thrown into a dungeon, their feet tied in stocks - read it in Acts 16:22-33. But ...at midnight Paul and Silas . . .were heard singing praises to God ! ! ! Think on this. In pain, backs bloodied, in a dungeon ...singing praises to God! I am not so advanced in my spiritual walk that I can even imagine singing praises to God if I were lying in a dungeon with my back bloodied and my feet in stocks. I've meditated on this many times, trying to understand how Paul and Silas could do this. It just seems impossible. What understanding did they have that was beyond anything Satan could do to them? Yet that is exactly what they were doing - singing praises to God. And God responded, as he always does when we worship him. ...There was an earthquake and all the prisoners' chains fell off. The end of this story is the jailer and all his household being saved. Note that Paul didn't know that was going to happen at the beginning of this story. He sang praises to God while in his desperate condition. Brothers and sisters, take heart. The Lord is coming soon and we simply do not have much time left to complete our work for him on this earth before the end. Resolve in your heart to expect the ferocious attacks of the enemy designed to bring us down and render us neutralized. Do not allow Satan to stop you, to stop the work you've been called to do. It's far too important. Accept the cost, and labor on knowing that the reward is ETERNAL. Resolve in your heart to arrive in heaven without regret. It will be SO very worth it!
"And lest I should be exalted above measure
by the abundance of the revelations,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me,
a messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I be exalted above measure."
2nd Corinthians 12:7
Some say that Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was perhaps failing eyesight. They speculate that maybe when he was blinded as he fell from his horse on the way to Damascus, that perhaps damage was done to his eyes. But there's no basis for that in the Scriptures. The Scripture says that he was given a MESSENGER OF SATAN. A messenger of Satan was allowed to buffet Paul and dog his heels wherever he went. Paul asked the Lord to release him from this:
vs 8:
"Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times
that it might DEPART from me."
Notice that Paul didn't try to command it to "leave in the Name of Jesus." What did he do? He took it to the Lord. He ASKED. And that's what we are to do when we come into trouble; rather than try to combat a problem or an evil spirit ourselves, we are to take it to the Lord. The Lord may tell us to cast it out, or he may - as in Paul's case - tell us to endure it. But the decision must rest with the Lord, not with us.
When Paul asked God to make it go away, the Lord said no:
vs 9:
"And he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'”
Paul needed his weakness.
We can glean from this passage that the Lord allows us to be harassed by evil if he deems it necessary to work something out in our lives. Paul had been given mighty revelations, among them the revelation of the "mystery of the church," which had not been revealed to anyone in the Old Testament (Ephesians 3, Romans 16). And Paul was taken to "Paradise" and heard things so marvelous that he was commanded not to repeat them (2nd Corinthians 12). Is there a man on earth who could have experiences like these and not become proud?
Well, there isn't. Pride is the most common and most deadly of all sins, and it's the one thing that Satan will most tempt us with, because it's so deadly that it can destroy us. A messenger of Satan was assigned to Paul as a constant reminder of his humanity, lest he become proud, lest he "be exalted above measure."
The workings of the Lord in the life of a believer are manifold. You'll never understand what is going on unless you ask the Lord about any problem you're having. People can speculate, but only the Lord can reveal to you what the purpose of your affliction is. Why do people not get healed, not get freed? Sometimes it's because they try to use some formula to combat the problem. You'd think people would "get it" when it doesn't work - again and again and again. They "claim," they proclaim, they decree and declare, but it doesn't work. Their method doesn't work.
No, we need to take our trials to the Lord and ask HIM how we are to proceed. You can't go on what he told someone else, every story is unique and in every story we have to seek the Lord's mind on it before we proceed in any way. Jesus healed a blind man by putting mud on his eyes and telling him to "go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7). When the man did, he was healed. Do you think it would have "worked" any other way? Do you think he could have "proclaimed" his healing? No, because in this case he needed to do something, something that seemingly made no sense. He needed to "go, wash in the pool of Siloam." Only when he did as commanded, was his sight restored to him.
When the Israelites were about to take Jericho, the Lord told them to march around that city each day for six days, then seven times with trumpets on the seventh day. They did, and the walls of Jericho fell. Do you think it would have happened any other way? What if they "spoke" to the wall that it must fall? Would that have worked? Of course not. No, they had to do something that seemed to make no sense, and that wall wasn't going to come down unless they did as the Lord commanded. Can you imagine Joshua telling his army generals that the way we're going to bring this wall down is to march around it six days and then blowing trumpets on the seventh? Picture the looks on their faces when he told them that. However, they did as the Lord directed and the walls came down. The point is - the only way to victory is to spend time before the Lord and seek to know from him what to do, in every single difficulty in our lives.
We have to have the mind of the Lord in every situation we encounter, and that means spending TIME before him, seeking his direction. Then, when the Lord shows us what to do, or what NOT to do, we can go forward in confidence. Nothing else will work!