It
has been a question asked all through time: Why does God allow so much
suffering and sorrow in life? The enemy has used this very question to get many
believers to doubt and many to turn from God. It is a valid question but once
explored you may find out that you are asking the wrong question.
I
find that when you have a question that seems unanswerable, the best place to
start is to go to the origin. Where did sorrow and suffering come from or how
did they originate. Are sorrow and suffering good or evil? It seems they show
up as a consequence or a result from a tragic event or an evil that has been
inflicted on an individual or group of people. I would assume that most people
believe they are evil in nature because of this. You may ask another question
as to why I refer to them as “they”. “They”, seems to imply personhood and not
just a result or consequence of an action or event. First, let us find out who
or what sorrow and suffering are and then we will discover their origin.
Before
God created the physical realm of the universe, which consists of time, space
and matter, He created the spiritual realm where He dwelt with spiritual beings
that He created, which we call angels. At some point there was a rebellion in
the spiritual realm led by an angel named Lucifer. Lucifer and a third of the
angels in his charge were cast out of this spiritual realm to the earth and the
earths surrounding environs. His name was changed to Satan. These cast out,
fallen angels are now called demons or evil spirits and are opposed to God and
His holy or elect angels and to man who was created in Gods image to rule the
physical creation. Most, if not all of
the evil in the world, is directly related to these evil spirits. They work
through deception and mans’ fallen, sinful nature. They have free reign with
man and his sinful nature because that was mans own choice when he chose to
disobey God. There are different ranks with these fallen angels and they have
names based on their own nature or what they are enlisted to do.
For
example, fear is a demonic spirit. You are fearful when this spirit is working
within you or tormenting you from outside circumstances. Hatred, death,
depression etc. are evil spirits. We do not know if their names are derived from
their nature or if they were appointed to a specific evil and then derived
their name from it. For example, let’s look at the spirit of hate. Was this
spirit assigned the duty to cause people to hate and then given this name based
on its assignment, or when it rebelled, hatred was found to be its dominant
nature and so became its name? In either case, all of these evil spirits want
you to rebel from God just as they have and they want to keep you from being
reconciled to God. The only way you can overcome these spirits is to belong to
God by being reconciled to Him. They do not want to be ruled by man so they
will do anything in order to keep you from reconciliation to God. The only way
you can belong to God is by accepting Jesus Christ and His finished work on the
cross, where as a man, He defeated death and sin and every evil. You will then
have the life of God in you, which will overcome any evil. These evil spirits
only have the power to influence you to do their will. They cannot make you do
anything and the reality is that you have authority over them if you are in
Christ because they only recognize His authority, although they will deny it.
These
evil spirits cannot create, they can only influence by deception and they will
often try to imitate God. God is good so they try to imitate good in order to
deceive. God is love so they try to imitate love in order to deceive. They take
all the things of God and try to imitate them and then pervert them. Thus, good
is perverted to evil when covered in false motives. Love is perverted to lust,
ad infinitum.
Just
as with demonic, fallen angels, Gods elect angels have ranks and names. Take
the archangel Michael, his name means “one who is like God”. God created him
this way, so it is his nature. Michael fulfills his purpose by choosing to be
what God created him for. If there is a fallen angel with the name Michael then
it will pervert its nature of one who is like God to one who thinks he is God
or wants to be God and imitates God in order to deceive. If you follow this
thought, you can now see Sorrow and Suffering correctly. So let us return to
their origin.
When
is the first time we see sorrow or suffering in scripture? I suppose most would
say that it was after man sinned and was separated from God. If we are looking
through time I would have to agree but I am now asking you to look outside of
time and see things from Gods perspective as He gives us glimpses in scripture.
In Revelation 13:8 we see the lamb that was slain from (or before) the
foundation of the world. You can also see similar verses in 1 Peter 1:18-20 and
Ephesians 1:3-5 and 2nd Timothy 1:9. We see here that Christ (the lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world) was slain before any physical creation
took place.
The
physical crucifixion took place on Golgotha so that we could see the reality of
what had already occurred. Not only do we see the suffering and sorrow of the
Son, but we also get a glimpse of the suffering and sorrow of the Father when
He had to turn away from the sin bearer. If suffering and sorrow were present
in the physical crucifixion then we can be assured that they were present in
the spirituals when the lamb was slain before the creation of the world.
So
we see that this took place in the spiritual realm before the foundation of the
earth. This means that there was no time or space or matter and there was no
sin. The crucifixion was not an after thought of God but part of His eternal
plan. I will also suggest that the crucifixion took place before the creation
of angels (although there was no before because time had not come into
existence) or at least had taken place (although there was no place because
space and matter didn’t yet exist) without their knowledge. I say this because
I cannot comprehend how angels could have rebelled if they knew of this event.
They would have seen their own defeat at the cross.
So
during this event, sorrow and suffering are present. I do not know if they were
created at the moment of this event or before but they are present during. We
cannot comprehend the magnitude and depth of the ineffable sorrow and suffering
of God the Father and God the Son but we who are His can experience portions of
this through God the Holy Spirit when we allow ourselves to go to Gethsemane
and Golgotha. Now we must look closer at sorrow and suffering and how we view
them. We must also remember that there is no sin and there is no rebellion of
angels yet. This means that there is no evil. God is all and all is in God.
This also means that sorrow and suffering are not evil. They are creations of
God and have a great purpose in God and may be in fact, the only angels that
have witnessed or are aware of the lamb being slain. Their purpose is far more
glorious than we can imagine. They possess first hand experience of the
greatest love ever. They are also probably the most misunderstood angels that
God ever created.
But
why are they misunderstood? It is because, as with all things of God, their
purpose has been perverted by the fallen angels who imitate and pervert the
things of God. These deceivers have taken the name sorrow and suffering and
have perverted their true nature and purpose. They have taken every evil thing
that they have deceived man into and attributed the consequences and results of
said evil to sorrow and suffering. We must understand that there are now 2
different kinds of sorrow and suffering, see 2 Corinthians 7:10, 1 Peter 2:21,
1 Peter 1:6-7, 2nd Timothy 3:12. There is Godly sorrow and suffering and the
evil imitation of sorrow and suffering.
Like everything else, the enemy has perverted the good things of God and
deceives us into accepting his evil imitation. This is hard to grasp so we shun
sorrow as a disease and run from suffering as a prelude to death. And just as
death itself has imitated the death of self, we fear both while hiding from
Truth. Sorrow and Suffering lead us, hand in hand to the death of self, which
is required for Life in Christ.
This
might be better understood when you look at the 2 sides of love from our
limited, earthly perspective. Love is the highest we can attain to and real
love is giving. I am referring to human love and a human perspective of love.
When people are “in love” they are feeling the rapturous effects of love and
they love being in love or the feelings of love. But what happens when they
fall out of love or when one is in love but the other is no longer in love? It
is then that we see the imitation of love and all the evil effects of it. We
get heartbroken and depressed and hurt and feel all the antithesis feelings of
being in love. Some never recover and remain bitter and close up and refuse to
love or be loved again. It is as if the house has been swept clean and is now
empty but the original deception has now come back with several of its friends.
When the imitation of love falls to its lowest or true form, it is reduced to
lust, which only seeks after its own self-fulfillment.
Here
we see 2 sides of human love; one side is seemingly good while the other side
is not good. But it is all from the same fruit of love from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Now try and relate this with the 2 sides of
suffering and sorrow. Please keep in mind that I am referring to human love,
which has been corrupted and perverted by sin. When referring to Gods Love, which
is perfect in its’ giving, there is only one side and it is always good because
it is the fruit of love from the tree of Life. We may sometimes experience His
love and think that it is not good because sorrow and suffering may attend to
it but this is the entire point; they are there in order to lead you to a
deeper experience of His Love that you would never find without them.
When
self-love is wounded it grows stronger in order to protect itself. Self-love
will do anything to survive and that is why it gets stronger. It feeds on its
own self and will devour anything in its path and will eventually destroy
itself, whereas God love dies when it is wounded as it gives of itself to the
very one(s) that wound it and it is soon resurrected. We are all born with
self-love as part of our fallen nature. When we come to Christ and receive His
life, our fallen nature clings to self-love in order to survive. Self will
never go to the cross unless Sorrow and Suffering lead it. This is why we
cannot obey certain things of God. We learn obedience through the things we
suffer, just as our Lord did. Suffering and Sorrow will always lead you to
Gethsemane where your will is finally offered up in obedience. To obey is
better than to sacrifice. Many call Him Lord but do not do what He says. They
will then pray or worship or try many other things to make up for their
disobedience but it is all in vain. It is self-love. Suffering teaches
obedience and Sorrow unmasks self-love.
Have
you ever noticed that in the midst of a tragic event that people are drawn
together? Whether it is a world wide, national or personal tragedy, people are
drawn together. This is part of the workings of Sorrow and Suffering. When a
tragic event happens, we look for others that feel the same and find comfort in
the empathy. This is only the beginning stage. If we were aware of the love of
God, we would allow Sorrow and Suffering to lead us to God in order to be truly
comforted by the one who has already bore our grief and pain. Look at 9-11 for example.
This was a national tragedy where we in the USA seemed to be united as one
nation under God in our grief. Soon after, we see the ones caught up in
emotions over it lose interest. We see the counterfeit spirits of sorrow and
suffering subtly come in and turn the grief of many to bitterness and hatred
for a supposed enemy who caused the tragedy. We see only a few who turn to the
living God for true comfort and healing.
So
why did God create Sorrow and Suffering? Why didn’t He just create us and make
us His, and we could all have joy and peace? Why did He suffer and why do we
suffer? We suffer because He suffered. We are made in His image. He was a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief, or familiar with suffering. We only enter
into His sufferings and only a small portion of it. But why did He have to
suffer? I’m talking about before the foundations of the world, before
anything…why did He have to suffer? This question may never be fully understood
or answered in our lifetime or ever, in time. We may not understand fully until
we go home but we do understand small portions of it. The small portion we
understand can only be understood to the same degree of the small portion of
His suffering that we enter into. So if you want to know Him and the power of
His resurrection then you must enter into His suffering and be conformed to His
death. It is here that you experience His love in a much deeper sense which has
only been attained through Sorrow and Suffering.
Sorrow
and Sufferings purpose today is the same as when they were created. We must
experience them before we can experience the depth of the love of God. God
could have created robots to follow Him and to obey Him and to love Him but He
wanted love and obedience from a free will or choice. Would you prefer a spouse
that was programmed to love you or one that truly chose to love you? He also
could have just shown Himself as God and everyone would worship him either out
of fear or for what they could get from Him. Would you want a mate who feigned
love in order to get something from you or because they were afraid of you? He
wanted an uncreated being that would love Him for Himself. This was part of His
eternal plan. This uncreated being (His Bride) was in Him from the beginning
just as He has shown us with His image (man). Mans bride was in him from the
beginning.
We
only see sorrow and suffering from the perspective of the pain involved and
thus we reject them or fear them. This is the deception. If we embrace them as
the gift from God that they are, then you will see them transformed in the same
manner and degree that you are. When your journey with them has wrought about
Gods intended purpose, you will see what true friends and companions they are.
You will see that they were given to you as a gift to lead you to deep intimacy
with your Lord. You will have walked the same path as your Lord walked with
them. They are forever maligned by the fallen demons that imitate them and thus
forever feared and shunned by the very ones they were sent to help. No other
servants of our Lord will protect you and gently, reverently lead you in the
way chosen for you, while being reviled most of the way, if not all of the way.
When
you see the hand of God in Sorrow and Sufferings hand and you accept and agree,
by your choice to walk with them, it is then that the enemy will come and
attempt to give you your desire without sorrow or suffering. He tried this
deception on our Lord and failed and we now have the pattern on how to overcome
this. Be aware that if you did fall for the enemy’s deception and choose not to
walk with Sorrow and Suffering, you will encounter the fallen imitators of
sorrow and suffering and bear their perverted pleasure of torturing you in some
other fashion. It is always better to trust our Father and endure the cross
even when all understanding has left us.
All of what I have tried to explain here can be summed up in 2 Corinthians 7:10. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
All of what I have tried to explain here can be summed up in 2 Corinthians 7:10. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
God
creates what He feels. His feelings desire expression. He expresses Himself
through Jesus Christ. His love is expressed in giving. He has expressed Himself
by weaving pictures of Himself in creation. Is it not the same with his image
(man)? Man creates what he feels. An artist paints what he feels. A musician
plays what he feels. His feelings need expression so that others may feel what
he feels. I suggest that many, if not all, angels are expressions of what God
feels. In order to express His love for us, He died for us. He created Sorrow
and Suffering to express what He felt in that act of love. When we embrace
them, as our Lord did, we are then ushered into the expression of His love and
our sorrow is turned to joy and our suffering teaches us obedience. Here we see
the true nature of Sorrow and Suffering as we are changed just as they were and
we now have the love of the living God being expressed through us.
Dana Leonardi
April-May 2012
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