Broken-Wing: An Expose' on the Journey Through Affliction

I weighed in at 5 pounds and 10 ounces. I was totally unaware that my growing frame had the capacity to reveal the glory of God. According to man I wasn’t even to be. Years prior, physicians had informed my mother that due to a previous tubular pregnancy, and its complications, her chances of conceiving a child were impossible. Despite the medical prognosis, I was born approximately five years later between midnight and sunrise on a crisp fall day in November. My timely arrival on the earth was a demonstration of God’s glory. His sovereignty was revealed; my birth was a part of His plan. It was His will. You were destined to be here. It was God’s will. It is His sovereign choice how His glory will be revealed in and through your life. In our mortal state God’s glory is revealed through His ways, character, grace, and His power demonstrated through our perpetually transformed lives. It is our present hope. In immortality there is a much greater glory that we will enter into. It is our future hope. THE GLORY IN MORTALITY—OUR PRESENT HOPE Affliction is probably not part of the life you have in mind. It certainly wasn’t on my agenda. The same could probably be said by the blind man that Jesus encountered as He was going through the holy city of Jerusalem. When the disciples who accompanied Him saw the blind man, they immediately made the assumption that his blindness was a result of his or his parent’s sin. Without love, solid facts, and very limited understanding of God, their question revealed that they were focused on assigning a reason for his physical malady. They were totally unaware that the man’s blindness was the stage for the revelation of God’s power. “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’ ” (John 9:3) Jesus made mud out of His saliva and the dust of the earth. He put it on the man’s eyes and sent him to the Pool of Siloam to wash. The young man did as Jesus instructed and when he returned home he could see. God was glorified. For a man blind from birth to receive his sight was unheard of (see John 9:32-33). It was a demonstration of the miraculous work of God. When many witness a person’s affliction they may make silent assumptions and judgments that it is attributable to the sin of the person or the sin of generations before. While there can be a connection between sin and suffering, it is not the default answer for all manners of physical affliction. There are many reasons behind human suffering. Through affliction God can demonstrate His power so that the eyes of those who are spiritually blind may be opened. God can use suffering to restore hope and confidence in His sovereign ability to work in any and all circumstances. Or, as in Job’s case, it could be that God wants us to know that none of us have a perfected understanding of who He is. Through the attack of the Sabeans, the fire of God that fell from the heavens, the raid of the Chaldeans, and the breakout of painful boils all over his body, Job found himself in the fire of affliction. Despite the fact that Job was a servant of God described as “ . . .a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil . . .” (Job 2:3), Job’s three friends thought otherwise. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (members of a very ancient society) believed that human suffering was related to and was the penalty for sin. To the threesome it was the only logical explanation for Job’s suffering. In three rounds of discussion with Job, his three friends try to convince him that he was being disciplined by God and must accept his punishment. They tried to convince him that no man can be righteous before the almighty God, that his suffering was the direct result of his wickedness, and that he must confess and return to God for restoration. Job, however, strongly desires the opportunity to speak to God in order to defend his character and prove that his suffering is unjustified. In chapter 31 Job makes some conclusive remarks to support his innocence. He has not been given to lust nor committed adultery. He has maintained his integrity, treated his servants fairly, ministered to the needs of the poor, the widowed and the fatherless; he has worshipped no false gods; he has not rejoiced in the misfortune of his enemies, he has not refused to provide shelter to someone in need; nor withheld wages for the laborers who work his land (see Job 31:1-40). After all of the poetic dialogue, Job’s conclusion and speeches from a younger Elihu, God finally responds out of a whirlwind. His first words for Job are found in Job 38:2-3: “ ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ ” After God questions Job extensively in view of His sovereign power, enormous strength, wisdom and control over all of creation Job concedes that he had spoken out of his human frailty and fragmented understanding of God. Though Job was an upright man in the eyes of God, what he knew of Him was not conclusive. Job’s heart was filled with remorse and he repents. Job’s spiritual vision, once clouded by his humanity, is now clear. The God that he had only heard of became the God that he could now see (Job 42:5). The fire of Job’s affliction finally went out. God restored Job and blessed him with fortunes that were double what he had prior to the onset of his devastation. His family and friends came to comfort him and each of them brought him a piece of silver and a gold ring. He blessed him with fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys, seven sons and three daughters and a life span that extended an additional 140 years. Going through the fire of affliction does not guarantee that the epilogue of our experience will mirror Job’s. The final outcome lies within the hands of our sovereign Lord. The fire of affliction can, however, take us to the next level of glory. The key is keeping our hearts and minds focused on God.