The Other Side of Travail
Adapted from the audio message by the same title found here: 724-mp3
By David A. DePra
In John 16, Jesus sought to comfort His disciples by using the picture of a
woman about to give birth. It is
from this passage that the title emerges of, “The Other Side of Travail.”
I could just as easily have titled this message, “The Other Side of
Death” -- which of course is resurrection -- but I will stay with, “The Other
Side of Travail,” because of the picture that Jesus gives in the passage.
A Misguided Expectation
Let's read starting in John 16:20:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world
shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into
joy.
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as
soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for
joy that a man is born into the world.
And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you.
Now let's stop right there. Let's
get into the environment and the context of these passages.
Jesus in this passage is once again
telling his disciples that He is going to go away.
He has told them plainly in John 16:16 that He is going to the Father.
He has told them all through John 14, 15 and 16 that it is essential that
He goes -- because unless He goes -- He cannot come back down and dwell in them
by the means of the Holy Spirit. He
has also told them that He is going to be betrayed, and that he is going to be
crucified and rise three days later from the dead.
Of course, the disciples had no frame of reference whatsoever for these Truths.
This was not in Jewish teaching from out of the Old Testament.
It should have been. But it
wasn't. The Jews, including the
disciples of Jesus, expected a Messiah that would physically reign and rule from
the temple in Jerusalem. Because
the disciples knew that Jesus was that Messiah they expected that this kingdom
was going to happen any minute.
From them, Jesus was going to kick out the Romans take His place in the temple
to reign and rule -- and they would be at his right hand.
Jesus had been telling them that their idea of the kingdom was not the Truth.
He told them directly that He would be crucified.
He also illustrated through parables the true nature of the kingdom of
God. In this age it would be a
spiritual kingdom – Jesus would come to dwell IN THEM.
But they could not understand Him.
Despite His constant teaching to the effect that things were not going to
happen the way they thought they did not grasp what He was saying.
As the time of His death and resurrection drew near, Jesus more and more told
them that He was going to leave them.
That is the context in which He gives this picture of a woman in travail.
That alone gave them cause for sorrow.
Jesus was aware that the disciples knew something was going to happen –
He had told them He was going to leave them -- but that they did not now exactly
WHAT was going to happen. What DID
happen was going to blindside them -- and plunge them into a tremendous crisis.
The disciples didn't expect a Messiah that would die.
They expected Jesus to reign and rule -- with them at their side.
All of their hopes were pinned on this expectation.
It was the reason for which they followed Jesus.
In fact, they left their lives, and risked their lives, upon this great
hope.
The disciples had anchored their limited faith in God in this expectation of the
kingdom. But Jesus knew that all of it was going to come crashing down -- and so
he wanted to encourage them. And
so, He says to them, “Your experience now, and in the next couple of days, can
be likened to a woman that is in travail -- that is in great pain because she's
delivering a child. But take heart
because there's another side to this travail.
There's another side to this horrible experience – to this death-like
experience that is about to come upon you -- and that other side is not death.
The other side of this travail is a birth – it is unto LIFE.”
A Woman in Travail
Women that have given birth to children obviously have a first-hand experience
of this -- and can relate to this much more than men.
There are women that have gone through labor that has lasted as much as
12 hours or more. And while that
woman is in that labor, she does anticipate the birth of this wonderful child.
But while she's in the labor she wants
it to be over. That's really the
case in any season of pain. If we
are in a situation that brings pain and suffering -- if we are in a trial -- we
are in labor spiritually. And we
want it to be over. We want the
pain to stop. We want OUT of that
situation. It's natural for us to
think that way.
Jesus is saying, “I understand that it's natural for you to want to escape
suffering. But have in mind that
the pain is going to pass -- that there is another side; there is a result;
there is a birth through this travail.
This birth is LIFE -- this birth is something for which you may not
presently even have a frame of reference.
But it's a birth that is coming out from your suffering.”
Jesus was speaking to them, of course, of the immediate circumstances in which
the disciples were about to find themselves -- that of losing their teacher;
losing their friend; really of losing their faith in God.
They were going to stumble because of their expectation of an immediate,
material kingdom. Note that this
kingdom wasn't an expectation that was apart from their personal faith in God.
No. It WAS their faith in
God. They believed that Jesus was
the Messiah -- and they were right.
But their interpretation of that the WAY in which God was going to bring that
kingdom to pass -- they did not have a clue about that.
And so when Jesus was betrayed they were plunged into this travail.
It was a cataclysmic experience.
It was a tremendous crisis point.
All of their hopes, all of their dreams, and all of their faith, was
vested in what they THOUGHT God was doing.
But it was going to come crashing down.
Have you ever had an experience wherein you really thought God was doing
something – and had all of your faith and hopes pinned to that -- only to see it
die? Have you ever been exposed as
one who had more faith in what you thought God was doing then you did in God
himself? This was the error of the
disciples. And quite often, it is
the same error of many Christians.
Jesus is speaking to the immediate situation of these disciples.
But in principle, He is also speaking to the spiritual experiences that
believers will go through. I really
love this picture that He is giving of a woman in travail -- because we do find
it elsewhere in the Bible. Jesus is
saying a woman when she is travail has sorrow because of the pain -- because of
the suffering -- but when the life is born, she rejoices because she sees it was
worth it. And she then understands
the outcome. Well, remember that
Paul said something similar in Galatians 4:19?
He said to the Galatian church – who had lost sight of the living Christ
and were living under the law -- He said to them in verse 19 of Galatians 4:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you.” I've shared many
times how that phrase, “formed in you,” in NT Greek means, “to be inwardly
realized and expressed.” And so
Paul was in travail until this great birth would take place in the Galatians –
he was in travail for them to come into an inward realization of Christ; so that
Christ could be inwardly expressed in them and to them.
This was Paul’s travail for the Galatian church -- as a woman about to give
birth. But of course, each of us
will have this same experience if Christ is to be formed in us.
Yet even though it requires much
travail, pain, and suffering, to get to that point of a birth, when, “the child
is born,” we will forget the pain because we will see, “the child,” and know
that it was all worth it. How many
understand that if we come into an inward realization of Jesus Christ -- to
where we really know Him – that it will set us free?
It will change us and adjust us to God -- and we will never see anything
the same way again. The BIRTH is
THE OTHER SIDE OF TRAVAIL. The
other side of travail is LIFE; it is seeing Jesus -- because He is now realized
within us.
I Will Come to You
Jesus had all along been promising the disciples exactly what he summed up in
John 16:21 – using the picture of the woman in travail – He had been promising
His life in them through the spirit of God.
It is also a promise for us.
One other place where He made this promise was in John 14.
In John 14, Jesus is talking about the
promise of the Father – the promise of God sending the spirit of God down to
dwell in them. He says in John
14:17: “The spirit of God has been
WITH you, but shall be IN you.”
Once again He was giving them this promise because He knows that soon He
is going to physically leave them, and He wants to comfort them.
In John 14:18, Jesus continues. He
tells them that He must soon leave them, but that, “I
will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.”
Note that: He says that HE
will come to them even though He is going to the Father.
How? He will come to them by the
means of the spirit of God that will no longer merely dwell WITH them – but IN
THEM. Jesus says that is how He will
come to them: He will, through the
spirit, dwell IN them.
In verse 19, He goes on to say, “Yet in a little while the world sees me no
more.” Why?
Because shortly, Jesus will no longer be there physically.
Yet He also said, “But you will see Me.”
Why? Because He is going to
come back to dwell IN THEM by the spirit of God – and reveal Himself to them in
spiritually -- in an INWARD way.
Then Jesus elaborates. He says,
“And because (when I come to dwell in you) I live, you shall live also.
And at that day, (when I come to dwell in you) you shall know that I am
in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
Clearly, despite telling them that He is going to leave them physically –
and the world will no longer see Him – He is nevertheless giving them the
promise that He is going to come to dwell in them via the spirit of God; He is
going to dwell in them, and they in Him.
He is promising them the reality of, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Now, let's read on because He makes His promise of coming to live in them even
more clear – and by extension – it is His promise to live in US.
In verse 21, He says, “He that has my
commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me, and he that loves Me shall
be loved of My Father, and I will love him – and will MANIFEST MYSELF TO HIM.”
So here Jesus is promising that He is going to manifest Himself to his
people. But HOW?
Well, we don't need to guess because Judas asks him that question.
Judas, not Iscariot, asked Him, “HOW is it Lord that you will manifest
Yourself unto us -- but not unto the world?”
Now, again – at this point in time, they have no clue as to what, “Christ in
you, the hope of glory,” means.
They have no clue as to what it means for the spirit of God to come down and
live IN THEM. That is a foreign
thought to them. This is why Judas
asks his question, “Why won’t the world see You, but we will be able to see You?
They were ALL wondering the same thing.
They were puzzled as to what it meant for Him to live IN them by the
spirit. They could not understand
how they would be able to see Him but the world would not be able to see Him.
That is why Judas asked the question, “How will you manifest yourself to
us, but not to the world?” In verse
23, Jesus answers:
If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
So there it is: HOW will Jesus
manifest himself to his people, but not to the world?
The Father and Jesus will come and make their abode with His people,
indeed, IN His people. This again
is, “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”
The Necessity of Suffering
Back in John 16, Jesus is making several things very clear to them:
He is going to leave them.
But He will not leave them alone – He will come to dwell in them by the spirit.
Yes, they will pass through a time of crisis and suffering.
But they will be as a woman in travail – it will be unto life in Him.
They could not grasp these things presently.
But He is telling them that if they would hang in there and believe Him
despite it all, there will be another side to this travail -- and that other
side will be as the birth of a child -- that other side will be the
manifestation of Himself IN THEM.
They will be brought into an inward realization of the very Christ with whom
they are speaking at that moment.
Jesus’ promise of life from out of suffering is a promise both to them and to
us. There is ANOTHER SIDE to
travail – something that will result from it.
And while that other side may not be a change in the circumstances of our
trial, that other side will nevertheless involve a change in US.
We will experience an inward revelation and realization of the Christ.
We may be like a woman in travail for many seasons in our life.
But it is all unto this picture of a birth.
It is all unto knowing Jesus Christ.
How many understand that even if nothing changes outwardly, that if we see Jesus
Christ that everything about us will change -- because it is knowing Him and
seeing Him that sets us free? And
so this will be a newness of life.
We will actually experience what we received when we were born from above.
This is not to minimize suffering.
It is REAL. We do have many
legitimate hopes and dreams. We do
have friends, brethren, and family.
Sometimes those we love sin against us and hurt us.
Sometimes we get sick.
Sometimes we encounter financial trauma.
All of these things can get inside of us and torment us.
But Jesus is promising a solution that is unlike any human solution.
That solution is an inward realization of Himself.
When we were born from above it was all at once and forever.
At that point, we ARE a new creation.
But just as a child must spend a lifetime to learn what life is, so must
we learn what the new birth carries in Christ.
Christianity is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” -- and it is the new
birth – it happens once forever the day that Christ joins us to Himself in
spirit. But now we must grow,
learn, and discover HIM.
Most of the New Testament, certainly after the book of Acts, is a collective
teaching of what Christianity IS.
In a nutshell, it can be summed up in that way it.
It is a written revelation as to what it means to be in Christ, and
Christ in us.
And so Jesus says he guarantees that you have sorrow in the world.
We are, in fact, “called to suffer.” Peter
writes:
For to this you are called: Because
Christ suffered for you, leaving an example, that you should follow his steps.
(I Peter 2:21)
Why is suffering necessary? Is it necessary because God just sort of sat down one day and decided that He was not going to let Christianity be, “too easy” -- and so he just sort of mechanically mandated that suffering be part of the package? No. That is silly. The reason that suffering is included in the Christian experience is because of THE NATURE OF THINGS. Everything you are in Adam is contrary to everything that Christ is in you. God has birthed us out of Adam but into Christ. He has delivered us out of the Adam race into Christ. And since the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh – and both are in us – then IN US is the battleground for war. It is a battle for our will. It's a battle for our faith.
Believers must pick up our cross daily – and that experience of losing our life
for the sake of Jesus -- in a practical experiential sense – will involve
suffering. But as Jesus is trying
to tell us through the picture of the woman in travail – we will find Him as our
life. We must die in our earthly
nature in order to live in Christ.
We must lose in order to find. This
is the way it is because of the nature of things.
That is why suffering is necessary in order to bring us into the fullness
of Christ.
A Vital Question
It is at this point that all believers MUST ask themselves a question.
It is certainly the question that each of the disciples had to ask
themselves -- and every one of them answered in the affirmative, except Judas.
Judas did not answer in the affirmative.
They said, “Yes,” to this question, but he said, “No.”
So what is the question?
The question is this: Even if all
of our hopes and dreams are dashed – hopes and dreams that we thought were of
God – even if all of our expectations from the Lord come crashing down – will we
go on with Him anyways?
I am not necessarily talking about things that we may have wanted in willful
rebellion – although the question really applies to even those – because even
those are things WE want. But if
all of our expectations from God, even as a believing Christian -- if all of
those -- despite us walking as far as we know it faith and obedience -- if all
of them come crashing down, and are brought to nothing, with no hope or sense
that they will ever be resurrected – will we, by faith, go on with Jesus Christ?
Or will we go on with God only if He does what we think He ought to do?
There are many believers who have walked along in a path that they were
convinced was OF GOD. They expected
a certain outcome. After all, they
prayed about it. They had done
their best to believe and obey God.
They gathered up Bible verses for an affirmation that their path was God’s will.
Many even thought that God had directly spoken to them.
Some say they had dreams and visions; confirmations through circumstances
-- or even and other Christians.
They claim to have been given signs and wonders to confirm what they believe was
God’s word and promise for them.
And then the entire thing collapses.
It doesn’t happen. And there
is no sign that it ever will. The
thing is dead.
Of course, many will resort to the notion that even if what they hoped is dead,
that this is all just a TEST. They
believe that God will, “resurrect it.”
But in many cases, He never does.
The thing is dead and it stays that way.
Situations like that are crucial tests of faith.
But the test is not whether we believe God will resurrect that for which
you hoped. Rather, the test is
whether you and I will go on with God even if He doesn’t.
Are we able to LET IT GO?
Are we able to trust that it is sufficient that God knows the beginning from the
end? Are we able to trust that God
will not fail to be faithful to us -- even without our continual demands that He
be faithful? Are we able to realize
that there is a greater purpose of God that can be found in a circumstance,
hope, dream, or desire?
So we have to ask that question: If
God were to allow our hopes and dreams to die, will we go on with Him?
Even if doing so costs us everything?
Or will we take the attitude that because God did not give us what we
expected that this proves that God is not faithful?
You will remember that Jesus said, “Whoever will lose His life for My sake will
find Me as His life.” He also said,
“Whoever would seek to possess His life for himself will lose it.”
That is the meaning behind those words.
Can we see that when our hopes and dreams are shattered that this is the
choice? That it is at that point
that we are doing to lose ourselves into the hands of Jesus Christ – or that we
will continue to possess ourselves?
These are crisis points in the Christian life.
It certainly was a huge crisis point in the lives of the disciples of
Christ.
Judas was an apostle. He followed
Jesus until he figured out that Jesus wasn't going be the Messiah the way Judas
wanted Him to be – and so through betrayal Judas tried to force things.
Judas essentially said, “No!
I'm not going on with God unless He does what I want.
Jesus MUST set up the kingdom of God NOW.”
Judas was so demanding that his way be Jesus’ way that when it all came
crashing down he hung himself.
I'm sure all of the other disciples had their doubts.
Peter betrayed him.
That betrayal arose out of doubt.
All of them probably had their trauma and doubts over this terrible
situation. But the eleven of them
went on with God -- regardless of their kingdom crashing down; regardless of the
death of their every hope and dream.
You have to remember that the disciples had pinned all of their hopes and dreams
– indeed, they had risked their lives – on the promise of God’s kingdom.
They were not hoping for a bad thing.
They did not desire for something that was forbidden by the Bible.
Rather, they were hoping and expecting the very kingdom promised in
scripture, and about which Jesus had continually taught.
They knew Jesus was the Messiah – and they were RIGHT.
They expected a kingdom – and they were RIGHT.
But they did NOT understand the meaning.
They did not understand the MEANS.
They thought that the death of Jesus was the end of any kingdom.
But the death of Jesus was the means of the kingdom.
They thought the kingdom was to be a natural one.
But it was to be spiritual – beginning with CHRIST IN US.
Thus when Jesus was crucified, they were devastated.
And that devastation called from them FAITH.
They had to answer the question:
Despite the disappointment, will I go on with God?
Believers are going to face this same kind of disappointment.
The reason is not because God deceives them.
No. Read the gospels.
Jesus continually told the disciples the Truth about the kingdom, His
purpose for coming, and what was going to happen.
But they could not understand Him – they were blinded by traditional
teaching and by the very desires they hoped to realize.
God is also true to us. But
we are also liable to be blinded.
Thus, the only way in which God can make us to see is by allowing things to take
their course. But at the end of
that course we will be faced with that choice:
Am I wholly for the Lord – to the point where I will be adjusted to His
purpose, even though it dashes to pieces my purpose?
How many realize that when God must allow our hopes to be dashed that He is, in
fact, guiding us into all Truth?
Sure. I've known a lot of folks who
have believed that God was doing something or other that fulfilled their
desires. They believed and obeyed
God to the best of their knowledge.
Maybe it cost them to walk in what they thought was the will of God -- only to
see the whole thing come crashing down to the ground.
Did God betray them by allowing them to be deceived?
No. He had to allow them to
be deceived in order to expose the error that was IN THEM – the ignorance and
the blindness – and thus, bring them into the Truth and realization of Jesus
Christ.
Do we want the Truth or not? There
are some professing believers who will not go on with God.
If following Jesus Christ leads them into disaster – as they would define
it – they accuse God of betraying them and refuse to ever trust Him again.
But the problem in that case does not boil down to a need to understand.
Rather, it is a need to BELIEVE and TRUST – without being able to
understand. This is a difficult
thing. It is a hard pill to
swallow. But we are dealing with
eternal issues that are contrary to earthly and temporal goals and thinking.
Each Christian will have to face it.
God is faithful. All of His ways
are true. And just as was the case
with the disciples, if following Him leads us into heartbreak or disappointment,
then we must continue to follow Him – for He is keeping His promise to lead us
into the Truth. Look where He
led His disciples: Into an inward
realization of Himself. The eleven,
and Paul, became a foundation upon which the entire body of Christ would be
built.
So the question remains: Will I go
on with God? Will I believe God,
regardless of my own inability to understand?
Will I walk by faith, instead of sight?
Will I believe Jesus Christ when He says that there is another side of
this travail; that there is a resurrection?
Will I lose my life into His hands?
If I will, He promises that I will find life, light, and Truth.
If I will, “hang in there,” by faith, I will discover a revelation of
Jesus. Indeed, even if I am never
given an explanation that clears up my perplexity, it will be OK -- because I'll
see Jesus in a way that enables me to believe.
In That Day
God may never explain to us why He has allowed certain things.
But the answer -- instead of the explanation -- is going to be knowing
Jesus Christ. That is exactly what
Jesus Christ says here in John 16.
Now, let's pick it up here where I left off with verse 21:
A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow because her hour of delivery
has come. But as soon as she
is delivered of the child, her pain and suffering is ended – and now she
rejoices in the child. In other
words, as soon as the whole purpose of her birth pangs comes to pass -- as soon
as the whole point of her suffering comes out -- she remembers no more the
anguish for joy that a child is born into the world.
In other words, now there is a BIRTH.
This picture that Jesus is giving is correspondent to the birth of Christ -- or
to a new realization of Christ – that is, “born in us,” through suffering.
He says, “Now you have sorrow.
But I will see you again – I will come to dwell in you – and IN THAT DAY
you shall rejoice because you will see Me.
And no man can take from you that joy.”
Of course, the expression, “in that day,” is really referring to the point in
our experience when we see Jesus Christ.
Jesus is talking about what I read earlier -- that He will come to them, and
dwell in them, and manifest Himself to them.
But He also says that IN THAT DAY that Jesus manifests Himself to them in
an inward way – “in that day you shall ask me nothing.”
What is He saying? Jesus is not
saying that it's wrong to ask things of God.
It is not wrong to ask God WHY, or to inquire of the Lord as to what He
wants us to do. That's fine and
it's good. We often need to do that
-- that we may open ourselves to Him.
In fact, He encourages us to ask.
He says, “IN THAT DAY you will ask Me nothing.
But verily, verily, I say to you, whatsoever you ask the Father in my
name, He will give you.”
So it's good and right to ask -- but he is saying that IN THAT DAY that the
birth takes place – IN THAT DAY that they are brought into an inward realization
of HIM in a new way – IN THAT DAY they will not need to ask Him the same old
questions. Why?
Because seeing HIM is sufficient. God
may go on to explain something about this or that if it suits His purpose for
us, but the point is that Jesus Christ in us is sufficient.
If we see Jesus Christ we will know he is sufficient and faithful.
We may carry questions and perplexities, and even some hurts and pains,
for the rest of our life over certain things that have impacted our soul and our
natural man. We may.
But if we come into an inward realization of Jesus Christ IT WILL BE OK
-- because we will be able to say, “I do not understand -- but I trust the One
that does understand. And it is
sufficient.”
And so Jesus said, “Verily, verily I say to you, IN THAT DAY you shall ask me
nothing but whatsoever you ask the Father in my name He will give to you.
So if you have asked nothing in My name, ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be full.” And so He is
talking about the fact that when He is revealed in us -- in other words, when we
come into a knowledge of Him – that HE HIMSELF is going to be the answer.
How many understand if we know Jesus, and Jesus is the Truth, that
knowing Him will answer a whole lot of questions?
But then Jesus goes on to say than from OUT OF that from out of that revelation
of Him, and from OUT OF that relationship of knowing Him -- that we are able to
ask the Father in His name for things that we need – and He encourages us to do
that. And so we are at perfect
liberty to ask God anything that's on our heart.
And yet if we know Him we will accept silence as his answer for us -- if
that is presently His answer -- and we will nevertheless GO ON WITH GOD.
So again -- the question is: “Will
we go on with God?,” even if we don't understand;
even if we have been hurt; even if He's
allowed tragedy; even if He has allowed, “our kingdom” -- whatever that is -- to
come crashing down around our ears?
May God give us the grace to go on because it is absolutely vital to our
spiritual growth in Jesus Christ.
A Prime Example of the Ways of God
Now in talking about a subject such as this, we can hardly avoid turning to what
we might call, “the template,” for suffering -- and that template is the book of
Job. I cannot take the time to go
through the book of Job, but I simply want to illustrate from the last chapter
of the book the fact that if we believe God, and let Him have his way with us in
these matters -- if we hang in there and lose ourselves to Him; ask Him to do,
“what ever it takes,” to bring us through -- and refuse to give up -- if we do
that, that we will see Jesus Christ in a way we never imagined was possible.
I trust that we realize that when I talk about seeing Jesus Christ that I am not
talking merely about learning new doctrine or a new theological interpretation
of Scripture. Those things will, of
course, come along -- because everything God does is going to be revealed and
affirmed in the Bible. But I'm
talking about, “knowing Jesus Christ,” in the way that the Bible explains it.
Paul, in Ephesians 1, says it this way:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know… (Eph.
1:17-18)
But then there is also Galatians 4:
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you. (Greek meaning: Inwardly
realized and expressed.) (Gal. 4:19)
These passages show what it really means to see Jesus and to know Him in a way
that we may have never known Him before.
This will SET US FREE.
Theology and doctrine alone can't set us free.
Seeing Jesus will set us free -- and then the theology and the doctrine
will absolutely agree.
Well, most of us know the story of Job.
Job, through no fault of his own, was plunged into a terrible time of
suffering. God had said that Job,
“…is good and upright man. He also
said to Satan that, “you have incited Me to allow this to come upon him without
cause.” So there was no thought in
the book of Job that Job's time of suffering was the result of his own sin.
No. But Job was not perfect.
If he had been perfect, he would not have needed the trial.
But he had not sinned. He
had not gotten into unbelief at all.
God never said he did.
How many know that you and I can be completely obedient; completely faithful to
God as much as we know to be -- and still be plunged into troubles?
Why? Because God loves us.
He must chastise us -- which means to teach us as sons and daughters.
Again -- this gets back to, “the nature of things.”
It gets back to what MUST happen if you are birthed into a new realm –
and what WILL happen if you go on to experience Jesus Christ.
Well, in the Old Testament, Job found himself in this situation through no fault
of his own. However, this is one
question we must address before move on:
What if my problem and my suffering IS the result of my sin?
What if I have caused it, or if I deserve it?
Am I then a lost cause? Is
there any point in me asking for help from the Lord?
Now if the reason that you are suffering is because of your own sin or unbelief
– absolutely you can turn to God.
Give yourself to God. And then how many
know that you and all of your suffering is now in His hands?
Repent and turn to Jesus Christ.
Because in the final analysis, we must ALL lose our lives to Jesus
Christ. We must ALL say to God,
“Lord, do whatever it takes to get YOUR WILL in me; do whatever it takes to
bring to pass what YOU want to bring to pass; do whatever it takes to bring me
into an inward realization of Your Son.”
The fact is, we are all sinners. We
have all been guilty of unbelief.
Thus, no matter how we have gotten into our trial – what matters is how we
respond to God through it. In the
end, it will matter only whether Jesus is revealed in us through it.
In Job 42, we begin to see the reason why God allowed the suffering of Job.
We begin to see the outcome of this horrible time of suffering for Job --
and what God was after; what was the purpose.
We might say that Job was like a woman in travail, under great stress, in
great pain -- really in every single facet of his life spiritually and
physically. It wasn't just that Job
lost possessions and his family. It
wasn't just that he was covered with boils.
All of that was horrible.
But the greatest trial of all was that Job's faith in God was shaken.
He could not understand how somebody who had obeyed God -- and God said
that he had obeyed – he could not understand how a man who obeyed God and
believed God could be allowed this kind of suffering.
Much of the book of Job is a debate over that issue.
Leading up to Job 42, God had come to Job and begun to reveal himself to Job in
that whirlwind. But in Job 42:1, we
find that Job answered the Lord. He
said, “I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld
from You.” And so Job is beginning
to understand that God is sovereign -- that God knows what He is doing and
doesn't make mistakes.
In the second half of Job 42:3, Job continues.
He confesses, “Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, and
things that were too wonderful for me which I really didn't understand; which I
knew not.” Note that Job is NOT
saying, “Therefore have I uttered error.”
No. He's NOT saying,
“Therefore have I uttered falsehoods and heresy about the Lord.”
No. In fact, God Himself
says in Job 42:8, “Job has spoken of Me that which is right.”
This does not mean that every word Job spoke was perfect.
It does not mean that Job understood what he spoke – in fact, Job is
confessing that he did NOT understand.
But it does mean that despite all the suffering and despair; despite all
of the emotional outbursts and perplexity, that Job rightly represented the
nature and character of God. Job
held to God’s faithfulness despite his inability to see HOW God could be
faithful.
Job was confessing that he believed and spoke the Truth – but that what he had
believed and uttered was beyond him.
Maybe we could say that Job believed right doctrine and true teaching
ABOUT God, but is now confessing, “Now that I see God Himself.
And because I see God Himself, I now understand that I really didn’t know
what I was talking about.”
How many understand that this is a wonderful place to come to?
To com to where you begin to feel this about even your TRUE doctrinal
teaching? That as right as it might
be, that all of your biblical teaching just pales into insignificance in the
light of seeing Jesus Christ? The
biblical teaching is essential.
It's great and we need to be biblical in our teaching and doctrine.
But the Bible is not a person.
Teachings are not a person.
Indeed, the Bible itself tells us that we must come to see the Person of Jesus
Christ. God’s purposes are unto
that end.
And so Job confesses, “My goodness Lord, I have uttered what I did not
understand, and I have spoken things that are too wonderful for me.
I really didn't know what I was talking about.
In verse 5, Job says, “I've heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye sees you. I therefore
repent.”
Now, in the latter part of verse 3, and all of verse 5, we are reading the
outcome of Job's time of suffering.
We are reading the other side of his travail.
We are reading that what is born out of his travail is that he now SEES
GOD. He sees the living God.
No longer has Job merely heard about God
through teaching and doctrine. He
sees God Himself.
This is exactly what God wants to do for us.
He wants to bring us into an inward realization of Jesus Christ; He wants
to reveal CHRIST IN US. That will
adjust our doctrine. And if our
teaching doctored has been false, it will be corrected.
But even if our teaching and doctrine have been true, we will see the
Person to whom it points.
So here was Job going through this horrible season of suffering.
Again and again, he was asking God -- WHY?
Why, God? -- why have You allowed this to happen to me?
I have obeyed you and I have believed you.
Why have you allowed this?”
You will note that God never answered, “I have allow this because you are a
dirty rotten sinner.” God never
said to Job, “Because you stopped believing in Me.”
What God essentially DID say to Job was this:
“It was precisely because I saw that your heart was toward Me; that in
your heart you believed and wanted me – it was precisely because of that -- that
I brought you into this trial. I knew I
could bring you to the end of yourself. I
saw that you could be trusted with it.“
(I hope that it is understood what I mean by that.)
Through his suffering, Job did indeed come through to exactly what God
wanted him to come through to: Job saw
God – he saw God in a way that he never imagined.
Now again – as I noted before, it doesn't matter whether our trial is the result
of our own sin, or our own mistakes.
Regardless, we can always repent of our failings and turn to God.
For at the end of the day, God's goal for us is still the SAME – it is to
bring us into the end of ourselves and into the fullness of Christ.
Regardless of where we are, or how we got there, we are nevertheless
dealing with the SAME God, the SAME Truth, the SAME Jesus – and the SAME purpose
of God in our lives. Thus, our
starting point will eventually not matter if God’s gets HIS ENDING.
There are a lot of Christian people, and I can identify with this, that when we
get into trials and tribulations -- we think that the reason that we are
suffering is because we have sinned or broken faith with God.
But that may not be the case at all.
If God convicts us of sin or unbelief we can repent.
If He does not then we really should not torment ourselves over it.
For the goal and purpose of God remains the same:
That we might surrender to God and come to see Jesus Christ.
There are also many of us who have had family or friends, and even brethren do
some terrible things to us. Perhaps
we have been betrayed, lied to, deserted, and even molested.
Why did these things happen?
Because people sin. Because people
don’t revere God. And we were in
their path. God may allow us to be
hurt – although I will say that we have no idea how many times God may have
protected us because things never got that far.
Regardless, we MUST give ALL of these matters to God.
There is simply no explanation that is going to heal us.
Only faith in God and a realization of Jesus is going to give us a life
that will be victory over these terrible things.
Job asked all of these questions throughout the book of Job.
And he never saw the answers to his questions.
You never find God explaining to him specifically why he had to suffer.
In fact, you don't even read of God explaining it to him after God
restored Job. No.
But even though Job did not see the answers he sought, he did see
something eternally more important than answers:
He saw God.
You will note that once Job saw God that he was done asking and arguing and
going round and round over his suffering.
IN THAT DAY, Job did not ask God any more questions.
Rather, it says that Job prayed for his friends.
Notice the shift: Job is
still suffering. Nothing had
changed about the trial of Job. But
Job – because he saw God – had changed.
He is no longer preoccupied with himself.
His attitude is no longer, “Woe is me.”
No. Job has seen God.
This has set him free to leave himself alone in the hands of God.
Job was set free to such an extent that in Job 42:10 it says that the Lord
turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Some people have tried to turn this into a formula -- that if you're in a
trial just pray for others and God will end the trial.
That's nonsense.
If you want to try that go-ahead.
It is not going to work. No.
Job was free to pray for his friends because, through faith, he had left
himself alone in the hands of God. He had
finally come to the end of all his efforts to understand and to please God.
Why was he free to do that? Why did
he now have the faith to leave himself alone?
Because HE SAW GOD.
Despite all of that Job had suffered, and despite the silence of God, Job said,
“Yes, I'm going on with God. I'm
going on with God, even though He has not answered me; even though he has not
given me the explanations I want.
I'm going on of God because now I see God.”
That is the other side of travail.
That's the birth of the child.
That's the Revelation of Christ in us.
It is the teaching to New Testament believers revealed in the book of
Job. It is exactly where God wants
to bring each of His people: Into
an inward realization of Jesus Christ.
Israel at the Red Sea
The Bible is filled with lots of examples of these Truths regarding trials and
travail. Job is maybe the primary
one. But I want to give another
example from Exodus 14. In Exodus
12 we find that God had delivered Israel out of Egypt through the blood of the
Passover Lamb. Pharaoh really did
let God’s people go. Then, starting
in Exodus 14:1 – which is after Israel begins to leave Egypt, into the into the
wilderness, on the way to the Promised Land, it says:
The Lord spoke unto Moses saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against
Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea...,” and they did so.
(Ex. 14:2, 4)
What we read here is that immediately after leaving Egypt Israel was given
specific instructions by God as to where to encamp.
God told them exactly where to encamp and scripture records, “and they
did so.” But God also told them
exactly what was going to happen if they obeyed Him:
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled
in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I
will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know
that I am the
LORD. (Ex. 14:3-4)
And so, Israel -- at the direction of God -- went out and encamped exactly where
God told them to camp, and what happened as a result was exactly what God said
would happen: Pharaoh pursued them
and they were trapped. On three
sides they were trapped by the mountains and the Red Sea, and on the fourth side
Pharaoh was closing in upon them.
Here we come to yet another important question:
How did Israel get into this predicament -- where it looked as if all of
them were going to be slain? How
did they get into what was an impossible situation?
Answer: They got into that
predicament by OBEYING GOD.
When Israel came out of Egypt they did not decide to do their own thing.
No. God told them were to encamp
and they did so -- and it got them into this impossible situation.
Understandably, they were afraid.
They expressed their doubts.
But isn’t their reaction nothing more than a mirror of how we react when we find
ourselves in trials? Especially if
we believe we have gotten into the trial through faith and obedience?
How many also see that it was at the point of this great crisis, that in spite
of all their fear, that they were faced with exactly the same question as was
Job, and as was the disciples: Will
we go on with God regardless of circumstances?
Regardless of whether it looks as if He has forsaken us?
Jesus Christ is THE WAY of Escape
Exodus 14 contains God’s directions to Israel as to what they must do in this
impossible situation. Note that His
instructions to them are not a formula as to how to get out of their dilemma, or
as to how to beat the Egyptians.
No. His instructions are a
revelation as to how to believe and trust Him – indeed they are instructions as
to how to FIND God in the impossible.
But let’s pause for a moment and bring in a great Truth.
It is really the same Truth we have been discussing – and that Truth is
that Jesus Christ – seeing Him and knowing Him – is God’s purpose in any trial.
Jesus is God’s way of escape, not out of the trial, but He is God’s way
of escape while we remain in it. If
we lose ourselves to Jesus Christ and abandon ourselves to God, we have escaped
UNBELIEF, ignorance, and the wiles of the Devil.
We have escaped these through HIS LIFE – and through an inward
realization of Him. That being the
case, NOTHING can take us captive; nothing can destroy us.
There is a common misunderstanding among believers that God’s, “way of escape,”
is a way out of their trial. Thus,
folks pray and search for this way of escape as if God is keeping it a secret,
or as if He will not give it to them.
But this is error. Whether
God actually opens up a way out of our particular trial and suffering – or does
not – is a secondary issue. But
regardless of that, God’s primary purpose is ALWAYS to reveal Christ in us –
which is equal to Jesus being revealed as our, “way of escape,” all the while we
remain in the trial. Once God
achieves that IN US, He may deliver us out of the trial that made it possible.
You will note that if we are to find God IN an impossible situation, we are
actually going to have to be IN the impossibe.
If we are to discover Christ as the other side of travail, we must be IN
travail. Obviously, there is no
birth without birth pangs. Sure.
If every time we encountered trouble God gave us an, “escape route,” we
would never grow to know Christ. We
would never have occasion to LOSE our lives so that we could FIND CHRIST.
Therefore, when God directs us and we obey, only to end up in a trial,
this is actually the faithfulness of God in our spiritual lives.
There is a passage in the Bible to which many of us like to refer when we find
ourselves in a trial. This is the
most common passage that folks use to try to prove that God always provides a
secret way of escape OUT of suffering. But a closer look at the passage sheds
another light upon this issue:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God
is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it.
(I Cor. 10:13)
Note the final sentence in this passage:
The way of escape is so that we might be able to BEAR the trial.
Does that sound like God is promising a way OUT of the trial?
No. He is promising a revelation of Christ that will enable us – beyond
our own strength – to be able to endure the trial unto God’s purpose.
In short, Jesus Christ is THE way of escape.
Is this not VICTORY in Jesus Christ?
Is it not victory in Jesus Christ for a believer to face contradiction to
faith and the lies of the enemy, and yet to stand firm in faith? – while still
IN the trial? Absolutely.
God desires to bring us to the END of ourselves – so that we might LOSE
ourselves to Jesus Christ. It is
the only way in which we can truly FIND God; find Jesus Christ as our life.
This is God’s purpose in His people:
That we might know Jesus Christ and live from out of Him.
God will use the impossible situation to accomplish this purpose in His
people.
Now, God DID also deliver Israel out of their physical trial. He did deliver
Israel, and He did deliver Job. He
may deliver us. But whether He does
or not is secondary to whether Christ is revealed IN US through the trial.
If He is revealed, then we ARE delivered in an inward way.
The outward may follow because we are free.
God’s Directions
God’s directions to Israel as to how to believe Him – as to how to find Him and
His deliverance in the impossible are found in Ex. 14:15.
There are four dimensions:
Fear ye not,
stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew
to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them
again no more for ever. The LORD
shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto
the children of Israel, that they go forward.
These directions are really four dimensions of faith.
They constitute a complete relinquishment and a losing of yourself into
the hands of the Lord by faith.
“Fear NOT -- is the first thing.
But if you are, FEARING NOT, then you ARE believing -- and if you ARE believing,
then you will STAND STILL in the faithfulness of God.
You will refuse to be moved from faith and commitment to Him and His
purpose. We do this by telling the
Lord, “to do whatever it takes to get His purpose.”
We can say to Him, “I don't know my way out of this travail.
I don't even know why I’m in it.
But I am not going to move from believing you.
I am going to believe you despite the fact that the, ‘Egyptians,’ are
coming down around my neck. I am
going to GO ON with You regardless – I will go on with You by standing still.”
How many understand that standing still is just another way, ironically, of
saying, “I'm going on with the Lord.
I’m not going to run off into my own will.
No. I will stand still in
His faithfulness – and ask Him to do whatever it takes to get His will in me.”
If you read Ephesians 6, there you will find a description of spiritual warfare.
The theme is STANDING AGAINST the enemy – by STANDING STILL in the
faithfulness and finished work of Jesus Christ.
God could never instruct us to stand still in the Lord, or in the power
of His might, unless He was speaking of a finished victory.
It is the ground of a finished and final victory that makes it possible
to stand still – otherwise we would have to fight to WIN the victory; win that
ground. No.
We are to stand still, by faith, upon the ground of HIS finished victory.
If we fear not by believing Jesus Christ, and stand still in Him, God says we
will, “see the salvation of the Lord.”
But WHO is the salvation of the Lord?
It is Jesus Christ. There it
is again: HE is the other side of
travail. If we fear not and stand
still even while in our travail and pain – we will come into an inward
revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Lord IS our salvation. Psalms
says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom then will I fear?” (Ps.
27:1) Jesus said, “I am the
resurrection and the life.” (John
11) So again -- just as we found
with Job, and as Jesus taught in John 16, so we find the same Truth here in
Exodus 14: Fear not, stand still,
and you will see the salvation of the Lord -- you will see Jesus Christ Himself
in a way that you never anticipated.
When we are in the midst of great suffering and travail, it may ring rather
hollow to us to be told that Jesus Christ is our way of escape, and that knowing
Him is our salvation. Just as Jesus
told His disciples, most of us are focused on our pain – on getting out of the
trial. God may eventually deliver
us. But once we do come to see
Jesus Christ we will absolutely know what Jesus was talking about – and we will
absolutely agree with Him: Jesus
Christ is our salvation. The
sufferings of this present time are not to be compared – even during this life –
too having Jesus Christ revealed in us.
The Consequences of Unbelief
Now, of course, there are other possibilities.
How many understand that if we won't go on with God – if we will not
believe Him despite our disappointments and perplexities -- if we won't go on
with God by standing still – then we will NOT see Jesus.
The child will NOT be born.
We will not know Christ in that new and inward way.
And perhaps more frightening is the fact that we will be so diminished
that we will likely never even realize what we lost through our unbelief.
I know a lot of people that have broken faith and gone their own way – because
God would not give them what they wanted, or because God allowed travail to come
into their lives. They accuse God
in exactly the same way as did Israel:
We believed and obeyed You.
But now we are in great calamity.
Have you led us here only to desert us and allow us to die?
We were better off in Egypt.”
For example, I have known folks who got themselves into great religious
deception. They sold themselves to
a particular religious system or group.
It cost them years of their life.
Perhaps it cost them their marriage, their family, friends, or even a lot
of money. Then they saw the Truth.
Some of these people blame God for allowing them to be deceived.
They blame Him for what they lost.
Rather, they should be thanking Him for showing them the Truth.
It is here that they must ask whether
they will go on with God – whether they will lose their lives into His hands –
or demand to own themselves.
What is the penalty for choosing darkness rather than light?
Some punishment from God?
No. The penalty for choosing
darkness rather than light is that I get darkness – I become dark within myself.
I cannot see the Truth. I
cannot see Jesus Christ. And if
that is the case, then I have no light to guide me in life.
All else that I do will be subject to my unbelief.
The terrifying part of this is that many in this condition become so
hardened in their pride and unbelief that they think they do see.
As Jesus warned, “Beware lest the light that is in you be darkness.”
That is deception. They only
deliverance is to come back into the light.
Be willing to be exposed.
Repent and turn to God.
Moving Forward
We cannot know specifically what will be born out of death and surrender.
We can only know that it will be a new realization of Jesus.
Will we go on – will we MOVE FORWARD with God -- standing still in His
faithfulness, allowing Him to bring us into His great purpose in Christ?
This is what is being illustrated at the Red Sea.
So God said to Israel, “Fear not, stand still, and you will see the salvation of
the Lord.” But then he added, “Move
forward.” That is a bit humorous,
in that if you were an Israelite in that impossible situation, you might be
tempted to ask the Lord, “Move forward to WHERE?
There is only the Red Sea in front of me.”
How many see a principle here: The
waters of the Red Sea were a type and shadow of a baptism into the death of
Jesus Christ. Facing the impossible really
does show us the Truth about ourselves -- that WE are impossible. Yet that death is not
the last word. If by faith we
abandon ourselves into the hands of the living God there will be a resurrection
– there will be a resurrection or greater release of Jesus Christ IN US.
We see this illustrated in what Jesus said on the cross.
He said, “My God, My God, why view forsaken Me?
But then, with His last breath He said, “Into Your hands I commit My
spirit.” He stared death in the
face but was surrendering to His Father in that death.
He knew that He was depending one hundred percent on God to raise him up.
But he believed. And this is
what it means to MOVE FORWARD – it means to abandon yourself to God in a baptism
unto death. That is our Red Sea.
This principle of life from death in Christ is all through scripture.
As noted earlier, it is essential because of, “the nature of things.”
Thus, it may be dark now, but there is a morning.
There may be great anguish now.
But in Christ there is a birth; there is another side to travail – a
resurrection and life side.
Light in His Life
There is another question here that we need to ask:
Why does relinquishment to God -- why does losing your life to Jesus
Christ -- result in a greater realization of Christ?
Because if you give yourself to Jesus Christ you will decrease and He
will increase IN YOU. And He is the
Light.
In Matthew 16, where Jesus said that if anyone would lose his life for Jesus’
sake, he would find his life in Christ – we find this principle.
If you lose yourself to Jesus what you find is Jesus as your life – and
all light and Truth is found in Him; in His life.
You will be brought into a greater
realization of Jesus. Losing
yourself to Jesus Christ breaks the spirit of self-possession -- and a spirit of
self-possession blinds us to God more than anything else.
Thus, losing yourself to Christ really means that you have taken a step
out of darkness into the light.
Encouragement from the New Testament
Now I want to wrap this up with a couple of verses from the New Testament.
These are ones that most Christians know because there are ones that are
often quoted for encouragement.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
(Rom. 8:18)
Paul is, of course, drawing a contrast between this age and the next age.
In this age we will realize, “Christ in us,” and He will be our hope of
glory for the next age. But in the
next age, Christ in us will no longer be merely our HOPE of glory – but we will
be the realization of HIS glory. That's yet to come.
There is a certain amount of His glory that we can come to realize in
this age – and our sufferings make that possible.
But this is just a foretaste.
In the next age, there will be a full release of His glory IN US.
Another passage:
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more
exceeding and eternal
weight of glory; While we look not
at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal;
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
(II Cor. 4:17)
Paul knows that travail is a part of life.
He knows that we sin and bring consequences upon ourselves.
He knows that others sin against us.
He knows that bad things happen to good people – if you know what I mean.
Certainly all of the above, and more, happened to Paul Himself.
But he is trying to tell us WHY God allows it – God allows it because IF
– and it is a big “IF” – we will lose it all into God’s hands, even if He does
not explain it, that these temporal sufferings will be used by God for eternal
purposes. And all of those eternal
purpose are going to be built upon the revelation of Jesus Christ that God wants
to bring IN US.
When we all finally go to be with the Lord, and we look back on this age, those
seasons of great suffering which may have lasted decades for some, will THEN
seem as like, “light affliction,” in comparison to what God got out of it IN US.
How many understand that when you and I leave this world that all of our
suffering and all of our circumstances are going to pass into history?
No circumstance or situation – no cause of either suffering or enjoyment
can pass through into eternity – all of that is going to be left behind.
All that can live forever is what God got in us of Christ through it.
This brings us full circle back to John 16:21, where Jesus gives us the picture
of a woman in travail. Pain is
real. People do hurt us.
We ourselves do make mistakes.
Some of them are bad mistakes.
And we are going to suffer as Christians – it is the nature of things
that we suffer. Jesus understands
that it is expected that we react to pain.
We want it to stop, and until it does, our mind will be on it.
But He is telling us that the pain is only temporary.
But what is BORN out of that suffering is eternal.
God wants to reveal Christ in us.
And in this age, Christ in us is our HOPE of experiencing HIS glory.
Yet in the next age, Christ in us will be our full realization of HIS
glory. Jesus says, “You will KNOW
that all of the travail had another side – and you will rejoice in the life that
was born out from it.”