"My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth....He who watches over you will...neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121-- NIV)
The historic (and no less, even as I write) struggles of the Jews have been a wonder to many. As a Jew in a German concentration camp said, "Maybe we just didn't deserve it." Read the rest of the psalm, even all the promises in the Scriptures, then look at the history of the Jews, and you could wonder if the old Jew was right. Some have conjectured other possibilities. (1). "The LORD" does not keep his promises. (2). The Jews did not keep Covenant. But there is another which very few ever consider----There just may be something about the purposes of the Living Triune God of which we know very little.
Why the suffering? Why the murder of the millions, the robbing and pillaging of their land, the diaspora among the nations, the untold suffering? I just don't know. There are ample numbers of those "experts" who will give you the "final word" on this, and, just about anything else. But there is a "mystery" of suffering in the Scriptures. It was the "sorrowful passion" of Jesus which bought us "joy unspeakable," the New Birth, deliverance from sin, sonship for you and me. "For it was fitting for Him,..in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
Job's friends believed that all suffering was judgment on the sin of the sufferer. Most, deep down, believe that to this day. There is no doubt that the rebellion in the Garden led to suffering humanity, a very bad thing. But it was the suffering of Jesus which led to our "glory," a very good thing. Biblically there can be glory after suffering. This Biblical Principle is set forth in our Lord Jesus' statement about his own mission. "The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone-- a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels-- a plentiful harvest of new lives." Church History is full of "a plentiful harvest of new lives" coming from the ashes of the martyrs.
Generations have come and gone in Covenant History, living, depending, trusting, "My help comes from the LORD the Maker of heaven and earth," and this in the face of all contradictory evidence. Yet to the chagrin of the haters of "the LORD," Jesus Christ, the Jews and we are still here. The Jews are back in The Land; the Church is still experiencing "a plentiful harvest of new lives" in the earth. Rejoice, dear Believer; our help, our deliverance, our preservation does indeed come "from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." And though at times it may not seem so, "Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken (Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Islam, totalitarianism notwithstanding) but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore."
No matter what we may encounter, no matter the suffering, the questions, even at times the confusion, because we are surrendered to "the Maker of heaven and earth," you and I are a part of the, "forevermore," people.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I say with Paul, "Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!... For everything comes from [You]; everything exists by [Your] power and is intended for [Your] glory. To [You] be glory evermore." Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
