Have you ever looked at the other side of something embroidered or a tapestry? I have a little piece here from our home. You can look at one side and see this beautiful image. Yet flip it over, and there is an ugly collection of criss crossed threading that seems to make no sense at all.
You can make out like a little thing here and there but overall, about 95% of it is just a mess.
It is not strange how the two sides can be so different? The back side an utter mess and the visible side, an artful image.
This is a great visual explanation for suffering.
Sunday, we began a study on the book of Ruth and considered those opening sentences in light of the sovereignty of God. God IS good and God IS sovereign AND importantly, for the believer, all things work to the glory of God.
When we are suffering it can appear a lot like this back side. There is just a huge collection of threads in our life that seem to be going nowhere in particular. Things seem to be a mess and disjointed and we can’t find a purpose in any of it.
There is a side that so often we do not see until the work is complete. And it becomes the image that the creator was desiring to make. This is a beautiful thing to consider.
In Genesis 32, Jacob has a very interesting encounter that could even be labeled mysterious. Jacob, all alone, is met by a man and they began to wrestle. It says that they wrestled all night until the breaking of the new day.
I wrestled in high school, and I recall the first day of wrestling practice. The coach paired each boy with someone close to the same size and each of us was given a small area and were told at the sound of the whistle we were to wrestle.
What I recall distinctly is how quickly fatigue set in. We were to wrestle for three minutes, but after like 50 seconds, it felt like it had been an hour. We were winded and tired and weak. I can’t imagine Jacob wrestling ALL night long. Jacob must have been a man of incredible strength.
This is a passage in which MUCH time could be spent. Some day these deeper truths will be addressed but for the couple minutes we have together today the focus will narrow on sanctification (the process through which we become holy) and suffering.
In this passage it states that Jacob was wrestling with God. This fact is confirmed in Hosea 12. This presents a problem because God tells Moses that earthly man cannot see God and live. Because of the wording in this passage, it appears that this is a Christophany, the appearance of Christ in the O.T.
Three things happened to Jacob in that wrestling match:
His name was changed to Israel (He strives with God)
He obtained a limp because in this wrestling match Jacob’s hip was touched by his opponent and was put out of joint. Jacob limped away from the match.
Because of this limp, he was forever changed. All Jacob’s natural powers were crippled, and every future step would be a reminder of God’s divine grace.
Here is a lesson for you and me. Sometimes our growth in holiness (sanctification) comes from something which is causing suffering. In this day, we are so quick to want to escape pain. We get a slight headache, and we immediately want ibuprofen. There is no sin in taking ibuprofen – this is only an example of what we do in other areas of life in that we want to end suffering immediately.
It is quite possible the suffering we want to end is being used by God to bring about more holiness in us and more dependence upon Him.
I have wrestled with God (figuratively speaking) for years, trying to get my own way. Desiring that suffering needs to end or that area of suffering is unjust. All the while missing that maybe God is working through suffering to produce change and holiness.