A Suffering God—Part 2

We started our discussion on the identity of God by pointing out that we rely on images from the Old Testament to learn and understand more about who God is. These images present us with rich metaphors about God. I would like to start today’s class with a quick description of what a metaphor is. 

A metaphor is a figure of speech that implicitly compares two unrelated things, for example, when we say Tom is a pig, or that chef is a magician. Metaphors can be used to create vivid imagery, exaggerate a characteristic or action, or express a complex idea, as you can tell with these two metaphors. Metaphors are far richer than simple analogies. We said that Tom is a pig is a metaphor. But if we compare Tom’s eating habits to those of a pig, then that would be an analogy. An analogy is more defined and only expresses an intellectual connection between the two objects. However, if I just say Tom is a pig, we can draw many other analogies from this metaphor, such as Tom is not clean, Tom is disgusting, etc. Importantly, a metaphor connects with us on the emotional level, not just on the intellectual level, that’s because we draw on our own lived experiences to understand what a metaphor means. 

We understand God through metaphors. The prominent image of God as an old white man inhabiting the sky is an example. Perhaps we got this from a mix of other metaphors, such as God is a judge, God is a father, heaven is the throne of God, etc. The problem that this image presents is that it is quite a limited and restrictive image of God. The OT has many other metaphors, that for the most part have been largely ignored. The discussion we have had of God as suffering is one of those metaphors that tend to be neglected. Yet, I think that focusing on a few metaphors while ignoring the many others have been quite limiting to our understanding of who God is and has caused confusion, resentment, and even disbelief in God. 

I started this exploration into God’s suffering in an effort to understand more about the final moments of Jesus’ life before death on the cross. As we continue our discussion today, we will encounter more of the suffering of God. I think this metaphor of God suffering bridges an essential gap between God and Jesus that left us giving incoherent explanations to Jesus’s suffering. Today, we will encounter one of the most poignant metaphors of the suffering of God and see what we can learn from it regarding the suffering of Jesus. 

As we discussed last time, God suffers because of people’s rejection and sin. At this stage, God faces a choice as to what could be done because of the people’s rejection and sin. There are two options open for God, the first is to forgive while the second is to judge and bring about justice. That the easier and best option for God is forgiveness is clear enough:

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Isaiah (43:25)

For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I retrain it for you. That I may not cut you off. (Isaiah 48:9)

I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 But I withheld my hand, and for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. Ezek. (20:21-22)

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. (Psalms 78:38)

Have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? (Isa. 57:11)

As Dr. Weaver have pointed out before, it is quite perplexing for us to understand why God would forgive us “for his own sake”. We may be able to understand more about this when we consider the other choice that God has, which is to bring judgment. 

The lord could no longer bear your evil doings and… abominations. (Jer.44:22)

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. (Isa. 1:14)

I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.  But you have burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities. (Isa.43:23-24)

The image in these passages is that of an eminently patient God who has again and again gone beyond what justice would require; God bears the sins of the people rather than exacting judgment. Yet, there comes a time when God’s patience is at an end. 

But Joshua said to the people, “you cannot serve the lord [and other gods]; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive/bear you transgressions or sins. (Josh.24:19) 

You have rejected me. Says the lord, you keep going backward; so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you; I am weary of relenting. (Jer 15:6)

We are now confronted with God’s judgment. In the history of the Israelites, when judgment fell it was severe, they suffered enormous consequences- destruction, death, isolation, and estrangement. Yet, the God who tearfully allows the judgment to fall does not abandon those who suffer as a result. God is immediately back on the scene, #2 sharing in the suffering of the people, according to Isaiah:

For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In the overflowing wrath for a moment, I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. (Isa.54:7-8)

The idea of a God who suffered with his people had its roots in Exodus:

In the course of those many days the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the people of Israel, and God knew their condition. (Exodus 2:23-25)

Then the Lord said,” I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of the taskmasters; I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 3:7-8)

Notice the verbs that are used here. God first “heard”, then God “remembered”, then God “saw”, and God “knew”. By remembering, God is actively faithful to the implications of the promises he made. As we discussed before, we prioritize our sense of sight over other senses, we trust it and rely on it more. After hearing the people groaning, God sees it first-hand. Next, the verb “know” carries with it more than a sense of knowing about. Because God already have heard and seen, know here carries with it a broader sense of having experienced, or even intimately experience what the people are going through. 

Upon entering into the suffering situation, God is not helpless to do anything about it. God moves in to deliver, working in and through leaders, elements of nature, and even Pharaoh.

The Psalms speak of the presence of God with the suffering individual:

“He (the believer) will call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.” (Psalm 91:15)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shake.  (Psalm 16:8 )

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18)

Such a testimony to the nearness of God achieves clarity only if it is recognized what kind of God it must be who is near to those who are in trouble. Any human being who is present with those who are in distress of one kind or another knows that a true and helpful presence will entail some form of empathy, an entering into the situation of the troubled. If so with humans, how much more with God! God’s powers of commiseration, of shared suffering, must be considered unsurpassed. God’s presence with the distressed and the oppressed must mean that God has so entered into their situation that it truly becomes his own. 

Generally speaking, the language that God uses when she is suffering with the people is that of mourning and compassion. Perhaps this explains the severity of the judgment passages in the bible. The purpose of them is to show how destructive life without God is, and to get the people to repent and return before it’s too late. These empathetic passages seem to anticipate judgment as they occur before judgment. So, there is this language of lament mixed with accusation, but then at the same time there is lament for the fallen. Let’s go over a few of those:

My heart cries out for Moab
Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer.
I drench you with my tears
My soul moans like a lyre for Moab and my heart for Kir-heres. (Isa. 15:5, 16:9, 16:11)

This is striking because God is mourning for a non-Israelite people. God is the one who gave the judgment in the first place (Jer.48:38); but once the judgment has occurred, God joins those who mourn. Similar language is used of God in relationship to Israel in Jeremiah:

I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness. (Jer. 9:10)

I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. (Jer. 12:7)

What heart rending distress God feels over what has happened to the people! Part of it may be because with Israel’s distress came the affliction of God, his displacement, his homelessness in the world. 

Another example here:

Thus says the lord of hosts:” Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come; let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush with water.” (Jer. 9:17-18)

The use of first plural person in this text clearly includes God. We are again confronted with the future of God. God’s future is tied up in so many ways with the future of Israel. Because of what happened to Israel, the future for God is not what it would otherwise have been. This, too, is an occasion for mourning, for God has not been able to accomplish what would have been with a faithful Israel.

Mourning means that judgment is death for Israel, and not just discipline. God voices a funerary lament, not parental pain after a spanking. When God mourns with the mourners, that means that God is not indifferent to what happened to the people. God does not view Israel’s fate with a kind of a detached objectivity. There is no satisfaction or celebration or any sense of punitiveness that justice has been done. Importantly, God does not sever the relationship. God is at work even in death to bring about life. 

That God mourns over non-Israelites (Moab) demonstrates the breadth of God’s care and concern for the sufferers of the world. Israel has no monopoly on God’s empathy. All people everywhere have experienced the compassion (and judgment) of God, even though they may not realize that fact. The only difference with Israel is that they should be able to know from whom these experiences (of judgment and compassion) come from. 

Next, we move onto the third reason for the suffering of God: God suffers for the people.

At this stage, the people have been judged and they suffered as a result, but as we have seen, God was there through their suffering, sharing in their suffering and offering a comforting presence. Yet it seems that at this point, God is engaged in a special suffering of his own. The purpose of this suffering is to bring the people out of their suffering, to bring the people back to life. This is suffering for the people, and it somehow serves redemptive and atoning purposes. 

God and Israel instated a sacrificial system for the expiation of sin. The death of an animal was required. Such practices point us in the direction of “cost”. There is a cost involved in restoring what once was and now is broken. The cost for death is life. And a helpless animal had to pay its life for it.  

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the alter to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life.”  (Lev. 17:11)

Notice here when God says, “I have given it for you.” This seems to suggest that God is the owner of the life of the animal and God has given us that. And so, eventually, it is God who bears the cost of the sacrifice. God gives of himself to make forgiveness possible. God’s life is expended for the sake of the life of the people. 

Perhaps here we come upon one of the most powerful metaphors about God, one that I haven’t heard of before: 

For a long time, I have held my peace I have kept still and restrained myself, now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant. (Isa.42:14)

This is an image of God as a pregnant woman going through intense labor pains moments before delivery. Just as God birthed Israel at the beginning of its life (Deut.32:18), God will do so again. God restrains her judgment for a time, patiently awaiting on the people to repent while experiencing intensifying labor pains, but when the moment comes, God, crying out, gasping, and panting, gives birth to a new order. The new creation necessitates the suffering of God. 

Suffering and new creation are intimately interconnected, and the images used suggest that new creation comes into being in no other way. Any birthing of a new order can come only through what God does, and God can accomplish such a creative act only by way of a via dolorosa. 

Judgment seems to hurt God equally if not more than it affects us. But judgment here is the necessary prerequisite for our salvation. Death is necessary for us before new life is possible again. This is not how we usually think of judgment. This is a paradoxical image of judgment because it means that we need judgment for salvation to be possible. 

I wonder if that’s what happened on the cross, while Jesus was screaming my God, my God why have you forsaken me seconds before he died, God was on the delivery table, legs wide open, painfully delivering a brand-new covenant.

What do you think of this image of judgment? Is that why God forgives us for his own sake? Can the suffering of God help us understand more about the suffering of Jesus?

David: Michael’s talk was really powerful and gives us a lot to think about. It makes a lot of sense, although it’s just so hard to wrap one’s mind around a suffering God, and the notion that the act of creation itself is an act of suffering. I take the point about giving birth being a form of suffering, but I wonder about the opposite of creation—about destruction, which, of course, is the devil’s field. Destruction is fun. It’s fun to take a wrecking ball to something and just have at it.

There’s a lot to get one’s mind around on this issue. I’ve often thought how hard it must be for God to exist and not just see but feel, knowing almost viscerally, the suffering that people and children and animals are going through. How hard that must be! At the same time, of course, presumably he’s also there with us when we’re joyful, when there are moments of goodness going on. But even in the midst of joy, something can cause us to stop and think that right at this moment that is joyful for us, there is somebody who is suffering.

It’s a very hard, a very deep topic, and I’m a little bit lost for words.

Michael: It’s quite fascinating how the image of a suffering God makes judgment look very different than what we usually think of, that judgment causes suffering to God much more than when he forgives, because no one can rescue us from judgment except God herself or himself. So otherwise we’re lost.

C-J: Michael, as I listened to you, I heard this. It sounded like sorrow, but I think it was really just humility in the way you spoke, the way that you read to us. It’s like lean in and listen carefully. This is a new way of seeing God, not through judgment, but this profound sorrow that he feels when we are not in a covenant relationship. Even I apologize for being so disruptive. It’s a beautiful day. The windows are open, the children are playing, the dogs are barking, people are walking by, but I did hear your message, and the tone of your message is when we are in intimate prayer and confession, when we see our separation from God in a profoundly different way. It was quite lovely.

Anonymous: Michael, thank you so much, because I feel the Holy Spirit is all over the place. So many verses you quoted, and they by themselves are a great sermon without anything else. I mean, they brought to me, at least. I can’t say it’s new because I thought of this before, but it probably brought assurance of who God is. God is merciful. God is suffering for us. I remember when you first presented this subject, I couldn’t understand what you meant by God is suffering, but now I see what you mean, and everything put together gives a clear picture of who God is and the true view of God, without all the misinterpretations or misperceptions of God. He’s not far from God, and you put them in a reimagined form, and your presentation works. Reading, not just once, but many times, just to help these thoughts, you know, stick to our mind and remember who God is, never seen him in a different way. Because who could see God in this way, and still be able to sin, or still be able to look aside from God or want anything else besides God. I mean, if seeing God this good doesn’t bring us back to him, nothing else does. Who wouldn’t want to live a servant to this God? Who doesn’t want to live entirely for this God? Praise God. Thank you so much, Michael. God bless you. I can see you are a great preacher.

Don: A brilliant essay, Michael, and I join the others in congratulating you for bringing this concept to our minds. I’m struck by wondering, do we need a complete remake of our picture of God in the sense that a suffering God seems like a god that is somehow limited, that there’s some kind of deficiency in the God that is a suffering God. Is a suffering God a God of limitation and diminishment, or is this really a different view of God that shows an even greater dimension than we would have otherwise thought?

Carolyn: Truthfully, I have always wondered if God is suffering with us. With the whole idea that he’s all powerful, he’s ever present, so why, with all the power that he has, does he choose to suffer? I love the part, Michael, that you brought out with the lamb and the shepherd, and the 23rd Psalm, where the rod and the staff, there’s one to prod us, there’s one to wrap around our neck and bring us back. But the 23rd Psalm says he takes us down the pathway of righteousness for His sake. All of this has built a question. I don’t have the clearness you brought. It’s so much better than I’ve had it before, but I still have that feeling of a suffering God doesn’t show he has the power to judge and bring on judgment. My mind is still clouded, and it’s just because I am human and I’m very fallible.

Don: One has to consider that a God who is suffering must be a higher degree of godliness than one who is powerful to eliminate suffering. There must be some value or some kind of positivity in God’s choice to suffer. So rather than being a limitation, it’s an acceleration. It’s an expansion of our view of God, but one that we certainly haven’t considered very much in the past. We always think that if God is around, then the only thing that happens is that we’re happy, that we’re free of pain, we’re not suffering. And yet we see the ultimate suffering of God on the cross, as you mentioned, and this is really the cause of our salvation. So we may need a complete remake of our view of God, particularly as it relates to this issue of suffering.

Reinhard: In the beginning, when God created Man, we were not equal in terms of our status, but God wanted to have fellowship and a good relationship with us. He gave us freedom of choice—he did not impose fellowship on us. Psalm 8:4 says: “What is mankind, that You are mindful of them, human beings, that you care for them.” The message here is that when God created us, he very much cared for us. He likes us to be happy and have a good relationship with our Creator. Then he wants us to follow his rule.

In the beginning, the law was not recorded. It was handed down orally, when God used to walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden. And they did not obey it. Then we only know of seven people who were saved in the first judgment, from the great flood, while millions were destroyed. In the second stage, with Moses, there’s a law, but see, God punished. There’s individual punishment and corporate punishment to Israel when they sin against God. Of course, God also forgives them. There are times that they didn’t do anything, God just forgives them, you know, because he’s just. They are chosen people. And I think all in all, God is very much careful for human beings, for us. He wants to have good communion, good fellowship with us, and then in the same token, we have to honor him. We have to worship, we have to respect God. That’s what God wants from us. But if there’s transgression, if there’s violation of his law, God will punish. Of course, there’s judgment and punishment, but there’s also forgiveness. Now for us who like to worship him, and then in our daily life, when we depend on God, we always put everything in God’s hand. Of course, we always ask forgiveness. There are some transgressions, some sins maybe we commit, either we realize or not. I think as long as we come to God, and then I believe God will understand, and then God will be happy, you know, for his people who are always seeking Him. You know, we’re not perfect, but God knows our weakness. He’s always there. You know, it’s only a heartbeat away to ask God for forgiveness if there’s something, you know, we’ve done that is not according to His will. So again and again, God always tries to embrace us, no matter how bad we are. People who know him, of course, always come to Him. And God, I think God loves people who always, you know, come to him and, you know, all our burdens we put on him, you know, to lift our burden so we can have a good life. Because the salvation, the abundant salvation and heavenly salvation is still and then happens in our life, daily and for the life to come that we are looking forward to.

Don: I wonder if that fits this idea that judgment is grace?

Michael: I too am wondering if that’s how it fits, if judgment ends up being salvation, and why?

C-J: Instead of having hellfire and brimstone, the choice is to forgive abundantly and remember it no more. It takes, you know, to that level of humility. Think about something that was very painful in your life, and you know it was delayed, and when it came, you know it was worth the wait, but it was painful, and you didn’t understand. And when it was clear that God was in the midst, through all of that, all that pain is forgotten, all those delays are forgotten, and all you can see is God’s grace. Every second of that walk, no matter how it was misinterpreted, God was present and had a plan. To me, that’s just amazing. Over and over again, the longer I live and all that I see, just let it go, Connie, because God knows what he’s doing.

Don: In one sense, judgment and grace coincide, because the output, the outcome of judgment can be vindication. It’s not that, as we so often think, that every outcome of judgment is condemnation, but in our case, because of God’s grace, judgment is the process by which we’re vindicated. We’re not condemned, we’re not put in jail because we have a graceful God. I don’t know if that was your question, Michael, but…

David: There’s a difference between judgment and punishment. I see that God withholds punishment, but he doesn’t withhold judgment. Grace saves us from punishment, not from judgment. You will be judged, but grace will commute your sentence. Grace lets you off the hook of punishment, but it doesn’t exonerate you. Your sins are not exonerated in any way. They are forgiven and even forgotten, but there’s no way that God would exonerate sin itself. God is the antithesis of sin.

I was interested in what Michael said about the New Covenant appearing when Jesus was dying on the cross.

Michael: Where was God when Jesus was asking “Why have you left me? Why have you left me?”? The answer is that he was delivering the new covenant.

Don: It’s an important point that we don’t escape judgment, but we escape punishment. That distinction is something we don’t often highlight.

Reinhard: Judgment brings a verdict: guilty or not guilty. If we are found guilty, then there’s grace to cover us. It’s a guarantee, it’s insurance for us. I think the whole plan of salvation, which started in Eden, ended with Jesus on the cross, asking why God had forsaken me. It marked the accomplishment, the fulfillment of the mission of Jesus, which was all for the sake of human salvation. This is God’s plan. Much of the plan is a mystery to us, of course, but we can see judgment in our daily life, you know, in being a citizen of this community. Whatever part of judgment, also, if the punishment occurred to somebody, I mean, this is in our daily life. That’s judgment to show other people as deterrence to me, not to make the same mistake these people commit. I think that’s the same thing in our faith. We learn this lot of stories we live. At the end of the time, we learn from the big lesson of the Israelites, how people dealt with them. You know, there’s punishment, of course. There’s also, I mentioned earlier, there’s also forgiveness, you know, maybe grace given to them at times. They didn’t do anything. God just gave blanket forgiveness to them. But this shows how God cares for us. He likes to have fellowship with us. You know, he likes to have people who have a free mind and worship Him without any push from him, without any force by him. He wants us to worship Him freely. That’s what God wants from us. Then once we worship him, you know, from our own heart, that’s what God really appreciates. You know, we try to have, he tries to have us as quality people who really honor, you know, the creation, his almighty power that we like to carry out what he wants us to live as God’s people.

David: Reinhard makes a good point. We view punishment as a way of coercion, of making people do what you want them to do, but God does not; and because of grace, we don’t have to do what we know God wants us to do. Grace is free. It doesn’t cost us anything to have it, but I think it does something to us. It’s like turning the other cheek. It does something in the human spirit that tells you, makes you feel, what’s right and wrong in some given situation, and lets you know—deep down, in your conscience—that you shouldn’t be doing something. You know that God will forgive you even if you go ahead and do the wrong thing, but still you also know that you really shouldn’t be doing it. As children, we do naughty things, knowing full well that Mommy won’t like it and even feeling a bit guilty about it, but we also know that Mommy will forgive us. We don’t really want to hurt her. We don’t want her to suffer. I like Reinhard’s point very much.

Don: This gives us a lot to think about. Michael, thank you for your essay and for giving us the opportunity to try to wrap our minds around a new concept of God.

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