Mystery VII: Responsibility for Pain and Suffering

Jason: Last week’s meeting was somewhat spoiled for the Skype participants due to a bad connection, so I will summarize that discussion here:

We began by trying to outline the story of pain throughout the bible, starting with the introduction of pain in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:16) where god talks about increasing the pain of woman in childbirth. We then went to Hebrews and 1 Peter, which talk about the way in which pain helps us reconcile with god. Next, we noted that pain was basically tied to a plan of salvation, through the pain of Jesus. Finally, we noted a new kingdom of god in Revelation, a kingdom in which pain is absent.

It was suggested that the real mystery is not why there is pain in our present situation but how there could be any appreciation for the love, grace, and compassion of god in the absence of pain.

Several years ago we discussed the topic of the hardening of the heart, which first arose in the Exodus when after the first seven of the ten plagues god hardened the Pharaoh’s heart so he would not let the Israelites go. In the eighth plague (locusts) Exodus 10:15-20 says:

For they [locusts] covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to the Lord your God, that He would only remove this death from me.” He went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the Lord. So the Lord shifted the wind to a very strong west wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.

We seemed to agree last week that god may not cause pain, but we see from the above passage that evidently he does use it. He uses it for reconciliation, for rebuke, to show us things that are wrong, and so on. In Egypt, the pain was such that Pharaoh begged god to take away the plagues and was prepared to let the Israelites go yet god then hardened his heart and he refused to let them go. Then came the ninth plague, of darkness. In verses 25-29:

But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the Lord.” But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Beware, do not see my face again, for in the day you see my face you shall die!” Moses said, “You are right; I shall never see your face again!”

The tenth plague—the worst—is yet to come. It is the worst of all, involving the death of all first-born sons. Pharaoh finally relents.

Romans 9:14-24 says:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

So there is a purpose in pain and sorrow.

Don: Can any responsibility for pain be placed in god’s hands? It may be one thing for god to administer the potion of pain to cure an evil, fallen world, but is it another level of involvement altogether if he is the apothecary who crafts the potion itself?

Jay: Another way of putting it would be: Is pain a natural consequence of our existence, or a deliberate intervention?

Don: We say that time heals all wounds. Pain thus has its limits. It may sometimes become chronic yet most people seem able to adapt to some extent. Goodness, on the other hand, seems to be unlimited. There seems to be a sense that evil and pain are time bound, whereas goodness is eternal. Is god responsible for one or the other, or is he responsible for both?

Charles: Pain and suffering—evil—is a necessary context for all things physical, which are subject to decay and death. Even Jesus was perfected through suffering and death. He often referred to himself as the son of man and as such was subject to physical death. As the son of god and a resident of the kingdom of god, in contrast, he transcended the physical world and its suffering and lived in a place of goodness, contentment, and peace; a place lacking in pain and suffering and evil. These are necessary for reconciliation between the physical world and the spiritual kingdom of god, for the transformation of desire from worldly things to spiritual things. God uses the limitations of the physical world to push us along on our spiritual journey.

Oftentimes, the spiritual transformation even for people whose hearts are most hardened occurs in the context of pain and suffering of some sort. Suffering helps people who experience or witness tragedy and suffering to reflect and have a spiritual revelation that turns them away from the worldly and toward the godly. Suffering became a precondition for revelation when man’s desire led him to choose the world rather than god in the Garden. Jesus came down to participate in the physical world and set the stage for the new era of redemption. The end of the current era will be when Jesus has redeemed every last soul with the blessings of the spirit.

Jay: Is suffering then a byproduct of the Fall or an afterthought of god’s—a way to get us back?

Charles: If one subscribes to the view that god was always everywhere, then the story of the existence of the world was in a sense always there and predetermined much as we see recapitulated in the growth and death cycles of living things. I see suffering hardwired into the choice of physicality versus spirituality. In other words, at the point when the choice was man’s will or god’s will, suffering was the necessary consequence of that choice. We are the users and authors of pain via the choice—the Fall. The ability to choose was a gift, and the ability to re-choose—to repent—is also available as a gift. We have to make the choice for ourselves. To the extent we choose the world, then pain and suffering are a consequence.

Problems in the transmission and translation of biblical stories make stories such as the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart seem to contradict this—the Pharaoh was not allowed to repent. I think the problem is with the interpretation, not with the story itself. So I prefer to go all the way back to the Garden and to original choice.

David: I am unhappy with the notion that god causes pain, and I agree with Chuck that we can have no idea what the next life holds—except what we hear from our own Inner Voice, our Inner Light. But don’t we all have an Inner Darkness as well, that is the cause of evil? I cannot believe that my Inner Light—god—causes my bad deeds. Indeed, it will invariably gently rebuke me by prodding my conscience when I take my Inner Darkness out for a stroll. God does not cause my acts of evil.

Of course, the logical extension of that is that god is not omniscient; that evil exists and there is nothing god can do about it except prod the conscience of those who let it loose. His influence is however evidently stronger than the influence of evil, if you accept (as I do) that there is more good than evil in the world and more joy than suffering. So god/goodness is more powerful than evil but not overwhelmingly, overpoweringly so.

And I say again that it takes the presence of evil to remind us of the good. After four years living in Hawaii, I stopped noticing the beautiful sunrise. “Another day in paradise” became just “another day”. Today I am in Michigan and the day is dreary and gray, but come Spring there will be an extraordinary transformation and there will be joy in people’s hearts. In May, there will be no equivalent joy in the hearts of the people of Hawaii. No pain, no gain. This is the kingdom of heaven on earth; the kingdom of heaven itself—a paradise without pain—is incomprehensible to me and (I suspect) to all humans.

Charles: The notion that we stop noticing goodness and joy speaks to the issue of vigilance: Where are our hearts and minds on a moment-by-moment basis as we journey through life? Scripture is a constant reminder to stay aware, to be present, to notice and think about god constantly. We tend to do the opposite: We forget, until something dramatic happens—it might be pain or it might be something very beautiful— that jolts us back to an awareness of god. It is part of the human condition that we choose what to focus on—on god or on the world.

Ada: I don’t envision god handing out pain and suffering randomly. I think he administers it in very specific circumstances—when he knows we can benefit  from it if we have the courage to move forward and not be defeated by it.

Don: The value of a walnut is in the meat, not in the hard shell. The shell must be destroyed in order to bring out the value it hides inside. It seems to me a contradiction to have free will but no pain. An essential element of choice is the possibility of pain. It may not be god’s direct action as much as it is the nature of the universe that it is not possible to have free will and be free of pain. Which raises the question: Was it god’s idea that we have free will? In the Garden everything seems to be in good shape and there is no pain and suffering, as long as man’s and god’s wills are in harmony. But as soon as free will—choice—was acted upon, pain ensued.

Robin: This is addressed in Roman 9:17-24 (above) and 25-26:

As He says also in Hosea,

“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

If I am interpreting Romans correctly, god can inflict his wrath upon us at any time but he chooses mercy. In verses 30-33:

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written,

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

To me, this says that the Jews were pursuing salvation through the law, whereas the Gentiles sought it through faith. Jesus’ teaching was at odds with that of the Pharisees. God knew that the Israelites in Egypt needed to suffer in order to return to him. When great suffering happens, we will be a witness to god, in great or small ways.

Charles: Don asked whether god gave us free will. If god could do and foresee everything, then he knew his creation would have free will, so in that sense, yes, he gave us free will.

I hope we will explore the scriptural simile of “kingdom,” which by definition has a king, laws, and rules; and if it is to be a peaceful kingdom, then the ruler has to provide. There have to be subjects who have to choose to be loyal subjects and surrender their wills to the king. If they do, there is peace; if not, there is trouble and the suffering that accompanies it. So it is with us and our relation to the heavenly king as his subjects.

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