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What enabled the prophets who endured ridicule, financial hardship, beatings, and even death at the hands of the people God sent them to? They were holding onto a better promise. They were looking for a different city, a “city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). This is why Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, “choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (11:25–26).

 

While Job was swimming in the pain of great loss and unrelenting suffering, he was surrounded by friends and a wife who only added to his burden. Covered in sores and with nothing left of the great wealth he once enjoyed, the one person who should have been a source of encouragement said to Job, “Do you still hold firm your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9). What does the kind of patience James encourages us to have look like in Job’s life? Here is how he answered his wife: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10).

 

How did Job endure? He endured by first remembering that God is good, which enabled him to suffer with his faith intact because his eyes were fixed on an infinitely good God. However, he did not only hold onto the assurance that God is good; he also held onto the promise of His coming: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25–27).

 

The church in Smyrna was doing everything right, as far as we can see, yet they still suffered. What we see throughout the Bible is that no hurt or tear is wasted in God’s economy regarding His people. We will consider these things together in my sermon on Revelation 2:8–11 this Sunday.

 

Grace,

Pastor Keith

 

P.S. My book will arrive early next week!