Insight for Living

Guest (Male): When pain comes our way, we want relief pronto. When wrongs occur, we demand justice now. When disease strikes, we expect healing immediately. But what happens when God doesn't work within our timeframe? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll explores one of the hardest questions believers face: Why does a good and powerful God remain silent when we suffer? Chuck says the answer might surprise you. He titled today's message, When God Gets the Last Word. It's from our eight-part study in the book of 2 Thessalonians called Steadfast Christianity.

Chuck Swindoll: I suppose we could call today the now generation. When pain comes, we want relief now. When wrong occurs, we demand justice, our rights, now. When disease strikes, we expect healing now. From fast food to fast relief, we seek drive-through window solutions to the wide range of painful experiences we encounter in life.

Raised on 30-second commercials and 30-minute sitcoms, we want our life's problems to be packaged in small, neatly wrapped boxes. But just when we think we finally tied the bow around our struggles, we discover our pain resurfaces and kicks out a side of the box. We sit amid the ruined cardboard and crumpled wrappings, disillusioned, sometimes despondent.

Guest (Male): The letter of 2 Thessalonians teaches us to think outside our problem boxes, if you will. Paul empathized with our struggles, answered some hard questions, and provided perspective on the pain and suffering that we all inevitably endure. In his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Harold Kushner asked the question that rises in the minds like a dark, nebulous cloud. He asks, why do bad things happen to good people?

All other theological conversation is intellectually diverting, somewhat like doing the crossword puzzle in the Sunday paper and feeling very satisfied when you have made the words fit. But ultimately, without the capacity to reach people where they really care. The problem of pain presents a major stumbling block to our understanding of God. Often, when believers suffer, we begin to doubt our Father's power and love.

Suddenly overtaken by persecution or affliction, we find ourselves a little like Jacob, wrestling in the dark with an overpowering force, as we read in Genesis 32:24-26. We strive to know God, understand His will, and receive His blessing, but often He seems distant and alien to us, and we begin to wonder if God really cares.

In his outstanding book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis masterfully addressed the issue of why bad things happen to good people. He articulated the faulty intellectual argument that many people make regarding the problem of pain when he writes: If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore, God lacks either goodness or power, or both. This is the problem of pain in its simplest form.

Rabbi Kushner followed this basic argument in When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He recognized the goodness of God, but he failed to realize that the Father also requires holiness and justice, and that pain results from the effects of human sinfulness in the world as a consequence of the fall.

Thus, Kushner wrongly concluded that bad things happen to good people because God lacks the power to prevent suffering. In contrast, C.S. Lewis focused on God's sovereign purposes that are often revealed in the face of suffering. He noted that God's purpose is not as much to prevent suffering in the world as it is to sanctify people, the people who suffer.

Chuck Swindoll: Jesus prophesied in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." God is both good and all-powerful. He uses human pain and suffering to draw His children back to Him.

C.S. Lewis noted: Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. In the letter of 2 Thessalonians, Paul addressed the problem of pain by reminding believers that God uses suffering to accomplish His purposes in their lives.

In verses 5 through 10 of the first chapter, Paul took a step back from the persecutions and afflictions experienced by the believers in ancient Thessalonica to view the fragments of their pain in the broader context of a purposeful eternity. From that, a whole picture emerged, bathed in such a glorious light that it banished every shadow ever cast on the character of God. Much has been written concerning human pain and suffering, but we'll see here that God gets the last word.

Let me read the passage for you. 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10. Listen carefully. "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed."

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into 2 Thessalonians on your own, be sure to purchase our searching the scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, When God Gets the Last Word.

Chuck Swindoll: Ours is a day of instant gratification which, I suppose if we could put that theologically, the God of today is the God of the quick fix. This is true not only in the realm of our possessions but also in the realm of our expectations. In possessions, we not only want what we want, we want them when we want them. And in expectations, we not only want God to act, we want Him to act now. Right now.

For example, when pain comes, we want prompt relief. We don't want it delayed. When wrong occurs, we demand immediate justice. Not next week, now. Right now. When disease strikes, we expect overnight healing. When affliction hits, we count on swift retribution. When financially pressed, we think instant cash. I'll never forget what Charlie Tremendous Jones said on one occasion: We expect our ship to come in when we never sent one out.

After all, we're Christians and God is not only powerful, God is good. And He said in His word He will not hold back one thing from those who walk uprightly. Lord, I'm walking uprightly. Why are you holding back? I want it now. C.S. Lewis must have had his tongue in his cheek when he wrote: We want not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven. A senile benevolence who, as they say, liked to see young people enjoying themselves, who at the end of each day sighed, "A good time was had by all."

Yeah, that's what we want in God. We don't want a sovereign God who waits. We want an action God who responds now. The God of the quick fix. I think if I could put my statement or our struggle in a statement, it would be like this: We have struggle with a good God who allows bad things, don't we?

You've been walked out on by a mate. You've done your part. Where is God to do His part? You've held the business together over the long haul and you've poured more of your funds into the outfit than anybody else and the partners have all split. And they're getting along great. You've done good, but you've experienced bad.

Or maybe another way to put it is we have a struggle with a perfect God who permits pain. Especially when we prayed so sincerely, wanting what is right and good for our family, for our friends. A holy God who bypasses iniquity. It's almost as if He just winks at it. And you know what adds, what rubs salt in the wound is when the enemy of the faith uses that against us.

Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11. You have a Bible? Locate it. Blow the dust off Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11. Unbelievers may not know that this verse is in the Bible, but they act out the verse in their lives. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them, is fully given within them to do evil."

Do you get that? Because there isn't a quick sentence against wrong, wrongdoers say, "Hey, what are you so excited about? If it were so wrong, God would have zapped me. I'm not being zapped. As a matter of fact, I've never felt better in all my life." Doesn't that just kind of grate at you? It's okay to say yes, it grates at me. There are times I wonder why God doesn't jump when I say, "Sick 'em! Get at it! Go for it!" as if I have to give Him permission.

But because sentence against an evil work does not come swiftly, the evil doer sticks his thumbs under his suspenders and struts around saying, "Ah, holy God, don't give me that stuff." We want a God who acts quickly, swiftly, and justly. But He doesn't.

James Russell Lowell, the poet, put it very well: "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne." And it creates a question in our mind: Is God out of touch? Is God, forgive me Lord, but is God out of control? No, I want to help today. I hope I will help. I want to suggest that our perspective is all out of whack.

Here's the answer, or an answer: We misinterpret God's patience as God's absence, don't we? We read in God's postponement of justice a cancellation of judgment, don't we? I mean, because God didn't act within a week or two or three or a month or two, then He is out of touch. He is just simply absent. I mean, if He were that good, He would act now. After all, He's just. I'm waiting for the gavel. I'm waiting for the sound.

You see, what we call unfair and unjust, God calls—get this—unsearchable and unfathomable. Romans 11:33. I have my New Testament open to that. I'd like you to turn from Ecclesiastes 8 to Romans 11, over in the New Testament. It occurred to me this week that God does not set His time by our clocks. God does not take His cues from our script. I wish He would sometime. Other times, a little later on, I say, "Oh, praise God, He gave me a no answer back three months ago. I wanted You to act so swiftly and as I saw it, but now I see, Lord, that that was best."

Look at Romans 11:33. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!" Exclamation point. Now that vocative: "How unsearchable are His judgments, how unfathomable His ways!" Such a great statement. "How unsearchable are His judgments, how unfathomable are His ways!"

Listen to Isaiah 55. "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and to his God, and He will have mercy and abundantly pardon." Then He adds, "My thoughts," says God, "are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9.

My thoughts are high above your thoughts and my ways are far beyond your ways. We see now, God sees forever. We see today, God sees the end. We see the offense, God sees it all. And in light of what we see, we read into that how God ought to react, and He seeing all, waits. Waits. Patiently, patiently waits.

But I have news for the sinner. I have news for the one who thinks you will get away with it forever. One day He'll shutter down. He'll close the books. He'll call it all into account. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 5 through 10. These verses talk about that time when the sea will burn like tar and stars will fall like cinders and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll, just on the eve when God starts the wheel of eternity. At that awful apex, at that moment in between time and eternity, when God closes the books, when His patience runs out, when His long-suffering turns into judgment.

Now these people in Thessalonica had been hurting. We learned that last time. They're under the gun. They happen to have been born in the right place at the wrong time, humanly speaking. This metropolitan area of Thessalonica happens to be one of those hotspots in the mind of the Roman governor, the emperor. It's one of those places where Christianity would not be allowed, not be tolerated. And as a result, the sword fell there as one of the first places. Families had begun to be disrupted. They were torn apart by the sword. Blood ran in the streets. It was horrible.

And these people, according to verse 4, were holding up in their faith and perseverance in the midst of their persecutions and afflictions. Persecutions: It means suffering because of faith in Christ. Afflictions: It means pressure brought on by the suffering. So if your blood didn't run in the streets, your heart broke because one of your loved ones did.

And Paul wrote them because some of them must have wondered, "Where is God? Is this going to last forever? Is this the way, is this the reward I get for serving my Lord Christ? Is this the result of saying yes to the appeal of the gospel?"

I want you to take a pencil if you haven't one already and circle the end of verse 6 and the beginning of verse 7, two phrases. The end of verse 6 I want you to circle "those who afflict you." At the beginning of verse 7, "you who are afflicted." Mark that. Because what we have in verses 5 through 10 is something like a divinely observed tennis match or perhaps a racquetball game.

The ball bounces from one wall to the other and back again and yet again and back again and for the last time. For example, in verse 5, the reference is to those who were going through affliction. And the ball bounces in verse 6 to those who were doing the afflicting. It goes back in verse 7 to the side of those who are saved, who are hurting, who are being afflicted. In verses 8 and 9, it goes back again to the lost, those doing the afflicting, those living their lives as though God does not exist. And finally in verse 10, it comes back to rest, and that's the side that wins the game. That's the side that comes out on the side of the winner, verse 10.

Mark your Bibles or you'll be a little bit at a loss to understand how this passage unfolds. First, verse 5, those being afflicted. "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering." Two things kind of bubble to the surface when I read verse 5. The first is this: what you are going through is not a divine oversight. You will notice it is a plain indication that God's judgment that He's planned is right. That might be a better way of rendering that phrase: All this is evidence that God's judgment is right.

What you are going through is not a divine oversight. Sometime I think of my life as being in a valley and God as being in a helicopter. And He hovers over this valley and He lifts to a high elevation and He comes right over my valley and He stays at that high elevation. And then beyond my valley, He drops in again to help them out. And when He comes over mine, I say, "Hey! Wait! Down here! Here! Here!" and He just zooms right on going. And then He hovers over there and He drops down. I say, "Well, what have they got that I don't have? How come they get Your attention and I don't? Why didn't You drop down this side rather than that side?"

Don't you ever wonder? Don't look at me like that. You wonder the very same thing I wonder. How come He waits to come down on my side and in my valley? He overlooked me. No, my suffering is not the result of divine oversight. He knows I need it. He knows I need it a lot more than she needs it or he needs it.

I love the way J.B. Phillips paraphrases James 1, second and third verses: "When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance." If only I would remember that when His helicopter passes over my valley. That is a great relief. I know that when He deliberately passes beyond me and leaves me in my need, it is for my good and for His glory. It's not the result of divine oversight. His judgment is right.

The second thing I noticed from verse 5 is that what I am going through is the initiation into the kingdom of God. See the way He puts it? "So that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering." You know how you get into the kingdom family? You suffer. Oh, you get in there by faith in the Lord Jesus, but you know what the initiation is into the real rights and privileges of kingdom life? Pain. Disappointment. Mistreatment. Suffering.

Now we would never plan it like that. Remember, our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts. Oh, we would have a smooth plan, well-greased. We would have all kinds of rewards regularly provided for anyone who would be willing to give us their time and attention. We'd make it easy. He makes it hard. We'd make it broad. He makes it narrow. We'd make it wide. He makes it tough. But He knows what He's doing.

While thinking about verse 5, I thought there are three things that occur to us when we suffer: We mature, we are crushed, and we are awakened. Invariably, when I go through times of suffering, I become stable as a result of more maturity. I become submissive as a result of being crushed. And I become sensitive as a result of being awakened. That's why kingdom life takes time. No one learns to be stable and submissive and sensitive in a hurry. Takes time.

Bill Meyer: Chuck Swindoll is helping us understand the limitations of the human heart. We can't see or understand what God is accomplishing through our suffering while we're pushing through it. But along the way, we mature, we're crushed, and we're awakened. Chuck will return to those points as he presents his message called When God Gets the Last Word.

But first, I want to point you to some helpful resources designed to deepen your understanding of this passage. First, did you know that Insight for Living offers an interactive Bible study workbook for 2 Thessalonians? It's a spiral-bound resource designed to lay flat on your lap or on the table where you can easily take notes as you read through Paul's letter. The Bible study workbook, like the teaching series, is called Steadfast Christianity. You're invited to purchase the searching the scriptures Bible study by calling us at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/offer.

Next, we've selected a book that reinforces the leadership themes in this series. It's a classic from Chuck called Hand Me Another Brick. Whatever you're building in life—a family, a leadership team, a classroom of students—they'll all outlast you, especially where God is involved. Nehemiah knew that, so did Paul, and Chuck has spent a lifetime teaching that truth to a generation of leaders hungry for something real. In Hand Me Another Brick, Chuck walks you through Nehemiah's blueprint for courageous, God-honoring leadership and shows you how to leave something behind that matters.

This timeless classic is yours when you send a generous gift to support Insight for Living. If you're in a book club or a small group Bible study, this book will definitely stir up some lively conversation among your friends. To receive a copy of Hand Me Another Brick, call 800-772-8888. You can also write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034, or go online to insight.org/donate. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his study in 2 Thessalonians Monday on Insight for Living.