Paul writes:
I am compelled to share God’s faithfulness with you. Li Leng and I experienced this in an incredible way.
We have been praying Ps 23 on recent nights and remembering the different expressions of God’s character. From Jehovah-Rohi (The Lord my shepherd) to Jehovah-Shammah (The Lord is There). Sometime later, I’ll share more on praying this way but not now. We have been praying through a number of difficult nights since Li Leng came down with her lung infection as she again was not able to sleep soundly with the aches and pain constantly present.
Wednesday 15th was a particularly bad night. Thursday 16th Li Leng woke feeling tired and fatigued as she could not sleep. Her aches became pains on the back and this had me worried about another bone event – it sends a chill up my spine. She could not sit for long and lying down was uncomfortable as well. She was really discouraged and dismayed and for the third time since coming down with this disease she expressed a desire to give up and be with the Lord. We agonized in prayer – praying Ps 23 as well as asking the Lord to rescue her from this misery. I did not alert any of our praying friends but I now know many of you were praying all the time for us and you have been faithful in doing this. We prayed till 9:30am while Li Leng was still lying on her bed.
At 9:32am, our dear brother Sum Loon (and sister Lee Meng) sent a sms to me with this message. “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deut 31:8
We thanked God for this message. It came from a dear brother and sister in the Body of Christ. The Body is Christ made visible and Rom 12:5 – our theme verse for this year selected by this same brother - resonated again.
Meanwhile, Li Leng did not feel any better and was still miserable with all the discomforts of fatigue and aches and pains. We continued praying while still on the bed. I was reminded not to worry or be anxious by Phil 4:6,7 and remarked to Li Leng that knowing this, to worry is to doubt God and is sinful. We also took the opportunity to pray for a number of our friends.
At 10:48am, our dear sister and fellow sufferer Janet sent this sms to Li Leng with this message. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, said the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11
That settled it. These were two clear messages from the Lord who is telling us that He is there and He has heard our prayer. He will provide whatever we need to go through this valley. We thanked God for His faithfulness and asked for His strength to glorify Him with our lives.
Physically, the rest of the morning was no better for Li Leng. She felt a little better in the afternoon. Our dear Dr. Edward Menon dropped by at around 4:30pm to check on Li Leng and to pray for us. We discussed whether to take some sleep medication for the night to try and get a good night sleep for Li Leng. That night, after committing to the Lord, by faith, we took the medication which did not work before and hence she has avoided this for a long while and by God’s grace, Li Leng slept for the first time through the night without waking – not even for a bathroom break!
Today, Friday 17th, Li Leng woke feeling refreshed and with much less aches and pains. As I write this, she still is feeling good. We were even able to take a stroll along Labrador Park together – the first time we are out on a date since May 23rd. While there we received two sms from Dr. Gerard Teoh telling us that the blood tests have shown no infection on the Hickman line and one additional test was also negative. We thank God for His continuing grace.
We really do not know what lies ahead in our journey. Or what is immediately around the corner. There are sure to be ups and downs. The only thing we can be sure about is that God will always remain faithful to His Word. Our times are in His hands (Ps 31:15). We will continue to seek your prayer to intercede for us. After all, Moses had Aaron and Hur hold up his hands while the armies of the Lord under Joshua’s leadership fought and defeated their enemy. Ex 17:15,16. As a Body of Christ, we know that the Lord is our Banner – Jehovah-Nissi. Victory has been won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Dear Li Leng and Paul
This is really a challenging time in Li Leng's life and the whole Chan family is impacted. Helen and I will always pray for Li Leng to have the strength to handle this illness. We will pray that you all will always know the reality that "God is There".
I recently came across an article which I think can encourage you all understand this difficult matter of "suffering" as you struggle with God at this time. I am attaching the article for your reading. For Li Leng's case it probably is a case of "illness suffering" (not in the list of the types of suffering) like what King Hezekiah went thru (2 Kings 20). God gave Hezekiah an additional life extension of 15 years thru His merciful intervention. God bless you all.
“Where Job’s friends went wrong about suffering” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. (22 Aug 07)
(Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. is president emeritus at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.)
Few cases in life or in the Bible pose the problem of what seems to be innocent—and therefore unmerited—suffering more strikingly than the biblical depiction of Job. When Job’s life is held up against what Psalm 1 and the book of Proverbs teach about the consequences of righteous and unrighteous living, something seems out of whack. Where did Job’s three friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite), and Job himself, go so wrong as to call forth God’s reprimand at the end of the book?
The prologue to the Book of Job is critical in beginning to answer this question. Satan is given permission to see if Job’s piety would hold firm (as God had announced to Satan it would) if Job were assaulted and stripped of his possessions, family, and his health. Job, of course, was unaware of all of this. In effect, it was not Job but God himself who was on trial. Satan’s charge was that Job, and all righteous people like him, served God because he blessed them so generously. Job’s first response was: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be blessed” (Job 1:21b). After Satan tested Job in the area of his health, Job still responded magnificently: “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” (Job 2:10b).
Nevertheless, Job’s three friends pressed the case against Job, contending that suffering was the result of sin in Job’s life. Their arguments went as follows:
Eliphaz: “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?” (Job 4:7).
Bildad: “Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?” (Job 8:3).
Zophar: “Yet if you devote your heart to [the LORD] and stretch out your hands to him, if you will put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame … But the eyes of the wicked will fail … Their hope will become a dying gasp” (Job 11: 13-20).
Their reasoning is that Job must have sinned and thus deserved all the suffering and discomfort, because God is a fair judge and rewarder of all that is right. Their case is a reductionistic one:
Doing what is right brings prosperity, while sin and wickedness routinely bring suffering and misfortune. Perhaps these “friends” were thinking of texts such as:
“Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm” (Prov. 12:7);
or “No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble” (Prov. 12:21);
or “Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers … He is like a tree planted by streams of water … Whatever he does prospers” (Ps 1:1-3). (Also see Psalm 125).
Notice that the citations from Proverbs are cast into proverbial forms. A proverb is not the same as a promise. While a proverb gathers the majority of instances into a memorable saying that has a bit of saltiness to it, it cannot be universalized, for it does not take up the exceptions at that point. For example, “Look before you leap” is good advice for those contemplating a quick marriage, but “She who hesitates is lost” can be just as sound—and more personal—in the same situation. In the same manner, the psalmists trace the main paths of what happens to those who trust the Lord, but there is no inference or commitment in the text that says those same persons will never face suffering, evil, or testing as Job did. Instead, “Those the Lord loves he chastens” (Heb. 12:5-6). Job refused to buy the three “comforters’” analysis of his situation, because they traced only one thread of God’s method of operating: his judgment for sin. But what happens when someone suffers because God chooses that person to illustrate his grace and glory? Job forthrightly affirmed: “I have not denied the words of the Holy One” (Job 6:10c); “I have kept to [God’s] way without turning aside” (Job 23:11) and “my lips will not speak wickedness and my tongue will not utter deceit” (Job 27: 4). Consequently, Job continued to make his appeal to God, whom he called his “umpire,” “arbitrator,” or “mediator” (Job 9:33), or his “witness” who was in heaven and would plead his case (Job 16:21) and the One he would see in his flesh after his body was resurrected (Job 19:26b). So what did God say to Job and his friends’ banter about the justification for God’s ways? Surprisingly enough, God makes no charge against Job in all of this. In fact, God had already declared Job “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1); that is why he had been chosen for this test. That did not mean, however, that Job was absolutely without fault. Job did acknowledge his sin (Job 7:20-21; 13:26), but claimed he was without duplicity, hypocrisy, or pretense and that he loved and served God with his whole heart. More significantly, the epilogue of Job 42:8 indicts Job’s three friends (but not Elihu, who argued that Job’s suffering was instructive) for wrongly applying to Job the doctrine of retributive suffering. “You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has,” concluded the Lord.
Where then did Job’s three friends go wrong? They reduced all evil to
“retributive suffering,” which is caused by sin and disobedience to God.
But there are seven other types of suffering mentioned in the Bible:
educational or disciplinary suffering as in Proverbs 3:11 or Hebrews 12:5-6;
vicarious suffering, as in the case of our Lord’s death on the cross;
empathetic suffering, where one person’s grief affects many others, as Isaiah 63:9 illustrates;
evidential or testimonial suffering, as in the first two chapters of Job;
doxological suffering for the glory of God, as in the man born blind in John 9;
revelational suffering, as in the case of the prophet Hosea’s wife abandoning him; and apocalyptic or eschatological suffering that will come at the end of this age.
While we cannot deny that the issue of suffering in the lives of God’s people, such as Job, still contains a good deal of mystery, it is just as much a horrible misconception to declare that suffering is God’s normal route for every believer as it is to declare that God’s goodness means life will always result in prosperity and riches for those who serve the Lord. Our decision must be to follow God and trust his justice, wisdom, and goodness whether we are in the throes of suffering or enjoying good health and blessing. Such a decision would surely cut the ground out from under Satan in the spiritual warfare of our day and age. Thus, the law of God does not contradict the Psalms, the historical writings, prophets, or the wisdom books. Believers will continue to suffer, but it will always be under the permission or direction of a merciful and wise heavenly Father who works for our good in the way of the truth and fairness of the gospel.
“Where Job’s friends went wrong about suffering” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. (22 Aug 07)
(Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. is president emeritus at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.)
Few cases in life or in the Bible pose the problem of what seems to be innocent—and therefore unmerited—suffering more strikingly than the biblical depiction of Job. When Job’s life is held up against what Psalm 1 and the book of Proverbs teach about the consequences of righteous and unrighteous living, something seems out of whack. Where did Job’s three friends (Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite), and Job himself, go so wrong as to call forth God’s reprimand at the end of the book?
The prologue to the Book of Job is critical in beginning to answer this question. Satan is given permission to see if Job’s piety would hold firm (as God had announced to Satan it would) if Job were assaulted and stripped of his possessions, family, and his health. Job, of course, was unaware of all of this. In effect, it was not Job but God himself who was on trial. Satan’s charge was that Job, and all righteous people like him, served God because he blessed them so generously. Job’s first response was: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be blessed” (Job 1:21b). After Satan tested Job in the area of his health, Job still responded magnificently: “Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” (Job 2:10b).
Nevertheless, Job’s three friends pressed the case against Job, contending that suffering was the result of sin in Job’s life. Their arguments went as follows:
Eliphaz: “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?” (Job 4:7).
Bildad: “Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?” (Job 8:3).
Zophar: “Yet if you devote your heart to [the LORD] and stretch out your hands to him, if you will put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame … But the eyes of the wicked will fail … Their hope will become a dying gasp” (Job 11: 13-20).
Their reasoning is that Job must have sinned and thus deserved all the suffering and discomfort, because God is a fair judge and rewarder of all that is right. Their case is a reductionistic one:
Doing what is right brings prosperity, while sin and wickedness routinely bring suffering and misfortune. Perhaps these “friends” were thinking of texts such as:
“Wicked men are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm” (Prov. 12:7);
or “No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble” (Prov. 12:21);
or “Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers … He is like a tree planted by streams of water … Whatever he does prospers” (Ps 1:1-3). (Also see Psalm 125).
Notice that the citations from Proverbs are cast into proverbial forms. A proverb is not the same as a promise. While a proverb gathers the majority of instances into a memorable saying that has a bit of saltiness to it, it cannot be universalized, for it does not take up the exceptions at that point. For example, “Look before you leap” is good advice for those contemplating a quick marriage, but “She who hesitates is lost” can be just as sound—and more personal—in the same situation. In the same manner, the psalmists trace the main paths of what happens to those who trust the Lord, but there is no inference or commitment in the text that says those same persons will never face suffering, evil, or testing as Job did. Instead, “Those the Lord loves he chastens” (Heb. 12:5-6). Job refused to buy the three “comforters’” analysis of his situation, because they traced only one thread of God’s method of operating: his judgment for sin. But what happens when someone suffers because God chooses that person to illustrate his grace and glory? Job forthrightly affirmed: “I have not denied the words of the Holy One” (Job 6:10c); “I have kept to [God’s] way without turning aside” (Job 23:11) and “my lips will not speak wickedness and my tongue will not utter deceit” (Job 27: 4). Consequently, Job continued to make his appeal to God, whom he called his “umpire,” “arbitrator,” or “mediator” (Job 9:33), or his “witness” who was in heaven and would plead his case (Job 16:21) and the One he would see in his flesh after his body was resurrected (Job 19:26b). So what did God say to Job and his friends’ banter about the justification for God’s ways? Surprisingly enough, God makes no charge against Job in all of this. In fact, God had already declared Job “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1); that is why he had been chosen for this test. That did not mean, however, that Job was absolutely without fault. Job did acknowledge his sin (Job 7:20-21; 13:26), but claimed he was without duplicity, hypocrisy, or pretense and that he loved and served God with his whole heart. More significantly, the epilogue of Job 42:8 indicts Job’s three friends (but not Elihu, who argued that Job’s suffering was instructive) for wrongly applying to Job the doctrine of retributive suffering. “You have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has,” concluded the Lord.
Where then did Job’s three friends go wrong? They reduced all evil to
“retributive suffering,” which is caused by sin and disobedience to God.
But there are seven other types of suffering mentioned in the Bible:
educational or disciplinary suffering as in Proverbs 3:11 or Hebrews 12:5-6;
vicarious suffering, as in the case of our Lord’s death on the cross;
empathetic suffering, where one person’s grief affects many others, as Isaiah 63:9 illustrates;
evidential or testimonial suffering, as in the first two chapters of Job;
doxological suffering for the glory of God, as in the man born blind in John 9;
revelational suffering, as in the case of the prophet Hosea’s wife abandoning him; and apocalyptic or eschatological suffering that will come at the end of this age.
While we cannot deny that the issue of suffering in the lives of God’s people, such as Job, still contains a good deal of mystery, it is just as much a horrible misconception to declare that suffering is God’s normal route for every believer as it is to declare that God’s goodness means life will always result in prosperity and riches for those who serve the Lord. Our decision must be to follow God and trust his justice, wisdom, and goodness whether we are in the throes of suffering or enjoying good health and blessing. Such a decision would surely cut the ground out from under Satan in the spiritual warfare of our day and age. Thus, the law of God does not contradict the Psalms, the historical writings, prophets, or the wisdom books. Believers will continue to suffer, but it will always be under the permission or direction of a merciful and wise heavenly Father who works for our good in the way of the truth and fairness of the gospel.
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