The
End
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the October 1, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“Glory
be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As
it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.”
Gloria
Patri, 4th Century, CE
The Bible tells us that there was a time when everything
was idyllic. Mankind, male and female, lived in a garden called Eden. The name
of that garden has even become synonymous with an idyllic existence. Man and
woman, created in the image of God found fulfillment in the companionship they
shared with one another. Death did not exist in that paradise and those
processes of disease and injury that hasten death would have either been
unknown or altered in some way so as not to follow what we today consider the natural,
fatal course. Death has become so familiar to us that we even speak of dying of
“natural” causes as though death itself is completely natural. But it is not,
and neither is it God’s intent for He planted a tree in Eden capable of
perpetuating life eternally.[i] But mankind, through
disobedience, was expelled from Eden and prevented from returning. Per the
Bible, the history of humanity ever since has been a struggle to return to that
tree and partake of that healing fruit. John, the Apostle, wrote of that hoped
for restoration in the final book of the Bible, Revelation.[ii] As John Milton understood
when he wrote “Paradise Lost” followed by “Paradise Regained,” the beginning chapters
of Genesis and the closing chapters of Revelation bookend the Bible, the sixty-six
book library that describes that struggle
It is a record of the attempts to understand that
struggle. It shows where we have gone astray in those attempts. It also shows
when we have come very close to understanding the truth of our lot. It is
during those moments of understanding that something in our hearts tells us that
we are on the wrong path, and we yearn to come back into harmony with God. It
is also at those moments that the Kingdom of God Jesus spoke of seems very
near.[iii] Strangely, when we originally
strayed from that path we hid from God,[iv] but when we return to it,
our desire for restoration leads us to seek His company, as well as fellowship
with others who have also returned to the path of life. When we understand the
contrast between how things are in this world and how they used to be and can
be again, our desires for the false promises of this life begin to lessen, and
our desire for what can be increases. Our hope becomes less in what we can do
for ourselves here, and we begin to trust more in the future restoration God
has promised. We come to rely on Him more and more, not only for that future
promise, but for understanding how to deal with life here and now, including the
difficulty of navigating relationships with those who understand the promise
and those who don’t.
Whether we know of the Bible and its story of loss and
restoration or not, we look around us and we see that something is not right in
this world. Pain and suffering are everywhere. No morality delivers us from
suffering. The righteous suffer as well as the evil. Perhaps if only those who
were evil suffered then we might find some justice in the suffering, and we might
better understand how to avoid suffering ourselves. Perhaps it is because of a
failure to find justice in suffering in this life that caused some to relegate
that justice to the next life with doctrines like a future everlasting torment
in flames for the wicked. While this may have driven individuals to a more circumspect
life based on superstitious fear, it presented a horrid picture of the
character of God as someone who would miraculously extend someone’s life for
all eternity just so He could enjoy watching their torment. This makes no
sense, however, when we realize that immortality seems to be linked to the Tree
of Life which was found in the Eden of Genesis and in the New Earth of John’s
Revelation, both places where an eternally burning hell does not exist. While
it is true that fire will cleanse the Earth of evil,[v] it does not burn forever,
and the righteous will walk on the ashes where the fire has done its cleansing
work.[vi] While all this may give
us hope, what do we do about today? How do we make sense of the indiscriminate suffering
and sorrow that is our lot between those bookends to earth’s history?
The Bible struggles with this as well. The book of Job
is very much a microcosm of the greater struggle throughout the Bible. The book
begins with the story of Job’s blessed existence and his closeness to God. As
in Genesis, when Eden and all its blessings are lost in the first few chapters,
so it is with Job. He loses all of his livestock where much of his wealth was,
he loses all of his children, and finally he loses his health. Sitting in dust
and ashes, in pain and with his nostrils filled with the putrefaction of the
infected boils that cover his flesh, he is left to wonder about the vagaries of
fate. Nothing is revealed to him of why any of this took place. His wife tells
him he should just get it over with. “Curse God and die!” she cries.[vii] Friends come to visit him,
but they are little comfort. Through the many chapters of their counsel, they
seem to all agree that Job has brought this upon himself. Perhaps we feel this
way today to some extent also. We may not actually say that disease or
affliction is because a person is evil, but we may say they are not cured or
blessed because of their lack of faith. Prosperity Theology even goes so far as
to infer that if you are not prospering materially in your life, then you are
not walking with God. The problem with this is that we all know righteous
people who, in spite of their relationship to God are still suffering. We may
know that non-smoking saint who still dies of lung cancer, leaving a widow and
children to fend for themselves. We may know the vegan who never let any form
of animal fat pass their lips, yet they die of stroke or heart disease. There
are also diseases which have a hereditary component like arthritis or Multiple
Sclerosis. How does one explain these based on one’s relationship to God if genetics
doomed the person before they even had a chance to be good or evil? How about
children who suffer and die before they are old enough to even understand
concepts like good and evil? For some this idea that a person’s evil deeds and
suffering are somehow related taints even their attitude toward the poor,
charging them with responsibility for their lot, just as Job’s friends charged
him.
Perhaps you are reading this right now and either some
of this suffering is describing you personally or is describing someone you
know. Maybe you are even saying you want an explanation before you are willing
to get close to God. Maybe you want to know that drawing close to God will make
a difference in your own suffering. If that is the case, then we should
understand that is not what the book of Job tells us. In those pages, we
discover that even those who are close to God, like Job, will still suffer,
sometimes greatly and to the brink of death. No one will explain why to them.
In fact, they may even be challenged as Job was for having the temerity to seek
such an answer. Is it our place as the creation to demand an answer for these
things from God? The Apostle Paul felt that might be overstepping our bounds a
bit and expressed that concern with the metaphor of a pot daring to demand of
the potter why he made the pot in the manner he did.[viii] In the end, we may be
faced with the fact that we are powerless to compel God to answer anything.
Perhaps this realization is reflected in the resignation of Job’s statement, “Though
he slay me, yet will I hope in him.”[ix]
The only answer we may be left with might be the one in
the Twenty-third Psalm. David, ever the humble shepherd, assures us that when
we are in the dark place, the valley where the shadow of death looms over us,
God is right there with us.[x] It may be that our faith
in that promise is the only answer necessary to deal with the fiery darts of
evil that come to us in the form of disease and disability.[xi] But when we consider that
the greatest champions of the Bible were sustained in the same way, maybe it is
not such a bad place to be in. When Enoch walked with God, he found his way
home to God’s house.[xii] Maybe if we walk in
faith, close to God, we will one day find ourselves in paradise as well.
