Job tells us that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:7). But there are different kinds of trouble, different kinds of adversity, different kinds of affliction.
First there is the kind that we pull down onto our own heads.
“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags” (Prov. 23:21).
“He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: But he that heareth reproof getteth understanding” (Prov. 15:32).
And so it is that we have STDs, cirrhosis of the liver, expensive ER visits after drunken “hold my beer” stunts, prison time, lawsuits for loutish groping, messy divorces, and ruined careers. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Country music really does have an excellent grasp of this principle. “Turned my life into this country song . . . I got nobody to blame but me” (Chris Stapleton).
The second kind of trouble is the conflict we find ourselves in with others, and the whole thing is inexplicable to us. A relationship with a good friend goes south for no apparent reason. A previously amicable work environment turns rancid. Euodia and Syntyche have their falling out. A pastor and his elder board, who worked together smoothly for years, suddenly find themselves at loggerheads.
When conflict and trouble arise this way, what we need to do is turn to James for wisdom. He explicitly seeks to answer the question for us. He both poses the question and answers it in one breath, and spends the following passage developing the answer in detail. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1ff, ESV). I have written a goodish bit about this kind of conflict in the past.
The third kind of conflict is a particular kind of conflict with God. Now the first kind mentioned above is conflict with God the way arguments with gravity are conflicts with Him. The second kind might well be something that He is using in the course of this third kind, but it is still helpful to distinguish them. So this third kind of conflict is a struggle with God, in the course of which He helps us in that fight with Himself. The model here is Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, who turned out to be God Himself. “He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God” (Hosea 12:3).
The striking thing about this episode is that Jacob wrestled the angel to a standstill, in some mysterious way matching him. At the same time, he refused to let the angel go until He blessed him. In Scripture, blessing is an acknowledgement of superiority. “It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior” (Heb. 7:7, ESV). But the most remarkable thing about this great wrestling match is that it was an agonistic struggle for Jacob—it was a great affliction. And what did he do with this affliction? He refused to let it go without a blessing.
If I might, I would like to finish this out by citing Calvin’s commentary on this great passage. Calvin says that God intends “to represent all the servants of God in this world as wrestlers.”[1] Cotton Mather once said that for the faithful, wars will never cease. Calvin again: “We, also, are to learn from him, that we must fight during the whole course of our life.”[2]
Distinguishing different kinds of trouble, as I did above, Calvin also says that “adversity is either the rod with which he corrects our sins, or the test of our faith and patience.”[3] Discipline can be corrective, meaning chastisement for sin. Spanking a child for getting into the cookie jar is discipline. But enrolling the child in third grade is also discipline. This latter kind is positive discipline, inculcating certain habits that the child will most certainly require later on. You do not enroll a child in the challenges of third grade because he did something wrong. You do it because he did second grade right.
“Jacob, therefore, having been accustomed to bear sufferings, is now led forth to real war.”[4]
When God determines to bless us with this kind of trouble, He confronts us with Himself. We wrestle with Him in a mysterious way. But when He does this to us through our external circumstances, He is also doing something internally, something that is much harder for us to see. We see the trouble approaching, and we think we see the entire picture. But if that were the entire picture, why would James tell us to count it all joy when we meet these kinds of conflicts?
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:2–5).
We are to count it all joy because the external trials outside are God’s means of strengthening and establishing us internally. And if we don’t quite see this yet, we should ask God for that kind of wisdom. The promise in v. 5 is not a promise that God will give you wisdom about whether to turn left or right at the intersection. It is a promise to give you the kind of wisdom that sees the point of your trials.
Or, as Calvin puts it, He “becomes in us stronger than the power by which he opposes us.”[5]
God wrestles from the outside, and God equips us on the inside through the means of the pressure He is applying in both directions.
“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:3–5).
James says to count it all joy when we meet various trials. Paul says that we are to glory in tribulation. What is the point of this instruction? The point of the instruction is the same thing as the point of your trial, and in both passages it is patience.
You are grappling with the angel, and you are called, like Jacob, to fight to the point of stalemate. When you get to that point, you are to grasp your affliction with both arms, bear-hugging it, and you are to refuse to let go until you have the blessing.
End Notes
[1] John Calvin and John King, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 195.
[2] John Calvin and John King, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 197.
[3] John Calvin and John King, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 195.
[4] John Calvin and John King, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 197.
[5] John Calvin and John King, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 196.
Most excellent!
But don’t forget, gentle readers, that not all afflictions are as easy as stalemates.
Stephen’s affliction and fight was tougher.
The cup Jesus drank was tougher still.
Jesus asked if that cup could be taken away. His Father’s answer was no.
So Jesus took that cup, the one you and I had earned.
Know what you are thankful for, tomorrow, and every day!
Happy Thanksgiving friends! ????????????
Thank you for this encouraging article, Pastor Wilson. I read regularly and this is perhaps my favorite so far. May God bless it to many people.
I’m thankful that Jesus took my sins and gave me his righteousness. I am also incredibly thankful that he uses the first kind of struggling with God in the second kind — that is, he uses it to grow us in him, too, even if it’s our own folly. Which kind do you suppose it is if you seem stuck in the doldrums and it seems your own weakness? And how do you get the blessing?
Excellent post! It’s good to be reminded that God brings a trials sometimes to test us and grow us closer to Him. Needed to read this today. Great thoughts to start theThanksgiving holiday with. Hope everyone has a bkessed Thanksgiving!
How I remember years ago wrestling with God in prayer over an out of this world trial. “But God, but God, but God your word says this.” I even wondered how different the history of Israel would have been, if they brought to the prophet, what Deut. said about their king, rather than their own dissatisfaction of not having a king (like the other nations?). And indeed, it was preparing me for new and totally unexpected trials.
Excellent commentary on Jacob’s ordeal Mr. Wilson!
Rev. Wilson, I have profited more from you (usually in the form of rebuke) than anyone. And I really am grieved and confused when men like R. Scott Clark misrepresent you. Why do they do this? Anyway, this was a great article as always, though I’m formally protesting until we get another Angel Food song ;) I did find two typos: “He is also doing something internally, something that is much >>>>>hard<<<<< for us to see. We see the trouble approaching, and we think we see the entire picture. But if that were the entire picture, why would James tell… Read more »
Thanks. Fixed them. And I will try to get some Angel Food into the Shop soon.
What is so difficult for us to grasp is that the life we are given by God is guaranteed to be filled with challenges. These challenges are not indicative of our having gotten the unhappy life from the buffet of lives available, but are actually gifts from God to reveal to us our deep need of Him and the fact that in obedience to and dependence upon Him lie the only true joy and contentment available on this broken earth.
Pastor Wilson, I appreciate the post. One thing I wonder when you quote that verse from Job is, isn’t this a statement from one of Job’s enemies who was ultimately condemned?