Hopelessness, Suffering, and Unjust Loss - Part 6
Birth Pangs
We tend to view incidents of great pain and loss in an isolated bubble. That is, we don’t always connect the painful incident with the payback that comes later from a just God, to recompense us for the pain and loss that we may have unjustly suffered.
If mothers took that viewpoint, without regarding the payoff for their indescribable pain, which of them would ever choose to go through childbirth? Why would any woman who had been through the excruciating experience of childbirth ever choose to go through that again? The reality is that, in most cases, they will gladly choose it again because on the other side of that excruciating experience, they get a baby! A real… live… baby! And sometimes they get more than one!
“A woman, when she is in labor, has pain because her time [to give birth] has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of her joy that a child has come into the world.”—John 16:21 (AMP)
We can see this contrast vividly in the birth of Benjamin in Genesis 35:16-19 (NLT):
“Leaving Bethel, Jacob and his clan moved on toward Ephrath. But Rachel went into labor while they were still some distance away. Her labor pains were intense. After a very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, ‘Don’t be afraid—you have another son!’ Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named the baby Ben-oni (which means “son of my sorrow”). The baby’s father, however, called him Benjamin (which means “son of my right hand”).”
Rachel called her youngest child “son of my pain”, because she was focused on the pain. She couldn’t see beyond the pain that she was going through, and could not imagine life beyond the pain. Jacob, on the other hand, called him “son of my right hand!” This was a name filled with promise; with vision for a future full of possibilities! In the midst of this time of intense pain, in which he lost his beloved Rachel, Jacob was able to look beyond the heart-rending pain of the moment, and see a future beyond the pain—a future filled with blessings that would come from the birth of this son. And as it turns out, we’ve all benefited from the birth of Benjamin, because Benjamin was the ancestor of the apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament.
Knowing now the benefits that all of us have received as a result of the birth of Benjamin and all of his descendants, including the apostle Paul, would we say that the temporary pain of Benjamin’s birth was worth it? I think so. I believe even Rachel would say that it was well worth the pain, even though it resulted in her own death! Knowing the benefits now, she might even say that she would be willing to go through it again!
It would probably be better for all of us to consider the great tragedies and losses in our lives as “birth pangs”, looking at them, not in isolation, but in context, anticipating the eventual repayment, symbolized by the baby being born full of hope, promise, and potential for a future full of abundant life and blessings that didn’t exist before!
Jesus did exactly this in Matthew 24:3 when His disciples came to him privately and asked him, “What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?” (NLT).
In response, Jesus began to list great tragedies that would occur: “Nation will fight against nation. Kingdom will fight against kingdom. People will go hungry. There will be earthquakes in many places” (Matthew 24:7 NIRV). But then Jesus immediately put these tragedies into context, explaining that “all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs…” (Matthew 24:8 AMP).
We could focus on the birth pangs that Jesus described—the temporary suffering—or we could direct our focus to what will be birthed out of this time of suffering—the greatest period of glory in the history of the Church, culminating in the establishment of Christ’s reign on earth!
This is how God looks at tragedies and experiences of unjust loss, not focusing on the pain in isolation, because that does not give the complete picture. He is a God of justice. God looks at the pain and loss coupled with the corresponding repayment that He rewards as our compensation for the pain and losses we’ve suffered. The picture is only complete when it includes the full repayment—the fulfillment of justice. And God provides a compensation package as repayment for every unjust loss.
“And I will compensate you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust”—Joel 2:25 (AMP)
The only question for us is: Will we recognize and claim the compensation package that God, in His justice, provides for us?
