“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Afflictions come in all shapes and sizes, and they come to everyone. Afflictions can be because of health problems, family problems, spiritual problems or any number of things. We should not be surprised when we have to face afflictions. We should not get mad with God when afflictions come, because we live in a fallen world and afflictions are part and parcel with this fallen condition. Who are “the righteous” mentioned here? From the New Testament perspective, they are people who are right with God through faith in Jesus. David wrote, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…” We would think that the righteous would be delivered from all afflictions. In fact, when we face afflictions, we begin to wonder why God is mad at us. We might think, :“I have been as good as I can be; why is this happening to me?” Read what David wrote again: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” You did not misread that. The Bible is filled with stories about the afflictions of the righteous. One Bible character who comes immediately to mind is Job. Job was declared to be righteous by God Himself, but God allowed him to go through afflictions beyond anything that we will ever know. Who was ever more faithful to Jesus, and to his service to Jesus than the apostle Paul? Yet Paul could write to the Corinthian church, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed: we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken: cast down, but not destroyed.” Paul didn’t waste his time complaining about his many afflictions, he just kept on believing and serving. Why do we go through afflictions? As already mentioned, we go through them because we live in a fallen world. Furthermore, we go through afflictions because God uses these afflictions to give us strength. The great people in the Bible were made stronger by the afflictions that they encountered. Moses was a stronger person because of all of the problems that he had with the Israelites, not to mention the problems that he had with his own humanity. The people in the church in Acts were made stronger through the persecutions that they encountered. It is noteworthy that when a great persecution broke out against the church in Acts, those early Christians did not give up, but they went to other parts of the world and shared the word of God way beyond Jerusalem. There is a promise in this text that we need to consider: “But the Lord delivers him (or her) out of them all.” When we suffer for righteousness sake, we can know that God is in the process of delivering us, even as we go through them. God “delivers him out of them all.” Notice that God delivers the righteous “out of them all.” This doesn’t mean that He delivers us from them all together, as noted above. It means that God will see us through all of the afflictions of life, and we will be victorious over them. Whether in this life, or in death, God delivers his people who are right with Him by faith in Jesus out of all their afflictions. We just need to face life’s afflictions in the faith that God will deliver us. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Michelle Walsh
3/31/2017 09:07:10 pm
Bless you Bro Joe! Gods Word is always right on time.
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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