Hope in the Face of Suffering

I recently interviewed Jeremy Marshall author of a book of 20 devotions entitled 'Hope in the face of Suffering'.  You can listen to the podcast here.  Jeremy is living with incurable cancer.  Shielding is nothing new for him as any infection can lead to very serious complications for him.  I can't think of anyone more uniquely qualified to write a book of devotions about fear, suffering and death.    

If the coronavirus has taught us anything it has shown us that life is fragile.  Our society thought that science and modern medicine protected us from any nasty surprises but the last year has shown us that even they have limits.  In a chapter entitled 'All Aboard' he compares the last few months to being on a boat: 'I felt like I was being endlessly tossed around in a boat in a stormy sea, quarantined, cut off from others, fearful, lonely, wondering how long this would go on for and whether I would ever see 'dry land' again.'  I think we can all relate to that feeling.

In 20 short, simple chapters Jeremy takes the reader through Genesis, Job, the Psalms, 2 Kings, the Gospels and finally Revelation.  He reminds us that suffering and death were not part of the original plan but is a result of the fall.  Suffering can be bewildering and overwhelming but the gospel gives us hope.  it is at the cross that we see a suffering Saviour taking our punishment and we are enabled, even in a limited way, to make sense of suffering in a fallen world.  Yes the seas are choppy, but just like Noah in the ark, God has a destination for His people: 'For no one can cross the sea of this world unless carried over it on the cross of Christ.'

The book is accessible, encouraging and very, very real.  Marshall points us back again and again in the book to the ultimate answer to pain and suffering, God Himself.  In the midst of suffering God's promises become real, His word speaks to us in new ways and we look to him for grace and strength.  As Corrie Ten Boom says in 'The Hiding Place': 'I only realised that Christ was all I needed when Christ was all I had.' 

You might expect a series of devotions on suffering and death to be depressing but 'Hope in the Face of Suffering' is far from bleak.  It is filled with gospel hope and encouragement.  In his chapter entitled 'The Medicine Chest' Marshall quotes the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was jailed and ultimately executed by the Nazi's.  Shortly before his death Bonhoeffer smuggled out a scrap of paper that read 'Only a suffering God can help us.'  It is only through the suffering of God incarnate at the cross that we can make sense of suffering.  This book takes us back again and again to the cross.  God became human and suffered on a cross to reconcile sinful man to a holy God.  He came to conquer fear and death.  Yes His children face suffering in this life but we have his precious promises and we have the gospel hope of an eternity with Christ.  

The book finishes in Revelation where we are reminded that Christ holds the keys of death.  But how do we face death?  Well we have the assurance that we will not be alone.  Marshall quotes Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones when he was at the deathbed of an old man whose face shone with the glory of where he was going.  Lloyd Jones says:

We are going to be with Christ...Our greatest trouble is that we really don't believe the Bible...exactly what it says - exceeding great and precious promises.  We think we know it, but we do not really appropriate this and actually believe it is true.  Here, we have no continuing city. Our light affliction is but for a moment.  We have to take these statements literally.  They are facts, they are not merely ideas.  

This is a great little book and so appropriate for the time in which we are living.  When people are asking questions about fear, death and suffering, why not give them this little book and point them to the God who suffered and died and will one day wipe away every tear for those who are in Christ?  Why not think about buying multiple copies and sending them to family and friends?  This book has been a great help to me and I am confident that it will be a great comfort to you too.  To order the book via Free Church Books please follow this link.