​Why The Righteous Suffer

“Why do the righteous suffer?” It’s a question that has been asked since the earliest of time. The greatest sufferer in the world, apart from Jesus Christ, was Job and he questioned “why do the righteous suffer?”

Volumes of books have been written on the subject. The philosopher has talked about it. The preacher has preached about it. The agnostic has used it was a flare against God. “Why do the righteous suffer?”

I suppose the bottom line as to why the righteous suffer is for the teaching purpose of the coming into the position of obedience. Here’s a man, driving his car down the street, who ignores the stop sign. An officer sounds the siren and gives him a ticket and he goes off suffering, mad and with less money in his pocket. But the next stop sign that he comes to, he respects it and observes it. “Though he were a son yet learned, he obedience by the things he suffered.”

How much obedience did you learn when you suffered? You didn’t understand it at the time and you rebelled against it, but the text is a powerful text. “Though he were a son yet learned, he obedience by the things he suffered.”