Affliction
Our hearts in this year of our Lord 2021 still struggle with the affliction of COVID and restless crowds of displaced people displaced from work. All the world suffers a great loss of normalcy as we cry out, “HOW?”
COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 1 + talk of Jesus .com
We will return to our 21st century lamentations of COVID, but now return to the 6th century B.C. question of the people of Judah:
“How?”
Previously, in case you missed part 1:
Even though the Lord warned those with ears to hear in advance, their unexpected suffering is real.
Eicha – Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah
- 1:3 Judah has gone into exile under affliction H6040 And under harsh servitude..
- 1:7 In the days of her affliction H6040 and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things That were from the days of old..
- 1:9 She did not consider her future. Therefore she has fallen astonishingly; She has no comforter. “See, O LORD, my affliction, H6040..
Strong’s H6040 עֳנִי
- affliction, poverty, misery;
- from H6031; depression, i.e. misery:—afflicted(-ion), trouble.
That’s it! .. with this COVID affliction of A.D. 2020, 2021 and perhaps years of a generation to come, isn’t it?
Jeremiah tells us [in Lamentations 3]:
I am the man who has seen affliction H6040
Because of the rod of His wrath..
Remember my affliction H6040 and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
Like Jeremiah, we ask: Does the Lord our God not hear our laments of this present affliction?
Lamentations 4 & 5
Hear this 6th c. B.C. prayer with contrition of crushed spirit and acceptance of just punishment for guilt.
Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach..
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Lamentations 5:1,16 KJV
Where is our A.D. 2021 confession of sin against the Lord?
Indeed, the nations are unclean before the Lord our God.
θλῖψις – Strong’s G2347
Not that we require more synonyms for our sufferings, but the NT Greek brings with it hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ our Savior.
TRIBULATION or affliction
- a pressing, pressing together, pressure
- metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
- From θλίβω (G2346); to press (as grapes), press hard upon
- a compressed way; narrow straitened, contracted
- metaph. to trouble, afflict, distress
- Four years ago I addressed this root & persecution in Tribulation? Cheer up.
Behold the hour is coming
This prophesy of Jesus Christ may not sound any more encouraging than the affliction of COVID or our isolation in social distancing; but you with ears to hear, listen to this metaphor of the Lord Jesus for the time ahead.
The Gospel of John
“Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish G2347 because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. – John 16:21 NASB
Does the Lord’s metaphor not apply to these early pangs of pain in these last days?
Jesus continues in His metaphor of labor pain applying it personally to His own approaching Crucifixion for our sins in Jerusalem, which of course is followed by the Lord’s triumphal resurrection!
The Disciples would once again know their Lord in His risen flesh!
COVID may be one cause of our present affliction, but social distancing will not cure the condition of our dejected demeanors of heart and soul.
“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:22 NASB
The Lord assures the Apostles that they will be ALONE.
While Jesus is isolated in death they will think that HE is ALONE. But HE is not.
Jesus will be with the Father.
“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
John 16:32 NASB
SCATTERED.. AND ALONE! Sure sounds like our contemporary SOCIAL DISTANCING.
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, G2347 but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NASB – Strong’s G2347 – thlipsis: tribulation, affliction, trouble
COVID – an affliction of God’s Judgment?
Jesus and the Apostles guide the Church to the narrow path along the valley of the shadow of death.
Perhaps the time has come and is now here for Christians to witness Light into the darkness of these foreboding days of COVID’s crumbling impact on the unclean social environment of the world.
Roger Harned – talk of Jesus .com challenge to the socially distanced church of A.D. 2021
to be continued... NEXT: letter to a church persevering through suffering
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