The Shovel Of Suffering

THE HERMENEUTIC OF SUFFERING

Have you ever wanted to understand the Bible more, or wished that you knew more of the Bible than you do? “Hermeneutics” is a term that points us towards the science of properly interpreting scripture. There are principles to interpret anything whether it be a book, music, or a cinema genre, and likewise there are proper principles to use in order to interpret the Bible accurately. There are a great many books that will assist you in learning how to interpret the Bible (See book recommendations at the bottom of this blog post). There are some fundamental principles that are foundational and helpful when interpreting the Bible that you’ll learn in such books. There are principles that teach us, for example, to pay attention to the historical context of the book, or the audience for whom the book is intended, and all of these principles are very helpful in coming to a sound interpretation of the Scripture that you are reading.

Suffering is like a pair of glasses that allows us to see diamonds in Scripture that we once couldn't see. Click To Tweet

There is, however, one principle that I would categorize as a “non-technical” principle that is not often in these textbooks that would help us to better interpret the Bible, and that would be the “hermeneutic of suffering.” John Piper has said, “An indispensable key to understanding the Scriptures is suffering in the path of righteousness.” Psalm 119:67 & 71: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word…it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” The psalmist here writes of the value of being “afflicted” by pointing to the fact that he “now” keeps God’s word and that it was “good for him” to be afflicted so that he might learn God’s statutes. I do not believe that we can take every single affliction we go through and use this verse to justify it by saying that God has allowed or caused some suffering to occur so that we might always keep His Word, however, we can say, at the very least, that there are some times, and maybe many times, when we can say with the psalmist that it was “good” that we were afflicted, for it  was in the affliction and after the affliction that we then learned to keep His Word.

There are some parts of the bible that we will not understand very well until we’ve suffered. Click To Tweet

MARTIN LUTHER AND THE VALUE OF HIS TRIALS

When we look at church history, we can find this “hermeneutic of suffering” in the life of Martin Luther, one of the figureheads of the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther said, “I want you to know how to study theology in the right way. I have practiced this method myself. . . . Here you will find three rules. They are frequently proposed throughout Psalm [119] and run thus: oration, meditatio, tentatio [prayer, meditation, trial].” When we think of understanding theology, we can usually see that prayer and meditation upon Scripture would be common elements, but what of our trials? Luther says that trials is one of the ways by which we will know God and know our theology “the right way.”  Martin Luther again speaks of the value of trials by saying, “[Trials] teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is: it is wisdom supreme.” Can we say, with Luther, that we’ve experienced “how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty” and “how comforting” God’s Word is while going through trials?  Luther, finally, speaks of the value of the trials he went through being a major figurehead in the Protestant Reformation when he said, “For as soon as God’s word becomes known through you, the devil will afflict you, will make a real doctor [teacher] of you, and will teach you by his temptations to seek and to love God’s Word. For I myself . . . owe my papists many thanks for so beating, pressing, and frightening me through the devil’s raging that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian, driving me to a goal I should never have reached.” Are we able to view at least some of our trials, as Luther did his trials in his own day, and can we thank God that He has used some of our trials to make us a “fairly good theologian” and to drive us closer to Him?

USING THE SHOVEL OF SUFFERING

There are some scriptural truths that can only be discovered by “the Shovel of Suffering.” There are truths in scripture, it seems, that are veiled until we are going through trials and temptations. There are some parts of the bible that we will not understand very well until we’ve suffered. There are some parts of the bible that we will not practice well, or will not know how to practice, until we have gone through some suffering. Suffering is like a pair of glasses that allows us to see diamonds in Scripture that we once couldn’t see. It seems as if the Shovel Of Suffering digs a little deeper than most shovels; its spade is a little wider and its end is a little sharper than the other digging tools. God blesses His people often by revealing more of Himself and His faithfulness when we are going through our darkest nights. It’s during those dark nights that a peculiar light shines forth from scripture that we could not see while all was well during the daytime. Just like we can only see the glory of the stars at night, so in the same way there is glory we can only see at night. The value of trials is not in going through the trials themselves, but it’s what going through those trials enable us to see. Professor Nicholas Wolterstorff, after the sudden death of their 25 year-old son in a mountain-climbing accident, stated that “I shall look at the world through tears. Perhaps I shall see things that, dry-eyed, I could not see.” We are often a people who are hesitant to cry or to show much emotion, even in the face of some tragedies. We must not ponder on what we lose should we cry, but we must ponder on what we should gain if we cry.  Wolterstorff is recommending that we allow the tears to flow freely since the tears will be the means by which God enables us to see the world, to see others, and to see Himself, more clearly. Pastor Jay Harris comments that “Your gospel gets real funny [looking/sounding/not right] if it ain’t next to suffering.” When is the last time that God has illuminated some Scriptures to you while you were going through trials? In what ways has God, through His Word, appeared more glorious and beautiful to you while you were walking through some of the darkest, toughest times of your life?

Bible Interpretation Book Recommendations