The Gospel According to Satan by Jared C. Wilson

Author:Jared C. Wilson [Wilson, Jared C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2020-01-13T15:00:00+00:00

That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.6

This is what Job is doing at this moment. His hope is demanding what is unseen. He is committing to eagerly waiting, to enduring. We could hear him in Job 14:14 this way: “If I could know I’m going to come back to life—that this isn’t all there is—I will endure this struggle till that day comes. If that’s what it takes, Lord, I will do it.”

What about you? If you knew this life isn’t all there is, how would it affect how you live today? This week? How would it affect your hope in the midst of suffering?

Lottie Moon was a Baptist missionary to China in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. She served for forty years, largely in the Shandong Province, enduring numerous hardships along the way. She was roundly hated by her mission field, having earned the nickname “devil woman.” Moon once wrote that she knew she would be murdered if those who designed to do so had the opportunity.

On top of that, acclimating to the culture was slow going for her, and she struggled to learn Mandarin Chinese. Her sister’s deteriorating health was a constant source of worry. Her missionary supervisor was also in dire straits mentally and emotionally. Moon found herself in the midst of feuding local missionaries, constantly trying to broker peace between those who ought to have been working together. As she got older, Moon began to suffer from some mental health issues of her own, it seems.

And she did all of this as a single woman. Can you imagine the pain, the fear, the loneliness?

While you may not be able to identify with her mission to China, perhaps you can identify with a love unfulfilled. We learn that she fell in love with a seminary professor. He was a bit older, and we don’t have a lot of details about their relationship, only that the feeling was mutual. And yet it was never fulfilled.

There were perhaps theological differences between them, as her suitor eventually adopted Unitarianism. Maybe it was a vocational divide: she desiring to serve overseas, he desiring to stay home. In any event, we know that on top of all her physical and spiritual suffering, Lottie Moon experienced one of the most common struggles for single (and even many married) persons—unfulfilled romantic desires.

“God had first claim on my life,” she said, “and since the two conflicted, there could be no question about the result.”7

Lottie Moon did not have an easy lot in life. But her hope was not in her feelings or her circumstances. She knew the most important thing about her was settled, and this in turn helped to settle her heart.

Hope defies what is seen, and hope demands what is unseen.

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