Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10-12)
This builds on our previous posts: Book of Job (Part 1), Book of Job (Part 2)
A Job-like Missionary
David Lin is a Chinese-American pastor who was imprisoned by the Chinese government from 2006 to 2024 for working with a “house church.” He was falsely accused of fraud and unjustly sentenced to life in prison. For 17 years, David lived behind bars, malnourished, weakened by illness, and cut off from his family.1
From the outside, his story looked like a disaster—years stolen, his wife left to survive alone, his daughter growing up without her father. Yet David Lin refused to interpret his suffering as accidental. He said, “Without God’s permission, I cannot go to prison. Without God’s permission, I cannot come out.” For Lin, God’s sovereign wisdom, power, and love were not just doctrines for textbooks. Knowing the Lord’s trustworthy character was his only way to survive. The same is true for us!
God Was Working
Inside prison, Daniel prayed a lot. He translated and hand-copied portions of the New Testament into Chinese so others could read God’s word. When Bibles were taken away, he encouraged himself and taught others from Scriptures he had memorized. He listened to fellow inmates and counseled them. Guards noticed that wherever Lin was placed, violence dropped. They moved him from cell to cell because his influence changed others. Hardened men were softened, some came to faith in Christ, and others led Bible studies.
On the outside, no progress was visible, but Jesus was ruling, powerfully and quietly. Laws shifted, and helpers emerged. Prayers on Earth were prompted and aided by God the Holy Spirit for 17 years. God the Son was praying up in Heaven, and God the Father knew all that Daniel Lin needed.2 All of that was unseen. Then, at exactly the right moment, Lin was released in a prisoner exchange and reunited with his family. God was in control all along!
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: “The Lord looked down from His sanctuary on high, from heaven He viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” (Psalm 102:18-20)
Big Ideas in Job
- Satan seeks to alienate people from God
- The Lord (Father, Son, and Spirit) rules over every event in our lives
- God can be trusted even when His ways surpass our understanding
- The Lord stays close to His people, especially when we suffer
- God works through bad things for the good of His true believers.3
In the previous post, we looked at some key verses in the Book of Job. Here is another.
A Confession of Faith
Job 10:12 Lord, You gave me life and showed me loving-kindness, and in Your providence watched over my spirit.
God’s Love in Action
The Hebrew word translated as loving-kindness is hesed, one of the biggest words in the Bible. It means that God’s love for us is kind, steadfast, merciful, faithful, and loyal. It’s more than a feeling. It’s God’s affection in action for His people.
Hesed is used 26 times in Psalm 136, which begins, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His loving-kindness endures forever.” Then the Psalm goes on to praise God for acting:
- In creating and sustaining His universe
- In saving Old Testament Israel in the Exodus
- In leading His people through the wilderness and into Canaan
- In showing His ongoing faithfulness by remembering, rescuing, and feeding us.
More Love in Jesus
Isaac Watts’ hymn “updates” Psalm 136 and carries it forward to Christ and to the end of time:
God sent His Son with power to save from guilt, and darkness, and the grave.
Wonders of grace to God belong, repeat His mercies in your song.
Through this vain world God guides our feet, and leads us to His heavenly seat.
His mercies ever shall endure, when this vain world shall be no more.4
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Christ… not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
So We Pray
Like Pastor Lin in his prison cell, Job was still writhing in physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional pain. He pleaded his innocence and wanted to know why he was wasting away with his illness. He experienced darkness, not light, and disorder with no apparent meaning or moral predictability. When the answer seems to be “No,” we don’t stop needing God, so we don’t stop praying. The Lord makes it all work for our good somehow.
Job couldn’t stop turning to God and talking to Him, because Job trusted in God’s loving-kindness and providence. Job reminds us of Christ, who cried out to His Father at Gethsemane and Golgotha.6 Only the Father can save Jesus, Job, Pastor Lin, and us from death.
Providence means that the Lord demonstrates His almighty and ever-present power by upholding heaven, earth, and all creatures with His hand. God so rules that rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things come to us not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.
Knowing that the Lord is in control helps us to be patient when things go against us, or seem to be against us. We can celebrate and be thankful when things go well. For the future, we can and must have good confidence in our faithful God and Father. But we should not place confidence in our own ability to understand. Nothing in all creation will separate us from God’s love. We are so completely in our Father’s hand that without His will we can neither move nor be moved.7
Trusting Christ in Times of Change
Praise the Lord; He doesn’t wait for catastrophic days to help us. He helps us with more ordinary stressors too. Singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken’s home relocation was exhausting and exciting, a roller coaster of emotion. She said:
The sooner we make peace with the fact that we are on a journey of perpetual change, the sooner we can move in close to the God who is unchangeable. His constancy proves Him faithful over and again to be our one steady hope.8
Sandra reminded me of the hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisholm (1866-1960). That hymn was not written in a time of crisis for the poet. He was reflecting on the Lord’s trustworthiness morning by morning, in the shifts of seasons, and in orbits of the sun, moon, and stars. Through its patterns of change, God’s creation calls us to faith in Christ rather than to fear. The Lord shows up in Job chapters 38 onward and reminds Job of His faithfulness in creation and providence.
In times of crisis, Isaiah prayed, “Lord, be gracious to us. We long for You. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.” 9
Jesus is the Climax
People say that history runs in circles, but Christians see history as an arrow in flight, with a definite launching point (God’s creation) and a definite target (God’s re-creation). History has:
- A precise beginning (Creation by God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
- A meaningful direction (God’s advancing kingdom)
- A climactic center (Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection)
- A precise end (Christ’s return, final judgment, and the new creation)
Our days are not meaningless, beloved. And our sufferings are not either. The Book of Job shows us that at the end. The whole Bible shows that too. Genesis chapters 1-2 show us the Lord’s first creation, and Revelation chapters 21-22 show us His re-creation. The Scriptures give us all the answers in the back and in the end. And we have not yet arrived at that point in history.
The Bible closes with Christ saying, “Yes, I am coming soon.” So we pray, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ” (Revelation 22:20)
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for upholding the brokenhearted and saving those who are crushed in spirit. When our hearts are heavy and our strength is gone, remind us that You will never leave us or forsake us. Stay near with Your presence, Your peace, and Your unfailing love.
You already know our sorrows, disappointments, and confusions, even when we can’t pray rightly. You know our heartaches and headaches, big and small. We don’t need to hide our pain from You, or clean up our act before we call on You. You welcome all weary and hurting people who come to You through Jesus, Your Son, as we pray by the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Notes (various Bible translations): 1 Wang, Vivian (Sep 16, 2024), “China Frees American Pastor After Nearly 20 Years in Prison,” The New York Times. 2 Matt 6:8; Rom 8:26-27, 34-35. 3 Adapted from Quickview Bible (2012), edited by Christopher D. Hudson, p. 442. 4 “Give to Our God Immortal Praise,” (date 1719, stanzas 5-6) Trinity Hymnal (1961). 6 Heb 5:7. 7 Adapted from The Heidelberg Catechism, #27-28 (German original 1563, English version 2011) by the Christian Reformed Church. 8 Sandra McCracken, “Making Peace with Change,” CT Magazine (Oct, 2018), p. 30. 9 Isa 33:2.