Take Away the Frogs

Because of Pharaoh's hard heart, the Lord was forced to perform miracles and send plagues on the land of Egypt in order to secure the freedom of his chosen people.  After a few days of a plague, Pharaoh and his people were tired of the plague and its inconvenience.  Pharaoh would then call Moses and Aaron and ask them to end the plague in return for a truce.  Some plagues were particularly loathesome and troubled Pharaoh greatly.  When frogs came upon the land in response to Moses' command, they covered the land.  There were frogs in Pharaoh's house, in his bedroom, in this shoes, in his food, in his bowl--they were everywhere.  Pharaoh's misery came to a climax and the Bible records that Pharaoh begged Moses to "Take away the frogs from me" (Exodus 8:8).

We like to think of stories with happy endings.  Stories where the protagonist dies or is foiled and where the bad guys win are not popular and do not entertain nearly as much as those that end with the couple falling in love, the meanies foiled, and people living happily ever after.  Humans like to dwell upon the happy times and ignore the miserable times.  Suffering is part of the human condition, however, and, as such, the Bible records many instances of the misery of mankind.  Some sorrow is random and not brought about by any particular sin.  We know this to be true by Jesus' statement that God "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).  Job struggled with the very premise that a righteous man could endure suffering.  His friends assured him that he must have sinned or else he would not have been punished (Job 4:7-8).  Job, we know, was not being tested because of his sins, but because Satan was allowed to tempt him.

Adam's Work

Most of the misery of mankind in the Bible, however, IS brought about by the sins of individuals.  Everyone gets up for work some morning and wishes he could go back to bed.  It can get wearisome to work year after year at the same job.  Imagine how it must have felt for Adam.  He had been given a small amount of work by God to cultivate the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15).  After his sin, the amount of work and the difficulty increased not only for him, but for every man and woman since him:  "Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground..." (Genesis 3:17-19).

Adam's trouble had been greatly increased due to his sins.  Imagine that you had from birth great wealth so that you did not have to keep a job.  You just did a few chores around the house to keep it up and then had the rest of the time for leisure.  This was Adam's situation.  If he had only not eaten of the forbidden fruit, he could have lived a life of ease.  He cursed himself and all future humans by his sin.  Now we face a daily grind of getting up early and going off to work.

Israel in the Wilderness

When the Jews left the slavery in Egypt, Pharaoh's misery turned into their joy (Exodus 15:1ff).  It wasn't long before the Hebrews found themselves the recipients of God's wrath.  Their own sins condemned them to misery during their trek to the promised land.  They believed themselves suffering when they got thirsty or hungry and cried out to the Lord for relief.  The Lord was eager to provide for them while they fulfilled his will.  He gave them water from the rock and fed them on the bread of heaven, manna.  Nothing was ever good enough for them, however.  They worshipped idols, complained even when circumstances were good, and provoked God's anger.

After all God's loving care, they had the nerve to complain that they were tired of manna and that they didn't have enough water (Numbers 21:4-5).  To punish them, God sent poisonous snakes into the camp and many were bitten and died.  They were miserable due to their sins and begged Moses to intercede with the Lord and "remove the serpents" (Numbers 21:6-9).  In their sin, God again provided relief.

King David

David had his share of suffering brought about due to his failings.  One of the most infamous was the pain he endured at the death of his first son by Bathsheba.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered Uriah, her husband, to endeavor to cover up his mistake.  Two wrongs did not justify him in God's eyes, and Nathan the prophet assured David that nothing could be hidden from Jehovah God (II Samuel 12:1-14).  David did not realize the magnitude of Nathan's words, I'm sure, until they were fulfilled in his life.  His sufferings were multiplied in life.  First, his son died (II Samuel 12:15-16).  His pain suffered was due not just to the physical demise of his child, but his conscience plagued him.  Psalm 51 records the feelings of David after his tryst with Bathsheba.  In that Psalm, David acknowledges his transgressions and asks God for forgiveness and a clean heart.

He recovered from this tragic event, but it wasn't long before disaster struck again in the household of David.  His son Amnon raped his daughter Tamar, according to II Samuel 13.  As if this weren't bad enough, Tamar's brother Absalom was scarred for life by this tragedy.  His feelings of hate toward Amnon boiled over and Absalom murdered Amnon (II Samuel 13:24-31).  This was cause for more grey hairs on the head of David.  This event resulted in the loss of life on one son, but it also resulted in the flight of Absalom.  From this time forward, David and his son Absalom were never reconciled.

The enmity that Absalom developed for David came to a head in Absalom's rebellion and attempted coup d'etat.  Rather than fight his son, David left Jerusalem and hid.  War was inevitable.  The love that David had for his son never diminished.  When his generals were setting out to fight Absalom's army, David pleaded with them:  "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom" (II Samuel 18:5).  The lust for blood during the ensuing battle was not assuaged until Absalom tasted cold steel.  When David heard, he was destroyed (II Samuel 18:28-33).  This most emotional scene can't help but move us.  Remember that all the turmoil in David's house was due to a single night of pleasure with Bathsheba.

Hezekiah

A distant descendant of David's likewise had miseries to cope with.  Hezekiah was a good king in Judah many years after the division of David's kingdom into two parts.  Hezekiah had fought a life's battle for the Almighty.  He defeated the enemies around with the assistance of God.  The Bible records that he placed his heart in the Lord's camp (II Kings 18:3-6) and followed the commandments and prophets his whole life.  It was during the reign of Hezekiah that Sennacharib the Assyrian descended on Jerusalem.  He conquered massive amounts of territory for the Assyrian kingdom, but he could not defeat Hezekiah.  The prophet Isaiah encouraged Hezekiah and told him not to fear Sennacharib.  Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and the Lord delivered the city.

Hezekiah had health problems.  He was on his death bed when Isaiah came to him to pronounce his impending death.  Everyone has been sick before.  Sometimes the smallest cold or allergy can drive us crazy with sneezing, sniffling, or coughing.  More serious diseases can really knock us off our feet and cause us to suffer.  Perhaps you can remember the worst sickness you ever had.  You were miserable, suffering, and just wanted it to be over with.  We have all seen cases of the terminally ill.  These people reach a point where even death is viewed as a end to suffering.  Hezekiah hadn't reached the point where he desired death.  He wanted to live.  He rolled over in his bed and prayed (II Kings 20:1-5).  Most people would rather cling to life than face the unknowns of death (Psalm 6:4).

Jonah

Jonah was one who brought anguish to his own mind due to his prejudices.  He evidently hated Ninevites and absolutely did not want them to be saved from destruction.  He ran away from God in order to avoid preaching to them.  When God caught him with a great fish and Jonah finally obeyed, the Ninevites responded exactly as Jonah had predicted.  They repented and this drove Jonah crazy.  He believed he was suffering because this mongrel, heathen city was turning to God and being saved.  In order to teach Jonah the lesson that God loves everyone, God used a natural instance.  During the summer months, when you have been outside for a long time, you probably suffer the effects of the hot sun.  It causes you to sweat; your heart may race; your skin gets burnt; you get thirsty, hungry; you may get sick at your stomach or dizzy.  It was no different for Jonah thousands of years ago.  This vine grew over him to offer him shade.  When the vine died the next day, Jonah was miserable and had to endure all the effects of a blazing desert sun (Jonah 4:5-11).

Hell

You can probably commiserate with the people we have mentioned thus far.  You have felt the revulsion of working day after day.  You have sinned and suffered the consequences like David.  You have been sick and felt terrible for days or weeks from your illness.  You have either voluntarily or involuntarily worked or sat in the hot sun during the summer.  What no human being on earth has ever suffered is the fire of hell.  We can, however, obtain a rich description of the conditions of that place from the Bible.

Jesus told a story about a man who had been banished to the abode of the dead where he endured affliction in Hades (Luke 16:19-31).  Of particular note are the conditions that the man lived in.  He was tormented by flames.  We read in the book of Revelation (20:10) that those who go to hell don't have any breaks from punishment.  There is no intermission, recess, or time off for good behavior.  Rather, they are tormented by flame-like conditions day and night forever.  Each of us has suffered various degrees of burns from touching a hot stove to being burned by fire.  None of us wants to repeat the experience.

In addition to the sheer pain resulting from the punishment of hell, other circumstances add to the suffering.  The rich man in Jesus' story was thirsty.  The regular needs of the body are not met in hell.  You can't get room service or even a drink of water.  The rich man was denied any comfort.  Jesus on several occasions taught that those who did not obey God would be punished with weeping and gnashing of teeth (e.g., Matthew 8:12).  It takes severe pain of body and mind to cause a person to gnash or grind his teeth together.  There is an absence of light in hell (Jude 13).

More severe than the physical conditions are the mental and spiritual conditions suffered in hell.  People in hell will know why they are there and how they could have avoided it.  Father Abraham, in Jesus' story, told the rich man to remember his circumstances during life and implied that he could have avoided hell if he had conducted his life differently (Luke 16:25).  Those condemned to eternity in the flames will be aware of their lives and how they ought to have lived.  They will recall discrete events where the opportunity to obey God was presented and rejected.

Worst of all is the banishment from the presence of God.  I just can't imagine what this would be like.  Through God, I live, breathe, have my being.  He provides for me and cares for me.  Jesus went through a time of separation from God on the cross.  For the time that Jesus took upon himself all of our sins, God forsook Jesus (Matthew 27:46).  This was a brief one time separation.  In hell, the separation from God is permanent (2 Thessalonians 1:9).