Fall 1984
Affliction: God’s Servant
Sergio Valori

“. . . in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of creation . . .” Mark 13:19

The term “affliction” comes from the Greek word “thlipsis,” which means “pressure.” Seventeen times in the New Testament this word is translated “affliction” and twenty-one times “tribulation.” Jesus declared that the close of this age would be characterized by much pressure, and indeed each one of our lives can attest to that. Everyone has his share of afflictions, whether they be straitness, distress, suffering, evil treatment, or bruisings and breakings. There are job pressures, social pressures, financial pressures, and family pressures and pressures within the church. The aim of the enemy is to “wear out” the saints. In the days of his deep troubles, Job declared, “. . . days of affliction have gripped hold upon me . . .” Job 30:16. Not just a single setback or disappointment, but a prolonged season of terrible calamity. Jesus intimates that the last days will bring much tribulation to the whole earth, and men’s hearts will fear and tremble. But in Jesus Christ there is sufficient grace to enable us to stand in times of affliction and to emerge victoriously. God has an amazing ability to transform all the enemy’s work into a tool for the outworking of His purposes.

Joseph’s brethren heaped hate and ill-treatment upon him and finally sold him as a slave into Egypt. There he encountered more disappointments and eventual imprisonment. But God takes hold of all this hate and injustice and uses it to work out a glorious purpose. He was able to say unto his brethren, “It was not you that sent me hither, but God.” When his second son was born, he called him Ephraim, meaning “fruitful,” and Joseph declared, “God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction” Genesis 41:52. My friends, our land of affliction can bring forth fruit to the glory of God.

The reason why the devil is so frustrated today is because God takes all his dirty work and causes it to backfire on him. When Egypt grew afraid of the amazing growth of the Israelites among them, Pharaoh afflicted them with grievous burdens of work, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage. But rather than stop their phenomenal growth, the Bible indicates that “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” Thus, mysteriously, God’s word that Abraham’s seed would become as numerous as the sand of the sea began to be fulfilled in that environment of great oppression and affliction. Are you in the place of great pressure that appears to be crushing your life? I want you to know that He is Lord and Master in and over every environment. Right where you are, God is working out some aspect of His purpose. I am convinced that it will be the environment of great tribulation that God will use to purify and prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.

David was under continual persecution at the hands of Saul. The pressure was terrible. In fanatic determination, Saul had vowed to kill him. Daily, he feverishly schemed and pursued. David at times felt he wouldn’t make it. “There is but a step between me and death . . .” he declared. There were times when deliverance seemed impossible. “And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul . . .” I Samuel 27:1. All the revelation about his becoming king would fade out of his being. The only reality was a relentless daily pressure upon his spirit. Yet, one day that long horror of darkness is over. Saul is gone. The Lord has delivered. And looking back he can see how God has used it all. Hear his testimony in Psalm 119:65-75: “Thou has dealt well with thy servant. . .Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. . .It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statues. . .thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” It wasn’t just a maniac turned loose on him; it was God molding a man. Oh, what a mighty God we serve!

In the days of Jesus, hatred and murder grew daily in the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. A conspiracy was forming throughout the land to kill Jesus. Finally, Satan entered into Judas and planted in his mind the betrayal of Jesus. Satan thought once he had destroyed the Son of God he would have the supremacy. The angry mob takes hold of Him. Jesus knew it was “their hour.” At every turn they seemed to have the upper hand, accusing, scourging, wounding, and at last crucifying. Where is God? The enemy is doing his worst and God is allowing it. Why? Because it is all fitting perfectly into His plan. Redemption at last is a reality. All the hate, the plotting, the evil, the sufferings, the crucifixion, have served a tremendous purpose. The curse has been lifted; God and man are reconciled; the way is open for many sons to come to glory?

Paul caught the vision of the ways of God. He recognized that troubles, perplexities, and persecutions constitute the “dying of the Lord,” and that out of such daily dying the life of Jesus is made manifest in mortal flesh. In 2 Corinthians 4:17, he calls all this, “our light affliction which is but for a moment” and declares that “It worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of glory.” From the confines of a Roman prison he can declare, “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. It has become know throughout the whole praetorian guard that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brethren have been more confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear” Philippians 1:12-14 RSV. Yes, beloved, our afflictions work for us; they are God’s servants used to establish His purpose in us. He has purposed us for glory, and affliction is but one of God’s great means of producing it.