Where Is God When I Hurt?

“As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

“And Saul approved of his execution.

“And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

“Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” [1]

Long years past, a wise pastor counselled me to preach to the heartaches of my people. “You will never lack a message,” he assured me, “and you will truly minister to your people.” I’m speaking today to people who are experiencing physical pain. Sometimes, we need not even wait for advanced age to experience those aches and pains. Others have unseen scars that mark the heart, scars that cannot be healed by mere words spoken in sympathy. Among those hearing me are some who know the pain of ruined relationships, the sorrow of lost friends, the grief of parting.

When we long for comfort and consolation, we too often discover that few comforters are available. In our hour of darkness we are prone to cry out, “Where is God? Has He forgotten me?” Where is God when I hurt? No doubt the question intruded into the mind of persecuted Christians. It was the unvoiced thought attending every step of expatriate pilgrims. It was the silent spectre observing the dissolution of families as children were torn from their parents. It was the question as believers were tortured and killed. Where is God now? Where is God when I hurt?

The first martyr was Stephen, a believer characterised as “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” [ACTS 6:5]. This godly man was accused out of jealousy and charged with heinous sin against the Lord God of Heaven. Hailed before the religious leaders he defended himself so ably that he could not be answered. Nor did he cease his defence of the Faith with an apologia, but he confronted the sin of those who had indicted him.

“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it” [ACTS 7:51-53].

Such pointed exposure of sin infuriated those whom he exposed. As they raged, God drew back the curtain separating time and eternity, and Stephen saw what his persecutors could not hope to see. “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” [ACTS 7:55, 56].

An enraged mob, with the blessing of religious leaders, mercilessly murdered one of God’s choice servants. One of the instigators of the mob action was a young rabbi named Saul; he guarded the clothing of those who stoned Stephen. As the stones pelted Stephen’s body, he prayed for his tormentors, “Lord do not hold this sin against them” [ACTS 7:59]. How precious are the words inspired by the Spirit that describe his transition to glory: “When he had said this, he fell asleep.” With that the brave deacon died.

I have on occasion observed that the early adherents to the Faith of Christ the Lord, spoke of their dead as “asleep.” They laid their dead to rest in a koimet?rion, a “sleeping place.” That word became the foundation for the English term, “cemetery.” The pagans had graveyards, because they had “graven out” a place to put their dead out of sight. This early Christian usage is the foundation for the Apostle’s comforting statement, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:13].

The death of Stephen signalled the beginning of the first great persecution against the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The fury of the persecution was so intense that all the saints, except for the Apostles, were driven from their homes and scattered throughout the land. The Church of Christ was struck with such ferocity that it must have seemed that none would survive. Driven from Jerusalem, almost every single member of the nascent congregation fled while attempting to preserve life and limb. Men would have been in fear for their wives; women would have been terrified for their children.