TRIALS CAN COME SUDDENLY

9. What trialsome experiences did Jesus finally suffer, and did he faithfully endure them?

⁹ It was less than a year after telling his disciples what would befall him that Jesus suddenly experienced the very sufferings of which he had spoken. He was in Jerusalem, in the garden of Gethsemane, when a mob armed with clubs and swords came by night and took him into custody. That night, as he was being tried, “some started to spit on him and some to cover his whole face and hit him with their fists.” (Mark 14:65) But this was only the beginning of his ordeal. The next day Pontius Pilate had Jesus “whipped” or “scourged.” (Matt. 27:26-30; John 19:1-3) Commenting on what this might have involved, the Medical World News of October 21, 1966, observed: “The tragic pantomime of crowning Christ with thorns and the heckling of the crowd may have been accompanied by flagellation. The whip (flagrum) had several thongs ending in lead balls or sheep astragalus bones.” Finally, weakened by such brutal beating, Jesus was nailed to a torture stake and hung up to die an agonizing death. But Jesus faithfully endured. He had trained for these severe trials.

10. What did Jesus say to prepare his disciples for trials they would face?

¹⁰ Jesus wanted his disciples also to be prepared for the trials they must face. So the night before his own death he told them: “Bear in mind the word I said to you, A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also . . . In the world you are having tribulation, but take courage! I have conquered the world.” (John 15:20; 16:33) At times these tribulations came unexpectedly and suddenly upon Jesus’ followers.

11, 12. (a) What sudden opposition did Paul and Barnabas experience in Lystra, and why was it unexpected? (b) What should we learn from this, and how did Paul seek to prepare the disciples for what lay ahead?

¹¹ For example, there was the time that the apostle Paul and his fellow missionary Barnabas were ministering in the city of Lystra in Asia Minor. Here they were well received. In fact, after they healed a lame man, the people were so impressed that they wanted to offer sacrifices to them. However, shortly afterward, the Bible record says: “Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded the crowds, and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, imagining he was dead.” How suddenly there was a reversal and persecution came!​—Acts 14:8-19.

The Bible says that after Paul’s being stoned, he and Barnabas “returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to remain in the faith and saying: ‘We must enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations.’”​—Acts 14:21, 22.

The Scriptures indicate that the Devil later challenged God in claiming that he could turn away from God all the yet unborn offspring of that first human pair. Unmistakable evidence to this effect is found in connection with the faithful servant of God named Job.

16. (a) As indicated in the conversation recorded in the book of Job, what is involved in the issue between Jehovah and Satan? (b) Was this issue new in Job’s day?

¹⁶ The inspired Bible record takes us into heaven itself, revealing an important conversation there. It says: “Now it came to be the day when the sons of the true God entered to take their station before Jehovah, and even Satan proceeded to enter right among them. . . . And Jehovah went on to say to Satan: ‘Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad?’ At that Satan answered Jehovah and said: ‘Is it for nothing that Job has feared God? Have not you yourself put up a hedge about him and about his house and about everything that he has all around? . . . But, for a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch everything he has and see whether he will not curse you to your very face.”’ This shows that involved in the issue between God and Satan is the question: Will humans remain faithful to God under test? Satan obviously maintained that they would not. So to settle the matter, at least in connection with the man Job, Jehovah said to Satan: “Look! Everything that he has is in your hand.” But, regardless of the trials that Satan brought upon him, Job maintained his faith in God. He proved the Devil to be a liar, even as had faithful men before him, such as Abel, Noah, Abraham and others.​—Job chapters 1 and 2; Heb. 11:4-38.

18. (a) Why did Job’s faithfulness make Jehovah’s heart rejoice? (b) Therefore what will aid us to remain faithful to God under trial?

¹⁸ Consider, for example, how happy Jehovah God must have been with the course taken by faithful Job. Satan had said, in effect, that nobody would keep integrity to God under trial. Yet, Job’s course of life was testifying before the entire universe, ‘You are a low-down liar, Satan, for until I die I’ll remain faithful to God!’ (Jas. 5:11) How happy Jehovah is when persons like Job faithfully serve Him and thus prove his Adversary a liar!