Pain and Suffering in the Bible

Pain is a universal reality that the Bible neither evades nor minimizes. Revelation 21:4 promises that in the new creation, God 'shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.' This hope does not deny present suffering but assigns to it a certain end. Job 33:19 speaks of pain as an instrument by which God reproves and instructs a person upon a bed of suffering. Ezekiel 30:4 describes the pain of the nations before judgment, showing that Scripture also knows the collective dimension of trial. The book of Job remains the great biblical treatise on pain: Job suffered without apparent explanation, and yet God was present at every moment. Romans 8:28 affirms that 'all things work together for good to them that love God'; this does not mean that pain is good in itself, but that God can use it for redemptive ends in the believer's life. Romans 5:3-4 even reveals a progression: tribulation produces patience, patience experience, and experience hope. Psalm 23:4 assures the believer that, even in the valley of the shadow of death, he will fear no evil, for the Lord is with him.