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Grief and Pain in the Plan of God: Christian Assurance and the Message of Lamentations
Most of us will have faced that most delicate situation of meeting a person who is suffering. We tend to go down one of two different avenues. One is to offer well-intentioned advice - often in the form of well-worn cliches that the person will have heard several times before. The other is not to say anything at all - risking the danger of leaving the person under the impression that God has no idea what is going on and is unable to help. How are we to understand suffering and its place in our lives? Should we try and rationalise it away, trying to come up with a solution that sits as comfortably as possible? Surely we should look to Scripture first? This is what Walter Kaiser does here. Looking at the Old Testament book of Lamentations Kaiser does not offer any easy solutions - but rather shows us how a Sovereign and Loving God can work through even the most painful moments. "In the book of Lamentations, more than perhaps anywhere else except for its individualistic expression in the book of Job, we are led into an experience of suffering and communal pain on a scale seldom endured by many individuals or nations. All too frequently the subject of suffering is avoided, or the realities of human pathos and divine involvement are minimized. Lamentations will not yield to any of these cheap 'cures'. Instead of panaceas, it will direct us to the faithfulness and gracious character of God." Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
- GenresChristian
144 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
About the author
Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
97 books58 followersWalter C. Kaiser Jr. (PhD, Brandeis University) is president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He previously taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and at Wheaton College. Kaiser is active as a preacher, speaker, researcher, and writer and is the author of more than forty books, including Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament and The Majesty of God in the Old Testament.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 11, 2023
Whatever you do, don't give this book to someone who is currently dealing with grief and pain. That would be a mistake.
This book is a commentary. It's seems to me to be marketed as a topical book, perhaps focusing on Lamentations. But it's definitely a commentary on Lamentations. It feels like it's slightly adapted from a more detailed commentary, but hasn't changed enough to not be a commentary. I'd peg it as perhaps a homiletical commentary.
Except for the conclusion, which is an essay on the different causes of suffering in Scripture. And is pretty good.
Overall, this book just felt like it was adapted from something else, but not very well. So while it is a pretty good commentary (I'd give it three or four stars), it's a pretty bad book, as a book for general reading. And certainly not something that will give you a lot of help if you're seeking to work through grief and pain (it only deals with retributive suffering). Which it admits.
This book is a commentary. It's seems to me to be marketed as a topical book, perhaps focusing on Lamentations. But it's definitely a commentary on Lamentations. It feels like it's slightly adapted from a more detailed commentary, but hasn't changed enough to not be a commentary. I'd peg it as perhaps a homiletical commentary.
Except for the conclusion, which is an essay on the different causes of suffering in Scripture. And is pretty good.
Overall, this book just felt like it was adapted from something else, but not very well. So while it is a pretty good commentary (I'd give it three or four stars), it's a pretty bad book, as a book for general reading. And certainly not something that will give you a lot of help if you're seeking to work through grief and pain (it only deals with retributive suffering). Which it admits.
March 21, 2025
My favorite quotes:
"Lamentations will yield very few, if any, abstract or philosophical 'answers' to the problem of suffering. Nevertheless, it will lead us into some very serious practical, theological reflections on the purposes and results of suffering. Instead of explaining pain, it helps us to face grief."
Page 31
"Lamentations does teach us the language of prayer when we are in the midst of suffering. The basis of all such appeals to heaven is that the LORD can do something about conditions as they presently exist — the now must not be a prison with only the then of the past as a bromide to cheer us. The future can be different."
Page 33
"Only by reducing sinners to such desperate straits will some eventually listen and turn. Thus grief may often work a very wonderful work that none of the goodness or blessings of God will ever effect."
Page 53
"There are two kinds of enemies. Some who bear ill-will towards us personally for private reasons (which) concern ourselves alone. When the matter extends no further than to our own person, then we should privately commend it to God, and pray for thoss who are ill-disposed towards us ... to do them good, and not return evil for evil, but rather overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:17, 21). But if our enemies are of that sort, that they bear ill-will toward us, not for any private cause, but on account of matters of faith; and are also opposed not only to us, but especially to God in Heaven...; then indeed we should pray that that God would convert those who may be converted, but as for those who continue ever to rage, stubbornly and maliciously, against God and His Church, that God would execute upon them according to His own sentence, judgement and righteousness (Ps. 139:19)."
Page 56-57
"Too many would-be-do-gooders out of misdirected kindness advise the sufferer: 'Don't take it personally!' Or, 'Don't think anything about it; after all, that's the way the ball bounces. Things just happen that way. You can't fight city hall.' On and on goes such fatalistic thinking. But all such talk only keeps us from one of the most valuable helps that can be given to the sufferer. Suffering is not due to some blind, brute, dumb forces that happen to come upon me by chance. Rather suffering is an intensely personal experience."
Page 59
"The church had to wait until the last half of the third century before another writer, Lactantius, wrote his De Ira Dei, 'The Anger of God.' For him passions or emotions were not in themselves evil, but avenues of virtue and goodness when kept under control. Furthermore, God must be moved to anger when He sees sin and wickedness in men and women just as He is moved to love them when they please Him."
Page 61
"On the contrary God's anger is never explosive, unreasonable or unexplainable. It is rather His firm expression of real displeasure with our wickedness and sin. Even in God it is never a force or a ruling passion; rather, it is always an instrument of His will. And His anger has not, thereby, shut off his compassions to us (Ps. 77:9)."
Page 62
"Whether we are suffering because of our own sin or not, we are highly regarded and loved. No suffering, no matter what kind it is, must ever be conceived as being impersonal and as 'one of those things which no one can help.' This text urges us: 'Take it personally.'"
Psge 63
"Lamentations will yield very few, if any, abstract or philosophical 'answers' to the problem of suffering. Nevertheless, it will lead us into some very serious practical, theological reflections on the purposes and results of suffering. Instead of explaining pain, it helps us to face grief."
Page 31
"Lamentations does teach us the language of prayer when we are in the midst of suffering. The basis of all such appeals to heaven is that the LORD can do something about conditions as they presently exist — the now must not be a prison with only the then of the past as a bromide to cheer us. The future can be different."
Page 33
"Only by reducing sinners to such desperate straits will some eventually listen and turn. Thus grief may often work a very wonderful work that none of the goodness or blessings of God will ever effect."
Page 53
"There are two kinds of enemies. Some who bear ill-will towards us personally for private reasons (which) concern ourselves alone. When the matter extends no further than to our own person, then we should privately commend it to God, and pray for thoss who are ill-disposed towards us ... to do them good, and not return evil for evil, but rather overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:17, 21). But if our enemies are of that sort, that they bear ill-will toward us, not for any private cause, but on account of matters of faith; and are also opposed not only to us, but especially to God in Heaven...; then indeed we should pray that that God would convert those who may be converted, but as for those who continue ever to rage, stubbornly and maliciously, against God and His Church, that God would execute upon them according to His own sentence, judgement and righteousness (Ps. 139:19)."
Page 56-57
"Too many would-be-do-gooders out of misdirected kindness advise the sufferer: 'Don't take it personally!' Or, 'Don't think anything about it; after all, that's the way the ball bounces. Things just happen that way. You can't fight city hall.' On and on goes such fatalistic thinking. But all such talk only keeps us from one of the most valuable helps that can be given to the sufferer. Suffering is not due to some blind, brute, dumb forces that happen to come upon me by chance. Rather suffering is an intensely personal experience."
Page 59
"The church had to wait until the last half of the third century before another writer, Lactantius, wrote his De Ira Dei, 'The Anger of God.' For him passions or emotions were not in themselves evil, but avenues of virtue and goodness when kept under control. Furthermore, God must be moved to anger when He sees sin and wickedness in men and women just as He is moved to love them when they please Him."
Page 61
"On the contrary God's anger is never explosive, unreasonable or unexplainable. It is rather His firm expression of real displeasure with our wickedness and sin. Even in God it is never a force or a ruling passion; rather, it is always an instrument of His will. And His anger has not, thereby, shut off his compassions to us (Ps. 77:9)."
Page 62
"Whether we are suffering because of our own sin or not, we are highly regarded and loved. No suffering, no matter what kind it is, must ever be conceived as being impersonal and as 'one of those things which no one can help.' This text urges us: 'Take it personally.'"
Psge 63
August 7, 2016
Helpful for broad outline of book (including clear chapter breakdowns). Uses respectable sources for grammatical and structural arguments.
Helpful caveat in back on various types of suffering spoken of in OT.
Helpful caveat in back on various types of suffering spoken of in OT.
September 23, 2010
If you read only one book about grief and pain, this should be it. It is basically a commentary on the book of Lamentations, but full of insight and help. Will make for some good sermons as well.
Did Not Finish
November 11, 2018Probably good. Just not what I was looking for.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews