In All Their Affliction

“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9). This is a massive statement to make concerning God. Speaking of God’s people, Isaiah was writing thousands of years before our day. Isaiah made a confident overarching statement about God, what He feels and how He thinks: “In all their affliction He was afflicted”. That’s crazy! 

When Isaiah wrote the word “all”, he was doing so because God was telling him to write it that way, so God Himself wanted the word “all” to appear in there. But is this actually true? That’s an important question because, if we truly believe it, we will see God, ourselves, and others differently.

How is it possible that God, who lives in heaven, a perfect and wonderful place, was afflicted in “all” our affliction? Does He still feel all of that? Can humans hurt God? If God can do anything and everything, why would He even let that kind of thing happen? These are massive questions.

To investigate, I start with Jesus. Now, there’s a whole other set of questions that comes with starting with Jesus because, when Isaiah wrote this, Jesus had not yet come to earth. Isaiah was looking backwards at how God had already demonstrated His love towards His people before Jesus came. So why is it still a good idea to start with Jesus? One reason for sure is that God doesn’t ever change. 

God didn’t just decide one day to come and save the peoples of the earth as if that love wasn’t already in His heart. From the very start, He wanted all people to be blessed, and from the beginning, He has always been afflicted in the affliction of His people. So starting the investigation with Jesus does not take away from all that God did before Jesus came. Isaiah 63 is not in isolation from Isaiah 53 which says,

“Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

We know that this passage is a prophecy about Jesus. This is part of what it means that God is afflicted in “all” our affliction. But we need to get specific if this promise is going to make any amount of difference in our lives.

Switching gears for one moment, looking at a letter written after Jesus had ascended back to heaven really helps. The writer said, 

“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;” (Hebrews 10:32-33).

There are two kinds of affliction that the writer mentions: personal suffering and that of affiliation with others who are struggling. Jesus experienced both. In fact, His suffering combined these two in a way that no other person could ever experience. Because when He died on the cross, the essence of His personal suffering was in direct affiliation with sinful people. It had to be. Otherwise, there was no point to the whole situation.

He was made a spectacle by reproaches and tribulations so that He could become a companion to those who are so treated. And there are two main ways that He did this: one way was to deal with our sin; the other way was to deal with our sorrow. Sin is my fault, but sorrow is not my fault. I choose sin, but I don’t choose sorrow. If I only focus on the wonder of God forgiving my sin, I may not feel free to ask Him to heal my sorrow because I already feel too indebted to Him. If I only focus on God healing my sorrows, I might begin to feel entitled to His kindness and forget that humility of being forgiven. God doesn’t want either of those scenarios for me. He wants me to remember that He bore my sin and my sorrow. “In all their affliction He was afflicted”.

The focal point of Jesus’ affliction was the cross, but that’s not the only way that He suffered. The Bible explains that He was “tempted in every way as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). That concept is amazing because it has huge connotations. When God commands us to love others, and follow Him, and to not take revenge, and to love Him even when life is hard, He is not asking us to do things that He was not willing to do while He was on earth. In fact, one of the strangest verses in the Bible explains that although Jesus was the Son of God, although He is God, “yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). It’s not that Jesus wasn’t already perfect. He was perfect. He never sinned. God doesn’t sin. It’s not even that He didn't know how to obey. He is God and God knows everything. But He experienced what we experience. And that’s where that verse comes in again, proclaiming, “In all their affliction, He was afflicted”. 

A quick question comes in here. Why was obedience a kind of affliction? Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:11-12). Obeying God causes joy and love. That’s exactly what Jesus said. So how can the writer of Hebrews turn around and say that obedience causes suffering? 

Well again, take a look at Jesus. No one has ever been more loving and experienced so much pain in return. So absolutely yes, obedience to God’s way of kindness produces love and joy, but it’s not a “get out of pain free” card either. And so that’s why it is so amazing that Jesus experienced the challenge of anything that He ever asks us to do. “In all their affliction He was afflicted”.

Understanding this reality does three major things for me. 

First, it helps me understand more of who God is. God created me specifically so I could know Him, so that’s a very important reason to understand that verse. If I understand that God has literally felt all of my affliction, I’m going to think about Him differently. I won’t imagine that He is waiting up in heaven, disinterested in my personal life, sort of hoping that I’ll live a good enough life to maybe make it into heaven with Him, but frowning down on me with a ton of pressure to do enough good things to prove myself to Him. That is not how God thinks. “In all their affliction He was afflicted” means that every tiny interaction I have, every concern of mine, of my friends, of people who hurt me, of the whole world - is important to Him. It means that if I ask Him, He is willing to be with me right now through His Holy Spirit. It means that I’m never alone and that I never have to be afraid. It means that I am free to love absolutely everyone in a way that is impossible without the love of God.

Secondly, understanding that God is afflicted in all my affliction changes how I process my own life. When I look back over the toughest moments, do I realize that God was with me? Can  see His sovereign hand gripping tightly to my trembling one in the moments of my greatest weakness? Do I believe that nothing can reach me until it first gets past His authorization? That’s an important question, because when I truly believe that nothing can touch me until it gets through God’s approval, I have a lot more peace in my heart. It’s not that nothing difficult will ever touch me, but the fact that God has said it’s okay and that this negative thing can happen without crushing me helps me be at rest because the Bible explains that “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

One quick example helps demonstrate the comfort of this outlook. When I was thirteen, I was involved in a bike accident that severely injured me. I walked two kilometers home and then was driven 40 minutes to the nearest hospital. When the doctor gave me an ultrasound, he explained something to my dad, who then became very serious as if he were in shock. Then he told me what the doctor had discovered. The gash in my leg had come within three millimeters of severing my femoral artery. Basically, if the gash had stopped just three millimeters later, I would have bled out in a few minutes’ time and would not have made the two kilometer walk home. I would have died. But through a space only the width of a sharpened pencil tip, God saved my life. It was as if He said, “this far, but no further; it's not time for her to die yet”. That experience helped deepen my faith that nothing can harm me apart from the will of my heavenly Father, and even if it does, He is always in control. And not only that, but He is my comfort, always with me. That day that I had the accident, as I walked home in more pain than I had experienced up to that point in my life, it felt like God was literally walking with me, and I would not trade that moment for anything. “In all their affliction He was afflicted”.

Thirdly, not only does that verse change how I think about God and how I process my own life, but it also changes how I live. When God opens my eyes to help me understand that He has felt my affliction, I begin to live fearlessly because I realize that God is actually good and kind - very kind. My confidence in Him increases and so does my willingness to be His hands and feet in the world. What does that look like? It means that I begin to bear the affliction of others because Jesus has done that for me. The Bible says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). When I understand that God bears my burdens, I begin to desire to help others bear their burdens. And really, when I do that, since God is helping me bear my burdens, and since I am helping someone bear a burden, then God is actually the One bearing that person’s burden through me. And so the weight is actually carried by Him. That’s part of why Jesus told His followers, “Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Understanding that Jesus died for both our sins and or sorrows is key to knowing what it means that “In all their affliction He was afflicted”. He bore our suffering, and He knows what it’s like to do what is right when it’s hard. He understands what we feel, and He does something about it: assuring us that He is right there with us and that nothing can happen to us apart from His will. His will for us is good as He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Understanding His empathy changes how we think about Him, how we process our own pain, and how we treat others. 

And all this hinges on one of the most unlikely and yet beautiful texts in the Bible: “In all their affliction He was afflicted”.