Articles
Designed to Suffer
Designed to Suffer
Thom Vaught
Captain James Riley set sail aboard the merchant ship Commerce in 1815. Riley and his crew were shipwrecked off the coast of the Western Sahara Desert in Africa. What followed was a harrowing story of suffering and survival. The crew endured robbery, murder, starvation, and dehydration as they tried to affect rescue on the desert coastline. After running out of food, they were forced to offer themselves as slaves to one of the nomadic Sahrawi tribes. In spite of the suffering and trials, Riley and several of his crew made it across the desert where their freedom was purchased by a British consul.
Archibald Robbins, an Able Seaman of the Commerce, reflecting on their experience said: "The crew of the Commerce seem to have been designed to suffer themselves, that the world, through them, might learn." I cannot speak with certainty to the validity of Archibald's claims but Abraham Lincoln cites their account as one of the three most influential works that shaped his ideology and views on slavery.
However, there is One who was made to suffer so that I might learn. Hundreds of years before He was born, Isaiah speaks about Him in chapter 53. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (Verses 4-6)
From the beginning of creation, Jesus was "designed to suffer" for you and I. It was part of the design so that we might learn just how much He and our God loves us.
