The Discipline of Suffering

All who in this world render true service to God or to one another receive a preparatory training in the school of sorrow. The weightier the trust and the higher the service, the closer is the test and the more severe the discipline.TEd 90.6

Study the experiences of Joseph and Moses, of Daniel and David. Compare the early history of David with the history of Solomon, and consider the results.TEd 91.1

In his youth David was intimately associated with Saul, and his stay at court and his connection with the king’s household gave him an insight into the cares and sorrows and perplexities concealed by the glitter and pomp of royalty. He saw how little human glory is worth in bringing peace to the soul. With relief and gladness he returned from the king’s court to the sheepfolds and the flocks.TEd 91.2

When the jealousy of Saul drove David into the wilderness as a fugitive, cut off from human support, he leaned more heavily upon God. The uncertainty and unrest of the wilderness life, its unceasing peril, its necessity for frequent flight, the character of the men who joined him there, all made stern self-discipline essential. These experiences aroused and developed power to deal with men, sympathy for the oppressed, and hatred of injustice. Through years of waiting and danger, David learned to find in God his comfort, his support, his life. He learned that only by God’s power could he be given the throne, only in His wisdom could he rule wisely. It was through training in the school of hardship and sorrow that David was able to make the record—though afterward marred with his great sin—that he “administered judgment and justice to all his people.” 2 Samuel 8:15.TEd 91.3

The discipline of David’s early experience was lacking in that of Solomon. In circumstances, in character, and in life, he seemed favored above all others. Noble in youth, noble in manhood, beloved of his God, Solomon entered on a reign that gave high promise of prosperity and honor. Nations marveled at the knowledge and insight of the man to whom God had given wisdom. But the pride of prosperity brought separation from God. From the joy of divine communion Solomon turned to find satisfaction in the pleasures of sense. Of this experience he says:TEd 91.4

“I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards. ... I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasure of kings. ... So I became great, and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. ... Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. ... I hated life. ... I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:4-11, 17, 18.TEd 91.5

By his own bitter experience Solomon learned the emptiness of a life that seeks its highest good in earthly things. He built altars to heathen gods, only to learn how vain is their promise of rest to the soul. In his later years, wearied and thirsting from earth’s broken cisterns, Solomon returned to drink at the fountain of life. By the Spirit of inspiration he recorded the history of his wasted years, with their lessons of warning. And thus, although the seed of his sowing was reaped by his people in harvests of evil, the lifework of Solomon was not wholly lost. For him at last the discipline of suffering accomplished its work.TEd 92.1

But with such a dawning, how glorious might have been his life’s day had Solomon in his youth learned the lesson that suffering had taught in other lives!TEd 92.2