Why do we continue to suffer pain?   How do we overcome pain?

   According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Dictionary of the Hebrew O.T., the Hebrew word (mak'ôb / mak'ôbâh) translated "sorrow" in this passage is a word for "pain",  both physical and mental pain.  It is often translated "sorrow", but is related to the root word (kâ'ab) as in "pain".  It is used sixteen times in the Old Testament and often related to the consequence for sin. Here are some of the verses:

"And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow" (Ecclesiastes 1:17-18).

"Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee"  (Jeremiah 30:15).

"Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest"  (Jeremiah 45:3).

"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger"  (Lamentations 1:12).

"The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity"  (Lamentations 1:18).

"And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows"  (Exodus 3:7).

"Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about"  (Psalms 32:10).

"For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity"  (Ecclesiastes 2:23).

"Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house"  (II Chronicles 6:29).   (Result of a curse for not keeping the laws of God).

"For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded"  (Psalms 69:26).

"He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain"  (Job 33:19).

"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed"  (Jeremiah 51:8) (Babylon had refused to repent).

"And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily"  (Ezekiel 30:16).

"Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.  At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.  Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again"  (Proverbs 23:29-35).

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby"  (Hebrews 12:11).

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all"  (Isaiah 53:6).

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh"  (Romans 8:3).

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him"  (II Corinthians 5:21).

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit"  (1 Peter 3:18).

"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world"  (I John 2:2).

 "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him no. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed"  (Isaiah 53:3-5). JESUS was stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, and chastised.  Jesus was arrested and kept awake through the night. He was stripped of his clothing on a cold night (John 18:18, Matthew 27:28). The guards beat him with their hands (John 19:3) and reeds (Mark 15:19). They placed a crown of sharp painful thorns upon his head. They pulled out his beard with their hands (Isaiah 50:6). He was beaten with a short Roman whip known as a cat of nine tails. The end strands of the the whip had pieces of bone, glass, or metal in them which tore into the flesh as they were pulled across the bare back of the individual. (Mark 15:15). It was a cruel method of torture to extract truth from a lying prisoner.  Under Jewish law, the individual could only be given 39 stripes, less he die in the process. Paul himself gives reference to this in II Corinthians 11:24.  Look at the words of the prophet, Isaiah, "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" (Isaiah 52:14). His body was so marred, it was almost unrecognizable. He was to carry his own heavy, rugged, splintered cross (John 19:17), but being weakened by the torment and pain he was unable to carry it up the steep hill. The solders enlisted Simon to carry the cross for him (Luke 23:26). At the top of the hill, Jesus was crucified. The solders held his hands and feet as they nailed his body to the wooden cross as was the custom in Roman crucification (John 19:18, Colossians 2:14).  Later when the solders returned to finish the execution with a spear, they found that Jesus was already dead. "But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs"  (John 19:33).

Take a moment to imagine the pain that Jesus suffered!!!!!!!!!

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed"  (Isaiah 53:5).  Jesus is not only our sin substitute, he is also our PAIN substitute.

"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed"  (I Peter 2:24).

"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds"  (Psalms 147:3).

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall"  (Malachi 4:2).

"And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse"  (Mark 5:25-26).  Human physicians too often subject us to more suffering, but when the lady touched hem of the garment of Jesus in faith, she was made whole.

Jesus also healed the demon possessed man who suffered greatly when he worshiped Jesus.  "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones"  (Mark 5:5). Later we see him, "And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid"  (Mark 5:15).

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him"  (Hebrews 11:6).

"They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy"  (Jonah 2:8). Being entangled in the lies of the enemy about ourselves, God, or others may prevent our healing. The devil is a liar and thief and may come into our lives unaware; however, we are responsible to bring every thought captive, submit ourselves to God and resist him.   "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"  (John 10:10).  "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ"  (II Corinthians 10:5).  "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you"  (James 4:7).

Although, the Lord's Supper is mean to be a meal that heals, some in the church of Corinth got sick and died.  "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged"  (I Corinthians 11:29-31). When we have a judgmental attitude toward others, it may prevent our healing.

When we hold on to anger, it gives the enemy legal right to control our lives.  "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:  Neither give place to the devil"  (Ephesians 4:26-27).

When we hold unforgiveness toward others, our heavenly Father will turn us over to tormenting spirits.  "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses"  (Matthew 18:35).

When we refuse to repent and seek God when we have sinned, it gives the enemy legal right to continue to work in our lives.  "And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.  And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign"  (II Chronicles 16:12-13).

When we see life as being unfair, it brings pain in our lives. "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me"  (Psalms 73:16). When Jonah looked at life being unfair, he rain from God and the Word of God and fell in great pain. "And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live"  (Jonah 4:8).

When we refuse to confess our sins and seek forgivenesss, it brings pain into our lives. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long"  (Psalms 32:3). "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.  My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.  I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.  I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart"  (Psalms 38:3-8).

An attitude of ungratefulness may also be an hindrance. "Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee" (Deuteronomy 28:47-48).

We may be in pain because of Generational Curses.  "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me"  (Exodus 20:5). Moses lists numerous curses which could be quite painful.  Here are a few: "The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish"  (Deuteronomy 28:22).   Again, the good news is that Jesus became a curse for us. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree"  (Galatians 3:13).  Therefore, by faith, we need to break the generational curses by acknowledging and declaring the truth of God's Word over them.

After Jesus healed the impotent man he said, "... Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee"  (John 5:14).