Main Idea: The church endures affliction together while trusting the Lord for deliverance.

The Reality of Corporate Affliction

• 1, 2a “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”— let Israel now say— “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
  • 1 Corinthians 12:26
• 3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.”
  • John 15:18–21

The Rescue of the Afflicted by Their Righteous God

• 2b yet they have not prevailed against me.
  • Revelation 2:9, 10
• 4 The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
  • Isaiah 51:5, 21–23
  • Luke 4:17–19

The Response of the Afflicted Towards Their Afflicters

• 5–7 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward! Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
  • Isaiah 42:14–17
• 8 nor do those who pass by say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
  • Acts 20:28–30
  • 2 John 2:10, 11
  • Titus 3:10, 11

So What?

• We endure affliction with hope together knowing that our righteous God will prevail.
  • Romans 15:4