All humans are guaranteed to sin and suffer in this fallen world. And though Christians accept total depravity with ease, we struggle with the reality of suffering. After experiencing God’s love, mercy, and grace, it’s hard to comprehend why He would still afflict us with grief and sorrow. So Mark R. Talbot wrote When the Stars Disappear: Help and Hope from Stories of Suffering in Scripture to help believers think about suffering from a biblical perspective.
Talbot is no stranger to suffering. When he was a teenager, he fell 50ft, broke his back, and became paralyzed from the waist down. Fifty years after, he still feels the fall’s effects and suffers from it. Another recent tragedy prompted him to think through suffering and its role in Christian life, and When the Stars Disappear was born out of his reflections.
It’s a four-part series that addresses many Christians’ questions about suffering, such as why suffering exists, why Christians suffer, why am I suffering, and why there is so much suffering.
Talbot posits profound suffering is inevitable. He says, “all Christians need to come to grips with the potential breadth and depth of what we may suffer. Scripture does not encourage us to believe our lives will be pain-free. It shows God’s people have always suffered. We can feel profound, life-depleting sorrow.”
In this first volume, Talbot explores the suffering of Old Testament saints and draws out lessons from their stories to give us hope and encouragement. He aims to show us that “we are not alone in our suffering… even the most severe suffering can be survived and that we, like these people before us, can emerge from it with our faith and hope in God intact.”
The book is short, with only four chapters. The first chapter, “When the Stars Disappear,” features the origins of the series and biblical teachings about suffering. In the second chapter, “Suffering Saints,” Talbot retells the stories of Ruth, Job, and Jeremiah to illustrate that suffering “has been near the center of a biblical outlook almost from the start.” In the third chapter, “Breathing Lessons,” Talbot shows us how we can survive great suffering using the Psalms as a guide. And in the last chapter, “The Rest of Their Stories,” concludes the stories of Ruth, Job, and Jeremiah and shows God’s steadfast love for them through it all.
This first volume follows a helpful structure. Talbot first tells us of the saints’ suffering and thus comforts us in knowing we are not alone. Then he gives a practical framework to respond to our woes and ends on a hopeful note by showing the saints’ happy endings.
What I value most in this book is Talbot’s concept of stories. He explains we are each in a story embedded in the Bible’s extraordinary tale (creation, rebellion, redemption, consummation.) We must remember our place in the story to have a proper perspective. During trials, we often believe we are done; things will never get better. But Talbot reminds us that our suffering is only a chapter in our story, not the story itself or resolution.
He says, “Because the Christian story starts with creation and stretches forward into consummation of everlasting life, no storyline can be longer or more significant. Embracing the Christian storyline involves taking its perspective as giving our entire lives their overall meaning and purpose.”
I also enjoyed the breathing lessons on biblical lament. Talbot teaches us how to pray correctly to God in response to our suffering. For instance, when lamenting, we should remember what God has already done (inhale), and we should pray honestly and thoroughly (exhale). Talbot saturated this section with Psalms so that we can learn lament from biblical examples.
My only misgiving with this book is Talbot’s choice of Bible translation. He used the ESV and other translations such as the NLT, NIV, and NET. I prefer when authors stick with one translation, preferably word for word. But I am just nit-picky; the translation does not detract from the book.
I recommend reading When the Stars Disappear whether or not you are in a season of suffering. It will encourage you for the former and prepare you for the latter. It’s a timely book for our world, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
*Crossway publishers graciously gave me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review*
