God’s Active Sovereignty

10.30.22

Preface

This topic of trials in life has always stricken me in a particularly unique and powerful way, so I simply continued mentally labeling it ‘important’ anytime it came up. I even started making a list of verses, quotes, and illustrations that emphasized this topic when the Lord put something in front of me, and have tried to draw conclusions about it over the years. Until recently, I haven’t really been able to determine why the Lord has given me an eye for this and why I felt the need to make long lists of verses and examples. It’s become a bit more clear in the past few years as practical applications have become more clear, so I’ve finally organized some of those things into this very long ‘article.’

As with any topic, I’m certainly not the first to study this. God’s people have been studying and grappling with this for millennia. Perhaps this is ‘just another’ discussion of the theology of suffering and trials. I’m sure there are probably 100 books on this topic out there that I don’t know about and I hope everyone else has mastered this and I’m just now catching up. I certainly have not mastered it, either in understanding nor personal application. It’s challenging, it affects everyone, and it really is a mystery in many ways (and will continue to be so). Therefore conversely, I have observed many people struggle with it even though we all seem to know the right answers.

Forgive me for prioritizing my desire to be clear over my desire to be succinct. I have tried not to be too redundant, but frankly the scriptures are redundant, so I have included hundreds of scripture references because scriptural repetition has been the Lord’s primary teaching method for me as this has sunk in over the years. I hope this is nothing more than a big arrow to the scriptures, so that you might go and discover these things for yourself. I invite discussion and correction, and desire for the reader to know this is not really at all about theological ‘camps.’ The goal of this, as I think you’ll see, is to highlight something of God’s character that is generally difficult to grasp, and to do so simply by looking at a lot of Scripture as our final authority on the topic. Yet of course not so that we can come away knowing more about God, but so that we will love Him more and understand how, practically, to walk through difficult and even devastating seasons of life.

God’s Active Sovereignty

Forrest Gump said this in an iconic two-word phrase, but I’ll use three: Life is hard.

No one goes through life without seeing or experiencing terrible evil and destruction, either at the hands of fellow humanity, or from ‘the sky.’

Since this is true, a similar question comes up often, no matter whether someone believes in God or not.

The person who either rejects God (or otherwise doesn’t know what to do with Him) asks, “how can God be loving (or even exist) and allow so much evil in the world?”

The person who has relationship with the God of the Bible says, “I know James 1:2 says to face trials with joy…but how? How is that possible?”

Both questions are similar in that we have two things to reconcile:

1. The fact of trials, suffering, devastation

2. The goodness of God

These two things at first glance don’t seem to fit together at all. I will argue here that not only do they fit, they are inseparable.

In other words, the trials in our lives are not evidence of God’s absence, but evidence of God’s goodness.

Said another way, God brings trials into our lives because He’s good.

(Wait, did he just say God brings trials into our lives?)

In a nutshell, this is the challenging fact that I will unpack throughout this article:

Inasmuch as Satan has some control over negatively affecting us and our circumstances, God is also (and indeed moreso) commanding those events and trials — yes seemingly ‘against’ His children — for very specific and pre-planned providential purposes. God is not reactively ‘making lemonade’ out of the ‘lemons’ of Satan’s activity or being tugged around by Satan’s proverbial ‘leash’ until one day when He’ll have had enough and finally ‘train the dog.’

If there is a proverbial ‘Hardship Pendulum’ which swings between ‘God’s doing’ and ‘Satan’s doing,’ we’re ultimately going to land somewhere in the mysterious middle. I appreciate how Joel Richardson attempts to sum this mystery up by saying, “it’s complex… it’s all of the above,” (3 min). He argues that we desperately need a theology that allows us to believe that, at least sometimes when tragedy strikes, it’s ‘God’s doing.’ So I want to start off by tugging us in that ‘God’s doing’ direction.

I have called it “God’s Active Sovereignty.” Paul Tripp calls it “Uncomfortable Grace.” FAI has called it “Sovereign Sabotage.” Joel Richardson often calls it a ‘mystery’ and indeed it is.

I think it is important for us today, and increasingly important for tomorrow. I believe that if we really look into and meditate on some of the scripture below, we’ll be able to face trials — big and small — with true joy and unwavering confidence in God. There are few things that seem more important than that.

God Brings Trials?

Of course, it is crucial to understand that God does not tempt (James 1:13–15). Everything good comes from Him (James 1:17) and He is love (1 John 4). God is absolutely holy (Ps 99, Is 5:16, 1 Peter 1:15–16). In a world where outspoken atheists sometimes use God’s name more often than Christians, it is right that we should be careful with our language so as to uphold God’s true character and defend against heresy. Unfortunately, in our effort to be careful in our theological speech on this particular topic, we might actually simultaneously conceal something important about God, both to ourselves and others. If we’re not careful, we could ourselves be blindsided and found wanting in a time of trouble.

We say that God “allows” evil, but most of us would be hesitant to say that God actively, intentionally, and purposefully designs, causes, brings, initiates, and sends trials and plagues to His children. Even reading that probably made you uncomfortable, and I don’t blame you. Yet I think that if we can attack this topic head-on, and look at a lot of scripture, we will come away with a deeper love, appreciation, and awe toward our God who loves us enough to actively and purposefully make us uncomfortable.

As we start to swing the ‘pendulum’ in this direction, let’s look at the story of Balaam in Numbers 22–24. In short, the king of Moab was threatened by the large size of Israel as they came into the land, so he hired a well-known diviner/seer (Balaam) to curse Israel for him, offering Balaam wealth and honor. God allows Balaam to go, even though Balaam has selfish motives, and yet lovingly tries to stop him on his way (by means of redirecting his donkey). He eventually arrives at the king, and though the king tries to get him to speak curses against Israel, God gives Balaam a very different message to proclaim. This happens multiple times despite the king seemingly trying to ‘escape’ God’s control over the situation by taking Balaam to different mountaintops and altars. Yet, it is clear that God remains in control, and it would seem that He intended to fill several pages of His scripture with this story and these prophecies from Balaam long before it even happened. This is an example that might seem on the surface to be God’s sovereign reaction to what demonic forces were doing on the earth. In fact, Deut 23 recaps the story by saying “the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you (v.5).” Sounds kind of like God made lemonade out of Satan’s lemons right? I’d encourage you into deeper study of the full story in Num 22–24. What I think you’ll see is, just like in so many other examples, both God and Evil are indeed actors in the story, but one is clearly the ‘umbrella’ over the other. The book of Esther is one of those examples; “God” is never mentioned and yet we read that story and see an utterly sovereign God at work. This story is similar. Balaam had been looking for omens in the entire spiritual realm, demonic and otherwise, and yet when he finally surrenders to the fact that God has the final authority, and “sets his face” in the direction of God’s people, seeking only God, and determining that His word is good, the Spirit of God comes upon Him and he has his “eyes opened” to an incredible prophecy of the future Messiah, amongst other things. So although Evil is certainly an actor in this story, and God is certainly allowing Evil to act and He is using it for His purposes, I would simply encourage us to ask, “Is the power of God equal with the power of Evil in this story? Or is there an ‘umbrella’ power that reigns supreme?” Though Balaam is far from an example of godly character and devotion to God (2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11, Rev 2:14), my prayer is that as we seek to exalt the scriptures as our final authority on the topic, we would also have our “eyes opened” by God to see some of the incredibly rich truths below.

As we continue to swing the pendulum, let’s take Joseph in Gen 50:20 for our next brief example: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” It’s a verse we all know and love because it reveals God’s ability to redeem the evil intentions of the world and work all things together for good (Rom 8:28). But might it actually do more than reactive redemption? Isn’t the same word that speaks of his brothers’ evil intentions (“meant”) the same Hebrew word as the one that speaks of God’s intentions (“meant”)? It is. So isn’t God’s part in the whole crazy narrative of Joseph at least equal with that of Evil’s part? And do we not see a truly unspeakable example of God’s utterly sovereign orchestration and plan in all that transpired in the life of Joseph? Does God not spend more words of scripture explaining what He was doing through these circumstances? Surely when we read this story, we see much more than a reactive God who had to scramble to make something good come out of man’s wicked intentions along the way. After all, who does Joseph proclaim is the primary actor in all of these circumstances? His brothers? Satan? Nope. God. In fact, as soon as he reveals himself to his brothers for the first time and explains what happens, he tells them five times in six verses that ‘God did it’ (Gen 45:4–9). It’s the first thing out of his mouth as he encourages them not to blame themselves.

But Why?

Before we unpack examples that will be even more clear, I want to tackle the biggest lingering question we’ll have as we read these things. After all, our goal is to establish that God is loving and to understand His heart in all that He does.

The big question of course is ‘why?’ Why does God do these things? Perhaps there is a correlation between the fact that the unbeliever’s most-asked question is ‘Why would a supposedly good God allow such evil in the world?’ and the fact that God spent 42 chapters telling the story of Job. I believe God wants us to know the answer to this question of ‘why.’ Not necessarily the immediate circumstantial answer for every given scenario, because God isn’t necessarily going to provide a prophetic oracle concerning why the traffic was worse than usual on this particular day making me late to that particular meeting, but I believe we can and should know some of the basic underlying principles. In other words, I believe God wants us to have enough understanding of His character to trust Him through any circumstance, and not just in a way that says, ‘I trust God because He’s in control’ (though that should be enough), but in a way that humbly says, ‘I trust God because I know Him, and He is like this, and here is at least one thing He is probably doing in this time of hardship in my life, and I want to humble myself to that potential, knowing that He’s in control.’ That is a big difference.

So with the goal of getting to that point, and admitting that this will not be a comprehensive study, I’d ask you to consider this while going back to the Gen 50:20 example for a moment: Was 17-year-old Joseph entirely righteous before things started going wrong for him, or did he perhaps have some lessons to learn yet in life? Is there a chance that Joseph was a prideful and spoiled little brother lacking all discernment for when and how to share his dreams with his family? (Gen 37:1–11) Besides the grandeur and incredible nature of how God used him to bless both Israel and the nations, what might God have simply been doing in Joseph’s heart through all of it? Do we see his character change throughout the story? I will leave these questions unanswered for you to study.

There are other passages like this that seem to perfectly balance our good God’s control over a situation with the wickedness of the men who think they’re in control. Perhaps the preeminent example is Acts 2:23 which reveals God to be One who premeditated, planned, and predestined a truly evil act (arguably the ultimate evil act) at the hands of men who thought such things were entirely by their own design: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (cf. John 11:45–57) Even more clear is Isaiah 53:10–11, where we see that it was the Father’s will to put Jesus to grief and to crush the Son. Furthermore, in that passage we also see Jesus facing this ultimate trial with joy, for in this moment of deep anguish (the deepest known to Man), He saw light — He saw God’s glory in all of it — He knew the eternal good that was being accomplished and He was satisfied therefore in the midst of anguish. Take some time to read through this study of the Crimson Worm and what it teaches us about Jesus on the cross, the relationship between the Father and the Son, and what it means for our calling as His people. The Father did not rescue the Son. He didn’t let the cup of His wrath pass (Mt. 26:36–46) from even Him who was perfect, and no servant is above their master (Mt. 10:24). Our great calling is to servanthood and suffering. To lay down our lives for the sake of others as is the ‘spirit of the prophets’ and of Jesus. Death unto life. This type of humility and eternal perspective is the very reason Jesus is exalted above all else (Phil 2).

Are these isolated incidents or is this part of the character of God? Furthermore, where do we get the idea that any ‘negative’ circumstance is purely from Satan and that God couldn’t possibly have anything to do with it? Have we focused entirely on the ‘feel good’ parts of Romans 8 and omitted the verses which point to our longing and groaning for the age to come, our ultimate freedom from the Fall? Has the phrase “all things” in Romans 8:28 come to refer to only the positive circumstances of the fairy tale world of our imagination when in fact “all things” refers to the negative circumstances inherent in a fallen world? Are we shocked when it seems like our supposedly sovereign God ‘allows’ us to experience something less-than-ideal and our life starts to look more like Joseph’s 13+ years in prison when we feel like it should look like his life of rulership (which came much later)?

I don’t dare to claim intimate understanding of this; indeed it is an incredible mystery. Thankfully, however, our God — who desires to be known — gives us at least three illustrations to help us begin to understand.

The Father & His Children

The Craftsman & His Precious Metal

The Vinedresser & His Branches

The first thing I think is worthy of noting is that all three pictures imply an actively involved, wise, and skilled actor. If children grow up without parents being actively involved in their lives, is life not difficult to say the least? If no one unearths a precious metal, what does that ugly piece of ore amount to on its own? And do the branches of the vine in the jungle produce as much fruit as they do with a careful and experienced gardener? When we study each of these examples, we don’t have to look far to see the benefit (and necessity) of the work involved in the cultivation of each subject. As we walk through each one briefly, notice that each ‘actor’ is active in his work. We will also see that each one comes with specific types of actions, and that’s where we’ll start scratching the surface as we ponder how we relate to God, and the types of ‘work’ He does in our lives through trials.

The Father & His Children — Discipline

Unfortunately not all of us in this fallen and sinful world have a good (let alone godly) example of a father-figure to learn from and take this illustration to heart. In fact, some people may have much ‘further’ to go in being able to rightly understand God’s character in this way, perhaps because their earthly fathers were only ‘decent,’ ‘neutral,’ or even ‘bad’ at their fatherly responsibilities. The danger of course, is that we begin to define our version of ‘God the Father’ in light of our earthly experience and shape our understanding of what a ‘father’ is by this experience. Doing so can surely pull us away from the true God, rather than first looking to the perfect example of God the Father in scripture. Despite poor earthly examples and common human misconceptions of what a father ought to be, I can’t help but believe that God has embedded in our hearts some semblance of a ‘right’ definition of a father, otherwise how would we know that one is ‘worse’ than another? We understand somewhat inherently that a father ought to involve care, provision, protection. We all long for fathers who love us deeply for who we are, not how we perform. And yet in this unconditional acceptance and love, we also include teaching and guiding in our definition of fatherhood, because we know children simply don’t know everything and need to be shown the right way through life — how to embrace responsibility and prioritize the right things, how to reject laziness, lawlessness, and addiction. And we all know, whether we’re kids or we’ve been kids, or we’ve had kids of our own, that every kid sometimes needs to learn lessons ‘the hard way.’ We may not all agree on what form parental ‘discipline’ should take, but we can all agree that discipline is necessary. We will look at some proverbs on this topic later on. Often — perhaps always — discipline is painful. It might be physical or emotional, but it is painful nonetheless. And isn’t that kind of the point? One thing we don’t normally consider, maybe not until we ourselves are parents, is how difficult (‘painful’) discipline can be also for the parental figure who does the disciplining. It does not bring a parent happiness to chastise the child they love, and yet they do it anyways. Why? Because of that very love — they want what is best for their child. They want their child to avoid the greater hardships of life by learning the hard lessons in the comfort of home, with a loving parent by their side to walk them through it and explain why this thing might hurt them in the future if they don’t heed the lesson now. And so it goes with God, our loving Father, who disciplines because He cares, and disciplines intentionally, wanting to walk with us through hardship and teach us the right way. The key text here is Hebrews 12:1–11, but also see Job 5:17, Ps 141:5, and even 2 Sam 7:14–15. I invite you to read these yourself and ask the Lord to give you a deeper revelation of His character as Father, and the goodness of discipline. If you feel that you’ve never been disciplined by God, you might also consider what Heb 12 says particularly to you.

J.I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, says this during his discussion of God’s love:

“God is love” is not the complete truth about God so far as the Bible is concerned. It is not an abstract definition which stands alone, but a summing up, from the believer’s standpoint, of what the whole revelation set forth in Scripture tells us about its Author. This statement presupposes all the rest of the biblical witness to God. The God of whom John is speaking is the God who made the world, who judged it by the flood, who called Abraham and made of him a nation, who chastened his Old Testament people by conquest, captivity and exile, who sent his Son to save the world, who cast off unbelieving Israel and shortly before John wrote had destroyed Jerusalem, and who would one day judge the world in righteousness. It is this God, says John, who is love. It is perverse to quote John’s statement, as some do, as if it called into question the biblical witness to the severity of God’s justice. It is not possible to argue that a God who is love cannot also be a God who condemns and punishes the disobedient, for it is precisely of the God who does these very things that John is speaking….Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love we may look to him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness, or to shield his loved ones from trouble when he knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification…Every single thing that happens to us expresses God’s love to us, and comes to us for the furthering of God’s purpose for us.”

— JI Packer, Knowing God, Ch 12 The Love Of God

The Craftsman & His Precious Metal — Purifying

Ore by definition is, “a naturally occurring solid material from which a metal of valuable mineral can be profitably extracted.” There is copper ore, iron ore, gold ore, and others. Essentially, it’s just a rock. If you do a quick google image search for ‘ore’ you’ll see some very unspectacular …rocks. That’s right, as you might expect, miners don’t come out of the shafts with perfectly sculpted radiant rectangular prisms of gold. Precious metals and minerals in their ore state are, well, ugly. They demand a process of refinement, often involving crushing, pounding, grinding, sifting, high pressure, high heat, and other rough treatments. In fact, one of the main reasons that we can even trust steel to do all the things we need steel to do (guiding, holding, leading, bearing, etc.) is because the iron ore has been refined and the shape and chemical composition have been totally changed from when it came out of the earth. I’m guessing you know where we’re going with this.

We all know as believers that we are not yet perfect (news flash for you if you didn’t know you were still in the process of sanctification — Phil 1:6). We are new creations (2 Cor 5), crucified with Christ (Gal 2), taking off the old and putting on the new (Col 3) and being transformed into the image of Jesus (2 Cor 3), in a war against our flesh as we strive to walk in step with God’s Spirit (1 Peter 2, Gal 5–6, Rom 7–8). It shouldn’t be any surprise to us that God’s desire is to make us holy, both for the sake of His pleasure and His glory in the earth (1 Peter 2:9–16, Mt 5:14–16, and if you kept reading in Heb 12, you found this in verse 14).

In fact, God’s purpose in saving us was at least threefold, and one of those three main reasons for saving us was that we would be holy (Eph 1:3–4, 2:10, 4:22–24, 5:25–27, Ex. 19:4–6, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Peter 2:14–16, 2 Tim 1:8–9, 1 Thess 4:7, etc.) He desires that we be pure and useful vessels (2 Tim 2:20–26) just as so many examples in Tanakh point to (everything that was plunder/spoil from the conquering of Midian needed to be refined/purified through fire before it came into the camp, anywhere near God’s presence and His people — Numbers 31:21–24).

The other two main reasons for salvation being 1. because He loves us (John 3:16) and 2. for the praise of His own name (Eph 1) which is also a reason for this purification process (Isaiah 48:9–11).

Which of us is holy already? How many of us are wholly like Jesus, and pure in heart? It makes sense to me that a process of purification is necessary, and on my best days I remember that my greatest good is holiness, not happiness. My greatest joy is found in knowing Jesus and becoming more like Him and building His kingdom, not being on my own throne building mine. On those good days, in my few moments of this accurate perspective and desire for more of Jesus, I invite this purification, this refinement, because I actually desire to share in the same mind and spirit of Jesus — that mind of steadfast humble servitude (Phil 2, 1 Peter 2:18–25) — and I know I’m not there yet. On those days, I remember that this purification process is not easy. It’s easy enough to intellectually assent to some of these verses concerning refinement, because indeed the Lord is making something beautiful, and that gives us warm fuzzy feelings. Yet we mustn’t overlook words like ‘fire,’ ‘testing,’ and ‘refinement’ itself. In song lyrics such as in “Hidden Places” it is right that in God’s mercy He refines us. We also must consider the type of process we’re asking for in refinement, and that He thereby “aligns us till [we’re] wholly [His].” Perhaps a key verse would be 1 Peter 1:6–7, but also see Jer 9, Jer 13, Mal 3:2–3, Jer 17:1–10, Prov 20:30, Prov 17:3, and 1 Peter 4:12.

(side note: this purification process is also an illustration God uses to exemplify the process of seeking and refining godly wisdom and understanding — Job 28).

We are to ‘put to death’ what is earthly in us (Col 3), which implies pain. ‘Death’ doesn’t exactly imply ease and comfort. Quite frankly, my flesh loves the wicked things that it loves, so putting those things to death in my life and moving on from them is often painful. Especially when I haven’t come to that decision on my own but have instead been blindsided by some circumstance that illuminates these things in me which still need to be ‘put to death’ (e.g.. when the stock market crashes and I realize I’ve placed my sense of security and my future hope in my retirement funds, and therefore have to reactively adjust my thinking and refocus my heart on the Lord).

So, we are like ore. We are rocks hewn from God (Is. 51:1). We have remaining imperfections. And our God — lovingly — and with wisdom and perspective on what our lives could look like, aims to make us beautiful. If ore sits in ore state, with no miner to mine it, no metallurgist to refine it and shape it into beautiful jewelry, does it not remain forgotten deep in the earth, its beauty hidden? Are not the beliefs of our heart, and our character, revealed and proved by testing? And does the testing and refinement not make us even more beautiful? If we were to lose everything in this life and have nothing left but Jesus, would our love for Him not increase and would the world not see our love for Him and give glory to God?

Daniel 3:8–30 is the story of the 3 boys in the furnace of the Babylonian king. Someone pointed out to me recently that the furnace only burned away that which was necessary to enable them to walk with the Lord; the bonds burned away so that they could stand and walk with Jesus in the furnace.

In a similar way to metal refinement perhaps, if you’ve ever painted pottery, you’ll know that the object’s colors are muted until it goes into the kiln, but then comes out with glossy brilliance.

Our hearts and our work will be tested by fire and disclosed when the Lord returns (1 Cor 3); would we not desire for the Lord to test us even now, and to continually purify us even before that Day (2 Cor 13:5–14)? May we pray with David, “prove me, oh Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind,” (Ps 26:2) and may we invite a burning coal to our lips if it would make us clean before God (Is. 6).

And let us not forget what these trials and testings produce in us: Steadfastness. Steadfastness is what we desperately need and simply cannot obtain through anything but actual real-life practice (James 1:2–4,1:12, Romans 5:3–5). May it thus bring us into sweeter communion with Jesus.

The Vinedresser & His Branches — Pruning

I really don’t know much about vineyards, and I’m sure some of the significance of the particular grape vine illustration is lost on me, but I’ve pondered general gardening lately. If the gardener doesn’t garden, controlling shade, water, soil, and pests, how healthy can a vine get with so many other vines in the vineyard? The other day I went out to place wooden stakes next to a couple generations-old peony flowers that are important to our family, so that they could grow up straight, as they’ve already struggled under their own weight and have needed extra support. I wondered if they would have survived our recent rains and hailstorms without a ‘gardener’ (though I use that term incredibly loosely with respect to myself).

I also had an opportunity to tour a coffee estate in South India just prior to writing this, and I was amazed at the practical implications and necessity of pruning. At this particular estate, they go through a process called ‘hard handling.’ Every year, a fifth of the coffee plants have some of their branches cut off — even fruitful ones in this case. On the coffee plant in particular there are beautiful white flowers, and where these little white buds come up and bloom are the places where next year’s coffee cherries will sprout. Essentially, you can look at these little green and white blooms and gauge the fruitfulness of the plant in the year ahead. Therefore it was somewhat confusing to me when my friend — the owner of the estate — started hacking off branches which had some of these white buds. He explained that, while they would definitely bear some fruit next year, there were only two buds on that branch, whereas if he cut the whole thing off instead, at least three branches would grow in the one branch’s place, and each of those branches would eventually produce at least two buds of their own (though it would take longer than one year).

I couldn’t help but consider myself like one of these branches. How often do I grieve some loss, some setback, some altered direction in my life when I was just finally starting to see some fruit?

I have a Brahmin friend in India who knows and loves Jesus deeply. We had prayed for years that his father — the ‘Hindu of Hindus’ in our minds — would start following Jesus too. We started seeing some glimpses of incredible fruit as his heart started warming towards the gospel, and he started sharing proudly with his Hindu friends the fact that his son followed this Guru Yeshuji (Jesus). Might this proud father have started following Jesus in the months or years to come? We were clearly seeing the green and white ‘buds’ in his life, seemingly eager to bear fruit — and soon. We were therefore shocked and deeply saddened when his father suddenly died in his mid-fifties. What was the Lord thinking? Did He not see the coming fruit? Wasn’t it He Himself who had been producing it (1 Cor 3:6–7)? Of course, much of this is still a mystery to me; I cannot read the mind of God. However, when our friend — the only child to his now deceased father — was suddenly thrust into the spiritual leadership of his family, we saw something beautiful happen. As his entire extended family — a plethora of brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts — came from all over India to stay at his house for a week, he was able to initiate a grand worship gathering in the name of Jesus. That entire traditional Hindu family was able to hear the gospel in their heart language for the first time. He identified with Jesus for the first time with many of these relatives, and his mother championed this gathering, singing the worship songs louder than she ever had before. Were new branches not beginning to form? And did he not love his heavenly Father even more in the loss of his earthly father? He did.

The estate owner at the coffee farm told me that “pruning becomes more important as the plants get older.” That’s right isn’t it? In my short experience of walking with Jesus, I am lured by the world in every direction, and often stifled from taking greater and greater steps of faith outside of my comfort zone. I allow myself to get more and more comfortable, I begin to chart my own course, and I desperately need the Lord to step in and shake things up lest I become entirely independent, and no longer desperate for His presence, His provision, His grace. Indeed as I continue walking with Jesus, as I get older, I need more pruning, not less. We’ve all seen those old knobby trees where it seems the branches jet out in all sorts of random directions from all the knots in the trunk and branches. This is the result of many years of pruning and new branches growing in new directions. And we know those ‘knobby’ people too don’t we? Those old weathered saints in our lives that you can almost look at and know they’ve walked through some deeply tragic seasons of life. Aren’t they the ones who seem to know the Lord better than any of us? Don’t we aspire to be like them and imitate them as they imitate Jesus (1 Cor 11:1)? How will we get there without our own trials, our own pruning? Do we not share the same wise Vinedresser? Surely Paul looked significantly older than he was (2 Cor 11:23–27), and as he bore these trials through life, we know his maturity was found in how many earthly aspirations were pruned and how single-minded he was in his pursuit of Jesus (Phil 3).

Of course, the key text here is John 15:1–17 (and we probably should include v.17+ as Jesus promises us trial and tribulation). I trust that you don’t need me to expound on this passage. Out of all the scriptures mentioned, perhaps this is our most needful to read and study and meditate on ourselves.

We know this type of deep abiding doesn’t come naturally to our flesh. We need God to prune us, to send us trials that might wear us ‘invincible teenagers’ out and make us tired and frustrated enough to actually pray and fast — to actually deny ourselves and seek God. Isn’t it that we don’t pray because we don’t think we need God’s help? God often warned His people Israel to stay desperate, knowing that the blessings He was about to give them would tempt them to forget Him. Forgetting Him then would either lead to fear (Judges 5:31–6:10, Is 51:12–13) or pride (Deut 8:17–18, Judges 7:1–2), and God would step in to ‘prune’ (Judges 7:1–8, Deut 28). When Hezekiah was sick, he was dependent, but as soon as he began to prosper, God left him alone to test him and to prove what was in his heart (2 Chron 32:24–31). May our hearts be found desperate for God in such tests. Indeed, one of my spiritual leaders recently said, “To not be desperate [for God] is to not know God. This is THE daily struggle in our pilgrimage — staying desperate.” Shouldn’t we in some sense desire for God to pry the comforts of life from our grip so that we might experience Him more deeply? Shouldn’t a life void of trials almost scare us if we desire to walk deeply, dependently, and humbly with God?

God called Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9), and eventually he spent 10 years traveling to Gentile lands to fulfill that calling. Yet, there were around 14 whole years before he left on his first journey. What was he doing during that time? I would guess it felt like a whole lot of waiting (and perseverance through a lifetime of trials surely has to do a lot with waiting — there are 8 different Hebrew words for different types of waiting!), but I would guess that whether Paul knew it or not, he was learning to abide in the true Vine. Much like a branch takes time to grow out of a vine, so did Paul, and so do we. Paul desperately needed a firm and healthy connection to the Vine for the storms ahead, and so do we. And we need to be pruned and challenged to abide.

May we take to heart these wonderful ‘commandvitations’ of our Lord in John 15, and mind with reverence the wonderful and fearful implications of either ignorance or obedience.

If you would like to dig deeper into this, I might suggest reading First John. In it, John gives us more insight into the heart of God and what it means to ‘abide’ or ‘remain’ in Christ as he arguably reflects upon the happenings and teachings of John 13–17.

I hope you have seen that these illustrations are not void of God’s care, and in fact quite the opposite. Brothers and sisters, we are imperfect. The Lord has a crystal clear vision for future versions of you and I that look more like Him, and He uses trials and suffering as a tool in His hands to lovingly craft and shape us.

Paul knew this. In his dying letter to Timothy, he pointed to at least two primary things that God uses to shape and mature us. The first is obviously the word of God (2 Tim 3:16–17), which is like a hammer (Jer 23:29) in the hands of Jesus the stonemason, who crafts us as stones hewn from Him the Rock and builds us up into a temple. This process of a hammer splitting a stone implies pain, and yet this hammer in His hands is our very life (Deut 32). Paul understood that even the work of the word of God in our lives is sometimes painful (Heb 4:12), and so it follows that the second ‘tool’ of God he points to is trials. He acknowledged (again) the reality of persecution and suffering and yet his encouragement to Timothy is not to escape such things (which will actually increase) — the exhortation is instead to persevere. To continue. To endure, just as Paul often endured suffering before the rescue came (2 Tim 3:11). This time, he knows he will not be rescued (2 Tim 4:6–8) and yet this letter overflows with gratitude and blessing toward God.

“It is the Spirit who, moving in our hearts, Paul says, makes us cry, “Abba, Father.” It is the Spirit who gives us that affinity for communion and intimacy with God, who takes God from being a distant God, as He would be in the religions of the world, and making Him a God of love, and compassion, and care, understanding, a God who wants to enfold us in His love. Intimacy with God is an essential part of our growth. How can we ever become a spiritual father? Three levels of spiritual growth: spiritual babies, spiritual young men, spiritual fathers. Spiritual babies know the basics. Spiritual young men know doctrine; 1 John 2:12 and 13 explains this. And spiritual fathers know Him who is from the beginning. I can’t have a deep knowledge of the eternal God unless I’ve spent time with Him, right? So in this process of spiritual growth and sanctification, as I move toward holiness, I have an ever-increasing knowledge of God. Paul cried out for that, that I may know Him. That’s the longing of my heart. I want to know Him better, know Him better, know Him more. And the Spirit moves us that way. He desires, He works, He leads us into ever-richer, intimate fellowship with God. That’s why He allows difficulty in our life — because it’s difficulty that drives us into that communion, isn’t it? It’s so essential.” (commentary on Ps 119:65–72, sp 71)

What if we actually saw our hardships as evidence of God’s presence with us rather than God’s absence? Oh, how life would change and how rich our relationship with God would be.

Those Who Came Before Us

See how the saints of old understood such things:

“Manna was a type of Christ, it came from Heaven to feed the hungry bodies of the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16:35). Even so came Christ, sent from God the Father to be the eternal food and upholder of the souls and bodies of every one of us. Manna was white and sweet; so is Christ, white in righteousness and holiness and also sweet to delight the soul. Manna fell upon the tents in the night and Christ came when darkness was spread over all the world. God gave Manna freely from Heaven; so Christ was a free gift, and he freely gave himself to death, even to the cursed death of the cross for us…Manna could not fall until the Israelites had spent all the provision they brought with them out of Egypt. And we cannot taste of that heavenly Manna of our Father until our souls are drawn away from all worldly dependencies and carnal delights, then indeed Manna will be sweet and precious.” (Richard Sibbes, The Glorious Feast of the Gospel, ch. The Marriage Feast Between Christ And His Church)

“This grateful life was born of a confidence in the providence and sovereignty of God. She wrote, “I do not believe that any trouble comes upon us unless it is needed, and it seems to me that we ought to be just as thankful for sorrow as for joys.” She would oft recall Broadus’s prayer, “Send us affliction and trouble, blight our dearest hopes if need be, that we may learn more fully to depend on Thee.”” (Daniel Akin on Lottie Moon, Ten Who Changed The World)

“When Christians bear afflictions patiently (steadfastness), they get an experiential knowledge of the loving kindness of their Heavenly Father, which He will not take from His children, even when He visits their iniquity with the rod and their transgression with stripes (Ps 89:32–33, Ps 118:17–18, 2 Sam 7:12–16) and hereby they are brought to the childlike fear and reverential love wherein true godliness consists.” (Matthew Henry Commentary, 2 Peter 1)

John Wesley stated, “Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness and desolation with both hands, as to a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying suffering Savior.”

“Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. You are placed by God in the most suitable circumstances, and if you had the choosing of your lot, you would soon cry, “Lord, choose my inheritance for me, for by my self-will I am pierced through with many sorrows.”” (Spurgeon)

“He dug a grave near his Hermitage and for days sat beside it staring into it. On October 24, 1829, the third anniversary of Ann’s death, he would write, “God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in Him, but I find Him not.” However, God’s power and love did not fail him. He would emerge from the valley of the shadow of death in the strength of his Good Shepherd. He would say of these days, “There is a love that never fails. If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.” (Daniel Akin on Adoniram Judson, Ten Who Changed The World)

“Sense a great need of my Father tonight. Have feelings of what Dr. Jaarsma [philosophy professor at Wheaton] calls “autonomous man” in another context. I do not feel needy enough. Sufficiency in myself is a persistent thought, though I try to judge it. Lord Jesus, Tender Lover of this brute soul, wilt Thou make me weak? I long to understand Thy sufficiency and my inadequacy, and how can I sense this except in experience? So, Lord, Thou knowest what I am able to bear. Send trouble that I might know peace; send anxiety that I might know rest in Thee. Send hard things that I may learn to rely on Thy dissolving them. Strange askings, and I do not know what I speak, but “my desire is toward Thee” — anything that will intensify and make me tender, Savior. I desire to be like Thee, Thou knowest.“ (Jim Elliot’s journal, highlighted in Daniel Akin’s Ten Who Changed The World)

So He’s Loving And I’m… Bad?

At this point, I realize, we may ask in our hearts, ‘Does this mean that every negative circumstance that comes my way is some kind of punishment for something I’ve done wrong or some flaw in my character?’ And I hope I’ve already answered that above, but I want to be clear. The simple answer is no, not necessarily. We live in a fallen world. Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). We’re aliens, strangers, foreigners, sojourners (1 Peter 2:11, Heb 11:13). Our true home is not here, not now (Heb 11–12), and we have citizenship elsewhere (Phil 2:30, Eph 2:19). Deep down, we know things are not as they should be, and they only seem to be getting worse — not better — even as the gospel advances in the earth. All of that causes us to groan, along with all the earth, for Jesus’s return and the restoration of all things (Rom 8). This groaning and waiting is arduous and frustrating because we also remain sinful ourselves and thus contribute to the world’s inability to be free from sin so long as we inhabit it. Yet while we’re not free of guilt for the sin on the earth, not everything that happens is directly ‘our fault.’

Are we sometimes just passive observers while God purifies other people then?

I would argue not. Does God not command every circumstance that befalls every person, and does He not have a purpose in each and every one of those people in each and every one of those circumstances? Do we really ever ‘accidentally’ get ‘caught in the crossfire’ while God was actually trying to purify someone else? So should I not at least pause in every circumstance to consider what my loving God might have purposed in this particular circumstance for me? What might my loving Father be disciplining me for that I need to repent of? What remaining sin might be clinging to me which looks ugly and needs to be burnt off? In which parts of my heart and growth toward Jesus have I become calloused — where have I stopped listening to His word, following it, and living in constant desperation to glean all of my provision for life and fruit from Jesus? Where have I become unfruitful?

These are questions worth asking (even without trials and suffering) though they may not always produce simple answers.

Packer’s “Knowing God” captures this well in a section of Chapter 20 titled “No Simple Answers:”

“It does not follow that right guidance will be vindicated as such by a trouble-free course thereafter. Here is another cause of deep perplexity for Christian people. They have sought guidance and believe it has been given. They have set off along the road which God seemed to indicate. And now, as a direct result, they have run into a crop of new problems which otherwise would not have arisen — isolation, criticism, abandonment by their friends, practical frustrations of all sorts. At once they grow anxious. They recall the prophet Jonah who, when told to go east and preach at Nineveh, took a ship going north to Tarshish instead, “away from the Lord” (Jon 1:3), and was caught in a storm, humiliated before unbelievers, thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish — in order to bring Jonah to his senses. Is their own present experience of the rough side of life (they ask themselves) a sign from God that they are themselves like Jonah, off track, following the path of self-will rather than the way of God? It may be so, and the wise person will take occasion from his new troubles to check his original guidance very carefully. Trouble should always be treated as a call to consider one’s ways. But trouble is not necessarily a sign of being off track at all; for as the Bible declares in general that “many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Ps 34:19 KJV), so it teaches in particular that following God’s guidance regularly leads to upsets and distresses which one would otherwise have escaped. Examples abound. God guided Israel by means of a fiery and cloudy pillar that went before them (Ex 13:21–22); yet the way by which he led them involved the nerve-shredding cliffhanger of the Red Sea crossing, long days without water and meat in “that vast and dreadful desert” (Deut 1:19), and bloody battles with Amalek, Sihon and Og (Ex 17:8; Num 21:21–23) — and we can understand, if not excuse, Israel’s constant grumbling (see Ex 14:10–12; 16:3; Num 11:4–6; 14:2–3; 20:2–5; 21:4–5). Again, Jesus’ disciples were twice caught by night in bad weather on the Sea of Galilee (Mk 4:37; 6:48), and both times the reason why they were there was the command of Jesus himself (see Mk 4:35; 6:45). Again, the apostle Paul crossed to Greece “concluding” from his dream of the man of Macedonia “that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10), and before long he was in jail at Philippi. Later he “resolved in the Spirit to . . . go to Jerusalem” (19:21 RSV), and told the Ephesian elders whom he met on his way, “I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me” (20:22–23 RSV). So it proved to be: Paul found trouble on the grand scale through following divine guidance. Nor is this all. For a final example and proof of the truth that following God’s guidance brings trouble, look at the life of the Lord Jesus himself. No human life has ever been so completely guided by God, and no human being has ever qualified so comprehensively for the description “a man of sorrows.” Divine guidance set Jesus at a distance from his family and fellow townsmen, brought him into conflict with all the nation’s leaders, religious and civil, and led finally to betrayal, arrest and the cross. What more can Christians expect, while they abide in the will of God? “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. . . . If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!” (Mt 10:24–25). By every human standard of reckoning, the cross was a waste — the waste of a young life, a prophet’s influence, a leader’s potential. We know the secret of its meaning and achievement only from God’s own statements. Similarly, the Christian’s guided life may appear as a waste — as with Paul, spending years in prison because he followed God’s guidance to Jerusalem, when he might otherwise have been evangelizing Europe the whole time. Nor does God always tell us the why and wherefore of the frustrations and losses which are part and parcel of the guided life. The early experience of Elisabeth Elliot, widow and biographer of a martyred missionary husband, strikingly illustrates this. Confident of God’s guidance, she went to an Ecuador tribe to reduce their language to writing so that the Bible might be translated for them. The only person who could or would help her was a Spanish-speaking Christian who lived with the tribe, but within a month he was shot dead in an argument. She struggled on with virtually no help for eight months more. Then she moved to another field, leaving her full file of linguistic material with colleagues so that they could carry on where she had left off. Within a fortnight she heard that the file had been stolen. No copy existed; all her work was wasted. That, humanly speaking, was the end of the story. She comments:

“I simply had to bow in the knowledge that God was his own interpreter. . . . We must allow God to do what he wants to do. And if you are thinking that you know the will of God for your life and you are anxious to do that, you are probably in for a very rude awakening because nobody knows the will of God for his entire life.” (Quoted from Eternity, January 1969, p. 18)

This is right. Sooner or later, God’s guidance, which brings us out of darkness into light, will also bring us out of light into darkness. It is part of the way of the cross.” — Packer, J. I.. Knowing God (pp. 239–241)

Healing & Restoration

This God who actively brings destruction and hardship (though as we saw, not without purpose), also heals. In fact, in several of the examples above and below we see that these hardships are for the purpose of the subsequent healing. He is not absent but ever-present through the trials that He brings. His ultimate aim is not to destroy, but to restore. Humans historically have operated according to punitive justice, meaning if one wrongs another, then the one who wrongs gets punished in order to make things seemingly equitous, but this is a no-win system. God’s justice unto His children is restorative, not punitive. He has a specific plan in His chastisement with restoration in mind. “Discipline comes from love, punishment comes from anger.” Look at the wonder — and mystery — of some of these verses as we gain insight into the heart of God:

• “The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and he will heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.” (Isaiah 19:22 NIV)
• “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” (Hosea 6:1 NIV)
• “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring life, I have wounded and I heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” (Deut 32:39 NIV)
• “For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.” (Job 5:18 ESV)
• Listen to the love of God for his people! Hear the Father’s heart in His loving discipline: “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD.” (Jer 31:20)
• “And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:14–21 ESV)
• “The Lord binds up the brokenness of His people, and heals the wounds inflicted by His blow.” (Isaiah 30:26 ESV)
• Not the least of the examples: Israel, who is temporarily cut off, will be restored (Rom 9–11, Jer 31:1–20, Judges 2:1, Jer 31:35–37)
• “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19 ESV) (compare with v.10; goodness is not primarily good circumstance, but relationship)
• “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. . . You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you” (Joel 2: 25–26).
• Mark 11:12–14,20–25 — The lesson of the fig tree teaches the Jews (and us) GODLINESS, and the FAITH to see eternally all that God is doing and being a part of it. To know with reverent fear that I am unworthy and that God can cut me off (Rom 11). (The fig tree looks lush, but in fact was not producing fruit and so was good for nothing (Luke 13:6–7). Indeed this was the greatest curse — the reverse of the first blessing — ‘be fruitful’ — and the removal of that which is the honor of the fig tree: its fruit (Judges 9:11), which is its serviceableness to men, and which is preferable to its promotion over the other trees (Judges 9:11). It has withered ‘to its roots’ and thus it will no longer even grow leaves to cheat people into thinking it is fruitful. It is only now fit for fuel (fire). They were shocked at how quickly it had withered away and experienced the removal of the Lord’s blessing, as the Jewish people soon would, for this was the reversal of the “dry rod” of the Levitical priesthood which budded “in one night” and brought forth almonds (Num 17:8); now this fig tree had withered in one night and Peter was surprised, perhaps at the physical circumstance but more so at the strange and scarcely credible idea that the Jewish people, God’s own people, His only professing people in the world, should be thus abandoned. Even this inconceivable thing is possible with faith. Indeed, we’re not changing topics from v. 21 to 22, because this is a specific mountain — The Mount of Olives — the olive tree symbolizing the Jewish people, to whom the Gentiles are grafted in. The whole mountain full of olive trees can be removed! (see the coming parable 12:1–2 which affirms the following too) Yet, verse 25. It is not God’s heart to remove so much as it is to reconcile, to forgive. So the cost of rejecting Jesus is being rejected by Him, no matter who you are, but that is not His heart and so it is not ours. Consider Romans 11 and the ‘spirit of the prophets.’ God has still always retained a remnant, thus remaining faithful to His people. The Jewish people are still the center of the story; let us not become proud. Note both the kindness and the severity of God (Rom 11:22).

I think it’s also worth noting two elements of the nature of God’s restoration. It would seem that God’s heart in striking people is 1) to restore them, and that His heart in restoring them is to 2) actually give them far more than they had at first.

1. Striking To Restore:

Back in Deuteronomy when God is spelling out all of these ‘cycles’ of disobedience/exile/restoration that are going to take place, He says that He’s the one who will scatter them (Deut 30:3) but it’s also Him who will bring them back into the land and actually give them more prosperity and abundance than their fathers had (Deut 30:5), amongst other far more glorious things. We will have a hard time swallowing this issue of God’s chastisement towards His people if we miss this theme of restoration. While we might cringe at the thought of destruction by God’s hand, we will not be surprised when we read Deut 30:9–10 and see His deep delight in restoring His people. We might even argue that He scatters them so that He can gather them (Rom 9). The father of the prodigal son lets his child go and bring shame to both himself and his father — he puts up no fight. And yet of course we know how eagerly he is waiting to restore this prodigal son, and how abundantly he blesses him upon his return (Luke 15).

2. Giving More Than They Had At First:

We see another element of the nature of God’s restoration in Job as well (Job, the go-to example of suffering). Job 42:10+ says, “the Lord restored the fortunes of Job…the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before…the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning…and Job died, an old man, and full of days.” If these words haven’t already come to mind, note what Jesus promises: “…and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt. 19:29)

Yet it is not always merely material possession that we gain. Consider 1 Sam 29–30. David seems to balk as he clearly wants to fight, but no matter the rights or wrongs in David’s heart, the Lord was gracious by disallowing him to fight in at least two ways: 1) He keeps David from sin (like in ch. 25), and 2) He, in effect, ‘sends’ David back to save his town, which nobody had known (except the Lord) was plundered and burned (30:1–2). Take note of the tremendous emotional hardship in this grace and guidance (30:4). Note also God’s heart to restore when He breaks and challenges (30:18–20): They ultimately lost nothing, and yet gained much:

• David begins to learn, like Moses, and like God, what it feels like to lead fickle people who would turn away for the same reason they gathered to him in the first place (30:6, 22:2), people who lack perspective. God is teaching David what it means to be sub-king to the sovereign God Almighty, for he is called to be able to see these things and have clear enough perspective to be differentiated from the people as he stands between them and their fickle anger-gratitude toward God (30:6b, 30:20).
• David is getting more practice in seeking the Lord’s guidance before jumping into logical action (30:7–8).
• David is getting practice in loving the foreigner, the destitute, the forgotten, without knowing if they’d gain anything in return (30:11–13), and while they themselves were in need.
• David has an opportunity to align his heart with God’s and lead the people in righteousness. Thus, they get an opportunity to see what community care, kinsman provision, communal/familial mindset, and gratitude toward God’s provision looks like practically. That is, “we claim no rights. The Lord gives, but it is not ours to take, only to share and enjoy.” In a day when these men would be most protective over their possessions and families, “lest we lose it again,” they get to learn that the response is not a closed fist, but an open and trusting one. The answer is not fear and insecurity which leads to control, but trust in a sovereign God who’s writing a good story for us that we can trust, which leads to a relinquishing of control (30:21:25). In God’s heart, even the rest of Israel who followed disobedient Saul should have a share in this spoil and give glory to God for it (30:26).

God loves to fix what is broken. He loves to restore. He has restored us (2 Cor 5:17, Gal 2:20, John 5:24, Eph 1–2), He will restore us (Mt. 25:34, Rom 8:18, 1 Cor 15, Phil 1:6), and He is restoring us (2 Cor 3–4). An integral part of that process is suffering and trials. Through tribulation, we are made more like Jesus (1 Peter 2). We are broken down and weakened and purified so that we can be used by God, and so that His strength can be put on display in us (2 Cor 12, Phil 3, 2 Cor 4, 2 Tim 2:14–26, Judges 7:1–8). For example, when He puts us back together, we are able to partner with Him in putting others back together. When we’ve been comforted in our suffering we’re entrusted with being a comforter (2 Cor 1).

And He is the one who lovingly does this, for His own glory and for our good.

Consider Psalm 126 (NET). In a ‘song of ascents,’ sung by those going ‘up’ to the temple to draw near to the Lord, we see the psalmist reflect upon a previous time(s) when the Lord had restored Israel (v1–3). The psalmist asks again for the Lord to restore them in a way that only He can (v4) and yet the psalmist also acknowledges [from experience] the common process of the Lord’s restoration — that is, it’s likely not immediate, and there is work to be done by the one who seeks restoration. The psalmist compares it to one who spends time planting seeds (v5–6). The process itself is difficult and yields little to no instant gratification, especially if we are metaphorically referring to a disobedient and repentant people grieving over their sin and the consequences that it has wrought. Perhaps the ‘seeds’ planted are confession, lifestyle/culture change, apology, or forgiveness. Such things are often tearful as the Psalmist portrays, and may not yield any immediate fruit outside of a heart made lighter, for it still takes time for these seeds to grow into restored relationships with men and with the Lord. It is a matter of perspective that we would say either, “restoration comes as soon as the next harvest,” or, “restoration takes as long as a full harvest cycle,” but in either case there should be hope-filled expectation of eventual restoration on the heels of faith-filled steadfastness to walk in the Lord’s calling even when all seems lost (Hab 3:17–19).

“Tribulation worketh patience, whereby we bear all calamities and crosses with silence & submission, without murmuring against God or complaining of Him, but justifying Him who lays all affliction upon us, owning that our sufferings are less than our sins deserve, and believing they are no more than we ourselves need.” — Matthew Henry Commentary, 2 Peter 1

As we’ve already seen, the restoration of His people is not the only thing in God’s heart and mind. His work in His people is also unto the spiritual benefit of those around them whom God seeks to draw into relationship with Himself.

I have spoken to many people who have given their lives to live in dangerous and difficult places of the world for the sake of Jesus’ name being made known, and I myself have spent a long season of my life to this end. These stories (including my own) are rife with struggle and pain, and yet it is so often clear how God was using these things to display His glory. Oftentimes it was these impossibly hard trials that did more to reveal His character to the locals than the expatriates’ goals, methods, or strategies.

One such story is of a couple who lost one of their children in North-Central Asia decades ago. Ministry work came to a halt and much time passed as this couple grieved and tried to make any sense of it all. They contemplated leaving and opting to grieve with their supporters and main source of fellowship in their home country, thinking the locals who had started following Jesus wouldn’t be able to provide the spiritual and emotional support that they needed. Feeling torn, they stayed, not knowing why. At some point during this season they met a new local believer from many cities away who had heard their story and came to spend time with them. When the couple lamented that they felt they ought to be back in their home country with family and friends, this new believer said, “You don’t understand… Until now we had never seen anyone grieve with hope.” Through the incredible pain and hardship of losing a child in a foreign land and all the frustrating circumstances surrounding it, the people finally got to see a real-life practical application of biblical faith and hope. This couple’s grief story had spread across the country as powerful evidence that the gospel message they had been sharing for years was true.

I would once again recommend reading “The Mystery Of Catastrophe” by Joel Richardson and Nathan Graves. They provide compelling evidence for how God has and will continue to use wars, natural disasters, and all sorts of other catastrophes to reveal Himself to the world. They discuss how we as His children and ambassadors should view these calamities as opportunities to move toward, as they are orchestrated intentionally by our sovereign and infinitely wise God who is purposefully moving all things toward an appointed end.

Richardson captures this again in his first update after the situation in Afghanistan in the Fall of 2021. It was precisely all of the negative circumstances that strengthened the local believers’ faith in God and opened incredible doors to the gospel. Iran tells the same story.

Eliza Edwards tells story after story in her book “Surrender” of how God used trials to develop and mature her, but also others who experienced powerful lessons in parenthood and relational reconciliation with God and others through incredible difficulties. Eliza validates Richardson & Graves’ exhortation with these stories from wartime in the Middle East saying, “No one would ever want the travesty and destruction that comes with war. But through it, and the response of love and sharing the truth of Jesus, God called many home into eternity. One woman even commented she was thankful for the war because otherwise she would not have heard about Jesus. God, in a way only He can, indeed does use all things, good and bad, for His glory for those that love him (Romans 8:28).” (pg. 252)

I also remember reading “The Insanity of God” by Nik Ripkin and being struck by awe at how God uses the persecution of His people as a glorious tool in His hands for their good. I remember lamenting (to a degree) that I had not faced such things because I saw how much stronger my faith and the faith of my local assembly would be under persecution.

Though I have not faced war, calamity, or overt persecution, I can testify to these truths in my own life. Just after college I was hired to help build and grow a business in Asia. The business was full of American expatriate workers who loved Jesus and I asked the Lord to use the 3+ years I committed to, not only to make disciples in this foreign land, but to establish this company so that these Jesus-loving employees would have access, identity, and integrity in that place for years to come. I ended up spending five years there, and the last two in particular were hell. Through customers and clients who were impossible to work with and my own mistakes while working with them, we developed better training, operating procedures, and decision-making matrices for the company. Through impossible levels of government bureaucracy, multiple interviews, and a long interrogation, we initiated a massive company restructuring and rebranding which provided not only more long-term access, but integrity and stronger sales and marketing. In many ways, it was my own experiences going through hell and back that prompted the insight and education required for such changes to be made. Though I would not have asked for God to answer my initial prayer that way, we couldn’t have learned what we did, or made the changes that we made, without the trials I faced. What’s more, my teams and I got to see God develop patience, resilience, and faith in our hearts that was often seen by the locals — even in the government offices — that enabled us and others to stand in awe of Jesus in our hearts who empowered us to have impossible character in impossible circumstances.

God’s end goal is always restoration. He doesn’t stand at a distance watching, step in to slap our wrists and then say, “Now carry on as you were and don’t mess up again.” He doesn’t give us some sort of prison sentence where we ‘put in our time’ so we can go ‘back to normal.’ His goal for us is ever-upward, that we would change and grow with Him. He walks with us through everything, talking to us, teaching us what’s best for us, and building our faith and relationship with Him by standing in the fire and standing in the storm with us. He wants to restore what’s broken in the world, starting with us, so that we can partner with Him in putting the world back together as a kingdom of priests and ambassadors. It is seeing the depth of our sin that helps us understand the depths of His grace, and it is the depth of our trials and chastisement which increase the richness and glory in His restoration.

Cherishing The Wilderness

(Excerpt here)

Because of who God is, we are hopefully starting to see how we, like Jesus, can face trials with joy (Is. 53:11, James 1:2–4). In fact, there is a degree to which we should almost desire trials (though I say this lightly as we should flee from the ‘martyr complex’).

“Charles Spurgeon said: ‘I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.’ And sometimes you get seasick when you’re learning to ‘kiss the wave.’” — Gloria Furman

Consider the glories of the wilderness as it relates with our relationship with God.

“The Jews think of themselves as desert people, they’re scared to death of water. Who’s been to Israel? Several. How many cottages on the Sea of Galilee? 12 miles long, 7.5 miles wide, very fresh water, lot of private land, no rules against cottages, how many cottages? Zero. Why? Jewish people by nature are scared to death of water.” [RVL, episode 2, 24:55–25:20]

(To further emphasize this point, I highly recommend reading Appendix A of Joel Richardson’s “Sinai To Zion,” because I think acknowledging the Hebrew view of the sea will provide a more powerful contrast with the desert and thus enrich its meaning to us.)

“Do you know that Jesus’ disciples probably couldn’t swim? That in all the sailing they did on the Sea of Galilee, if you look at your map, only twice do they cross open water and even then it’s questionable? The sea is hell, the sea is the abyss. Why do you think the Bible says there will be no more sea in heaven? Because the sea is where the devil lives, you can’t have a sea in heaven. The sea is being prepared — of fire of course — for the devil. They’re desert people. Abraham was a desert man…the father of the Jewish people… Moses — the creator of the religious cult, cult in a good sense, the religious practices, was a desert man, 40 years by himself, 40 years with the Jews. David, the one who established the political entity of Israel, lived in Bethlehem, right at the edge of the desert, and spent 40 months running from Saul, hiding in the desert. They are desert people. ‘More than half,’ one well known writer wrote, ‘of the pictures in the Bible are desert pictures.’ So if you’re going to start somewhere and say ‘how can I build this library that will help me to read the text more Eastern,’ I would start with the desert.” [RVL, episode 2, 25:20–26:40]

“Not only are they going to be shaped here [in the desert] in the Torah, but Abraham was a person of the desert, Issac was a person of the desert, Jacob was a person of the desert, Joseph was a person of the desert, where does God take Moses for 40 years to shape him to be the greatest leader of Jewish history outside of Jesus but the desert? What does Moses do as a vocation for those 40 years…shepherd…can you think of any other big names in the Bible who were shepherd? David…some prophets end up being shepherds…this is one of the biggest images of the Bible, and we would expect it to be because of who the people of the Bible are.” [BEMA, episode 26, 17:45–18:26]

“In Hebrew the word for wilderness is midbar. MDBR. In Hebrew you don’t write vowels. The vowels are pronounced but not written. In Hebrew, these are the root consonants of the word: DBR. And in Hebrew that’s pronounced debir. Now, from the consonants DBR, you get the word ‘desert’ (midbar, MDBR), you get the word debir, which means ‘holy of holies,’ you get the word debar, which is a sheepfold. And so to the Jew, when you say midbar, it’s a place where the sheep are brought and God’s holy of holies is the place where God brings His flock. Now literally, the word midbar (M+DBR) means ‘the place of words,’ ‘the place of speaking.’” [RVL, episode 2, 29:29–30:50]

“From an etymological perspective…you’ll have an entire word tree based off of a root word and what that tells you in the Hebrew is that somehow all of these images…Word…Desert…Speak…[are connected]…you go to the desert to learn how to speak and to listen to Word. Desert is where you go to finally learn how to be people of the ears. These aren’t the only words we find in this word tree…Shepherd…Pasture…Sheepfold…all of these words are desert words…Shepherd is one of the biggest images of the desert.” [BEMA, episode 26, 7:41–12:15]

“If you want to hear God speak, you have to go to the desert. You will not hear God speak in the farmland. Why? Because you’re too busy doing it for yourself. You go to the desert where you will have to depend on God because that’s where you will hear Him… The desert is a place where you cannot survive apart from the direct intervention of God. So when you are in the desert, you know that you depend on God totally. Cause there’s no other way! If He doesn’t send water, if He doesn’t provide bread, if He doesn’t provide shade, if He doesn’t provide rescue, you are going to die. So when you’re in the desert, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, “I cannot live without God.” When you go to the land of honey, God said, “BE CAREFUL,” “When you leave the desert and go to the farmland with wells you didn’t dig and vineyards you didn’t plant and houses you didn’t build, you are going to end up saying, ‘MY hand, MY strength has done this for me,’ and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you through this vast and terrible wasteland.” Be careful. When things are going well and you’re doing it on your own, why do you need God? And so the Jew always wants to live in the desert. Because when you’re in the desert, you have nowhere else to turn. ONLY God. And that’s when you hear Him.” [RVL, episode 2, 30:50–32:50]

“There are two metaphors I want to introduce you to. The first is honey. Honey in the Bible is always a metaphor for the sweetness of God. Debash, you’d say in Hebrew. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste. The words had the taste to me of the sweetness of honey. Honey always to the Middle-Easterner is about God. I remember the first time I was in Israel, first week of class, a friend said why don’t you come home with me…he knew I could never survive by myself in Jerusalem, so he took me home…and his sister was the kindergarten teacher at the school in their town, so he said ‘you can come with my sister and you can see a school…so I went, it was the first day of class and she sat with about 35 kindergarteners in this room, so picture it…some of them are scared to death, some of them are crying, some of them are acting like they’re okay, some of them are just sitting there frozen, there they all sit. So the teacher gets up and says some nice things, and then the door opens — it was an orthodox school — and in comes the rabbi. Very pleasant-looking, big bearded man. The kids — the rabbi! The rabbi looked around the room, and he walked over to his box on his desk and took out of his box a bunch of brand new Torahs. One for you, one for you, one for you — the kids all with big eyes. And he went back over to his box and came out with a handful of little squares of wax paper. And he laid one on the cover of each of those Torahs. And then he walked back and he came out with a good old fashioned honey bear. And he squeezed a drop of honey on each wax paper. And then he said, “Now I want you to take your little finger and I want you to dip it in the honey, and I want you to lick it off.” All these little kids [do it]. “And don’t ever forget! THAT’S WHAT GOD TASTES LIKE!” … Come with me, 8 years later, to my doctoral class, with a gentleman named [Chaim Patach?]. First day of class, he walks in, goes to his box, takes out a Torah, and each of those 20–35 year olds gets a brand new Torah. And then a wax paper square. And then a honey bear. “Take your little finger! And dip the honey! And lick it off! THAT IS WHAT GOD TASTES LIKE!” That moved me. That’s honey. The other metaphor is rock. And you don’t have to see very many of these slides to realize how common or why that’s such a common metaphor. It means a lot of things, stability, unbreakability, it has all kinds of meanings, typical Hebrew fashion, images can have all kinds of meanings, yeast can be good, yeast can be bad, it’s whatever you need at the moment, but one of the metaphors in the Bible is that life is a pathway. And when you walk on life’s pathway, there are rocks…and they’re all different sizes. So you’re walking on life’s pathway, what are the rocks in your path, so you’ve got a few issues back home that you wish you could solve but you can’t, but they’re like small stones, they’re annoying, they’re frustrating, but you keep going. And then you’ve got a couple of bigger ones, concern for a friend, etc. and then you’ve got some great big ones, someone is really sick, and then you’ve got one you walked up against 6 months ago where somebody died and you’re saying to yourself “I can’t go by this.” Now listen to Psalm 81. “If my people would listen to me, if they would only obey me, I would satisfy them with honey from the rock.” Where is God on life’s pathway? In the tough times. There is enough of God in every rock you hit, not to make the rock feel good — they hurt! He knows that, His Son had the same thing. There is enough of God in every rock on every path of life to take one more step. And I’m not promising you roses. I’m saying that if you follow Jesus, and you’re on a God-path, there is no rock without enough honey to take another step. Have you been there? Think back in your life — when was God the most intense. Isn’t it often in the toughest times? But what if I’m on the wrong path, what’s in the rocks then? A clue: nothing. The desert… is where you hear God because there’s nowhere else to turn. You need to live in the desert. You can take the believer out of the desert, you better not take the desert out of the believer. If you and I don’t live every single minute…do something, take out your Bibles. Matthew 5…listen to me, are you telling me that it’s good to be poor? And hungry? And mourn? Persecuted? And you’re telling me that it’s good when everybody says rotten slanderous things about you? Why is that good? What is that? It’s the DESERT! And what happens when you’re in the desert? You find God. You know why you’re blessed when you mourn? Not because God is going to come along and say ‘it’s okay, the person died and went to heaven, you’ll see them again someday, feel better.’ IT HURTS WHEN SOMEBODY DIES! Jesus Himself cried at His friend’s funeral. You know why you’re blessed when you mourn? Because when you mourn there’s nowhere else to turn but God! And you’re going to come face to face with God in a way that you haven’t before, in all your pain you’ll look God right in the eye and that is a blessing! I don’t care what your circumstances are. You know why it’s good to be hungry? Because in your hunger you turn and you see God and you say ‘God I can’t make it anymore!’ and you know God in a way that you didn’t when your refrigerator was full of stuff! And Jesus walked out into the desert because He wanted to see God face to face and the devil said ‘You don’t have to depend on God in the desert! You have power! Make stones into bread!’ and Jesus said NO! Why? Because He wanted to depend on God, and He wanted to be hungry enough for the tears to run down His face because He wanted to see God face to face. So when you stand in the desert of your life or you stand with someone in the desert of your life, don’t try to turn it into Hawaii! When you stand in the desert of your life, help the person that you stand with or you yourself say ‘where in this desert am I going to stand face to face with God?’ I love the desert, it hurts. It’s my favorite place in Israel, it hurts! We die out there and then we get bit by scorpions and who knows what, because when you’re there, God is VERY, real. And part of Western Christianity’s problem is that by taking the Biblical message out of it’s context, we’ve made the Christian life sound like it oughta be Hawaii. And sometimes it is! But we’re scared to death of pain, and we’re scared to death to take up our cross, and we’re scared to death to suffer. Because we haven’t understood that it’s in those circumstances that you really, know, God.” [RVL, episode 3, 13:50–25:30]

“It was day number 2 in the desert…we got to watch this amazing flock go around us and probably for the next 45 minutes we got to just watch this flock and I learned so much from this shepherd. One of those things I learned was that this shepherd leads with their voice. Which all of a sudden brings out all of this…to speak, and to lead, and the word, and all this stuff works together and it makes sense why this is the place you go to learn because the shepherd leads their sheep in the desert…the desert is the place of the shepherd. Like when we think of shepherds here in America we think of a different kind of pasture, we think of a pasture pasture, an American pasture…waste deep alfalfa, big green fields of barley, where the cows are at in our culture, but in their culture, the pasture is the desert. These shepherds lead their flocks on these mountains.” [BEMA, episode 26, 12:15–14:00]

“Psalm 23…out in the middle of the desert we have these huge desert mountains, and as far as your initial eye can see, there’s nothing there, there’s no vegetation. And yet these sheep are grazing, and you’re like ‘what in the world are they grazing on?’ As you walk along these mountains you realize the little — and I mean little — rainfall that they get every year will produce, and particularly around the rocks and around those paths [explained below] because of the way the water settles, will produce these small little tufts of grass. And if the sunlight ever hits the hillside just right, you can see the green, and it’s where the bedouins and the people of that culture get the idea of ‘green pastures’ but there is no such thing as green pastures the way we think of green pastures in the biblical culture.” [BEMA, episode 26, 18:32–19:47]

“I could see that the sheep were grazing, and I could see the paths on the hillside where they had grazed, and I’m looking at this thinking, ‘What on earth do those sheep eat? Are those rock-eating sheep?’ I mean it is absolutely incredible — I grew up on a farm! We didn’t have any sheep but I know farming…I look over and there’s an Israeli waking up — a university student — and he’s stretching and looking and so I said to him, “What do those sheep eat?”…so he said, ‘Well let me show you something. If you look at these hillsides carefully, you’ll notice…the hills are all random…they graze certain hills and not others…if you’ll just pay attention, you’ll notice that every evening about sunset you get a strong breeze from the West.’ Now what’s West of the desert? The Mediterranean Sea. And that breeze is humid…and when that breeze hits the stones, moisture accumulates. Not like you can squeeze it, but little drips of water. And overnight, little tufts of grass grow from behind or next to where those stones are. And…the shepherd has to find the hillsides that are exposed and they simply move from rock to rock to rock, and get a mouthful here, a mouthful here, and a mouthful here…so I said to him, ‘Well what do you call this?’ And he did the Jewish thing, which is to recite scripture. ‘The Lord leads me into…’ People, this is the green pastures of Psalm 23. I’m not kidding. You can keep your old picture on the wall if you want, you can keep the picture in your head if you want. Now listen, he then became animated, I would even say angry. He said, ‘You Westerners all turn Psalm 23 into belly-deep alfalfa. The Lord leads you into green pastures which means He’s going to plop you down where you have everything you need for the rest of your life!’ He said to me, ‘Do you have what it takes to handle what’s going to happen to you in ten minutes? Why isn’t this goat worried? What does he have?’ And I said, ‘Well he has enough for right now.’ But what else does he have? …He has a shepherd. People, “The Lord leads me into green pastures” is not a one-time thing. If you translated the Hebrew literally, “The Lord keeps on leading me to green pastures.” Listen to me, all you have right now is what you need for this moment…is anybody lacking something that you can’t completely continue without at this moment? Why shouldn’t you worry about ten minutes, noon, this afternoon, tonight, or when you get back to where you came from? What will you get when you get there? The pastures for that moment. “Worry,” said Rabbi Akiba, “is dealing with tomorrow’s problems with today’s pasture.” You don’t have what it takes to handle tomorrow. You aren’t going to get that until one minute before you get there…Psalm 23 is not about intellect, FAITH is believing that I don’t have to sweat tomorrow. Plan? Yes. Work? Yes. Think? Yes. I don’t have to sweat tomorrow because when I get to tomorrow, if I follow the shepherd — what happens if the sheep wanders off and doesn’t follow the shepherd? You’re gonna die. This changed my whole life. I’d always been somebody who wanted tomorrow and the next day in place. And I’ve learned it ain’t like that. All you get is what you need now. And that’s what they call it — green pastures, the green wilderness. And there are sometimes that you can see a green tinge.” “In a day or two, in the hot sun, when the sun hits that grass, it will look like grass clippings on your sidewalk after a week. Just gone. So by two o’clock in the afternoon there’s no more grass. Overnight. It’s like manna — see — why did manna come in the desert? Because you had to learn to depend on God today…there are very few of us…who do that…you got your refrigerator full, you got your bank account, you got your credit card…you’ve got all this stuff. Tell me you woke up this morning and honestly thought, ‘God if you don’t give me what I need today, I’m not gonna make it.’ We’re not desert people by nature.” [RVL, episode 3 44:09-end, episode 4 0:00–2:07, 7:13–8:08]

This is likely not precisely what these guys are talking about, but I took some of my own pictures in a different area of Israel to give you an idea. What I saw was amazing after listening to these guys talk about this idea of true ‘pastures.’ When I looked out at the hills (which primarily ran perpendicular to the way I was facing), I saw that one side of each hill was brown and barren, and the other side had this green tinge.

Thus, I imagined that if I were a sheep following a shepherd going one direction, it would appear that there were green-tinged hill pastures for miles and miles.

Conversely, if I were following my shepherd from the other direction, it would appear that he was leading me astray upon endless brown hills. Were I to trust him and follow, I would of course find that the backsides of all these hills were covered in enough food for the whole herd.

“One of the lessons you learn about in the desert is the lesson of ‘just enough.’ And this is going to show up over and over and over again. The desert is not the place of abundance, the desert is the place of just enough… the desert teaches you how to be okay in this moment. You don’t know where the next ten minutes are going to come from…I don’t know if I’m going to have enough ten minutes from now, but what I know is that if I’m with my shepherd…I have what I need for right now…Psalm 23…’I lack nothing’ or ‘I shall not want.’ Remember the first test on the way to Sinai with the water at Marah, and what was the big lesson? God wanted to teach them that man does not live on bread alone but on every word. The desert is where we learn the lessons that they were supposed to learn in their testing. If they needed to learn how to wait on every word…there’s no better place than to take them into the desert and let God be their Shepherd. ‘I’m going to teach you to wait on every word. Put your head down and wait for the next tuft of grass.’ …the desert is where I’m going to learn how to trust…how to listen…maybe more than anything else God is going to use our deserts to teach us how to be people of the ears and not people of the eyes. This life is pretty difficult if we become people of the eyes because it looks like the darkness is winning, it looks like there’s all kinds of things to be worried about…but God SAYS do not fear, take heart, I have overcome the world. God SAYS to trust Him, God SAYS He’ll take care of us. He invites us to be people of the ears, not people of the eyes. …I believe that God takes us to our own deserts to teach us many of these same lessons in our own lives…if we learn how to see them how God sees them, I don’t know if we’ll ever wish them away or wish God would take them back. I think we look on them with a certain fondness that has shaped us like nothing else has.” [BEMA, episode 26, 20:00–28:00]

“‘Because the place is demanding, it builds character. Because it’s destructive, it builds interdependence. Because it’s isolating, it builds community. And because it’s the desert, it builds nations.’” [BEMA, episode 26, 6:45–7:33]

“One of the other images we become really familiar with is called ‘paths of righteousness.’ If you ever see the mountains in the desert and when we were there we’d drive by them all the time…there are these paths, it looks like tens of these walking paths and what it is is thousands of years of sheep being grazed on these same hillsides year after year after year. You don’t put sheep in the same place as you put fields. In fact in the biblical world that only happened at one time during the year and that was right around the time of Sukkot, at the fall harvest, you would bring the sheep in to graze the stubble and simultaneously fertilize your fields, but it was about a two-week period…the sheep don’t graze in fields. Farmland is far too scarce and far too valuable to waste it on livestock pasture. You take the sheep out to the desert, the desert is the land of the shepherd, not the farmland…so the desert ends up being this place where the shepherd leads their sheep and they don’t lead them with the stick…Pharoah’s image was…the [stick] raised in defiant intimidation because he was going to lead with the stick. The shepherd never leads with the stick. I know there’s all kinds of fun Bible lessons out there about the shepherd that breaks the lamb’s leg…how he’ll poke the sheep with his staff and prod them, no no, the shepherd has a staff for very practical reasons but none of them are for leading the sheep…it could be reasons of defense and fighting off predators, it could be a walking stick, but the shepherd does not use the stick to prod or beat the sheep, the shepherd leads with their voice.” [BEMA, episode 26, 14:00–16:10]

Consider taking some more time to ponder what it means to follow Jesus’ voice as a sheep and to lead others accordingly:

• [BEMA, episode 26, 16:10–17:40]
• [BEMA, episode 26, 24:00–25:13]
• [RVL, episode 3 29:53–33:45, 40:50–43:35, episode 4 2:08–7:07]
• [BEMA, episode 30]

Hopefully at this point, you’ve grasped the way God uses the inherent trials of the wilderness, the desert, in the lives of His people. Why He would lead His own people (Ex 15:22) and His own Son (Mt. 4:1) there? If Jesus is our Master, and no servant is above his master (Mt. 10:24), and it is our privilege to share in His sufferings, becoming like Him even in death (Phil 3:10), and if our future glorification is contingent upon our suffering with Him as co-sons and co-heirs (Rom 8:17), then doesn’t it follow that we too should in some ways soberly want the wilderness? Some of the great men of God actually went there by choice. This was the place where Elijah went to hear from God (1 Kings 19:8) and where Paul went to learn “his gospel” directly from God (Gal 1:11–17, 4:25, Gen 21:20–21, 25:6, 25:18, 37:25, Ezekiel 27:20–21, Is 60:7, “Mount Sinai In Arabia” chapters 7 & 8). Perhaps it is too much to say that we should want it, but I hope that this would change our perspective of it. That we would not waste it (“Don’t Waste Your Wilderness” Part 1 & Part 2)

At least, this new perspective changes our prayers in the midst of trials and suffering:

“As we were hiking, we were climbing actually…and the students took off and got up above me a little ways and they kicked up a whole herd of the goats that live in that area…and those animals came down the side of the hill, I mean what looked like to me a hundred miles an hour, just BOOM-boom-boom-boom, little ones big ones, and I heard the rocks falling and they went by me on both sides, they didn’t know I was behind this rock, and they honestly were on a dead-out run, and I’d say that the slope was at least this [no visual aid], and I’m sitting there thinking about Habakkuk, also in the Psalms. Probably David wrote that part of the Psalm book according to Jewish tradition and he’s in the same area so probably David who wrote this first, he said “God, make my feet like the feet of a deer, so I may stand without fear on the highest places” — literally in the Hebrew. And something hit me. All my life I had thought that that psalm was about “God allow me to be in a dangerous place and to be safe.” And I realized that that’s probably not false, that’s probably true, but there’s more to it. Because what donned on me was, I had spent my whole life asking God to give me an easy path. “Make my path flat and wide and smooth and cool.” And God says it ain’t like that. There will be times in life where your path’s hell. It’s straight up, it’s extremely dangerous, and one big rock after another in a hundred and twenty degree heat. And I’m sorry to tell you this, but if you haven’t been there, you will. What David understood was not, “God give me an easy path.” Sometimes He does! What David said was, “God give me the right kind of feet. Because if I’ve got the feet, I can handle any kind of path you ever give me.” And to those goats, that path that to me was a killer, [but] they could do it. They had the right feet.” [RVL episode 2, 18:26–21:10]

Our prayer is not for smooth paths, but for the right feet and the right perspective to walk whatever paths God intentionally puts in front of us. Consider the attitude and posture Israel needed to have in Numbers 9:15–23. Our text simply says, “they set out…they camped…they set out…they camped…they set out…they camped…” but there was a ton of work involved in both ‘setting out’ and ‘camping’ (tents for all the people, the strict rituals in setting up the tabernacle, etc.). This was very ‘active waiting’ on the part of the people, and the text says no matter how long (or how short) God said to camp, they obeyed, and they never knew how long (or short) it would be before the pillar of cloud lifted. Was God toying with them? Or was He teaching them something and inviting them to trust Him?

Despite all the goodness in how God uses the desert, I should acknowledge at this point that the wilderness is not the initial or final design. God placed man into the garden within a pre-designed system where man would co-labor and partner with God — He’d send rain, and man would cultivate, but He wouldn’t send rain until man was there to cultivate (Gen 2:5). By this, the garden would spread out and turn the surrounding desert into more garden, evidenced by the water source that God created for man to utilize in garden cultivation in far away lands (Gen 2:10–14). In this work, God wanted to partner with man, not merely equip man to do it himself. The word ‘cultivate’ (2:15) is the same Hebrew word for ‘worship.’ This co-laboring with God in the work of the earth was the basis of man’s worship of God. And the word to ‘keep’ means to guard, protect, preserve this work, this partnership, this co-laboring relationship. Should the garden not be cultivated and the co-laboring relationship with God not be protected, what might inevitably happen? The garden would become a desert. And indeed, much of this land today is desert land — including the very same wilderness area we’ve been discussing. It is a hard land and cultivation is scarcely possible. In a way, this particular Middle Eastern desert is a symbolic picture of this present age. We cannot walk with God in the garden and co-labor in its cultivation according to its original intention, so simple dependency is often the primary lesson. Indeed, this was always the goal anyways. Whether desert or garden, the goal has always been relationship, communion, and partnership with God. In our life and work and faith, the goal is not to advance to some point where we are independent and capable to walk through life ourselves. The goal is always dependency. And it is the desert, the sin-stained life of this age, which teaches us dependency in some of the most powerful ways, so that when we gain the garden again, we might be intimately dependent and in love with our God whom we’d seen be faithful over and over again in our wandering. And we will gain the garden again, both spiritually and physically. When Jesus returns, He will march through this very desert on His way to Jerusalem in the midst of a great storm that will water the land and cause it to flourish so that we can partner and reign over the garden with Him once again.

For now, we still find ourselves in the wilderness of this age.

And again, in a strange way, we love the wilderness because it is where we find and commune with God who is ready and wanting to help. The entirety of the Scriptures bear witness to the fact that God calls us into hard paths in the wilderness and righteous living therein, all of which is impossible without Him walking through it with us. Romans 5–8, Psalm 24, and Ezekiel have many parallels on this point. In Jesus, we are slaves to a gracious Master instead of a wicked one and we present ourselves and present the ‘members’ of our bodies to one of these two masters (Rom 6:13, 6:16–19). One master leads to death (Rom 6:20–21) but one Master leads to life, not just eventually, but sanctification and increased richness of life now (Rom 6:22). We want this because we see past the ‘no’s’ presented by the law (rules) which increase temptation and doubt, and we now see the ‘yesses,’ the spirit of the law, and the goodness in it, and thus it is no longer our master (7:1–6). The law is good itself, but it becomes our master unto death because our flesh is so weak — the law says what’s right to do, our flesh does the opposite thing, and then the law condemns us for doing this thing, and we are powerless to this process, this wilderness (Rom 7:13–19). And yet there is a distinction between what I want versus what the sin in me wants (Rom 7:20) and I take heart today that I do not want this sin in my inner being and am ever sobered to the danger around every corner in my heart (7:21–22). It is war within me indeed (Rom 7:23–24a) and war is destructive (Rom 7:24b). It feels like the wilderness, as my flesh wants to complain for lack of water and to go back to Egypt, to the abundance of Goshen, but my inner being wants to trust God to provide even in the most barren places. Jesus will deliver me, by my commitment to serve Him and His law in my mind (Rom 7:25) as I walk in accordance with His Spirit, setting my mind on the things of the Spirit, not the things of the flesh (Rom 8:1–11), for the flesh is death but the Spirit has resurrection power (Rom 8:11–13). Indeed, this ‘slavery’ to this Good Master is really slavery as much as it is sonship, adoption (Rom 8:14–17), the full glorification of which, as heirs, is coming, though we suffer for a moment in the wilderness, we suffer as beloved sons and daughters. Nothing can stop this course of time, this plan, this love (Rom 8:17–39), for though our flesh is weak, we have Help. We have feet for the wilderness. We practice offering up our bodies, our members to Him, so that when He enters the city of Jerusalem to rule and reign for 1000 years, we can ascend Mt. Zion with clean hands, pure hearts, lifting these up to the King who is true, not the master who is false (Psalm 24). Psalm 24 references Ezekiel 18 which is much like Ezekiel 33 where God pleads with His people to choose life. “Why will you die, oh Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). ‘Cast away your transgressions, make yourself a new heart and new spirit, turn and live’ (Ezekiel 18:31). I believe God says this not to mock and to sarcastically give His people some impossible task, for Ezekiel 33 seems to be the Lord’s heartfelt response (33:11) to an honest and repentant question (33:10), and yet in the question and response it’s still impossible. Indeed, they will choose death (Ezekiel 33–35) and the Lord Himself will put the new spirit in them (Ezekiel 36) for the sake of His name (Ezekiel 37–40). This is the same impossibility and Help from Rom 5–8. By His Spirit, we turn and live. We surrender our members, our circumstances, our wilderness to the just Master, unto His service and His sovereignty, for He is good. We cannot (and do not want to) walk the wilderness without Him, and the wilderness is not ‘in the way’ of our relationship with God — it is the catalyst. He brings us to the desert to learn by experience that He is trustworthy.

We walk on the path with Him (Ps. 26:1–3, 8, 11–12), and we love this process, this testing, and we want more of it (Ps 26:1–3). We want to see and know that our hearts are pure and united with His as we walk in His provision and care.

I don’t want to belabor the point, but there are a couple more things which might help drive this home.

Consider the well-known puritan poem-prayer after which the larger collection is named: The Valley Of Vision. Whether you prefer to think of your trials in terms of the ‘wilderness’ or a ‘valley,’ this counter-intuitive prayer provides us with a template for posturing our heart before the Lord in these seasons:

The Valley Of Vision:

LORD, HIGH AND HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

Where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox

That the way down is the way up,

That to be low is to be high,

That the broken heart is the healed heart,

That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

That the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

That to have nothing is to possess all,

That to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

That to give is to receive,

That the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,

And the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,

Thy life in my death,

Thy joy in my sorrow,

Thy grace in my sin,

Thy riches in my poverty,

Thy glory in my valley.

I try to watch the Lord Of The Rings series annually (yes, of course the extended editions). For one, I never get tired of it, but I also find new rich spiritual parallels every time I watch it. This year I pondered Frodo’s narration at the very end of the final movie because a new comment stood out to me:

“And thus it was, the fourth age of Middle Earth began. And the fellowship of the ring, though eternally bound by friendship and love, was ended.”

The very first movie was called the ‘Fellowship Of The Ring.’ They’d formed a band of some of the most notable warriors in Middle Earth, as well as some of the most unassuming and physically powerless individuals, to embark on a quest that fills 12 hours of runtime and 1000+ pages of books. By the end of the story, they’d bled, sweat, laughed, lost, gained, suffered, mourned, ran, hid, feared, fought, feasted, fasted, danced and cried together. Even as the viewer or the reader, we share in their strange mix of emotions as we watch the hobbits go back and live in the peaceful Shire, for they themselves will never be the same after such an adventure. They have a new gratitude for life that has changed and matured them. They know now that there is a world beyond their home, they have come face-to-face with the darkest of evils, they know the good king who reigns over Middle Earth, and they know the cost that was paid for the peace they now enjoy. The simple happiness and blissful ignorance they had before the journey has turned into deep-seated joy and humble sobriety toward life. They can never go back, and they would not want to.

Likewise, we are sojourners, and there is a time coming where this particular type of fellowship will have ended. There is a certain richness in this life, a camaraderie in this fallen age before the return of Jesus, of being part of Jesus’ family as ambassadors together. Who wage war together (though not against flesh and blood), and who become like Jesus in His suffering and death together.

Would we say that JRR Tolkien should have written the story as a shorter journey with a lesser evil and fewer hardships? These things are what make the story rich and worthy. Likewise, God has written a story, and like any story there are problems and obstacles to overcome. We as ‘characters,’ play our role with fierce intensity, particularly because He’s already given us the final chapters and the epilogue to read for ourselves. Thus, all the hardships and trials we face, though real and difficult, do not cause us to question the Author or despair without hope in the present trouble. We lock shields with our Aragorn, we lock arms with our Samwise, and we journey on, come what may.

It is powerfully helpful when we can see the whole story, either in advance or in hindsight. For the last thousand years, Jewish seder meals during Pesach (Passover) have included this prayer song, “Dayenu.” I think it beautifully captures some of these themes of contentment in trials, having ‘enough,’ and trusting in God’s provision with the advantage of hindsight:

If He had taken us out of Egypt and not made judgements on them

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had made judgments on them and had not made [them] on their gods

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had made [them] on their gods and had not killed their firstborn

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had killed their firstborn and had not given us their money

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us their money and had not split the Sea for us

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had split the Sea for us and had not taken us through it on dry land

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had taken us through it on dry land and had not pushed down our enemies in [the Sea]

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had pushed down our enemies in [the Sea] and had not supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years and had not fed us the manna

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had fed us the manna and had not given us the Shabbat

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us the Shabbat and had not brought us close to Mount Sinai

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had brought us close to Mount Sinai and had not given us the Torah

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had given us the Torah and had not brought us into the land of Israel

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

If He had brought us into the land of Israel and had not built us the ‘Chosen House’ [the Temple]

Dayenu — [it would have been] enough for us.

So to help us continue to see the full story that God has written, I want to dig into the bigger picture of the Scriptures in the next section. For now, I hope we are grasping the active [and loving] nature of God’s control over the trials that befall us, as well as (therefore) the inherent goodness of our trials as they draw us nearer to God. He brings trials. He sends plagues. He plans and initiates destruction. Though He takes no pleasure in it, He causes harm to His people.

It still feels wrong to say that, doesn’t it?

The Testimony of the Scriptures

(Excerpt here)

I urge you to search some of these scriptures and draw near to this God — the true God — who is actively sovereign, and not reactive to the schemes of evil. Look at how He punishes not only the wickedness on the earth, but even those whom He has chosen — His people. See the character of a loving Father toward a rebellious child. See a faithful Husband to an unfaithful bride. Indeed, these are not just cherry-picked verses from the breadth of Scriptures that are telling some other story. This IS the story, and it is crucial that we find our place in it and know God’s heart lest we misinterpret who He is and let our love grow cold as the culmination of the Scriptures draws near (Mt. 24:12).

To begin, let’s zoom out and look at the big picture of the story God is telling through Scripture, starting with Egypt and the Exodus for the sake of our study.

God’s people were essentially ‘birthed’ through slavery, growing up from 12 into a great multitude and then suffering a sort of ‘labor pains,’ and did God not multiply them all the more in the midst of this mistreatment, before being freed into the world to take a land of their own (Ex. 1:7–14) (Gen 35:11)?

When Moses followed God’s first instruction (Ex 5:1), things only got worse for a time (Ex. 5). I wish I knew how much time was passing, but surely days at least, without any follow-up instructions from the Lord. They did their job, and waited…and for a moment it looked like God had led them into a worse situation…so they questioned Him (Ex. 5:22). Of course, God graciously responds, and the next time He sends Moses, He tells him what to expect (Ex. 7:4). But even then, in obedience, it would seem that Israel goes through the first three plagues sent directly from God, for it’s only just before the fourth plague that God creates a dividing line and says that His people won’t be affected (Ex. 8:22–24). Would they not have suffered during these first three plagues? There were demonic forces at work (Ex 7) but would we argue against the fact that God was utterly in control of this whole epic story, which the Hebrew people still to this day point to as the birth of their nation and the focal point of their history, when their God brought them out of Egypt? I think it’s noteworthy that it was not void of tremendous struggle for them, forcing them to depend on God and determine that He had their best interests in mind. What great faith it would take to leave the abundant land of Goshen and everything they knew (indeed they were often tempted (in the midst of their future trials) to actually return to slavery and familiarity (Num 11:4–6, 11:18, 14:2–4, 20:2–5, 21:4–5)), but they needed to learn dependence on God before they got there; what good is God’s land without relationship with God Himself (Ex. 33:15, Ps 73:25–26)?

It seems that there is no deliverance, no new life and abundant blessing, but that which comes through trials.

What a mystery indeed, that we can draw near to God who is indeed fearful, and yet be confident that He lovingly tests and refines us to make us holy (Ex. 20:18–21, Heb 4:14–16). Were not the Israelites quickly approaching a time (Exodus 32), where they would have great need for this testing referred to in Ex 20:20? Can’t it be said that God’s loving preparations, refinements, and lessons, may be painful and fearful at the time, and yet will prove incredibly valuable later (Heb 12:11)?

Might we say the Lord was preparing and purifying His bride, Israel?

This takes us to God’s marriage covenant between Him and His people (Israel) at Mount Sinai.

To the Jewish reader reading the Hebrew text, Mount Sinai (and even the Abrahamic covenant prior to Sinai) has ‘wedding’ written all over it (for more information on this, see “Sinai To Zion” Part 1, Bema Discipleship season 1, episode 10 and season 1, episode 22). God intended to marry this people (Israel) as His bride, and to partner with her in His work on the earth. That is, to ‘put the world back together’ after the fall, and to persist in the original work of the garden, filling the earth with humans who reflect His character and glorify Him while cultivating, expanding, and protecting His created order with beauty and righteousness. Indeed, God’s election doesn’t come without mission and purpose, a privileged ambassadorship and priesthood to carry out His work on the earth. From the very beginning God defined the terms of this partnership, this eternal covenant.

Deut 28 is worth a bit of time. This chapter essentially sets the stage for a repetitive story we will see played out through the rest of Scripture. The people have been betrothed to their God, and have honeymooned with Him in the wilderness. In Deuteronomy, Moses provides some commentary for all that has taken place, and we see that discipline is very much a part of the story of the Lord’s greatness and love toward His people (Deut 4:32–40, specifically v.36). As Moses continues to recap all that has happened in the previous generation to the new generation, Deut 8 gives us a great picture of God’s loving discipline, in the context of all the incredible bounty that He is giving His children. I suggest reading the short chapter, but note verses 5 and 16 in particular. As you keep reading Deuteronomy, you’ll see this continue to come up; in chapter 11, Moses says “consider the discipline of the Lord your God…and what He did to the army of Egypt…and what He did to you in the wilderness…for your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that He did.” (11:1–7) Now in chapter 28, Moses’ final words to this new generation spell out what the future will hold for Israel according to whether they either keep the terms of the covenant or don’t, and accordingly receive either God’s blessings or curses. It goes something like this:

Israel breaks the covenant and commits idolatry

God disciplines them first with various national calamities

The land is invaded.

The people are exiled from the land.

They repent.

The Lord restores them back to the land.

As is common in Scripture, there are smaller micro-stories which point to the bigger overarching narrative. In the context of this theme, we can look at the book of Judges, where we see a similar repeated theme that looks very similar to the main story being told:

The stories of Judges is not really one of these bigger stories because Israel isn’t actually exiled from their land and doesn’t incur all of the covenant curses, but we might argue that the writer of Judges (and God) beckons the reader to consider the broader narrative and to remember the blessings and curses that God promised through Moses in Deut 28 as they are continually doing the things that warrant the curses. As such, we should consider the patience of God. It is impossible not to read through Judges and see that God loves to show mercy. The few times that God doesn’t seem to do what He says He will do always have a mercifully positive outcome for people who deserve His wrath (Jonah 3:10, Ex. 32:14, Ex 33). We can never say, “God changed His mind and punished them,” but we can often say, “God said He would punish them but chose to show mercy instead.” His bent is toward mercy. He punishes those who hate Him to the third or fourth generation (Deut 5:9–10) and yet shows mercy to those who keep His covenant to the thousandth generation (Deut 7:9–10). God is making a point with this 3:1000 or 4:1000 ratio. This is why some argue (https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/36) that even though many might call this cycle in the book of Judges a ‘sin cycle,’ it is more accurately a ‘redemption cycle.’ God’s heart and sovereignty is seen most clearly in the entirety of the cycle, which is characterized by patience, mercy, and redemption/restoration.

We could even zoom further in on these ‘mini-cycles’ and draw smaller circles to represent this similar process in the life of an individual as they pointed to the continual provision of forgiveness and restoration within God’s ordained sacrificial system, which was kind of a small-scale version of the great national restoration expected.

And indeed, a great national restoration should be expected. There will sadly be one final exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel at the hands of the antichrist (Mt. 24), and Jesus, Yeshua, our [Jewish] Messiah is coming back to gather the people of Israel from the wilderness and march them gloriously back into the land a final time, the final exodus, restoring their hearts to Him (Ezekiel 36–37), destroying the antichrist (Ezekiel 38–39), and building a new temple in Jerusalem to rule and to reign from for a thousand years (Ezekiel 40–48).

(Recommended reading: “Sinai To Zion” and “When A Jew Rules The World” by Joel Richardson)

Israel had to pass through the ‘brick kiln’ before the first Exodus (Ex 5:7–21, 6:1–9) and things increasingly got worse for her through the plagues before she spent time in the wilderness with the Lord her Husband, honeymooning and learning who He is. Finally He ‘rested’ her in the land (2 Sam 7:1) (just like Adam was ‘rested’ in the Garden (Gen 2:15)) and made the other nations who remained in the land pass through the ‘brick kiln’ (2 Sam 12:31). In the same way, during the final cycle, the final exile, the final exodus, she will again pass through a process of purification which will increase in intensity before Messiah returns and leads her out of the wilderness back into the land, and where the nations that came against her will finally be judged by fire at the hands of Messiah (Joel 3).

(Recommended study: “The End Of The Age” by FAI)

As Gabe Caliguiri rightly states, “Just as the Bridegroom Himself was battered and bloodied, the bride will be battered and bloodied during the time of ‘Jacob’s Trouble,’ (Jer 2, 4, 11, 14, 15, 16, 51, etc) which is the ‘Great Tribulation’ (Mt. 24, Rev 2, 7). Both Head and Body endure (and overcome) an “hour when darkness reigns.” The Greater Moses will lead His people out of bondage by greater plagues, signs, wonders. The Greater Joshua will invade the Land & conquer it. The Greater David will subdue all enemies & take His throne. The Greater Solomon will judge the nations with wisdom, power and glory.”

It should not surprise us that there is a ‘Great Tribulation’ just before Jesus returns — that the Light of the world comes back in the midst of the darkest darkness the world has ever known. It should not surprise us that God uses the imagery of a woman in labor for this fact. He’s built this into His created order so that all may know that new life comes through a process of incredible pain. It should not surprise us that He is coming back for a bride who is pure and that she will have been purified through fire. God’s people will increasingly long for Messiah’s coming, not because of gossip and exciting geopolitics, but because of injustice, evil, and sorrow.

It should also not surprise us that this future period of time takes us back to our discussion of the wilderness. The desert — the very same desert where Moses, Israel, Elijah, Paul, and Jesus spent time — is where Jesus tells the people to flee to in the final Jewish exile at the hands of the antichrist (Mt. 24:16, Rev 12:6), and where He Himself brings her and nourishes her and allures her and speaks tenderly to her, where she repents and trusts in Messiah, and where He will save them from their captivity and hiding and bring them back into the land (Rev 12:14, Hosea 2).

This is the story of Scripture. This is the story of the Jewish family that we Gentiles have been grafted into as a wild branch grafted into “their” tree (Rom 9–11). God betrothed this people, Israel, at Sinai. Thus, His faithfulness and character is at stake if He does not restore them and consummate the marriage. If, as so many suppose, God divorced this people (Israel) for a younger and more beautiful and obedient wife (the Church), then how can this new bride presume upon His faithfulness? Rather, there has always been one bride and God is undeniably and steadfastly faithful to her. Gentiles are grafted into her, into the Jewish family, by faith, and look forward to the final marriage ceremony with our [Jewish] Husband and King. The Jew will be humbled that the Gentile was allowed in, and the Gentile will be humbled that the story is not about them. It is about God being abundant in mercy and loving whomever He will (Rom 9–11). Consider this article or this poem on this topic.

Hopefully now we have a macro framework for God’s character as One who aims to redeem and restore, so that we can look more intently at Deut 28. Remember that this is coming on the heels of the most foundational story of all of scripture — the Exodus — a story of an infinitely patient God and a rebellious people. He has chastised them at times for sure, but I would argue those moments have only been a tiny fraction of what they ‘should’ have been, given the incredible rebellion of His people. It is painfully clear to me in reading and studying through this story over and over that God is entirely committed to His people. He loves them deeply. He warns them over and over and over again that if they’ll simply love Him and follow His rules, they’ll live an incredibly abundant and good life. In fact, even though He has already said it over and over again, I love how He says it here in Deut 28:2 — that these blessings will ‘overtake’ them. So it is crucial that we put this passage in context of the rest of Deut (I find ch.6–8 helpful), the rest of Torah, and the rest of Scripture. We must remember that though the original hearers of this word [and we] should not even need these reminders at this point, and yet God passionately desires for us to avoid these negative outcomes, and so He reminds them [and us] again, and not even for the last time.

With that, I want to mainly look at the ‘curses’ section (v.15–68) rather than the ‘blessings’ section (v.1–14). What we need to see for the sake of our discussion is what this loving and committed God promises to His people if they don’t walk in His ‘how-to’ manual for the best life. Here is a sampling of the verbs listed for all of the negative things God will do to His people. Some of these are followed by incredibly descriptive things, and in many cases many of these individual verbs are each followed by a list of very terrible things. As difficult as it is to swallow these things, this is God’s word, and I invite you to actually read what things are listed after each of these verbs. Note again that these are all active things that God is doing (evil spiritual forces are not mentioned) (I have made a note if they’re passive in the ESV translation):

Curse (passive)(x8), Send (x2), Make (x2), Consume (x1), Strike (x4), Cause (x1), Bring (x6), Lead (x1), Put (x1), Pluck (passive)(x1), Scatter (x1), Give (x1).

If you read this passage, you’ll see that yes, there are other people involved. Terrible things happen at the hands of other nations. The section from verses 25–35 mentions many of these things, and yet you’ll notice in v.25 and v.35 that they are ‘capped’ or ‘bookended’ by the Lord’s doings. Again in v.49–57 we see a nation being used in the hands of God (v.49). Our verb list would be far longer if I would have included the things that these nations ‘did,’ and yet I don’t think you’ll disagree that, in context, even these things were clearly ‘done’ by God, not merely ‘allowed.’ In fact, I invite you to wrestle with v.63 in particular, which comes near the end of all these lists.

As history continues, we see that Israel finds both this blessing and this curse, according to their obedience or their rebellion, respectively. In fact, we don’t have to read much further to find this. As I studied briefly through the Torah this year and came to these later chapters of Deuteronomy, I found it particularly interesting that one of the very last things God wants His people to remember (which He gives them in the form of a song so that they’ll easily remember it and pass it on through the generations to follow), is essentially the fact that these ‘cycles’ of blessing, rebellion, chastisement, and restoration will repeat. It’s as if God is saying, “hey one last thing before I bless each of the tribes and seal up the Torah: I will bless you…but you will rebel against me…and I will punish you…but I will also restore you.” I came across Deut 32:47, at the end of this Song of Moses, and had to pause. “For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” This was actually a verse I memorized in my first year of following Jesus because I was memorizing verses concerning the general topic of the word of God, and I found it wonderful that the word of God is indeed my very life, and that by it I can have everything I need for a good life, which we know also from 2 Tim 3:16–17. What I hadn’t realized was the context of Deut 32:47… God tells Moses to write a song that Israel will remember and sing forevermore, and the point of the song? It’s supposed to be “a witness against Israel” to remind them that they will rebel and that the Lord will severely chastise them, and of course that He will also restore them (Deut 31:15–19+, Deut 30:1+). So Moses teaches them this song, which is rich with God’s heart for His people — specifically a Father and His children (32:1–12+). It points to God’s active use of the serpent, to which we should pay particular notice. This is the enemy taking direction from God against His people (32:24) and yet God also clearly wants the enemy to know that it is Him who uses them (v.27, 30, 43). The song includes elements of both Israel’s destruction and restoration (v.26, 29, 34–35, 36, 43), as well as prophecy concerning the Gentiles (32:21, Rom 11). And although vindication for God’s people does come, we should take note of when it comes: The Lord heals and restores after He has broken…when their power is gone (v.36–39). This is God’s nearly final word to His people in the Torah — this is what He wants them to remember for generations. This is what His relationship looks like with His people Israel.

And is our relationship with God not the same? Do we not see our own story in Israel’s? Does our own obedience not waver? Why would the author of Hebrews have included chapter 12 if this were not still our story and still the character of our God?

So again, I’ll point out that as we keep reading through scripture and history, we see Israel find both the blessing and the curse. For example, the prophet Daniel, much later on, during a season of ‘curse,’ which he says was worse than anything any nation had ever experienced up until that point in history (Dan 9:12), points back to this exact passage in Deuteronomy 28 (Dan 9:11–13) in the midst of a deeply emotional prayer to the Lord (Dan 9:3–19). (We would be wise in studying the riches of this prayer and following the example of it!) What does he say about these curses, even in the midst of them? That God is entirely just and right in all of it. Nearly every verse of his prayer is saturated in this idea, and Daniel laments that they had strayed so far from simply following His word (v.11, 13). In his prayer of deep humility (9:12–14), he recognizes that the military invasion which Moses spoke about (Deut 4:27–31, Deut 28, Lev 26:14–45) is brought actively by the hands of God; Satan surely has a hand in all of this, but Satan is not mentioned. What Daniel focuses on in his prayer, multiple times, is God’s plan, promise, and execution of this great calamity upon His own people by the hands of a wicked nation. Even before this in v. 7 he acknowledges that it was God who drove them into exile. (These things are also confirmed in what Moses said).

One more thing in Deut 28 worth highlighting is found in v.47. We see that all of this is happening why? Because the people didn’t serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart. We should let that sink in… but it also goes one step further. Why didn’t they serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart? “Because of the abundance of all things.” This goes back to the warning from Deut 8 — a warning always timely to us in America. In essence, God says, ‘when I give you everything….be careful. You’ll forget me.’ (see Deut 8:17–18). God clearly wants to give us all things (has He not already given us the best thing? Rom 8:32). And yet, having an abundance of ‘things,’ having great blessing, having a trial-free life, is something we ought to be very sobered about and in some sense, fearful of, because we are prone to forget God in those seasons. As soon as God brought them into the land which was abundant in food and provision, He stopped giving them supernatural food from the sky (Joshua 5:12), and they would soon forget that the food from the land and the food from the sky all came from the same place (or rather, Person). Oh, what a gracious God to bring tribulation to us — to actively inflict us with pain — so that we will not forget Him.

This calls us back to our framework for Judges above. I couldn’t help but notice that God’s chastisement in chapter 2 begins with a reminder of His eternal covenant with His people, His promise, His faithfulness, hope, and the promise of restoration (2:1). As we keep reading through Judges, we find this basic ‘cycle’ keep repeating itself: God’s Discipline (2:14–15), Restoration (2:16), Disobedience (2:23), God’s Discipline (3:8), Restoration (3:9–11), Disobedience (3:12), God’s Discipline (3:12–14), Restoration (3:15–30), and so it continues. I wondered to myself, ‘What are we to learn? How do we break the cycle? Is there a pattern — can we tell where they went wrong?’ And at this point, you probably won’t be surprised with one of my conclusions: They went wrong when circumstances were good. After God delivered them and things were going well, they forgot God and did what they felt was right. In fact, this is how the book of Judges ends: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25, Prov 21:2)

The Lord continued to remind His people of this cycle through their history. When Solomon dedicated the temple and all was relatively well and prosperous in the land, the Lord came to him in the night and said, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13–14)

As Israel’s history continues, we find the same things in the psalms. Psalm 107 has more incredible pictures of what this looks like practically. Multiple times in the psalm, we see this pattern: God afflicts people in their pride, they are humbled and have nowhere else to turn, so they finally turn to Him, He lovingly responds and delivers them from their struggle, and they come out praising Him. He redeems and restores people and circumstances for His glory and the good of His people. We might normally read this and forget to recognize who is doing the afflicting. Yes, there is clear evidence in the text of the peoples’ sin — which they are accountable for — and yet it’s Him who raises the storm which humbles them, and then it’s Him who makes the storm be still after they have been humbled (v.23–29); look at what joy and relationship this results in (v.30–32)! It would seem that this is not just some cruel and confusing process, but something for us to find great delight in (v.8–9, 15, 21–22, 31–32, 42). How great that the majestic Creator God would condescend and pay us any attention at all (Ps. 8). And does the psalmist say, ‘thank the Lord for His love which wavered and left them hanging sometimes yet finally came through in the end’? No! He says to give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love (v.1, 8, 15, 21, 31, 43). Indeed his last encouragement is for the wise man to consider all these ups and downs and to draw what conclusion? That the love of the Lord is steadfast (v.43). What shall we say then concerning the ‘downs’ — those painful seasons where the people lacked? Well, was it not them who wandered? (v.4) Was it not them who had rebelled against and spurned the Most High God and His word? (v.11) Were they not fools and did they not suffer affliction because of their own iniquities? (v.17) Did they not hate that which was good for them? (v.18) Was it not them who set out to do big business on the sea out of an evil heart? (v.26, 23, James 4:13–17). Does God not bring consequence for this sin and not have every right to do so? (v.10–11, 25–26, 33–34, 39–40). And yet does He not save, every time, those who call on Him? (v.6, 13, 19, 28). And how else would we get to watch Him turn the desert back into a pool if there was not a desert to redeem (v.35)? How would we get to see Him calm a storm if there were not a storm to be calmed (v.29–30)? How could a longing soul be satisfied if it weren’t first longing (v.9), and does not the depth of our satisfaction positively correlate to the depth of our prior desperation? How could we be more humble and glad because of it if it didn’t happen at all? How else would we find such joy in freedom (v.14) and direction (v.7) if we were not enslaved (v.10) and wandering (v.4–5) in the first place? So His love is indeed steadfast, even in bringing the hardships Himself.

Other Holy Spirit-inspired psalmists teach us how to respond to this piece of God’s character. Psalm 66:10–12 says, “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.”

The psalmist in Psalm 73 watches wicked men gain everything in this life, and he resents it. But then he begins to worship, and he realizes that he doesn’t really want any of that earthly abundance — he only wants God. This is more or less the same with Job.

I am not advocating for a gnostic view that the earth is bad. God called the earth good, and the Original Commission to humankind was (and is) intrinsically tied to the stewardship and protection of this physical earth. Yet our ‘horizontal awe’ must be ordered and prioritized according to our ‘vertical awe’ lest we find ourselves in love with God’s gifts instead of God Himself. The good news is, He is even more committed than we are to claiming our hearts and bringing us into right relationship with Him. It seems He will stop at nothing to have our worship, which is for our very best. Therefore I want to look at many more examples that reveal how actively He pursues us, even by means that are uncomfortable to us.

Amos provides a host of these. While there are many examples of His punishments on Gentile nations, there are many which are specific to His people:

“…I will not revoke the punishment…I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem” (2:4–5)

“…I will not revoke the punishment…I will press you down in your place as a cart full of sheaves presses down…” (2:6, 2:13–16)

“…does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (3:6)

“…on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel…I will strike…” (3:14–15)

“I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel…” (6:14).

Look at all of the things He says He will do (“I will”) through chapters 8 and 9.

In 3:2 we see that He will punish them precisely because He has chosen them, because they are His people: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Yet, as we will continue to discuss, He doesn’t do so without a promise of rescue (3:12), and not without a desire and invitation for His people to repent (chapter 5). And bear in mind this isn’t the first time the Lord has given them opportunity to repent.

Chapter 4 is particularly rich; we see the great stubbornness of the human heart, and a loving God who has already gone to incredibly great lengths to get their attention and turn His people back to Him: “I gave you…lack of bread…I also withheld the rain…I struck you…I sent among you a pestilence…I killed your young men with the sword…I overthrew some of you…yet you did not return to me…yet you did not return to me…yet you did not return to me…yet you did not return to me…yet you did not return to me…” We see the heart of a loving and relentless God to give His rebellious people what they need — Himself — even when they hate Him. (And may we not forget, in the context of Israel, He will yet restore them (Amos 9:11–15, Rom 11)).

It is in this same general season (while we approach the Assyrian Exile) that we should consider a few things from Isaiah.

In 30:18–33, there are great pictures of waiting for God (and the nature of the God we wait on) (v. 18, 19–21) and waiting for His blessing (v.23–26), and also a picture of His destruction and wrath (v.27–33). The God that we wait on is portrayed as a loving Father who moves toward His children as soon as they start crying (v.19) and who actively guides us through affliction and adversity (v.21). Sandwiched between those two things, in v.20, is the source of the affliction and adversity: this same loving Father. He [lovingly] ‘gives us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.’ God actively gives us trials just like He would give us bread and water, necessary provisions for life, as if to say that trials are also a necessary provision for life.

My attention was also drawn to v. 28 where God seems to be actively leading the heathen nations astray. As opposed to His active punishment of sin (v.30,33,etc), v.28 was a little harder to swallow since it seems to conflict in a greater way with His declared will that everyone would be saved (1 Tim 2:3–4). That being said, although I don’t entirely understand it, it certainly seems consistent with Romans 9 and the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, and I trust that any inability to wrap my mind around it is due to my own finite mind and not any inconsistency of God. And whether or not I understand how God’s sovereignty works, it has seemed more and more clear that it is not a passive sovereignty. God isn’t simply allowing ‘negative’ things to happen knowing that they are good for us; He is very actively and specifically bringing them to us — giving them to us like the bread and water we need to live and grow. (Compare Isaiah 44:18 — He, God, shuts their eyes in their idolatry. (see also Isaiah 6:9–10, Joshua 11:20))

Isaiah 45:7 — “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

Isaiah 10:15 is a powerfully logical and convincing verse that we might be tempted to use out of context. I know I have used it to remind us as ministers of the gospel that it is God who provides the growth (1 Cor 3:6–7), He who builds the house (Ps 127), and we are only jars of clay (2 Cor 4), humble servants eager to be used (Luke 17:10). Those things are true of course, and Isaiah would surely back us up, but bear in mind the context of Isaiah 10 and who Isaiah is talking about. We’re not primarily talking about God using His ministers as instruments for gospel work or otherwise charitable deeds. Rather, we are talking about Sennacherib (and ultimately the antichrist — see Chapter 16 of “Mideast Beast” by Joel Richardson), perhaps one of the most disgustingly evil kings in all of history. Of course, like before, as far as Sennacherib was concerned, his evil plots were of his own design and God would eventually hold him accountable to them (which is the context of this warning to him). At the same time however, we know that God is the one who placed him in power (Rom 13, Dan 2:21, Ps 75:6–7), and we have a poignant picture in v.15 of these evil deeds being very much so under the direct and absolute (and premeditated) control of a loving God who desires to teach His rebellious children a lesson for their own good. In just a few verses before, God has explained that He’s using Sennacherib and the Assyrian army as a ‘rod’ of chastisement in his hands. ‘Who is He disciplining?’ we might (and should) ask. Is it some other wicked nation? No. It’s His people, whom He loves and is utterly committed to.

Speaking of this ‘rod of chastisement,’ let’s revisit Psalm 23 again. I don’t doubt that this Psalm has been a comfort to many of us many times. It speaks of God’s guidance in our lives, the comfort in His presence with us, and the eternal life He gives us. However, I wonder if we’ve overlooked one of the things that David is also comforted by — the ‘rod’ of the Lord. We looked at this briefly in the section on the Wilderness earlier, and one of our quotes emphasized that Jesus as Shepherd does not lead with the rod like Pharaoh did, but with His voice instead. Thus, perhaps David was merely comforted by the Shepherd’s rod which was used in defense against predators. However, I would also recommend a quick search of the English word ‘rod’ throughout scripture, which shows that this is an item primarily used for discipline, chastisement, rebuke, correction, punishment, etc. (2 Sam 7:14, Job 9:34, Job 21:9, Ps 2:9, Ps 89:32, Prov 10:13, 14:3, Lam 3:1, Ezekiel 20:37, etc.). Some of these verses highlight the goodness of this rod and the blessing that it is (Prov 13:24, 22:15, 23:13–14, 29:15, etc.), which is something that, I would argue, David seems to clearly understand. We’ll talk more about David later. For now, we rapidly approach the first exile.

In Micah 6–7, the Lord begins with an “indictment against His people” (6:2) and says to them “remember…what happened from Shittim to Gilgal.” (6:5). (Go look at what happened the first time the Bible mentions Shittim (Num 25) and all of the many stories of God’s “righteousness” as He both chastises His own people and purges the Gentiles from their land, from Shittim to Gilgal (book of Joshua)). He goes on to remind His people of what He requires of them (6:6–8) (Remember Deut 6–8, 28, etc.), and argues that He can no longer overlook the low moral standards they’ve set for themselves (6:10–12), saying that He must discipline them (as with a ‘rod’ 6:9) by ‘striking’ them (6:13), rendering their work useless (6:14–15), and making them a desolation (6:13, 6:16) for putting their trust in other things (6:16). Micah then grieves the state of God’s people (7:1–6) and resolves to put his own trust in God (7:7–8) even though he knows that he also deserves the Lord’s anger (7:9) while still trusting in the Lord’s eventual restoration and justice in the whole earth (7:9–20).

So as we know, the Assyrian invasion and subsequent exile (of Israel, not Judah) happened, they were restored to the land, and the cycle(s) continued. By Habakkuk’s time, they approached a full exile (both Israel and Judah), this time at the hands of the Babylonians.

Habakkuk is grieved by his people in their rebellion and sin (1:2–4), and the Lord responds that He’s going to bring His people to repentance… but not in the way Habakkuk thinks. In fact the Lord says ‘you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.’ (1:5). In proceeding to tell him however, the Lord explains that He is raising up the wicked Babylonians (1:6), who are not free of their own guilt (1:11), and yet whom the Lord is raising up nonetheless as a tool of discipline for His people. (1:5–11). Habakkuk responds unfavorably, as we might expect, pointing to the incredible wickedness of the Babylonian people, and wrestling with how the Lord can even do this when He Himself is so pure that He cannot even look at wrong (1:12–17). Habakkuk is essentially asking the Lord the same question you may be asking: “Lord, isn’t this inconsistent with your character?” Habakkuk then humbly and eagerly postures himself, as should we, to hear the Lord’s answer, come what may (2:1). The Lord responds with another scene that Habakkuk couldn’t have imagined, though this one is positive. He explains that while the Babylonians ARE indeed wicked and will ultimately be punished for their wickedness (2:6–19), the earth should be silent and humble before God who is present and actively engaged (2:20) and who will come to earth Himself in anthropomorphic form and incredible displays of glory, and will lead his people back into the land once and for all at the end of the current age, destroying evil and subduing everything under His righteous earthly reign (3:1–15). So while Habakkuk is fearfully sobered and humbled by this (3:16), and though he just received incredibly bad news about his own generation, and everything is going terribly (3:17), he resolves to set his hope on the same thing we hope for — Jesus’s return (3:18–19), which God tells him is far off in the future, and yet lovingly encourages patience (2:2–3), and righteousness based on faith in this future hope (2:4).

Because of the word ‘nations,’ we might be tempted to use Habakkuk 1:5 out of context, as a way to point to God’s unimaginably majestic and wonderful plans for evangelizing the world. The first time I heard it, it was in this missional context, and I was greatly encouraged by it. The truth is, in the primary and immediate context, we’re dealing with the coming chastisement of God’s people at the hands of another wicked enemy. God, through Habakkuk, in this very verse, is warning His people of these very things — He is a loving Father who WILL chastise and discipline His children, even in ways that are abnormal, outrageous, and unheard of to the proverbial ‘teenager’ who would consider such disciplines entirely ‘too severe’ or ‘unfair’ for a loving God. So then, as we wait and wonder through the difficulties of this life, may we not despair when things look bleak for the entirety of our generation, or when the stock market crashes and our children’s hope in an ‘American dream’ are soiled. Rather, let us lift our eyes to our true hope — the return of Jesus. And let us not despair in the meantime, as if God is not in control of even the most wicked political powers on the earth and is purposeless or absent in His actions or ‘allowances’ through them.

As the Babylonians approached as God’s next ‘rod of chastisement,’ Jeremiah had an interesting message for the people.

The broader context of Jeremiah is important. We might contrast Isaiah and Jeremiah, as they lived in different seasons (we might call them different periods of the Lord’s ‘covenant chastisement cycle’ (Deut 28)) and therefore had very different messages to share with the people.

Isaiah said, in effect, “Repent, and the Lord will protect you [from the Assyrians]. God will defend the city IF you repent and give yourselves to God in full abandon.” They did, and so they were spared for a time.

Around one hundred years later, Jeremiah had a much different message.

There had been a legitimate national awakening and revival under Josiah and it was amazing, maybe the best of all their revivals. About a year into this Jeremiah saw the Babylonian invasion coming and gave them his message from God: “Submit to the exile; go with them or you will be killed.”

The false prophets at the time were still preaching Isaiah (repentance), believing God would protect them, but that was the wrong message for the season, and even though Jeremiah was persecuted and perceived as an anti-Semitic rebellious traitor, he was sharing the right message for the right time: “‘If you don’t actually submit to this exile, you will die. It must happen; the destruction and everything. Go with it.”

God was doing exactly what He said He’d do, and yet He doesn’t want His people to die — He wants them to go willingly into the exile because He has grand plans for them in it, that they would be a light to the Gentile nation where they are enslaved, and that they would continue to multiply there. Isn’t that what He’d done in Egypt?

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. — Jeremiah 29:4–7

In this we remember the goal, that God be known and glorified in the earth. He is deeply committed to this, and we should be glad for this because it is for our best.

Chapter 9 speaks of Israel, but we must look at this chapter carefully and test our own hearts. Look at v.4–6 — is this not easy for us to claim? Can’t even those who follow Jesus unknowingly and subtly create a culture where we embellish our accomplishments, never being authentic about struggles or confessing sin fully, and growing weary from working so hard to hide it? Are we exempt from the temptation of our hearts to make fun of others, making ourselves judges and slanderers, and oppressing one another by living out of a false gospel of works-oriented salvation, ultimately refusing to know God and abide in Christ? Are we not prone to forget our greatest privilege and what is truly right to boast in? (v.23–24, Gal 6:14). And would we not expect God, in response, to destroy? And yet He doesn’t. Rather, in both justice (and great mercy), He determines to refine us and test us (v.7) that our hearts might be circumcised and wholly devoted to Him (v.26, Deut 6). Do we not want Him to bring whatever trials might be necessary to liberate us from such things and to bring us into communion with Him (v.23–24)?

Jeremiah knew all of this well from his own personal life as well. Lamentations is a book full of examples, like Amos and much of the prophets. Look through chapter 2 in particular — it is impossible to avoid this language. In fact, after reading it, it feels entirely wrong to say the Lord merely ‘allowed’ such things to happen. We see Jeremiah affirming this throughout chapter 3, as he lays out how intimately and deeply devastating these things have been to Jeremiah personally. I think this is important for us to read, as we prepare for our own future trials. Look how far the Lord is willing to go to bring us into deep intimacy with Him! Even Jeremiah, who spoke obediently in the name of God when people hated him for it (Jer 20:9), suffered terrible things under the sovereignty of his loving Father. It is like Graves says in his book, “Sometimes the very ones who endure the most hardship and severe testing are the ones most near and dear to the heart of God. It is because they are the faithful ones who can be entrusted with suffering, which in turn brings about a greater deliverance. That is what happened with Joseph.”

Of course, Jeremiah also tells us in the midst of this same chapter about God’s great compassion and eventual restoration, saying that God “does not afflict from His heart,” that He is just in His punishment, and that His people should repent in light of such things (3:21–42).

Without belaboring all of Israel’s history, let’s look at a few more examples:

Zechariah 13: Jesus quotes v.7 to the boys in the hours before His crucifixion (Mt 26:31, Mk 14:27), even though He’d explicitly promised their future suffering many times before this. In this case though, as He quotes Zechariah, these disciples would have known the rest of the passage, and would have known that the sufferings to come (indeed arguably still yet to come v.8–9) were for the purpose of the Lord’s refinement and testing, that they would come out on the other side of these trials knowing and loving Him (v.9). See also John 10, John 14–16. The disciples may not have entirely understood yet (John 10:6), but may we understand His mercy, His fellowship, and our privilege to suffer for His name; to be tested and tried and to be found in love with Him.

See how a couple of the psalmists from these times echo these truths:

Ps 88 — Note that this psalmist in particular is arguably a man with a great family, and a man of high esteem, great wisdom, and spiritual insight — 1 Kings 4:31, 1 Chron 6:33, 15:17–19, 16:41–42, 25:1, 25:5–6, 2 Chron 5:12, 35:15. In other words, we might say that he is a man who has ‘everything going for him.’ He acknowledges that it is God who put him in the pit, who overwhelms him, who caused his companions to shun him, who has swept over him and destroyed him, and yet it is this same God he cries out to and calls the ‘God of his salvation.’

Ps 50:16–17 — it is the wicked who hate God’s discipline and ignore His words.

Graves gives us a list of verses, pointing out that “His ways are not only declared to be in the stillness and serene (see Ps 46:10). Much more so, they are also to be found in the whirlwind and the storm: Job 38:1, Isaiah 29:6, Zech 7:14, Isaiah 30:30.”

But is this just the ‘God of the Old Testament?’

I trust you will presume upon the facetious nature of this question, but it is worth mentioning, even though there are New Testament passages found in this list above. When we see God — the same God — in the New Testament, we know His wrath and punishment is the same — even to people who profess to love Him (Acts 5:1–11). He is still a consuming fire and it should still strike fear into our hearts to fall under His judgment (Heb 10:31, 12:29, Deut 9:3). Remember that all of the scriptures we defined as ‘key texts’ for the three main illustrations above all come out of the New Testament (Discipline, Heb 12; Refining, 1 Peter 1:6–7; Pruning, John 15). And when we start to see God’s loving heart — the heart of a Father — within His chastisement, we might stop wishing such things away. I want to be clear that we don’t desire or seek out suffering — suffering is not at all the end goal (Gen 1–2, Rev 21–22). But it is very much a key part of life in this age, if for no other reason than to make us more like Jesus (Phil 3:7–11, 2 Cor 4:4–18, 1 Peter 4:12–19, Luke 9:23–24, Luke 21:17–19). So I hope we’ve already begun to grasp the glorious grace of God within the grief that He brings us in life.

In Acts 8:1–4+ persecution was the catalyst for the gospel finally leaving Jerusalem (Acts 1:8). I suppose one could argue that God reactively ‘made lemonade’ here, but again, I can’t help but see that same God we saw in the Old Testament, actively using the evil intentions of men like Sennacherib or Paul for His own purposes. In fact, I think many would argue that Jesus’s followers had either been disobedient (or otherwise delayed their obedience) to the Acts 1:8 command (Acs 5:28, 6:7), and God was actively forcing them to take the next step in the mission. As the gospel advanced through the earth it came to places like Thessalonica and absolutely exploded with impact in the whole region. Of all places, why in Thessalonica would the gospel have taken such deep root and created such a powerful example worthy of imitation when Paul only spent a mere three weeks there? Paul draws some conclusions to these questions in his first letter to them as he beams with pride, for it was “during great affliction” that they received the word with joy (1 Thess 1:6), which was the example set by Paul (1 Thess 1:6), and it was this very thing (receiving the gospel with joy in the midst of persecution) that made their example worthy of imitation in the greater region (1 Thess 1:7).

Without getting too deep into the theology of this verse, it seems beneficial to this discussion to at least make mention of the fact that Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered (Heb 5:8); it was His trials that, in part, taught Jesus and made Him practiced in His obedience to the Father. Should we not desire also to learn and practice such obedience? Are there many things that life offers us besides suffering that would catalyze and foster such education and habitual submission and dependence in us? More on this verse and Jesus’s example later as we get into application, but here is what Grudem says in Bible Doctrine: “The author of Hebrews also tells us, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb. 5: 8–9). Yet if Jesus never sinned, how could he “learn obedience”? Apparently as Jesus grew toward maturity he, like all other human children, was able to take on more and more responsibility. The older he became the more demands his father and mother could place on him in terms of obedience, and the more difficult the tasks that his heavenly Father could assign to him to carry out in the strength of his human nature. With each increasingly difficult task, even when it involved some suffering (as Heb. 5: 8 specifies), Jesus’ human moral ability, his ability to obey under more and more difficult circumstances, increased. We might say that his “moral backbone” was strengthened by more and more difficult exercise.”

As we have already discussed and will discuss later with more practicality, this theme continues through the whole testimony of Scripture — to the very end. Here is a brief collection of passages relating to the end of the age:

• Isaiah 2–4 — The context here is Israel’s final chastisement and restoration, the Day of the Lord, and the age to come. We see more of God’s affliction and judgment, but also His restoration and redemption. If we live to see these days, may we be prepared to watch these things unfold, and know that God is steadfastly good and loving through all of it.
• Isaiah 66:7–9 — Indeed, take heart. If Jesus was born the first time through no terrible tribulation, how much more will He surely be born through intense labor pains (Mt. 24)? A great people with a great King must be born in a season of pregnancy, not in a day. We are to long for that day, with full assurance that it is coming (Rom 8, 2 Peter 3, Heb 9:28, Rev 22:17, 22:20, 1 Cor 16:22).
• Jer 30–33 — So many ‘ups and downs’ in the days to come. See how such negative circumstances from the Lord are woven into such incredible passages concerning the ultimate redemption and restoration of His people. Hard labor and birth pains indeed, and yet such a rich reward of new life and a new age on the other side of these pains.
• God is clear in Malachi that He desires pure messengers and priests, spelling out what this looks like in practice (2:4–7); should we not lay this to heart as a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9, cf Ex 19:6)? God then points to the true [Pure] Messenger’s first coming and eventual second coming, where He (Jesus) will purify His people: “…And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.” (The “fullers’ soap” (or alkali) was a strong soap used in the ancient Near East to whiten clothing.) (Mal 3:1–4)
• Daniel 11:32–35: Look at how God, through Daniel, tells us what these last days under the brief but immense power of the antichrist will look like, and how God’s people will not be spared from hardship, but purified through it: “He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.” God’s deliverance from hardship may not always be to remove the mountain or to make our path flat and spacious, but to give us the right type of feet for the treacherous journey, the right hands for the battle ahead (Ps. 18:32–34, 2 Sam 22:33–35). The journey, the battle, might still be very difficult, and this is not outside of God’s will.

Of course, all of this is only a sampling. If we spent more time in the prophets especially, we only would find more examples.

And we know this already don’t we? Some of this might have been new, but I don’t doubt you’ve read these passages before and aren’t entirely shocked by them. We remember that it was God who suggested the pious Job to Satan before Satan had even considered him (Job 1). It was God’s Spirit who actively led His Son into the wilderness to be tempted (Mt 4:1). God’s the one who gave Moses his stuttering mouth (Ex 4:11). I just hope we’re starting to see God’s heart in such things.

What’s more, even the world knows this (at least in part) doesn’t it? Everyone seems to know that bad things are good for them. In the words of the great American poet, Kelly Clarkson, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

In fact, it’s part of created order, which we can see in these examples of various trees:

• Another songwriter, Amy Grant, pointed out that the rings on a tree being closer together is evidence of a hard season of drought…and that is actually where the wood is the strongest.
• Graves writes, “A number of plants and trees need fire to survive and germinate. The seeds of the great redwoods of California remain in their cones until they are released by the heat of forest fires. The lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia, and other plants all depend on fires for their survival.”
• Even while I was writing this, a friend sent me an article which said, “Over 20 years ago Biosphere 2 was built outside Tucson, Arizona. A vast, enclosed ecosystem of 3.14 acres, scientists set out to study Earth’s living systems in a controlled environment. Trees grown in Biosphere 2 grew quickly, more quickly than their counterparts out in the wild. The scientists were mystified though when the trees became thin and weak with underdeveloped root systems, many of them falling over before they reached maturity. Finally it was discovered that there was one element in Biosphere 2 that had not been included — wind. When trees are in the wild they are subject to strong winds which are necessary to develop stress wood, strong fibrous wood that enables the tree to become stronger and vastly improves the quality of life for the tree. Without stress wood a tree can grow quickly but not sustain the weight that accompanies the height.”

Deut 13:1–5 was an example that reminded me of this wind-tree illustration. It is curious that God would use a false prophet, whom we would think to be doing his spiritual works under the power of demons [not God]. Knowingly or unknowingly to the prophet himself, we would surely presume demonic forces to be involved if this prophet is leading others astray. Yet, it says “the Lord your God is testing you.” Where are the demons mentioned? Not that they aren’t active in this, and not that the false prophet isn’t accountable (v.5), but surely we can at least conclude who the primary Actor is. And what’s His heart in all of it? Refinement. Wind for the trees that they might grow stronger roots. Drawing His people into deeper relationship with Him. Helping them to see the state of their current relationship with Him. Showing them things that are ‘like’ Him, yet aren’t, so that they might be able to distinguish Him from everything else. Like a banker slipping a counterfeit bill into the stack to see if the new teller will notice, so that the teller might be trained and ready when the thief comes in with a stack of fakes.

As we ponder this topic and these verses, these things make more sense to us, and we begin to see hardships in scripture (and I pray in our own lives) as they are — gifts, in a sense, from a loving Father, a wise Vinedresser, a skilled Craftsman, whose goal in this age is our Christlikeness not our temporary comfort, our holiness not our temporary happiness. He is indeed zealous in disciplining, pruning, and purifying a sinful people into a kingdom of priests. It is crucial that we remember His priorities for our lives and to bring ours into alignment.

J.I. Packer touches on this in his book, Knowing God:

“God’s ways do not change. He continues to act toward sinful men and women in the way that he does in the Bible story… Still he blesses those on whom he sets his love in a way that humbles them, so that all the glory may be his alone. Still he hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and griefs to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience. Still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself. Still he teaches believers to value his promised gifts by making them wait for those, sifts, and compelling them to pray persistently for them, before he bestows them… ” — Chapter 7, God Unchanging

“We cannot recognize God’s wisdom unless we know the end for which he is working. Here many go wrong. Misunderstanding what the Bible means when it says that God is love (see 1 Jn 4:8–10), they think that God intends a trouble-free life for all, irrespective of their moral and spiritual state, and hence they conclude that anything painful and upsetting (illness, accident, injury, loss of job, the suffering of a loved one) indicates either that God’s wisdom, or power, or both, have broken down, or that God, after all, does not exist. But this idea of God’s intention is a complete mistake: God’s wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable. Not even to Christians has he promised a trouble-free life; rather the reverse. He has other ends in view for life in this world than simply to make it easy for everyone. What is he after, then? What is his goal? What does he aim at? When he made us, his purpose was that we should love and honor him, praising him for the wonderfully ordered complexity and variety of his world, using it according to his will, and so enjoying both it and him. And though we have fallen, God has not abandoned his first purpose. Still he plans that a great host of humankind should come to love and honor him. His ultimate objective is to bring them to a state in which they please him entirely and praise him adequately, a state in which he is all in all to them, and he and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love — people rejoicing in the saving love of God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing in the responsive love of people, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel. This will be God’s glory, and our glory too, in every sense which that weighty word can bear. But it will only be fully realized in the next world, in the context of a transformation of the whole created order. Meanwhile, however, God works steadily toward it. His immediate objectives are to draw individual men and women into a relationship of faith, hope, and love toward himself, delivering them from sin and showing forth in their lives the power of his grace; to defend his people against the forces of evil; and to spread throughout the world the gospel by means of which he saves.” — Chapter 9, God Only Wise

[see also later in chapter 9 a detailed explanation of how God dealt with Abraham and Jacob and then Joseph, though dealing with one differently from the other, to achieve His purposes in them; perhaps here it should be noted the very personal nature of God’s refinement through trials — they are not arbitrary and general but intentional and specific to each individual person, even through events and circumstances which affect more than one person, yes even masses of people.]

[Chapter 9 also includes a section called ‘our perplexing trials’ which is worth reading]

“In this world, royal children have to undergo extra training and discipline which other children escape, in order to fit them for their high destiny. It is the same with the children of the King of kings. The clue to understanding all his dealings with them is to remember that throughout their lives he is training them for what awaits them, and chiseling them into the image of Christ. Sometimes the chiseling process is painful and the discipline irksome, but then the Scripture reminds us: “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons . . . No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12: 6–7,11)….“Only the person who has grasped this can make sense of Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to them that love God” (KJV); equally, only he can maintain his assurance of sonship against satanic assault as things go wrong. But he who has mastered the truth of adoption both retains assurance and receives blessing in the day of trouble: this is one aspect of faith’s victory over the world. Meanwhile, however, the point stands that the Christian’s primary motive for holy living is not negative, the hope (vain!) that hereby he may avoid chastening, but positive, the impulse to show his love and gratitude to his adopting God by identifying himself with the Father’s will for him.” — Knowing God by J. I. Packer, Chapter 19

[This all, we can’t forget, in the context of the wonder and awe of knowing GOD. We might be wise to study some of Packer’s quotes in previous chapters concerning the nature of this privilege — that it is the chief aim of man (ch3) and based on the prerogative/invitation of God (ch3); does this privilege and goal not put all trials in perspective and allow us to invite them joyfully if only it would result in a deepening of our relationship with God?]

“What is the purpose of grace? Primarily, to restore our relationship with God. When God lays the foundation of this restored relationship, by forgiving our sins as we trust his Son, he does so in order that henceforth we and he may live in fellowship. And what he does in renewing our nature is intended to make us capable of, and actually to lead us into, the exercise of love, trust, delight, hope and obedience Godward — those acts which, from our side, make up the reality of fellowship with God, who is constantly making himself known to us. This is what all the work of grace aims at — an ever deeper knowledge of God, and an ever closer fellowship with him. Grace is God drawing us sinners closer and closer to himself. How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances, nor yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology; but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another: it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak, is that God spends so much of his time bringing home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find, or to follow, the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself — in the classical scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly life, to “wait on the Lord.” ….“Perhaps there is a word for us in the famous hymn in which John Newton describes his passage into the kind of realism that we have been seeking to induce:

I asked the Lord, that I might grow

In faith, and love, and every grace;

Might more of His salvation know,

And seek more earnestly His face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour

At once He’d answer my request,

And by His love’s constraining power

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry powers of hell

Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand

He seemed Intent to aggravate my woe,

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried,

“Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?”

“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,

“I answer prayer for grace and faith.

“These inward trials I employ

From self and pride to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy,

That thou may’st seek thy all in me.””

— Knowing God by J. I. Packer, Chapter 21

Oh what lengths our God goes to in order to turn our hearts back to Him! And what utter stubbornness in the heart of man that such lengths would be required. Again, see Amos 4.

If we believe this then, what is our application?

Potential Applications

I trust the Spirit of the Lord will guide you into deeper and more personal application, but here are some potential starting points and reasons why this has become increasingly meaningful and even urgent in my heart:

Application 1:

Believe it — Don’t be afraid to use this language and to be confident in this aspect of God’s character

We potentially need to be willing to use the language that doesn’t ‘protect’ God from something He has no need of being ‘protected’ from. We don’t need to apologize for God’s character.

Sometimes I wonder if I make this a bigger deal than I need to; maybe I do. I hear brothers and sisters say very carefully, “God is allowing this,” and I can’t help but worry that what comes out of our mouths is proceeding from our hearts (Mt. 15:18, Luke 6:45), and that what’s in our hearts is a wrong understanding of God. If so, we are at risk of leading ourselves and others astray in what we say (James 3) and having entirely wrong applications in life and ministry because of our view of God (Mt. 25:14–30).

Contrary to what it might seem like I’ve been saying, it is not wrong to say that God ‘allows’ hardships to come, or that He ‘allows’ Satan to attack us in various ways. Those things are true. We might think of Rom 1 or Job 1. So we can perhaps speak in this way with a clear conscience. My concern and desire however, is that we remain wholeheartedly convinced that He is still ever-present and actively engaged in what He allows Satan to do, and it is entirely within His will, with very intentional and intimate personal purposes for any person affected by those things. Yes, Satan’s attacks may not be God’s heartfelt desires, but they are planned, prepared, predestined, and willed by our loving Father for very particular purposes.

A.W. Pink says, “Nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory.”

If we can grab hold of this doctrine in our hearts and tighten up our speech, whether it’s self-talk or in fellowship with the body, we’ll be more ready and able to walk in the rest of these crucial applications.

Application 2:

Stop questioning the reasons for hardships, and simply repent and draw near to the Father

I love how Richardson said “it’s both.” Is it God or Satan? Both. Is He punishing me or my country? Both. Is He teaching believers or unbelievers a lesson? Both. Is He not capable and wise enough to do all of these things at once? We don’t have to figure it out, God isn’t obligated to give us answers (Jer 18:3–6, Rom 9:20–21), and more often than not we don’t need to look any further than our own hearts in the midst of negative circumstance, humbling ourselves before God in whatever ways we might need to and draw deeper into communion with Him. We might argue that aside from any other potential applications, this one will always be true, and always be needed. Unfortunately, when we rule out the mere chance that the god of our imagination cannot or will not play even half of the ‘part’ in our negative circumstances, we aren’t even able to consider repenting or being further conformed into the image of Christ.

When the Israelites were beginning to take the land that God had promised, they directly disobeyed Him and hid their deed from their leaders, Joshua included (Joshua 7). We are told that “the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel,” so I’ll let the reader decide how much of what followed was “God’s doing” versus “Satan’s doing.” Joshua sent them into battle again, against a very small enemy, and they came back shamefully defeated and scared. In what appears to be a very humble posture, Joshua mourns this loss before the Lord, but when he opens his mouth, it is hardly a confession. Though Joshua is concerned for the Lord’s glory and reputation amongst the other nations, Joshua’s would-be-confession sounds instead like a complaint. He sounds bitter that the Lord would have even promised them the plentiful land that He did (v.6–9). I wonder what his face looked like when the Lord told him that this happened because Joshua’s men had deliberately disobeyed the Lord. I can’t help but think this could have been a more beautiful confession and reconciliation had Joshua considered the sinfulness of himself or his people before defaulting to angrily questioning the Lord’s character.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US, a man in my hometown rejected the temptation to endlessly speculate on which countries, rulers, local churches, and political parties were being chastised by the Lord, and instead he humbly recognized that the Lord was beginning to use the pandemic to do a number of things in his own life and heart. He found that he was busier and more stressed with work than he ever had been, and therefore he prayerfully walked through the season prioritizing more devotional time in the Bible and creating healthier boundaries with the constant work notifications on his phone so that he would have more time and energy to give his wife and kids. After a few months of extra work stressors, he actually found that he was more content than he ever had been, more eager to trust God with tomorrow, and more loving and eager to serve his family. What’s more, through his time in the scriptures, his apathy towards God and church activities transformed into the childlike zeal he’d once had as a new believer. Upon reflection, he knew that these things would have never happened apart from the specific trials that the pandemic presented to him and his work. Other men in his city and church, in contrast, spent most of these months being anxious and posting on facebook about government, business, and debating various speculations on God’s reasonings [and reactive purposes] with the pandemic.

May we more quickly look at our own lives and soften our hearts in continual repentance over even those most ‘respectable’ sins in our lives, as God actively sends trials to ‘burn’ them away from us. Again, may we pray like David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139)

Application 3:

Live a joyful life of humble trusting

(This is maybe a small piece of what Tim Keller calls ‘the freedom of self forgetfulness.’)

David’s Example:

We know David was far from perfect, but the Lord gives us some incredibly noteworthy good examples through David as well as bad ones.

In 2 Samuel 16:5–14, we have a story that might be easy to miss, but it’s been very challenging and insightful for me.

David’s son Absalom, whom David loved and longed for (13:37–39) had turned the people against his father (15:1–12) and it seems that David would rather flee the city and give up power than to allow harm to come to his people (15:13–14). As he fled, he left the Ark in the city supposing that perhaps it was the Lord’s will that Absalom be king or that David had somehow deserved this, and he wanted the Lord’s will to be done and not his own, saying “If I find favor in they eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it [the Ark] and His dwelling place. But if He says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let Him do to me what seems good to Him.” (15:25–26) So even the context sets a wonderful stage for what it looks like to live humbly and extend grace to others in light of the Lord being in control of even those circumstances that seem unfair and contrary to His nature. (Isn’t this the attitude of Jesus, who suffered unjustly and yet quietly entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:18–25))?

As David left the city, a man of Saul’s family mocked him brutally, and though thousands (18:4) of faithful men (15:15,18–22) were with David ready to take off the man’s head (16:9), David supposed that this man could have been there cursing him under orders from an actively sovereign God, and he trusted that God would do right in that. To David, this was a win-win. Either it was directly from God and he would gladly accept it, or it was from Satan and of relatively no consequence because God would ultimately set it right and reward David for his mercy down the road. (16:5–14) Amazing.

We should also note that when it was all over, David still preserved this man’s life, loving to show mercy (19:21–23); King David — a foreshadowing of Jesus — loves to show mercy. (Mt 9:13, Hosea 6:6, Rom 9, Micah 6:8, Ex. 25:1–22, Ex 32–33)

May we be like David, appreciating and being comforted by our Lord’s ‘rod of discipline’ (Ps. 23)

Balaam’s Example

Going back to Balaam (in Num 22:22+), we can see that God allows us to sin and may not restrain us, but that does not mean that it pleases Him. In response (and I can affirm from my own experience), He overtly intervenes in ways that might seem ‘normal’ such as stoplights, trains, traffic detours, or in this case a stubborn donkey, to keep us from wandering into destruction, to alert us to our sin, and to protect us from disobedience. Just a couple months ago, I was stopped by a train when I was already late for an appointment. I had been pondering this topic, but even still I was tempted to be angry at God, especially since my appointment was ‘good’ and ‘spiritual’ in nature. Instead, I was able to pause and consider what He might be trying to teach me in stopping me with that train. I realized that my heart was anxious, that I wasn’t trusting Him, that I was worshipping my own idols of Control and Efficiency, and that my life would be better if I just calmed down, drove slowly, and trusted Him with whatever time I arrived at my appointment. After all, apart from my poor character, perhaps He was saving me from what would have resulted in a car crash up the road. May we have our eyes open to ‘strange’ or ‘perfectly frustrating’ circumstances to see what God is doing — His ‘uncomfortable grace.’

Joseph’s Example

We already talked about Joseph too. We know that Joseph had a long time to ponder all that God was doing and to choose to extend mercy to his brothers. What if we, by God’s grace, got so ‘practiced’ in this that, like David, our knee-jerk reaction is to trust God, and not just because we know intellectually that “God is trustworthy,” but because we receive even negative circumstances as coming directly from His loving hands.

Again, like Richardson said, ‘It’s both.’ That’s why I love David’s response. David doesn’t need to know the exact reason or the exact spiritual force behind the circumstance. He just knows that it could have very possibly been his good God and, frankly, that’s good enough for him. Oh how I wish I had this perspective, this reflex, like David. Would the ability to live like this — this instinctive view of God — not change everything? Think about those days where even a simple journey across town seems far more difficult than it should be; every light is red, every corner demands a traffic detour due to construction, and every driver on the road wants to delay your progress. This David-Example is far more than just sighing in self-pity, “I wonder why God is allowing Satan to do this to me today.” Rather, David, who is facing his trials with joy, might say, “It’s okay, let the cars come, I don’t mind the detours. It may be that the Lord would have me see something new or spend more time in prayer at stoplights. For Satan’s part, he’ll face justice eventually, and I’ll leave that to God as well as any judgment I might want to pass on other drivers.”

Application 4:

Be steadfast… follow Jesus’ example

Even a quick read through 2 Peter 1 reveals a profoundly emotional and important (at least in Peter’s eyes) exhortation to add this list of things to our faith and to become like Jesus in them as we long for His return. One of these things on the list is Steadfastness, which we know the New Testament speaks about often. I noticed that even in our definition of this greek word for Steadfastness (hypomone), the fact of trials and suffering is inherent and necessary. I suppose we could argue that a discussion on steadfastness doesn’t directly help our ‘case’ of God’s active sovereignty over the trials that come, but I think it does help us further round out our understanding of God’s heart for us in the midst of those trials (which I hope we can all agree are inevitable), no matter who or what has brought those trials into our lives.

The only pinnacle example we need, though there are more, is in Jesus who “learned obedience from what He suffered (Heb 5:7–9).” An author says, “the fullness, the perfection of His identity with the human race and the perfection of His human, temporal obedience to the Father, could only be attained through the fires of suffering.” “The staying power of our faith is neither demonstrated nor developed until it is tested by suffering.” “The word ‘character’ suggests ‘provedness.’” (Rom 5:3–4, Ps 34:19–20).

Trials and suffering produce steadfastness (James 1:2–4, Rom 5:3–4).

Paul boasts of this in others (2 Thess 1:4) and calls them [and us] to it (2 Thess 3:5 — specifically to Jesus’ example) (Heb 10:36,39) (Rev 13:10, 14:12) and also gives us his own example of it (2 Tim 3:10). (James 5:11, Rev 2:2)

Luke 11:1–4. When Jesus teaches us to pray, the prayer is in every way aligning our hearts with God’s. Rerouting our focus and motives to His. In effect, “your glory, not mine. Your kingdom, not ours. Give me only what I need today, for I need no more than that. Keep me gracious as you are gracious, for what grievance is anything in light of the gospel? And keep me free from loving this world.” This is I believe, in part, the ‘wisdom’ that Peter mentioned prior to ‘steadfastness. A pure desire for Christ (Ps 27:4, Ps 73:25–26, Ps 63, Phil 3). It is the ‘knowledge’ that informs my ‘virtue,’ and ‘watches over’ my practicals though it is a principle. And it is this that we are steadfast in — pure devotion to the Lord. As we keep ourselves from loving the world, we pursue this — steadfastness (1 Tim 6:11, 2 Peter 1:4b), looking to Jesus who endured (Heb 12:1–2).

What does steadfastness look like on a heart level, or on a practical level? Are we a bulldozer in zeal and virtue and all good deeds? Merely “exhausted yet pursuing” (Judges 8:4)? Several verses where this same Greek word is used translate ‘steadfastness’ to ‘patient waiting’ and the NLT says ‘patient endurance.’ (2 Thess 3:5, Rev 1:9, Psalms, 2 Cor 1:6).

Matthew Henry says, “Tribulation worketh patience, whereby we bear all calamities and crosses with silence and submission, without murmuring against God or complaining of Him but justifying Him who lays all affliction upon us, owning that our sufferings are less than our sins deserve and believing they are no more than we ourselves need.”

It would seem that Matthew Henry would directly link our topic at hand — how we think about God and ourselves in trials — to what it means to be steadfast. Steadfastness seems to be firmly rooted in, and inseparable with, the foundation that Peter is telling us to add it to: Faith. That is, our trust in Christ’s promises which assure us of eternity. Indeed, steadfastness is about perspective. If we have steadfastness, we’ll have hope (Rom 5:3–5). We’ll be like Jesus, walking confidently towards death because of the joy set before us (Heb 12:1–2).

Even as I look to Jesus’s example, the two things — suffering and steadfastness — seem inherently linked, for how am I to know which times it was most difficult for Him (and others) to remain constant in virtue, knowledge, self control, and faith besides the fact that He was going through a hard time? Indeed our natural inclination is to say, “as an example of steadfastness, look at so-and-so: even when ____, they remained steadfast.”

Jesus’s Example:

Mt. 14:13–14, 14:23. Mourning the loss of a friend, fighting for time along with the Father, and yet knowledgeable of His will such that even in that same day and perhaps that same hour of bad news, He acted in virtue to do all the good He could do, all enabled by faith — confidence in eternity. Rest. Free to serve, to do what the Father was doing.

John 11:1–44. Even though a dear friend had passed, and He was deeply saddened, He had such faith and knowledge of God’s virtue and His own upcoming virtuous act that He was not the slightest bit worried. So steadfastness is not stoic and unfeeling.

Luke 19:45–48. Steadfastness in zeal, for even though tension was high and death was near and the temptation would have been to not cause anymore issues, His knowledge of God’s will, God’s holiness, and desire for His people to be holy was all consistent and stronger than the temptation. As a Son of the King, He went to battle for the excellence of His name (virtue) knowing nothing could change His destiny (faith).

Luke 22:39–46. Even in agony in the garden, He operates (in virtue) out of knowledge because of faith. And if nowhere else, but in fact this being the pinnacle moment of decision, here He displayed His obedience, perfected it, and had thus revealed it only through trials (Heb 5:7–9).

John 13:3–4. “Knowing..that He had come from God and was going back to God” He remained steadfast to the very end, performing here in His last moments perhaps the penultimate act of humility. His mind was on eternity, and His humility and service increased as He got closer (or at least we cannot say they waned).

So steadfastness seems to be: Operating out of conviction (enslaved), if even through tears. Having no choice but sacrifice, by your own conscience. This is practiced and refined over years and through many trials. When our steadfastness is that of a life of Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, and Self Control, then our steadfastness is by its nature sacrificial. It chooses death because that’s what Jesus chose. (2 Cor 4, Heb 11:15–16, Acts 20:24, 2 Thess 1, 2 Cor 6:1–10). A life of steadfastness works toward death so that others may live, and rests in patient confidence in God’s sovereignty through trials.

And it doesn’t seem like we can get steadfastness without trials. (James 1:2–4, Rom 5:3–5)

Chapter 5 of Pete Scazerro’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality talks about the benefits of becoming acquainted with our human limits through trials, and what a blessing this becomes as it develops humility within us. He references another book which we might assume speaks to a similar topic based on its title — A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser — saying of Sittser, “He learned that the quickest way to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west chasing after it, but to head east into the darkness until you finally reach the sunrise.”

Application 5:

Preparedness — get to know this God — for the sake of relationships and for the sake of a right view of God

If we would claim to know Jesus, let us not overlook this application. Mt. 7:21–23 — Don’t we want to know Him who is coming back to us, that we might more eagerly await His coming? (Heb 9:28, 1 John 2:28). Mt 25:14–30 — Doesn’t truly knowing His character and how He operates inform our practical applications and stewardship in this age as we wait?

If you don’t yet know Jesus, you might especially consider this. This is your application. Take the time to reflect upon all of the hard things in your life. All of the things that didn’t seem to make sense. All of the times you cried out ‘Why’ to some ‘higher power’ because life took a twist or turn that shook you to the core of your being, ripped your life apart, and left you stranded. Remember the harshness of that time. Perhaps you are still living in that place and have developed a deep bitterness toward the ‘god’ that you imagined when you said, “if there is a god, he hates me, so I hate him.” Now…instead, consider, perhaps for the first time, that these hardships were designed especially for you. Yes, to harm you in some sense, though not to destroy you. The opposite. To save you from out of a proverbial jail cell that you didn’t know you were in. To draw you into relationship with your Creator, that He might heal you and give you the abundant life you’d been searching for elsewhere. That He might make you his child, and give you Himself and everything else. People ask, “Why doesn’t God thunder at us verbally from the clouds?” He has (Ex. 19:9, 19:16–20, 20:18–21). “Why wouldn’t He come to earth and show Himself and do miracles?” He has (John 1:1–18, Phil 2:1–11). “Why hasn’t He punished all the evil on the earth? Why does He let the world continue in its ways? Why is He waiting, will the ‘end’ ever come?” He will, it will, and He may be waiting for you (2 Peter 3:1–13, Rev 21–22). Oh, the great lengths that God will go to (and must go to!) to turn the hearts of men back to Himself (Luke 15). Consider this. Turn from your sin. Draw near to Him. Trust Jesus’ sacrifice for you. Trust Him as Lord — surrender to His control over your life. He is trustworthy.

“When catastrophes overtake people’s lives, they are humbled by their losses and weakness. It is then they will cry out to the God who cares: “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?” (Job 30:24)…All of these disasters will continue to intensify until the day comes when the last nations on earth stretch forth their hands and cry out to receive salvation in Jesus Christ.” (Richardson)

“It really comes down to two fundamental truths: God is holy and men are sinful. God loves man, but man hates God. So we see that when God purposefully brings catastrophe, it is not because He is unjust, and man is a victim. It is because of man’s very rejection of God that He must bring about not just hardship but large-scale calamity to turn man’s heart to him.” (Richardson)

Application 6:

Preparedness — get to know this God — for the sake of being an ambassador of Jesus

Lately I’ve been enamored with eschatology (the study of the End Times). Many things in Scripture that I’ve overlooked are now coming alive in ways I never expected. I guess I’ve always thought that it’s either somewhat kooky, or it otherwise “doesn’t really matter much” for lack of practicality and personal application. To some degree, that has proven true, and in some ways an in-depth study on eschatology never seems to be the ‘need of the hour.’ That is, at least until the end times are fully upon us and/or Jesus has returned, we argue. “When that day comes, I’ll study it,” I’ve told myself. The more I’ve learned, however, almost totally aside from eschatological ‘camps,’ is that some of it is highly practical for today. Regardless of any eschatological debates, the closer we get to the Lord’s return, the more practical I think this particular subject of ‘God’s active sovereignty’ will become. Indeed, I trust and pray that this will sharpen and deepen all of our existing applications.

In Matthew 24, Jesus says a lot of things in response to a specific question from the boys. He spells out some very clear things that will precede His return and the end of the age, and also points to Daniel’s eschatology for more detail, assuming the good Hebrew boys will already understand the whole Old Testament foundation to this teaching. There are things coming before Jesus returns that will shake the world, and shake the body of Christ globally. There is a reason God has told us explicitly what some of these things would be. In the words of Joel Rosenberg, “Often — not always, but often — Bible prophecies are storm warnings about the future. They warn us of wars or natural disasters or other catastrophic events that God has decided he is going to allow to happen or cause to happen. But he is not telling us these things to frighten us. He is telling us in order to prepare us, so we are not surprised and so we can be ready to take bold, courageous action in service to him when the time comes.”

Consider this with me. In Acts 11:27–30, the Spirit of God led a prophet to warn his people that there would be a famine. Why? So that they could gather relief and send it to their brothers throughout Judea. God didn’t just tell them so that they would know; He told them so that they could act. God didn’t prepare them to escape the trial but to know what to do when it came, and to face it with joy and zeal and good work. I would argue there’s also an evangelistic opportunity within prophecy, is there not? Think of how Moses revealed the coming plagues to Egypt. Since God told them exactly what would happen before it happened, Israel was able to have strong faith in the midst of those plagues, but not only that; the Egyptians saw this, or else some large number of non-Israelites, and ditched Egypt and went with them (Ex. 12:38). Paul gives us another example in his journey to Jerusalem. It was the Spirit of God who caused Paul to ‘resolve’ to go there (Acts 19:21), and also the Spirit who ‘constrained’ him to go there even through ‘afflictions’ and ‘imprisonment’ awaited him (Acts 20:22), leading him to say farewell to the Ephesian elders because he knew he would die (Acts 20:25, 20:36–38). Just in case it wasn’t clear to Paul, the disciple at Tyre (“in the Spirit”) told Paul not to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4) and then the same prophet from the example in Acts 11 also came with words from the Spirit of God to show and tell Paul how he would be bound and imprisoned (Acts 21:10–14). Why would God have told Paul all of this? Though I recently read a convincing case that Paul may have been wrong in taking this journey, is it not still gracious of God to tell him what to expect that he might be ‘ready’ (Acts 21:13) and that he might be a faithful witness/martyr through all of it? Surely the root of all discontentment is in unmet expectations. It is God’s grace to us that we know what to expect. Tribulation. Martyrdom. Isn’t that our default expectation as we read through the New Testament and the words of Jesus?

Speaking of Jesus’ words, consider this:

In Mt 23:37–24:3 as He responds to the boys’ question, He says, “no one knows the day or the hour” (24:36) and we’ve heard that a million times. What we haven’t realized is that He uses the word ‘know’ 9 times and the majority of uses sound far more like encouragements and commands that we can, should, and must know…

• 1–2: know the season and you’ll be sure when His return is immanent (24:32–35)
• 3: no one knows (24:36) BUT no one knew in Noah’s day…except the people God had chosen, who knew with increasing clarity as the day approached (Gen 6:13–14, 7:4, 7:10) (24:37–42)
• 4:-6: know the part of the night the thief is coming and be ready (24:43–44) (And feed the people the right thing in the right season (24:45–46))
• 7: the wicked servant is the one who doesn’t know (24:48–51)
• 8–9: Some of the virgins didn’t know enough to be prepared, and were not watchful, so Jesus didn’t know them (25:1–13) (The worthless servant thought he knew His master’s character but didn’t, and inherited nothing (25:14–46))

Could it be that in the seasons to come, God would expect us to know the ‘road map’ He’s laid out in scripture so that we can be steadfast disciples and faithful witnesses to a watching world in the days to come? Might He have given us the stewardship of guiding the world around us through plagues, earthquakes, and wars to come? Isn’t it conceivable that our calm hearts, knowing words, and steady hands could lead many to the Lord in those days? Any time the Lord tells us what He will do, let us consider what He would have us do when that time comes.

“The judgment events in Revelation chapter 6 are intentional…because Jesus is the one doing them. And because the Father is the one who’s holding the scroll that Jesus takes. They are thoughtful, intentional, they’re deliberate — they’re not accidental. Now here’s why I say this. Right now, we’re living in a moment of history because of this covid debacle that’s taking place on the earth right now. There is a temptation — I’ve heard a lot of believers talking about this — ‘Do you think God is involved in this? If He is, what is He doing? Is He sovereign? Did He allow it? Did He orchestrate it? Did He initiate it? Like what’s going on, how do you theologically understand these things?’ Those questions are going to get even more dramatic and more pressing as these judgement events break out on the earth. It’s very important because when they break out on the earth there is going to be a temptation to feel like, ‘Oh wow, God’s not on the throne, the Father’s not in control. Jesus cannot be trusted. Who knows where this thing is going.’ And that’s why we need to go deep into these events and understand the intentionality on the part of Jesus. There is a logic to these events. And as Joel mentioned in the last session, the first seal to be released is the rise of the final antichrist… now, as the antichrist rises, the next event to take place is that peace is taken from the earth. Jesus takes peace from the earth… after peace is taken from the earth, there is famine and economic collapse. There’s war that breaks out because of this thing. And because of the war and because of the economic impact of this thing, there’s now a health impact. There’s pandemics, there’s pestilence, there’s plague breaking out. The sword is flying, blood is spilling, but it’s intentional. It’s crowding the nations into a specific corner for the final confrontation for what is true and what is not. And the Lord is going to push the nations of the earth (Is 26) that when the judgments of God are on the earth, the inhabitants will learn righteousness. The Lord is going to instruct and the nations are going to learn righteousness, as the judgment events are intentionally released upon the earth. Now what’s very important about this is that as the judgment events are being poured out on the earth, the knowledge of God becomes the most important thing. Because ‘Who knows what He’s doing? Why is He doing it? Where is it going? What does He want? Is He a tyrant? Is He a cruel merciless.. what is He doing? Why is He causing this?’ Because the message in that day is not going to be, you know, ’This is human sin’ and we’re going to be politically condemning world leaders for their decisions, the message is ‘Jesus is doing this.’ Yes, the leaders of the nations are going to bear responsibility, yes, every man woman and child is going to bear responsibility for what they do in these days, but there is an intentionality on the part of the Lamb of God who is executing the judgments of God on the earth when these events are breaking out. Which leads us to the seventh and final point about the nature of the sealed judgments: They’re multi-purpose… each judgment event is like one stone that kills 500 birds. Meaning, it’s not as though in releasing these judgment events the Lord is just doing one thing. He’s doing a thousand things with that one thing. By raising up the anitchrist and giving him authority (which is a very controversial but very important point — both the book of Daniel (ch 7) and Revelation (ch 12–13) describe the rise of the antichrist as a sovereignly-ordained event, not a demonic event that happens against the will of God. It happens because of the will of the sovereignty of God… the antichrist will be raised up sovereignly by God) the purpose is manifold. There’s a purpose for this in the church (because the church will face the antichrist — the apostles are very clear about this (Thessalonians, 1 John, Revelation) that the church will be on the earth and she will face the antichrist (Dan 7, 11) — the saints will face his fury)). The Lord will produce things in the body of Christ globally through the rise of the antichrist. He’s also going to produce things in Israel through these events. He’s also going to produce things in the Gentile nations through these events. He’s also going to produce things in the antichrist and his coalition by these events unfolding. All of these things are manifold and multi-purpose. It’s also going to effect the evil one, satan, and it’s going to effect the powers and principalities and rulers of the air. It’s going to effect the spiritual unseen realm, it’s going to effect the seen realm, the political realm, the military realm, the financial realm, it’s going to effect every single realm, every single dynamic of the created order is going to be effected by these judgment events. These are not events to be trifled with, they are not events to be marginalized or rendered irrelevant. They are very significant — you need to understand them. Because if you or your children lives through them, it is going to shake everything that can be shaken. Hebrews 12 says. If it can shake, it’s going to shake. Which means this, the wheat and the chaff is going to fall and separate. And the chaff in your life and in my life is going to blown away in this time and we’re going to find out how much of us is wheat and how much in us is chaff. We need to understand these events and we need to go deep in understanding them.” [18:11–24:40]

“One of the designs, the intentions, the purposes of the Great Tribulation — the end of the age scenario — is to bring the church to maturity through a like-similar-experience that the Messiah Himself went through. There will be a mutual experience — a mutual witness — that the crucified church will bear concerning the crucified Son. Now one of the greatest deceptions, errors, and false teachings — I actually consider it a doctrine of demons, meaning I think demons are behind this particular teaching — is that of a pre-tribulation rapture. This idea that the church will be taken out of the Great Tribulation and will not have to bear witness on the earth during the Great Tribulation… what the pre-tribulation teachers teach is that after Revelation chapter 4, the church is never in the book of Revelation again… the teaching is a disaster. It is an absolute disaster. The idea that the church is not in the book of Revelation is one of the most unsubstantiated statements that we could possibly make about the book of Revelation…the whole message of the book of Revelation is the church’s role in it…one of the hallmark defining events is the blood of the saints… what the pre-tribulation camp will teach is that ‘Well these are the tribulation saints, these are those who got saved in the tribulation because of the testimony of the rapture.’ Guys, that’s totally inferred. That’s projected onto the text — there is no passage in the entire Word of God that says that the church will be taken out and when they’re taken out the world is going to go, ‘Oh wow, I think I’ll become a believer now’ and then go through mass-martyrdom. That’s not how Jesus prepared the disciples in Matthew 24. The way Jesus prepared the disciples in Matthew 24 was by telling them, ‘Guys you need to prepare — the world is going to hate you, they’re going to put you to death. There’s going to be such persecution and such martyrdom, such blood-letting in those days, that if you’re not prepared for it it’s going to completely take you off guard.’ …this [pre-tribulation] teaching is setting you up for massive disillusionment, massive offense, and it’s setting you up to lead yourself and your family and the people around you to get them off the hook for obeying Jesus’ commands in the time of the Great Tribulation, which requires us to follow Him even unto death… [persecution and martyrdom] is awful, it’s tragic, and yet you can see the power of it. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit. That’s what Jesus said in John chapter 12. There’s a dynamic of the logic of death, burial, and resurrection in the ways of the Lord and when we live and operate and read the Scripture and live our little polite Christian lives disconnected from this call to live our lives following Him even unto death, we’re missing out on the heart of the gospel itself…through the Tribulation we will give the greatest witness the church has ever given in our finest hour in the most difficult season of human history. God is not so cruel and so weird as to pull His bride out to just let the world suffer without a witness. Beloved, He’s designed the Great Tribulation so that we would bear witness.” [12:54–23:25]

“God’s economy is not to spare His people from suffering, it has never been that… [long-suffering is the fruit of His Spirit]… the complexity…there’s no way our little peanut minds can grasp the grandeur and the big-ness of all this but I do want to give a distinction here about what God wants and what God wills. Because there’s so many examples in Scripture where God will will a thing that He doesn’t will to happen. Meaning, God doesn’t want to do something meaning He takes no pleasure in it, but He wills it, He decrees it, He orchestrates it, He administrates it. It’s like He says to Ezekiel, ‘Ezekiel, I don’t take pleasure in the death of the wicked.’ But in that same chapter He’s talking about giving the decree, the order, that will bring about the death of the wicked. So on one hand, God’s emotional will does not represent necessarily His decreed will, or vice versa. God is constantly decreeing things that He doesn’t emotionally will to happen. The cross of Jesus for example. God did not will the cross to happen on an emotional level… He wills it, He decrees it, because of its strategic import, its strategic necessity, its value, its significance, its meaning. But He doesn’t will it… God is going to will horrific events because of the impact and the redemptive value of them.” [40:49–44:45]

“We don’t go seeking martyrdom, and we don’t seek to avoid it either. We seek Jesus. And here’s the thing beloved, if you’re seeking Jesus, you’re going to find yourself in positions that are going to put your life at risk. If you’re actually seeking Him…. the main mandate on our lives at the end of the age is to overcome, by 1) the blood of the Lamb, 2) the word of our testimony, and 3) not loving our lives unto death.” [45:51–47:00]

“The good news of the judgment of God…John weeps in Revelation 5, why? Because no one can execute justice. Justice is executed when judgment is executed. What’s interesting right now, and profoundly hypocritical, is that we live in a generation that’s obsessed with justice, and completely offended by judgment. It’s illogical, it’s utterly contradictory, and at its core it’s deeply hypocritical. ‘We demand justice!’ And yet we demand that God not execute it because He’s not allowed to. Secular Humanism is predicated on the idea that justice is good and judgment is bad. The biblical worldview mandates, by logic — and it’s GOOD news guys — that justice comes through judgment of a good, faithful, kind, merciful, just God executing judgments on the earth.” [14:18–15:29 , see also 15:30–19:06]

Application 6:

Consider praying for healing and deliverance…but differently.

Is it wrong to pray for healing and deliverance? Of course not. The Psalms, for starters, are full of prayers for healing and deliverance from actual physical hardship and enemies. I’ve actually had some new exposure recently to churches who have incredible faith in God’s ability and promises to heal and deliver. I’ve seen God do some absolutely incredible and supernatural things in my life already, and yet I’ll also be the first to say that I haven’t seen but a small fraction of all the things I hear of Him doing all around the world from incredibly faithful brothers and sisters. I don’t know the hearts of these brothers and sisters, but I trust they are pure and biblical. At the same time though, based on some of the language they use, I wonder if they put themselves (and their hearers) at greater risk of bitterness and disillusionment if God would bring them a burden that He does not intend to take away, at least for a season. We have sure promise in scripture of answered prayer in the context of a life deeply abiding in the Lord and His word (John 15:7, 15:16) and living a godly life (James 5:16). We have many assurances in Scripture of things — like our eventual glorification — which are as good as done because it is simply God’s character to do such things (Romans 8:30). And we are indeed instructed to pray with such faith (Mark 11:20–25). But we also have examples of persistent prayer that seems to go unanswered for a time (Luke 18:1–8) or is even permanently unanswered for even this godly man (2 Cor 12:7–10). Note that this is specifically in regard to a trial [from Satan (v.7) yet intentioned originally by God (v.7)] and God’s intention for it to weaken Paul and make Him more dependent on the Lord’s strength. Even the previous example of the persistent widow in Luke 18 arguably points to unanswered prayer for the whole of this lifetime, as it points to the difference between ours and God’s definitions of ‘soon’ (v.7–2 Peter 3:8) in the context of the return of Jesus (v.8). Jesus Himself in fact — the Man most intimately connected to His Father — had unanswered prayer (Mt 26:39). I find it particularly challenging that the scriptures don’t tell us that Jesus’s prayers were heard because He ‘declared’ and ‘believed’ and ‘claimed’ that the prayers were already answered, but because He prayed with reverence, and “loud cries and tears.” (Heb 5:7) He was submitted entirely to the Father’s will (John 5:19–23, 5:30, 5:36, 8:16, 8:19, 8:28–29, 8:42, 8:55, 12:49–50, 14:7, 14:9–11, 14:20, 14:23, 14:28, 14:31) and was willing to let the Father afflict even His closest friends (John 11:1–44) that the Father might get more glory. Daniel (Dan 9), Moses (Ex 32–33), Isaiah (Is 6), and Paul (2 Cor 12:7–10) are just a few examples of men who prayed, knowing that they deserved far less than an answer to that prayer, and didn’t seem interested in ‘declaring’ that God was somehow obligated to answer their prayers in the name of Jesus. For them, God’s rescue was not the point; faithfulness and trust in God’s sovereignty through the trial was (Dan 3:16–18).

We know all of this already. I guess I bring it up because although I’m for praying for healings and deliverance, I have observed some language and attitudes amongst some of our brothers and sisters in the body that could be at greater risk of bitterness and doubting God’s character as tribulation increases in this world (not decreases), and as God increasingly [and lovingly] afflicts His people before the ultimate deliverance at the return of Jesus.

So as we pray for deliverance from our temporary afflictions in this age, may we also (and primarily) look eagerly to eternal deliverance in the next (2 Cor 4:16–18, Rom 8:18+), and may we ask for these healings and deliverances on account of God’s name and God’s glory, not for the sake of our comfort (Ps. 79).

The Real World

So in reflection on all of this, we’re not surprised by any of it actually, right? We know the illustrations and examples above. But we could also succumb to a slippery slope where we figure, because we’re sons and daughters of God (Rom 8:14–15, Gal 3:26, 4:5–6, Eph 1) and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17), we’ve already received our full inheritance in this age. After all, we figure, God has truly already given us the ultimate gift of Jesus (which is true, Romans 8:32). But we forget (or perhaps choose to forget) about the bulk of the promises of Jesus and His apostles to us concerning what this age will look like: Trials, tribulation, hated by all, etc. Why would they emphasize endurance and steadfastness so much if things are only going to get circumstantially better from here? What’s more, our still-sinful flesh makes us ‘spoiled princes’ at heart doesn’t it? Perhaps especially in the West. Though God calls us to be children, we become like the unruly know-it-all teenager, arguing in our hearts that we are ‘no longer children’ and don’t need our Father’s discipline anymore. We figure one ‘grounding’ is enough as long as the kids at school aren’t doing anything fun that particular weekend. Or, in today’s terms it might sound more like this: “Alright you got my attention with the global pandemic and I got bored enough at home to read my bible a little more, but I’ve clearly learned my lesson. Do you not know, Father, that I had great benevolent plans for that money in the stock market? Do you not understand that I have employees to feed and plans for growth that will benefit even more families and charities in town? Enough is enough, step aside and let me go back to normal.” I would argue we might often say, “Let us go back to Egypt (Num 11:4–6, 11:18, 14:2–4, 20:2–5, 21:4–5),” likely unaware of the slavery we’re under (whether that be to worldly wealth or reputation or something different), or otherwise unaware of the freedom and abundant life God would give us if we’d only follow Him into the wilderness and trust Him enough to take up our swords and fight foes we’ve never fought before, indeed likely far outside of our comfort zones.

Jim Elliot journaled in 1948, “It is as the Word said it should be in the last days. Famine is upon Christendom. Love is grown cold because of the predominance of iniquity. The Son of Man must indeed seek for faith at His coming, for it is scarce. May these two elements, unknown either among Christians or worldlings, be found this day in me, Lord. I would have faith working by love in me. The tendency is to go to Egypt as our fathers have done, even as was Isaac’s case. There is a river which does not fail; seemingly Egypt is without famine. But God wants me to find my satisfaction in wells in a famished land, not the river of a fat one. Oh Lord, when Christians are going to Egypt and the world for their ideas, their methods, their manner of life, I would hear your word to Isaac, “Go not down…dwell in a land I will tell thee of” (v.2). I would sow in a land of sojourning and in spite of the general famine, would be fruitful so that even worldlings will envy — not to have lands and possessions, but to display a life blessed a hundredfold without having gone to the world for methods of “cultivation.” Teach me that wells, known to godly men in past years, must be unstopped, and I would not be surprised as Contention and Enmity (Esek and Sitnah) bar the way to blessing. The world must see plainly that Jahweh is with me (v.28). Abraham had well trouble with Abimelech, I expect no less.”

If we believe wrongly of God in this area, we are in danger of something truly awful — and potentially being totally blindsided by it. Like I mentioned above, if we don’t grasp this element of God’s character, we’ll be found wanting in a time of trouble, having always ‘trusted in God’ but suddenly finding one of our foundational beliefs of God’s character in question. And we see where that leads right? If we thought God would never let anything bad happen to us (because we’ve equated His goodness with our positive circumstances), and something bad happens (which it will), the first question we’ll be asking in our hearts is, “Is God really good?” Even if we are okay with the idea that God’s “allowing” a demonic principality to afflict us, doesn’t that leave us with the subconscious image of a reactive, absentee-type Landlord who will eventually make lemonade out of the lemons that our Enemy is dealing out? Will we not grow impatient while we wait on this imaginary God who isn’t ‘making lemonade’ fast enough for us? Will our hope not actually be in God but in the eventual removal of the negative circumstance (the lemonade)? And then what if it never comes? What if the traumatic affliction is permanent, devastating, and life-altering entirely? Praise be to God that He is not absent in any way shape or form. That He is an active Vinedresser, Craftsman, and Father, and that every evil force on the heavens and the earth is merely a tool in his hand for the sake of His glory in the earth! And for our good.

If we get disillusioned about this truth about God, I’m afraid we’ll begin spiraling downward as we question other key elements of God’s character. At the exact time that we’ll need great faith in the character of God, we’ll be questioning it like never before. Our anchor will have been uprooted right in the middle of the storm — not because the Anchor itself was bad, but because we had trusted in a different imaginary anchor, or perhaps not tied a strong enough knot to the anchor figuring we’d never be in a storm. Practically speaking, we’ll be no different than those who don’t know God at all — we will have no peace while the storms rage around us (Isaiah 57:20–21).

At risk of ‘beating a dead horse,’ picture this with me: You believe this…that you are a son or daughter of God (Rom 8:14–15, Gal 3:26, 4:5–6, Eph 1) and a co-heir with Christ (Rom 8:17), which is all true. But you don’t have this theology for God’s purposes in trials. You don’t know the loving discipline of the Father, the careful and wise pruning of the Vinedresser, and you’ve resisted and avoided many of the light and momentary afflictions in life that were meant to change and soften your heart and cause you to draw near to God. You’ve had ups and downs in life, but you’ve never had something turn your world upside down. And you’re not ultimately abiding in the true Vine. You’ve been abiding in a ministry, a church, a famous pastor, a denomination, your family, your career, your financial savings, rather than the true Vine. Now imagine that something tragic and life-altering comes up… and declaring Psalm 91 over your life and the lives of your family isn’t ‘working’ with the same force (dare I say superstitious ‘power’) that it used to, and your world is falling apart. What’s going to happen? This hypothetical ‘you’ is going to become bitter. Because you’ve forgotten that God is a loving Father who disciplines, prunes, and purifies. You wrote that in a journal long ago but then advanced beyond it, graduated from it, and became a ‘teenager,’ convincing yourself to follow a God made in your own image who only spoils His children with sugar and roses. You ignored His teachings on tribulation, trials, suffering, martyrdom, and crucifixion, or otherwise thought they applied to different Christ-followers of a different time period or a different geographic location. And your love for the true God, the true loving Father, who knows what’s best for His CHILDREN, grew cold because of lawlessness and devastation increasing in the earth (Mt 24:12). You’re left disillusioned and despairing, far from being able to face these trials with Joy (James 1:2–4), far from singing hymns in your jail cell (Acts 16), and far from seeing any kind of silver lining because your priorities for life are so far misaligned with God’s (Phil 1).

Last Thoughts

Why it matters today: Trial will come.

Why it will matter in the days to come: Same reason. Trial will come. And I believe there will be many trials which will CLEARLY be from God and might be truly devastating and wreck our world entirely.

He is a ‘good good Father’ indeed. NOT because He gives us good circumstances — though He does — but because He Himself is good. Infinitely wise, totally sovereign, intimately personal, and therefore totally trustworthy.

““Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.” — ‭‭Job‬ ‭23:8–14