Problems mounted, and my heart broke at her conclusion: “God must hate me.”
Is it true? When suffering snowballs, is it because God hates us?
The Israelites thought so.
Free of Egypt, they quickly forgot God’s faithfulness and grumbled against him. He miraculously led, fed, defended, and carried them on eagles’ wings to himself (see Exodus 19:4). At the border of his Promised Land, yet when scouts reported giants and fortified cities, the Israelites agonized, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us” (Deuteronomy 1:27 NKJV). They did not believe the LORD their God (see Deuteronomy 1:32), and four centuries of slavery bled into forty self-imposed years roaming the desert.
Therein lies the danger of this thinking: Unbelief often ushers us into disobedience, avoidable wilderness wandering, and misery.
At the Heart of Hard
We cannot know the mind of the Lord (see Romans 11:33-36), but scripture reveals five reasons in the story of Israel’s Exodus for why God allowed hard times in their lives. His heart behind each reason is his glory, which remains true for his people today (see Romans 8:28).
To make himself known.
God predetermined Pharaoh’s ten-plague, hard-hearted standoff with Moses so that the Egyptians would know he was the Lord and there was none like him in all the earth; to show his power, that his name would be proclaimed in all the earth; so his people would tell of his might and miracles to future generations; and, so his own people would know him as LORD (see Exodus 7:3-5, 8:10, 9:14-16, and 10:1-2).
When deliverance is delayed, God’s plan may be to manifest himself to us and others by wondrous works displayed in unwanted circumstances (see John 9:1-3). He may even allow multiplied hardships to multiply his wonders and our assurance that he’s Lord of all.
To distinguish his people.
Humanity exists within the reality of common grace and common suffering (see Psalm 145:9), but God distinguishes his people from the world by his goodness and faithfulness to them (see Exodus 8:22-23). Plagues of hail, darkness, locusts, and death struck the land of Egypt but not Goshen, the land of their slavery.
Adversity is part of life on earth, but as God’s children, we can expect him to unmistakably demonstrate his lovingkindness, faithfulness, goodness, and favor to us, even in trials.
To protect and provide for his people.
Having applied the Passover blood to their doorposts, it was time for the Israelites to leave, but not before they plundered the Egyptians (see Exodus 11:2-3 and 12:35-36). God protected them by the blood and provided abundantly for their exit.
Even if the Lord provides in unexpected and even unwelcome ways and we’re tempted to doubt his goodness and faithfulness, we must remember we can still trust him to remain with us, lead and guide us, and supply our every need (see Deuteronomy 31:8, Exodus 13:22, and Matthew 6:25-34).
We can also trust his ways because they are perfect (see Deuteronomy 32:4), even if they appear flawed. Pre-wilderness, the Lord took his people the long way to the Promised Land so the threat of war wouldn’t reverse their course back to Egypt (see Exodus 13:17-18). When they approached the Promised Land a second time, God promised to expel its inhabitants “little by little” to prevent desolation and rampant wild beasts (see Exodus 23:29-30).
When disappointment entices us to doubt God, we can remember his undeniable, unprescribed faithfulness to his people throughout history, including us. He never changes or shifts with the shadows or times (see Malachi 3:6 and James 1:17), nor does he play favorites (see Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11). Who he has been is who he is and always will be (see Hebrews 13:8): faithful, trustworthy, and good—every moment, to every child.
To test what’s in our hearts, whether or not we’ll walk in his ways.
God tests his people and proves us through trials, but he doesn’t trick, tempt, or forsake us. Old Testament, New, and now, the Lord allows trials to determine our greatest love (see Genesis 22:1-12), to know whether we’ll walk in his ways (see Exodus 16:4), to intimately know and reveal what’s in our hearts (see 2 Chronicles 32:31 and Psalm 139:23-24), and to prove our faithfulness (see Job 23:10).
When situations shake our faith, we often ask, “Why, God!?!? Why me? Why this? Why now?” Perhaps a more fruitful question is, “How, God? How do you want me to see and know you? How can I be faithful to you? How can you be known in this?”
To reconcile us to himself.
Three months post-exodus, God etched the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone—the first of which was, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 ESV)—while the Israelites impatiently crafted gods of gold (Exodus 32:1-4), which resulted in a plague. They chose idols instead of God, as we often do, and it ended in adversity (see 2 Chronicles 7:22). His people endlessly faltered between God and idols, which resulted in enemy invasions, captivity, and eventually exile. God didn’t hate them or randomly manufacture misfortune. Their choices did. He repeatedly warned, reminded, relented, and forgave, and then loved them enough to allow disaster to draw them back to him.
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 ESV). If we choose sin over God, God isn’t to blame when our choices subject us to God’s pre-disclosed consequences. Should we face self-inflicted suffering, God’s heart for us hasn’t changed. His compassion fails not, even as he waits for us to repent and return to him (see Psalm 40:11, 103:8, 136:1, and Lamentations 3:22).
When hard happens, may God’s promises intersect our experience as we fix our eyes on him, recall the truth of his Word, track record, and testimony, and move forward in faith and obedience.
