At times we look at our circumstances as trials. As moments of suffering. As some price we pay for living in a broken world and among broken people. We see economic conditions as consequences of poor judgment and inept policies. We may even look at our difficult upbringing in contrast with the seemingly effortless blessing of someone else and feel as though we have been harmed.
What if, perhaps, our perspective is wrong? What if the difficulty is not the consequence of sinful people and a sinful world, but were sanctifying agents of a Holy God?
In Moses’ address in the waning hours of his life, He rehearses and reminds the people of God that a great opportunity is before them. He reminds them of the gracious kindness of God in working to gain their release from more than four centuries of slavery in Egypt. He also gives them some instruction on perspective. This section gripped me today:
2“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
3“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
4“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
5“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
Deuteronomy 8:2–5 (NASB95)
Having instructed God’s people in verse one to obey God’s commands as they take hold of God’s promises, Moses now gives them some instruction on why they can and should trust the Lord. He brings their circumstances into perspective.
Notice in verse three how God humbled his people with hunger, so that He could provide for them, so that they would know that they could never make it without Him. God presents HUNGER as a GRACE from Him for their ultimate encouragement! This is not inconsistent with the way God had been at work. The preceding verse spoke of God’s testing over forty years in the desert. In verse four He points to the fact that in addition to the food of verse three, there was the physical provision of health and clothing during the forty years as well. The intended effect is found in verse five, that they would know on a soul level that God had cared for and would care for them as a father does his son.
Perhaps hunger isn’t your thing. Maybe it is a low paying job. Maybe it is unemployment. Maybe it is some other out-of-control situation that has your back against the wall. What if, instead of viewing this difficulty as God’s judgment, you saw it as God’s grace? Is He providing for you? Perhaps in a way you did not intend or would not have preferred, but His provision, nonetheless. Maybe you asked to never have cancer or to be supernaturally healed from it, but God chose to provide health through treatment? Maybe that dialysis machine is God’s humbling grace…
I know for me personally, when I see the circumstances of my life that are most trying, my self-talk is critical to my attitude and resulting action. If I think God has forgotten or forsaken me, it is more difficult to trust Him. But if I can rely on His loyal, covenant-making and covenant-keeping love…I can praise Him for the trials because I recognize that the sustainment through the trial is just part of how He trains my heart to trust Him in love.
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