Not a Destroyer

“And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?” (Nu 20:4 AV)

Every time Israel faced adversity while wondering in the wilderness, they assumed God brought them out of Egypt to destroy them.  Perhaps, in the back of their minds, they were trying to justify the lack of faith at Canaan which resulted in the passing of a faithless generation in the wilderness.  Perhaps they were trying to find fault with God, or at the very least, God’s man that would be greater than their lack of faith.  Perhaps they were trying to justify their lack of faith with an “I told you so”.  Perhaps they were trying to say that if God can not keep them in the desert, why would they take the risk of invading Canaan thereby justifying their “rational” lack of faith.  There is another possibility we must consider here.  That is, their lack of faith continued in the desert.  It wasn’t enough they could not trust God to invade Canaan.  Now, they cannot trust God to take care of them.  The question to consider here is:  Why do we assume that the God of grace would save us only to see us destroyed?  This is not logical.  Worse yet, it is high blasphemous.

This condition has several names.  There is the ‘Woe is me’ virus.  Then there is the ‘Job Ailment’.  How about the ‘I don’t deserve to live’ syndrome.  This malady of which believes are inflicted find it hard to view hardship through the lens of faith.  We are works based.  No matter if we are saved or lost, a part of our human condition is to believe that good things means we are good and bad things means we are bad.  When bad things happen and we cannot seem to attribute equal bad things we have done (as Job failed to do) we chalk it up to God’s sovereign will.  We do this to the extent that it must please God to destroy that which He has created.  This is the Achille’s heal of Calvinism.  This is what they purport based on a misunderstanding of Romans chapter nine.  God is not please to destroy anything which He has created.  His is not pleased in the death of the wicked.  Why is it that, like Job, just because we cannot find just cause for our situation, we accuse God of being cruel?

What I have learned over the years is that bad things happen for only two reasons.  The first is sin.  Ours or others.  Directly or indirectly.  Sin causes hardship.  The other is opportunity for the exercise of faith.  Like building muscle in the body, faith can only grow through risk and adversity.  God is not out to destroy you.  If it is chastisement, then confess and learn that which the LORD desires you to learn.  Grow up into the holiness of God.  If it is faith which He is testing, then quiet the heart and wait patiently on the LORD.  This generation could never do this.  They were too used to Egypt catering to their basic needs.  God required trust.  Something they had little of.  Even after seeing what God did to Egypt, they still couldn’t bring themselves to trust.  God is not out to destroy you.  He is out to reconcile and mature you.  This takes adversity.