Do you think you've got problems?
Well, okay, maybe you do, but before you start feeling too sorry for yourself, consider the people about whom the Holy Spirit wrote in the sixth chapter of the book of Judges.
Forty years of rest from war and other hardships had softened Israel for a renewal of apostasy, and that is precisely what followed. "Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." (Judges 4:1) As was His practice throughout this period of history, God again tried to get His people's attention by delivering them into the hands of the Midianites, who chased the Hebrews out of their homes and into grubby dens and creepy caves.
As if that wasn't enough indignity, the Amalekites would join the Midianites and raid the Jews' fields, destroying the produce and leaving "no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey." (Judges 6:4) The historian compares them to ravenous locusts, but with a decidedly evil bent. "So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord." (Judges 6:6)
Every parent has attempted to get a wayward child's attention by subjecting him to the consequences of his bad choices and then refusing to bail him out too quickly, although he begins to weep and moan. Jehovah spent the generations between Joshua and Saul doing just that, with obviously mixed results. They learned the lessons but did not retain them or deed them to succeeding generations; so the whole process repeated itself over and again.
On this occasion, the Angel of the Lord chose to visit a farm boy named Gideon who was threshing his wheat in the winepress to conceal it from the Midianite raiders: "And the Angel ... said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.'" (Judges 6:11,12)
"The Lord is with you." That sounds promising and reassuring and full of hope and faith, but Gideon didn't believe it. Yet, he had the evidence.
"Gideon said to Him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites." (Judges 6:13)
Sometimes, we attempt to console a brother in Christ by reminding him that the Lord is with him. And sometimes, we are on the receiving end of such consolation. The very reason the comfort is being offered is that there is misleading evidence to the contrary. What appears to be divine indifference or malevolence is, in fact, a necessary trial or the heavenly kindness of parental chastening.
Job suffered with the same misconceptions, egged on by his conceited friends who trusted their faulty intuition that Job was an awful, secret sinner who just needed to repent of whatever was causing God to abuse him so violently (Job 8:1-7). The reality was backstage, behind the curtains of the morality play in which the devil was the true villain. It was the tempter who had delivered death and poverty to Job's doorstep.
Today, we watch children suffer from dreadful diseases; good churches divided by personalities; warfare claiming the lives of Americans and Iraqis; and any number of private disturbances in homes, communities, and hearts. Planes crash into buildings; perverts abuse little girls; thugs shoot storekeepers; and butchers abort unborn babies. If anyone would have the right to ask, "Where Are His Miracles," it should be us, right?
Well, no. Take no solace from Gideon's frustrations, nor from Job's complaints, for each of these men miscalculated his place in the struggle between good and evil. Gideon simply believed that God had forsaken Israel, when in reality Israel, through sin and idolatry, had forsaken her Redeemer. Israel was willing to accept God's protection and prosperity, but not at the expense of worship and fidelity. Instead of letting His people march blissfully into spiritual ruin, he awakened them with a fleshly messenger.
The New Testament actually indicates that miracles, as such, have ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-13), but that does nothing to mitigate God's providence and His ability to answer His children's prayers (James 5:16).
Still, when we are down, we are often left to wonder, "Where is His providence and response." In a manner similar to that suffered by both Job and Gideon's Israel, the Apostle Paul began to suffer the ill effects of some mysterious thorn in his flesh. This, he determined to be "a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." (2 Corinthians 12:7) He prayed three times for its removal, much as one today might pray for the removal of a tumor or an enemy. God's answer-"My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) Does this sound like a thorn removal or an automatic tumor-removal? That's not even enough to excise a mole!
Job learned that not every hardship is evidence of divine displeasure. Gideon found that some hardships are and that, when such is the case, we must not "despise the chastening of the Lord." "For whom the Lord loves he chastens." (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Today, each of us is tested, tried, and chastened "That the genuineness of your faith ... may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ" when you receive "The end of your faith - the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:7-9)
Where are all His miracles? Invested in your redemption!
I appreciate Brother Smith's article on God's miracles. After his trials, Job learned that man is not in a position to question God's ways or the things He is willing to patiently endure. God's way is the best way, the only way, and the correct way. (KMG)