Num
14:3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us
unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be
a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Blaming
God; that was what the Israelites were doing. And they were not the first to do
it. Their great ancestor, Adam, blamed God for giving him Eve which caused him
to eat of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:12).
It
is always easier to put all the blame on God because God does not answer back.
Why did God put me in a world with so much sin? Why didn’t God protect me? How
do you explain to a young wife who is pregnant with her first child when her
husband of less than a year died in a tragic accident? What do you tell the wife
of a faithful Christian whose daughter was shot dead on a Saturday morning
while doing house to house tracting? What do you say to the woman who has
served God all her life but now struggles with a cancer that is eating away at
her bones?
We
often hear this statement that God is in control. Therefore, why did those
things happen if He is in control? Since God is in control over
everything, it's hard not to blame Him for what appears to be going wrong.
When
good things happen, we often attribute it to our own achievements and success.
But when bad things happen, however, we are quick to blame God, and we get
angry with Him for not preventing it. That’s not faith.
We
have to learn to be more like Job. When Job was going through severe trials and
tribulations, did He blame God? No! Job reminds us that “man that is born of
a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Just because we
are Christians does not mean we are guaranteed a life free from problems. In
fact, Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” but that He
has “overcome the world” (John 16:33). He is our assurance for us to
have peace within, in spite of the storms that rage around us (Mark 4:39). The
more we suffer in this life the more we should worship God and say like brother
Job: “Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
God
has nothing to do with evil that is going on in this world. He has never
promised that Christians won’t suffer in this life. Anger at God is essentially
telling God that He has done something wrong, which He never does. It is
telling him that we want only the good things of this life and not the bad
things. Instead of being angry with God, we should pour out our hearts to God
in prayer and then trust that He is in control and that His plan is perfect.
Let
us go back to the text on the children of Israel. Whose fault was it anyway
that they could not enter the Promised Land? God brought them right to the door
of the Promised Land. They were shown the good of the land. But, they chose to
focus on the problems. Did they expect that God give them the land on a silver
platter? They were the ones who said: “Let us return into Egypt”
(Numbers 14:4). The Promised Land was right before their eyes but they didn’t
want it.
When
we encounter trouble in life, we may be tempted to lay the blame on God. But
James 1:13 says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of
God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."
The
faithlessness of the spies caused Israel to lose faith in taking the Promised
Land; God didn’t do it. They had stopped trusting God: “They could not enter
in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).
When
we stop trusting God we will start to harbour bitterness in our hearts towards
Him and question His goodness. Many things happened for a reason – it could be
due to our own faults, or the faults of others, or nobody’s fault. But it is
never God’s doing.
Let
us trust in God. Tribulations are lessons for us. Let us have faith to
overcome. Ultimately, the end is glorious: “Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours; and their works do follow them” (Revelations 14:13).
Jimmy Lau
Psa
119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
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