The Bible View #836 — Trials & Tribulations

In This Issue:
“Why, Oh Lord?”
After the Trial
Cleansing Afflictions
Learned Sympathy
Made More Compassionate

Volume: 836    November 29, 2021
Theme: Trials and Tribulations

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“Why, Oh Lord?”
Bill Brinkworth

“And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Judges 6:13

When an angel of the Lord spoke to Gideon, God’s messenger told Gideon that the Lord was with him. Gideon recalled the state of his country, Israel. He knew that the enemy, the Midianites, had destroyed their crops and flocks (Judges 6:4).  Gideon and his nation were in a terrible situation. After hearing the message, he questioned what the angel said to him.  He wondered if the Lord was with him, then why were all the terrible things happening to him and his country?

In this situation, God’s hand of protection was off the country because they were involved in idolatry (Judges 6:10).  God used the Midianites to get Israel to a place where they would again turn to God and call on Him (Judges 6:6-7). Although the nation was involved in sin, and God was disciplining Israel, God was still with His people.

We need to realize this today.  Although a saved person is a child of God, whom He promises never to “… leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5), a wayward Christian may get to where God has to chastise him.  Also, a person’s indwelling Holy Spirit may be grieved (Eph. 4:30, I Thes. 5:19) and not working in a person’s life like He wants to, but God will not desert the person.
“For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Prov.3:12

Too many wonder, as Gideon did, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?”  Often, they feel left alone without His help. They feel abandoned. Most of us have had times our faith was weak, and we doubted and wondered about our situation, as did Gideon. 

However, there are many reasons God allows us to go through difficulties, other than being disciplined, as was Israel.  Some of those reasons include:

  • To be an encouraging example to others as they observe how a Christian handles an unpleasant situation.
    “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” II Cor 1:3-4
  • To put us in a position where the Lord wants us in the future.  Joseph was an example of this.  God allowed many misfortunes to happen in the man’s life, so he could help his family and others when famine came to their country. Many times closed doors in our life move us to the open door God desires us to go through.
  • For us to see the mighty hand of God meet needs in our life.  Trials and tribulations bring us to a point where we call on Him more and focus on seeing His help and intervention in our lives. When we see His help, our faith is strengthened to face future problems. Hardships are an essential method to get us to grow spiritually! Our trust and reliance grow when we see Him work in our lives.
  • Being a Christian does not mean that you will not face problems.  It’s just life! This is a sinful world, and all suffer because of iniquities.
    “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Mat. 5:45

If you are going through a difficult time and wonder as Gideon did, examine your life.  Is it possible that you are in the situation because you are in a wayward condition? A first step in going through a hard time is to rule out if your behavior or spiritual condition has anything to do with your situation.  If it does, earnest prayer may reveal it to you.  Quick obedience to any conviction and repentance is what the Lord wants from us in such circumstances.

If no conviction is stirred or past offenses do not come to mind, your situation may be for a completely different reason or divine purpose.  Not all problems are God’s judgment on your life. Sometimes God reveals the reason for the trial; sometimes, He does not.  Whatever the reason, one should immediately draw closer to Him and wait for Him to do His will in your life.
“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:8

 “Often, affliction is God’s shepherd dog to drive us back to the fold.”
— Megiddo


After the Trial
Brooks

God afflicts us for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. The flowers smell sweetest after a shower.  Vines bear better after trimming. The walnut tree is most fruitful when shaken. Children of God grow and thrive when they are afflicted.

Afflictions are the mother of virtue. Manasseh’s chain was more profitable to him than his crown. Luther could not understand some scriptures till he was in affliction. Christ’s cross was no letter, yet it taught more than all the letters and books ever did.

God’s house of correction is His school of instruction. All the stones that came about Stephen’s head did but bring him closer to Christ. The waves lifted Noah’s ark nearer to Heaven. Afflictions lift the soul to rich, clear, and full enjoyments of God.

God makes afflictions to be but inlets to the soul’s more sweet and full enjoyment of Him. When was it that Stephen saw the heavens open and Christ standing at the right hand of God, but when the stones were thrown at him?  Then there was but a short step betwixt him and eternity.

When did God appear in glory to Jacob?  It was in the day of his troubles when stones were his pillows, the ground his bed, the hedges his curtains, and the heavens his canopy?  Then he saw the angels of God ascending and descending in their glittering robes.

Hard times often bring us closer to God and allow us to see His power and glory.

 “Sometimes God makes his people’s troubles contribute to the increase of their greatness, and their sun shines the brighter for having been under a cloud. — Henry


Cleansing Afflictions
Beecher

There are some troubles that beat us down. Some situations give a stimulus to our minds and lift us up to a closer relationship with God. Have you not, in the great hours of sorrow —  not in the despairing hours of suffering, not in the degrading hours of despair, not in the sordid hours in which sorrow drags you in its slime — but in those hours in which you feel you are a son of God under affliction, that this world is not your abiding place, and that your home is the eternity of God?  Have you felt that the world to come was opened as it had never been before in those hours and that God’s glory shone as it had never shone before? Have you never, in those hours, felt that those doubts and skepticisms which pestered your mind had been swept away?

In the insect-breeding days of summer, how insects abound!  Every tree is a harbor for stinging pests. Wherever you sit, they swarm around, and annoy you, and destroy your peace and comfort.

Soon vast floods of clouds bring tornadoes and are thunder-voiced through the valleys. Then over the hills and mountains sweep drenching and cleansing rains. When the storm has ceased and the clouds are gone, you sit under the dripping tree.  Not a fly, a gnat, or an insect is to be seen. The winds and rains have driven them all away.

Has it never been so with those ten thousand little pests of pride, vanity, envying, jealousy, and unlawful desire?  For days, they have teased and fretted you.  They kept you busy with conscience, taste, affection, and all the higher faculties until God sent upon you some great searching sorrow or overwhelming trouble.

There was that babe that you loved so much, and God laid your heart and baby together in the grave. He subverted your household. He brought on you such torrents of suffering that it appeared the foundations of the great deep were broken up. In those heart-wrenching days, God graciously sustained you and lifted you toward Himself.  Although you suffered unutterable affliction, you felt that it had cleansed you from jealousies, envies, vanity, pride, the entire swarm of venomous and stinging insects that had beset you,


Learned Sympathy
W. M. Taylor

One night, wandering the streets of London in disguise, King Henry the Eighth was met at a bridge by some guards.  Because of not giving a good account of what he was doing out at night, the King was locked up in Poultry Compter without any fire, candle, or food. On being released from prison, he made a grant of thirty chaldrons of coals and a quantity of bread for the night prisoners in the Compter.

Experience brings sympathy as it did to the King. Those who have felt sharp afflictions, terrible convictions, racking doubts, and violent temptations will be zealous in consoling those in a similar condition. Our experience of such difficult times can help us be a blessing and an encouragement to those now facing similar trials.


Made More Compassionate
Downame, 1644

By these afflictions, we are made more compassionate unto others who endure like hardships. Those that have been sick are apt to pity those whom they see pained with the like diseases. Those who have been imprisoned are more compassionate and helpful in relieving those who are restrained. They who have been pinched with penury and pined with hunger do pity them in the situation they once were.

This was one end why God allowed our Saviour so many afflictions so that He might have compassion on them that are also faced with tremendous trials and tribulations

 “It is the crushed grape that gives out the blood-red juice. it is the suffering soul that breathes the sweetest melodies.”   — Hamilton

The Bible View #835 — God’s Creation

In This Issue:
It Is Finished!
God Made It.  He Can Keep It!
Created!
They Warned Others

Volume: 835    November 22, 2021
Theme: God’s Will and Way

FREE Printable versions of THE BIBLE VIEW (including large print and church bulletin inserts) are available at https://www.openthoumineeyes.com/.

All should read the Bible daily!  While at your computer,  go to www.DevotionsFromTheBible.com and read a chapter each day, and learn something from what you read. SIGN-UP to have the FREE devotion e-mailed (M-Sat.) and read a devotion and KJV chapter at your computer.


It Is Finished!
Bill Brinkworth

To understand God and His will more fully, one must realize that some things He has done or promised in the past are finished. What He has done other times may not happen today.

Creation is finished! 
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Genesis 2:1
 
After God’s six-day work of creating the universe, putting all the stars and planets in place, and creating the Earth and all that lives on it, He had it recorded that His creation was finished. No more new creations will be put into outer space,  although some may “burn out” or change. There will be no more species of plants or animals created, although many more may be discovered. Man or beast will not transform into something different (“evolve”). God’s perfect creation is finished.

God may not deal with the people of today as he has dealt with them in the past! No longer will He destroy mankind as he did in the time of Noah. Although God still supplies our daily needs, most of us will never eat the daily manna, as did the children of Israel as they fled Egypt. The church and Christ’s sacrifice replaced the need for a Temple and priests to present sacrifices on our behalf. Although God still performs incredible supernatural feats in individual lives and for nations, most of the time, He will not deal with circumstances the same way as He has done in the past.

God’s Word is finished!
 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” Deuteronomy 4:2 
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:” Revelations 22:18

God made sure all we needed to know was recorded in the written word preserved for the major languages. Today, English-speaking people have His Word exactly the way He gave it to the prophets, scribes, and other men of God. It is preserved in our King James Bible. There is no need to have a modern scholar tell us something that God had “forgotten” to say or something He had preserved incorrectly. What He said thousands of years ago is finished, and nothing is to be added or taken away from it.

Jesus’ work is finished!
 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” John 19:30  Also: John 17:4. 
Man’s only way to Heaven was finished when Christ died for all of our sins on the cruel cross at Calvary. That day, the price was paid for sin when the blood flowed out of God’s only Son.

There is nothing we can do to earn our way to Heaven. There is no religious task we can do that will keep us out of Hell.  Also, no one can say certain words that will absolve us of our sins. All that was necessary for our salvation was completed when Jesus died.

There are, however, several things that are not finished. Some prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. All the prophecies about the Messiah’s coming were fulfilled when Jesus came and died. Although all of what was predicted about the Messiah hundreds and thousands of years before His birth came true, there are many prophecies about man’s last days on this Earth that are yet to come true, as God’s Word says they will.

We are still waiting for the promises of His coming and the calling of His own out of this world. We are still waiting for the judgments God promised to the inhabitants of this world to be fulfilled. Those prophecies are yet to be finished.

Lastly, one thing that is not finished is your life. If you are reading this, you still have the opportunity to be saved and miss Hell. You still have time to do what God commands you to do. However, one day you will not have that opportunity. You will not be able to look out of the flames of Hell, change your mind, and be saved because your time to be saved had passed.

Have you trusted Christ’s finished work on the Cross as the only way to Heaven, or are you still putting your trust in what your religion says or what you think you must do to please God? Have you been saved (Rom. 10:9)? Have you done what God has spoken to your heart to do for Him or made the changes to your life that He required? One day it may be too late as your life will be finished here on this Earth.


God Made It.  He Will Keep It!
Bill Brinkworth

Psalm 104 is a Hebrew hymn restating the Genesis account of creation. It reminds the Psalm’s singer of what God created in this universe and on Earth in six days. Here, the God of creation is given credit for His wonderful works in those days.

God’s creation of light (Genesis 1:2) is mentioned, as are all the following summarized five days of what He did.  The God-deniers and God-haters, of course, deny God’s account and resort to their theories of “accidental” developments of all the amazing wonders we have on this Earth and in the skies.

All the evolutional “accidents” modern “science” claims to be the result of all on this Earth have never been proven, and the theories are constantly changing.  Still, those ideas are believed by most. 

In recent decades, a new scare tactic has been forced down the throats of a gullible public.  It is an attempt to convince people that this planet will soon be uninhabitable or destroyed.  This chapter refutes two of those accusations that are causing ungrounded fears.

The first biblical principle taught here (Psalm 104:4) crushes current political propaganda that the Earth will not be around or inhabitable forever.  Our planet will experience geological upheavals, changes, and during the final days of sinful man, it will be made new (Revelation 21:1).  However, the Earth is here to stay and is not going anywhere, thus saith the Lord!
“Who [God] laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” Psalm 104:5

As for rising oceans that politicians have attempted to get citizens fearful of, God also says that there are boundaries that waters cannot cross. Although panic is growing that polar ice will melt, and cities and other lands will be flooded, it is contrary to what God promises in His Word. The waters will not invade any further than God has planned them to go.
“Thou hast set a bound that they [water] may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.” Psalm 104:9

Although government scare tactics repeatedly warn of Earth catastrophes man thinks he can control, the Creator of this planet decides what will become of what He has made.  God says it will be here forever! 

Who do you believe, man, who has a political or financial agenda, or God who loves His creation and all He has made?
“The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.” Psalm 104:31

“If the Father designs to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and to make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He neglect the soul of man that was made in the image of his Creator?”  
— William Jennings Bryan


Created
Watson, 169

If a man should go into a far country and see stately edifices there, he would never imagine that those built themselves but that some greater power erected them. To imagine that the work of the creation was not framed by God is as if we should conceive a curious landscape to be drawn by a pencil without the hand of an artist.


They Warned Others
Bill Brinkworth

I noticed something interesting while reading a book written in 1872.  There was a collection of 15 or so articles on atheism written by preachers of the time.  All the articles were about those that denied that God created the heavens and the Earth.

Without today’s pseudo-intellectualism and political correctness hindering them, those preachers publically identified those that did not believe God created the universe as heathens. They warned their “flocks” of those that believed or taught contrary to what the Bible says.

Toleration today of unbiblical beliefs has silenced many from calling God-haters and Bible-deniers what they really are. Those against biblical teachings and principles must be identified and avoided, or their false teachings may spread.

“The probability of life originating by accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary originating from an explosion in a print shop.”  — Edwin Conklin