I have been struck lately at seeing how often God Himself orchestrated undesirable, hopeless, and painful circumstances for people in the Bible.
In the book of Job, God invites Satan to ruin Job's entire life and family. Satan does exactly that - as God stands by and watches.
To the children of Israel He said: I am going to give you the Promised Land! To take it, however, the thousands of you must first cross a massive, flooding Jordan River. After you have done that, you will need to conquer the mighty city of Jericho. It is well established, with massive walls for protection, and I know that you don't really have any weapons or trained soldiers or anything like that. But, no need to worry - I've got a winning battle plan. Are you ready? Here it is: Form a line, march around the city for seven days, and blow your trumpets........... Geez.
In the book of Judges, we read about how the Israelites are attacked for years by the powerful and oppressive Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples. God came to Gideon, the least member of the smallest clan of Israelites, and said, "I will make you a mighty warrior to defeat the Midianites!" Surprisingly, Gideon bought-into God's plan. Gideon gathered the troops for battle - over 30,000 men! But......are you ready.....check out what God says: "No, no, Gideon, that's far too many troops. You only need 300. Send about 29,700 of your men home, and with the remaining 300 you'll be able to defeat these mighty tribes of thousands of men that have been destroying your people for years." Once again.........geez.
Then, we see God orchestrating discomfort and temptation for Jesus himself. In Luke 4, we read of how the Spirit of God intentionally led Jesus into the hot desert for 40 days for the express purpose of being tempted by the devil!
In all of these accounts we see the hand of God orchestrating circumstances that seem painful, heartbreaking, hopeless, very uncomfortable, and very very challenging. On each occasion, His one motive is clear: To accomplish glory for Himself in lives of His people.
Who are we to assume that God will not similarly author hard and heavy circumstances in our lives for that same goal of bringing glory to Himself?
His one and main agenda for the lives that He has given us is not our happiness.
He is chiefly concerned with the accomplishment of His glory.
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