As I sit here in my folding chair, pondering how to illustrate certain spiritual truths to my daughter, it occurs to me there are two important truths God’s been teaching me that I haven’t yet blogged about.

Actually, I guess they’re two different angles on the same lesson.

God’s Seeming Inaction Has a Purpose

Over the years since Ariel was born, God’s been driving home to me His sovereignty — in a very practical way.  I think that particular lesson has been hammered in quite thoroughly, and now He’s having to teach me all over again that He’s also good.

Two particular passages about the Israelites have jumped out at me in my reading over the last several months, that convey truths I really needed to hear.

The first was Exodus 23:29-30:

I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.  Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

I’m sure the process of taking the Promised Land seemed very slow and tedious to the Israelites. They probably would have wondered, had God not spelled this out for them, what in the world was taking Him so long.  And yet, God’s very slowness had a purpose, which was for their good.

I so often get impatient when God seems to be slow about bringing something to pass in my life, but how do I know that the very slowness of the thing is not for my benefit?

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Before I keep going, an important note:
This post is written with the assumption that those reading it are Christians.
If you’re not a Christian, you are actually an enemy of God.  Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me.”
The first, most important step is to get on His side!
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When it feels like God hates you…remember you’re not alone!

The second passage that stood out to me was Deuteronomy 1:27:

And you complained in your tents, and said, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.”

Ouch.  I’ve been guilty of this kind of thinking, as well: “Why would God do this to us, unless He hates us?”  But we know that God was doing a good thing for the Israelites.

With our hindsight (and a clear Scriptural account), we know that He was taking them out of bondage to the Egyptians and into a land “flowing with milk and honey”!  They couldn’t see that, but it was no less true.

Likewise, just because I can’t see what God is doing in my life, that doesn’t mean He isn’t.  How ungrateful of me to complain about the good He’s doing for me (and I know it’s for my good, because we’re told that all things work together for good for those who are the called according to His purpose) just because I don’t yet understand what it is!

Immediately after reading that passage, I came in my study to this quote:

…we must ask ourselves if we’re going to judge God by the circumstances we don’t understand or judge the circumstances in light of the character of God.  (Linda Dillow)

The passage I had just read illustrated this perfectly!  The Israelites were definitely judging God (“He hates us”) by their circumstances (“We’re stuck in the wilderness and probably about to be killed by local armies.”), rather than judging their circumstances in light of God’s character (“I can’t see how we’re going to get into the Promised Land, but God promised and He doesn’t lie.”)