Welcome to Word of Life Study Series- Healing is the Children’s Bread! When it comes to understanding why bad things happening to God’s people, we need the Scriptures to discern the root causes. There are so many promises in the Bible that talk about protection and provision, so how is it that the devil at times is allowed to slip through and slap poverty, sickness and oppression upon us? Another controversial debate in the Church world is in regards to the manner in which God disciplines His children.
1. Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?
Pharaoh in the beginning persistently hardened his own heart against God which brought on the retributive “hardening” by God, after much long-suffering. However, when the Bible says Pharaoh hardened his heart, it also says that this happened “just as the Lord had said” in Exodus 8:15.
2. God is a Holy and Righteous Judge
Sin left unchecked, like a cancer, would destroy the universe, so God judges sin and keeps it contained. The greatest act of love is for God to condemn and judge sin, otherwise it would destroy us all! When folks fail to repent and force God’s hand to judge them, God in time turns them over to the devil, who is waiting anxiously to have access to them.
3. New Testament Clarification
The ‘Analogy of Faith’ concerning Bible interpretation teaches us that Scripture interprets Scripture. One cannot come to an interpretation that contradicts explicit Scriptures elsewhere in the Bible, particularly in the NT. In Galatians 2:18-19 it states, “If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.” If God made people sick just so He can heal them; that would make God a lawbreaker.
4. It’s Never God’s Fault
Let’s not accuse God of evil; He is not the author of it. As we have been saying all along, He only permits it as a last final act of judgment when folks have exhausted all of God’s appeals and opportunities for repentance. To insinuate that tornadoes, cancer and other calamities are an act of God is to fall right into the hands of the devil's lies.
5. Does God send Desert Experiences to keep us Humble?
The way some well-meaning Christians talk, you would think they lived from one desert experience to another. They will refer to the children of Israel in the desert as a pretext to support their beliefs that God in His sovereign plan puts people through dry places in their life to teach and purify them to be dependent on God.
6. Job’s Trial- Why do Bad things happen to Good People?
The book of Job has been gravely misunderstood by Christians and has been used as a pretext for God to sovereignly afflict His covenant people for all kinds of mysterious reasons. It’s amazing to me how the devil has perverted that story and how so many people are ignorant of it and confused by it and are convinced that they are just like poor ole Job.
7. The Chastening of the Lord?
We'll examine the notion that God hurts and afflicts us for our good, as a form of discipline. This is an important question, so in what manner does God discipline His children?
8. Trials, Tests and Temptations
Ultimately every test boils down to a test of obedience- to obey God’s Word or not- it’s a faith test! Do we really believe what we say? The NT makes it clear that trials are spiritual attacks with the express purpose to shipwreck/destroy our faith. A test or trial by nature is an enticement or temptation to turn from God and doubt His Word.