Troubles: Twelve Truths

God afflicts justly

The Bible teaches that God regulates trouble and affliction according to the law of sowing and reaping. In other words, when someone is suffering hardships and trials, it may be as a result of God’s justice.

There are two great, extended passage of Scripture that teach this: and .

Psalm 80:5 NIV

You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.

This psalm is one of the exilic laments in Book III. The psalmist laments that Israel’s pitiful state is a direct result of God judgement upon the nation for their sins.

Isaiah 9:1 NIV

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

God afflicts temporarily

The Word of God teaches that he establishes the terminus ad quem of our sufferings and afflictions.

Genesis 15:13–14 NIV

Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

Numbers 14:33 NIV

Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

Jeremiah 29:10 NIV

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

Isaiah 10:25 NIV

Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”

This point is important and highlighted elsewhere in Scripture: God’s anger does not last forever. It is a prominent theme in the psalms. We need to avoid two opposite errors in our thinking about God’s anger: (a) he will never get angry with us and (b) he will remain angry with us forever.

Psalm 30:5 NIV

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

ps 30:15

Psalm 103:9 NIV

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

God afflicts reluctantly

Lamentations 3:22 NIV

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

Lamentations 3:33 NIV

For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

The context of this verse speaks about those who oppress others. The point being made is that God does not willingly bring affliction even on oppressors, but if he turns a blind eye to their evils, he would not be a good God. He does afflict tormentors, but he never afflicts anyone willingly.