Deliverance - Psalm 124

My point is not that God can perform miracles, or that angels are real. My point is that often we find God acting in people’s lives just when things look bleakest, when nothing short of his power can save the day. Those are the times when people say, "Unless God does something, unless God shows up, we’re lost." And often, that is just when He acts -- when our only remaining hope is in Him, not in ourselves, not in other people, not in wealth or power, but in him alone.

Now, of course, whenever God acts on behalf of his people, it’s cause for thanksgiving and rejoicing. We don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. But in the back of our minds, there’s this nagging question. If God can come to the aid of people in desperate situations, then why doesn’t he just prevent the desperate situations in the first place? If God was able to drown the entire Egyptian army, and give Sarah a son at ninety, and muzzle Daniel’s lions, and spring Peter from jail – then couldn’t he have prevented the crisis altogether? Couldn’t he have stopped Pharaoh from sending out his army? Couldn’t He could have given Sarah a son in her 20’s? Couldn’t He have stopped the king from issuing that decree against prayer that got Daniel in trouble? Couldn’t God have kept Peter from being arrested? Of course. But he didn’t. Instead, he allowed all these people – His people, remember – to get into terrible difficulties, apparently just so he could show up in the nick of time and rescue them.

But why? If God knows beforehand that he intends to help his people, then why does he place them in situations that provoke fear, and doubt, and worry? Why put them through such mental and spiritual anguish? Friends, this is not an idle question. It matters. It matters because we are prone to misinterpret what God is doing in our lives, especially when we’re suffering. When our backs are against the wall, when all the exits are blocked, when we see no way of escape – at those times especially, we are likely to misread God’s intentions.

For instance, we may conclude that things are going badly because of something we did wrong; either that we have sinned, offending God, or that we have somehow missed his will for our lives. Parents dealing with an angry, rebellious teenager may blame their imperfect parenting. A Christian businessman facing bankruptcy may wonder if he has missed His calling – perhaps this is God’s way of telling him that he should have gone to seminary instead of business school. A laid-off steelworker who can’t get work may imagine that God is punishing him for his drinking. A wife whose husband refuses to attend church may wonder if she married the wrong man. When our circumstances seem dark and hopeless, we’re tempted to think that somewhere along the line we must have made a mistake, or else we wouldn’t be here. We must have taken a wrong turn. We must have failed to listen to God’s voice. But that’s not true. Moses and the people of Israel did exactly what God called them to do. And yet there they were, with the armies of Pharaoh barreling toward them. Suffering and setbacks are no evidence that we are out of God’s will. In fact, sometimes crises come because we are following Christ. But even if our difficulties are of our own making, it doesn’t matter. Because God is sovereign over all things, even our bad decisions. His plan for us, his good, and wise, and perfect plan, incorporates even our sins and mistakes. We can’t thwart his purposes for our lives. So no matter what brought us here, ultimately we are here because a loving God willed it.