Other Reasons God Brings Calamity
After disciplining a specific sin, a second reason God brings calamity is because of human sin generally. In Genesis 3, Adam pulled the keystone out of the arch of creation with his sin, and ever since, bricks have been falling on our heads. When Adam sinned, the whole universe was plunged into futility and enslaved to corruption (Romans 8:20–22). In our bodies that means pain and infections. In our work that means weeds, forms in triplicate, and software that self-destructs during an important sales presentation. In relationships it means parental distraction, teenage disruption, and messy divorces.
We can praise God that Jesus Christ has defeated the Curse and has accomplished its ultimate removal through his death on the cross. The book of Revelation describes heaven with these seven powerful words:
There will no longer be any curse.
(Revelation 22:3)
But in the meantime, we can be sure that one reason calamity comes is because of human sinfulness generally.
Under Construction
A third reason God brings calamity is to mature believers in Jesus Christ (if you have not yet put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, God is using your trial, not to mature you in Christ, but to move you toward Christ). As a believer in Jesus Christ, you can be sure that, whatever happens, God is causing it to bring his Christ-reflecting and Christ-exalting work in you one step closer to completion.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
(James 1:2–4)
To make a sword requires heating and beating. In the same way, comfort, peace, and ease don’t produce spiritually strong, flexible, sharp Christians. Only the heating and beating of God-given trials manufactures resilient, Christlike character—a blade strong enough and sharp enough to be truly useful in the hand of God.
Just as a weight lifter doesn’t become stronger unless he exhausts his muscles moving chunks of iron, so spiritual progress comes only when God the Coach increases the intensity for us through painful trials. When he does so, the result is stronger faith, greater compassion, and enduring patience—firmer spiritual muscles in every way.
Faith on Parade
A fourth reason God brings calamity into the lives of believers is to prove our faith, both to ourselves and to others. How did God prove that Satan’s accusations against Job were slanderous? God tested Job, and Job’s endurance proved Satan to be wrong.
Peter told his readers that they had been embroiled in trials because the proof of their faith was more precious than gold. And when their faith eventually came through the crucible pure and strong, Peter said that their endurance would
result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 1:6–7)
We had a woman in our church who had cancer twelve different times before she finally went to be with the Lord. It was hard in every way—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But as we watched her resilient, God-given cheerfulness, we couldn’t help but be encouraged. The proof of her faith in Christ spurred us to trust the Lord more ourselves.
Unanticipated Good
A fifth reason God brings calamity into the lives of his people is to bring about unanticipated good. The Bible is full of such surprises. The classic example? Joseph (Genesis 37–50). His brothers kidnapped him and sold him into slavery just as they might have auctioned off a cow or goat to the highest bidder. No doubt as the slave traders’ camel caravan humped its way toward Egypt (and at various awkward points after that) Joseph asked, “Why has God done this?” Answer: unexpected good.
Eventually God used Joseph’s kidnapping, slavery, and unjust imprisonment to put him in a position to keep his family from starvation. Decades later, Joseph said to his brothers,
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
(Genesis 50:20)
No one could have guessed it at the time, but good was God’s plan for Joseph’s calamities all along.
Ruth provides another example. Tragedy doesn’t come much worse than having your father-in-law, brother-in-law, and husband die in rapid succession, leaving you and your mother-in-law impoverished and hopeless. How did God use that heartrending situation? Ruth went to a place she would never otherwise have gone to (Bethlehem), met a man she would never otherwise have met (Boaz), married him, and became the great-grandmother of King David and part of the Messiah’s line. Unexpected good.
It’s all over the Bible—apparently unsalvageable disasters are often the first step in God’s plan for bringing good.
All this helps us see that calamity isn’t arbitrary. God uses it for specific purposes: occasionally to discipline specific sin, but more often to make us dissatisfied enough with this sinful world to seek something (or Someone) better, to harden us in the furnace of troubles just as a blacksmith tempers a sword, to prove our faith, and to bring good that no one could have predicted.
Up to this point, we have discovered that God is in control and we have identified the biblical reasons why he causes calamity. But how should we respond when God stokes the forge, pumps the bellows, and swings the hammer, relentlessly shaping and sharpening the sword of our faith in Christ?
I HOPE YOU RECEIVED FROM AND ENJOYED THIS DEEP STUDY.
WOULD YOU LIKE US TO CONTINUE THIS TYPE OF DEEP STUDY?
PART 3 COMING SOON.
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PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM