Wrestling with God
Daily Reading: Exodus 10, Psalm 60, Acts 16, Proverbs 1
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Exodus 10:1-2
There are times when reading the Bible that I struggle with understanding why God chose to go about things the way he did.
The story of Moses in Egypt is one of those times.
Throughout this story, we don’t read “…but Pharaoh refused to believe in God…”.
What we read is “…I have hardened his heart, so that I might perform these miracles.”
I struggle to read the stories of the plagues, imagine all of the suffering that occurred as a result, and wonder if there was not any other way.
Why did God need to harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why did it take so many terrible plagues afflicting the Egyptian people so that the people of Israel would know that God is the one true God?
Couldn’t there have been any other way that involved less pain and suffering?
This is not unique to the Bible.
At some point in all of our faith journeys, we are confronted with the question, “Why would God allow this to happen?”
There are so many horrific things that are taking place in our world today. It is natural that we would want God to swoop in and save the day.
When we feel like we are walking in alignment with God’s will in our lives, and yet bad things seem to keep happening, it is easy to wonder, “Why?”
However, we also know that we serve a God that is a God of love, who sees everything on an eternal timeline. He always has the big picture in mind, even when we struggle with his reasoning.
Over and over again I have seen God show up in my life and in the lives of those I care about. I know that I can trust his will in our world, even if I disagree at the moment.
God is big enough to handle my frustration, disappointment, and me wondering why.
This year, I want to be comfortable wrestling with these challenging portions of scripture that I have previously just kind of tried to skate by and not think about too much.
If we read the Bible purely for moments of inspiration and nice verses to latch onto, but refuse to dive deeper into the full story, we miss the complexity. We miss the layers. We miss the healthy struggle.
I trust you God, even if I struggle to always agree.
Daily Reflection & Dialogue
Where are areas of your life, or stories in scripture, where you have wrestled with God?
