Why suffering?

 

READ Exodus 29-32

History records several pandemics. I’ve not studied them in relation to the spiritual condition of most people at the time, but have wondered if there is a connection. Today’s reading points in that direction, but it also points to something more.

One hint is in census-taking, usually for nations to determine their strength. God wasn’t a fan. He commanded His people to rely on Him, not on their own strength. However, He instituted an affordable census tax, used to pay upkeep expenses for their tabernacle and to protect them from death:

“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them . . . The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.” (Exodus 30:12;15–16)

The OT shows that if God’s people number themselves to consider the importance of their own strength and resources, they are in danger. This tax reminded them that atonement comes from God’s grace, not their abilities and power. Forget grace — and a plague could wipe them out.

Keeping their lives holy also meant keeping short accounts with God, that is, confessing sin before worship, or doing anything else. God said, “When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.” (Exodus 30:20) In the NT, unconfessed sin does cause a fellowship barrier with others and with God, but not spiritual or physical death.

In the OT, fellowship was also ruined by offering anything to God with entirely selfish reasons. This is pictured by the sweet smelling incense used to anoint priests. After describing various ways of blending oils, God says, “And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.” (Exodus 30:37–38) The NT says I am to do everything as unto the Lord, not for myself or my own pleasure. Selfishness puts a barrier between me and the Lord, me and His people.

In the OT, keeping God’s commands begins with putting Him first, making and worshiping no other gods. However, in Chapter 32 while Moses was on the mountain speaking with God, the people became impatient and Aaron took their gold jewelry and melted it, making a golden calf and calling it their god. They then “sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” Moses implored the Lord on their behalf, reminding Him that He “brought them out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand” and not to let the Egyptians say He did it with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth. He pleaded that God would:

“Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. (Exodus 32:11–14)

God did not destroy them because Moses interceded for them, BUT “Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.” (Exodus 32:35) Their sin still had consequences just as ours often does, but remember that Jesus lives forever to intercede for us.

The OT makes a clear connection between the actions of God’s people and a plague. They made and worshiped an idol, even after declaring their intention to worship and obey God, and as a result He sent a deadly epidemic. Today we blame Satan or human error for such things, but are plagues punishment for putting God on a shelf and doing our own thing?

This is a big question, but the NT answers it. Every sin we commit was atoned for at the cross when Jesus died. If we put our faith in Him, when we slip up, that sin is already forgiven. It might have consequences yet God uses all things for our good, to transform us into the image of Christ, even pain and sorrow. We are His children and He disciplines us for our good. 

As for pandemics, God may use them to give us opportunities to show His love to others, or to teach us something, or even to take us home but we are not objects of His wrath because of our sin. I’m to say NO to it because sins harms me, and the NT teaches that when I suffer, the body of Christ suffers. Yet we must be thankful and rejoice because, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)