We are starting to hear horrific stories about what the hostages in Gaza endured over their two years of captivity. Some were so deprived of food that they now have to be taught how to eat normally again. Just reading Eli Sharabi’s book about his ordeal was painful for me. I cannot imagine what they are going through today.
Their suffering raises the question: Do you believe God could have liberated the hostages two years ago?
Why, then, didn’t he?
In her New York Times newsletter “Believing,” Lauren Jackson quotes the Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian based in the West Bank: “The war has made so many people question God—his absence, his silence.”
They are not alone.
If you’re praying for much at all
Hamas expected its October 7 invasion of Israel to spark a “ring of fire” assault from its jihadist partners surrounding Israel that would destroy the Jewish state. Instead, Israel took out the leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas; Israel and the US decimated Iran’s nuclear infrastructure; an uprising toppled Iran’s puppet regime in Syria. Pressure from other Arab states and Muslim nations finally forced Hamas’s hand, leading to the celebrations we have seen in Israel as their last living hostages finally came home.
But if you believe that God “rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28) and “does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3), you do not believe he needed any of this to happen to intervene miraculously. He sent plagues and used the Red Sea to destroy Egypt, the superpower of its day. His angel struck down the army of the Assyrians, the superpower of its day (2 Kings 19:35).
As surely as he acted to release Peter from Herod’s prison in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1–11), he could have acted to release the hostages from Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza two years ago.
Why didn’t he?
Now apply our question to any yet-unanswered prayer in your life. Perhaps you’ve been praying for a lost person to come to Christ, or for a wayward child to come home, or for a physical, financial, emotional, or relational need to be met. Perhaps you’ve been praying for spiritual awakening in our land and a turn to biblical morality.
If you’re praying for much at all, you are most likely praying for something that has not yet come to pass.
If you asked me for something I could do but don’t, eventually you’d stop asking. Why keep praying to God?
Two hopeful approaches to suffering
Like the hostages in Gaza, Joseph was kidnapped from his homeland and taken captive to a foreign land, where he was imprisoned through no fault of his own. There he interpreted the dream of the Egyptian pharaoh’s chief cupbearer, but when his interpretation was fulfilled and the man was restored to his position, he “forgot” Joseph (Genesis 40:22).
Again like the hostages in Gaza, “two whole years” passed with Joseph imprisoned (Genesis 41:1). We’re not told why God waited so long to free him, but we can connect his story to two theological approaches to evil and suffering that remain helpful and hopeful today.
One: God uses suffering to grow us spiritually
According to a Jerusalem Post study, a third of Israelis say they hold a stronger belief in God since October 7. This is not unusual.
The second-century apologist St. Irenaeus proposed the “soul building” model whereby God uses suffering to catalyze spiritual growth in our lives. We see this in Joseph: while he bragged about his dreams of personal glory years earlier (Genesis 37:5–11), now he honored God with his interpretive answers (Genesis 41:16).
You can perhaps point to times in your life when suffering led you to depend upon God more fully than before. As Charles Spurgeon testified, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.”
Two: God works in the present for a better future
Many of us are praying for the hostage release to lead to genuine peace for Palestinians and Israelis. Perhaps the timing of the former will help advance the latter.
In Joseph’s world, God had a plan to bring seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. He used Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams to reveal this plan, then he used Pharaoh to elevate him to prime minister so he could prepare the nation. He did all this to draw Joseph’s own family to Egypt, where they were reunited and eventually became the nation through whom the Messiah would come one day.
I have personally seen God’s mysterious timing at work over the years. For example, a man I knew was praying for a new job, apparently without answers. But he didn’t know that a person would soon retire from the home office, leading to a promotion from the local office, leading to an opening that my friend would fill.
The fact that he could not see God at work made his work no less real. To paraphrase Spurgeon again: When you cannot see your Father’s hand, trust his heart.
Translating the Bible with one finger
If you are experiencing the silence of God today, you may feel like Joseph imprisoned in Egypt. But Joseph was eventually able to tell the brothers who sold him into captivity, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
One day, perhaps in eternity but perhaps far sooner, you will be able to say the same. In the meantime:
- Would you turn your obstacles into opportunities to trust more fully in your Father?
- Would you ask him to work in ways you cannot see to accomplish his greater purposes in your life and world?
- Would you believe that he redeems all he allows and trust your pain to his providence?
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky died on this day in 1906 at the age of seventy-five. Born in Lithuania in 1831, he went to Germany to study for the rabbinate, where he became a Christian. He emigrated to America, trained for the priesthood, and was sent by the Episcopal Church to China. There, he translated the Bible into Mandarin, was elected bishop of Shanghai, founded St. John’s University, and began translating the Bible into Wenli, another Chinese dialect.
However, he developed Parkinson’s disease and became largely paralyzed. Resigning his bishopric, he spent the rest of his life completing his Wenli Bible, typing the last two thousand pages with the one finger that he could still move.
Four years before his death, he said:
“I have sat in this chair for over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted.”
What “chair” would you trust God to redeem in your life today?
Quote for the day:
“You don’t really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” —Tim Keller
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