“Why did God let this happen?” This is a question I hear fairly often, particularly when bad things happen to “good” people. But it’s a fully loaded comment. What people really mean is, “God, you did this. I thought you were supposed to be good and loving. I thought you had my back. I don’t think I trust you. It’s your fault.”
Joshua was having just such a pity party when God stopped him in his tracks with a big dose of reality. In the midst of his prayer (read, whining) to God about the dire situation he and the people of Israel faced, God spoke very sternly, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.”
I can just hear Joshua now… “Oh, so THAT’S the problem. It wasn’t you after all. It was… um… us. We sinned.”
Yep, sometimes… a lot of times … the bad things that happen to us are entirely our own fault. We failed to listen. We decided not to obey. Now we are simply paying the price for our disobedience and we don’t like it. So, the whining and blaming comes when we should be repenting. Sometimes the cause of our problem is as simple as that.
