Interpreting Trials - If God Is Correcting Us, What Is He Correcting Us For?

Trials can be for several purposes.  Sometimes they are just a test of our faith.  Sometimes they are a correction for our faults.  Sometimes they are both.  And sometimes they are for simply teaching us lessons and giving us valuable experience.

But suppose we are able to discern that a trial is probably a correction.  What is the correction for?

It might seem that if we know something is a correction, we would know what the correction is for.  But not always.

Consider an incident in the book of Jeremiah.  The Jews were taken captive to Babylon, but the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and put someone under the authority of the king of Babylon in charge of them.  But some men had murdered the governor set up by the king of Babylon, and the Jews there were afraid.  They wanted to go to Egypt to be safe.  You can read the whole account in chapters 40 through 44.

At one point, the people asked Jeremiah to pray for them and to inquire of God for them as to what they should do and which way they should go.  They promised to do whatever God told them to do through Jeremiah.

"Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet, 'Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.'  Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, 'I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.'  So they said to Jeremiah, 'Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you. Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God' " (Jeremiah 42:1-6).

Then God warned the Jews through Jeremiah not to go to Egypt but to stay in the land of Judah - see Jeremiah 42:7-22.  But the Jews did not believe Jeremiah but said that God did not give this message through him.

"Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words, that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, 'You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, "Do not go to Egypt to dwell there" ' " (Jeremiah 43:1-2).

So they went to Egypt.

God sent them another message through Jeremiah rebuking the Jews for worshiping false gods - see Jeremiah 44:1-14.

Notice how the Jews replied to Jeremiah.  "Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: 'As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine' " (Jeremiah 44:15-18).

Notice that.  For a long time they made offerings to the "queen of heaven", a false god, and during this time, God was not punishing them.  But since they stopped, they suffered trials.  Evidently they had started to repent, taken some steps in not worshiping the queen of heaven, but had gone through trials.  They interpreted those trials as resulting from their stopping making offerings to this pagan god.  But the truth was the opposite.  They were suffering trials because of the long years they had worshipped false gods.

Jeremiah tried to set them straight.  "Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people - the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer - saying: 'The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind? So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day' " (Jeremiah 44:20-22).

God punished the people for their sins, including making offerings to the queen of heaven, but the people misinterpreted the punishment and attributed it to their act of stopping the making of offerings to the queen of heaven.  They looked back and said it was better for them in the years and decades when they free worshiped the queen of heaven.

Trials can be misinterpreted.

Suppose you think God wants you to take a certain action.  You decide, probably, yes, you will do it.  You make plans.  You get started and take a first step.  But you haven't completed the action.  You still can back out.  And maybe you are a little slow, a little hesitant.

Then, God hits you with a trial.  You think it is a corrective punishment to guide you in the way you should go.

But if that is true, and if you know that it is true, what direction is God leading you?  What is He correcting you for?  It may not be clear.

Is He trying to stop you from the action you are planning and have started?  Is He warning you, stop, don't go that way.  It is a wrong path.  Turn around and go back.  Don't do what you thought was right.

Or, is He prodding you because you are going too slow and haven't fully committed?  You are still not sure.  You are sitting on the fence.  You made a few plans, maybe even taken a few starting steps, but that's all.  Is He telling you, GET GOING?  Get out of your comfortable chair and get moving.  Is He warning you, there will be more trials if you don't follow through and act as I want you to do?

How do we know what direction to go?  Do you move forward or go back?  Do you go to the left or to the right?

As always, the answer is, look to God's word.  Look to the Bible.  Look to what God says.

If you started making plans and moving in a certain direction based on lessons from the Bible showing you God's will in your life, go back to those lessons.  Study those lessons again in the Bible.  Did you miss something?  Ask God for guidance, but then do you part to dig into His word.  Then follow what God's word says.  If you made a mistake the first time, you may see your mistake.  But if you were right the first time, your decision will be confirmed.

God can speak to us through trials and through circumstances as well as His word, the Bible, but the Bible must have priority.  We have to let the Bible interpret our trials and our circumstances.

God can speak to us through circumstances.  He can speak to us through signs or indications that can lead us.  There are examples.  Abraham's servant asked for a sign from God that Rebekah was the bride to take for Isaac, and God answered his prayer (Genesis 24:10-21, 32-51).  Centuries later, when Israel was a nation at war with the Philistines, Jonathan said to his armorbearer that it would be an indication to them that God would give them a victory if the Philistines told them to come to them (1 Samuel 14:6-14).

God can give us corrective trials to tell us we are wrong in some way and need to change.

But always go by God's word, the Bible.  That is the priority.  And especially if something is in doubt, look to the Bible for answers.

Pray for wisdom in understanding God's word (James 1:5-8, John 14:26), then study the Bible to know God's will for you in your particular circumstances.

Can you make a mistake in understanding the lessons of the Bible and how to apply them?  Of course.  We are all human.

But we should not be paralyzed into inaction because we cannot be one hundred percent sure.

There is a scripture that gives some assurance in this situation.

"And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more" (Luke 12:47-48).

While this may apply to particular circumstances in God's overall plan for the salvation of mankind, it also shows God's thinking.  He does not punish severely for honest mistakes.

If you are trying the best you can to follow God's will, if you are using your best judgment and the wisdom God gave you, but you make a mistake, God will not cast you into the lake of fire.  If He corrects you for making a mistake, it will be with few stripes, not many.  He will correct you lightly, at least in comparison with how he punishes those who know better.  He understands that your heart is right towards Him.

Sitting on your hands is no safe answer.  It can sometimes be just as wrong to do nothing when it is God's will that we take action as to do the wrong thing (James 4:17, Jonah 1:1-3, 1 Corinthians 9:16).

So if you are at a crossroads, study the Bible the best you can, ask God for wisdom to discern His will for you, make the best judgment you can, and make a decision.  Don't be paralyzed by fear and uncertainty.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going" (Ecclesiastes 9:10).