In Exodus Chapter 1, we see that Jacob’s descendants had become slaves in Egypt. The Pharaoh who knew and honored Joseph was gone, and a new one was now in charge. He didn’t feel the same way about Joseph and his family as the previous Pharaoh did. The passage tells us, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.” Things went from bad to worse for them. Pharaoh made them do slave labor. Then, he made the labor more severe. Then, he tried to cut their population by infanticide. Then, he tried to destroy the nation with genocide. No nation has suffered at the hands of others as much as the Jewish nation has. Pharaoh attempted genocide, Haman attempted genocide in the Book of Esther, and more recently, Hitler attempted genocide, but through it all, God’s people remain.
Things often go from bad to worse for God’s people before He delivers them. Consider the life of Job. The first Chapter takes us from one calamity to another. No one went from bad to worse as quickly and as severely as Job did. He lost his wealth. He lost his loved ones, and then he lost his health. Job remained strong in his faith in God through the whole ordeal. Even when his wife confronted him and told him to curse God and die, job wouldn’t give in to the temptation to turn against God through it all. He said, “Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him.” “Naked, I came into the world, and naked from it, I will go.” “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Yes, things may go from bad to worse, but God always comes through for His people. Yes, He allowed the suffering, but he didn’t forsake them. He delivered Israel from its slavery in Egypt, and in the end, he delivered Job from his suffering as well. He lets them suffer, and he lets us suffer because He wants us to learn that we can trust Him in every circumstance of our lives, even when things go from bad to worse. Maybe things have gone from bad to worse for you also. It happens. We wonder why things seem to pile up against us. God had a purpose for Israel’s suffering in Egypt, and he has a purpose for your suffering as well. Malcolm Muggeridge wrote: “Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.”