When Things Get Worse

“Why, Lord?”

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Moses did exactly what God told him. Then everything went wrong. The work got harder, the leaders were beaten, and the people blamed him. “So Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me?’” (Exodus 5:22).

Obeying God does not mean an easy life. Sometimes we do the right thing and things still go badly. That does not mean God has left us. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Moses went to God. Moses could have quit or run back to Midian. Instead he went straight to God with his questions. That was the right place to go.

God can handle our questions. David prayed, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). God put prayers like that in the Bible to show us we can be honest with Him.

Pour it out. “Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8). A refuge is a safe place. You can tell God everything.

He cares. “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Your worries are not too small or too big for God.

God is close. “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18). When you feel the worst, God is not far away. He is very near.

Not crushed. Paul wrote, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8). Christians still have hard days, but hard days do not get the last word.

God answered Moses. God did not scold Moses for asking. He said, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh” (6:1). Sometimes the moment things look worst is right before God acts.

Jesus prayed honestly too. On the night before He died, Jesus prayed in the garden with tears. He told His Father exactly how He felt, and then He trusted Him. Because Jesus died and rose, we can always come to God.

People blame. The Hebrew officers blamed Moses (5:21). When life is hard, people often look for someone to blame. Moses did not blame them back. He took it all to God in prayer.

What to do. When something hard happens, tell God about it in your own words. You can start with “Why, Lord?” Then end with “I trust You.”

Exodus 5:22-23 is the Bible's first lament from Moses. Lament is a form of prayer in which a believer brings complaint, confusion or grief directly to God, assuming God is the one who can and should act.

The setting. Moses had obeyed fully. The result was harsher slavery, beaten foremen, and a curse from his own people (5:21). Obedience did not produce quick relief.

The content. Moses asks two “why” questions and makes one accusation: “neither have You delivered Your people at all” (5:23). The prayer is raw. It is also addressed to the right Person.

Lament in the Psalms. About a third of the Psalms contain lament. Psalm 13 moves from “How long, O Lord?” to “I have trusted in Your mercy.” Lament usually moves from complaint to trust, and God put the honest complaint in His Word too.

Lament in the prophets. Habakkuk asks, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). God answers Habakkuk, as He answers Moses, by revealing more of His plan.

God's response. God's answer in 6:1-8 contains no rebuke. It turns Moses' attention from what is happening to God's name and promises. When we bring God our honest questions, He shows us more of Himself.

Faith under pressure. Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair,” describe the same tension. The believer feels the pressure fully and is held anyway.

Jesus' lament. In Gethsemane Jesus prayed in agony, and on the cross He cried out in the words of Psalm 22. The Son of God lamented. His resurrection is God's final answer to every honest “why” brought by His people.

Blame and its cost. The officers' curse on Moses and Aaron (5:21) shows how suffering looks for a target. Moses absorbs the blame without returning it, and directs his complaint to God. That is a mark of the leader he is becoming, the man later called “very humble” (Numbers 12:3).

Silence is not faith. Is it more faithful to hide our pain from God? No. The psalmists, the prophets, Moses and Jesus all spoke their pain to God. Bottled grief can turn to bitterness; spoken grief can turn to trust.

God's timing. Exodus 6:1 begins with “Now.” God had a time for acting, and it was not the moment Moses wanted. Waiting in lament is part of learning that God's timing is wiser than ours.

Application. Lament is not disrespect. Silence and pretending are more dangerous to faith than honest prayer. Practice writing a short lament: name the problem, ask the question, and end with a statement of trust.

Promises for Tired People

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When Moses told the people God's promises, “they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage” (Exodus 6:9). They were too tired and sad to believe. But God's promises were still true.

God's “I will” promises. God said, “I will bring you out… I will rescue you… I will redeem you… I will take you as My people, and I will be your God… And I will bring you into the land” (6:6-8). Every promise depended on God.

Not “try harder.” Pharaoh said, “Make more bricks.” God said, “I will.” That is the difference between a harsh master and a loving God.

New every morning. “Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Each day God's kindness starts fresh.

He who promised is faithful. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Our hope rests on God's faithfulness, not on our feelings.

All things for good. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). God can use even the worst chapter of our lives for good.

Hard times grow hope. Paul wrote that “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4). God uses hard times to make us stronger.

Strength for the tired. “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary” (Isaiah 40:31).

Don't give up. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).

The biggest promise. God promised to redeem His people. Jesus kept that promise by dying on the cross for our sins and rising again. Because of Him, everyone who trusts Him belongs to God forever.

Help each other. When a friend is too sad to hope, you can remind them of God's promises. Sometimes we believe for each other until our friends can believe again.

What to do. Write one of God's promises on a card and keep it where you will see it. When you feel too tired to hope, read it out loud.

Exodus 6:9 is one of the saddest verses in the book: “they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.” The Hebrew qotser ruach (say: KOH-tser ROO-akh) means literally “shortness of breath” or “shortness of spirit.” Exhaustion had choked hope.

Promises that do not wait. God's promises in 6:6-8 are given to people who will not listen. They are unconditional in their source: “I am the Lord” opens and closes them (6:2, 8).

The verbs of grace. Bring out, rescue, redeem, take, be, bring in, give. Each one has God as subject. Israel's role is to receive.

Faithfulness in Lamentations. Lamentations was written after Jerusalem's destruction, in grief deeper than Israel's in Egypt. Yet at its center stands, “Great is Your faithfulness” (3:23). Hope there rests on God's character, not on what is happening.

Holding fast. Hebrews 10:23 grounds perseverance in God, not in our resolve: “for He who promised is faithful.” Faith may waver; the One trusted does not.

Romans 8:28 in context. The promise that “all things work together for good” sits inside a chapter about suffering, groaning and adoption. It is not a promise of ease but of purpose.

Suffering and character. Romans 5:3-5 traces a sequence from tribulation to perseverance, character and hope, and adds that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit is the guarantee.

Redemption accomplished. The promise “I will redeem you” (6:6) is fulfilled ultimately in Christ, “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us” (Titus 2:14). The cross and resurrection are God's “I will” turned into “It is finished.”

Faith that is carried. Israel did not believe in 6:9, yet within a few chapters they walked out of Egypt. God's faithfulness carried them until their faith could follow. Weak faith in a strong God is still faith.

Carrying one another. When one believer cannot hope, others can hope for them, pray for them, and remind them of God's promises. Galatians 6:9 is written to a church family: “let us not grow weary while doing good.”

Strength renewed. Isaiah 40:31 promises that “those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength.” The image is of exchange: our exhausted strength for His. It fits Israel's “shortness of spirit” exactly.

Application. When you cannot feel hope, you can still trust God's promises. Memorize one, and say it when your spirit feels short.

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Complete all sections to finish!

Read each section and answer the questions correctly.