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traces of a hidden future victory

Psalm 105:23-25 (JDV)

Psalm 105:23 Then Israel went to Egypt; Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
Psalm 105:24 Yahveh made his people very fruitful; he made them more numerous than their foes,
Psalm 105:25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people and to deal deceptively with his servants.

Kaiser reconciles this hard saying by calling it “another instance in which we will have to distinguish between the permissive will of God and his directive will concerning evil” (169). He says that this section of Psalm 105 “centers on the Lord’s control of the events of history. Even acts of enmity, and the crafty schemes of a Pharaoh bent on destroying God’s people, were under the control of Israel’s Lord” (170).

Everything God permits is part of his plan and under his control. Those things that we do not understand are not signs of God’s defeat, but traces of a hidden future victory. We have to trust God when things happen we don’t understand. They happen for a reason.

Kaiser Walter C. Hard Sayings of the Old Testament. InterVarsity Press 1988.