Afflictions and Adversities: Design of
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Deuteronomy 8:2, 16
Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. / He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
Deuteronomy 30:1–3
“When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, / and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, / then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you.
Deuteronomy 31:17
On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’
Judges 2:21, 22
I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. / In this way I will test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it as their fathers did.”
1 Kings 8:33–48
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading with You in this temple, / then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to their fathers. / When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
2 Chronicles 6:24–31
When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading before You in this temple, / then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to them and their fathers. / When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
2 Chronicles 7:13, 14
If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, / and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Job 33:11, 16–30
He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’ / He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings / to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
Job 36:8–10
And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction, / then He tells them their deeds and how arrogantly they have transgressed. / He opens their ears to correction and commands that they turn from iniquity.
Psalm 66:10
For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.
Psalm 106:43, 44
Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity. / Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.
Psalm 107:10–14, 17–21, 23–31
Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains, / because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High. / He humbled their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
Psalm 119:71
It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.
Ecclesiastes 7:14
In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.
Isaiah 1:25–27
I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities. / I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.” / Zion will be redeemed with justice, her repentant ones with righteousness.
Isaiah 4:3, 4
Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem who are recorded among the living— / when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.
Isaiah 9:13, 14
But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts. / So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.
Isaiah 52:5, 6
And now what have I here? declares the LORD. For My people have been taken without cause; those who rule them taunt, declares the LORD, and My name is blasphemed continually all day long. / Therefore My people will know My name; therefore they will know on that day that I am He who speaks. Here I am!”
Jeremiah 24:5
“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.
Lamentations 1:5
Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.
Ezekiel 6:10
And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.
Ezekiel 14:10, 11
They will bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer will be the same as that of the prophet— / in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions. Then they will be My people and I will be their God, declares the Lord GOD.’”
Daniel 4:25–27, 34
You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes. / As for the command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that Heaven rules. / Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
Hosea 5:15
Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Amos 4:6
“I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
Micah 6:9
The voice of the LORD calls out to the city (and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name): “Heed the rod and the One who ordained it.
Malachi 3:3
And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
John 9:2, 3
and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” / Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.
John 11:4
When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
John 15:2
He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.
John 21:19
Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And after He had said this, He told him, “Follow Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:32
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
2 Corinthians 1:4–6
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. / For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. / If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience.
2 Corinthians 4:11, 17
For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body. / For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
2 Corinthians 12:7
or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Philippians 1:29, 30
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, / since you are encountering the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
2 Thessalonians 1:4, 5
That is why we boast among God’s churches about your perseverance and faith in the face of all the persecution and affliction you are enduring. / All this is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment. And so you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
Hebrews 2:10–18
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. / For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. / He says: “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing Your praises in the assembly.”
Hebrews 5:8, 9
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered. / And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him
Hebrews 12:5–11
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. / For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” / Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
1 Peter 1:6, 7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials / so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.
Revelation 2:10
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.