Handling Hard Questions Biblically

Before doing this Bible study, please read the one-minute introduction We Must Trust God with 3 Mysteries of Life. Or listen to it on YouTube: 3 Mysteries.

It explains that:

1. We won't understand everything in life.  
2. Not everything has a logical cause and effect.
3. People don't need "good reasons" to sin. 

Bible Study

As you read through these passages, consider how they can help you when you are confused and discouraged by difficulties in life.

God's Prerogative

Deuteronomy 29:29: The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. 

Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

1 Corinthians 13:12: For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

I am blessed to know that my knowledge will never match the knowledge of our all-knowing God. If I could understand everything He understands, He would be on my level, but He's not!

Job's Friends

Job's friends could not deal with the fact that Job was righteous but was suffering. So they tried to find reasons for his tragedies.  Below is one accusation from Eliphaz.

Job 22:5: Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?

And this is God's response to Job's friends:

Job 42:7: After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 

For additional insights see the 1-minute devotion Job's Friends   

Joseph's Choice

The world is full of examples of people who faced hardship and did the right things and people who faced similar hardships and did the wrong things. Sin is a choice. 

Joseph wisely chose to live his life on this premise:

Genesis 50:20: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.   

Genesis 50:20 is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 8:28, putting the hard mysteries of life into God's hands and trusting Him to work out everything for our good.

Romans 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

For additional insights see Bad Blood  

copyright 2015, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, updated 2026 

 

Studying God's Unique Rescues

Before doing this Bible study, please read the one-minute introduction 3 Unique Ways God Rescued His People. It explains that the psalmist Asaph was discouraged so he remembered all that God had done in the past.

It's helpful to look at some of the characteristics of Old Testament situations, not because God will do exactly the same thing in our lives, but because they show us some unique ways God strengthens people's faith.

In the passages below, note how bleak things looked for the people.
Then note how God rescued them.

Exodus 14:10-18: 

No Place to Run

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” 

Reminder of Who's in charge

13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” 

God's "Plan C" Rescue

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”  

For additional Thoughts, read "God's Plan C". 

Have you ever felt like life offered you two bad choices and no good choice? Seek God. Perhaps He has a third choice you never imagined.

Joshua 2:9-11, 6:20-23: 

Rahab's Fear and Faith

[Rahab] said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 

The Look of Hopelessness

20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. 

Sometimes when God asks you to conquer something enormous, He makes it easier than we ever imagined!

God Destroys Rahab's Walls & Places Her on the Rock

22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” 23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. 

Remember that our God can save a prostitute in an evil, pagan city. If you're praying for a loved one's salvation, keep praying.

For more insights, read these 1-minute devotions about Rahab's story:

The Prostitute

She Had A Past and a Future

Crumbling Walls

A Scarlet Cord

God Honors a Prostitute

Jonah 2: 

From the Depths to the Heights- 

God Saves Jonah from His Unfounded Fears and False Values

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. 7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” 10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. 

I hope that studying these times when God rescued His people will help you understand that our God works in mysterious ways. We can't always figure Him out, but we can trust Him!!

If you're headed in the wrong direction, don't be like Jonah. Turn back and trust God's purposes in your life. Avoid the belly of the whale situations.

For additional insights, you might enjoy this 1-minute devotion:

Don't Let Circumstances Eat You

copyright 2015, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated in 2026.

 

 

Deception Beneath a Mask

Before doing this Bible study, please read the one-minute introduction: Unbelief With a Christian Mask. It offers some examples of “professing” Christians who live by worldly principles while claiming to follow God.

Sadly, many who profess Christ don't really know Him. 

The examples in the devotion resemble many true situations I've heard about, and they have similar characteristics: 

The first two examples in the devotion turn their backs on people who graciously and lovingly cared for them. This is a growing problem in our culture as people no longer value hard work but look for handouts (See 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). 

They are unwilling to accept any disagreement and refuse to handle differences maturely. Romans 12 is a good passage to read in regard to how we are to treat people (even bad people) with whom we disagree.

In addition, the pastor completely violates one of the Big Ten (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2-3) by dishonoring his parents while claiming to love God. 

Those who do ministry in the church will be judged more strongly because of the influence they have (James 3:1).

✔ Ungratefulness 

1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Proverbs 17:13: “If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.”

See That's Easy for You to Say and God Calls Their Worship a Farce. 

✔ Holding grudges

Hebrews 12:15: “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

 

For more insights on bitterness see Spiritual "Cancer" and Don't Keep This Kind of List. 

 

 ✔ Cutting off contact, refusing to reconcile

Matthew 5:23-24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Proverbs 18:1: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” 

For more on this popular form of selfishness, see Are Boundaries Biblical?  

 

The third example put on a front but secretly stabbed her Christian friends in the back. 

✔  Lying/Slander

Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” 

 

For more on slander see: It's Serious, No Lie! and  Slander Against Christian Friends and Family Is on the Rise 

2 Timothy 3:1-6 (below) so accurately describes the examples in our modern culture, examples of people who have an outward form of godliness while denying the true commands and attitudes of Christianity. Note how each of the traits mentioned above are included.

 

2 Timothy 3:1-6: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,* ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

 

* The increasing popularity of the Boundaries movement and the increase in estrangements between parents and adult children shows that most Christians are unaware that God considers disrespect of parents a serious adult sin. It's not only listed in 2 Timothy 3:1-6 above but similarly listed in Romans 1:30. While it uses the term “disobedient to parents,” it doesn't mean that adults must obey everything their parents tell them to do. Commentators explain it this way: “This expresses the idea that they did not show to parents that honor, respect, and attention which was due” (Barnes' Notes on the Bible); they are “stubborn and rebellious against those that bare them.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary); The Greek word for disobedience in this passage notes an unwillingness to prefer what God prefers - God tells men to honor their parents, but in the last days children of all ages will deny God's commands.