Why Doesn't God Intervene? The Biblical Truth Nobody Tells You [Sermon PDF]

Introduction: When You Cry Out and the Storm Gets Darker

In life, every human being goes through situations where you wish you had divine intervention, an instant miracle. Early this morning, returning from a trip after a long adventure — one of those that can happen, where everything goes wrong, where everything gets difficult —, human fragility made me question myself: What happened? Who was the unlucky one? Why aren't things going well? Why, if we prayed to God, didn't He intervene to stop all the setbacks on the road so His servant could have smooth sailing?

Then, when things got even more complicated, I began to see lightning, thunder, and flashes in the distance. I said: "Oh no, a storm." I prayed to God: "Lord, act, protect us from that storm, stop it. We have children with us." And at that moment... everything went darker. We entered the storm.

I was praying in my mind, asking myself: What should I preach about today? And then it came to me: Why doesn't God intervene when we expect Him to? Why doesn't a miracle happen? Why do we have to go through what we have to go through? Doesn't God hear me? I only understood that God does hear us, but there is a course in the history of mankind called: Faith, Responsibility, and Obedience.

You can pray: "Lord, keep me from accidents," but if you fall asleep at the wheel... I don't even want to imagine.

I. Moments When God Acts, But Doesn't Do Everything

1) Joseph, the Adoptive Father of Jesus (Matthew 2:13)

a. When JESUS is born, the threat of death against Him becomes critical (v. 13).

b. Only an angel appears in a dream and warns Joseph:

• "Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt." Why didn't God perform a supernatural transfer, for example, like that of Elijah or Philip?

• King Herod is going to kill Him. Was Herod more powerful than God? Why didn't God just take his life? Why not give him a heart attack and be done with it? Later we see that God does, but in His determined timing.

c. Then a great number of children are killed. Why didn't God intervene?

d. There is no answer as to why God works this way, and trying to answer is presumptuous, but God allows the course of human responsibility to run its course.

• The responsibility for disobedience and sin in humanity is a human choice.

• God shows respect toward the personality of man and toward the meaningful maturity of our actions. Although God did not intervene for the children, His plan at that moment was Joseph, Jesus, and Mary.

• If God intervened to nullify the consequences of our negative actions, we would cease to be men created in the image of God, with responsibility and free will.

• I could say: What if I had done this? What if I hadn't stayed one more day and had left earlier? I only understand one thing: that God will never leave us alone, He will walk by our side, and even if there's a storm and it gets dark, faith tells me: "I am with you."

2) Human Responsibility

a. Faith is an act of obedience. You may not see a miracle (though they do happen), but Faith is walking without demeaning or complaining against God saying: "Why didn't you intervene?"

• God sent Joseph a command: "Flee" (v. 15 says this had to be fulfilled).

• Joseph had to struggle through the darkness, the escape, the danger of the desert, until reaching Egypt.

• From Bethlehem to the border, the baby was already two years old. There were approximately 180 km to the border, but it is said that where Jews resided, there in the Nile delta, it was about 300 km approximately. That means they must have walked about one month, at night, through the desert. Remember: they left urgently.

• The question: did God intervene, yes or no? Of course, but there had to be the human element: obedience, trust, action. "I go because God is with me."

• Do you want a miracle? But you don't want to do anything? Remember: "The process is your growth." It is your spiritual maturity. It is waiting on God.

• God's intervention did not eliminate the hard road; it only guaranteed that the road had a purpose. The desert for Israel was a purpose. God manifested Himself, He worked, something good had to come out. But God said:

"Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way through the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years." — Deuteronomy 8:2-4

3) The Silence of God: A Form of His Intervention

(Habakkuk 1:12-17)

"Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction. You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he...?"

a. Habakkuk accused God of doing nothing, of turning His face the other way, and God had to rebuke him. Even though God may be silent, it does not mean He is not doing something.

b. Habakkuk's responsibility was to worship God, know Him, and wait:

"But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." — Habakkuk 2:20

c. Do you know how long Jacob mourned his son Joseph? 22 years in which God did nothing, told him nothing, revealed nothing, only remained silent.

• God many times does not reveal anything to us, because Jacob would have damaged God's purpose in Joseph, and His goal was to save that entire generation from dying of hunger.

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them." — Genesis 50:20-21

• God was working in Joseph's heart, an immature young man, to turn him into a responsible, capable, intelligent man.

• He allowed Joseph's brothers to be tamed by guilt for long years (Genesis 42:21).

• Jacob already knew how God had dealt with him all along:

"They told him, 'Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.' Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. Then Israel said, 'I'm convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.'" — Genesis 45:26-28

• His spirit revived. And after this, he even prophesied things that nobody knew... "only God."

Conclusion

Do you have something to complain about against God? Do you have many unanswered questions? The storm is getting darker, and you're waiting for God to intervene. He will do what He must do in His timing. You and I must be quiet and obey. Work does not exempt responsibility: serve, seek, worship.

"Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.'" — John 2:4

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