Well, today we look at being tempted and tested, and the difference between those two phenomena,

even when the Greek terms are identical for tempting and testing.

Today's question is about God's motives when he brings affliction into our lives.

And the question is based on three of our most recent Bible readings in Jeremiah and

Lamentations.

And the question is from a young man in Baltimore.

Hello, Pastor John.

I've heard you preach and teach on Lamentations 333, where it says the Lord does not

afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. But I'm struggling to reconcile

this verse with Jeremiah 2320, which says, the anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has executed and accomplished the intense of his heart. Specifically, I'm wrestling

with how to understand God's wrath and judgment in light of these verses.

Lamentations tells us that God does not afflict from his heart, yet Jeremiah speaks of his anger being executed according to the intents of his heart.

And then there's a similar verse in Jeremiah 30, verse 24, where the language shifts slightly to refer to the intentions of his mind rather than his heart.

How do I make sense of this tension between these passages?

How can God's judgment and anger be in accordance with his heart's intention?

And yet lamentation says he does not afflict from his heart.

I'm eager to understand these passages more clearly with a heart full of gratitude

for all that is done by you and desiring God.

This is the kind of question that turns a Bible reader into a theologian.

Thousands of people read their Bibles with great benefit, and yet some read their Bibles

with that same benefit and ask difficult questions and linger over those questions long

...