Maybe, like Alexander, you’re having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” The boss is on your back, brothers and sisters are picking on you, you lost your debit card, the mosquitos are swarming around you, the dog chewed up your shoe, weeds have overtaken your garden, you’re late to your appointment because the car has a flat tire… you get the idea. Ugh! You’re ready to punch someone out or put your fist through the wall. What’s the meaning of all this? How can you get through this?
The teacher says a fascinating thing in Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what He has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” Now maybe you’ve made poor choices and made your own path crooked, but here in Ecclesiastes, the teacher is clearly saying God makes things crooked and adverse. Isaiah (14:27) asked the same question: “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will cancel it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” Remember that God is in charge. No speck of dust is outside of His command. He knows every sparrow that falls and every hair on your head. He is wise and true and just and powerfully in control of all events in the world, even the hard and unpleasant ones. Sometimes He makes things crooked, and no one can correct or change any of God’s works.
God can do all things. It is not beyond Him to form light and create darkness, to make well-being and create calamity (Isaiah 45:7). It is not beyond God to bring disaster upon a city (Amos 3:6). God meant for Joseph’s brothers to bring hardship into his life (Genesis 50:20). It was God’s definite plan to deliver up Jesus to be crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men for sins He did not commit (Acts 2:23). His ways are not our ways. He can do and bring and allow crummy things, as He wills. Do you know this God?
How can you respond when you’re having that “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” and your path is crooked? You can acknowledge Him and trust He does what He does because He knows what He’s doing. Why should you fight it? Why should you question? Job’s wife was upset with their suffering, but he replied, “Don’t be foolish. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil (Job 2:10)?” It is vain and pointless and even sinful to fight against God and His actions. He is at work in your life, either good or bad. He is ordering and overruling. He sees all events and outcomes, and maybe that struggle you face today will turn out for your good. I was fired from a job once, and as I look back, although it was unpleasant at the time, it actually worked out for my good. Or maybe the hardship and struggle is a time to grow, to lean in on God and trust Him more. He does not abandon you in the crooked. He is with you always. As Paul said in Philippians 4:6-7, “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That’s how we deal with crooked.