Doubt

He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!”

¹³ “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wonders of which our fathers told us, saying, ‘Has not the LORD brought us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴ The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵ “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

¹⁶ “Surely I will be with you,” the LORD replied, “and you will strike down all the Midianites as one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon answered, “If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You speaking with me.

²⁰ I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

²¹ You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

²¹ “Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD,

²² not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

²³ not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

⁷ “Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?

⁸ Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time?

⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has His anger shut off His compassion?” Selah

¹⁰ So I said, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?

David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”

Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

⁶ But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

⁷ That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

⁸ He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “If You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said,

³⁷ then behold, I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that You are going to save Israel by my hand, as You have said.”

³⁸ And that is what happened. When Gideon arose the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me; let me speak one more time. Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time let it be dry, and the ground covered with dew.”

⁴⁰ And that night God did so. Only the fleece was dry, and dew covered the ground.

¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

² You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

“Why are you troubled,” Jesus asked, “and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

¹³ “Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?

¹⁵ So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

But Saul replied, “You cannot go out against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and told him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

²² “It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³ “If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁴ Now Thomas called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe.”

²⁶ Eight days later, His disciples were once again inside with the doors locked, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

²⁷ Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”

² Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples

³ to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

³⁰ But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

“You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

¹² So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³ And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’

¹⁴ Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ But Sarah was afraid, so she denied it and said, “I did not laugh.” “No,” replied the LORD, “but you did laugh.”

⁵ If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,

⁶ then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

⁷ Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

¹⁸ “How can I be sure of this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹ “I am Gabriel,” replied the angel. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

²⁰ And now you will be silent and unable to speak until the day this comes to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”

When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.

You grumbled in your tents and said, “Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be annihilated.

² So the people contended with Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why do you contend with me?” Moses replied. “Why do you test the LORD?”

³ But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

⁴ “You will not surely die,” the serpent told her.

⁵ “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?”

“Joseph is still alive,” they said, “and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” But Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

⁶⁴ However, there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray Him.)

⁶⁵ Then Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”

⁶⁶ From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”

³⁷ But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

³⁹ “Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”

¹⁹ So John called two of his disciples and sent them to ask the Lord, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

²⁰ When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?’”

¹¹ But their words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.

¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. And after bending down and seeing only the linen cloths, he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.