The lessons appointed for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost reflect on the issue of the power and presence of God in the context of suffering. This narrative gives us no easy answers. If anything they exclude some cherished complacencies such as belief that God protects his people from suffering and pain and anguish and hopelessness. But in the text, suffering is undeserved and prolonged and bitter. The fact is that ordinary people lose control of their lives and see their children abused and murdered; but just as complacency is denied in this text, so is the complacency of despair. The people do not give up, instead they resist the cruelty of Pharaoh.

So you see that the perplexities of faith are as old as religion itself. There is a stage when belief in God raises problems instead of sol…