He allows them to lose their comfort for a season, so that He may make them feel more sensibly, and see more clearly, the deep depravity of their nature. We read that Jehovah led the Israelites "through a great and terrible wilderness in which there were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, and where there was no water... that He might humble them, and test them, to do them good in the end," Deut. 8.15-16 by revealing to them what was in their hearts.