Whatever Occurs, Know That God Is Always With You
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(2) <God said,> “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.” (3) “…I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”’ (Jeremiah 31:2-3)
There are those of us who are Faithful who believe that there is evidence that God has taken His hand away from the United States and the world, as we find our society becoming more pagan and ungodly, and more natural disasters allowed to strike us. This may or may not be true; however, many Christians have a crisis of Faith when bad things happen to them.
Storms of every variety strike us; it can be a hurricane that damages or destroys our homes and property. Perhaps a loved one is injured or killed in a senseless act of violence. As mentioned in a previous posting, the question of ‘Why me?’ or ‘Why us, Lord?’ is often posed. It’s natural, and it is OK to seek an answer to the ‘why’ of an event, but often that answer is already provided in the Bible by God.
Today’s Word-of-the-Day comes from Jeremiah, when God told Jeremiah about the impending exile to Babylon for the majority of the Israelites, and the sacking of Jerusalem by the hands of the Assyrians, due to the faithlessness of the people and their kings. But God also told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 30 of Israel’s return (70 years later) to Jerusalem, and of God’s encompassing ‘agape’ love for His people in Jeremiah 31.
In Jeremiah’s day, there were certainly good, God-fearing and loving people in Israel. They were, however, going to suffer the same corporate fate as the rest of Israel, which turned pagan and secular, away from God. Daniel and the Pep Boys (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, or their more familiar Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego) and other Godly people were taken into exile along with the other Israelites, and they thrived (with some obvious trials) in their new homes off the Euphrates.
Fast forward to today; the 2020’s, at least 2020 through 2025, will not go down as one of our best periods. This period is full of negative events, for both the Christian and for the pagan. We know Christians who have been persecuted in the US and Canada. There have been Bibles burnt, churches invaded and damaged, and Christians terrorized during times of civil unrest, along with the liquor stores and the owners and customers. Many Christians believe this is a period God has taken His hand from the US and the world to show what a time without God would look like. Many Christians also question why God is not shielding us from these events.
The answer is simple – He is protecting us! The Christian should be able to stand through these troubles in Joy. The Holy Spirit is with us, and we find satisfaction knowing God is with us no matter the circumstance we find ourselves in. We find that God was with Lot and his family as Lot’s ‘hometown’ of Sodom was getting laid to waste by God’s wrath, for example. But, what of those Christians who were not delivered into safety, like the Christian martyrs of Nero’s Rome, who were used and fodder for animals and gladiators in the Coliseum or strung up as human torches to light the streets of Rome at night? How could anyone be Faithful if bad things happen to them? How can we say He is protecting us if we can become martyrs in horrific deaths such as these?
We find the answer laid out with a quote from the Pep Boys, as they were about to be made into ‘S’mores’ by King Nebuchadnezzar; ‘whether God delivers us or not, that’s His decision. We will only worship Him’ (paraphrasing Daniel 3:17-18) was their response to old Neb’s threat. They understood that perhaps God’s will would want them to die, in a show of their unwavering Faith and obedience to Him. As we know, Jesus joined them in the furnace (in a Christophany, or an Old Testament appearance by Jesus) to deliver them from the fire and be a better example that their God was the one true God and demonstrate to both the Babylonians and the exiled Jews a false god and an earthly king was no match to compete with Him.
We suffer alongside the pagan, not as punishment but to be examples to them. To show them that our strength is with our Lord, that while we suffer, we have Joy – the Hope of eternal happiness through God’s Grace by way of the Love of His Son, Jesus. In metallurgy, when steel is being refined everything is melted into a fiery-hot cauldron. This separates the impurities within the steel and allows the impurities to go to the top to be skimmed off and removed as they come up to the surface. The steel stays molten until the dregs are completely removed.
Some steel is sacrificed during the skimming, but in the end the remaining steel is pure and can be used to its full capacity to bear loads and remain rigid in use. The steel skimmed off is still steel, even if it didn’t survive the refining process. In much the same way, the Christian community goes through the same process.
The exception is that we, as the Christians being steel, have the opportunity to have those who would be skimmed away as dregs to give them the ability to join us. God loves all, but only the Christian can be a Child of God, a Brother or Sister of Christ. Stay the course and do not lose Faith and maintain your Joy, and be the example to those around you – especially those who have not yet accepted Jesus as their Lord!
