This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.
- The tough times we go through are part of what life is all about.
Some words in Scripture seem to come at the right place, and at just the right time.
In Isaiah 42 Judah is told of their pitiful plight – because of their inability to hear and see what God wanted to do in their chosenness they become a plundered and looted people, trapped in a prison-like existence with no one to rescue them.
“But, now” – the first two words of Isaiah 43. I am creating you, forming you. I have redeemed you and called you by name. You. Are. Mine. The water and the fire will not destroy you.
I’ve got a few people in my life that need this message right now. Their life is in shambles, things look bleaker than ever, hope seems elusive. From my outside perspective, it seems to me like God is saying to them, “I’ve got you where I want you. You are in trouble, empty, in debt up to your eyeballs and your relationships are teetering. Ready to pivot?”
“But, now” is the pivot.
One of these people just got baptized. A friend retorted, “Why did you do that? Here come the challenges.” The case was being made, apparently, that the devil hates newly baptized people so much he attacks with fury. I don’t doubt that could happen. More likely, however, my new believing friend was going to go through difficult times anyway…now, he has the Lord right there with him, sustaining him.
C.S. Lewis once famously wrote that “There is no neutral ground in the universe: Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” Which means, of course, struggle for those of us living cosmically claimed and counter-claimed lives. Carolyn Arends talks of a missionary couple that came to her church and shared an amazing personal tale: One day an enormous snake made its way into the kitchen of their home. They were terrified and ran to get some local help. A neighbor with a machete came and decapitated the snake with one chop. Walking out their door he told them the snake was headless, but don’t go inside. The snake didn’t know yet it was dead. A snake’s neurology ensures that for a few hours that thing would thrash about, smashing furniture and wreak general havoc in their home until realizing it was a goner.
The missionary said: “Satan is a lot like that big old snake. He’s already been defeated. He just doesn’t know it yet. In the meantime, he’s going to do some damage. But never forget that he’s a goner.”
The Lord, through Isaiah: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” (43:1b-2) Notice, it is not “if” you pass through waters and fire, but “when.” He says to Judah, and by extension, to you and me that you most assuredly are going to go through waters and fire and, nonetheless, He promises us Himself. He is Immanuel, He is with us.
The power of that Presence is show in the words “I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.” Egypt looms large in Israel’s history, of course. Cush and Seba are further down the Nile which is probably a way for Isaiah to poetically and geographically say that His saving reach is wider and even greater than before and, as will surely come to realization in later years, that God can rearrange international affairs to get His people where He wants them to be. For you and I – He can rearrange any situation He wants to get us into the position where we can be His witnesses. Through water, fire…but always with His presence He intends to impact the world around us, through us.
The tough times we go through are part of what life is all about. “Fear not” God wants us to hear “I am closer to you than you are to yourselves, and your best days are yet to come.” Guaranteed, in Christ.
This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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