Introduction
Those who love the Lord, and who love His Word, are confronted every day with the spectacle of a world that seems hellbent. The rebellion against sexual reality is robust and ongoing, the economic insanity that governs our ruling classes is an advanced case, the fiscal insanity that has had lawmakers by the throat for the last few years is tightening its grip, and the postmodern hubris that surrounds all of it with a serene bubble of self-congratulation appears to be a hard shell, and not a bubble at all.
Moreover, there is a real hostility to those who have remained sane, and it is especially directed at those who have expressed any of that sanity in a public forum. A lot of Christians are seeing these things unfold at a pace that has been far more rapid than they thought it would unfold, and they are wondering if they will have time to brace themselves.
I believe that the answer to that question is yes, and here is a little encouragement for you, as you brace yourselves.
Deliverance is a Major Scriptural Theme
So if you will permit, I would like to share with you a small battery of quotations from Scripture. God is our Savior. He is our Deliverer. This is what He does, and He loves to do it in this particular way.
“The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”
Ps. 34:7 (KJV)
In other words, we should operate on the basis of realities that our adversaries do not see, and cannot understand.
“Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.”
Ex. 9:26 (KJV)
No doubt there could have been an Egyptians weatherman back then, one who had Pharaoh’s ear, who was able to explain the meteorological fluke that had spared Goshen. Science.
“They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.”
Ps. 125:1-2 (KJV)
Earlier we saw that angels encamp around believers. Here we see that we dwell in a mountain fortress, and God Himself is the mountain range. With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou mayest smile at all thy foes.
“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
REv. 7:2-3 (KJV)
Judgment is coming, but God takes care to have His angels mark His servants first. Devastation is coming, and so the saints need to be sealed beforehand.
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our king; he will save us.”
Is. 33:22 (KJV)
As we look out at the stampeding folly that passes for the wisdom of this world, we do so because we have a clear word from God. He is our lawgiver. The fact that He has told us how the world is supposed to go is why we understand how everything is now demented and deranged. But note this: God is not just a giver of the law. He is the one who brings salvation. God delivers. The God who saves us from our folly is the same God who law/word defines what folly is.
Why the Brinksmanship?
I have written on a number of occasions that God loves cliffhangers. He loves to bring His people right up to the scary edge. Why does He do that?
First, let us review the fact that He does in fact do that. Abraham is told to take his son Isaac to the region of Moriah (where the Lord Jesus was crucified centuries later) in order to sacrifice him there. He goes so far as to have Isaac bound on the altar, and knife in the air, and then God intervenes (Gen. 22:11). And so God is called Jehovah-jireh. On the mount it will be provided.
David is running away from Saul, and he is on one side of the mountain, and Saul is hot after him, just on the other side. And then that is the moment when the Philistines invade and Saul has to break off pursuit (1 Sam. 23:26).
When Moses told the Israelites to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, what was their actual circumstance? There they were, water lapping at their toes, over a million of them. Deep water in front of them, and they could see the dust of Pharaoh’s chariots coming up behind them. It is not exactly shocking that doubts arose in the the minds and mouths of some. What did they have on their side? An old man with a stick (Ex. 14:13-14).
Who among them would have imagined that every one of those chariots behind them was soon to be buried under the water in front of them.
So God does this. Over and over again He does this. But why does He do this?
“For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us”
2 Cor. 1:8-10 (KJV)
God is going to deliver us, but He is going to do it in such a way as that He gets the glory. And by “He,” I am not referring to the pasty, enervated, etiolated, and anemic god of American civic religion. I am referring to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If there ever were a people who needed to learn how not to trust in themselves, but in the God who raises the dead, it would be can-do Americans. And look. From the text, what is the appointed pathway to “not trusting in yourself?” It is discovering the sentence of death within yourself.