When difficult things come together at once
“… If you will not believe, you surely shall not last” (Isaiah 7:9b).
I don’t understand why difficult things come together at once. I thought everything was going fine and suddenly I don’t know what to do when things go off here and there. I cannot afford to take care even one of those things. But since there are several, I cannot bear them any longer. Both my mind and body are exhausted. My heart is heavy and discouraged in distress. I shed my tears in pain. I remember the song ‘You are my son’: ‘When I am hard, disappointed and exhausted, when I fall and there is no strengthen to arise, the Lord comes quietly to me and holds my hand and speaks to me’, ‘When I am disappointed by myself, when I am weak and tired, and when I shed tears in pain, the Lord wipes away my tears with His hand that has nail scar and speak to me ...’ What should we do? We must hear the voice of God who speaks to us. And we must obey the voice of the Lord.
When we read the Bible, we often see Satan battling united front when attacking us who believe in Jesus. For example, when we look at Nehemiah 4, the people who opposed Nehemiah and the people of Judah united their fronts when Nehemiah and the people of Judah were rebuilding the Jerusalem and its wall. Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites (Neh. 4:7) were against Nehemiah and the people of Judah, to prevent them from rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. We can see this kind of association of the enemies coming together also in Luke 23:12 – “Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.” In the persecution of Jesus, Herod and Pilate who were enemies with each other became friends and held united front against Jesus. Even now, the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Lord’s church are joining together to attack the church together to prevent the church from being rebuilt. Likewise, Satan is doing evil to prevent our faith from being established. One of the ways of Satan is to make us to suffer from hardships and tiredness by bringing us many difficulties things together at once. Satan’s intention and purpose is to shake our faith in Him by making us to be confused. And the reason why Satan wants to shake our faith in Him is to make us to leave the Lord and His Church. What should we do? We must hear the voice of God speaking to us. And we must obey the voice of the Lord.
When we look at the background story of Isaiah 7:9, King of Israel Pekah came up to Jerusalem to wage war against King Ahaz, king of Judah, but couldn’t conquer Jerusalem (v. 1). So King Pekah made an alliance with Rezin, king of Aram, and together they invaded Judah. When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephrain,” King Ahaz’s heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind (v. 2). At that time, God spoke to Ahaz, the king of Judah, and the people of Judah, through prophet Isaiah. From what God said to Ahaz through prophet Isaiah, I would like to take three lessons on what to do when difficult things come together at once:
First, we must not be afraid and lost heart.
Look at Isaiah 7:4 – “Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood--because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.” God spoke to King Ahaz through prophet Isaiah to be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid and don’t lose heart. Can you imagine what will happen to a country when a king of that country is afraid and lost his heart? What would happen if the leader dwells in fear and discouragement and not being careful, not keeping calm but speaks his fears and discouragements to his people? Wouldn’t his people also be afraid and discouraged as well? So God said to King Ahaz, ‘Don’t be afraid. Don’t lose heart’ (v. 4).
We must not be afraid and not lost heart as the Word of God says even though the situations that we are in are fearful and discouraging. Especially if we are leaders in a family and an organization, we should not be afraid and be discouraged more than others. For example, when there are many difficulties in the home, what would happen to our wives and children if we were afraid and discouraged? Although the leaders are in fearful and discouraging situation, they must overcome their fear and discouragement as the Lord says. This is very challenging for me because I tend to get discouraged. That’s why I cannot but meditate on the Word of God more and more day and night. The reason is that the more I meditate on the Word of God, the more I will have faith and trust in God (cf. Ps. 1, Jer. 17). And the more I trust in God, the more I will not be afraid and not be discouraged in fearful and discouraging situations. I want to be courageous rather than afraid. I also want to be hopeful rather than be discouraged. I hope and pray that I will look upon my Lord who is my hope and boldly walk by faith as I endure and persevere any kinds of hardships and difficulties.
Second, we must believe the words of the Lord as it is.
Look at Isaiah 7:7 – “thus says the Lord GOD: "It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.” Another word God spoke to King Ahaz of Judah through the prophet Isaiah was that the plan of the king of Israel would never stand nor would it come to pass according to the plan of Aram (v. 7). Here, the plan was evil against King Ahaz (v. 5) and the plan was to go up against Judah and terrorize it, “and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it” (v. 6). But the word of God that came to Ahaz king of Judah was ‘the plan would never stand and come to pass according to their plan’ (vv. 5-7).
The truth we should believe is that only the plan of the Lord stand firm forever (Ps. 33:11). And the Lord can do all things and no plan of his can be thwarted (Job 42:2). Though a man has many plans and he plans his course in his heart “but the Lord determines his steps” and “it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Prov. 16:9; 19:21). Our Lord who has planned it will surely do it and bring it to pass (Isa. 46:11). Apostle Paul had this faith. Since he had appealed to Caesar (Acts 26:32), he was in a ship to be sailed to Italy (27:1). But the ship met a violent wind (v. 14) and thus there was damage and loss (v. 21). At that time, among the 276 people who were aboard on that ship, except Paul, the rest of the 275 people lost their hope of being saved (v. 20). These 275 people gave up their lives and waited for death without the hope of salvation. Because of the violent wind called Euraquilo (v. 14), the people in the ship threw the cargo overboard (v. 18). “On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands” (v. 19). But neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging. So they finally gave up all hope of being saved (v. 20). The reason is that they looked at the big storm than Creator God who made the heaven and the earth. But Paul had the hope and conviction of salvation. The reason is that he heard the voice of God (vv. 23-24). That was why Paul confidently said to the rest of the 275, “So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” I also seek the same faith and confidence as Paul. I believe that the Lord will fulfill His promise word of John 5:1-15 that he gave to me during the church college retreat in 1987 and of Matthew 16:18 that he gave to me during the church leaders’ retreat in 2003. In times of hardship and difficulties, not only that the Lord has comforted me with these words of promise but also restore and revive my soul and brought me thus far by His grace. I hope and pray that I will continue to advance by faith until the day that the Lord will fulfill the promises which He has given me.
Third and last, we must stand firm.
Look at Isaiah 7:9 – “… If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.” God told Ahaz, the king of Judah, through prophet Isaiah that the capital of Aram is Damascus and Rezin, the king of Aram, would not be able to widen its territory and the Israel would be too shattered to be a people within 65 years (v. 8). After saying that, God encouraged King Ahaz to firmly believe and stand firm. If not, King Ahaz surely would not last (v. 9).
We must firmly believe and stand firm. Although our enemies the Satan’s people are united front and attack us in order to shake our faith, we must stand firm and should not be shaken. We must not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but should be strengthened in our faith and give glory to God (Rom. 4:20). We must hold fast to the word of the promise, and we must keep it (Prov. 4:13). And we must hold unswervingly to the hope we profess because He who promised if faithful (Heb. 10:23). We must hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first (3:14). We must stand firm in the Lord as we trust God (2 Chron. 20:20, I Thess. 3:8).
When difficult things come together at once, we can be afraid, worry and be filled with anxiety. So we try our best to endure all the difficult things. But when we cannot endure any longer, we fall down in despair. At that time, we must look to the Lord. And we must listen to the voice of the Lord. Today, at this very moment, the Lord is speaking to us: 'Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged', 'You must believe my words', 'stand firmly' (Isa. 7:4, 7, 9) . I hope and pray that we hear these words of the Lord and obey Him.