Over the past few days I have had a hard battle with the effects of the Covid virus. I am hoping I am over the hump and on the down side. Thanks for any and all's prayers. My wife and brother are also over the hump I believe. Keep up the prayers.
In the midst of my burning fever and bodily pain I said "Lord you said that no weapon that is formed against the servants of God will prosper" (citing the text below). I said, "Lord, you know that this virus is a weapon of our enemies (Communist China) and designed to kill us because they hate us as your servants. So, why is it killing even your people in light of what you seem to have promised in the text?"
The text reads as follows:
I also said to the Lord: "Lord, you know that China and other enemies of our country and the Christian community, have other weapons formed in order to harm us, especially in the time of the great tribulation, and Lord, we will not be able to survive it unless your word above becomes true for us at that time."
But, I have cognitive dissonance, and a trial of faith, regarding the meaning of the text and wherein it applies or does not apply. That dissonance arises from the fact that what the text affirms does not seem to reflect reality. In other words, many of God's servants have been harmed or killed by weapons. So, I looked for other possible explanations. I first considered that maybe by "servants of the LORD" were meant, not every servant, but the prophets. I thought of that text which reads as follows:
"14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; 15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." (Psa. 105: 14-16)
Though this text seems to apply the promise to those who are anointed and who are prophets, yet verses preceding and in the context seem to apply it to all servants of Yahweh. So we read of the evils of Jezebel, and the dissonance it (and other such instances) creates:
"While Jezebel was killing off the LORD's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water." (I Kings 18: 4 NIV)
So, in one case, God kept his servants from all harm, and yet in other cases, he suffered them to be murdered. So, does it or does it not apply to all God's servants?
Yes, I am reading some of the commentaries, but none yet have offered a lot of help. Anybody want to help rid me of the dissonance?
3 comments:
Brother Stephen, I too have often wondered about many verses where promises were made or implied, and yet it did not seem be so for every person. When I read more carefully however, I began to see more clearly. So let me share how I see the verses you mentioned if I may.
1. Tho the verses promise that no weapon formed against us will prosper, it does not imply that we will be immune to its blows in the short term. "Prospering" implies something that occurs over time. For example, we, in hindsight, can see that Nazi Germany did not "prosper" for it only lived 12 short years, while the USA has stood for 250 years. God's people were "immune" (as a group) to the long term affects of Nazism. Of course those that lived under Nazi persecution could not see what we now see, and many suffered martyrdom. Yet how many thousands came to faith because of those like Corrie ten Boom? How can we ignore that Israel became a nation again? How can we not see that Satan, in trying to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth, actually brought about the blossoming of the fig tree, because this great evil caused the nation of Israel to be brought back to their land? So Nazism failed and did not "prosper".
2. Did the weapons formed against Jesus "prosper"? No, but those weapons caused His death on the cross! It certainly seemed like those weapons formed against the Lord were "prospering", for the disciples all fled and hid. The religious leaders, who were evil, thought they had won. Even decades and centuries later, Christians were hunted down and executed. Yet it has been said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." I remember reading somewhere that it was said of the Baptists, "every time we cut one down, three more takes his place." This can be true of any true believer. Tho the weapons have cut some of us, they have never once over come us. Who will be closest to His throne in heaven? the martyrs!
3. Sometimes, it may seem that those weapons are prospering, esp when we are sick, when in fact, they are bringing about our immunity to them. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
4. Finally, I have come to see that all Scripture has a literal, physical, and spiritual meaning. Some of us get to see the literal (such as the disciples seeing Jesus walk on water). Many more get to experience the physical (such as is seeing the nation of Israel be reborn). But ALL of us may see the spiritual, because we don't always have to understand "why" in order to "know". Corrie Ten Boom had no way of knowing how long the madness would last, but she was able to see past it. God gave her the eyes to see the future, tho she did not know when it would come. She was prepared to die, and her preparation for death, paved the way for life being given to others, as her testimony snatched them from the clutches of hell, bringing them to the feet of the Savior.
Remember the first promise "he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." If God Himself, in the form of man, suffered from those evil weapons, so too shall we. Tho our heels be bruised, the weapon shall be crushed. Remember also that the word "Christian" means "little Christ", or as I like to say "Christ Junior". I will prevail, because He has prevailed. Praying for you always dear friend!
Dear brother Ken:
I too have had such thoughts about the passage. Thanks for taking the time to give a fellow colleague some help. Let us see if some others have anything to add. Perhaps I will write a follow up later. I have so many writing projects left to do, and having so much sickness lately, I have gotten behind schedule.
Blessings,
Stephen
I have found much help in meditating on Luke 21:16-19 and Romans 8:35-39.
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