Jesus gave us a frightening prophesy of the last days. After telling us that persecution will happen with the government and religious institutions complicit in persecuting individuals on His account, Jesus notes that we should not expect immediate relief. Rather, intensification. Betrayal within families, a reversal of the 5th commandment and finally worldwide hatred of those who represent Him; “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Surely those will be (and for some already are) terrible days. Days that call for prayer and intercession. But all the prayer and intercession one can raise cannot stop the ultimate will of God to punish a nation for their wickedness, nor cause God to choose a righteous instrument as the tool for such punishment.
The late David Wilkerson once wrote how the prophet Habakkuk saw the people of God about to experience that exact thing in the coming invasion of Judah. Habakkuk cried out to God for mercy and relief;
“Habakkuk was saying, in short: “How can this be, O God? I have interceded endlessly, beseeching you to bring revival to your people. I have prayed with such faith, such hope, but revival never came. Why have you ignored my prayers?”… To Habakkuk, it appeared that God stood by passively, not acting at all. It seemed that as wicked men grew stronger, God’s people grew weaker. And it continued with no judgment being visited on the wicked.
God never did explain to this prophet why the wicked gain power and force their will upon the righteous. He never answered Habakkuk as to why he seemed silent to his cries. This had to baffle the faithful prophet. Habakkuk certainly expected God to provide him with explanations. He surely must have thought the Lord, in his mercy, would reveal why he seemed silent and why his promises seemed to fail. Maybe God would explain to him the calendar of future events concerning Judah and Jerusalem. But no such explanations were forthcoming.”
Instead, all God said to Habakkuk was, “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”
Similarly, all Jesus says to those who experience the terror of the wicked on His account is, “he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
That has to be enough.
As Habakkuk said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
May we have the same outlook, should we live through such a time.
Habakkuk looked through the fog and mist and wondered at God’s program, but in Christ we know God’s plans for this age.
Warren Wiersbe
APPLICATION: Worship
Our God is God Most High, sovereign over all the earth and all who live upon it. Let us ever praise His Name.