God promises His protection against our ruin. Beyond His comforting and sustaining presence in trial, God also promises His protection against our ultimate ruin. Of Isaiah 43:2 Edward Leigh said, “Fire and water are two merciless enemies, and yet… They must not pass by these, by the fire and by the water, but through the fire, and through the water.” While God will most certainly keep us from some trials, if it is better for us to face a trial, then as Leigh said, we must not pass by it, but must go through it. And when these trials seem bigger than life, we’re to remember that the Lord promises to preserve us from ruin.
Consider Job. He suffered far beyond what most Christians ever face, being afflicted by the loss of his possessions, children, and the comfort and support of his own wife, and with indescribable physical pain and misery. But as we learn from Chs. 1 and 2 of Job, his afflictions were ordained by God, not to destroy him or to punish him for his sin, but rather to test him (cf. Gen. 22:1) in order that God might reveal more of Himself to Job and more of Job to himself (Job 42:1-6). And while it’s true that we don’t find in the text any direct promise given to Job for his encouragement, we find much in the rest of the book for our encouragement. For what do we have in Chs. 1 and 2 but a testimony of the divine mind and intention regarding Job’s trials (and thus ours as well) and the care and protection of God’s covenant relationship with Job which governed His decisions regarding which trials to “permit,” and which to “prevent.” And it was God’s good purpose for Job’s trials that so colored all his afflictions that though his pain was not lessened and his loss was unmitigated, Job was yet preserved by God from ultimate ruin, and was in fact doubly restored (cf. Job 1:3; 42:10, 12).
Moreover, this behind the scenes look in Chs. 1 and 2 teaches us what we’ve learned before, i.e. that God’s covenant relationship with us (which eternally secures to us His Fatherly care and protection) so governs His providence over us that only those trials which will work for our good, and in which the Lord intends to preserve us, are brought to us, while whatever trials would destroy us are prevented or removed.
You see, there’s great comfort in knowing that if and when afflictions come, the Lord Himself is with us and will even pass through the fire at our side. He’ll never leave us nor forsake us; but rather, as the log which Moses threw into the bitter waters at Marah to make them sweet, He promises His sweetening presence in every affliction we face. And more than that, when afflictions strike us and terrors encompass us, when our soul is in the midst of lions and we lie down amid fiery beasts, we have this abiding hope: that God will uphold us and fulfill His good purposes for us–for His steadfast love is great to the heavens and His faithfulness to the clouds (Ps. 57:2, 4, 10).
The next time you find yourself under affliction, don’t murmur or complain about it. Instead, know that God has promised to do you good by it (which means you can rejoice in it as Paul did, 2Cor 12), know that God has promised to be with you (whose presence changes everything, Isa 43), and know that God has promised that, whatever you lose or suffer by it, you’ll ultimately not be harmed by it but, as His child, must ultimately be bettered by it (Rom 8.28).
Check back Monday for Part 6! And if you’re enjoying this series of posts, please leave a comment and forward it to your friends.
**This post is an excerpt from my book written with Joel Beeke, Living by God’s Promises.
This was a great read Pastor James!!
These are coming out real well 🙂
Thank you Michael! God bless you brother.
So many great and precious promises here! “My hope in affliction, your promise preserves my life.”
He even overrules our fall into temptation for the necessary self disclosure of continual indwelling sin and our continual need for His mercy driving us to greater Christ dependence.