When the enemy comes in like a flood

The higher one climbs the spiritual ladder, the more oppressive and deadly Satan's attacks become. Many ministers and top church officials feel they are hard hit. What do we do?

When the enemy comes in like a flood, it pays to pause and contemplate the lives of fellow servants of God under similar circumstances.

After the showdown

The great contest at Mount Carmel between God's prophet and Baal's worshipers had ended. News of the defeat soon reached the queen: Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including his killing of all Baal's priests.

Jezebel quickly dispatched a message to Elijah: "So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow" (1 Kings 19:2).*

The fear of death overtook the celebrated prophet. Feeling alone, he thought of Mount Horeb and headed there. Why Mount Horeb? Because that was where God gave the Decalogue. To Elijah, that place symbolized love and justice. He wanted God to judge be tween his call for reformation and Ahab's idolatrous reign.

If you were God, what would you have done to Elijah? Lectured him on faith? Enrolled him in a course on the management of fear and stress? As a conference president, what line of action would you take toward a district pastor who has abandoned his responsibilities and is praying "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers" (verse 4)?

Our God is altogether different from human beings, praise His name. He provided the food that strengthened Elijah for the marathon of 40 days and nights that took him away from the manslayer Jezebel.

Elijah left Mount Horeb a changed man. He had but to anoint his successor, tour the schools of prophets, and then mount a VIP spaceship to heaven. No more fears of being haunted. Enough of Jezebel's rudeness and death threats!

Not all faithful servants of God, how ever, are taken to heaven without bowing to death. In fact, Scripture records this as happening only in Enoch's and Elijah's cases. Job slept in the Lord. Moses died on Mount Pisgah. And mil lions of other faithful servants of God have gone to their graves.

Running with footmen and horses

Later in Israel's history the nation had again forsaken God. Priests, king, and subjects had all gone their own way. Jerusalem was under a threat of siege. Under these circumstances God appointed Jeremiah to deliver His warnings to the spiritually bankrupt country.

Jeremiah needed assurance of God's protection and support to back him up. "Be not afraid of them," the Lord guaranteed His prophet, ' 'for I am with you to deliver you. ... I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down. . . . They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you" (Jer. 1:8-19).

That unique ministerial call came wrapped up in powerful promises. Yet not long after Jeremiah embarked upon his mission, he met with fierce opposition. His rebukes and reforms were rebuffed with defiance. Plots were made against his life. Even his brothers betrayed and criticized him.

Worse still, the rich were getting richer, while the masses groaned heavily under the yoke of their temporal and spiritual leaders. Wickedness and idolatry strove for the mastery of God's chosen race.

"Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" Jeremiah finally queried God. Embittered by the open malice of his people and their persistent resistance to God's warnings, the prophet longed for death. That sounds like some of us, doesn't it? Haven't the holy angels seen and heard us sometimes secretly hissing, murmuring, or clenching our fists in anger and regretting our covenant to work for God?

What does God expect?

Through the years, the story of God's dealings with people, as dramatized in the lives of His prophets and apostate Israel, has been written down and retold again and again. It deserves to be, for it reveals something of what humanity is like and what God is like. Neither one has changed from that day to this. God is still compassionate and gracious. He is still slow to anger. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished.

Humankind is sinful, selfish, and deluded by Satan's intrigue. People are egoistic. They grab for themselves freely whatever they can, and the little they feel obliged to give they record with minutest accuracy. The prescriptions humanity has written itself in education and scientific progress have only created more problems for the already confused race. The world needs a Redeemer, not helpless "intellectual giants."

The solution God offers fallen humanity has been heralded by his ministers for ages. Today God is calling on His servants worldwide to arise, to raise their voices higher still above earth's Babel, to warn the inhabitants of His soon-coming judgments.

Unfortunately, in times such as this when all hands should be on deck, many clergymen and church leaders are already giving the red-light signal of being burned out with demands from their own families as well as from their congregations and society at large. The same types of frustrating problems that wore out the prophets of old now con front ministers and church officials.

How can we strike a balance between the conflicting demands of these three important groups--family, congregation, and society?

1. Like Elijah, we can seek solace in divine justice, no matter who our Jezebels may be. We can flee into God's waiting arms and disclose to Him all our burdens. We simply cannot guess what His answer will be until we get there.

2. To withstand the terrible tribulations that must come just before the Master's second advent, we must learn to endure the lesser troubles by fulfilling the primary tasks of giving love, care, and warmth to our family members.

3. In the words of Jeremiah, "it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth" (Lam. 3:27). That yoke may include learning how to handle a critical congregation. We can avoid many mistakes by consulting more experienced colleagues in the ministry. Nonetheless, there is this unavoidable unpleasantness called "learning on the job" that every one must go through. If we lack wisdom in carrying out our functions, our heavenly Father is more than wiling to sup ply all our needs--unless we are tired of asking, seeking, and knocking in faith.

4. The frustrated author of the book of Lamentations later discovered that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Despite experiencing disappointment and deprivation, and even several brushes with death, Jeremiah could testify that the Lord's mercies are new every morning and never come to an end. Rather than writing our own books cataloging our complaints, losses, and defeats, can we not learn from Jeremiah?

5. Feeling insulted and unfairly criticized for giving God's messages of reproof, Jeremiah hesitated to go on his divinely appointed errands. But a Heaven-kindled flame wouldn't let him rest: "If I say, T will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot" (Jer. 20:9). Does this same fire burn in us in spite of others' critical remarks? Do we still thirst for and search for souls?

6. Sometimes our perspective is distorted, our judgment of others prejudiced. Elijah thought he was the only lily thrusting its white petals above the mucky waters. The Lord encouraged him with the news that there were 7,000 in Israel whose knees had never bowed to Baal.

7. "Beloved," admonished Peter, "do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed" (1 Peter 4:12, 13).

Naturally we wish to see a positive response to our love, to hear a word or two of appreciation, to receive sympathy and encouragement, and to know the joy of intercessory prayers offered on our behalf. But we must not be surprised if we do not get all these from our congregation or family. We may more often hear reproach and unreasonable demands. When we do, we must remember that it was God Himself, not human beings, who called us to service. He whose eyes always notice a fallen sparrow does not slumber; He watches over you. Has He not promised you support in all the sacred tasks He has called you to?

The afflictions and blows that God, in His providence, allows to come to us are meant to destroy every idol that would weaken our hold on Him. We need not be afraid of the purification process, however painful, when the crucible is held by our Maker's own dear hands.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Youthful David used a mere sling to bring down the boasting Goliath with a divinely guided pebble. As He did of the humble Moses, God asks of us today, "What is that in your hand?" (Gen. 4:2). A rod? Influence? A talent? The touch of the Master's hand will make all the difference required.

Near Cambridge University in En gland, there is a large military cemetery for United States servicemen. A massive stone monument there bears this inscription:

"To you, from failing hands we throw the torch:

Be yours, to hold it high."

In this, earth's last hour, can God count on us to hold aloft the torch handed to us by our predecessors? Never give up. Remember that there are no hopeless situations, only hopeless people!