I f it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us . . . But if not . . .” (Dan. 3:17, 18)
T here are some for whom the lines seem always to fall in pleasant places. Their lives move along in story-book fashion and they seem to miss their share of trouble and tragedy. We rejoice with them and hope i their good estate shall remain unchanged. But there is another great host of human beings for whom things do not work out that way. They have so much drudgery that their birthstone might well have been a grindstone. Others get the plums while they get the bag. Other people’s children turn out well but theirs are a headache when they are young and a heartache when they are old. They have more ups and downs than an elevator. They hear others tell of marvelous experi ences and mighty deliverances but their own lives are set in a minor key and they have no amazing stories to tell. They still love God and endeavor to serve Him but they are often tempted to say, “ It profiteth a man noth- ing that he should delight himself with God” Some of these conditions are our own fault and we can change them. But not always is that true and if you are in a furnace of affliction or facing circumstances beyond your control I would offer to you a word in season. The Hebrew children faced what looked like the choice of bowing to Nebuchadnezzar’s image or burning in the fiery furnace. They faced it gloriously: “Our God is able to deliver us . . . BUT IF NOT . . .” They did not doubt that God was able to deliver from the fur nace but if He did not they would be faithful anyway. It is well to be prepared for the “ If Nots.” God is always able to deliver from the furnace but sometimes it is not His will. But He will save us in the furnace. He does not always spare us trouble but He will succor us in trouble. If you are facing a furnace, make provision for the “ If Not.” If you are not healed, if the dear one is taken, if that friend fails you, be true anyway. If things do not turn out the way you hoped and prayed, do not bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image of doubt and fear and dis couragement. That is exactly what the devil desires as he did when he put Job in his furnace. God permitted it, but Job did not renounce God. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” “God can do it but if He does not, He is still my God, I will bow to no idol” . . . blessed are the saints of the “ If Nots!” In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, that “West- minster Abbey of the Bible” there marches a glorious galaxy of faith heroes: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and many more, until a crescendo is reached in a sum mary of those who “ subdued kingdoms, wrought right eousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again . . .” But they do not all fare that way. Suddenly the verse shifts gears, “ And others were tortured . . . , had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” Faith is not a sure road to earthly success and the headlines, personal deliverance from harm and danger.
i
„
^
18
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Online document