Shaken

The Parable:

It’s wartime.  People are ready and braced for the worst.  Many are cooped up together in shelters that house them, with basements below for bomb shelters.  They have all their earthly goods in suitcases.  They stay together in large, open rooms with little privacy.  The times are rough.  The endurance level is at an all-time high.  The lookout is constant.  One who is posted as a lookout goes outside to gaze at the sky.  She sees a strange, cigar-shaped craft and immediately knows that the enemy has arrived.  As she is about to return to her people, she sees a huge banner across the sky that reads, “The writing is on the wall.”  Doubly horrified, she rushes back into the shelter and screams, “Everyone get downstairs!!”  People begin to flood into the halls with nothing but what’s in their hands.  There is no time for luggage, and no room.  They rush to the small door that leads to the basement.  It will take time to get them all through it.

Before she knows it, the watchwoman has been captured.  Perhaps she was knocked out; she has no recollection of what happened between the alert of attack and where she found herself: in a large cubical room, well-lit, with a gutter of clear water flowing in the middle.  She is informed by her captors that they are going to break her, not by any conventional means of torture.  No, this is a specially built room that can be violently shaken or gently rocked, all determined by the captors controlling it.  The woman does not have a concept of time in this room, but the duration is short enough that she is not starved to death; she realizes the only place to obtain water to drink, to bathe, and even to urinate is at the stream in the gutter.  The room begins to shake violently; the prisoner braces herself against the wall, trying to hold her stomach so she doesn’t vomit.  She thinks, “I know I'll get through this because God has taught me endurance.”  Time passes, and her captors grow impatient.  Perhaps they can terrify her into surrender.  They send a huge, muscular man into the room who is as tall as the room.  He marches toward her—not saying a word—and begins to press her against the wall with his body.  He presses harder and harder, as if to crush her, but she is not crushed.  She is wearing special armor that her captives know nothing about.  As long as they can’t mess with her mind, she is invincible.

Hebrew 12:25-29

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

This is surely a day of great warfare for the church of God!  We who are saints of Jesus Christ feel the battle daily, hourly, moment by moment.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, even as the woman in our story.  She was hard pressed by the giant that came into her place of confinement.  However, part of what makes us feel so hard pressed is because we see our struggles and trials sent by the ancient foe, the devil, as giants—insurmountable, overbearing, strong, mighty, greater than us.  Why?  Do we not understand ourselves as the warriors that we are?  We as God’s people are equipped with every piece of armor we need for the battle! (Ephesians 6:10-18) Are we confined in a prison of despair or pain or trial of every kind?  Satan cannot keep us there!  (Maybe he can in body but not in spirit—and only with God’s permission which He gives to bring about greater victory.)  Consider the TV show Hogan’s Heroes.  These prisoners of war had it made with such an advanced tunnel and communication system that they could break out at any time.  But they stayed in the prison camp to make a heavier inside impact on the enemy.  God has us here on the earth for just that reason, and He will receive all glory.  But if Satan can keep us convinced that he’s the captor and that we’re helpless, what good are we?  The sword of truth is buckled around our waist.  If we would but pull it out, we could break out!  We might feel as if we are being victorious by bracing ourselves bravely against the shaking of the devil.  Indeed, we are, and we are gaining more and more grace and victory and perseverance in our Lord Jesus, but we should not be contented to stay in confinement, unwilling to get out and fight an offensive battle.  God is using the confinement indeed to test our faith and our willingness to stand in the midst of intense and seemingly endless suffering.  But are we proactively using the truth that God has given us in His Word to speak against the lies?  The shaking is lies.  We feel undone because we have sinned, that we are unworthy to be in God’s army.  Lies.  Does not the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, sanctify us through and through (1 Thessalonians 5:23)?  Are we not covered in full atonement?  If we confess our sins, is He not faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? (1 John 1:9).  Oh dear saints of God, do you feel the Spirit of Christ rising up within you?  “The writing is on the wall,” dear saints—the writing that God is giving over the enemy’s stronghold to His people.

Daniel 5:23-28

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed.  And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.  This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Have the not the kingdoms of this earth found in their own lusts the source of their strength?  Yet they are found wanting.  They have not served the God of Heaven nor given Him glory.  They have turned their backs on every manner of law that God established from the Creation of the world and have set up for themselves gods of gold and silver, gods of wood and stones.  Everything created by man for man has become man’s god—everything but the true and living God.  Now, God surely will bring to an end all that man has done for himself without giving glory and honor to the Creator.  The time for the Kingdom of Heaven to take over the kingdoms of this world is at hand!

All God’s people see the writing on the wall.  The craft is in the sky for the enemy to fight with all its power, and people will find themselves utterly dismayed, having lost all their earthly support.  Yet, what is Satan’s power compared to God’s?  What is his wrath compared to God’s wrath?  What are his miraculous wonders compared to the glory that will be revealed in the Sons of God?

Soldiers of Christ, the church has been bound in a box.  They have seen the Kingdom from the perspective of a boxed existence.  They have perceived the light of the glory of God--even as the room in our story was bright--yet they have only perceived the box.  They have not been able to wrap their arms around the bigger Kingdom work God is doing.  They have drunk from the glorious streams of living water, yet they have not perceived its source so that they would follow that stream to the One who gives it, and drink deeply of HIM.  They have washed themselves and all their filthy waste in it, and though it has not grown muddied or soiled by the sins of the church, they have still found themselves captive.  They have been shaken to utter exhaustion, but they have not considered a way to escape.  Does not Scripture say, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”? (1 Corinthians 10:13).  Note that it says with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape.  When Paul and Silas were in prison, they were fighting the enemy through songs.  They were not giving in to the feelings of the flesh, or bemoaning their state.  They were praising God, knowing that in spite of circumstantial evidence, they were victors.  A great earthquake came and shook that place.  The earthquake, as in our story, could have been a source of great trial, fear, trepidation, and illness on their part.  But instead, because they had a heart of hope, they saw their way of escape through it and even had their wits about them to save the life of the guard!  When we fail to see the way of escape in the earthquakes of trial, we get weighed down with overwhelming pressure as the giants of Satan’s lies enter in to trample us to death.  No, we will not be destroyed; we will not be crushed, but we must rise up victorious!  Satan cannot lay a hand on us; he can only put us in a room of virtual captivity and shake it up to make us feel as if we are helpless and he is king.  But it is the other way around!  In Christ, we have the victory! (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Church of God, Saints of Jesus Christ, Sons of God filled with and led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14), take your place!  You have the victory in Jesus Christ!  Yes, you will be bombed, you will be destitute, you will be hated by all men.  Did not our Lord Jesus say that the servant is not greater than his master?  Yet in spirit, you will win!  You will reap a harvest if you do not give up!  (Galatians 6:9) You will store up treasure in heaven (Luke 12:33, Matthew 19:21, 13:44, 6:20).  You will take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  You will win souls (Luke 21:19, Mark 4:20).  You will gain a crown of glory that will never fade away (1 Peter 5:4).  Who are you, oh Son of God?  You are the Bride of Christ! (2 Corinthians 11:2)  Think about that, next time Satan tells you you’re worthless, hopeless, and never going to make it.  Jesus said, “No one can snatch you out of my hand” (John 10:29).