Whatever it takes

Some of those that I pray for have no interest in spiritual matters and seemingly no concern that sin holds them captive. They consider their lives normal and are blind to God’s love for them and His desire to set them free from a bondage they do not even realize. For these I often say to God, “Whatever it takes.”

While ‘whatever it takes’ could mean a great disaster or a great blessing, today I read something else about what it will take. This passage is from Jeremiah 30:3-11. While it directly refers to Israel, it also reveals what God will do to free His people from the bondage of sin.

‘For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’

Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. For thus says the Lord: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale?

Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you,’ says the Lord, ‘to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished.’

My theological understanding says this speaks of that day when Jesus returns and the world enters a terrible tribulation. With that, my first thoughts brought despair; will those I pray for even live long enough to experience this soul-shattering event? If this is what it takes to set them free, will they miss out?

Like many Old Testament prophecies, fulfilment often comes in several ways. Sometimes it unfolds like a flower. Other times it applies to more than one thing. The author of today’s reading says something about this passage that is terrible in one sense, yet offers me greater hope in another. I will quote his words almost in their entirety:

This “day of trouble” is when sin is laid as a heavy burden upon a man’s conscience; when guilt presses him down into the dust of death, when his iniquities stare him in the face, and seem more in number than the hairs of his head; when he fears he shall be cast forever into the bottomless pit of hell, and have his portion with the hypocrites. This “day of trouble” is not literally a day, a portion of time meted out by the rising or setting sun, a space of twenty-four hours. The hands of a clock, or the shadow of a dial, cannot regulate spiritual troubles.

A day here means a season, be it long or short; be it a day, week month, or year. And as the season cannot be measured in length, so the trouble cannot be measured in depth. The only wise God deals out various measures of affliction to His people. All do not sink to the same depth, as all do not rise to the same height. All do not drink equally deep of the cup, yet all, each in their measure, pass through this day of trouble, wherein their fleshly religion is pulled to pieces, their self-righteousness marred, their presumptuous hopes crushed, and they brought into the state of the leper, to cry, “Unclean, unclean.”

Until a person has passed through this day of trouble, until he or she has experienced more or less of these exercises of soul, and known guilt and condemnation in conscience; until this person has struggled in this narrow pass, and had the rags of creature righteousness torn away from him, he or she can know nothing experimentally of the efficacy of Jesus’ atoning blood, nor feel the power of Christ’s resurrection.

God can get anyone’s attention. He might use calamity, physical and emotional distresses, tight places, and troubles, but in getting their attention, He must also bring them to the end of themselves, the end of thinking that they do not need Him. No one cries to God unless they are convinced that He is their only hope.

I would not be praying ‘whatever it takes’ unless I was totally convinced of this reality. He is our only hope.