To be alone is something all of us naturally fear. So God's promise is precious: "I will never leave you, nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do to me" (Heb. 13:5, 6). But of course there is a "condition": we are not to leave the Lord, nor forsake Him.
The context of God's promise is clear: "It is good that the heart be established by grace" (vs. 9). It will always be "by grace" that we know He has not left nor forsaken us. That grace will motivate us to be loyal to Christ even if we must stand alone in doing so. "Jesus ... suffered [alone] outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach [alone]" (vss. 12, 13).
God is not playing tit for tat with us, refusing to stay with us unless we stay with Him; we don't take the initiative, He does. But it is not fair, well, it's impossible, for us to appreciate or realize the presence of God with us unless we appreciate His grace in saving us from the hell that ultimate loneliness will be. When we appreciate how Jesus suffered for us "alone," we are motivated to be loyal to Him even when it seems we are alone in doing so. Peter felt himself "alone" that Thursday night warming himself by the fire while Jesus was being scourged inside the court room, so he wanted to be considered "in" with the crowd of giddy, thoughtless people. It hurt to be alone. But all of God's people, high or low, have somehow been tested so they can demonstrate their loyalty to Christ under stress and apparent loneliness. You could never be happy in heaven without that test!
It may well be when we come to the closing scenes that God's people will each of stand utterly alone in receiving the seal of God when everybody else appears to be receiving the mark of the beast (see Rev. 13:11-17). Elijah was alone on Mt Carmel when it seemed everybody else was either worshipping Baal or was too cowardly to stand with him when the test came (1 Kings 18; true, there were "7000" in Israel who had not bowed their knees to Baal, but in that great test not one had the courage to raise his hand to support Elijah). Elijah's great loyalty in loneliness had something to do with the great honor given him in being translated.
There will be "144,000" (literal or symbolic is not the issue here) in the end who will be as loyal as he was--not because they are "made of sterner stuff" than the rest of us and are "strong," but because in their weakness they have identified with Jesus as He suffered alone for them.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 29, 2000.Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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