Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We know we're living in the last days. The "time of trouble" is coming (Dan. 12:1), and "the bowls of the wrath of God" ["the seven last plagues"] (Rev. 16:1), and "days of vengeance" (Luke 21:22) when "men's hearts [are] failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth" (vs. 26). With Peter each of us cries out, "Lord, save me!" (Matt. 14:30).
But what will He save us to, being only one in "a great multitude which no one could number"? (Rev. 7:9). More than that! "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne," says Jesus (3:21). That's not an honorary decoration--that's executive responsibility in bringing to a close the great controversy between Christ and Satan! No simplistic trust. It's obvious: the Lamb needsthem to stand "with Him" in this final "war" (17:14). They have a serious contribution to make!
An example of the kind of trust the Lamb will repose in them can be seen in the career of Elijah. The 3-1/2 year famine in Israel in the time of Ahab's and Jezebel's Baal worship was the result of the initiative that Elijah took. The Bible record is interesting; God threatened to write Israel off (Assyria would soon conquer them into captivity anyway; see the book of Hosea, for example). But the Lord allowed Elijah to express his heart of love for Israel (as with Moses, Ex. 32:31, 32). The famine was the last possible way to arrest their attention in their "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" attitude (Rev. 3:17, King James Version).
As we read 1 Kings 17:1 and James 5:17, 18, the famine was Elijah's idea! The Lord simply responded to his initiative in prayer both beginning the famine, and ending it. We need to re-evaluate Elijah; God put the nation of Israel in his hands, as it were, because He did more than love him. He trusted him.
Christ's Bride-to-be ("the Lamb's wife," Rev. 19:7, 8) has something to do on her own in closing the great controversy. She "must make herself ready" for "the marriage." The Lamb can't do that. She must do it! He not only desires her; He needs her. Can He trust her to be "with Him" in that last trying hour?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 14, 2006.
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