Monday, July 9, 2018
Testing time
Psalm 105:19
Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.
As I am writing this, the world, a few hours ago, received news that “The 4th wild boar is out of the cave.” This came on a post, Sunday Evening Thai time, on the Facebook page set up by the Thai Navy SEALS who are leading the rescue of the 13 members of the Wild Boar youth soccer team and their coach deep in a flooded cave system below mountains in Thailand.
The story of these young boys aged 11-16 and their 25-year-old coach has captured the world’s attention. But time seems to move ever so slowly during this search and rescue operation. After the boys and their coach were reported missing it took the world’s experts in a wide variety of fields, including cave diving, 10 days to locate the boys alive and that was a miracle in itself. The British divers who found them were on a mission to lay guidelines to help other divers in the search, they were about to turn back when they found the boys.
During those ten days, which were agonising for those of us watching from a distance must have seemed like an eternity for the parents. The promises made by the officials and experts, notwithstanding, would have made the wait excruciating.
I am sure that their hearts leapt at the news that the boys had been found alive and the actual videos and photos from deep underground must have given them all the hope in the world. But it has been six days since those encouraging videos were shown and there were still no boys in their arms. The talk of rescuers having to wait for four months until the monsoon rains passed must have depressed them.
It was the wail of the sirens and the sound of helicopters overhead that told the village that something had happened, some boys had come out alive. Finally, some success after many promises, assurances, and hope. 13 other families are still in agony today.
We are rooting and praying for the rest of the team.
There is a period between the word and it’s out working, between the prophecy and its fulfilment. The key verse in our devotional today in from the middle of the psalmist’s recounting the story of the life of Joseph, sent ahead into Egypt to make a way for the fulfilment of God’s promise to His people.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had made a promise to them and Joseph had a clear vision from God. However, his vision led to family conflict (in part because of youthful naivety), attempts on his life, sale into slavery, and a extended time as a prisoner in a dungeon. Decades passed between his vision of his family bowing to him and them actually showing up when he was prime minister of Egypt in charge of the food storage that could feed his famished family coming from a distance away.
Every day of suffering was a test because he had a promise of greater. Every day he had to think of the dream and then face the painful reality of his present circumstances. Before him constantly was the misalignment of dream and reality.
Many today are checking out because they cannot handle the gap between dream and reality. Last week a young lady, who by a series of unfortunate circumstances was unable to complete high school education, was talking of suicide because no one would hire her and without a job, there was no way out for her and the child she has. Her dreams were all shattered and the present reality shows no hope of alignment.
But, it is in that space between the promise and its fulfilment that we are often afflicted. It is here that we need to keep the faith and to keep our trust in the God of the promise. It is in this time that we must fight with all our might until God shows us the way out of the flooded cave.
Some give up because they believe that the word, the promise, or the prophecy is all that was needed. The apostle Paul warned young Timothy about this. He wrote him, “This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,” 1 Timothy 1:18. Timothy had received a prophetic word and must, therefore, fight on that basis. The gap between the prophecy and the fulfilment is a testing time and so it’s fighting time.
Young untested people are usually the first to give up when things seem to take too long. Paul repeated his guidance to Timothy later in the letter. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12.
It will take some time for us to know what that relatively young coach told his teenage and younger players that kept hope alive in a flooded cave without food for 10 days. Clearly, they didn’t give up hope.
God uses the place and space between the promise and its fulfilment to test us, to refine us, and to prove us. We love to sing about the Refiner’s fire, Malachi 3:3, the heat is on in the testing time between promise and fulfilment.
Think on these things:
- Are you facing any test in your life right now, if so how are you handling it?
- During this present or any previous test, what kept you going and what threatened to cause you to give up?
- Who gave you support during a testing time in your life, what did they share with you to keep you going that you could now share with others?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be patient through our time of testing.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex