Hardship and Hard Times

Yesterday I wrote about the Lord’s discipline coming through hardships (Heb 12:7).  Yet, not all things that are hard are the hardships God uses for disciple. Two elements that bring hard things into our lives are 1) the physical world as we know it is cursed, bringing sorrow, death and destruction. And 2) we have an enemy, satan.  Jesus tells us “the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (Jn 10:10).  Satan is the thief who interferes with God’s plans for us, and wants us to come to nothing. Whatever God is doing in our lives, satan will do the opposite.

Jesus also tells us that satan “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). From the beginning, in the garden of Eden, satan has thought he had something to say . . . something important.  Yet it was all wrong.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus calls satan the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10). And this is satan’s method of operation: he falsely accuses man to man, and God to man.  In the garden of Eden God had told Adam that he and Eve could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would die (Gen 3:3).  But Satan brought doubt to Eve by saying that “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”(Gen 3:5) Because satan knows how to make people, and God look bad, he lies to us about their intentions.  However, we take his bait because we want our “eyes to be opened”.  In other words, we do not seek God as our source of truth, but satan. And all this because satan seems (to us) to have something good to say.

Going back to the first quote about satan, he steals, kills and destroys.  He steals our destiny in much the same way Adam and Eve’s destiny were stolen; through disobeying God’s word.  He brings death by giving us accusations instead of truth. When Eve ate from the forbidden tree, it was the beginning of a relationship satan wants to establish with us all . . . one in which we listen to him for what he has to say and leave off fellowshipping with God.  Therefore, our relationship with both God and men becomes destroyed.

When we look at the end result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the garden, we see the beginning of a hard, hard life. The earth was cursed with weeds and only hard work would produce food from its soil.  Women would suffer pain in childbirth, and their husbands would rule over them. (Gen 3:16-19). But the first one God addressed was satan, the serpent, by cursing him. Though Adam, Eve, and the serpent all shared in the same failure to obey God, God promised satan that Eve’s offspring would “crush your head.” (Gen 3:15). Though we have an enemy, we are given a sure promise of victory over him, and not the utter ruin he intends to bring into our lives.

With any enemy, there is a chance of war.  In the book of Revelation we read “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. . . . Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (Rev 12:12 & 17). There is war for those who do not seek out satan to have their “eyes opened” because satan cannot defeat them with his lies and false accusations.  His war against God’s faithful followers will bring a different kind of hardship; imprisonment, martyrdom, shunning from once faithful brethren, persecution from family.  He will discredit, and physically try to end the lives of all who are a threat to his victory over Man.  And yet, true believers will overcome (Rev 12:11).

We often wonder about the hard things that come into our lives.  We examine our circumstances for clues as to how to reverse our situation.  More importantly, we look for evidence of guilt on our part (did we deserve the hardness? Is God disciplining us?), lessons given by God (is He trying to teach us something?) or an attack by our enemy, satan (we are in the middle of a spiritual war).  When the hardness is being used by God to form us into His image, we are wise to submit to it and learn from Him.  When hard things come our way because of satan, we should overcome him.  Paul instructs us to “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Eph 6:11-13). We need God’s armor to protect ourselves against wrongful accusations, and the truth so that we will be in fellowship with God.  The Word of God, divides every intention of the heart (Heb 4:12-13) so as to have victory and not defeat.

Hard things, and hardships can be the result of multiple causes, from the curse on the earth, the consequences of letting satan “open” our eyes, or from the war satan wages against God’s people.  In  the scriptures and in life we can find examples of reaping from disobedience, suffering from error and deception, and from satan’s fury being unleashed upon God’s beloved people. All the more, God’s voice is our life-line, and His Word is our friend, a light in a very dark spiritual time. Let us listen to the One true God who can open our eyes with truth.  And let us not be passive during war, but put on our armor and stand in our faith.  Then we will have victory in our hard times.  Amen.