Trust Amid Adversity

Jeremiah 16:14-21; Matthew 10:40-11:6; 2^nd Corinthians 6:1-13

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

14 November 2004

Adversity is not a concept we relish. In fact, our society is deeply entrenched in a struggle to obliterate any and all kinds of adversity. We strive to obliterate pain, poverty, disease, and discomfort as if they were the greatest of all of life’s ills. Is adversity the great evil society proclaims it to be? Our “Declaration of Independence” declares all people to be “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Do we really have a divinely ordained right to live without adversity, following “the pursuit of happiness?” How much of our theology and concept of God is based on the political statements in our “Declaration of Independence” rather than on God’s declarations in the Bible?

Jeremiah did not live a life of ease, nor was Yahweh’s message through him one of comfort. He announced that Israel would be destroyed as a political power in order that the power and authority of Yahweh might be revealed more fully. That seems to be a rather counter-intuitive message. As the Israelites, we would expect to see God’s power through maintaining political stability against the attacks of an idolatrous empire, rather than the message that Jeremiah preached. We want to find Yahweh rescuing the people at the eleventh hour, freeing them from oppressors as from Egypt. Yahweh’s plans are otherwise.

We might consider Jeremiah’s words as a pronouncement of judgment upon the nation, but these words go further. They are judgment, but they are more than that. This judgment would be a tool to refine faith and help it to grow through adversity—exile, oppression, and the dissolution of Israel as a political state. That is not what we would expect. This is not how we imagine God acting to grow the people and mature them in faith. This runs counter to our expectations and dreams for our own lives.

Jeremiah did not speak of comforting events to come, and yet his words are a comfort. They are not the announcement of a wonderful, pleasant future. They are, however, the announcement that this adverse future is part of Yahweh’s plan for the well-being of the people and the maturing of their faith—not theirs alone, but ours as well. Adversity is not the end of the world, but it is part of the future that Yahweh is molding for the people. There is purpose in this coming adversity that goes beyond the discomfort and struggle the people would face, as they would learn to depend upon Yahweh. Adversity would teach them once more to depend upon Yahweh alone. They would recognize once and for all that the idols of the nations were unworthy to be called gods. Through the experience of adversity, they would recognize a different level of Yahweh’s power—the ability to carry them through all circumstances and provide for them in unexpected ways.

Jeremiah’s words were words of hope for those who could hear the message. He did not predict a welcome series of events, but he spoke of Yahweh’s continued care through and beyond the adversity to come. He spoke of a day in which Yahweh would restore the people to the land of promise. Things would be different in that day. God was not concerned with their political sovereignty, but with their faithful service and maturing faith. Yahweh wanted them to learn a singular dependence upon God. As they trusted Yahweh, they would come through adversity, enriched by the experience of divine provision and faithfulness.

Jesus did not preach the kind of gospel we often hear on the radio, television, and street corners. His was no message of “trust God and you will suffer no ill.” He did not speak of good news from a human perspective of material, social, or national well-being. His words were comfort to those who did not belong to the mainstream of society. They were good news to the cast-off peoples—the blind, the lame, the sick, and the destitute—those who make us uncomfortable. The message was not that life would be without problems, but of blessing in their midst. Behind Jesus’ words to John the Baptist is an acceptance that the gospel is not designed to cure believers from ill circumstances. The gospel is not a vaccine against adversity and trouble. It would seem that the gospel is a message of comfort in the midst of the life’s unfavorable conditions.

Perhaps it is amid adversity that faith is truly born and grows. Perhaps it is only under adverse conditions that faith, true faith, can develop as it should. John was in prison for having confronted Herod with the ungodly character of his deeds and marital situation. John knew that death awaited him, for Herod would never release him to preach among the people. Sitting in prison was not an experience of ease for John, but it was an opportunity for personal growth. Adversity often causes us to question the reality behind our faith. It does not normally bring us to seek a rationale for rejecting faith, but calls us to evaluate our faith with greater sincerity and scrutiny.

It may be that adversity is a normal part of God’s plan for our lives—much more so than the gospel of health, wealth, power, and prosperity would have us believe. Jesus’ words about welcoming Jesus by receiving the prophet with the small gifts such as water speak too naturally of the prophet suffering adverse conditions of thirst, hunger, and lack of shelter. Jesus seems to assume that it will be normal for a prophet to found without these things, trusting God to provide them as needed. That is not the way we would picture it or plan it, but that is the picture that Jesus presents.

That is not the kind of life we plan for our children. We do not send them off into the world to face adversity, poverty, and hunger. We devise strategies to make them healthy, wealthy, and successful in living by the rules of society. We are adverse to the concept of adversity. We treat it as a plague of ill for ourselves and our loved ones, even while Jesus preached good news specifically to those who were suffering adversity, not protected from it.

Paul’s words of testimony do not sound like our own experience of Christianity. They are not words that ring of the acceptability of one’s faith by others, but of persecution from many sides. In one sense, it is perhaps easier for faith to deepen amid the adversity that he describes. Under persecution, faith takes on a more drastic nature with greater depth. Under adversity, faith must deal with starker definitions of what is or is not acceptable. Adversity offers the chance to test the mettle of our faith. It is in the storm that our faith is measured and challenged to mature.

Jesus’ gospel is no shelter from the adversity of life’s storms. It is rather the call to trust God to carry us where we would not choose to go. The gospel does not call us to avoid the tough issues of life, but to confront them with confidence in Christ Jesus. In the midst of adversity, where will we place our trust? When the winds howl and all sense of security is threatened, dare we trust God and serve Christ with confidence in God’s provision? Do we trust God sufficiently to seek not our own happiness, but to place the well-being of others first? Faith is a challenge. Such is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anything else is meaningless prattle.

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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