This week our Prime Minister made an historic decision to invoke the Emergencies Act which is designed to give the government power to quickly handle matters of national security. The Act will give the government and police extended powers and also grant them the ability to direct financial institutions to freeze accounts they believe are a threat to national security.
While it seems that all provinces are quickly moving away from COVID mandates, the federal government clings to its stance and has vowed not to be swayed by protests, medical advice from doctors, new reports about the inefficacy of mandates, nor the many countries who have recently dropped their COVID restrictions.
“He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:1–2).
Some have responded with excitement and joy, calling this real leadership. Others see this as an ominous development and a portent of the darkness ahead for our nation. Fear and anxiety are common emotions with all the uncertainty present in our divided country. Families and churches have not been immune from these two years of division while government action and media reports continue to enflame tensions as they seek to control the narrative that is increasingly undermined by eye witness testimony, scientific studies, and shifting public opinion.
Let me remind you of a few truths that are important to consider this week so we aren’t tossed by the waves of the times.
1. Judgment and Deliverance Go Together
When God judged Egypt the Hebrews were delivered. That season would have been tumultuous for the righteous in the land. When the people cried, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in an act of judgment bringing about salvation. In other seasons of judgment, whether upon ancient Israel itself, upon Babylon, or when the temple was destroyed after the death of Christ as judgment upon Israel, God delivers a remnant—a people of endurance and faith, tested and purified to do his will. Again and again, God often brings judgment at the same time he saves and brings out something new.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19).
It is clear that our nation is under judgment. The description in Romans 1 where a people deny God and his creative power, exchange marriage for homosexuality, proclaim foolishness as wisdom, possess a debased mind, and celebrate all forms of wickedness is the revelation of God’s wrath. These things not only deserve God’s future and final wrath but are manifestations of his present wrath and judgment upon our land. However, we should not despair because through judgment, God is also working deliverance.
Consider how he has already purified his church and built her through the storms of the past two years! Christ is faithful, he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
2. A Call to Endurance and Faithfulness
In the book of Revelation, which describes the battle between our Lord and the forces of evil, we have repeated calls for us to endure and remain faithful. When judgments come upon the earth and the beast roars, claws, and bites, we’re called to patient endurance.
“If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (Revelation 13:10).
“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
We’re not promised to float along on flowery beds of ease. In fact, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). We should not be surprised at fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12) or that the world hates us (1 John 3:13) as if something strange were happening. This must be the case when God shakes the world so that what cannot be shaken remains (Hebrews 12:27). In this present shake-up, let us remember that our Lord is not shaken, his word remains true, his church yet a pillar of truth, his love still steadfast, his mercies new every morning, and his grace sufficient for every trial.
This is what Jeremiah said when he witnessed his nation being destroyed: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).
In the midst of judgment, trust that the Lord remains in control and that no purpose of his can be thwarted (Job 42:2), and that he accomplishes his will among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand (Daniel 4:35). So let us not seek to have confidence in what is being shaken, but on what is unshakable.
3. A Call for Hopeful Gospel Proclamation
So many in our country were longing for hope just a few weeks ago. The truck convoy and protests that spread from our country to the nations of the world have sparked a great fire of hope and the change of much government policy related to COVID mandates. However, in recent days, with the entrenchment of our Prime Minister and federal government, hope may be waning.
We must remember that even if the truckers succeed in every way imaginable, true and lasting change can never come through civil protest, political maneuvering, or a new government.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent eleven years in Soviet labor camps came to realize that revolution never brings an end to oppression. He wrote, “In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor…. Even in the best of hearts there remains… an unuprooted small corner of evil. Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being…. And since that time I have come to understand the falsehood of all the revolutions in history: They destroy only the those carriers of evil contemporary with them.”
In other words, without change that deals with the evil of the heart, revolution will only lead to today’s oppressed being tomorrows oppressor. Here is where the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of his word is so important as our weapon to fight against the strongholds of unbelief today (2 Corinthians 10:3–5). Our hope of lasting change in this age and the one to come is when Jesus conquers the sin within through the power of the cross and implants in us a desire to do his will through his Spirit. When he does this in the lives of many, we see a culture transformed through grace with an eager longing to do his will. So let us then, with renewed vigor, stand fast in the grace of Christ and his word as we continue to speak about his power to save—even in times of judgment.