Who Are You, O Great Mountain?

And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had prepared for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.  -- II Chronicles 29:36

Events and circumstances for which we are not prepared often arise in our lives.  We are always trying to plan for emergencies, to “think ahead”.  Still, it is common for the unforeseen, indeed the unforeseeable to catch us by surprise, to break upon us in sudden darkness or sudden blinding light.  For the most part, we recognize that our path lies in shadows that retreat only from the illumination of now. 

It was not cataclysmic destruction or defeat or disaster that caught Hezekiah and his people off-guard, but rather a great awakening and a revival.  The apostasy of preceding generations had been extensive.  Judah had turned from the Living God to idols or served the Lord only nominally for decades at a time.  Hezekiah sought the Lord and began to guide his nation back onto the path of righteousness. 

Revival always begins in the hearts of individuals.  We can never hope, by the power of programs or propaganda to turn men to God.  Yet, even when it seems that God has been driven out, He has merely stepped back, temporarily withdrawn to await the strategic moment when His grace will be poured out, opening eyes and filling empty, thirsty souls.

When Jezebel sought to kill all of God’s prophets, the faithful Obadiah helped hide some one hundred of them in caves and sustained them.  We may think, too, at times, that none are left to speak for God, but the prophetic voice is merely secreted. 

Elijah later complained:  I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.  But Elijah was wrong.  The Lord assured him that there were yet 7000 in Israel who had remained true, refusing to bow to Baal.  Seven thousand is one of those “complete” numbers.  In this case, I think it means “enough”.   When we look at the insanity and unrighteousness and outright evil continually brought before our eyes and ears, we are apt to agree with Elijah.  We are alone or very few in number.  But God says we are enough. 

A further part of Hezekiah’s story tells us that he sent messengers out among the Ten Tribes that had formed the nation of Israel, separate from the Kingdom of Judah, inviting those descendants of Abraham to a celebration of the Passover.  Many from the northern kingdom mocked, ridiculed, and scorned the message.  But some humbled themselves and traveled to Jerusalem to once again seek the God of their fathers. 

And so it will in the awakening that comes to America.  I do not expect that the snide and the cynical will be very receptive.  I expect that we will be mocked as are many already who refuse to embrace the little baals and molechs erected by the worldly and the vain. 

The thing is, though, God has prepared for His people.  We cannot know what is coming, and that coming will be sudden and likely very surprising.  God is not caught flatfooted.  He has the situation in hand.  He is preparing, right now, the right people in the right places to carry through with His purpose, to restore and to renew. 

I have no hope in the old man or his institutions.  But God has prepared for us.  When the quickening comes and we see the challenge before us, it will appear overwhelming -- like a vast mountain blocking our path.  Yet God has His consecrated ones who are ready with strength for the day. 

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”