What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. – Nahum 1:9
The only thing that bothers me about that verse is “trouble
will not rise up a second time”. It
seems to me that trouble, like the bogeyman in a horror movie, will rise on
every turn. I have to admit, though,
certain kinds of trouble, certain sources
of trouble – and I think that’s what we have in the context of Nahum’s
prophecy regarding Nineveh – once vanquished, are done. Some adversary challenges us; some weakness
besets us. We struggle and struggle,
fail and fail again, yet, when at last we have beaten it, weakness becomes
strength. Failure becomes a foundation,
becomes the solid rock on which we stand.
A complete victory in some area of contention comes only
through the Lord. Proverbs 16:7 says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes
even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Only God can turn adversaries into allies. It occurs to me that, from a sheep’s
perspective, a sheep dog must look a lot like a wolf.
Even the devil does not presume to plot against the
Lord. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was
disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a
blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” (Jude 9) The devil as the adversary and the accuser of
the brethren was only doing his job. Being the
natural patron of prosecutors, I’m sure he made a decent case against Moses, as
there was indeed one to be made, and so much the more against me. It is often, however, the devil’s arguments
in the mouths of those who do plot against God and His children. Rabshakeh (or the Rabshakeh, depending on the translation) of the Assyrians made the case
against Jerusalem in Isaiah 36. The
Assyrian invaders dismissed the God of Israel from their plans. This did not end well for them.
It will not end well for those today who forget that the
Lord is on His throne, who think earthly powers and principalities of darkness
may overcome and enslave the righteous.
Though we may suffer for a season, the plots will fail, the yokes will
be broken, and God will make a complete end of those foolish enough to conspire
against Him.
He who sits in the
heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. – Psalm 2:4
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