MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 25
THE SAINTLY EXAMPLES OF ‘SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES’ OF SATAN’S ENMITY AGAINST THE TRUTH
“Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering for affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. . .” James 5: 10, 11 (first part), KJV. Read Heb. 11: 1-34 for a brief yet truly representative record of God’s named and unnamed saints spanning the ages and generations starting from Abel, the first martyr for the truth, demonstrating what Biblical faith can and will do for all who understand what it is for. Verses 35-40 does not mention names of particular saints but describes in graphic and visceral terms the bloody “miracles” of their living testimony. Consider the following (emphasis added):
“Women received their dead raised to life again: others were TORTURED [to death] not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a BETTER resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mocking and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were STONED, they were SAWN ASUNDER, they were tempted, they were SLAIN with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins: being destitute, afflicted, and tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” verses 35-38. Then continuing on uninterrupted to the next chapter 12, we read:
“WHEREFORE, seeing we also are compassed about with [this] SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES [not just “two or three”], let us lay aside EVERY weight, and the SIN which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with PATIENCE [with the faithful saints] the race [for the “crown” of eternal life and eternity] that is set before us, [How?] “Looking unto Jesus [the Example of all examples] the Author and Finisher of OUR FAITH; who for the joy that was set before Him ENDURED THE CROSS, despising the shame. . . .” Heb. 12:1, 2. Indeed, Christ Jesus, God in the flesh who “was tempted in all points like as we are tempted yet without sin [never once yielded, not even in thought] “is acquainted with all that is misunderstood and misrepresented by men. His children can afford to WAIT IN CALM PATIENCE AND TRUST, NO MATTER HOW MUCH MALIGNED AND DESPISED; for ‘nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest,’ and those ‘who honor God shall be honored by Him’ in the presence of men and angels!” (Mount of Blessing, p. 54).
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.