John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
We see here that Jesus Himself is encouraging us to be strong in him during end times as he has overcome the world already. Also, we see about the coming of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Paul encouraging us with the second coming of our Lord.
To get an indication of when the second coming of the Lord and about tribulations, we should look at Mathews 24:21 and 29 : For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. In verse 29 it is mentioned that “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. As a Christian we may experience greater tribulations than what we are going through now. But we can follow Jesus till the end as our forerunner. In Hebrews 12 as written ’’fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’’.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, here we have a reminder of Antichrist. Before Jesus returns, we will have to go through tribulations and trials someway or other. God wants us to be on guard and prepared and come out triumphantly. When we come out of small tribulations successfully by the grace of God (which is the power to overcome), God will enable us to be endured to face bigger ones. We should take courage in Jesus and the entire life of Jesus reveals to us the same, He had to go through various tribulations & Trials in His life and yet He didn’t sin or yield to any temptations(Hebrews 4:15).
In the bible, we could see in many instances, a warfare between two kingdoms – God’s Kingdom over Satan’s. We see in the Old Testament 1 Samuel 17, Goliath & the Philistines were challenging the Israelites. Goliath represents the world & Satan challenging the people of God. Similarly, we see in the garden of Eden Satan trying to deceive Eve by saying ’’This is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil come to maturity’’.
On the other side, When Saul and Israelites heard of Goliath, they were dismayed and greatly afraid (1 Samuel 17 v 11). Though they are named the children of God, they were not obedient before God( the previous chapters shows the rebellion disobedience of Saul). They were under the dominion of the flesh and the influence of the world. Even as Christians when real trials come, we can fall out of Gods hand. We need to check whether we are under the dominion of the flesh or are we a threat to Satan’s kingdom or will we able to take the example of Jesus in coming out victorious in our trails. We can depend on the Holy Spirit and its power, obedient to God’s word.
When we see the reason for Saul’s failure, he was fully under the dominion of flesh. We see in 1 Samuel 17 how David defeated Goliath by being under the authority of God. We see 1 Samuel 13, David yielded to Gods will.
Are we like Israelite, name sake children of God? When trials and tribulations come. We see here David how he deals with the situation (1 Samuel 17: 31 onwards). He had faith in God and he proclaimed that “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” He even could not wear the protective garments of Saul. He just used his stick, sling and stones. We see how we coming out victorious We need to assess daily which category we fall under. In 2 Samuel we see David’s attitude towards Mephibosheth, we need to have grace and kindness like David had. In Acts we see 13 :22 on wards After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My [c]will.’ 23 From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus.
In the world we will have tribulations but we need to take courage because we have the promise and example of Jesus as He has overcome the world. We should understand that we may not realize that we are falling away from God at times. We still be named Children of God like Saul and His people. We have to take heed to be under the authority of God not under the dominion of the flesh and of the world. We could see that example of David in the above context that he was not taking any glory, he depended on the God whom he believed. As we approach the end times, we will have to face tribulations let us take heed and be always under the authority of God. Our attitude should always be “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)
As in Hebrews 3:13, let us encourage one another as long as it is still called “Today” so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We have to hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end and thus become partakers of Christ in our trails and tribulations. His promises are true and He is able. Let’s us earnestly pray and seek for Gods help to be victorious in all circumstances of our lives.
