“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions’” – Genesis 15:12-14.

“…and afterward they shall come out with great possessions”

HOW CAN ANYONE imagine the length of time for a people to suffer for four hundred years? At least four generations endured oppression before the tide of tyranny turned in their favour. Why the long duration of affliction remains a mystery to us and cannot be explained adequately; only that is known to the all-wise God.

This nation, soon to be called Israel, was chosen of God from the iron furnace. A nation that was utterly unable to deliver itself, a nation that was too weak and a nation that was too insignificant and incomparable to other surrounding empires: – all these factors shadow the condition of our spiritual status before we were drawn to Christ: “For while we were still weak [without a single atom of strength], at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…while we were enemies [of God] we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son…” (Romans 5:6&10). At the right time Christ came, or as Galatians 4:4 states: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” All human hope has to expire before the salvation of the Lord lifts us to a place of exaltation – a state of elevation that nullifies all human pride and independence; a state of elevation that brings forth the praises of God.

You may be questioning as to why your circumstances have not changed, despite the fact that God is with you in the midst of them. Some of you may be hard-pressed as to the years that have passed and situations have not allowed you to budge an inch forward. You have prayed and earnestly pleaded with God that the walls and doors of iron be removed, but the conditions remain the same. You have kept close accounts with God, confessed all known sin, but your situation has not changed; you have trusted the Lord like never before, yet those hindrances and mountains still lay in clear in sight.

Why is it that after having trusted the Lord with all your heart and after acknowledging Him in all your ways, your paths remain crooked? Where are the green pastures and why does the valley of darkness persist?

The very first aspect God will have you learn is that He is with you in it; the Shepherd walks with you through the desperate and barren times. To have full assurance that God surrounds you in your trials is of utmost importance; without this you will never withstand the test of your faith. It is one thing to believe that God is faithful by what the Scriptures state, but a completely different matter to encounter God’s faithfulness amidst circumstances that would contradict that; for some people God is not real in their actualities otherwise their hearts would never give way to fear and anxiety in times of adversity. Opposition will either prove or disprove the genuineness of our faith, whether it is in God or in what we believe about Him.

The next thing He will teach you is to be content in Him, to be abased or abound, to be in plenty or in want – God will supply everything that you truly need. After recognising this, you will know what green pastures actually mean because He becomes your richness and place of deepest rest; you will come to discover that all you want is to be found in Him. You will decipher between your selfish desires and the desires that God forms in your heart that brings true liberation.

The following step is submission to His timing of deliverance – “My times are in Your hand” and the overruling desire will be that He does not end these trials until He has altered within you what hinders Him having His way through you. What will become your chief concern is that God is glorified in your affliction and that the image of His Son bears a deeper stamp on your soul.

You may be reduced from a state of affluence to a state of poverty where you have none but God to rely on. Your season may be a long-drawn phase of unemployment wondering how you will regain the years that have been lost. Ill-health may have confined you where you will discover, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord”, or it may be a period of confinement to intense loneliness, where you have no one to share the burdens of your heart in order to show you that God is the Friend Who sticks closer than a brother. Unable to fathom how God will bring promised ‘joy in the morning’, an implicit trust in Him will enable you to tread the tempest waves coinciding with the laying down of all ambitions saving the one to pursue God Himself.

It is not for us to acquire when or how God shall grant our deliverance and a change in circumstances, but that an alteration in our heart takes precedence; the overruling priority is that we have full assurance that God is with us, is for us and is having His way with us. You will learn that though the outward circumstances remain unchanged as yet, you are in the safest place – the centre of His will.

Through this painful process, you will understand a greater measure of God’s love and the reaffirmation that you are His child (Proverbs 3:12) and that nothing in all of creation shall steal or win your soul away from the Shepherd’s unbreakable covenantal love towards you. How you cleave unto Him with a gladness of heart, for the work that He has begun and perfecting in you, will show your sonship to Him like no other experience will; you will realise that there can never be any greater security than this. No amount of wealth or prestige the world could offer will ever bring this sense of being safe in His hands.

The darkness will break and dawn shall gloriously take its place as the peaceful fruit of Christ’s righteousness bears clearer resemblance in your life (Hebrews12:11). God is doing this so that you will share in His holiness – to be made holy as He is (Hebrews 12:10). That is one of the grandest truths in all of Scripture, not so much as our being saved from hell and the wrath of God, but that we are being changed, by His grace alone, from one degree of glory to another; we will one day stand in the presence of Almighty God with nothing to censure in us for we shall be as His own Son, not deified but perfected and robed in His glory. We shall see Him exactly for Who He is. This is where God shall be most glorified, having fulfilled what He has promised to do. What immeasurable love this is – a Love that is working all things together (having been foreordained) for the best which is the background of all our suffering.

Joseph, in prison, would never have anticipated the extraordinary manner of deliverance and prominence he was predestined to; no circumstance appeared to permit any hope of change. Had he not endured those immense years of confinement, pride may well have mastered his heart, securing his eternal destiny. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). That good wasn’t just good, but the very best: “Oh, how abundant is Your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear You and worked for those who take refuge in You” (Psalm 31:19).

As the Israelites were liberated from the Egyptians, they went forth not empty-handed but with great possessions, so we too shall plunder the enemies goods; what the legions of hell intends for our destruction, God is using for our reconstruction; what we have ‘lost’ shall be gained beyond measure. Thinking we are poor and destitute, we shall see that we are the richest people on earth, for we shall perceive the hand of God, through our affliction, has indeed brought forth our richness in Him.

“Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 31:24)