WHEN YOUR ENEMY IS A SERVANT OF GOD

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” Paul asks rhetorically in Romans 8:31. But the other side of the coin is, if God be against us, who can defend us?  That was the ponderous proposal with which Eli confronted his sinning stubborn priestly sons (1 Samuel 2:25).  They had no answer.

In Jeremiah 27:6, God introduced King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as “my servant.”  That is an honourable title generally reserved for priests, pastors, and preachers.  We call them servants of God, sometimes the “Man of God” (MOG) or the “Woman of God” (WOG) (Psalm 134:1; Titus 1:1; Revelation 10:7; James 1:1).  Wasn’t God making a mistake by ascribing that hallowed title to a heartless heathen king?  If that were even a Cyrus, who supported the restoration of the Jews to their homeland and the rebuilding of the temple, we would understand, but a vicious Nebuchadnezzar!  Hmmm…

Scripture asserts that truth is usually confirmed “in the mouth of two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19; Matthew 18:16).  Not only in Jeremiah 27:6 but also in Jeremiah 25:9 and 43:10, that king is repeatedly and publicly introduced by Jehovah as “Nebuchadnezzar … my servant.”   In other words, Rt. Rev. Nebuchadnezzar of the ‘Babylon Province’ was no less a servant of God than Elijah or Jeremiah or Peter or Paul; no less anointed for his special divine assignments than you for your peculiar divine assignments.

The servants of God are not all priests; they are not all Jews.  All altars of God are not in the sanctuary at Jerusalem (Romans 13:6).  Rev Nebuchadnezzar was also a “servant” of God, but of a different order than that of the priesthood of Aaron.

Every minister is ordained to serve.  Evangelist Nebuchadnezzar was also ordained to minister to the Lord, in a very strange way.  He invaded Jerusalem and deported a first batch of about 10,000 Jews comprising princes of Israel, several nobles, and the finest craftsmen from the holy land to Babylon (2 Kings 24:14-16). That number included Daniel with his three princely friends as well as Ezekiel who became a prophet in diaspora (Daniel 1:1-4; Ezekiel 1:1).  That vicious invader was “Nebuchadnezzar … my servant,” as God called him. At the time of Jeremiah’s recent prophecies, that odd “servant” of God had returned to besiege Jerusalem the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah, after conquering other cities.  The siege was so intense that there was great suffering in the land, causing God’s people much pain, among them many prophets and priests, including Prophet Jeremiah.  That tormentor, according to God, was, “Nebuchadnezzar … my servant.”

Bishop Nebuchadnezzar was going to break down the walls of Jerusalem and burn down her gates, making that city such a lasting and global reproach that even after many years, the news of its desolations would provoke such holy noble men as Nehemiah into months of tearful intercession (Nehemiah 1:1-4; 2:1).  That destroyer, God said, was His “servant.”  Apostle Nebuchadnezzar was going to destroy the temple of God and carry away the sacred utensils to the heathen land of Babylon, with the strange likelihood that later kings would abuse those hallowed items in an idolatrous orgy, as did King Belshazzar (Daniel 5:1-4), and he was, “Nebuchadnezzar … my servant.”  What a ministry!

In his eventual capture of Jerusalem the seat of David’s throne, the city was burned down, countless people were killed, and others more taken away as captives into far away Babylon, forcing Prophet Jeremiah into his sombrous Lamentations – read that book again.  The General Overseer of the inflictors of those disasters was an ordained “servant” of the Most High God.  His peculiar ‘ministry’ was to kill, conquer or destroy the people of God and other stubborn nations.

Is it not the ‘ministry’ of Satan “to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10)?  Yes, but not the ministry of Apostle Nebuchadnezzar.  They were different.  It is clear that “to steal” was not part of Nebuchadnezzar’s ‘ministry’ mandate.  It is not reported that he stole.  So, if anyone called him the devil’s servant because of the seeming coincidences between his service and that of Satan, they lacked discernment.

God warned in Jeremiah 34:2 as well as in other places, that He would “give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”  In Jeremiah 27:6, He said that He had already “given all these lands” as well as the “beasts of the field” to that man ordained and anointed to kill, to destroy, to trouble the people and the land of God.  He was a “servant” on special assignment for the Almighty God, a Man of God, an “MOG.”

Nebuchadnezzar was so anointed and fortified by God that he was impervious to the malicious prayers, curses, and blunt prophecies of the blinded priests and prophets who loudly proclaimed his end, to the pleasure of the suffering sinners in the land who craved reprieve but would not repent, who wished to be free but would not turn from the sinful ways that had attracted their woes (Jeremiah 23:13-17; 27:9-11).  Those nationalistic and ‘patriotic’ prophets denounced Rev Nebuchadnezzar in their sermons and prayers. They also despised Jeremiah as an unpopular minority voice, a rebel, a treasonable agent who was speaking for the ‘enemy’ (Jeremiah 20:1-3).  The positivistic and ‘nationalistic’ prophets denounced the ‘negative prophecies’ of the gloomy Jeremiah.  They were more in number, their cherry voices louder.  Like charmers and their cobras, they had the ears of the government of the day (Jeremiah 26:7-10).  They were more popular on the trending medias as they said what people wished to hear without being willing to repent.  Their congregations and ‘followers’ were large, dying but still relishing the soothing lies.

You should fear when your God hires your enemy against you, because He has been unable to get your penitent attention otherwise.  When that happens, your real problem would not be the ‘enemy’ but the Offended God that has hired him.  Fighting such an enemy would be a waste of time, energy, and resources. You will never win, no matter how much you fast, no matter how many prophets of Samaria you hire to curse him for you, no matter how many times you ‘bind and loose.’  Your only hope would be to make peace with the Master of that oppressor – the Offended God.

Sadly, it is usually easier to pray than to repent.  Our cities have been ruined and our women raped, still we pray.  Our young men have been exiled by force of a merciless economy to faraway lands from which many of them will never return, still we pray, contending against the uncommon servants of God than turn to the One that has commissioned them against us.  From polluted pulpits and stained pews we have impotently cursed Apostle Nebuchadnezzar day and night, yet he blossoms into a global head of gold while we dwindle and die as the famished feet of clay.  Let’s pray on …

Sometimes, prayer seems cheaper than repentance, even though the cost at last is larger.  How many wives would frequently feverishly ‘bind’ witchy mothers-in-law than submit scripturally to their husband!  How many bosses would rather ‘sow’ costly ‘seeds’ to their church Papa than pay their hungry and haggard staff whom they exploit in the deceitful name of a ‘harsh economy’?  How many doctors would rather kill and tithe than obey God and be mocked?  To the depraved, sacrifice often seems cheaper than obedience, but God would rather have obedience than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

Is it possible that some of the ‘terrible politicians’ we have so often cursed, and their terrorist thugs that have caused us much pain, destroying our grains and our sanctuaries, are servants of God?  Could that thorny office staff indeed be a servant of God?  And that woman that has caused much prayers … If they are, we waste our prayers against them.  We should rather direct our penitent tears to the offended One who has ordained them against us in our homes, offices, cities, churches, and our nations … but, well, it sometimes feels easier to pray than to repent; to frequently ‘confess sins’ than turn from them.

When Solomon backslid, “the LORD stirred up an adversary” against him – “Hadad the Edomite.”  When he still would not repent, “God stirred him up another adversary … Rezon the son of Eliadah” (1 Kings 11:14, 23).  Of another sinning king, it was said, “the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians” (2 Chronicles 21:16).  Terrorists on divine assignment!

Not only against the stubborn individual but also against stubborn sinning communities God deploys the same approach.  We read in 1 Chronicles 5:26, for instance, that “the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away” (1 Samuel 26:19).

God is not an unfair employer. He does not hire without pay.  He hates it (James 5:4).  Just as we would usually prepare honorariums for our guest ministers, God had a fat package for Nebuchadnezzar His servant.  For example, about that special minister, God informed Prophet Ezekiel His protocol officer on one occasion, “I am giving him Egypt in payment for his services, because his army was working for me. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken” (Ezekiel 29:20, Good News Translation).  You are not the only who knows how to take care of your guest ministers.  God does too.

May God never give you as honourarium to your haters.  May He never gift you to your enemies as He once swore that He would do with rebellious Israel: “I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life” (Jeremiah 34:20).  No matter your might, no matter the number of armed blind prophets on your side, you will never win the battle against an enemy hired against you by your God, an offended God.  Repent.

When God hires your enemies against you, you waste your prayers fighting them, as some have done for many days.  When He turns your slave into your boss, it is time to cry.  Alas, when shall the land repent, throw the lying prophets out the sanctuary, go prostrate before the Lord in sincere tears, and say, “O Lord, have mercy upon us”?  Sometimes, it is easier to pray than to repent, even in the throes of death.  We seem to be there.

O Lord, save us in this season from deceptive ‘nationalistic’ prophets and priests unable to heal our deep wounds with their comforting lies.  Circumcise our ears to distinguish between bitter truths and soothing errors.  Pardon the powerless ‘positive confessions’ from our rebellious hearts.  Give us prophets indeed, O Lord, and grant us the humility of heart to bow at their unpleasant but truthful calls, before next the plague falls.  We have seen the sword and the famine; we have mourned the blood and the merciless hunger.  The pestilence looms (Jeremiah 14:12; 21:9; 24:10; 27:8, 13; 29:17-18; 32:24, etc.), but O Lord, turn us again unto Thyself, and deliver us … “Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Psalm 80:7), for “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7).  Amen.