The Tables Are Turning in Your Favor
Are you going through something today?
Good!
The EXACT trial you're facing could be the grounds for your greatest blessing yet.
Here's the amazing truth: God LOVES upsets. He loves to turn the tables. He loves to take the very bat that the Enemy is swinging to give the Devil a black eye.
Are you living faithfully for the Lord, trying to serve Him in all you do, but feel stuck? Like you're encountering attack after attack, leaving you paralyzed from moving?
Good!
It's precisely when God's people are backed into a corner that the Lion of Judah gets ready to roar.
Let me show you what I mean.
God Turns the Tables on the Israelites' Enemies
In the book of Ezra, the Israelites return to their homeland to fulfill God's call to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. They've been in captivity for years, and they finally get the chance to walk in the purposes of God. They start the work eagerly.
And then...they hit stop sign after stop sign.
The biggest obstacle they encountered was the intentional sabotage from the Israelites' enemies living in Judah. Their enemies didn't want them to complete their work. They threatened, pushed, and intimidated.
Worst of all, they wrote a letter to the King, accusing the Israelites of plotting against him. The only reason the Israelites' could rebuild in the first place was because the King granted them permission. It looked like their work would be shut down indefinitely!
All the Israelites could do was pray the King didn't believe the lie, speak in their defense, and keep their heads down to do the work.
Then, they received the King's response:
"Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid.... The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury....
Great news! This was Turn Around #1: God defended His people to the King. The King allowed them to keep building the temple!
But God didn't stop there.
Turn Around #2: Not only did the King give them the go-ahead to keep working. He also PROVIDED for the work from his own treasuries! The King would pay for the work indefinitely.
But God didn't stop there.
Turn Around #3: God made the very enemies who wanted to stop the work play a part in helping them!
"Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: Their expenses are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop. Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, male lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and olive oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given them daily without fail..."
The governors who had sabotaged their work not only had to watch the Israelites rebuild--they had to provide the materials and funds for the work themselves! I mean, talk about a role reversal!
But God didn't stop there.
Turn Around #4: The very people who accused the Israelites now stood accused before the king.
"Now then, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and you other officials of that province, stay away from there. Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site...Furthermore, I decree that if anyone defies this edict, a beam is to be pulled from their house and they are to be impaled on it. And for this crime their house is to be made a pile of rubble."
The King ordered their enemies to cease their attack...OR ELSE! If anyone touched their work, they would suffer a grisly punishment.
God made a way when there was no way forward.
God provided for the work through the very means the Enemy wanted to use to stop it.
God accused the very people who had been their accusers.
The God of the Turn-Around
This is just ONE STORY of God's provision. The scripture is FULL of stories like this one. Stories that show our God is the God of the reversal. The turn-around. The upset.
In the book of Esther, the Israelites' enemy, Haman, set out to hang their defender, Mordecai. It looked like Mordecai would be killed and the Israelites exterminated forever. Just one chapter later, Haman was killed on the very gallows he had built! And the Israelites were ordered by the king to kill anyone who came against them! Talk about a turn-around!
The ultimate turn-around is the cross.
The sign we worship was an instrument of death. God took what seemed like the ultimate defeat and upset death through Jesus. God used death to turn the tables on the Enemy forever.
Don't be afraid, and don't be discouraged.
Our God is the God of the upset. The turn-around. He uses the very means that the Enemy meant to hurt us to bless us, to advance us, to defend us, to resurrect us, to redeem us.
Like the Israelites, keep your head down and keep doing the work in faith. In the meantime, God is orchestrating your great reversal.
Leave a comment with your favorite story from scripture showing how God loves to turn the tables!