1 Samuel 6:5

“Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your rats that ravage the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps He will lighten His hand from you, from your gods, and from your land.”

God is awesome. God is able to accomplish His work all by Himself. God is able to make the nations turn to Him even without our interference. He can cause them to get to a point where they begin to see the futility of all they are doing, and begin to interpret events around them from God’s perspective. When God permits calamities to befall the nations, these are not an end in themselves. These are simply meant to force them to acknowledge the limitedness of all their glory and capacities. God will make things happen to the nations that will force them to look beyond what they have and to seek help from the Almighty God. In these last days, God will show up more forcefully than before, and more calamities will happen that have never happened before – and all these are meant to make the nations seek for solutions beyond themselves.

In this story, the Philistines had to go to their priests and diviners to look for an explanation of why they were suffering, and strangely enough, these diviners were able to give an accurate assessment of the problem and solution. They recognized that their suffering was from the Lord and that only the Lord could heal them. They also recognized that they needed to present a trespass offering to the Lord – which was an appeal for forgiveness. Without help from anyone outside themselves, they came to the conclusion that they needed to give God glory if they were to find restoration and release.

In light of the closeness to the End of Age, God will begin to do these types of things more and more. God will force the nations to see their futility, and deep inside the corridors of power, men will begin to acknowledge God and seek ways to reach out to Him. Yes, the Church still has a role to play, but because of the urgency of the last days, God will begin to bring the nations on bended knees without the intervention of the Church. We will increasingly begin to see God do things all by Himself, and we will need to play catch-up with the work of God in these end times. This is exciting. God will design His solutions, execute them, and bring glory to Himself – all by Himself. He will return the Ark of the Covenant to Himself, even without the intervention of His people. Isn’t that amazing?

In our defeat and weakness, we must never think God is defeated or weak. He is able to bring glory to Himself by Himself. Our limitedness cannot be transferred to Him. He is always working to bring glory to Himself – with or without us. That is both humbling as well as terrifying at the same time. So, never think you are indispensable. Remember, He is able to finish all His work without you. Worship Him.