Trusting the Lord in the Dark Times

How often the New Testament writers exhort us to look to the Lord Jesus as our example in the hard times we may face. He looked past the suffering at Calvary to the Joy set before Him!

The Old Testament usually exhorts the Saints to trust in the mighty God strong to save during the darkest of times.

But Isaiah 50 provides that rare Old Testament portrait of Christ in His distress and persecution, and holds it up as an example for believers to follow.

Christ's crucifixion is described in discreet and understated terms, along with His utter confidence that He will triumph and not be ashamed in the end. Christ Himself speaks of His determination to see His sacrifice all the way through in obedience to the Father.

Similar portraits of Christ on the cross may be found in Psalm 40 and Psalm 69.

Then Christ turns to address His people in the last verses of Isaiah 50. He posits a believer who finds himself in utter darkness, and He urges such an one to trust in God and wait upon Him!

No doubt confidence of Christ in darkness and His exhortation to His people in similar circumstances meets its most direct and poignant fulfillment at Calvary! For then His people stood in the blackest night of the Christian experience: their Lord Jesus seemingly crushed by the evil of their land. How black must have been that time for them!

One can almost hear the words of Christ as reported by the prophet coming forward in time: trust in God no matter how dark, remembering My confidence at the same time!

We Saints today are so greatly blessed, for we shall never face the blackness the disciples faced at Calvary. Our Lord has triumphed for Himself and for us!