ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT
This message will look at intervention in the nick of time. I don’t know if the expression “the nick of time” is known around the world, but it means “just in time”, “at the last moment”. “One minute to midnight,” is a similar expression, and it is surprising how God works that way. Is it to test our patience, or our faith in Him? Is it to aimed to produce in us a stronger faith for more difficult requirements ahead? Let us consider some aspects of this.
The subject of this message is “ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT”. We will think about some of these biblical examples of one minute to midnight.
[1]. ELIJAH:
Elijah confronted Ahab, that wicked king of Israel who was married to an even more wicked wife. Ahab and Jezebel were the promoters of all the Baal worship in the land. After that episode the Lord sent him to the brook Cherith to care for him. The land was in severe drought but God kept His servant there with the nurture of a loving God. He provided the water, and bread and meat the ravens brought. There are some words Paul wrote – {{1Timothy 6:6-8 “But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment, 1Tim 6:7 for we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 1Tim 6:8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”}}
Elijah was a godly man and godliness was accompanied by contentment, for Elijah rested in total faith beside that brook. Paul, in verse 8, says the basic essentials are food and clothing. Elijah had his food supplied miraculously, and had his hairy prophet’s mantle as his covering. What more could he ever need? That time of solitude was precious as he drew away from all the concerns and evil that was in the land.
After some time the flow in the brook lessened. What did Elijah have to do? Make provisions? Build a small dam to help retain some of the water? Try searching for containers to fill before the brook ran out? Would he look for another brook? He did none of that. He merely waited. He did not become concerned nor did he panic. He did not become anxious. Paul has advice on that matter as well – {{Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, Phil 4:7 and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”}} Elijah rested contentedly just waiting the time of God, for he trusted in the God of Circumstances.
Then the brook dried up and the ravens stopped coming. Did he worry about being abandoned? No he did not.
Then at the exact time of Elijah’s need God made His presence known and he was instructed to go and live with a widow woman and her son. The Lord waited right to the very end before He took action. There is an expression “one minute to midnight” meaning right at the last possible time. Movies are fond of it. Someone is being strangled then rescue comes. Someone is about to fire a gun and the hero arrives. The bible has not copied the ways of the world but the world has copied the bible’s method. God has it all in control, but the child of God has to learn to be under the control of the Lord. He is always faithful. He never lets us down.
[2]. ESTHER:
We have all heard of wicked Haman. Each year the Jews have a feast called “Purim” where some of them stick pins in a made up doll representing Haman. Purim comes from the word “Pur” meaning the lot, as in casting the lot. This is an outline of the story of Haman.
1. A Jewish woman becomes queen. She was Queen Esther. This happened in the Persian reign that followed the Babylonian Empire. There was going to be an assassination attempt on the Persian king.
2. Mordecai, a Jew and uncle of Esther, saved the life of the king Ahasuerus (Artaxerxes) through a tip off. He was overlooked and unrewarded.
3. The King promoted Haman, a type of public servant with a public servant arrogance.
4. Wicked Haman was puffed up in pride and self importance and demanded everyone bow down to him. Mordecai refused. Power goes to the heads of vain people, and worthless ones too.
5. When Haman knew that Mordecai was a Jew then he determined to kill all who were Jews and hatched a plan and got the king on side. It was pride and arrogance that lead to hatred.
6. A day was determined through Ahaseurus’s decree that all the Jews could be killed in the Persian empire and all their goods taken. Esther would not be spared even though the king did not know she was a Jew.
7. The Queen Esther asked of Ahaseurus if she could stage a banquet and especially asked that Haman be invited. Haman was overjoyed and went home and told all his family all about his position and riches and his glory and how great he was.
8. Haman built a gallows to hang Mordecai. He especially hated Mordecai more than anyone else.
9. The day had almost arrived to exterminate all the Jews. The Jews throughout the empire were fasting, looking to God for deliverance.
10. God caused Ahaseurus not to sleep so he ordered all the chronicles of his kingdom be brought to him and he listened as they were read. I suppose some might find them boring and that would put him to sleep. God had other plans.
11. Then he found that Mordecai had not been rewarded for saving his life.
12. Strategically, Haman entered the court and the king asked him what should be done for the man the king wished to honour. Haman believed it was him, so he answered the king with a list of good things. That is so typical of the conceited and deluded, but God will reduce such people lower than the centipede on the ground.
13. Then the king told him to go and do all that for Mordecai. His life was shattered that his enemy would be exalted. Haman had to lead Mordecai through the city on a horse and had to tell people, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honour.” He must have been seething at every step with his blood pressure off the scale.
14. The banquet came and Ahaseurus was so pleased with what Esther had done that he asked Esther to name a petition, up to half the kingdom.
15. Esther told the king all her people including her were to be sold as slaves and killed. The king became angry and asked who would propose that monstrous thing, and Esther said it was Haman.
16. The king went outside for a while and then came back in. Meanwhile Haman was grovelling and falling on the couch where the queen was seated, to seek his life from her, and the king saw it and assumed the worst, and immediately ordered Haman be taken.
17. Then one told the king that Haman had this gallows almost 25 metres high he had prepared for Mordecai, and it turned out that Haman was hanged on his very own gallows.
God had a plan to protect His Jewish people and had the right people in the right place at the right time. It was looking hopeless for the Jews but at one minute to midnight the decree was lifted and the Jews were saved. God answered their prayers but at the last moment. O, for patience to wait on the Lord and not to faint.
[3]. HEZEKIAH:
After Israel was divided through the stupidity and evil of King Solomon, implemented through his son, the one kingdom became two nations called Israel or Samaria or Ephraim which was the northern kingdom, and Judah which was the southern kingdom. There were some really good kings in Judah scattered among some really evil ones. Israel did not have even one good king. One of the good kings in Judah was Hezekiah and he faced a serious dilemma. The Assyrian king – Shalmaneser – captured Samaria and 8 years later, the Assyrian king Sennacherib came against Judah and Jerusalem.
The background for this is 2 Kings 18 v 13 – 19 v 36. Also Isaiah 36 and 37. The account is way too big to be covered here as it covers 4 chapters. I tried to select some critical parts:-
{{2Kings 18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
2Kings 18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem,
2Kings 18:29 Thus says the king (Assyrian king), ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hand; 2Kings 18:30 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
2Kings 18:32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die, but do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’
2Kings 19:1 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.
2Kings 19:6-7 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 2Kings 19:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumour and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”
2Kings 19:14-16 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD, 2Kings 19:15 and Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You alone, You are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. 2Kings 19:16 Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open Your eyes, O LORD, and see, and listen to the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God.
2Kings 19:34-36 for I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” 2Kings 19:35 Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians, and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead, 2Kings 19:36 so Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.}}
Things were looking very grim with no hope of escape. The situation in Jerusalem was desperate but Sennacherib and Rabshakeh had taken on the Lord of heaven and blasphemed Him. One can not do that. Right at the point of desperation, the Lord God intervened and ended the Assyrian threat. One minute to midnight came deliverance.
[4]. FUTURE JERUSALEM AT THE END OF THE TRIBULATION:
On the eve of the Second Coming, seven years after the Rapture, Jerusalem and Israel will be in trouble. The armies of the world have been summonsed by demonic spirits to come to Israel to exterminate the Jews - {{Revelation 16:13-16 “I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, Rev 16:14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to THE KINGS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. Rev 16:16 They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”}}
As well as that, the armies of Gog and Magog are in the land. Jerusalem is in a bad way, BUT right at ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT, Jesus the Messiah, returns to Jerusalem (Second Coming) and destroys these armies at the battle of Armageddon. Zechariah the prophet records it quite succinctly -
{{Zechariah 12:2-4 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah, Zech 12:3 and it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will be severely injured, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. Zech 12:4 In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment, and his rider with madness, but I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.”}}
{{Zechariah 14:2-4 “For I will gather ALL THE NATIONS against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Zech 14:3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle, Zech 14:4 and in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.”}}
BUT . . . . THERE ARE TWO FAILURES – ABRAHAM AND SAUL
[5]. ABRAHAM:
Sarah and Abraham - they had well and truly passed the midnight hour as regards pregnancy. They no doubt counted each year and knew the time was quickly departing for any chance to become pregnant. Did God intervene at one minute to midnight? No it seemed He didn’t. He was waiting to show something much superior to that, a miracle. Abraham had the promise of a son – {{Genesis 15:2-4 Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” and Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” However God had not specifically named Sarah as being the mother. The Abram and Sarah planned their own solution and through Hagar, came Ishmael. Abraham was the father of the faithful and was God’s select man. They did not wait!
[5]. KING SAUL:
However we come to Saul, a man who did not operate by faith, who was pressed by the enemy and waiting for Samuel to come to offer the sacrifice. He decided to circumvent God and offered the sacrifice that only the priest could do. Samuel did come at one minute to midnight (to use the expression) but disobedience had already played its hand in rebellion. Are we more like Saul and can’t wait on God for His time, even if it is at the 11th hour? It is faith that knows God will not fail us. He is true to His promises.
[6]. THE APPLICATION –
{{1Peter 4:12-14 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you, but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”}}
We have looked at a few cases from the Old Testament where God delivered at one minute to midnight, and at Saul who failed, and at Abraham who did not properly understand. We can not expect deliverance, or God’s intervention for us at the last moment – it is not guaranteed; may happen, but not guaranteed. Tens of millions of Christian martyrs testify to this. Peter did not promise deliverance, but he did remind us of God’s Spirit present with us. God will never forsake us, no matter what lies ahead.
The testing of our faith brings glory to God when the child of His love proves the faith that is genuine. If God chooses to deliver you at one minute to midnight, then glory to him. If He chooses not to, glory to Him. All honour and glory to God. One of my poems will close this message.
FAITHFULLY HE IS WATCHING
Not forsaken nor abandoned -
Not left destitute at all;
Not as orphans will He leave us,
In this world, blindly to fall.
Pathways may track desert wastelands;
Clouds obscure the light at times.
We may think our God’s forgotten
When our path through heartache winds.
Frailty in our lives may surface -
Shows the weakness of our trust;
We may be so fickle-minded,
But our God is always just.
Precious Saviour, ever with us,
Graces every path we take.
Christ, the unseen Friend draws closer;
Never, never, will forsake.
How He sweetly cares for me when
I need Him to comfort me!
How He kindly opens doorways -
Shows me what I could not see.
Ministers His sweet compassion,
Showing He is merciful;
Comforts me with peace sustaining
That through hurt, is wonderful.
How He loves us every moment!
Blesses us with gifts so sweet.
How He takes the seized-up heart strings
Makes them vibrate to His beat.
How He gently lifts the burdened
When the heat of trial is fierce.
Soothes the hurting and the wounded;
Those who know sharp lances pierce.
In God’s timing all is perfect -
He will give us victory.
He will overcome oppressors
As He has through history.
Mighty God who rules the nations,
Who controls the world’s affairs;
God, who upholds all creation,
Watches o’er His children’s cares.
How He loves me with compassion;
With a tender Shepherd’s love.
Comforter - He tarries with us,
Sent through love from Christ above.
Gracious Saviour, we adore Him,
In our lives the centrepiece.
You, the tender-hearted Shepherd -
Never will Your mercies cease.
God revealed His endless wisdom,
Executed perfectly.
Rescued me when hope was fading,
Carried me so tenderly.
Can I doubt Him even slightly?
What a shame if that be done!
He has gone in strength before me
To prepare a victory won.
Let us lift our hearts in worship,
Let us raise His standard high,
For He hears His children’s heartaches
Hears each feeble, hurting cry.
Poem is copyright but may be used in Christian ministry with acknowledgement.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
