Why do we have to be hammering on about in what destitute circumstances men and women of faith may have to exist? Well, because there is a certain teaching in the Christian air, we might say, that says that this kind of stuff should never face a Christian. That is, there is a certain kind of teaching that you hear rather frequently, that if you are walking in the obedience of faith and have the right knowledge, you cannot help but have a pretty good degree of prosperity. There are certain teachers that say that if you know the way of the obedience of faith, then you know that Jesus has given believers authority over disease, demons, sickness, storms, finances, etcetera. And these teachers will say that what the Christian needs to do, is to decree in faith what they want in terms of even finances. One teacher says, We are to command the money to come to us. That is, you say something like, I decree in Jesus’ name, such and such to happen. And of course, if it does not happen, then your faith is defective or something like that. This teaching you can find on TV telecast and so on. But you are not going to see Habakkuk 3:17 printed on your TV screen. They do not deal in this stuff!

I wonder what they make then of God’s own Son in Luke 4:2–4. Do you remember the Lord Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness? It happened right after his baptism, where his Father had said to him in an audible voice: you are my Son, the one I love; I am delighted in you. And then he was tempted for forty days in the wilderness, and Luke says in Luke 4:1–44: after that time when he had eaten no food, the devil comes to him and says, If you are the Son of God, command the stone that it become bread. Do you need a paraphrase of what is going on there? Read between the lines. Don’t you know what he is saying? He is saying, Jesus, here you are, you have nothing; your Father has left you destitute, but you have the power to act independently for you are the Son of God. The word if means if as is the case; he is not doubting it. He is saying, you are the Son of God, and if you are, then you can act on your own. You do not have to suffer under this destitution that your Father has imposed on you. Command the stone to become bread. Fulfill your needs. You do not have to submit to this set of circumstances, Jesus. After all, what kind of father would leave the son he loves in a situation like this? What kind of father would allow the son in whom he delights to be in this kind of destitution; such horrendous straits.

Would you say then that Jesus was lacking in faith, because at that point he was utterly destitute of any resources and submitted to it? I think not. What I want you to see here is, that sometimes as Habakkuk expected, you can be stripped of all your normal resources and support that God gives you. You can be stripped of all your normal supports, but that does not mean you are without faith. Sometimes faith is called to suffer what the Bible calls the loss of all things, and it can happen to God’s people.¹

Ralph Davis