Word for the Church: Suddenly...

One of the words my editor used to flag in my margins as "too easy" was the word suddenly.

And I get it; I needed impetus to change the pacing of my story from a walk to a run, and I needed to do it quickly, but to get the same meaning of the word suddenly without using the actual word... I had to write a whole sentence. Or two sentences. Or a paragraph, and -- ha, suddenly -- my pacing was no longer a quick-change, but rather a slow, lugubrious get-up-and-eventually-move.

So we settled on a compromise: I'd use suddenly only in the most dire of situations, the key turning point of the story, the place I most needed to show stand-still to action. I ruthlessly scrubbed suddenly out of every other less-essential place in my manuscripts.

Maybe it was my hyper-sensitivity to this word -- I prefer to think it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me -- but I zeroed in on Joshua 11:7-8 morning when I saw this: "So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel."

For context, Joshua and the Israelites have defeated the whole southern portion of Canaan in Joshua 10 (see my Walk to the Beat of a Different Drum post from yesterday). Joshua 11:1-5 begins with this: "When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this (Joshua's southern war campaign), he sent word to [a lot of hard-to-pronounce names of kings in the north of Canaan, and because I don't want to offend the ears of Hebrew scholars who, bless them, have those names down pat, I won't try this morning. Anyway...] they (the northern kings) came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots -- a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. All these kings joined forces and made camp together at the Waters of Merom, to fight against Israel."

The familiar pattern inserts itself. Joshua and Israel face what seems like an insurmountable obstacle. The Lord asks Joshua to step out in faith, while reminding him that He, the Lord, will fight the battle for him, and will hand over the enemy to Joshua, in order to fulfill His promise He'd given waaaaaaaay back in Genesis 15:18-21 to Joshua's ancestor Abraham: "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates -- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites." (There, see? I didn't altogether get to escape the difficult names.)

So obedient and fierce Joshua steps out in faith once again, and he "and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel.

I'd like to point this out: The enemy came expecting action, right? They were gathered and prepared for war. They'd brought their horses, their chariots, in order "to fight against Israel," says Joshua 11:5. The enemy had a purpose. 

So how did Joshua win? The enemy had it together! They were ready for anything... except for the surprise of swift suddenness.

Joshua overcame them suddenly by the power of the Lord: "The Lord gave them into the hand of Israel." 

Flip with me over to Malachi 2:17-3:3: "You have wearied the Lord with your words. 'How have we wearied him?' you ask. By saying, 'All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and He is pleased with them,' or 'Where is the God of justice?'

And then... "'See, I will send My messenger, Who will prepare the way before Me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple, the Messenger of the covenant will come,' says the Lord Almighty."

Same set-up as Joshua, different scenario. The enemy is present here in Malachi, too -- not the Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites, et. al. -- but the enemy of Ephesians 6:12 -- the one we cannot see, but who has carefully set up an attack strategy in the heavenly realms all around us. "Evil is good and good is evil." Sound familiar? Isaiah also warns about this: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20).

As in Joshua, this strategy and set-up by the enemy is a long-term campaign, a meticulously organized and set-up oppression that -- commensurate with its everlasting effects -- has been in the making since the forbidden fruit was plucked from the tree in the Garden of Eden. Did God really say? We read the Scriptures, see the clear directives therein, and we shift it around and try to put it in a different light, take verses out of context, call evil good and good evil, and we compromise: Did God really say that sin is sin? Did God really say that we're supposed to be in the world but not of the world? Did God really say that all of Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, instructing, and training in righteousness? 

"We should only pay attention to the words in red..."
"There are some inherent problems with the Gospel of John..."
"Paul's writings are too strict; they don't reflect the teachings of Jesus..."

All of these, I've heard argued -- recently -- as explanations about why the Scriptures aren't necessarily... valid. 

Oh, church. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil."

The forces against Joshua in chapter 11 cover a vast area of land, so messengers and emissaries and war-chieftains and chariots have been flying to and fro, hither and yon, as the lugubrious machinery of large-scale warfare begins its slow march south to meet Israel (yes, I did use lugubrious twice in the same post; it's one of my favorite words. It's so interesting, don't you think?) 

And Joshua meets them suddenly.

In Malachi, the enemy's plan is greater, but look at the correspondingly greater answer of the Lord: "'Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant will come,' says the Lord. But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?"

Certainly not the vast enemy. Why not? Because they're facing God Himself.

"For He will be like a refiner's fire..."

"Our God is a consuming fire" -- Hebrews 12:29.

"Or a launderer's soap... "

"Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" -- Psalm 51:2.

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver..."

Who were the Levites? They were the priests of the nation of Israel, assigned to do the holy work of God in His temple. 1 Peter 2:9 says: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light..."

We are the priesthood, and He cleanses us, purifies us like gold, silver, until impurities are removed, and we're made whole and precious and faultless, in order that we can stand before His throne in right and perfect relationship with Him, because Jesus made it possible -- Jesus is the Messenger of the Covenant, the One who goes before us.

Whew! Hallelujah! We have won, because He has won. Suddenly, He comes before the enemy, suddenly He defeats the forces who have struggled in vain against Him. Suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple.

What happens when the King takes his seat on the throne? "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will acknowledge God'" (Romans 14:11).

Suddenly brings a shift in pacing. Suddenly means a change. When the Lord suddenly comes to His temple, the expansive forces of the enemy cannot stand against Him. 

Adverb or no, I love this word. :)