Opposition is part of the Christian life. We as God’s people ought to realize that we are engaged in a war with the devil for the lives of the people that God wants saved.
As such, we should expect to receive heavy resistance from him as we do the will of God in accordance with His word. When we do, we prepare ourselves to face hardship and difficulty as we obey the Lord.
The Bible presents to us various men and women of faith who did not waver in the face of opposition. They continued to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has allowed them to, even when they were persecuted, oppressed, harassed, or rejected.
These men and women ought to serve as inspirations to us who are now given the opportunity to shine for God in our generation. These people are mere humans just like us, yet they served a great God and Father who empowered them and encouraged them to go on and do His will.
Today we’ll take a look at three Bible figures who, aside from the Lord Jesus, remained strong even in the face of opposition.
Take note that although all of them aren’t really serving in the temple or preaching the Gospel, their persistence through opposition pleased God and allowed their names to be recorded in the Bible, for us to read and learn from.
And so without further ado, here are a few of God’s people who remained strong in the face of opposition.
1) Nehemiah
Nehemiah was a cupbearer to Babylonian King Artaxerxes. He might be a servant to a pagan king alright, but his efforts led to the restoration of the broken walls of Jerusalem.
Despite his noble intentions to bring honor to his countrymen and to God, Nehemiah faced strong opposition from his enemies, namely Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab (see Nehemiah 2:19).
The opposition was so fierce that Nehemiah had to call every rebuilder to arms while working night and day (see Nehemiah 4). Thankfully, God protected them and allowed them to finish rebuilding the wall in a miraculously short period of time (see Nehemiah 6:15-16).
2) John the Baptist
John the Baptist faced opposition from two of the most powerful systems during his time: the religious system (the Pharisees) and the monarchy (Herod the tetrarch). Still, he did not waver in preaching repentance to people.
John had frequent run-ins with the Pharisees. They kept trying to discredit him or dissuade people from listening to him, but he always silenced them with truth. John, however, gained the people’s respect.
John also faced Herod the tetrarch for speaking what was right. John was against Herod’s adultery with his brother’s wife, Herodias, aside from his evil deeds. And so Herod had him imprisoned (see Luke 3:18-20). Soon, Herodias would have John beheaded (see John 14:6-12).
3) David
We all know David as the shepherd boy who slew a giant and became Israel’s king. The road to these obvious successes, however, wasn’t overlaid with gold.
David faced opposition from his family. His dad wasn’t proud of him (see 1 Samuel 16:1-13) and his brothers looked down on him (see 1 Samuel 17:28-30). Later on, he faced opposition from his own son (see 2 Samuel 15).
He also faced opposition from Israel’s insecure King Saul (see 1 Samuel 18:5-6; 1 Samuel 19; 1 Samuel 20:30-31) and from other people.
Suffice to say that he had a lot of enemies, yet he continued on and is remembered as the man after God’s own heart (see 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22).
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