With so much that is so wrong with the world, many are understandably wondering how it will all end. As for me, despite all the genuine horror of the war in Ukraine, the terror currently being inflicted in the Middle East and the violence that increasingly exists on our own streets, I remain convinced that, in the end, all will be well.
And considering the future to be that certain, there is, I believe, a sense in which it can be said that all is well now.
Consider 2 Kings 4:18-27
‘When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.
And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.”
And he said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “All is well.” Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, “Urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’” And she answered, “All is well.” And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
I’m going to stop there, perhaps a little surprisingly, with the woman’s distress unresolved. But I do so quite deliberately, because that is sometimes where we find ourselves – with the problems that we are facing unresolved and our distress continuing on.
That’s certainly the case for me. I have a daughter who finds life very hard - and for the last ten years, her slowly breaking heart has been slowly breaking mine.
And there will be others reading this who likewise are experiencing similar genuine sadness.
So what do these verses written approximately two and a half thousand years ago have to say to us today.
Well, a boy has died. Without telling anyone why, his mother sets off to visit Elisha, the man of God. As she does so she tells her puzzled husband, who hasn’t yet learned that his son’s headache has had fatal consequences, that ‘all is well’. [2 Kings 4: 23].
Later when she reaches the home of the man of God and is asked if all is well, asked specifically even, if all is well her son, the woman insists that it is. ‘All is well’, she says [2 Kings 4:26]
What is going on here? How can she say that ‘all is well’ when it so self evidently is not? In her distress has the dead child’s mother lost her mind?
Far from it. In her distress she has done the most rational thing possible. She has turned in faith to God and has continued to believe that the Judge of the whole earth will do what is just. [Genesis 18:25]
Where God is sovereign, all is well, because all is well where God is sovereign.
Or at least it will be.
Weeping may tarry for the night time but joy comes with the morning. [Psalm 30:5] The current distress is real but the prospect of a bright tomorrow is so certain that, no matter how dark the night is, or how far off the day may still seem, we can still say that all is well. With God in control, we can be sure that the sun will eventually rise.
Let me give you an illustration. Suppose, back when I worked as a GP a patient comes to see me with a really nasty chest infection. They feel horribly unwell and are seriously worried that they will never recover.
And then I give them a prescription for some antibiotics and promise them that, if they take them, they will soon be restored to health.
Immediately they feel better.
Even though they aren’t.
How could they be, they’ve not even picked up the prescription yet. But they nonetheless begin to feel better because they have believed my promise that better is what they will one day be.
Well God has made a promises too, one’s that can be depended upon far more reliably than any promise made by any doctor ever.
Specifically God has promised a day when all our tears will be wiped away, a day when death will be no more [Revelation 21:4].
And because his promise is so certain, there is a sense in which ‘all is well’ even as our tears continue to flow and daily we are surrounded by death and disease.
When the woman reached the man of God she took hold of his feet. The man of God’s servant tried to push her away, but the man of God was content to let her come to him in her distress. [2 Kings 4:27].
And so it will be for us. No matter the difficulties we currently face, no matter the sadness that daily fills our lives, we can be sure, that God is in control. As the psalmist reminds us, God has promised that if we call upon him in the day of trouble, he will deliver us. [Psalm 50:15].
It’s as certain as that!
Because of the cross our sins are atoned for.
Because of the cross we are reconciled to God.
Because of the cross nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
And when I say nothing, like the apostle Paul, I mean nothing. Not tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. [Romans 8:35]. Furthermore we can be sure that, for those who love God, and are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good. [Romans 8:28]
Because the Son has risen, we can be sure that God is for us. And if God is for us then ‘all is well’.
Even when it isn’t.
But perhaps you can’t see it.
It is sometimes said that seeing is believing, but for a Christian, this isn’t true. Because for a Christian, it is hearing that is believing. Faith, we are tolad, comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. [Romans 10:17] Faith then is seeing what’s there, when what’s there, isn’t there to be seen, As the writer to the Hebrews says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [Hebrews 11:1].
It takes great faith, therefore, to see the things that are most hidden.
His is often held up as an example of a simple faith but surely the faith of the penitent second thief is a remarkable one.
Here is a man who is about to die the most painful of deaths, somebody who is totally undeserving of salvation. But not only does he still ask to be remembered by Jesus, he does so whilst the one he is asking is hanging on a cross and about to die too. He says:
‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’ [Luke 23:42].
Unlike the religious rulers, the Roman soldiers and the other thief who was being crucified that day, the second thief didn’t see Jesus’ death as a sign of defeat. He continued to speak of Jesus as one who was coming into his kingdom. For him, Jesus’ death didn’t mean an end to all the kingdom and salvation talk. In stark contrast to those who mocked Jesus, those who were looking to Jesus for a salvation FROM death, the second thief saw that the salvation Jesus was bringing about was one that was brought about THROUGH death.
He saw that Jesus’ death was not the end of Christ’s kingdom, but rather its beginning.
This is a profound truth – one that we would do well to try and grasp.
Far then from simple, the second thief’s faith was one that was truly remarkable. And we should not be surprised therefore when, as a result, Jesus responds to his request with the words:
‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’ [Luke 23:43].
Jesus saw in the second thief somebody who got it! Somebody who trusted the power of God despite seeing what, to unspiritual eyes, was nothing but weakness. Somebody who saw victory where most saw only defeat. Somebody who understood the paradox of Good Friday.
That suffering is not irredeemable,
That sorrow is not incompatible with joy and
That even the darkest night can be followed by the brightest day.
Oh that we would all be granted a faith like that of the penitent thief who was assured of things hoped for and convinced of things not seen. [Hebrews 11.1]
Without faith we can’t see where we are or where we’re going. No wonder we sometimes feel lost. But we needn’t feel this way.
Some years ago, whilst out on a walk, one of my children announced that they were lost. This was on account of her not having a clue as to where they were. But she was wrong – she wasn’t lost because the one who held their hand, [me], knew exactly where we were. I knew the way home.
Perhaps we can’t see a way through all that’s going on just now. But we can be assured that we’re not lost - because the one who holds our hand knows exactly where we are and, even on the darkest of days, that same loving Heavenly Father will ensure that we all will, eventually, make it safely home.
Because the one who knows the end from the beginning holds us still.