From a worm to a threshing sledge

Isaiah 41:14-16

Fear not, you worm Jacob,

you men of Israel!

I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;

your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,

new, sharp, and having teeth;

you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,

and you shall make the hills like chaff;

16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,

and the tempest shall scatter them.

And you shall rejoice in the Lord;

in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

Sometimes, the Lord gives us a scripture; we read it, take it to heart, and believe it is a Word for that moment. We get excited and enthusiastically share it with whoever is prepared to listen. Then, one day, you look back and, in amazement, ask God, “But Lord, I thought You gave me this Word for this or that circumstance”. We feel deflated and wonder if the conviction in our hearts may be from our wishful thinking. Then the Holy Spirit reminds us His timing is different from our timing, His ways are higher than ours. In His time, only does He fulfil His promises.

I am starting with this conundrum of Spiritual life because it has happened to me…. many times, but I would like to share this specific story with you.

At the end of 2020, I resigned from a job I loved. I enjoyed the company I worked at and loved working with the people there. However, as much as I loved working there, I knew in my heart that it was time to go. I was unsure where I was going, but finally, after several false starts, I resigned. I did not realise how much I needed the time off until I had the time off. 2020 was a stressful year, and the Lord knew I needed a break.

Then, in February, I felt that God was calling me back. At first, I was amazed, but as I prayed about it, I felt at peace and excited about returning. Returning turned out harder than I thought it was going to be. For one, I was going to a new department, which, for all good purposes, was like a rival department of the previous department that I worked in.

While praying and preparing to return, I read a devotion one morning. The scripture was Isaiah 41: 14-16. As I was reading the scripture and the accompanying devotion, I felt the Spirit impress on me that this scripture is relevant for the new department that I will work in when I return to this company. My spirit quickened with excitement. This department was always seen as the least important of all the departments. It was the Pastoral Care department.

As believers, we know it may be the most important department, but unfortunately, the world does not see things in the same way. It was more like an afterthought for most people working in that company.

So, my enthusiasm knew no bounds, and I shared my thoughts with my colleague, a fellow believer who was excited about what the Lord had planned for our department.

The word picture that is created in this scripture is very interesting. Here God calls Jacob a worm, but He promises to make Him a threshing sledge. Wow, what a picture. How in the world can one go from worm to threshing sledge? The power of God! To think that God is turning our tiny, seemingly insignificant pastoral care department into a powerful, life-changing department was, to say the least, awesome!

Things don’t always work out how we think it will work out. A year has passed since the first time that I read this scripture. A few weeks ago, I stumbled over this devotion again, and my heart was sad… the situation is so different. Since I read that devotion and scripture, so much has happened. I am no longer at that company. In a step of obedience to the Lord, I declined to take the C19 vaccine and lost my job. My colleague is on extended sick leave. Our department has dwindled to nothing.

As I read the devotion again, I prayed and asked God…what happened? I thought this scripture was meant for our work at this specific company. There was sadness in me for what had transpired. Then, as I was praying, I felt the Holy Spirit asking me; “am I not still using you?”

I don’t fully understand why things worked out the way they did in 2021. I am sure one day I will be able to understand how it all fitted into God’s greater plan, but I do know that all things work together for those that love God and are called according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28).

God has given me a new perspective, and over the last couple of weeks, I have been pondering this scripture. It is still a powerful image. Worm to threshing sledge. Something powerful needs to happen to make that true. We serve a God who created the heavens and earth with His words, so if He wants to make a worm a threshing sledge, who can stop Him?

A week ago, I mentioned the scripture to some friends during a prayer meeting. Our country and world are going through some tough challenges right now. As believers, many of us feel the need to pray and seek God’s face more than ever before. Much of our prayer meeting revolved around our prayer that God would wake up more believers and that more believers would start to pray and seek God’s face. I felt the Holy Spirit wanted me to share the scripture. After sharing, one lady said that as I was talking, the Spirit reminded her of a farm shed with old, rusted equipment. She felt the Spirit was pointing out that He is busy cleaning, sharpening, and preparing all this equipment and that He is getting ready to send them out into the field because the harvest is ready. (Luke 10:2)

The church has become very quiet over the last couple of decades. Many feel that the church has no place in this modern world anymore. It sometimes feels as if we have moved from a post-Christian world to an anti-Christian world. The world hates the Church and revels in her suffering. If the Church makes a mistake, it is broadcasted to the world with great glee. Sometimes, the Church seems like the proverbial ‘worm’, and the world cannot wait to stomp on it.

How can a worm go out and bring in a harvest? That is impossible. Who will even listen to a worm? But the Lord is talking to this worm. I am the One who helps you, and I am the One who will make you a threshing sledge. In this scripture, the Lord uses His threshing sledge to break mountains. So, if bringing in a harvest is impossible for the worm, how much more impossible can a mountain be?

We are reminded in Zechariah 4:6-7 “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain."

So, how does all this tie together? I believe the Lord is calling His children to action. There is a harvest waiting to be harvested, but there is also a mountain in the way, and God is getting His Church ready to smash that mountain to pieces. Not in our power because, in our power, we are not much stronger than a worm. The Church has been quiet and unassuming for too long. God is waking up the giant, and this giant will not be quiet and unassuming. There is no way possible that a thrashing sledge breaking down a mountain is quiet and unassuming. But let’s not run ahead and try to do anything in our strength because then we are bound to fail.

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat is faced with a terrible dilemma. A massive army was moving against him and Judah. What He did first, before anything else, was pray. He prayed and asked God for deliverance. Then, in God's wisdom, he sent out the musicians in front of the army. The rest is history, God won the day, and the Israelites were spared.

Today we are facing giants and mountains of our own. Let’s follow the example of King Jehoshaphat, fall on our knees before God, pray, and then go out singing and praising God. He will make us unstoppable threshing sledges and harvesters doing the work that He has prepared in advance for us to do.

Amen