Strength in Adversity – Proverbs 24:10

“I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen.”  Such was Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman‘s 2019 testimony before the House of Representative’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.  His testimony about the President’s “improper” phone conversation with Ukranian President Vlodymyr Zelensky cost Vindman dearly.  The President publicly tweeted that he ousted Vindman for insubordination and for doing “a lot of bad things.”  Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, defended Vindman saying, “He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave.”  He was strong for the day of adversity.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. (Proverbs 24:10, ESV)

We have all wondered how we might do in a situation like the Christians overrun by ISIS faced.  Many of them were executed for their faith.  Would I have admitted to being a Christian?  How would I have faced my death?  Or we wonder how we would react if we got a bad diagnosis that threatened our health.  Or what we would do on a train hijacked by terrorists, as a current movie is depicting.

Until the day arrives we may say we cannot know how we would react.  But our proverb is reminding us that the day of adversity is too late to begin developing our strength.  If our strength is too small on that day and we faint, give up, let adversity defeat us, then we haven’t been pursuing wisdom as we should have been.

How do we develop that strength we will need, because we will face a day of adversity?  For Proverbs it is by making godly choices now and tomorrow and the next day.  It is fearing Yahweh now, respecting Him and looking to Him as the developer of my soul.  It is submitting to His instruction now and making difficult choices in the smaller adversities we face each day.

As I learn to work honestly today, for example, I will have practiced a right response, so that when faced with a greater temptation to cheat in the day of adversity I will not have a small strength.  I have learned to trust Yahweh and found Him faithful.  What you practice now will make you strong for that day.