Suddenly, God

David Brillhart, March 2023

Psalms 64:7

7 But God will shoot at them with an arrow;

Suddenly they will be wounded.

During my morning devotions the other day, I was reading Psalm 64. The general tone of this psalm is pretty warlike and the psalmist spends a lot of time asking the Lord to smite his enemies. That didn’t seem too encouraging, so I asked the Lord for a special insight. That is when I noticed the word “suddenly” in verse 7. That lead to a study of “suddenly” and the discovery that the Lord is fond of acting suddenly.

But first, let us consider Isaiah 40, the famous scripture about waiting. It starts out with a prophecy about the coming Messiah and the messenger that will precede him:

Isaiah 40:3

A voice is calling,

“Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness;

Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

But he closes out the prophecy with an admonition to not get tired waiting:

Isaiah 40:31

Yet those who wait for the LORD

Will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.

The prophet Malachi also talks about this coming one and proclaims that when he comes, he will appear suddenly.

Malachi 3:1

1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts.

This is exactly how John the Baptist and Jesus appeared,  but before we look at that, let us go back and examine the history of the Lord acting suddenly. There are many examples of enemies and calamities coming on the people suddenly, the Proverbs assures us that the Lord can address these sudden dangers.

Proverbs 3:25-26

25 Do not be afraid of sudden fear

Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;

26 For the LORD will be your confidence

And will keep your foot from being caught.

For example, when five kings attack Israel, the Lord gives Joshua a plan to counterattack suddenly and defeat them

Joshua 10:8-9

8 The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.” 9 So Joshua came upon them suddenly by marching all night from Gilgal.

Josh 11:7

Another example is in Isaiah where the Lord promises to overcome your enemies suddenly.

Isaiah 29:5

5 But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust,

And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away;

And it will happen instantly, suddenly.

Thus, when the Lord acts, it seems to us that we have been waiting for a long time, but the Lord acts suddenly.

Isaiah 48:3

3 “I declared the former things long ago

And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.

Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

This is the way with revival. Even in the Old Testament, we can see that when the people stray, then return to the Lord, He can bring repentance and reveal suddenly.

2 Chronicles 29:35-36

35 There were also many burnt offerings with the fat of the peace offerings and with the libations for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was established again. 36 Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.

Now let us turn to the New Testament and the sudden appearance of the Messiah, just as was promised. First came John the Baptist, just as Isaiah had prophesied.

 Luke 3:1

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,… the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, … (Is 40:3)

And then, the angels appeared suddenly to announce the birth of Jesus.

Luke 2:8-9

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

Jesus aways seemed to be doing something unexpected, even his resurrection was announced suddenly by a pair of angels.

Luke 24:1, 4

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared…

4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;

And, of course, Jesus warned that his second coming would be sudden so we should always be prepared,

Mark 13:36

36 in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep.

Now finally, we see in the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit has a practice of acting suddenly. First of all on the day of Pentecost, after waiting for over forty days, the Holy Spirit appeared suddenly and with a lot of fanfare.

Acts 1:3-4

To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.  Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;

Acts 2:1-3

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

Some time later, the Holy Spirit suddenly confronted Saul.

Acts 9:3

3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;

Acts 22:6

Also, when Peter was in prison, the Holy Spirit appeared suddenly to rescue him.

Acts 12:7

7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands.

And likewise, when Paul and Silas were in chains, the Holy Spirit appeared suddenly to free them also.

Acts 16:25-26

25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

We need to take special note of the attitude that Paul and Silas had. What were they doing while they were waiting for the Lord to help them? They were praying and singing hymns of praIse! This is the attitude that we need to have while we wait for the Lord to answer our prayers. We have been praying many years for revival to sweep our land, and then a few weeks ago, something suddenly happened at Asbury University! That is the way the Lord works. So let us learn to wait patiently, praying and praising all the while, and then look the the Lord to appear suddenly to accomplish His purpose.