You will be Hated, History in HIS Story, Isaiah #19
A call to follow Jesus, who for the Joy set before Him endured the Cross ...
Inspired by | Isaiah 60 - 66 | Isaiah 65: 17-25 | Isaiah 11: 6-9 | Daniel 7:25 | Rev 13 | Rev 13:7 | Rev 14:12 | Revelation 21: 1-5 | Matthew 24 | Matt 24: 13 | Acts 3: 19 | Luke 15: 11-32 | Luke 16:13 | Psalm 51 :10-12 | John 15:18-20 | 2 Thess 2 : 3-4 | Jn 21: 18-19 | and see | Shimeon part 4 | Shimeon previous episode |
The Future
The wind howled through the narrow alleyways of Jerusalem, carrying the scent of rain and dust. Raphael pulled his hood tighter over his face as he stepped through the streets.
The city had changed over the centuries—ancient stones layered beneath modern structures, the past and present woven together in every shadowed corner. But some things never changed. The world still hung in the balance, just as it had in the days of his ancestors - and the ripple of Jerusalem’s complexities was being felt in every nation.
Raphael was a son of the persecuted. And as his father would say, “A son of the redeemed.”
He had grown up in a home where the Word of God was spoken like the morning greeting. His father, Michael, had been unwavering in his faith. Raphael remembered each bedtime, his Father weaving together stories and teachings inspired by the words of the apostles and prophets. He had traced his lineage back to a man called Shimeon, one of the first believers who had walked the streets of ancient Jerusalem and died alongside the apostle Peter (see here).
“We carry his blood,” his father would say. “But more than that, we carry his testimony of faith. A man who stood for Christ when it cost him everything.” His eyes shone as he held Raphael’s hand in his own “And with him are a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, cheering us on as we run this race with sweat and tears.” His voice turned to a whisper, and Raphael saw his dad fight back small tears as they locked eyes, “Look to Jesus my boy, to the joy that is in store for us who believe.”
His Father loved the stories of faith that History spoke of, they were alive, real, almost like companions as he faced life’s struggles and troubles. He would speak of the prophet Isaiah as if he had just shared a cup of coffee with him: “Isaiah told me of a new Jerusalem, a new earth and a new heaven. “It will come,” Isaiah said, “Just as I predicted Cyrus, and the rise and fall of nations - just as I spoke of Jesus’ death and resurrection.” Mark my words, this world will end and God will make a new one. Even Better.”
If I could give one word to describe my father, it was probably - perseverance - a soft yet unyielding perseverance.
Raphael’s mother had once been faithful, she had once sung hymns in the house while baking bread and swatching her paints and colours. She was a butterfly, full of colour and light. But as the years passed and the weight of life’s hardships lay heavy upon her, the whispers of the world and it’s promises grew louder within her heart. She turned away, slowly at first - but thinking back, she never did anything slowly.
“Michael, this is not right,” she would say. “If God is love. He wouldn’t want us to live in fear.”
“My love,” his father would reply “When we serve God in faith, all fear will go. And we will know only love.” Then he would mumble as if to himself, “Yet the world will hate us for our devotion to God.”
Raphael could feel the rift grow between them. And he felt himself torn between them as he grew up. His father’s unwavering faith, his mother’s hostility. His father’s quiet yet confident passion for the things of God, and his mother’s strong, loud passion for things which left God behind.
Like all of us, Raphael had longed for the world, for its pleasures, its dreams, its promises of freedom. He had pushed God away, convinced that there was time—plenty of time—to figure things out later.
But time was running out. And never before did a cliché feel so relevant!
He had been watching. Watching as the world changed, as laws shifted, as morality decayed. He had seen persecution rise against the Church—not with swords at first, but with silence. With censorship. With the slow erasure of truth.
Then came the person they all spoke about.
He rose from the ashes of war, a leader unlike any other. Charismatic. Brilliant. He ended conflicts no one else could. The world adored him. Who else had ever succeeded at bringing peace to the Israeli Arab conflict? No-one. Yet this leader brought it to be through peaceful negotiation.
Suddenly, where there was global panic and uncertainty, it was replaced with peace and the feeling of security. The economy soared. The world breathed a sigh of relief.
Raphael wanted to breathe easily too, but he could not shake his father’s voice, drumming within his heart. “We are privileged among men to know the future” He would say, “The Lord has been honest enough to show that it will be very difficult.”
And so, just as the Bible foretold, alongside the political leader came a religious figure, a man who was gentle and diplomatic in his promotion of unity, of world peace, of a faith that embraced all beliefs. Yet the deception was clear for all those who held God’s word: “He appears like a lamb yet speaks like a dragon.” Although his words were as sweet as honey, Jesus Christ was simply numbered with all the other gods and religions, and no-one could claim exclusivity in Him.
“He will come as a man of peace, and if the Lord had not warned us … who would be able to withstand the troubles to come?” His father stated one evening. “But we my boy, are of those who endure to the end, and by his grace we will do so, and receive the crown of life from His right hand.”
Raphael tried to ignore the warning lights.
Until that night.
The night everything changed. A religious fanatic, the media was saying, nearly killed their ‘Peacemaker’. From what Raphael gathered from social media, nothing but a miracle had saved him from death.
His mind did what it always did. He saw the blame falling on the everyday Christian, they would be branded, labelled, hated even more, and persecuted. It was beginning already.
The second thing he saw took him by surprise: A falling away - Believers, Christians … having seen a miracle of healing. Starting to wander, and then falling for the propaganda. Perhaps this man is from God? Is not God a god of peace?
And so it would be. Those who would stand firm through persecution, and those who would give in to the subtle and less subtle pressures.
Which one would he be? Raphael recognized a stirring within his heart, and unlike times before, he welcomed it - grateful that the Lord had not passed him by !
It was time to wake up.
The Awakening
He walked home from work, the air still electric with the attempted assassination. His mind was wrestling with half-formed doubts about the future as he noticed a small gathering in the square.
They were Christians, praying, singing.
It wasn’t illegal yet. Not technically. But people watched with suspicion. There were rumors of new laws being drafted—laws that would make faith in Jesus an act of treason.
Then came the soldiers.
They moved in quickly, surrounding the group. Raphael saw the fear in some of their eyes as they were forced to their knees. A soldier stepped forward—one of the new enforcers of religious unity.
His voice was cold. “There is one faith now. One order. Your division, your sect, will not be tolerated.”
One by one, the Christians were taken away.
Raphael stood frozen.
He had done nothing.
He had watched as they were led off into the night. He had watched as the city swallowed them up, as if they had never existed. He had watched!
For years Raphael now saw - that was all he had done. Watched! Non-commital, analytical, even judgemental; always from the sidelines and never ready to get involved. He, Raphael, had been a spectator when God was calling him to act.
And in that moment, he heard it.
A voice.
A voice he had ignored for years.
“Will you follow Me?”
His knees buckled. His heart beat like a pounding drum in his chest.
Tears burned his eyes.
For years, he had run. For years, he had silenced the truth in his heart. But now—now the world was on the edge of darkness, and he knew. He knew he could not stand on the sidelines any longer. He wept into the Jerusalem night sky, his tears a mixture of bitter regret for the wasted years, and bubbles of joy that the Lord still called his name.
That night, he fell to his knees in his small apartment, crying out to the God he had rejected.
“Forgive me.”
And he knew.
It was granted.
It was as if the air itself had changed, and he rose with new fire in his soul. He would stand for the Kingdom of God. And the words of Isaiah rose up in his heart, “ The grass will wither, flowers will fade, but the word of the Lord will endure forever.”
No matter the cost. He would stand for truth.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Sorry, what I meant to say is:
I am aware of many different views relating to the end times. I am not an expert in this field. I have chosen an Historic Pre-millennialism view as I believe it is better to be prepared for the worst than to think we will escape it.
I will use the words of Correy Ten Boom who endured much suffering as a Christian:
I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China the Christians were told: ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes, you will be translated, raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were turtured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly: ‘We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first.’ Turning to me, he said: “Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes. To stand and not faint.’ I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation. Since I have gone already through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met that Bishop from China, now every time I read a good bible text I think: ‘Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.’ Then I write it down and learn it by heart. (When Jesus Returns, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton, 1995, p 199)
This is me regretting my location decision: no coffee deliveries to this place!
If you got this far!! I would love to hear from you. Feel free to message me, tell me what you liked most about this story, or what you hated. I loved writing it and I hope to connect.
Extra-Biblical References
• Early church persecution under Rome (Tacitus, Annals, Book 15)
• The rise of totalitarian regimes in history as parallels to prophetic warnings
• The concept of “religious unity” as a tool for control (historical examples: Emperor Decius, Emperor Diocletian)