“I AM WITH YOU”
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We are tempted to imagine the people in our Bible stories as unwavering in their faith and purpose, always courageous, always joyful—except when they weren’t. Paul had his list of trials—stonings and beatings, imprisonment and shipwrecks, robbers and weather (which he told the Corinthians believers about in 2 Corinthians 11:23–27), as well as the burden of almost constant opposition wherever he went sharing the good news about Jesus.
As he moved into Corinth for a posting that would last about eighteen months, he had been traveling for some time and found himself immediately under threat again. So God spoke to Paul in a vision with a simple message: “Do not be afraid.” God pointed out that Paul was not alone. God was with him, and despite the initial opposition, there were many people in the city who would welcome his message. It was one of the recurring reminders and encouragements throughout the Bible to messengers of God in trying circumstances—Moses trying to take on the power of Egypt by himself, Gideon assembling an army, Elijah as he ran for his life into the desert, Elisha’s servant seeing the armies that surrounded Dothan, and so many more. One of the assumptions the Bible should lead us to is that there are more people of God than we may see. God is at work beyond our field of vision, and there are always more on our side than against us. We do not know exactly why God chose to give Paul this special message of encouragement, but we can hear it for ourselves today: “Do not be afraid. I am with you, and there are more people with you than you might think.”
