“But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (I Corinthians 16:8-9)

It is plain to see from the gospels that Jesus encountered opposition wherever He ministered. Here are a couple of instances.

•    Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:10)
•    Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying…“What do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:15, 17)

It is equally plain to see that such challenges brought out the best in Jesus. For example, the latter exchange resulted in him coming up with this memorable saying: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21)

On the one hand, Jesus was able to reach out to many different people groups during his earthly ministry. Yet, even as those doors opened, in walked adversaries through the very same doors!

Ditto for the apostle Paul!

Could this be another example of the saying from Proverbs 27:17: “Iron sharpens iron”, which was part of the DWOD for April 15.

There is a great illustration of the need for adversaries that comes to us from marine life.

At the turn of the century cod fish were in much demand on the east coast. But there was a problem in getting the fish across the country while it was still fresh. Freezing the fish and shipping it by rail was fast, but when the thawed fish was cooked, the cod turned out to be very mushy and lacked flavor.

Someone came up with the idea of turning rail cars into giant saltwater aquariums and shipping the cod live. When the cod fish arrived they were still alive, but when they were prepared they were still mushy and tasteless.

Finally, someone discovered that the natural enemy of the cod was the catfish and started to place a few catfish in with the cod in those aquariums. Those catfish chased the cod fish all the way across the country. This time when they were prepared they were flaky and had the same flavour as they did when they were caught fresh. You see the catfish kept the cod from becoming stale. Indeed, they kept the cod fresh.

Bill Yount, a seasoned man of God, puts it this way in his book, I Heard Heaven Proclaim: “The Lord uses iron to sharpen iron, stones to smooth stones and people to grind people…the grinding we receive from other people sharpens us and our gifts…no wonder God says to love even our enemies, for He often uses them to shape us and drive us closer to Him.”

Now you know why we need adversaries on the road to our destiny!