“. . . When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him” – Isaiah 59:19
A flood was once the chosen instrument of God to bring judgment on a wicked rebellious world.[1] The rainbow is proof of His promise to not ever use flooding again to judge this world.[2] Since those early days of scripture floods now serve as imagery to describe the overwhelming onslaught of an enemy or a catastrophe.
When most people were celebrating the July 4th birth of our nation this year, many in Kerrville, Texas were struggling to literally keep their heads above water. It was in this small town where a monster flash flood claimed the lives of over 100 people and where it is likely the death count will rise. What amplifies and intensifies the tragedy is that the flood hit an area where there were summer camps going on. Many of the victims were children, precious children.
Much of the nation has moved on to the next news cycle attracted by the report that child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein really did kill himself and there is no client list of elites he serviced. It doesn’t take much to distract our national focus from true tragedy to Hollywood popular tragedy. In both stories children are the forgotten victims. The irony is palpable. It doesn’t take much to divert the attention of our click bate culture.
Right around Independence Day “a colossal weather system”[3] hit at just the wrong time in just the wrong area. A flood watch was issued midday Thursday July 3rd and by 4 a.m. July 4th the “watch” was upgraded to a warning. It was a catastrophe in the form of an avalanche of water. From 4 a.m. to 5:20 a.m. the water levels began to cause serious alarm. Within forty-five minutes water was gushing into the Guadalupe River raising its levels to 26 feet above normal. Counselors in Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp, wrote the names of the children on the children’s bodies so that if they were swept away in the flood, they would be identifiable.[4] It was a terrible situation. Camp Mystic, located in the epicenter of the flooding on the Guadalupe River, in the small town of Hunt, is missing 20 children.[5] Like a predator, the flood came in the night and swept many of them away. It was described by some survivors as, “a pitch-black wall of death.” [6]
At this writing, some 850 people had been rescued.[7] But it didn’t take long for the questioning about how local officials handled the stormy situation. Sometimes people deal with tragedy and hurt by blaming others. Whether local officials handled the storm effectively is not going to help the hurting parents and families of those who are missing, or tragically, deceased. There is a time for accountability, but right now the rescue efforts and comforting those suffering loss should be the priority. The faith of the families of those missing holds the key to the Resource above that will truly get them through this storm. God’s grace is always sufficient, even for times and situations like this. [8] When tragedy rolls into our lives like a monster wave of water, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a banner against it.
Thankfully, President Trump and Christi Noam, head of Homeland Security, are already directing resources to help the people in the devastated area.[9] Meeting the physical needs of the families effected by the tragedy is always important. Immediate care can help to take the edge off. You’d be amazed at how a listening ear, and a consoling arm around the shoulder can help those experiencing unimaginable losses. Times like this shake us all whether we are local to the pain or looking on from afar.
This July 4th, in Kerrville, Texas, we saw in a very vivid and heart wrenching way that our enemy is not only represented by a “CCP” or a fanatical black robed Shia cleric, or a political opponent. Sometimes the “enemy” is a flood. Many in Kerrville probably feel much more able today to relate to the life of Job. It was the devil who attacked Job with a flood of hardship culminating in “a great wind” that killed Job’s children (Job 1:19-20). The devil is not all powerful like the Creator, but he is able to muster up a storm that can cause great hurt and harm. Don’t be so quick to label this stormy trial as, “an act of God.” Be more than an insurance rep in your assessment.
What can we do when the enemy comes in like a flood? Sometimes all we can do is what Job did. “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said: naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:20-21). Yes, sometimes, that’s all we can do.
How can we even think of worshipping in a time like this? I would answer, “In times like this, worship is really all we can do.” Worship can be our most effective weapon in our war with evil. Worship is how we surrender to the LORD, all of life’s hurts and troubles, our uncertainties, and confusions. Life is filled with unexpected storms and losses. Life can easily overwhelm us. The one constant, the One Person who we never have to worry about losing, is Jesus. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:35). Jesus is there with us in the storm. And so, we cry out to Him in worship, even from the depths of our sorrows.
Why did God permit the tragedy Job experienced? There are elements of that question we will never understand on this side of eternity. One of the main purposes of the Book of Job is to show that humans discuss and argue and contemplate the reasons “Why?” things happen in life. But in our limited condition such questions are way beyond our capacity to comprehend and far above our pay grade to figure out.
Job and his friends tried to make sense of the tragedy that entered Job’s life. The friends walked around Job and his circumstances and all they could come up with was that in some way Job must have brought these tragedies on himself by some sinful behavior. When tragedy and trials occur, we often act like Job’s “friends” and look to place blame, as though blaming someone would really do any good or help in some way. The truth is, we are all to blame in the sense that we all fall short of the glory of God and have sinned (Romans 3:23).
We have all contributed to the fallenness of this world. And therefore, we along with nature itself, groan over the consequences of sin we experience in life (Romans 8:18-23). We have hope in Jesus, but the end of that hope is yet to be realized. “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8:25). Yes, in tragedy, all we can do is hold onto God’s hope in Jesus and persevere.
When we read the Book of Job we have the advantage of seeing the entire account from Job 1 to Job 42. We have the advantage over Job and his friends in that we can see the spiritual context of Job 1 and 2. We know the devil is the predator, the pursuer of the righteous, the author of tragedy. God is sovereign and permits it, but the devil is the author of evil. But the devil is limited by God in the devils’ evil devices. Can you imagine what this world would be like if God didn’t not limit the devil’s devices? Scary as that seems, there is such a time coming on this earth. A time of unprecedented darkness and trouble, or wrath and wreckage is coming. This time is called “The Tribulation” and it is described in Revelation 6-19 (cf. also, Daniel 9). It will be a time that will dwarf any hardship experienced in our days.
Iin the Book of Job the LORD limited Satan. The LORD told the devil, “but spare his life,” spare Job’s life (Job 2:6). Job’s family members died, but Job lived on. Job and his friends didn’t fully understand what was happening to Job and why it was happening, and that is why the Book of Job is more a book about the quality of faith than it is a story about tragedy. Faith is the substance or assurance of things hoped for the belief in things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is holding on to God when God is all you have to hold on to.
One of the main lessons we learn from the Book of Job is that trying to figure out life and its trials without the context of the first two chapters, is futile. In fact, when we, like Job and his friends, try to figure out tragedy without the first two chapters, we can expect the rebuke of God. Apart from the insight of those first two chapters of Job, all we can hope to find from God is, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). It takes faith like Job to surrender your circumstances to the LORD and say, “I know that You can do anything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2). We need those first two chapters, the spiritual dimension of our existence if we are to make sense of this fallen world.
We need to look at this life through the lens of the deep spiritual realm in which God is in control. In Romans 8, right after it speaks of the groaning of creation and its creatures, Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). Do you know how to pray, how to worship in tragic situations such as that which occurred in Kerrville? I admit I do not. I am sure there are few who do actually know what to pray in the presence of those who have lost so much. But here’s the thing, THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL HELP US TO PRAY AND SEEK THE LORD WHEN THE PAIN IS SO GREAT WE CAN’T FIND THE WORDS TO PRAY. Truly, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”
When the enemy comes in like a flood and reaches deep into us piercing us to the center of our heart, we can turn to the Holy Spirit. When the enemy is ripping us up, battering us bloody, squeezing the life out of us, we find strength for the next round in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But how do we reach out to, or contact the Holy Spirit? The answer to that question is the gospel. God saves all who call on His Son Jesus to be their Savior by faith (Romans 10:13). Truly, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved” from your sins (Romans 10:9). That is because, “with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). Truly, in the midst of your pain and suffering in this life, if you call out to Jesus, you can count on the fact that, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11). Belief in Jesus is genuine and saving when it leads to a life that confesses Him to others. When we believe in our heart that Jesus has risen from the dead, we will be saved, and we will be given spiritual life by the Holy Spirit who then indwells us (Romans 8:9-11; Titus 3:4-7).
With the Holy Spirit within us, we can face whatever this world and the devil throws at us. With the Holy Spirit we are steadied by the truth that, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). That’s an incredible statement. How can God bring any good from a terrible flood that consumes such precious people, little people?
God permitted the tragedy in Kerrville, Texas. God permitted it, but that should not be misinterpreted to think that God took pleasure in it. God is not distant or aloof to the pains of people. The psalmist King David was inspired to write, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold You are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). The storm of Kerrville has brought many people as close to hell on earth as anyone could ever fear to be. But as deep as the waters got and as dark as the night was, the Holy Spirit was still there. No one who knew the LORD was left alone that night.
Why would God permit a Kerrville tragedy? That’s a difficult multifaceted question. We might add, “Why does God save some and not others?” That is God’s determination to make. You, me, all of us, we are not God. We do not have the Divine perspective on this world. God not only sees what is happening in this moment, but He sees past, present, and future. God sees the consequences of all actions, and it is from God’s perspective that He makes the determinations about life and death that impact us. We know God is holy righteous, and true. He is good and gracious and so we can only accept that God is working out His plans in a holy, righteous, true, good, and gracious purposeful way. We do that by faith in Him. We trust God.
But why would God permit a Kerrville tragedy? To answer that question we need to rise up to a bigger picture of reality. We live in a fallen world. Until Jesus returns and the prophetic plans of God come to a conclusion, there is still time for people to repent and trust Jesus as Savior. There will one day be a point of no return, a point in time beyond which there will be no more chances to receive forgiveness for our sins and be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And so, God Who is the Author of love, “is longsuffering toward us” (2 Peter 3:9). God sees a tragedy like that in Kerrville and He suffers long over it. It isn’t that He is impotent to intervene and stop this entire mess of a fallen world. It’s that this fallen world in all its warped and terrible weather, must be permitted to continue to allow time for more people lost in sin, to repent and experience the new life of eternal hope found as a gift of His grace through faith in Jesus.
I would add one final reason or purpose of God that might be the reason for His allowing such hardship. “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.” When evil and darkness floods in on us, God says, “I will lift up My standard and stand on behalf of My children,”[10] God raises His banner high during times of enemy attack. That “standard” is composed of His people. When evil and darkness floods in on us, there arises an opportunity to become a “standard against him [i.e., the enemy]” in the power of the Spirit of the LORD. God’s people in times of difficulty become an open book of God’s sufficient grace to read. As the Apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Church, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). Tragedy is an opportunity for those suffering and for those comforting the sufferers to testify of Christ in life. The only way people can understand the sufficiency of God’s grace is to experience it in life.
It is during times like Kerrville that the Christian response becomes a beacon of hope to a lost and suffering world. Tragedy provides a depiction of the reality of God and His grace like no other circumstance in life can. Yes, we are buffeted in ways that cause us to call out to God for relief and deliverance. But it is in the suffering that the sufficiency of God’s grace is found and displayed. There is no other way that can happen but through trials. When Kerrville type tragedies occur, we hear God say from His word, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” And then along with the suffering Apostle, we proclaim in the power the Spirit provides, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). “For Christ’s sake” is the key phrase here. Whatever we suffer, if we surrender ourselves and our circumstances to the Lord “for Christ’s sake,” God will bring blessing from it. This is how God brings “beauty from ashes” in life (Isaiah 61:3).
The Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter, is the One who helps us weather the storms of life. It is only by the Spirit of God that we can come into His presence, praying, worshipping, uttering those words of the sufficiency of God’s grace. We feel real pain. We suffer real loss. Our hearts are really breaking. We have few answers and solutions. We don’t fully understand. But one thing we can be assured of is, God’s grace will be and is sufficient, and when the enemy comes in like a flood, our LORD will raise up a standard against him. That is my prayer for the people of Kerrville. That is my prayer for those who suffer and hurt. I pray we all, in our suffering, learn to lean on the sufficiency of the grace of God. In whatever this life throws at us, may we live through it, “for Christ’s sake.” May we do that, in the power of the Holy Spirit. LORD, in Jesus’ name, make us what we need to be, to do what You call us to do, for Your glory, until Jesus returns. In Jesus’ name. Amen
[1] Genesis 6-7
[2] Genesis 8-9
[3] https://apnews.com/article/flash-flood-texas-camp-mystic-aec9181a07d3ce8ff85197922e108b13
[4] https://nypost.com/2025/07/07/us-news/teen-camp-counselors-describe-harrowing-moment-they-wrote-girls-names-on-their-bodies-in-case-they-were-swept-away-in-texas-floodwaters/
[5] https://apnews.com/article/thunderstorms-texas-deaths-camp-mystic-trees-hail-e8a4c85c77f714c9a974e50f3cd1fca1
[6] https://apnews.com/article/thunderstorms-texas-deaths-camp-mystic-trees-hail-e8a4c85c77f714c9a974e50f3cd1fca1
[7] https://apnews.com/article/flash-flood-warning-watch-texas-986af31b0402a7a721fd9cc275622457
[8] 2 Corinthians 12:8-10
[9] https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-texas-secretary-homeland-security-195833506.html?guccounter=1
[10] Jon Courson, Application Commentary – Isaiah 59:19.