When God judges the world…

There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders. (Isaiah 24:11–23)

A book in the nearby library is written by an ‘expert’ outlining how to make it through the tough times that are coming upon us. I’ve not read it, only the jacket cover, but this author speaks of investing and other strategies to combat inflation. There seems to be no mention of the emotional strain people experience over increasing atrocities.

The above passage from Isaiah could be describing the brokenness in the universe, not just in economic matters, far worse that what that author thinks will need fixing. It seems a prophetic description of what will occur just before the Lord brings judgment. However, the fascinating part is this section:

They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. . . .” (Isaiah 24:14–16)

Those who did not stray from their covenant with Him will be anticipating this event, wanting justice in a messed up world. When it happens, joy will fill their hearts and God will be praised. 

Reading the news and seeing the progress of evil makes joy and praise look impossible yet those who know the grace of God also know the power of His Spirit to bring peace to our hearts. He says to His people:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. (Isaiah 26:12–13)
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5–7)

Those who trust God know that peace. It isn’t about all being right in the world, but about knowing Him, His goodness and His protection. I am safe in the hands of God. He knows how to judge sinful people but because His NT Lamb died for my sins, I am not condemned with them, but at peace.

Jesus, salvation is like this promise of judgment in that it will happen, yet not to those who know You. Instead of getting what sin deserves, faith in Your death and resurrection grants me eternal life and deep inner peace. For that, I rejoice and praise You — no matter what is making headlines or who is frantically trying to avoid the judgment that You promise will happen.

 

God's remedy for bad news

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left. (Isaiah 24:1–6)

This reads too much like this morning’s newspaper. All bad news. Much confusion in every part. No mention of hope or trusting God. Some exhortation for human powers  to fix it, but all efforts fail and most of them get a low approval rating. Are we suffering as did the ancients because we are guilty of transgressing the laws of God and His covenant with us has been broken?

Some see good things, progress. Some see only selfishness and hidden motivations. The media promotes their bias. Podcasts and opposing political opinions add to the confusion. AI makes many wonder if truth can be found, or is all of it imagined or it just adds to the deceptions on the minds of the masses? Scams are robbing funds from those who are in the habit of believing everything they hear. How can anyone trust their bank when they send someone to pick up a ‘faulty credit card’ and rob that person of thousands? We are living in a world gone haywire.

The Bible indicates that all falls apart when we trust ourselves and not God. Personally, I know that is true. The Bible teaches me, but so does experience and my own lack of obedience. The above passage says this applies to everyone. It isn’t just for ‘religious’ people or those without thought for God. 

Spiritual truth is outside of opinions and human choices. We can make our choices,  but we cannot choose the consequences. This passage goes on to describe some of them. As my farming dad used to say, “I plant the seeds but God makes them grow” — or not. Without His blessing, our needs and joys go by the wayside.

Jesus, I know that every breath I take is in Your power. You can give me peace and joy. My actions and attitude can ruin my life, but if I am loving and serving You, Your  peace and joy remain, even when the headlines spell doom for the rest of the world. I want people to know that. Yet trusting You isn’t primarily about You changing circumstances, or even about You making our work profitable. It is about You granting peace and contentment no matter what is happening. For this, I am blessed.

Desiring God's Best?

All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away. Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains. (Isaiah 22:3–5)

I have been criticized for being concerned about the downfall of church leaders, or the sinfulness in Christians that I know. More than one person has told me that those things are not my problem, or given other reasons to ‘mind my own business.’ While I agree that it is possible to complain or gossip about others and forget that they are God's responsibility and not mine, it is also possible to be His spokesperson to address sin in His people, not to others but to those needing it.

The words of the OT prophets express their love for God and for His people. He wants holiness and when they strayed into sin and idolatry, the Lord did not pat them on the head and look the other way. At the same time, I’m not to have or even think a ‘holier than thou’ attitude about myself. So what options are okay?

The entire Bible tells me to love God and honor Him, and to love His people who are my neighbors as myself. This love most certainly includes empathy for any harsh discipline they are experiencing. Isaiah specifically tells his critics to leave him alone and not try to make him feel better about the harsh discipline of God in the lives of others.

But his tears are not pity or sympathy as if that discipline should not be happening. I know that tears can be shed that this discipline is necessary. We have a God who gives us fullness of life and all that we need to live for Him in peace and joy, and yet we do things our way and fall into sin? This is like being in a banqueting room and starving to death. He offers everything we need and we complain and feel poor and mistreated? He offers love, peace, joy, goodness, self-control and all godliness — and we gossip, worry, complain, and live in the opposites of what He wants — without realizing that what we crave could be so easily ours? Not to glorify ourselves, but to bring glory to Him.

This is why prophets weep. I don’t consider myself a prophet, but I understand that too many of God's children live as if He is not all we need and are not happy with that, yet refuse His will so we can live our own way. How sad indeed.

Jesus, my pastor is praying for revival. I am praying for revival. Each day You show me how much I need it, and I am willing to change and to fully obey You. Pour out Your power. Help me have the attitudes You want me to have for those who are suffering under discipline. I know You are concerned about their sin and self-effort. May none of us ask You to give us what we crave but then refuse to give up those things that keep it from happening.

 

Who can know what God will do?

 

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. (Isaiah 13:6–16)

Prophecy in the OT is not easy to understand. Historians often figure them out by their fulfillment. The average reader will see glimpses of how God worked to draw His people away from their sinful disobedience back into line with His will. In this passage, the prophet was able to note the following ways of God's working:

The Lord summoned mighty people to minister His anger. They were not willingly or knowingly yielded to Him, but came from a far land to destroy those disobedient to Him. This shocked His people and their land became desolate. His people were feeble in their dismay as God puts an end to their arrogance and pride. Even the earth and heavens tremble as the people become homeless and without leaders. Many die as homes are plundered and families broken with their enemies having no pity for even little children.

This very general summary could be said of much that happens even today when His people live in worldly sin. While we are oblivious to how God uses evil people for good in the lives of His children, His actions at the time do not seem to be good. However, it is through spiritual and physical trials that He builds maturity and Christ-like character. We cannot grow in patience without trials just as the OT people of God would not return to faith in Him without harsh circumstances and realizing how helpless they were without Him.

Jesus, I am glad Your remedies to correct sin in our lives (sin that we do after salvation) is less harsh than it was centuries ago, but sad that we still fall into disobedience just like they did. You are always the gracious Savior that died for each sin. I’m also glad that once I agree with You about what I’ve done, You are faithful to cleanse it from me and restore my joy! 

Faith is in Him, not in my requests…

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:10–14)

This passage goes on and is for a specific situation, but God's Spirit stopped me here to remind me that when I pray, my motivation is that God can do anything. His power is not me putting Him to the test, as if to say, “If You can…” nor even if He will. I can ask because of a sense of need, but faith trusts Him to do what is best, not a test to see if He cares or if He can. Both are assumed, yet not in relation to my request. I pray because I trust Him to listen and do what is best for me and for the situation.

One person on my prayer list cries out for healing. Do I know that her pain is going to draw her closer to Jesus? If it is, and God did what I asked, could it be interfering with His plan? Perhaps a “no” or a “wait” answer is to build my patience, never mind hers. Do I really know the will of God or how to pray?

Ahaz may have often prayed to test God. If he refused to do that but also refused to pray at all, then God was teaching this man a thing or two about his own sinfulness and wanting him to see that his motivations were off kilter.

Last week I did something that looked good on the surface. However, I used it to ask this: “Did I ask this because I cared about the other person? Or did I do it for my own benefit?” I knew right away that I can easily do right things with wrong motives, and when God looks at what I do, He considers both deeds and motives:

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:10)
“. . . . And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.” (Revelation 2:23)

This is why the NT speaks of the Bema judgment of Christians and says some of what we do is merely useless, even if if wasn’t considered sinful.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11–15)

I’m aware that my motivation is important, for it does not fit with what Jesus said about prayer: “May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is, praying what I want and do should match what He wants or it will not pass the ‘wood, hay, straw’ test of fire. This sort of sin will not rob me of the free gift of eternal life in Christ, but I will suffer loss.

Lord Jesus, one way I know when I’m in error is that the fruit of the Spirit vanishes when I’m doing or even selfishly. Without that fruit of love, joy, peace, and other spiritual attitudes that come only from You. If I’m upset, worried, unhappy, or mean — even in my thoughts, I’m filled with me and not walking in the Spirit. Thank you for clearly warning me when flesh moves in and I need to confess and ask You to again fill me and change my heart. Your words to Ahaz tell me that the sign always given is that You came. You are “God with me” — my Immanuel — and You are all that I need.

Don’t ruin the soup…

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them. Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. (Isaiah 1:23–26)

The psalmist describes the leadership of God's people as corrupt, doing things that make the needy totally unwilling to come to them. Widows and orphans know that they will not get relief so why bother?

God speaks to this by promising to remove that which has corrupted them and restore their righteousness so that these faithless people will be as they once were.

In our modern times, this activity by God would be called a revival, a restoration to the changes He had done earlier. The sad part is that even today, God's people backslide. Life becomes comfortable, and although Christians grow in trials, our prayers are often “remove the trial” rather than asking Him to use it and make us more like Jesus.

This week I made chicken soup from one earlier roasted bird. After a few hours in a slow-cooker, the broth was strained and any pieces of meat added to it. Then it went into the fridge overnight. Why? So the fat would float to the top and be skimmed off. ln my thinking, all that fat would ruin the soup.

In God's thinking, any injustice and unrighteous ruins His people. He therefore said He would turn His hand against them and remove the problem. In other words, He would bring trials, not to punish but to revive:

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 5:22–25)

Yet even today, along with the trials comes grumbling and pleading to make them stop, to restore our comfort. We want godly leaders but not the work of God to make them godly. We may want godliness for ourselves, but not the trials that produce spiritual maturity.

Oh God, I see the need for revival, not because our leaders are unjust or sinful in ruinous ways, but because too many of Your people are more interested in seven-day Sabbaths than doing what work that God tells us we should be doing. Oblivious? Some are. Some make excuses. All need skimming off the dross. All need to keep short accounts and forgiveness and renewal. Me too.

The deepest, purest love…

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. (Song of Solomon 1:2–4)

While the debates continue, this book of the OT endures as part of God's Word to His people. Whatever He intends, it seems obvious that this describes the love relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people by comparing it to human love and intimacy. It is not for those who take their faith as mere personal belief, but as a close relationship like that of lovers.

“Therefore virgins love you” suggest this is about ‘one and only’ love. There is nothing or no one else so important and vital to the life of those beloved by Him. He brings us close to Him and gives us every reason to have a deep response to Him. This attitude goes beyond that ‘honeymoon’ phase that is soon challenged by trials and doubts. Jesus is the preoccupation of a loved one’s heart.

One Christian course has the line; “He grows sweeter and sweeter as the days go by” suggesting that not only faith increases through testing and hardship, but so does affection. At my age, it reminds me of the emotions of trust and joy that go with loving and being loved by my spouse. It takes time to become deep, solid, and at the same time comfortable and accepting, without selfish demands and without room for doubt and suspicions.

When I think how much God loves me in these terms, I sometimes find my mind dancing with Jesus in a field of flowers, laughing in the purest of joy. Not often. Life can be not only distracting but seem cruel with all sorts of events and issues that try to convince me that I’m alone, defeated, not loved at all — but He isn’t like that and pulls me back, sometimes with little hints and clues, and sometimes with gifts of great surprise. And my heart is blessed.

Lord Jesus, it is right to love You and to be loved by You. In this world gone wrong, Your love is the anchor, the stronghold in the storms of uncertainty and unkind people who whine about being loveless without realizing that Your great love is the only reason they are allowed to live and breathe. Deepen this in our relationship. And enable me to share it with the host of love-starved people around me.