Is God calling for revival?

Numbers 30; Psalm 74; Isaiah 22; 2 Peter 3

Psalm 74 is an ancient model prayer for revival today. The psalmist asks why God has cast off His people and forgotten them. Their enemy has destroyed their sanctuary like those who swing their axes in a forest, and who burn everything to the ground. He laments there is no prophet to answer their questions or refute the scoffers. Then he reminds God of His great power and past accomplishments and asks Him to regard His covenant with them. He also asks that God be praised rather than allowing the uproar of the foolish to go against Him. He wants to see a change.

Isaiah 22 is a picture of the need for revival and the failure of God’s people to respond to His way of motivating it. They were invaded and without any control over what was happening to them. However, instead of turning to God, they did two things: Instead of weeping over their situation, they partied and lived it up. Instead of  in parties instead turning to God and His saving power they resorted to their own efforts to protect themselves. They knew God was judging them yet responded with, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (vs. 13) They also did things to save themselves but “did not look to him who did it . . . .” (vs. 11). God called for weeping and mourning concerning their sin but because of their lack of response, He said, “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die.” (vs.14).

With many preachers and ordinary Christians saying that this pandemic is God’s way of calling for revival. The world needs change but the focus is on giving His people opportunity to be what we are called to be. I easily see the similarities from these OT passages. We are doing much good, but there is a large segment of the church that has forgotten our calling. We are dismissed by thousands and do nothing when our Lord is mocked and His Word is dismissed. Far too many Christians are into ‘eat, drink and be merry’ and running our lives according to our own way rather than God’s way and in reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit.

As the Bible often does, God’s response is in the NT, even in 2 Peter 3, another of today’s readings. He reminds me of how the prophets said that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” making fun of the Second Coming, of Creation, the Flood, His timing, and the fulfillment of His promises. God also reminds me . . .

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10)

After that warning, He challenges His church just as He challenged His people in the Psalms and the Prophets:

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:11–18)

APPLY: Again, what I’m to do/be is a no-brainer. Early this morning, I read a prayer for today asking that I would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and be victorious over temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil, giving God the glory and not seeking it for myself. Revival is needed. The church needs it. The world needs it. I need it.