2015-10-09
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, we examined what is known about God’s Book of Life and books of death. It surely is the Lord keeping His prophecy that He will separate the sheep from the goats [MT 25: 32] and our reality that all of us will need to give an accounting of our lives before the Lord Jesus at the Last Judgment. Today, I’m led to switch back to stories from the past in the Bible in the course of fleshing out the topic of our personal covenant renewal. From past studies, we know that when Isaiah was the prophet Israel and Judah were separate kingdoms. All 19 kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were wicked, in that they allowed the practice of idolatry, the sin God detests most. Only some of the kings of Judah allowed this. IS 42: 24-25 reveals God’s response to Israel’s idolatry in laying the land to waste. “Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against Whom we have sinned? For they would not follow His ways; they did not obey His law. So He poured out on them His burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.” The prophet, Jeremiah, writes this against idolatry taking place in Judah’s temple at Jerusalem, in JER 7: 30, “’The people of Judah have done evil in My eyes,’ declares the Lord. ‘They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears My name and have defiled it…’” Later, JER 8: 10, God says of the Judean sinners, “I will give their wives to older men and their fields to new owners. From the greatest to the least all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.” That is why the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities happened as punishment from God for this behavior. God tells us, RO 3: 26 that He will draw the line at how much sin He will endure before taking action against it.
The consistency of God’s decisions and actions can even be seen before the above period in mankind’s history. GN 19: 23-25 describes God’s punishment against Sodom and Gomorrah. GN 19: 24, “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of heaven.” Mankind’s refusal to learn from their past is exemplified in MT 11: 21-24 with Christ’s pronouncements on Korazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum, comparing these unrepentant cities to one another. The “take-away” lesson from this is that the more time in history we have to learn about, the more severe the punishment for unrepentant sinning there will be. We have less excuse to sin due to more exposure to history’s lessons from the past.
More examples from the past are King Ahab’s evil rule over Israel with his horrific wife, Jezabel from 833-745 BC. As this reign went on, it became more violent and evil; God answered this evil with struggles and war with Syria. We read in the book of Esther the evil-doing of Grand Vizier of Persia [second in command to King Xerxes], Haman, in trying to arrange the extermination of all the Jews. Haman’s anti-Semitism has its roots back in his ancestry, as Haman was the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite [ES 3: 1]. The description “Agagite” is instructive as this puts Haman in the line of the evil King Agag of Amelek [1 SAM 15: 20]. The Amalekites were bitter enemies of the Israelites, themselves descended from Esau’s grandson, Amalek, and they had a long history of anti-Semitism. All who have read the book of Esther already know that Haman’s evil efforts included Queen Esther herself, the dearly beloved Jewish wife of the king. While God’s name is never mentioned in the book of Esther, He is all over this story, and as it played out, it was Haman who was hanged before he could see his wrongdoing ever come to fruition.
Evildoing was the habit of Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians too. 2 K 15: 17-22 is the story of Israel’s king, Menahem son of Gadi, who reigned for ten years (752-742 BC) during the time Tiglath-Pileser III [also known as Pul] (745-747 BC) reigned over Assyria. It is likely that the evil Menahem was a commander at the military garrison at Tizrah before becoming the king of Israel. During his reign, Pul invaded Israel, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver to gain the latter’s support and strengthen his foothold over Israel. This money had come from his subjects, exacting 50 shekels of silver from every wealthy household. In return, Pul withdrew his troops. This was only one poorly-conceived alliance in many during the history of both Israel and Judah. As for the Assyrians, like most of Israel’s enemies, their kingdoms didn’t survive the test of time. We need only look at Edom, Moab, Amalek, Og, the Selucids, the Spanish government of Torquemada [responsible for the Spanish Inquision of 1492], and the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler to see the point made. Our God loves and protects those who love Him!
PRAYER: O Lord, the question is asked but not answered, “When will mankind learn from their own history?” You are a wise, supreme, and sovereign God, One Who loves His human creation, but is disappointed by them repeatedly. We acknowledge You as our God and know You consider us Your people. We want to make Your oft-spoken prophecy truth [EX 6: 7; DT 6: 4-9; JER 31: 33-34; EZK 11: 19-20; JN 3: 16; GA 3: 19-20; REV 21: 3] by the way we live our lives. Let PR 3: 3-4 describe our lives. “Let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” We are capable of love, because You first loved us [1JN 4: 19]. It was in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who served You faithfully throughout His earthly life and Who now serves You divinely, showing us what real love is. It is He Who never abandons us in our time of trial, disappointment, illness, and loss. It is He Who opened the heavenly Holy of Holies to us through His sacrifice on the cross [HE 9: 11-12]. You have given us the capacity to learn, to feel, to believe in You, and to use all these abilities to serve and care for ourselves and others. What a great and supreme God You are, a God in Whom we can place trust. We beseech You to reach our hearts, as You have promised, and teach us to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again that mankind has throughout our history [EZK 36: 36-37]. You have given us the hope of the resurrection and have shown us through our own experience with You that we can place our hopes for becoming sanctified and gaining eternal life in You. Be merciful to us and guide us to open our hearts to Your messages and lessons through prayer and study of Your word. We offer You our heartfelt thanks and praise for all You are and all You do. We submit to Your authority and place our lives in Your capable hands, as we offer up this prayer, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As the Holy Spirit is taking me through these stories of mankind’s past history, I find myself astonished at the repetitions of mankind’s foolish decisions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. More of these stories from history will be in next week’s devotion. There has been wrongdoing, oppression, egotistic behavior, inequality, and so many other examples of our imperfections. The sins of mankind has put so much distance between them and God, distance that we must now decide to serially shorten until we know and appreciate God’s goodness and wisdom better. As an individual who spent 25 years of her life not knowing God, I can see the sharp contrast in my own quality of life now that I know Him better. Am I perfect? Far from it! Is my knowledge of God without defects? Heavens no! But living as long as I have has given me comfort in my own skin enough to have the nerve to write these weekly messages to each of you. I know that God will be teaching me lessons He knows I need for the rest of my life. My own experience with Him has taught me I can rely on Him. I have observed Him perform some miracles, totally renewing lives and giving them real meaning. He has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams with wonderful friends, friends whom He uses as His representatives to remind me He is present and still working on me. None of them do this in a judgmental way. The few difficult people in my life, my “extra grace required” ones, keep me on my toes and let me know there is still hope that He will have His righteous impact on them. The Lord I describe will do all these same things for you too. I know this and want you to know it. Each of us can turn to our loving God any time of day or night, any day of the year. He is right here with us, eager to love and bless us. Who could ask for anything more? May He always be thanked and praised, in the name of Jesus Christ!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2015. All Rights Reserved.
<-- Back to Archives