Recently my wife asked me "What is happening to our world (reading of all the terrible things in the news), and what are we going to do about it?" It was basically a rhetorical question, not expecting a definitive answer. A day later I was reading through Jeremiah and I came across God's pronounced judgments upon some of the evil lands in Jeremiah's day. Why was such judgment of annihilation coming upon some of them? Because they had rejected the morality of God and God's Lordship over them. Just speaking of the USA, abortion on demand since 1973, mass publications of pornography since the 1950's, the great amount of increased homosexuality since 1984, the corruption of common language with the common use of profanity among our national leaders, media, youth, and even the youngest speaking children, not to mention the open rejection of God and the embracement of the doctrine of evolution. These are just some of the offenses the general population commits against God. But what is to become of the many Christians in this country that are still faithful to God, when the deserved judgment of God finally comes upon an unrepentant country?
The definitive answer is not from any man, good or bad, but from the Word of God itself. Are all the individuals of a sinful, rebellious country, doomed to suffer the same exact judgment of that country? No! We read in the book of Joshua how Rahab, the harlot, was spared from being destroyed with the rest of the population of the city of Jericho, because she believe in and helped the people of God that came to attack the wicked city. We read in Jeremiah how that the life of Jeremiah himself was spared when the Babylonians came to destroy Jerusalem and take over the nation of Judah. We read in Genesis how that the godly man Noah and his family were spared from the destruction of the world population when in obedience to God they built an ark. As the book of Revelation speaks of the final judgments coming upon this Earth, it says to the godly in Rev 3:10 "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation (testing, judgment), which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Paul wrote to the Thessalonians "For God hath not appointed us to wrath (God's judgment, Jn 3:36), but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 1Th 5:9. God delivered Daniel from the lions den, and his three friends from the fiery furnace, Dan 6 and 3 respectively. This doesn't guarantee that God will deliver all Christians from persecution or physical death before the rapture of 1Th 4:13-16 and 1Co 15:51-53 takes place, but it does mean that we can trust that God will deliver us unto glory and to the eternal kingdom that God has prepared for us from the foundation of the world, as Ro 8:28-32 and Mt 25:34 tell us. Let us remember the last words of Isaiah 59:19, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." When the trials and tribulations of the world and this life seem to be so many as to almost overwhelm us, God will intervene to deliver us. "He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." Dan 6:27.
コメント