Monday, December 14, 2015
Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a
shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of
the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of
the Lord. He will delight in obeying
the Lord. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision
based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and
make fair decisions for the exploited. The
earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will
destroy the wicked. He will wear righteousness like a belt
and truth like an undergarment. In that day the wolf and the lamb will
live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with
the lion, and a little child will lead them all. The cow will graze near
the bear. The cub and the calf will lie
down together. The lion will eat hay
like a cow. The baby will play safely near the
hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child
will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm. Nothing
will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord. Isaiah 11:1-9 (NLT)
The
prophet speaks of a time when all of the inhabitants of the earth will know
the Lord and it will change culture so much that lions and lambs
neither hurt nor fear each other.
In
the Biblical sense, “to know” is an expression which means much more than
cognitive awareness; rather it conveys the meaning of total intimate
experience. Knowing the Lord
is what happened to Peter, James, John and the others when they lived with him
for three years and the effect was they loved him so completely that they were
willing to give their lives in his service.
Knowing
Christ like that will certainly change your behavior!
There
are multiple schools of thought on how this will come about, so that the whole
universe does an “about face” from the violence and evil and injustice we now
see dominating our culture and time, and becomes a Kingdom of grace, peace and
love.
According
to Isaiah, one word from this shoot of Jesse’s stump will destroy
all his wicked adversaries and bind Satan for a thousand years.
The
so-called “Darbyists”[2]
among us who see this event in a premillennial scenario of the church’s
rapture, and then 7 years of the Great Tribulation, differ from the mid, post
and a-millennial rapturists. And all of
these differ greatly from the non-rapture folk, who believe in something of a
gradual kind of Pilgrim’s Progress evolving into the great society of a new
heaven on earth.
My
friends of the no rapture persuasion imagine the Darbyists sitting
around waiting for the rapture and not working for justice in the here and
now. My Darby friends imagine the Kingdom-evolving
brood as ignoring the eternal needs of the masses of lost people in favor of a
short-sighted social gospel.
I
have one thing to say to all of us, pre, mid, post, non, and who-knows
tribulationists…it’s ok…..really!
Take
a deep breath; it’s really ok. We can be
united around the most important reality despite our differences about all the
theories of God’s Kingdom on earth – Jesus.
He knows what’s going to happen, and He has been in charge for a long
time.
And
His plan does not include dividing the faithful into
theological camps – we do that well all by ourselves. In the first century Paul wrote to the
Corinthian church about our human tendency to divide ourselves:
Some
of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I
follow Apollos,” or “I
follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”
Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!
1 Corinthians 1:12f(NLT)
Paul
was saying to the church: it’s ok….stop
your arguing and start living as if you belong to Christ.
Taming
the devil within isn’t easy, but it’s what each of us has to do to avoid
dividing Christ’s body.
For You Today
Work
to bring others to Christ; work to bring justice now; give glory to God.
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