Monday, June 3, 2019

The Voice of the Lord

Monday, June 3, 2019

The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning.  The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.  In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”  The Lord rules over the floodwaters.  The Lord reigns as king forever.  The Lord gives his people strength.  The Lord blesses them with peace.  Psalm 29:7-11

I’ve watched more than a few golf tournaments on TV.  It’s a slow process; the typical round of 18 holes takes more than 4 hours.  (My bride swears it’s more like 4 months).  While it is a sport, with some cheering for this player or that one, there is one occurrence that changes everything; when that horn blows because lightning has been spotted the players, spectators, camera operators, officials and groundskeepers run for cover.  Nobody wants to be out in the middle of lightning strikes!  There are some recorded incidents of people surviving being struck, but they are the exception; most people are toast when the lightning finds them.  But, even the small percentage of those who survive are never quite the same again.
The voice of the Lord is a phrase that occurs more than 100 times in Scripture.  In Genesis Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord in the Garden.  Moses was called into service by the voice from that burning bush.  Israel heard God’s voice speak multiple times from the cloud and fire as they followed Him in the wilderness.  Isaiah was called into God’s service when God called to him in a vision.  That voice spoke through Isaiah to tell the world to prepare for the coming of Jesus; prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Most often hearing the voice of the Lord meant judgment was on the way for disobedience.  Jeremiah’s lament after the hammer of God’s judgment fell is a familiar theme for those who would ignore the voice:

Let’s lie down in our shame. Let our dishonor cover us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, both we and our ancestors, from our youth to this very day. We have disobeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”  Jeremiah 3:25(CEB)

Repeatedly this familiar theme and process is heard through Scripture’s store:
·      God’s people are saved from destruction, and they promise to obey
·      God’s people fall back into disobedience to their promises to obey
·      God must save them all over again.
We are no different than Israel.  We cry out to God for forgiveness and receive it.  We do well for a bit, then that old nature begins the full court press and we find ourselves begging for mercy and more forgiveness for slipping off the wagon.  We find ourselves addicted to this behavior or that, and cry out like Paul, who will deliver me from the body of this death?[2]  Thankfully, the answer is still the next breath out of Paul’s pen:  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
For You Today
If there is one thing in life we can count on it is that the Lord, Who had the first word over this creation will also have the last:

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”  And he also said, “It is finished!  I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.  To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.  “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.  This is the second death.”  Revelation 21:5-8

The voice of the Lord is our warning to listen, obey God and be saved from that destructive day!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
[2] Romans 7:24

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