Judgments True and Just

Friday, November 17, 2023[1]

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel.  The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal.  They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt.  They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them.  And they angered the Lord.  They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth.  This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions.  He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them.  Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned.  And the people were in great distress.  Judges 2:10-15

And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”  Revelation 16:7

The justice system in America is arguably skewed at times, as is every other system created by humankind.  A statement attributed to Winston Churchill is:  Democracy is the worst form of government ever created…with the exception of every other form of government.  With all due respect to the esteemed Mr. Churchill, there is one justice system that is true and just; its righteousness is never failing!  That system, of course, is the judgments of God.

Joshua led the nation of Israel to conquer the Promised Land after Moses’ death.  They occupied it under the sole-leadership of God (a theocracy) until Joshua died.  Then a new generation decided that serving Jehovah was outdated and old-school.  They wanted to be like the other nations and left God in the dust. 

For Israel, bad became worse.  Their strength as a nation disappeared.  Their military was never enough.  Their infrastructures became compromised; superstructures and resources were hacked and stolen, and no leader could be trusted.  The whole nation was in severe distress.

Does that sound familiar?  I know it is dangerous to insert “America” into any prophecy or Biblical scenario, but when the shoe fits it is appropriate to wear it.  The trend in our culture is to trust in an idea of America as inherently good and all-powerful.  The problem in believing such is that we wind up attributing the nature of God to a national identity.  America is not, has never been, and will never be…GOD! 

The identity of a nation consists of  the nature and character of the people who make up that nation at any point in time.  According to Scripture (which has yet to be proven wrong), the character and nature of humans is corrupt, and has been so ever since Eden.  This is a fallen world…and, despite the flag-waving that has most of us rallying around the stars and stripes, fallenness is our heritage…prone to wander; prone to leave the God we love.  And leave God behind we have…for the pragmatism of bigger stock portfolios, harsher conversations, and a national profile of yell louder to win the argument.  And we do so at a great cost!

For You Today 

The distress of God’s justice rolled-down on the heads of those who led Israel after Joshua passed.  I am not a prophet in the sense of being able to foretell the future, but I am student enough of history and Scripture to sense that we are at harvest time, and what we have been sowing, we shall certainly reap! 

Let us be wise and plant seeds of justice, mercy, and walking humbly with our God, while we pray it is not too late.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] This devotion originally appeared on Rocky Road as The Distress of Justice, November 16, 2017 (with updates)

GONE!

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone.  He threw it into the ocean and shouted, “Just like this, the great city Babylon will be thrown down with violence and will never be found again.  The sound of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets will never be heard in you again.  No craftsmen and no trades will ever be found in you again.  The sound of the mill will never be heard in you again.  The light of a lamp will never shine in you again.  The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again.  For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries.  In your streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world.”  Revelation 18:21-24

“Babylon” is more than a once-great city, dynasty, or nation.  Rather its’ legacy is that of what happens to any self-aggrandizing person or group that opposes God.  Ancient Babylon (located near Baghdad in modern Iraq) as a cultural center four thousand years ago, lasted about 30 centuries.  In Daniel and Second Kings we find Nebuchadnezzar, a ruthless, wicked man, who conquered Jerusalem more than once, and who destroyed Solomon’s temple.  He presented himself as the true divine, above every human or their gods.  Daniel, a humble Jew, taken from his homeland to serve Nebuchadnezzar as a slave, interpreted dreams for the king.  Daniel told him the one, true God of all would humble the king, and it happened immediately.  Nebuchadnezzar wandered the hills and surrounding areas of Babylon for 7 years as a wild beast, eating grass.  When he finally came to his senses (because God restored him), he gave honor and glory to Daniel’s God.[1] 

Today’s passage is one of many in Revelation that is used to describe the End Times, when God’s judgment will be poured-out on earth.  Babylon is an accurate symbol (of sorts) for all who opposed God in this life.  In a single name the aged Apostle John records the undoing of humankind’s evil of all time, and the recreating of God’s paradise.  When the judgment comes, portrayed as a huge boulder thrown-down from Heaven, Babylon, the mighty conqueror of all men, is simply….dismissed, no more…GONE!

While there is a great deal of mystery and wonder around Biblical prophecy, there is also a much greater value in the warning which it offers.  Jesus, in detailing for his disciples some of the circumstances which mark the time when God’s judgment would be imminent, tells us it is fruitless to spend our time trying to create a timeline, or set a date for when this will happen.  Jesus said it WILL HAPPEN, and our best response to that is to be ready WHENEVER IT HAPPENS! 

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.  “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.  Only the Father knows.  And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard!  Stay alert!  Mark 13:31-33

For You Today 

It would be simple to look around, particularly at the events happening in Jerusalem and Gaza these weary, war-torn days.  There’s more than enough evidence of what Jesus warned would precede His next advent.  But Scripture doesn’t change…we don’t know it’s now…but we don’t know it isn’t.

So…today, whatever happens, don’t wander-around like Nebuchadnezzar eating grass.  Start your day feasting on God’s Word, and give Him all the glory.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Title Image Pixabay.com  Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] For a lengthy article on this background see Wikipedia on Babylon

Like Noah's Day

Thursday, May 11, 2023

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.  So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth.  It broke his heart.  And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth.  Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.”  But Noah found favor with the Lord.  This is the account of Noah and his family.  Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.  Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence.  God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt.  So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence.  Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!  Genesis 6:5-13

Scripture points out that God is always watching the unfolding of His creation.  In Noah’s day it was not a pretty sight.  Imagine God, Who is holy, looking at the activities, thoughts, and hearts of human beings, and finding nothing but darkness.  In the 21^st century we are accustomed to hearing of the grace and mercy of God; Genesis introduces us to the justice of God. 

This passage of Scripture sets the tone for all theologically-sound doctrine, what we can say with confidence about the nature of God.  God’s evaluation of all human activity was evil wickedness, including our thoughts and intentions. 

The result of such is that we have filled the earth with wickedness and violence.  Who could argue with that, considering the state of our world.

·       In the 21^st-Century life is daily filled with news of disasters and tragic accounts of loss and doom. 

·       Every possible dark thing that takes place on earth is streaming on the Internet. 

·       There has never been a time in the history of human existence without a war going on somewhere on the planet; Cain killing Abel originated the murderous mele.

·       Deceit, greed, and selfishness have pervasively become the norm for interpersonal relationships.  And all of that has systematically unravelled the hope of family and even civil relationships in communities.

·       Sodom and Gomorrah are thriving!

It’s not stretching the truth to say that, had God not promised Noah the destruction of all life would never again be forthcoming, planet earth and all it holds would be in flames. 

And what our world looks like today is precisely what Jesus predicted would characterize the imminence of His return, bringing judgment to the earth:

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.  In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.  Matthew 24:37-38

For You Today 

Judgment is unavoidable.  Every action, according to the laws of nature and physics, has an equal and opposite reaction.  Evil requires good to mitigate, as does evil attempting to undo good.  God is entirely good; evil will not last.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   When It Hurts So Much  and  Good and Evil; the War   

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Despite Wickedness

 

Friday, May 6, 2022

“As for you, O people of Israel, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Go right ahead and worship your idols, but sooner or later you will obey me and will stop bringing shame on my holy name by worshiping idols.  For on my holy mountain, the great mountain of Israel, says the Sovereign Lord, the people of Israel will someday worship me, and I will accept them.  There I will require that you bring me all your offerings and choice gifts and sacrifices.  When I bring you home from exile, you will be like a pleasing sacrifice to me.  And I will display my holiness through you as all the nations watch.  Then when I have brought you home to the land I promised with a solemn oath to give to your ancestors, you will know that I am the Lord.  You will look back on all the ways you defiled yourselves and will hate yourselves because of the evil you have done.  You will know that I am the Lord, O people of Israel, when I have honored my name by treating you mercifully in spite of your wickedness.  I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”  Ezekiel 20:39-44

The Sovereign Lord is the Creator of the universe.  Despite the wickedness of His chosen people, Israel, God was not only willing to forgive, He promised it as a matter of prophetic certainty.  In all prophetic utterance, by prophets, apostles, and metaphorical stories[1], there is typically a current application, AND a future expectation.  We often miss that, because we cannot see the future, even 5 minutes ahead.  It’s like two mountains, the closer one (our current day) larger than the one behind it (the future prediction).  We are at ground-level, so to speak.  Our sight is limited.  Prophetic utterance is God, the Creator of time and space, and is therefore not governed by either time, or space.  God is above time and space (as a helicopter hovering above the two mountains), and He can see what we cannot.[2]  When the God above speaks, we who ARE governed by time, space, and the expectations of their Creator, should pay attention.

God reminded Israel of their wickedness, worshipping idols out of a fear of not fitting-in with the surrounding cultures, and dishonoring their calling to be God’s special chosen ones to proclaim God’s love to the world.  But the warning threat of accountability also came with a prophecy that they would get past the regret of despising their own sins, to be forgiven and restored to right relationship with God.

In our 21^st century culture there is enough identifying with ungodly culture going on (even in the church) to be like a second-mountain behind the first (of Ezekiel’s time).  The church of the third millennium is no different than the first two-thousand years…we leave our first-love of Jesus in the dust like the church at Ephesus which apostle John wrote about in Revelation 2:1-5.  There was also a prophetic warning in that message.

For You Today

Prophecy isn’t about sensationalism, or all about God getting even with us for our wickedness.  Prophecy is God’s despite of our wickedness to proclaim the love and providence of our Lord for lost and wayward sheep.  It’s an open invitation to come back to the purpose for which we were created…an intensely intimate relationship with a God who loves us supremely.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Some consider, for instance, Adam and Eve, Jonah, and other accounts of miracles and historical events to be “fictional stories” told to make God’s point.  I leave that to the reader’s conscience.  Prophecy is not a metaphor, however; all of God’s word is His promise (and warning).

[2] His thoughts and ways are immeasurably higher – see Isaiah 55:9

After the Fire

 

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says, “I will take revenge on my enemies and pay back my foes!  I will raise my fist against you.  I will melt you down and skim off your slag.  I will remove all your impurities.  Then I will give you good judges again and wise counselors like you used to have.  Then Jerusalem will again be called the Home of Justice and the Faithful City.”  Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.  But rebels and sinners will be completely destroyed, and those who desert the Lord will be consumed.  You will be ashamed of your idol worship in groves of sacred oaks.  You will blush because you worshiped in gardens dedicated to idols.  You will be like a great tree with withered leaves, like a garden without water.  The strongest among you will disappear like straw; their evil deeds will be the spark that sets it on fire.  They and their evil works will burn up together, and no one will be able to put out the fire.  Isaiah 1:24-31

When God starts a fire, no human being can end it before Heaven allows.  To the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Isaiah brought the quintessential Bad News/Good News message.  The moral/spiritual climate of the nation was past reforming; only transforming by the judgment of God would purge the slag from their government. 

That God does such things, moving in judgment on whole nations, is evident in nature; the parallels of God’s merciful hand straightening our crookedness are impossible to ignore. 

When God judges a nation for its sin, the true story (when recorded accurately) also shows the rebirth of justice.  A forest burns thousands of acres until the natural cycle is reborn…out of the ashes.  The forest regrows, in God’s time, and in God’s way.

Lately I’ve been thinking about that cycle. 

When I was a teenager in the early 1960’s my parents looked at the mania that followed the singing group from England, The Beattles, and they imagined the rapture and Apocalypse couldn’t be far behind.  In retrospect the only revolution John, Paul, George, and Ringo started was a fire that would bring deeper moral wickedness, which always accompanies the downfall of (supposedly) great societies. 

Founded on principles of freedom, and the opportunities a level playing field offers to all persons, America has always stood precariously close to the judgment fires God brings to burn off the slag of turpitude.  The great awakenings of American History with Jonathan Edwards, Finney, Whitefield, and, of late, Billy Graham, always held up the image of God’s fire, and the response saw American culture draw-back, like spiders threatened in their web.  In many ways our blessed beginnings have stood in memory sufficiently to avoid the cataclysmic shattering of America on the level of Greece, Rome, or the Third Reich.  But we aren’t (ever) that far removed from the imposing hand of God’s righteous judgment.

Should that judgment come during my lifetime, or after, is entirely a matter for God’s own choosing.  But the falling of judgment is as certain on sinfulness as the sun is hot, and floods sweep away whole landscapes.  Should America keep on the path it now slithers, Isaiah’s prophecy will be revisited from 7^th century BC Jerusalem to these days in Washington, D.C.  May God have mercy on us.

For You Today

No single person moves history (other than what happened at Calvary!).  But each of us has our own part in history.  Like Whitefield, Wesley, and the firebrand preachers of our history, there were men and women who helped…a little here, a lot there…and God gave the increase. 

May the increase be our shedding of the slag before God has to melt us down.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this topic see Awakening and When the Light Dawns