Sing And Rejoice

Focus verses: Zephaniah 3:8-17

Despite man's unfaithfulness and despite the Lord's anger, there is yet hope. Reading these verses we see that we are told to sing and rejoice.

This is because after the Lord's day of wrath, there is a recalling of the remnant of the faithful. Those who have been faithful will survive the day of judgment and will be found victorious.

The Lord says He will purify the lips of the peoples. that all of them may call upon His name. This reminds us of the picture of Isaiah.

Remember when he found himself in the throne room of God, with all the angels. The glory of the Lord was so heavy that he fell on his face saying "woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips." And an angel took a coal from the altar and touched his lips to purify them. Then he was worthy to speak the name of the Lord as an emissary of God.

Here too, God says He will purify the lips of the people. Those of us who are faithful to God should rejoice in this passage. It means that we will speak the righteousness of God to the nation. We are to be His emissaries in this hurting world. It is our duty and our privilege to speak for the righteousness of God, the love of God, the mercy of God and the wrath of God in equal proportion.

It is only when we tell the whole truth of God that we can be rightfully called His emissaries.

Father, God,

Open our ears and hearts to learn of You. Purify our lips to tell of You. Send us wherever You wish to spread the good news to all people. Soften our hearts to love all Your children.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

God's Wrath

Focus verses: Nahum 1:1-6

"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power." One reason the Lord is slow to anger is His great love for mankind. He is not willing that any should perish, so He withholds His anger until it is obvious that the sinner or the sinful nation is not about to repent.

Remember His conversation with Abraham over Sodom. He would have withheld His anger with Sodom had there been but a few righteous men in the city. There was, in fact, only Lot. And He made a way for Lot to escape.

In Jonathan Edward's famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", we read "The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. "

Personally, I tremble for our nation. The abominations and desecrations we tolerate in the name of political correctness have earned us the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. God is withholding his anger, I believe, because of the remnant of the righteous who still are here and still praying for the nation.

Social responsibility would have every Christian evangelizing and bringing people to God. Let us resolve to be the buffer between our nation and the hands of an angry God until we can turn this nation back to its roots in faith.

Father, God,

While we are Your children, never let us for get that we have a responsibility to bring all men unto You. Help us to see ways to woo the lost for Your kingdom so that Your righteous anger will be quenched.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

An Accounting

Focus verses: Numbers 26:64-65

After forty years of wandering, the Israelites prepare to enter the Promised Land. God orders a census, a final accounting of the numbers of the men of Israel. This census will be the basis of the distribution of the lands.

Some of the tribes have increased; some have decreased. But the total number of Israelites is smaller. They have been diminished by their faithlessness and rebellions during these forty years.

Korah, the Levite who rebelled, was swallowed up, but God preserved a remnant of his line for entry into the promised land. God always preserves a remnant of the faithful.

Of all the men who followed Moses into the desert, only Joshua and Caleb are alive. The rest have died of one cause or another because the Lord told them they would die in the desert.

But why? Their sin was one of disbelief. God had told them He was giving them the land, but when they went to look at it, they became fearful of the inhabitants. And they believed their own eyes rather than God's promise.

There is always a day of reckoning. Every action carries within itself the seed of its own reward or punishment. The faithlessness of those men of Israel resulted in their being denied entrance to the Promised Land. Conversely, the faithful report from Caleb and Joshua is rewarded by their being allowed to enter the Promised Land.

How will we stack up at the day of accounting? Have we been faithful to believe all that the Lord has told us? Have we been rebellious? Have we been lukewarm, S in our ardor to know Him better?

I'm so glad that our salvation doesn't rely on our personal accounting. It relies, instead, on our belief in Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross. Only Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to cover all our shortcomings -- past, present and future.

Father, God,

We thank You for Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Keep our hearts faithful to you that we may not be found wanting in the day of accounting.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.

Noah and New Beginnings

Focus verses: Genesis 8:21 through Genesis 9:7.

Reading the Bible chronologically, we come to the story of Noah and the flood early in the year. If you were raised in church, you've known about Noah since the kindergarten teacher put yellow giraffes on a blue flannel-board.

But if we look closer, we see that the flood was God's decision in response to man's vile wickedness. Let's face it. The natural tendency of mankind is to get worse and worse -- not better and better. Left to our own devices, we drift further and further from God's plans for us.

But God started over. He found a pure remnant, Noah and his sons. He protected them from the cataclysmic flood. And then He commissioned mankind again. He wiped the slate clean and let us start over as in the beginning.

Look at the similarities.

God tells Noah and his sons to be fruitful and fill the earth.

And He reiterates man's authority upon the earth.

Then he make man an omnivore by giving man everything that lives and moves as food, just as He gave man the green plants earlier.

Our problems begin when we get so puffed up with our rights and what is our due that we forget that all - ALL - we have is a gift from God.

Father, God,

Keep us ever mindful that all we have is a result of Your love for us, not our own efforts or entitlements.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen