Tag: Brought Low

Glorious reunion

Zechariah 14:1  Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst.

Isaiah 2:12    For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

Ezekiel 30:3    For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

Isaiah 13:6     Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.  Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.  I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

Zephaniah 1:7   Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near;

Zephaniah 2:2   before the decree takes effect —before the day passes away like chaff— before there comes upon you the burning anger of the LORD, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the LORD.  Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD.

1 Thessalonians 5:2    For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Malachi 4:5    “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

There is quite a difference between grace and mercy and anger and wrath.  From a human view we can understand just a small portion of what it means to have your grace and mercy rejected. How much more so from God the Creator.  He not only showed His love by reaching out but also in redeeming us through His son Jesus Christ, cancelling all our sin, giving us the Holy Spirit to live in side of us to direct and lead us, giving us precious promises of joy, power, strength, courage, hope, love, peace, happiness, His ever steadfast love and protection, and eternity with Him.  All of these promises come with a qualification – trust in the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul.  Believe in Jesus Christ and repent, turning away from that old self.  There is no wrath, anger, or destruction in your future.  There will be a reunion with your Heavenly Father in eternity.  I imagine at the time we enter eternity we will see His Holiness in it’s fullest and seeing it we will humbly bow saying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.  Remember the time of choice is this side of eternity.  Choosing to live for self will end in destruction.  Choosing now to believe and live humbly serving, honoring, following, and obeying God will not end but will grow into a glorious reunion with God forevermore.

Same thing over again

“Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.”

Judges 3:30
So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years

Judges 4:3
Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years

Judges 5:31
And the land had rest for forty years

Judges 6:1
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 6:7
When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. ’ But you have not obeyed my voice.

Psalms 106:42
Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

 

With the right godly leadership Israelites had rest from battles for 80 years, and then again they fell away and did not obey him and were treated cruelly for 20 years.  Once again they called out to God in their distress and God delivered them.   They had rest for 40 years and they fell away from God and were in bondage for 7 years.  Drifting away from God will never give us rest or peace.  What is it that this world offers us that has appearance of rest and peace?  Money, material gains, with out need of much of anything.  Do we really think this will give us rest, peace and happiness?  What does God have to do to get our attention away from this false sense of peace?  Does He need to put us in bondage.  Does He give us government officials who do not follow after Him?  Does He allow us to follow our heart away from Him?  What will it take for us to understand that all we have has come from Him.  It is not ours but rather we are stewards of it.  All abilities and gifts we have, have been given to us from Him.  We are blessed beyond measure with the eternal gift of life through Jesus Christ.  For this alone we should humbly serve Him for His honor and glory.

450 Years

And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges.

Judges 2:16
Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not

Psalms 106:43
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

Did you take note that the time from when the Israelites took possession of the land until the time of Judges was ~450 years.  During this 450 years many times the Israelites were under God’s punishment for not following Him.  We can look back at this and see the first place of not obeying God was when they took over the land God had given them.  They did not put away all of the people as God said to.  They did right by what was in their own eyes and this lead to a continuous falling away from God.  I remember shortly after I was saved,  my pastor who was discipling me, said “one thing he saw and it troubled him greatly was the fact that the church seemed to always be 10 to 15 years away from whatever the current culture accepted.”  What was deemed not in alignment with God’s word by the church now seemed to be ok or severely watered down within 10 to 15 years.  Spend some time to think about this and see if it is not true.  We ask for revival but are we willing to put away all that causes us to stumble?  Have we lost sight of what God would have us do and replaced it with what the culture says God would have us do?  The only way we will ever get on top of this is to personally spend time in God’s word with the intent of allowing Him to speak the truth of it into our mind and lives.  If we think for a moment we will get this type of understanding from a sermon once per week we fool ourselves and will only continue to drift away from God while running full speed ahead to that which is neither God honoring or beneficial for our lives.  Purpose to read daily and desire/expect God to breath life into these words in your heart, mind and soul.