Tag: night and day

11.t. “Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt.”

Nahum 2:10  Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!

Isaiah 13:19-22   And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.  It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

Zephaniah 2:13-15     And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like the desert.  Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation will be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare.  This is the exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

Isaiah 14:23     “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 34:10-15   Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.

Joshua 2:11     And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

Isaiah 13:7-8   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.

Splendor, pomp, prosperity, pride, greed, self-worth, self-centeredness, and self-reliance are all things we can recognize in others and seldom in ourselves.  The hardest heart to look into is the one in the mirror.  Why is that?  When things are going smoothly we take a step back from God and His active Word in our lives becomes complacent.   When things are going rough, confusing, hurtful, painful, and without hope, we run to God and seek His Word to be active in our lives.  What kind of follower of Jesus Christ would honor and glorify His grace and mercy by acting like this?  We weren’t saved only to come running to God and seeking His intervention when things go south on us.  We were saved to honor and glorify Him in both good and troubling times. When we actively and intentionally choose to be in His Word, seeking to humbly live, glorify, honor, follow, trust and obey, we will soon find that deep-rooted sinful nature, we point at so often in others, is also within our hearts.  We don’t hear much of sin and the need for repentance as much as we used too.  I think some in their effort to lead people to Christ, offer Him up as a cure-all for all there problems and tack on “and also for your sin”.  It should be the other way around.  No one can come to Christ and be born again unless their hearts are pierced by the word of God and leading of the Holy Spirit about their sin and the need for forgiveness.  Any other reason to come to Christ without dealing with sin is meaningless.  Without having a heart, mind, and soul desire of God to expose our sin to us, we will meander around life apart from Him and only seeking Him in times of trials.  We were saved to become disciples of Him to proclaim forgiveness of sin, to set the captive free from sin, and to live apart from sin.  How can we do this if we are not actively seeking God to show it to us through His Word?  We have fallen deep into the hole of worldliness and the mirror to our soul is not root in the Word of God but rather in the culture we live in and what they see as right in their own eyes.  Now is the time to repent and turn away from sin.  Now is the time to seek God with humble hearts.  Now is the time for our lives to reflect thankfulness for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for our sin so that we might have life and life more abundantly for His honor and glory.

34. Be sure your sin will find you out.

Numbers 32:23  But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68     “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.  Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.  Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.  Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.  “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do,…  The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,  and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness…. and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,  so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see….“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God,… They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever.  Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,… And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you…. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.

Leviticus 26:14-46    “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,  if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,  then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic,…And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,  and I will break the pride of your power,…“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins….“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,  then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins….their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,

Of all the ways, says Dr. South, to be taken for the prevention of that great plague of mankind, Sin, there is none so rational and efficacious as to confute and baffle those motives by which men are induced to embrace it; and among all such motives, the heart of man seems to be chiefly overpowered and prevailed upon by two, viz. secrecy in committing sin, and impunity with respect to its consequences. God assures us, that how covertly and secretly we move into sin our sin would infallibly find us out. Though the subject and occasion of these words are indeed particular during the proclamation of the law, yet the design of them is universal in application. Isaiah 3:11   Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him. Isaiah 59:1-2     Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;  but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 1 Corinthians 4:5  who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

Sin, obedience, and serving God with a humble heart and mind are not spoken of much anymore.  What is being spoken of are Grace, Mercy, and Love of God and neatly tied with a little red bow of prosperity, blessing, and problem free life.  God has not changed and just because we are living in a time where it appears His wrath is being restrained does not mean we are guiltless.  If we are not approaching each new day with our deepest heart and mind’s desire to humbly honor, glorify, seek, serve, follow, and obey Him, we are being very neglectful and complacent with our walk with Him.  How do you know if you are sinning against God if your eyes are blind and your ears are dull or deaf to His word?  How can you have wisdom and knowledge of His holiness and your sinfulness if His word is not seen as a means to gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding?  How can He be a light in your life if you choose to live in darkness caused by a complacent approach to serving Him?

The truth is you cannot.  Living in complacent neglect allows the heart and mind to be influenced by culture, society, and human nature – “doing what seems right in your own eyes”

There are consequences – God assures us, that how covertly and secretly we move into sin our sin will find us out.   Choose to walk each day in the light of His word for the single purpose of humbly serving and honoring Him.