Judgement
In a time of judgment, the correct response of God's people is to embrace...to go into... the judgment.
Noah embraced the concept of a flood, and God helped Him build an Ark.
Abraham embraced the concept of the judgment of Sodom and interceded for Lot. It worked.
Moses and the Israelites accepted the judgment of the firstborn and responded. Their children lived.
Just wanting judgment to "go away"...or worse... fighting back, is the way you maximize the pain of judgment. Accepting judgment and responding in repentance, then obedience, is the way to minimize the pain of judgment.
Many in the church wrongly ascribe everything they think is bad to the devil, and everything they think is "good" to God. This is a really bad idea. If you are God's ALL things work for your good (Rom 8:28). This gives you freedom to allow the Lord to correct you without getting offended.
Right now flooding is all over our land. This is a judgment. Daniel 9, and many other passages tell us the end comes with a flood. Other places there are massive heat waves killing hundreds. Political unrest, starvation...the list goes on.
The right response is to embrace that this is a judgment from God. It's His mercy. He is trying to wake up the church to repent and obey. Embracing that is faithful. Calling it nature, the devil, or even trying to fight it, denies the sovereignty of God. The devil is created. He is an instrument. What he intends for evil, God allows for good...but God allows it.
He is sovereign.
When trouble comes, instead of believing evil is getting away with something, we can use it as a moment of self-reflection, repent of ignoring God's earlier warnings, and get in to the place of prayer wholeheartedly. Perhaps He will turn this into a blessing...
Joel 2:11 The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
A Call to Repentance
12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
15 Blow the [f]trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
16 Gather the people,
Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should [g]rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”
The Land Refreshed
18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
When Jeremiah was preaching in advance of the destruction of Jerusalem, the odd answer he was giving to people was to embrace the coming judgment and actually defect to Babylon.
Very few listened, and they paid for it dearly. Those who listened found much favor in Babylon. It led to Daniel being one of the top officials there. Right now, the Lord is saying "come out of Babylon" and into the kingdom of repentance, power, and righteousness. We would do well to listen.
Jeremiah 42:7 And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 10 ‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’
13 “But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, 14 saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’— 15 Then hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly[c] set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 16 then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’
18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’
19 “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have [d]admonished you this day. 20 For you [e]were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. 22 Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
You don't want to get rid of the Lord's judgments. You want to embrace them for yourself. Then you will be safe. He is a good dad. If my kids tried to avoid correction, it only made the final correction worse. If they embraced it, I was always more merciful.
Noah embraced the concept of a flood, and God helped Him build an Ark.
Abraham embraced the concept of the judgment of Sodom and interceded for Lot. It worked.
Moses and the Israelites accepted the judgment of the firstborn and responded. Their children lived.
Just wanting judgment to "go away"...or worse... fighting back, is the way you maximize the pain of judgment. Accepting judgment and responding in repentance, then obedience, is the way to minimize the pain of judgment.
Many in the church wrongly ascribe everything they think is bad to the devil, and everything they think is "good" to God. This is a really bad idea. If you are God's ALL things work for your good (Rom 8:28). This gives you freedom to allow the Lord to correct you without getting offended.
Right now flooding is all over our land. This is a judgment. Daniel 9, and many other passages tell us the end comes with a flood. Other places there are massive heat waves killing hundreds. Political unrest, starvation...the list goes on.
The right response is to embrace that this is a judgment from God. It's His mercy. He is trying to wake up the church to repent and obey. Embracing that is faithful. Calling it nature, the devil, or even trying to fight it, denies the sovereignty of God. The devil is created. He is an instrument. What he intends for evil, God allows for good...but God allows it.
He is sovereign.
When trouble comes, instead of believing evil is getting away with something, we can use it as a moment of self-reflection, repent of ignoring God's earlier warnings, and get in to the place of prayer wholeheartedly. Perhaps He will turn this into a blessing...
Joel 2:11 The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
A Call to Repentance
12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
15 Blow the [f]trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
16 Gather the people,
Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should [g]rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”
The Land Refreshed
18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
When Jeremiah was preaching in advance of the destruction of Jerusalem, the odd answer he was giving to people was to embrace the coming judgment and actually defect to Babylon.
Very few listened, and they paid for it dearly. Those who listened found much favor in Babylon. It led to Daniel being one of the top officials there. Right now, the Lord is saying "come out of Babylon" and into the kingdom of repentance, power, and righteousness. We would do well to listen.
Jeremiah 42:7 And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: 10 ‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’
13 “But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, 14 saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’— 15 Then hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly[c] set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 16 then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’
18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’
19 “The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have [d]admonished you this day. 20 For you [e]were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. 22 Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
You don't want to get rid of the Lord's judgments. You want to embrace them for yourself. Then you will be safe. He is a good dad. If my kids tried to avoid correction, it only made the final correction worse. If they embraced it, I was always more merciful.
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