“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
I do not know if you know what I mean when I say that I have been feeling the heaviness of life for the last few days. I am retired and not on a strict schedule, but I have been feeling the pressure of demands on my life and on my time. Mostly, I have just felt a great need for the Lord. I was searching for a scripture reference that would speak to my need. Psalm 46:1 came to my mind, so I read it, meditated on it, prayed over it, and then felt the need to share my thoughts on the text with you. “God is our refuge…” I remember a gospel song that I heard years ago, and haven’t heard for a long time, that spoke to this. The song was “I Found a Hiding Place.” I don’t remember all of the words to the song, but the thought behind the song spoke to me this morning. When we feel that the world is rushing in on us and that the demands of life are becoming too heavy, we can escape to that hiding place and find the security that we need to go on and to meet the demands that life places on us. It is just good to take refuge in God sometimes and just let Him minister to our sore hearts and minds. When we go to Him for refuge, He reassures us of His presence and of His love for us. It is also in this hiding place that the Lord feeds our faith and lifts our spirits. “God is…our strength.” It is nice to take refuge in the Lord, but we cannot stay there. When we are in the “hiding place” and He is ministering to us, He is preparing us to go on and do His will for our lives, and to meet the demands of our lives whatever those demands may be. It is in these times that He gives us the strength to leave the hiding place. I praise Him that the strength that He gives us is His strength. It is Holy Spirit strength. The promise of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus is not an idle promise. The Holy Spirit is not in our lives to just give us some “holy thrill” and some talking points for our next fellowship meeting. He gave us the Holy Spirit to minister to us on a daily basis and to give us the strength that we need to live and to serve. The text did not say that God just gives us strength. He does give us strength, but the text says that God is our strength. We need to remember that when we have Him in our lives, we have His strength. It doesn’t hurt to ask for His strength, but we should remember that we already have His strength because we have Him. (At this point we pause and say “Thank you Jesus.”) “God is…our very present help in trouble.” The NIV translates this: “God is our ever present help in trouble.” I like both translations. God is our “very” present help. There is no doubt about it. But He is also our “ever” present help in trouble. We can know that there will never be a time when He will not be our “help in trouble.” I think that the whole Bible story from Genesis to Revelation shows us this. I have found in my life that God’s help in my troubles takes different forms. For example, there are times that I go to the hiding place whining and whimpering. That is when He “takes me to the woodshed” and tells me to get over it and get on with it. There are other times that I go to Him in real need and He ministers to my heart and gently shoves me back out into the fray. We need to be sensitive to what God is telling us when we go to Him for refuge. When He gives us His strength in those times of refuge, He gives it to us to serve Him and to do His will for our lives. But we can be assured that when the Lord Jesus has a plan for us, and that He will be with us while He carries it out through us. You can take this verse personally. Let the Lord speak to your heart now through this verse. Let Him be your refuge today. If you are a believer, know that He is your strength, and that He is present in your life for whatever trouble you might encounter. Believe it! Rejoice in it! Do it! Bro. Joe
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“Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”
Hosea was written to the northern kingdom of Israel as they approached their last days. It is mostly negative, because that’s what it had to be, however, God had not stopped loving them but He wanted them to repent. There is also a message here for us. “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity.” This is another way of saying that you “reap what you sow.” Hosea also wrote in 8:5: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” Paul also dealt with this theme in Galatians 6:7-8: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Israel had sown idolatry and all that this lifestyle entailed and they were about to reap the judgment for what they had sown. This is also a warning to us. But let’s look on the bright side of this: If we reap good things in this life, we will sow good as well. Wouldn’t you really hate to come to the end of your life and all that you had sown was negative and bad. The Bible also teaches that if we sow love and friendliness that we will reap love and friendliness. Look, for example at Proverbs 18:24a: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…” It would be a good idea for us to heed the warning here and be careful that what we sow with our lives and deeds will enable us to reap good things. This doesn’t mean that we would never have to face the difficult things that life brings, but it sure would make life better for us and for all of those who know us. “Ye have eaten the fruit of lies…” The NIV translates this: “You have eaten the fruit of deception.” Jesus warned His disciples that people would tell lies about Him, and early Christian writers, especially Paul, warned that there would be people who would twist the Christian message into what they wanted it to be. You can be sure that there is plenty of deception today. We need to be careful what we listen to and stick to the biblical message about who Christ really is. The main test of falsehood is in what people teach about Jesus. If their message does not include that Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended to heaven after forty days, and is at the right hand of the Father today interceding for us and is coming again, don’t accept it. This is not all there is to it, but this is the fundamental truth of all that Christ did. “Because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of the mighty men…” When people take their eyes off of God and put them on things that they can see, and they trust in what they think instead of seeking God’s will they are headed for trouble. We should trust God above our own ideas and above worldly security. Proverbs 3:5-7 has a great word for us in this matter: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. 6. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. 7. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.” There are things in this world that can help us feel secure, but we should not replace our trust in God for any of these things. Israel, referred to as “Ephraim” by Hosea, went their own way, ignoring the God who loved them and wanted to bless them. Instead of believing God, they believed lies and went their own way. Let’s be careful that this does not happen in our lives. Bro. Joe “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”
When Paul wrote 2 timothy, he was coming to the end of his life. He knew that he would shortly be martyred for his faith in Jesus. He was not afraid as he faced the possibility of his own death. He had written to the Philippians that “to die is gain.” Paul knew that when he left this earth he would go to a better place and he would be with the Lord. What we have in these two verses is not Paul’s regret about his ensuing death, but an estimate of his life. He described his life as a “good fight.” It was not a fight using men’s weapons, rather it was a fight for what is right, for the Lord and for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul fought to help people find true liberty in Christ. He fought the devil. He warned in Ephesians 4:12 from his own experience what this fight would entail for us: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” The weapons that Paul used in this “good fight” were prayer and the word of God. We cannot take on the fight against the “principalities and powers” in our own strength for we need Jesus to fend for us. Paul wrote that he had “kept the faith.” Paul’s fight had been a good fight because he had faced it with faith in Jesus Christ. He had kept it in faith in the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, in the power of the gospel and in the final victory of Christ’s kingdom. He had kept It in the faith in the rightness of his cause to take the gospel to Gentiles primarily, but also to Jews. We need to ask ourselves if this is our cause as well. Paul meant that he had remained true to the faith to the end. Many times Paul was threatened, and on at least one occasion was left for dead, but he did not quit. He could have easily said, “I didn’t sign up for this mess. I’m going back to my old life.” Romans, Jews and Greeks argued against what Paul believed, but he did not quit. Because of his great faith, Paul could not quit. This same faith is available to us. Before you give up on living for Jesus in this present time, reevaluate your faith. Is your faith genuine? Before you give up on your church, ask yourself if your faith is genuine or have you just been playing church? These are important questions as we review our own lives. Keeping the faith does not mean that we have to hold onto it. It means that we should remain true to it, no matter what happens and no matter what people are saying. Just as it was in Paul’s day, there is great hostility towards our faith today. If we are greatly concerned about what people are saying about our faith, we will not remain true to it. It means that we will remain true to it no matter what is happening in our lives at any given time. There is a gospel song that says, “The God on the mountain is still God in the valley.” This is forever true and we need to remember it. This was the kind of faith that Paul had and it is the kind of faith that we need to live for Jesus in our generation. When we feel like quitting church, or giving up during hard times, we need to remember all that Paul endured for his faith and in the end could write: “I have kept the faith.” At the end of his life Paul could write: “I have finished my course.” He had done well with the work that the Lord had assigned him on the Damascus Road. His life was finished through hardships, trials, temptations and struggles. But it was finished through great victories for Christ and he could write: “There is henceforth laid up for me a crown of righteousness…” Let it be so for us. Bro. Joe “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12. I know how to be abased (have little), and I know how to abound (have a lot): everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheth me.”
The Philippian Church sent Paul a monetary gift to help with his expenses. In the passage from which the text is taken, Paul thanks them profusely for their generosity, but he wants them to know that he is not needy. Paul had learned to live in all kinds of circumstances. There were times that he had plenty, and he was content. There were times that he had very little, and he was content. The point was that Paul was never “under the circumstances,” i.e., circumstances, good or bad, did not control Paul’s life. This required great faith in the Lord, for Paul faced all kinds of difficult circumstances. After he was saved on the Damascus Road and began to preach the gospel, there were people who swore to kill him. They declared that they would not eat until Paul was dead. (They must have been awfully hungry thirty years later.) I don’t think that it would be a comfortable thought that somebody had pledged to kill me. It would take great faith on Paul’s part to go on living and witnessing in spite of the fact that someone wanted to kill him. (Put yourself in that position.) Paul faced all kinds of trials as he traveled about witnessing and ministering for Jesus. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” Now look at a list of circumstances that Paul encountered in his ministry: “Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren….” (2 Corinthians 11:24-26) There is more, but these verses should prove the point that Paul’s life and his effectiveness in what he was doing were not controlled by negative circumstances. Paul was not a super-human hero who could not be harmed by the contingencies of life. He was a flesh and blood man, who had learned to not be controlled by the circumstances of his life. You and I do not have to live “under the circumstances,” because we have the same resources at our disposal that Paul had. Philippians 4:13 gives the secret: “I can do all through Christ (Who) strengthens me.” In everything that he did, Paul knew that Jesus was with him. This meant that he had the Holy Spirit working in his life to enable him to be effective. This meant that he had faith that Jesus could take care of him in all circumstances. Paul could withstand all that he suffered because he had Jesus in his life. If we have Jesus in our lives we can also do all things in His strength, just as Paul did. I don’t know what circumstances you are facing in your life today, but I do know that you do not have to live “under them.” I know from experience that you can face whatever you have to face with poise, grace and courage, if you believe that Jesus is with you and giving you His strength. If you do not know that, give Him your life today. Confess your sins, and, by faith, invite Jesus into your life. If you do know that, give your circumstances to Jesus today, and let Him handle them for you. Bro. Joe “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is a powerful force in our lives, but that power does not lie in faith as much as it does the object of faith – Jesus Christ. We are not just saved by faith; we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. We are not just sustained by faith; we are sustained by faith in Jesus Christ. We do not have faith in faith; we have faith in Jesus Christ. (I think I’ve proved my point.) With this in mind, let’s look at the power of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is by the power of faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved - that we become Christians. Ephesians 2:8 records: “For by grace through faith are you saved.” It is faith in Jesus that unlocks the door to our hearts. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that the only way that we can please God is by faith. Anything that we do for God must be done by faith. Any request that we make of God must be by faith. If we want the salvation that God offers us in Jesus, we must come to Him by faith. There is no way that we can save ourselves. It is by the power of faith in Jesus Christ that we are sustained. We are not saved by faith then kept by our own initiative, our own works. The faith that saves us is the same faith that sustains us in all of the ups and downs of life on a daily basis and keeps us going. In 1Corinthians 15:13b we are encouraged to “stand fast (firm) in the faith.” We are not told to stand fast in our “inner core,” as new-agers would put it. Without Jesus, we have no “inner core” that will sustain us in life when the going gets tough and take us to heaven when we die. “Stand fast in the faith” means to keep on believing in Jesus and to keep on trusting through all of the twists and turns of life. Faith in Jesus can keep us from life’s dark moments, but even if we have to pass through some dark moments, our faith in Christ will sustain us through them. Remember that it is not faith in faith that sustains us, but faith in Jesus Christ – period. It is by the power of faith in Jesus that that we can live for Him and do His will. In Luke 17:1-5, Jesus told His disciples to forgive anyone who trespassed against them seven times in a day if they had to. This was a difficult commandment for them, and it is a difficult commandment for us as well. I think that the disciples had the right idea though when they responded to Jesus by asking Him “to increase our faith.” They knew that this kind of forgiveness can only come by faith. This is true of obeying God in all of life. Doing God’s will is sometimes hard to do, because it might go against our pride, or it might go against what we might call common sense. It is at these times that we must remember that living the Christian life is not all about us, but it is about pleasing our Savior by living the quality of life that He would have us live. It sometimes seems that the world is designed to defeat us. It is true that the world system under the control of Satan is trying to defat us. How in the world can we overcome it? Take a look at 1John 5:4-5: “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” We overcome the world by the power of the same faith that saves and sustains us. It is important for us to remember this when the master accuser, Satan, tries to convince us that we are failing in our faith. We must not succumb to the temptation to give in to discouragement and defeat. That is where Satan wants us and where he will keep us – except for faith in Jesus Christ. Exercise your faith in Christ and it will grow, and the more it grows, the better your life will be. Bro. Joe “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
This is a question that we all need to ask “What ‘Centers’ You?” First, I need to define what I mean by “centers.” What is it that calms you, emboldens you or gives you a feeling of completion? This is not a real good definition, but I think you get what I mean. We have something, or someone, that we can fall back on when life seems to be getting out of control, or when we just feel down and depressed. When we center ourselves on that, we can see things more clearly. There are people and things that encourage me and help me in life, but when the going really gets tough the main thing that centers me is my faith in Jesus Christ. Everything else just falls at His feet. I pray that you can say the same thing. What I have found is that I am more easily centered on Jesus when I stay in close fellowship with Him through prayer and Bible reading. Jesus cannot be the center of things for us, if we do not take advantage of the intimate, personal relationship that we have with Him. The question then becomes: “Who Centers You?” Paul stated it succinctly in the text: “I live, nevertheless not I, but Christ lives in me.” That is the most important relationship that we can have in our lives. Relationships with family and friends are certainly important, but even those relationships are stronger when Christ is the center of our lives. We can be glad that Jesus is not just a religious figure, or statue, like Buddha. Jesus is a real living person, who loves us and wants the best for us. He lives in us through the Holy Spirit, and is available all of the time for us to fall back on. The Bible even promises us that He loves us enough to discipline us if we get out of line. Pause now and ask yourself if Jesus is the One who centers you. Paul added something to this testimony about Jesus: “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Now we can turn to the “what” of what centers us. The cause of our personal, saving relationship with Jesus is “by grace through faith” in Jesus. It is faith in Jesus that helps to center us in our daily lives and in all of the bumps and bruises of life. I imagine that you are like I am when I really get in a bad situation; I turn to Jesus in faith and He gets me around or through whatever it is that is troubling me. This will not do a whole lot of good if I ignore Him when life is going smooth, and then call on Him in faith when life gets rough. Our faith in Jesus is meant for every situation in our lives – the good and the bad. You know: “The God on the mountain is still God in the valley…” We need to understand that the Lord, who is the center of our faith and our lives, honors our faith in Him. This is true throughout the whole Bible. The Old Testament does not stress the word “faith” like the New Testament does, but faith is implicit in its teachings. Hebrews 11 tells us about the faith of Old Testament saints. They had faith in the promise of God, and that faith enriched the lives of people like Moses, David, Elijah and Daniel. Their faith in God and in His promises centered them and helped them to serve Him effectively. Like us, they stumbled and fell from time to time, but all in all their lives reflected their faith in God. In the New Testament we have men like Peter, Andrew, James, John and Paul to show us what it means to center our lives in faith in God/Jesus. You just need to ask yourself if it is faith in Jesus that centers you as you face all of life? Think about it. Bro. Joe “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
This text comes at the end of the saga of Joseph and his eleven brothers who sold him into slavery. This is years later, when Joseph had the time to look back on everything that had transpired since his brothers had betrayed him. He tells his brothers that he knows that they really wanted to get rid of him, not caring whether he lived or died, but that God had a greater purpose for all that transpired in that event. In other words, Joseph came to realize that after all is said and done, God was in control of that situation, for He knew what would take place with His people Israel, and He took the evil that they intended and turned it into good for His people. This has not changed, for God is still in control of all of the things that take place in our lives. It might not seem so at first, but as things work out, we can look back and see the handiwork of God in our lives. Recognizing God’s control in our lives is all-important. We need to see that it does matter who is in control of our lives. The sinking of a ferry in South Korea that is in the news as I write this is a case in point. The captain of the ferry turned the control of the ferry over to a novice who had never taken the ferry through those treacherous waters, and the result was the needless loss of many young lives. This is what happens in our lives when we cease to recognize God’s control in our lives. Many lives are “shipwrecked” today because they took control of their own lives, or turned their lives over to someone besides the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s control in our lives is important because God alone knows what the end of the matter will be. We might have something that takes place in our lives that shakes us to the core. For example, it might be a serious illness that sidetracks us for awhile. During that time we can feel useless, or we can use the time of suffering to draw closer to the Lord. We just need to trust the Lord day by day that He knows what is going on and what the result of our illness will be. I would never accuse God of making us ill, but I do know that He uses those times to grow us and to lead us to His successful conclusion of the matter. It might be a setback in your plans for your life. It might be that you lost your job and did not know which way to turn. That would not be pleasant, but if you will seek God’s control, you might find that God had something else that He wanted you to do. God’s control is important because He knows what we really need in our lives instead of what we think we need. Many people have decided when they were young to follow some career that would bring them riches and maybe even fame. But God had other plans, and began to steer us in the direction that He knew we need to go. We might have been well-meaning in our plans, but God meant better for us. “Better for us” is always what God wants of us instead of what we want for ourselves. If you have been disappointed in your life at this point in your life, consider whether or not you have surrendered to God’s control, or to your own control. We like to think that we are “masters of our own fate,” but we make poor masters for ourselves. Surrender all that you are and have to God’s control and see what can happen in your life. Like it was with Joseph, you might meet many pitfalls along the way but in the final analysis, your life will be better and you will be better off under His control. It could be that the Lord has you reading this article now, because you need to turn control of your life over to Him. Go quickly to prayer and start to seek God’s guidance and see what a difference it will make in your life. Bro. Joe “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 4. Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
The more I read these two verses, the more they spoke to me. I said, “man these two verses are loaded.” What I finally concluded about the verses is that they reveal to us the value of trusting in God. Frankly, I don’t even want to think about life without putting my trust in Him, but a lot of people today do not put their trust in Him. One value of trusting in God is that He keeps the person who trusts Him in “perfect peace.” The word that struck me here was “keeps.” This means that when we trust in God He holds onto us, and He makes sure that we have perfect peace. (It is “perfect” peace because it is given by Him.) I am reminded of what Jesus said to His disciples about His peace in John 16:31: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Jesus did not promise, and He still does not promise, that we would be in peaceful circumstances all of the time; but He did promise that we will have peace in all circumstances if we put our trust in Him. In a sense, Jesus was telling His disciples, and us, that He will keep us in “perfect peace.” This inner peace can only come through trusting in Christ. I am happy that I know where my peace lies. It does not lie in circumstances, but in Jesus. I hope that you realize the same thing. Praise Him now because of this. Another value of trusting in God is that we can have this peace when our minds are “stayed” on Him. One thing that the devil does not want is for our minds to be “stayed” on God. David Jeremiah wrote: “We battle against principalities and powers that would seek to take our minds off of God who is our salvation. Anything the devil can do to make us doubt God’s love, Christ’s sufficiency, and the power of the Holy Spirit, he will do. Peace is kept by staying focused on what is true, on what God says.” I can only add a hearty “amen” to that. I personally know, and you probably do too, that the devil will do anything to keep me away from the Bible, from prayer, from Christian fellowship and from good Christian literature, because when he does that my mind is not “stayed” on the Lord. This reminds us that we are completely dependent on God for peace in our hearts. This peace is promised to those whose minds are “stayed” on God and on those who trust in Him. The last value of trust that I see in this text is that our trust is in one who has “everlasting strength.” Strength is one thing, but “everlasting strength” is another thing. There are all kinds of strong people out there. There are people who can lift vast amounts of weight. But there is no man on this earth who has everlasting strength. We can trust our lives, and the well-being of our families to God because His strength is above anything in this world that we can lean on. In the Old Testament, Jewish kings got in trouble when they trusted in the powerful nations of their day to deliver them instead of leaning on the strength of God. I know that when things are not going well, we can be tempted to look to the world for the strength that we need. And, yes, God has people out there who can help us, but we need to be sure that our ultimate trust in is in our great Lord. He alone has the everlasting strength that we need to get us through. It is my prayer that these two short verses from Isaiah have given you a lift and a new vision of what trusting in God can do for your life. Bro. Joe "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. 60. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
Stephen was chosen as one of "the Seven" to administer the distribution of food among the Christians. From this we already know that he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, that he was honest and was of "good report." But the real test of a person's faith is seen in how far he will take it. Stephen witnessed and debated with those who refused to believe. He was an effective witness because the unbelievers could not shut him up with their own arguments. Because of this, they made up a story about him that they had "heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God." In the first part of Acts 7, Stephen preached a sermon based on the history of Israel and concluded by telling them they were just like their fathers, who had killed the prophets in Old Testament days. Because of this, they condemned him to die by stoning. How far would Stephen take his faith? He was willing to die for it. But this does not tell the whole story, for we must look at how he died. Most people would have furiously lashed out at those stoning them and cursed them. What did Stephen do? The first thing that he did was to ask Jesus to "receive his spirit." Stephen knew that when he left the earthly plane that he would go to Jesus and to a heavenly plane. He was willing to die, because he knew that something better awaited him on the other side. But it doesn't end there. Instead of condemning his persecutors, he asked that this sin not be laid to their charge. How far would Stephen take his faith? He took it as far as Jesus did, for Jesus' first words from the cross were: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Stephen's final prayer was in the same vein. To be honest with you, this makes me angry with myself when I realize how easy it is for me to get angry with people who might even dare to disagree with me, let alone stone me. Doesn't Stephen's reaction make all of us ashamed of ourselves when we live petty lives and wear our feelings on our shoulders? It makes me ashamed and I pray that it will have the same effect on you. How far are you willing to take your faith? What a challenge for today. Take it! Bro. Joe “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
The world had become so wicked that God put all living things to death except Noah, his family, and the animals that he took aboard the ark. After the flood, God gave Noah a promise that He would never send a worldwide flood again. The sign of His promise was the rainbow. Even today when we look at a rainbow we can remember the promise that God made concerning a flood that will never drown every living thing. The rainbow gives us a message about the nature of God. It is a message about the sovereignty of God. What do I mean by “sovereignty”? I mean that God is in charge of everything all of the time. There is nothing that God cannot do. There are plenty of things that God will not do, because part of His sovereignty is His holiness. God created everything; He knows everything; He is in charge of everything all of the time. The reason that God could make a promise like the rainbow promise is that, in His sovereign majesty, He knows that if He does not want it to flood it will not flood. There are also plenty of things that God allows to happen in His sovereignty. A good example is God’s dealings with Israel. His promise to them in the Old Testament was that if they would obey Him and live by His will, they would do well. They did not, so they went into Babylonian exile. Of course, there is a lot more to the story, and the story has not ended, but the point is that God allowed Israel to be defeated at that time because they disobeyed Him. We should rejoice in the sovereignty of God. It is comforting to go to bed every night and wake up every morning to a world in which God is in charge. It is a message about the power of God. I want you to think about the flood for a moment. It was not just forty days and night's of rain that flooded the whole earth over the tops of mountains; it was that God unleashed the water under the earth. Here is what the Bible says about it: “On the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:11b-12) Only God has the power to unleash all of the power of nature for such a cataclysmic occurrence as the flood. Human beings are capable of a lot of harm, but even the most powerful human being could not unleash all of the waters of the heavens and the earth at one time. We should rejoice in the power of God, because it is through His power that we are able to be saved and to serve Him. It is a message about the grace of God. If the message stopped with the sovereignty and power of God, and those two things were all that characterize Him, we would need to be really afraid. But the rainbow also tells us about the grace, mercy and love of God. He looked with pity on the world and promised that He would never again send that kind of flood upon the earth. We can trust our sovereign and powerful God, because He is a God of grace. His grace is seen throughout the Bible. This doesn’t mean that everything that God brings about is positive. What it means is that God is working everything to the good of His people. According to Jeremiah in his Lamentations, that it is because of the mercies of God that Israel was not consumed, “because His compassions fail not.” (Lamentations 3:22) This was written even while Israel was being taken into Babylonian Captivity. In the final analysis, God will work out everything for all time in His grace. What a great promise and what a great cause for rejoicing. I’m sure that this is not all that the rainbow tells us about God. These are things that are uppermost in my mind about the subject. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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