December 29, 2010

2 Chronicles 34

I am the last of five siblings. My wife says that I was spoiled. She probably knows as well as anyone else. As the youngest, I learned how to provoke my siblings to wrath. I knew what buttons to push and what buttons to not push. When they were wrathful toward me, they had a right to be wrathful. I had provoked them too much. The Lord in His glory often has a right to be wrathful toward us. We have provoked Him too much. What is it that really provokes the Lord to wrath? He tells Josiah in this passage, “They have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched.”

Have you or I ever provoked the Lord to wrath? If you are anything like me, and I think you are, the answer is, “Yes!” We could clamor, “But I have never burned incense to other gods!” O really? When I view my occupation as primarily gaining money to improve my financial status, am I not burning incense to the god of money? God calls us into our various occupations for various reasons. Not limited to but included in those reasons are:

To display His glory in the way we work. (Gen 2:15; 1 Cor 10:31; 1 Thess 4:11,12)
To make disciples among the people with whom we work. (Matt 28:19,20)
To provide for our own families (1Tim 5:8)
To be enabled to give to others (Eph 4:28)
When we fail to discern and follow the nature of our employment to give glory to God, then we are in a very real sense “burning incense to the God of mammon.” In so doing, are we not provoking the Lord to wrath?

The Old Testament is replete with references to those who had gone astray making Asherah poles. What is an Asherah pole? It was a pole that represented the goddess Asherah. She was the wife or consort of Baal. Among other things she was a fertility god. The pole may have been a phallus. Asherah was related to Anat. Anat was the goddess of sex and passion. No we do not literally burn incense to Asherah as did Mannaseh and Amon, but illicit sexual passions are constant adversaries that we battle. Whenever we give in to them, is it not as though we were worshipping those drives and burning incense before that god?

Even as a child, Josiah recognized the evil that his father had produced. For the glory of God, he destroyed the false images, poles and altars. He rebuilt the temple. He sought the Lord in the reading of His word. It was the glory of God to postpone the coming wrath until Josiah would die. The Lord is always gracious and forgiving to those who truly repent and believe. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!

--Pastor john

Revelation 20

History is the study of the rise and fall of political regimes, machines, families and dynasties. Rarely does a nation last more than 400 years. A dynasty almost never lasts more than 500 years. A ruler never lives more than 100 years much less reign during that complete time. Fidel Castro was one of our longest ruling modern rulers having completed 49 years of rule in 2008. Yet our Lamb will reign for over 1,000 years! He will do so because He is the resurrection and the life. His rule will be completely just and equitable. His rule will be peaceful. There will be no corruption in His government. There will be no poverty in His Kingdom. Only those who have taken part in the first resurrection will be able to rule with Him in that Kingdom.

At the end of the 1,000 years he will allow Satan to be released for one more chance to try to deceive the nations. Satan will be able to gain some kind of following that will be able to lay siege to the beloved city. The Lord’s rule is so perfect that there will not even be a war. Fire will descend from heaven and consume all those who oppose Him. Then the Lord will judge all those who have died without having trusted Him. His rule is perfect. His administration is perfect. His warfare is perfect. His justice is perfect. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John