SIGNS GOD IS MAD (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.

Isaiah 13:14-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When judgment comes on a nation, born from the wrath of God, it’s is far from a pretty picture. We have seen already that when God gets mad, destruction and desolation will follow, such that no person or community of persons should ever want to place themselves in a situation where they face God’s punishment. These are a few of the signs that God’s anger has been incited.

As we continue to look at God’s promise of consequence for the nation of Babylon, we see graphically how terrible it will be for a people under His penalty, a penalty that often ends in death. In the case of Babylon, God would be summoning the armies from Medes and the Persians to attack and serve as instruments of His fury. The once strong and mighty empire of the Babylonians would be reduced to a chaotic scene of mass devastation and obliteration as buildings and home and fields were laid to waste and people were chased and hunted down. Look at these verses from Isaiah, Chapter 13, painting a not so pretty picture of the bedlam that would soon ensue:

Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.  Isaiah 13:14-16

The scripture here is chillingly graphic. The attack of the marauding armies sent by God will be so brutal that people will be found fleeing for their very lives, like hunted animals, lost, unprotected, and vulnerable like sheep away from a shepherd. No one will be spared from brutal slaying if captured and what is especially difficult to stomach is that even the infants will become victims. It will be a horrible, tragic event and perhaps the saddest part of it all is that it could have been completely prevented. It could have.

For all the Babylonians had to do, all any person or any nation of people need to do, is turn to the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Master of all and commit to being obedient to His will, way, and word. That’s it. It’s a simple matter of submission, of making God’s ways our ways. How hard is that? I think it is far easier than ending up a victim of God’s judgment and suffering His consequences.

So how will we respond today as people of God?

Will we turn to Him in obedience and seek to do everything in a way that honors Him and brings glory to His precious and holy name, an action that will ensure our survival as we live in God’s favor?

Or will we choose to repeat the mistakes of the past, to live as the Babylonians did, the same way that the Assyrians and the Egyptians chose to live before them, all empires that challenged God and lost in a big way, empires that snubbed God and, as a result, suffered the consequences of His anger and wrath?

One thing is certain. The God of judgment, the supreme Ruler of all creation, who was alive and well in Old Testament times is still alive and well today, more than 2,000 years later. We would be well served to never turn our backs on Him and live in His prescribed righteousness through every day He blesses us with. We can only do this when we accept Jesus, His Son, as our personal Savior and pledge to think, speak, and act in every way that He did. Then and only then will we ensure we will not make God mad and escape His punishment.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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