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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to
them to enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded those I prepared for
battle; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—those who rejoice in
my triumph. Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen,
an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together!
The Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war. They come
from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the Lord and the weapons of
his wrath—to destroy the whole country. Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it
will come like destruction from the Almighty.
Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.
See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath
and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The
stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising
sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.
Isaiah 13:1-10
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
There have been many
empires through the ages, empires with great armies who have experienced conquest
after conquest in the interest of expanding the control and influence over the
world. Those empires all had rulers who led mightily with intense authority and
ruthless tenacity, unafraid of any challengers who might stand in their way.
Yes, history has had its share of empires but name one who has lasted. Can you
think of one? I can’t. For as powerful as these empires were, they all fell and
most were at the hands of the mightiest Ruler of all, the Lord God Almighty,
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
No empire has been able
to stand against Him. Not one.
Not the Egyptians. Not
the Assyrians. Not the Romans or Greeks. And as we see in today’s scripture,
not the Babylonians who God used as an instrument of judgment against the
people of Judah and Jerusalem. That judgment included an exiling of the
Israelite people for seventy years and the destruction of the southern kingdom,
Judah, which included the Israelite’s most holy city of Jerusalem and its
blessed temple.
As Chapter 13 of the Book
of Isaiah opens, we find the prophet speaking words of judgment against the
Babylonians, words that should have struck fear in the hearts of that empire.
Look at Isaiah’s prophecy again here:
A prophecy against
Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
Raise a banner on
a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded those I prepared for battle; I have summoned my warriors to
carry out my wrath—those who rejoice in my triumph. Listen, a noise on the
mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the
kingdoms, like nations massing together!
The Lord Almighty
is mustering an army for war. They come from faraway lands, from the ends of
the heavens—the Lord and the weapons of his wrath—to destroy the whole country.
Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the
Almighty.
Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.
See, the day of
the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land
desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their
constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and
the moon will not give its light.
Isaiah 13:1-10
The scene Isaiah paints
does not look good for Babylon. For the Lord Almighty, the great Commander in
Chief of all mankind, is mustering an army for war, an army armed with His
weapons of wrath to bring destruction on the whole country. And one thing is
certain, the Lord God Almighty does not lose battles of any kind. If He is
coming against you, you are doomed to defeat.
That’s why it is little
wonder that the very mention of the Lord bringing attack would make hands to go
limp and hearts melt with fear and terror and anguish. It’s a horrible place to
be without hope of victory in battle and that’s just where the Babylonians
stood facing a war with the Lord God Almighty and the army He mustered against
them. It was going to be a war punctuated with fierce wrath and anger, a war
that would leave Babylon desolate, the sinners within destroyed. There were
dark days coming indeed.
So what is to be drawn
from this? What is the Lord trying to say to us through these opening verses of
Isaiah, Chapter 13?
I believe the message is
clear. The Lord is saying, “Take heed. If I can do this to Babylon, I can do it
to any other nation who chooses to disobey my commands and sin against Me.”
That means that no nation
in existence today can stand against the Lord God Almighty if He chooses to
bring judgment against it, to muster again His army to pass judgment. There
will be more desolation and destruction to come unless every nation wakes up
and proclaims God as the God of all, bowing down before Him in reverence,
worshipping His holy name, and seeking to live in His righteousness through
following His Son Jesus Christ.
The Lord God Almighty is
the Commander in Chief over all creation and no one can stand against Him. It’s
time for the world to look to the scriptures, see what happened to Babylon and
all the other empires who rose and fell at the hands of the Lord, and submit to
Him so that history doesn’t repeat itself in present times.
The choice is in the
hands of the nations of the world. To choose to go against God would be nothing
less than foolish and self destructive.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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