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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.
Hear the word of the Lord, you who
tremble at His word:
“Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of My name, have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!’”
“Yet they will be put to shame. Hear
that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of
the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve.”
Isaiah 66:5-6
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever been persecuted for your faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior?
If you haven’t, wait. Because if it hasn’t happened yet,
then you can bet it will happen at some time or another in your faith journey. Jesus
assured us it would happen, telling us that those who hated Him would also hate
anyone who attempted to live like Him (John 15:18-20). Indeed, as we look at
our world today, Christians are being openly persecuted and even murdered for
serving their Savior and carrying out His call to spread the gospel while
making disciples of all people.
Looking at today’s scripture passage from Isaiah 66, we
find the prophet Isaiah sharing words spoken to him by the Lord, words that
offer encouragement to the persecuted believers. Here again are verses 5 and 6:
Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word:
“Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of My name, have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!’”
“Yet they will be put to shame. Hear that uproar from the city, hear
that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies
all they deserve.” Isaiah 66:5-6
The persecuted believers mentioned in these verses are
those who tremble at the word of the Lord, humbly submissive to its leading and
obedient in carrying out the Lord’s will and way. Specifically, these verses
speak to Jews who placed their belief and trust in Jesus, and in doing so,
placed themselves square in the crosshairs of the religious leaders of the day,
the Pharisees and Sadducees. As the verses from Isaiah predict, these
legalistic Jewish leaders would excommunicate and show hatred toward anyone who
sided with Jesus and their hatred was no ordinary hatred. Rather, it was the
kind of hatred that drove them to falsely implicate (read this as lying in
plain sight of God) and then murder Jesus, crucifying the perfectly innocent
Son of God like a criminal.
What followed this?
Well, we know that Saul (later to become Paul, one of the
Lord’s greatest apostles ever) was part of a group of Jewish religious zealots
who delighted in continuing to persecute Christians, many of which died simply
for their belief and association with Jesus (read about the demise of Stephen
in Acts, Chapter 6 and 7 when you get a chance). The assault against Christians
in Jerusalem was so intense that Christians fled the holy city and fanned out
into Judea and Samaria and then to all parts of the world, an act that
fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about how the gospel would spread.
In other words, those who tried to stop the spread of
Christianity through their acts of persecution actually facilitated its spread
instead. As predicted by Isaiah, they were put to shame with God having the
final say on the way things would turn out within His creation. Mere men will succeed
in trumping what God wants to do.
You see, the cause of Christ will always endure and
persevere, no matter how hard the enemy tries to stop it. We serve a
victorious, powerful Lord who will vanquish anyone who seeks to oppose His
purposes within the creation He made. He told us so Himself.
And one day when Jesus returns, the final judgment will
happen and all those who placed their belief and trust in Him will be richly rewarded
with a life spent in eternity with Him and God.
Until then, there’s still much work to do for the cause of
Christ within a world that in many places does not want to receive Him and will
even seek to persecute anyone who tries to go forth and make disciples. Still,
those who tremble at the word of the Lord and follow it in obedience will still
go, and they must go, unafraid, remembering that the Lord Jesus said one last
thing before He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand:
“And surely, I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
Those in Christ will never walk alone, no matter where He
leads them.
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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