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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.
This is what the Lord says:
“See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against
Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. I will send foreigners to
Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every
side in the day of her disaster. Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him
put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army. They
will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets.”
“Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the
whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone
mad.”
Jeremiah 51:1-4, 7
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As Jeremiah 51 opens, we find the Lord continuing to address
the mighty Babylon, an empire once used by Him as an instrument of judgment on
other nations but now would see that same judgment come back upon them by way
of the Persians and other nations who would bring a merciless assault that
would bring the Babylonians down. We see all of this come to life in the
following verses:
This is what the Lord
says:
“See, I will stir up
the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. I
will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they
will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster. Let not the archer
string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely
destroy her army. They will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her
streets.”
“Babylon was a gold
cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her
wine; therefore they have now gone mad.”
Jeremiah
51:1-4, 7
First of all, I want you to note that the Babylonians were
once a “gold cup in the Lord’s hand” as He used their mighty fighting forces to
punish nations who had opposed Him to include His beloved Israelites in the
southern kingdom of Judah and its holy city, Jerusalem. It wasn’t that the
Babylonians were so much better than the countries they destroyed. They weren’t.
Not by a long shot.
You see, that’s what got them in the same mess as those
nations they attacked and decimated. For the Babylonians worshiped false gods
and idols, even when they were being used by the one true God, the one and only
God to fulfill His purposes. There was no move toward repentance by the people
of Babylon, no attempt to realize the wrongs of their ways and give their full
attention, affection, and devotion to the Lord who saw them as His gold cup.
Instead, they reveled in the great power and success they
achieved, never once acknowledging the might and authority of the God who
granted it to them. In other words, their life attitude and relationship with
the Lord was anything but gold standard.
Well, how does the old saying go?
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away – and the
Babylonians were about to see the saying play out in its fullest meaning.
For bad times were coming for the great Babylonian empire.
The Lord Himself promised so when He said the following:
“See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against
Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. I will send foreigners to
Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every
side in the day of her disaster. Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him
put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army. They
will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets.”
Ouch.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
And who would have thought this would come?
After all, by the Lord’s own admission, Babylon had been the
gold cup He held in His hand. It’s the place where anyone should want to be, a
place of honor, a place where someone can say the Lord used them to fulfill His
purposes.
Babylon had it all going for themselves and they let it slip
away because they forgot to respect and revere the One who had blessed them
with the chance to serve Him. Through choosing sin over righteousness, they
gave up their place of favor with the Lord and instead fell into His judgment,
allowing the gold cup to pass to the Persians
Friends, the word of the Lord is speaking powerfully to us
today and telling us that we all should aspire to be in a place where we are
the gold cup the Lord holds in His hand, seen by Him as having the desire and
skills He needs to achieve His desires within His kingdom here on earth. He
wants to use all of us to achieve glorious things, things that might involve
becoming an instrument of His discipline on another but it may also include
being a blessing to someone as the Lord pours us out of His gold cup to make a
difference in the life of another person or persons. Perhaps we can see no
greater example of this than in Jesus, God’s only Son who was poured out as a
sin sacrifice so we might be saved.
So in closing, some questions for you to consider:
Won’t you allow the Lord to use you in some way this week
that brings Him honor and glory?
Won’t you acknowledge that you have no power to achieve
anything truly good without the power of the Lord’s Spirit within you, a Spirit
who will always guide you onto the path of righteousness and thus right living?
Won’t you commit yourself to be more and more like Jesus
until every fiber of your body and soul models His?
and finally,
Won’t you allow yourself to be the gold cup the Lord holds
in His hand, submitting yourself to faithfully fulfill His word, will, and way?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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