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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 curse on anyone who is lax in doing
the Lord’s work! A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed!”
“Moab has been at rest from youth, like
wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another—she has not gone
into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged. But days are
coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will send men who pour from pitchers, and
they will pour her out; they will empty her pitchers and smash her jars. Then Moab
will be ashamed of Chemosh as Israel was ashamed when they trusted in
Bethel.”
“How can you say, ‘We are warriors, men
valiant in battle’? Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded; her finest young men will go down in
the slaughter,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty. “The fall
of Moab is at hand; her calamity will come quickly. Mourn for her, all who live
around her, all who know her fame; say, ‘How broken is the mighty scepter, how
broken the glorious staff!’”
“Come down from your glory and sit on the
parched ground, you inhabitants of Daughter Dibon, for the one who destroys
Moab will come up against you and ruin your fortified cities. Stand by the road
and watch, you who live in Aroer. Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping, ask
them, ‘What has happened?’”
“Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out! Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed. Judgment has come to the plateau—to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath, to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim, to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon, to Kerioth and Bozrah—to all the towns of Moab, far and near. Moab’s horn is cut off; her arm is broken,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 48:10-25
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
When it comes to the matter of serving the Lord, I have
always held to a couple of sayings.
The first goes like this:
“The greatest ability that the Lord wants us to have is
availability.”
It’s true, right?
The Lord expects us to be ready at all times to answer His
call, whatever the call may be. We can’t treat the Lord’s calling like we do
other things in life, with an attitude that we’ll get to it later or when we
have time to get to it. No, when the Lord calls, we respond. There is no option
for delay or putting the Lord on hold or, worse yet, completely ignoring His
call and doing nothing.
So what is the second saying?
It goes like this:
“When you sign up to work for the Lord, you will always be
full time employed with lots of overtime.”
In other words, when you make a commitment to serve the
Lord, know what you are signing up for. He never rests in caring for us and in
return, we shouldn’t rest in our obligation to Him and those He calls us to
serve. I know that I can’t find enough hours in a day to do all I feel I should
be doing for the Lord. There’s that much kingdom work always needing to be done,
plenty enough to keep all of God’s people busy.
So why this discussion on the matter of serving the Lord
with ambition and fervor?
Because not doing so, opting for laziness over initiative,
is nothing short of a sin against God, a sin that got the people of Moab in
deep trouble as we look at today’s scripture passage from Jeremiah 48:
“A
curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work! A curse on anyone who
keeps their sword from bloodshed!”
“Moab
has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one
jar to another—she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her
aroma is unchanged. But days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will send
men who pour from pitchers, and they will pour her out; they will empty her
pitchers and smash her jars. Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh as
Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel.”
“How
can you say, ‘We are warriors, men valiant in battle’? Moab will be destroyed
and her towns invaded; her finest young
men will go down in the slaughter,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord
Almighty. “The fall of Moab is at hand; her calamity will come quickly. Mourn
for her, all who live around her, all who know her fame; say, ‘How broken is
the mighty scepter, how broken the glorious staff!’”
“Come
down from your glory and sit on the parched ground, you inhabitants of Daughter
Dibon, for the one who destroys Moab will come up against you and ruin your
fortified cities. Stand by the road and watch, you who live in Aroer. Ask the
man fleeing and the woman escaping, ask them, ‘What has happened?’”
“Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out! Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed. Judgment has come to the plateau—to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath, to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim, to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon, to Kerioth and Bozrah—to all the towns of Moab, far and near. Moab’s horn is cut off; her arm is broken,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 48:10-25
Look how the Lord denounces apathy right out of the gate. In
fact, He declares a curse on anyone who decides to be lax in doing His work. He
then goes on to specifically call out Moab saying the people there have “been
at rest from youth.”
Why didn’t they give heed to what the Lord wanted them to
do?
They didn’t because they had chosen to deny the Lord all
together and instead follow their own national deity, a deity they called
Chemosh. They gave the Lord nothing and in return they would receive nothing
except the Lord’s judgment in the way of the Babylonians who were coming to
attack and lay to waste the entire nation. A once mighty, famous nation would
be left shamed and disgraced, invaded and violated, shattered and battered,
broken and utterly destroyed.
One can’t help but think it all could have been so very
different. If only the Moabites had just given the Lord one hundred percent of
their efforts in righteousness and obedience, He would have given them one
hundred percent of His blessings, protection, and provision, not because of
their works but rather because of His grace, mercy, and love for them.
But that’s not the way it played out because the people of
Moab decided laziness was the right way to go, only to find out the hard way
that God was not going to honor that kind of behavior in any way.
Friends, this devotion should lead us to carefully examine
our own lives and how we are responding to the Lord’s call to action.
Are we going to be like the Moabites and shun the Lord’s
call to serve Him with energy and passion, giving Him no other option than to
bring His judgment upon us?
Or are we going to serve Him with desire and enterprise,
giving all to Him just as He gives all to us while living in a way that is
pleasing in His sight?
It’s either going to be one way or the other.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from the sin of laziness.
Nothing productive comes from it.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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