Think About It – Page 9 – Light from the Word

What Will You Do When the End Comes?

(Jeremiah 5:31; Luke 21: 33-36)

The Prophet Jeremiah continually warned Judah of coming judgment and destruction with a calling for repentance. But Judah had nothing to do with Jeremiah’s warning; they remained in their heart of stubbornness. Their prophets prophesied falsely; their priests exercised their own rule and Israel loved to have it that way. The Prophet Jeremiah wept bitterly over Judah’s sins and judgement that was coming upon the nation. He said, But if you will not hear and obey, I will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive (Jer. 13:17). When Judah remained stubborn in their ways, Jeremiah asked the question: What will you do when the end comes? When destruction comes to whom will you turn to? What are your plans to escape your destruction? In the days of Noah, people heard the message of coming flood for several years, but they did not repent of their ways and were destroyed. Judgement came; they could not do anything to escape it. God gives men always a frame of time for them to change their ways in repentance and brokenness of heart before He sends judgment on them. In the past He has sent Patriarchs, Prophets and judges. Today We have His Word warning us of coming judgments and how to escape it.

Before the Apostle Paul was martyred, he gave Timothy a grim picture of the last days. He said that people will not tolerate sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. Does it not sound like today? Mega churches are full of people wanting to be entertained with words that bring good feelings. They emphasize good energy and positivism and prosperity. There are no teachings on conviction of sin and repentance “You are okay; I am okay.” That’s the theory that keeps them deceived and far from the truth. The word of God says that we have sinned and have come short of the glory of God; it says that our hearts are wicked above all things, but He invites us to repentance for forgiveness of our sins. Meanwhile the world turns its axes to destruction because of the men’s wickedness; they deafen their ears to sound doctrine, following a deluge of lies. Just like in the days of Jeremiah as a prophet, when he warned Judah of coming judgement. Instead of repenting and returning to God they ridiculed him and put him in prison. As a result, Judah was conquered and the temple destroyed. Many lives were lost many were taken to Babylon to captivity. It seems to me that we live in the days of Jeremiah when the abundance of false prophets is clouding the air with false teachings. They teach prosperity instead of repentance; they make their millions and continue to empty peoples’ pockets with their devious way of begging for more money. They live in mansions, they have private airplanes and disregard the financial, physical and spiritual needs of God’s people. They have blinded the eyes of those who are spiritually ignorant, leading them to worse deception. They falsely prophecy coming blessings instead of judgement. “What will they do when the end comes?”

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Obedience (part 2)

But you shall go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac. See to it that you do not take my son back there. He will send His Angel before you and you will take a wife from there for my son. (Genesis 24: 4, 6,7b)

Following the order of Abraham to fetch a wife for his son Isaac, his servant Eliezer went to God and prayed, “I pray You cause me to meet with good success today and show kindness to my master Abraham.” That’s the secret of obedience: a humble heart before God and man. Eliezer did not go fetch a wife for his master’s son on his own power and wisdom. He acknowledged his limitations and asked God for help. This is a beautiful story of God’s faithfulness expressed to Eliezer. His heart was tuned to God’s frequency in His plan for Abraham’s posterity. He blessed Eliezer by answering his prayer and giving him Rebeka as a wife for Isaac.

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Obedience

(Matt.28:7-10)

Then go quickly and tell His disciples, He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you (vs. 7). As they went to tell, behold Jesus met them and said, Hail, and they went up to Him and clasped His feet and worship Him. Jesus said, do not be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go into Galilee (v.9).

After YAHSHUA’S resurrection, Mary and the other Mary continued to look for Him among the dead. In the process, they witnessed supernatural events beyond their imagination at the time they arrived at the place where the Lord’s body had been buried. First, there was an earthquake, followed by an angel of the Lord descending from heaven to roll the boulder back and those keeping guard were frightened and agitated and trembled and became like dead men (Matt. 28:1-4). At that sight, the angel told them, YAHSHUA is not here; He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay; go quickly and tell His disciples, He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him (Matt. 28:5-7). Leaving the place joylessly, they went to tell the disciples. Their excitement overtook them; they could not wait to share the greatest miracle they ever witnessed. To make their day even more exciting, while on their way, behold, the Lord YAHSHUA met them saying, Greeting! They went up to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him (Matt. 28: 8-9). Echoing the message from the angel, He said to them, Do not be alarmed and afraid; go and tell My brethren to go into Galilee, and there they will see Me (Vs.10). The angel emphatically expressed the command to them by saying, Behold, I have told you. That means, attention, look! His command was for them to go quickly and tell the disciples that the Lord YAHSHUA had risen from the dead.

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Mount Zion vs. Mount Sinai

(Exodus 19:1-20; Hebrews 12: 18-29)

“For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, that is ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm, and to the blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them” (Hebrews 12:18-19); “but rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living YAHWEH, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the first born whose names have been written in heaven, to YAHWEH, who is the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to YAHSHUA, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things that the blood of Abel” (Vs.22-24).

The difference between the experience at Mount Zion and Mount Sinai is worth noting for us to realize the wonderful grace of God toward us. When God came down to Mount Sinai to meet the people of Israel, He came expressing vehemently His holiness through fire, in a dense and black cloud that enveloped the mountain. At that time, He declared His covenant with the people and gave them the Ten Commandments. At that time, Israel had a glimpse of the extent of the holiness of God; and not being able to bear it, they begged Moses to speak to them, instead.

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No More Condemnation

(Romans 7:18-25; 8:1, 2, 14-18)

The heavenly court has decreed that there is now no more condemnation for those who have been acquitted by the blood of the Lamb of God; for those who live by the demands of the Holy Spirit, and have accepted the complete work done by YAHSHUA at the cross, Who fulfilled all the demands of the law. There is now no more condemnation, says the heavenly Judge, after hearing the Defense attorney, who had taken the guilt upon Himself, offering to pay with His own life. The offer was accepted and the Judge stamped with the words, Paid in full!

Paul acknowledges his weakness under the demands of the law and cries, O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24) When we stand condemned by our own guilt, is because we have not accepted God’s forgiveness; with that, we have made the decision to stay in the unhappiness, miserable state of mind. Forgiveness is a beautiful gift, wrapped in a beautiful box, that when one accepts, it multiplies to more wonderful gifts, as in salvation, freedom, peace, love. It is the key that releases us from the chains of all sins, great or small; no size is too great or too powerful that the blood of the Lamb cannot wash away. He paid for our sins and confirmed by saying at the end of His ordeal, It is finished; it is all paid in full! Paul, after acknowledging the power of sin in his life under the law, asks the question, Who will release and deliver me from this body of death? Not because he didn’t know it or hadn’t had the experience of forgiveness, for he answers the question by saying, O thank God! [He will] through Jesus Christ our Lord! The transitional word, therefore on the first verse of chapter eight, gives us light to know that there is victory through YAHSHUA in his complete work of fulfilling the law – O thank God, YAHSHUA will! In accepting His forgiveness, there will be at that moment no more condemnation of any kind registered in the books of the heavenly court, only forgiveness (Romans 8:1-2).

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When I See the Blood

(Exodus 12:12-13)

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. The blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon the houses where you are, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt (Ex. 12:12-13).

The Lord God constituted Passover for Israel at the time when they left Egypt, as a memorial of their deliverance from bondage to Egypt and as a future signal pointing to YAHSHUA the Son of God, Who was to come as the perfect Lamb of God to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind. Before then, Jacob’s sons were not yet an established nation. They were residents in Egypt for many years, as in 430 years. God promised Abraham that after that frame of time, his descendants would leave for the Promised Land as He had promised him. When the new Pharaoh arose to power, who did not know Joseph, neither the background history why he and his brothers landed in Egypt, things changed for all of them. They no longer enjoyed the freedom they used to have, but were subjected to hard labor mercilessly. Theirs is a story of contrast: blessings and hardships, but God had a plan for the offspring of Abraham. Because Abraham believed God’s word, he was promised blessings upon him and his posterity. Choosing Moses with the help of his brother, Aaron to lead his people out of Egypt, God performed great miracles before Pharaoh through them to show Pharaoh that He was and is the only true God, above all the Egyptians’ gods. Pharaoh’s heart became hard with every judgment God sent to them, until the slaughter of all the males in the land of Egypt, for which Jacob’s sons’ families were sealed with the blood of the sacrificial lamb they had killed that day.

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Holy Unto the Lord

(Exodus 39; 40: 34-38; I Cor. 6:16-19; II Cor. 6:16)

The ministry of Moses in the wilderness was one of sanctifying the people to present them holy to the Lord (Exodus 19:10-11). In Israel’s experience of Mount Sinai, when God descended to the Mount to meet with them, they experienced the unapproachable holiness of God: thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain…Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly (Ex. 19:16,18). God, desiring fellowship with men, formed the nation of Israel to be that vehicle through whom God would review Himself to the nations. They in return, would come to know the existence of the true and holy God. Forty years in the desert, a frame of time seemly long, but not in the mind of God, it took for the nation of Israel to be set apart and consecrated holy unto Him. Although they never achieved the position of complete holiness, they came to experience the extent of God’s holiness when trembling with fear, and falling back at the holiness of God, said, You (Moses) speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die (Exodus 20:18-19).

The Bride of CHRIST has never experienced such extent of God’s holiness; we have never realized the awfulness of sin and its power to destroy us, or we would have hated sin. In His holiness, the Son of God completed, paid in full the price of our redemption, satisfying His Father once and for all, so that we would be regenerated unto holiness and ultimately unto glorification. Living to satisfy the flesh’s sinful desires, defeats the purpose for which YAHSHUA died on the cross; Like Israel in the desert, the bride of CHRIST is left here for as long as God’s determined purpose of holiness will be accomplished in every believer’s life. For that reason, the Promised Holy Spirit came to earth to sanctify Christ’s bride and present her blameless and holy unto the Lord. As we think on how holy our God is, we find ourselves undeserving of His love and undeserving to come close to Him. As the Holy Spirit guides us, Moses guided the people to do what was right through their pilgrimage through the desert. When Israel chose to satisfy their fleshly desire instead, Moses faithfully stood before God to intercede for them, saying, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin- and if not, blot me, I pray You out of Your book which You have written! Moses, as a go in between, offered to take the punishment of the people, so that they would not have to suffer the consequences of their doing. This is a true picture of what was to come in the Son of God, when He took yours and my place on the cross. Even though Moses’ ministry was not that of a substitutional ministry, He was a prototype of what was to come in the person of the HOLY SPIRIT. Until his death, he led the people in the direction God had shown him – the direction to God’s holiness.

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Israelites Left in the Desert

After the number of days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for each day a year shall you bear and suffer for your iniquities, even for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure (Numbers 14:34).

When God called Israel out of the Egypt, He gave them instructions and guidance on how to ordain their lives in order to enter the Promised Land successfully. But Israel’s sin of unbelief and idolatry followed by the hardening of their hearts became a stumbling block on their way there. In their stubbornness, Israel closed the eyes of their hearts to the miraculous deeds performed on their behalf, as in the opening of the Red Sea to save them from the Egyptian’s army; how God had satisfied their hunger with heavenly manna; the visible presence of God in their midst in a pillar of fire by night to give them light on their journey and a cloud by day to protect them from the heat of the day. Nothing seemed to matter to them.

After having wandered for three days, they went through the wilderness of Shur, where there was no water. In panic, they murmured, complained and doubted and undermined the faithfulness of God. Yet, lovingly, God blessed them with twelve springs of water, one for each tribe, and seventy palm trees. God used the number seventy to form the nation of Israel; Jacob’s family consisted of seventy people when they left for Egypt. The number seventy is also connected with God’s punishment of Israel; so those seventy palm trees were speaking to them of future seventy years of captivity in Babylon. It is prophesized in the book of Daniel that seventy weeks of years (70×7) have been given to them to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy (Daniel 9:24). That was the frame of time that God gave Israel for forgiveness in the number 70×7= 490 years. There is one more week of years left for the completion of God’s plan in the life of Israel.

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Faith

Faith is the assurance, the proof and the conviction. (Hebrews 11, 12)

The assurance of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen; and the conviction of their reality.

Faith gives us understanding that the world was created by the Word of God and not by visible things; faith brings righteousness and causes obedience to act for the glory of God; perfect faith pleases God and moves Him to act on behalf of those who walk in it; faith is the tool necessary to approach God for one to believe that He exists.

Faith causes one to believe the unseen and faith brings salvation to those who embrace it; faith leads us to obedience to God’s commands and fixes our eyes on the hope, with expectation of our redemption; faith sets the hearts on the spiritual world and gives us the glimpse of the eternal world, where our home is; faith causes us to yearn for our heavenly home and puts us in remembrance that we are strangers here on earth.

Genuine faith goes through the tests believing to have received the promises from Him who is faithful to do what He says He would do and faith reasons God’s ability and faithfulness and believes in His promises.

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Yahshua

YAHSHUA’S life is the seed of eternal life that germinated life into us. He was the incarnated God Who came to earth with the purpose to give us life eternal. He had no earthly father; He was supernaturally conceived as the angel told Mary His mother: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most Hight will overshadow you; and so the holy Thing which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). As the Bread of life that came from heaven, He was and is the source of eternal salvation to whomsoever will come. He gave His life to save and heal the human race through His death and resurrection.

With sacrifices of bulls for the atonement for sins God was not pleased; therefore, He made ready a body for YAHSHUA, Who in submission to the Father said, Behold here I am, coming to do Your will, O God- to fulfill what is written of Me in the volume of the Book. While He agonized in the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed to let His ordeal to pass from Him, yet, in submission to God’s plan, He said, Not My will, but Yours be done. It was a sacrifice of love for mankind, who transgressed His law and such deserved to be punished. But God’s love for men was and is so great that in our instead, He offered His Son to be a curse for us. By one single offering YAHSHUA, God’s Son has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy. And since He assured that the forgiven sins He will remember no more, there is now no longer any offering made to atone for sin; there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ YAHSHUA (Rom 8:1). So, it is that when YAHSHUA completed the task of redemption by offering a single sacrifice for our sins for all time, He sat down at the right hand of God (Heb. 10), and He raised us up together with Him and made us sit together in Christ YAHSHUA the Messiah (Eph. 2:6). Oh, the depth of God’s love, how can we not accept such Love?

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