Weekly Devotional 9-20-21 God is Actively Engaged
Because of the turmoil of the world today many are beginning to ask, if God exists where is He? Disasters of nature are seemingly on the increase, Diseases and plagues are on the increase, there is starvation in some countries such as Africa and India, there is an increase of violence, domestic and worldwide, and the professing church (not the possessing church) has all but excluded its originator, Jesus Christ. Because of these things some have joined with Deist, who hold, yes God created the world but beyond that, He has not been and is not actively engaged. Scripture and history, however, refutes such claims.
Away back in Genesis we find God engaging Himself in the lives of man and His ongoing work against Satan. Consider Genesis 3:14-19: “14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.’ 16 To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.’ 17 Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.’”
The seed of the woman of course was/is Jesus, God the Son, who would enter humanity some four thousand years later. Through Him God would end the separation that resulted form Adam’s sin. From the time of the fall God has been striving against the hatred of Satan holding all things together (See Colossians 1:16-19).
Genesis 6 records that because man had become so wicked, God destroyed all of mankind except eight persons whom He would use to begin the repopulation of the earth. Genesis 9 records that because man would not spread across the earth but banded together, God intervened, confused their tongues causing them to form into groups of like tongues resulting in their disbanding and scattering. Genesis 12 records that God chose a certain man (Abram) whom He would grow into a large family and eventually a nation, the nation of Israel. Exodus 19 records that God set them apart as His holy people, a kingdom of priests through whom He would display His attributes of love, mercy, and grace. In Exodus chapters 20 through 31 He gave them laws, statutes, an order of service, and a sacrificial system that was intended to keep them righteous before Him. He gave them prophets as His spokesmen. When they constantly would not listen to these spokesmen and worshipped other god’s He caused them to be over-come by the Assyrian’s and the Babylonians who took them from their land and caused them to be in bondage for a period of seventy years. The prophet Daniel records that this wasn’t so much a punishment for their disobedience as it was an adjustment of their desires. Daniel 9:24 records “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.”
God’s prophet Jeremiah records that even after all that He had done for Israel, yet it would take His love and favor to bring them to the people He would have them be. We Read:
“27 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. 29 In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ 30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. 31 ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah– 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (Jeremiah 31:27-33).
Many of these cited things are of the past, some are of the future, but some are asking, “if God is actively engaged with His creation, with man, what is He presently doing? Why does he allow such grief sorrow and pain?” As God used the chastise-ment of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities and other calamities to bring Israel to a point of relief, God is using grief sorrow and pain to cause man to want relief from these things (See Romans 8:18-22). God knew of Israel’s disobedience and lack of true worship before He created the world, and provided that another entity (The church) would bring the good news of redemption and relief to man. Jesus told those He had chosen (the twelve apostles), that He would build His church and that nothing would thwart its purpose (see Matthew 16:18). He personally trained these men and before His ascension into heaven He gave them this charge: “18b “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matthew 28:18b-20).
To assure continuous success He gave them His Spirit (The Holy Spirit) to indwell them. Not just them but all who would be part of the church. This has been going on for years now and will continue until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11:25).
God therefore did not just create and then set back to see what would happen, He has been actively engaged bringing about His purposes.
Thank you Lord
Steve
Stevelampman.com
Transforming power; the Work of God on Behalf of Man