OUR FATHER WHOSE GREAT POWER OVERWHELMS THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

Isaiah chapter 15 verses 3 - 7, speaking of the destruction of the land of Moab, says this;

In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public square they all wail, prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.

Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint. My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the hill to Luhith,  weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim  they lament their destruction.

The waters of Nimrim are dried up and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone and nothing green is left.

So the wealth they have acquired and stored up they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

The cities of Moab are destroyed and their inhabitants become grieving refugees wandering through the inhospitable land.

The agricultural areas suffer drought so that rivers dry up and all vegetation is gone. 

The wealth they have stored up does not help them in this calamity and they carry it with them as they leave.

Such is the dreadful condition of Moab and the power behind Moab who was judged for his arrogance, his conceit, his rage and his deceptive boasting. 

Bless the Lord whose great power overwhelms the powers of darkness.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO ALLOWS SOME SITUATIONS TO OCCUR SO THAT WE CAN GROW IN FAITH

John chapter 11 verse 14 - 15 says this;

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

The Lord Jesus, speaking to his disciples while on the east side of the Jordan river, informed them that his friend and their friend Lazarus, from the village of Bethany near Jerusalem, was dead. To this statement He added that for their sake, He was glad that He was not there so that they would believe.

If Jesus had been at Lazarus' side before he died, Jesus would have healed him and prevented his death and thus His disciples would have missed an opportunity to see a man raised from the dead and to understand that Jesus was Himself the ressurection and the life.

As Jesus said to Martha in John 11 verse 25,  “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

Jesus wanted His disciples to witness the raising of a man from the dead so that their faith would grow and so He held back from going to Bethany so that Lazarus would be certainly dead by the time they arrived.

Famously, when Jesus arrived at the tomb, He called Lazarus by name and commanded him to come forth out of the grave. Lazarus, wrapped in linen grave clothes, came out.

Many people who were there and witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead were astonished and believed in Jesus. 

When the religious authorities of the time heard of this event, they realised that the Lord Jesus was eclipsing their religious position and from that time on, began plotting to kill Him.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO SENT US THE GOOD SHEPHERD

John chapter 10 verse 3 says this;

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

In this verse, Jesus, speaking of the good shepherd whom he identified as Himself, has the gate opened for him by the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper in this verse  is the Holy Spirit who is the seal and the link between Jesus the shepherd and his followers. The words of Jesus are transmitted to his people by the work of the Holy Spirit.

When the good shepherd speaks, the sheep listen to His voice. He knows each one of His followers personally and He calls them by their own name when He leads them out to pasture. 

Bless the Lord who is our good shepherd. As Psalm 23, written from the point of view of the sheep says; 

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO IS GLORIFIED WHEN WE DO HIS WORKS 

John chapter 9 verse 4 says this;

As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

This enigmatic statement was said by Jesus when He and his disciples came across a man who was blind from birth. The disciples asked Jesus whether the man was blind because of the sin of his parents or his own sin.

Jesus informed them that neither was the case but rather, the man was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

To that end, Jesus then told them that they had a limited window of time within which to display of the works of Him who sent Jesus because night was coming when no one can work.

Jesus then healed the blind man so that he could see for the first time and God was glorified among the people who were amazed that a man born blind could now see.

Bless the Lord and may we do the works that glorify God while it is still day for night is coming when no one can work.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO REWARDS OUR PARTICIPATION BEYOND EXPECTED DUTY IN THE WORK OF HIS KINGDOM

1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 14 says this;

In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Those who preach the gospel are permitted by the Lord to receive a wage from the church body as they work to broadcast the good news of salvation to those who are to be saved.

However, the Apostle Paul, who preached the gospel over a wide area, relinquished the right to earn a living as a preacher but rather supported himself financially by working a regular job as a tent-maker while working as a preacher of the gospel.

Because the duty assigned to him was preaching, it was his expected sevice before God to preach and so by preaching, he had no reward. He was merely discharging the trust committed to him.

Paul explains further in the chapter that to get a reward for preaching, he preached for free so that his efforts of presenting the gospel to people far and wide at his own expense would be rewarded in heaven.

Let us serve the Lord beyond our expected level of service for it is from this that our reward in heaven is given.

Jesus taught his disciples this principle just after his encounter with the Samaritan woman in John chapter 9 verses 34 - 38. The passage goes like this;

 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 

Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Here, the Lord calls us to voluntarily join in the work of the harvest and it is a time of gladness because as we participate willingly, we share in the crops for eternal life with our co-labourers. 

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO MADE THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION

Acts chapter 4 verse 3 says this;

They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.

The apostle Peter and the apostle John had been teaching people at the temple about the ressurection of Jesus after they had performed the notable healing miracle upon a well- known lame man who had sat begging for money at the gate of the temple for many years.

When the elders and priests heard what Peter and John were saying, they were so disturbed that they arrested the two men and held them in custody overnight in order to keep people from hearing the message being taught but nevertheless, the number of people who believed in the Lord Jesus continued to grow rapidly.

The next day, the council brought the apostles before them and questioned them asking where they got the authority to perform miracles like healing the lame man. 

Peter, filled with boldness by the Spirit of God, told the  Sanhedrin that they had been given the authority by the Lord Jesus whom the religious leaders had crucified and whom, thereafter,  God raised from the dead.

Peter said that Jesus was described in the scriptures as the  stone that the builders rejected but became the chief cornerstone.

The exclusivity of the gospel is also expressed when Peter said;

 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Bless our Lord who made the only way by which we might be saved. Our Lord filled His servants with boldness so that they would unequivocally declare that Jesus is the only way of salvation.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO IS AWESOME IN GLORY AND POWER

Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 1 - 4 says this;

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.

Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.

His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.

Habakkuk recorded this prayer of deep reverence for the Lord and astonishment at the deeds that the Lord had done.

Habakkuk asked the Lord to display His great power in his day so that the Lord's fame would recur in his time.

God is described as coming from Teman and from Mount Paran which is an expression that means that the Lord had the appearance of a sunrise in the east because Teman and Paran are east of Israel.

With great glory in the heavens and praise in the earth, God approaches like a splendid sunrise with ray's of light flashing from His hand which conceals His immense power.

The Lord is awesome in glory and might.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO RESPONDS TO HUMBLE REPENTANCE

Jonah chapter 4 verse 11 says this;

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

This last verse of the book of Jonah is a question that the Lord God asked Jonah.

At the start, the Lord had directed the reluctant prophet Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh to warn them that God's judgement was going to visit them because of the evil being done in their city.

At first, Jonah tried to evade the directive by fleeing the opposite way but famously, a vicious storm overtook his getaway ship and the sailors were forced to throw Jonah overboard to save their own lives. 

A large fish swallowed Jonah and when he cried out to the Lord, he was vomited out after three days and given his  instructions again.

Upon delivering the news of the coming judgement to the people of Nineveh, Jonah found a lofty spot where he could watch what was about to happen to the city but the people of Nineveh from every strata of their society including the king,  caught the Lord's attention by humbling themselves in sack-cloth and dust.

Jonah, perched on a viewpoint above the city, was granted a shady plant by the Lord to protect him from the heat of the sun. Jonah was very happy to have the plant. As the day passed, the plant was eaten by a worm and it wilted thus exposing Jonah to the heat of the blazing sun as well as the heat of a scorching east wind. Jonah was deeply vexed by that.

Meanwhile, the Lord responded to Nineveh's wholehearted repentance and relented from bringing judgement on the city.

Jonah, while being tormented by the heat of the sun and the hot winds on his prime viewing spot, was greatly angered and said that he knew that coming to Nineveh was unnecessary because he knew that God would relent from destroying its citizens.

The Lord responded to Jonah's anger by pointing out to Jonah that the city contained more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who were unlearned in even the basic things of life. 

The Lord also pointed out to Jonah that he had been concerned about a mere plant that had shaded him from the sun and wind.  The Lord then asked Jonah that if he had been concerned about the life of a plant, should he not also  be  concerned for all the human beings along with all the animals who lived in the city?

Bless our Lord who is moved by humble repentance and shows mercy on those who ask it of Him.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO PREPARES THE WAY TO FULFILL THE PRAYERS OF HIS SERVANTS

Genesis chapter 24 verses 3 - 4 records Abraham speaking to his trusted servant regarding finding a wife for Isaac, Abraham's son. The passage says this;

I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

As Abraham gave his  servant instructions regarding finding a wife for Isaac, he was emphatic that Isaac's wife not be taken from the Canaanites  among whom Abraham lived.

He told his servant to swear by the Lord God tq

At he would go to the land of Abraham's own relatives and get a wife for Isaac there.

Abraham felt so strongly that Isaac's wife should come from his land of origin, he was willing to accept a potential spouse for his son without knowing anything about her.

Abraham knew that God would send an angel to accompany his servant to make the journey to find Isaac's wife a success.

When Abraham's servant reached the town of Nahor, he, while at a water well, prayed for a sign that would point to the  wife the Lord had chosen for Isaac. While he was still praying,  the sign was confirmed when Rebekah came to well and offered to draw water for all his camels.

Rebekah and her family accepted the proposal and Rebekah went back to Canaan with Abraham's servant and married Isaac.

Bless the Lord who prepared the way and fulfilled the prayers of His servants.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE HIS LIFE FOR US

Galatians chapter 1 verse 3 - 5 says this;

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Our God and Father willed that the Lord Jesus Christ give himself  to die for our sins  so that we might be rescued from the evil age that enmeshed us in our sins.

This very costly gift  of being rescued out of darkness comes from the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ with grace and peace.

Glory be to our God forever and ever.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO ALERTS US 

Genesis chapter 20 verses 3 - 4 says this;

 But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”

Now Abimelek had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”

This passage records a dream that the Lord used to warn Abimelek  (the king of Gerar).

Abraham had temporarily settled in Gerar and while he was there, he let it be known that Sarah and himself were brother and sister. This was true because Sarah was Abraham's half sister. They did not reveal that they were also married.

Abimelek called for Sarah and intended to take her as his wife but before he could go near her, the Lord intervened with a dream that warned him to back away from Sarah because she was a prophet's wife.

Abimelek pleaded his case before the Lord claiming that he was operating with a clean conscience because he truly did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife.

The Lord exonerated Abimelek and instructed him to return Sarah to Abraham so that he and his nation would be restored by Abraham's prayer.

Bless the Lord who alerts us to keep us from irreversible actions.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CALLS US TO JOIN THE WAR IN THE SPIRIT

Joel chapter 3 verse 9 says this;

Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war!

Rouse the warriors!  Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

This verse is a call for preparations to be made for war in the spiritual realm.

Those who have been trained by the Lord for spiritual warfare must arise. The summons have been issued to draw near and engage the forces of the kingdom of darkness.

This call must go to the people of God in all the nations. 

Prepare.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHOSE DAY DRAWS NEAR

Joel chapter 1 verse 17 says this;

The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.

The day of the Lord draws near as famine takes hold. Crops fail when they die beneath the surface of the soil. 

Crops stored up for shortages are ruined as the storage facilities are destroyed and torn down.  Grain silos are rendered worthless as the grain they contain dries up.

Such are the times leading up to the day of the Lord.

Let us call to him for the conditions will be dire.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHOSE DAY APPROACHES

Joel chapter 1 verse 15 says this;

Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

The day of the Lord is near. It approaches rapidly and its harbingers will be famine and gloom in the house of God as it says in verse 16;

Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The day of the Lord will arrive amidst the signs of a breakdown of economic systems as agriculture and natural resources get decimated.

Remain on watch and pray. Call to the Lord as the prophet does in verse 19;

To you, Lord, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE DAY OF JUDGEMENT AGAINST THE ARROGANT APPROACHES 

Malachi 4 verses 1 - 3  says this;

 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

The fearsome day of the Lord is described as a burning furnace where judgement will fall on the wicked turning them into ash.

This dreadful day is a day of the Lord's action against the arrogant who have dismissed the word of the Lord and have undertaken to bring about the rulership of spiritual darkness on the whole world.

But the remnant of the Lord will be stirred to shake the powers of darkness until their rebellious usurpation fails.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PROMISE OF SAFETY WE SHOULD TRUST

Genesis chapter 19 verse 30 says this;

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 

After Lot and his family were evacuated from Sodom, they were taken to Zoar which was a small town on the plains.

When the fiery judgement of God fell on the cities of the plains,  the town of Zoar was spared because Lot was there.

However, Lot became afraid to stay in Zoar. He may have felt the same judgement that visited Sodom would also visit Zoar at some point because they shared a common civic culture. Lot fled to the mountains with his two daughters and they settled in a cave.

Lot, having lived in the fast-paced city of Sodom, was now living primitively in a remote mountain  cave.

Further to that, the lawless proclivities of the cities on the plains followed them to the cave so that Lot's two daughters plotted against their father and conspired to have children by him while he was inebriated out of his senses.

And thus Lot, without his knowledge, became the father of the Moabites and the Ammonites through his own daughters.

Lot should have trusted God's promise of safety and stayed in Zoar. He may not have been susceptible to his daughters' plotting.

May the Lord spare us from wicked plots.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESCUES HIS PEOPLE FROM JUDGEMENT

Genesis 19 verse 4 says this;

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house.

This verse records a ghastly scene where two visitors had come to the city to see Abraham's nephew, Lot, and to give him warning of an impending catastrophe.

As it was getting late, the visitors wanted to fend for themselves and spend the night in the public square but Lot, understanding the nature of the town in which he lived, insisted that the two visitors stay under the shelter of his roof.

What Lot did not realize  was that roving gangs of thugs in the town had noted the arrival of his visitors and that night, they surrounded his house in order to compel him to surrender his guests to them.

This frightening situation resulted from the brazen willingness of the men of Lot's town to assault anyone they wanted with impunity.

The visitors, it turned out,  were  angels sent to save Lot and they urged Lot and his family to flee the city before it was destroyed by the imminent  judgement.

Even as Lot vacillated on the decision to leave, the angels took the whole family by the hand and led them away to a safe place where they would be spared the judgement that was about to befall their town.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO FREES US FROM BONDAGE

Exodus chapter 5 verse 9 says this;

Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

When Moses came to Egypt on a mission to get the children of Israel set free from bondage, the Egyptian rulers were not eager to release the people who were working as slaves for them.

In fact, the opposite happened. The work load on the Israelite slaves was increased which put a rift between Moses and the children of Israel.

Pharaoh believed that increasing the workload on the slaves would keep their minds off of fanciful ideas like freedom but it also had the effect of Moses losing credibility with the people he had come to emancipate.

The situation became tense and Moses had to go back to God to seek  counsel on how to continue.

The Lord told Moses that  judgement would befall Pharaoh because he had dismissed the requirements of the God of Israel.

Bless our God who goes to great lengths to free us from bondage.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO INTERVENES ON OUR BEHALF

Joel chapter 1 verse 14 says this;

Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

In the face of a devastating famine that was beginning to torment the land, the Lord counseled His people to ameliorate the upcoming harsh conditions by declaring a holy fast, calling a sacred assembly,  gathering all the elders and the people to the house of the Lord and then crying out to the Lord.

Sincerely and humbly asking for His intervention can cause Him to have mercy and bring His power to bear in the  protection of His people.

As the nation started to feel the effects of food shortages, the Lord, in Joel chapter 2 rises to the defence of His people with a mighty army mustered for war.

The forces of darkness that had gained control over the systems of this world, attempted to use  that control to gain power over all the people of the earth.

It is at this point that the army of God heard the command of the Lord and the forces of darkness were torn apart under the unrelenting and disciplined attacks by the kingdom of righteousness.

Bless the Lord who intervenes on our behalf.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO RESTORES US

Joel chapter 1 verse 12 says this;

The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—all the trees of the field—are dried up.

Surely the people’s joy  is withered away.

This chapter speaks of the destruction that is inexorably descending on Israel because they did not guard the land against invaders.

Ruin rushed into the land with tragic and regrettable results. Food shortages were the most marked effects of the dissolution of the nation of Israel.

Verse 12 of Joel chapter 1 describes the final stages of this national decay.

The fruit trees of the land which were the nation's  spiritual and nutritional mainstays, dried up and with them, the joy of the people from the house of the Lord withered away.

The nation was left despondent and the only hope they had was to humbly  cry out to the Lord for reprieve.

Bless the Lord who restores us when we humble ourselves and pray.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO JUDGES CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Amos chapter 1 verse 13 says this;

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders,

The book of  Amos chapter 1 lists 5 atrocities for which  the Lord would not relent in his judgement. Of the five, the atrocities that the spiritual kingdom of Ammon demanded and committed were particularly egregious.

In order for this kingdom to expand its spiritual borders, they used a campaign of terror where they sought the pregnant women of the land and cut them open to kill the children and their mothers in the most cruel way imaginable to gain cultic power.

For using this tactic of intimidation, the Lord judged the spiritual kingdom of Ammon with utter destruction and the king and officials of Ammon went into exile without reprieve.

The pursuits of cruelty against other human beings and especially crimes against children  will invite inescapable judgement from the Lord.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO RELENTS WHEN THE HUMBLE REPENT

Joel chapter 2 verse 13 says this;

Rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

This excerpt from Joel chapter 2 offers mankind a means of persuading the Lord to relent from his anger.

Instead of carrying out an outward show of remorse and repentance, the recommendation is to have sincere inner remorse for wrongdoing where people weep and mourn for their sins.

The wrath of God is terrible to experience but Joel promises that even at the lateness of the hour, people can still return to God.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO SETS US FREE

Genesis chapter 9 verse 4 says this;

“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

This instruction given to Noah after the flood is a qualifier on the allowance that God gave mankind to eat animal meat. Human beings were allowed to eat meat but the meat  they ate could not contain blood. 

This instruction, given in the time of Noah, well before the formal dietary laws were instituted by the prophet Moses, was one of the very few laws adopted by the early Christian's.

The book of Acts chapter 15 speaks of early Christian leaders grappling with which laws the gentiles needed to adopt when they became Christians.

Verse 29 says;

You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

Here, we see the apostles settling on a few restrictions that they believed were necessary to live a Christian life. Of all the laws that could be replicated from any part of the old testament, this law from Noah's time was on the very short list  of items.

Bless our Lord who makes known to us deep mysteries.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO IS GATHERING HIS MIGHTY ARMY

Joel chapter 3 verse 10 says this;

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

This exhortation for God's people to go onto a war footing directs everyone to use their economic resources to get ready for war.

This verse also contains the well-known scriptural reference to the 'weak' saying that they are strong.

In this amassing army of God, the weakest conscript will be as strong as David as it says in Zachariah chapter 12 verse 8;

On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.

Bless the Lord who is gathering His army in the spiritual realm to battle in the heavenlies.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO SUMMONS HIS ARMY

Joel chapter 3 verse 9 reads this way;

Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war!

Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

This verse is a command by the Lord to proclaim the call to all His spiritual people around the world  to prepare for war.

The verse then commands that the warriors be roused. The verse then commands that fighting men draw near and attack.

In quick succession, five  commands are issued by the Lord.

This dynamic communication stirs up the people whom God has prepared for war to quickly step up in the spirit and enter the arena of battle.

Bless the Lord who commands His people.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE GREAT POWER SHAPED THE EARTH

Genesis chapter 1 verse 9 says this;

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.

This astonishing decree by the Lord set a chain of events in motion.

The whole globe, being covered in water, would have to change its shape in order for water to gather in one place. Some parts of the planet would have to depress while other parts would have to rise so that dry land would be exposed and water be accumulated in confined areas.

Such an event would have been breath-taking to witness as it would require gargantuan quantities of energy to deform the whole earth to fulfil the decree of God.

Bless the Lord who has the power to shape the the earth by decree.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO CAN KNOW OUR DREAMS

Daniel chapter 2 verse 11 says this;

What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

This verse records the response of the wise men of Babylon to King Nubchadnezzar's request that they tell nor merely the meaning of the dream that he had but what the dream actually was.

The magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers of Babylon did not believe it was possible to know what a person's dream was and so they implored the king to tell them his dream and then they would interpret  it for him.

The king was angry because the wise men of his court were evading the task he had set before them and he accused them of being fraudulent and ordered that they be put to death.

The wise men were almost right about one thing: No one can reveal the dream of a person except the gods. To be more precise, only the God of Israel could accomplish such a thing.

Dreams are vaporous at the best of times and easily fade from memory and record. Only the eternal God of heaven and earth would have the infrastructure in place that could document the king's dreams so that it could described back the the king.

In this chapter, Daniel, a prophet of the God of Israel, asked the king to stay the order of execution and that he would bring the details of the dream and then its interpretation.

And when the king agreed, Daniel brought the king the dream and then gave its meaning.

Such is the power of the God of Israel.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO REQUIRES US TO WATCH AND PRAY

Joel chapter 1  is a prophecy given about an imminent catastrophe about to befall the nation of Israel. Verses 11 - 12 reads this way;

Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. 

Surely the people’s joy is withered away.

In this passage, the specific plague that strikes the nation is an economic  disaster. The staple crops fail and the grape harvest is destroyed. Fruit trees and palms trees dry up and wither way and the people's joy follows suit.

Whereas they could always count on plentiful and reliable harvests, suddenly, every sector of the agricultural economy was in shambles, leaving people grieving and despondent.

The judgement comes upon  the land because a destructive enemy had been allowed to invade the land while the people, in their drunken stupor, slept.

Joel chapter 1 verse 5 -7 records it this way;

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees.

It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

Leaving the nation undefended while the powers of darkness invaded to bring wanton destruction on the kingdom of God, brought the  judgement of the Lord on the people.  The mighty army of darkness brought ruin to the Lord's vines (I am the Vine and you are the branches) and did damage to the fig tree which represents the nation of Israel.

As the scriptures adjure us in Mathew 26 verse 41 where Jesus wakes up his sleeping disciples while the enemy encircled them;

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO GIVES US FAVOR WITH GOD AND WITH MEN

Genesis chapter 3 verses 5 - 6 says this;

 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

This passage captures the roller coaster ride that Jacob experienced when he returned to the land of his fathers from the land of his father-in-law.

As he approached his homeland, he came close to the territory of his brother Esau with whom he had a strained relationship because of how Jacob had tricked Esau out of his birthright. 

Because of this, Jacob was not sure how Esau would receive him after all the years that had passed.

The passage starts with Jacob seeking to mend fences with his brother by sending envoys with a message of reconciliation and promises of gifts of goats and camels.

The envoys returned with a message that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men.

Upon hearing this, Jacob went into distress mode as he tried to work out how to placate his brother or if his brother attacked, how at least some of his family  could escape?

In a state of fear, Jacob turned to the God of his grandfather and the God of his father. Jacob's prayer in Genesis chapter 32 verses 9 - 12 reads this way;

 “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness  you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

 Jacob's humble prayer for God's intervention stood on the promises that the Lord had given him to prosper Him and give him as many descendants as there were grains of sand of the sea because he knew that for those promises to be fulfilled, his children could not be slain.

And the Lord did intervene and save Jacob's children by bringing peace to Esau's heart and the two brothers reconciled and were at peace.

Amen.  

OUR LORD WHO FIRST REVEALS HIS PLAN TO HIS PROPHETS

Ezekiel chapter 5 verses 1 - 4 says this; 

“Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard.Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 

When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword.

But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.

As instructed by the Lord, a model of the city of Jerusalem was constructed and placed under siege by the prophet Ezekiel. This was to be a prophetic image  of a future siege that was coming to the actual city of Jerusalem.

While Ezekiel was laying siege against the model of the city, the Lord instructed Ezekiel to take a sharp sword and use it to shave his head and his beard. He was to take the hair and use a scale to divide it up into three equal parts for use at the end of the siege.

One part, he was to burn inside  the city of Jerusalem.

The second part of hair,  Ezekiel was strike with the sword all around the city.

The rest, he was to scatter to the wind. 

These actions symbolized the dangers that were looming over the people of Jerusalem. 

The burning of the hair within the city signified the approaching destruction.

The striking of the hair over Jerusalem represented the sword of war being raised against them from every direction.

The scattering of the hair in the wind represented the scattering of the people of Jerusalem as they fled their attackers.

These symbolic actions were designed to convey the jeopardy that Jerusalem was in due to their rebellion against God.

Graphic illustrations were meticulously  enacted by the Lord's prophet Ezekiel within the sight of the people to give them fair warning. 

Ezekiel was also instructed to take a few hairs and hide them in the folds of his garment. Of those, he was to take a few and burn them and that the fire would spread to the rest of Israel.

The few hairs that were set aside represent a remnant of the people that the Lord reserved for Himself and of those, some are set on fire representing the fire of the Spirit of God which would go on to set the whole nation ablaze.

Bless our Lord who reveals His plans to His prophets as it says in Amos chapter 3 verse 7;

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Amen.