2009 – Day 177.June 27 – Two Solemn Reminders

2009 – Day 177.June 27 – Two Solemn Reminders

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 21 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: From the highlighted passage today, Swindoll, in his devotional for this day, reminds his readers (me) of two awesome reminders.

#1 … THERE IS AN END TO GOD’S PATIENCE! And the truth of Isaiah 55: 8-9 applies here [check it out here!]. Sometimes we see injustice going on in the world; and we can’t figure out why God would allow mankind, especially leaders like Ahab and Jezebel, to do what they do, which is so obviously in opposition to God’s righteousness. Maybe you even feel like that right now when you see the world’s evil growing as it is. I do!

But God’s word is clear; and it says [Gal. 6: 7] “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” And as we see in today’s passage, that is exactly what happened to Ahab and Jezebel; but as is usually God’s way, it took a long time for the rope on God’s presence to come to an end because of God’s character of long-suffering. But it did come, even though the calamity of God’s judgment did not occur in his days but in the days of the next generation.

And right now, as I ponder God’s word in my devotional time, I’m thinking of how the Prophet Habakkuk could not understand why God was so slow in his estimation to bring judgment down upon God’s people for their ungodliness (see Habakkuk 1 - linked here). But God in His time and in His way brought down His wrath upon God’s people who had mocked the Lord for so long with their evil ways; and Habakkuk was given a front row seat to learn a lesson in patience and faith. And we should learn the same lesson by reading and internalizing Habakkuk 3: 17-18 - also linked. But remember – God’s patience and His mercy have limits – His limits – and He will not be mocked!

#2 … GOD KEEPS HIS WORD! And no political leader, no idolized entertainer or athlete, or no religious leader, who is put up on a pedestal, can escape this reality. Again I repeat the truth of Galatians 6: 7. What goes around, comes around! It is God’s law of just proportionality. We reap what we sow; and no one can rise above that truth. Ahab and Jezebel may have thought they could; but as we read, the hammer finally fell; and as you read, it even hurt the next generation even more than it did theirs. And God’s wrath can be a very ugly scene as God’s word documents for others when His wrath came upon those who were locked out of the ark when the floods came, or those who lived and did evil in Sodom and Gomorrah, or on anyone who mocks God by not receiving his long-suffering grace after the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead after dying for the sins of mankind.

Please, my dear one, don’t think you mock God by rejecting His saving grace or even, as a born-again Christian, you feel you can sin chronically and repetitively with no consequences. God’s wrath may be long in coming as we see evil being perpetuated in our day; but God will not be mocked; and WE WILL REAP WHAT WE SOW; and so, may God have mercy on His remnant, those of us who cry out to God for His grace, … the remnant who sees the evil but cannot do other than to walk in righteousness or to pray in the truth of 2nd Chron. 7: 14 - [read it here], and to wait on God’s judgment. We may not know when or how; but our culture and our world will reap what they sow; and again … may God have mercy on all as the rain will fall on the just as well as the unjust.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, have mercy on us! Amen