The wise Solomon tells us that laziness is tragic (Proverbs 6:9; 12:24; 24:33), but the irony is that some busyness is no less tragic than laziness, as we shall presently learn from the prophetic parable to King Ahab. In that account, King Benhadad of Syria had been at war with King Ahab of Israel; Benhadad had been thoroughly defeated but got strangely spared by the king of Israel.
Month: September 2022
MR LOT HAD NO SON (Part 3 of 3)
- No Sons in Sodom
Sodom gave Mr Lot plenty of grasses for his flock. It gave him bread, like Moab, but there were taxes to pay, in the future. Years later, the sinful cup of Sodom and Gomorrah had filled to overflow, inviting judgment from the Most High. Heaven promptly dispatched a fact-finding delegation to the United Republics of Sodom and Gomorrah. The findings verified the litigations that had been filed in the courts of Heaven against those places and their peoples (Genesis 18:20-21). A sentence of fire and sulfur was reluctantly passed upon them – there had been no intercessor. Even Abraham had given up on the people at Count 10. He could have pushed on as the one man in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30-31). The fires were on their way, but for righteous Abraham’s sake (rather than for Lot’s) the fires would wait until Lot was out of the way (Genesis 19: 22, 29).
MR LOT HAD NO SON (Part 2 of 3)
- Bread is Back to Bethlehem
6. THEN she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them BREAD. 7. Therefore she WENT OUT… (Ruth 1:6-7, New King James Version).
Only after all the men in the family had strangely died, in ten short years, did the surviving mother come to her senses. Only “then” did she summon enough sense and “she arose,” and she “went out.” Especially, “she had heard” that bread had returned to the House of Bread. She seemed to have been a disciple of bread – going wherever there was bread (it didn’t matter where), and departing wherever and whenever bread ceased (it didn’t matter how or where). That is the tragedy of followers of bread (John 6:25-26, 66-68).
MR LOT HAD NO SON (Part 1 of 3)
- Had I Known…
Sometimes, potential disasters come with such alluring benefits as blind the common sense of their prospective preys. At such ensnaring times, even the howling voices of loving caution tend to sound in mesmerised ears as the hypocrisy of jealous witches. Usually, only after the terrible monster has claimed its prey does everyone go back to regret the road signs ignored. Only then do they bemoan the hidden costs ignored in the haste for apparent benefits. Nothing is free in life. Somebody has either paid, or will; somehow, someday. I would usually say that Moab never gives free bread. Here’s the story again.
APOCALYPTIC HALLELUJAHS (Part 2 of 2)
1. Radical Holiness
Well, Revelation 18 seems to be one more Bible passage about which some of us will ask questions when we get to heaven. Meanwhile, it will appear from that passage that some folks will be no less righteous in their private souls and no less deserving of their Holy titles for celebrating the divine termination of an infamous foe. In fact, to so celebrate will be to obey a heavenly call, but not everyone hears that call, not especially those so focused on the purple and pearls of their Babylon in smoke (like Lot’s wife) that they become unmindful of the cautions from angels; folks so focused on ephemeral earthly sights as to miss eternal heavenly sounds.
Apocalyptic Hallelujahs (Part 1 of 2)
- Uncommon Scriptures
Sometimes a common scripture pops up with an uncommon sense that appears to question common perspectives. I recall Martin Luther’s revolutionary revelation on “The just shall live by faith.”
In Revelation 18, God judges a “great city,” bringing it to an abrupt end in an atomic plume of smoke that announces the disaster distances away. It is such a global catastrophe that people express their grief visibly with “dust on their heads” and audibly in triple terrible mournful outbursts as they “cried, weeping and wailing” (v. 19). The sight is so fearful that terrified mourners keep a safe distance – “afar off” (v.10).
Not Yet Time to Go
I have come upon many accounts of clinical ‘near-death’ experiences where a believer had found themselves in heaven but were told that they had to return to the earth because it was not yet their time to be there. Their sudden arrival had to be cancelled even though apparently forced by circumstances. That would seem to mean that God has a plan for every life (Jeremiah 29:11); that, so long as we live in His will and walk as He leads, no one can send us to heaven before our time.
NOT TIME TO DIE
I have come upon many accounts of clinical ‘near-death’ experiences where a believer had found themselves in heaven but were told that they had to return to the earth because it was not yet their time to be there. Their sudden arrival had to be cancelled even though apparently forced by circumstances. That would seem to mean that God has a plan for every life (Jeremiah 29:11); that, so long as we live in His will and walk as He leads, no one can send us to heaven before our time. According to Acts 1:7, there are “times” and “seasons” about our lives and about earth’s events that have been pre-planned by God; times and seasons that He has “put in his own power” – not in the power of our enemies, no matter how bitter they might be or how badly they might try.
THE ROADMAP TO NOWHERE
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know WHERE you are going; so how can we know THE WAY to get there?”
John 14:5, Good News Translation.
In this Bible passage, Thomas was saying to Jesus, in effect, “If we don’t know WHERE, can we know HOW? If we don’t know where You are headed, how can we tell the way to There?” He seemed to have been saying that destination precedes preparation; that purpose often births process. Nobody meets someone nowhere. Someone has to be somewhere for anyone to meet them there.
