Sadly, there
are many who don't believe that God exists. Or if He does, He has no right to judge us,
nor do we, to praise Him. Instead, they
think that all the wonders we enjoy are our own creation. We’re the great and awesome ones. And what is good and right is relative to our
individual leanings and has nothing to do with the sovereignty of the Lord.
Someday,
whether we believe it or not, there will be a moment of truth for every one of
us and we'll see without a doubt who is truly great - truly awesome.
The Prophet
Daniel was a young man when he was captured in Jerusalem, and taken to Babylon,
by the invading soldiers of King Nebuchadnazzar. He soon became known at the King’s court for
his wisdom and ability to interpret dreams.
One of the King’s dreams featured a statue made of many precious and
non-precious components. Daniel was not
intimidated by the fact that he was a captive when he confronted a man so
powerful that he was known as the King of Kings, conqueror of Judah, and
destroyer of the first temple. Daniel
told the King the meaning of each element of the dream statue. The most unwelcome part of Daniel’s message
for the King was the portion that meant that every earthly kingdom, no matter
what its strength, composition, or worth, easily can be ended by the hand of
God. The great power and majesty of God,
like the stone in the King’s dream, will fill the earth (Daniel 2:31-45).
Jesus spoke
in similar terms to the people of the impending destruction of the second
temple in Jerusalem; “there will not be left a stone upon
another stone…”. Those who listened to Jesus knew well that
the temple could be destroyed, and that they could be taken, as their ancestors
had, as captives. Jesus couldn’t have
chosen a more dire prediction to capture their attention. The most important phrase that Jesus used in
that warning was, “many will come in my name, saying ‘I am
he’ and ‘the time has come.” He implied by this
that He, in fact, is the chosen one. The
time had come. God would, and did,
replace the temporal powers, and continues to fill the world with His power and
majesty (Luke 21:5-11).
We all have
witnessed, if not in person, in the news media, the end of nations, the pandemic,
wars, famine, and earthquakes. We’re reminded
daily of our own weakness and impermanence. Should we be terrified?
As for me,
I'll bet on the Lord, the "great and awesome God," who doesn’t "deal
with us according to our sins," but whose mercy is forever (Daniel 9:4). When I do get scared “to death”, I try to
remember Revelation 2:10: “Remain faithful until death, and I
will give you the crown of life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment