Thanks and Praise

"I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king's demand."

Daniel 2:23

Daniel and his fellow wise men were in dire need of divine revelation concerning king Nebuchadnezzar's dream, for their lives were on the line.  He and his Hebrew brethren sought God on the matter, and the LORD was merciful to reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the interpretation to Daniel in a vision.  It is no wonder Daniel thanked and praised God for giving Him wisdom about the king's secret and thus spared his life and others who served king Nebuchadnezzar.  God's people ought always to thank and praise Him for answered prayer, yet genuine faith shines brighter when we experience pain, suffering, loss and still praise and bless our good God.

When the children of Israel languished in a time of war and trouble, Jeremiah recognised it was only by the mercy of the good God of Israel He preserved them at all.  God had caused grief and loss, yet God had compassion on them according to the riches of His mercy.  We see this same God fearing outlook in Job after he suffered the loss of his wealth and the death of his 10 children in a day.  Job 1:21-22 tells us,  "And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." ²² In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."  Faith in God does not mean we avoid trials and troubles in this world:  it is the means God has provided for us to endure and experience joy, peace and rest in Him.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah as a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  From the moment sin entered the world, humankind has experienced grief and sorrow beyond human comprehension:  people God created in His own image were cut off from God and drowned in grief without knowledge of Him, the remedy for their ills, forgiveness of sin, or the sure hope of heaven in His presence.  We cannot fathom such grief and pain that the all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving God should see His creation struggle and die whilst rejecting Him.  The death of a loved one deeply impacts a relatively small circle of family and friends who heard of a tragic passing, yet God knows intimately the full depth of everyone's suffering like He personally experienced Himself.

God is so awesome and good His suffering Servant Jesus offers fullness of peace and joy, for while He is a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief He has not been overcome by them:  Jesus accomplished the ultimate victory over sin, death and sorrow by His death and resurrection He freely gives to all who trust in Him.  Born-again believers in the midst of pain can praise God from the heart, and this praise that springs from faith in Him is precious in His sight.  It is one thing to praise God when He has answered your prayer in the way you wanted, but genuine faith delights to praise our good God when He has remained silent or said "No."  In our troubles may we never charge God with wrong, for He remains good and glorious regardless how we feel.  In Him we have a living hope, and our future is bright with joy and peace.  With Daniel we can thank and praise God for giving us Jesus (Who is wisdom for us) and might made perfect in our weakness.

Called, Chosen and Faithful

"These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful."

Revelation 17:14

Jesus is described as one day returning to earth with His saints in judgment over Satan, the antichrist and the world.  God's people, born again by faith in Jesus and given eternal life by Him, are "called, chosen and faithful."  It is good for us to realise this is not some sort of divine fate at work, but everyone who follows Jesus faithfully has been called and chosen by Him.  We love Him because He first loved us.

Judas Iscariot gives us great insight into this matter, for he was called by Jesus to follow Him.  Of the many disciples Jesus had, Judas was chosen to be one of His 12 apostles Jesus sent out.  We know Judas had responsibilities among the apostles to responsibly handle the money of the group, yet sadly he was a thief.  He was called and chosen but not faithful to Jesus, for he bargained with the chief priests to betray Jesus into their hand when he had opportunity for 30 pieces of silver.  His hypocrisy was shown in the Garden of Gethsemane by identifying Jesus with a kiss of greeting.

Judas teaches us that being called and chosen does not guarantee we will choose to be numbered among God's faithful servants.  He later regretted and lamented Jesus being arrested and sentenced to death, yet he did not sorrow in a godly manner that leads to repentance:  he sorrowed as the world does which leads to death (2 Cor. 7:9-11).  Judas died a violent death at his own hand, choosing to murder himself rather than humble himself in contrite repentance before God.  He was called and chosen, but he was not faithful.  Jesus said because of his sinful, unrepentant choices, it would be better for him to never have been born (Matt. 26:24, Mark 14:21).

The Strong's Concordance defines the Greek word translated "faithful" as "faithful, reliable, believing."  Genuine faith in God is practically expressed and demonstrated by obedience to God.  Jesus told His followers that if they loved Him they would do as He said.  This fits perfectly with loving God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.  Jesus is God made flesh, and having been called and chosen we are to be faithful.  1 John 5:11-13 says, "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

By believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, we have life because He is our life.  Christians can know we are called and chosen because we are faithful to believe in Him and continue to do so.  We have the assurance of salvation and future judgment by the resurrection of Jesus.  Our confidence is not in ourselves or efforts to obey, but because of Who Jesus is and the new life He has provided through the Gospel.  Confidence in our calling and election is misplaced when God requires us to be faithful by His grace.

Still Blaming or Broken?

"So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD."

1 Samuel 7:2

After the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines to their country, it remained there for seven months.  Whilst the Ark was passed from city to city, God plagued the Philistines with great destruction.  The situation became so dire the Philistines decided the only remedy was to return the Ark to Israel with a trespass offering, and the five lords of the Philistines each providing a golden image of a rat that plagued the land and their tumours that caused them to suffer greatly.

The Israelites were harvesting wheat in Beth Shemesh when they saw the Ark of God on a new wooden cart amble into their land.  The people rejoiced exceedingly the Ark had been returned to them, and they promptly used the cart for firewood and sacrificed the oxen to the LORD as a burnt offering.  However, the joyous celebration ended in sorrow, for tens of thousands of men of Beth Shemesh died before the LORD when they transgressed by looking into the Ark contrary to the Law of Moses.  They wondered, "Who can stand before this great God?" They sent a message to the people of Kirjath Jearim and asked them to retrieve the Ark--which they did.  A man named Eleazar was sanctified as a caretaker of the Ark, and it remained in the home of his father Abinadab for 20 years.

While the Ark remained in Kirjath Jearim, all Israel lamented after the LORD for decades.  The prophet Samuel provided a path to restoration before God in 1 Samuel 7:3-4:  "Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." ⁴ So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only."  Brothers and sisters, recognise this:  grief, lamentation and sorrow over decades provided no penance for the people.  Their humiliation at the hand of their enemies or God was no substitute for humbling themselves before Him.  Regret was not repentance.  Samuel urged the people to return to the LORD by destroying their idols and preparing their hearts to seek and serve the LORD only.  The promise of deliverance from the Philistines God gave would be fulfilled in short order later in the chapter when God thundered against the Philistines who drew near to attack His people.

The Bible does not record the conversations the people of Israel had together over those 20 years of lamentation after the LORD, but I strongly suspect there was blame for their situation being thrown around without addressing their own idolatry.  There were likely people who blamed Hophni and Phinehas for bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the battle, and other blamed Eli who allowed them to continue "serving" in the priesthood.  Some blamed the Philistines for their brutality and oppression, and others blamed the men of Beth Shemesh for their own demise by looking into the Ark.  In a land and world full of sinners, there was plenty of blame to go around.  As long as they continued to blame others or even themselves without repentance, it revealed they were not yet broken for their sin.  It was after they accepted the blame for their own sin and repented of it they were restored to fellowship with God.  The Philistines remained idolatrous; the corrupt within Israel remained as corrupt as ever.  However, there was a sure hope of salvation for those who lamented after the LORD and prepared their hearts to seek and serve Him.

Today this pattern remains true as ever for God's people.  When we hear of tragedies and problems in the world, one of our first reactions can be to cast blame at the feet of a person, a political party, organisation or nation.  Lately the news has been inundated with reports of a "failed" referendum in Australia, a full-fledged war in Israel, a murder at a school in Sydney, and a mass shooting in the United States--and this only scratches the surface of the pain and suffering that overwhelms us.  Hear this:  as long as we are blaming we are not yet broken, and that is the place God desires to bring us to even if it takes decades!  In light of this, consider the value of brokenness before the LORD as it is written in Psalm 34:18:  "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."  Psalm 51:16-17 also says:  "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise."  Rather than lashing out at others for their wrongs, let us be crushed and broken before the LORD, repent of our sin, prepare our hearts before the LORD and serve Him only.

Glorify God's Holy Name

God is a Saviour Who gives eternal life to all who trust Him, a life so powerful it overcomes death.  As our risen LORD Jesus demonstrated through His death, burial and resurrection, the process to enter eternal glory often involves the physical death of the body.  This is true concerning those who come to faith in Christ and are martyred during the Great Tribulation.  As Jesus laid down His life for lost sinners on Calvary, so they will choose to lay down their lives for His sake.  It is a privilege and honour believers embrace by following in our Saviour's footsteps and surrender our lives for Jesus Who joyfully did so for us.

Revelation 15:2-4 describes a heavenly scene that includes this group of victorious martyrs:  "And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. ³ They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! ⁴ Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested."  Revelation 12 describes believers who overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and by faith in Jesus these worshippers were also victorious over the beast (the antichrist), his image, mark and number of his name.  This is only possible by the miraculous power of God at work in His people.

These redeemed believers sang the song of Moses found in Exodus 15 and the song of the Lamb.  The context of the song of Moses was after God lead His people to pass through the Red Sea and drowned the army of Egyptians that sought to pursue them.  They sang in Exodus 15:11, "Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"  Both the deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea and the overcoming of the antichrist during the Great Tribulation are miraculous.  As the children of Israel left Egypt in haste and were guided through the Red Sea, through tribulation many people will be ushered into God's presence in glory with exceeding joy.  Many who will be born again during the Great Tribulation will be martyred for their faith, yet the end will be unending joy and worship of our awesome God, victorious in His presence.

Praise God He will not subject His redeemed people to His wrath which will ultimately consume the heavens and earth.  All who fear the LORD, let us glorify His name because His judgments have been manifested to us through His word.  It has been revealed to us by the Gospel God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The believers who praise God in the heavenly scene were justly in heaven because of the atonement for sin provided by Jesus.  How gracious is God Who has opened heaven to us and given us Himself, for the Holy Spirit has taken residence in our hearts by the Gospel.  The LORD God Almighty is just and true in all His ways, and let us praise our God Who is our strength and song forever.