The Devotional - 62

The Devotional

Comment:

There are many memories that are no longer vivid of my career in the Navy. The ones that remain are mostly pleasant and happy, most of the others have faded into darkness and yet there is one of an orphanage just outside of Naples, Italy. I have written about this place for children before but not in this way; originally it was established to care for the homeless children who survived World War Two without parents, by the time I was there a in the early Nineteen Sixties at least two generations had come and gone. What was still there was the evidence of suffering, suffering is only visible when face to face with it. People even children know how to mask the pain of suffering so one has to look into the eyes, the gain of knowledge is priceless. It is impossible for the eyes to lie and anyone with this understanding can read the eye of another and gain much. For example, we know that when a person seeks to hide the truth they will purposely avoid eye contact. Find your Bible and read Proverbs 6:12-19 which is a biblical description of what I am saying.

Challenge: Lamentations 2

As the writer of Lamentations views the destruction of Jerusalem he has serious sadness over the effects on the children of the land. During the long siege of war, destruction and homelessness war has uprooted long standing homesteads where men prospered and women enjoyed the life of family. Children played and grew into adults and the cycle of life was observed to be good. All of this changed as idolatry progressed. We have this earlier, the core of middle aged adults have vanished from the land and only the young and old remain.

The writer assigns all of this carnage revealed in Chapter Two to the wrath of God and without knowledge we could determine that God is a killer of happiness and the One who causes suffering and death in the land of the living. Yet I warn all of us that we miss the mark if we view God as a tyrant of wrath. The God of Love and Mercy is certainly not willing to do any harm to any nation or the young and helpless. God hates sin and He deals with it EFFECTIVELY. Matthew 18:1-14 gives us the thoughts of God about children and their helplessness in the face of the sinner.

In Leviticus 26, verses 14 – 39 we can observe God’s closed system of controlling evil in the land of the living. The “system” and I am reluctant in calling it by this simple term is one that hangs over every nation under the sun, it is a system of cause and effect. God has established from His Throne a reward for national obedience and a punishment for national disobedience. The entire chapter of Leviticus is a good starting point to learn of why God rewards and punishes. But it would be wrong to simply hang your hat on this peg alone as the “entirety of the Word of God” is TRUTH.

One of the most joyful events in human life is the revelation of God to you and me from His Living Word. Now I do not know how to say the effectively, so I will say it again. ‘One of the most joyful events in human life is the revelation of God to you and from His Living Word’. Psalm 119:111-112 speaks clearly to this – Your Statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.

While we see in Lamentations death, destruction and dispersion as a nation is plundered and raped, it should also be seen that this very thing is somewhat of a norm in today’s world. Our so-called third world countries being overrun by terrorism, millions of people mostly identified as Christian are slaughtered for their testimony of faith in the Living God (Jesus). Yet we must understand that God is looking at the nation as a whole based on the national standard of human good and evil. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul who said, “For me to live is Christ (suffering), to die; is gain (peace). This phrase in Philippians four is a bit out of our context here, but the thought fits regarding peace through suffering. Jesus Christ is our Peace.

Do you have peace today? Psalm 46:10 says this – Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth”. He speaks of His watchful care for the nations in the whole of Psalm just 46; now this is the Word of God, it was recorded for us by a man named Korah a song writer. Is God your refuge and strength? If not then you have NO lasting peace and you only KNOW fear, my challenge to you is this is true is to, KNOW God and experience for the first time in life NO fear – Acts 4:8-12.