Thoughts for another day

August 8, 2006

Today's verse: Ez. 8:21. Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. (KJV)

Human kind has always gone against God and offended Him. God is long suffering and will not act until He knows the offender has had enough time to repent. But if he still doesn’t, then God’s wrath comes down. Many of us kid around with God, thinking that His wrath will not hit us. Then one diasaster after the other strikes and we are felled like the coconut tree whose bottom is systematically sawed.

After David, the Israelites went on their sinful ways. They started worshipping false gods and raised poles and temples for them. They practiced immoral acts and usury and every type of practice that angered God. They perhaps thought they would go to the temple on a particular day of the year and absolve themselves of their sins and get ready for another bout of sin until next year. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that the temple, magnificent as it was, would be allowed to be destroyed. For that matter, they might have even felt invincible with Yahweh as their God, and thought that even with their sinful ways God would deliver their enemies into their hands. God sent them prophets foretelling what would happen but they did not listen. Eventually, Israel fell, the temple was destroyed and the people exiled.

It was a nightmare. What the people had never imagined, happened. Then they repented. That’s when the above verse was uttered by EZRA, the priest. And we know that God raised the Persians to overcome the Babylonians and let the Israelites go back to their homeland. God is the same today. The thing which has changed is, because of the awesome sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven minute by minute. All we need to do is cry out. My beloved in Christ, if you have fallen into displeasure with God, throw yourself on the floor and appeal to His mercy. REPENT. It will do a lot of good for your soul, not withstanding of course, for your little problems in life.