Thoughts for another day

August 11, 2008

Today's verse: Haggai 2:7. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Yesterday, in a Bible Class, somebody set forth a point, ‘In the New Testament, we see Jesus full of compassion and readily forgiving even the worst sinner; whereas, in the Old Testament, we see God punishing His people and destroying nations, kingdoms, people at will – why?’

I need to be God to answer the question, but like they say no harm in trying (not to be God, but answer the question in a divine perspective). When I think of God and the ways in which He cared for His people - He did not bother about the enemies of Israel. He even asked the Israelites to completely destroy all their enemies. See, God has created all and He can destroy all, as He did at the time of Noah. So I believe that when it comes to things concerning Himself and His own, He is willing to go any length when even a few 100,000 people don’t matter to Him and we see how He destroys the Egyptians drowning them in the Red Sea. In fact, God even says that He created Pharaoh to work His amazing work through him and gain glory (Ex 9:16, Rom 9:17). Isn’t this amazing? For those of you who think how cruel God is, don’t you feel that God can do what He wants with His own creation? After all, doesn’t man do what he wants with what is not his creation like destroying the earth, for example?

In today’s verse, God makes a similar promise. The glory (and treasure) belonging to Him in this world are scattered among the nations, who render it to idols made of mud, wood, stone and metal; and now God says that He will shake the nations and bring them all into His house, the sacred temple (Rev. 21:26). It is bound to happen as it is the unalterable Word of God and for us who wait to seek the glory of God, we shall surely see it happen and we shall see it with our own eyes. Amen.