READING FOR DECEMBER 16, 2024: DEUTERONOMY 31, REVELATION 9, PSALM 122 DEUTERONOMY 31 While Moses was giving his final remarks, he became aware his physical decline and came to terms with God’s judgment preventing him from crossing the Jordan. Yet, he implored Israel to know that God would give them the promised victories, just as God had done when he was leading them. Moses reaffirmed that Joshua was God’s choice to take the leadership now. Their job was to obey without fear. That is still our task today at Yorktown Methodist Church! Are we afraid of our advancing age, declining attendance, and society’s indifference to God? Then reread verse 6: “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or in dread of them, for the Lord your God is the One who is going with you. He will not desert you or abandon you.” Moses then put in place a practice by which the nation and its resident aliens would regularly hear God’s word. This was especially important for their children: “When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which He will choose, you shall read this Law before all Israel,... so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this Law. And their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God” (vs. 11-13).
The Lord then appeared before Moses in a cloud and foretold Israel’s eventual breaking of their covenant with God and the resulting loss of God’s presence among them. This appears to be a pattern whenever people reject God. He allows those who reject Him to experience the consequence of this choice in hopes they will understand the reason for their problems: “Then My anger will be kindled against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will find them; so they will say on that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?’” (See also 1 Cor. 5:5). Then God told Moses to teach Israel a song to be a witness for God when they fall into disobedience. Moses last taught them a song to celebrate the miracle of the Red Sea crossing in Exodus 15. God uses songs to help us remember HIs truth and faithfulness in ways that are more indelibly embedded in our hearts and minds than possible through prose alone. SING ABOUT GOD.
REVELATION 9: Chapter 8 explained the results of the first 4 trumpets being sounded. It is hard to imagine the chaos that will come over the earth after these first four trumpets, but the chapter ends with an eagle crying out this warning, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!" (8:13). Chapter 9 reveals two of the remaining three 7 trumpets. (The seventh trumpet will sound in chapter 11.)
Fifth Trumpet: What John could only describe as an unusual type of locust will emerge on the earth that will inflict intensely painful stings upon humans for five months.
Sixth Trumpet: Four angels will be released to kill one-third of the earth’s remaining population via plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that comes through an army of 200 million.
We don’t know if these images are to be taken literally or figuratively. Either way, it depicts a
scene of chaos and destruction on the earth. In today’s world, verse 18 would mean over 2.5
READING FOR DECEMBER 16, 2024 CONTINUED: REVELATION 9, PSALM 122
billion people are killed in a short amount of time. One would think such a display of God’s wrath would lead to repentance, but the opposite is portrayed next. “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21).
Repent is an important word in the Bible. It is mentioned over 70 times. According to the NIV Bible Dictionary, repentance is “a profound change of mind involving the changing of the direction of life.”Key word is “change.” To repent means to change or to turn around. God has no desire to pour out wrath upon sinners. Rather, he desires for everyone to turn around and repent BEFORE the time of judgement comes:
- “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9)
- ” Now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
- “This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' But they will reply, `It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart' " (Jeremiah 18:11-12).
Let’s ask God to search our hearts for anything for which we need to repent.
PSALM 122 As the people traveled to Jerusalem, they experienced joy being together with their family and friends on their way to the House of the Lord. Even though they were following a required commandment or ordinance (vs. 4), this did not detract from their joy in obeying God. Is this how we feel about obeying God and going to Yorktown Methodist Church with our fellow believers? Though these travelers were not from Jerusalem, they committed to pray for the peace of the city (vs. 6). They also prayed for the inner peace of its residents (vs. 8). Modern Jerusalem is clearly not at peace today in any sense of the word. The city and the entire region need our prayers. Obviously, many other countries are also lacking peace. Paul urges us in 1 Tim. 2:1-2 to pray for all leaders so that peace might spread: "First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in [a]authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” The following three verses suggest a prime reason for this is so that we might share the Gospel in these countries: “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” Pray for all leaders, not just those in America. We need peace so that the world might hear and understand the one true Gospel.
