December 11

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR DECEMBER 11, 2024: DEUTERONOMY 28, REVELATION 6, PSALM 119 DEUTERONOMY 28 This chapter continues with the ceremony from the previous chapter. Now the potential blessings are listed, which will be proclaimed from Mount Gerizim.  God is being so transparent and honest with Israel to allow them to know ahead of time how their obedience or disobedience will determine their future in such precise ways. We at Yorktown Methodist Church would be well advised to consider how our choices individually and collectively will determine our future, both on earth and into eternity.  

The blessings listed are contingent on Israel’s obedience to God commandments. We know that even in the Old Testament, people were saved by faith: “He [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He [God] credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). But we also know from this chapter and even the New Testament that the extent of God’s blessing to believers appears to correlate with obedience. “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously...and God is able to bless you abundantly” (2 Cor. 9:6-8).  Notice children were considered a blessing, not a hindrance. How clear that becomes as we age. But have we considered it a blessing when God raises up enemies (obstacles) for us to overcome (vs. 7)? Has that been true in our past and might we reframe current problems as blessings? 

Conversely the chapter continues with an astonishing list of curses that could result from Israel’s disobedience. God implemented many of these on Israel over the next centuries, while not abandoning the underlying covenant He made with Abraham. God gave them some idea of the severity of these curses by comparing them with the plagues against Pharoah that their parents witnessed.  Some of these curses even exceed what Egypt experienced: “You will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you” (vs.53).  This seems beyond belief but consider that the USA aborts around a million babies per year, often placing our own plans ahead the lives of our unborn children.  Again, in the New Testament, even though we are saved by faith, the consequences of disobedience are clearly stated to the church: “Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). 

REVELATION 6: Chapter five revealed that only Jesus was worthy to open the scroll that would reveal God’s plan for the earth. This scroll has seven seals, and this chapter describes Jesus opening the first six. (The seventh seal will be opened in chapter 8.)   

  • Seal One: White Horse of the conqueror (6:1-2)
  • Seal Two: Red Horse of war (6:3-4)
  • Seal Three: Black Horse with scales (6:5-6)
  • Seal Four: Pale Horse of death (6:7-8)   

READING FOR DECEMBER 11, 2024 CONTINUED: REVELATION 6, PSALM 119:169-176

  • Seal Five: Souls of Martyrs crying out to God (6:9-11)
  • Seal Six: Worldwide Chaos (6:12-17)

The last two verses of this chapter make it clear that these seals are a reflection of God’s wrath. “They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrathhas come, and who can stand?’" (6:16-17)

We don’t like to think about God’s wrath, but it is clearly portrayed in both the Old and New Testament. The OT uses words like great, fierce, fiery, jealous and fury when describing God’s wrath. The New Testament helps us to see that God’s wrath comes on those who are dis-- obedient. (John 3:36, Ephesians 5:3-6, Colossians 3:5-8, Romans 2:5-7) When we consider this coming day of God’s wrath, those who know Jesus as Lord can be thankful for three things: 

1) We Were Not Appointed to Suffer Wrath. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9).                                                                                                  2) We are Saved from Wrath. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Rom.5:9-10).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   3) We Are Rescued from Wrath. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and                   true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us                      from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)                                                                                               For those who are saved, let’s take a moment and thank God for rescuing us from His wrath.

PSALM 119:169-176 This section, entitled “Tav,” is the last of this longest chapter of the Bible. “Each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter” (David Guzik). Appropriately, this ending section explains how truly knowing and understanding God’s word informs all other ways in which we interact with God. It shows how to make requests to God (vs. 169-170); how to praise God (vs. 171); how to sing to God (vs. 172); how to enjoy God (vs. 173-174); and how God helps us live with purpose (vs.175).By not drawing upon God’s word, not only are we not fully experiencing a relationship with God, we don’t even know what we’re missing. We wander “about like a lost sheep” (vs 176).