Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: noah

  • Times of Difficulty – 4

    Times of Difficulty – 4

    Who will you believe?

    “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

    The Lord commissions the prophet Jeremiah, who must warn nations of their sins against God. Like any true prophet, Jeremiah has nothing to gain by the Lord’s choice to make him a messenger. Who will believe the Lord’s message and messenger?

    Jeremiah 1:

    And the Lord said to me,

    “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

    Generations Earlier

    The Lord saved Noah and his family from a great flood.

    Ark Encounter

    Do you suppose Noah’s neighbors had questions of why this crazy old man was building a huge ark? Yet did any return to the Lord rather than embrace their sins?

    Even today man refuses to believe God would condemn the whole earth, saving only a righteous man. We deny judgment, refuse the warnings of the Lord’s true messengers and dismiss scripture.

    In Times Long Ago

    Egyptians worshiped Pharaoh as a god. The Lord worked mighty miracles by the hand of Moses allowing an enslaved Hebrew people to migrate to Canaan. Powerful middle east princes practiced ritual evil worshiping idols which are no god. 

    Why would such self-serving men as Pharaoh or a middle east prince believe that Moses spoke for the Lord? For that matter, why would this self-serving generation believe that the Lord has spoken to any?

    9th c. B.C.

    1 Kings 18:

    21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

    We prefer to worship gods of our making rather than Almighty God. Mortal man revolts against any authority other than our own.

    7th-6th c. B.C.

    Jeremiah 2:

    5 Thus says the Lord:

    “What wrong did your fathers find in me
    that they went far from me,
    and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

    6 They did not say,

    ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’

    7 And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things.

    But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

    8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’

    Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

    The rule of righteousness set by the Lord means nothing to men who define their own sin. False prophets and war-like men lead multitudes to lives of destruction and evil. Is anything new under the sun?

    People will believe or disbelieve whatever they want.

    Jesus Messiah

    1st c. A.D.

    Into an era dominated by Rome, a nominal jewish leadership asks their Messiah Jesus to perform more miracles.

    Show us a sign.

    Did first century jews want to bow down to a king any more than we do? Even if Almighty God appears to us in the flesh, will we believe and obey?

    Instead, the Son of Man warns believers to be on guard.

    Jesus is not a King who would conquer land. Neither is He a conquering mortal prince whose claim of the sword comes from God’s angels.

    Jesus IS! He is a King above all kings, Creator of men from dust. And to dust we will return!

    The Lord commands the sea, sun and stars. He IS Creator of men and women who will return to dust, Creator of these souls which live in the bounds of flesh and will be judged in the court of the Almighty King of all creation.

    God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who feels indignation every day. – Psalm 7:11

    Grace for Sinful Man

    The Lord came to man in the flesh and became a willing sacrifice for our sins. In light of the love of God our heavenly Father, in light of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus and in light of the eternal life breathed into the dust of your soul by the Holy Spirit; what is your response to these times of difficulty?

    Who do you believe?

    And what must you do in these last days, hastening times which began on a Cross?

    To be continued…

     

  • Times of Difficulty – 3

    Times of Difficulty – 3

    Watch Yourselves

    Luke 21:

    34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

    Watch yourselves! A warning of apocalypse.

    “Be on guard,” states the King James, with the same Greek word where Jesus warns to ‘beware of false prophets.’ And in case you missed it, Jesus reiterates the warning. “Stay awake;” “keep on alert,” the King James Version warns. Matthew records Jesus using these warnings together as one.

    [ctt title=”‘Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.’ – Mark 13:33″ tweet=”Do the cares of this life obscure the Light of eternal life? Watch yourselves!” coverup=”Kj6Z5″]

    Who does Jesus warn?

    21st century readers could easily dismiss this. Jesus is just preaching to the people of His day. The Temple will be destroyed and Israel will be destroyed. And that’s the end of it.

    Not quite. Although these events of which Jesus warned did take place, as is so often the case, prophecy also applies to other times. Just because you and I live in a different place and a later time does not exclude us from the truth.

    Jesus warns of impending disaster: ” and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” How often over time does this apply to so many.

    [ctt title=”For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.- Luke 21:35″ tweet=”Disaster prophesied by Jesus: not just for a forgotten time centuries past.” coverup=”1nRD9″]

    Not just Jerusalem. A disaster of the scope of Sodom and Gomorrah comes more to mind. (Lot was on watch. Only Lot sought to obey the Lord by fleeing sin.)

    Jesus does not speak of only ancient Judea, Samaria and Galilee which Rome would destroy later. The Lord warns, “all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.”

    Do those who ignored the warnings of Noah also come to your mind?

    Judgment!

    We don’t like it, the thought of being judged by another. Yet a sovereign God surely rules in righteousness and will judge the living and the dead! We prefer to see Jesus as our humble example of living to love God. Jesus invites us to think of God as Father. Jesus challenges us to love others.

    Yet He often warned of a judgment to come, a judgment with eternal consequence. Here is just one more example of the Almighty authority of Christ Jesus (which could be easily dismissed).

    The Son of Man

    Allow me to isolate what Jesus warns.

    “… But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength… to stand before the Son of Man.”

    Judgment! Jesus clearly warns the He will be our judge. And you will not stand in your own strength, but in His.

    Jesus IS the Son of Man! Jesus also clearly states for all with ears to hear:

    “I and the Father are one.” –John 10:30

    Revelation 14:14-16

    Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

    And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud,

    “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

    So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

    To be continued…

     

     

  • A Temporary Throne – 24

    A Temporary Throne – 24

    CHAPTER 24

    And I thought more. Could the LORD not choose more than one people? (Perhaps a family on every continent…) Then I remembered: even in Noah’s descendants, sin remained … and more-so in the family of Ham and Canaan, whom God had already cursed.

    Perhaps if God could model His Righteousness through the descendants of Shem (for now), and then through the descendants of Japheth, later: I thought…

    Then I remembered that along with the curse of Canaan and the blessing of Shem (of the line of the fathers of Abram), Noah’s additional blessing of Japheth.

    Genesis 9: 27 May God enlarge Japheth,
    And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
    And may Canaan be his servant.”

    THESE YOU CALL, ‘GENTILES,’ WHO RECEIVED MY BLESSING THROUGH THE JEWS BORN OF THE SEED OF SHEM.

    God’s omniscience (now evident to me), limiting the sin of the limited knowledge of mankind. I could not bless a man more sinful than Abraham; who like all fathers of faith demonstrated (along with their faith), sin enough.

    (Perhaps even like Abram, I would have allowed the blessing of my wife from God to go to a man of more wealth and power even to save my own neck. But the Lord returned Sarah from Pharaoh to Abraham.)

    I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING.

    “Yes, Lord, You know. I am grieved over the covenant of marriage.”

    MAN, IN HIS AND HER OWN KNOWLEDGE, HAS NOT CHOSEN WISELY.

    (I knew that by “man,” the Lord meant ‘man from dust and woman from man’ – ALL mankind.)

    “Lord, you know our hearts. Can you not change this?”

     

     

     To be continued next week: Marriage from the beginning

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.