5/28/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, ‘There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as He announced to His servants the prophets.’” (Revelation 10.6-7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

God is true to His Word. God is never greater than Himself nor exceeds beyond the limits of “the Law” and the truth which He establishes. In this regard, we can truly understand the height, depth and breadth of “God is love.” For if God is beyond what He has established as truth then God ceases to be God. It would bear witness to the fact that God then is the liar and deceit would be His voice. Some would say that even now of God believing that He is acting unfairly and unjustly when “bad” things happen. But, God has made His choice when He established the parameter of freewill for His creation. Freewill does not stand alone and was never meant to be the servant of self. Freewill establishes the boundary of love which is “to choose wisely for one’s self for the sake of others.” This is why Jesus declared “No greater love is there than this that a person would lay down their life for another.” He was speaking directly to His choice to be obedient to God so that “God’s will for His people” would be done.

In today’s reflection on Revelation, chapter 10, we see a demonstration of “that will” by which God abides and all those in Heaven with Him. Before the seventh angel can announce the truth which is given there was a “pause” called for. There is no hurry in bringing this announcement over all the world. I say this in regard to the call for Sabbath there in Heaven. After six, that which is to be revealed is spoken but it was quickly silenced. It is another way of saying, “While the truth is inevitable and judgment must come over all the powers and forces present in the midst of all creation, we dare not miss acting with fidelity.” That fidelity is restoring the order which God had created from the first. We have reflected on that order and structure as revealed in the testimony of “seven.” There have been seven lampstands, seven angels, seven churches, seven trumpets and so on and so forth just as there were “seven” days which testified to the completion of God’s plan. Each seven represents a cycle of life which must occur and will occur and leads up to Jubilee where all things are made new and restored to their rightful place. In Revelation, however, we find within the prophecy ten such sevens. As Jubilee represents fifty years, John is given a truth which extends it to seventy years. In that extension we are called back to the exile of those who had been in Jerusalem in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar. God had established that it would be for seventy years that those who had been taken in exile would dwell in the land of Babylon. At the end of those seventy years, they would be restored and Jerusalem would be rebuilt in splendor and wonder. When it would happen, and it did, then all the world would know that God had worked all things together for good. Once again, in the prophecy given to John, there would be a “second coming” and a new Heaven, new earth and a New Jerusalem would be established. The faithful remnant would be called out and joined together as the Bride of the Groom who was, is and will always be “The Lamb of God.” In that moment, God would dwell with them forever in His House not built by human hands eternal on earth as it is in Heaven. The seventy years indicates a complete restoration. This time, however, it would not be dependent on human will as it was in the days of the prophets. It would be established upon the will of the Lamb whose purpose is singularly to honor that which is of God. So, before all this can happen there had to be a total victory. Until the seven angel could sound the trumpet and bring in the era of “defeating the enemy of God and humanity,” the inevitable truth had to kept in silence. There had to be a seventh trumpet sounded. The pattern of God’s plan could not be interrupted. In this way, we can reflect back on how God used “those who were the enemies of Israel” to effect His judgment and His justice on Israel. He could not allow their disobedience to become the “boundaries of God’s will” as to say “all things are of God” including unrighteousness. The very fact many had chosen to forsake the word of God and act apart from it actually brought forth the “wrath of God.” God would not, as He revealed to Ezekiel, “take delight in the death of anyone.” His grief, though also inevitable, was real but not a means to an end. His grief was a consequence of making the necessary “gifting” of freewill available to creation. With that gifting, however, came the caveat of the consequence of both eternal life and eternal death. What would God choose for His people to choose? Of course, it would be eternal life. And as God is love, He is committed to doing everything possible to encourage and establish that choice of living eternally with Him without reservation. But, the reality is that not everyone will choose wisely. For that there is grace which is our in Christ Jesus. But, even such grace proves insufficient for those who refuse to choose the will of God even in the face of the consequences of “ultimate grief.” How such blindness to the truth comes to exist, should be beyond all of us. Yet, it is not. When the heart is hardened by the serving of one’s own will above all else then nothing else matters. These are the days of woe called down on an unforgiving world by an unforgiving world. Such tragedy is inevitable. Save by the grace of God, we would be lost in it. It is for us who see this truth and for those who then commit to it, that they shall not taste “the second death” and forever be separated from the love of God which gives life. God’s will must be complete and completed. We must continue to “honor the Sabbath and keep it holy,” and in that testify “God’s will be done, His kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:

You are our God and we shall be Your people in spirit and in truth. Continue to dwell among us. Let the revelation by Your Holy Spirit inspire us to greater service in a more refined identity. We do not live as ourselves for ourselves. Rather, we live in Christ as He lives in us. We declare it with all the elders and angels in Heaven, saying “Holy, holy, holy is He who was and is and is to come.” In Jesus’ name we live, serve and pray. AMEN.