June 7, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“But did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? It was then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’” (Zechariah 1.6)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. We all have it. We may be afraid to admit it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have the ability to reflect back to see what we have done and the consequences of it. That is never our problem. Our problem exists when we ignore our 20/20 hindsight, excuse our actions and ignore the consequences of those actions on ourselves and others. Let’s be blunt about this: Satan has no intention to repent though he knows the opportunity to receive the extension of God’s grace is his for the taking. What a universe-shaking experience it would be if Satan finally relented and repented. (I keep this in mind to frame a re-telling of the story of The Prodigal Son as it applies to the older brother. The image of the older brother reflects and relates to the “Israel” of Jesus’ day. I do not mean “Israel” as a nation and as a whole. Rather, I mean the “Israel” which ruled over the nation and its people from the Temple as both a spiritual and political entity being subject first to Rome in all things, to their own desires as a follow-up and finally to God with whatever served their purposes best. Their “faith” in God became merely the means by which they believed they could control the general population so that Rome would allow them to continue the “arrogant life” and means for making a living. Rome, much like Satan, did not have to destroy a people to conquer them. They enabled the weakness of the people to subdue themselves and fall prey to their own desires to “be themselves” in pursuits that gnawed away at the fabric of each community. Strangely enough, it was that philosophy which consumed Rome and ultimately led to its decline and failure. It will be the same for this nation, as it has for others, and as it has already been working on the “kingdom of Hell” which is no real kingdom at all because it is defeated already in its arrogance and exists only in its death throes to have a semblance of vitality and life.

Satan will not relent nor repent. Will we? God said that the word of the prophets, though the prophets had passed, endures to demonstrate the efficacy and authenticity of God’s extension of mercy and grace to His people and those who would desire to be His people. The very fact that their earthly captors had released the prisoners to return home and finance the rebuilding of the Temple, of Jerusalem and of Israel was testimony of it. What will it take for us to learn this truth as a person, as a people and as a nation before and under God?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.