June 5, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD— they and their descendants with them. Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65.23-24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

An enduring legacy.

A blessed future. We hear a reiteration and affirmation of God’s promise from the verses before. To repeat it and then expand upon it serves to show not only intentionality but assurance. It is the revoking of the result of the original sin. What is the result of sin? It is death that results in pain in this world and separation from God the Father in the next. The representation of that was revealed in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden and the transformation of Satan (the cast out Lucifer) from Heaven. In the expulsion, God declared that Adam would make his living and thus his reputation from the soil of the earth out of which he had been formed. It would be hard labor creating sweat on his brow and the aching reminder of his frailty versus his fealty. He would be productive and even successful as he maintained his relationship with God through his works. He was not saved by those works, remember, as his salvation (and ours!) comes from the act of mercy and grace upon us by God. As for Eve, she would experience the joy and the pain of childbirth. She would still work by her husband’s side from which she was drawn because they were helpmates. Their connection in life would cause life to be drawn from her. She was not saved by her work either but was able to bring life into the world (albeit it with pain) because she, too, had been saved by God. [Curious that Paul would say to a certain woman who sought to take authority over her husband and by it to rule the local congregation of which they were a part overseen by Timothy, “Women are saved by childbirth.” (1 Timothy 2.15) What Paul was bringing to mind was the very intent mentioned above. He did not mean that women were saved by bearing children as that would be salvation by works leading to works righteousness. No, he meant that women should be reminded of their enduring legacy as that evidence of a blessed future which God empowered by saving Eve to become the model of a right relationship of women to men and thus to God. Paul expands upon this as the Church, as the body of Christ, is to be in right relationship to Christ the head and God the Father bringing future generations into the world for the glory of God.] As we may understand this for the Church, we can also understand it for the community of faith ruled by the Law, as the original covenant between humanity and God. Regardless of living in or out of the Garden of Eden, the people of God throughout the generations were to practice living in righteousness and keep the “Word of God” alive in heart, mind, body and soul. To do otherwise was to rebuke the covenant calling which God had given to Adam and Eve and succeeding generations and thus bring in disaster and, dare we say, damnation. We need only to look upon the “days of Noah” for the evidence of that truth. In those days, “sons of God/god” took the daughters of men as their “wives/concubines” and the moral nature of the world fell. Jewish tradition, and many other interpreters of Scripture, identified those “sons of God/god” to be the fallen ones from Heaven who followed Lucifer’s rebellion and were cast out. Some say they were rulers of nations who rebelled against the belief in God and chose for themselves their own path of life contrary to the word and will of God. Regardless, the result was the same. The women gave themselves to their suitors as if they were “godly men or gods themselves” and bore generations of wickedness until God repented that He had ever created humanity. Finding the family of Noah as those who remained faithful, God purged the earth of its human blight and saved Noah’s family and mating “pairs” of animals for a “start again” mission. Noah’s family was not saved by water, mind you. They were saved from the water, the flood, and the water serves as a reminder of God’s judgment as the rainbow is a reminder of God’s mercy.

An unblessed future. In that which is reflected upon above, we must be reminded that their is an unblessed future. Choosing self, or anything else, above or before God does not produce anything but unrighteousness. The ramifications of it are evidence in abundance in today’s world. The consideration that “this world is all we have” so let’s make the most of it for ourselves has born the fruit of unrighteousness and immorality. It is a bitter fruit which tastes of an eternal death and a darkness which consumes not the light of God but the plight of humanity. It is filled with the fire of a passion born against God blaming Him for their condition instead of claiming the truth of their disposition and seeking God while He may be found. Their day will come when “doom and disaster” (i.e. hellfire and brimstone) will be the only ground of being that may draw from. It is an unholy ground upon which God will never set foot upon for those who dwell there “have eyes but refuse to see and ears which refuse to hear.” Why would we, mighty ones of God, choose to live by the standards of the world when their fate is such?

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

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free in Jesus’ name. AMEN.