Malachi 3:6. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Well, the summer’s done now: school’s open once more, adults back to work, whatever can open is open. But unfortunately, many of our problems are still there; the virus and its ever-expanding family, the strife, the natural disasters and their consequent fall out…and all the other negative activity that’s choosing this particular time to come against us! And sadly, we don’t seem to be handling the situation properly, for there’s no unity, no agreement on how to go about solving our problems, thus our efforts are unsuccessful.
But friends, let’s be thankful for the one constant in our everchanging lives and world: that’s Jehovah God, our Creator and Provider! Let’s be thankful that He doesn’t change…and it’s not me who says so, but the Lord Himself. Yes, He declared it long ago, through the prophet Malachi. ‘For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’ (Mal. 3:6) And it’s only through His awesome grace, mercy and great LOVE for us that we have not already been destroyed, since we have delighted in moving away from His ordinances and living an ever-increasing sinful and evil lifestyle.
And I believe that our chickens are now coming home to roost in these strange, unexpected and trying times. And if we ever hope to be rid of our many problems, or even lessen them significantly, then it’s absolutely time for us to turn back to the God of our forefathers, for He is the ONLY One who can help us solve them. The sad part is that many of us are very aware of that fact, but yet we hem and haw and find all sorts of excuses not to turn back to Almighty God, to worship and reverence Him in sincerity and truth.
I don’t know what we are afraid of. Are we putting the foolish and short-term pleasures of this wicked world above the eternal and everlasting benefits and security of our souls? It certainly seems so, since many of us, in this time of tribulation, are turning away from God, rather than turning towards Him, the God of our salvation. Now listen to some more interesting words from the prophet Malachi, re the coming day of the Lord, which the scholars tell us refers to the time of the Great Tribulation, ‘which is in view as the birth pangs for the millennial kingdom.’
Malachi declares: ‘For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.’ (Mal. 4:1) Now I think that says quite clearly that the proud and wicked will suffer irreparable harm when the Lord comes. But for some reason, many of us believe it when the Lord says that He will do good, but then erroneously think that because the Lord is good and LOVING and all that, He won’t really destroy the proud and the wicked.
Friends, that’s a rather foolish theory, because you’ve seen down through history how God has indeed destroyed the wicked. Just look at what He did to the Israelites, His chosen people, in the wilderness when they began complaining and behaving foolishly, hating the manna that they were being divinely given and wishing they back in bondage in Egypt. The Good Book says: ‘And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.’ (Num. 21:6)
Yes my people, whatever the Lord says He will do, He will do, be it good or bad in our eyes, for there is always good reason for His actions. He has been warning us since the beginning of the Good Book that the wicked will be destroyed and the faithful saved, but we obviously don’t take His warnings seriously otherwise our world would never be as sinful and evil as it currently is.
And we obviously have lost a lot of our brain power, or logical thinking as we have evolved down through the years, for the Israelites when they found themselves in hard times because of their sinful behaviour, quickly repented and returned to the God of their forefathers, like they did with that snake attack. They ran to Moses and repented and asked him to pray for them, and the Lord told Moses to make a brass serpent and hang it upon a pole, and whoever got bit by a snake could look upon the serpent and live.’ (Num. 21:7-9)
But we brainiacs of this modern world, think we invented ourselves and we don’t need God, thus we try to push Him out of our society. Well good luck with that! It won’t ever happen! Because the Lord won’t allow it to. Why can’t we learn from the fall of the very fool we follow in our wicked and sinful behaviour nuh? Lucifer the archangel had great hopes of becoming El Numero Uno and overthrowing Almighty God his Creator. So, he and some other foolish heavenly creations rebelled. And what happened to them? They were ungraciously kicked out of heaven to walk the earth in shame and disgrace and to eventually be destroyed.
But still, knowing the lying, deceitful and wicked nature of those rebellious creations, we listen to them and follow them, going against the dictates of our Creator. And yet, we don’t think that we will be eventually destroyed, just like them, if we don’t turn from our evil ways before the end of our mortal lives. Hn!
The problem here my people, is that we don’t know when our mortal lives will end. It can happen at any time, and very often the grim reaper gives us absolutely no warning. That makes it necessary for us to be always prepared. For if we die without accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we will end up separated from God, our worst nightmare. Only thing is, it won’t be a nightmare then, but a stark and frightening reality!
However, if we wisely turn back to the Lord, listen to His promise through Malachi. ‘But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall (grow up fat like stall fed calves). And ye shall tread down (trample) the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.’ (Mal. 4:2-3)
And He did it friends, when He sent Jesus Christ (the Sun of righteousness, the Messiah) to earth to die in propitiation for our sins. So please believe that God is a keeper of His promises, be they in our favour or not, and let’s wise up and realize that the many problems we and our world face will not be solved or even lessened until we once again acquire a true reverence and LOVE for Almighty God!
Now, for those of us who have already done that, let’s go home declaring (yeahhh!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting the whole world know who and whose we are, who we belong to lock, stock and barrel. (smile) Altogether now: ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with the world. Amen!’
And having made those significant statements, it now behooves us to go out and share that awesome friendship and LOVE of Jesus with others who don’t know Him. Much LOVE!
…these times are…the beginning of sorrows…(Matt. 24:8)
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