“Your sun shall not more go down; neither shall your moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.” Isaiah 60:20
Ever since the day when Adam sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, there has been a curse upon this earth, not that God would delight to do so, but because of the consequences of sin, the normal and adverse effects of sin. God is not the author of sin, nor its effects. If ever there was a clear declaration of this, it would be by the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy when he wrote that God’s intention, and will, is that “…we lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” (1 Timothy 2:2,3) He goes on to declare that God “….will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (v.4) From the very evidence of sin’s effects, when Cain killed his brother Abel, and this because Abel offered a sacrifice acceptable to God, and Cain, in defiance of God, did not, to the day when the Psalmist would write of the heathen, (those not believing in God…), who are enraged against the Lord and His Anointed, the effects of sin on mankind have been blatantly destructive and disastrous. Man left to himself, though cultured and educated, will always at some point in time or circumstance, descend into lawlessness and inhuman acts one individual, or nation, or people, against another. Man without God cannot truly live. God created man to know Him, who is Peace, Love, Goodness, and Mercy. To know God, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is to be brought first into a right relationship with Him, aligned with His will and purpose, cleansed thoroughly from the guilt and terrible consequences of sin. But that is not all, nor even the half, for it is in the heart of God that all men might be brought into a living oneness with Him who IS our goodness. In a life of blessed union with Christ, there abiding in Him, walking with Him, there is the reception of His goodness, indeed, His blessed faithful and holy life, so that God’s goodness can fill the heart. Where there was death and destruction, with no hope in man, regardless of his culture, traditions, philosophies, and disciplines, God made a way by which man could know a new beginning, separated from the downward spiral of hopelessness and helplessness, to know the power of an indestructible Life, that of Christ by the Spirit. The downward spiral away from God, independently of Him, His influence and the effects upon the life, is broken, and interrupted, when there is the deliberate, and conscience turning to Christ by the grace and mercy of God. The same power given to the lost, and desperate soul, to turn to look to Christ, is available in an increasing way, to turn with the whole heart to seek Him, and to find Him. The drawing power of God, to catch the gaze of the lost soul, is God calling the lost soul to live, and this, by coming to know Christ who IS Life. It is the discovery, as one Christian writer put it: “ALL is in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God; all else is nothing.” (H. Moule)
This history of Israel, God’s chosen people, whom He formed for His glory, and their good, was to be a testimony to the world for time and eternity, how God is willing to demonstrate His mercy and grace, even in the face of rejection, ignorance, or neglect. Over and over again, God called Israel to rise from the ashes of destruction and desolation because of her sin, to know Him again. The Bible is a testament to the goodness of God, and the Life to which He calls every man to know and to live. To know Christ NOW is to live.
Dear Father, Grant us Your Life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.