Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria for two years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him and attacked him in Samaria, in the fortress of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites. He killed him, and reigned in his place. Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria for twenty years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.”
(2 Kings 15:23-29)

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines and troubles. These things are the beginning of birth pains.”
(Mark 13:7-8)

When you are in a covenant, it is important to keep your side of the covenant. This is basic common sense, right? But the Israelites were forgetting it. They were seeing how other nations were doing things and they were looking at past examples of their own leaders and choosing to NOT honour their covenant with the Lord. As a result, they were moving out of His protection. They were – under the Law – moving toward judgment. They were inviting upheaval. In addition, there were always people looking to take down God’s Chosen. Looking to steal the blessing. Looking to eliminate the physical demonstrative proof that God cares for His obedient children and is a very real God (unlike their own idols). Many times throughout their history they were facing nation-destroying circumstances. All because they did not honour their covenant with God.

Jesus warned that no matter how bad it had been in the past, there was coming a time of further upheaval. Further events that would shake the world. They were as inevitable as the pangs a mother experiences while giving birth (and they are NO joke). Yes, the arrival of that child erases the vivid horror of the process (otherwise no one would ever choose to give birth twice), but it is still experienced. It isn’t erased. It marks the women. Jesus is warning His disciples that the world is going to be marked. No matter how bad they think it has been, there is something so big, so important, so incredible that will be birthed that the pangs of the process will mark the world and all in it. In fact, in verse 20 Jesus tells them that if the Father hadn’t limited the time of the birthing no one would survive it – that’s how big it was going to be. Not just the Jews, but ALL people will experience this. Jesus didn’t portray it as a negative, however, but as a positive. For the joy of what is coming, we can look to Him for sustenance and make it through the process. It was a hopeful warning to keep our eyes on the Lord and not to let go of listening to Him.

Summary

There is a DAY coming. It will be soon. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon. It is closer than it has EVER been. On that day, the world will change. It will shake. It will groan. We cannot truly grasp the upheaval that will happen. The insistently wicked will be removed from the Earth and we will all witness the chaos that will accomplish that. It won’t be the rapture. It won’t be alien abduction. It won’t be some conspiracy to weaken the national identity of anyone. It will be God judging those who intentionally and consistently hardened their hearts in full knowledge of His existence by giving them what they have insisted on. In that DAY, we will need to stay focused on God. We will need to honour the covenant Jesus let us into. If we stick with the Lord, before and during and after, we will be secure. Yes, we will go through the same troubles as everyone else. But WE will be sheltered, guided, shepherded, and taken care of. God will NOT fail us. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Seek His face. Look to get into the Word every day. No matter what is going on, it is worth it to be in a relationship with the Lord. Jesus told us it was coming. It is almost here. And we can eagerly look forward to the whole new ballgame we will all be operating in after the Lord God Almighty shows the whole world HE IS.