Fear No Fear

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

““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says Yahweh of Armies. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Yahweh as in the days of old and as in ancient years. . . “For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says Yahweh of Armies. . . Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.””
(Malachi 3:1-4; 4:1-3, 5)

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people;
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
   (as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),
   salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show mercy toward our fathers,
    to remember his holy covenant,
the oath which he swore to Abraham our father,
   to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
    should serve him without fear,
   in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
   to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the dawn from on high will visit us,
    to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death;
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.””
(Luke 1:68-79)

The people of Israel were acting wrongly, but then complaining to the Lord about injustice. They were NOT following His Way, but wanting the benefit of obedience. The response of the Lord was (and is) Messiah. He came swiftly (without warning). He spoke to their hearts and called them to repentance and renewal. They were complaining about and finding fault in Adonai. Jesus showed them the distinction between those who follow God with their whole hearts and those who don’t. If you didn’t follow God, judgment would find you. If you did follow God, repentance would become part of your life. Going through a refiner’s fire (not a comfortable experience) in order to continue to live increasingly holier before God. God would send a prophet like Elijah to call the Israelites to that kind of repentance relationship BEFORE the time of judgment – because He is merciful and gracious and wants His people to have time to get in right relationship with Him.

John, called the Baptizer once his ministry began, was that prophet like Elijah. Jesus told us that. He would call the people to repentance and a return to God because the Kingdom of God was imminent. Jesus preached the same message. Repent and accept God’s Way. Live in love with God and you’ll find yourself obeying His commandments. Be holy because HE is holy. Learn His Way and learn His will through the Word. Hold yourself accountable and take His correction. Turn around and retrain your mind to see His Way and His moral character as THE way and the CORRECT character. Make the effort to LISTEN. Make the choice to OBEY. The messenger has come. The prophet pointed to the Way. The next step is the judgment, and if you’re not with God, you will NOT enjoy that Day.

Summary

Psalm 23:1 tells us that when we are letting God shepherd us, we lack NOTHING. When we listen to the Lord and OBEY what we hear from Him, we will ALWAYS be prepared for what is coming. He does it in small ways. He does it in large ways. But He ALWAYS does it. John’s whole ministry was to prepare the people to accept Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ ministry was to prepare the people to accept the New Covenant – a covenant of SPIRIT which embodied the heart intent of the Old Covenant of FLESH. They are the same in that both point to trusting God for your salvation. For your everything. The message has been delivered. The messengers gave it to us and it has been recorded for us. How will you respond? Nothing but the Lord lasts forever. The time of decision is now.