It appears to us as we read the unfolding visions in Revelation that their sequence reveals different aspects of the ‘march’ of human history – as human beings try to avoid their responsibility to their Creator and the Saviour he provided.   These different aspects all climax in the time when “the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone … (say)… hide us … from (God) … and the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” [6 v.15-17]

That is the key question – “who can stand?”  When the systems of life on earth are totally falling apart in a greater crisis than ever before – only those who truly “know” God and “the Lamb” will be preserved.  The rest will  experience the divine wrath on a godless world.  

    But note how in Ch. 5 there is reference to “golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints” [v.8]  The elders who hold the bowls sing “a new song” to the Lamb (v.6) that has now appeared on the scene – and how wonderful are the words they sing.

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth” [v.9,10]  May we so live now that we are among the “ransomed people”. 

In 1 Samuel 2 we have Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving for her child Samuel; with what heart felt vision she ends it with the words, “He (God) will guard the feet of his faithful ones … The adversaries of the LORD are broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed.” [v.9,10]  Hannah was obviously a very spiritually perceptive person!   May we have the same spirit, and regular reading of God’s words are an essential part of this!  

    Her prayer (and ours?) is about to have its final and complete fulfilment as are the other prayers that are counted as incense in “the golden bowls”   Make sure yours are among them so that you “can stand” on that “great day.”

Our readings today all provoke some challenging thoughts. First we read Hannah’s impassioned prayer leading her to tell Eli the priest, “I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD” [1 Sam. 1 v.15] Such is human nature that we usually only do this when there is some real crisis. Hannah proves herself to be a very spiritual woman and tomorrow we will read her marvellous prayer of gratitude, “My heart exults in the LORD.” [2 v.1] Is that our experience?  

    Do we really count our blessings? What qualifies as a blessing?  Food for thought.

God’s message through Isaiah is very challenging, “I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning … I will accomplish all my purpose.” [46 v.9,10]

    This pronouncement was followed by the statement, “Listen to me you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness.” [v.12] Sadly God could equally say that today – not only to the world – but to most if not all of those who claim to be Christian.

The third chapter of Revelation gives us 3 illustrations of the ultimate purpose of God in Christ’s messages to three different churches.  The message to Sardis said there were “still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments (of righteousness – see Ch.7 v.13-14 & Isaiah 61 v.10) and they will walk before me in white, for they are worthy.” [v.4]

He commends those in Philadelphia for their “patient endurance” and as a result of this says, “I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on earth.” [v.10] Believers over the centuries have experienced severe times of trial, but many scriptures make it clear that an ultimate “time” is coming!

He reproves the believers in Laodicea for their attitude!  “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” [v.17] adding, “Those whom I love I reprove and discipline” [v.19]  And, what is the personal part of the “end” that God declared from the beginning? Verse 21 tells us, “The one who conquers (AV overcomes) I will grant him to sit with me on my throne …” [v.21]

    May he love us and may we accept any “discipline” he sees necessary so that we are counted “worthy”.

Today we started reading the thought challenging last book of the Bible.  At the start the symbolic language is clearly explained, assemblies of believers (which is the meaning of the word for ‘church’) are called “lampstands” (1 v.20 – candlesticks in the old A V – places where light should shine forth).    The book is “a revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must soon take place.” [1 v.1] 

‘Soon’ is as seen from God’s perspective!  It was 2,000 years from Abraham to Christ! God’s angel told Abraham when he stopped him from sacrificing Isaac, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” [Gen. 22 v8], yet it took him 2,000 years (in man’s time frame) to provide it. And here we are 2,000 years later and …?

In this last book the answer is revealed – often by linking together messages God gave to the prophets, as we are reading in Isaiah.  The 2^nd chapter shows that our Lord and Saviour is the one “who walks among the seven golden lampstands” [v.1] and because of that he can say to them all, “I know your works …” [v.2, 19, etc] The first church, at Ephesus is praised for their “patient endurance , and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, and are not, and have found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary” [v.2,3] 

Those words are all positive and encouraging – and it comes as a shock to then read, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first.  If not …” [v.4,5]  The works of those who bear Christ’s name are only complete when their “works” show the love they profess.  The more intensely we develop our relationship with Christ, a true loving relationship, the more this will result in actions. It is dangerous to only do things from a sense of duty.

The comparison to the message to the church at Pergamum [v.12-17] is significant.  This church is contending with the influence of “Satan’s throne” which must be a centre of evil in their city “where Satan dwells”[v.13] Despite this, “…yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness who was killed …”  We reluctantly realize that opposition and danger in one form or another is ‘good’ for us.   Revelation is a message for all generations and our final thought is in v.25 “… hold fast what you have until I come”   Surely that is a message for today.

 The account of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi has a special message for us in encouraging us to see the ‘bigger picture’ of life, the picture as God sees it.  Because of a severe famine Naomi with her husband and 2 sons move from Bethlehem to Moab. Some years pass but then her husband dies and she “was left with her two sons”[1 v.3]. The sons marry Moabite women and “they lived there about ten years” [v.4] but then her sons die. 

Naomi then decides to return to her home town of Bethlehem and one of her daughters-in-law insists on coming with her declaring, “Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” [v.16]  Naomi, at first, feels it would be  better if Ruth stayed in Moab and states, “it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” [v.13]    As events unfold, we begin to see the bigger picture.  God sees the end from the beginning. In Isaiah’s chapter today we see God is challenging those who worship idols, “Let them declare what is to come” [44 v.7] as the LORD does. In Ch. 46 we will read, “I am God and there is no other … there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.” [v.9,10] 

Naomi starts to perceive that “the hand of the LORD” weaves together events in a longer time frame in the outworking of his purposes; this is more than we mortals can normally comprehend, but we can catch some perception of it as we look back. Thus we see how Ruth became the grandmother of Jesse the father of David.  The time came when David was being hunted by Saul and David saw the need to protect his parents from the probability of Saul’s vengeance and 1 Sam. 22 v.3,4 tells us he went to Moab and “said to the king of Moab, ‘Please let my father and mother stay with you’”  It is evident why he trusted this king. This gives us a glimpse of how, under God’s oversight, “all things work together for good” [Romans 8 v.28]. 

So, in this 21^st Century we eagerly watch to see how God will fulfil his word through Isaiah that we have read today in Ch. 44 for “The LORD … will be glorified in Israel” [v.22], and this nation is now a focus of attention in a the world that now largely believes in the ‘god of evolution’ !  But God declares, “I am the LORD who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself … who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish” [v.24,25]  Let us all search God’s word to see more evidence of his “hand” at work! 

 What is love?  As we read the aged disciple John’s final two short Epistles, his use of the word “love” jumps out at us. He writes how, “I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth  … and this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.” [2 John v.4,6] This is how we show our love in response to God’s love. We rejoice because others do the same. 

Remember what we read in 1 John 4 v.19, “We love because he first loved us.”  Paul’s words in Ephesians 2 always powerfully provoke our thoughts, that we “were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ – by grace …” [v.3-5]

When we talk about our attitude of love we must think of the actions that show our love; a love very different from what most people in the world mean when they use the word!  John goes on to write, “everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” [v.9] All who do this have a living relationship with the divine every day. The word “abides” relates to the word “walks”- it indicates a settled direction and purpose in life and is a vital foundation for genuine happiness and contentment.   In his final epistle, addressed to Gaius,  John says, “I rejoiced greatly when the brother’s came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” [v.3,4]  Love is not self-centred, it is God-centred, then we see life from God’s perspective.

The contrast to this has been so evident in the book of Judges which we finished reading today. The very last verse is a kind of epitaph!  “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” – and that is the way in the world around us.  Let us do what is right in God’s eyes and walk in love and truth.

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world,” writes John, and then he adds, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” [1 John 5 v.4]. What is faith?  That’s is a fundamental question – and the answer is simple!  Or is it?  Consider what happened in the First Century – beginning with 12 ordinary men, most of them fishermen.      Yes, miracles happened at times, but though these were a spur to faith, think of how many times Jesus said to them, “O you of little faith” (e.g. Matt.8 v.26; 14 v.31;16 v.8) 

Only later did they develop the faith that spurred them and so many others to be faithful in the face of all sorts of persecution. This arose because the pagan Greek and Roman world was challenged as to what it really believed, who really was the God that should be worshipped!  The ‘god’ of atheism is starting to be ‘worshipped’ today and its dedicated adherents are starting to create more and more problems for genuine Bible believers.

Paul in his letters to those converted from paganism reminds them “how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” [1 Thess. 1 v.9,10]  These former pagans had reached a conviction as to the real nature of the Creator who sent his Son into the world.  A conviction that included the realization that we are nothing, we are like a cloud floating through the sky, dissipating into nothingness unless …!! Unless we seek a relationship with God!  

There is a well known verse which tells us, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” [Hebrews 11 v.6]

Today the challenge to our efforts to develop such a faith – is the fiction of evolution – the impossible idea that everything by some means “created” itself!  So we turn from human fiction to the wonder of what happened 2,000 years ago and has challenged human minds ever since. It is “our faith” in that event which enables us to “overcome the world” writes John.  It is “our faith” that inspires us on to “victory.”

John stresses a key point as he ends his first Epistle.  “We know the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ” [v.20]  Real faith inevitably leads us know God, it results in us having a ‘living’ prayerful relationship with him, in the same sense, but far greater, than the way men and women should aim to ‘know’ each other in marriage.   Feeding on God’s word every day is an essential part in maintaining and developing that relationship.

Our chapter in the First Epistle of John (Ch. 3) starts with the above words!  Love comes in different “kinds” and fully genuine love is proved by the actions that follow.   When we get to v.18 we read, “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”   That kind of love should create a reaction in those who benefit from it.  Look at and see how meaningful is the rest of that quotation, we read, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”    This is an extra dimension to the familiar statement that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” [John 3 v.16]  God sees those who really believe as being  “children of God”.

Those who are children of the world have little or no time for those who are living with the conviction they are “children of God”. But how wonderful when there are exceptions when people are genuinely influenced and attracted by the godly lives they see in others.  Look at the point John made in v.2, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”   Oh, but those who put him to death knew him!  Yes, but they only knew him in a physical sense, they saw him as a rival, their minds were fixed on themselves, their motives were totally self-centred, their minds were blinded because of their own sense of self importance.  

Those who really think, in all humility, of the wonder of being known by God and becoming his children, develop a totally different mind-set in the way they think.  Just 4 days ago we read these words in Peter, “Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, “YET IT WAS THE WILL OF THE LORD”” [1 Peter 5 v.6,7].  Those who develop the ability to see the kind of love that God has for those who serve him will, in all humility, develop a wonderful relationship with their Creator.

Our first reading today (Judges 19) reveals a totally contrasting situation! It is an ugly story of human depravity.  Why does the Bible contain such chapters?  Because it is an honest record of the depravity of human life – and how God deals with it – as well as the wonder of spiritual life and of our potential to have a total relationship with God as his children.  We love God, but let us be sure it is the right “kind of love”! 

 Today we read the fascinating 40^th chapter of Isaiah which was largely taken and put to music in the Oratorio ‘The Messiah’ about 250 years ago.   It begins “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem … that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is pardoned.” Jerusalem has been the centre of warfare for much of the time since God gave these words to Isaiah.  This city, with its magnificent Temple to God has been twice destroyed.  

But then in 1967 its ancient walls were again under the control of the people of Israel.  How long will it be before verse 5 is fulfilled? “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” But the passing centuries have seen that “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand for ever.” [v.8] Those who know their Bibles will also “stand for ever” and, for this reason they are reading v.9-11 with anticipation – “… O Jerusalem, herald of good news … say to the cities of Judah ‘Behold your God. Behold the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd …”

Then verse 17 tells us, “All nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.” This is more true than ever of the godless world of the 21^st Century!  But then the final verses ask and answer the most important question in life!  “Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator … they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” [v.28,21] 

This reminds us of the words of Jesus, “those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the dead … they cannot die anymore because they are equal unto the angels …” [Luke 20 v.35,36]

Each year we more eagerly and earnestly “wait for the LORD” – or should be – are you?  Our regular reading and meditation on God’s word is our source of strength until it is renewed in ways beyond our comprehension when as Paul puts it, “we await a Saviour; the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body …” [Philp’ns 3 v.20,21]

The list in Hebrews of those who are named as examples of faith has some surprising inclusions and Samson is one of them.   None of those in the list lived ‘perfect’ or blameless lives, but all had times in which they displayed great faith in God.   We have just read the accounts of Samson’s remarkable strength because his hair had never been cut. When Delilah finally succeeded in getting him to tell her the source of his strength she shaved off all his hair and then awoke him and said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the LORD had left him. And the Philistines seized him …” [Judges 16 v.20,21]

The LORD was the real source of his strength – and at his death he killed a great number of Philistines who had “praised their god. For they said, ‘our god has given our enemy into our hand’” [v.24].  We read that “Samson called to the LORD and said, O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once” [v.28] and the Philistine house to their God, built around two main pillars, collapsed as Samson was given the strength by the LORD to push them apart, “so the dead that he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.” [v.30]

Now in the chapter we read yesterday there is a significant verse. When his father objected to him seeking a wife from among the Philistines and Samson insisted and “said to his father, Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes” [14 v.3], the next verse is very significant, “His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.”  

This illustrates that God, who sees all and knows all; in giving us a free will, often weaves the weaknesses of our human nature into the way he achieves his divine purpose – especially among his people. Paul was aware of this, he wrote, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” [Romans 8 v.28]  It is according to the Divine purpose that “things work together” – God frequently making use of human “weakness” to weave together his plans and bring them to pass. The more we read the Bible the more we will see examples of this. 

 We read the first 2 chapters of Peter’s second epistle today and he, like Paul in his 2^nd letter to Timothy, is nearing the end of his mortal life.   Peter is greatly concerned that all too many who had accepted Jesus as their Saviour were losing their commitment and turning back to fleshly ways of thinking and living. 

There is no half way position, either we are for Christ or we are not: either we are among the sheep or among the goats. Peter writes, “for if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back …” [Ch. 2 v.20,21]

Peter describes the way of life in the world around him – and it is so similar to today! “They have eyes full of adultery … they have hearts trained in greed … they promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” [v.14,19]  Beware of human promises especially if they are made  by apparently godly people – telling you that you do not have to worry about whether you sin or not anymore because whatever you do, the blood of Christ means you are always automatically forgiven. 

Peter says that just as in Old Testament times there were “false prophets … also … there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies … and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed … they will exploit you with false words.” [v.1-3]  Reading the Bible regularly will enable us to identify “false words.”

Finally, looking back at his 1^st chapter we noted how believers should, because of the ungodliness all around them, “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness … for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful …” [v5-6, 8].  Let us all live with the aim of bearing fruit – that will be ripe when Jesus returns.