“YOU ARE STORING UP …. ” Thoughts from today’s Bible readings – Jan. 27th
“YOU ARE STORING UP …. ” Thoughts from today’s Bible readings – Jan. 27th D.Caudery
Each of our 5 chapters today provide us with thought challenging verses. In Genesis 44 and 45 we read of the drama when Joseph made himself known to his brothers – and the heart searching on that occasion. Then Psalm 49 provided a clear message that those who make money and gain possessions, that when they die they “will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”
[v.19,20]
A clear cut inspired statement that humans do not have an ‘immoral soul’- this phrase never occurs in God’s word. In Ezekiel 18 v.20, God bluntly tells him, “The soul who sins shall die.” The word “soul” means the person
Then the first 2 chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans provide us with a multitude of challenging thoughts. Paul says, “the wrath of God is … against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” [1 v.18]
One of the truths suppressed today is the reality that God, the Creator of all things, actually exists. In ancient Rome they imagined all sorts of gods and things about what they did or had done. Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain … For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
[v.19-20]
Paul tells those who think this way in Rome that “you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment (is) revealed.” [2 v.5] At that time (surely our days) “there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil …” [2 v.9]
BUT – and what a wonderful “but” this is – “but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good”
[v.10]
What is it to do “good?’ Remember what we read earlier this month in Psalm 15, “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart…” What wonders God is “storing up” for those sort of people!
What is God “storing up” for you and me? May our answer, by the grace of our Lord, lead us to ” glory and honour and peace” because we have absorbed and put into practice the precepts in his word – and embraced the hope it reveals of the future – and this is constantly part of our thoughts – how soon now is “the day of wrath”?
