For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Christmas is coming soon. Let us remember what it is truly about, the birth of Jesus Christ. Let us strive to not be caught up in the commercialism which is what this season is about for many in our society today.
There are some things which you cannot satisfy by giving them more. No matter how much is burned up in a fire, it will always be able to burn more. No matter how much rain falls in the desert, it will be dry almost as soon as the rain stops. No matter how many people die, the grave will always have room for more. We need to recognize those things which cannot be sated.
This psalm conveys an important message. One which I cannot sum up better than the way the psalmist says it.
You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
…
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
God knows everything we think and do. He knows what we are going to say before we even think it. The psalmist goes on to tell us that there is no place we can go to be separated from God. No matter where we go, God is already there.
John describes two witnesses/prophets who will arise and prophesy in Jerusalem. They will perform miraculous signs and, during their period of testimony, any who try to harm them will die a sudden death. When they complete their testimony the forces of evil will make war against them and kill them. Their bodies will be left to lie in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. During that time, the people of the world who do not worship God will gloat over their death. Then God will raise them up to life again, terrifying those who witness it. They will be called into heaven.
I am convinced that much of what is written here is figurative. However, I am also convinced that when this happens, those who truly worship God will recognize it as fulfilling this passage. In addition, many people will come to serve the Lord as a result of these events, some because of the prophesying by these two witnesses, and some because they see how these two witnesses fulfill this passage.
Haggai called on the Jews who had returned from exile to rebuild the Temple. He calls them to task for putting their own comfort ahead of doing God’s will. This message is an important reminder to us to put God first in our lives. The returned exiles had good intentions. As soon as they got the local economy back up and running, they were planning to rebuild the Temple. But everything they tried fell just a little short. They never managed to accumulate the surplus they thought they needed to be able to spare the time and effort to work on the Temple. This is so much like us.
Haggai’s message to them was to do the Lord’s work now, not to wait until conditions were just right to do so. God wants the same thing from us today. If we wait until we get everything going the way we think it should before doing God’s work, we will never get there. Let us start doing what we know God wants us to do first. Then God will bless us by showing us how to make the rest work as well.