Refuge
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
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PURPOSE! This week's theme is Proverbs 16:4,
"The LORD has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble."
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COLUMN: Understanding the Times
Refuge
by Emmett Smith
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though
the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved
into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar
and foam, though the mountains tremble at its
swelling" (Psalms 46:1-3 ESV).
These words were not written by David. In fact,
they were written some 200 to 300 years after
David's death, during Hezekiah's reign. And there
is remarkable agreement among various groups of
scholars that they were written in celebration of
God's destruction of Sennacherib's army.
Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, had already
conquered the area around Jerusalem. Now he had
turned his attention to Jerusalem itself. He sent
Rabshakeh to brag to Jerusalem that the gods of
the surrounding nations had not saved them and
that their God would not save them either. But
after King Hezekiah prayed to the Lord about these
boasts, God spared Jerusalem. He had decreed that
Babylon, not Assyria, would conquer Jerusalem.
So during the night God struck down 185,000 of
Sennacherib's army, so that when people arose
"early in the morning," they were all dead! God
sent Sennacherib home in disgrace, and eventually
two of his sons assassinated him, just as God had
predicted through Isaiah.
God's dominion over the nations is stated in
Jeremiah as follows:
"If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a
kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and
destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I
have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of
the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if
at any time I declare concerning a nation or a
kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it
does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice,
then I will relent of the good that I had intended
to do to it" (Jeremiah 18:7-10).
And Paul reiterated this theme in Athens:
"And he made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their dwelling place" (Acts 17:26).
God has always controlled when and where any
nation would exist. He has used believing and
unbelieving nations as He saw fit. And He rules
among the nations this very day!
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name
written, "King of kings and Lord of lords"
(Revelation 19:16).
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