The Bible reads us.
I asked a question during a Bible Study, “What will happen to the great men of the earth?” Nobody answered.
Then I said the great men are all in trouble. God is going to deal very harshly with them. I then quoted some scriptures:
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“The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonour the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9).
“It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth the kings of the earth.” (Isaiah 24:21).
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“(God will) execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron.” (Psalm 149:7-8).
Let me add another question, “What will happen to the rich men?” They will become poor. James says
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.” (James 5:1-6).
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But the poor will become rich.
“The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.” (1 Samuel 2:7-8).
“And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it.” (Ezekiel 17:24).
This was a bit confusing for some. A lady sought refuge in Moses. Moses says:
“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers.” (Deuteronomy 8:18).
She said. “If it is God who gives the power to get wealth, how can the rich be in trouble?”
Covenant Wealth
In the first place, the wealth that Moses is talking about here is different from the wealth that the lady was thinking about. The wealth Moses is talking about is one designed to establish God’s covenant. That is different from the wealth of a classic rich man.
With the rich, God says:
“I will change their glory into shame.” (Hosea 4:7).
Jesus even declared a devastating principle:
“What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15).
Think of anything that man esteems: wealth, fame, power, position, background, education, wisdom, etcetera; they are all abominations to God.
Listen carefully: We send our children to school to get what is an abomination to God.
“Clarus: What would you like to be when you grow up?”
“I want to be an Engineer.”
Wrong answer. Say instead, “I want to be a friend of God.”
“Gringory: “Why are you studying the sciences in university?”
“I want to grow in the knowledge of the sciences.”
Wrong answer. Say instead, “I want to grow in the knowledge of God.”
Paul says:
“What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8).
The Good Might Be Bad
The fact that God gives something to you does not mean what He gives is good for you. God also gives bad things. He gives diseases, and that is bad.
“The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.” (Deuteronomy 28:27-28).
He also gives us things we consider bad that are actually good for us.
God sent Moses to Pharaoh to secure the release of the Israelites from Egypt. Moses did not want to go:
“Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:10-12).
God says if a man is blind, He is the one who makes him blind. But why? Why does God make us blind?
Read Matthew 13:13-16
I was a new believer; I had just met the Lord. Jesus stooped beside me while I was sleeping and shouted in my left ear, “Matthew 13:13-16.”
What does it say:
“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.” (Matthew 13:13-16).
I thank God for opening my eyes and ears 33 years ago. He did not tell me to read verse 17, but I read it anyway. It says:
“Assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:17).
This says that many prophets and righteous men do not see what I see and do not hear what I hear. Why not? That is kingdom dynamics. God says:
“Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but you do not observe; opening the ears, but he does not hear.” (Isaiah 42:19-20).
But why are the servants of God blind? Why are the messengers of God blind? Why is the perfect man blind?
The Bible Reads Us
We read the Bible, but it is important to realise that the Bible also reads us.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
So, James counsels:
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25).
The Bible is not just a collection of stories about what happened to some people in the past. The Bible, especially the New Testament, is a collection of stories about us. Every act of Jesus is directed at us.
We are the lepers that Jesus cleansed. We are the sick that He healed. We are the woman with the issue of blood whose faith healed her. We are Blind Bartimaeus, whose eyes Jesus opened. We are the deaf whose ears He opened. We are the dumb whom He enabled to talk. We are the paralysed who He enabled to walk.
Therefore, Paul says:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Born Blind
God made two types of ears that can hear, and two different types of eyes that can see. Solomon says:
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.” (Proverbs 20:12).
The inferior eye and ear are the ones that all men have. The superior ones are exclusive. You have to ask God for them. That is why it is not a good idea to concentrate on asking God for provision, school fees, and house rent. There are many more important things to fast and pray for.
Solomon says:
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:7).
James also counsels:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:4-8).
CONTINUED.
[email protected]; www.femiaribisala.com
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