Today’s Reading:  Ezek 21:1–22:31, Rev 10:1–11, Job 35:1–8

Today’s Theme: Bitter and Sweet

Today’s there looks at the bitter and sweet nature of God’s word and our call to sanctification in particular

Ezekiel 21:1–22:31

Judgement by war

Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.(Ezekiel 21:4, ESV)

This is the reality of judgement that comes in war or military conquest

Love the rod

sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! (Or shall we rejoice? You have despised the rod, my son, with everything of wood.)(Ezekiel 21:10, ESV)

Lord we need to love the rod of guidance and correction, we don’t want a rebellious attitude to lead me to the sword instead

Things could change at any point

thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.(Ezekiel 21:26, ESV)

We must not buy into the false security of things staying the way they are or the apparent linearity of everyday life… at any point personal, national or global crisis can strike for which we must be braced and ready by walking in daily humility before God and man.

The breakdown of society

Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.(Ezekiel 22:7–8, ESV)

These two verses describe complete societal breakdown, children disrespect parents, business is corrupt, there is no social justice and the rights of Christians are challenged… sounds like London.

To consume uncleanness

I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you.(Ezekiel 22:15, ESV)

Gods purpose in the discipline of his people

Sanctification and holiness

Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.(Ezekiel 22:26, ESV)

We must teach Gods people the truth of sanctification and holiness before God which involves very clear definitions of right and wrong, expedient and useless, helpful and harmful.

This reminds us that Church is a sacred place and enterprise and must remain holy and respectful in its operation.

Intercede

And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.(Ezekiel 22:30, ESV)

We must be intercessors for our wicked city

Revelation 10:1–11

God reveals what he chooses

And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”(Revelation 10:4, ESV)

We must remember the bible is the truth God has chosen to revel to us, there are still some secrets that we do not know

God, The Eternal, Living Creator

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,(Revelation 10:6, ESV)

God is eternal and is alive

God created everything, evolution is a big disrespect

God’s word, bitter and sweet

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”(Revelation 10:9, ESV)

This can be our experience with the word of God, Gods word brings me great joy and pleasure but the application of it can bring bitterness to the flesh and toil to the spirit

God’s word is fuel

And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”(Revelation 10:11, ESV)

God’s word is not just for us it is to fuel us to teach and reach others. What has happened to John is a parallel with what happened to Ezekiel

Job 35:1–8

Sinning is pointless

If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?(Job 35:6, ESV)

Sinning is the maddest position we can take before God, It is like when I tell off Josh and he would go to bite or scratch me (when he was younger), it is not going to achieve anything good for him…

Today’s Reading:  Ezek 19:1–20:49, Rev 9:1–21, Job 34:31–37

Today’s Theme: Planted by God

Today’s theme looks at the planting of God. God plants us in the body of Christ (literally in the church community) to be fruitful and flourish. God has planted the restored national Israel with salvation in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah in mind for the Jewish people.

God strategically plants his people for the sake of his name and glory.

Ezekiel 19:1–20:49

Abundant Water

Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water.(Ezekiel 19:10, ESV)

We can be fruitful if there is an abundance of the water of Gods word and Holy Spirit

Where are you planted?

Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.(Ezekiel 19:13, ESV)

Lord in your grace please keep us planted with the abundance of water. Jesus has planted us where he will in the earth and in the church in particular so that we are in the right environment to bare much fruit.

Don’t uproot yourself in ignorance and pride, humbly submit to God’s planting which is designed for your fruitfulness and flourishing.

The best land in the world

On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.(Ezekiel 20:6, ESV)

This is a bold statement from God that Israel is the best land in the World, also note that God wants the best for his people

Detestable things

And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.(Ezekiel 20:7, ESV)

What are the detestable things our eyes feast on, these things are connected to idolatry and must be cast down. In todays culture it can be things like vanity, pornography etc

The Sabbaths

Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.(Ezekiel 20:12, ESV)

The plural Sabbaths points to Jewish feasts, It is a privilege to be in Jerusalem today at the start of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles)

God, uppermost in his own affections

But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.(Ezekiel 20:14, ESV)

God is rightly uppermost in his own affections

A heart problem

because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.(Ezekiel 20:16, ESV)

Sin and idolatry is a heart problem

God’s motivation

But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.(Ezekiel 20:22, ESV)

God’s greatest and purest motivation is for the sake of his own name, for the sake of his glory

Gift’s and commands

Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the Lord.(Ezekiel 20:25–26, ESV)

God can send judgement through our very gifts and his very commands, Lord keep us in your love

God knows your mind

“What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.’(Ezekiel 20:32, ESV)

God knows our very thoughts and remains in sovereign control

The great narrative

“As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will be king over you.(Ezekiel 20:33, ESV)

This is one of the great narratives of the bible, Gods desire and fight to be recognised as the true king

Restored for salvation

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers.(Ezekiel 20:42, ESV)

One of Gods purposes in restoring the Jews to the land is evangelical. Writing from Israel today, join us in prayer for the salvation of Jewish people over this time of Sukkot.

The burden of leadership

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ‘Is he not a maker of parables?’ ”(Ezekiel 20:49, ESV)

Seems like Ezekiel was beginning to weary under the Lords mandate and the peoples scorn. With this in mind pray for those God has called to lead

Revelation 9:1–21

Sovereign over death

And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.(Revelation 9:6, ESV)

Nobody can die before Gods appointed time for them

A fallen angel

They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.(Revelation 9:11, ESV)

A great demonic fallen angel, proving there is some level of structure in the devils ranks.

We need regeneration

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.(Revelation 9:20–21, ESV)

This shows that without the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, no amount of judgement alone can lead man to repentance

Job 34:31–37

Speaking without knowledge

‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.’(Job 34:35, ESV)

This was in fact true, Job had no idea about the wager between God and Satan

Today’s Reading:  Ezek 17:1–18:32, Rev 7:9–8:13, Job 34:16–30

Today’s Theme: God’s Full Knowledge

Today’s theme is God’s Full Knowledge. God really does know everything, noting is hidden form his sight, he know everything down to the smallest details. God know everything presently, he doesn’t learn anything. God knows everything at all times and has never not known all that he now knows.

Based on God’s knowledge he teaches with parables, calls man to repentance, warns man of judgement, makes declarations which he will without doubt back up and judges with complete authority. God’s knowledge also informs his love, mercy, patience and means God is not indifferent to man’s suffering.

Because God’s knowledge is full we can trust him and put our faith in him.

Ezekiel 17:1–18:32

The wisdom of parables

“Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes and brought them to him to Babylon.(Ezekiel 17:12, ESV)

God and Jesus both used parables and riddles

Don’t break agreements

But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he thrive? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape?(Ezekiel 17:15, ESV)

God takes the breaking of agreements seriously as Jesus teaches us that we should make our communication a simple yes or no

Have faith in God

Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head.(Ezekiel 17:19, ESV)

Very often our breaking of agreements is a sign of our lack of faith in God

God backs his talk

And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”(Ezekiel 17:24, ESV)

God has the unique ability to back up anything he says, the figurative use of trees and twigs speak of the remnant of Israel that would be saved and of the nations

The owner of souls

Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.(Ezekiel 18:4, ESV)

This is a bold declaration that only God can make, all souls ultimately belong to him and the decree is that the soul that sins shall die.

Personal responsibility

lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.(Ezekiel 18:13, ESV)

My sins are on me and my children’s sins are on them, each man has personal responsibility before God

The curse is broken

withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live.(Ezekiel 18:17, ESV)

In and through Jesus we live right before God, there is no hereditary curse on us

No excuses

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.(Ezekiel 18:20, ESV)

This is God himself destroying the bad teaching of hereditary sins and curses on the personal level, this is simply not true, every man is responsible before God for his own life… no excuses

No fatalism

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.(Ezekiel 18:21, ESV)

With the Lord there is room for repentance for the wicked man, here ends all ideas of fatalism

God’s desire

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?(Ezekiel 18:23, ESV)

God wants all men to repent and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, to understand this we need to understand the difference between the decreed and commanded will of God

Righteousness and responsibility NOW

But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.(Ezekiel 18:24, ESV)

We cannot live on the glory of our past righteousness our responsibility before God is always in the NOW. Also we must note that this is speaking of righteousness in the OT sense and not of regeneration although the same principle still applies and would be evidence of apostasy and false conversion.

God is not unfair

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?(Ezekiel 18:25, ESV)

This is a common notion today that God is somehow unfair

God is gracious

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin.(Ezekiel 18:30, ESV)

God is gracious to all people in even allowing us the option to repent at all and the promise that with genuine repentance he will forgive and respond

Make a new heart

Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?(Ezekiel 18:31, ESV)

It is our responsibility to make a new heart for ourselves. We do this by making God our treasure.

Repent!

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”(Ezekiel 18:32, ESV)

God’s cry to Israel and to all mankind, Repent! when we repent we bring God pleasure and there is rejoicing in heaven

Revelation 7:9–8:13

The redeemed in Heaven

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,(Revelation 7:9, ESV)

There are the redeemed, the JWs don’t like this verse as it proves all believers will be before the throne of God.

Also note the distinctions made are nations, tribes, people and languages at no point is colour of skin mentioned

Our song

and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”(Revelation 7:10, ESV)

The great song of the redeemed, we know that God saved us

Sanctification, your responsibility

I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.(Revelation 7:14, ESV)

Notice our personal responsibility in sanctification

We will serve

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.(Revelation 7:15, ESV)

We will serve the Lord in heaven, not laze around

Our Shepherd

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”(Revelation 7:17, ESV)

Jesus will remain our shepherd in heaven and God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, what sort of tears will these be… Possibly regret for missed opportunities.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit our intermediaries

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.(Revelation 8:5, ESV)

This 8th Angel is not a common intermediary for our everyday prayers. This was a specific moment in time seen in a vision by John pointing to a specific moment in time in the future where this ceremony will take place.

The Holy Spirit of God and Jesus are our only intermediary and transport for our prayers before God.

The imagery seems to suggest that the following plagues are the answer to the prayers of the saints

Majestic heavenly animals

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”(Revelation 8:13, ESV)

You can see where Lewis and Tolkien get some of their talking and majestic animal ideas from

Job 34:16–30

God calls it as it is

who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’(Job 34:18, ESV)

God is no respecter of people and can boldly call a king worthless and nobles wicked

God’s full knowledge

“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.(Job 34:21, ESV)

God sees everything, nothing can hide from him, no action, word or thought is hidden from God’s sight and full knowledge. This is a large part of what we mean when we say God is omniscient

The Judge

For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.(Job 34:23, ESV)

When God judges, he does not have to weigh things up and take time to consider like human judges which are just a pale image of him. He knows and therefore judges

God is not indifferent

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted—(Job 34:28, ESV)

God is not indifferent to the suffering of the poor, he judges wicked rulers

Today’s Reading:  Ezek 16:1–63, Rev 6:1–7:8, Job 34:1–15

Today’s Theme: Brazen Whores, Redeemed

With today’s theme we look at the vivid picture God paints of Israel as an unfaithful wife who has become a brazen whore and we see a parallel application for our lives personally and collectively as the Bride of Christ.

We did not become the Bride of Christ because we were the most beautiful or faithful, we were in sin and darkness the same as the lowest whore, yet God in his grace and love redeemed us and faithfully works with us through he power of the Gospel and his Holy Spirit to bring reform and transformation to our lives.

It is amazing the way God’s grace has taken the lowest people like us, lives disfigured and marked by the fall and sin and makes us royalty, a bride without spot of blemish.

Ezekiel 16:1–63

The hated, redeemed

“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’(Ezekiel 16:6, ESV)

God caused hated Israel to live, God does the same for us in salvation

The covenant of love

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.(Ezekiel 16:8, ESV)

Another beautiful picture of Gods love and commitment to His people. We belong to him like a wife does to her husband

Don’t be a whore

“But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his.(Ezekiel 16:15, ESV)

The treachery of the human heart, God has made us beautiful and gifted us, we must not whore ourselves out spiritually. We must faithfully serve the Lord

The curse of faithlessness

You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger.(Ezekiel 16:26, ESV)

God sees our faithlessness as a wife who was picked up of the scrap heap and made royalty by a loving husband who has become the lowest of whores

Brazen whore vs faithful wife

“How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute,(Ezekiel 16:30, ESV)

We are like a brazen prostitute when we give way to compromise and temptation, Lord help us to be like the image of a faithful wife (Saint) to a loving husband (God).

The price of sin

So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.(Ezekiel 16:34, ESV)

We pay sin, sin pays us nothing but death in our spiritual adultery

Judged through sin

therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.(Ezekiel 16:37, ESV)

The very things we compromise with, sin with and idolise in faithlessness become the very tools of our judgement and destruction

Stop playing the whore

And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more.(Ezekiel 16:41, ESV)

Gods purpose in Judgement

Soul corruption

Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.(Ezekiel 16:47, ESV)

A Christian in compromise and sin will become worse than those in the world. Also this gives an indication to jut how badly Israel had fallen in sin

God’s love and grace

yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.(Ezekiel 16:60, ESV)

Without Gods love and grace, Israel and the church would be lost

God has atoned

that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 16:63, ESV)

Jesus did this for us

Revelation 6:1–7:8

Judgement on man’s spiritual whoredom

And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.(Revelation 6:8, ESV)

Only because of today’s earlier reading in Ezekiel does these four types of judgement start to make sense

Lord avenge us

They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”(Revelation 6:10, ESV)

This is a really different way to pray for the suffering church, Like the psalms we can seek God to avenge us

Asteroids fall

and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.(Revelation 6:13, ESV)

This does not mean a galactic star the word can mean any glorious heavenly being, like an asteroid

*a luminous body (other than the sun) visible in the sky, star, single star, planet

(Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.)

The angry Lamb

calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,(Revelation 6:16, ESV)

Vivid imagery as lambs don’t make you think of anger, but displays both sides of Gods nature

Actual Israelites

And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:(Revelation 7:4, ESV)

These are real Israelites not selected Russellites (Jehovah Witnesses, originally called Russellites after their founder and false prophet Charles Taze Russell) JWs

Job 34:1–15

Test words, listen carefully

for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.(Job 34:3, ESV)

Lord please help our ears to test words well

You reap what you sow

For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.(Job 34:11, ESV)

This is true we do reap what we sow, but also Grace has an affect on all of this too

God’s dependants

If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath,(Job 34:14, ESV)

All life is dependent on God.

Today’s Reading:  Ezek 14:1–15:8, Rev 5:1–14, Job 33:29–33

Today’s Theme: Every Nation, Tribe and Tongue

Today’s theme is the worship of Jesus the worthy Lamb and the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has redeemed us from every nation tribe and tongue over against the worship of worthless idols.

The bible describes mankind by three categories, these are nations, tribes and tongues, notice none off these is colour, God’s groupings for mankind show the dignity with which we should see all men. The disrespectful generalisation of people by the colour off their skin is a human invention.

Ezekiel 14:1–15:8

Idolatry, a heart problem

“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?(Ezekiel 14:3, ESV)

This is the inevitable result of idolatry, we end up taking the false god into our very hearts, we become devoted to the thing. Lord today we ask that you break the power of every idol in our lives

Idolatry separates us from God

that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.(Ezekiel 14:5, ESV)

Idolatry brings estrangement to our relationship with God

Don’t go astray

that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 14:11, ESV)

The reason God judges the false prophet and the hypocrite is so that His people will no longer go astray but will be His people in truth

The judgement of the city

even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.(Ezekiel 14:14, ESV)

Us living in London does not mean it will be spared Judgement. Let’s pray for our city

Our Children need to know God

even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.(Ezekiel 14:16, ESV)

Our children need to know the Lord for themselves

God’s tools of judgement

“For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!(Ezekiel 14:21, ESV)

Gods chosen tools of Judgement (not the devil or man).

God’s purpose in judgement

They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 14:23, ESV)

God had a purpose in Judgement. God has a purpose in everything he does.

God’s reason for judgement

And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”(Ezekiel 15:8, ESV)

The reason for the judgement is clearly seen here. God does nothing without a reason even if the reason is not known to us.

Revelation 5:1–14

The Lion of the tribe of Judah

And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”(Revelation 5:5, ESV)

Jesus became a man and conquered sin and death in a way that we could not, this seal is in some way connected to mankind and the earth.

These are wonderful titles for Jesus

Jesus, The Slain Lamb

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.(Revelation 5:6, ESV)

This is another image of Jesus which stands in sharp contrast to the image of Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Jesus is God

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.(Revelation 5:8, ESV)

This verse shows clearly that Jesus is God and is to be worshipped

Every nation, tribe and tongue

And they sang a new song, saying, “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,(Revelation 5:9, ESV)

This is where the idea of finish the mission comes from, every people group must hear the Gospel, as though God wants a sample from every nation.

Also this is where we get the understanding of the fact that people should be defined by nation, tribe and language, not by the colour of their skin.

We will reign in the earth

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”(Revelation 5:10, ESV)

We will reign in the new earth

Worthy is the Lamb

saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”(Revelation 5:12, ESV)

AMEN! Worthy are you Lord Jesus

Praise God The Father and The Son

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”(Revelation 5:13, ESV)

The Worship due to both the Father and the Son

Job 33:29–33

God’s mission

to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.(Job 33:30, ESV)

God’s great mission to save the souls of men

Speak with power

If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”(Job 33:33, ESV)

Job did remain silent, a sign of the power with which this young man spoke