#DailyDevotion Be At Sabbath. Jesus Is With You
Psalm 46 6Nations are in confusion and kingdoms totter – when God utters His voice, the earth trembles.
We should remember, the LORD, the God of Israel, is in charge of nations. He makes one nation rise and another one fall. He punishes one evil nation with another evil nation. He governs them all for the sake of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the sake of His Church that is in a diaspora throughout the world. We often get this mistaken idea that we are citizens of whatever country we are born in but our citizenship is in heaven and Jesus Christ is our King.
7The LORD of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.
What a comforting thing when everything around is going to heck. When it seems like we are being attacked on every side by the world. The LORD of armies is with us. He governs the heavenly hosts, the angelic armies. He is with. He is Immanuel. We can turn to the God of Jacob, Jesus Christ for refuge, our place of high defense, when things get too much for us. We can seek solace there and comfort.
8Come, see the works of the LORD, what terrible things He does in the world! 9He stops wars all over the earth, smashing bows, cutting off spears, and burning chariots.
The LORD raises nations against nations as punishment and He brings them to peace for the sake of His Church. Ultimately, on the great and terrible day of the Lamb, He will destroy all the armies of the world, all weapons of war. Everything will become manifestly subject to Him. It is as Isaiah prophesied in chapter 2, 2In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established at the top of the mountains and be raised above the hills, and all the nations will flow in streams to it. 3Then many people will go and say, “Come, let us go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will live in them.” The LORD’s instruction comes from Zion and His Word from Jerusalem. 4And He will judge between the nations and make decisions for many people. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.. No nation will raise a sword against another or train for war anymore.”
10“Stop and realize that I am God! I am high over the nations, exalted over the world!”
Stop, cease, desist, be still, be at rest, take a sabbatical. The Hebrew root for Sabbath is here. We can be still and rest when we realize the LORD, the God of Israel is God and we are not. We really do not have to fight anyone or anything. Nothing in this world belongs to us. It is all God’s. Nothing we have in this world we can take into the next. We probably won’t even value at all what we often value so much today. When the LORD is our God, the question is, do you really trust Him. Do you trust Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount or on the Plain? Believe He is high and exalted over the nations and the world.
11The LORD of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.
Jesus said at the end of Matthew, “I am with you always until the end of the age.” Hebrews quotes Him, “I will never leave you or desert you.” With these words we should comfort ourselves and one another.
Merciful God and Father, remind us always of the presence of Your Son, Jesus Christ, that we may rest in Him and not live in fear or worry. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.