#DailyDevotion The Time Is At Hand. Repent & Believe The Good News!
Mark 1:14–15 14After John had been put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee and preached God’s good news: 15“The time has come, and God’s kingdom is here. Repent, and believe the good news.”
It had to happen that Jesus goes to Galilee to preach God’s good news. As it is written, “But the land that is in anguish will not continue in gloom. At first He humbled the country of Zebulun and the country of Naphtali, but in the end He will bring glory to the Road by the Sea, the land beside the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people walking in the dark will see a great light. On those who live in the land of gloom a light will shine.” (Isaiah 9:1,2) So Jesus needed to go to Galilee. Galilee was the land that was formerly ruled by the northern tribes of Israel, often called Ephraim after its leaders and the largest tribe. They had led Israel astray by putting up two golden calves to represent Yahweh, the LORD. They one put one in the north, in Dan and one in the south so the Israelites wouldn’t go to worship in Jerusalem at the temple and then return to follow the Davidic king. Quickly afterwards, they turned to the worship of other gods. Then the LORD sent the Assyrians and other Gentiles to take the land over the centuries. Plenty of Jews settled the land after the Babylonian captivity but it was heavily influenced by a majority of Gentiles that lived there. The Jews who did live there were looked down upon by the Jews in Jerusalem and the south. That is why it is said they were in the dark.
So Jesus preached God’s good news there. What was that good news? “The time has come, and God’s kingdom is here.” We are often thinking about good news with the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake. How is the time has come good news? Jeremiah says, 17“Then they will call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD. All the nations will come together there in the name of the LORD and they will not live anymore according to the stubborn impulses of their evil hearts. 18In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from the north to the land I gave their fathers as their inheritance.” Again in chapter 31:1 he says, “”Then I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.” Again he says, 31“The time will come when I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by their hand to lead them out of Egypt — My covenant that they broke although I was their Husband. 33But this is the covenant I will make with Israel after those days, I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts, and so I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34And no more will anyone have to teach his neighbor or his brother, and say, Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them says the LORD, because I will forgive the wrong they did and not remember their sins anymore.”
Yes, with the Advent of Jesus, God’s kingdom has come. It is the time for the gathering of Israel to their LORD. It is time of this new covenant Jesus makes with his body and his blood. Now is the time to repent, to turn from one’s sins and sinful thinking and turn to the LORD and his ways and thinking. It is time to believe the good news, God has come and provided the promised way of salvation for Israel and for all mankind in and through the name of Jesus. God has raised up his David and won salvation for us through him, Jesus the new David. Put your trust in him and his work. Trust in the mercies of God given through Jesus in the covenant he made.
Heavenly Father, the time is now for your kingdom to expand upon the earth. Grant us repentant hearts so we may be partakers of it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.