SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2014
8:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Retribution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2
Thessalonians 1:6, 8-9
Message
of the verses: 6 For after all it is only just for God to
repay with affliction those who afflict you…8
dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal
destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power,”
We will look at the word retribution
from the Greek and what its meaning is in a moment, but first I want to look at
three of the memory verses that I am working on from Colossians three to make a
point. “5 Therefore consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For
it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
7 and in them you also once walked, when
you were living in them. 8 But now you
also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech
from your mouth.” We see in these verses
that two of them have lists in them that we as believers are not suppose to do
and one of them is wrath, but in verse six we see that it is because of the
things listed in verse five that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of
disobedience. We can see in other Scripture
verses that God does not want us to care for wrath when someone does something
wrong to us, but we are to allow the Lord to do this, and that is what we are
looking at in the verses in 2 Thessalonians.
Wrath is one of the attributes of God even though it is not one of the
attributes that many people want to look at, as they would rather look at “God
is love,” and this is true, but if it were not for the wrath of God taken out
on His Son while He was hanging on the cross there would be no possibility of
anyone to be saved.
John MacArthur actually had three
sermons on this subject, to it is something that we could spend a lot of time
on, and probably will spend at least to Spiritual Diaries looking at. He writes in his commentary “Ekdikesis (retribution), meaning ‘to
give full punishment,’ is variously translated ‘justice,’ ‘punishment,’ ‘retribution,’
‘vengeance,’ and ‘avenging of wrong.’ In
his defense before the Sanhedrin, Stephen said, ‘And when he [Moses] saw one of
them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance [ekdikesis] for the oppressed by striking
down the Egyptian’ (Acts 7:24). Just as
Moses brought retribution to the Egyptian for mistreating his fellow Israelites, so also
will God bring retribution to those who reject Him and mistreat His people.”
We have already mentioned that God’s
justice is just, and we cannot bring about justice in the way that God does for
we are sinners and we want to get even with people for what they do to us and
not wait for the wrath of God to be done by Him. When we look at what are referred to as
imprecatory Psalms there are times when we have a hard time reading and
believing them, but these Psalms are speaking of the justice of God, justice that
He will care for. David knew that God
was a just God and would deal out retribution on those who deserved it. The following is some of the verses that are
found in the imprecatory Psalms:
10
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He will wash his feet in
the blood of the wicked (Psalm 58:10).”
21
Surely God will shatter the head of His enemies, The hairy crown of him who
goes on in his guilty deeds (Psalm 68:21).”
27
Add iniquity to their iniquity, And may they not come into Your righteousness
(Psalm 69:27).”
12
And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom The reproach with which
they have reproached You, O Lord (Psalm 79:12).”
12
Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, Nor any to be gracious to
his fatherless children (Psalm 109:12).”
9
How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the
rock (Psalm 137:9).” I remember when I
studied this Psalm and Dr. Wiersbe pointed out that the little ones would go
directly into heaven when this happened to them, and that made a difference to
me when I looked at that verse.
21
Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up
against You? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies
(Psalm 139:21-22).” I believe that these
verses speak of the attribute of God jealously, and the author was jealous for
God.
In his commentary on 2 Thessalonians
John MacArthur quotes a passage from a book that was written in 1975 about
something that happened in 1962. The incident
that a number of church study groups in that year looked at some of the Psalms
and found them unfit for Christians to sing.
It was a practice for believers to sing out of “A New Testament Psalter”
which was comprised of OT Psalms. The
quote he uses says “These psalms and parts of many others are full of tribal
jealousies, bloodthirsty threats and curses, whining and moanings, which are
shocking in themselves and time-wasting to God and man.” Time wasting to God and man is a statement
that borders on blasphemy, and the reason that I say that is because it was the
Spirit of God who inspired the authors of these Psalms to write them.
There are other portions in the Word
of God that are similar to those in these psalms. We have just finished our study on Jeremiah
and when Jeremiah learned that men in his home town were about to kill him he
wrote “18 Moreover, the LORD made it known to me and I knew it; Then You showed
me their deeds. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did
not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, "Let us destroy
the tree with its fruit, And let us cut him off from the land of the living,
That his name be remembered no more." 20 But, O LORD of hosts, who judges
righteously, Who tries the feelings and the heart, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to
You have I committed my cause. 21
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek
your life, saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you
will not die at our hand"; 22
therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I am about to punish them! The young men will die by the
sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine; 23 and a remnant will not
be left to them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth-the year of
their punishment."” (Jeremiah 11:18-23)
There is more of this that is found
in the book of Jeremiah but I will not take the time to quote it, but it is
found in Jeremiah 18:19-23 as Jeremiah cries out to the Lord, and then the Lord
answers the prophets prayer in Jeremiah 19:3-9.
Now if you think that these kind of
things only happen in the OT, we will look at the NT in our next SD, (Lord
willing).
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There are
times when I don’t understand what I read in the pages of Scripture, and times
that I don’t understand what is going on in my life, but I have to trust that
the Word of God was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is never wrong, and that
God is in control of my life and loves me so much that He never makes a
mistake.
My Steps of Faith for Today: God will
give me victory over temptations that I face.
Memory
verses for the week: Colossians 3:1-9.
1
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set you mind on the things above, not on
the things that are on earth. 3 For you
have died and you life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, is revealed,
then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God has come upon the sons of disobedience;
7 and in them you once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside:
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid
aside the old self with its evil practices,
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Be
called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9).
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said “No man can do
these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him?”
Answer
in our next SD.
9/26/2014
9:57 AM
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