Harvest of Asher Congregation | Akko, Israel
“He is coming to judge the Earth. He will judge the world with justice. He will judge the nations in truth.” (Psalm 98:9 as sung by Lamb)
Current world events cause many to ask if what we are seeing is God’s judgment. In the Hebrew scripture, we see Israel in the desert, having sinned and received God’s sentence of forty years. During that time, the nation was purified. A new generation emerged from the desert into the Land of Promise.
Where are we today? Has His sentence begun?
We read in 1 Peter 4:17, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
Those are sobering words as we look at what is going on around us near and far.
There is something about the character of man, which responds in a certain way to God. When things are going well for us we forget Him, but when things go badly we remember Him – all too often only to blame Him. Can you explain why we react this way?
Part of a Birth Timeline
I believe the recent events are part of a process we are going through in the birth of something greater. If you go through pregnancy and then there is no birth; you would ask, “Why all this pain?” However when there is a birth, a fruit of sorts, it is worth it. We see the reason for persevering through the challenge. I believe we are in a birth timeline. Look at Yeshua. His timeline was unto a worthy outcome – not “… to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (1 John 3:17).
Yeshua did not come to condemn or judge but to save, to redeem from sin and death, to birth humanity anew.
How can we turn the instinct for blaming into an instinct for praising, even in difficult times, even in the midst of judgment? I once thought that the Holocaust was the darkest possible hour in history, and it was. However, in reading the story of Corrie ten Boom, I realized something that can change how we pass through the darkest times – our point of view. Corrie did as Yeshua instructed; she came as a little child; no matter what evil was happening around her, she sought to find God in the midst of it.
As I listen to the news reports and see the faces of frightened and displaced Ukrainians, I feel their pain and sorrow. Surely God is at work in both judgment and redemption. How can we respond? Some have flown to the Ukrainian border to help refugees. Each must move according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. For us in Israel, we see that multiplied thousands of Ukrainian Jews are being brought out of exile and war, home to Israel. This is one of the good things coming out of the situation.
God knows who belongs to Him and who is part of the plan to bring His people home. God made a covenant with Abraham, which includes Abraham’s redeemed descendants being in a first-fruits-redeemed portion of earth, to which God will bring His seed from the four corners of the earth; and to which Messiah Yeshua will return. No government or army can prevent nor even accomplish this, only God.
Let us remain alert as we follow the leading of the Spirit of God, standing where God would have us, being ready to move according to His timing, in the midst of His redemption and His judgments
