2023_10_18 Insight Post- Rusty Coram
This week’s reading- Ezra 1-6, John 4
We live in a broken world. It has been broken since the first man and woman decided to choose a way other than God’s. All sorts of things reinforce this reality, and none more so than the recent attacks of Hamas in Israel targeting civilians. The horror of the brutality is gut-wrenching and so atrocious that it could lead some to think that God must either be absent, uncaring, or impotent, otherwise, He would have intervened.
While it’s understandable how someone could get here, these aren’t the options that a Biblically informed person would land on. In the Bible, we learn that God is present, caring, and all-powerful. He can, and does, intervene in people’s affairs, but He doesn’t eliminate all the consequences of our willful disobedience. In our reading the past few weeks we have covered history from the same geographic region where people consistently rebelled against God, and He used unbelieving nations to punish His people. King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to, and conquered Jerusalem, and deported the brightest and best, like Daniel, to Babylon. To all appearances Israel was gone – reduced to a memory. But God was still in control. In Jeremiah 25:12 we read that God had a plan to restore His people after they learned their painful lesson. We saw this in our reading this week: “In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah. He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom: 2 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord.” Ezra 1:1-3.
What has happened is that the great world power of Babylon has been conquered by Persia. King Cyrus, the founder, and ruler of Persia, decided to restore Jerusalem even though he wasn’t a Jew. In the same way, He used an ungodly king to punish His people, God is now using a pagan king to restore them. This is astounding!
What we see here is that God is never limited. He is constantly working and never at a loss. What is happening in the Middle East is a continuation of God allowing people to reap the consequences of their choices. Unfortunately, innocent lives are affected too, but we can take comfort in knowing God loves them, has a plan, and is in complete control. We can be certain that God is working to get people’s attention and show them His love whether we see the specifics of how or not. Our part is to pray and offer help as we can (like with our MobilePack and missionary support.) There will be a time when history wraps up and God will judge all people with justice, but until then we have every reason to have confident trust in Him.
Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor