Scripture:
v7 – “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true & just are your judgements!”
v9 – “They did not repent and him glory.”
v11 – “…cursed the God of heaven for their pain & sores. They did not repent of their deeds.”
v15 – “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeps his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”
Observaton:
God is good & just in his judgements. In judgement, some repent, others do not. Some see God’s judgement & repent, other’s ramp up their rebellion and curse & scream at God. Regardless, Jesus is coming. He comes swiftly & we need to be ready.
Application:
As we live our lives, bad things happen. Suffering. Wrath. Calamity. Here in this passage, we see these horrible plagues and wrath being poured out on the world in the final moments of all creation.
As you read it, it seems like the world will be in chaos, and the craziest part is that as the world sees all the chaos they do this:
They look up to heaven & curse God.
They don’t see God doesn’t exist. They don’t doubt God’s existence, NO! They know God is real, they see him in all these big events. But they hate him in the midst of them.
They could have turned to him, but they curse him.
For us, even now, as we experience difficult and overwhelming situaitons, we must not look up at God & be frustrated but rather, let us use that difficult situation to look to God for help, for care, for his grace.
That is what suffering is meant to do! It is meant to be a way for us to turn back to God, to be reminded we need God, not to look at him & curse him!
They just doubled down. Their sin caused God to send his wrath and then in his wrath they doubled down, they cursed God even further.
I pray that we would be a people that experience difficulty & suffering and turn to God for his help & receive it well knowing that he uses all things to draw us back to him because he is a good God, who cares enough about us to not simply give us an easy life, or a blessed life or a comfortable life.
Rather, he wants to give us a life that pushes & draws us back to him. So when we see difficulty let us use it to return back to God, to remember HE IS WHAT WE NEED. Not an easy life, but him.
Prayer:
Lord we need you! This passage and this entire book is a big scary book, but I pray that it would make sense & teach us who you are more clearly. Speak to us. Be gracious with us.