FBC Morning Light – May 26, 2022

A good Thursday morning to you.

Hope your week has gone well thus far.

When we think about the United States of America and compare the United

States of America with other nations of the world, we tend to feel like

we've got lots of problems.

We've got all kinds of problems, and we're certainly not the paragon of virtue.

But compared to other nations of the world, we're pretty good.

We're a pretty generous nation of people.

We're more righteous than a lot of other nations.

We at least tip our hat to God, unlike some of these countries that are

totally godless and so forth.

We can feel fairly good about ourselves when we play the game of comparisonitis and

compare our nation and its righteousness with other nations like

China or Russia or North Korea and so forth.

When we do that, it can give us a false sense of security.

It can also tend to make us feel like God

wouldn't judge our nation.

He wouldn't bring judgment upon the United States, not when there are such other

really bad nations like China or North Korea

or Russia and so forth.

But that actually doesn't square with what the Word of God

reveals, because if you play the game of comparisonitis with Old Testament Israel

and the nations surrounding Israel, certainly Israel would have been

more righteous.

Did they keep God's law perfectly?

No, but there was at least a stab at it.

The nations around them didn't pay any attention to God's law.

Did they worship God, Yahweh, the God of Israel?

Yes.

Did they do so perfectly?

No, because they set up idols to bail and so on and so forth, but they still had the

temple and they still offered the sacrifices.

But the surrounding nations didn't pay any attention to Yahweh.

They didn't care who Israel's God was, the one true God.

They wouldn't acknowledge him as such.

Consequently, Israel could feel pretty confident that

God's not going to use these wicked nations around us to destroy us, to bring judgment

upon us, is he?

In Isaiah 10, the prophecy of Isaiah has been talking about the fact

that God is going to bring judgment on his people.

Back in chapter 9, he spoke about punishing the northern

tribes of Israel, the capital of which was Samaria, and the Lord is going to send

judgment upon Israel, and he warns Jacob, the house

of Judah, that as it has fallen upon Israel, it's going to fall upon them.

Ephraim is going to know, Samaria is going to know in the pride of their heart that God sends judgment upon them, and so on and so forth.

That's in chapter 9.

Then in chapter 10, he says he's going to bring his punishment, his judgment,

on his people, and he's going to use the Assyrians.

He's going to use the Assyrians?

The Assyrians are far worse, they're more violent, they're more vile than

Judah and Israel, God's people, God's faithless people, his

unfaithful people, though they're bad, they're not nearly as bad as the Assyrians.

But this is what God says.

He says, I will send Assyria against an ungodly nation.

Who's that?

Against his own people, and against the people of my wrath.

The people of Judah and Israel were the people of God's wrath.

I will give Assyria charge to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them

down like the mire of the streets.

Yet the king of Assyria doesn't mean so, in other words, the king of Assyria doesn't mean to be

an instrument of God's wrath.

He doesn't even acknowledge God, he goes on to say.

He doesn't even enter into his heart.

It's in his heart, it is simply in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations.

For he, Assyria, says, are not my princes and altogether kings, and so on and so

forth.

And he says, as my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and

Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?

Yes.

That's what God says he's going to do.

He's going to use the Assyrians to bring judgment upon his people.

How can this be?

This is the way God will often bring his judgment.

He will use the hands of wicked men or wicked nations to bring punishment upon

nations that are far less wicked.

But, lest we think this is terrible injustice, that's not the end of the story.

Because it goes on to say in Isaiah 10, verses

12 through 19, that the Lord is then going to bring punishment and judgment

upon Assyria.

Listen to what he says.

Therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that is when I've used

Assyria to punish my people in Mount Zion on Jerusalem,

that he will say, the king of Assyria, or the God will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of

Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks.

I will bring judgment upon Assyria.

On one hand, let's not be so naive and foolish as

Americans to say that we're too virtuous, we're too righteous for God to

send his judgment upon us.

I don't think we can make that claim.

I would not be surprised if a lot of what we're seeing in our world and in our nation today is the

hand of God's chastening, his judgment upon a nation that used to

be at least accommodating to God and acknowledge him

and give lip service to paying attention to his law, to his word.

We don't do that anymore as a nation.

Maybe what we're experiencing is the wrath of God at the hands of wicked people.

Yet, let's be confident in and take comfort in knowing God's going to

deal with those who are wicked as well.

So let's not be cocky, let's be trusting, confident in

our sovereign God and in his working, in the way he works, and how he works,

and why.

Our Father and our God, I pray that we as your people would be a faith -filled people.

We wouldn't be so arrogant as to say that our nation is so righteous that we're above the

judgment, the wrath of God.

At the same time, may we not be so fretful and fearful

to think that you won't take care of and deal with those who are wicked and inflict

great pain and hardship on those more righteous than they.

You are the righteous judge and the God of all the earth shall do right.

We will take confidence and comfort in that.

Help us to do so, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

All right, well have a good rest of your Thursday.

May the Lord bless you in it.

Good day.