FBC Morning Light – August 24, 2022

Divine Judgment and the Creator’s Authority Over the Nations

Well, here we are in the middle of the week, good Wednesday morning to you, hope your week is going well. You know, we've been looking in Jeremiah the last several days, every other day at least, in our morning light devotions, and they keep coming upon this theme of judgment.

And I know that's not a popular theme and people don't like to hear about such things. And the notion that God judges nations is pretty much dismissed in our day. You don't hear that talked about. You don't hear leaders of nations fear that that's a possibility.

It's pretty much assumed that it's not going to happen, that God is not involved in the judgment of nations. That's the general assumption of our society, of even our society today. I wonder why that is.

Well, I think the Scripture actually gives us some insight. Because you think about, well, let me just share with you this from Jeremiah 51. Because in Jeremiah 51, the prophet has been talking about the coming destruction of Babylon, the Babylonian Empire.

Now, when he writes this, Babylon is in its zenith. It's a very powerful superpower in its day. But Jeremiah prophesies that God's bringing judgment upon it. But on what basis is God capable of doing such a thing?

Well, Jeremiah explains. Chapter 51, verse 15. Listen to what he says. He, the Lord, who's going to bring this judgment, Do you get what the prophet is saying here? That the God who created the heavens and the earth has full power and authority to bring judgment upon the nation that he chooses to judge.

And he shall do so. And he shall do so invincibly. His power to do so is rooted in his power to create the heavens and the earth. And yet, in our day, in the nations of the world, that idea that God has created has been just dismissed.

It has been completely dismissed. In our own nation, a nation that, as I mentioned the other day, our founding fathers, though they weren't necessarily Christian, many of them may have been deists, they at least understood that there was a God who created all this.

They recognized that the Creator who has endowed us with certain inalienable rights, for example. Well, that idea has been completely dismissed from our society today. The theory of evolution just dominates everything.

And when we think about this verse where it says, he stretched out the heaven by his understanding. You know, the more we're exploring the universe, we're sending the James Webb telescope far out into the reaches of the universe that have never been before, seeing things that have never been before, we're discovering that this universe, the heavens above, have truly been stretched out, and the stretching seems to be continuing.

This is the work of God. This is his wisdom. But that's been dismissed. That's been utterly dismissed. So it should not surprise us when we dismiss the power of God in creation, and we dismiss the wisdom of God who has created all this, the heavens and the earth, with such intricate, intricate, delicate wisdom and understanding.

It shouldn't surprise us, dismissing him, that we also dismiss the notion of divine judgment altogether. Well, I think we need to get back to an understanding, an accurate understanding of where we came from as human beings, where the world came from that we inhabit, where the universe came from that is stretched out and far beyond our reaches and far beyond our comprehension.

And we need to get back to understanding who controls the weather cycles and who controls the wind as it howls. And when we come to that understanding and we recognize that power, then we'll have a render judgment and bring catastrophe upon the nations of this world.

Humbling Ourselves Before the Creator

We need to recognize him for who he is. I trust you do. I'm quite confident if you're listening to this today that you do indeed recognize his power and his authority. Well, let's thank him for that power.

Let's thank him for that authority. And let's pray that we would humble ourselves before him. So we do pray that, Father. We pray that our nation and the leaders of the nations of this world would recognize that you are the creator of all things, the heaven and the earth, and that your power is invincible.

May we humble ourselves before you lest we experience the wrath, the just wrath of your judgment. We pray this in Jesus' name. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Wednesday. And I trust the Lord will bless you in it.

Have a good day.