Sunday Morning, July 19, 2020, AM

Welcome to Sunnyside Baptist this morning. We're glad you can be with us to worship together. As we get started this morning a few announcements looking ahead this week. Come back this evening for our evening service tonight.

I believe Josiah is going to be sharing with us out of Hebrews so that will be good. And then also last Sunday evening Michael started a new series for us the Sons of Issachar looking in First Chronicles chapter 12.

That will pick up next Sunday evening. This Sunday night? Okay next Sunday. Okay so I got those backwards. So we'll pick up in First Chronicles tonight and then next Sunday Josiah. Wednesday Bible study and prayer that starts at 6 30 p .m.

Truth group that's going to meet Friday July 24th at 5 30 p .m. at the Barnett's home. So put that on your schedules as well. Our fighter verse for this week comes from the Psalms Psalm 30 34 specifically verses 9 through 11.

Oh fear the Lord you and his saints for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come O children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Offering plate is still at the back of the auditorium so give your tithes and offerings back there. There's also announcement in your bulletin regarding Operation Christmas Child. It's not too early yet to start thinking about that for Christmas.

Some of the ladies in the sewing ministry have a need for a few supplies flannel some large to medium sized buttons. If you can help with that you can talk to Loretta or Patty Hines or Barbara Donathan.

All right any other announcements I'm missing this morning or could mention? Okay well we are going to prepare our.

Preparing Hearts for Worship

Hearts for worship and then after that Michael will open us in prayer. For you.

Today and we thank you for being our creator. You have given us life breath to breathe you are a provider you send your rain upon the just and the unjust and your son rises upon all that you have made.

We give you thanks for you our Heavenly Father who has given us to your son Jesus Christ so that by your Holy Spirit we may know you and love you and commune with you. We thank you for bringing us together here on this day that we may worship you and glorify you and give you praise and to exalt the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who was alive who has risen he was ascended and he reigns from your right hand.

And we ask that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit that our singing would be true and beautiful and good that our prayers would be sincere and humble before you and that our hearing and the reading and the preaching of the word would be honoring to you and that through your word which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword that you would do your work and renewing us according to your son Jesus Christ it's for his sake that we pray.

Amen. Before we start I'd just like to say that it's been a true blessing to be able to sing praises to the Lord Jesus Christ with you together on Sunday mornings and that just to be able to hear you sing to the Lord and see the expressions on your face and I just also want to publicly thank our praise team that does a wonderful job of preparing for Lisa and mom that play instruments and for Haley and Jana that sings also and even even back when we started earlier over Jana I'm sorry Jeanette Renfro that's passed on to be with the Lord but also for the folks for Edgar and Joel up in the audio and sound and visual livestream booth and for those that prepare our materials in the office Jenny and those and I'm just so thankful for the team.

I won't be with you just to let you know but you'll be in good hands with brother Brian he'll be leading music and so I'll be worshiping with you on livestream but just let you know but if you would stand together for our call to worship time got a really good passage this morning in Psalms chapter 44 we'll be reading verses 23 to 26 read with me together.

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? Our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our belly clings to the ground.

Rise up! Come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. Our first song this morning is Behold our God. He is seated on the throne. Come let us adore him. Nothing can compare. Come let us adore him.

Deuteronomy chapter 12 verses 1 through 18 starts out in verse 1. These are the.

Statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess serve their gods on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree and you shall destroy their altars break their sacred pillars and burn their wooden images with fire.

You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things but you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling place and there you shall go.

There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your head, your vowed offerings, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand you and your households in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

You shall not at all do as we are doing here today every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.

But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God has given you to inherit and he gives you rest from all your enemies roundabout so that you dwell in safety then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide.

There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who's within your gates since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

Take heed to yourselves that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see but in the place which the Lord chooses. In one of your tribes there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do all that I command you.

However you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you, the unclean and the clean, may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.

Only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine, of your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings or of the heave offerings of your hand.

But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates.

And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. This is God's Word. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the consistency that it has in its pages pointing to Jesus Christ, who is our rest, who is our place, Lord.

We thank you for what he has done for us. We thank you for providing us revelation in him. We thank you for your providential care, Lord, leading us every way that you would choose. We ask that you would prepare our hearts more for worship, Lord, that we would hear your Word, understand it, and apply it to every part of our lives as you would will.

Thank you so much for all that you do, and thank you again for Jesus Christ and his grace. In his name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Our next song is also in the handout. Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery. And then also go ahead and get your hymnal and turn to page 105, so we'll sing He is Lord after that. To come together, the day Jesus Christ rose from the.

Dead, the beginning of a new creation. As we look at your Word today and consider the message you have for us concerning the glories of your Son, we ask for your help that you would hearts to the text conform our lives to your Son, that you would be pleased, Father.

We ask that you would make us the amen on earth of your will which is in heaven. We need your grace for this. We are but servants and slaves, children, infants in your kingdom. We have nothing to offer to you except our praise for the one you have offered us, your Son, Jesus Christ.

The Cup of Wrath in Jeremiah and Noah's Day

So it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Well, we are going to spend our time this morning in Jeremiah chapter 49, but to help us with understanding what is going on in that chapter, I'll be reading for us from chapter 25 of Jeremiah.

So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 25, anticipating that we will turn to chapter 49 in a moment. The series of chapters that we are looking at here at the end of Jeremiah, chapters 46 through 51, deal with sovereign fire and international brimstone.

We've already heard about how God will judge Egypt, how God will judge Philistia and Moab. This morning we'll hear the rest of the nations that God sent Babylon to conquer. And so we will complete the span of nations from Egypt to Elam, which is a line stretching the full length of the Babylonian Empire at its height, 1 ,200 miles long.

It would be like from here to the California border, or from here to Dover, Delaware, depending on which direction you want to head. But the next oracle, after we finish chapter 49, the chapters 50 and 51, which are focused on Babylon itself.

For after God uses Babylon to judge all these other nations, he will also judge Babylon itself. And this is all consistent with what he said in chapter 25, an oracle of judgment that God gave to his servant Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

So we turn our attention there, Jeremiah chapter 25. I'll be reading verses 15 through 29, and I invite you to stand with me as we read the word of the Lord and hear this message from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in his spirit proclaimed thus through his prophet.

Verse 15. For thus the Lord the God of Israel says to me, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.

Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink it. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing, and a curse as it is this day.

Pharaoh, king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people, and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines, even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod.

Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea, and Dedan, Tima, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, and all the kings of the north near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Shishak will drink after them.

You shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall, and it will be, if they refuse to take this cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall surely drink, for behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city, which is called by my name, and shall you be completely free from punishment?

You will not be free from punishment, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,.

Declares the Lord of hosts." This is the word of the Lord, you may be seated. Peter.

Tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and from the moment that God told Noah of the coming worldwide flood, the clock was ticking, 120 years. And although Noah preached the truth of God, and obediently built the ark, only his wife, his three sons, and their wives were saved from the great flood.

Why did no one else believe Noah, this grandson of Methuselah? Didn't he have enough credibility to his story, as he was building the ark, and all these animals began to gather to him? What were all these people doing?

Conservative calculations estimate about four billion people could have been living on the earth at this time, which is not a surprise when accounting for their longer lifespans. But Jesus tells us what these people were doing at this time, as the clock of judgment ticked down to the final moments.

In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, meaning they were living life normally, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.

How could they remain in the dark, when the Spirit of Christ, Peter says, through Noah was preaching to these people, a hundred and twenty years, and only seven converts. And Noah had the best visual aid of all.

He was building this boat, four stories high by our reckoning, and longer than three space shuttles parked in a row. It was the space shuttle thing that was really impressive to Noah's neighbors. They said, wow, that thing's longer than three space shuttles, right?

They remain in the dark, because that is where they wanted to hide. And the Lord God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually.

Genesis 6, 5. It was in that condition where they were suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness. It was in that condition where they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

And they exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the Creator, or the creation. They worshipped and served and feared the creature, the stuff that had been made, rather than worshipping and serving and fearing the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen. Now the story of Noah and the flood, I think, is instructive for our passage here in Jeremiah, because God had declared, we hear from chapter 25, God had declared that there was a massive judgment coming.

It wasn't a flood, but it was Babylon. These armies of Babylon, they would be unstoppable. They would succeed in the task for which God had sent them. All of these nations were coming under this judgment.

God warned them. God forewarned them. And now what will they do? Verse 31 of chapter 25 says, "...a clamor has come to the end of the earth, because the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh.

As for the wicked, he has given them to the sword, declares the Lord.". So let's think about the image that we have here in Jeremiah 25, and how it works out in chapter 49. God has told Jeremiah to take the cup of wine of his wrath from his hand, and take this cup of God's wrath, and cause all these nations to drink it.

Who will escape? Who will drink the cup? Some will refuse to drink the cup, but God will make them drink it. But why did they think they would escape? Why did they think that they would avoid the destruction that was coming in the form of the armies of Babylon?

How did they think they would escape God's wrath? Well, they kept themselves in the dark, just like Noah's generation, because they trusted in idols. They trusted in fake saviors. Fake saviors. I was preaching open-air one time in Tennessee, around the courthouse of the little county seat in the area we lived, and I was trying to connect the flood.

I figured these high schoolers would know something about Noah's flood from some source. They would be familiar with that story in the scriptures, and so I was connecting that with the final judgment, as Peter does in his second letter.

And I was explaining that even as a universal flood came and destroyed Noah's generation. But look at Noah. Look at his obedience. Because of his righteous obedience, all who were with Noah were saved in the ark.

Now, Peter tells us that there's another judgment coming, one of fire. So how will we escape? How did those who escaped escape the flood? Well, they were with Noah, who righteously obeyed God and built an ark for them to escape in.

So what do we need? I was trying to press this home to those listening, and then a bold young man raised his hand, and he seemed to know how we could escape the fiery judgment of God coming upon us. He said, we need a rocket and get off the planet.

The fire's coming, so we just need to get a rocket and leave. And he was dead serious. Now, as foolish as that was, so also are the more sophisticated false saviors presented in each of these nations here in Jeremiah 49.

And why should we be concerned about people with their fake saviors? Why not just, you know, let people believe what they want to believe and have the comforts that they have, no matter if we disagree about those things or not?

The problem is, when we're answering the question, who will drink the cup? Who will drink the cup of the wine of God's wrath? Who will drink the cup? Those with fake saviors, we are guaranteed in the text.

Those with fake saviors will drink the cup, and they will go drunk, staggering mad under God's wrath. Let's talk about the first fake Savior, verses 1 through 6 of chapter 49. Considering the nation of Ammon, fake Savior number one is wealth distribution.

Concerning the sons of Ammon, thus says the Lord, does Israel have no sons, or has he no heirs? Why then has Malcolm taken possession of Gad and his people settled in its cities? Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, that I will cause a trumpet blast of war to be heard against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and it will become a desolate heap, and her towns will be set on fire.

Then Israel will take possession of his possessors, says the Lord. Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed. Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, and rush back and forth inside the walls, for Malcolm will go into exile together with his priests and his princes.

How boastful you are about the valleys! Your valley is flowing away, O backsliding daughter who trusts in her treasures, saying, Who will come against me? Behold, I am going to bring terror upon you, declares the Lord God of hosts, from all directions around you, and each of you will be driven out headlong, with no one to gather the fugitives together.

But afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the sons of Ammon, declares the Lord. The Ammonites and the Moabites, the Moabites we talked about last week, the Ammonites and the Moabites have a lot in common.

The older daughter of Lot, Abram's nephew, gave birth to Moab, and the younger daughter gave birth to Ben-Ammi, which means son of my people, and Ben-Ammi became a father of the nation called Ammon, which means inbred.

And if you read Genesis 19, you'll know why. Ammon worships Molech, which can also be pronounced Milcom or Malcolm. So when you read about Malcolm, I'm sorry if you know anyone who's named Malcolm, or your name is Malcolm, I apologize, but in the Hebrew it refers to the god Molech of Ammon.

Now, both Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Molech, the god of Ammon, demand child sacrifice. And we often find Ammonites and Moabites together cooperating, as they are closely related, very closely related.

When the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III took captive the territories once belonging to Gad, the Ammonites just moved in. They took over the lands given to Gad by God in his covenant, and now God brings charges against Ammon and says, does Israel have no sons?

Why do you possess this land as if there is no descendants of Gad left? Why do you grab this land as if it rightfully belongs to you? They grab these lands under the covenant watch care of God, and the Ammonites aren't interested in the year of Jubilee.

They're there to possess the land for as long as they can. And the Ammonites are very proficient in wealth accumulation. Notice that not only do they eagerly take possession of what is not theirs, and they have no concern for God's covenant with Israel, they are very boastful about the wealth that is stored up in their valleys.

Verse 4, how boastful you are about the valleys. And God says, your valley is flowing away. Think erosion. Think a giant flood washing away all of the wealth of a valley. Your valley is flowing away, O backsliding daughter who trusts in her treasures, saying, who will come against me?

In other words, they gloried in their wealth-laden valley. They trusted in their treasures. They thought that because of the distribution of wealth, they would be saved. They said, who will come against me?

Why did they have such confidence? Because look at all the money we have. Look at all the wealth we possess. But God says, your wealth is flowing away out of your valley as fast as your paganism progresses.

So many today place a prime value on wealth, trusting in it, but wealth is a fake savior. Proverbs 18 .11 says, a rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination. It's easy to trust in wealth, isn't it?

People note, if the nation is wealthy, then the nation is safe. If the economy is strong, then we are strong. Really? Is that the case? People believe that if wealth is amply distributed to my personal accounts, I can weather any storm.

Or, if only wealth were distributed more evenly to everyone, no one would ever have to live in fear anymore. Really? Is that actually true? God's judgment is coming, and it is unavoidable. And those with fake saviors drink the cup.

They're the ones who go drunk, staggering mad under God's wrath. Jesus asks an important question. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Can you imagine the desperate, pleading, bartering of a man who has acquired as much wealth as any man can, but has not had any concern for his soul? It's helpful to remember the case that Jesus refused to adjudicate with the brother who felt that he had not been given his rightful share of wealth.

A father died and left his wealth to his sons, but the older son did not distribute it in such a way that the younger son felt was equitable. And so he came to Jesus, figuring that Jesus would be all about that equitable wealth distribution.

To which Jesus responded with a parable about a man who had all the wealth he could possibly want, who rested in that wealth, who trusted that wealth, and believed that this wealth would be his shalom.

It would make all things well for him. But in the story, as it goes, Luke 12 20, God said to this rich man, You fool! This very night your soul is required of you, and now who will own what you have prepared?

So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So we see that wealth is no savior. It is not what you covet, not what you possess, not what you invest, or what you give away that will save you.

Wealth is a fake savior. God's judgment is coming. Who will drink the cup? Those with fake saviors will drink the cup, and they will go drunk, staggering mad under God's wrath. Fake savior number two.

Safe Spaces Cannot Save Edom

Safe spaces. This is verses 7 through 22, and here God addresses Edom. Now God spends more time addressing Edom than many of these other nations, and perhaps that is because Edom was the nation who came from Esau, Jacob's older brother.

Esau was called Edom because he was hairy and his hair was red, and the name stuck because the land of Edom was red in its sandstone and soil, just like Oklahoma. Unlike Oklahoma, Edom was a rugged mountainous region, which existed somewhere around 6 ,500 feet above sea level, and that's important.

In these verses, we're going to hear of Edom's cities, Timon, Dedan, Basra. Now, Timon to Dedan is a way of saying Edom from north to south, and Basra signifies Edom's strength, as it was a fortified city, about 19 acres in size, all surrounded by a strong wall.

But as we read, you're going to hear about Edom's ability to hide in the clefts of the rock and on the heights of the hills, and if you've ever seen the pictures of the excavations at Petra, the craggy fortress of Edom, you can understand how they believed in safe spaces.

Ammon trusted in its wealth, but Edom trusts in their safe spaces. Now, God is going to address this by revealing his wisdom and his truth and his justice in his judgment of Edom. First, God's wisdom in verses 7 through 12.

Concerning Edom, thus says the Lord of hosts, is there no longer any wisdom in Timon? Has good counsel been lost to the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed? Flee away! Turn back! Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!

For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him at the time I punish him. If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came by night, would they only destroy—they would destroy only until they had enough.

But I have stripped Esau bare. I have uncovered his hiding places, so that he will not be able to conceal himself. His offspring has been destroyed, along with his relatives and his neighbors, and he is no more.

Leave your orphans behind. I will keep them alive, and let your widows trust in me. For thus says the Lord, Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it. And are you the one who will be completely acquitted?

You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. Timon and the entire region of Edom was known for a strong wisdom tradition. Job's friend Eliphaz was a Timonite, and it's possible that Job himself was the second king of Edom.

Genesis 36 verse 33. The point is that wisdom was well known in this land, and then God asks, Where did all the wisdom go? What happened to their treasury of good counsel? Has their sagacity so decayed?

How did folly so quickly infect their hearts? How had stupidity become their drug of choice? In the immortal words of R .C. Sproul, What's wrong with you people? God lays out the severity of Edom's judgment with a series of questions that demand a response, responses that stretch the mind and call forth wise answers and conclusions.

In verses 9 through 10, he asks and desires an answer that focuses Edom on the level of destruction that is coming. And then in verses 11 through 12, he wants them to consider the certainty of their disaster.

Notice how he says it in verses 11 and 12 about the orphans and widows. Leave them behind. I'll keep them alive. Let your widows trust in me. In verse 12, he says, Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it.

And are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. So in this way, he's pointing to the fact that orphans and widows who had no federal head, no representative to be guilty before the Lord for this national judgment, that they would still suffer because of the cup of the wine of God's wrath being drunk by the whole nation.

And so he addresses the leaders, he addresses those who are responsible, and he says, Do you think you're going to escape suffering when all these others who weren't directly responsible for this disaster, they're going to have to suffer, but you won't and you are responsible?

So you see the way that God is using his wisdom and asking Edom to respond in kind. God has to instruct Edom in wisdom all over again. They have become fools. Why are they fools? They're trusting in their safe spaces, their hideouts, their clefts in the rock that they have carved out for themselves.

The safe spaces they believe will save them, but safe spaces are fake saviors. And we ought to care about that because those with fake saviors go drunk, staggering mad under God's wrath. Here's the truth of it.

Verses 13 through 16. For I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, that Basra will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin, and a curse, and all its cities will become perpetual ruins. I have heard a message from the Lord, and an envoy is sent among the nations saying, Gather yourselves together and come against her and rise up for battle, for behold, I have made you small among the nations, despised among men.

As for the terror of you, the arrogance of your heart has deceived you. Oh, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who occupy the height of the hill, though you make your nest as high as an eagle's, I will bring you down from there, declares the Lord.

God's prophet Jeremiah adds his voice to Obadiah's at this point. For these verses parallel the first four verses in that little prophetic book by the name of Obadiah. Obadiah wrote an oracle of judgment against Edom, and by the testimony of these two prophets, every word concerning Edom's demise is established.

Now, in tumultuous times, we may wonder if the truth is being spoken, being believed, or being acted upon at all. And many question if truth is attainable, or if truth is even important. But we cannot get more assurance that we have the truth than to hear from God this, I have sworn by myself.

When the immutable God, whose knowledge constitutes the very DNA of truth, when our unchanging, truth-establishing God swears by his glorious, unfailing name, we have a guarantee that can spin a universe, stop it on a dime, slay a million devils, and raise the rotted dead.

The Word of God. He is sworn by himself. So it does not matter what safe spaces Edom hides in. Bozrah, the cleft of the rock, the height of the hill, an eagle's nest. It does not matter. All these man-crafted or humanly appropriated safe spaces prove to be fake saviors in light of the truth of God.

God is telling the truth, and his judgment is coming. Who will drink the cup? Who will drink the cup? Those with fake saviors will drink the cup, and they will go drunk, staggering mad under God's wrath.

And now God's justice in the way that he judges. Verses 17 through 22. Edom will become an object of horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds. Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors, says the Lord, no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it.

Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennially watered pasture. For in an instant I will make him run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it.

For who is like me? And who will summon me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against me? Therefore, hear the plan of the Lord which he has planned against Edom, and his purposes which he has purposed against the inhabitants of Timon.

Surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their pasture desolate because of them. The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry. The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea.

Behold, he will mount up and swoop like an eagle and spread out his wings against Basra, and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.". So after expressing his wisdom and his truth, God now reveals his justice in destroying Edom.

Notice he uses the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, because Edom needs to remember that the Lord is God, and he is the one who sends fire and brimstone on those who deserve it. And though many would like to charge God with overreaction, for indiscriminately causing unwarranted damage through his overuse of power, just who is going to bring charges against the judge of all the earth?

Who will successfully arraign God Almighty into their courtroom? Now, when he says this, I want you to hear the echoes of Job. For who is like me, and who will summon me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against me?

And just a thought, if Job really was the second king of Edom, and Job attempted at some oblique angle to call the Lord God into his court and question whether or not God was righteous, is this not a scriptural echo of that very same confrontation that God had with Job and said, who do you think you are?

Edom thought that they could establish their own baseline of wisdom, their own baseline of truth, and their own baseline of justice through their safe spaces. But these were not safe. God is not bound by man's inventive restraints.

Now, folks today clamor for a safe space. They think police officers make their spaces dangerous, and so they get rid of the police. Then they don't like all the murder and mayhem that happens when the police go away, so they bring them back.

If there's a lion in the streets, best to never go out of doors. Small-scale free enterprise is deadly. If there's a risk of some getting sick, then force everyone to wear masks. If stopping protests might create more danger than allowing them to happen, then let them do what they want.

It's about being safe. If singing hymns and partaking in communion and worshiping indoors is perceived as dangerous, then the sword of the state will lay up on the necks of believers and make sure that church buildings remain empty and safe.

But safe spaces can never compensate for folly, and safe spaces cannot deny God's truth, and safe spaces are not a replacement for God's justice. In our safety-first culture, where it seems that risk itself is equated with sin, it is wise and it is honest and it is righteous to confess that whatever safe spaces we may engineer for ourselves, we will never, ever be safe from God.

You might avoid COVID -19. You might avoid the flu. You might avoid riots. You may avoid getting shot. You may avoid fires, electrocution, and you may avoid paper cuts for the rest of your life. But it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes the judgment.