Sun.’s Devo - Deliverance

Read: Habakkuk 1:1-3:19; Revelation 9:1-21; Psalm 137:1-9; Proverbs 30:10 Habakkuk lived 600 years before Christ during the reign of Jehoiakim. In the first chapter, he prophesied the coming of the Chaldeans to invade Judah. In the second chapter he comforted his people by telling the humiliation their enemies were going to face when they did attack them. In the third chapter the prophet celebrated God’s victories in the past as a testimony of what he would do in the future. He will deliver them again! Habakkuk 3:17-19 is a favorite scripture declaring that even if there is no evidence of God’s deliverance and things are looking really bad, yet, we can will ourselves to rejoice in the Lord and find joy in the God of our salvation. In Revelation, the fifth angel sounded his trumpet and a star fell to the earth. (All through scripture stars represents people - Gen. 15:5, Gen. 37:9, and Jude 1:13 to name a few.) This “star” was given the key to the bottomless pit to open it. When he did, smoke poured out from it. Locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth. They could sting like scorpions and were told them could only hurt the ones who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads They were to torture them for five months with pain. The locusts looked like horses with gold crowns on their heads. Their faces look human. Their hair was long and their teeth were like that of a lion. They worked armor of iron and their wings sounding like a mighty rushing wind. They stung with eire tails and for five months they had permission to torment people. Their king was Abandon or Apollyon, the Destroyer. That was the first terror, but two more were coming. The sixth angel sounded his trumpet and John heard a voice coming from the four horns of the gold altar of incense. A voice commanded the four angels who were bound at the great Euphrates River to be released They were to kill one-third of all the people on the earth. The size of their army was 200 million. This army rode on horses. The riders wore red, blue and yellow armor and the horsed had heads like lions, and breathed out fire, smoke and sulfur. One third of all the earth was killed by their plagues. People who did not die of these diseases still refused to repent of their sins and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of precious metals. They refused to repent of their murders, witchcraft, sexual immorality or thefts. Lord, we choose to trust you to deliver us from our enemies and save our nation and our families. We will not be afraid of what man can do to us because they can never take our souls. Encourage your people to stand firm against sin and choose righteousness.