Thurs.’s Devo - God’s Laws

Read: Exodus 21:22-23:13; Matthew 24:1-28; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 7:6-23 As you read the ordinances of how to deal with property loss, bodily harm and the laws of pain and suffering you will realize how much our laws follow this wisdom given by God. *** God himself is the avenger of the widow and the orphan if they cry out to him. God will make sure that their perpetrator is killed and his wife and children are left without their husband and father. *** God had laws about how he was to be treated also. He told them not to be slow in offering him their first fruits of their harvest and the firstborn of their sons and animals. The sons were to be circumcised on the eighth day of their life and the animals were to be sacrificed on the eight day. *** There were laws commanding them to treat your enemy as you would your neighbor. They were told not to pervert justice with false charges, taking bribes, acquitting the wicked and killing the innocent. *** They were to treat those passing through their land with kindness, remembering how they were sojourners when they came out of Egypt. *** They were to work the land for six years, then let it rest the seventh. During the seventh year they were to allow the poor and the beasts of the field to eat from their land. *** They were not to even mention the names of false gods. *** In Matthew, as Jesus and his disciples were leaving the Temple, the disciples admired the Temple buildings. Jesus told him that there was coming a day when none of the stones would be left standing. They would all be thrown down. He was speaking of both physically and spiritually. *** As Jesus sat with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, they asked him when the Temple would fall and when would he return and when was the end of the age. Jesus told them all the things that would happen first. Many would come in his name and say they were the Christ and lead people astray. They will hear of wars and the rumors of coming wars. They were not to be alarmed because this was all part of the plan. There will be wars and famines and earthquakes and these are the beginnings of the birth pains of the new age to come. *** His followers will the persecuted, and many will not stand but fall away from the faith. False prophets will arise and lawlessness will increase causing some to become hopeless and bitter. But, those who endure through all this will be saved. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole earth. Then the end will come. *** Then, Jesus warned them that an abomination was coming to the Temple. When they see this happen they are to flee to the mountains. Pray this won’t happen in the winter or on a Sabbath. Then, there will be great tribulation and those days will be cut short so that there will be survivors. False Christs will arise and do miracles and great signs and wonders. These are only imposters. The coming of the Son of Man will be light lightning that comes from the east and shines to the west. Jesus light will shine across the earth. *** The abomination Jesus was talking about happened after his death on the cross. Antiochus Epiphanes came into the Temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar and sprinkled its blood all over the Temple. The believers fled into the hills and many were killed. We have been under the tribulations written in Revelation ever since. We are in the cusp of the new age Jesus was talking about and are about to see Jesus’s kingdom come to earth, through us. This is not his second coming. That is way up ahead. Jesus will come and dwell on the earth and set up his kingdom through us, first. *** Lord, help us to discern the day we are living in and rejoice! This is the day that Jesus spoke of and we are privileged to live in this day. May we live the kingdom of God and endure till the end.