Perfect Citizens-NOT
“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”
Today’s Text: Nahum 3:12-19 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
The Assyrians had reached the point of no return. Their greed and cruelty had sealed their fate. But it wasn’t their greed and cruelty that led to their doom so much as their refusal to repent of their greed and cruelty.
When God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn the Assyrians to repent of their evil ways, they repented. And God in His omniscience knew that they would repent, so He withheld His wrath, much to the chagrin of Jonah.
Most people think of the Old Testament as being full of wrath and doom. All they can see is an “angry God.” But that is not the proper way to read the Old Testament. In actuality, the Old Testament offers to us a message of warning and a message of hope. In fact, that is the whole Bible, not just the Old Testament.
As long as God gives this world the dawn of a new day, there is a new day of hope. But that hope rests on our repentance.
And our repentance is not a payment that we give to God for Him to withhold His wrath. God’s salvation is freely available to all, but God’s salvation is found only in His kingdom. And just as with any other kingdom or domain or government, God’s kingdom operates according to the rules of His kingdom.
Repentance is simply agreeing to live according to the rules of God’s kingdom. Why would God allow anyone into His kingdom (where salvation is found) who refuses to live according to the rules of His kingdom?
Of course, living in God’s kingdom does not mean that we are all perfect little citizens, either. Far from it. The primary rule of living in God’s kingdom is to understand that we are all helpless sinners to the core and that we are saved only by following Jesus as Lord of our lives.
And what does it really mean to follow Jesus as Lord? It means to believe that everything the Bible says is true, even knowing that our understanding is limited. And it means to do everything that Jesus tells us to do, as best as we can, knowing for certain that His sacrifice covers all of our inevitable mistakes.
The message of the Bible is not so much for nonbelievers as it is for believers. And so the message of warning and hope in the Bible is given to us in order to challenge, motivate, and inspire the people of God to pursue the kingdom of God here on earth through faith in Christ Jesus.
As the people of God, our lives ought to go against the grain of the greed and cruelty that permeates this world—not to slumber and rest in the midst of that greed and cruelty—and most definitely not to contribute to it.
Father, This is Your world. And it operates according to Your economy. But I myself may try to live according to the economy of the world. And so I thank You for Your mercy on me, for giving me a new day of hope in repentance. Help me to seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness today. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
