February 5, 2011 (Judges 6-16)

Turmoil in the middle east - it's all over the news right now. It's been that way since God took His people to give them "the Promised Land" and it will be that way until Jesus comes back to rule and reign forever. Here's what prompted that thought today:

^11:12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon, asking, “Why have you come out to fight against my land?”

 ¹³ The king of Ammon answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and all the way to the Jordan. Now then, give back the land peaceably.”

And the answer that Jephthah gave didn't satisfy them then, and doesn't satisfy them now.

¹⁴ Jephthah sent this message back to the Ammonite king:

 ¹⁵ “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not steal any land from Moab or Ammon.... ²¹ But the Lord, the God of Israel, gave his people victory over King Sihon. So Israel took control of all the land of the Amorites, who lived in that region, ²² from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River, and from the eastern wilderness to the Jordan.
 ²³ “So you see, it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who took away the land from the Amorites and gave it to Israel. Why, then, should we give it back to you? ²⁴ You keep whatever your god Chemosh gives you, and we will keep whatever the Lord our God gives us.
 ²⁶ “Israel has been living here for 300 years, inhabiting Heshbon and its surrounding settlements, all the way to Aroer and its settlements, and in all the towns along the Arnon River. Why have you made no effort to recover it before now?²⁷ Therefore, I have not sinned against you. Rather, you have wronged me by attacking me. Let the Lord, who is judge, decide today which of us is right—Israel or Ammon.”

 ²⁸ But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah’s message.

The king of Ammon didn't give a rip about God or His plan, and only saw the reality of his land being taken from him. How can we expect any different result today? There will never be peace in the Middle East until Jesus reigns as the Prince of Peace. And that WILL happen. We just don't know when. This whole scenario reminded me of Peter's warning:

2 Peter 3

The Day of the Lord Is Coming

 ¹ This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. ² I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.

 ³ Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. ⁴ They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

 ⁵ They deliberately forget that God made the heavens by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. ⁶ Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. ⁷And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

 ⁸ But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. ⁹ The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

 ¹¹ Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, ¹² looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. ¹³ But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.

 ¹⁴ And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

 ¹⁵ And remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—¹⁶ speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

 ^17  18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

   All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.