We humans, especially those who profess to follow Jesus, can oftentimes fall into that trap of thinking too highly of ourselves, especially when it comes to our claims of having a good handle on what ‘truth’ is. That’s probably why Paul cautions us if we think we are standing firm’ ...to ‘take heed lest we fall’ (1 Cor. 10:12)

Pontius Pilate, who was neither Jewish or a follower of Jesus... asked Jesus ‘What is truth’?, when ‘The Truth’ was standing right in front of him. (John 18:38) The Pharisees, who were the leading (supposedly) standard bearers and teachers of truth certainly didn’t recognize the ‘Truth’ when confronted by Him (John 14:6). We read of those two disciples who spent a few hours walking with the resurrected Truth on the road to Emmaus and certainly did not recognize the ‘Truth’ until after Jesus ‘opened their eyes’ (Luke 24:31). And even one of His most devoted followers, Mary Magdalene, mistook Him to be a gardener on the morning of the resurrection (John 20:15)

So the next time you hear about earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes causing extensive damage in various parts of the country (or world), may I caution you to hold off on automatically concluding it is once again the ‘wrath of God’ ...sending His ‘judgments’ on the earth today. I am not about to claim that God has absolutely nothing to do with any of that, but I would suggest we tend to become overly fixated on ‘natural’ events and miss out on the ‘spiritual’ significance of what is really unfolding in the world today. Take a look at what Jesus chided the Pharisees with in Matt. 16:2-3.

We’ve been taking some time to examine a subject matter that God said His people knew little about, which was His judgments (Jer. 5:4; 8:7). And all I am making the case for here is it would be to our advantage to have a better understanding of this topic, especially when Peter tells us that God’s judgment will ‘first begin with God’s household’ (1 Pet. 4:17). We don’t want to be in that category of people who Daniel wrote about concerning the ‘last days’ who had no idea what was happening (Dan. 12:8-10); or be those who are ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6).

Let me map out some more groundwork here as I tell you where we are going with all this. If you want to have a better understanding as to what God is doing in the earth today, in the ‘spirit realm’...(if I may use that expression), then all we need to do is look back to how God operated in the ‘natural’ realm in the OT, especially since much of what we read was a ‘foreshadow of things to come’ (Col. 2:17)

For example, how did God regularly bring ‘correction, punishment, or judgement’ on His people when they got out of line, or disobeyed and even rebelled against Him? He usually did so at the hand of the neighboring nations of people who were not the people of God; i.e. Israel’s enemies. The entire OT is full of examples of this very thing. So... how does God do that today, with His people/children? Some of you have been led to believe that God doesn’t even ‘punish’ us when we ‘sin’ because you were told Jesus ‘took all our punishment, for past, present, and future sins’ when He died on the cross. So much for believing Hebrews 12:5-12, or John 5:14, or Eph. 5:6.

So for those of you who are still hanging with me here...suppose God still uses our ‘enemy’ to ‘chastise’ us with; ...who is our ‘enemy’ today? Is it ISIS, or the Russians, or the Democrats or the ‘liberal media’, or your spouse or boss at work? Who did Peter say our ‘enemy’ was... in 1 Pet. 5:8? Who are we told to ‘give no place to’, in Eph. 4:27? Who does Paul say we are having to ‘contend with’ despite popular opinion that suggest otherwise, in Eph. 6:12? To whom did Paul advise a ‘brother’ in the church who was guilty of sexual immorality be ‘handed over to...for the destruction of his flesh’, in 1 Cor. 5:5? And for those who really are ‘born of God...and no longer sin’...to whom does God promise protection from in 1 John 5:18?

Admittedly, we do have a few insights made available to us back in the OT as to how God used Satan, or the devil and demon spirits to carry out His judgments, unleashing His ‘anger’ as we talked about yesterday. We’ve already looked at Ps. 78:49-50 that spelled it our rather clearly. But what about the way in which God dealt with King Saul in his downward spiral after failing to do what God commanded him to do in 1 Sam. 15. What was sent to ‘trouble’ Saul, by God...as recorded in 1 Sam. 16:14-16 and 18:10? And who really took out the firstborn of Egypt during the plagues, as we read in Ex. 12:23? I don’t want to revisit the lessons we learn from the book of Job now, but chapters 1-2 is a treasure vault of insight for those who are not afraid to simply take God at His word and learn from Him. Oh...have I asked this before: 'when did God change?' (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8)

As I have already stated previously, if we want to gain a better understanding as to how God’s judgments and wrath are carried out, all we need to do is look back to how God dealt with HIS people in the OT, then...pray that the Holy Spirit ‘opens the eyes of our understanding’ that we might see the ‘spiritual’ layer or component to what we are reading. And trust me, you don’t have to ‘force it’ or try hard to read into anything here. IF...there is something to be gleaned, God will show you; I promise.

You have heard me say before, that God could easily remove all the forces/powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness that exist on the earth today...at any moment He chooses to do so; and a day is coming when He will in fact do this. But for now, He makes ‘use’ of them, reminding us that for those who truly abide in Him...they need not fear nor worry about these entities of darkness. (Luke 10:17-20; Matt. 10:28; 1 John 5:18; 1 John 4:4; Rev. 12:11)

Tomorrow, Lord willing...we will take another ‘deep dive’ and lay out more of these ‘puzzle pieces’ of scripture and make room for the Holy Spirit to put the ‘big picture’ together. I hope you join me.