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People Will Look to their Creator

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Only a few of its people will be left, like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest. Only two or three remain in the highest branches, four or five scattered here and there on the limbs, declares the Lord, the God of Israel. Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer look to their idols for help or worship what their own hands have made. They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles or worship at the pagan shrines they have built.
Isaiah 17:6-8 NLT

The people in Israel will have nothing left, according to Isaiah’s prophecy. Their society will have been destroyed, with most of the inhabitants either killed or deported into exile. The few people left will look around them and feel the loss of their neighbours, the busy markets, the chatter in the taverns, but it will all have gone, swept away by the Assyrian tide. But they will be unable to relax, because they will have to eat. There will be fields to tend, flocks to look after, friends and relatives to mourn, probably wounds to heal, and bodies to bury. Perhaps their houses will require repair or rebuilding. There will be much to do by the “few of its people” who will be left.

Imagine today looking out of our windows, if we had any after the devastation, at a town or village, devastated by war, with buildings partially or totally destroyed. The aggressors had gone, pillaging and plundering over. The shops that had not been flattened by shelling and bombing were devoid of any contents. All gone. All destroyed. Bodies everywhere needing to be buried. The people are left starving and despairing, but so few remain. Perhaps a modern-day image of what Damascus of old will be like. Apocalyptic visions of what life will be like after wars have wrought devastation.

But there is hope, because “then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel”. The idols were of no help. The “gods”, sculpted lumps of metal or wood on the shelf in the living room, will not rush to their aid. Bowing to the Asherah poles or to the pagan shrines will not achieve anything. A brutal lesson will have been learnt by the remnant of people left in the land. Dim memories of Deuteronomy 28 might have re-emerged in their miserable thoughts, as they ticked off one by one all the curses Moses had warned about. They will finally “get it”, that there is no God other than their Creator, the “Holy One of Israel”. 

Back to the same scenario today. There may not be Asherah poles or pagan shrines. No idols in the corner of the room, but there are other “gods”. Perhaps the golf clubs in the corner. Or the expensive car, or what is left of it, parked on the drive, useless and just an inanimate lump of metal, plastic and glass. An idol is anything that has taken the place of God, anything that diverts our attention away from our Creator, the “Holy One of Israel”. 

Regardless of the age we live in, God is always there. He is the “same yesterday, today and forever”. God created us, when He “… made all the delicate, inner parts of [our bodies] and knit [each one of us] together in our mothers’ wombs” (Psalm 139:13). How arrogant mankind has been when they have forgotten this very truth, that we are only here on this planet through the grace of God and through His miraculous design in creation. And we have the extreme offence of God’s creation being brutalised and corrupted, perhaps on the altar of abortion, a modern-day Asherah pole or pagan shrine, worshipped in the name of selfish pleasure. 

But in times of trouble, what do people do? We can turn to Psalm 121 to find the remedy. “I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!” That’s the bottom line for mankind, regardless of belief or religion. There is only one Source for the few people left. Psalm 46:1, 6, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. … The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble! God’s voice thunders, and the earth melts!” Further on in the Psalm, we read, “Come, see the glorious works of the Lord: See how he brings destruction upon the world. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear; he burns the shields with fire. Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honoured by every nation. I will be honoured throughout the world” (Psalm 46:8-10). Ultimately, God will prevail over all evil, and it is a hard lesson for people everywhere to learn that they have lost out by worshipping the wrong god.

God’s love is there for everyone to embrace, a love so profound and complete that He did not even spare His own Son, Jesus. And all we have to do is believe in Him. Of course, that means we must turn from our sins and live our lives God’s way. But the alternative for all those who refuse to believe in Him is that they will perish. When we read John 3:16 slowly and carefully, we find the two choices before us: perishing or eternal life. I know which option I have chosen.

Dear Father God. Once again on my knees before You today, I can do nothing other than worship You. Only You have the words of eternal life, spoken through the lips of Your Son, Jesus. I pray for the strength to complete the journey into Your presence, the place where You live, despite all the trials and temptations that come my way. And I pray for my family, that they, too, will make the right choice at Calvary. Amen.

Living Life God’s Way

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This message came to me concerning Damascus: “Look, the city of Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins. The towns of Aroer will be deserted. Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed, with no one to chase them away. The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away.”
Isaiah 17:1-4 NLT

With the demise of Moab behind him, Isaiah’s prophetic writings continue, but now against Damascus and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Isaiah 17 starts with a description of a ruined city, which was once full of “royal power”,  a city that now consisted of ruined buildings, a place where untended flocks of sheep and goats grazed on vegetation no longer cultivated. A city that was once full of Israel’s glory, but now deserted, with no people there anymore, people either killed or taken away into exile. I’m sure we pilgrims all know what a ruined building looks like. Here in Scotland, there are many reminders of past inhabitants living in small stone-built cottages, now roofless and crumbling. Vegetation can be found growing out of the joints between differently-shaped rocks and stones, once lovingly put together as a home for a family, so that they could live by their fields and crops. Or perhaps our thoughts move to the picture today of parts of Ukraine, destroyed by war, buildings with holes in the walls, windows blown out, and blackened by fire. 

What would it have been like to have lived in Damascus, Aroer and the fortified towns of Israel in those days? The sound of an approaching army, the sounds of battle, the shrieks of terror as the victorious insurgents entered the town, the terrible events that followed, with people rounded up, killed, and even driven out into places where they didn’t want to go. All their possessions lost, families separated and treated like slaves; much more could be written about the events that ended with the scene before us today, of ruined buildings crumbling away, the sounds of a living and vibrant city replaced by a silence only broken by the noisy grazing of the animals left behind. 

Israel and Damascus had trusted in military alliances rather than in God. The very things they had relied upon would be taken away. There would be no protection from their fortifications. Their armies would either have been destroyed or the remaining soldiers had run away. But how does this account of misery and destruction provide any sort of lesson for us pilgrims today? Well, for a start, there is the nagging thought that human attempts to build a life of security and prosperity will never succeed unless God is involved. Jesus told the story of the two builders, one who built his house on foundations of sand and the other on foundations of rock. Jesus said, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock” (Matthew 7:24-25). But perhaps the Israelites in Damascus fell into the second category of builder, “But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash” (Matthew 7:26-27). We know from the events of that time that God’s people had turned away from Him and were behaving in ways that He had explicitly warned them about. They had replaced the worship of God with the worship of idols. They were living sinful, disobedient lives that their ancestors had been told about in Deuteronomy 28:15-16, “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you: Your towns and your fields will be cursed”. What would happen to the disobedient people who lived in Damascus was described by Moses many years earlier.

There are two ways in which we can build our lives: one with God and one without Him. For those who decide to go their own way, God sometimes begins to remove their support structure, plank by plank, until they turn to Him in repentance and humility, confessing their sins and deciding to live their lives His way. Sometimes God allows this to happen in a spectacular way, as recently with the news account of a senior, high-earning accountant who put in place a series of financial instruments to protect his money and property from the tax authorities, only to find that the judicial system didn’t agree with what he had done. He is now in the modern-day equivalent of the Damascus of old, watching all his possessions being seized and sold to pay his debts. For him and his wife, homelessness is becoming a real possibility. 

Jeremiah wrote, “This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land” (Jeremiah 17:5-6). This was why Damascus became a heap of ruins, and the Israelites should have read on to the next two verses in Jeremiah, “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit”. We pilgrims know and understand the next two verses, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve”. 

There was a psalmist called Asaph who knew all the Scriptures, including those about the blessings and curses written by Moses in Deuteronomy 28. He couldn’t understand why some people seemed to escape the curses that were the lot of those who refused to follow God and His ways. Psalm 73:2-3, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked”. He saw that, “They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills” (Psalm 73:5), and he concluded, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence” (Psalm 73:13). Why weren’t they destroyed, he wondered. He couldn’t get his mind around the dilemma, “till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin” (Psalm 73:17-18). His thoughts concluded in the last two verses of this Psalm, “Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds”.

We pilgrims know that there is no other way to live our lives than to live them God’s way. Even living in a society where perhaps everything around us is shaking. The secular direction that people are going will not end well for them or our nation, and the writer to the Hebrews wrote, “When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain” (Hebrews 12:26-27). But for us pilgrims, there is hope for the future, regardless of what will happen, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe” (Hebrews 12:28). We are a Kingdom people, children of our wonderfu and amazing Heavenly Father. As Habakkuk wrote, “Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). That is the wonder of living life God’s way. We are invincible overcomers, in the knowledge that one day we will be securely home with God. Forever.

Dear Heavenly Father. We know in our heads that You are the Source of all we need to live our lives Your way. Please help us to learn that deep within our hearts so that we can truly complete our journey hand in hand with You, rejoicing and strong. Amen.

Finding Refuge: Overcoming Pride in Times of Trouble

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Send lambs from Sela as tribute to the ruler of the land. Send them through the desert to the mountain of beautiful Zion. The women of Moab are left like homeless birds at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River. “Help us,” they cry. “Defend us against our enemies. Protect us from their relentless attack. Do not betray us now that we have escaped. Let our refugees stay among you. Hide them from our enemies until the terror is past.” When oppression and destruction have ended and enemy raiders have disappeared, then God will establish one of David’s descendants as king. He will rule with mercy and truth. He will always do what is just and be eager to do what is right. We have heard about proud Moab—about its pride, arrogance, and rage. But all that boasting has disappeared.”
Isaiah 16:1-6 NLT

Isaiah chapters 15 and 16 paint a heartbreaking picture. Moab is devastated. Cities have been destroyed, people are weeping, refugees are fleeing, and families are desperately searching for safety. Throughout Isaiah 15 we repeatedly hear the language of grief, with mentions of weeping, crying, faint hearts and more.  It is a picture of people who have discovered that everything they trusted will be taken away. Yet amid this terrible situation, there appears to be an opportunity for refuge. Moab is encouraged to turn towards Zion. But there is a problem. Pride. In our verses today we read, “We have heard about proud Moab—about its pride and arrogance and rage”. Moab desperately needed help, but pride stood in its way.

There is an important spiritual lesson here for us pilgrims. Sometimes the greatest barrier between ourselves and the help that God can supply is not our weakness. It is our pride, and in it we say that we can manage, that we don’t need help from anyone. We say that we will sort this or that particular problem ourselves, and anyway, if all else fails, we will then turn to God. But faith says something very different: it tells the Lord that we need Him. However, we know that God offers us a place of refuge. Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble”. Matthew 11:28-30 NLT, “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light””. But to come to Christ we must first admit that we need Him. We cannot receive grace while insisting that we are self-sufficient. We cannot find refuge while refusing to admit that we need shelter. We cannot experience the strength of God while pretending that we are strong enough on our own. The tragedy of Moab is that help was available, but pride stood in the way.

Perhaps today God is reminding us that we do not have to carry everything ourselves. We can come to Him, admitting our weaknesses, confessing our needs, and, of course, laying down our pride. And when we do, we discover that God is not waiting to condemn the humble heart. He is waiting to become our refuge. James wrote, “And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honour” (James 4:6-7, 10). 

Isaiah 16:4-5 reads, “Let our refugees stay among you. Hide them from our enemies until the terror is past. When oppression and destruction have ended and enemy raiders have disappeared, then God will establish one of David’s descendants as king. He will rule with mercy and truth. He will always do what is just and be eager to do what is right”. We pilgrims remember that, in all the mayhem of this turbulent time in history, Someone was coming to establish a Kingdom of mercy and truth, justice and righteousness. His name was, and is, Jesus, our wonderful Saviour. Unlike the Maobites, who had yet to experience the coming King, we know Him from His brief time on this earth. He came as a baby, subsequently living a life of austerity, but His love and compassion were limitless, and through the testimonies of His faithful disciples, we stand before Him, loved, saved and forgiven. We know Him. And we wait for His return, to complete the promise given so many years ago to a people suffering under foreign occupation. 

God is indeed “our refuge and strength”, but is our pride getting in the way? Are we preventing ourselves from entering into the refuge of rest that He promised? In all humility, we bow before Him today, confessing our pride and arrogance, and asking for forgiveness. Are we pilgrims facing into difficulties today, for which God has a solution, if only we would put aside our pride and embrace His provision?

Dear Lord, forgive us for the times when pride prevents us from admitting how much we need You. Help us to stop trusting in our own strengths and abilities. Teach us to come humbly into Your presence and to find our refuge, strength and security in You. Thank You that when we come to You, we know that we will never be turned away. Amen.

God’s Grace Through Ruth: A Moabite’s Legacy

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This message came to me concerning Moab: In one night the town of Ar will be levelled, and the city of Kir will be destroyed.
Isaiah 15:1 NLT

King David conquered Moab, Israel’s neighbour, around 1040 BC, and that was how things stayed until soon after 853 BC when they successfully rebelled and remained a thorn in Israel’s side. In 583 BC they were conquered by the Babylonians and by 400 BC had been absorbed into the Nabataean empire and ceased to exist as a separate nation. Isaiah’s prophecy against Moab was probably written between 739 and 681 BC. The rest of chapters 15 and 16 provide an account of what was going to happen to Moab, an idolatrous nation that was, however, notable for its most famous person, Ruth. 

The Book of Ruth was possibly written by Samuel, as Jewish scholars claim, but it is not an unaminous conclusion. However, what we do know is that Ruth was King David’s great-grandmother (Matthew 1:5-6). The account of Ruth started in the time of the Judges, when a famine was present in Judah. “In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there. Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her husband” (Ruth 1:1-5).

What happened in Moab was an absolute disaster, because there was no social safety net to look after widowed women. Naomi, a Jewish woman and now a widow, could not have survived on her own, so she decided to return to Bethlehem, taking her daughter-in-law, Ruth, with her. Through the Book of Ruth, we can see how God used a foreign woman at just the right time in the ancestral lineage that led to the birth of Jesus. Ruth was a woman of remarkable qualities, as we read in Ruth 1:16, “But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. ‘ “ Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God”. Such devotion played out in the account of Ruth and her liaison with Boaz, through which a son arrived. “… And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David” (Ruth 4:17). Ruth was a Moabite (historically an outsider to Israel), yet God chose her to be in the genealogy of King David, and ultimately Jesus. This highlights that God’s grace extends to all nations, races, and backgrounds.

Is there anything that we pilgrims can learn from Isaiah 15 and the Book of Ruth? There would seem to be three themes that run through this period in Israel’s history, the first being God’s sovereign providence at just the right time and in just the right lives. Naomi experienced immense bitterness after losing her husband and sons, but God used Ruth’s humble actions in the fields of Boaz to turn their despair into joy. It reminds believers that God is orchestrating events behind the scenes, even during times of grief. Perhaps we pilgrims are going through a time of grief ourselves, when all seems so dark, and when the loss of a loved one is affecting us deeply. For all we know, God is working behind the scenes to produce an outcome that will change our lives and those of our families. Jesus said, “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). 

A second theme concerns the loyalty Ruth showed to her mother-in-law. Instead of pursuing her own interests, Ruth showed profound devotion by leaving her homeland to serve Naomi. As we know, Jesus left the comfort of eternity with His Father in Heaven to come to this world, taking on the form and limitations of a man, an act of breathtaking loyalty marked by His care and compassion for the human race. Ruth’s action was an example of the loyalty we have to Jesus, something that marks both the early disciples and us pilgrims today. 

The third theme concerns Jesus being the ultimate Redeemer. In the Book of Ruth, Boaz acted as a “kinsman-redeemer” (a relative who saves and provides for a destitute family), and he served as a beautiful Old Testament illustration of Jesus, who rescued humanity by paying the ultimate price for our salvation. Jesus is the ultimate redeemer because He paid the debt for sin that humanity cannot afford, rescuing believers from spiritual bankruptcy and bringing them into God’s family. We pilgrims were in a lost and hopeless state, spiritually destitute and unable to provide for ourselves. There is no spiritual equivalent of a social security net. Churches or religion cannot help. There is only one remedy for sin, and that is through Jesus, and we pilgrims bow at His feet this morning, deeply grateful for all that he did for us on the cross at Calvary. 

Dear Lord Jesus. There are no words sufficient to express our deep thanks to You today. We praise and worship You, and will do so forever. Amen.

Times of Trouble and Finding Security in God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“This message came to me the year King Ahaz died: Do not rejoice, you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken— that the king who attacked you is dead. For from that snake a more poisonous snake will be born, a fiery serpent to destroy you! I will feed the poor in my pasture; the needy will lie down in peace. But as for you, I will wipe you out with famine and destroy the few who remain. Wail at the gates! Weep in the cities! Melt with fear, you Philistines! A powerful army comes like smoke from the north. Each soldier rushes forward eager to fight. What should we tell the Philistine messengers? Tell them, “The Lord has built Jerusalem; its walls will give refuge to his oppressed people.””
Isaiah 14:28-32 NLT

The first question today is “Who was King Ahaz”? Well, he reigned in Judah from 735 to 715 BC and was the 12th King of Judah. He is remembered for his disastrous alliance with the Assyrian Empire and deep involvement in idolatry, which brought heavy tributes and foreign religious practices into Jerusalem. The account of what happened during his reign can be found in 2 Chronicles 28. But it is worth noting that he abandoned true worship of God and added to it worship based on Baal, following the example of Israel’s kings. Somehow, the worship of God became integrated with the worship of Baal, and, faced with agricultural realities in Canaan, the Jews adopted Baal, the local storm and fertility god, as a rain-giver. They viewed Yahweh as the national covenant God, and Baal as a functional deity, often worshipping them side-by-side at local “high places”, a process referred to as syncretism. A really sad situation, but then we remember that we pilgrims live in a country where the national religion, Christianity, is being sidelined more and more by secularism and the introduction of other religions, such as Islam, through immigration. The worship of God in Judah and Israel was integrated with idol worship, and the merger resulted in death, destruction and exile for the Jews. Today, even the Bible-based worship of God is being diluted in some denominations by the introduction of secular and societal customs (idols and ideologies) that directly contradict the Word of God, and, as in the days of King Ahaz, it will not end well. We even find the abomination of occasional “multi-faith” worship services that include religious leaders from other religions sharing the platform with Christians. Christians today tend to believe that the Old Testament judgments on Jewish societies will not recur in modern times under the New Covenant, but such complacency may be ill-founded. We cannot ignore the prophecies in Revelation, because the plagues John described may occur sooner than we think. Jesus said that He was coming “soon”, but we don’t know how soon “soon” will be.

But what else can we find in our verses today? Isaiah wrote, “The Lord has built Jerusalem; its walls will give refuge to his oppressed people”. When trouble comes, our natural instinct is to look for a safe place. We may seek security in our finances, our health, our family, our abilities, or the people around us. Nations seek security in political alliances, military strength, and powerful leaders. Yet Isaiah reminds us that none of these things can provide lasting security.

The Philistines were rejoicing because the king who had oppressed them was dead. This king was Uzziah, whom Isaiah wrote about in chapter 6. King Uzziah had previously struck down the Philistines and broken down the walls of major cities such as Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod (see 2 Chronicles 26). The Philistines thought the danger had passed. But Isaiah warned them not to celebrate too quickly. One threat would be replaced by another. It was likely that this would be the Assyrians or perhaps King Hezekiah of Judah. Their confidence was misplaced because they were looking at changing circumstances rather than at the sovereign purposes of God.

How often do we do the same? We think that if one particular problem disappears, everything will be well. If our circumstances improve, our health improves, our finances become more secure, or a difficult situation is resolved, then we will finally have peace. But circumstances change. One problem may disappear only for another to take its place. Human strength fails. Political powers rise and fall. Financial security can disappear. Health can change. Even the people we depend upon cannot always be there for us. Isaiah points us towards something far more secure: “The Lord has built Jerusalem; its walls will give refuge to his oppressed people”. The security of God’s people did not ultimately depend upon kings, armies, alliances, or favourable circumstances. Their security rested in the Lord. And the same is true for us pilgrims today. Our greatest security is not found in the absence of trouble but in the presence of God.

Jesus never promised His followers a trouble-free life. In fact, He said: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Our confidence is not that nothing difficult will ever happen to us. Our confidence is that whatever happens, we belong to the Lord, because He is our refuge. When circumstances are uncertain, He remains faithful. When people disappoint us, He remains trustworthy. When our strength fails, His strength remains sufficient. When the future is unclear, His purposes remain secure.

The Philistines placed their hope in changing political circumstances. God’s people were called to place their hope in the unchanging character of the Lord. Perhaps today we pilgrims are facing uncertainty. We may be wondering what the future holds or how a particular situation will work out. Isaiah’s message is simple but powerful: Do not build your security on circumstances that can change. Build your life upon the God who never changes. 

The Psalmist wrote, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!” (Psalm 46:1-3). The safest place in an uncertain world is not a life without problems. It is a life hidden in God.

Dear Heavenly Father. Please forgive us for the times when we place our security in people, possessions, circumstances, or our own strength. Help us to remember that You alone are our true refuge. When life is uncertain and the future is unclear, teach us to trust in Your faithfulness and rest in Your sovereign care. Thank You, that whatever we face, we belong to You, and we are safe in Your hands. Amen.

God’s Unchanging Plans: Trust in His Purpose

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath: “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided. 
I have a plan for the whole earth, a hand of judgment upon all the nations.” The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken— who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?”
Isaiah 14:24, 26-27 NLT

God is a Planner. Life on earth does not proceed in a chaotic and random fashion, blown this way and that by the winds of adversity and the whims of sinful men. Daniel recorded some words spoken by a heathen king, Nebuchadnezzar, that put their finger on God’s sovereignty: “… I praised and worshipped the Most High and honoured the One who lives forever. His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal. All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’” (Daniel 4:34-35). Nebuchadnezzar finally realised who God was after a period of insanity. As we read today, perhaps we, too, can find some comfort in the same God whom Nebuchadnezzar found. The God who makes plans and keeps to them.

Firstly, it is not only God who makes plans. We human beings make plans every day. Some succeed; others have to be changed. Circumstances arise that we did not expect. People disappoint us. Doors that seemed open suddenly close. Life can take a direction we never anticipated. But God is different. The Lord said, “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided. I have a plan for the whole earth”. These words were originally spoken about the defeat of Assyria, a powerful, cruel, and intimidating nation. From a human perspective, it seemed unstoppable, and yet God declared that Assyria’s power would be broken. The message from our verses today is clear: earthly powers may appear strong, but they are never stronger than God, because He is sovereign. There are the three “omni’s” concerning God. He is Omnipotent: God is all-powerful and has dominion over all things. He is Omniscient: God is all-knowing and has perfect, exhaustive knowledge of everything, including the past, present, and future. He is Omnipresent: God is everywhere at all times, intimately present throughout His creation. And He is a Planner, who produces perfect plans that cannot be changed. People everywhere, caught up in war zones, or suffering due to famine, earthquake or just political instability, may claim otherwise, but nothing happens without it being a part of God’s plans. Perhaps that is a view not shared by many fellow believers, but either God is all-powerful or He’s not, and the God I worship is not a weak God who is unable to withstand and direct the forces that exist in this world. The people in Israel may have cried out to God, thinking that he was unwilling to help them, but He was actually using another nation to punish them for their iniquities. 

But with all that is going on in the world today, this does not mean that we will always understand what God is doing. There will be times when circumstances confuse us, and we may wonder why God allows certain things to happen or why He does not answer our prayers as we hoped. Our confidence is not based on our ability to understand God’s purposes. Our confidence is based upon the character of the God who makes those purposes, and we know that He is faithful, wise, powerful, righteous and good. 

Isaiah wrote, “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken— who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?” The answer is simple – no one. No enemy can defeat God’s purposes, and no circumstance can frustrate His plans. No human power can overturn His decisions. Nothing takes God by surprise, and nothing forces Him to abandon His purposes. This truth should bring great comfort to us pilgrims. There may be things happening in our lives today that we cannot understand, and the future may seem uncertain, with circumstances that may appear to be beyond our control. But they are never beyond God’s control. The same God who declared His purpose concerning Assyria is the God who holds our lives in His hands. We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know the One who holds tomorrow. Therefore, you can trust Him. God’s purposes may unfold differently from what we expected. His timing may be different from ours. His ways may sometimes be mysterious. But His plans cannot be defeated.

So when life seems uncertain, remember the words of the Lord: “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided”. 

Dear Lord, thank You that You are sovereign over all things. Forgive us for the times when we become anxious because we cannot see or understand what You are doing. Help us to trust Your wisdom, Your goodness and Your power. When circumstances seem uncertain, remind us that nothing can frustrate Your purposes or stop Your hand. Help us to rest confidently in You, knowing that Your plans will ultimately prevail. In Your precious name. Amen.

Lucifer and Babylon: A Study of Rebellion Against God

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Bright meteor streaking across night sky over mountain valley with setting sun

“In that wonderful day when the Lord gives his people rest from sorrow and fear, from slavery and chains, you will taunt the king of Babylon. You will say, “The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended. 
“How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.”
Isaiah 14:3-4, 12-15 NLT

The verses between 8 and 12 of Isaiah 14 describe the arrival of the king of Babylon in the place of the dead, where he is greeted by “the spirits of world leaders and mighty kings long dead”. There, in the place of the dead, the king will find “maggots are your sheet and worms your blanket”, a graphic illustration describing life for a spirit in hell. Jesus Himself was horrified by the thought of hell, “where the maggots never die, and the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:48), a quotation from Isaiah 66:24. 

But then we read Isaiah 14:12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!” This has two meanings: the first is that it refers to the king of Babylon, who represented the whole nation of Assyria. Through his pride and arrogance, he even dared to make statements and claims such as “I will ascend to Heaven” and “I will … be like the Most High”. Can we ever believe such arrogance? But the king of Babylon was not unique, making claims no one else did. Throughout Scripture, we notice that Babylon became more than merely an ancient city or empire. “Babylon” increasingly represents organised human pride and rebellion against God. It started, as we know, with the Tower of Babel, in Genesis 11:4, where we read, “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth’”. “Make a name for ourselves” in the context of tower building was the first tentative steps in the development of human pride. The association of the names “Babel” and “Babylon” is significant.

So we read the natural progression of pride and arrogance with the king of Babylon, buoyed by his battlefield successes and the expansion of his empire, thought he was unstoppable, even to the extent of claiming “I will … be like the Most High”. However, this was the end of his ascent into high places, because, in Isaiah’s prophecy, the Lord said, “Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths”. The end of the king of Babylon, consigned to hell and association with maggots and worms, followed.

The second meaning of Isaiah 14:12 can be found in the NKJV version, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!” This name, derived from the original Hebrew, means “morning star” or “light bearer” and has been associated with Satan, of whom we read more in Ezekiel 28. The same spirit of self-exaltation and rebellion that was behind the devil was behind the king of Babylon and has been behind many world rulers and others ever since. 

The final fate of “Babylon” and everything associated with it can be found in Revelation 18:1-2, “After all this, I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendour. He gave a mighty shout: “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen!. Reading on in Revelation 18 provides a fascinating account of the demise of the world system, the very end of capitalism and all the excesses and problems that it has brought. 

From one end of the Bible to the other, we see the sin of man demonstrated. The claim “we will make a name for ourselves” in Genesis 11, the arrogance of “I will … be like the Most High” in Isaiah 14, and the Fall of Babylon in Revelation 18. We pilgrims, in the End Times, may yet see the fruition of these Biblical events and prophecies.

But can we pilgrims glean any principles and helpful thoughts from our verses today. One thing that dominates human sin is two simple words – “I will”. So much of what we do is dominated by these two words, and there was even a popular song, “I’ll do it my way”, written about them. But the challenge for pilgrims everywhere lies in the Lord’s Prayer – “Your will be done”. Which of these two phrases, “I will” or “Your will be done”, sums up our lives? A question to take with us as we go about our daily lives.

Dear Father God. We earnestly pray, “Your will be done” before You say to each one of us, “your will be done”, with all the consequences that it will bring for our lives after we cross the Great Divide. Please help us turn our eyes to You, the One who hates pride and arrogance, when we are tempted to go our own ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Finding Rest in Times of Trouble

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“In that wonderful day when the Lord gives his people rest from sorrow and fear, from slavery and chains, you will taunt the king of Babylon. You will say, “The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended. For the Lord has crushed your wicked power and broken your evil rule. You struck the people with endless blows of rage and held the nations in your angry grip with unrelenting tyranny. But finally the earth is at rest and quiet. Now it can sing again! Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song: ‘Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’”
Isaiah 14:3-8 NLT

There are seasons of life when rest seems a distant dream, remote and unrealisable. “Rest from sorrow and fear, from slavery and chains” was listed in our first verse today as a blessing from the Lord. Our bodies age and grow tired; our minds are troubled by the hassles of life and the constant strife that marks our society. Israel knew what it was to live under oppression, fear, and harsh treatment. Yet God gave them a remarkable promise: a day was coming when He would give them relief. The God who saw their suffering had not forgotten them, and the God who permitted the season of hardship would also bring it to an end. For a time, Babylon appeared powerful and unstoppable, but God broke its power. And if we look at “Babylon” today, as meaning the world system, with all its evil and impact on mankind, one day that will all disappear and be replaced by “rest from sorrow and fear”. There will be a day, “that wonderful day”, when the Lord will rule and reign, bringing a world government for a thousand years. Perhaps we pilgrims may even be a part of that government, “priests of God and of Christ” (Revelation 20:4-6). Do we pilgrims find ourselves under the oppression of a “Babylonian” system? One in which we experience fear, anxiety, temptation, discouragement, or difficult circumstances. But we need to remember the lesson from Isaiah 14, that whatever seems a powerful and oppressive series of circumstances, causing a lifestyle that is fraught with difficulties, is never more powerful than God. One day, and with the people of Israel, we will say, “The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended. For the Lord has crushed your wicked power and broken your evil rule”. 

We know the power of God because we pilgrims have experienced it in our own lives. There was that day when we “… were dead because of [our] sins and because [our] sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made [us] alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins” (Colossians 2:13). The next two verses complete the picture and any connection with the spiritual “Babylon”: “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross”. That is God’s power at work, a power that raised Christ from the dead, and, through faith, the same power that will raise us to eternal life with Him. So in times of difficulty, there is something comforting in the knowledge that whatever we are facing, the power of God is there, available for us to call upon. And it will prevail over evil in the end. Don’t forget: we pilgrims have read to the end of the Book.

Isaiah 7:14, one of today’s verses, reads, “But finally the earth is at rest and quiet. Now it can sing again!” A singing earth? In my early morning walks, I find a silent world, with the only sound being the occasional birdsong or the wind blowing through the trees. In the distance, there may be the sound of motor traffic, but the ground beneath my feet is silent. Perhaps we don’t realise the potential of our Earth and what exists within it. Paul could see it, when he wrote, “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay” (Romans 8:19-21). That “glorious freedom” will manifest itself in song. In Chapter 11 of C.S. Lewis’s fictional book “The Great Divorce”, the very landscape rejoices, with the Earth singing after an angel transforms a ghost’s lustful lizard into a stallion. Perhaps Lewis had read Isaiah 14 when he wrote his book, but regardless, there will be much singing one day, as the earth and all creation are restored to the place where they should be. 

In all this, though, are we pilgrims feeling weary, even to the point of being tired with life? Jesus said,  “.. Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). There is no other solution to the burdens of living, other than in the arms of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. Our seasons of trouble may be long, but they are never beyond the reach of the God who gives rest.

Dear Heavenly Father. You created a world in which rest was built in because You could see how important it was to all creation, us pilgrims included. In our times of trouble, please help us to raise our eyes above our circumstances to the One who has what we need to revive us and to power us through whatever we are facing. Stress and worry are not ours to bear alone, and we thank You for all that You have done for us. Please be with us this day and every day. In Your precious name. Amen.

But the Lord Will

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But the Lord will have mercy on the descendants of Jacob. He will choose Israel as his special people once again. He will bring them back to settle once again in their own land. And people from many different nations will come and join them there and unite with the people of Israel. The nations of the world will help the people of Israel to return, and those who come to live in the Lord’s land will serve them. Those who captured Israel will themselves be captured, and Israel will rule over its enemies.”
Isaiah 14:1-2 NLT

Chapter 14 of Isaiah starts with a ”But”. Aren’t we glad for the “buts” in the Bible. The opening words, “But the Lord…”, mark a dramatic change. The previous chapter spoke about judgment, destruction, and the fall of nations using graphic language that makes the verses difficult to read. Human circumstances appeared bleak with God’s people facing exile and uncertainty. Isaiah 10 was a prophecy detailing how God would use the Assyrians to punish His people because of their sin and idolatry. Then we read Isaiah 11, which looks forward to a time when the Messiah will appear as a shoot from the stump of David’s family. Isaiah 12 is a song of salvation and praise to God, in which His people see the transition from God’s anger to His salvation. The nation that was instrumental in the destruction of Judah and Israel, the forces of Babylon, was itself portrayed in Isaiah 13, facing destruction on a terrible scale. And after all this, we read, “But the Lord”. Those three words change everything. God’s judgment is not the end of the story. His mercy is greater than His people’s failure, and His promises are stronger than their circumstances. Israel may have wandered from God, but God has not abandoned Israel.

There are times in our lives when we may feel distant from God. Perhaps we have failed Him. Perhaps difficult circumstances have left us discouraged. Perhaps we wonder whether God has forgotten us. Our verses today from Isaiah 14 remind us that God is a God of restoration. Look at the love and compassion that shine through these verses. He “will have mercy”. “He will choose Israel”. “He will bring them back”. Notice that the emphasis is entirely upon what God will do. Restoration begins not with human effort but with divine grace. This is wonderfully encouraging for us pilgrims. Our relationship with God rests upon His faithfulness. When we stumble, He calls us back. When we wander, He seeks to restore us. When we feel displaced and unsettled, He remains our true home. When we fall, He picks us up, dusts us off, and sets us back on our journey to glory. 

Verse 2 goes further. We read, “The nations of the world will help the people of Israel to return“. Think about it. Other nations will help God’s people return to their land. Perhaps that happened in 1948, when the state of Israel was established, although most would not make such a connection. Another possibility was in 535 BC, when Cyrus allowed the Jews to re-establish Jerusalem, but even then, the Jews were still under Persian jurisdiction. Most Bible scholars maintain that the fulfilment of Isaiah 14:2 is eschatological and has yet to happen. But “in that day”, those who had once been powerless and oppressed would experience a complete reversal of circumstances. The exile would not last forever. Babylon would not have the final word. The suffering of God’s people would not be the conclusion of their story.

God is able to change situations that appear impossible. Because of Jesus, we live with the assurance that God is bringing His people home. Sin does not have the final word. Failure does not have the final word. Suffering does not have the final word. Even death does not have the final word. God does, and we need to take note that God has not forgotten us. We pilgrims may be passing through a difficult chapter, but God is still writing our story. His mercy is still available. His promises still stand. His purposes are still unfolding.

The God who said,“He will bring them back”, is still the God who restores, renews, and brings His people home. So what are we pilgrims facing into today? Ill-health? Family problems? Relational breakdown? Such frequent, even daily, difficulties and challenges seem to be an unfortunate part of life. But – there is that word again – “But the Lord will have mercy”. Through Jesus we do not have to wait until “The Day of the Lord”. His love and grace are available for us right now. His “Buts” are lined up in Heaven, ready and waiting to bring relief to His children.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You that Your mercy is greater than our failures and Your faithfulness is stronger than our circumstances. When we feel discouraged, forgotten, or far from You, please remind us that You are the God who restores and brings Your people home. Help us to trust You in the difficult chapters of life, knowing that You are still working out Your purposes. Thank You that, through Jesus, our futures are secure and our stories rest in Your faithful hands. Amen.

God’s Judgment and Hope: Lessons from Isaiah 13

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“They come from distant countries, from beyond the farthest horizons. They are the Lord’s weapons to carry out his anger. With them he will destroy the whole land. Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived— the time for the Almighty to destroy. 
For see, the day of the Lord is coming— the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be made desolate, and all the sinners destroyed with it. The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will provide no light.
Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd. They will try to find their own people and flee to their own land.
Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms, the flower of Chaldean pride, will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah when God destroyed them. 
Hyenas will howl in its fortresses, and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces. Babylon’s days are numbered; its time of destruction will soon arrive.”
Isaiah 13:5-6, 9-10, 14, 19, 22 NLT

The apocalyptic language of Isaiah 13 is grim reading. The prophetic judgement that will fall on “Babylon”  will come on “the day of the Lord”, with terrible things about to happen. Those familiar with the plagues described in Revelation will immediately notice the similarity of the events. One verse that is repeated several times in Scripture is verse 10, “The heavens will be black above them; the stars will give no light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will provide no light”. Jesus said to His disciples, and after the time of tribulation, quoting Joel 2:10, “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29). There is also a reference to cosmic disasters in Revelation 6.

But Babylon represents the ultimate, global system of sin and opposition to God. Isaiah 13 historically forecasted the fall of the ancient Babylonian empire, but Revelation 17-18 uses the name Babylon the Great as a symbol for the end-time, worldly system of evil and commercial corruption that faces final judgment. In Revelation 17:4-5, we read, “The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewellery made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand, she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality. A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World””. And then, over the page, we find, “He gave a mighty shout: “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal” (Revelation 18:2). The scriptures weren’t referring to a literal Babylon because that was destroyed many years before Jesus came, but the sin and evil that made the city of Babylon great, at least in the world’s eyes, were the very things that God would eventually have to judge and destroy. Today, in our countries and societies, the spirit of Babylon is alive and unfortunately well, but it won’t last forever.

In Isaiah 13:6, we read, “Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived— the time for the Almighty to destroy”. The “day of the Lord” is also referred to in Revelation 6:17, “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?” And there are other references and similarities between Isaiah 13 and Revelation’s plagues of trumpets and bowls. It’s a fascinating read to compare the plagues in Egypt, the destruction of Babylon in Isaiah 13 and the chapters in Revelation that describe the end-time judgements.

But Isaiah 13 and the events in Revelation were not primarily given to satisfy our curiosity about the future. Instead, they reveal the character and purposes of God. We learn that God is patient, but He will not tolerate evil forever. Another feature is that human power and pride are only temporary, and nations and empires are accountable to God. Ultimately, He will defeat evil and will rescue and vindicate His people. As we look back over history, we see that it is moving towards God’s appointed conclusion. So we learn that “Babylon”, the world system, may appear powerful and evil may appear entrenched. The world may appear chaotic as we look on at man-made and natural events, but God has appointed a day when He will put everything right. That day may not come in our lifetimes (of course, it might – we just don’t know), but come it will.

The same God who judged Babylon will ultimately defeat every power that opposes His kingdom. For us pilgrims, therefore, the Day of the Lord is not simply a message of judgment. It is also a message of hope. Evil will not have the final word. Suffering will not last forever. The kingdoms of this world will pass away, but the kingdom of God will endure. Until that day, we are called not to live in fear, but in faithfulness.

Dear Lord, when the world seems troubled and evil appears strong, help us to remember that You are sovereign over history. Give us faith to trust You, and courage to remain faithful. Please help us to stand firm in the promise that Your kingdom will ultimately triumph. Amen.