“I am strong”

“Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”

Let the armies of the wicked fool themselves that they stand the slightest chance against the Lord! They are deluded and their wicked hearts have no understanding nor will they ever have the insight from the Lord to be wise. This is the state of the collective human psyche at the end time. People in myriads who believe in themselves and their own futile thought processes and reject the living God.

“… And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:”

2 Thessalonians 2:11

The unbelieving people of the world will be led into the last battle by the forces of evil at their own choice, but it is a wretched choice. They have no spiritual light and no insight into the deep things of God and are therefore deluded. The day of peace has passed and now the whole human endgame is facing the war of all wars.

The peaceable words of the Lord are now over. The day of salvation has ended and the door of eternal life for whoever seeks it, is forever shut. In the day of mercy the command is for peace and reconciliation to God. God calls us to lay down our weapons and come to Him, as is written by the prophet Isaiah.

“He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Isaiah 2:4

The situation is now reversed and the opposite state of play now has ensued. The implements of peace and prosperity are now to be used for war. All is for war, for the end has come…

Prepare for war

“Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.”

The Lord calls for war. He goads the enemy into the preparation for conflict, knowing that the outcome is set. He declares that the mighty men of war should prepare themselves for the conflict to end all conflicts, for it is with the mighty God. He calls all the warriors to get tooled up for the struggle ahead with Him and to draw near to the conflict. The Day of the Lord has finally and irrevocably arrived and God is calling the men and women of war out to the site of the fighting.

The enemy can summon up all the warriors it can find and all the generals and soldiers in the armies of the nations, but they will not put to flight the people of God. God is telling us this to encourage us, that He will not allows His people to be destroyed and finally defeated. The Lord Himself will fight for them and over come all the greatest of warriors that find themselves in that Valley of Jehoshaphat and facing the last battle of humankind against the Lord of the Universe. They cannot succeed, but they still try, for their hearts are hard and full of folly.

The cry goes up. Who will answer it?

All those who oppress the people of God and have no understanding of who God is and of His mighty power. This is the end play…

Faraway

“… and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for the Lord has spoken it.”

Those who have enslaved the people of God will now find themselves the brunt of the same treatment. God will recompense His people and vindicate their position before Him. Gods will not allow the oppression to run on forever, but is working out His eternal purposes for his people. Often His will seems to melt in with the shadows of life and we cannot discern what His purposes are. This is where faith takes hold and walks on even when the future is so dimly lit we cannot see in front of us. The promises of God forever remain and we take hold of them as the sure and certain landmarks along the pathway to heaven.

Enemies will never gain the upper hand, even when we are tempted to see it that way. We remain streadfast in the Lord our God and in the many lessons we learn from this Scripture. This lesson is for our encouragement and to help us see the long term view that God sees. The greater our faith the longer we will see and not be disappointed at the current outworking of circumstances. The Lord is gracious and will bear us up in His strong arms so that we do not succumb to fear and fall into sinful responses to our situations.

When we do fall, He will help us to find the way out and be victorious in His strength thereby building faith, hope and love in God. The enemy will find itself far away, but the people of God will be brought into His tender care.

Stir them up

“Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head;”

No matter how far into destitution we have been sold, our God is able to rescue us. No situation is too desperate or problem unsolvable for Him to bring back and renew. The plans of oppressive people and the enemy that dwells in our own psyche is not too strong for His strength to put down and even make us new again. God can release us from the chains that hold us fast and give us liberty and peace. There are some who live in a prison for a long time and suffer under the heal of oppression and bigotry, but it cannot last for the people of God.

No matter how strong the bonds of the particular oppressor we are strapped to, Christ has overcome all sin and suffering through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. He has paid the price for the sin of His people therefore they are free.

However we need the impetus to get us out of the rut we often find ourselves in. The sense of injustice can do it, although often we are so bowed down we cannot see over the edge to walk to freedom. Sometimes there will be a strong sense in us of anger at our predicament that it will drive us to get up and do something about it!! Gods will give the motivation and power we need to break free of the bonds and walk back into our lives the better for it all. Those who oppress others will find their repayment coming back on themselves with the recompense that they surely deserve. Gods will protect and vindicate His people and lift them up in His own way at the time He so desires.

Remove them

“…and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.”

The people of God have experienced ethnic cleansing and the strategy of sending them as far away as possible from their homeland so that returning was almost impossible. The children of the nation and the children of Jerusalem have been sold far away into slavery to the gentile nations who live so far away from their home that they cannot find their way back and therefore the land can be taken over by the invading forces.

We are all being sold into slavery by the culture in which we live and the enemy who stalks our footsteps. We are captive to the devil at his will did we but know it. We think we are deciding things about our lives and thinking we are exercising freewill and choosing the kind of lives we like, but we are easily duped.

The enemy has sold us down the river into enemy territory and we are stuck here thinking it is our destiny and that is all there is to it. It is not. We need to realise what is going on and stop being drawn into the sinful mindset of this present evil age and break free from the pressures that corrode our thinking processes and ability to chose freely. Only in Christ are we free to exercise choice and be a people of liberty. No one else can grant us that blessing. It is a curious position to be made free from the slavery on sin by becoming a slave to righteousness. We all serve someone, either the freedom of a holy God or the destitution of the slavery to evil.

Beloved, let is open our eyes and see the enemy within and without and shrug him away from us and embrace the truths of God and the holiness that he requires of us.

Shirley Hamilton

Finest treasures

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“Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,”

There are many instances in the Scripture text where the gold and silver that belongs to God, finds its way into pagan places with pagan nations. Sometimes it is captured by the enemy and taken away and at times the ruler of the nation of God gives it away as collateral for freedom and to reduce the prospect of invasion.

God is not regarded when His sacred items from the tabernacle and temple are taken by the unbelievers. They are desecrated and held in regard as trophies over the people of God and as the means of bringing God down into disrepute. Such as in the case with the King of Babylon, King Belshazzar, who took the sacred objects from the temple of God and used them for His own aggrandisement. He was spoken to by God through the handwriting on the wall, which warned him that his life was forfeit that night.

There are many today who bring the blessed truths of God into disrepute by living unloving and unloved lives. They do not know the grace of God in this life and therefore do not value the deep truths of God and the joy of knowing Him. In these days of darkness and lack of love we need to once again rediscover the peace that passes all understanding and find again the forgiveness that is in Christ alone. There is no other treasure like that treasure and no other valuable “silver or gold” like that. We must seek the Lord and keep seeking until He should open the door for us and bring us into His banqueting house once more. There we will find all the treasures of love that do not exist in our modern world. There we will find our God and Saviour to be all that He is and we will enter into the experience of the finest of treasures. We will find the Lord Jesus and be satisfied.

Colossians

A devotional commentary on the letter to the Christians at Colosse… the Christians in that town had lost their view of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul reminds them of who He is and directs them forward in their Christian life.

Available on Amazon…

If you search the name of the book and the authors name you will find it.

Colossians Shirley Hamilton

Repayment

“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.”

God scoffs at the evil-doers who think He does not see and does not care about the justice in any situation. God lingers and gives time to repent and we think He is neglectful concerning His promises to do right. Tyre and Sidon were rich trading ports but they are as nothing to the Lord, indeed the whole of the nations are like a drop in a bucket. He is not impressed with the regions of the Philistines and they can never repay the price of their sin anyway, no matter how much they seek to give back to God what is His.

The nations surrounding His people have turned against them, and therefore turned against the Lord. He asks them how they will repay God for His divine judgment and how they will seek recompense for their ill will towards hIs people Israel, who are here indicative of his spiritual people.

We find ourselves in this situation, where we are in debt to the Lord and can never repay. It is easy to find ourselves in the wrong attitude towards the Lord and to find ourselves against His people, and seeking our own comfort and blessing.

God is not interested in our effort to pay, but only on the fact that we are repentant and seeking to be forgiven by Him. Only He can pay the debt we owe, and bring us back to God. God is the author of all salvation and we come to Him in faith to receive forgiveness and spiritual life. This is the only recompense He seeks from us, and the only way we can be forgiven. There is no repayment we can give to Him, but our sin and failure and to allow God to change us and make us as we should be.

That they may drink

“… and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.”

The land that belongs to the Lord has been taken over by the enemy and those who oppose the Lord have grasped the land for themselves. Those who do not believe have taken the people of God into captivity and have stolen away the things that do not belong to them, and now the reckoning has come. The people of God are being used to enable the outsiders to God to have what they want and their very lives are being gambled for. The people of this world will use anything to get what satisfies their desires, and the personal and temporal blessings that they crave. Society will use anything to get what is required or keep people happy no matter who it hurts. God is blamed for the troubles of the world and therefore His people are regarded as to blame as well as the almighty. The hearts of the people are hardened against the Lord, but He will come in deliverance and sweep it all away soon.

Those who have no regard for God also have no regard for human life. They have taken the weakest and the lowest members of society and have used them for their own ends, making them forced labour and slaves to prostitution and degradation. The most vulnerable are sold for just a pittance and counted as the lowest trading item in their godless market places. They have done this literally and also spiritually to the people of God, treating them like slaves and oppressing them, and forcing them to live low lives and be brought into a society where they are constantly taken advantage of. Oppression breeds a certain mindset that makes people low and keeps them low. It is the strategy of slavery and the means to keep people in subjection and obedient to their masters. It is melted out on the people of God, but only for a short time.

This is the situation of the church of Jesus, where the Christians are so oppressed by what is going on around them, that they can only look to the Lord for deliverance. We do not take vengeance and guard our minds and words, even in private and trust in the Lord’s provision for us. We look to him, cry out to Him, for He alone is able to strengthen us and help us to overcome the oppression and the attendant attitudes.

Daughters of the Kingdom

Women who glorify God