This verse is written in the context of of God's judgements in Zion. The first part of this verse is the questions that the sinners are asking in the midst of the city experiencing the judgements of God. They are asking, "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire?" The fury of God was being poured out on their city and they ask these questions. They ask, "Who can stand in the midst of God's judgements?" Verse 15 gives us the response. "Those who walk righteously and speaks uprightly". The kind of person that will be sustained by God in the midst of God's judgement is the one who "walks righteously". The one who lives in the fear of the Lord and lives as if before His eyes always. The one who not only talks the talk and speaks uprightly but the one who also walks out the very righteousness.
It is the wisdom of God in the hour of history for us to give ourselves to understanding God's standard of what it means to walk uprightly. For this is the only safe place when God's judgements are in the land. It is the upright and the righteous who will be given bread and who's water will be sure in times of drought and famine. It isn't the one who stockpiles enough food and ammunition or the one who lives in the wilderness far away from the major cities or any of the other advice that is being talked about under the surface of all the news headlines today. But it is right standing with God. It is knowing Him and being known by Him. It is walking in the fear of the Lord. Not that it isn't wise to practically prepare for times of crisis, but if we are not walking uprightly with God and if we do not know Him and then all of our planning and preparation will come to nothing in the day of God's judgement. In the day of judgement, He isn't casting judgement on lack of preparedness but on the lack of justice. He is casting judgement on oppression and unrighteousness.
We are all aware of the undercurrent of understanding in our day that a major catastrophe is on the horizon. With the earthquakes that have been happening in the last few years and the social unrest that has been increasing in frequency there can be little doubt that we are living in the time in which God is beginning to shake the earth. I personally believe that we are living in the beginning of sorrows spoke of by Jesus in Matthew 24. We are living in the days of "wars and rumors of wars. We are seeing nations rising against nation. We are seeing "famines pestilences, and earthquakes in various places."
I can hear the voice of the scoffers saying "Where is the promise of His coming", and "wars have been happening since the beginning of civilization along with earthquakes", every generation thought that they were the last generation" etc. What I have to say in response to these voices is this: Jesus clearly told us to keep watch for these things. If we call Him Lord, then we would be wise to accept His saying as true and instead of trying make His words fit the frame work and categories of our own fallen, limited, un-renewed minds, we should come to God with true humility and great poverty of spirit asking Him to help us understand. If there is a disconnect in our own minds and hearts, we should not be so quick to criticize God, His Word and the scriptures and embrace the commentaries and opinions of broken minded men and their logic and reasoning. The only way to get real clarity on the truth about the hour in which we live and the end of the age is through actually knowing God and asking the One that not only wrote the bible but wrote all history before it was played out in time. To trade a pray life with God based around the scriptures for commentaries and opinions of fallen broken men is stupid. In doing this we position ourselves in the same way the majority of the religious leaders did in the days when Jesus walked the earth. They read all the rabbi's commentaries on the scriptures but did not have a track record with God in the very words they used to accused God Himself. They traded a track record with communing with the God of the scriptures for the commentaries of mere fallen men. This lead them to being blind to the very fulfillment of the biblical prophecies they were longing for.
We are living in the beginning of sorrows and we are on the verge of seeing a global government and economic system rise up that will attempt to crush Christianity at every level from every angle humanly possible. Are we at a place where we will be able to stand in that day like Job stood in his day under the testing of God and the very God ordained torment of satan? Will we "curse God and die"? Or will we be able to stand with Job and have it said over us by the host of heaven that " In all this we never sinned or accused God of wrong." Will we take part in that great falling away that has been prophesied or will we stand with God in the greatest hour of trial the world has ever seen before? Our track record with God and our history in Knowing HIM and loving Him in the secret place of our hearts is the only place that we can find refuge. No prison can hold one that has His refuge in God, no gun call kill a man who's life is in God Almighty.
There is a very real day coming where every one, both living and dead will give an account for what he chose to do with his life here on the earth. We will be judged according to what we have done. There will be many teachers, pastors, leaders and even those who call themselves Christians in this age that will find themselves burning in the lake of fire at the end of the age. What you do on Sundays has little to do with how you will be judged on that day. the verdict over our lives on that day will have consequence for ETERNITY. Your vocation does not exempt you from the judgement. What you call yourself does not exempt you from this judgement but it's the truth of who you really are and whether or not you ACTUALLY KNOW HIM AND OBEY HIS WORDS that will be the determining factor.
What I am hoping to accomplish in writing this is to invoke in all the readers a very real sense of the fear of The Lord. This is the very beginning of wisdom. There is no wisdom that does not start here.
There is a day of tremendous crisis coming to this nation (USA) and the planet. Your food stockpile will mean nothing in light of the heat of God's fury. It will be turned to vapor in a second if that fury is pointed at you. In this context, God is looking for friends that will actually take the time and effort to not only acknowledge Him but to know Him. This knowledge of God and the subsequent life that is lived in light of knowing Him is the only safe place in the days to come. At all costs, know Him and obey His commandments.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
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