See a Mighty Jesus
“In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:1-4 WEB)
Picture this majestic vision. The mortal king of Israel had just died, and the Lord Christ revealed Himself, seated on His throne of glory which was high and lifted up, and the train of His robes filled the whole temple. The longer the train, the more honorable the king is—it was a picture of the supreme ruler. The King of kings and Lord of lords!
No mortal king rules forever, so regardless of who rules in Israel, Christ is the ultimate king who is watching over the nation, protecting it from all her enemies.
We can benefit from seeing Jesus in His love and Grace, and also from seeing Him in His power and authority. However, the former is more important to be established in first because without having a sense of being loved by Him, you will be afraid of Him due to the latter.
Behold Jesus in His power. Can any enemy stand against a God like that? He is Yahweh of Armies, who commands the seraphim, the cherubim, the four living creatures, the chariots of fire, and all the heavenly armies. The natural elements of this world like the wind and waves obey His word, and nothing can resist His command.
When we magnify the Lord in our hearts, we won’t fear the enemies because the greatness of our God overshadows the problems we face in life.
What does the passage mean when it says that “the house was filled with smoke”? This smoke is the smoke from the altar of incense, which is a picture of the prayers being offered up by the nation of Israel. The people were crying out for God to help them, and that is why the temple was filled with smoke—the many prayers of the people.
“The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” (Luke 18:6-8 WEB)
God is being patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance in Christ Jesus. There is a day of vengeance coming, which is the period of time called the Tribulation and the Day of Christ, and it will be horrible for the inhabitants of this earth who have not received Jesus Christ as Lord. We won’t be going through the Tribulation, but we will be returning to earth with Jesus on the Day of Christ (popularly known as the Second Coming).
Our Lord is not coming back as a meek Lamb, but as the mighty Lion of the tribe of Judah.
“I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called “The Word of God.” The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND Lord OF LORDS.”” (Revelation 19:11-16 WEB)
We have to change the picture of the ascended Jesus we have in our minds. He is no longer the bleeding and suffering man of sorrows who was so injured that He fell from the weigh of the cross that He was carrying.
He is now high and lifted up, back on His throne of glory, with all the heavenly armies at His command. In fairy tales, there is often a handsome prince on a white horse that whisks the damsel in distress away to a happy ending where they ride away together into the sunset. Where did humans get this picture from?
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 WEB)
God has set eternity into the hearts of men. Jesus is the prince who will save Israel from her oppressors. When you think of Jesus today, see a mighty King who commands the heavenly armies to fight your battles for you. He does this because He loves you!
My vision drawings was one of the Bible Study series shared for GEM patrons on Patreon. Join our Patreon community to receive fresh rhema words from the Holy Spirit to help you in every season of life: http://patreon.com/miltongohblog
weigh ones words 在 李怡 Facebook 的最讚貼文
Is a U.S.-China hot war imminent?|Lee Yee
In July, Pompeo claimed the American policy towards China is harsher than the one towards the Soviet Union in the Cold War era. The approach has been shifted from “listening to its words and watching its deeds” to “ignoring its words and only watching its deeds”. Recent developments show that the U.S. is striding closer and closer to a complete de-linkage with China. The recall of the ambassador from China was just a prelude. What followed was the U.S. official interpretation that “one China policy” is not equivalent to “one China principle”, plus the emphasis that “the U.S. holds no specific standpoint towards the sovereignty of Taiwan”. Furthermore, during the visit of Krach, U.S. Under Secretary of State, Tsai Ing-wen stated that “Taiwan has the determination to take the critical step”. Adding fuel to this, Hsiao Bi Khim, Taiwan’s delegate at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., introduced herself as the “Taiwan Ambassador to the U.S.” on Twitter. In view of all these, is the U.S. going to establish diplomatic relation with Taiwan? Will it turn out to be the “October surprise” before the U.S. presidential election? In response, China dispatched fighter jets to violate the airspace of Taiwan, and as “Global Times” put it, “this was not a gesture of warning, but an actual combat exercise of attacking Taiwan”. In return, Taiwan authority urged China “not to underestimate its armed forces' resolve in safeguarding Taiwan”. As tension keeps building up across the Strait, will the U.S. intervene and finally trigger a U.S.-China hot war?
For the last few months, while analyzing the situation, quite a few observers have drawn upon the “Thucydides trap” originated from an ancient Greek historian. According to this theory, when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as an international hegemony, there will be an unavoidable tendency towards war.
To be frank, these observers may have well overestimated the strength of China. Thanks to its huge population, China has become the second largest economic entity in the world. But we are now living in an era that national strength is rather defined by technological advancement. In reality, China is militarily inferior to Russia and technologically lagging far behind major western countries. To put it simply, China is yet to be capable of challenging the American dominance.
Back in the 1980s, in the heyday of its economic development, Japan has significantly outperformed the U.S. in the capital market, and some American scholars have come to the “Japan No.1” conclusion. Despite this, there was never a sign of military confrontation between U.S. and Japan. A decade later, the formation of the European Union posed new challenge to the American supremacy. But again, the two did not come anywhere close to a war. So why has the emergence of China, which in fact lacks the capabilities to overwhelm the U.S., aroused much anticipation of war?
Rudolph Rummel, an American professor of political studies, have made a thorough analysis on the correlation between wars and democracy in human history. After humans surviving a thousand years of darkness, it was not until the independence of the U.S. in 1776 that unveiled a democratic institution with public elections, separation of powers, multi-party system as well as freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly. After more than a hundred years, in 1900 there were only 13 democratic countries in the world. And after another decade, in 2015 the rose to 130, and dictatorial states without meaningful elections have become the minority.
According to Rummel’s statistics, there were 371 wars between 1816 and 2005. Among them, 205 were fought between two dictatorial countries and 166 between democratic and dictatorial ones. Interestingly, there had not been a single war between democratic countries. The conclusion is all too obvious: if there were only democratic states on earth, wars would not happen.
And here lies the fundamental reason why the “Thucydides Trap” has been more valid in the old days when dictatorial systems prevailed, but has failed to apply in contemporary cases between two democratic countries. And it also explains why the competitions between the U.S. and Japan or the EU have not led to any war, while the challenge from China will probably end up differently.
In a democratic system, to wage a war requires a consensus among the government, legislature, media and public opinion. It is rather a matter of the people’s collective will than the ruler’s subjective decision. Whereas within a dictatorial structure, no approval from the legislature is needed, media and public opinion are never respected and judicial challenge simply does not exist. A dictator or oligarch can just go to war at will.
From a dictator’s point of view, whether to enter a war or not is not subject to external circumstance, but the domestic status of his ruling. When a dictator’s position gets shaken by severe economic downturn and widespread public discontent, he will try to divert domestic dissatisfaction by means of foreign maneuvers. The dictator tends to single out those “non-conforming groups”, as so identified by the “little pink” Chinese patriots, and tries bullying them, as what the CCP is doing in India, Hong Kong and Inner Mongolia. The objective is to distract attention with extreme nationalism. More often than not, stirring up external instability has become a tactic to secure domestic stability of the dictator’s rule.
Perhaps a shrewd dictator will weigh up the strength of his counterpart before taking action. Nevertheless, the intrinsically defective system may hinder the dictator from understanding the reality and accessing different views. And personal intellectual and intelligent inadequacies may also breed unrealistic self-inflating belief. The resulted stupidity can make a tragedy more imminent than everyone may expect.