Thought for December 25th. “THERE WOULD BE NO MORE DELAY”

In the Old Testament we read how often there were bad kings on the throne in Jerusalem that corrupted the people, or were corrupt because of the people, kings like Manasseh, yet God – from our human perspective – kept delaying in acting to destroy the Holy City and its Temple. Then in the New Testament Jesus wept over Jerusalem and forecast its destruction and that of the Temple.  Yet 40 years elapsed after they crucified their Messiah before God’s judgements were carried out, in that time there was a great ingathering of individuals, who like, Paul, came to believe  and serve Jesus with all their heart. Now, the message in Revelation indicates a humanly indeterminate length of time as God’s keeps watch over the affairs of human beings while our Lord our mediator, as “the Lamb of God (is) seated in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water …” [7 v.17] and God’s word, for those who diligently read it, provides that living water. The time is to come when “there would be no more delay, but in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” [10 v.6,7] An example of this is our current reading in Zechariah. Today’s ch. 10 forecasts Israel’s return to their own land, “I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God”[v.6] and “I will make them strong in the LORD and they shall walk in his name” [v.12]  Back in Revelation in today’s chapter 11, we read, “the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever … The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged and for rewarding your servants … those who fear your name both small and great …” [v.15, 18]   No matter how small we feel in the affairs of the world, if we fear, that is, are in awe of all that God and His Son must be, let us redouble our efforts to serve them – not knowing how soon it will be before God says, there will “be no more delay”