Her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but will supply abundant food and fine clothing.

 

Wednesday, December 20, 2023


Psalms 43; 43

Isaiah 23:8-18

Revelation 20:11-21:8


Her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but will supply abundant food and fine clothing.


God’s influence makes things holy.


During times of tribal conquest, the law of the survival of the meanest was the law of the land. But God then took the biggest tribe of them all – the Roman Empire – and turned it Christian, dissolving the barbaric practises and turning an empire into a church. Afterwards, when Europe looked like it would return to barbarism, God’s influence in the form of Christian princes turned things around, and so we had Christendom. Then, in the age of exploration, greedy men went to discover foreign lands, to enslave the people and steal their riches. But God sent missionaries, and the light of Christ overcame the darkness of people’s sin, outlawing the slave trade but keeping the church, and now the Bible has been translated into more languages than the printers can keep up with.


God also sanctifies commerce. The trade ships of Tarshish, carrying ruthless merchants and adept money-grubbers, are laid low and humbled by God’s awesome presence. But God then takes their skill and uses it for His glory – glory which is revealed in the prosperity of those who follow in God’s ways.


God’s sanctifying influence finds its zenith in what He does for us humans. Through the crucifixion of Jesus, a people has been set aside. When Jesus then returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, He will take this special group of people and shower upon us such blessing as we cannot even imagine. If God can make something as banal as trade holy, then how wonderful it is that He takes the human being – an enfleshed soul, with its own opinions, emotions, aspirations – and makes it so holy it can stand in the presence of the unveiled Christ forever!


Abundant food and fine clothing; the complete annihilation of mourning and crying and pain; the death of death itself. This is the awesome power of God to make things holy. This is what the future holds for the Christian: and the process has already begun, here and now.


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