PSALM 103 VERSE 21: "CHARIOTS OF FIRE AND SONGS OF PRAISE"

Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure (Psalm103:21)
All through this amazing Psalm of the Grace and Love of God towards us, we see the phrase “Bless the Lord”.  He, the Lord, is the Object and complete Focus of all Praise, Adoration, and Worship in this process of “blessing the Lord”. While we expect humans, mere mortals to praise and thank God for ALL He has done for us, we just noted in Verse 20 that the Holy Spirit, writing in the pens of King David, even instructed Angels to Bless His Holy Name. For the angels, this is already second nature. They were at the Creation and God said in Job 38:7 when He stated the following “When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

Jesus and the Two Angels who destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah visit Abraham

The sons of God were/are the Angels in this context. One important note here: whenever we see the Bible, primarily the Old Testament, mention “THE ANGEL OF GOD (or ANGEL OF THE LORD)” (as opposed to the angels), this refers to the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Jesus made several visits to earth even before He was born as a baby in  Bethlehem to Mary. He was walking in the Garden after He created Adam and Eve and was in fellowship with them daily. He had to expel them in Genesis 3 after they bought the lies of Satan. Jesus appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18 (click here). He wrestled with Jacob all night in Genesis  (click here). He appeared in the Pillar of Fire by night and the Cloud by Day to lead Israel through the desert in the Exodus. He appeared to Joshua in Joshua in Joshua 5:10-15 and then Samson’s parents in Judges. 

In verse 21, here, we see mention of the great Heavenly “Hosts”. This is not a reference to the sun, moon, and stars. Those are not living entities like humans and angels. Just like the President or Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, for example, has Army, Air Force and Marine Generals or Navy Admirals, along with the elite Navy Seals or Special Forces, God has an Army of the Heavenly Hosts who will one day descend on white horses behind the Lord Jesus on the Final Days of the current world. The hosts of heaven were visible for the first time when the Lord allowed Elisha to call for the Chariots of Fire as recorded here in 2 Kings 6:17 in stunning, awestruck wonder: “Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha".

The Angels of heaven glorify God. The Armed Forces of Heaven are blazing in the Glory of the Father, and bless His Holy Name….and so must His Ministers.  The ministers of God in the Old Testament were the select few Levite priests who descended from Moses’ brother. Their lives were dedicated to all aspects of Temple worship – from administering at the Holy of Holies to slaying the sacrifice according to Levitical Law. Jesus Christ upended this apple cart!

Since the Resurrection, all Christians who are truly committed disciples of the Lord Jesus, are now ministers. The Apostle Peter relays the following from Heaven in 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light".

All of us are supposed to minister unto the Lord, through obedience, daily prayer, praise, and worship. However, this calls for more. The under-shepherds of Christ – pastors and preachers – have an even greater responsibility. One of the ways which ministers are supposed “to do His pleasure” is to teach, encourage and proclaim the Word of the Lord. Billy Graham was perfect at this. He never said “Billy Graham says”….it was always, “the Bible says”….or the “Bible is clear on this….”. The accountability which ministers, evangelists, parachurch leaders, TV hosts etc have is way above the average Christian. Even writing these explanations of God’s Word on this site carries a serious responsibility. I have to be absolutely sure of what I am writing here, and especially when I write about “thus sayeth the Lord”.

God is not to be trifled with. We, who are blessed with the gift of teaching, preaching and explaining the Word of God and THEN, to express what we have learned about the Incomparable Christ and our Heavenly Father in total praise, MUST do so according to His Precepts! God’s pleasure is found when His people do His Will and do it willingly. His ministers are not only to teach and point to Who He is but to inspire and exhort passion and love, adoration and excitement, reverence and awe for the Incredible God of Heaven. “Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure”.

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF GENESIS #6

PERSIST IN PRAYER

23 Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Genesis 18:23-25)

The first ever intercessory prayer was made by a man who was standing right next to Jesus when he brought his requests to the Lord! The pre-incarnate Yahweh had come down from Heaven on one of his many recorded appearances in Scripture on a mission. He had visited Abraham on the plains of Mamre to prophesy to Sarah and Abraham that they were going to have a son/heir and then had planned to move on to Sodom and Gomorrah to take care of some really pressing business.

Sodom and Gomorrah were like modern day western civilization: rich, powerful, prideful and full of moral degenerates. They became a walking testimony of what happens to a people who exemplifies the Total Depravity of Man, as described in Romans 1:18-32 (click to read). Here is how God Himself described Sodom in Ezekiel 16:48 "As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. 50"Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it."

The pride and the idolatry and the perverted, unnatural sexual abominations and worse....they all rose up in a massive stink to Heavens. Sodom was destroyed in less than a day by fire and brimstone and the same Judgment await modern corrupt man. The Lord is gracious, merciful and compassion and the only thing restraining His Hand is His Grace, Mercy and Long-suffering and hope that not many perish.

Abraham saw this coming as he stood side by side with Jesus overlooking the soon-to-be destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. His nephew Lot and Lot's wife and two daughters lived there. How Abraham prayed is an example of our intercessory prayers for our villages, cities, states and nations. Abraham knew the corruption and sexual perversion of Sodom. He didn't even try to pretend there were many righteous people there. He started with asking the Lord to not destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people, then 45-40-30-10. In the end, God only rescued four people - the Lot family and one was quickly taken out for looking back and longing for the past - Lot's wife. But look at the words, in part, that Lot uses while interceding and standing in the Gap for a paradigm of past and future judgment which we do not comprehend.
Abraham said:
- Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? (verse 23)....here we pray for the last, following his example as well for our Christian brethren to stand strong in persecution.
-  Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked.... (verse 24).....here we continually and persistently prevail for God to stay His pending doom on our civilization so just, oh just a few more can be saved and brought to a knowledge of Christ. We know it is bad, but God is Good.
- And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes...(verse 27)....it should dawn on us just to Whom we are speaking and making seemingly outlandish requests. Pray in humility but also let us pray in gratitude that the Creator and Judge of all the Earth is even speaking with, and listening to us! This is an amazing fact, truth and blessing!
 - Read the rest of Genesis 18 up to verse 33 and see how Abraham just bargains and bargains and then read and see Jesus just be patient and kind and just as gracious as He can be.

The Lord is patient with us the same way. Abraham sought mercy from the eventual divine destruction of a demonic destiny - Sodom. We know what the end of all things will be from the prophets and the Book of Revelation. However our calling, as Christians, the people of God, is to pray with the same passion for the lost, the hurting, the prideful and misguided. Our position in Christ, while interceding in prayer is to be like Abraham in this prayer, just like Moses was when God wanted to destroy Israel during the Exodus for dancing around that golden calf that Aaron made. We are to be persistent in prayer, believing the attributes and accuracy of the Sovereign God He is and to do so in humility.

In the end, the end will come, but not before our prayers reach Heaven alongside the foul odor of sin. In that way, God will save, whom He will rescue, just as He rescued Lot and his family.

(Photo credit here)

THINK ON THESE THINGS - MONDAY

WAITING FOR THE PROMISE

(WE RETURN TO HEBREWS 11, VERSE BY VERSE

TODAY'S WORD - BELIEVE) 

Has someone ever made you a promise which not only sounded to good to be true, but could even be termed totally way out there?  I know how human nature would react - we would say "now way"...but inside, our "willer" would say " YES, WAY....er...please"!!!


For instance, take this one man who lived over 75 years surrounded by generations of not just pagan idol worship, but some of the vilest and sex-oriented debauchery which literally had its roots with Noah's great grandson - King (Ima) Nimrod! This man's dad was one of the richest  in UR, (which is not a Twitter abbreviation for "you are"). Terah reigned in Southern Iraq as one of the richest men there.

But one day, God said to Terah's son- take up you beautiful childless 74 year old wife Sarai and go west, old man, to this new land....BUT I am not going to tell it just....just GO! Over twenty years go by in the hot and harsh deserts of the Cradle of Creation. Then one day, God tells this man "your 99 year old wife is going to have a baby, and you da man - at age 100"!


Faith enabled Abraham to become a father, even though he was old and Sarah had never been able to have children. Abraham trusted that God would keep his promise....Hebrews 11:11 (GWT)


Jesus Himself confirmed it to Abraham - Face to face - when the LORD visited Abraham and Sarah, with two angels, on the way to destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Sarah laughed in private - an action with did not escape Jesus, who rebuked her. This story is told in Genesis 18: 10-15.


What we should ask ourselves is this - do we laugh at the Promises of God in His Word, or do we believe them... even a little bit?  Little Faith, just like a little knowledge, can be a dangerous thing. Look what happened when Sarah got impatient waiting for the Lord to send a natural heir for Abraham. She gave her young Egyptian servant girl, Haggar, to Abraham to impregnate, and we now have the Middle East crisis led by the sons of Ishmael!


Therefore, the word today is Believe. When the Lord, through His Spirit or the prophetic declaration of others, makes a promise to you, believe it! Then once you believe it, do not try to force His Hand. Just "Be still and know that He is God" (Psalm 46:10). Because if you try to help God out, they could be consequences you never bargained for!


Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.... Psalm 27:14