The Final Goal: No Plan B
Read: Malachi 2:17–3:5
I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. – Malachi 3:6
Jose Batista of Uruguay holds an unfortunate record. It took Batista just 56 seconds to receive a red card against Scotland at the 1986 World Cup. We might feel sorry for Jose, but just put yourself in the shoes of his manager! Suddenly his whole game plan went out the window simply because one player made a mistake.
We all know the irritation and upheaval that can occur when our plans change. But what a comfort that we have a God whose plans never change. God’s plans are not altered by our decisions. He doesn’t resort to Plan B, even if we choose to reject Him.
Malachi’s hearers were reminded of this as he railed against their hard and adulterous hearts (Malachi 3:5). They needed to be reminded of God’s faithfulness; after all, that’s the reason they were not consumed (v.6)!
The great news of Malachi’s prophecy is the arrival of God Himself (v.1). This was seen in the life and death of Jesus Christ. That was God’s plan all along, not to make a knee-jerk reaction to our sin but rather to deal with it once and for all through Jesus Christ.
You’ll struggle to count the number of times plans change at this year’s World Cup. But with our rescue from sin, there is no Plan B—just an ever-faithful God. —Jon Lindsay
In our ever-changing world,
we can trust our unchanging God.
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Loading ...ODJ: fooling ourselves
You have been deceived by your own pride because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains (v.3).
READ: Obadiah 1:1-9
Almost 30 years ago, according to a magazine story, an unusual work of modern art was put on display—a chair attached to a shotgun. It was to be interacted with by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an undetermined moment sometime in the next hundred years. Amazingly, people lined up so they could stare right into the shell’s path! They all knew the gun could go off at any moment, but each one took the chance that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during his or her minute in the chair.
Yes, it was foolhardy. Yet many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they can get away with sin. The book of Obadiah brings this foolhardiness to the fore.
In chapter 1, we read that the Lord sent a messenger among the nations to stir them up to war against Edom (v.1). The people of the nation of Edom thought they were indomitable. In order, to attack them, foes had to enter through a narrow rocky passage. So even if you had a million-man army, you could still only enter one soldier at a time.
God was against Edom for her pride and her sin against Judah—His people. And He had spoken, so destruction was certain. It was to be so thorough that nothing of value would be left (vv.5-6)
Sure enough, in 553 BC the king of Babylon burned down the cities of Edom. And between 600 to 400 BC, the nation was infiltrated and displaced by Arab tribes.
In the end, Edom symbolizes people who know that their sin is against God, yet who still try to get away with it. God has one word for them: Fools (Proverbs 1:32). —Poh Fang Chia
What repentance of sin have you delayed? Is there any sin in your life that you ought to turn from before it’s too late?
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July 2, 2010
READ: Acts 11:19-26
The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. —Acts 11:26
Hans Geiger, Marie Curie, Rudolf Diesel, Samuel Morse, and Louis Braille share something in common. They all invented or discovered something significant that bears their name. Their names, along with many others, appear in the “Encyclopedia Britannica’s Greatest Inventions,” a list of “325 innovations that have had profound effects on human life.”
We who follow Christ bear His name. In Luke’s record of the early church, he said: “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Later, Peter urged the early believers not to be ashamed of suffering as “a Christian” (1 Peter 4:16). The term Christian, once directed at Jesus’ followers in scorn, was embraced by them as a badge of honor, a mark of allegiance to Him.
E. M. Blaiklock, former Chair of Classics at the University of Auckland, wrote that in the first century the term Christian had “a certain appropriateness, for it implied loyalty and acceptance of a person, and that person, the Messiah (Christ). . . . The true modern use of the word follows the same tradition. . . . The Christian is one who accepts, with all its implications, the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
As followers of Christ today, we gladly bear His name as our Savior, Lord, and Friend. —David McCasland
Don’t be a Christian in name only.
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