Incomparable (July 27)

O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good."
                                            Jeremiah 16:19 NIV

We can consider some of God's attributes as we read today's passage: strength, fortress, and refuge are mentioned here.  As we have read thus far, we have learned that God is sovereign, just, eternal, unchanging, forgiving, and truly incomparable. 

In view of who He is and what He has done by His Word, with Spirit-led missionaries bringing the Word to the ends of the world, there will be a response to Him.  Nations will come from the ends of the earth to Him after realizing the worthless idols that they have. 

For more information on worthless idols, one can read Isaiah 44.

As long as things are going smoothly, an idol "seems to work fine."  It is when things do not go smoothly that an idol shows its true worthlessness.  For an idol can do nothing.  Despite this fact, we humans can hang onto idols with a vengeance.  Just turn to Acts 19 to read how the silversmiths of Ephesus held on to Artemis, shouting for 2 hours in unison about how great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

Where is Artemis now?  (Tossed aside) One might also consider; where is Ephesus now? (it is a ruin in Southwestern Turkey).

When the story of the Incomparable Living God; our strength, fortress and refuge, is told then the Spirit has another opportunity to work on the hearts and the minds of the listener.  An opportunity to turn the listener from death to life.

Have you had the opportunity to tell the story this week?

Did you?

Pray for the Spirit to guide you to tell the story to others.

In Christ,

David P.