The God of Today!

See, the day of the LORD is coming

—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—

to make the land desolate

and destroy the sinners within it.

The stars of heaven and their constellations

will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened

and the moon will not give its light.

I will punish the world for its evil,

the wicked for their sins.

I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty

and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

I will make man scarcer than pure gold,

more rare than the gold of Ophir.

Isaiah 13:9-12

As a very young boy one of the lessons I learned at church was this: “The age of miracles has ceased.” It was important to teach me this “truth” to keep me from following some charlatan pretending to be a “man of God.” If I knew that there were no miracles today then I could keep to the straight and narrow and not be bothered by false claims of God’s power.

I later learned that every age is an “age of miracles.” God does not show His power on Sunday but not on Monday or Tuesday. His power is not tied to a clock or a calendar and men and women of faith have seen Him work in miraculous ways since the beginning!

Another lesson I learned at church was more subtle. “God doesn’t punish us here on earth for our sins. God only punishes sinners by sending them to Hell when they die.” That lesson means that when you curse God you do not need to worry about lightning or any other kind of revenge from God. Of course, the Bible does say that God is very patient and “long-suffering,” but it never takes God’s wrath out of the picture here and now.

Isaiah 13 clearly speaks of God bringing judgment on this earth to a sinful people. God is still involved in the affairs of men! He brings blessings and He brings wrath in response to sin. If God only punishes in Hell after this life is over then we must come up with an alternative explanation for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you take away God’s Miracles and God’s Wrath from the world today, then you can muddle through life without being bothered by God. But men and women of faith cannot do that.

God is not only the God of yesterday and the God of tomorrow; God is THE GOD OF TODAY! Today God brings miracles and today God brings wrath! Look for both!