Psalm 119:89-96 tells us that God’s Word is “eternal and that it stands firm in the heavens” (verse 89). God operates in realms about which we actually know nothing. We have no idea how God’s Word can “stand firm in the heavens” – He doesn’t explain to us how that is possible. He only declares that it is so. What this really means is that God – being God – is able to accomplish things that defy our own ability to reason, but His indifference for our capacity to know or to comprehend the truth does not nullify the truth or its existence. With absolute confidence in His revelation, we may accept as fully true, reliable, and trustworthy that His Word “stands firm in the heavens” – whether we see it or not. Why should we ever doubt the One Who made us? “His faithfulness,” we are told next, “continues through all generations; He established the earth, and it endures … His law endures to this day, and all things serve” Him (verses 90-91). Clearly, Someone greater than this universe pre-existed and brought this universe into being because no being can create itself. The Psalmist recognizes this; he says, “had it not been for the Word of God, we would have perished in our affliction” long ago (verse 92). God’s Word teaches us that “by Him – the living Word of God – all things were created and in Him all things hold together” (cf., Colossians 1:17). Whether we like it or not, the Word of God keeps the entire universe operating from moment to moment. John Lennox, British mathematician and scientist, says “physics and science are not the fundamentals that sustain the universe, but it is the Spirit of God that does this.”
In Jeremiah 50:11-51:16, the prophet continues his discourse against Babylon. Jeremiah says that “the LORD will end Babylon’s habitation and it will be completely desolate” (verse 13). God promises to “punish Babylon like He did Assyria, but He will bring Israel back to his own pasture” (verses 18-19). Jeremiah further says that “Desert creatures and hyenas will live there [in Babylon] – where the owl will dwell, but [Babylon] will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation … just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah” (verses 39-40). Here, we see that, for a time, God used Babylon as His “shattering” arm of judgment against Israel and other nations for their sins, but God quickly turns the table – no one will ever escape His hand. Chapter 51 graphically indicates God’s judgment on Babylon. He will “stir up the Medes – men who will come down on her like a swarm of locusts and shatter Babylonia for all the wrong it has done” (verses 11-23). At least eight times in this section, God says He will shatter (i.e., utterly destroy) Babylon.
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul tells Timothy about life in “the last days” (verse 1). May I say to you, that we have now arrived in those days, for all of the evils Paul addresses here are not only presently with us, but also they are prevalent with us. Paul identifies twenty specific sins in this passage, and all of them are characteristic of the entire age in which we live. What are we to do? Paul advises us to do only two things: [1] “Mark this” (verse 1), he says. And [2], “have nothing to do with them” (verse 5). The implications of any believers having a “form of godliness but denying its power” (verse 5), are enormous – negatively affecting our whole identity spectrum – spiritual, psychological, emotional, social, and ontological – resulting in the perversion of our entire view of reality. Moreover, Paul says that things will “go from bad to worse” (verse 13). In such “terrible times,” only the Scriptures can offer us a safe refuge.
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