Where is God?
Isaiah 42:14-17
Pastor Florescu couldn’t bear to watch his son being beaten by the Communist officers. He had already been beaten himself, and he had not slept for two weeks for fear of being attacked by the starving rats the communist had forced into his prison cell. The Romanian police wanted Florescu to give up other members of his underground church so that they too could be captured.
Seeing that the beatings and torture weren’t working, the communists brought in Florescu’s son, Alexander, only fourteen years old, and began to beat the boy. While Florescu watched, they hammered his son’s body unmercifully, telling the pastor that they would beat his son to death unless he told them the locations of other believers.
Finally, half mad, Florescu screamed for them to stop. “Alexander, I must say what they want!” he called out to his son. “I can’t bear your beatings anymore.”
His body bruised, blood running from his nose and mouth, Alexander looked his father in the eye. “Father, don’t do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent. Stand strong! If they kill me, I will die with the word `Jesus’ on my lips.”
The boy’s courage enraged the guards, and they beat him to death as his father watched. Not only did he hold on to his faith, he helped his father do the same.
Where is the Lord? Is His ear so that it cannot hear? Are His eyes so that they cannot see? Is His tongue so that He cannot speak?
...A former AT&T employee is taking the company to court after he was fired for refusing to demonstrate support for homosexuality. The Rutherford Institute filed the lawsuit against the telecommunications giant, claiming religious discrimination. Albert Binanno says AT&T left him little choice. He said the company told him he had to either “sign [the policy] or be gone.” Binanno says signing the document would have caused him to contradict his deeply held religious convictions. He explained as a Christian, he is supposed to love his neighbor -- regardless of what their sexual orientation is -- but he is not supposed to value the lifestyle of any person that contradicts the word of God. AT&T confirmed the handbook was given to all 50,000 of its employees.
When the British surrendered to the colonial army, the British army band played an appropriate tune, “The Day the World Turned Upside Down.”
Where is God? He’s coming
He is coming with a cry (42:14)
Like a woman in labor
Strangely similar to the prophecy in Rev. 12:1-6
Satan has wanted to devour the child
Satan has wanted to devour all those who belong to the Lord.
The Lord has been silent, but no more
The Lord has waited, but no more
He will come with the intensity of a woman giving birth to
her child.
He will stand the pain no more; the time of deliverance has
come.
He will come to the defense of those who are His and the
world will be turned upside down.
He is coming with a mission (42:15,17)
Mountains and hills will be uprooted.
Matthew 17, Jesus is talking to His disciples concerning a boy
who has been healed from demon possession.
He tells them (Matthew 17:20b) “… for assuredly, I say
to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will
say to this mountain, `Move from here to there,’ and
it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
The Lord will uproot mountains because the power is His.
The Lord will dry up the vegetation because the power is His.
Did He not curse the barren fig tree and it withered?
The Lord will make the rivers into coastal lands because the
power is His.
Did He not cause the whole earth to be covered with
a flood because of the sin of the people?
All the things that men place as invincible will be brought
low and changed.
The power of the oppressor is nothing to the power of the
Savior.
One can’t hide the power of deeds of the Lord described
here.
One can’t explain these things in any other way than that
God did them.
He is coming with love for His own (42:16)
He will bring the blind by a new way.
He will make the darkness light
He will make the crooked places straight
He will not forsake them
Wrongs will be made right
Darkness will be made light
We will be able to see our destination
