Readings for today: Revelation 14-16, Psalms 45
I still remember the last time I gambled in a casino. I was in my mid-twenties and I was in Las Vegas attending a medical technology conference on behalf of my employer. One night I went down to play a little blackjack. Now, the goal of blackjack is to get to 21 or as close to it as possible and beat the dealer and I was on a pretty good run that night. Up a couple hundred bucks when the dealer dealt me two sixes. Terrible hand. Especially since he was showing ten. So what did I do? Made the worst decision possible. I split the sixes. Why was that a bad decision? Because most likely I’m going to pull tens, end up at sixteen which is even worse than holding twelve because it’s still not close to twenty and increases my chances at busting exponentially and I’ll be in for double the bet. So the next card comes out. It’s another six. What do you think I did? Split them again. The guy next to me was like you’re crazy. Even the dealer was shaking his head. He pulled the next card. Another six. I split a third time. So now I’ve got four sixes, I’m in for quadruple my bet, the dealer is showing ten, and pretty much everyone at the table is laughing at me at this point. The next four cards came out. All tens of course. Now I’ve got four sixteens. Literally the worst possible scenario. So I hold on all four. I’m going to make the dealer play his hand. I’m not going to bust for him. Luckily, he busts out and I win big. The people around the table go crazy…all because of my stupidity.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, humanity has been doubling down on one bad decision after another. Every individual. Every generation. For tens of thousands of years. And unlike the dealer that night in Vegas, God never busts. His justice never fails. His judgments remain true. His righteousness is eternal. Take a moment and think about your own life. Think about the decisions you make every single day. How many of them are selfish? How many of them are sinful? Now multiply that by the billions of people who live around the globe today. Multiply it again by the billions who have lived throughout human history. Do all of that and you might begin to understand the sheer number of sins that must be accounted for. Must be paid for. Must be dealt with.
And why is it important that our sin be dealt with? Why can’t God just forgive and forget and move on? Because our sin has real life consequences. In our individual lives. In our marriages and families. In our work and schools and communities. At the extreme end, I think of the inmates I ministered to at New Jersey State Prison. The sinful choices they made that put them behind bars. The sinful conditions they lived in that contributed to their terrible decisions. The horrific consequences of their actions. I think of the men and women and children I met in an IDP camp. Internally displaced by the civil war in northern Ethiopia. Dying from starvation and disease. All because of the sinful choices of their tribal leaders and the sinful choices of the United Nations relief agency who wouldn’t give them enough food because of their ethnicity. History is clear. Man’s inhumanity to man knows no limits. The list of humanity’s crimes against herself and against our world is endless. As I said before, we’ve been doubling down and doubling down and doubling down since the beginning.
This is why the Book of Revelation prophecies that all of human history will culminate in a final battle called “Armageddon” where the nations of the earth will gather with the dragon and the beast and the false prophet to try and overthrow God once and for all. If you didn’t know, “Armageddon” is actually a place. It literally means “Har Megiddo” or “hill of Megiddo.” I’ve been there. It overlooks the Jezreel Valley in Israel and controls one of the most significant trade routes in the ancient world. The valley is fourteen miles wide and sixty-seven miles long. Several battles have been fought here over the centuries going all the way back to the Old Testament Book of Judges. Deborah and Barak fighting the Canaanites. Gideon fighting the Midianites. King Saul and King Josiah of Israel both fought and died in this valley. In more modern times, Napoleon routed the Ottomans on this battlefield. Because of all the conflicts, the cities in and around Armageddon have been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Megiddo itself was rebuilt twenty times. And it is here, according to Revelation 16, that the kings of the earth will assemble, having diverted and dried up and crossed the great river Euphrates in a kind of reverse Exodus, to fight their final battle against the Victorious Lamb.
Now imagine how sad this must make God. Can you imagine the grief He must feel as the creature He loves most, the creature He made in His own image, the creature He died to save, doubles down on their sinful, selfish ways, trusts the lies of the dragon, the beast, and false prophet rather than the truth of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and seeks to overthrow Him so they can rule and reign in His stead? Imagine how you would feel if this was your own child? Your own flesh and blood turning against you? And God has billions of children around the world and throughout history. And all of them were created to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Friends, God doesn’t want to fight with you. God doesn’t want to be at war with you. God doesn’t want you to struggle or suffer. God doesn’t want you to be anxious or afraid. God laid down His life for you. That’s how much He loves you. And He has such an amazing plan for your life. He wants to give you hope and a future. He wants to bless you with every spiritual blessing. All He asks is that you stop trying to run things on your own. Stop trying to control things. Give Him the throne of your life. Trust Him to lead and guide you. Turn from your selfish, sinful ways and embrace Jesus. Embrace all He has done for you. Accept all He has won for you.
Readings for tomorrow: Revelation 17-18, Psalms 46