Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

 Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:

 

Thought for the Morning
9-01

Wherever Sin Has Been

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isaiah 24:5

From Pastor John’s Old Testament class: “Lessons from Isaiah”, No. 42.

The promised land of Canaan was defiled by the grossly immoral Canaanites who lived in it, and for that reason, God cast them out and gave the land to the Israelites (Lev. 18:24-25). God gave the Israelites stern warning about such evil conduct: “You shall not pollute the land wherein you are, for blood [murder] defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein except by the blood of him who shed it. Defile not, therefore, the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel” (Num. 35:33-34). This warning notwithstanding, Jerusalem and the promised land were later terribly defiled by the Israelites, and God swore that he would cast them out of the land and empty it (Isa. 6:11; 24:3).

Heaven was defiled by Satan’s pride, and he was cast of out heaven along with the angels who followed him in his rebellion (Rev. 12:9). Jesus said he saw Satan “fall as lightning” (Lk 10:18). Unfortunately for us, when Satan was cast out of heaven, he came to earth. The angels who did not follow Satan and who “kept their first estate” were permitted to remain in heaven in God’s holy presence, but seeing where Satan went, they pitied the people of earth. They cried out, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Rev. 12:12).

God is not only going to get rid of sin and sinners, as the biblical history records Him doing, but He is also going to get rid of every place that sin has ever occurred. John saw it happen in his great vision of the end of time: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Rev. 21:1). Those who love God are promised new heavens and a new earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2Pet 3:13) and where “affliction shall not arise a second time” (Nah. 1:9).

I hope to see you there.

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