No more flood.  Got it.  God remembers.  But it doesn’t mean God doesn’t get fed up.  There’s a point at which everything reaches a boiling stage, and something must be done.  But now instead of a worldwide flood, there will be local interventions.  Divine Interventions.

Such is the case with Sodom and Gomorrah. 
God didn’t need an outcry to know what was going on.  He knew. 
Sometimes the outcry is so we’ll know where we are and what is becoming of our world.

Genesis 18:16 When the men (visiting Abraham) got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.  17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

Hello.  Abraham was walking with them.  Somehow, Abraham knows what God is saying.  Obviously, the answer is No.  Can’t hide it after saying “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”  Hiding isn’t the point.  Displaying His “friendship” and concern for Abraham by God’s actions that speak “Of course not!”  For starters, He was elevating Abraham by including him. Why?

“18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

By saying “Shall I hide?” and then telling Abraham, God is causing a laser focus on the necessity of Abraham and his family’s doing what is right and just.  That’s the point.

Genesis 18:20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous  21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

Questions for further thought:

• If God already knows why does He tell Abraham He’s going to check it out and know? 
• Think about the words Capricious and Considered.  Think about the words Callous and Consequences.  Why would it be important for Abraham to see God’s character? 
• Read the rest of the passage (Genesis 18:22-33) as Abraham interacts with God’s clear intent.  How is this “bargaining” to be understood?  Is it insolence on Abraham’s part?  Or is God honored by our engagement with His Divine Interventions?
• How does it speak to God’s character, love, and respect for the Creation He has made?

Father God Almighty, we praise You for Your plan overall, specifically for Your plan of salvation. We praise You that Your judgments against us are not rash or capricious but are considered as consequences of rebellion against You. We praise You that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day at the pinnacle of this Advent season.

We celebrate His birth as Your Divine Intervention to keep us from being punished for the sins that we commit. Certainly the outcry of what the world is doing, what we are doing to ourselves and to each other…O Lord, and to You… surely that outcry has reached You, Lord. Surely You are just as grieved by what is going on now as You were back in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We thank You Lord that Your judgments are righteous and holy, that You are a good and loving God, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We thank You that no one can come to You except by the blood of Christ. We praise You for the Way You have made…that by faith in Him, by obedience to You and Your word, that we have this hope of Salvation. This hope You provide is secure; it’s an anchor for our souls; and we praise You, Lord. Help us to see during this Advent, the vast importance of living holy and righteous lives, knowing that there is a day of Judgment coming. May we preach the good news of salvation to those in our circle of influence who do not know You. Be with us, strengthen us, give us words, and give us a heart for the world that You died to save. Do all these things we humbly ask, not only for our sake but importantly for Your glory, for it is in Christ’s Name we pray. Amen.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Advent comes toward the end of the year.  Each of us has a past in this year (and with COVID 2020 has been a doozy!) and most of us have a past that includes prior years.  Sometimes that past is something we’d like to forget.  Sometimes our past is something we need to release to prior days, making a break, and leaving the past behind in order to embrace the future. 

Sometimes it takes Divine Intervention to encourage us to break with the past.

Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.  2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram (Genesis 12:1-7 NIV).

Abram was raised in a pagan world.  His father’s household worshiped other gods.  Making a break with the past would be necessary if Abram were to receive the blessing God was preparing to give.

Questions for further thought:

• Why do we need to release our past in order to have open hands to receive the future? 
• How would Abram’s worship of other gods interfere with that blessing? 
• Is there anything in your life that requires divine intervention to help you break with your past? 
• What blessings might God be preparing for your life if you leave your past behind? 
• How does Satan use our past to accuse us, entice us, or to try to thwart the will of God?

Dear Lord, we praise You that Your plan for our lives is a good plan.  You are a God of love, a God of blessing, a God of all goodness, of all power, and You are able to bring any blessing to fruition. 

By Divine Intervention, You can help any of us to leave our past behind.  Do not let our past failures or successes be used by our adversary as a tool for accusation or condemnation or pride. Lord, for those of us who are grieving actions we’ve had in the past, comfort us when we cry out to You, free us from pride and insecurity, guard our hearts against greed, anger, jealousy, hatred, envy, and resentment.

This past year, Lord, has been a tough one.  If there are any thoughts we’ve had that damage our witness, any unholy behaviors we’ve done, Lord, please convict our hearts through the power of Your Holy Spirit.  May we quickly repent of these things that stand in the way of the blessing You wish to give us.  Lord, we ask Your hand of grace to form us as powerful witnesses for You in a world that desperately needs to see Your light… the Light of Salvation, the Light of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

We praise You Father for this season of Advent during which our hearts can pause to consider why we needed a Savior.  Help us to know deep truth about the important intervention that Jesus’ birth represented then with ongoing results today.  We thank You, Lord, that because of what Jesus did, we can approach the throne of grace to receive mercy upon our lives, upon our families, upon our nation, and upon the work that You would have us to do to bring glory to Your Name.  Thank You for giving us a role in Your bringing many souls to salvation.  You are so good to us!  Amen.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

So soon after the flood and humanity got a population movement going, what do we do?  We get right back to sinning.  We go right back to idolatry, making names for ourselves instead of glorifying the Name of God whom we should fear, especially after the flood.  But there we go again, more concerned about our name than His.

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

STOP THE PRESSES!
Now, interrupting this Scripture for an important time out! 
A one-world-movement was a problem then. 
What makes us think a one-world-movement is okay now? 
Look at what God thought of it.

“Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1-4)

Time for Divine Intervention!

“But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:5-6)

Is God a bully?  Knocking down people’s hard work? 
Nope.  It was Divine Intervention to save us from ourselves.

“The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel– because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. “(Genesis 11:7-9)

Questions for further thought:

• Why does God say that with humanity working together, nothing they plan to do will be impossible? 
• In Whose Image is mankind made?  What do people tend to do with what they create?  Why would God find that to be a problem? 
• Was scattering only a temporary solution since people can learn languages? 
• What other obstacles happen with “tribalization”?  Is it just language barriers? 
• Now think about unity. At Advent, we celebrate the birth of a Savior “for God so loved the world.”  “But the angel said to them, ’Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’” (Luke 2:10-11)  How was God’s way of unifying the world superior?  What is it based upon?

Lord Jesus we thank You for coming and reconciling all men to Yourself through Your shed blood on the Cross. We thank You for paying for the sins of all mankind. That You are so much more than divine compensation for our inadequacies or caulk to fill the gap that separates mankind from God.

Yet You require something important. You require faith and therefore the unification of all people… in Christ… would be based upon something solid, something true, something good, something noble, something lovely, something laudable…O, Lord that it would be based upon You! May our heart’s desire be to repent of our sins and to follow You.

We thank You that in heaven there are many nations, tribes, languages, and people, and that it brings glory to You by a diversity of people joined in one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God over all! We praise You, Lord Jesus, for Your faithfulness! We praise You for laying aside what You had in heaven to enter into the human race as a baby born of the Virgin Mary, a Christ Child whom the angels proclaimed and the shepherds celebrated. As we approach Advent, make us mindful of the arrogance of man and how any hope of globalist, one-world thoughts of man should be repented and replaced by unity grounded and founded only in You. Amen.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

I can’t begin to imagine how frightening it must have been to be in the ark when the rain came down, and a world full of people cried in anguish as they watched loved ones die by drowning before succumbing to it themselves.  I hope the ark was soundproof or animal noises within made the noises outside inaudible.  But then the silence.  The horrendous, awful silence proclaiming how alone they truly were.  There was no one else left.  What would have been the conversation among family members as the rain pounded on the wood surrounding them? 

The rain stops.  The ground dries.  Everyone emerges to vegetation anew and the animals get released to start all over.

If there ever was holy fear of God in its most intense form,
this would probably be it.  God wants us to fear Him but not to be afraid of Him. 
He loves us. 
So He makes a promise—a Divine Intervention—to calm their frightened hearts.

“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you– the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you– every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-17)

Questions for thought:

• What do you think about the story of Noah’s ark?  Do you find it unbelievable?  Why or why not?
• How often since that day has God reminded Himself of His covenant when His regret over humanity’s actions has risen to the point of total genuine disgust and a grotesque anathema?  
• What do you think of God’s giving Himself a reminder not to destroy us by a flood?

Lord God, Father Almighty, oh how our actions must grieve You. Lord, I know that we minimize sin, and we treat it as though it’s really nothing when in reality sin is a huge obstacle. To our having faith, to having a relationship with you, to our bringing glory to You because everything we do and everything we bring is greatly polluted by sin. Your holiness cannot tolerate it. Neither should we.

Lord, I thank You for this covenant that You have made… this rainbow in the sky as a reminder that You will never again flood the earth. Lord, we are amazed that instead of a flood You came Yourself in the Person of Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life and died for our sins upon the Cross at Easter time. What amazing grace that we might find forgiveness and mercy and be able to come before Your throne in our time of need. Your goodness to us is beyond imagining, beyond anything that we could ask or deserve!

Lord, everything we have done in our sin nature grieves You. I don’t know how You look beyond it to see the face of Jesus in those who are redeemed by faith. But I praise You! Lord, may we use the privilege of Image-bearing rightly… to bring glory to You. May we come before You in repentance–in genuine sad repentance–over who we are and what we have become as individuals, as a nation, and as a world.

Lord, we ask that You would select those in whom You find favor and elevate them to leadership roles in our churches, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our government. Father, it’s such an incredibly sad moment in American life where no one trusts anyone else and everyone believes the other is cheating. Lord, we know that You know all things. You see all things. You are everywhere at all times, and You know the truth of everything that has gone on in our past, present, and what will happen in the future. There is no hiding from You. There’s no getting around You–no standing there making excuses before You–because You know our hearts.

Forgive us, Lord, for all the ways we have pained You. Guide us, Lord, by Your grace and love and lead us to Your mercy. Without Jesus we would be without hope, so we thank You, Lord, for Your Son who came to this earth–Divine Intervention in a little baby born all those years ago in Bethlehem! We praise You for the way He showed us the true perfection of the Image of God, and we offer these prayers in Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

God knows which people are His and which people are against Him.  This is not a modern phenomenon.  Why does God put up with people who hate Him, who rebel against Him, and who thumb their noses at the Almighty?

Love. 
Love for those who bear His image which is all humanity,
both the good examples and the bad apples. 

At some point, though, Scripture tells us that “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). That is a most ringing indictment of humanity if ever there was one.  Every inclination.  Only evil.  All the time.  Not a whole lot of wiggle room there. 

The LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created– and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground– for I regret that I have made them.”  8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:7-8)

Were it not for God’s Divine Intervention, a hard restart, it would have been a steep downhill slide with unprecedented velocity and not stopping until the pit of hell swallowed all of humanity up in a gigantic godless gulp.  No one would be left.

So God did what He had to…and I’d argue what He will be doing again.  It won’t be a flood this coming time, but when Jesus returns, God will waste no time in rescuing those who know Him and making sure that those who didn’t want Him get their dying wish.  As actor James Woods writes, “People who get what they want are often surprised when they also get what they deserve.” 

Questions for reflections:

• God made a distinction between the flooded and the favored.  Only Noah’s family was spared.  Why? 
• When Jesus returns, who will be rescued? 
• Noah had to build an ark. His participation was a huge act of faith since the ark was built when there wasn’t even a puddle.  What do we have to do in order to be rescued? Read Ephesians 2:8-9 for insight.  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.“

If there’s someone on your heart right now
and you don’t know if they’ve decided to follow Christ,
today is the day to have that discussion. 
And pray for them like this:

Almighty Father, no one can come to You except by faith.  And only those whom You draw to Yourself.  I praise You and thank You that no one can snatch a person who has trusted in You out of Your hands.  I pray Lord right now for________ and I fear for their futures. I ask, Lord, that You would draw them to Yourself and that You would rescue them in the Last Day.  I ask that You would search my heart and know me… moreover that You would know my innermost thoughts. O Lord, I pray that You would teach me through the power of Your Holy Spirit how to live a life that reflects that I know You, a life that brings glory to You. I ask, Lord, that at Jesus’ return You will gather me to Yourself to enjoy eternity with You. For wide is the road that leads to destruction that narrow is the gate, as Your Word instructs us.  I thank You, Lord, for provision, for Your action when I didn’t know you…that Divine Intervention in sending Your Son Jesus Christ to die for my sins.   I thank You that Your promise never to flood the earth again was ultimately culminated in Your Only Son paying the price for all human sin so that–by faith–we could enter behind the curtain and approach the throne of grace to receive Your mercy.  Lord, when I think of those who don’t know You, please draw them to Yourself and Father, I pray that many would be spared and few would be eternally punished.  I know that Scripture says that You are the narrow gate but it also says You desire none to perish, even though we understand that some will.  Be with my family, Lord Jesus, help them to turn from sin and be saved by Your grace.  Be with my friends and help them to see the light and life of Christ through me. Use me, Lord, as Your willing servant, an instrument of peace. I submit myself to serve You.  In Jesus’ Name I pray.  Amen.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

According to Wikipedia, a No-Go area is “a region where the ruling authorities have lost control and are unable to enforce the rule of law.”  Ah, but God never lost control.

God was never unable to enforce His commands or deliver His pre-announced consequences.  As we continue our look at Divine Intervention in our 2020 Advent devotional series, God began saving us from ourselves all the way back in Eden, declaring it a No-Go Zone.

Fig leaves.  Yeah, that’s what Adam and Eve could sew together to make coverings. 
God knew that would be totally insufficient for outside of Eden. 
“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”
Stop the presses! 

Did God just create animal skins like fake fur?  Or did He have some other way of providing animal skins?  Like having an animal’s blood be shed in order to cover Adam and Eve in garments of skin? How did God do this?

Images of grace like this can be easily overlooked if we fail to read the Bible for all its glorious detail and think about what we’re reading.

“And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (Genesis 3:22)

Living forever in a state of unforgiven sin would not be heaven.  It would be hell.  God wanted better for us.  He planned better for us, but it would be many centuries until Jesus would be born in a stable in Bethlehem to bring that plan to fulfillment. 

“So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.   After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:21-24)

Something had to be done promptly as an act of grace until that time we celebrate at Christmas.  The delay between sin and Savior is the bridge of time in which grace performs its work of witness, repentance, Gospel, and gathering the elect, the full number the Bible speaks about (Romans 11:25, Revelation 6:11).

Questions for further thought:

• When God closes doors or says something is off-limits, what can we say about God’s purpose in it?  His actions will always reflect His ___(fill in the blank)______.
• How did God prepare Adam and Eve for life outside of Eden?
• In what ways does God prepare you for the time between meeting your Maker in His first Advent as Savior, and the final advent, the Second Coming of Christ for judgment?
• Ought Advent only celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  Or is this season something far more?

Let’s pray,

Father God, We praise You and thank You for Your vast wisdom, for being all-seeing, all-knowing and ever-present.  We praise You and thank You that You don’t always give us what we want… in the time that we want things. But in timing that is Yours and for purposes only You know, we’re being formed for an eternity with You. 

We praise You and thank You for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  For His willingness to leave heaven and to be “God with us” we give thanks! He is faithful to show the way in our darkest of days, to be our Light, and be our Way.  We thank You for His birth.  We thank You for the faithfulness of all the saints who come before us.  We thank You, Lord, that Your plan of salvation didn’t just include a baby in a manger but a Savior on a Cross, a unique Son of God, fully God, yet fully man, the only One who could pay for the sins of all mankind. 

We thank You that those of us in Christ have redemption and salvation and forgiveness of sin, being spared from wrath that we rightfully deserved. We praise You and thank You for this bridge of time called grace. May we use it wisely to share the Gospel–the Good News of Your Son Jesus! May those in a watching world see and understand faithful Christian witness and may we live up to that high honor, Lord, of being called by You. In Christ’s Name we pray. Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Taking stock of where we are isn’t exactly the modern way.  Maybe we don’t want to think about it.  It’s easier just to brush everything under the rug than to acknowledge who we are and what we have allowed ourselves to become. 

“They [Adam and Eve] sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?'” (Genesis 3:7-9). 

When God intervenes and asks Adam, “Where are you?” He wasn’t looking for geographical coordinates.  It wasn’t a divine version of Find My Phone.

He was calling Adam to look inward, to see for himself where he was, and to acknowledge what he had been doing.  It was a call to repentance.

As we begin this Advent season and our devotional series on Divine Intervention,
we can pause to consider this same most basic question by changing the pronoun. “Where am I?” 

Am I so far gone that I don’t know how far I’ve drifted into sin?
As a culture, are we so far gone that we no longer regard evil as evil?
Is it just a false narrative?
Have we normalized deception to bland background noise?

But don’t stop there with asking questions of ourselves. We need repentance.  When Adam and Eve were in Eden and the cool of the day came, it was God’s Divine Intervention with a simple question to wrest them out of their moment.  Hide, scramble, craft excuses, cover-up with fig leaves…all these distractions and confusion were pointless when God came and interrupted them to consider the simple fact: what they had done was already known by God.  And what they had done was wrong.

Questions for further thought:

• What sins (small or great) have I committed that require a Savior to remedy as God’s Divine Intervention? 
• In what ways can I be accused before a perfect and holy God of living in opposition to both perfection and holiness?
• What does Advent have to do with a Savior?  Why was He needed?
• Why is appropriate for God to ask us, “Where are YOU?” but for us only “Where am I?”
• When bad things happen, how quick are we to ask God where He is… or was? Even with something as natural as catastrophes of weather or geology, are we equally quick to assess that sin–human sin–is why we have these natural disasters?
• With the recent election, has my façade been stripped away and revealed a core of nastiness in my words that I’ve displayed for a world wide web?  Or have I been quick to show love and grace in the face of opposition?  Have I let insults slide or have I returned evil for evil? Where am I?
• In whom do I trust? Do truth and integrity even matter to me anymore? Where am I?
• Do I shrink back from fighting the spiritual battle against evil, letting evil have its day of victory over truth because I do nothing? Or do I believe letting the legal processes play out is one way God holds the line in the spiritual battle? Am I praying God’s will be done, even if it’s not what I want? Where am I?

Let’s pray:  Lord Jesus, thank You for coming at Christmas, that very first Advent, because of our dire situation on Earth.  “God with us” is truly remarkable, awesome, and amazing–that is who You are! O, Lord, what You gave up in order to be our Savior is beyond our comprehension.  You are Love and we offer You our all, all our praise and all our gratitude.

Heeding the “Where are you?” that You rightfully ask each of us to consider, may I be quick to repent, slow to accuse, and ready at all times—not with excuses for my behavior—but with one aim: to offer love and grace and witness to Your mercy and goodness.  It’s imperative that those who do not know You will see the witness of countless Christians in times such as these.  It’s important that the Truth still matters. It’s important that righteousness wins in the end!

You are the Lord God Almighty! We thank You for Your plan of redemption, our Father in heaven! What an act of grace that You put it into action immediately following that fateful moment of our fall from grace, though You’ve had redemption planned since before the Creation.  Even though mankind’s redemption and rescue has not been in our timing, we praise You and thank You that Your timing is perfect and we are perfected in the waiting.  May I be found at the foot of the Cross, waiting patiently for You, as I come to worship You with a heart of love and repentance. My Lord and my Savior, I pray this in Christ and for Your glory, Amen.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

When it seems like the impossible clouds all earthly possibilities, hang on.
When it feels like the troubles of this life will never change, don’t give up.
When hope is a distant thought and despair pummels us from every angle, keep hoping!
When the struggle is real and our strength fails us, take heart!
When we’re weary from running on empty, and it’s beginning to look like we can’t get there from here… God does something remarkable!

He reminds us that He’s with us.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Matthew 1:22-23

God’s actions convey that He sees our faith and hears our prayers.  He acts with great power on our behalf.  Sometimes it’s as simple as an answer to prayer or a reassuring voice, “Be still and wait upon the Lord.” Or the steadfast awareness that the battle is not ours.  It’s His.  Sometimes it’s encouragement out of the blue from a godly friend who was inspired to offer a hand of assistance to persevere through the tough stuff. 

But sometimes it’s more. It’s all this … on steroids. 
It’s Divine Intervention: When Only a Miracle Will Do.

Throughout Biblical history, God has displayed that He’s very much engaged with what is going on here on Earth.  Never more plainly than at Christmas with the birth of His Son Jesus to be our Savior.

Join me this Advent beginning on Sunday, November 29th and continuing to Thursday, December 24th as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and look forward to His Second Coming.  By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

Together we will see how God has been actively involved all along as Divine Intervention for a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.

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Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows:  

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Have no other gods before Me, God says, and also don’t bow down or worship statues or idols (Exodus 20:2-6).   That’s because He’s fully aware that statues and images cannot replace our true and essential Object (grammatically speaking) of worship.

God’s reasons are not the same as those of Sean King whose views were recently articulated on Breitbart.  “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down,” wrote King, a self-described black man whose family says he is white. “They are a form of white supremacy. Always have been …“Yes. All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down,” he continued, reported Fox News. “They are a gross form white supremacy. Created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.”  (He’s obviously not a fan of statues.)

The terrorists in France take it to another extreme.  They go beyond torching churches (now all too common everywhere from Chile to London to the US.  They even go beyond beheading statues and tearing down crosses.  They’ve resorted to beheading Christians who are made in God’s Image and are the Body of Christ.

It’s undeniable.  We’re in a spiritual battle and with Christ as our Banner, we can respect that worship and remembrance are two different things.  Is it possible to see a statue without worshiping it, just letting it be a remembrance?  Can statues prompt the hearts of those who do not know You? Sure they can! Christians need discernment on this, and not just because this issue has divided Christians and split the Church.  While Jesus of Nazareth had a body, Jesus reminded us that God is Spirit, and He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

It’s precisely because of the spiritual battle that it is time to step up our worship in recognition of God’s will.

“His intent was that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.  In Him and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence…and to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:10-12, 21)

Lord God, please help me to discern the difference between having a prompting to remember Your goodness versus turning sacred traditions into objects and idols to worship apart from You.  And not just sacred traditions but also our fellow servants (pastors, elected officials, etc.) who are NOT saviors no matter how valued they may be.

May we remember during this election season that You are sovereign, even over the outcome. Our vote matters only so far as we respond to You…after praying with open hearts to receive Your instruction, ears that are willing to listen, and then using our will, our actions, to do what You desire as our part in bringing Your plan to fruition.  May we accept Your plan as a gift and reject those who might resist Your outcome with their rebellion, godlessness, evildoing, and engaging in insurrection.

We worship You alone.   No mere mortal can substitute as an object of our worship, and we thank You for that distinction between Christianity and false religions.  Give us great discernment as a nation, Lord. While mere mortals are not to be worshiped, they can point to Jesus Christ, and we ask for Your blessing upon those servants who are pointing the way to You, upholding the righteous cause of life, and understanding that law and order flow from You.  May we see every candidate and voter the way You do.  Show Yourself mighty in this moment, not just for our benefit, but for Christ and His glory as hearts of a nation, of a world, turn toward You!  Amen.

Lift the signal from the noise.  Take a step back.  Breathe.
Think about first things and your top priority:
Worship of God through Christ Jesus. 

The battle is His. 

The battle is His, but the battle is also very real.  Look to Jesus.  When Jesus was confronted with the devil’s temptation to lose focus and affix His worship in worldly “elsewheres,” He didn’t fall for it. Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'” (Luke 4:8)

We would be wise to do the same.

Turn down the nightly news and mute their endless talking heads with alternate realities that defy and deny what you see with your own eyes.  God is speaking.  He is showing you the way to go.  As the psalmist writes,

“Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life.  Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, for I hide myself in You.  Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psalm 143:8-10)

The noise is loud, but the signal is clear.  The signal is truth. 

Shield your heart far from the lies of political candidates.  The ones who are, they know they’re lying.  Protect your mind from thought control and Twitter trends of breadcrumbs scattered to the darkest wood away from what you know to be true.  You know Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He is Jesus Christ, the very Son of God.

Guard your speech so you reflect for a watching world that you’ve got your priority straight.  Not priorities.  Not plural.  Singular.  Separating the signal from the noise.  This is how to live in these dark days.

Praying, Father God Almighty!  You are the author of all wisdom and truth.  You are the perfectly holy One, the only true God.  You have ordained praise from infants and adults alike.  Even the rocks cry out if we are silent because You are worthy!  When the noise of this world muddies our thinking, stifles our hearts, and tries to keep us from hearing and seeing, speak to us in the inner chambers of our hearts.  Teach us what is true and how to keep our focus upon You.  Please Lord, fight for us when we don’t know where to turn.  Bring Your righteousness to bear in these dark days and expose the evil in our midst.  Bring our hearts to desire repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord before Your wrath has its final say.  May we be found faithful, standing firm and worshiping You alone…for You alone are worthy.  Amen.