LIFE LESSONS
Return to God Senior Pastor Josh Moody
In the present circumstances with which the whole globe wrestles, Christian leaders have utterly failed to issue the clarion call that the world (and the church) needs to hear. We have pointed to the mystery of suffering, and the practicality of caring for those who are suffering. Some have bemoaned political drift to the right, others political drift to the left. Few, precious few, if any, have pointed to the crystal clear biblical teaching about such obvious providences of God. Our forebears would have known what to say. Listen to John Owen: “There is a voice in all signal dispensations of providence… The fingers that appeared writing on the wall the doom of Belshazzar did it in characters that none could read, and words none could understand, but Daniel; but the present call of God in these things is made plain… If the heavens gather blackness with clouds, and it thunder over us, if any that are on the journey will not believe that there is a storm coming, they must bear the severity of it…” Those who have rung the alarm bell, though, have tended to blame others. This is a mistake of gargantuan proportions. Listen again to Owen: “The cause of the present storm may as well be the secret sins of professors [that is those who profess faith in Christ] as the open provocations of ungodly men. God will punish with severity those which he hath known, Amos iii.2 [‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for your iniquities’].”ii This response to disaster was known in the past as a “Jeremiad,” from the example of the prophet Jeremiah. When a famine or earthquake or plague hit a city—let alone a globe—the preachers of the gospel called for fasting and prayer for repentance among God’s people. They viewed these “signal dispensations” as signs of God’s displeasure. They did not merely call upon the “worldly” non-Christian to repent; they called upon God’s people to repent. Who has done that this time? Which preacher or pulpit has made their response to Covid-19 a call for public repentance? Instead, we have warred foolishly about the science and the politics of the matter. Instead, we should return to God—before it is too late. The Bible makes it very clear that if we return to God, he will return to us.
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Listen to God’s Word: So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.” (2 Chronicles 30:6) Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:7) Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 1:3) And unless you think this is only “an Old Testament thing,” listen to Jesus: And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-5) Return to God… and He will return to you. How? 1. Repent of any known sin. Ask the Lord to convict you of faults and failures regarding which you may not be aware. Ask him to show you if there is any way in you that is displeasing to him. And turn from those sins and ask God for his forgiveness. 2. Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand. Don’t rail and complain about the hardness of your life. Kiss the rod; accept his strange dispensation in these awful days. Humble
