God's Time and God's Way (Rem 33:1-3)

King Zedekiah of Judah King Nebuchadnezzar of Babel invaded Israel with a large army and surrounded Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet cried out to the king and the people to repent, fearing that his country would be judged by God and destroyed. People did not listen to Jeremiah but rather tormented him, and he was imprisoned. He says, "The darkest hours of the day are just before sunrise." We often struggle with frustration because we cannot know how long this suffering will last, whether our relationships with people deteriorate, or whether our loved ones are alive or not. The situation was the same for Jeremiah.

When the words of Yahweh came to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 33:1, he was still trapped in the courtyard of the protesters. The people of Judah still did not realize that the castle was about to fall, but they rebelled against God and devoted themselves to idolatry. The army of King Babelon Nebuchadnezzar came up for Judah, besieged Jerusalem, and eventually destroyed the temple. Jeremiah despaired when the people were about to be taken prisoner. When he saw the destruction of the nation in front of him, he cried, became frustrated, and tried to give up. At the darkest hour in society, politics, morality, and spiritually, God's remarkable promise came to Jeremiah. As if through the darkness, the news of hope spread as if a new day of sunlight were rising. God comforted Jeremiah with the promise that his sovereign providence and plans for Israel will eventually restore Israel and allow him to have hopeful wishes for the future. "You may not do it, but I will do it. Therefore, even if this people were taken prisoner, they would come back and even if they were ruined, so don't worry and leave them to me," God told Jeremiah.

1. the sovereignty of God

What we have to learn from this story today is that the sovereignty of all work lies with God. The master of work is God. We think, 'This is my work, so I am the master, and God is just helping.' But that is not the case. God is the master of work. Therefore, the sovereignty of work lies with God. Yahweh, who does work, is the one who makes it and achieves it. The sovereignty is also with God that we say, "What do we eat? What do we drink? How do we live?" We have problems because we hold ourselves together. God wants to get back the sovereignty. Then God will directly history.

In Genesis, Adam and Hawah's desire to share sovereignty with God resulted from their desire to have good and evil. God wants only himself to exercise the right and wrong decision. If God is good, Adam should be good, and if God is bad, Adam should be bad. God wanted Adam and Hawah to believe and obey, but he did not want to compete with God with him on an equal footing with his sovereignty. However, Adam and Hawah were abandoned by God because they wanted to be equal to God by the devil's will, so they wanted to be equal to God and to share their sovereignty with God. There is only one sovereign in the universe. Only God, who built heaven and earth, is the master and the sovereign, and we are God's creatures. We were written to trust and obey God, not to run this world jointly with him. The most important condition for God to use a man is to give up sovereignty. You have to give up claiming your sovereignty while you only have absolute obedience and faith in God.


When God called Moses, he wanted to give up his sovereignty more than anything else. He wanted Moses to give up his sovereignty. Moses served as a shepherd in the Midian wilderness for 40 years. At the age of 80, he passed through the hillside with a flock of sheep, and the thorny vines caught fire. The thorny vines are often on fire because the sun shines on the desert. This time, the thorny vines are on fire, but they neither disappear nor burn. It was so strange that when I went there, God said in the middle of the thorny vines. Why the thorny vines? It was because Moses thought that his life was abandoned like a thorn. Therefore, God appeared like a flame in the thorny vines to guarantee Moses that 'you think you are a life abandoned by yourself, but I can appear in you'. Moses realized that he was living a life like a thorny vines, so he put everything down and gave up his sovereignty. This is important. To take off your God in the kingdom of Israel means to give up my rights. Moses laid down all his rights and handed over the rights of life to the Lord. Then God is in charge.

Even today, what is the first thing that God asks us to do when he appears to us? "Take off your God and give me the sovereignty of your life. Come to me, you heavy burden. I will give you rest. Leave your luggage and your life to me, and I will take responsibility for it." But it is not easy. But if you leave it entirely, God is responsible. Are you worried that you might fail because you are not responsible? But there is nothing to worry about even if you fail, so don't worry.

Abraham is extraordinary in that sense. When God wanted Isaac, the reader, to sacrifice himself on Mount Moriah, he took the son to Mount Moriah, placed him on firewood, and raised a sword to sharpen it and offer it to God. How was that possible? Because Abraham believed that he would kill and save God. Because it was offered to God, not to man, God was incompetent, so he believed that he would save him even if he killed him and offered his son as a sacrifice. That's how much Abraham believed in God and gave up his life. Therefore, God told Abraham, "I will take responsibility for you, bless you, prosper and thrive." Therefore, it is very important for us to lay down our sovereignty and obey before God. Please remember that the master of our work is God. All our work belongs to the Lord. And we ourselves are also to the Lord. Since I belong to the Lord and my job is also to the Lord, if I am in trouble while doing what he asks me to do, I must call the Lord directly.

2. the time and method of God

We must not go against the times of God in all this. The Lord has made everything beautifully from time to time, so we must take a closer look at the times of God. When man thinks, and when God thinks, it is different. Proverbs 3:1, verse 8 states, "There are times when things are due, when things are wrong, when things are wrong, when things are wrong, when they die, when they are planted, when they are cut, when they are cured, when they are cut, when they are cut, when they are cut up, when they cry, when they are sad, when they are dancing, when they are thrown away, when they are held, when they are far away from work, when they are inside, when they are found, when they are lost, when they are protected, when they are torn, when they are quiet, when they speak, when they are in love, when they are at war, when they are at peace." What God has told us is that God has set the time in our lives for everything. Then how can we discern the time? We must ask the Holy Spirit to do it. We must ask God to help us live wisely according to the time he has set for us.

In Book 3:11, he writes, "God has made everything beautiful according to the times when he built it, and he has given people a heart of longing for eternity. But he has made it impossible to measure the beginning of what God is doing with people." That is why if we wait for God's time and wish to know it desperately, God will make history at the time of God. If you are ahead of time, you will make a great failure, and if you follow the time late, you will make a great failure. We have to work at that time because we know the time God has set. And because we look at God's guidance and work in God's way at his time, we have to trust and obey God's ways. There are many times when we plan and work in our own way, and we are ruined.

Naaman, the army general of King Aram, was a great warrior during the Old Testament, but he contracted leprosy. He said that the leprosy might be cured if the servant was seen by the prophet Elisha, who captured and made him a maid of the Israelites. So, with the king's permission, when he came to the king of Israel and asked him to fix the leprosy, the king of Israel was surprised and tore his clothes. "Then Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king had torn his clothes, and sent him to the king, saying, 'Come to me, why did the king tear his clothes? He will announce that there is a prophet in Israel," the Bible writes. General Naisman came to Elisha's house proudly. At least he thought he would be treated warmly when he was the minister of the Aram army, but only one servant came out and said, "I'm going to go to the Jordan River and take seven baths." Where in the world is this insult? Eventually, when he was about to turn around in anger, the servants who accompanied him earnestly asked, "If I can get better from the old days, shouldn't I go in and take a bath?" When he heard the servants, Na Man reluctantly went to the Jordan River and entered the water. There is no evidence even after entering and leaving the sixth time. But when he entered and woke up the seventh time, the moonworm disease completely healed. God's miracle happened.

In this way, God works according to God's way. We want to work according to our thoughts, but we must trust and obey until the end because we work according to God's way beyond our plans, not be discouraged. Just as Elisa, the man of God, said that after immersing himself in the Jordan River seven times, the flesh recovered like a child's flesh and was clean, if we believe in and obey the word of God, the word of God has lived and is athletic, so it is sharper than the sword on the left and right, so it splits the soul, spirit, joints, and bone marrow.

3. What we need to know

The word of God gives us a creative history. God said in the beginning that creation was achieved as the Holy Spirit said, and we still have that history today. Therefore, we must pray first. In Jeremiah 29:11, verse 13, "For it is the word of Yahweh, I know my thoughts for you; peace is not a disaster; I give you the future and hope. If you come to me and pray, I will hear your prayers. If you save me with all your heart, you will find me and meet me." God is omniscient and omniscient, but providence begins when we pray. Prayer is the most effective way to transfer our rights to God.

We must be grateful and never forget to praise God. Thank you is God who leads us to salvation. In Philip 4:6, verse 7, he writes, "Don't worry about anything, just pray for everything, and thank God for saving you, and the peace of God, who is excellent in all perception, will protect your heart and thoughts in Christ Jesus." As such, God is responsible for everything.


We must know how to wait. If we believe in God's words and pray, we must wait. If we believed and prayed, we would have to wait a month, two months, or a year. Abraham prayed for a son at the age of 75, but even if we waited 10 years until the age of 85, we did not receive him. Later, we waited until we were 100. That way, God finally gave us a son named Isaac. In Hebrews 11:6, he writes, "Without faith, we cannot please God, but those who move toward God must believe in what he is and also the heart he gives to those who seek him." God must be there and will surely give you an award, so you must wait patiently in your heart. Jeremiah writes in verse 3:24:26, "Jahae is my enterprise, so to those who wait and seek him, Yahweh is good to those who are waiting and to those who seek him, but one hopes for Yahweh's salvation and waits quietly." God does not discourage those who wait.

In 1964, Mother Teresa said in a press conference that she would build a big orphanage in Kelcutta, India. Then, the reporters asked, "Is there a lot of money raised? How can you build such a big orphanage?" Then, Mother Teresa offered her own three shillings of money, three hundred dollars, and she said, "This is all I have," and the reporters laughed and laughed. They thought she was joking. But what she said was not a joke. Knowing and believing that all she has now is that, but leaving it to Jesus would lead to any miracle, Mother Teresa earnestly prayed to him with three shillings. "God! Please let me build an orphanage through this little substance that can take care of so many orphans!" With the three shillings, she began a mission of love with the three shillings, which received amazing results and received worldwide acclaim, and set up 600 orphanages in more than 130 countries. Starting with about 300 won, 600 orphanages, and a miracle that could take care of orphans in 180 countries occurred. As such, he is the one who makes the impossible possible, and he is the same and unchanging, both yesterday and today. Therefore, the words of the Lord, "Call for me, and I will respond to you," still work today. We are advised not to rely on people in times of need, but on the Lord.

When we are faced with a difficult problem, our earnest prayers are thought to be answered late and we are often discouraged because it is difficult to wait. But as time passes, we can see that everything has been achieved by God's exquisite wisdom. Let's always pray and wait without being discouraged. Let's cry today and tomorrow and leave today and tomorrow and the most important thing is to take off our shoes. Take off the sovereignty of our lives to the Lord. "Live, die, prosper, ruin, or decline, and the Lord will claim it. I may die or live. If you confess, pray and leave it to the Lord, he will be responsible. God says, "You will call out to you, and I will show you something big and secret." If we earnestly ask the Lord and wait quietly, the Holy Spirit will make us realize. We are God's loving sons and daughters. God did not create to make us work. He is trying to give us a rest. He wants to rest. He wants us to have peace of mind and peace of life and rest. Therefore, leave your luggage to the LORD. The Bible says, "Leave your luggage to Yahweh," and the LORD is responsible for it.

 

Our Jesus, who has himself been crucified, tells us to come under the cross. "Leave all my baggage to the cross. I will hang the luggage and you just have to follow. Rest and enjoy and follow. Follow me. Live a happy life and follow me." God wants us to rejoice and rejoice and live a peaceful and happy life, to thank and praise the Lord, and to share this love and happiness with all. May the will of the Lord be fulfilled in our lives in the name of the Lord.

-Prayers-

Our father in heaven, we often grieve, resent, and lament that when difficult problems arise, our prayers do not respond well to our will. I remember telling the Father of God to leave his sovereignty to God because there is God's time, God's plan, and God's way. Please allow us a broken heart, faith, and waiting heart that can be entrusted entirely to God.
I pray in the name of Jesus.
Aman!