Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Lord Rebukes

Jud 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Michael the archangel.

There is only ONE archangel.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first

This is another verse  -  'the voice of THE archangel'.

A single archangel, just as there is a single nemesis.

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels

The dragon.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Satan, the Devil.

The war between good and evil has its key players- Our Savior and Satan. 

Good vs. Evil.

Michael - the archangel WHEN contending with the devil--  DISPUTED about the body of Moses - and He DIDN'T bring a railing accusation against Satan but said- THE LORD REBUKE THEE.

Rebuking Satan.

Luk 4:41  And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

Jesus rebuked the devils inhabiting people- and he SUFFERED THEM NOT TO SPEAK.

Rebukes.

The Lord rebuked the evil devils- the evil angels cast out with Satan and the Lord rebuked Satan himself.

We've been discussing the fact that there is a REAL judgment for us, a REAL punishment for our failing to choose the love of our Father God, the love of our Savior Jesus Christ over self, over evil.  And here we have this verse--

 Jud 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

The LORD rebukes Satan.  Evil doers will have their punishment, Satan will have His as well. Satan the chief of evil, the father of lies, He dares dispute with the Lord Himself and the LORD had NO NEED to engage in  any sort of spirited dispute, no railing accusations were necessary at all. There was NO NEED because the truth stands on it's own. A rebuke was given, nothing more was needed. A rebuke.

We are rebuked. 

By being told, by being warned we are being rebuked aren't we? Seriously, we are being rebuked when we are told that there will be a judgment, that there is GOOD and there is EVIL and we have to CHOOSE! The message could not be clearer, it just couldn't and yet so many never, ever think about this most important of choices.  So many go about their day to day lives without ever thinking about the choices they've made concerning the most important aspects of their lives- eternity.

We are rebuked. We are chastised. We are warned. We are LOVED.

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

We, unlike the evil one who decided his fate long, long ago by refusing to repent, do have the choice of repenting of our sins and receiving the pardon of our Savior.

We are loved and out of that love we are rebuked and chastened- we are told we need to surrender to the mercy of our Lord, to rely upon His grace and His mercy, His LOVE.

We must listen!

Our Savior wants us to listen and will have done all He possibly can through the Holy Spirit to reveal His love to us as a very real thing, a living thing, a necessary thing.

All in HIM, always!



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