Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Revelation 7:1-3.

 

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.  And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God;  and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”  Revelation 7:1-3.

 

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Heidelberg Catechism assures me that “all things must be subservient to my salvation”.  Question and Answer 1.

 

Even in Ezekiel’s vision of slaughter, in which it appeared to Ezekiel that God was destroying the whole remnant of Israel, Ezekiel was saved.  There too a saving mark was put on the foreheads of those who were spared.  See Ezekiel Chapter 9.

 

In Jesus’ parable of wheat and tares, although God very much desired to burn the wicked represented by the tares, God was careful to not hurt the righteous represented by the wheat.  “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.  But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.  The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?  How then does it have tares?’  And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves *said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’  But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.  Allow both to grow together until the harvest;  and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up;  but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”  Matthew 13:24-30. 

 

 

God “preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;”  2 Peter 2:5.  

 

God “rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men” when He “condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes”.  2 Peter 2:6-7.

 

God “knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,”  2 Peter 2:9.

 

“Come, my people, enter into your rooms And close your doors behind you;  Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course.”  Isaiah 26:20

 

Psalm 91 provides a comforting conclusion.