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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Christ and His Saints Go to Work, #20
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison And will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. (Revelation 20:7-9—NIV)
The Last Great Rebellion
It seems incredible that after a thousand years of righteous government the nations of the earth could be deceived into attacking God's people. This tells us two things about people.
First of all, self-will is so deeply entrenched in the adamic race that no matter how justly, wisely, and compassionately people are governed, there remains the potential for rebellion. Indeed the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, although we could wish it were otherwise. It is going to be an occasion for the greatest sorrow to see people whom we have served so diligently be so ready to turn against us.
As God said to Samuel, "They have not rejected you, they have rejected Me."
The second thing we learn from the Gog-Magog rebellion is that Satan always has an entrance into our personality when any self-will remains. As long as there is a trace of self-will in us, Satan will find his way into us. Immediately we will find ourselves attacking the true work of God.
We will think we are serving God. We may be speaking in tongues and engaging in evangelistic work. But we also will be gossiping about and slandering the people who truly are abiding in Christ.
How do we get rid of self-will? God's answer to the problem of human self-will is the personal cross of the believer, the prisons into which we are cast.
Sometimes our prison is a marriage which, after ten years or so, has become "unbearable." There are children involved. Yet we feel we cannot take the "injustice" and "perversity" one more minute.
There are times indeed when the Lord will direct an abused spouse to leave a violent or unfaithful mate. But so often the case is not one of abuse or adultery but the clash of two self-willed people.
If this is the case, and one or the other decides he or she cannot put up with this pain any longer, and decides to leave, the damage will be great. Also, the person who bolted out of God's prison may never again have a chance to be among the Lord's heroes of faith. There is a first blush of the heavenly romance between Jesus Christ and the believer. If the believer chooses to avoid the route over which the Lord is leading him or her, the relationship of trust is violated. It may never be the same again.
One can look at David and possibly others who have sinned against the Lord and then repented. Nevertheless, this is a very, very risky business. It is possible that things will never again be the same. The individual, though he or she charges out enthusiastically "in the Lord's work," may never recover what would have been the case had he held steady in the fire.
To be continued.