Our Hiding Place
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Intro
Intro
Text - Isaiah 26.20-21
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And will no more cover her slain.
Title - Our Hiding Place
Background
Background
Covid-19 Pandemic continues to spread and destroy
in a few weeks, Philippines will reach 1 million mark
worldwide as of today
141 million cases
3 million deaths
global effect
economy
religious
social
The best response humanity can do is HIDE
Why human efforts are failing
uncooperative population ?
we are only trying the cure the symptoms
face mask / face shield / lockdown
vaccines
we are NOT looking for the ROOT CAUSE of the pandemic
Biblical “plague”
plague - the biblical equivalent of pandemic
(OT) any epidemic disease with a high reath rate
(NT) a calamity that results in great loss or misfortune
What if God caused it?
What if God caused it?
There are two causes of plague in the Bible -
natural causes
God
In 2 Chronicles 6.26-30, Solomon makes distinction between God-cased and natural calamities -
26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,
27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.
28 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
29 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple:
30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men),
God-caused plagues are common in the Bible
the 10 plagues that struck Egypt
the punishment for King David’s sin in numbering Israel
In Amos 3.6, God claims direct responsibility to certain plagues -
1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?
5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all?
6 If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?
God-caused plagues come for a reason
Stubbornness of man
in Exodus, the plagues because Pharaoh refused to obey God -
1 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
Trasgressions of God’s people
in the widerness Israel committed multiple transgressions against God -
33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.
36 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land,
37 those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.
Pride
King David’s pride caused the plague that nearly destroyed Jerusalem
In 1 Chronicles 21.11-14, God sent a plague on Jerusalem that killed 75,000 men in 3 days
WHAT’S THE POINT?
IF GOD CAUSED THE COVID-19 TO SPREAD, THEN WE ARE IN GREAT TROUBLE!
IF GOD CAUSED THIS - THEN WE ARE GIVING SOLUTIONS THAT ARE FUTILE!
Some God-caused plagues can be stopped
In 2 Samuel 24.21-25, was stopped, but at a great price -
21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
22 Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.
23 All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
25 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
In Numbers 16 the plague that was caused by Israel’s rebellion at Kadesh Barnea and by Korah was stopped -
46 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.”
47 Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people.
48 And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.
49 Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident.
50 So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped.
the censer wih fire and incense symbolize PRAYER and MEDIATION/INTERCESSION
WHAT’S THE POINT?
THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS/RIGHTEOUS CAN HELP STOP THE PLAGUE TODAY!
SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD HOULD INTERCEDE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED AGAINST GOD
BUT WHAT IF GOD HAS DETERMINED THAT THE PLAGUE SHOULD RUN ITS COURSE?
THE ONLY THING TO DO IS HIDE YOURSELF AWAY!
How do you hide away from a plague that God has caused to happen?
How do you hide away from a plague that God has caused to happen?
King David, in the Psalms, has a hiding place against his enemies. THE LORD -
7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.
BUT WHERE DO YOU HIDE FROM GOD HIMSELF?
Death - for desperate people, death seems the only hiding place!
In Revelation 6.12-17, men will seek DEATH as they try to hide from the wrath of God caused by the 7 last plagues of the wrath of God -
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
hide us…
from the face...
from the wrath....
Man cannot hide from the wrath of God
1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said: “Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
2 “Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them; Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down;
3 And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, From there I will search and take them; Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword, And it shall slay them. I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
Unless God provides a hiding place for His people!
The last plague on Egypt was different from the first nine plagues
the first nine plagues, did not come near the Israelites in Goshen!
the tenth plague willaffect the whole land, including Goshen.
God provided the PASSOVER LAMB
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
IF GOD HAS CAUSED THIS PLAGUE TO HAPPEN, THEN MAN’S ONLY SAFE REFUGE IS GOD’S PROVIDED PROTECTION/HIDING PLACE - THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST!
GOD IS INVITING PEOPLE TO HIDE - FROM HIS OWN WRATH!
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And will no more cover her slain.
1 In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
This text actually refers to the time of the wrath of God
the whole world will be affected by God’s wrath
How God will save His people at that time -
first, He warns them to flee from Jerusalem
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
then, He gives them “wings” to fly away
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.
14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
Where will they hide? ONLY GOD KNOWS!
later, they will be gathered from their hiding place after the wrath of God, to meet Jesus Chrit in Jerusalem!
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Conclusion
Conclusion
what can we do while this plague rages on? what should we do?
Pray for the Lord’s mercies and compassion for the sinners!
Hide under the blood of Jesus Christ!
HOW DO YOU HIDE UNDER THE BLOOD OF THE PASSOVER LAMB?
Display the blood of Jesus over your life
Feed on the unleavened bread
Get ready for your exodus!
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