Beloved Family… Since we’ve been considering what true authentic disciples are always focused on doing, I’d like to add a few more considerations to reinforce what we’ve already considered. Let’s go back to our foundational text:
“The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of things regarding the Kingdom of God.
“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
“So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” But He said to them, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own Authority; BUT YOU WILL RECEIVE POWER WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME UPON YOU; AND YOU SHALL BE MY WITNESSES both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth!” (Acts 1:1-8 NASB. Emphasis added)
Beloved, I ask you to notice something about the mindset of those future apostles who were selected to assist in the Holy Spirit’s training of the New Covenant disciples that God would soon bring into their sphere of influence. At the time this passage chronicles, these future emissaries of Yeshua were actually being allowed to see, hear, and interact with the never-before experienced, most marvelous, utterly stupendous, Supernatural Reality the world had ever seen! They were in the Perfect Presence of the one and only human that, miraculously, had just been raised from the dead. And now, He stood before them… infused with Eternal Life!
Think about that for a minute! In terms of attention-grabbing importance, imagine how mind-blowing and stupendous that was! What could have possibly topped that? But, as they say, ‘Reality is stranger than fiction.’ And, strange as it may seem, the Lord’s Resurrection Reality was not the only thing uppermost in those disciples’ minds! Something else was captivating their attention and concern. It was their habitual frustration and longing to escape the enormous pressure that the brutal occupation of the grossly immoral and cruel Roman Empire was imposing on all of Israel! The heavy-handed tyranny, into which they’d all been born, siphoned their attention away from the enormity of the mind-blowing Reality that was now abiding in their midst!
But the Lord understood and did not chide them. If you put yourself in their sandals, you’d realize that their suffering, anger and resentment had to be staggering. The ever-present injustice and heartless brutality were like raw open wounds in their minds and hearts. Despite the staggering Resurrection Reality before them, the Roman reality was still a very real thorn in their flesh. And so, almost immediately after He appeared to them, they erupted with the question that was pressing on all their minds:
‘Lord NOW that You’ve risen from the dead, will You FINALLY free us
from all this suffering and injustice and get the Romans off our backs?’
And the Lord understood their distress; and was patient with them. He took that opportunity to gently teach His beloved disciples to begin to focus, not on the matters of this world, but on the true Agenda of God! It was time for the Fulfillment of the promises Father had made in the past about the Triumph and Vindication of His Living Word, and the Ultimate New Covenant Redemption and Restoration of Creation to begin! The Spirit was coming to empower them to prepare the way for the accomplishment of this long-awaited Creation-Restoration Agenda. And it would begin within the Roman Empire itself… starting to gradually transform Israel’s currently wretched and dismal condition, and work its way outward, and beyond, to the rest of the world!
And the Holy Spirit would soon begin to relocate and redeploy many of these first century disciples, and their successors, beyond Israel’s borders, to every other nation, empire and generation this world would ever see. They were going to be empowered and impelled to tell the world about Israel’s Messiah, God’s Living Word made flesh… who He is, and what the meaning is of His awesome Resurrection! And they were to announce all that He has done to effect mankind’s Full Redemption and Salvation from a fate much worse than death itself!
“The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the uneven ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the Glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken!”
“A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; the people are indeed grass! The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
“Go up on a high mountain, Zion, messenger of Good News, raise your voice forcefully, Jerusalem, messenger of Good News; raise it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “HERE IS YOUR GOD!”
“Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm (your risen Messiah) ruling for Him. Behold, His compensation is with Him, and His reward before Him. Like a Shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in the fold of His robe; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and measured the heavens with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth with a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?
“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge, and informed Him of the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust!” (Isaiah 40:3-15, Emphasis added)
Dear ones, now I ask you to notice something about those of us who are called to serve the Lord at this time: Can you see that we are in a situation very similar to that of the first century disciples? We too are surrounded by the wickedness of rampant paganism. And widespread violence and gross injustices are devastating billions of people! And Israel continues to suffer under the oppressive threats of modern day enemies. Huge numbers of people still do not know God, and they’re in a frenzy to find relief, safety, comfort, pleasure and security for themselves and their kind. They’re desperately trying to fill the vacuum in their empty lives and addictive hearts caused by the absence of the one true God!
The disciples we read about in the book of Acts were chosen by God to expedite the beginning and initial launching of the New Covenant Agenda that was coming to rescue all of the world’s suffering and scattered living dead people!
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” Now He said this about the Ruach (Holy Spirit), whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given, since Yeshua was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
So this New Covenant era that they would soon be commissioned to launch and set into motion wasn’t only for the Jewish people; it was intended to reach out to, and include, the entire world! This was why this unprecedented Resurrection Reality was, very shortly, going to suddenly be poured out upon them! Then the Climactic Era would begin… the Era when God would lead anyone who would listen to His emissaries whom He would empower to draw the world into His brand new Covenant Fulfillment Kingdom!
“Do not remember former things, nor consider things of the past. HERE I AM DOING A NEW THING; NOW IT IS SPRINGING UP—DO YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT IT?
“I will surely make a way in the desert, rivers in the wasteland. The field animals honor Me—the jackals and the ostriches—because I give waters in the desert, rivers in the wilderness, to give drink to My chosen people, the people I formed for Myself, so they might declare My praise.” (Isaiah 43:18-21, Emphasis added)
This was the mind-blowing purpose for which the Holy Spirit would equip and train these chosen emissaries to do this work – regardless of what their current political and social conditions might happen to be! So they had to be weaned from their small, localized identity, self-centered focus and highly limited mindset. They had to wake up to a much deeper and wider and higher sphere of awareness, significance, and importance… greater than they could have ever imagined possible in the past! Now they would soon begin to experience this ‘new thing’ that God was about to unleash upon the world. God was going to take them far beyond anything the people of Israel and the rest of the world had ever seen or expected to see in the past!
Now was the time to wake the whole world up to the realization of how terribly bad the Bad News of Sin and its horrific physical and spiritual terminal effects really are, and how devastating and hopeless humanity’s lot has been since Adam’s fall. Everyone must be made aware of the Good News of what God has already done to save and restore the entire human race, and all of Creation… to their God-intended total wellbeing and eternal Fellowship with Him!
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. For the law of the Spirit of Life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death! For what was impossible for the Torah—since it was weakened on account of the flesh—GOD HAS DONE! Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned Sin in the flesh—so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Ruach set their minds on the things of the Ruach. For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Ruach is Life and Shalom. For the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the Law of God—for it cannot. So those who are in the flesh cannot please God!
“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Ruach—if indeed the Ruach Elohim dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Ruach of Messiah, he does not belong to Him. But if Messiah is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Ruach of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Ruach who dwells in you!
“So then, brothers and sisters, we do not owe anything to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Ruach you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. For all who are led by the Ruach Elohim, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall again into fear; rather, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Daddy!)
“The Ruach Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, also heirs—HEIRS of God and JOINT-HEIRS with Messiah—IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM, so that we may also be glorified with Him.
“For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming Glory to be revealed to us. For the Creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the (resurrected) sons of God. For the Creation was subjected to futility—not willingly but because of the One who subjected it—in hope that the Creation itself also will be set free from bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
“For we know that the whole Creation groans together and suffers birth pains until now—and not only Creation, but even ourselves. We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Ruach, GROAN INWARDLY as we eagerly wait for Adoption—the Redemption (Resurrection) of our body!
For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. In the same way, the Ruach helps in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Ruach Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Ruach, because He intercedes for the kedoshim (saints) according to the will of God.
“Now we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified (even though we still, at this time still suffer under the lash of ‘Rome,’ the Spirit of Almighty God has entered into us! And He groans with us, in prayer to our Father, as we wait to join Yeshua in the Fullness of His Eternal Resurrection Glory).” (Romans 8:1-30 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
God’s Continuing Plan of Salvation – The Same From Beginning to End
So what about us beloved? We’re at the opposite end of what they began… the terminus, of what they were commissioned to initiate! They experienced the beginning; and now we’re experiencing the end! Our job is to expedite the arrival of the Ultimate Consummation of this apostolic New Covenant Era! In other words it’s up to us to bring in the final portions of the Harvest that the originals were sent in the first century to begin to harvest. This, Beloved, is the ‘finishing up process’ that the Lord has chosen us to join Him in accomplishing!
In baseball terms, there are two important positions to whom we of the last generations should be able to relate. I refer to the ‘clean up or pinch hitters’ and ‘relief pitchers.’ They are especially relevant when the game reaches its final stages. Cleanup hitters are the ones that are inserted into the batting order when their team is faced with extremely critical situations. Their purpose is to hit safely and drive home as many of the base runners that are ahead of them, as possible. They are responsible for making it possible for their teammates reach home plate and score the runs needed to win the game.
And when the final outcome of the game is at stake and the opposing team is at bat, relief pitchers are brought at those critical situations when the opposition’s batters have begun to rally. So a fresh relief pitcher is brought into the game and is responsible for putting out the opposing batters to end the inning and thus preserve the lead of their team.
We disciples of the Last Days are similar to pinch hitters and relief pitchers. Wicked, lawless demon possessed people infest every part of our world. The powers of Darkness are frenziedly manipulating them to do as much damage as possible to derail and ruin God’s Plan. They rage and lash out against God, and His Word, and His people, because their allotted time to operate on Earth is quickly running out! And they are reaching the peak level of their desperation! And so the combat is reaching its most intense level of strife, conflict, and carnage! And it’s up to us to receive from our Lord all that He has provided in His Finished Work to stop the enemies of our Father’s Kingdom in their tracks, once and for all… through the obedience of our faith!
The apostles and original disciples of the first century, were surrounded by hurting, lost and deeply devastated people; and so are we. Only now, in our era, there are many more of them! The lives and wellbeing of people the world over are in imminent danger of being totally destroyed by the deceptive plots, schemes and treacheries of the forces of evil. Many government authorities and ruling class elites are demonically-led predators! They generate ‘programs’ and ‘agendas’ geared to devour multitudes of their fellow humans! And the suffering people all around the world who agonize under their tyranny are crying out for relief, redress, justice and resolution!
And, just as it was in the beginning, those who cry for help… whether they realize it or not… are waiting for the chosen disciples of the risen Lord to respond and to bring them the glorious Good News that will fill their tortured hearts with the Peace, Joy, and Rest that only the Spirit of our Father can give them! God has restored to New Covenant disciples that beautiful pristine identity and Creation-gardening purpose that our first parents enjoyed before they fell:
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.” God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.” (Genesis 1:26-28 TLV, Emphasis added)
This is why we must not allow our temporary distressful circumstances and situations to force us to forget about our Eternal God-given identity and purpose! We are not here to be swallowed up and overcome by world conditions; we’re here to oppose them while our God stops them in their tracks! We are, even now, Spirit-empowered sons of God and administrative emissaries of the Kingdom of Heaven!
“Don’t you know that the kedoshim (saints) will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial matters? Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
Scripture informs us that our spirits already abide with our risen Lord, as He sits at Father’s right hand. We are there with Him, privy to the counsels of God! So our bodies are not deployed here on Earth to enjoy personal comforts and safety in a protected ‘bubble’ while the rest of the human race agonizes and goes down the tubes to eternal destruction! We’re commissioned and deployed here at this time for a much higher, nobler purpose than that! We are to be God’s points of entry throughout the world! And we are to serve as His bases of operation as He reveals and imparts the enormity of His All-Sufficient Grace that flows out from His Perfect Finished Works of Creation, Redemption and Restoration!
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt should lose its flavor, how shall it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on a lampstand so it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your Light shine before men so they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:13-16 TLV, Emphasis added)
“But you are a Chosen People, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Nation, a People for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light!
“Once you were “not a people,” but now you are “God’s People.” You were shown “no mercy,” but now you have been shown Mercy.” Loved ones, I urge you as strangers and sojourners to keep away from the fleshly cravings that war against the soul. Keep your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. Then while they speak against you as evildoers, they may—from noticing your good deeds—glorify God in the Day of Visitation!” (1 Peter 2:9-12 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe because of the works themselves.
“Amen, amen I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me, THE WORKS THAT I DO HE WILL DO; and greater than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. AND WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME, THAT I WILL DO, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything IN MY NAME, I will do it.”
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not abandon you as orphans; I will come to you. In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. BECAUSE I LIVE, YOU ALSO WILL LIVE!
“In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you! He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I WILL LOVE HIM AND REVEAL MYSELF TO HIM!” (John 14:10-21 TLV, Emphasis added)
The Resurrection Presence of our awesome Lord abides within our spirits and is operating in us and through us and in the midst of us. But yet… although His Faithful Love for us is far greater and more powerful than any earthly situation or circumstance we will ever experience, we still often struggle to protect and maintain our faith in Him. Instead of focusing on His wonderful Reality, which is always with us, and instead of proclaiming Him and proving to those around us that He really is in our midst by the signs and wonders that follow Him wherever He goes, many of us obsess continually over our dismal earthly social and political situations and problems, as if since the day we were regenerated, nothing spiritually has changed in us and for us!
So, just like the original apostles needed to be corrected, we too are also greatly in need of the Lord’s correction and redirection. It is not for us to know periods of time or appointed moments which the Father has set for His Word and Spirit to put a final end to our current earthly miseries and temporary troubles. It is for us to know how to obey our Commander and do exactly the same thing He ordered His original apostles and disciples to do in the very beginning… that is, to be His witnesses and to make disciples from the ranks of our contemporaries! So now is the time for us to learn and to be trained, equipped and prepared to do the very same task the original disciples were given… until the work of God’s Harvest is totally and finally brought to its successful conclusion!
“…But you will receive Power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and YOU SHALL BE MY WITNESSES, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth! (Acts 1:8 NASB, Emphasis added)
Beloved, we dare not allow our situations and circumstances to distract us and yank our focus away from our risen Lord, and reduce us to doing what God-less people of this world are always doing. They become totally entangled and enmeshed in temporary earthly matters that, compared to God and His awesome Eternal Plan and Purpose, have no significance or value whatsoever! We dare not continue to major in such minor things. Worldly kingdoms and situations come and go. Earthly kings, and the circumstances they impose on their subjects, rise up and are, very soon toppled and forgotten. But the Word of the Lord, and everything He has revealed, commanded and promised, abides and prevails forever!
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; and the city will be rebuilt on its ruins, and the palace will stand on its rightful place.
“From them will come a song of thanksgiving and the voices of those who celebrate; and I will multiply them and they will not decrease; I will honor them and they will not be insignificant. Their children also will be as before, and their congregation will be established before Me; and I will punish all their oppressors.
“Their Leader shall be one of them, and their Ruler will come out from their midst; and I will bring Him near and He shall approach Me; for who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?’ declares the Lord.
“‘You shall be My people, and I will be your God.’” Behold, the tempest of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a sweeping tempest; it will whirl upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and accomplished the intent of His heart. IN THE LATTER DAYS YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THIS!” (Jeremiah 30:18-24 NASB, Emphasis added)
What the Lord commanded His original apostles to do is just as true and binding for us as it was for them. In this sense, nothing has changed, except that we are much, much closer to the Grand Finale of this ongoing saga of Salvation than they were:
“And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME. GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, immersing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. AND REMEMBER! I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE!” (Matthew 28:18-20 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Now the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn and warns the people, then someone who hears the sound of the horn but does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away for his wrongdoing; but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand.’
“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them a warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will certainly die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked about his way, that wicked person shall die for his wrongdoing, but I will require his blood from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his wrongdoing, but you have saved your life.” (Ezekiel 33:1-9 NASB, Emphasis added)
So, do you see what the habitual focus of attention is that the Lord’s true disciples are to maintain? Do you see the purpose that is underlying the Lord’s invitation to ‘Follow Me’? Do you understand what the purpose is that is underlying the invitation He gives to them?
“Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people!” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:18-20 NASB, Emphasis added)
Our Job As Disciples Never Changes
Dear ones… what difference does it make which administration or regime happens to be placed over us? What difference does it make, in the eternal scheme of things, whether or not those people are just and moral and truly serving the people, or whether they are cruel, brutal, selfish and feeding and fattening themselves at the expense of those over whom they exercise their power? No matter what the current situation may be, our job as disciples never changes! We are always ‘on duty,’ always commissioned to be on the lookout for opportunities to testify to the Reality and Glorious Goodness and All-Sufficiency of our resurrected Lord! All children of Adam are fallen and Sin-corrupted. And they all are desperately in need of the Salvation that can only come from God’s Living Word made flesh! Everyone needs to know Him and experience His merciful, gracious Lovingkindness! And it is our job to make sure we do everything possible to make sure not even one of them remains trapped ‘in the darkness’ that is caused by the Serpent’s ploys to erase the knowledge of our Messiah from the minds and hearts of the human race!
“Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let’s tear their shackles apart and throw their ropes away from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
“I will announce the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have fathered You. Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
“Now then, you kings, use insight; let yourselves be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way, for His wrath may be kindled quickly. HOW BLESSED ARE ALL WHO TAKE REFUGE IN HIM!” (Psalm 2 NASB, Emphasis added)