"Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them. They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame...." Isaiah 47:14
The strength of Babylon was her enchantments and sorceries (vs. 12) and her counsel of magicians (vs. 13). All of them would fall before God's judgment; Babylon's powers would be revealed as futile, and all of her strengths undone.
The fires of God consume all that is not made of the hardest and realest stuff, i.e., all that is of God. All things that are not of Him, no matter who noble or logical or beautiful it seems, will burn away in the end. All strengths, talents, foundations, ideas, institutions, dreams, plans, orders, structures, hopes, desires, etc., that are not based upon God are nothing but hollow chaff that will whither before the holy fire.
This is not merely about final judgment. All through our lives, God will send firestorms our way to burn out all the deadness that weighs us down. How much stubble, deadwood, dross, and tin still linger in us? Will we dare cling to them when the fires come? We will be burned with them if we dare stand with them. The only sure thing left after the fires have come and gone is God Himself; all other ground is a deception.
"Christ the Solid Rock:
Who weathers all the storms of life,
And all the Fires of God..."
-Jon Vowell
The strength of Babylon was her enchantments and sorceries (vs. 12) and her counsel of magicians (vs. 13). All of them would fall before God's judgment; Babylon's powers would be revealed as futile, and all of her strengths undone.
The fires of God consume all that is not made of the hardest and realest stuff, i.e., all that is of God. All things that are not of Him, no matter who noble or logical or beautiful it seems, will burn away in the end. All strengths, talents, foundations, ideas, institutions, dreams, plans, orders, structures, hopes, desires, etc., that are not based upon God are nothing but hollow chaff that will whither before the holy fire.
This is not merely about final judgment. All through our lives, God will send firestorms our way to burn out all the deadness that weighs us down. How much stubble, deadwood, dross, and tin still linger in us? Will we dare cling to them when the fires come? We will be burned with them if we dare stand with them. The only sure thing left after the fires have come and gone is God Himself; all other ground is a deception.
"Christ the Solid Rock:
Who weathers all the storms of life,
And all the Fires of God..."
-Jon Vowell
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