in your life by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. By being born-again (John 3 :1-18) your life will be trans formed (II Cor. 5:17). Salvation doesn’t come by keeping the Golden Rule, or living up to the Ten Com mandments. One becomes a Christian only through personal faith in the Saviour. Sometimes God performs miracles that put judgment upon people. We see this in both the Old and New Testaments. We see the example as concerns professing believers be cause of their sins. This does not concern their eternal salvation guar anteed in John 5:24. Under the in spiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul, in Romans 8:1, reminds us that believ ers escape condemnation. Yet, this does not exclude us from experiences of the severe chastening of the Lord. This is true of all families. Children have to be disciplined be cause the parents love them. One problem with today’s society of an archists is a lack of proper parental control and discipline. Peter urges believers (I Pet. 1:17) to “pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (or reverence). I think we need to remember that God’s judg ment as a miracle is upon presump tuousness. Soon after the dedication of the wilderness Tabernacle, Aaron’s oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, apparently under the stimulus of intoxicating liquor (Lev. 10:8-9), took ordinary fire which they themselves had kin dled, and sought to enter the Holy Place. They presumptuously substi tuted natural fire for the supernatur al flame God had kindled. Hence, the Lord sent fire from His presence in the Holy of Holies and consumed them both. As further discipline, Aaron and his remaining sons were forbidden to show any outward signs of grief whatsoever. Then, in the desert of Sinai, Ko- rah, a cousin of Aaron and Moses, together with two Reubenites and 22
250 leaders of Israel, tried to over throw the nation’s leadership (Num. 16:1-3). The offenders contemptu ously refused to appear before Moses who then warned the rest of the Israelites to step back from the chief rebels. The ground was going to split open to swallow them up, to gether with all their possessions (w. 26-38). This is exactly what took place. Fire proceeded from the Lord to bum up Korah’s 250 accomplices. Unbeaten armies, unbroken pros perity, and unbounded popularity caused King Uzziah of Judah to seek a place of pre-eminence in the re ligious as well as in the political realm. He boldly entered the second compartment of the Temple sanctu ary with the intention of offering incense upon the golden altar (II Chron. 26:16). The political king was ordered out of the Holy Place. Enraged at the order, he stood there, holding his censer filled with in cense, and suddenly was stricken by God with leprosy over his body. Thus he remained until the day of his death. In addition to outright sins of pre sumptuousness, professing believers of the Old Testament, as well as the New, suffered divine judgment be cause of deep-seated perversity in their hearts. There was Gahazi, the servant and disciple of Elisha, the prophet. When his master refused any kind of reward from the grateful Assyrian general Naaman, Gahazi thought it a great pity. He resolved to get as much as he could for him self (II Kings 5:20),. He pretended his master had sent him to get some silver and clothing for poorer peo ple. The overjoyed Naaman urged him to take two talents of silver, and commissioned two of his own servants to carry the bounty to the house of Elisha the prophet. As they neared Elisha’s residence, Gahazi dismissed the Syrians, depositing his ill-gotten treasure in his own quar ters. With a pretense of nonchalance,
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