Speaker: Courtesy LHM

He knew what was coming. He knows how you feel. He will not leave you to deal with it on your own. How could He? He is the God who came into this world—and into your life—to suffer and die and rise again, all to make you His own dearly loved child. He will not desert you now.

You, too, may be suffering and wondering why. If so, put your trust in the God who saw and loved these two—and you as well. He may not explain Himself, but He sees you and He cares. So much, in fact, that He came into this unfair, broken world to take your suffering on Himself—to mend you, and all creation, with His own blood on the cross.

God knows their hearts and their souls, what they loved and hated, the interests and work that filled their days. He knows them intimately—just as He knows us. And He loves them.

Jesus sprang from those people—sinners and saints, rulers and peasants, foreigners and native-born, wise and fools. He suffered, died, and rose again for those people. And He did it for you and me.

Christians are taught to reflect on our sin. We do this, not to beat ourselves up, not to wallow in self-pity, but to let this remorse turn us back to God. And turning to the Lord who loves us in spite of our sin, we hear His voice, “Come now, let’s reason together.

And then He took it all to the cross and nailed it there. But this time it’s not like the donkey—the Lord isn’t going to return this loan to us. It’s gone for good.

Paul is encouraging us to get ready for the day of salvation—the day when Jesus returns and all evil is gone. That will be a celebration better than any wedding—the day we see our Savior face to face.

And yet God says that “the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains”—if not literally, then certainly figuratively. It will become the center of all nations, and people everywhere will come to hear the Lord’s Word and obey it.

We are baptized. We have been buried with Christ and raised to new life through faith in His Name. We have been born again and we have a new hometown. Birth and baptismal certificates will list a certain location as the place of birth, but as brothers and sisters in Christ we can now claim the heavenly Jerusalem as our home