Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast as emotious for Zion's 4. Men love fanfare and a sweeping
panorama of activity and oratorical magnificence, which amazes all
with its grandeur and causes large numbers of people to sit
up and take notice. Yet God has always been pleased
to manifest His most profound messages to men through the most
obscure of messengers and circumstances which are as unpredictable as
they are hidden from the multitudes. We see this in the case of Noah,
who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, being singled out as
one in whom the mercy of God would be displayed. We see it
in Abraham as the Lord called him out of the heathen darkness
of Ur of the Chaldees and appeared to him in the plains of Mamre,
delivering to him the word of his promise and his determination
to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. We see it as he moved Abraham
to send his servant to his home country to fetch a wife for Isaac,
who would bear both the son whom the Lord loved, being Jacob,
and the one whom he hated, being Esau. In this chain of events,
he would demonstrate his everlasting love to those whom he has chosen
in Christ and his unchanging rejection of those whom he has
ordained unto destruction, so that both the glory of his grace
and mercy and his sovereign prerogative to make some vessels unto honor
and some to dishonor might be seen. We see it in the events
which caused Joseph to be sold into slavery. We see it in the
Lord's appearance unto the stuttering shepherd Moses in a burning bush. We see it in his purpose to destroy
the Philistines with a handful of men led by Gideon. We see
it as he raised up a young shepherd boy to destroy the mighty warrior
Goliath with nothing but a sling and a stone. We see it in the
bringing in of the very forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ to break
upon the scene clothed in the leather and girdle, eating locusts
and wild honey, and pointing out the One who is the Christ.
Then we see our Lord Himself being born of a virgin mother
in a cattle stall. Elijah, who is considered as
the epitome of the prophets, is brought forth without noble
birth, without formal education, and without a title of any kind,
being known simply as Elijah the Tishbite. We see Elijah break
on the scene completely unannounced and without introduction into
the presence of King Ahab to pronounce the fact that the Lord
would withhold the reign from Ahab's kingdom for three and
a half years. The Lord had a widow in Zarephath
upon whom his special love was to be demonstrated as the Lord
sent his messenger, this Elijah the Tishbite, to eat the very
last morsel of her food. Yet he who was sent to eat her
food was also the same one who was sent to bring her a message
of hope, which she could not have imagined since she was ready
to perish. Who made her to differ from another?
And what did she have that she did not receive? The Lord always
makes provision for His people. though he often sends it in a
form that would defy human understanding. Who among men could ever have
devised the unfolding of redemption through the death and resurrection
of the eternal Son of God? Who could have imagined it, let
alone participated in its efficacious power? Those Jews to whom Christ
spoke despised the declaration of God's sovereign right to show
mercy to whom he wills, even as the men of religion do this
very day. Yet they could not destroy him
then, nor can any religious man in the present day prevent the
obscure messengers of his grace and mercy from declaring it from
the housetops and the lowest valleys in which the poor in
spirit lay hungering and thirsting. Elijah was exactly what the Lord
made him to be, and no power in earth or hell could change
the purpose for which he was sent, even as the Lord Jesus
Christ is ordained as the Savior of the Lord's people, whom he
loved before the foundations of the earth were ever laid,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at 4the4 at windstream dot net.