10 TELL THE RIGHTEOUS IT WILL BE WELL WITH THEM,
FOR THEY WILL ENJOY THE FRUIT OF THEIR DEEDS.
11 Woe to the wicked!
Disaster is upon them!
They will be paid back
for what their hands have done. Isaiah 3
Much of this part of the prophecy of Isaiah is given in the context of coming judgements, but it’s as if God stops him and gives these words in the middle of it all. Words of His reassurance that the righteous will be blessed, even while those around us may experience severe problems.
Abraham’s conversation with the Lord in Genesis 18:16-33 gives us an interesting insight into Divine Justice and Mercy.
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Abraham began to haggle and bargain hard with the Lord over the future of Sodom. (Perhaps he was thinking of Lot who lived there) He began his argument with a figure of fifty righteous people living in Sodom and worked his way down to ten.
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “FOR THE SAKE OF TEN, I WILL NOT DESTROY IT.”
God is always mindful of the presence of the righteous before He brings judgement. He looks for a way to show Mercy instead. (Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh brought about a change of heart and saved the city, as God intended.)
In the last Book, Revelation, God speaks to the Church of Philadelphia, also chapter 3 and verse 10;
10 Since you have kept my command to ENDURE PATIENTLY, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. Revelation 3
Once again God is mindful of the people who endure trials in His Name and is well able to deliver them from coming judgements. We live in a day when peoples and nations are being separated under the hand of God, but always with Mercy in sight.
10 ‘TELL’ THE RIGHTEOUS IT WILL BE WELL WITH THEM,
FOR THEY WILL ENJOY THE FRUIT OF THEIR DEEDS! (God wanted His people TO KNOW THIS.)
May the God of Heaven bless and keep you in these uncertain days.