10 Since you have kept my command TO ENDURE PATIENTLY, I WILL ALSO KEEP YOU FROM THE HOUR OF TRIAL … Revelation 3
People sometimes talk about ‘poetic justice’, usually when people receive justice in a similar way for what they’ve done to others. In this verse, however, the Lord says He will bless the Church at Philadelphia, because they have KEPT HIS COMMAND, THEREFORE HE WILL KEEP THEM FROM A TIME OF GREAT TRIAL. The family of believers don’t tend to think that the way we act towards God and people may very well determine what’s coming to us in the future. ‘Do to others as you would have them do onto you’, isn’t just a nice sentiment, we may actually reap all that we’ve sown into the lives of others. The key to avoid reaping a bad harvest is to repent and walk in love towards God and those around us.
The Church at Philadelphia was one of only two churches, among seven, whom the Lord didn’t criticise. They were not a powerful group, but the Lord commended their faithfulness.
8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE LITTLE STRENGTH, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Revelation 3
The issue in the Kingdom of God is not really our strength, but His strength. We’ve seen that David didn’t come against the giant Goliath in his own strength, but in the Name of the God of Israel.
45 David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 1 Samuel 17
He is still the ‘God of the armies of Israel today’ and the God of all true believers.
12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to GUARD/KEEP what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 2 Timothy 1
Paul, probably in jail when he wrote his second letter to Timothy, was trusting God TO KEEP Timothy and the Church, for whom he’d laid down his life. Sometimes we have no choice but to trust in God’s KEEPING POWER in our own lives, but like those in Philadelphia, He will be faithful to us as we continue to honour Him. Many believers need to lay hold of this in our own situations at the present.
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, “This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 ‘“‘The LORD BLESS YOU
AND KEEP YOU;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face towards you
and give you peace.’”
27 ‘So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.’ Numbers 6
Our God is still able to Bless and Keep His children today as Goliath and the Philistines found out to their great cost. Hallelujah
May the LORD BLESS AND KEEP YOU TODAY. Immanuel, God is with us.