Harvest in great distress

“For a long time Israel was without true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.”

-2 Chornicles 15:3-4, NIV

In 2 Chronicles 15, Azariah said that Israel, for a long time, was without a true God – and that started when King Rehoboam reigned in Judah and King Jeroboam in Israel. The Israelites had sinned greatly because of what the kings of Judah and Israel has introduced to the people prior to King Asa’s reign. They have worshiped false gods and forgot the real living God, who delivered the fathers of Israel out of the hands of Egypt, and had helped them overcome the inhabitants of the “promised land”. And because of this sin, the Judah and Israel was in great distress for a very long time.

But in the time of King Asa’s reign, he has done what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Not just because he didn’t do any evil in the eyes of God, but also because he has led all Judah to go back into worshiping the real living God when he commanded all of the people to seek the Lord their God and to obey all of His commands. And because of this, whole Judah was given rest from their distress.

When I was observing this event, it came into my mind that our world today was in the same situation as Judah and Israel when they were in distress. It’s very easy to tell, this world has been for a long time without a true God. All men in this world had become worldly, everyone is seeking for their own satisfaction. The men of this world has made their own desires their god, they have done evil in the eyes of the Lord like what the Israelites did prior King Asa’s reign. No one is seeking the real living God – the God who created this world. And this causes this world we are living in today to be in great distress.

Still, many are just waiting for this world to be given rest from this distress, but I believe nothing will happen if no one will move. Now God has revealed to me that it is us Christians who should be doing the move. We Christians must be like King Asa and imitate what he did to whole Judah – for we are His chosen leaders. We must help the people of this world draw nearer to God – to seek Him and to obey Him! We must continue to do our calling – to win souls and make disciples, for this is the only way that this world will be given rest from its distress!

We shouldn’t get tired from this calling, even though we think it would be hard to win this world for our Lord Jesus Christ, for we are the only hope of this world. We shouldn’t give up for we know that we would be rewarded in our hard work – just like what Azariah spoke to King Asa (2 Chornicles 15:7). We must continue to harvest and believe that there is greater harvest in this great distress.

Original link for the photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Manual_harvest_in_Tirumayam.jpg