One Small Seed Newsletter – Edition #247, November 2021
Greetings and blessings from a God loving one small seed sower, who woke up thanking God for another beautiful day.
There has been a couple of words on my mind that were planted there from a couple of Sunday school lessons this month. The words weren’t gloom and doom, which wander by once in a while, but the words were “plague and pestilence”. I have heard those spoken since I was very young and it was probably the reason I was baptized in the Coal River when I was eleven years old. But the realities of the words stared me in the face. You know that history sometimes must repeat itself several times before we can grasp the lesson to be learned, so for the last few years I have learned a lot.
The Hebrew term for pestilence originally meant destruction was commonly referred to as the plague. Also added to that, in some occasions, are famine and war. A plague was usually referring to a judgment of God, or by God for punishment purposes. My feeling is that what has happened in the last two years is a good example; another negative was placed into the equation that sped up the dying process. God help us if there are a couple more factors added to the equation.
I was listening to and watching the weather forecast last week and reference was made about our troubles in and around our country: fires in California, drought in the Midwest, and flooding in the Northeast. Then there were tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf and up the East Coast. There were earthquakes in the West and in the tropics and hundreds of tornados around the country, but it’s not just our country that has this problem. The world has problems and it has always been that way, but it doesn’t always need to be broadcast as a negative event, it could be a neutral event because it affects everyone in the area.
As I watched the weather news, Israel was rebelling against Moses and Aaron and the will of God in my mind. “And the Lord said to Moses, how long will this people provoke me?… I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them…” I don’t believe that God was wanting the Jews to die or lose their relationship with him through the law of love, but I do believe he did want them to wake up and come alive to his truth.
The biggest portion of Israel’s history was a teaching tool to lead the world (Jew and Gentile) to Christ. God has taught me many lessons in my life simply by the experiences I have had and the experiences of others. The biggest lesson I have learned is to cling to the mercies of God and his Holy Word. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. Let’s love one another in a Godly manner and let God do the judging.
Pestilence have always been with us because when dealing with some things mankind hasn’t learned how to stop some things. The root of the word is “pest” which is something that is always around tormenting someone. I believe pestilence is one instrument that God keeps around to baffle the minds of men so that they will be forced to bow before him. It is the same as death, there is no cure, only ways to prolong it.
A plague is more deadly than a pestilence, because it moves faster and is more deadly in nature. The difference between the two is compared to sin and the devil. Pestilence is like sin since the wages of sin is death but the death may not come for a long time. It’s unpredictable because it can happen at any time. It is also survivable because God can forgive and doctors can help with healing. With a plague, God used it to punish a whole community or even a nation. It usually happens fast.
May God bless you on your journey and may peace lighten your load.
Your friend in Christ,
Rodney Roberts
P.S. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18