Matthew 3:7
If ever there was a word, more powerfully appropriate for this exact day, I can't think of one other than my short devotional for February 25th (of all days!) in Charles H. Spurgeon's Morning by Morning, which has been faithfully revised and updated by Alistair Begg.
The fact that this particular reflection falls today, the day after the aggressions of Russia in Ukraine yesterday, could not have been better placed. It reads as follows:
It is pleasant to pass over a country after a storm has spent itself—to smell
the freshness of the herbs after the rain has passed away, and to note the
drops while they glisten like purest diamonds in the sunlight. That is the
position of a Christian. He is going through a land where the storm has
spent itself upon His Saviour’s head, and if there be a few drops of sorrow
falling, they distil from clouds of mercy, and Jesus cheers him by the
assurance that they are not for his destruction. But how terrible is it to
witness the approach of a tempest—to note the forewarnings of the storm;
to mark the birds of heaven as they droop their wings; to see the cattle as
they lay their heads low in terror; to discern the face of the sky as it
grows black, and to find the sun obscured, and the heavens angry and
frowning! How terrible to await the dread advance of a hurricane, to wait
in terrible apprehension till the wind rushes forth in fury, tearing up trees
from their roots, forcing rocks from their pedestals, and hurling down all
the dwelling-places of man! And yet, sinner, this is your present position.
No hot drops have fallen as yet, but a shower of fire is coming. No terrible
winds howl around you, but God’s tempest is gathering its dread artillery.
As yet the water-floods are dammed up by mercy, but the floodgates
shall soon be opened: the thunderbolts of God are still in His storehouse,
the tempest is coming, and how awful will that moment be when
God, robed in vengeance, shall march forth in fury! Where, where, where,
O sinner, will you hide your head, or where will you run to? May the
hand of mercy lead you to now Christ! He is freely set before you in
the Gospel: His pierced side is the place of shelter. You know your need of
Him; believe in Him, cast yourself upon Him, and then the fury shall be
past for ever.
As we see the affront by Vladimir Putin's Russia on Ukraine we must unite together in openly and publicly condemning him and his mission.
We must also pray for the people of Ukraine for their safety and welfare, for their leaders and for the leaders of the rest of the world to unite in a common front against this tyranny.
Most of all we must pray and rest that God's sovereign and transcendent plan is in action, that these crimes will not go unpunished, either in this life of the next.
A. Begg and C. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2007.
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