Not Finished Yet

Isaiah 17 contains an account of God's judgement against Assyria, specifically against Damascus. Verse 1 declares,

"An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins."

This is a particularly interesting prophecy, because it hasn't been fulfilled... YET. Damascus is still an inhabited city, but we can see a possibility of the stage being set for their destruction. Assyria continues to set themselves against Israel, and as they attack, Israel fights back. It wouldn't be unthinkable for Israel to wipe them out in self defense of their own people and their own nation. We'll have to wait and see.

We can have two responses to this prophecy. We can choose to say that it must be incorrect, because it hasn't happened yet. Which is a silly response, because God has always fulfilled His Word. Even after almost 2000 years, Israel became a nation again on May 14th, 1948. God is faithful to His Word.

Or, we can be encouraged, that God isn't done yet. Not everything in the Bible has been fulfilled. I find this incredibly encouraging, because if God hasn't finished with the prophecies in His Word yet, then I'm confident that He hasn't finished with me yet.

God is still working on you. God hasn't given up on you. This is good news for us! One day, we'll go home to be with the Lord face to face, but until then, He's molding us into His image. He's slowly refining us. Polishing away the blemishes, and sometimes more violently cutting off the parts that don't belong.

So when things get hard, and life is tough, remember that God isn't done with you. Remember that God will fulfill His Word to bring you home to Himself. So what do we do while we wait for Him to come back, while we wait for Him to finish with us?

I believe that Paul gives us the answer to this question in 2 Corinthians 5.

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:8-9

Paul acknowledges that we'd rather be in Heaven! We'd rather be done with this world, and the pain and sorrow and suffering. Being with Jesus sounds way better to me too.

But he says that while we're here, while we're away from Heaven, we make it our aim to please Him. We put our efforts, and our energies, and our focus into pleasing the One who died for us. That means that we follow His Word. That means that we live as He's called us to. We make it our aim to be like Him.