A Year of the Lord of Hosts-9

 Psalm 46:7 “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.”

            This year will be the year of the Lord of hosts. When we the say that the Lord of hosts is with us, we mean that we are not alone. We have an army of God right beside us. We the children of God will never be afraid of anything that comes against us. We have the Lord of hosts to battle it out for us this year. The Lord of hosts is giving us the divine strength to conquer all the issues in our lives.

Looked upon her

I Samuel 1:11 ‘And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.’

            In the above passage we can read about the prayer of Hannah. Her heart goes out to the Lord of hosts and requests him to remember her. We see Hannah keeps everything in prayer in I Samuel 1:10 ‘And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.’ The Lord looked upon the afflictions of Hannah and also the mockery that she faced by the people around. Our God changes the life of Hannah. Today, let us continue meditating on the blessings when the Lord looks upon his children.

Afflictions will change

Exodus 4:31 ‘And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.’

            When the Lord looked upon the afflictions of Israel, their lives are changed. In order to remove their afflictions, the people had to go through a time period. We see Moses and Aaron were so obedient and they prayed continuously for their struggles. In Exodus 5:21 ‘And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.’ We see the anger of the people were directed towards Moses and Aaron. In Exodus 6:9 ‘And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.’ The children of Israel were disheartened due to the heavy work load. This work pressure had made them lose their faith on the Lord God. But Moses did not judge based on the current situation. Instead, he completely trusted the Lord of hosts and believed that God will remove their bondage. Even in our lives, when we put our trust in the Lord, we will never be ashamed. The Lord of hosts will change all our struggles and afflictions.

II Multiply & Increase

Leviticus 26:9 “For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.”

                        When the Lord of hosts looks upon us, we will be blessed with the blessing of increase. When we read in Genesis 12:2-3 ‘And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.’ This verse is an absolute blessing. It gives a nation, fame and a blessing of generations. Such will be the blessing of the Lord of hosts. When the Lord promised Abraham, he had no children. But he believed in the name of the Lord God. The Lord himself honors Abraham. The faith of Abraham blessed him abundantly and made his name great.

III Understanding

Psalms 14:2 “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”

            Interestingly, in this above passage we see the Lord looks down to see if anyone understands him. We see the Lord God looks at the ways of man. He wants his children to understand his works. We read in Genesis 6:8-9 ‘But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.’ We see Noah who is a chosen man of God, understands the Lord God perfectly. He does not think or react in the same way how the world reacted. Noah submitted his entire life to the Lord almighty. Even in our lives, we should be the ones that understands the ways of the Lord God. We should understand his will and submit ourselves to it completely. Therefore, let us all submit ourselves to the presence of God and receive all his blessings in our lives. Amen.