Our theme text speaks “Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them—Isaiah 3:9-10 (MSG).

This word of assurance as well as the warning is needed NOW!

The rule is certain whether there might be national prosperity or trouble, it would be well with the righteous and ill with the wicked. Even when it is ill with the wicked, and with the nation in general; God will be the safeguard and portion of the righteous in the common calamity; therefore let the righteous not fear neither stretch their hand to iniquity, but let them commit themselves, and their all, to His protection, and resign themselves up to His disposal (1 Peter 4:19).
 
The righteous shall either be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger, or shall have divine supports and comforts, which shall abound in proportion as trials and troubles abound. “This is an admirable sentence to support the souls of the pious, amidst all the calamities of this life. God will not forsake those who truly love and serve him. This:

1. reason teaches us;
2. the experience of all times confirms; and
3. is the constant and comfortable doctrine of the word of God. The event must and will be happy to the good man

Woe unto the wicked, for the heavy judgments are designed against them, and shall certainly find them out, though here they be mixed with the righteous. People, happiness, either in this world or the next, is, by the divine determination as the certain consequence of righteousness, so the contrary is the certain consequence of wickedness. — Taken from Bible Hub

Hear o ye people:

Those who worship false gods have turned their backs on all the mercies waiting for them from the Lord! Jonah 2:8 (TLB)

The Lord says: Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mortal man and turns his heart away from God. He is like a stunted shrub in the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times pass him by forever. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. He is like a tree planted along a riverbank, with its roots reaching deep into the water—a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by long months of drought. Its leaves stay green, and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit. The heart is the most deceitful thing there is and desperately wicked. No one can really know how bad it is! Only the Lord knows! He searches all hearts and examines deepest motives so he can give to each person his right reward, according to his deeds—how he has lived. Like a bird that fills her nest with young she has not hatched and which will soon desert her and fly away, so is the man who gets his wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later he will lose his riches and at the end of his life become a poor old fool. But our refuge is your throne, eternal, high, and glorious. O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who turn away from you shall be disgraced and shamed; they are registered for earth and not for glory, for they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters. Jeremiah 17:5-13 (TLB)

Blessed be God, there is abundant encouragement to the righteous to trust in Him, and for sinners to repent and return to him. Heed Him for your peace. Shalom.

Pastor Afolabi Oladele