He stumbled up to the convenience store and sat down on a stack of Coke cases. He look tired and frustrated. The concerned lady behind the counter spoke, “Are you OK?” Slowly he lifted his head to reveal hollow cheeks and empty eyes. “Lady,” he said, “Yesterday my wife was diagnosed with cancer. My health provider has notified me that we are not covered. Today my boss demoted me. My car just stopped running a couple of miles down the road, and this is as far as I could walk. I could use some good news.”

The American Dream

Maybe we have all had days like that. In fact, we are living at a time in our own culture when it seems like bad news is all we get. Globally, the American dollar is staggering under an unimaginable debt. Currencies that here-to-fore bowed to the mighty dollar are competing for dominance. The American dream has lost its luster for seniors who fear that the Social Security they had counted on is not that secure. Younger people are burdened over the debt they are assuming as they try to bear the burden of baby-boomer mortality, while they face the reality that they probably won’t prosper as much as their parent’s generation.

The American destiny is being reinterpreted through the lenses of secularism. God’s involvement in the purpose of this nation is being denied, and our faults are being magnified to the point of shame. We are told that we have had it all wrong and that anyone who celebrates our history is prejudiced and blind. Fake news has become a celebrity of communication as we have taken the used car salesman’s spin technique and adopted it in Media, Congress, the Presidency, and even the pulpit. We could use some good news.

Israel’s Past

Israel had a time like that. Once a prosperous nation under the guidance of God they had been devastated by the Assyrians in 722 BC and then by the Babylonians in 536 BC. Under this rule they were slaves, being told every day that they were a class of beings barely above the animals. Added to the physical pain of abuse, persecution and mental torture, they were aware that they were guilty of breaking the covenant with God. They were convinced that he had divorced them, sold them into slavery, and washed his hands of them. The past was filled with regret. The present was painful, and the future looked bleak. Into this era of despair, a voice was heard from God’s prophet:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion: Your God reigns — Isaiah 52:7.

Too Good to be True

It was startling news. Too good to be true. The natural eye had trouble finding enough evidence to make it believable. But God’s word is trustworthy. He rules over nature, history, and time. Nations are used by him — without even knowing it — to accomplish his purpose. He raises up kings and deposes them. He has always had a plan to rule his creation through his image-bearers.

Adam and Eve were the first. They yielded their rule to the deception of the Serpent. But God had another Adam in mind and he came to earth as a man, as an Israelite, and as God’s servant to establish God’s rule through a man. That man was Jesus who lived obediently as man was designed, died sacrificially as was required by justice, defeated death which was mankind’s arch enemy, and ascended to sit on the throne ruling everything his sacrifice paid for. He rules today and shall reign forever and ever.

Good News

When we hear in our hearts the good news that “Our God Reigns,” we believe, and peace pushes out fear and worry. The good news that sets the heart free is that our God reigns. He rules over history, nature, time, sin, flesh, death, and Satan. It would be the epitome of foolishness to see a God who controls all of life and refuse to yield our lives to him. It is true wisdom to see a God who rules over all authority and power and gladly trust him to rule our lives. We have good news.