Psalm 12:

Seems like an appropriate Psalm for the day we begin the 2016 political voting cycle.

We see a group described as having flattering lips & a double heart, meaning people who may say and do the right things, but not with the right heart. Is that too cynical of me to relate that to our political system? I am not actually one that believes that all politicians are that way, it just seems many that get ahead are.

Probably many of us though are just as double hearted in our own worlds as well, we just don’t have it displayed on TV. Have you ever said and done the right things for the wrong reasons? Me too! So this Psalm is also describing us.

On the other hand there is the Lord. His words are pure described here in the Psalm as being like silver tried in a furnace seven times. This means the purity of His words are of the highest degree possible and it is on this that we trust the promise that we can be kept in the care of our God, that we can be preserved from the wickedness of the generation we are in.

Psalm 13:

David lives out the journey of a Christian. The beauty of the Psalms to many are how relatable they are.

1. David felt God had forgotten him and it makes him sad and feels almost picked on, persecuted.
2. David then starts to feel like God will consider what he is saying and there seems to be some glimmer of hope.
3. David then realizes had God does care and now David is singing.

From sorrow to singing the journey of the faithful.

Psalm 14:

Almost this exact same Psalm with only minor alterations is repeated in Psalm 53.

Calling someone a fool in the Bible is strong language (v. 1)

Fool: Biblically defined, “refers to someone who is morally deficient.”

We can believe there is no God not only by literal denial, but also by living in such a way as if there were no God. In other words you don’t have to be an atheist to be a fool. You can be a card carrying Christian and still be a fool if we live as if there is no God.

Those are my thoughts today in my reading of Psalms 12-14

Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 9 & 10

You may recall on Day 24 we read about the cities of refuge where someone whom killed another individual unintentionally could escape to, in order that they may be protected and have a fair trial. I find it of intrigue that in chapter 21 of Joshua we see the cities of refuge were cities that were allotted to the Levites—the priests—the pastors. Is this in order that judgments against individuals might be dealt with or mitigated in a merciful way? Or could it just be that these cities were within just a short distance of everyone and thus this put the Levites within a short distance of everyone? Or maybe both? The latter would make sense in that the dispersion of all the cities the Levites received (48 total) on a map we can see the dispersion of them indicates that the rest of Israel was never far from the Levites who were responsible for the religious education of the people. God wanted Israel to remain connected to His Spiritual leaders.

Chapter 22 is a positive example on how to solve conflict. The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh did something that offended the rest of Israel. Israel was ready to go to war against them and destroy them, but before they did they sent messengers to let Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh know what they believed their grievance to be. When these tribes heard of this, they did not become defensive instead they gave explanation, a logical, and reasonable explanation at that. Such that the rest of the tribes were happy to hear the explanation and rejoiced that there would be peace.

Imagine that: We’re upset, let’s go explain why we are upset. Oh we’re sorry we didn’t mean it the way it was taken. Here is what we meant. Oh that makes sense. Well let’s not have conflict then.

Amazing how proper conflict resolution tactics can save all of us from a world of hurt!

Joshua 24 is a review of the history of Israel. We saw Moses do similar and it is done often throughout the Bible. Reviewing history is a good way of teaching truth. And I believe the reason Joshua did it and others can be summed up in the statement that Ellen White wrote,

“We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” Life Sketches p. 196,

Oh that we would remember such a truth!

Finally at the conclusion of Joshua we find one of the great verses in scripture,

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (24:15)

And with that we will close this post and the book of Joshua with one of my favorite all time songs:

There are so many things that struck me about today’s reading I am going to go chapter by chapter.

Chapter 16:

I believe 16:2c is phrased the way it is for a reason,

“And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” (italics/bold mine).

This phrase “listened to the voice” conveys more than just the meaning of hearing the words, it means to also pay attention and embrace the thought, the concept, the way of acting.

God said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife” (Gen. 3:17)

And you can find many other instances of this phrase in the Bible and it always involves an action related to or inaction in response to a specific concept/belief.

What is the “voice” or belief Abram listened to in this case?

“Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.” (16:2a).

The worst thing Abram did was not the act of sleeping with Hagar, yes this was bad, but it was the belief that lead to this wrong action that was really the sin. The belief that God could not do what He had promised He would do for Abram without the help of alternate methods, in this case Hagar. Most of our sins are not the great wrong we do, the great wrong we do is “listening to the voice” of the devil that leads to those wrong actions. We often focus on the actions, but just like in Genesis 3 God doesn’t say to Adam “because you ate the fruit from the serpent.” No the action is what happened outward, God cares about what took place inward, and so He said to Adam “Because you listened to the voice (the untruth, the doubt, the lie) or your wife” So when Genesis 16:2c tells us “And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” rather than getting caught-up in the question, “How could she even suggest this?” or “What is Abram thinking he is a fool.” The bigger lesson for us is don’t listen to the lies that ultimately lead to the illicit acts of sin.

I am slightly hesitant to make this next point but…

Ishmael for those that may not know is the Father of the people that became Islam in the Middle-East, why I am hesitant to point that out is because of the prophecy that then comes to Hagar about her unborn son,

“He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” (16:12)

The conflict in the Middle-East should not surprise us, it was prophesied. Nor should we think that man made ways are going to overrule the prophecies of God. They may bring temporal peace, which is good, but eventually the turmoil will stir again. Also I want us to understand the prophecy is stated in both ways,

• “His hand will be against everyone” = sometimes the conflict will be because of Ishmael’s offspring.
• “And everyone’s hand will be against him” = sometimes the conflict will be because of us!

We can’t blame it ALL on Islam!!!!

Chapter 17:

This is a giant testimony of grace…Abram gets what he doesn’t deserve.

• God does not give-up on Abraham even though he had doubted God and tried to “help Him out”
• God does not give-up on Abraham even when He LAUGHS at God! (17:17)

What a patient and long-suffering God we serve!

Circumcision (17:10-14)—just the thought of circumcision at the age of these individuals sends chills down the spine of every man!

I want to make a separate point about this, besides just the pain.

Of course this outward sign takes place in relation to the male reproductive organs because Abram doubted that God could give Him a baby, in this sign there is a constant reminder of this idea, “God is the creator, He is the one that ultimately gives life.”

Now I want us to think about that for a moment.

In the Garden of Eden there was an outward sign of trust in God as Creator, “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” “I the Lord have made all this and since I made this and you  trust Me to know what is best for you. But so you have choice I will put in the garden a tree. Trust your Creator, or…”

The outward sign of loyalty to God in the garden was in relation to creation.

Then came circumcision which we already saw is in relationship to physical creation, but now jump past circumcision to the outward sign of loyalty in the New Testament…

Baptism…

And what did baptism symbolize?

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:1-7)

Baptism is a symbol of rebirth or recreation.

When we are baptized we are saying more than just we accept Jesus, we are saying, “I trust that Jesus can make me knew, He can recreate me!”

Baptism is therefore us trusting The Lord to be our Creator or rather our ReCreator.

Now jump ahead to Revelation 14—

“And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7 and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.” (Revelation 14:6, 7)

There is in this end time message a direct allusion to the 4^th Commandment. Why is this significant? Because Revelation 14:12 then tells us what the outward sign will be of those that will embrace this message in the last days,

“Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12)

The outward sign is in relation to keeping the commandments of God. And what commandment was specifically referenced in Revelation 14 that would have context to Revelation 12? The 4^th Commandment, which is the commandment of what? The Sabbath Commandment, and what is the Sabbath Commandment to remind us of according to Exodus 20?

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Ex. 20:8-11)

It is to remind us of our Creator.

Throughout history God has given to His people an outward sign of an inward understanding of our trust in Him as the Creator and ReCreator.

1. The tree in the garden
2. Circumcision
3. Baptism

And in the last days the outward sign will be…

     4. The Sabbath

Chapter 18:

18:26-33 we see Abrahams negotiation with God for Sodom and Gomorrah and what struck me in this negotiation is how just a few righteous folk can impact an entire city…

They don’t in this case, but God is willing to protect (bless) the entire city just based on a few. Imagine the impact then we could have on our city if we truly walk with God?

I sometimes think about the questions I want to ask folk when I get to Heaven. In this chapter one of them is developed, “Abraham why did you stop the negotiations at 10? Why not ask, ‘but for just one Lord?’” I wonder what he will say.

Chapter 19:

This chapter actually shows us no ones heart was totally sold out for the Lord and yet the Lord shows mercy. Even as Lot needs to leave the city, “he hesitated” (19:16) but the angels took him by the hand and the wife and the daughters and dragged them out of the city. But here is what is so fascinating and again shows the power of our spiritual influence that may even safe as place of safety for some ‘till they figure out their need for the Lord,

“Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.” (19:29)

It was not Lot’s goodness that spared his life…it was Abrahams righteousness! Can I tell you this motivates me to ask Jesus to take all of my heart, not just for me, but for my children potentially someday. Not that their eternal destiny can be decided by me…each one must choose that for themselves…but maybe my life and my prayers and my appeals to God will have some protection over them if they wander close to a place they should not be.

19:26 has a very interesting phrase in it,

“But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

“From behind him” in my mind this just struck me. As spouses we need to walk together, to protect each other. “The two shall become one” this is not just for companionship, it is also for protection. The Bible could have phrased this, “But his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” In fact this is how I thought it was phrased. But no under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses, the writer of Genesis…who wasn’t there to see it so he wouldn’t know these very fine details, but he’s inspired to add, “his wife, from behind him” Lot was not being a good husband, a strong spiritual leader in his family!

Which is seen and taken to an entirely higher level in the last verses of chapter 19. Verses 30-38 I hope make all our stomachs turn, and out of this act there was forever a reminder of this despicable sin, Moab and Ammon the countries were forever a thorn in the flesh of God’s people…sin has far reaching consequences.

So those are my thoughts. Sorry this was so much longer than normal, but I was seeing things I had not seen before in these chapters and wanted to share them with y’all!

Tomorrow’s reading: Joshua 21-24

 

 

 

 

Romans chapter 9 is a very challenging chapter of scripture. With a cursory reading and without deep examination this scripture will lead many to believe as John Calvin did as John Piper does that God created some people so that He could demonstrate destruction, His wrath upon them.

I am not a Calvinist though and I would find myself more in line with what John Wesley wrote about Romans chapter 9,

“Whatever that Scripture [Romans 9] proves, it can never prove this.  Whatever its true meaning be, this cannot be its true meaning. … No Scripture can mean that God is not love, or that his mercy is not over all his works.  That is, whatever it prove beside, no Scripture can prove predestination.”  (This from his sermon “On Free Grace.”)

So what then was Paul saying?

In order to understand that we have to understand first the great objection the Jews had at this point of history,

“that the rejection of the Jews and reception of the gentiles was contrary to the word of God.”

Paul here was not dealing with “personal election” or “predestination” rather he was dealing with how God could accept the Gentiles and reject part of the nation of Israel. This was a hard concept for God’s “Chosen People.” So Romans 9 is dealing primarily with the nation of Israel.

Some may say well it sounds like an individual thing when Paul writes, “Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (9:13) This is in fact one of the primary texts used by Calvinists to show that God has chosen some people to live in heaven and some people to stoke the fires of hell. But if we use sound exegesis to allow scripture to interpret scripture we would see that the passage here Paul is quoting, Malachi 1:2, 3 underlines the truth that Paul is looking at this from a national focus (i.e. his people Israel) and not at the individual level, because in Malachi 1:2, 3 Esau represented the country of Edom and Jacob represented Israel and so Paul is restating the meaning of Malachi’s phrase, “simply that God preferred Israel over Edom to be the people he wanted to work with to reach out to the world.” This also illustrates that what Paul was addressing was an issue of service not salvation. Salvation is about belief that is the theme of Romans 10, and even Romans 11 (which is not part of our reading today) helps us to understand this, “You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.” (11:19, 20a)

God did not stop using Israel because He was predestining them to be lost, but because of their unbelief and Paul warns the Gentiles,

“for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.” (11:21) In-other-words “if you stop believing and being my witnesses in belief you will be cut off also.”

Why?

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (10:12, 13)

The election as God’s people for service is not based on anything other than faith, not works, which then makes us all individually equal.

Can I tangent for a moment. Seventh-day Adventists, you are not remnant because of the right beliefs, you are remnant if you have faith and that faith drives you to be a witness in spreading God’s end-time truth. Israel was not willing to be used by God and they thought they could save themselves through their own good works so He chose to get His message out a different way.

Romans 9 is a tough passage but if we couple it with Romans 10 which is all about salvation coming through faith not God arbitrarily choosing.

And if we understand that Paul is speaking of the national focus of Israel, not the individual Jews being rejected, then we will see that this text does not teach predestination unto salvation.

For a great exposition of this I would encourage you to read this piece by Greg Boyd, he goes into much more thorough explanation than I have here. With other extensive points of explanation regarding Romans 9.

Did this blog help? Did Boyd’s blog help? Let me know.

Happy Sabbath.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 16-19

Authority was a key theme within today’s reading. A centurion—a Roman—an unlikely source confesses the authority of Jesus; a confession Jesus praises, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” (8:10).

Then the disciples who should confess Jesus’ authority are surprised His authority is not limited, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (8:27).

The demons understand Jesus’ authority, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (8:29b) They recognize His authority as Judge.

Then the scribes deny Jesus’ authority, “And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” (9:3)

Jesus then illustrates His authority to forgive sins (9:6).

A woman bleeding understands Jesus’ authority, “If I only touch His garment I will get well.” (9:21)

Jesus then with His authority gives authority to His followers (10:1)

But Jesus reminds them that their authority is through the power of God not themselves (10:19, 20).

And those who receive the authority of Jesus’ followers receive Jesus’ authority (10:40).

Chapters 8 & 9: Jesus’ authority demonstrated. Chapter 10: how that authority is to play out in the lives of Jesus’ followers.

• Sent out to witness by healing, raising the dead, cast out demons, etc.
• Sent out to witness by the way they testify to Jesus in the face of persecution.
• Sent out to witness by proclaiming publicly & boldly what they have learned privately.

It seems to me that the evidence of us possessing the authority of Jesus is found in just that…

We are witnesses!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Romans 9 & 10

Today I struggled with what to write. So I went and read some commentaries and I want to share with you directly from a commentary by Paul Apple entitled, “Jehovah is Salvation”

I don’t know that I agree with every point, but I found it interesting. So here it is:

(Isaiah 17:1-14) Judgment on Damascus-Warning Against Forgetting God-Forgetting God dishonors Him greatly but does not cancel out His covenantal remnant program

a. (Isaiah 17:1b-3) Devastation coming for Syria and Israel
b. (Isaiah 17:4-6) Glory fading away for Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel-yet a small remnant preserved 

c. (Isaiah 17:7-8) Faith refocusing on the only true God
d. (Isaiah 17:9-11) Root sin = forgetting God and seeking security in the arm of the flesh

 (Isaiah 18:1-7) Core Salvation Message for the Gentiles (Isaiah represented here by the Ethiopians)-Transition from Woe to Worship – Stand Still and See the Salvation of the Lord and Worship Him Alone

a. (Isaiah 18:1-2) Woe-Dangerous threats can stir up a frenzy of protective activity
b. (Isaiah 18:3) Waiting-Wait for the Lord to manifest His dominion
c. (Isaiah 18:4-6) Watching-The oppressive invasions by world powers will be nipped in the bud by the Lord who reigns over all
d. (Isaiah 18:7) Worship-Submission and tribute will be gratefully offered when the Lord reigns visibly from Mount Zion

 (Isaiah 19:1-20:6) Judgment on Egypt-The Futility of Trusting in the Arm of the Flesh and the Process of Salvation-Egypt will face deserved judgment and experience undeserved blessing-but will never be a dependable source of salvation

a. (Isaiah 19:1-15) Egypt cannot save itself-human wisdom leads to ruin
b. (Isaiah 19:16-25) Egypt cannot save you because it needs salvation itself-The Process of Salvation:

1) (Isaiah 19:16-17) Conviction of Sin-starting point of the conversion process-Fear of God
2) (Isaiah 19:18) Crossroads of Decision-pledging allegiance-Salvation vs. Destruction
3) (Isaiah 19:19-22) Consummation of Salvation-leading to worship and growing knowledge
4) (Isaiah 19:23) Congregation United in Worship-reconciliation and fellowship on human plane
5) (Isaiah 19:24-25) Congregation United in Blessing-unity of saved Jews and Gentiles experiencing God’s blessings

c. (Isaiah 20:1-6) Trusting in the arm of the flesh (Egypt and Ethiopia) will be futile-always leads to bondage and humiliation and shame

 (Isaiah 21:1-10) Judgment on Babylon-The Horror of God’s Judgment-Horror strikes those who perceive the destructive consequences of trusting in the arm of the flesh

a. (Isaiah 21:1-2) Harsh vision of unrelenting attacks
b. (Isaiah 21:3-4) Horror overwhelms God’s prophet
c. (Isaiah 21:5-9) Hopes crushed by the shattering of the arm of the flesh

d. (Isaiah 21:10) Hard times lie ahead for the people of God before millennial blessing

 (Isaiah 21:11-17) The Certainty of God’s Judgment-There will be no stay of execution with respect to God’s judgment plans for the nations-regardless of how general or how precise the revelation of His timeline

(Isaiah 21:11-12) Judgment on Edom (Dumah = Silence)-How much longer? Uncertain timeline but hope will be followed by even more severe hardship

(Isaiah 21:13-17) Judgment on Arabia-Precisely one year until fleeing refugees reduced to a very small defeated remnant

(Isaiah 22:1-25) Judgment on Jerusalem-The Valley of Vision-Unbelief = The Unpardonable Sin –

Two Specific Examples of Self-Reliance:

a. (Isaiah 22:1-14) The refusal to trust in God constitutes the unpardonable sin as divine protection is removed from the self-reliant who blindly party their way to destruction
b. (Isaiah 22:15-25) Self-reliance leads to condemnation-whether the fault lies with the leader (and his presumptuous self promotion) or with the people (and their proclivity for hero worship)

Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 8-10

I want us to note something in today’s reading. Job is a righteous man, remember what we read God Himself said about Job in a previous reading,

“There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” (1:8)

Here is why that statement has such significance to me as I did today’s reading of Job 7 & 8.

Job was:

• One of a kind in the eyes of God
• Blameless
• Upright
• Fearing (respecting/reverance for) God
• Resisting and turning away from evil

And yet even with all of this Job has a distorted view of God:

“What is man that You magnify him,
And that You are concerned about him,
18 That You examine him every morning
And try him every moment?
19 “]Will You never turn Your gaze away from me,
Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
20 “Have I sinned? What have I done to You,
O watcher of men?
Why have You set me as Your target,
So that I am a burden to myself?
21 “Why then do You not pardon my transgression
And take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust;
And You will seek me, but I will not be.” -Job 7:17-21

Job sees God as the aggressor against him. Job thinks God is the one that harms people when they do wrong. Job thinks that God is punishing him for some great sin. Job thinks God is TORTURING him…yes torture, “why have you set me as Your target?”

Yes the friend in chapter 8 has the same distorted view, in fact the friend has some prosperity gospel distortion as well (8:5-7) “Job if you just make things right with God He’ll make you rich again.” Foolish…but we don’t expect more from the friends of Job.

But from a…

• One of a kind
• Blameless
• Upright
• God fearing
• Evil resisting man

…we’d expect a right view of God.

But no, Job STILL has a distorted picture and understanding of God.

So what does this teach me and maybe you?

1. Just because we’ve been walking with Jesus all our lives doesn’t mean we understand Him as well as we could or maybe should.
2. The devil’s lies about the character and wrath of God can infiltrate even the most elect.
3. Even the righteous at times blame God for their problems and that doesn’t necessarily make them unrighteous, it makes them foolish, but not unrighteous.
4. If all the above is true then why would I not daily study and inquire of God to reveal more and more of Himself to me?!?

I didn’t know what I was going to get out of Job 7 & 8 it turns out I was blessed beyond my expectations!

Thank you Holy Spirit for teaching me!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Isaiah 18-22

 

The three Psalms we read today show the up and down journey of the Christian walk. If you ever have moments of exultation one day and moments of doubt the next and then ponder if you are the only one of such highs and lows…the answer is you are not alone.

• Psalm 9:1, “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.”
• Psalm 10:1, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”
• Psalm 11:1a, “In the Lord I take refuge…”

All three of these Psalms in some way address wickedness.

• The Psalmist rejoices over the destruction of sin in Psalm 9.
• He feels alone in the midst of the sin in Psalm 10.
• He trusts in the Lord to fight the battle against sin in Psalm 11.

Sin is largely forgotten about in our modern culture. Yes we have momentary aspects of sorrow over sin, but there is not this pathos and angst against the wickedness of the world as we see in the Psalms by and large. I could say it is because we are more desensitized than David or the other writers of the Psalms, but that is more of an excuse than anything. After all David wasn’t even allowed to build the temple as he was a man with too much blood on his hands from all the wars he waged. Yet he did not delight in violence he understood that this too was due to wickedness, “And the one who loves violence His soul hates.” (11:5b)

Sin is largely forgotten about in our modern culture, maybe these Psalms can remind us of just how much the Christian heart should oppose the wickedness in this world.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 7 & 8

I hope each one of you were able to plow through the distribution of land chapters…

It was a slog, but I hope you made it to the end because chapter 20 became very interesting!

The six cities of refuges.

Six thoughts I noted as I read about these six cities:

1. They were established to spare life. The justice for bloodshed is not always further bloodshed.
2. They were established so that the person could receive a fair hearing/trial.
3. These cities were for both Israelites and refugees (strangers) in the land. Everyone was deserving of the protection of the land.
4. The city was always there but if an unintentional killing (sin) had taken place one had to go to the city to receive mercy (there is a sermon that will preach).
5. In order to remain safe you had to stay within the confines of the city (there is another sermon that will preach).
6. If the perpetrator of the act is found innocent they are to live in the city ‘till the High Priest dies then they are able to go home. Interesting that the death of the High Priest is an act of amnesty (will that also preach?

These cities so intrigued me I did a little more research—

No place in the land was more than a day’s journey from one of these cities. All six of these cities are mentioned again in the next chapter, since they also were Levitical cities. Despite their importance here and in the Pentateuch, however, they do not appear again in the Old Testament.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalm 9-11

In my devotional time today as I read through Genesis 12-15 I picked-up on an idea I had never seen before,

“Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 It came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” 14 It came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels.” (12:10-16)

Of course to our modern sensibilities this story is HIGHLY offensive. No decent man would ever put his wife in this situation. No chivalrous man would ever risk his wife’s reputation for his own life. No loving husband would willingly share his wife with another man. But can we maybe concede that this story wasn’t so offensive in Abraham’s day? Can we concede that this story wouldn’t have the shock factor in the day that Moses wrote it as it does now? Can we concede this isn’t even the most shocking story in regards to a “righteous” man and his treatment of women in the Bible? (Just wait ‘till we get to Genesis 19:4-8).

With all that those concessions verse 17 struck me like it has not before…

“But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”

I read this text not as God was punishing Pharaoh because of the potential or due to the sin he was committing with Sarai, in other words not as a consequence focused primarily on pharaoh. I read it this time as, “But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues (and then I substituted another meaning for the Hebrew word used for because) “care” of Sarai, Abram’s wife.”

In other words I saw this text suddenly condemning not just the sin but the overall treatment and view of women in that culture. Could it be that God was defending Sarai and her rights because in that culture at that time, no one else would, not even her husband?!? Can you see that? Am I off base?

So that is the largest point that struck me in my study today.

There are several other wonderful lessons, the humility of Abraham in his dealings with lot (13:9); his lack of greed in order to protect the reputation of God, “you will say I made Abram rich.” (14:23); and of course Abram’s righteousness by faith displayed in his trust in God’s promise (15:6).

Oh one other thing I just remembered as I read through my notes again written in the margins in regards to Abraham’s humility with Lot. He gave Lot the choice of the land, his desire was peace and he would trust God to take care of him with whatever land he ended-up in, and here was my thought, I wish conferences, churches would have the same attitude. Who cares who is in which territory, there are plenty of people to witness to and we shouldn’t be so territorial, we should trust God to provide the members and resources for all of us, just as Abram trusted God to bless both he and Lot! Of course one could argue well the whole point they separated was to create boundaries and avoid the fight. So maybe in a town of 500 we need to decide on one church but in a county of 1 million we should probably trust there is room enough for all of us to intermingle.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Joshua 16-20

Just in case you are wondering, the snow has begun!

In today’s posting I want to focus solely on the first 6 verses of chapter 7.

“The law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he (she) lives.” (7:1)

You and I are obligated to keep the law perfectly until we die. The law is a contract with humanity only nullified through the power of death. There is no other way out. Now there are luckily two ways to die, there is the death that all humanity will experience if Jesus does not come in our lifetime, the physical death at this point we are no longer obligated to keep the law because we can’t…we’re dead. Now if you live your entire life in this type of relationship to the law you will die a guilt ridden, miserable, desperate person. Luckily though there is another death that gives us a way out of the demands of the law. The death of self…many Christians call it “being born again.” In order to be “born again” you have to “die to self” if you’ve never been in a church this is all very churchy language. The basic point is this, inside of all humanity is sin, the root of sin is selfishness or self love, or self absorption. The only way to get rid of self is to allow someone else to be in control, for the Christian this someone else is God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit; when we give control of our lives to Jesus then this is what Christian are referring to when they say “I must die to self.” This means when I want to lust I remember that Jesus tells me to lust in my heart is to commit adultery and therefore rather than doing what I want I ask Jesus to give me the power not to lust. When I want to get revenge against someone, I remember that the inspired scriptures said, “do not seek revenge” and therefore rather than doing what I want I ask Jesus to give me the strength to not seek revenge. Really we could use any example. I’m dying to self because rather than doing what “I want” or what my sinful nature wants (see 7:15-24) I allow Jesus to do what He wants in me. Well the law condemns all those things “I want to naturally do” and so I am constantly failing at keeping the law perfectly. But when I surrender to Jesus, I through His power keep the law. Not because I have to but because I want to.

Which is where verses 2 & 3 come in of chapter 7—

“For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”

Here is how I read this Paul is telling us before Jesus we are married to the law and being married to the law is like being married to a spouse that no matter how hard we try we find we are never quite good enough! We aren’t clean enough, pretty enough, loving enough. Eventually we are going through the motion of marriage not out of a “right” spirit but because that is simply what we must do. But then there is a death and we meet someone else and we marry this someone else and we discover that where we come up short which seems to be everywhere this spouse “helps us out” they don’t condemn (Romans 8:1) because we are ONE with them. We now strive to keep the law not out of obligation to try and be good enough, but because we are in love. (7:5, 6)

But maybe the greatest verse of all in these first 6 is verse 4,

“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”

This verse tells me that I deserve that I was made to have the “great” marriage with Jesus! It’s not something I earn, it is something I was made for!

I am glad to be married to Jesus. I want to be a law keeper. I want to obey. I want to be perfect. Not unto salvation but because of my salvation, my new life, my new love, my perfect love in Him!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 12-15

With a huge snow storm bearing down on today and tomorrow might be the last two posts you read on here for a few days…I’ll still be writing, but one of the latest maps I saw on www.weather.com showed the areas that were LIKELY to lose power. Guess what? My house is right in the heart of that area, so if the power goes out and I’m stuck in my house I won’t have a way of posting my writings. If that happens you’ll have several to read in one day sometime next week. Please pray for our area, people seem to panic with the prediction of snow…yesterday we got an inch and the reports were about how snarled traffic was. Having lived in Ohio, Nebraska, and Michigan I’m slightly amused by this, but I know it is truly stressful for folk and so please pray that everyone remains safe and calm.

Now to Matthew 5-7…WOW! I can read these chapters a thousand times and they are ALWAYS a blessing. These chapters of course are Jesus’ most famous discourse while He walked this earth, the Sermon on the Mount. I could spend a whole week easily just blogging through these chapters, but for my sake and yours I am going to limit myself to four points to share with you about what struck me in my reading today.

1. 5:13-16 is about being witnesses and then without breaking stride Jesus moves straight into upholding the law of God. The thought occurred to me, while we don’t keep the law for the salvation of ourselves, do we keep the law in part to encourage the salvation of others. Is law keeping a way of salting the earth? Is law keeping a way of being a light to the world? Of course the answer is “Yes” but it is so very clear in these verses that to be a true witness of Jesus we need to keep and affirm His commandments, and if we “annul one of the least of these commandments” and by thus doing we are “teaching others to do the same” we are not true salt or light for Jesus.
2. One of the most neglected Christian practices, seeking forgiveness when you’ve done nothing wrong (5:23, 24). Jesus instructs Christians, “if your brother (another believer) has something against you…” Jesus doesn’t say, “If you’ve done something” or “If you injured someone” The only qualification is that they have something against me. We have forgotten how to seek forgiveness even when we’ve done nothing wrong. Jesus in this instruction shows me that the “relationship” between me and my fellow man trumps being right. The relationship is everything.
3. I used to hold grudges. I used to have jealousy in my heart. I used to have enemies, Christina used to say all the time, “be nice” or she’d ask, “Why don’t you like that person?” and I’d say, “I just don’t.” I am not claiming any kind of perfection. I still get mad and people still irritate me, but Jesus through the idea and concept of 5:45-47 has helped me to let slights and grudges, jealousies and malice go with greater ease than when I was young. “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Jesus then ends this thought with the following statement in verse 48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What is perfection? Loving and treating those well that don’t treat you well. When it dawned on me that I couldn’t be a Christian and have so many enemies because those very enemies I was trying to curse by my attitude towards them Jesus is continually blessing just like He’s blessing me. In other words if I’m holding a grudge, having an attitude against, saying things about I am actually working against the very blessings of God. I don’t ever want to be working against God. So I stopped holding grudges, being jealous, having malice towards another and guess what? Not only do I treat people better, I’m actually much happier in my heart! It takes a lot out of us to work against the blessings of God. So be perfect love the people you don’t currently love!
4. 7:24-27 Two groups of people, only two—those who hear the words of Jesus and act (respond by doing what the words tell us to do & those who hear the words of Jesus and do not act. Folk we are reading the Bible through this entire year, but we’re still in the foolish/lost group if the reading and studying and learning does not lead us to ACT in response for Jesus!

Four points from today’s reading, we could have had 40 points! What were some of yours?

Tomorrow’s Reading: Romans 7-8

Greetings from the London Heathrow Airport…

Today’s reading is Isaiah 12-17

Right in the midst of this reading is one of the most illuminating passages on the character of Satan and what is his ultimate end.

“They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we,
You have become like us.
11 ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’
12 “How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.                                                                                                                                                      16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,
They will ponder over you, saying,
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,” –Isaiah 14:10-16

Verses 10-12 seem to be parallel to verses 15 & 16.

These five verses speak of a humiliating result which is in great contrast to the desire and focus of satan’s heart which are seen in verses 13-14.

Notice in just those 2 verses (13 & 14) all the times the pro-noun “I” is read…

Five times in the NASB! Five times!

Notice too where all sin originates…we can be tempted by outward issues, but ultimately sin will result when something happens in our heart, just as it happened in satan’s heart, “You have said in your heart…” (14:13)

Here is the ultimate reality of sin folk. It starts in our heart w/ “I will…” and always ends with “you will be thrust down.”

Sin has NO UP value! None!

See you back in the States!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 5-7

 

 

I share one point with you from today’s reading that just moved my heart. Job has a wrong conception about what is taking place in his life,

“For the arrows of the Almighty are within me…the terrors of God are arrayed against me.” (6:4a/c)

He sees this all as an attack from God.

Which then is what makes Job’s faith even more amazing,

“But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” (6:10)

In spite of all his suffering and pain he remains steadfast and true.

One other thing I like even though Job sees this as an attack of God against him, he won’t accept that it is due to some evil in his life and he won’t allow his friends to say such either,

“Now please look at me, and see if I lie to your face. Desist now, let there be no injustice; (the injustice is the way his friends are accusing him) Even desist, my righteousness is yet in it.” (6:29)

A quick post tonight. We’ll see you tomorrow…I’m going to bed…can’t wait to get home tomorrow! It has been a blessing to learn some things here in Croatia and to be a part of the discussion regarding one of the most important justice issues of our time, caring for the Syrian Refugees but to hug and kiss my wife and kids will be a sweet blessing!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Isaiah 12-17

Since this endeavor to blog the through entire Bible in 2016 is in a part a personal journal then I should be honest. Should I not? And if I am being honest I will tell you there are days I read and there is not a great deal that resonates within me. There is always some nugget, but not always the big “aha” moments. I have to be honest this mornings reading through Psalm 6-8 was one of those days. In fact I’ll share another little insight into me, while some peoples favorite portion of scripture are the Psalms, for me they are not typically what stirs my soul. Maybe because I am not a musician? Maybe because I learn best with story? I am not sure why. I could try to force something, I know how to do that, I am after all a preacher and unfortunately we are able to do that, but I want this blog to be an honest reflection of my daily devotion. So with honesty I only have two things that I wrote in my Bible with today’s reading, and here they are…

“Return, O Lord, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness.” -Psalm 6:4

I wrote in my margin,

“Always remember! Not my merit, but the lovingkindness of God that saves me.”

I am like all the rest of Christianity I struggle with trying to work my way into God’s good graces and because of this I believe God always helps me to see the reminders in scripture that point out that flawed thinking.

The second item I wrote in the margins was next to the Psalm 8 which begins with,

“O Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth.” -Psalm 8:1 (anyone else start singing the Sandi Patty Song?)

And when I read the 8th Psalm I thought of the Ten Days of Prayer that our church just completed. Every night we would start with praise to God and while we tried…I wrote in my margin,

“I wish we (Adventists/North America/Me personally) knew how to praise God in this way.”

Those are my thoughts this morning. Maybe some of you resonate more with the Psalms, I would LOVE to hear from y’all!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 5 & 6

Greetings from Croatia, I am for a few days as a part of an ADRA European Refugee Summit. What do I have to do with refugees in Europe? Well I happened to preach a message on this topic on a Sabbath the Director of ADRA, Jonathan Duffy was sitting in the congregation, and one thing lead to another and here I am to present that same message to this crowd. I do this tomorrow morning and so I covet your prayers.

And now to our continued journey through the Bible in 2016. Today’s reading is Joshua chapters 11-15.

Once again in the first few chapters of this reading we see an abundance of war. If you have not already I would encourage you to go to my last post on Joshua here to read my thoughts in how I relate to all this blood shed.

Honestly these chapters are mainly war records, 31 kings conquered. And inheritance records, etc..

There were however a couple points/lessons that caught my eye.

First it is mentioned several times within this reading,

“Only the tribe of Levi he did not give an inheritance…”

Why?

“the offerings by fire to the Lord, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, as He spoke to Him.” (13:14 also see 13:44)

This laid the foundation for Paul’s statement in regards to those who are working in ministry (1 Corinthians 9:3-18) that they aught to make their living through what is “collected” as a result of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:14) i.e. the generosity of the people. I like this system and I am grateful to God for it, I am not to get rich off an inheritance but simply to trust in the Body of Christ, His church, to sustain me and my family.

Second, in chapters 14 and 15 Caleb son of Nun is mentioned several times. In chapter 15 verses 13 to 16 even though it just looks like a general record of inheritance, that his inheritance is singled out and several lines are dedicated to what he did with that inheritance without saying it shows the value of this man! If you don’t know why he is held in such high-esteem? Well 14: 7, 8, 14 gives reference to it, but the full story is in Numbers 13 & 14. We’ll read about it sometime this summer in our reading plan, but you may want to read it now to understand the significance of this focus in Joshua 14 & 15.

Let us all be Caleb’s,

“He followed the Lord God of Israel fully.” (14:8, 14)

Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalm 6-8

I pray each of you have had a wonderful Sabbath! I am writing to you as I prepare to make a quick trip to Croatia. In fact by the time most of you read this I will be somewhere over the Atlantic. Please keep me in your prayers…I believe I have Internet where I am staying and so I will still be writing so please keep reading!

Some points from the reading that caught my attention:

Meat eating doesn’t begin until after the flood, this should maybe tell us something about meat eating…though it is not a sin to eat meat, it was not one of God’s original plans and did not come into being until it was absolutely necessary due to sin.

We discover the God’s intended meaning for the rainbow in today’s reading,

“I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.  It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (9:11-15)

This is what God thinks of when He sees the rainbow.

In chapter 11 we read of the root of sin…SELF…

“They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (11:4)

Then The Lord comes down from heaven and does something VERY gracious!

He confuses the languages of humanity!

Why is this gracious?

“The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (11:6)

God wasn’t worried about the good things they could do as one people with one language. God knew that if “nothing would be impossible for humanity” we’d ultimately destroy each other and our own selves with the “anything” that would lead to evil.

So God confusing the languages protected us from ourselves.

What seems harsh is actually an act of grace!

All our physical roots are in Babel (11:9), unfortunately the roots of Babel’s sin is in all of us as well. So I thank God by my language that may be different from yours, I am reminded of God doing anything necessary to try and save me and you from our own sin.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Joshua 11-15

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (5:1)

One of the evidences of justification is “peace with God” which in the Greek this word means, “the peace of Christianity, the tranquil state of an individual assured of their salvation through Christ,”

The fact that I’ve met so many that are unsure of their salvation leads me to believe that many don’t understand “justification.”

So how do we receive justification so that we can have peace, assurance of salvation?

Here are texts to help you understand what YOU must do for the work of justification…

1. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (5:6)
2. “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (5:8)
3. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (5:10)
4. “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.” (5:18)
5. “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” (5:19)

Do you see what YOU must do for justification? NOTHING! It is a divine act done on our behalf…solely and completely.

I want to point something out, verse 18 reads

“even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to ALL men,”

but then verse 19 reads,

“so through the obedience of the One the MANY will be made righteous.”

Why is one verse “ALL” & the other is “MANY”?

It is because some will not accept the work of justification that has already been done for them on their behalf. They’ll reject what already has been done for “all” thus making it that only “many” will be made righteous.

I read this in a CNN/Money article this week,

“Roughly 114 lottery prizes worth $1 million or more went unclaimed in 2015.”

There are 114 millionaires out there that don’t know it because they never went and accepted the prize.

There are millions of justified out there that don’t know it because they never have gone to Jesus to accept the “prize.” How very sad for both groups, but especially the unknowingly justified.

Chapter 5 is justification (to be made right). Chapter 6 is sanctification (to be made holy/pure).

“Should we keep sinning?” is the question asked twice in this chapter. Paul’s answer, “May it never be!”

And again many think sanctification is their own personal work to do, after all the Bible does say,

“ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (6:12-14)

Based on this text sanctification seems like a very hard work I must do…but praise God Paul already gave us the answer…or showed us the way of sanctification early in the chapter.

“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,” (6:3-5)

Did you catch that? That text to me is saying, the same power that raised Jesus back to life out of the physical grave is the power that will raise me out of my sins, the power that will make me pure and holy.

Again all sanctification depends on from me and you is submitting to allow God to do this work on our behalf.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (6:23)

It is a free gift. But a free gift must still be received and still be opened to have any value.

Those are my thoughts for today. I pray each of us will receive the prize of justification that was already completed for each of us at the cross, and that then we’ll open the gift of sanctification which is done through the life giving power that brought Jesus out of the grave and into eternal life.

Oh and by the way…notice Paul puts justification ahead of sanctification (chapter 5/chapter 6)…I receive the assurance of salvation and then I say, “Lord have Your way in me…make me clean!”

Don’t get the cart before the horse!

Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 8-11

 

 

 

 

The messages of both John (3:2) & Jesus (4:17) include appeals for repentance. There is NO WAY around it the true call and the true response to following Jesus includes repentance, which means sorrow over sin (internal change) and living differently (external change).

John wasn’t against baptizing the Pharisees and Sadducees, he was against them getting baptized because it was the “in thing” to do (3:7, 9) When I got baptized as an 8^th grader I only did it because that is what everyone did. That is wrong and it seems that is what John is implying these two groups are doing and John wants it clear, you get baptized your life must change, your life must bear fruit.

The three temptations of Jesus are always very fascinating to me here is my take on the three:

1. The temptation to satisfy our physical needs (4:3)
2. The temptation to satisfy our pride (4:5).
3. The temptation to take the short cut and avoid the hard work (4:8).

The last temptation I see differently than I used to. I used to think this temptation was about giving Jesus power. But Jesus was going to get the power one way or the other. I now see this temptation as Satan trying to get Jesus to avoid the hard work, to take the easy way out, to avoid living the sacrificial life to get what was already rightfully His.

I think Satan tempts many of us in this same way. Heaven and eternal life have been promised to us and Satan tries to tell us, “You can get there without having to really make this sacrifice or that sacrifice.” “God doesn’t really expect you help there or serve here.” NONSENSE! Jesus took the long view and not the easy route and I’m glad He did because now as I take the long view I can get the Promised Land too.

One of those long view journeys Jesus calls us to participate in is to be fishers of men (4:19).

Witnessing to my neighbor, my co-worker, strangers is the natural outflow of truly following Jesus!

And my last thought: In some parts of the world we embrace the ministry of supernatural healing in our church, we need to embrace it more in the North American Division of the Church. Why? Because it was a MAJOR component of Jesus’ ministry (4:23, 24) oh and Ellen White’s too, how many times was she miraculously healed? Many!

Those are my thoughts on Matthew 3 & 4

Tomorrow’s Reading: Romans 5 & 6

There is much to learn and much to write about from these five chapters of Isaiah. If you have the time it would be good to read Isaiah with a good commentary next to you. It will help with the history and the symbolism that will then help with gaining even deeper blessings. But for the purposes of this blog and to strive for brevity I will share just a couple of thoughts I had as I read.

First of all did you notice all the rich prophecies pointing to Jesus, 6:14; 9:6, 7; 11:1-5 just to name a few.

I really love what I see as the faith of Ahaz in chapter seven. In 7:10 & 11 The Lord tells Ahaz to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses to ask for one. At first I thought, “well he’s in trouble now, but then just one verse after his refusal he tells us of the sign of Jesus. So I went back and read from the beginning of chapter seven again down through verse 16, and I saw it…

In Isaiah 7:4, 5, 7 God makes a promise to Ahaz,

“Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands…Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has planned evil against you…It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.”

This is why Ahaz didn’t need a sign, God had already made a promise and Ahaz trusted God at His word. Just a quick question I put before myself maybe you could ask the same, “In God’s words there are so many promises, do I trust those or do I still ask God to sometimes “prove” Himself?”

In 8:19 there is the question is asked,

“Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?”

And I wrote in my Bible, “Wouldn’t this include people praying to the saints?” –Just a thought…

 

I love the promise/prophecy of the Gospel expansion in 9:1-7! And I prayed for the United States and for the DC/Baltimore Suburbs that it would be true for us that “There will be no end to the increase of His government of the peace.” Jesus keep this promise in our land too! No end to the increase!

10:1, 2 is an indictment to the greed of history…including today!

I am fascinated by the concept of remnant and so I really appreciated 10:20-22. One of the descriptors of remnant here are people that “truly rely on the Lord.” And there is also this warning, “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, ONLY a remnant within them will return.” Here it is clear it doesn’t matter what group is associated with the truth or the Biblically stated people with the remnant truth, some of those folk still won’t be remnant. We must rely upon the Lord truly!

There is more remnant info in chapter 11, some fascinating stuff.

But I will end my comments for now and encourage all of us to “TRULY rely on the Lord” this day and every day from this point forward.

Tomorrow’s Reading: Matthew 3 & 4