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Isaiah

Good news

Isaiah

We live in a world where it seems that most of the news is bad.  Earthquakes, crime, political corruption, the list goes on and on and on.  It’s pretty easy to get depressed.

But when Jesus came, he spoke the words Isaiah wrote here, saying,

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  (Isaiah 61:1-2)

Good news.  Isn’t that something that we all need?  Isn’t it something that this whole world needs? 

So many are living with hearts that are broken.  So many are captive to sin, living in darkness with no hope.  But Jesus came to set people free from all that.

He came to comfort those who mourn and bring them joy.

He came to fill their hearts and mouths with praise, rather than despair.

To take them from the ashes of their lives and crown them with beauty, to plant them as oaks of righteousness that can stand through the storms of life, and for His glory. (2-3)

To rebuild the ruins of their lives, and restore the parts of their lives that have been devastated. (4)

To make them his priests and ministers before him.  (6)

To take away their shame and disgrace, and give them a lasting inheritance that will not corrupt or fade over time. (7)

To clothe us with garments of his salvation and robes of righteousness, justifying us by the blood of Jesus, and sanctifying us by his Spirit.  (10)

Good news?  That’s great news! 

So as Christmas starts to draw near, let us share its true meaning with the people around us and the life that Christ himself offers them so that they may receive what we already have.

As Isaiah said in chapter 52 verse 7,

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation.

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Isaiah

Reflecting the light of God

Isaiah

I love the first 3 verses of this chapter.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 

See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.  

As I read this, I kind of wonder, what does it mean by “your light” and “your dawn?” 

It says in verse 1, “your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” 

So does that mean that the nations will come to the Lord who is our light?  Or does it mean that they will come to the light that we shine?

I would guess that’s it’s actually both.  That as the Lord shines upon us and through us, people will be attracted to him through us. 

This world is surrounded by evil and sin, and so people are left groping in the dark, without hope and without God in the world, as Ephesians puts it. (2:12) 

But when Jesus came, he was a light in the darkness, a beacon of hope.  And now he has put that beacon of hope into our lives, and he calls us to reach out with the light we’ve received and reflect it to the world around us.

It would be so easy to just bask in our own joy, and the salvation and redemption that we’ve received. 

But God calls us to shine our lights brightly that others may come to know the same joy that we have. 

As Jesus said,

You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)

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Isaiah

A God far away?

Isaiah

Sometimes people complain, “Where is God in this world?  I sure can’t see him.  All I see is all the evil that’s here.”

Actually, God is here.  But the evil that dwells within us makes it difficult for us to see God.  Isaiah says here in verse 1-2,

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2)

Do you want to see God in this world?  Then you need to make sure that your sins are forgiven and that your heart has been made pure. 

Jesus said,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  (Matthew 5:8)

God is so pure that he cannot look upon sin.  And because of that, our sins, if they are not dealt with, will separate us from him.

But instead of dealing with the sin in their lives, people often just make excuses.  As Isaiah wrote,

They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.  (Isaiah 59:4)

And so instead of turning from their sin,

Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. 

Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. 

The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. 

They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace. 

So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.  We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. 

Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes.  At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.　(7－10）

When we look at this world, how often do we see this?  People calling what is evil good.  Celebrating when things that God condemns becomes accepted among the majority. 

And so we end up groping in the darkness, wondering why this world is falling apart, all the while blind to the fact that it’s because we’re embracing evil instead of the One who is good. 

As a result, things continue to spiral down at a rapid pace.

But God did not leave us to die in our sins.

The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. 

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. 

He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head. (Isaiah 59:15-17)

Jesus came 2000 years ago to die for our sins that we might be forgiven and set free from our sin.  All we have to do is to turn to him.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is  that if we don’t turn to him, we will face judgment.

According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes.  (18)

So don’t wait.  The day of salvation is now.  Turn to him while you still can.

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Isaiah

Empty religion

Isaiah

One thing that God is not impressed with is empty religion.  We saw that in Micah 6, and we also see it here.

Here the Israelites complained to God,

‘Why have we fasted, and you have not seen it?  Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’  (Isaiah 58:3)

And if you had looked merely at their outward appearances, you’d might have thought that they had a case.  After all,

day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. 

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. (Isaiah 58:2)

But God doesn’t just look on at our times of prayer, fasting and the other religious rituals we do.  He looks at our whole life. 

And he told the Israelites,

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.  Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?  Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? 

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  (3-7)

In other words, God says, “In those moments you are praying and fasting, you seem so spiritual.  But those things are meaningless if the rest of the time you’re living for yourself. 

There are so many people hurting around you, and yet you ignore them.  As long as you live this way, your fasting and prayers mean nothing to me. 

But if you reach out to the people around you,

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I…

Your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. 

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  (8-11)

For many people, they are “Sunday Christians.” 

They show up for church on Sunday, but live for themselves the rest of the week.  The Israelites treated the Sabbath the same way.  Even on the Sabbath, they did their own thing. 

So God told them,

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,  then you will find your joy in the Lord.  (13-14)

That’s how we should treat our Sundays.  Not just as another day to live for ourselves.  But as a day to honor to God.

How about you?  Is your religion empty?  Or is your life filled with your love for God and for others. 

God isn’t so interested in your religion, as he is in your love for him and the people around you.

What kind of religion do you have?

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Isaiah

The road to peace

Isaiah

After a serious tongue-lashing on those who persisted in their rebellion against him, God here shows his mercy to those who humbled themselves before him.

He said,

“Build up, build up, prepare the road!  Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”  (Isaiah 57:14)

Here God seems to be predicting the return of Israel from exile in Babylon.  And he says “Prepare the road for their return.  Remove the things that would hinder them.” 

God would eventually pave the road for their return, turning the heart of Cyrus so that he would allow Israel to return to their own land.

But God could also be talking here about removing the spiritual obstacles that would keep his people from returning to him.  And as with Israel’s return from exile, the removal of obstacles was done by God himself. 

He didn’t wait for us to become righteous.  Rather, he sent his Son to die for our sins that we could be forgiven.

What is our part?  To repent of our sins and humble ourselves before him.  To those who do, God says,

I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. 

I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me – the breath of man that I have created. 

I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. 

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. 

Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the Lord.  “And I will heal them.”  (Isaiah 57:15-19)

“I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry.” 

I love these words.  So many times, people live in fear of God, thinking that he’s just waiting to zap us for every sin we commit. 

But if we humble ourselves before him, he is quick to forgive.  He will guide us in the path of righteousness, comfort us in our brokenness, and heal our wounds. 

The result?  Peace.

But as I mentioned in my last blog, so many people don’t have peace in their lives because although they see the fruitlessness of their ways, they persist in doing things their own way. 

They harden their hearts toward God, and refuse to repent. 

God says of them,

But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.  “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”  (20-21)

How about you?  Do you have peace in your life?  Do you have the peace that comes from knowing that God has forgiven your sins?  That he is no longer angry at you?

And do you know the peace of God that comes from humbling yourself before him, with a repentant heart.  With a heart that lets go of “my way,” and clings to his. 

That’s where the road to peace lies.

What path are you on?

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Isaiah

Clinging to what is hopeless

Isaiah

A friend recently asked me, “Why does Satan keep on fighting?  He knows he’s lost.  Why doesn’t he give up?” 

Other people have put the question another way, “Why doesn’t Satan repent?  Can he repent?”

They are interesting questions, but ones for which I have no real answers.

It would seem logical that Satan could repent if he wanted to.  I’m no theologian, but my guess is that while he could, he won’t.  His heart is too hardened against God and has been for eons.

We see this kind of attitude not only in Satan, however, but in humans as well. 

We certainly see it in this passage. 

The Israelites had turned their backs on God, and as a result, they were in exile. (Isaiah speaks of this event as if it had already happened). 

But despite seeing the fruitlessness of worshiping false idols, the people refused to repent.

Isaiah says of them,

You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say,  ‘It is hopeless.’ 

You found renewal of strength, and so you did not faint. 

Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have been false to me, and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your heart?  (Isaiah 57:10-11)

Verse 10 is almost a twisted version of Isaiah 40:29-31 where God says that he will renew the strength of those who wait on him, that they should not grow weary or faint. 

But in this case, though the people were wearied by their own sins, and saw the hopelessness of their situation, still they would not give up on their rebellion against God. 

Instead, they “found renewal of strength” in themselves, clinging to their sins.  But in the end, their sin would destroy them.

How about you? Are you clinging to your own ways even though you see it’s hopeless to do so.  

Don’t be hard hearted as the Israelites were.  Give up on doing things your way, and start doing things his. 

Your way will lead to destruction.  But God’s way will lead to life.

Which will you choose?

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Isaiah

Why the righteous perish

Isaiah

A year ago at this time, I was standing vigil over my dad in his final days and hours here on earth.  It was a day I had been prepared for, for the previous ten years, actually. 

My dad’s heart was weak, he had had multiple bypasses and near heart-attacks.  He also had diabetes and other health problems. 

It’s almost miraculous to me that he lived as long as he did.

What I didn’t expect is that I would be there when he died.  Living in Japan, I had always expected that I’d get a call one day saying that my dad had passed on.

But in God’s timing and provision, I got to be there in his last days.  It don’t know that it made things any less painful.  In some ways, it made things more painful.  But I’m glad I was there.

Sometimes people wonder why we have to die.  Why we can’t just live forever here on earth.  But here, God provides the answer. 

He said,

The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. 

Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.  (Isaiah 57:1-2)

The truth is, this world is dying.  It’s been corrupted by sin.  Not only do we see things like earthquakes or other natural disasters, we also see disease, and people who have been corrupted and broken by sin. 

In this state, do we really want to live forever?  I don’t.

I certainly didn’t want to see my dad live forever in the state he was living.  I’m glad he was taken away. 

Not that I don’t miss him.  I do.  But he’s in a much better place now. 

His body that was broken down and dying, will be renewed.  And for now, he has peace.  He has rest. 

More, he’s face to face with our Savior right now.  In some ways, I really envy him.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not in a hurry to leave this planet.  But there are many things I won’t miss either.  And in God’s timing, whenever it is, I’ll be ready to go. 

I liked what someone said about what they wanted written on their tombstone.  I wouldn’t mind it being written on mine.

“Don’t mourn for me.  Bruce is not here.”

Death truly has no sting for those who put their faith in God.

How about you?  Are you ready?

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Isaiah

What God calls a bad leader

Isaiah

All of us have known people that were bad leaders.  People who should never have been put in that position.  And unfortunately, Israel had their share of bad leaders as well.

In this passage, God calls these leaders out, saying,

Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. 

They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. 

They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. 

“Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine!  Let us drink our fill of beer!  And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.”  (Isaiah 56:9-12)

What’s a bad leader?

They are blind. 

They can’t see what’s going on around them.  They can’t see the needs of the people around them.  And they can’t see the trouble that is lying ahead.  When it comes, they are totally caught by surprise.

They lack knowledge and understanding. 

How many times have you met leaders who don’t know what they’re doing?  Or who show no wisdom in the things they do? 

They may try to do what’s right, but they’ve never sought or obtained the knowledge and wisdom they need to lead.  And so time and again, they make foolish decisions in their lives.

They are mute when trouble comes. 

When they see trouble coming, they don’t sound the alarm.  They take no action to deal with the problem.  Instead, they just ignore it, hoping in vain that things get better.

They’re lazy, living only for themselves. 

Instead of serving others, they expect others to serve them.  Instead of looking out for others’ needs, they simply look out for their own.  And though they are well-fed and satisfied, those under them go hungry.

It’s easy to criticize the leaders in our lives, but how about you?  What kind of leader are you?  To your family?  To your children?  At your work?  In your church?  To the people who look up to you?

Are you a good leader?  What would God say to you?

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Isaiah

Salvation without discrimination

Isaiah

One thing about the temple worship in the Old Testament was that it was very exclusive.

You notice this a lot in the books of Moses. The most obvious example of this is that only the priests could enter the Holy Place in the temple, and only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and that once a year.

But there were other rules as well. Even among the priests, if they had damaged testicles or had any kind of physical defect, they could not enter the Holy Place or Most Holy Place. (Leviticus 21:16–24)

Also, if you look at temple worship throughout the Old and New Testament, you see that there were areas foreigners couldn’t enter and places where women couldn’t enter as well.

But here God says that those distinctions would be done away with. He said,

Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”

And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:3–7)

In other words, it doesn’t matter who you are. If you will seek after God, he will accept you. You are not a second-class citizen in his eyes.

Whether you’re a Jew, or American, or Japanese, or whoever you may be, God accepts you as his beloved child.

Paul put it this way,

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26–28)

Do you feel like a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God? Always remember that no matter who you are, or what you’ve done, you’re never second-class in God’s eyes.

His grace extends to all regardless of race, sex, or circumstances. Let us rest each day in that knowledge.

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Isaiah

A life that really satisfies

Isaiah

There’s an old rock song that goes, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

And for many people, that’s their complaint as they go through life. They “try and try and try,” but nothing satisfies them. Everything they pursue in life ultimately leaves them empty.

But it’s not a new phenomenon. From the beginning of time, people have been vainly pursuing satisfaction in their lives, even in Isaiah’s day.

And so God told the people,

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. (Isaiah 55:1–3)

So many people will spend money on food, drink, and possessions, working murderous hours just to have enough to buy the things they want, thinking it will bring them satisfaction.

But here God says, “You’re wasting your money. You’re spending your time and money trying to get things that will never bring you satisfaction in life. But if you’ll listen to me, and take what I offer, you will find true satisfaction. And true life.”

Where is true satisfaction in life found? Isaiah answers,

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (6–7)

In other words, the one thing we need to pursue in life above all else is the Giver of life. Pursue God.

Turn away from your own ways, and repent of your sins. And when you do, not only will you find forgiveness, but you’ll find life.

So many people pursue their own way in life because they think it’ll bring them happiness. They want nothing to do with God’s way, because they think that it’ll only drag them down. That God is trying to take away the good things in life from them.

But God says,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:8–12)

What is God saying here? He’s saying, “You think that your thoughts and your ways are best. But my thoughts and my ways are much higher than yours. I can see and understand things you can’t.

And just as rain and snow water the earth making it bud and flourish, blessing those who live on it, so my word will accomplish what I desire in your life and the purpose I created you for.

All you have to do is to trust me and obey. When you do, not only will you be blessed, but so will everyone around you.”

What’s the end result of this kind of life? A life filled with joy and peace. A life that is truly satisfied.

How are you living? Are you pursuing things that are leaving you empty? You don’t have to. You can have true satisfaction in your life.

But true satisfaction will only come when you set aside your own agenda and your own pride, humble yourself, and say, “God I trust you. I choose to pursue you each and every day. And I will learn to do things your way as you teach and guide me.”

When you do so, you’ll find joy in your marriage, your relationships, your job, and your life.

What will you choose?

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Isaiah

Reconciliation

Isaiah

Many times in scripture, God pictures himself as a husband pursuing his wayward wife.

That’s pretty amazing to me. I can’t imagine what I’d do if my wife were unfaithful to me. If she were always pursuing other men in her life.

But that’s exactly what God did with Israel. Though they continually chased after other gods, God continued to chase after his people.

And here he promises blessing upon them. Though the Israelites were to be in exile, though they were like a childless woman rejected by her husband (a great shame in the Jewish culture), nevertheless, God would reconcile them to himself.

He told them,

For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name – the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.

The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit – a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God.

“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:5–8)

And then he said,

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (10)

We live in a world where love is easily shaken. Where it can crumble in a moment. Where husbands leave their wives, and wives their husbands.

But God promises that his love for us will never be shaken. No matter what we do, or how far we fall, his love for us will never be removed from us.

Not only that, but in times of trouble, he will defend us. He says in verse 17,

No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.

Are you feeling deserted by God? That he has abandoned you because of your sin and failings. God still pursues you. His love for you is unfailing. All you have to do is to turn to him.

So let us leave behind the past. Let us no longer simply stand within the ruins of our sin. Rather,

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. (2)

In other words, having been reconciled to him through Jesus Christ, let us live life to the fullest, knowing that God has something good in store for us.

And let us live each day, trusting him, and resting in his unshakable love.

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Isaiah

Why Jesus came

Isaiah

As I write this, Christmas is about 6 or 7 weeks away. It’s so amazing how the time just flies by. It doesn’t seem so long ago that I took our Christmas tree down.

But as Christmas draws near and we think about Jesus’ birth, it’s equally important to think about his death.

And here in Isaiah 52–53 we see a mini-biography of his life and death, hundreds of years before he was born.

What do we learn of him?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

If I had been God, I would’ve probably had him born of a noble family. Probably a king. And I would’ve made him the most handsome and majestic person you had ever seen.

But instead, Jesus was like a root out of dry ground. He was born to a simple, poor carpenter.

And according to Isaiah, he was a simple looking man. Nothing outstanding at all in the way that he looked. He looked like any other man you might see on the street.

The women around him certainly weren’t flocking to him based on his looks.

Not only that, he was a man familiar with rejection. It says in verse 53:3,

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

Sometimes we wonder if Jesus could identify with us. Many of us are not so handsome or beautiful. Many of us have known rejection. Yet Jesus understands us, because he was like us in every way.

Not only could Jesus identify with us, he also loved us deeply. Though we rejected him, though we “considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted,” yet

he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

It wasn’t even as if we were seeking a relationship with him. We were running as far away from him as we could.

As it says in 53:6,

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6)

Yet even so,

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (53:6b)

It’s almost unimaginable. Though we rejected him, though we ran from him, he was willing to suffer unspeakable pain in order to take the punishment for our sins.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away… Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness. (Isaiah 53:7–8, Isaiah 52:14)

And then on the cross,

he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken…

he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:8, 12)

After that,

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:9)

But that isn’t the end of the story, for

though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10–11)

In other words, death would not keep hold of him. He would see the “light of life” and live again, his days prolonged.

Not only that, he would live to see his offspring, we who would believe in him and become part of God’s family.

That’s why Jesus came. That those of us who had run from him, who had rejected him, who were headed towards eternal death, could be saved from our sins and come into a relationship with God as his children. That through him we could know true life.

That’s Christmas.

So as we draw close to the Christmas season, let us not only remember Jesus’ birth, but his death and resurrection as well.

Let us remember that this Jesus can identify with us, that he loves us, and that he came to redeem us.

And let us share that knowledge with those around us, that they may come to know him too.

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Isaiah

Salvation

Isaiah

As we look at this passage where God calls his people out of exile, we also see a picture of salvation. Isaiah tells the people,

Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger…

Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street…

They are filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God. (Isaiah 51:17–20)

Here, we see Isaiah calling the Jews who had been staggered by the judgment of God in their lives. Who had had everything stripped from them because of their sins. And he tells them in verse 22,

See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. (Isaiah 51:22)

In other words, their judgment was coming to an end, and they would never taste of it again.

In the same way, when we come to Christ, in our brokenness and sin, he saves us, having paid for our sins on the cross, so that we never need taste God’s judgment again.

Then in chapter 52, Isaiah says,

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city….

Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. (Isaiah 52:1–2)

Just as God would take off their tattered, dirty clothes, and clothe them with rich garments, just as he would take off the chains that bound them, so he does with us.

He takes off the chains of sin that bound us, and he dresses us as his sons and daughters. No longer are we slaves, but God calls us his beloved children.

God said of the Jews,

You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed. (Isaiah 52:3)

We too were not bought by Satan. He never paid anything for us. Rather we sold ourselves as slaves to him through our sins. And when God redeemed us, it was not with money, but through the blood of Christ.

Now he proclaims his salvation to the whole world, saying,

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)

And again,

The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:10)

So how shall we respond?

Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure… the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. (Isaiah 52:11–12)

God told the Jews, “Leave your life of captivity. Leave your life of sin. And I will be with you.”

He tells us the same thing.

“The path has already been cleared for you to leave the kingdom of Satan, and enter the kingdom of God. Your sins are paid for. The clothes of salvation are waiting for you. So leave your old life. Leave your life of sin. And I will be with you.”

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Isaiah

The legacy we’ve inherited

Isaiah

Some Christians don’t like going through the Old Testament. Sometimes, they wonder why it’s even worth reading.

I have to admit, this is the longest period of time I’ve spent in the Old Testament for my quiet times.

I believe it’s been about a year and a half that I’ve spent here, and it could be another year and a half before I get to the New Testament. If I’m lucky.

But here, God tells the Israelites to look upon the legacy they inherited from their forefathers, to Abraham and Sarah who started the Israelite nation.

And he says,

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord (Isaiah 51:1)

I don’t believe God is just talking to the Israelites here. He’s talking to all of us who are seeking the Lord. What does he tell us?

Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.

When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. (1–2)

While Abraham and Sarah were the literal father and mother of the nation of Israel, we have our own spiritual connection to them as Christians.

They were the first to illustrate a life of walking by faith. Of a righteousness that comes by faith.

This is not to say that no one before them ever walked by faith. But when the New Testament talks about those who were made righteous by their faith, it always starts with Abraham.

Paul wrote of Abraham, quoting the Genesis account,

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3)

Why do we read the Old Testament? We’re looking at the rock from which we were cut. Where our legacy of the righteousness that comes by faith comes from.

Not only that, we see the God they put their trust in and his faithfulness to them.

Isaiah writes of Him, recalling his redemption of Israel from Egypt,

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? (10)

He also recalls how God was the one who brought all things into being, saying,

For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is his name…

I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ (15–16)

And so as we look back on who God is and this legacy of faith by people such as Abraham and Sarah, God charges us,

Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool.

But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations…

I, even I, am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? (Isaiah 51:7–8, 12–13)

If there is anything that can undermine faith, it’s fear. Fear of the future. Fear of others and what they think of us or what they might do to us if we follow God.

But the same God who watched over Abraham, Sarah, and the others who followed in their legacy of faith, watches over us.

The same God who created us and saved us from our sin is strong enough to deliver us from those who would destroy us, even the Enemy of our souls.

So let us remember the legacy of faith we’ve inherited. Let us remember the God who has given us this legacy. And let us put our trust in Him.

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Isaiah

Walking in God’s light, walking in your own

Isaiah

“I know what I’m doing. Don’t tell me what to do.”

So often, we take that attitude and it gets us into trouble. And then we blame God, and accuse him of abandoning us.

That’s what the Israelites did. By their own sins, they fell into deep trouble, and then accused God of leaving them.

But God says here,

Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?

Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? (Isaiah 50:1–2)

Basically, the Israelites said, “You broke your marriage covenant with our mother Jerusalem. You divorced her and abandoned us, your children.”

But God answers, “Where’s the certificate of divorce? To whom did I sell you? I didn’t do anything. You sold yourself into slavery because of your sins. I didn’t kick you out. I came home, and you had left me. You were unfaithful to me.”

Then God compares faithless Israel to Jesus, the coming Messiah.

Jesus, to whom his Father gave an “instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.”

Jesus, who listened to his Father morning by morning with open ears. Who didn’t rebel against his Father, but was willing to suffer in order to follow his Father’s will.

And because of that, the Father was with him and helped him. (4–7)

Then God says,

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.

This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. (10–11)

What is he saying?

If you’re walking around in the dark, stumbling around in your sin, put your trust in God. Rely on him and his wisdom. And you will come out of darkness into light.

We’ll find the forgiveness of God in our lives, and as with Jesus, we’ll be able to say,

He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!

It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? (8–9)

It’s very reminiscent of the words of Paul in Romans 8:33–34 where he says,

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

But if you insist on walking by your own “light,” you will end up suffering for it.

How often do we walk by our wisdom, and we destroy our lives. We wreck our relationships, our marriages, our finances, and everything else in our lives. And then we blame God.

How much better would it be if we would commit ourselves to following God and doing things his way?

How about you? Are you walking by God’s light? Or your own?

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Isaiah

Never forgotten. Never without hope.

Isaiah

Has God forgotten me? Is there any hope for me?

That’s what the Jewish exiles would feel, far from home, captives in a foreign land.

They cried out,

The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. (Isaiah 49:14)

Sometimes we feel the same way, abandoned by God and without hope. But what does God say?

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (15–16)

In other words, it’s unthinkable that a mother could forget the baby nursing on her breast. It’s almost unfathomable that a mother could fail to have compassion on her child.

Yet in this broken world, we do see mothers who have abandoned the children they have borne, and cast aside the children they have nursed and cared for.

But God says, “Even if that were to happen to the closest of human bonds, I will not do that with you. My love runs deeper than a mother’s love. I will never forget you; I will never abandon you.”

God then told the Israelites that he would restore their nation, and that though they had lost hope, he would stun them with all the blessings he would pour into their lives.

And when he did,

Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed. (23)

Know that I am the Lord.

Do we really know that? We all say we believe in God. But do our lives show that? Do we show trust in his promises?

Do we believe that he holds our future? Do we believe that he will do as he has said? And do we trust him enough to obey him when things seem hopeless?

Those who hope in me will not be disappointed. Where are we placing our hope? Do we even have hope? God says if we’ll just hope in him, trust him, and obey him, we will not be disappointed.

Sometimes we hesitate to trust and obey God because we are afraid we’ll be disappointed.

“What happens if I obey and nothing happens? Or if I obey and things grow worse?”

But God promises here that we will not be disappointed. He will not let us down. The only question is, “Do we believe it? And are we willing to wait in hope until he comes?”

How about you? Do you feel forgotten? Forsaken? Without hope?

God hasn’t forgotten you. He will never forsake you. And he is the giver of hope to those who turn to him.

Trust him. Hope in him. Do as he says.

And I promise you: You will not be disappointed.

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Isaiah

The mission of Messiah, and us

Isaiah

Here in this passage we see the mission of Messiah. What is it?

First, to display the splendor of God. To show Israel who God really was. (Isaiah 49:3)

That’s what Jesus did, for he was God in human flesh.

Colossians 1 puts it this way,

He is the image of the invisible God… God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. (Colossians 1:15, 19)

Second, he was to be a light to the Gentiles, and bring salvation not only to Israel, but to the ends of the earth. (6)

Third, he was to be a covenant for the people. Before Jesus died, he had dinner with his disciples, and after dinner, he took the wine, and said,

This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you. (Luke 22:20)

And again,

[It] is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

The first covenant under the law of Moses was dependent on the obedience of the people to God’s law.

But with the new covenant, our salvation comes by faith in Christ and his work on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

Finally, Messiah would

say to the captives “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Be free!” (9)

Jesus himself said of his mission,

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed. (Luke 4:18)

In other words, to those held captive to sin and to Satan’s kingdom, Jesus brings freedom.

But here’s the thing. While Jesus did the initial work on the cross, he now sends his Spirit into the hearts of all believers that they may bring his work to completion.

Namely, we are called to spread the gospel throughout our land and to the whole world.

As he dwells in us, he speaks through us and acts through us to touch the world around us. He calls us to go out with his message of salvation and freedom. To call out to the people, “Come out” and “Be free!”

Are you doing that?

Sometimes, we get discouraged, wondering if the work we do for God is bearing any fruit. Sometimes, our message seems to fall on deaf ears. Messiah said the same thing.

I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain, and for nothing. (Isaiah 49:4)

But then he said to himself, and to us,

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God. (4)

No work that you do for God will go unrewarded. Even if you can’t see the fruit immediately, God is working. So as Paul said,

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

May you be salt and light to the people around you today.

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Isaiah

The way to peace

Isaiah

So many times, we struggle to find peace in our lives, and we wonder why.

The people of Israel were no different. But here in verses 17–18, God gives them the answer.

This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. (Isaiah 48:17–18)

In other words, God has the blueprint to a life of peace.

It only makes sense. He created life. He designed it. He knows how life works. And if we would just obey him, we would find peace and a life that works.

But many people only give lip service to God and his Word.

They say they love him. They say they follow him. But in reality, they ignore his word, and just live their own way.

That’s what God said of the Israelites.

Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel – but not in truth or righteousness – you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel – the Lord Almighty is his name. (Isaiah 48:1–2)

The Israelites said they followed God. They said their oaths in his name. They called upon him. They said they were his people, and that he was their God.

But their actions and attitudes said the exact opposite.

God told them,

I knew how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze…

You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ear has not been open.

Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth. (4, 8)

Harsh words. But can the same be said of us? Do we harden our hearts to God and his word? Do we rebel against what he has said?

So many times we wonder why our lives are falling apart. Why our marriages aren’t working. Why our other relationships are falling apart. Why our careers are going nowhere.

And because of that, we can’t find peace in our lives.

But at the same time, when we look at God’s word, we ignore it.

Or we say, “It won’t work.”

Or “It’s too hard.”

And so we do things our own way. What is the end result of this?

“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (22)

How much better would our lives be if we would just obey him? To follow the blueprint for life that he has laid out in his Word?

How about you? Are you lacking peace? Stop trusting your own wisdom. Soften your hardened hearts. Seek God and his ways.

And if you do, you will find that peace that flows like a river through your soul.

The choice is yours.

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Isaiah

Making ourselves God

Isaiah

The lie that Satan said in the garden of Eden thousands of years ago is the same lie he tells us today. “You will be like God.”

And throughout history, men (and women) have tried to make themselves god in their own lives. They live their own way, placing themselves on the throne of their lives, instead of letting God have the throne.

Babylon and its rulers were just one of many that have made themselves god in their lives. And Isaiah rebukes them saying,

You said, “I will continue forever — the eternal queen.”…

Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me.”…

Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, “I am, and there is none beside me.” (Isaiah 47:7, 8, 10)

Here you see Babylon taking what God says of himself and applying it to themselves: “I am. I am the eternal one. I am the only God and there is none besides me.”

But Isaiah lets them know in no uncertain terms that they are not God and that judgment will come for all the evil they had done. And nothing, not their wisdom nor their power could save them.

How often do we live as the Babylonians did? Lounging in our own secure little world. Living as if we are God, doing things our own way and feeling that we are safe.

We think that no one can see the evil that we do and never reflect on what will happen if we continue in our sin.

If we continue to live that way, we will fall as the Babylonians did. Naked and ashamed before God.

Disaster, whether it’s in our relationships, finances, or whatever other shape it takes, will come into our lives and we won’t be able to save ourselves.

So, let us put aside our pride, take ourselves off the throne, and put God back on it. There’s only one God, and we aren’t him.

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Isaiah

The God whose purposes stand

Isaiah

As God has done for much of the past few chapters, he continues to clearly define the differences between the gods of the nations and himself.

In verse 5, he said,

To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? (Isaiah 46:5)

He then points out that after the people of the other nations finish forming their gods, these gods can’t even move themselves.

They have to be lifted up and carried to their place. And once they are set down, they are powerless to even change their position.

When people cry out to them, they can’t answer, nor can they help. After all, if they can’t even move themselves, how can they help anyone else?

So once again God tells the people,

Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. (9)

How is God different?

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come.

I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please…

What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. (10–11)

In other words, God holds the future. He knows what will happen. But not only that, he knows what his plans are, and no one is powerful enough to thwart him. Not Satan, nor any human who has ever lived or ever will live.

God is never taken by surprise. He knows how history will unfold, and he has the power to mold it according to his will.

And that is especially seen in Jesus Christ. God says,

Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.

I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel. (12–13)

God sent his Son to save people from their sin. And though Satan fought against Him and caused God’s own people to rise against Him, yet God wove all of that into his plan, and brought about salvation through Jesus Christ.

Through his death on the cross, our sins were paid for, and we who were far from righteousness and far from God can be brought near.

And if he could do all that, we can have confidence that he holds our future as well. Nothing will happen that can derail his plans for the world, and for us.

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Isaiah

He who sustains you

Isaiah

After all the words of judgment we’ve seen throughout the prophets, I must say that it’s refreshing… and encouraging to see the words of Isaiah in the past few chapters.

Here Isaiah addresses the people who would be exiled to Babylon (remember, this hadn’t happened yet).

And after passing judgment on the gods of Babylon, God then tells the exiles,

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:3–4)

Sometimes, like the exiles, we feel down and depressed. We feel like God has abandoned us. That he doesn’t really care.

But here God says, “I have upheld you since the day you were conceived.”

From the time you were in your mother’s womb, I was there with you, putting you together, forming you into the person you would become.

Not only that, “I have carried you since your birth.”

From the day your eyes first saw the light, the faces of the doctors, and the eyes of your mother and father, I was there, watching over you.

“Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he.”

Even though you pass from your youth to your middle years to your senior years, even as you go through all the changes that come from time, I never change. I am. And I will ever be.

“I will sustain you, I will carry you, and I will rescue you.”

In short, God never leaves us lonely. He never abandons us. And when we need him, he will be there. That’s the kind of love that he has for us.

Are you feeling lonely? Abandoned by God and everyone else?

Don’t believe the lie. The God who created you and knows your name has never abandoned you. And he will be there to help you through whatever you are going through.

At times, we look upon the sands of our lives, and as the old poem goes, we see only one set of footprints. So we question God, “Where were you when I needed you?”

But God turns to us and says, “Do you think you were alone? You were never alone. For during those times when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4)

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Isaiah

That they may know Me and be saved

Isaiah

The ways of God are hard to grasp sometimes.

Why would he use the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians to punish his people, when these people were just as bad, if not worse than the Israelites?

I don’t know, but perhaps Isaiah and the people of Israel were asking the same thing, because God said to them,

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’…

Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?

It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. (Isaiah 45:9, 11–12)

In other words, “I created everything. I stretched out the heavens and created all that is in it. What have you done recently? When you’ve done anything to compare, then we can talk.”

We can’t always understand the reasoning of God, but one thing that we can see is that it’s his desire that all would know him and be saved.

He makes that clear when talking about Cyrus. He basically says, “You don’t know me or acknowledge me Cyrus, but I will make you great and nations will fall before you. Why do I do this?”

So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other…

They (the peoples you conquer) will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.’ (6, 14)

By using the Persians to punish and then restore Israel, God was able to make his name great among the nations, particularly when Cyrus himself acknowledged God’s hand in all that he had done. (2 Chronicles 36:23)

And now that God had everyone’s attention, he told them,

Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.” (Isaiah 45:21–23)

What was God’s message to the people?

I am God. There is no other. There is no other Savior. Turn from your gods that are not even gods at all. Turn instead to me and be saved.

God’s message hasn’t changed in thousands of years. He still calls us to turn from the gods of this world, and to turn to him for our salvation.

The day will come when every knee will bow before God and every tongue will swear. What will they swear?

Paul answers that question as he quotes and expands on Isaiah 45 in Philippians 2:10–11.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Some day everyone will confess Jesus as Lord. Some will do it with heartfelt love and awe. Others will say it grudgingly with clenched teeth. But all will confess it.

So why not confess it now before it’s too late?

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Isaiah

The God who knows the futu…our name

Isaiah

There are a number of non-Christian and “Christian” Biblical scholars that have serious doubts about whether Isaiah wrote chapters 40–66.

There are numerous reasons for this. One is that Isaiah wrote about the future as if it had already happened. The second is that Isaiah’s prophesies are remarkably accurate.

One thing to remember as you read about Babylon and Persia and Israel’s exile in the book of Isaiah is that none of this had happened yet.

Babylon was not a world power at this point, and of course, Persia had yet to topple Babylon to take its place.

For that matter, while the northern kingdom of Israel was in captivity, Jerusalem still stood.

If there was any major enemy for the Israelites at that time, it wasn’t the Babylonians or the Persians. Rather it was Assyria.

In fact, when Manasseh was captured, it was Assyria that took him prisoner.

The reason Manasseh was taken to Babylon was probably that the king of Assyria thought Babylon and Israel were joining together to rebel against him. So he decided to deal with both rulers at the same time.

But anyway, many people look at these prophesies Isaiah made and say, “There is no way that Isaiah could have so accurately predicted these things.”

And so they conclude that someone other than Isaiah wrote them, sometime after Cyrus, king of Persia, let the Jews go back to their homeland.

But essentially, that’s a position of unbelief. Ultimately, they’re saying there is no God and no supernatural knowledge or intervention.

That’s not a historical position. It’s a philosophical one.

I’m not going to set out an apologetic for this other than to say that there are other prophesies that are simply impossible to redate, namely the prophesies made concerning Jesus.

We know that those prophesies were written before Jesus was born because the entire Old Testament was translated into Greek at the latest by the 1st century B.C. That’s historical fact that no one can dispute.

And if these prophesies can tell where Jesus was born, the timing of it, his life, the manner of his death, and his resurrection, then I have no problems believing that Isaiah could make all these prophesies about Babylon and Persia before they happened.

The most remarkable thing about this prophesy in Isaiah 44 is that God names the ruler who would allow Jerusalem to be rebuilt. Before Cyrus was even born, God named him and talked about all that he would do.

I believe that it was because Cyrus was so impressed when he read these prophesies, that he immediately allowed Judah to go back to their homeland. (2 Chronicles 36:22–23)

While Chronicles only mentions the prophesies of Jeremiah, it’s very possible that Cyrus had access to these prophesies of Isaiah as well.

But what Cyrus learned, we can also learn from this passage. Not just that God knows the future. But something far more personal:

God, who knew and formed us in the womb (24), loves us and knows our name. He cares for us. And he has a plan for our lives if we’ll only cooperate with him.

As Ephesians says,

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4–6)

Take the time to meditate on Ephesians 1:3–14. As you do, know that God knows not only the future, but your name as well.

He loves you.

So rest in that knowledge. And rest in that hope.

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Isaiah

No other

Isaiah

If there is one thing that God impresses on his people in Isaiah 43–44, it’s this: “I stand alone. There is no other God besides me.”

In Isaiah 43:10–11, he says,

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.”

And now again in chapter 44 verse 6, he again says,

I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

I suppose that it’s for this reason that Christians are considered “narrow-minded.” Because we won’t consider the idea of other gods.

But the question is not whether we’re narrow-minded. The question is whether we’re right.

If I insist to my child that 2+2=4, I’m not being narrow-minded, I’m simply telling it like it is.

And God takes great pains here to try to convince the Israelites that he alone is God.

First, he says,

Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one. (Isaiah 44:8)

First, God points to prophesy, that time and again he told the people what would happen and it happened.

Then he goes to his own personal knowledge. That he who knows everything and created everything, knows of no other gods.

As he said in Isaiah 43, while he created many things, he created no other god. Nor was there any god existing before him.

Then from verses 12–20, he challenges the people to think. The same wood they use to make their idols is the same wood that they burn to keep themselves warm. It’s the same wood they use to cook their food.

And yet they worship this piece of wood?

He asks them to consider the fact that it’s a human that brings the idol into existence. And yet, though the human created this idol, now he bows down before it asking it for help?

Is the created then greater than the creator?

And so God says,

Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.

I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.

I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.

Return to me, for I have redeemed you. (21–22)

What he told the Israelites, he tells us today.

“Remember that I alone am God. I’m your creator. And I’m your redeemer. Return to me. For I have paid the price that your sins may be forgiven.”

Let us always remember that He alone is God. There is no other.

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Isaiah

Remembering to whom we belong

Isaiah

My life. My money. My things. My body.

How often do we think or say these words? And how often do we mess up our lives by taking that attitude?

When we take that kind of attitude, we only end up thirsting for a life that truly fulfills.

So many people think that a fulfilled life comes by making everything about themselves. But a self-centered life will never fulfill. On the contrary, it ultimately leaves us empty and dry.

That’s how the Israelites were for much of their history. They lived for themselves, and as a result, they were now exiled from their own land, dry and withered in their souls.

But here God tells them,

But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

This is what the Lord says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:1–3)

Perhaps Isaiah thought of the words of Joel as he wrote this, looking forward to the time when God would pour his Spirit on all flesh.

God says here that though Israel had turned their backs on him, they were still his chosen ones, and that he would help and restore them. And as he poured out his Spirit on them, their dry and withered lives would become refreshed and renewed.

When that happened, a new attitude would be born in them. No longer would they say, “My life. My things. I belong to myself alone.”

Rather,

One will say, “I belong to the Lord”… still another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s.” (5)

And therein lies the key to a fulfilled life: a life filled with His Spirit, refreshed and renewed by his presence and power.

A life where we are proud to say, “I belong to God. I am his.”

How about you? Are you feeling empty? Unfulfilled?

You will not find fulfillment in living for yourself. You won’t find it in filling your life with possessions, money, or the pleasures of this world. All these things ultimately leave you empty.

Only when you are filled with God’s Spirit and are living for him, will you find true peace and contentment.

Who do you belong to? Who are you living for?

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Isaiah

Forgetting the past, moving forward

Isaiah

The more I read of Isaiah 43, the more I like it. Starting with verses 18–19,

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I’m doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18–19)

For the Israelites, God was telling them, “Yes, you messed up. You sinned. And for that you were all exiled.

“But don’t dwell on that any longer. I’m doing a new thing in your life, if you’ll only open your eyes to it. And I’ll make a way back for you. In the wasteland of your life, you’ll find streams of life once again.

So many times, we mess up our lives, and we spend so much time dwelling on our mistakes of the past, that we fail to see what God wants for our future. After all, when we’re constantly looking back, it’s impossible to see what’s ahead.

But God wants to do a new thing in our lives. Even now, it’s springing up, if only we’ll open our eyes. But so often there is a problem. What is it?

Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourself for me, O Israel…

But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. (Isaiah 43:22, 24)

If only we pursued God with all our hearts, we would see what he’s doing and know his blessing in our lives.

But instead, we often ignore him, or only come half-heartedly after him. Not only that, we give in to our own selfishness and pride. We live only to please ourselves and thus burden God with our sins.

But God has so much more in store for us if only we’ll repent, and start following hard after him. And as we do, God says,

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

Is your life a mess? Your finances? Your marriage? Your professional life? Your personal life?

Don’t dwell on your past. Instead, look for what God is doing in your life. Look for what he wants you to do.

And don’t continue wearying him with your sinful actions and attitudes. But repent, and follow hard after him.

As you do, you will find his blessing in your life.

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Isaiah

Precious to God

Isaiah

This is probably one of my favorite if not favorite passages in scripture.

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1–3)

The God who created us in the womb, who formed us into his masterpiece speaks here.

I have redeemed you.

For the Israelites, this would have the idea of being led out of Egypt and the hands of their captors.

For us, it has a deeper meaning. That through the cross of Christ, we’ve been redeemed from the penalty of sin. That through his blood we have found forgiveness.

I have summoned you by name. You are mine.

We are not just one of billions of people here on this earth. He knows us by our very name. And when he looks at us, he says, “You are mine, my beloved child.”

When you pass through the waters I will be with you.

Jesus says here, “When the waters in your life become too deep for you and things seem desperate, just as I was with Peter, I will be with you, taking your hand and leading you over the waves of life.”

When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

Here he’s saying, “Whatever trials you go through in life, you will make it through. They will not overcome you as long as you trust in me.”

And then God goes on to say,

Because you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you. (4)

This is probably a reference to God giving Egypt, Cush and Seba to Persia because of its kindness to Israel in letting the people return to their homeland.

But in the same way, God considered us so precious and honored that he sent Jesus to die for our sins, taking our place on the cross. He was given in exchange for us, so great was God’s love for us.

And then he promised that no matter how far gone they were, no matter how scattered among the nations they were, he would bring them back.

The same is true with us. No matter how far we have fallen from God, no matter how messed up our lives are, he will bring us back if we turn to him.

No matter how blind or deaf we were to him, he will bring us back (8).

And now he calls us to be his witnesses. To not just rest in his salvation, but to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth.

He tells us,

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.” (10)

What is the message that we are to give?

Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. (10b–11)

Or as Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

So as God’s precious and beloved children, let us take Jesus out into this world that others may know him too.

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Isaiah

The spiritually blind and the deaf

Isaiah

So often when we think of spiritually blind and deaf people, we think of non-Christians. And that they certainly are. But here we see something shocking.

Isaiah says,

Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!

Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the Lord?

You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.” (Isaiah 42:18–20)

Who were the blind? The people who were to be God’s servants. The ones who were “committed to him.”

Who were the deaf? The people who were supposed to be God’s messengers.

They saw what God had done, but somehow what they saw didn’t register in their brain. They heard what God had said, but somehow it slipped in one ear and out the other.

What was the result? The Israelites were,

plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons.

They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.” (22)

And yet despite all the hardships God allowed as discipline for their sin, the Israelites still failed to repent. (24–25)

All in all, it was a sad situation. For the people God had called to be a light to the nations had joined in their darkness.

The Jews had become just as deaf and blind as the nations around them.

What do we get from this?

Even we, as God’s people, can become spiritually blind and deaf.

How does that happen? We stop listening to God and his Word and start doing things our own way. We stop paying attention to what God’s doing around us and instead focus solely on our own agendas.

God has called us to be light to a dying world. But how can we be light when we are just as deaf and blind as the world is? Let us not be that way.

Let us keep our eyes and ears open to our heavenly Father, as Jesus did. Let us always look at what God is doing in us and around us and put our hands in his, joining him in his work.

In short, let us not join the blind and the deaf, but let us go out to them, bringing them out of darkness into God’s light.

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Isaiah

The One who brings justice and hope

Isaiah

I love the words concerning Jesus here. The Father says of him,

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations…

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. (Isaiah 42:1, 3–4)

Oftentimes, you hear the words, “Who said life was fair?” And the implied answer is that life isn’t fair.

So often we see injustice in this world. We see it in our courts with criminals going free and unpunished.

But in Jesus, we have one who will someday bring justice to an unjust world. People will stand before him and will have to give account to him. And on that day, justice will be served.

But he brings more than just justice alone. To the broken and hurting, he brings healing. And to those who are hopeless, he brings hope.

I especially love verse 3 where Isaiah says,

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

And again in verses 6–7 where it says that he’s come to be

a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

So many people live in darkness. Blind to the goodness of God. Captive to sin in their lives with no way out.

But Jesus comes to open our eyes and free us from darkness and bring us into God’s marvelous light.

It says in verse 16,

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

And because of Christ, we find joy. The day will come when all will sing,

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.

Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.

Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the islands. (10–12)

Hope and justice. It was for these things that Christ came.

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Isaiah

The God who is in control

Isaiah

Sometimes as we look at the news, it seems like the world is going crazy. We see crime, war, and natural disasters, and we wonder if God is really in control.

But God answers here that ultimately he is the one in control.

In this passage, he seems to be predicting the coming of Cyrus who would conquer many nations, but in making these predictions, God says, “I am the one who is behind it all.”

He asks the people,

Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord— with the first of them and with the last— I am he. (Isaiah 41:4)

In other words, “I am the everlasting one. And I hold all of history in my hands. I was there at the very beginning of time, and I will be there at its end.”

How do we respond to this? We have two choices. One is to respond as the nations do.

Isaiah says of them,

The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble.

They approach and come forward; each helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says of the welding, “It is good.”

He nails down the idol so it will not topple. (5–7)

So many people, when faced with the idea that God is in control, respond with fear as these nations did. And so they try to encourage each other, saying, “Let’s make our own gods that we can control, rather than follow the God that we can’t.”

In those days, that meant making idols out of gold or wood or whatever material they chose to use.

Today, many people try to control their own lives by making money their god. They think that if they just make enough money, they can rely on themselves rather than on the living God.

But as God exposed the idols for the worthless things they were (21–24), so God will expose the things that we try to rely on.

Just as the idols were helpless to predict the future, so is money worthless when it comes to predicting our future security.

Stock markets crash. Bad investments are made. And as quickly as money can be made, it can quickly be lost. And so God says of these false gods,

You are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable. (24)

What is our other choice, then? Our other choice is to put our trust in God. And when we do, God says to us,

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (10)

And again,

I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you…

See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away.

But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. (13–16)

God promises that when we trust him, he will not forsake us, but rather that he will turn our “deserts” into “pools of water,” and our “parched ground” into “springs.”

He promises further that he will take “a barren desert and wasteland and fill it with trees.” (17–19)

In other words, though our lives seem dry and devoid of life, he will come and make it into something beautiful.

Why does God do this?

So that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it. (20)

God is already in control, so why not surrender control of your life to him?

The tighter we hold on to control in our lives, the more things spin out of control. But when we surrender control to him, that’s when everything starts to come together and we find his blessing in our lives.

Who has control of your life today?

Categories
Isaiah

The power of hope

Isaiah

Hope.

If there is one thing we need when facing the future, it’s hope. Without hope, all that’s left is despair.

And that’s how the Israelites felt. In despair. Their lives were falling apart, and God seemed far away. And so they cried out,

My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God. (Isaiah 40:27)

In other words, “Where are you God? Are you there? Do you even care? Or is it that you care, but you’re powerless to help me? You don’t know how to help me?”

But God replies,

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (28)

God’s basically saying, “What are you talking about? Of course I know how to help. Of course I have the power to help.

“Don’t you know that I’m the one who created all things? I’m not like you who grows tired and weary. And my wisdom reaches far beyond yours.”

And then come words of comfort.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31)

“Are you weary?” God asks. “I give strength to the weary. Are you feeling weak? I increase the power of the weak.”

What’s the secret to receiving the strength and power to carry on?

Hope in the Lord. Remember his goodness. Remember his love for you. Remember that he has a plan for you.

If you remember all this, if you hope in him, then you will find strength to go on no matter what you’re going through.

But not only will you have the strength to go on, you’ll have the power to soar far above your circumstances.

Have you lost hope? Then take the time to memorize these words. Meditate on them.

And as Paul wrote,

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

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Isaiah

The greatness of our God

Isaiah

Who is this God we proclaim? What is he like? That’s what Isaiah addresses in this passage.

Isaiah proclaims in verses 9–10,

Here is your God! See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. (Isaiah 40:9–10)

What do we learn about God here? That he is the Almighty One. In verse 12, it talks about how God created everything, and that all creation is so small compared to him.

I sometimes stand in wonder when I look at the stars on a clear night. The sky seems so big, and I seem so small. But the whole universe could fit in the hand of God.

How much bigger is the Creator than all that he’s created?

Isaiah says,

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. (26)

He is also greater than the nations and all who rule them. To him,

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.

Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. (15–17)

And while kings sit on their thrones trying to spread their kingdoms,

[God] sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. (22–23)

But not only is God powerful, but he is wise. Isaiah writes,

Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?

Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? (13–14)

All of these, of course, are rhetorical questions, and the obvious answer is no one. God is all‑knowing, and all‑wise.

And so Isaiah asks,

To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?

As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.

A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple. (18–20)

The irony just drips off of Isaiah’s lips. He says, “Here is God enthroned over all the earth. We are like grasshoppers to him. And yet you make these puny idols made from gold and silver. Some of you can’t even afford that. You make it out of wood. And you compare these things to the living God?”

Yet for all his power, wisdom, and glory, despite all his greatness, this God… loves us.

Isaiah writes,

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. (11)

That’s probably the most amazing thing of all. That though God is so great and we are so small and insignificant, yet he loves us and sent his own Son to die for us that we might be reconciled to him.

How often do we reflect on his greatness? How often do we reflect on his love?

If only we would do that, so many of our problems would shrink in size. Or rather, we could see them in their proper perspective.

We remember that no matter how big our problems are, our God is bigger. And he loves us so much that he will help us through whatever we’re going through.

So let’s not focus on our problems. Let’s reflect on the one who is awesome… and who loves us.

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Isaiah

Preparing our hearts for God

Isaiah

And so we begin the New Testament. Well, kind of. It has been pointed out that the book of Isaiah itself is kind of a Reader’s Digest version of the whole Bible.

Like the Bible, it’s divided into 66 parts. Of those 66 parts, we can group them into two larger sections, one composing of 39 chapters, and the second of 27, just as there are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.

As with the Old Testament, we see a lot of the sin of the people and the judgment of God in the first 39 chapters of Isaiah.

But starting with chapter 40, we see the coming of Messiah and his work of salvation.

And finally in chapter 66, we see the final judgment and a new heavens and new earth.

And so here in the New Testament… that is, the start of the second section of Isaiah, we find the words that John the Baptist used to open his ministry.

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3–5)

The call that Isaiah made, the call that John the Baptist made as well, rings true even today.

In a world that is a spiritual desert, in hearts that are a wilderness devoid of God, we are called to prepare the way for the Lord. To prepare the way for the Lord in our own hearts, and in the world around us.

How do we do that? Basically, we need to remember two things. First,

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. (6–7)

In other words, we need to remember that our lives are temporary. That this life on earth is not all there is. And whatever glory we achieve here on earth will not last.

So in order to prepare the way for God in our hearts, we need to get our priorities straight. To put him first in our lives and not ourselves. To seek him and his kingdom first, not our own agendas.

Second, remember that,

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. (8)

To put it simply, remember that God always keeps his promises. His Word never changes. So make that the bedrock of your life.

Our lives are always changing. Trials come and go. Good times come and go. But God never changes.

And as we make his Word the foundation of our lives, it keeps our lives steady as we go through the winds of change.

Not only that, but we’ll be able to withstand the storms of life as well.

How about you? Is your heart ready for the Lord’s return? When he comes again, will he tell you, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”

When he returns, may our Lord find us faithful.

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Never too late

Luke and Darth Vader

“It’s too late for me son.”

George Lucas called the Star Wars saga the redemption of Darth Vader.  How a young man got corrupted by evil but was eventually brought out of it through the love of his son.

In one of the climactic scenes of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker pleads with his father to let go of his hate, to leave the emperor and come away with him. 

Vader regretfully says, “It’s too late for me.” 

But with the emperor about to kill Luke, and Luke pleading with his father to save him, Darth Vader turns against the emperor, saving his son and ultimately, himself.

As I read this passage about Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, it follows a similar storyline. 

Here was Manasseh, the son of of one of the best kings Judah or Israel ever had.  But somehow, he went wrong. 

He started worshiping other gods.  He put idols and foreign altars in the temple and the courts of the Lord.  He practiced witchcraft and consulted mediums and spiritists. 

He even went so far as to sacrifice his own sons by flame to these gods he worshiped. 

In the book of Kings it says that he shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end.  (2 Kings 21:16)

Time and again, God warned him through the prophets.  But not only did he not listen, he murdered them. 

Tradition has it that while Isaiah was hiding in a log, Manasseh had him sawed in two. 

And so God said,

“I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle…

I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 

I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. 

They will be looted and plundered by all their foes, because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day.  (2 Kings 21:12-15)

The Assyrians came and took Manasseh captive, putting a hook in his nose and binding him with bronze shackles, and taking him to Babylon.

In Kings, the story ends there. 

But Chronicles gives us more information.  That as he was in Babylon, he sought God, humbled himself greatly, and repented. 

And because of that, God restored him to his place as king in Jerusalem. 

Manasseh then worked the rest of his life to undo all the evil he had done previously, and he eventually died in peace.

Manasseh had done some pretty awful things.  He was one of the worst kings Judah had ever had.  And yet, even for him, it wasn’t too late to repent.

God will judge people for their sins, as he did with Manasseh. 

But as slow as he can be to pass judgment, and he did wait a long time before passing judgment on Manasseh, he is very quick to forgive.

Are you feeling it’s too late for you?  That you’ve messed up your life too much for God to forgive you? 

It’s never too late.  All you have to do is turn. 

And when you do, you’ll find that God is not only waiting for you, but is running to greet you, hold you in his arms, and say “Welcome home.”

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings Isaiah

Forgetting God’s grace

Kings,Chronicles, and Isaiah

It’s amazing to me that after all God had done for Hezekiah, that he still forgot God’s grace in his life. It says in 2 Chronicles 32:25

But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.

In what way was Hezekiah proud? After his illness, envoys from Babylon came to visit because they’d heard all that God had done in extending Hezekiah’s life.

But instead of giving all the glory to God, Hezekiah instead pointed to all his riches, his gold, silver, his armory, and all of his treasures.

And so Isaiah confronted him saying,

Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.

Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. (Isaiah 39:5–7)

It would be a good guess that the Babylonians took note of the wealth of Israel on this visit, and that it was this visit which planted the seed for their later invasion of Judah.

But more than that, Hezekiah missed an opportunity to share the grace of God with the Babylonians that they might turn from their sin and follow the living God.

That’s what happens when we forget God’s grace in our lives. We become proud of all that we have and have accomplished and forget it was from God that we received all these things.

Not only that, when others start to notice God’s blessing in our lives, we start pointing to ourselves instead of God. And as a result, people become impressed with us instead of the God we serve.

How about you? When others look at you, are they impressed with what you’ve accomplished? Are they impressed with what a great person you are?

Or when they see you, do they start to hunger for the God who lives within you?

Let us not forget God’s grace in our lives. Rather let us always remain humble and thankful, eager to share the grace that we’ve received with those around us.

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings Isaiah

Laying our problems before God

Kings,Chronicles, and Isaiah

Hezekiah had finally turned his heart back to God, but it was still troubling times for the people of Judah, as Assyria was still bent on taking Jerusalem.

But with his faith in God restored and perhaps taking heart from God’s promise of deliverance after his recovery from illness, Hezekiah told the people,

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him.

With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. (2 Chronicles 32:7–8)

Upon hearing this, the people of Jerusalem were initially encouraged.

But that didn’t last long as the king of Assyria sent his field commander to intimidate them while the Assyrian army was laying siege to one of Judah’s major fortified cities, Lachish.

And as Satan is wont to do, Assyria’s field commander used a mixture of lies and truth to try to discourage the people.

Basically he told them that Egypt couldn’t help them, that no nation had been able to stand against the Assyrians. None of these nations’ gods had been able to protect them from the Assyrians’ hands either. All this was true.

But then he said that God himself couldn’t help them, and that even if he could, he was really on the Assyrians’ side. He claimed that God himself had sent Assyria to attack Jerusalem.

This especially was an interesting mix of truth and lies, the lie of course being that God couldn’t help them.

But I do wonder if they had heard about all the words the prophets of God had warned Jerusalem with. That Assyria would come and attack.

It’s possible that they were saying, “See, even your own prophets told you we were coming. God sent us to destroy you.”

This was of course conveniently ignoring the prophecies of Assyria’s own destruction and the fact that the reason God gave these warnings was so that Jerusalem might repent and be saved.

Hezekiah immediately went to the temple upon hearing these words and through Isaiah the prophet was told once again that God would deliver them.

When the Assyrians were forced to withdraw because of an attack by the Cushite king and his army, they sent word to Hezekiah basically saying (very Terminator‑like), “We’ll be back.”

And they once again boasted of all they had done to the other nations.

What did Hezekiah do? He took the letter out and spread it out before God. Then he prayed,

O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.

They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.

Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God. (Isaiah 37:16–20)

I think there are several things we can take from this prayer.

First, when we are in trouble, the first thing we should do is remember who God is. That he is God in heaven, and that he alone is God over all the earth. That he is the creator and that he has the power to help us in our time of need.

Second, lay our problems before him. Be completely honest with him about our needs and our doubts.

Finally, humble yourself and ask for his help.

And because Hezekiah did this, God heard him and delivered him. He slaughtered the army of Assyria and then had its king killed by his own sons.

What troubles are you going through in your life? Remember that God is bigger than your troubles.

Lay out your problems before him. Ask for his deliverance. And then trust him, doing exactly as he says.

If you do, like Hezekiah, you will find God’s salvation in your life.

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings Isaiah

Humbled

Kings,Chronicles, and Isaiah

Once again, a small caveat on the chronology of events: I’m purely guessing here.

Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t put in one book the blow‑by‑blow events of what happened. So all I can do is try to piece together things as best I can.

As we saw earlier, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had already taken the northern Kingdom of Israel, and had then attacked Judah. Judah had been paying tribute to them, but then stopped.

When Sennacherib came the first time to attack Jerusalem, Hezekiah bought him off with treasures from the temple and from his own coffers.

But now Sennacherib had come again, and so Hezekiah made further preparations, blocking off the water from the springs outside the city to make sure that they would have enough water during a siege, while denying it to their enemies.

He also had the walls repaired, had weapons made, and basically did everything humanly possible to prepare for the siege.

Again, I’m purely speculating here, but even though his treaty with the Egyptians failed to protect him from Assyria, and while he was doing everything humanly possible to prepare, he still wasn’t trusting in God.

Hezekiah was putting all his trust in Egypt and his own efforts. And so God struck him with an illness.

And after months or perhaps even years of ignoring Isaiah’s warnings, he finally called Isaiah to the palace to inquire of the Lord. And Isaiah told him,

This is what the Lord says: “Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” (2 Kings 20:1)

What must have gone through Hezekiah’s mind at that time? His city under siege, he was dying, and there was no son to take his place (Manasseh, his son, wasn’t born until three years later).

Perhaps he raged at God. “Why is this happening? Why are you doing this to me?”

Maybe that rage turned to self‑pity. “Why does this have to happen to me?”

But then it turned to humility.

With no other recourse, he humbled himself before God, pleading that God not remember his sin and pride, but the good things that he had done. To remember how he had sought the Lord in the past.

And as he wept before the Lord, God stopped Isaiah as he was going home and sent him back to Hezekiah, saying,

This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. (Isaiah 38:5–6)

And then the Lord gave him a sign, causing the shadow cast by the sun to go backwards on the sundial.

How he did that, I don’t know. Whether he reversed the earth’s rotation, or whether it was a trick of the light is not clear. But whatever he did, God kept his promise, and Hezekiah recovered.

What can we get from this? Many times God will humble us in order to get our attention. If we refuse to listen to him and go our own way, he loves us too much to just leave us be. He will work to bring us back.

Hezekiah wrote later,

What can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul…

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love, you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. (Isaiah 38:15, 17)

Are you suffering because of the sin in your life? God doesn’t desire to destroy you. He desires that we humble ourselves and live. To trust in him that our lives may go well. And that we might teach others to trust in him too.

Hezekiah finished his psalm of praise by saying,

Fathers tell their children about your faithfulness. The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord. (Isaiah 38:19–20)

So let us not trust in ourselves. But every day, let us humble ourselves before God, trust in him, and teach others to do the same.

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Isaiah

Judgment and redemption

Isaiah

Judgment and redemption.

These two ideas are seen throughout scripture and they are very evident here in these two chapters.

First, God metes out judgment against the nations in chapter 34 as all those who come against his people Israel shall be judged and destroyed.

And then in chapter 35, we see the redemption of his people.

How does it come? Through Jesus Christ.

Isaiah encouraged the people saying,

Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” (Isaiah 35:3–4)

“Your God will come.”

In the short term, God came and brought judgment against the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. But not only did he bring judgment, he brought salvation. He says in verses 5–6,

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. (Isaiah 35:5–6)

When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah. Jesus answered them,

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Matthew 11:4–5)

I can’t help but think that this passage in Isaiah is what Jesus was referring to when he sent his message.

He was saying, “Do you remember what Isaiah said about God coming and the blind seeing, the lame walking, and the deaf hearing? Well that’s what’s happening now.

“So strengthen your feeble hands, John. Steady your knees that are giving way. Be strong. I, the Messiah, have come. Do not be afraid, and do not lose hope.”

We, like John, may have times of doubt. Our faith seems dry, and we start to wonder if God’s really there. If he really cares. If our redemption is really coming.

But as Jesus told John, don’t give in to doubt. Cling instead to our Savior. He has come and he will come to you. And in time,

Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground bubbling springs. (Isaiah 35:6–7)

And always remember that the day will come when you enter Zion with singing, and everlasting joy will crown your head.

Gladness and joy will overtake you, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (10)

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Isaiah

The key to life

Isaiah

I love verses 5–6 in this chapter.

The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. (Isaiah 33:5–6)

The Israelites were in trouble. Their treaties with Egypt and with other nations had failed. Assyria was coming, and everything was falling apart.

But in the midst of this, the Lord says, “I am above all things. I am above all the powers of the earth. And I will be a sure foundation for you. I provide salvation, wisdom and knowledge for your life. Not only that, I’m a rich store of all these things.”

What unlocks the box that holds this treasure? One key: the fear of the Lord. To honor and respect him above all things.

To know that compared to him, we are nothing, and that he has the power to wipe us all out with a single word.

But though we always keep that in mind, we also remember that he is a God of love and mercy to those who humble themselves before him.

And so God says,

You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power! (Isaiah 33:13)

For many people, to come face to face with God is a frightening thing. In verse 14, it says,

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless.

As a result, they cry out,

“Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

But God answers, “Anyone can do so.”

[Anyone] who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil. (15)

To these, God says,

This is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.

His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. (16–17)

And as we do that, we’ll look back at all we feared and see that all of them have been swept away. And our lives will be

a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken. (20)

And,

the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven. (24)

What do you fear? There are many things that people fear in life. But the truth is, if we fear God, we need not fear anything else in life.

As Isaiah said,

The Lord will be our Mighty One… the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us. (21–22)

Let us take the key to life God has given us, and fear him.
As we do, we’ll have everything we need to not only survive, but to prosper in life.

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Isaiah

A prayer

Isaiah

I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit of memorizing scripture and I want to get back into it. A couple of days ago, I worked on Isaiah 30:15. Today it’s this verse.

O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. (Isaiah 33:2)

Somehow, each phrase resonates with me.

O Lord, be gracious to us.

Lord, I need your grace each day. I fail so much. I sin. I let you down. Forgive me. Be gracious to me. And as I receive your grace this day, let me share that grace with those around me.

We long for you.

Lord, my soul thirsts for you. I desperately need more of you in my life. Lord let my heart seek you. Let it be undivided in its pursuit of you.

Be our strength every morning.

Lord, every morning as I wake, be my strength.

As I face the trials of the day, be my strength. As I meet with difficult people, be my strength. As I meet with difficult circumstances, be my strength. Stand with me this day.

Be our salvation in times of distress.

When I’m weighed down by anxiety, deliver me. When the Enemy comes against me, be my defender and my deliverer.

Lord I am weak. I can’t fight the Enemy on my own. So deliver me from evil. And let me overcome.

I ask all these things in Jesus’ name, amen.

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Isaiah

False security

Isaiah

Security. It’s something that many people seek. To feel safe. To feel that their future is in hand.

For many people, they seek security in money, and think that if they just have enough, they’ll be okay.

In the 1980s, the Japanese economy was booming. And with the strong economy, a lot of people were prospering financially.

But then the bubble burst in 1990, and for a lot of people, so did their sense of security. It’s one of the reasons the suicide rate is so high here.

In Israel, the people were much the same as the Japanese in the ’80s. They were feeling prosperous and secure. But like the Japanese, their security was to be short-lived.

Isaiah told them,

You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!

In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.

Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! (Isaiah 32:9–11)

Where is your security? Is it in money?

Money can never buy peace of mind. For some people, they end up buying trouble. They work too much trying to earn money at the expense of their marriages, and they end up with broken relationships and broken homes.

Others work so hard, they can’t even enjoy the wealth they accumulate.

In Japan, we have a word “karoshi” which basically means “death from overwork.”

Because of the strain of the long hours at work, people end up destroying their health and dying before their time.

Others are so consumed with money, that they constantly worry about it at night, wondering how to keep from losing all they’ve accumulated.

True security can only be found in God. Isaiah told the people that everything they found security in would be stripped from them and that they would lose everything,

till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. (Isaiah 32:15)

When we are filled with the Spirit of God, we bear his fruit. Things like love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22–23)

And as these things are born in our lives, we also find peace. Isaiah wrote,

The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. (Isaiah 32:17)

Do you desire security and peace of mind? Don’t seek for it in money or the things of this world. At best, it can only bring a temporary security and peace.

Put your trust in God. Let his Spirit fill your life. And as you do, you will find the peace that passes all understanding, a peace that will guard your hearts and minds through all that you go through in life.

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Isaiah

A true man

Isaiah

What is a true man?

I remember reading a humorous article written about men in America. And what it basically said was that there were few real men. Most were in fact, wimps.

A woman that was interviewed said, “I’m sure we have more wimps per capita than any other country, especially among younger men. Most of the men I meet are wimps.”

A pretty sad commentary. That was written back in 1984, but I wonder how much things have really changed. Are there more real men out there?

For that matter, what is a real man?

Is it someone that bosses around the people in his life? Is it a person that throws his weight around? Is it someone who forces others to submit by mere force of his will?

I think we find some of the answers here. Isaiah here refers to a king that would reign in righteousness.

It could be referring to Hezekiah, but it is also pointing to a future king: Christ.

In this passage, it talks about what the ideal king (and princes) should be like. But I think it also shows what true men should be like.

Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. (Isaiah 32:2)

In other words a man should be one that protects the people God has given into his care. When the storms come, he stands and gives shelter to those under his protection.

And like streams of water, he refreshes the people who look up to him.

Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. (3–4)

As we see here, a true man is a teacher as well. He helps open the eyes and ears of those who are blind and deaf to the truth. And through his words, he brings understanding to people that their lives may be transformed.

And finally, Isaiah says,

But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands. (8)

In other words, a true man makes godly plans and lives a godly life.

This compared to the man in verses 6–7, whose very words are folly, whose mind and actions are dominated by evil.

Who spreads error about God and his will.

Who instead of refreshing others, holds back from them the things they need.

Who instead of building people up, destroys their very lives by his words and actions.

As a father and husband, the question I need to ask myself is what kind of man am I?

Too often, I think I fall short. I’ve got a long way to go to be the man God has called me to be.

But Jesus was that kind of man. Jesus was able to do all the things that I haven’t been able to until now. He knows my weaknesses. And he understands my temptations.

The writer of Hebrews tells us this:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14–16)

So that’s what I will do until Jesus returns.

Men, what kind of man are you? Are you a man like Jesus was?

And women, what kind of man do you have in your life? What kind of man are you looking for?

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2 Kings Isaiah

Where our strength and salvation come from

Kings & Isaiah

It’s hard to match up the events of history to the prophecies, but I’m guessing these two passages roughly go together.

The king of Assyria (Sennacharib) was on the move again and came against Judah, mainly because Hezekiah had rebelled and stopped paying tribute to him.

Sennacharib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them, and as a result, Hezekiah panicked.

He apologized for his actions and then paid a huge amount of tribute to make Sennacharib back off. He even stripped gold from the temple and gave the Assyrians silver from the temple treasuries as well as from his own treasuries.

Why did he have to go so far?

God had warned Hezekiah in Isaiah 30–31 not to make alliances with Egypt. That it would do no good.

Yet despite the warnings, Hezekiah and his people ignored Isaiah.

Not only that, they told him to stop confronting them with God’s word. That they only wanted to hear things that would make them feel good. (Such as, “Egypt will wipe out Assyria.”) (Isaiah 30:10–11)

And so God said that judgment would come as a result of their rebellion.

But God also told them,

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it…

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (30:15, 18)

In other words, “Stop striving. Stop trying to save yourself. Stop relying on your own wisdom and strength to save you. Repent. Turn from your sins. Rest in me. Trust me. And I will save you.”

God told them that he himself would cause Assyria to fall, that they didn’t need to trust in Egypt. That he was God and Egypt was not. (Isaiah 30:31–32; 31:3–5)

But as I said, Hezekiah didn’t listen. He made his alliance with Egypt, paying them a lot of money in order to do so.

But as God warned them, Egypt fell at the hands of Assyria and was unable to help Judah.

So when Hezekiah was forced to pay tribute to Assyria, he didn’t have enough because of the money he had paid Egypt. That’s why he was forced to strip the temple of its gold and silver in order to pay the tribute.

And even after he paid the tribute, Assyria came to attack.

Only then did Hezekiah finally repent. And when he did, God as he promised delivered Judah.

What can we take from this? All of us go through hard times in our lives. And it’s so easy to rely on ourselves.

But God longs to help us. To work in our lives that all may go well with us. And as he told Hezekiah and the Israelites, so he tells us:

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:19–21)

God whispers his words of wisdom and comfort to us. The only question is, will we listen? And will we rely on him, rather than ourselves?

Categories
Isaiah

Blind and ignorant

Isaiah

Why doesn’t God just show himself? If he truly exists, why doesn’t he just make it crystal clear so that I can know, not just guess or hope?

Sometimes people, both believers and unbelievers ask this question. There are a number of answers I suppose we could give to this.

But there’s one question that the person who asks this should ask themselves: If God did really reveal himself in that way, would you really follow him? Or are you just making a convenient excuse for not doing so?

The truth is that God has revealed himself in more visible ways in the past, and for a number of people, it didn’t make the slightest difference in whether they followed him or not.

God, for instance, delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt using incredible signs and wonders. Time and again, he miraculously provided for them in the desert.

If that wasn’t enough, there was always a pillar of cloud and fire in the midst of their camp to remind the Israelites of God’s presence among them.

Yet time and again, they failed to believe in him, and time and time again, they outright rebelled against him.

Then in the New Testament, God himself showed up among the Israelites. The one they had been praying for appeared.

He performed miracles among them, and spoke such words of wisdom that even the wisest and most knowledgeable among them were reduced to silence whenever they tried to argue with him.

Did that make them want to follow him? No. Instead they crucified him.

That kind of attitude is also seen here in this passage where Isaiah condemns Ariel, which was another name for Jerusalem.

“Ariel” literally means “Lion of God,” although Isaiah seems to use this name sarcastically in the passage.

Because although they claimed to be the Lion of God, they were living their own way. Isaiah put it this way,

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” (Isaiah 29:13)

And so God warned them of the judgment that was coming, first on Jerusalem, and then after Jerusalem had been humbled, upon their enemies.

But despite all of Isaiah’s warnings, Israel was blind to the danger that was there. Why? Isaiah said,

The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). (10)

“Wait a minute!” you might say.

“That’s not fair. God blinded them and then punished them for not seeing? How is that fair?”

But the truth is that the Israelites did not want to see. They did not want to know. Isaiah said,

Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless. (9)

In other words, God was saying, “Do you wish not to see? Do you wish to close your eyes to the truth? Fine. You won’t see it.”

Isaiah goes further, saying that for these Israelites, his words would be like a sealed scroll. And for some people, they wouldn’t read, making the excuse that it was sealed.

Perhaps this has the idea that the meaning of the prophecy was too difficult for them.

Others would say, “Sorry, I can’t read, so I can’t tell you what it says.”

But in each case, there is the underlying idea that they really didn’t want to understand. If they had, they would have sought for someone with understanding to explain the scroll.

If they really wanted to understand, they would have sought to learn how to read it themselves.

But instead, they said, “Sorry, I don’t understand.”

Or “Sorry, I can’t read.”

And they simply walked away.

Many Israelites were like that in Jesus’ time. Jesus told them a parable, and while they liked the stories, many didn’t understand it. But instead of seeking understanding, they just walked away.

Jesus’ disciples on the other hand, sought understanding, and so they asked questions. When they did, Jesus answered them, and they gained the understanding they had lacked.

Many people today look at the Bible and say, “It’s too difficult. I can’t understand it.” But instead of seeking understanding and asking for help, they simply walk away.

That’s blinding yourself. That’s making yourself willfully ignorant. And God says, “If that’s the way you want to be, fine. But judgment is still coming. And you will be judged.”

How about you? Do you blind yourself to God’s will? Are you willfully ignorant of God’s word? If so, God won’t force himself upon you. He’ll let you stay blind and ignorant.

But if you’ll only look, and if you’ll truly seek, God will reveal himself to you as he will with the Jews someday. Isaiah wrote,

In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. (Isaiah 29:18)

And again,

Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction. (24)

Let us not be blind and ignorant. Let us instead seek God that we may live.

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Isaiah

Where wisdom comes from

Isaiah

Does God understand advanced physics? Biology? Technology? Are these things beyond him? Sometimes people tend to think that way.

Even in the time of Isaiah, people were questioning the wisdom of God. It was one of the reasons that so often, they failed to trust him.

And so God in this little speech asks the Israelites where they got their ideas for farming from.

I’d never really thought about it before, but considering that God created Adam and Eve in the garden, it was probably he in the beginning who taught Adam and Eve the basic techniques they needed to get started.

Over time, he then helped them and their descendants to discover different techniques to better grow their crops.

At the very least, he was responsible for giving them the intelligence to figure things out, if he didn’t outright tell them.

And so when he told the Israelites about all these techniques that their farmers were using, he said it is,

His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. (Isaiah 28:26)

And again,

All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom. (29)

So what’s the point? Everything we know originated with God. All that we have learned over the centuries, God knew from the beginning. There is nothing that we have learned that God doesn’t know.

He understands science, he understands economics, he understands psychology, he understands finances, he understands relationships, he understands everything that we need to make it through life.

And so the question is, “Why don’t we trust him?”

So often we look at God’s word and what he teaches, and we say, “But God you don’t understand. You don’t understand how our society works. You don’t understand what I need to make it through this life. If you did, you wouldn’t ask of me the things you say in your Word.”

But in saying that, we make God much smaller in our minds than he really is.

God not only created us, he knows how everything works. He didn’t make us by accident. He didn’t just snap his fingers, create everything, and then say to himself, “Now how did I do that?”

God knows. He understands. And in him is all the wisdom that we need to live life.

So let’s stop making God smaller than he really is. Let us instead see him as he truly is.

As Paul wrote,

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?”

For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

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Isaiah

A faulty foundation; a sure foundation

Isaiah

One theme that seems to constantly come up in the prophets is the idea of trust. Who are we trusting? What do we set as the foundation of our lives?

For Israel, they seemed to put their faith not in God, but in their own wisdom and efforts in order to protect themselves.

As I mentioned in my last blog, they rejected God’s truth and God’s prophets, and treated Isaiah’s words as childish babble.

And so Isaiah rebukes them for this, comparing their treaties with Egypt to protect them from Assyria to a covenant with death. He said,

You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement.

When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:15)

The sarcasm is fairly dripping out of Isaiah’s mouth.

He was saying, “You’ve made these treaties your protection. But these treaties are merely a covenant of death. It will be your undoing as well as the undoing of the ones you are relying on. And when you say to yourselves that these treaties will protect you, you are merely lying to yourself.”

Then he warns,

Hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand.

When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. (Isaiah 28:17–19)

But in the midst of these warnings, Isaiah says,

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.” (Isaiah 28:16)

The New Testament writers quote this in reference to Christ, that he is the one who is the sure foundation for our lives. And if we put our faith in Christ, we will stand firm. We’ll never be dismayed for putting our trust in him.

But if we build our lives on the lies we tell ourselves and upon our own wisdom and efforts, all the while scoffing at God’s word, we will be swept away when judgment comes.

And so Isaiah says,

Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land. (Isaiah 28:22)

How about you? What have you set as the foundation of your life? Your own wisdom? Your own efforts? Or Jesus Christ?

All other foundations are faulty, and ultimately will be your ruin. But in Christ, we have a sure foundation, and if you put your faith in him, you will not be disappointed.

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Isaiah

Spiritual pitfalls: An unteachable heart

Isaiah

As a teacher, there are few things more frustrating than having students that don’t want to learn.

I’ve been in classrooms where students show no effort whatsoever, and look almost in shock at you when you try to encourage them to do an activity.

I suppose the one thing that is worse than that are students who think they know it all. They take an attitude of “I know already. You don’t have to tell me. I already know everything.”

And yet when you ask them about the subject matter, it’s clear that they don’t know nearly as much as they think they do.

That’s what the Israelites were like, even their “priests and prophets.”

I put quotations there because what priests and prophets they had in the northern kingdom were false priests and false prophets who had syncretized the true faith with the worship of false idols.

In this passage, Isaiah pictures them as worthless men, drunk and befuddled.

These men who were supposed to lead people in the worship of God, were instead seeing wine-induced “visions” that were leading people away from God rather than toward him.

But whenever Isaiah or any of the true prophets tried to correct them, they would scoff saying,

Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?

For it is: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there.” (Isaiah 28:9–10)

In other words, “We already know everything. We’re not children. All he’s doing is speaking gibberish.”

(The words “do and do, rule on rule, a little here, a little there” are literally translated from what are meaningless-like sounds in the Hebrew: “sav lasav sav lasav, kav lakav kav lakav, ze’er sham, ze’er sham.”)

It calls to mind what the Athenians said of Paul after he started arguing with them, calling him a mere babbler. (Acts 17:18)

But because of this attitude, Isaiah warns the Israelite priests and prophets that these “meaningless” words would be followed by more words that were meaningless to them, words spoken by the foreign powers that would enslave them.

God’s desire was that they would rest in him. That they would love and put their trust in him. And if they would only do so, he would be their resting place, a place where the weary could rest. (Isaiah 28:12)

But because they turned their backs on him, he said that this word that they rejected would be their downfall.

It’s the same story today. Many people hear the Gospel of Christ in all its simplicity, and dismiss it as mere babble. As a children’s story that real adults grow out of.

But by rejecting him who is our salvation, they fall into sin and eternal judgment.

Even Christians can fall into the trap of “I know.”

They go to church, and when they hear the message, they say, “I know this already.”

Or simply, “I don’t really want to hear this,” and they turn off their ears and miss what God’s trying to tell them.

In doing so, they not only miss the warnings God may be trying to give them, but also his blessings.

How about you? What do you do with the words of God? Do you reject them as mere babble? Or do you take them into your heart? Do you let them transform you?

So often, we wonder why we have so many problems in our lives. We wonder why we don’t seem to find God’s blessings in our lives. Most of the time, it’s because we’re not listening.

What kind of heart do you have?

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Isaiah

A people God loves

Isaiah

Does God love me?

Sometimes we look at our lives and we wonder.

We go through hard times, and wonder if God really cares. Or we mess up our lives, and wonder if God has given up on us.

And perhaps Israel felt the same way. But God told them,

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.

Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:2–6)

Here God compares Israel to a vineyard that he is tending. And what he told them, he tells us.

“I watch over you.” My eyes are on you, and I see everything that is going on in your life. Nothing escapes my notice. Every smile, every tear, I see it all.

“I water you.” When you are feeling dry, I will refresh you. When you are thirsty, I will quench your thirst.

“I guard you.” When your enemies come against you, I am your shield. When fear strikes you, I am your refuge.

“I fight for you.” When you are overwhelmed by the enemy and all seems lost, I will fight for you and help you overcome.

“I will make you fruitful.” Your life will blossom and all the world will be blessed because of you.

“But what if I sin? Will God reject me?”

Even then, God does not cast you aside. Isaiah writes,

Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her?

Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

By warfare and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows. (Isaiah 27:7–8)

The Lord will discipline us when we sin and rebel against him. But as he did not wipe out the Israelites, neither will he wipe us out. And when we repent, he will restore us.

God told Israel,

In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one.

And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. (12–13)

God’s anger toward us does not last forever. Neither will we be annihilated for our sins. He only waits for us to turn to him, and he will restore us and make us his fruitful vineyard once again.

As David wrote,

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

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Isaiah

When we trust in God

Isaiah

Trusting God can be tough. And so often as we pray, our goal is to bend God to our will, rather than bending our will to his. We try to make him do what we want, rather than having a heart that says, “I trust in you. Your will be done in my life, as it is in heaven.”

And so when God doesn’t answer our prayers as we hoped, we get angry and upset, wondering if God really cares.

But Isaiah tells us,

You (the Lord) will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:3–4)

Him whose mind is steadfast. The King James says, “whose mind is stayed on Thee.”

What does that mean?

It means that when the winds of change blow through our lives, and trials come, and trials go, our faith in God never wavers. We continue to trust him. We continue to rely on him. We make him the rock that we build our lives on.

And it says that when we do this we’ll experience perfect peace.

Literally in the Hebrew, it says we’ll experience “Peace peace.”

The repetition stresses that it’s not just a peace that is shallow and quickly blows away when trials come. But a peace that is deeply rooted within our hearts, that stands strong no matter what happens and that permeates our hearts and minds.

Isaiah adds,

The path of the righteous is level; O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth. (7)

In other words, when we put our trust in him, he will guide us and protect us. As Proverbs 3:6 puts it,

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

But for those who in their pride live their own way, Isaiah says,

He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. (Isaiah 26:5)

That’s how Israel was for much of its history. Though God showed them grace, they continued in their wickedness until God humbled them and they cried out to him. When they did, God restored them.

How much better would our lives be if we would just trust God from the first?

So let us pursue God now. Make him the desire of our hearts above all else. Let our hearts be as Isaiah’s who said,

Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. (Isaiah 26:8–9)

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Isaiah

When death is swallowed up

It’s amazing how time flies.

It was about this time last year, that I got word from my mother and sister that my dad wasn’t doing so well. He had been in the hospital for a while, and they weren’t sure how much longer he would live.

I had intended to visit home in May of this year, but with the news I received, my family went back to Hawaii for an early visit. I’m very glad I did. While I was there, my father passed away.

For many, death is a painful thing. And to be honest, standing vigil over my dad in his last days was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

During that time, I talked a lot with my dad never knowing how much he really was hearing.

I missed his final breath by about 5 hours. My sister called us at about 5:30 a.m. or so to let us know he had passed on.

Death is painful. But there will come a day when death itself will die.

In this chapter, Isaiah talks about the return of our Lord. On that day, Isaiah says,

He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:7–8)

As he does, all his people will praise him, singing,

Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. (9)

When my dad died, he had diabetes, he was completely blind, he had pneumonia, and he had a sore that never quite healed on his leg.

But now, all of that is gone. All the sorrow he experienced, all the pain, has been washed away in victory. And now, he is singing the song of salvation probably as loudly as anyone else. Each day, he feasts at our Lord’s table.

I can’t wait until I see him again.

There’s a song I really love, and whenever I sing it, I think of my dad and the hope that we have.

May you too find the hope we have in Christ.

There are burdens that I carry every day
Sometimes it makes me want to cry
Hopeless feelings harbored deep inside my heart
And I find it hard to hold my head up high

In the middle of the darkness in my life
I find a strength to carry on
I am holding to a promise Jesus made
And I know it won’t be long ’til we’ll be gone

In a while we’ll be gone
And we won’t have to cry anymore.
All our sorrows left behind

And that’s the day that I am waiting for
And that’s the day that I am longing for
And that’s the day I’m looking for
— Amy Grant

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Isaiah

The reason for judgment

Isaiah

One theme that we often see in science fiction movies is the devastation of the earth where everything is laid waste. Terminator and Matrix come to mind.

That’s the kind of picture I get as I read this passage where the whole world is laid waste.

There will be a time when God’s judgment will come on this earth, and Isaiah says of that time,

See the Lord is going to lay waste to the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants…

The earth dries up and withers, the exalted of the earth languish…

The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard. (Isaiah 24:1, 4, 19–20)

Why must it be this way? Why must the world go through this? Isaiah answers this in verse 5.

The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws (of God), violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.

Isaiah adds in verse 6,

Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.

God created a perfect world. When God created mankind, we were perfect. But then we turned our backs on God, living our own way and defiled the perfect earth God created.

It is no longer the beautiful place God intended; it has been ruined by sin.

So God will have to tear everything down, and make everything new.

And in the process of tearing everything down, he must deal with the sin of the people that caused the damage before making everything new. After all, if sin is left undealt with, a new world would soon be defiled all over again.

And so the guilty will be punished. All who have turned their backs on God, living their own way, will be dealt with permanently.

But all who belong to God will be preserved and saved. Isaiah says of them,

They raise their voices and shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty… From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the righteous One!” (Isaiah 24:14, 16)

So in this passage, we have both warning and hope. Warning that a time of judgment is coming. Hope that those who belong to him will be preserved and will once again sing his praises.

Let us take God’s warning so that we may avoid his judgment and find the hope that he desires for all of us.

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Isaiah

Where your glory comes from

Isaiah

Where does your glory come from? From where do you get your praise? What in your life do you take pride in?

For the people of Tyre, it came from their trading business.

They were a port city, and had a thriving maritime business. They were wealthy and successful. They were also a very ungodly people, worshiping their own gods, including a god very common in our day, the god of money.

And here, in all their pride and glory, God brings judgment on them, warning them that the day would come when they would be overthrown.

He warned that though they were famous and had great wealth, it would all be stripped from them. Isaiah says of them,

Wail, you people of the island. Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?

Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?

The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. (Isaiah 23:6–9)

And while God tells them they will once again be restored,

Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded.

Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes. (18)

In other words, all her pride and glory will be for the benefit of the Lord and his people, not their own.

What can we learn from this?

Lasting glory can come from only one place. It’s not from money, or fame, or anything else of this earth because all of these things are temporary.

Lasting glory can only come from God. And glory doesn’t come from molding ourselves into an image of our own devising. Rather it comes from reflecting the Lord’s image as we draw near to him.

As Paul wrote,

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

I like how the NASB puts it, that we are being transformed into Christ’s image “from glory to glory.”

And so what should we take pride in? Jeremiah answers that, saying,

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)

How about you? Where is your glory? Where is your pride?

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Micah

God’s wrath…and mercy

Wrath and mercy

One criticism often made of “the God of the Old Testament” (as if he’s different from the “God of the New Testament”) is that he’s a God of wrath, rather than a God of mercy.

I think the problem for the most part is that people don’t look closely enough at the Old Testament. They see the instances of God’s wrath, but miss the instances of mercy.

(I could also say that many people see the instances of God’s mercy in the New Testament, but miss the instances of judgment—namely in Matthew and Revelation, but in other places as well).

But here in Micah, we see both God’s wrath and mercy. Micah says in verse 9,

Because I (that is Israel) have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath… (Micah 7:9)

“See!” people will say. “Look. There it is! God’s wrath. I do something wrong, so God nails me to the wall for it!”

But look at the last half of that verse.

…until he pleads my case, and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. (Micah 7:9)

As I read that verse, it calls to mind Romans 8, where Paul says,

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died—more than that who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:33–34)

What we see here in these two passages, both Old and New, is that while God brings judgment, he is also our lawyer for those who belong to him. Jesus stands by our side and argues our case. What does he say?

“Father, I have already paid the price for this person’s sin. His debt has been paid.”

And so the Father says, “Fine. Justice has been served. Your sins are forgiven and you’re free to go.”

I love the last part of Micah where he says,

Who is a God like you who pardons sins and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18–19)

I love the picture here. Instead of stomping on us for our sins, God stomps on our sins.

Instead of throwing us off the side of the ship bound in chains, he bundles up our sins and throws them over the side of the ship, sinking them into the depths of the sea.

That’s our God. Not only a God of wrath, but a God of mercy.

The last verse in Micah where it says, “You will be true to Jacob and show mercy to Abraham,” holds true for us as well.

As John wrote,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

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Micah

When there’s no one else we can count on

Micah

When trust has been broken, it can be hard to restore. Just ask anyone whose spouse has cheated on them.

Sometimes, when trust has been broken, it’s hard to trust anyone. We start to wonder if there’s anyone in this world we can count on.

That’s how Micah must’ve felt. He was in a land filled with violence and injustice. He was in a place where it was hard to trust anyone.

You couldn’t trust the leaders and the judges because they weren’t interested in justice. They were only interested in bribes.

And the corruption had seemingly dripped down to the entire population. Micah said,

The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains….

The best of them is like a brier, the most upright, worse than a thorn hedge. (Micah 7:2, 4)

Micah then adds,

Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.

For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. (Micah 7:5–6)

Pretty depressing words. But in the land where Micah lived, with all the corruption he saw, that’s how he felt.

And sometimes, we feel that way too. We wonder who we can trust.

But there is someone we can trust. Micah wrote,

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)

Though everyone else may fail us, God will not. Though everyone may turn their backs on us, God will never forsake us. And though everyone else may betray us, God will ever be faithful to us.

He sees. He hears. He knows. So let us watch in hope for him, waiting for him,

because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5–6)

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Micah

Empty religion

Walk humbly with your God

“I call to the stand the people of Israel.”

That’s basically the opening of Micah 6, where God calls the Israelites to account in a court-like atmosphere.

He cross-examines them, saying,

My people what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me! (Micah 6:3)

He then testifies of all he’d done for Israel, delivering them from Egypt and from those who tried to harm them, and leading them through the desert to the promised land.

At which point, the people got exasperated with all the questioning.

They asked God, “Well what do you want? We’ll do anything just to get you to shut up and leave us alone!

Do you want offerings of calves and rams? Shall I offer my own children as a sacrifice? What do you want anyway?”

That’s the kind of attitude that many people take when it comes to God. They think that all he wants is religious ritual. Going to church. Sacrificing their money by giving tithes. Fasting.

Some people at Lent will give up things that they usually do, thinking that it will earn them points with God, but then live their own way the rest of the year.

And that’s how the Israelites were. They just wanted to get their sacrifices out of the way, hopefully appease God through them, and then live their own way the rest of the time.

But Micah told them,

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

God is not interested in empty religion. What is empty religion? It’s doing religious acts devoid of a love for God. It’s doing religious rituals one day, but doing your own thing the rest of the time.

For the Israelites, they were cheating people in business and acting violently against each other (Micah 6:10–12).

While they were willing to act religiously to get God off their backs, they refused to do what God really required. To do what was right, to show mercy to the people around them, and to walk humbly with God daily, not just once a week.

How about you? What do you think pleases God? It’s not your money. It’s not going to church. It’s not doing religious rituals.

Jesus summed it up this way, when asked what the greatest commandment was. It wasn’t sacrifices. It wasn’t tithing. It wasn’t any religious rituals. Instead he said,

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30–31)

Do you want to please God?

It’s not found in empty religious acts.

It’s found in loving God, and in loving others.

That’s what God truly desires.

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Micah

When the enemy comes against us

Micah

Throughout its history, Israel has constantly been surrounded by its enemies. And in this passage, Assyria seems to be used as a type of all the enemies that would come against Israel.

But Micah prophesies here the ultimate triumph of Israel, saying,

When the Assyrian invades our land and marches through our fortresses, we will raise against him seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men.

They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.

He will deliver us from the Assyrian when he invades our land and marches into our borders. (Micah 5:5–6)

In other words, the day will come when the enemies of God will rise up once again against Israel to destroy it.

But God will raise up people to lead Israel to victory over its enemies. Yet their strength will not come from their military, but from God.

Micah adds in verse 7 that the remnant of Israel will be like “dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger for mankind,” again pointing out that it is the Lord’s work, not man’s that brings this deliverance and ultimate victory.

And because of this the remnant of Israel will become like a lion that none of its enemies can stop (Micah 5:8).

On that day, all the things that Israel had trusted in the past—their military strength, their witchcraft, and all their false idols—will be taken away, and they will once and for all put their trust in God who casts down all their enemies. (Micah 5:9–15)

So what do we take from this? When the enemy of our souls comes against us, how do we respond? When we feel under attack in our lives, in our work, in our relationships, in our finances, or in our ministry, what do we do?

Remember that victory will not come from our own wisdom and strength.

So often, when our lives seem under attack, we panic and try to resolve problems in our own wisdom and understanding, ignoring the one who can deliver us.

But if we are to not only fend off these attacks, but totally overcome, we need to put our faith in God. And when God tells us what to do, we need to obey. And when we do, we will find victory.

The other thing we need to remember when we find ourselves under attack, is that the ultimate victory has already been won. That through Jesus’ work on the cross, our salvation has already been purchased, our sins forgiven.

So no matter what the enemy may do to us on this earth, it can’t touch what we have in heaven.

So don’t give up. Don’t get discouraged. Instead, trust in God and put your hope in him, knowing that the victory has already been won.

Categories
Micah

The one who brings peace

Micah

Peace. What would you pay to have peace in your life?

That’s what the Israelites must have been thinking when Micah was writing. I suspect that many Jews feel the same way even today.

Micah here prophesies the fall of Jerusalem, and a time when the ruler of Judah would be struck and taken down.

But then Micah says that would not be the end of Israel. Rather, another ruler would arise from Bethlehem,

One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. (Micah 5:2)

This, of course, is a prophecy of Jesus, one that the priests and teachers of the law pointed to when Herod asked where the Messiah would come from (Matthew 2:6).

And Micah says of Jesus,

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. (Micah 5:4–5)

How these words must have brought comfort to those who heard them. To be in trouble, in turmoil for years, and to have hope that one was coming who would bring them peace.

The ironic thing is that Jesus did come. But instead of embracing the one who could bring them the peace they longed for, they rejected and crucified him.

Even today, things have not changed. I’m not just talking about the Jews. I’m talking about all of us.

How often do we struggle with fear and hurt in our lives? How often do we long for peace of mind in our lives?

And yet, we refuse to turn to the one who can give us peace. We refuse to let him take the throne of our lives and submit to him.

One day, Jesus will come again, and at that time, he will reign and all will live securely. All will have peace.

But if we’ll only let him take the throne of our hearts, we can have peace now despite the circumstances in our lives that we go through. We can find security for our souls despite all the hurt around us.

Just as Jesus wept for Jerusalem 2000 years ago, he weeps for many of us today, saying as he did then,

How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Luke 13:34)

What was the result for Jerusalem?

Look, your house is left to you desolate. (Luke 13:35)

The result is the same today. Utter desolation for those who turn their backs on Jesus. A life without hope and peace.

How about you? Is your life feeling desolate? Meaningless? Hopeless? Without peace?

The answer for your life hasn’t changed in 2000 years. It’s found only in Jesus. And he longs to take you into his arms and give you the peace, hope, and meaning in life that we all desire.

All you have to do is surrender your life to him. Will you do that today?

Categories
Micah

God’s plans

God's plans

The thing that amazes me about God is that he’s never surprised; he’s never caught off guard by the things that happen in this world.

We, on the other hand, are often caught up short by our circumstances, and as a result we often panic.

Sometimes we see God in that way. We think that when God made Adam and Eve in the garden, he had no idea that they would fall, that he panicked, and that he suddenly had to come up with a backup plan.

Or we think that when he chose the Israelites to be his people, he was shocked that they would turn their backs on him so quickly, and that he had to readjust his plans as a result.

But God knew from the beginning the choices Adam and Eve would make. He knew what choices the Israelites would make out in the desert and after they reached the promised land. And based on this knowledge, he built his plan.

I think you can see that clearly in this passage. Here, God scathingly rebukes the Israelites for their sin, saying,

Have you no king? Has your counselor perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?

Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you must leave the city to camp in the open field. You will go to Babylon… (Micah 4:9–10)

In other words, God was saying, “I should have been your king. I should have been your counselor. But you turned your back on me, and now the people you relied on are gone. All that’s left for you is exile and captivity.”

But God makes clear that even in this, he had a plan for the Israelites, adding,

There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the hands of your enemies. (Micah 4:10)

There’s no sense of panic here or of changed plans.

Rather, God knew what the Israelites would do, and how he would respond. That he would punish his people for their disobedience, but that in his grace and mercy he would bring them back.

Am I saying that our choices don’t matter then? That God’s plan will be accomplished no matter what, so it doesn’t matter what we do?

No. It makes a big difference for us personally.

For when we cooperate with God in his plan, we find his blessing in our lives. But when we fight against his plan, we end up finding only pain and suffering.

The Israelites found that out when they went into exile. And the nations that conquered Israel discovered that soon enough as well. God said of them,

But now many nations are gathered against you. They say, “Let her be defiled, let our eyes gloat over Zion!”

But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan. (Micah 4:11–12)

The nations around didn’t know God’s plan. As a result, they ended up fighting against God’s will and were eventually broken, just as Israel was.

But unlike the remnant of Israelites that repented and were saved, there was no salvation for these nations. They were utterly destroyed.

How about you? Are you seeking God’s will in your life? Are you cooperating with his plan?

When we do so, that’s when we truly find life. When we don’t, we will end up defeated and broken, just like Pharaoh, Babylon, and all the other people and nations that fought against God.

So as Moses once told the Israelites,

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.

For the Lord is your life. (Deuteronomy 30:19–20)

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Micah

Not forever

Micah

If there is one place that has soured on war, it’s Japan.

If you would interview most people in Japan, you’d find that they take a much dimmer view of war than probably any other developed nation. Probably because they saw just how ugly it can be.

It’s too bad that other nations don’t take a similar view.

For years, we had the Cold War, and the world at times seemed on the brink.

Things are better now, but as long as people are in control, I don’t think war will ever disappear. Because with people comes covetousness, lust for power, and all the evils that cause war.

But it won’t last forever. The day will come when God wrests control away from all those who rebel against him and becomes King over all.

On that day, Satan and all who follow him will be vanquished, and justice and peace will reign.

Micah puts it this way:

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it…

He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. (Micah 4:1, 3–4)

The main question we need to ask ourselves before that day comes is, “Whose side are we on?”

Because while for those who follow God, they will at last find peace, for those who don’t, there remains only judgment.

So let us seek God now. Let us not wait until the day of judgment, but let us say now,

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. (Micah 4:2)

And,

All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. (Micah 4:5)

Whose side are you on?

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2 Chronicles

Qualities of a godly leader

2 Chronicles

For some reason, the verbs associated with Hezekiah in these two chapters really strike me.  And they’re words that show the qualities God wants in his leaders.  What are they?

Hezekiah prayed for his people.  (2 Chronicles 30:18)

In this case, there were a number of people that celebrated the Passover but were not ceremonially clean as required by God’s law.

Apparently, some became sick as a result.

But Hezekiah prayed that God would show mercy to them because they were coming with hearts set on seeking him.

God heard, and he healed.

Hezekiah encouraged his people.  (2 Chronicles 30:22)

He saw the hard work the Levites were doing for the Lord, and he didn’t just take them for granted.

Instead, he spoke words of encouragement, letting them know how grateful he was for them and their work.

Hezekiah assigned work to his people.  (2 Chronicles 31:2)

He didn’t try to do everything himself.  Instead, he assigned out God’s work to the priests and Levites as God had commanded.

Hezekiah contributed what he had in order to get things done. (2 Chronicles 31:3)

He didn’t just order people to do things. He himself, gave of his own possessions in order to do the Lord’s work, in this case for the burnt offerings.

Hezekiah sought God.  (2 Chronicles 31:20-21)

That’s probably the most important of all the things listed.

He didn’t just rely on his own wisdom (although he would fail in this from time to time).

He honestly wanted to please God.

And so he made his relationship with God a priority.

In doing so, he did what was good, right, and faithful before God, working wholeheartedly.

That’s the kind of leader God wants, whether you’re leading a church, or simply (or not so simply) leading your children.

He desires that you pray for your people, encourage them, and assign them responsibilities instead of doing everything yourself.

That said, he wants you to contribute what you can instead of laying back and doing nothing.

And most of all, he desires that you seek him with all your heart.

What kind of leader are you?

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2 Chronicles

A call to repentance

2 Chronicles

One of the interesting things in this passage was that at a time when there were probably still hard feelings between Israel and Judah, Hezekiah reached out to the remnant that remained in the northern kingdom after the Assyrians had sent most of them into exile.

And basically, Hezekiah told them, “We, like you, have turned our backs on God and have paid the price for it.  Now we’re turning back to God.  Won’t you join us?  Won’t you come back with us?”

As I look at this passage, I think there are several things we can learn when calling people to repentance.

One is that we need a heart of forgiveness and compassion even for those who have hurt us.

The Israelites of the northern kingdom had joined forces with Aram, and had caused much trouble for the people of Judah during the time of Hezekiah’s father Ahaz.  (Isaiah 7)

But when Israel fell to Assyria, Hezekiah reached out with compassion, begging them to return to the Lord.

We need that kind of heart as well.  A heart that longs for the repentance and salvation of those around us, even those that have hurt us.

But too often, instead of reaching out to them, we rejoice at their suffering.

The second thing to note is the message itself.

What is the message of salvation?

“Return to the Lord.  Your life is a mess because you’ve turned back on him.  But if you will return to him, ‘he is gracious and compassionate and he will not turn his face from you.'” (2 Chronicles 30:9)

The message is the same today.

“Maybe you have messed up your life because of the choices you’ve made.

“But God still loves you and wants a relationship with you, no matter how messed up your life is.  And if you return to him, he will forgive and restore you.

“All you have to do is turn.”

That’s the message we need to be giving people.  A message of repentance and hope.

The final thing to remember is that we cannot control how people will respond to the message.

Many of the people in Israel scorned and ridiculed Hezekiah’s messengers.

But others humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem to join in the Passover Feast with the people of Judah.

And when it was all done, they not only helped destroy the places of idol worship in Judah, but they went home and destroyed the places of idol worship in their own towns as well.

Some people will reject the message of the gospel.

That’s okay.  You can’t control their response.

But there will be others that will respond with open hearts, and they will repent.

So don’t get discouraged.  Just keep preaching the message.

As God told Isaiah,

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Returning to God

Kings & Chronicles

It’s been a while since we’ve hit the history books.  Time to get back in it. 

And here we run into one of the great kings of Judah, Hezekiah. 

The writer of Kings says of him,

There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before or after him.  (2 Kings 18:5)

Quite frankly, Hezekiah had a terrible role model in his father Ahaz. 

But perhaps because of what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel, and the warnings of prophets such as Micah and Isaiah, Hezekiah wasted little time in turning the country back towards God. 

And in his life, I think we can see how we ourselves can turn back to God when we have fallen.

The first thing that Hezekiah did was to rid the country of all the idols people were worshiping. 

He even got rid of the bronze snake that God had used to cure the Israelites of their snake bites when they were traveling in the desert (Numbers 21:4-9). 

In the same way, if we are to return to God in our lives, we need to turn our backs on the idols in our lives, whether it’s the god of money, or the god of possessions, or whatever it may be. 

Anything you place before God in your life, that is your idol.

Now I’m not saying you have to throw away all your possessions and your money. 

What I am saying is that you need to make God more important in your life than these things.

Your idol may even once have been a good thing, such as the bronze snake once was. 

Perhaps it’s a hobby you have.  But right now, it’s dominating your time and it’s causing you to ignore your relationship with God and the things he wants you to do. 

If that’s the case, you need to turn your back on that too.

The next thing that Hezekiah did was to clean out the temple and purify it. 

As Christians, we are the temple of Christ.  Christ dwells in us, and we need to make sure our temples are pure as well. 

Part of that is taking out the idols that are dominating our lives. 

But it’s also bringing our sins before God, confessing them, and asking for his forgiveness.

Back in the days of Hezekiah, that required a sin offering, a sacrifice of goats. (2 Chronicles 29:23-24)

For us, Jesus was the final sacrifice.  By dying on the cross, he took the punishment for our sins. 

And now the Bible says that his blood purifies us from all sin.  (1 John 1:7). 

But in order to keep our hearts clean before him, we need to constantly confess our sins before him and repent of our sins.  In 1 John 1:9, it says,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Finally, Hezekiah and the people dedicated themselves to God once again. 

Having put aside their idols, and turned from their sins, they said, “God we are yours.  We give our lives to you once again.” 

And that’s what we need to do as well. 

It’s not enough just to turn from our sins, we need to turn to God as well. 

It’s not enough to stop following idols in our lives.  We need to start following God with all our hearts.

Maybe you’re a fallen Christian.  You started walking with the Lord, but have since walked away. 

To come back is as simple as a prayer.

Lord Jesus, I’ve turned my back on you and gone my own way.  Please forgive me.  You said that if I confess my sins, you are faithful and just and will forgive me. 

Lord, I turn back to you now.  Help me to turn my back on the idols in my life.  Please take the throne of my heart once again. 

I thank you so much for your grace and mercy.  I thank you that you never give up on me.  I love you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
Isaiah

A self-centered life

Isaiah

Who are you living for? For many people, the answer is, “Myself.”

That’s definitely who Shebna, the palace steward, was living for. He thought so much of himself, that he even had a tomb carved out for himself, something that usually only royalty did. And he was hardly royalty.

Not only that, he did this in a time of trouble for Judah. It was under attack by the Assyrians and many people were hurting.

So the Lord rebukes him, saying,

What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock.

Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away O you mighty man.

He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there your splendid chariots will remain — you disgrace to your master’s house!

I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. (Isaiah 22:16–19)

In his place, the Lord said he would put Eliakim, a man who would be “a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.” (21)

And God said of him,

I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory will hang on him (23–24).

I heard a message by a pastor who had fallen hard several years ago, but who by God’s grace is slowly being restored, both in his personal life and in his ministry.

But the thing he said was that he fell because everything had become about him. He had forgotten that it was a privilege given by God to be in the position he had been in.

It’s so easy to rip pastors who fall. And they should be held to a higher standard. The Bible says to whom much is given, much is required.

But the thing to remember, the thing I remember, is that anyone can fall.

And whenever we make ourselves the center of our lives, we’re in danger of losing all that we have: our marriages, our families, our ministries, everything we have in life.

So instead of ripping those who fall, we need to take a serious look at ourselves.

We need to ask ourselves, “How about me? Who’s the center of my life? Is it me? Or is it the Lord? Am I living to serve myself? Or am I living to serve him and the people he has given me?”

The ironic thing of it all is that if we humble ourselves and make our lives about serving God and others, like Eliakim, we will be given honor and glory.

Who are you living for?

Categories
Isaiah

Trying to plug up the holes

Isaiah

So often we look at our lives, and we see the mess we’ve made of it. Maybe it’s in our marriages. Or in our other relationships. Or in our finances. And so we set out to plug up the holes in our lives.

But every time we plug up one hole, another leak springs up, and as a result our boat continues to sink.

That’s how it was with the people of Judah. In this passage, they saw a siege coming, so they tried to do everything they could to prepare. Almost everything.

They gathered their weapons, they tried to repair the breaches in the wall, and they made sure water could come into the city, while blocking it off from their enemies.

But while they did all that, they failed to deal with their biggest problem: their sin.

Isaiah wrote,

The Lord, the Lord Almighty called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. (Isaiah 22:12)

In other words, the reason God allowed the Assyrians to attack was to get the people to turn back to him. To repent of their sins and start worshiping him again.

But instead, they continued in their sinful ways, saying, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” (13)

Whether that was said in mockery of Isaiah’s warnings, or in resignation, the result was the same. The people refused to turn back to God, and so God said,

Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for. (14)

What do we take from this? It’s all well and good to see the problems in your life, and to try to deal with them.

But our biggest problem is an attitude of rebellion against God. And until we deal with that problem, leaks will continue to spring up in our lives. And eventually we will sink.

So let us stop trying to plug up the holes in our lives by our own wisdom and efforts, and turn to God. Repent of your sins, and start doing things his way.

If you will do so, not only will you find that your boat has stopped sinking, but that your boat will be made completely new, capable of navigating any problem you might go through.

Categories
Micah

Non-rock-a-boatis

Don't rock the boat

Famous cult expert Walter Martin once noted a serious problem within the Christian church. He identified it by its Latin name, “non-rock-a-boatis.”

In other words, “Whatever you do, don’t rock the boat. Don’t say anything that will upset anybody.”

Unfortunately, too many churches suffer from this affliction. They are so worried about what people will think, that they soft-soap the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

I remember one time, my pastor talked about sexual purity and how God’s plan for us is to save sex for one person that we are totally committed to for life. He also talked against living with your partner before you get married.

The next week, attendance dropped, and it took several weeks for it to get back to normal. It seems that his message struck a very uncomfortable chord among those who heard. But it was a message that people needed to hear.

Micah certainly had no problems rocking the boat. He tore into the leaders of the country who were acting unjustly towards the people. He then tore into the “prophets” who only said what people wanted to hear, saying,

This is what the Lord says: “As for the prophets who lead my people astray, if one feeds them, they proclaim ‘peace’; if he does not, they prepare to wage war against him.

Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination.

The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God.” (Micah 3:5–7)

Micah then said,

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. (Micah 3:8)

That’s the type of people we need to be. When people are in sin, we need to tell it to them straight. And if it offends them, so be it.

I’m not saying that we should be screaming at them, “You are going to hell!”

As I’ve mentioned before, there are far too many people who seem to take a perverse pleasure in that message. It almost seems like they take pleasure in imagining people burning in hell.

But God doesn’t take pleasure in people going to hell. He weeps over it. And so should we.

But it’s not enough to weep. We need to warn people. And sometimes that means rocking the boat and telling them what they don’t want to hear.

Micah did so, and we find in Jeremiah 26:17–19 that this message he gave in chapter 3 caused King Hezekiah to repent.

Isaiah was another prophet that didn’t hesitate to tell the truth. And between Micah, Isaiah, and the other prophets, they were able to make a difference.

How about you? Are you afraid to rock the boat? Are you so afraid of how others will react, that you fail to give people the whole counsel of God?

The whole counsel of God is this: that there is forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. But for those who reject that gift, there remains only judgment.

Let us not fear to rock the boat in the name of Jesus.

On the other hand, let us not just rock the boat just for the sake of upsetting people. But let us rock the boat in the love of Jesus, that people might repent and be saved.

Categories
Micah

I don’t want to hear it

Micah

“I don’t want to hear it!”

How often do we say these words when it comes to God’s word?

We’re going through some trouble in our lives, we read something in the Word that deals with the situation, and immediately reject it because we don’t like what it says.

I remember a friend of mine talking about how he once was having trouble with the words that were coming out of his mouth, and he knew it.

Because of this, he took pains to avoid reading Proverbs and James where he knew the Bible talks a lot about the tongue.

But then one day, in some obscure passage, God nailed him to the wall about the things he was saying.

To his credit, at that point, he repented.

But so often, we avoid or ignore the Word of God in our lives because we know it will sting, just as hydrogen peroxide will sting if you put it on an open wound.

The Israelites were like that. They told Micah,

“Do not prophesy…

Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us…

Is the Spirit of the Lord angry? Does he do such things?” (Micah 2:6–7)

In short, the answer to the question was “Yes, God does bring judgment on his people when they sin.”

And we will suffer the consequences for our sin, whether it’s a broken marriage, financial ruin, or whatever else it may be, if we don’t repent.

But there’s another side to all this as well. God said, “Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?” (Micah 2:7)

In other words, God doesn’t just speak to make our lives miserable. He doesn’t give us his commands to take our lives away. He speaks in order that we may have life.

That we may have a healthy marriage. That we may have enough to eat and drink and a place to stay. That we may have work that satisfies. That we may have a life that really works.

And though his words may sting us at times, they will also heal.

But if we leave the open wounds of our sins untreated by his Word, they will fester, get infected, and ultimately destroy us.

How about you? Are there words from God that you are trying to avoid in your life today? Are there words from God that you are closing your ears to?

Open your heart. Soften your heart. The words of God may wound, but they also heal. May healing begin in your life.

Categories
Micah

Just because you can

Micah

Here God condemns people for their blatant sins. Sometimes people sin, but it’s a thing of the moment. Perhaps, for example, we get angry with someone, and we react in a wrong way.

But here, people actually were planning out their sins. And basically they carried out their plans, sinful though they were, simply because they could.

God says of them in verse 1,

Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. (Micah 2:1)

But God tells them in no uncertain terms that they will not get away with it. In verse 3, he says,

I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. (Micah 2:3)

How often do we sin just because we can? We have the opportunity to sin, no one can stop us, no one will know, and so we sin.

Pornography, for example, used to be much more difficult for people to get away with, because you had to go to a store to get it. Somebody would definitely see you and know what you were doing.

Now the internet makes it easy to access without anyone knowing. And so many Christian men fall in this area as a result.

Or people cheat on their marriage partner because the opportunity presents itself and they feel no one will ever find out.

But God knows. Our sin will eventually come to light, if not in this world, then in the next, and there will be judgment.

So let us not embrace the opportunities we have to sin, but let us flee them. Just because it’s in our power to sin, doesn’t mean we should.

As Paul said,

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:13–14)

Categories
Micah

Following the sins of others

Lachish

We’re going to take a short break from Isaiah here for a couple of reasons. First, Isaiah is just about to prophesy against Jerusalem, and here, Micah does the same. And second, we need to do some catching up with the chronology.

Although they were contemporaries, Micah started his prophecies a little after Isaiah did. Isaiah started in the time of Uzziah; Micah started at the time of Uzziah’s son, Jotham.

As Micah begins, Israel (that is, the northern kingdom) is still standing, but as Micah points out, that wouldn’t last long.

He starts out by talking about the Lord’s judgment against Samaria for its idolatry, and told them that because of it, their cities would soon be devastated, and the idols they relied on would be broken to pieces.

But then he turns his attention to Judah. And two verses strike me here.

First in verse 9, it says,

[Israel’s] wound has come to Judah. It has reached the very gate of my people, even to Jerusalem itself. (Micah 1:9)

Then in verse 13,

You who live in Lachish… You were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. (Micah 1:13)

In other words, while Israel started sinning first through their idol worship, these same things had crept their way into Judah as well.

It’s ironic to note that the spiritual breach occurred in the city of Lachish, because Lachish was one of the main fortress cities that protected Judah. And that spiritual breach would lead to a physical one.

In accordance with Micah’s prophecy, the Assyrian army attacked Lachish and crushed it, paving the way for them to lay siege to Jerusalem. It was only through God’s help that Jerusalem was delivered. But that’s another story for another time.

In the same way that sin crept into Judah and corrupted it, the sins of this world can creep into our lives as well if we’re not careful.

How often have you seen Christians fall into sin, whether it’s adultery, or the love of money, or whatever it may be?

As we look at the world around us, sin can look pretty attractive. It seems to offer us something good that we don’t have.

But as with the people of Israel and Judah, it leads to our destruction. It destroys our families, it destroys our faith, and ultimately destroys our lives if we’ll let it.

So let us be vigilant against the sins that would worm their way into our lives. And let us be a people that is pleasing to God, holy and blameless in his sight.

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Isaiah

A temporary relief, an eternal hope.

Isaiah

These were prophesies made against Edom (Dumah) and Arabia. And these prophesies let them know in uncertain terms that disaster was coming to both.

In verse 11, the Edomites cry out, “What is left of the night?”

In other words, “We’re suffering! How much longer are we going to suffer at the hands of the Assyrians?”

The answer of Isaiah is bleak, “Morning is coming, but also the night.” (Isaiah 21:12)

In other words, “You will get a temporary relief from the Assyrians. They will be overthrown…but not by you. And their conquerors (the Babylonians) will make your life even more miserable.”

The people of Arabia would also suffer disaster, as they would be overthrown within a year.

“Boy, that’s cheerful! Thanks for the word, Bruce!”

You’re welcome. 🙂

But there is something to take from this. All of us go through tough times in our lives. All of us go through suffering. For the most part, these tough times come and go. Everyone has good times and bad times in their lives.

But for those without God, like the Edomites and Arabians, ultimately there is no hope. Darkness will fall, and they will go to hell for all eternity.

But for us who have Christ in our lives, we can know that in the end, there is a light we can look forward to. Paul wrote,

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we are saved. (Romans 8:18, 22–23)

Paul knew that our sufferings, though painful, are temporary. And so despite all that he went through in his life, he had hope. And so do we.

Our suffering will not last forever. So if you are struggling, if you are suffering, turn to God. Look to him. And know that even now, the Spirit of God is praying for us.

It’s precisely because God’s Spirit himself is praying for us that,

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

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Isaiah

Hope for those who have been crushed

Isaiah

I’ve always thought this was a passage that was foretelling the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians during the time of Daniel.

But it’s also possible that it’s referring to the Babylonians joining with the people of Elam and Media to attack Assyria, with the people of Judah cheering them on against a mutual enemy.

Isaiah too perhaps sees hope in this attack. But then this vision comes from the Lord, causing him to weep, as his hope for relief from the Assyrians was completely crushed. (Isaiah 21:3–4)

And with the news of Babylon’s fall, the feasting of the Jews (5–6) would come to a crashing halt, with all hope gone. But Isaiah tells them,

O my people, crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD Almighty, from the God of Israel. (Isaiah 21:10)

The picture is of grain that has been threshed. The heads of wheat were trampled to break open the seeds so that when they were thrown in the air, the chaff would be blown away with the wind, while the good grain would fall to the ground and be preserved.

In the same way, while Israel would be crushed by the Assyrians like grain crushed on the ground, yet God would preserve a remnant who would love and follow him.

Meanwhile, the ones they had depended on to deliver them would be blown away like the chaff they were.

Sometimes, like the Israelites, we get in trouble, but look everywhere but towards God for help.

But when that help is stripped from us, though we may feel crushed, we’ll find that he still has a plan for us and that there’s still hope for our lives. All we have to do is turn to him and place our trust in him again.

Are you feeling crushed? Have you tried looking everywhere for help, yet ignoring what God is trying to do in your life?

There can be healing. Hope can be renewed. All you have to do is humble yourself, turn to him, and repent. And if you put your faith in him, he will restore you.

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Isaiah

Stubborn

Isaiah

When I received my training for teaching children, my instructor taught me that if you really want to get a point across, you should repeat it at least three times.

The first time, they’re usually not really listening, the second time, they’re kind of listening, but by the third time, it’ll most likely stick. With some children, though, even that’s not enough. 🙂

Anyway, three times certainly wasn’t enough for the people of Judah.

Under king Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, they continually sought alliances with Egypt in order to keep Assyria at bay.

King Hezekiah was a good king (one of the best ever in Judah, actually, as we will see later), but there were times during his reign when he faltered in his faith. And instead of trusting God, he put his trust in his military alliances.

Time and again Isaiah warned him against this.

In chapter 20, Isaiah even goes so far as to walk around naked for around three years. (Whether fully naked or not, I’m not sure. I hope not.)

This was to be a sign of what would happen to the very people Hezekiah was trusting in. That they would be taken as captives by Assyria, and that Judah and anyone else who put their trust in Egypt would also be put to shame.

In chapter 30, Isaiah warns them again, and calls Hezekiah and the people obstinate for going through with their alliance with Egypt, saying,

Woe to the obstinate children…to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. (Isaiah 30:1–2)

Finally, in chapter 31, he warns them that Egypt will fall, and that if Judah continued to cling to this alliance, they would fall right along with them.

It was only when Hezekiah came to the end of his rope and Egypt proved to be a “broken reed” that he put his full trust in God. And when he did, God delivered Judah.

The question is, why was he so stubborn? More than that, why are we so stubborn?

I really don’t know. Maybe it’s pride; we feel we can deal with our own problems without God. Maybe it’s fear that God won’t come through for us.

But how much better would our lives be if we would just trust God from the start. How much better would it be if we would listen to him the first time and obey him.

Let us not be stubborn. Let us not be obstinate as Hezekiah and the people of Judah were, clinging to their own plans, and sinning in the process.

Rather, let us heed the warnings and admonitions of God the first time, and obey him.

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Isaiah

Struck to be blessed and to be a blessing

Isaiah

I grew up to a lot of spankings when I was a kid. Well, maybe not a lot, but a lot more than I want to remember.

It was never very pleasant, but as I look back on it now, I’m thankful for the discipline that my dad brought into my life. It’s definitely made me a better person.

God does the same thing with us. He often brings discipline in our lives, not because he’s an angry God, but because he really wants to bring blessing into our lives.

For the first half of this chapter, we see God raining down judgment on Egypt, just as he did in Moses’ time. But in the middle of the prophesy, the tone suddenly turns.

In that day, five cities in Egypt will…swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty…

When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender and he will rescue them.

So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day, they will acknowledge the Lord…

The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will return to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. (Isaiah 19:18, 20–22)

After that, God talks about how he would work in the lives of their oppressors, the Assyrians. And he says of them and Egypt,

The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day, Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” (23–24)

It’s really amazing to me when I think about it. Usually these kinds of words are said only of Israel. But here, God shows that he embraces all who turn to him.

Yes, God will strike us when we sin. But his desire is that we would turn to him that he might heal us.

Not only that, he wants to bless us. And he wants us to be a blessing on this earth to everyone that we touch.

Is God bringing discipline into your life right now? Are things tough as a consequence of some sin in your life? Then turn to God and repent.

It’s not his desire to strike us; it’s his desire that we repent.

It’s not his desire to curse us; it’s his desire to bless us.

It’s not his desire that we be a curse to the people around us, but that we would be a blessing.

So as the writer of Hebrews said,

Do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. (Hebrews 12:5–6)

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Isaiah

Though God seems silent

Isaiah

Sometimes as we look at all the evil that is around us, we wonder where God is. Why doesn’t he do something? Is he doing anything at all? Does he even care?

And indeed, that seems to be the case in this passage. In the face of a people who “were feared far and wide, who were an aggressive nation,” God remained quiet, looking down on events from his dwelling place, seemingly with disinterest. (Isaiah 18:4)

But then God says, the time will come when he will no longer just sit back and watch. Instead,

[God] will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter. (Isaiah 18:5–6)

In other words, although God may be sitting back now, he will bring judgment. He brought judgment on this aggressive nation, and the time will come when he will bring judgment on those who oppose him and his people.

But here’s the interesting part: God is working that even his enemies would turn to him and repent.

It says in verse 7 that this same aggressive people that used to be feared and who were hostile to God and his people would bring gifts to God and submit to his Lordship.

I think it’s important to remember the words of Peter who wrote,

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:9–10)

Always remember that God’s will is to save, not destroy. The day will come when people who refuse to repent will eventually be destroyed. But God desires their repentance, and that’s why he’s putting off his judgment.

So as his people, how should we respond?

Let us pray for the people around us, even those who hate us, that they may escape the judgment to come and find the life that we ourselves have found in Christ.

As God’s children trying to be like our Father, how can we do any less?

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Isaiah

Forgetting God

Isaiah

Out of sight, out of mind.

Unfortunately, for many people, even Christians, this applies to their relationship with God.

We can’t see him physically, and if we’re not actively seeking him, it’s easy to let him slip from our minds. Unless, of course, we get into trouble. Then he quickly roars back to mind, and we cry out, “Help!”

And that was the problem with the Israelites as well. They had allied themselves with false gods in a spiritual sense, and with the Syrians in a political and military one.

And so God condemns them, saying,

You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. (Isaiah 17:10)

How often do we do the same? Oh, we may not worship Buddha or follow other religions.

But instead of relying on God and making him our rock, we put our trust in money. We put our trust in our possessions. Or we compromise with ungodly people in order to get ahead in our business or in our careers.

But while it may reap benefits in the short term, in the long run, we’ll lose everything. Israel did, as did their allies, the Syrians.

And God said,

In that day, men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

They will not look to the altars and the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. (7–8)

How much better would our lives be if instead of waiting for everything to collapse around us, we would remember God here and now? To make him our fortress, not our money. To make him our rock, and not things made or set up by man.

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Isaiah

Compassion for our brothers

Isaiah

Hatred can be worst when it’s between brothers or close relatives. Probably because our expectations are much higher for people who are supposed to be our kin.

In the same way, the Moabites should have had a much better relationship with the Israelites, but didn’t. They were related through Abraham and Lot.

Abraham, of course, was the father of the Jewish nation, while Lot was the father of the Moabites.

But the relationship between these two nations were rarely good. And now at this point in time, God was bringing judgment upon Moab.

But Isaiah’s response to it is very different from anything else you see in the rest of the judgments against the nations (aside from Israel and Judah, that is).

He said,

My heart cries out over Moab…My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. (Isaiah 15:5; 16:11)

Why did Isaiah weep for his enemies? Probably because they were supposed to be brothers. And though Moab had much bad blood with Israel and Judah, still, Isaiah cared deeply for them.

He begged them to go to Judah and take shelter there while begging Judah to take them in.

He then gave the Moabites words of comfort. He told them that their oppressors (the Assyrians) would fall, and that if they would just come to Judah, one from the house of David would grant them relief and justice. (Isaiah 16:1–4)

He says in verse 5 of chapter 16,

In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it — one from the house of David — one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of justice. (Isaiah 16:5)

In other words, their only hope would come from the Messiah who was to come and reign in Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, the Moabites would not heed Isaiah’s pleas, and they were reduced to a very small remnant as a result.

As I read this, it reminds me of the compassion we need even for those who hate us. Sometimes we feel betrayed by those who are closest to us.

But instead of rejoicing in their troubles, we should be praying for them. Like Isaiah, we should be pleading that they turn to Christ and to let them know that their only hope of salvation comes through him.

How about you? When you see people who hate you suffering, do you rejoice? Or do you weep?

Do you say, “Good riddance?” Or do you pray for their restoration?

Jesus taught us,

Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)

Jesus not only taught it, he lived it, praying for those who hated him, even as he was dying on the cross.

And because he did, salvation has come to all those who will believe in him.

May we extend the same mercy we have received even to those who hurt us.

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Isaiah

Something worse

Isaiah

We get a peek at the timeline in this passage, and find that Ahaz has just died as Isaiah writes this. But it’s probably not of Ahaz’s death that Isaiah writes about in verse 29.

The Philistines were probably rejoicing at the death of the Assyrian king who had caused much suffering among them.

But Isaiah warned them that although this particular king would no longer cause them grief, their troubles were not at an end. Rather it would only get worse.

His son would take over from where his father had left off, and in addition, famine would hit the land. As a result, the Philistines would be wiped out from the earth, and there was no hope for them.

On the other hand, the people whom the Philistines had caused much harm to over the years, the Israelites, would find refuge and safety in Zion once more (Isaiah 14:30, 32).

What can we learn from this? God often brings discipline in our lives in order that we might repent.

One of the reasons he sent the Assyrians against the Philistines (and the Israelites, for that matter) was that in their suffering, they might turn from their sins and turn to God. But when the Philistines refused to repent, they were utterly destroyed.

The only reason why God spared the Israelites was because of his own promises to Abraham and their forefathers, that their descendants would continue on forever, and that the Messiah would come from their line.

But anyway, the warning Isaiah gave the Philistines of greater judgment is similar to a warning Jesus gave a man he had healed.

The man had been lame for 38 years, but Jesus healed him. When Jesus met him later, he told the man, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)

In other words, “You thought your prior affliction was bad? Don’t just rejoice that you’ve been healed. You have a much deeper problem. Your sin. And unless you repent, something worse will happen to you.

“Your lameness was a temporary affliction. Hell, on the other hand, is forever.”

What do we do with the warnings of God? Do we ignore them? Or do we heed them?

May you heed the warnings of God that you might find life, and escape the eternal punishment that is to come to those who refuse to repent.

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Isaiah

The God whose purposes stand

Isaiah

Sometimes we look at our circumstances and wonder if God really has a plan for us.

Or we wonder if somehow, God had a plan for us, but because of our own mistakes or sins, or perhaps because of some unforeseen circumstances, perhaps God’s plans for us have been thwarted.

After all, how many times have we made plans in our own lives, only to have them thwarted by things we didn’t expect?

But here, God makes it very clear that his purposes can never be thwarted. He says,

Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand…For the Lord has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:24, 27)

Obviously in this passage, God is talking about the coming judgment of Assyria. That though they were a mighty army and were causing havoc in Israel and Judah, yet he would crush them and break the yoke that they had placed on his people.

So even though the Israelites were suffering at the Assyrians’ hands because of their sin against God, and it seemed like all hope was gone, God still had a plan for them.

And nothing, not even their greatest enemies could keep God’s purpose from being accomplished in their lives.

In the same way, God still has a plan for us. We may sin as the Israelites did and be suffering as a result.

Or we may be finding ourselves under siege from the enemy of our souls and feel like there’s no way out. We might feel like there’s no way God’s plan can be fulfilled in our lives.

But God tells us that his plan still stands. Nothing catches him by surprise. And he always has in mind what he’s going to do.

Nothing, not us, not Satan, nor anyone else in this world can stop his plan from being accomplished.

So don’t get discouraged. Don’t lose hope.

Rather, let us keep our eyes on him, and have hearts that are open to him, ready to do his will. For as David wrote,

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever. (Psalm 138:8)

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Isaiah

The fall of our Enemy

Isaiah

This passage is a continuation of chapter 13, talking about the judgment that was to come upon Babylon.

And while I don’t believe that this passage is specifically talking about Satan himself (some people particularly associate verses 12–14 to Satan), a lot of what is said here about the king of Babylon can also be said of Satan.

Both desired to be raised up and to achieve power. Both desired to be like God. And in the process, they oppressed people and put them into bondage.

But both were cast down by God, and as the rule of the Babylonian king came to an end, so will Satan’s.

Isaiah said that on the day the king of Babylon would be cast down, the people would cry out,

How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!

The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.

All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing….

The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you – all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones – all those who were kings over the nations.

They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

All your pomp has been brought down to the grave. (Isaiah 14:4–7, 9–10)

In the same way, when Satan is cast down once and for all, there will at last be peace on this earth, and there will be great rejoicing.

When Satan is cast down into hell, all his power will be gone, and he will be like all the others in the lake of fire: a victim of his own sin and pride.

I think one misunderstanding that people have about Satan is that he rules in hell.

Actually, Satan is not in hell and he does not want to go there. Because when he goes there, he will not be king. He won’t even be a “prison warden.” He’ll be a prisoner just like everyone else there.

And people will look upon him in wonder, just as they did the Babylonian king and say, “Is this the one that shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the one who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go?” (16–17)

So what can we take from this?

Know that though Satan and his minions may attack you, and may make your life miserable at times, their time is short, and they know it.

Take hope in the fact that their time is coming, and at that time, all the misery you may be going through now because of all the evil that’s in the world will be at an end.

You will not suffer forever. You will not be at Satan’s mercy forever.

God has already started the work of salvation through his Son’s work on the cross. He has already set you free from your sins, and we have now been saved from sin’s power and sin’s penalty.

We have not yet been saved from sin’s presence in our lives and the hurt and pain it can cause. But that day is coming too. And on that day,

[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

So let us not get discouraged when we are faced with trials in our lives. Rather, let us rejoice. And remember that through Jesus, the victory has already been won.

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Isaiah

The day of judgment

Isaiah

This chapter starts a series of judgments that God proclaims against the different nations.

Isaiah starts with Babylon, but as he does, we also see in it the judgment that is yet to come.

Isaiah wrote,

See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.

The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. (Isaiah 13:9–13)

If verse 10 looks familiar, it should be.

Jesus quotes this passage when talking about the last days in Matthew 24:29.

And what Isaiah makes clear is this: God’s patience will not last forever. Right now, we are in the age of grace. And as Peter wrote,

The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

But then Peter adds,

But the day of the Lord (there’s that phrase again) will come like a thief.

The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed with fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:10)

The words in Isaiah strike me, “cruel day,” “wrath,” “anger,” “destroy,” “desolate,” “burning anger,” and “punish.”

We all like to think of God as a God of love, and that’s true. He is. But he is a God of justice as well. And a just God must eventually deal with sin.

Sometimes we think God is late in dealing out justice. But God makes clear here that that day is coming.

That was the warning God gave to Babylon and its king. And that’s the warning God gives us today. The question is, are you ready for the day of judgment?

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that God will just overlook your sin. That it’s beneath his notice.

The day is coming when God will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their sins.

The only hope we have is to turn to him and beg for his mercy and forgiveness while we still have time. And that time is now.

Paul wrote this,

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Won’t you turn to him today?

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Isaiah

The joy of salvation

Isaiah

Last Sunday, I was listening to a message on John 3 at church. And our pastor was talking about verse 16, probably one of the most famous, if not the most famous verse in the Bible.

He asked us this question: What does this mean to you? Is it a verse that still stirs your soul? Or have they become just words?

I think sometimes it can be easy to take our salvation for granted. When was the last time that you really thought about what it all means?

This passage in Isaiah is a reminder to me of what it all means.

I will praise you Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.

The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:1–3)

I remember growing up, fearing my dad’s anger when I did something wrong.

Many people feel that way about God. They hide from him, thinking he’s just waiting to nail them for the wrong things that they have done.

But it says here that there’s no need to be afraid of God. That because of his mercy and grace, his anger has turned away from us.

Through Jesus, we now have salvation from our sins. And instead of being a God we need to fear and hide from, he has become our joy and song.

Not only that, he is with me every moment of every day. Wherever I go, whatever I do, his hand is on me. To bless. To guide. And to protect.

I really need to think about all this more in my life. To think about just how much I have in Christ.

I have so much to be grateful for. And this world needs to hear the message that has set me free.

As Isaiah wrote,

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy! (Isaiah 12:4–6)

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Isaiah

This same Spirit

Isaiah

This passage, of course, is talking about Jesus. How when he came to this earth, the Holy Spirit would rest on him, with all wisdom and understanding, knowledge and power.

It then talks about the kingdom that is to come, where the wolf will live with the lamb and the child can play with the cobra, and how Jesus will restore Israel one day and will reign on this earth in righteousness.

But as I look at this passage, it occurs to me that this same Spirit that rested on Jesus has been given to us.

This same Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord: he’s now ours.

Jesus promised that when he left, that he would impart his Spirit to us, and that because of it, we would do even greater things than he did, because his Spirit would be with us. (John 14:12–17)

He promised that this same Spirit would teach us all things (John 14:26) and grant us the wisdom that we need to make a difference in this world. (John 16:13–15)

I never noticed this until today, but this passage in Isaiah may have been in Paul’s mind as he wrote these words in Ephesians 1.

It’s almost a thought-for-thought paraphrase of what Isaiah wrote.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead. (Ephesians 1:17–20)

The Spirit of wisdom and revelation that we may know him better. Hearts that are enlightened to the hope that we have in him. His Spirit of power working within us, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Sometimes we wonder why God isn’t doing more in this world.

I think one reason may be that we have too few Spirit-filled Christians. Too few Christians that are filled with his wisdom and understanding, and too many who are lacking in the power and fear of the Lord.

Instead, we’re too busy trying to fill ourselves with the things of this world.

We’re too distracted with work, or with hobbies, or with other things. And so instead of living a life powered by the Spirit of God, we are running on empty.

This world is dying as a result.

The same Spirit that was upon Jesus is available to us.

The question is, do we thirst after him? Do we pursue him? Do we long to be filled with him every day?

Only when we do, will we see change not only in our lives, but in the world around us.

How about you? Are you running on empty? Are you hungering for the Spirit in your life? All we have to do is ask.

Jesus said,

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13)

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Isaiah

For those who trust in Him

Isaiah

I love the words God spoke to the Israelites. After talking about how he would bring down the Assyrians, he told the people of Israel,

In that day, the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down (Assyria), but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel…

Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with the rod and lift up a club against you as Egypt did. Very soon, my anger against you will end, and my wrath will be directed to their destruction….

In that day, their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken. (Isaiah 10:20, 24–25, 27)

As I read this, I can’t help but think about us and our lives.

We relied on him who struck us down. Satan promised us happiness and contentment, but in the end, he robbed us of everything. He left us beaten down and enslaved to our sin and lusts.

But to those of us who no longer put their trust in the lies of Satan, but instead rely and trust in the Lord, the burden of sin, guilt, and shame will be lifted from us and broken, and we will be set free.

And just as the day came when God judged the Assyrians, Satan’s day is coming too.

Satan knows it too. He shakes his fist at us threatening us (32), but the Lord will lop off his boughs with great power, and he will be felled and brought low (33–34).

So let us turn from the lies of Satan and trust him no longer.

He may entice us with his promises, but they are empty. He may threaten us with destruction, but when we put our trust in God, he has no power over us.

Let us instead put our trust in the one who loves us, and who longs to restore us and give us new life.

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Isaiah

Who’s the tool? Who’s the master?

Isaiah

If there is one thing that the Bible constantly warns us against, it’s pride. And here, God condemns the Assyrians because of theirs.

The Assyrians had become a mighty people, and they started conquering the nations and peoples around them. What they didn’t know was that they were merely a tool that God was using to bring judgment on these nations.

God told them,

“I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.” (Isaiah 10:6)

But in their pride, the Assyrians boasted of all the nations they had conquered, saying,

By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding, I removed the boundaries of the nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. (13)

But God responded,

Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or a saw boast against him who uses it? (15)

Then God gets really sarcastic.

As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood! (15)

And so God passed judgment, saying,

Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. (16)

That would later happen during the reign of Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:36–37).

What can we learn from this?

So many times, we take pride in what we can do, and what we have done. This is true as we’re out in the world. It’s also true within the church.

But the thing we need to remember is that we are the tool, not the master. Everything we have comes from him, so what are we boasting about? Paul puts it this way,

For who makes you different from anyone else? (God).

What do you have that you did not receive? (Nothing).

And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (Shrug). (1 Corinthians 4:7)

So as we serve in the church and as we go out and accomplish things in this world, let us remember where everything comes from.

Remember where our gifts, talents, and abilities come from. Remember where our blessings come from.

And let us not live simply for ourselves, but for God, with hearts that are humble and grateful to him.

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Isaiah

The nature of evil

Isaiah

I’m not exactly sure when Isaiah wrote this prophesy, but I’m guessing it was during the time of King Pekah of Israel during the attacks by Assyria (2 Kings 15:29).

It’s also possible, however, that he wrote this during the time of King Hoshea at the time of the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 17:3–5) or even slightly before.

At any rate, Israel was in trouble, but despite it all, they refused to turn to God.

Instead, in their pride, they resolved to rebuild what had been broken down. To pull themselves up by their own bootstraps as it were.

And basically, God told them that because of their pride, and all of the evil in Israel, they would be taken into captivity.

In warning the people, Isaiah uses some very vivid imagery as he talks about all the evil that was being committed in Israel. And through it, I think we can see something of the nature of evil.

Isaiah wrote,

Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upwards in a column of smoke.

By the wrath of the Lord Almighty, the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; no one will spare his brother. (Isaiah 9:18–19)

I’ve never seen a forest fire, and I hope I never do. But when it starts, it spreads quickly, and all that is in the forest just becomes fuel to the fire. In the end, all that remains is ashes.

That’s the nature of evil. Left unchecked, it spreads quickly, and all the people who get caught in it just add fuel to the fire.

Evil begets more evil which begets even more evil. And in the end, it destroys everyone involved.

In verse 20–21, it says,

On the right, they will devour, but still be hungry; on the left, they will eat, but still not be satisfied. Each will feed on the flesh of his own offspring.

Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn on Judah.

In other words, evil never leaves anyone satisfied.

Often times we do evil thinking that if we just get what we want, it will satisfy.

As a result, we step on others to fulfill our ambitions.

We sacrifice our marriages at the altar of adultery or pornography.

The love of money and things causes us to blind ourselves to any harm we may be causing others. But in the end, you find yourself still hungry and dissatisfied.

Yet so often, instead of turning from evil, you continue down that path to your own destruction and to the harm of the people that you touch.

That’s what happened to Israel and Judah. And God told them that a day of reckoning was coming for them.

There will be a day of reckoning for us as well. We will be judged some day for what we have done.

So let us not be hard-hearted, clinging to the sins that would destroy us. Rather let us turn from our sins, that we may be healed.

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Isaiah

Come that day

Isaiah

In some ways, it’s been a depressing past couple of months. Finances have been a bit of a struggle, and I’ll have to admit that it’s hard not to think about.

But as I look at this passage, I see hope. It says,

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.

In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by way of the sea, along the Jordan —

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.

For as in the days of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. (Isaiah 9:1–4)

This passage, of course, is pointing to Jesus.

It’s amazing to me that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law missed this when saying, “Look into it, and you will find that the Prophet does not come out of Galilee” (John 7:52).

That this passage is talking about Messiah cannot be denied, however, as it continues,

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6–7)

Every Christmas, we hear this in messages and in song. But it is a message that the world needs to hear more than once a year.

So many are walking in gloom and distress. Whether it’s relationship problems, financial problems, health problems, or whatever it may be.

I was reading that in Japan, the suicide rate is among the highest among industrialized nations.

But as Jesus brought light and hope to a dying nation in Israel, so he brings hope to people today. He brings joy to those who are in despair. And he breaks the yokes that would burden us and weigh us down.

He’s the Wonderful Counselor who shows us how to live in the midst of a broken world. Who shows us how our broken lives can be restored.

He is the Mighty God who has the power to help us in our distress.

He is the Everlasting Father, the one who knew us before time began, and who cares infinitely about us.

And he is the Prince of Peace, giving rest to those who are burdened by anxiety and fear. And as he came 2000 years ago, he will come again.

Come that day, he will return and make right all that is wrong in the world.

Injustice will be a thing of the past. So will death, sorrow, and mourning.

But until then, he has given us of his Spirit to dwell in us, to comfort us, and to guide us.

He has not left us alone as orphans. He is with us each and every day.

And when we’re weighed down by our worries and our troubles, he will be our light in the darkness. All we have to do is to turn to him. And he tells us now,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28–29)

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2 Kings

Serving two (or more) masters

2 Kings

This passage serves as a bit of an epilogue to the end of the kingdom of Israel.

After the Israelites were deported to Assyria, other people were brought in by the Assyrians to settle in the Israelite towns. 

But soon, the people there were getting killed by lions and the Assyrian king was told that it was because the new settlers didn’t know how to worship the Lord.

When I first read this, I struggled with the idea that the Lord really sent the lions. 

The writer clearly says God did, but looking at the rest of the passage, it was hard to understand.

The reason being that the king of Assyria commanded them to take one of the priests they had taken captive and to bring him back to Samaria in order to teach the people how to worship God. 

Supposedly after that, the attack from the lions stopped.

The problem is, all the priests from Samaria were corrupt.  They were not true priests.  They were all appointed by Jeroboam I to take the place of all the true priests who had gone to Judah (2 Chronicles 1:13-16).

Furthermore, they were not teaching the true worship of Yahweh, but a corrupted worship of Yahweh, in the form of the golden calves. 

So it was hard for me to understand why God would’ve stopped sending lions for a corrupted worship of himself.

On reflection, however, I suppose it’s possible that he did punish them and relented later simply because of their ignorance.

As Jesus would later say,

That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.

But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:47-48)

At any rate, even having been taught about the Lord, the new settlers continued to worship their own gods.  And thus you have two seemingly contradictory statements. 

In verse 32, it says, “They worshiped the Lord.”

But in verse 34, it says, “They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob.”

I think what God is saying here is very simple:  “Worship” isn’t worship when you’re trying to serve two masters. 

One of the first things that God told the people from Mount Sinai was that they were to not have any other gods before him. 

And it is this command that the writer of Kings brings up in his condemnation of the settlers of Samaria in verses 34-40.

How about you?  Are you serving the Lord alone?  Or are you trying to serve two masters? 

Some people make money their master, and it was for this, that Jesus condemned the Pharisees. 

He told them,

No servant can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 

You cannot serve both God and Money.  (Luke 16:13).

For other people, possessions are their god.  Or sex.  For others, it’s their hobbies. 

Whatever you place in your life ahead of God, that’s your god.

And God says that if you place another god before him, he will not accept your worship.  Your worship to him becomes as meaningless as the worship of the settlers in Samaria.

Who is the master of your life today?

Categories
2 Kings

But I’m not that bad!

2 Kings

In this passage we come to the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. 

After a succession of bad kings, it culminates with the reign of Hoshea. 

The interesting thing to me is that he wasn’t the worst of the kings of Israel. 

If I were God, I’d probably have exiled the Israelites during the time of Ahab or one of the other horrible kings of Israel.

Don’t get me wrong. Hoshea was an evil king.  But it says of him in verse 2,

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. (2 Kings 17:2)

In other words, he was bad, but not so bad compared to the kings that had come before him.  And yet when God’s final judgment on Israel came, it came during his reign.

Sometimes we look at the people around us and say, “I’m not so bad.  I don’t kill anybody.  I try to be nice.  Sure I do some bad things, but I’m better than this person or that person.” 

And we think that just because we are better than some of the other people around us, that we’re probably acceptable to God.

But the truth is, we’re not. 

The Israelites sometimes sinned very publicly in worshiping false gods, and sometimes they sinned in private. 

It says in verse 9,

The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord that were not right.

But whether committed in secret or in public, God sees it all. 

The main problem with the Israelites is found in verses 14-17: they would not listen to God and were stiff-necked, not trusting him. 

As a result, they started following worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the practices of the people around them, and falling deeper and deeper into sin.

The same can happen to us.  When we refuse to listen to God, and refuse to trust him, when we start following the sinful practices of the people around us, and follow the gods of money, sex, etc, we become worthless ourselves. 

And sooner or later, judgment will come. 

It doesn’t matter whether we’re better than others or not. 

Judgment will come to them, certainly. 

But judgment will certainly come to us as well.

So let us not fool ourselves into thinking we’re okay just because there are others worse than us. 

Rather, let us turn from our sin, put our trust in God, listen to him, and follow him each day. 

And as we do, we’ll find God’s blessing, presence, and favor in our lives.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings Isaiah

A rock to stand on; a rock to stumble over

Kings,Chronicles, and Isaiah

Compromise. It’s so easy to do, especially when it comes to our faith. And God asks us to make a decision. Will we stand for him? Or give in to the pressure around us?

Two prophets of God, Oded and Isaiah, chose the former, while Uriah the priest chose the latter.

Because of Judah’s apostasy, God delivered Ahaz’s army into the hands of the Israelite army. But in their victory, the Israelites plundered the people of Judah, and took many of them to be their slaves.

But as they were about to enter Samaria, Oded stood up to the Israelite army, and he warned them to turn from this sin of enslaving their brothers.

This probably was not an easy message for Oded to give. Remember that as bad as Judah was in terms of apostasy, Israel was worse. And here he was, one man, standing up to an entire army saying, “You’re wrong!”

It would’ve been much easier for him to say, “They won’t listen to me. Why even try? I’ll just get myself killed.”

But he stood up and delivered God’s message to the people, and for once, they listened to him. They clothed the captives, gave them medical treatment, and then released them.

Uriah, on the other hand, took no stand at all.

It’s especially amazing because in Isaiah 8:2, God refers to him as a “reliable witness” for him.

But in 2 Kings, Uriah received pressure from Ahaz to build an altar to the gods of Assyria, and to offer sacrifices on it.

And like Aaron did under pressure from the Israelite people years before, Uriah buckled when faced with Ahaz’s command. He built the altar for Ahaz and started worshiping false gods.

God warned Isaiah about any kind of compromise in chapter 8:11–21. There’s some debate about the meaning of verse 12, but one rendering is,

“Do not call for a treaty every time these people call for a treaty.” (see NIV notes)

In other words, people were clamoring for a treaty with Assyria because of the alliance (or conspiracy) between Israel and Aram.

But God said, “Don’t do it. Don’t compromise yourself that way, allying yourself with an ungodly country. Don’t fear this conspiracy between Israel and Aram. And don’t fear all that the people around you do.

“Rather, fear me. If you do, I will be a sanctuary for you.” (Isaiah 8:12–14)

“Don’t go seeking mediums and spiritists. Seek me and my word. You have me! Why seek others who can shed no light? In the end, you will find only distress, darkness, and fearful gloom. You’ll end up in utter darkness.” (19–22)

God told Isaiah,

[The Lord] will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured. (Isaiah 8:14–15)

The New Testament writers, of course, used this verse to describe how Jesus would be a stumbling block to people. Peter wrote,

They stumble because they disobey the message. (1 Peter 2:8)

The message, that is, of repentance and the need to put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

But whenever we disobey God, he becomes a rock that causes us to stumble and fall. And our disobedience will break us just as it broke the people of Judah and Israel.

So we have a choice. We can disobey God and stumble over him. Or we can choose to make our stand on him. To make him the cornerstone of our life.

What happens if we do? Peter writes,

The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. (1 Peter 2:6)

Let us be like Isaiah and Oded. Let us not compromise our faith when the pressure comes.

Rather, let us stand on he who is our rock. Our cornerstone. Let us say as Isaiah did:

I will wait for the Lord… I will put my trust in him. (Isaiah 8:17)

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2 Chronicles 2 Kings Isaiah

Who do you fear? Who do you trust?

Kings,Chronicles, and Isaiah

As I mentioned before, when Ahaz son of Jotham took the throne in Judah, he led the people further into idolatry.

It says in Kings and Chronicles that he started making idols for worshiping the Baals and that he even sacrificed his sons in the fire, perhaps to win the gods’ favor in his conflicts with Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel.

The king of Aram and the king of Israel had allied themselves together to attack Jerusalem, and it says in Isaiah that when Judah heard about this,

The hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. (Isaiah 7:2)

Because of this, Ahaz apparently started thinking of starting his own alliance with Assyria.

And at this point, Isaiah stepped in. He met Ahaz and said,

Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid.

Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood — because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin… [but] it will not take place, it will not happen…. (Isaiah 7:4–5, 7)

Then Isaiah told Ahaz, “Ask for a sign that you may know God will do this.” (Isaiah 7:11)

But Ahaz refused saying, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.” (Isaiah 7:12)

This sounds very pious, but the truth is Ahaz didn’t want to know if Isaiah’s words were true or not. He was determined to make his alliance with Assyria, and to put his trust in them, not the Lord.

Isaiah got very frustrated with Ahaz as a result, saying,

Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of God also?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel…

Before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. (Isaiah 7:13–16)

Of course, we know that Matthew uses this passage to point to Jesus (Matthew 1:21–23).

But Isaiah seems to also be pointing to a more immediate birth. (Many people think it refers to the birth of Isaiah’s next son as noted in chapter 8, verses 3–4).

He then warns Ahaz against putting his trust in Assyria. That though God would indeed use Assyria to take down Aram and Israel, they would also take down Judah (Isaiah 7:17–8:10).

That’s exactly what would happen.

When Aram and Israel once again attacked Judah, it says in Chronicles that King Ahaz sent to Assyria for help.

The king came, but “gave him trouble instead of help.” (2 Chronicles 28:20)

Assyria did help deliver Judah, but it came at a heavy price as Judah would become a vassal of Assyria (2 Kings 16:7).

And things just spiraled downward from there.

Ahaz started offering sacrifices to the gods of Aram and after a period of perhaps trying to syncretize the true faith with false ones, he eventually gave up completely on the true faith.

He completely shut down the temple and instead started setting up altars at every street corner. (2 Chronicles 28:22–25)

The lesson? Be careful who you fear. Be careful who you trust.

Ahaz didn’t fear the Lord, and because of that, when circumstances turned against him, he feared his enemies.

And because he didn’t trust the Lord, he put his trust in untrustworthy people and worthless idols. But eventually, that choice destroyed him.

How about you? Who do you fear? Do you fear people and what they think about you?

Do you fear economic and financial problems? Do you fear all that the world fears?

Or do you fear God?

Who are you putting your trust in?

In money? In your own wisdom and abilities?

In the end, these things cannot deliver you, and like Ahaz, you will fall.

As Isaiah told Ahaz,

If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. (Isaiah 7:9)

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Almost perfect

Kings & Chronicles

In this passage, we have a very short account of the reign of King Jotham of Judah.  For the most part, he was a good king.  It says in 2 Chronicles,

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the Lord (2 Chronicles 27:2).

Uzziah, of course, got in trouble because he entered the temple to offer incense, something that only the priests were supposed to do.

Jotham also had great success against his enemies, conquering the Ammonites.  He became powerful because,

He walked steadfastly before the Lord his God. (2 Chronicles 27:6)

So why do I say he was almost perfect, instead of perfect?  It says again in verse 2,

The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.

What corrupt practices are they talking about?  We find it in 2 Kings.

The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. (2 Kings 15:35)

So while Jotham walked steadfastly before God, the people he was supposed to be leading didn’t.

And it was for this that prophets like Isaiah and Hosea condemned the people for, as we have already seen.

What’s worse is that Jotham apparently neglected to raise his son Ahaz in the worship of the Lord.  And so when Ahaz took over the throne, he led Judah even deeper into idolatry.

What can we learn from this?

We may be walking with the Lord, doing his will, but God has given us a sphere of influence.

It may be our spouse, our children, our neighbors, or our coworkers.

And it’s not enough that we simply live for the Lord.  We are to also make a difference in the lives of the people God has given us.

If we don’t, God will hold us responsible.

Of course, we can’t make decisions for people.  We cannot make the people around us serve the Lord.

But especially in cases where we have authority over them, namely our children, we are to do everything we can to teach them about the Lord and encourage them to follow him.

Who has God put in your life?

Are you satisfied in just serving the Lord yourself?

Or are you encouraging the others around you to do the same?

Categories
2 Kings

Disobedience, blood, and defeat

2 Kings

At this point, we’ll take a brief break from Isaiah and stick up our heads to see where we are in the book of 2 Kings.

In short, it was the beginning of the end for the northern kingdom of Israel.

Jeroboam II was now dead, and with his death, ended Israel’s prosperity.

They went through 5 kings over the next 32-33 years or so.

Considering that one of the kings managed to reign for 10 years, and a second for 20, you can see the massive instability they went through as a nation.

Of the remaining three kings, one reigned six months, the next one month, and after ten years under the next king, the fourth king lasted only 2 years.

This period in Israel’s history was marked by three things.

First, it was marked by disobedience.

The account of each reign started basically the same way for four of the five kings, and probably the only reason nothing is said about the fifth is that his reign lasted only one month.

But for each king, it’s noted that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord and that they continued in the sins of Jeroboam I.  That is, they continued their worship of the golden calves.

In doing so, the people worshiped as they saw fit.  Put another way, they rejected God’s law, doing what was right in their own eyes.

This resulted in the second thing that marked the northern kingdom:  blood.

Four of the five kings were assassinated during this time.

The only king that succeeded his father was assassinated within two years, and the length of their “dynasty” was a mere twelve years.

There was no respect for the king (although admittedly there was little to respect), and anarchy was the result.

The third thing that marked the northern kingdom was defeat.

Assyria started to attack Israel, first exacting tribute from them and then ultimately capturing Israelite towns and deporting them to Assyria.

What can we learn from this?

When we turn our backs on God and start living our own way, it leads to chaos and defeat in our lives.

You only have to look at the divorce rate, the poverty rate, and the instances of child abuse, crime, and violence in our country to see that.

Because we have turned our backs on God and instead live according to what we think is right, our society is going to hell.  Literally.

And the result is many defeated, broken people.  People whose lives are torn apart by sin and are captive to the kingdom of darkness.

This was what God told Isaiah would happen.  That the people would close their eyes and ears to him until their lives were absolutely devastated.  (Isaiah 6:11-12)

How about you?  Are you living in disobedience to God, and find yourself with a life that’s broken?

It doesn’t have to be that way.  If you turn to him, you will find forgiveness and healing for your life.

It is not God’s desire that anyone perish, but that they should find life.

But it starts with one simple step.  Turning to God and saying, “I’m done with doing things my way.  Forgive me for my sins.  I want to start living your way.  Be Lord of my life.”

And as Paul wrote,

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  (Romans 10:9)

Categories
Isaiah

Blinding ourselves

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:9–13 is one of the most quoted parts of scripture from the Old Testament, and one of the more difficult to understand.

God told Isaiah to give the people this message:

“Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9–10)

Talk about a depressing message.

Isaiah asked God, “For how long, O Lord? How long will they be so blind?” (11).

God answered,

“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.” (Isaiah 6:11–13)

What does this all mean? It does seem a bit unfair. It almost seems as though God is purposefully blinding the hearts and minds of the people. But is this really true? Yes, and no.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament, made before the time of Jesus, translated it this way.

“You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.

This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.”

In other words, it’s not so much what God did to the people, it’s what the people did to themselves.

God spoke to the people, warning them about their sin, but they closed their ears and refused to listen.

The more God spoke, the more they hardened their hearts. And the more they hardened their hearts, the more difficult it became for them to accept the words of God.

God knew what their reaction would be, but he continued to warn them to turn from their sin.

In that sense, you could say, “God hardened their hearts” because he knew how they would respond. But what was the alternative?

There was a song that once said, “The same sun that melts the wax will harden clay.”

The same thing can be said about the Word of God and the hearts of people.

For some, the word of God makes their hearts softer and more able to respond to him.

But for others, that very same word causes them to harden their hearts and turn their face even further away from him.

And so God has a choice. He can either say nothing and let all perish. Or he can say something that some may be saved.

That’s what happened in Judah and Israel. Yes, there were many that hardened their hearts even more at the word of God.

But there were others that softened their hearts to him. You can see that clearly in the exile in the lives of people such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

God loves us too much to let us alone to perish. But what we do with his word is our choice alone.

The question is, will we soften our hearts, or harden them? Will we close our eyes and ears to his word? Or open them?

The choice is yours.

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Isaiah

Called by God

Isaiah

I’m not sure, but I think this is the first real glimpse of heaven that we ever see in the Bible. (I suppose Job gives us a glimpse too, but we haven’t gotten there yet).

But here is Isaiah, caught up in a vision of heaven. And he says,

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1–4)

Just an interesting side note: When Isaiah says that he saw the Lord, the apostle John makes it very clear that it was actually Jesus that he saw. (John 12:39–41).

So if you ever talk to someone, say a Jehovah’s Witness, who doesn’t believe that Jesus is God, point out these two passages.

Anyway, Isaiah was completely overwhelmed at the sight of the glorified Christ. And he probably fell to his knees as he said,

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (5)

So often, people have the idea that should they stand before God someday and have to give an account for their lives, they would be able to defend themselves relatively eloquently, and be able to convince God of the strength of their case.

But the truth is, when we stand before God and see his holiness, all of us will be rendered speechless. Because at that point in time, we will realize just how holy God is, and how unholy we are. And all the words we planned to say will be revealed for the empty arguments that they are.

If we can speak at all, I think we’d only be able to say what Isaiah said. “Woe to me! I am ruined! I am a man of unclean lips!”

But as Isaiah stood (or knelt) there trembling, God sent one of the angels, and touched his lips with a live coal, saying,

See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. (7)

In other words, “Yes, you are impure. Yes, you are sinful. But I have made you clean. Not by your own works. But by mine.”

Then Isaiah heard God say,

“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (8)

And when Isaiah heard this, I imagine he trembled in fear and wonder,

“Here I am. Send me!” (8)

In fear because he was an unholy man in the presence of a holy God.

In wonder that God would forgive his sins and make him holy. In wonder that despite all of his sins and failures, that God would still actually want to use him.

But as God called Isaiah, he also calls us.

We stand before God as a people who are unholy, sinful, and deserving of judgment. But with one touch, by the blood of Jesus, God cleanses us and makes us holy.

And then he says, “I need someone to send to the people in Japan. In America. To every tribe and nation in this world. I need someone who can go and touch the lives of your family. Your neighbors. Your friends. Who will go for us?”

The question is, will we be like Isaiah, and say, “Here I am. Send me.”

You may feel unworthy to be used by God. Isaiah did. But know that when you’ve been touched by Jesus, you have been made worthy.

All your sins are forgiven. And God can and will use you. All you have to do is say yes to Jesus.

Will you?

Lord, like Isaiah, I feel so unworthy to be used by you. You know the sins that are in my heart. I am a man of unclean lips living among a people that are also unclean. I’m not worthy.

But Lord, I believe that through the cross, you have made me clean. You have made me worthy. So Lord, I just want to say as Isaiah did, “Here I am, send me.”

Use me for your glory. Use me to spread your message to the people around me. Use me to touch the lives around me.

May my life be forever yours. Use me as you will. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Isaiah

Things the Lord hates

Isaiah

God is love.

Everyone loves to hear those words. They’re very comforting words. But there are things that God hates, and he lists a number of them here.

Isaiah wrote,

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. (Isaiah 5:8)

In other words, God hates it when people are so covetous that they accumulate things to no purpose and to the hurt of others who are in need.

What about you? Are you solely concerned with accumulating things you don’t really need, not caring for the people around you?

He then wrote,

Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine…

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks. (Isaiah 5:11, 22)

I’m not saying that it is wrong to have an occasional glass of wine, but what God clearly condemns is those who get drunk and who are controlled by wine.

We are temples of God, and we are to be controlled by his Spirit, not wine. (Ephesians 5:18)

Debauchery has no place in the temple of God.

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes. (18)

Here Isaiah condemns those who deliberately follow the path of sin. They pull around their sinful lifestyle wherever they go.

All of us sin. All of us fall. But we are not to be characterized by it. Instead, we should be known for our righteousness, and to be holy as God is holy.

(Woe) to those who say, “Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we may know it.” (Isaiah 5:19)

At first glance, it seems that these were people who were seeking God.

But in reality, they were sneering at God. They were saying, “If God really exists, then let him show himself so that I can know.”

And all the while they ignored his Word and all the things he was trying to do in their lives.

But God will not be mocked. And if you are not sincerely seeking him, he will not reveal himself to you.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (Isaiah 5:20–21)

Isaiah could have been preaching in our age.

Nowadays, people cast aside God’s teaching of what’s right and wrong and create their own standards of right and wrong.

They call the things that God despises “good,” and the things God loves “evil.”

God hates that kind of “wisdom.”

(Woe to those) who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Isaiah 5:23)

Anytime we cast aside the wisdom of God and his righteousness, injustice is sure to come. And today, you see the very things that Isaiah saw in his day, the guilty acquitted for a bribe, and justice denied to the innocent.

How little do things change. One thing that hasn’t changed is God’s hatred for these things. And just as God brought judgment on Israel for these things, he will bring judgment on those who persist in this behavior.

God is love, but he will judge those who follow the path of sin.

So as Paul wrote, let us cast aside these things that God hates, and cling instead to that which is good. (Romans 12:9)

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Isaiah

When our protection is gone

Isaiah

It amazes me sometimes how some people absolutely disdain umbrellas. It can be pouring rain, and they don’t care. They’d rather walk out in the rain than actually carry an umbrella.

It amazes many Japanese people I know too. I’ve had more than one Japanese person ask me, “Why don’t foreigners here use umbrellas?”

It really beats me. I have no clue.

Anyway, that’s how the Israelites were.

They were a nation under God. God had pulled them out of slavery in Egypt, and brought them into the promised land.

As he did, he told them that if they would keep the covenant he had made with them, he would bless them and protect them.

But he also told them that if they stepped out from under the umbrella of his protection, they would lose everything.

And that’s exactly what the Israelites did. They turned their backs on him, and started worshiping other gods.

That’s what this passage is about.

God compares Israel and Judah to a vineyard, and he tells them how he had lovingly planted them in a fertile place, cleared out all the stones, and set up a wall and watchtower around to protect them.

But when he looked for good grapes from the vineyard, he found only bad. And so he asked the Israelites,

What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? (Isaiah 5:4)

He went on to tell them exactly what he meant, saying,

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. (7)

Now, because of the bad fruit Israel was bearing, God told them,

Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.

I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. (5–6)

In other words, God was saying, “Until now I protected you from your enemies; I protected you from harm. No more. I’m tearing down the hedge and the wall protecting you, and will leave you to become a dry wasteland filled with briers and thorns.”

And that’s what God does with us, when we give ourselves over to sin. Our protection is taken away, and he will leave us to reap the consequences of our sin.

Paul once wrote to the Corinthians concerning an unrepentant sinner in their church,

Hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord….

Expel the wicked man from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:5, 13)

In other words, take him out from the protection of the church. If he wants to sin, let him go out into the rain and let Satan wreak havoc in his life.

Why did Paul say this? To destroy the man? Not at all. He said this that the man might repent, and that his “spirit may be saved.”

God doesn’t take his protection away from us in order to destroy us. Rather, he does so to let us see how miserable this life is without him and that we might repent.

How about you? Do you disdain the protection of God in your life? Do you sin thinking that God really won’t mind?

By living that way, you are stepping out from God’s protection. And the result is not joy, but misery.

Let us not live that way. Rather let us stay connected to him who is the true Vine and bear good fruit for him.

Only in doing so will we ever find true life and joy.

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Isaiah

The one who takes away our disgrace

Isaiah

Disgrace.

Shame.

These are things that can cling to a person, and more times than not, they are things that we have brought upon ourselves by our own choices and actions.

In the midst of it all, we sometimes wonder how we can ever escape the trap that we are in. And it seems hopeless.

That’s what the women in verse 1 were facing. They had previously been women of wealth, with a good position in society. Yet they, along with their husbands, were utterly sinful.

And when judgment came, they were left without husbands, who were now dead because of their sins.

Now these women were desperate to find any man that would take them as their wives. They were even telling them:

“Just give me your name in marriage. You don’t need to give me anything else. You don’t even need to provide for me. I’ll provide for myself. Just take away my disgrace. Take away my disgrace as a woman unloved, with no family to call her own.”

But while these women were asking for husbands that would just take them in, God was offering them so much more.

And for the first time in scripture, we see a reference to the Branch of the Lord, which refers to Jesus.

Isaiah wrote,

In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel.

Those who remain in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:2–3)

In other words, Jesus would come and set apart the people for himself once more to be his bride. Isaiah then says,

The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. (Isaiah 4:4)

In other words, he would convict the people of their sin, and purge them of all the filth that was in their hearts.

It’s very similar to what Paul wrote about Christ as the bridegroom, who,

loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

Isaiah added,

Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy.

It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain. (5–6)

Unlike the husbands the women of Israel were seeking who could not provide for them or shelter them, God was promising his presence, protection, and provision for them, just as he did for the Israelites in the desert as they were heading for the promised land.

And he said over all the glory would be a canopy.

That word “canopy” in the Hebrew is the same one Jews use today to refer to a wedding canopy.

The picture here is very clear. God would purify his people, wash them clean of their sins, set them apart for himself once again, and be their husband.

He would take away their disgrace, providing for them and being their shelter and comfort through the storms of life.

How about you? Are you covered by your own disgrace, ashamed of who you are and what you’ve done, seeking desperately to have even the veneer of respectability?

God can wash away the filth from your heart, and not only will he forgive you, he’ll take you in as his own, a bride radiant, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, holy and blameless in his sight.

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Isaiah

Parading our sin

Isaiah

The words of Isaiah 3:9 strike me here.

The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it.

Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

It seems more and more that this is true in our society. People no longer are ashamed of their sin. They’re proud of it. They boast of it. And if anyone tries to condemn them, they accuse that person of being “intolerant.”

Solomon wrote that there was nothing new under the sun, and that is very true. The sins of Sodom have never really disappeared, and as bad as Sodom was, we’re not too far from that either.

But with sin will come shame.

Isaiah condemned the rich for their ill-treatment of the poor (as I said, nothing new under the sun) and then went on to condemn in particular the wives of the men who took advantage of the poor.

They too flaunted their sin, perhaps in two ways. One was in showing off their riches gained at the expense of the poor, but there also seemed to be an element of sexual sin as well.

Isaiah wrote,

The Lord says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.” (Isaiah 3:16)

But then Isaiah wrote that the day would come when all of it would be snatched away.

War and exile would come, and at that time, all their riches would be stripped from them and all they would have left would be their shame.

Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle.

The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!” (Isaiah 3:24–4:1)

Culturally, the last part of this verse is a little difficult to understand, but in those days, for women to be without a husband and children was an utter disgrace.

And with many of the men of the city dead from battle, the women would be so desperate to find a husband, they would be willing to take anyone, even one that couldn’t adequately provide for them.

The point is, however, that ultimately with sin comes shame.

You may parade your sin. You may be proud of it. But in the end, it leaves you with nothing but shame.

So let us not embrace sin as so many do. Let us flee it, and instead run to the one who not only takes away our shame, but imparts to us glory and honor.

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Isaiah

No remedy

Isaiah

Every election year, politicians try to get people to vote for them. In doing so, they point out the problems of society and promise change if they’re elected. Very rarely do they ever deliver.

I wonder how people would respond if a politician ever shouted out, “I have no remedy! I have no answers for your problems. Don’t vote for me! And don’t vote for anyone else either, because they don’t have any remedies either.”

Could a person like that ever be elected? If nothing else, he’d be the most honest of the bunch. Then again, it’s kind of hard to vote for a person that declares his incompetence so openly.

But that was the situation that God was bringing about in Judah and Israel.

We will see how quickly things went down in Israel in the book of Kings, but in this passage, God is talking to the people of Judah.

He told them that because they’d turned their backs on him, he was going to strip them not only of all their supplies of food and water, but of all the people they had been counting on to lead and advise them.

In their place, he would leave youths that would have no answers to their problems.

He said the day would come when,

A man will seize one of his brothers at his father’s home, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!”

But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.” (Isaiah 3:6–7)

In other words, people would be so desperate, they would choose anyone to be their leader who seemed to be even a little better off than the rest of the people.

But that person would say, “I have no answers to your problems. I can’t even take care of my own family. How can I lead an entire people?”

Where are we looking for the answers to society’s problems? Are we looking to the politicians for answers?

The answers are not there. They have proven that time and again over the years. They have no answers because for the most part, they do not seek God and his ways.

The people of Israel were the same. The people had run away from God and would soon find themselves with no hope. With no one who could give them answers to their problems.

If we are ever going to find answers to societal problems, if we are ever going to find hope for the future, we can only find it in the One who gives hope. We can find it only by following him and his ways.

Because without God, there is no remedy. There are no answers.

I love the words of Chuck Colson who said,

Where is the hope? I meet millions of people who feel demoralized by the decay around us.

The hope that each of us has is not in who governs us, or what laws we pass, or what great things we do as a nation.

Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people. And that’s where our hope is in this country. And that’s where our hope is in life.

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Isaiah

What do we boast in?

Isaiah

I read a story once of a little boy that had made a bunch of paper boats and paper planes from some old newspapers he found in the basement of his house. He was so proud of them, he brought them to his father and mother.

Unfortunately, it was kind of damp in the basement, and so the newspapers smelled really bad as a result.

So his parents, much to the child’s dismay, quickly threw out the source of his pride. (They were nice enough, however, to give him some fresh paper to make some new planes and boats with.)

In this passage, the people of Judah were proud and arrogant.

They were proud of their “spiritual knowledge” in following the divination of the Philistines.

They were proud of their prosperity, with all their gold and silver, as well as the horses and chariots in their army.

But Isaiah warned that the day would come when all the things they took pride in would come to nothing. And instead of walking in pride, they would be humbled and ashamed of everything they had done.

He wrote,

Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty!

The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel.

The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear. (10–18)

In other words, like the child, many people will come before God proud of what they’ve accomplished.

But when their accomplishments are revealed for the dirty, smelly rags that they are, everything they took pride in will become their shame.

And so they will throw away the things that they were so proud of and flee from the Lord because they will be too ashamed to stand in his presence. Instead, they will hide in fear of his judgment. (Isaiah 22:19–21)

So Isaiah said,

Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he? (22)

What is Isaiah saying? Stop trusting in yourselves, your wisdom, and the things that you have accomplished. All you’ve done and all that you have are of no worth. They will pass away.

Instead turn your eyes and your hearts toward God. Put your trust in him. He is the one we are to boast in, not ourselves.

In what do you put your pride? In what do you put your trust?

May our pride and trust not be in ourselves, but in Jesus. For as Paul put it in quoting Isaiah,

Anyone who trusts in [Jesus] will never be put to shame. (Romans 10:11)

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Isaiah

The end of the book

Isaiah

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like reading the news. There’s so much bad news all over the world. Wars, crime, injustice. And that’s how Isaiah must have felt as he looked around him in Judah.

And yet, God showed him a day that was coming. And Isaiah said,

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:2–4)

It’s hard to see hope in this world, because things look so bad.

But when we start to lose hope, let us remember these words that Isaiah spoke. Because these times will not last forever.

The day will come when God will be exalted over all the earth and people from every tribe and nation will seek after him.

The day will come when justice will be served.

And the day will come when all war comes to an end.

Are you discouraged? When you look at the world around you, do you feel like there’s no hope?

Then as one old song put it, it’s time to read to the end of the Book. Because as I said, these times will not last forever.

Let us walk each day in hope, keeping our eyes focused not on the evil around us, but on the Lord who will one day make all things right.

As Isaiah put it,

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. (5)

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Isaiah

Something less

Isaiah

Something less.

As I look at this passage, those words resonate in my heart and mind.

The Israelites brought offerings and sacrifices to God, but they were something less in his eyes because the people treated them as just religious and perhaps even superstitious ritual.

And so God said,

“The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. (Isaiah 1:11–15)

Something less.

Because of their evil, and because they turned their backs on God, the people themselves became something less.

At one time, they were a people married to God, his bride. Now they were harlots offering themselves to other gods.

Something less.

God said of the people,

Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. (22)

A people that were once pure and whole in the eyes of God were now tarnished by sin, their “righteousness” diluted by their wickedness, their worship of God diluted with idol worship.

He went on to tell them,

You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.

The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.” (30–31)

A once proud nation, flourishing and strong, becoming something less. Old. Dying. All their accomplishments ending in nothing.

When we turn our backs on God and sin, when we go our own way, we become something less, just as the Israelites did.

As with the Israelites, God desires to purge away the dross in our lives and to remove our impurities. (25)

The question is, will we cooperate, or will we fight against it?

When we cooperate, the process can still be difficult, but much less painful. If we fight, the process can seem unbearable.

The Israelites had to be crushed before the dross and impurities could be done away with. What will you do?

Let us not become something less. Instead, let us strive to become all that God intended us to be.

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Isaiah

What sin is. What sin does.

Isaiah

And so we hit Isaiah, the first of the major prophets. I’m probably going to divide this up somewhat within the Kings and Chronicles narratives. I can’t guarantee everything will be exactly chronological, but as much as I can, I will.

In Japan, “sin” has quite a different nuance when used by the Japanese people. It basically means crime, like murder, theft, rape, and the like.

So when the Japanese hear in the church that they are sinners, most probably think to themselves, “Not me. I don’t murder or rape anyone. I don’t steal anything.”

Even in western countries, people tend to think the same way. “I’m not really that bad.”

But what is sin according to God? He lays it out right here.

“I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows his master, the donkey his master’s manger, but Israel doesn’t know, my people do not understand.

Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.” (Isaiah 1:2–4)

1. Sin is rebellion against God.

It’s knowing that God exists, and that he is our rightful king, but putting ourselves on the throne instead. Put another way, it’s saying no to God and his ways.

2. Sin is doing what is evil.

This is what usually is understood as sin. But actually, this is the symptom of the real problem.

The real problem is a heart that has rebelled against God. And it’s because people have rebelled against God that they commit all the other things we call sin.

3. Sin is forsaking the Lord, spurning him, and turning our backs on him.

In short, it’s saying, “God, I don’t need you in my life.”

You may not commit murder, rape anyone, or commit any other crimes. But when we turn our backs on God and say, “I don’t need you,” then you are a sinner in God’s eyes.

It is in effect committing adultery against the one who should be your spiritual husband. It is in fact the thing that God accused Judah and Israel of doing. (21)

What is the result of sin? It makes us spiritually sick and tears apart our lives. God told the people,

Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. (5–6)

Someone once defined “holiness” as “wholeness.” And in many ways it’s true.

When we are holy, doing the things that God has commanded, our lives are whole. Our marriages and relationships work, our finances work, our whole lives work.

But when we insist on doing things our own way, everything falls apart. Our whole life becomes sick, and though we seek a cure, we cannot find it as long as we keep turning our backs on God.

So God says to us,

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (18)

How is your life? Do you see wounds, welts, and open wounds in your relationships, in your marriage, in your life? They will never be cured as long as you continue to live your own way.

So turn to the Lord. Trust him. Let him wash you and change you. And you will find wholeness in your life.

Categories
Amos

When there’s no turning back

Plumbline

I suppose the tough thing about going through these prophets is that for many of them, especially during this time in the books of Kings and Chronicles, they seem to be beating the same drum—namely that of judgment.

I sometimes wonder if I can say much more on the topic without people getting bored.

But just a few things here. There was a very interesting dialogue in chapter 7 between Amos and the Lord, very reminiscent of the dialogue between God and Abraham in Genesis 18.

In both cases, God is preparing to judge the people, and in each case, he shows a willingness to relent when someone intercedes.

But in both cases, there comes a point when God says, “No more. There is no turning back for these people anymore. Judgment must come.”

Twice Amos, through his intercession, causes the Lord to relent from his judgment on the people of Israel. But the third time, God said,

Look, I am setting a plumb line (a kind of tool used to make sure a wall was built straight, similar to a modern-day level) among my people Israel.

I will spare them no longer. (Amos 7:8)

In other words, God had measured this wall that was Israel, and found it so crooked that he had no choice but to tear it down.

He called them in chapter 8 a basket of ripe fruit—ripe, that is, for judgment. (Amos 8:1–2)

How did the people get so crooked?

We’ve talked about this before. They had stopped really listening to the Lord.

As long as the prophets God sent told them pleasant things, they were willing to listen. But as soon as the prophets warned about God’s judgment, the people told them to shut up.

You see this in the last part of chapter 7 where a “priest” from Israel accused Amos of treason for predicting King Jeroboam’s fall, and told him,

“Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there.

Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” (Amos 7:12–13)

When we take away the “level” of God’s word in our lives, we can no longer tell what is crooked or not, what is evil or not.

We see that very clearly in the world today. People call what is crooked, straight; what is evil, good.

And when we willfully ignore the word of God, there comes a point where God will no longer speak. In chapter 8, he told the people,

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:11–12)

God, in fact, would be silent for 400 years between the time of Malachi until John the Baptist came.

Is it any wonder that the people flocked to hear John when he came?

But as was usually the case with the prophets, God finishes with some words of hope in chapter nine, once again illustrating his faithfulness.

He promised that though he would punish Israel, he would also restore it. That though it would lie in ruins, it would be rebuilt.

He would do so, not because of their righteousness, or anything that they did, but rather out of his mercy and love for them.

As Paul wrote,

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:5)

Categories
Amos

Self-centeredness, pride, and complacency

Be a blessing

This passage reminds me of the parable that Jesus told in Luke 12:13–21.

In the story, a man had a rich crop, and he soon realized that there was no place for him to store all the food.

So what did he do? Did he reach out to the poor and needy in the area? Was he thankful for God’s blessings, and wondering how he could use those blessings to touch others’ lives?

No. Rather, all he could think of was himself. He said,

I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods.

And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

This is how it will be with anyone who stores things up for himself, but is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:18–21)

Jesus could very well have been talking about the Israelites of Amos’ time.

The rich of the land were feeling complacent, secure in their wealth, and proud of all they had, not even considering the poor, nor the evil and corruption that was in the land.

And so God told them,

Therefore, you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end. (Amos 6:7)

How about you? Are you proud of what you’ve accomplished? Of all that you have? Do you think to yourself, “I’ve got it made?”

Be careful that you don’t become like the rich man in Jesus’ story or the Israelites.

Don’t focus merely on yourself, but on God, and the people around you. God has blessed you for a reason. And it’s not simply to indulge yourself and your lusts.

He’s blessed you that you might be a blessing. And to make a difference.

Whether you’re rich or not, powerful or not, God hates self-centeredness, pride, and complacency.

He calls us to stop looking at ourselves and to look at the world around us, and to be God’s hands, feet, eyes, and mouth to them.

Lord, it’s so easy to just focus on myself. Forgive me.

Lord, what resources you’ve given me are really yours, not mine. Help me to remember that.

Help me to focus not on myself, but on you, and the people around me. Let me not live for myself, but for your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Categories
Amos

Are you ready?

Judgment and salvation

Sometimes people look at the evil around them—the crime, the violence, the natural disasters—and just wish that God would intervene already and set all things right.

But do they really understand what they’re asking for?

God told the people,

There will be wailing in the streets and cries of anguish in every public square.

The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. There will be wailing in all the vineyards. (Amos 5:16–17)

Why?

“For I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord. (Amos 5:17)

In other words, when God comes, things will be made right, but that doesn’t just mean all the things we think of as evil. It means everything.

All the sin in the hearts of people everywhere will be dealt with—including yours.

And so God said,

Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light.

It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall, only to have a snake bite him.

Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18–20)

What is God saying?

People think that when God comes that will be the end of earthquakes, crime, violence, and every other evil that we see.

That’s true. But if there’s evil in your heart as well, then you will be judged too.

That’s what the people of Israel didn’t consider when they longed for the day of the Lord.

They thought they were right with God, but they were far from it.

They had their religious feasts, gave all kinds of sacrifices and offerings to God, and thought they were okay with God as a result.

But the rest of the time, they were living for themselves. And because of this, their feasts, sacrifices, and offerings meant nothing to God.

And so while they thought all the evil they suffered through would come to an end when God showed up, in reality, it would be worse for them.

One reason things were so bad was that God was trying to warn them to repent through all the evil they saw. But they didn’t.

And so when God showed up, they’d soon find that what they longed for would not be their salvation, but rather their time of reckoning and judgment.

As God said, they’d escape the lion (the struggles of this world) to face the bear (judgment for their own sins). In short, they were not ready to meet God when he came.

How about you? Are you ready to meet God?

It’s not enough to be religious. It’s not enough to go to church, give tithes, and do good things on Sunday.

Rather, your whole life must be given over to him—your whole heart, soul, and mind.

You need to stop trusting in yourself and your own works to save you, and to start trusting Jesus and his work on the cross.

For those who have done so, the day of the Lord will be a day of rejoicing.

For those who haven’t, it will be a day of reckoning and judgment.

Are you ready?

Categories
Amos

With greater knowledge…

bible on path

Ignorance is bliss. So they say, anyway.

Actually, according to God, that’s not exactly true.

As we saw in chapters 1 and 2, judgment was coming to the nations around Israel.

What was the reason?

“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord. (Amos 3:10)

In other words, they didn’t know better.

But ignorance of God’s law was no excuse.

Why not?

Because deep in their hearts, they knew they were wrong.

As Romans puts it,

Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law (of God), do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts, now accusing, now even defending them. (Romans 2:14–15)

But while the nations around Israel had the excuse of ignorance, Israel and Judah had no excuse.

They were specifically chosen out from among the nations by God. God had revealed himself to them directly. And because of that, their responsibility was so much greater.

God said,

You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins. (Amos 3:2)

In other words, God was saying, “You have no excuse for your actions. You know better.

“I gave you the law through Moses. And I’ve warned you time and again through the prophets. I haven’t made any secret of the fact that judgment is coming, and yet you continue to sin. (Amos 3:7–8)

“You show that you know the law by offering sacrifices, tithes, thank offerings, and freewill offerings. But you’ve ignored all the warnings that I’ve given, saying these things are not enough. (Amos 4:4–11)

“And so now judgment is coming. Prepare to meet your God. You will stand before me. You will give an account for all of your actions. (Amos 4:12)”

So what do we take from this?

Jesus said, “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.

But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:47–48)

Notice here that it doesn’t matter whether you are ignorant of God’s will or not. If you do things deserving punishment, punishment will come.

The only difference between the two is that the one who knows more will be punished more.

So ignorance is clearly not bliss.

We need to be seeking God’s will and asking what he wants of us.

But to know is not enough. We also need to obey and follow him.

How about you? Do you know what God’s word says?

If you don’t, then you need to find out.

God told the Israelites, and he tells us,

“Seek me and live; do not seek [false gods and false truth].” (Amos 5:4–5)

“Seek the Lord and live, or [judgment will come].” (Amos 5:6)

If you do know God’s word, then you need to take the next step and obey it. God said,

Seek good, not evil, that you may live.

Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.

Hate evil; love good. (Amos 5:14–15)

As Jesus said,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Luke 8:8)

And I would add, “Obey him.”

Categories
Amos

A time for judgment

Amos

As seen in verse 1, Amos was a contemporary of Hosea and Jonah, as well as of Isaiah, and prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel.

Again, this was a time of material prosperity, but of spiritual poverty in both nations, especially in Israel. And so God called Amos, a shepherd of all people, to preach to both nations, but primarily Israel.

In the first two chapters of Amos, you see that Amos pulls no punches. We sometimes hear of fire-and-brimstone preachers, and that’s exactly how Amos started, saying,

The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers. (Amos 1:2)

He then starts preaching God’s judgment first on Israel’s neighbors, and then on Judah and Israel themselves.

On Damascus, he preaches the destruction of Aram because of the wars they waged against Israel, promising that their king would be deposed and that the people would go into exile (fulfilled in 2 Kings 16:9).

Then he preached judgment against the Philistines for their slave trade. You can see some of this fulfilled in Uzziah’s battles against the Philistines in 2 Chronicles 26:6.

Next was Tyre, who broke their treaty with Israel and sold many Israelite captives as slaves to Edom.

Edom itself was then condemned by God.

The Edomites, of course, were related to the Jews, as their forefathers were Esau and Jacob respectively. And just as Esau had once pursued Jacob with unchecked anger in order to kill him, so Edom acted against Israel.

Next came the judgment against Ammon for the atrocities of war they committed in order to extend their borders.

Following that came the judgment against Moab for the evil they had committed against Edom’s king.

Then Amos condemns Judah for turning their backs on God and his law and following false gods.

It should be noted that this was during a time when Uzziah (or Azariah, as II Kings names him) was king and was following God. Unfortunately, his people didn’t follow his example (II Kings 15:4).

Then Amos turns his attention to Israel, his main audience. On top of their idolatry were all the social injustices they committed, trampling the poor and denying justice to the oppressed.

As if that wasn’t enough, they were also corrupting people who had committed themselves to God (the Nazirites) and tried to silence the prophets.

Because of all that, Amos warned them of God’s judgment to come.

What do we get from all this? Two things.

First, nothing is hidden from God. He sees everything that we do.

Second, there will be a day of reckoning for our sin.

God may seem not to notice, or not to care. But he does notice and he does care. That’s why he sends us warnings.

That was the whole purpose of Amos’ message. Not to tell them, “Ha ha! You’re going to die!” His purpose was that the people would hear the warnings and turn.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “What do we do with God’s warnings?”

As we saw in Jonah, when people repent, he will relent. But if we, like the Israelites, instead try to ignore the warnings or fight against them, judgment will come.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that God is love and therefore will not hold us accountable for our sins. He is also a God of justice, and as such, he must punish sin.

So let us heed his warnings and turn from our sins, not only to avoid his judgments, but so that we might also find his blessings in our lives.

Categories
Hosea

Repentance

Repentance

Repentance.

It’s one of those words that you hear in the Christian church a lot, but not so much outside of the church walls.

What is it really?

That’s what Hosea addresses in this last chapter.

He told the Israelites,

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord.

Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war horses.

We will never again say, ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.” (Hosea 14:1–3)

What does it mean to repent? It means to return to the Lord. To turn around from going in your own direction and follow the Lord once again.

It’s to confess our sins before God and ask for his forgiveness.

It’s to turn away from all the things we were chasing after in our lives, and to confess our need for God once again.

And it’s to throw ourselves upon the mercy of God.

That’s repentance.

And when we do, how will God respond?

I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

I will be a dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar from Lebanon he will send down his roots; his shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like the cedar of Lebanon.

Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like the vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon…I will answer him and care for him. (Hosea 14:4–8)

In other words, God will forgive, and we’ll know his love once again.

The areas in our lives that became dry and withered because of sin will once again grow strong, bringing blessing not only to ourselves, but to the people around us.

The question is, why do we stray in the first place?

God closes with these words,

Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them.

The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)

May we not only be wise enough to repent, but wise enough to stay under the shelter of God each and every day of our lives.

Categories
Hosea

Unfaithful

Broken relationships

We live in a world today where it almost seems taken for granted that husbands will be unfaithful to their wives, and wives to their husbands. And because we take it for granted, we lose sight of how painful and destructive it is to a marriage.

I think the same thing can be said about our relationship with God.

God often compares our relationship with him to a marriage.

As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. And when we are unfaithful to him, it causes great pain to the heart of God and is destructive to our relationship with him.

That’s what God points out in these chapters. Time and again, he points out his faithfulness and love to Israel.

He reminds them how he showed grace and mercy to their father Jacob, though he started out as a deceiver and as one who fought against God.

He reminds them how he brought them out of Egypt, and cared for them in the desert through Moses.

But after Israel came into their land and became strong, they also became proud.

They were unfaithful to God, and started building and worshiping the works of their own hands.

From there, things went from bad to worse. They even started sacrificing their own children to these gods.

And when their enemies came against them, instead of turning to God, they made treaties with other nations and allied themselves with them.

You can see the pain in the words of God as he rebukes Israel. He sounds as a husband who has been scorned by his wife, saying,

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. (Hosea 11:12)

He told them that though he cared for them and redeemed them to be his wife, they had bitterly provoked him to anger. (Hosea 12:14)

And so God warned them of the judgment to come. He said that when it came, there would be no remedy.

No king they set up could save them. And because they had turned from their husband and helper, God wouldn’t help either.

Hosea 13:14 is probably better translated as a question.

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death?

O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight. (NASB)

Paul would later use this passage to talk about how the thorns and sting of death would be pulled out by Christ’s victory over the grave.

But here, it seems that God is calling for the thorns of death and the sting of Sheol (the Hebrew word for the grave) to pour out all their wrath over the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness.

All Hosea prophesied would come to pass within the next 70 years or so. Israel would collapse as a nation because of their unfaithfulness to God.

Did God still love them?

Yes.

Would he eventually restore them?

Yes, because as I’ve mentioned before, he remains faithful even when we are not.

A marriage can survive unfaithfulness.

But there’s considerable pain and hardship when a partner is unfaithful.

The same is true with our relationship with God. That’s what Israel would eventually learn.

How often do we think about the considerable hurt and anger we cause God by our unfaithfulness to him?

We forget his love and faithfulness towards us and trample on them in order to pursue our other lovers, the things of this world.

Let us always remember that as much as we can cause pain to our husbands or wives by our unfaithfulness to them, we cause great pain to the heart of God by our unfaithfulness to him.

Let us not be that way.

Let us instead be faithful to the one who always has been, and always will be faithful to us.

Categories
Hosea

The unfailing love of God

God's love

Does God love me?

That’s a question that echoes within the hearts of millions.

But there’s another question that aches within the hearts of many.

Does God still love me?

So often, we see the love of others and how quickly it can fade away, especially as they see our failings and our weaknesses.

And so we ask, if they are like this, what of God? Will he leave me too?

I think we find the answer here in this passage.

God talks about how he led them out of Egypt, how he led them with kindness and love, guiding them and healing their wounds. How he lifted the yoke of slavery from them and provided for their every need.

Yet in spite of all this, the people turned away from him, worshiping the Baals.

Instead of following God, they determined in their hearts to turn away from him.

And so God warned them of the judgment to come.

But in the midst of it all, he bares his heart saying,

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel…

My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.

For I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you.” (Hosea 11:8–9)

In other words, no matter how far we fall away from him, though he may discipline us, he will never give us up. He will never hand us over to another.

He isn’t a man whose love changes and fades away. His love is constant, and continually reaches out, waiting for us to return.

Do you ever wonder at the love of God? Do you ever think that he couldn’t possibly still care for you?

Always remember the words of Jeremiah,

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23)

Categories
Hosea

Refusing God as king

Hosea

Election time is coming in the States.

Every four years, people vote for the person they hope will lead the country to prosperity. And when a new president takes his place, there is often hope in the hearts of the people.

But no president or political leader is the key to a prosperous nation.

That’s what Hosea pointed out here.

Hosea warned the people that God was going to soon punish them for their sin. Though there was currently prosperity in Israel under a wicked king in Jeroboam, it wouldn’t last.

God was about to dethrone him and his descendants.

Hosea then told the people that at that time, they would say,

We have no king because we did not revere the Lord. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us? (Hosea 10:3)

In other words, things would get so bad that they would lose all hope in their political leadership.

Why? Because ultimately, there is no hope for a godless nation in which people live for themselves instead of for God.

There is no hope for a people that refuse to make God king in their lives.

What Hosea wrote about Israel, we could write about our culture today. So many people have lost faith in the political system.

I talk to many Japanese whenever a new prime minister takes power, and it’s very rare that they think it’ll make a difference.

Most simply say, “It doesn’t matter. Nothing will change.” And most times, nothing significant does.

Hosea also talked about how the people were so corrupt, few could be trusted to keep their agreements anymore, and that’s why there was a plethora of lawsuits.

Can anybody say, “America?”

Hosea then went on to say that when the gods people set up in their lives fall, the people mourn.

You only have to look at all of the financial crises in the world to see that.

So many people set god as their money, only to lose it all. As a result, people find themselves struggling financially, wondering how they’re going to survive.

And as they mourn,

[People] say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” (Hosea 10:8)

Does that passage sound familiar?

Jesus quoted it on the way to the cross to the women who were weeping for him. The people had rejected him as king, and as a result, disaster would soon come in the fall of Jerusalem less than 40 years later.

And so Hosea admonished the people,

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12)

God tells us the same today.

It’s time to seek the Lord. We’ll not find salvation in political leaders. Nor will we find it in the gods of this world that we seek. It can only be found in God.

So let us break up the hardened ground of our hearts and soften it to the seed that God wants to plant in us.

Let us sow the righteousness of God in our lives.

Only then will we reap the fruit of his unfailing love and find true joy and prosperity in our lives.

Categories
Hosea

When we refuse to listen

Hosea

As I read this passage, verses 7–8 jump out at me.

Hosea writes,

The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.

The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. (Hosea 9:7–8)

In Hosea’s time, evil was so rampant that the prophets and godly men were considered fools and maniacs.

As a result, all their warnings and admonitions to the people went largely ignored. Not only that, but people would openly attack God’s messengers in order to shut them up.

But because of this, the days of reckoning were soon to come. Judgment was close at hand.

Hosea compared his time to the days of Gibeah, the site of one of the most sordid stories in Israel’s history.

So sordid were the events, that they compared in many ways to the corruption found in Sodom and Gomorrah.

And so Hosea warned the people, “If you keep ignoring the words of God, you will become like Gibeah. You will become like Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Unfortunately, the people didn’t listen, and eventually judgment did come.

One wonders what God thinks of our world today. Many of the things Hosea told the people back then, you could say about our own culture today.

People preaching God’s word faithfully are often considered fools and maniacs. And while fortunately it’s rare to see them physically attacked, they are attacked on other levels.

They’re often called bigoted and intolerant, and their names are dragged through the mud.

And all the while, you see our values gradually sinking down to the levels of Sodom and Gomorrah itself.

God’s patience will not last forever, and if we don’t turn, judgment will come, just as it did to Gibeah, Sodom and Gomorrah, to Israel, and to Judah.

That’s what happens when we refuse to listen to God.

And like I mentioned a couple blogs before, if we the priests of God are ignoring his words, what hope does our culture have?

As God’s priests, let us not ignore his words, but listen to them.

Let us not take on the values of this world, but rather let God work in us and through us to transform them.

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Hosea

When words are not enough

Mischievous 3 year old

My daughter Yumi is now at an age (3) where she can communicate somewhat, and as a result, it’s very clear that she’s starting to understand the concepts of right and wrong.

It seems recently, especially, that she’s starting to put my wife and me to the test. She’ll start to climb the kitchen table, for example, we’ll tell her no, and she’ll immediately do it again.

After a warning or two, she gets sent to her room and isn’t allowed out until she apologizes for her actions.

There are times, however, when she will apologize, and she clearly doesn’t mean it.

She’ll put on the cutest face possible, and say “I’m sorry,” thinking that her cuteness will get her a pass.

But because she now knows the difference between right and wrong, it no longer does.

That was the situation with God and the Israelites.

At times they would make a show of seeking the Lord, but their actions the rest of the time showed “a spirit of prostitution.”

And so God told them,

When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them. (Hosea 5:6)

Because of their unfaithfulness, God sent discipline in their lives.

But though the Israelites would eventually turn to God, their attitudes were much like my daughter’s. They said they were sorry, but didn’t really mean it.

This is shown in their words in chapter 6, where they said,

Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds.

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:1-3)

Beautiful words. But look at the Lord’s response.

What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. (Hosea 6:4)

In other words, “You say all these beautiful words. And for a short time, you seem to seek after me. But as soon as things get better, you quickly turn away from me once again.”

Throughout chapters 6–8 he accuses the people saying,

Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed, and the crimes of Samaria revealed… (Hosea 6:11–7:1)

They do not cry to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds… (Hosea 7:14)

Israel cries out to me, “O our God, we acknowledge you!” But Israel has rejected what is good…they set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.

With their silver and gold, they make idols for themselves… (Hosea 8:2-4)

Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, they become altars for sinning…

They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat, but the Lord is not pleased with them.

Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins. (Hosea 8:11-13)

So many times, we think we can impress God with our words or our pious actions.

But God isn’t interested in them if we’re just living for ourselves the rest of the week.

And so God told them things like,

“I desire mercy not sacrifice, an acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

“Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of impurity?” (Hosea 8:5)

How about us? Are we truly seeking God every day?

Or are we merely making an elaborate (or perhaps a not so elaborate) pretense?

You cannot deceive God. He sees your heart.

So let us truly turn to him.

If we truly acknowledge him, if we truly press on to acknowledge him and return to him, then he will indeed heal us, bind up our wounds, revive us, and restore us.

Categories
Hosea

When the priests fail to act as priests

Hosea

Why are morals collapsing in this world?

There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

There’s murder, adultery, stealing, cursing, lying.

All bounds are being broken. Bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Does this sound familiar?

Hosea wrote about all this nearly 2700 years ago.

It’s amazing how little things have changed.

And as God condemned the Israelites of that time, he put the blame on the priests.

These priests were probably the same ones who claimed to be following Yahweh but were doing so through the calf idols set up by Jeroboam.

It’s also possible they were starting to follow Baal as well.

It says in verse 7,

The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. (Hosea 4:7)

Because of this, the true knowledge of God became lost, or at least greatly distorted.

And so God told the priests,

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests. (Hosea 4:6)

He then said,

It will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways. (Hosea 4:9)

I think much the same could be said today.

I’m not talking about the fallen pastors and priests of today. I’m talking about us as Christians. We are the priests of God in the world today. (1 Peter 2:9)

And when we prostitute ourselves to the gods of self, materialism, and the other things of this world, we lose our effectiveness as priests.

When we fail to bring the true knowledge of God to this world, and instead compromise our Lord’s teaching, is it any wonder that the world is in as bad shape as it is today?

But while this world may be going to hell, we will also be held responsible if we are unfaithful in our role as God’s priests.

What kind of priest are you?

Categories
Hosea

The God who pursues us

Gomer and Hosea

This is definitely one of the more bizarre stories we see in scripture, God telling Hosea, one of his prophets, to get married to a woman who would be unfaithful to him.

As this story takes place, Jeroboam II is still on the throne in Israel, as is Uzziah in Judah. Hosea was primarily a prophet to Israel, but he had words for Judah as well.

And in this time of material prosperity, there was definitely a spiritual problem. The people were being unfaithful to God, following other idols, namely Baal.

And thus, the object lesson of Hosea to the nation.

Hosea marries this woman Gomer, and she soon bears him a son that God says to call Jezreel.

God told him to do so because of the massacre at Jezreel where Jehu went far beyond the words of God in committing bloodshed.

As a result, God warned that judgment was coming upon the house of Jehu and upon Israel.

Gomer then gets pregnant twice more, but the Bible never says they were Hosea’s children. The implication being that they were children born out of Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea.

The first is named “Lo-Ruhamah,” meaning “not loved.” The second is named “Lo-Ammi,” meaning “not my people.”

The picture couldn’t be clearer. Hosea must have had a tough time loving these children that were not his, and could not call either child his own.

In the same way, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, God could not call them his loved ones or his children. Instead, he would reject them and cause them to fall as a kingdom.

And yet even in the midst of this, God makes clear that this punishment would not last forever. The day would come when he would call them his people and his sons once again and would restore them.

But in chapter 2, he rebukes Israel for its unfaithfulness.

The people didn’t realize that all their blessings came not from the gods they were following, but from God.

And so God said the day was coming when he would cut off their blessings, and that he would strip them naked of every good thing.

Though they would pursue pleasure and happiness, they would not be able to find them. The only thing they would be able to find was shame.

And eventually, the time would come when they would be so desperate that they would have no choice but to return to God.

The amazing part of it all is that through all of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, he would continue to pursue them. It says,

“Therefore, I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert, and tenderly speak to her…

I will make the valley of trouble (Achor) a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

‘In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will call me “my husband”;
you will no longer call me “my master.”…

I will betroth you to me forever.
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord…

I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.”
I will say to those called “Not my people,” “You are my people.”’ (Hosea 2:14–16, 19–20, 23)

And to firmly imprint all of this in the minds of Israel, he told Hosea in chapter 3 to show his love to his wife once more, to buy her back from the one she was enslaved to, and to restore her to her position as his wife once again.

What does this mean for us?

No matter how far we fall away from him, God still loves us and pursues us.

He may discipline us. He may allow bad things to happen to us as a consequence for our sin.

But his main goal is to restore us. And all he does is out of his love and faithfulness towards us.

So as Hosea told his wife, let us not prostitute ourselves any longer to the world or the things in the world.

Rather, let us return to him and be faithful to the God who is faithful to us, and who loved us enough to redeem us by Christ’s death on the cross.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Where pride leads

Kings & Chronicles

Like father, like son.  That’s the tale of Amaziah and Uzziah (also known as Azariah). 

Both started out well, but then gave into their own pride.

In Uzziah’s case, he got some godly counsel from a man named Zechariah (not to be confused with the prophet Zechariah) who taught him to fear the Lord early in his life.

And because he sought the Lord, it says in verse 5 of 2 Chronicles 26 that God gave him success.

He was able to defeat the Philistines, the Arabs, the Menuites, and the Ammonites. 

He had a very strong army and became a very powerful king.

But in verse 16 of the Chronicles passage, it says

But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. (2 Chronicles 26:16)

The Kings account just brushes over the event, merely saying he got leprosy, but the Chronicles account tells exactly what happened. 

In his pride, Uzziah decided to do what only the priests were allowed to do: offer incense inside of the temple.

Perhaps Uzziah thought to himself, “I’m a good guy.  I love God too.  Why shouldn’t I do this?”

The priests tried to dissuade him from disobeying God in this, but he refused to listen. And just as he was about to offer the incense, God struck him with leprosy. 

When Uzziah saw this, he quickly departed from the temple and lived out the rest of his life with this disease. 

Not only that, he had to basically give up the throne, letting his son Jotham reign in his place, while he lived in a separate house, never to enter the temple again.

Solomon wrote,

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  (Proverbs 16:18).

Uzziah learned this too late.

How about you?  Do you let your pride get the best of you? 

It can and will destroy everything you build up in your life, if you allow it to. 

It destroys relationships, reputations, and legacies.

But if we remain humble, submitting ourselves to God, we will find blessing.

As James wrote,

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

Let us destroy the pride in our lives, before it destroys us.

Categories
Jonah

The God who delights in mercy

Jonah and Nineveh

One wonders at the attitude of Jonah as he preached to the Ninevites.

Sometimes we see people holding up signs at gay rallies or parades and shouting, “You’re going to hell!”

I wonder if that was the kind of attitude Jonah had as he preached in Nineveh.

As he was preaching, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned,” was he thinking to himself, “Go to hell you…?”

Some people have noted that there is no place in the Bible where it specifically says Jonah told the Ninevites to repent. They suggest that he only told them that judgment was coming.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it would fit in with his attitude in chapter 4.

Another interesting thing to note is that Jonah’s father’s name was “Amittai,” which means “truth” in Hebrew.

Jonah may have been a son of truth, but he most certainly wasn’t a son of mercy in this story.

And much to Jonah’s chagrin, the Ninevites repented. Even so, it seems that he held out hope that God would judge them anyway.

So he sat outside the city, just waiting for God to blast the people out of existence like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah.

As each hour passed, he grew more and more bitter when it became clear that God would show mercy because of their repentance.

And so God gave him a little object lesson.

God provided a vine that gave him shade, but then sent a worm to eat at it, causing it to wither away. And in the midst of the scorching heat, Jonah got even more bitter, screaming out, “Just kill me already!”

And God said, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”

Jonah answered, “Yes, I’m angry enough to die.”

God then said something that really made Jonah think.

He said, “You’re concerned about this vine, this plant, even though you didn’t plant it, tend to it, or do anything to make it grow. Yet I created the Ninevites. They are my precious creation, and I love them.

“There are 120,000 people in there who didn’t know anything about me or my will, and they were about to die for their evil.

“How can you not understand that I would care for them when you care for this mere plant that you did nothing to create.”

Assuming that Jonah was the one that wrote this book, it’s safe to assume that he got the message.

But how about us? Are we like Jonah, delighting in the fact that people are going to hell?

Or are we like God, weeping for them and doing everything we can to save them?

Are we angry when people escape God’s judgment because they repent?

Or are we rejoicing over it?

So many times, people are like Jonah and they delight only in the truth. They love shouting out, “You’re going to hell.” And they take great joy in imagining it happening.

But that’s not the way God is. He delights in mercy.

We should delight in it as well.

Do you?

Categories
Jonah

Forfeiting God’s blessing in our lives

Jonah in the sea

As I read Jonah’s account of being thrown into the sea, it’s very dramatic.

Hurled into the water. Waves sweeping over. Dragged by the currents. And a little seaweed wrapped around his head. 🙂

Then sinking to the bottom thinking that it was all over, and at the last minute crying out to God for help. “I’ll do anything! Just help me!”

And all of a sudden a big fish comes swooping in, swallowing Jonah whole.

And as he’s being taken off on the first submarine ride ever, Jonah reflects,

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. (Jonah 2:8)

Who was he thinking of as he said that?

Was he thinking of his own people?

Was he thinking of the people of Nineveh?

Probably. But he could’ve easily applied it to himself.

No, he wasn’t following Baal or the golden calves that Jeroboam set up. But he had set up the idol of “me” in his life.

And when God told him to go to Nineveh, he followed the god of “me” instead.

As long as he did that, he forfeited God’s blessing in his life.

God wanted to do great things in Jonah’s life. And had Jonah just been open to God’s work in his life, he could’ve gained great blessing in doing God’s work, reaching out to the Ninevites.

But instead, he hardened his heart, not only to the Ninevites, but to God.

Even when he went to Nineveh and preached, he did it reluctantly. And until he repented from that attitude, he lost out on the blessing that should have been his.

How about you? Are you following the god of “me”? Are you putting yourself and your desires at the center of your life?

Remember Jonah’s words: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

Let go of the idol of “me.”

And let’s put God on the throne of our lives.

As we do, we will find blessing.

Categories
Jonah

Our choices

Jonah

I figured since Jonah was mentioned in the last passage we saw (2 Kings 14:25), it would be a good time to throw in Jonah’s own story.

This is probably one of the more famous stories in the Bible. And it’s interesting to see the time period it was happening in.

In a time when you’d think that God would call Jonah to preach to his own people (under King Jeroboam) to repent, God called him to preach to Israel’s enemies in Nineveh.

I don’t think Jonah had any problem prophesying about God’s deliverance of Israel through Jeroboam (although he may have wondered why God would use Jeroboam).

But it bothered him greatly that God would so care about Israel’s enemies, that he would send Jonah down to warn them to turn from their sin.

And so Jonah ran away.

This story is very ironic in that God wanted Jonah to make a difference. And in rebelling against God’s will, he did make a difference. He caused the people he was sailing with to get caught in a storm along with him as God was trying to get his attention.

The point is our choices affect other people. They can affect people for the good, or for the bad.

If we’re following God and doing his will, we can do great good in the world around us.

But when we disobey God and run from him, our choices will negatively affect the people around us.

They’ll affect our family, our friends, our neighbors, and every person that we care about. And instead of turning them towards God, we can turn them away from him.

In spite of Jonah’s sin, God was able to use Jonah’s actions for his glory.

When the sailors threw Jonah overboard, and saw that the storm immediately calmed down, they feared God and started to seek after him.

But what about us? What kind of influence are we having on the people around us? Is it for the good or for the bad?

May we choose every day to follow after God. And as we do, that’s when we’ll see change in the world around us.

Categories
2 Kings

The God who remains faithful though we are not

2 Kings

In this passage, we see yet another evil king in the history of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam II. 

His life is very unique among the kings listed in that God helped him despite the fact that he was an evil king.

As far as we can see, there is no sign that Jeroboam ever sought God.  Yet from a worldly point of view, he was very successful. 

He reigned for 41 years, which was the longest reign of any king in the northern kingdom’s history.  He also restored the boundaries of Israel during his time.

But the Bible makes clear that this was in spite of Jeroboam’s unfaithfulness to God.  It says,

The Lord had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. 

And since the Lord had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.  (2 Kings 14:26-27)

In other words, God is faithful to his word, even when we are unfaithful to him.

That said, we need to understand that just because things are going well in our lives doesn’t mean our lives are right with God. 

Jeroboam was blessed in spite of himself. 

But you can be sure that when he faced God after his death, there was no blessing for him, only judgment.

And so even when we are blessed, we need to search our hearts and ask, “Is God blessing us because we are following after him?  Or he is blessing us in spite of ourselves?”

On the other hand, when we are feeling down because of our sin, and we’re feeling like God could never use us or forgive us, we need to remember that God is faithful. 

He will forgive us and restore us if we repent. 

Though we are unfaithful, he remains faithful to us.  (1 John 1:9).

As Paul wrote,

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.  (2 Timothy 2:13)

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

How we respond to God’s word

Kings & Chronicles

Pride would be the downfall of Judah’s next two kings, Amaziah and Uzziah. 

In the case of Amaziah, his problem can be summed up in 2 Chronicles 25:2 where it says,

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.

This particularly showed when a prophet confronted him for hiring some Israelite (that is, northern kingdom) mercenaries for his battle against Edom. 

The prophet said, “If you march out with these men, God will not be with you because he is not with any of these people from the northern kingdom.”  (2 Chronicles 25:7-8)

When Amaziah heard this, he got very upset, mostly because he had spent a lot of money hiring these people.  But in the end, he reluctantly let them go.

The second time he was confronted by a prophet went much worse.  After defeating the Edomites, he took their gods and started worshiping them.

When a prophet of God came to rebuke him for this, Amaziah told him,

Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?  (2 Chronicles 25:16)

So the prophet stopped speaking, but only after warning the king once more of God’s impending judgment.

That would come when Amaziah foolishly decided to attack the northern kingdom of Israel. 

King Jehoash called him on his pride, saying, “Be content with your victory over Edom.  Don’t come marching here thinking you will gain victory over us as well.”

Amaziah refused to listen, however, and paid for it with his life.

How about you?  How do you respond to the words of God? 

Do you obey them reluctantly?  Do you simply ignore them? 

Or do you obey wholeheartedly?

So many times, we think we know what is best, while rejecting what God has told us. 

In our pride, we think we can succeed by living by our own wisdom. 

But it’s a pride that will lead to our downfall.

Solomon wrote,

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  (Proverbs 16:25)

Let us not walk in our own wisdom, but in the path that leads to life.

Categories
2 Kings

The God who gives life

2 Kings

This is one of the more interesting, if short, stories that we see in scripture. 

After Elisha had died and was buried, the Israelites continued to have problems with their neighbors, in this case, raiding bands from Moab.

As a group of men were burying one of their friends, one of these raiding bands came and in their hurry to get away, these men threw their friend into the first available tomb. 

It just so happened to be Elisha’s.  And when the dead man touched Elisha’s bones, he revived.

At a guess, God was trying to send a message to Jehoash and all of Israel, that he was the God who lives.  And even if his servant Elisha was dead, God wasn’t and was still working. 

Not only that, he was the God who gives life to the dead.

And although Israel was perishing in their sins, and suffering from oppression from the Arameans, and their surrounding neighbors, God had the power to give life to them. 

All they had to do was turn to him. 

Unfortunately, there is no sign that the Israelites in the northern kingdom ever did turn.  Things went from bad to worse as we will see.

But God says the same to us. 

We may be stuck in a bad situation because of our sin, but if we turn to him and repent, he has the power to give life.  All we have to do is turn. 

Let us not be stubborn as the kings of Israel were. 

Rather, let us humble ourselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from our wicked ways.  And he will heal us.

Categories
2 Kings

Respect, or wholehearted devotion?

2 Kings

One wonders at the relationship between Jehoash and Elisha. 

Jehoash, according to this passage did evil in the eyes of the Lord and continued the idol worship of his father and the kings before him.

But still, there seemed to be some respect and even love for Elisha. 

As Elisha lay dying, he  cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel.” 

These were in fact the same words that Elisha had used when Elijah was taken from him.  (II Kings 2:12)

One would think that if Jehoash had truly respected and loved Elisha, he would’ve followed his advice completely.  But he didn’t.

And now, Elisha told him to shoot out an arrow, and as he did, Elisha said, “This shows that you will have victory over Aram.”

Then he said, “Strike the ground with the arrows.”

One wonders how Jehoash responded when he heard this.

Perhaps he was puzzled as to why Elisha said this, and so he may have just hesitantly struck the ground three times. 

But Elisha got angry with him, saying, “You should have struck it 5 or 6 times.  Then you would’ve completely destroyed Aram.  Now you will only defeat them three times.”

And that’s what happened. 

Jehoash, with God’s help, was able to defeat the Arameans three times and recapture some of the towns that his father Jehoahaz had lost.

But Jehoash’s response to Elisha mirrored his attitude toward God. 

There seemed to be some respect there.  Perhaps even some affection. 

But he refused to give his whole heart to God and his Word.  If anything, there was a half-hearted obedience to God’s word. 

The result was a reign and a life that was far less than what God desired for him. 

He could’ve accomplished a lot more had he committed his whole heart to God, but he didn’t.

How about you?  Have you given your whole heart to God?  Have you committed yourself to obeying him completely? 

Or is your commitment limited to a kind of respect for God and his Word.  A respect that says, “Well, I agree that what God says is probably good, but it’s not for me.”

Let us not be half-hearted in our pursuit of God. 

Let us give everything to him, loving him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

As the old hymn goes,

Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Categories
2 Kings

Never too late

2 Kings

Jehoahaz was one of a long line of bad kings in Israel’s (that is, the northern kingdom’s) history. 

Like his father Jehu, he continued the worship of the golden calves rather than serving the Lord. 

As a result, God allowed them to fall under the power of the Arameans. 

Jehoahaz’s army was soon reduced to 50 horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers by the Aramean army.

But unlike many of the kings of Israel, Jehoahaz turned his face to God, and sought after him.  And when he did, it says,

The Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel. 

The Lord provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram.  (2 Kings 13:4-5)

What I get from this is that it’s never too late to turn from our sins and turn to God.  No matter how far we’ve gone, if we are willing to turn back to God, he will accept us and restore us. 

As much as we may anger him with our actions, he longs to show mercy to us if we’ll only repent.

Do you feel you are too far gone?  That there is no way God could accept you after all you’ve done? 

No one is so far gone that God cannot restore them.

If we will just humble ourselves before him, he will lift us up.  (James 4:10)

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

The little boy who never grew up

Kings & Chronicles

The little boy who never grew up.  Kind of sounds like Peter Pan, doesn’t it?

It also describes Joash, unfortunately. 

Raised and mentored by Jehoiada the priest, Joash served the Lord for the first part of his life.  He even confronted Jehoiada and the priests when they failed to restore the temple as he had commanded.

But then something happened.  Jehoiada died. 

The one who had guided Joash all his life was gone. 

Jehoiada had done all he could for Joash, and Joash was now in a position to take all that he had learned and put it to good use as he ruled over Judah.

But he didn’t.

Instead, shortly after Jehoiada died, the officials of Judah came to him and turned his heart away from the Lord. 

Soon, they abandoned the temple of God which they had restored just a short time before, and they started worshiping false gods.

And if that weren’t bad enough, when God sent Jehoiada’s son Zechariah to warn Joash to turn from his sin, Joash had him killed, not remembering the kindness that Jehoiada had showed Joash all those years.

As a result, God’s judgment came upon Judah. 

God delivered Judah into the hands of the Arameans even though Judah had them outnumbered. 

When the Arameans finally left, Joash was severely injured, and shortly thereafter, was assassinated by his own officials. 

Ironically, while Jehoiada was buried with the kings of Judah, Joash was not.

What happened?  Joash never really grew up.  He never learned to put his full trust in God. 

Instead, he relied on men. 

When the men he relied on were good like Jehoiada, he did what was good. 

When the men he relied on were evil, he did evil. 

And in the end, it cost him.

How about us?  Who is our mentor?  Who do we trust?  Who do we rely on? 

There comes a time in all of our lives when we need to grow up.  The godly people in our lives will not be with us forever. 

And when they leave us, we need to learn to grow up.  To put our trust not in men or women, but in God alone.

Let us learn to put our hands into the hand of the living God and to put our full trust in him alone.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Getting our temples cleaned up

King Joash and priests

Joash, under the tutelage of Jehoiada the priest, got off to a good start. 

One thing he wanted to do early in his reign was to restore the temple. 

The temple had been damaged, probably during the reign of Ahaziah.

Apparently at his mother’s urging, he along with his brothers had broken into the temple and used some of the sacred objects for Baal worship (2 Chronicles 24:7).

And so Joash gave orders that it be repaired to the priests. 

But for reasons that go unexplained, the priest kept putting it off and never got around to doing it. 

Joash got pretty upset when he found out about it, and he confronted Jehoiada saying,

Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the tent of the covenant law?  (2 Chronicles 24:6).

As a result, the work got started.

Not only did they rebuild the temple, but they also were able to make some new articles for the temple as well, presumably to replace the ones that his father and uncles had taken for Baal worship.

As I look at this passage, I wonder, “Do we pay enough attention to the temple of the Lord.” 

I’m not talking about a building.  Rather, I’m talking about the temple of our bodies.  We are called the temple of Christ because Christ dwells within us.

What spiritual damage has been done to our lives, because of sin? 

Are we letting sin remain there?  Or are we cleaning it out so that we might be holy vessels for God?

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in serving God and doing things for him, that we forget that God is first and foremost interested in us as people. 

He’s not so interested in what we can do for him.  Rather, he is interested in us. 

And he wants his temple to be cleaned up, restored, and made holy unto him.

I’m not saying that we need to be perfectly cleaned up in order to serve God. 

What I am saying is that we shouldn’t leave the temple derelict because we are too wrapped up in doing “God’s work.”

God’s work is primarily in us first, and only after that, does he turn his attention to what he can do through us.

May we be temples that are clean, holy, and without blemish.

Categories
Joel

The valley of decision

valley of decision

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:14)

I think that a lot of people see this passage and think of it as a time when people will have to make a decision on whether to follow God or not.

But actually, their decision has already been made in this passage.

The nations march out against God in rebellion and against his people. But while they think they’re coming out to battle God, the truth is that they’re instead marching out into his courtroom.

And God says,

There I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. (Joel 3:12)

So the decision to be made is not really on the part of the nations, but on the part of God.

He will pass judgment on the people who have turned their backs on him. And for turning their backs on Christ, trampling him underfoot, they will find eternal punishment.

As it says in Hebrews 10:30–31,

For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But to those who have turned to God and made him Lord of their lives, they will find forgiveness. God says,

Their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, I will pardon. (Joel 3:21)

And so before we hit the valley of decision where God will judge the living and the dead, we need to make a decision about what we will do with God.

Will we confess Jesus as Lord? Or will we live our lives in rebellion against him?

To those who turn to him, God pours out forgiveness and blessing. But to those who turn against him, judgment will come.

Which will you choose?

Categories
Joel

When the Spirit comes

Holy Spirit dove

If there is one thing that’s different between the Old and New Testament times, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Back in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon a person occasionally to do a certain work.

More often than not, it was only a temporary thing. And as quickly as he could come, he could leave just as quickly.

You see this in the cases of Samson (Judges 14:1; 16:20) and Saul (1 Samuel 11:6; 16:14), for example.

After David had sinned with Bathsheba, he pleaded with God, “Do not… take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:11)

But here in Joel, God makes a promise. The day would come when the Holy Spirit would be poured out, not only on a select few, but on all of his people.

He promised that both men and women, both young and old, would be filled with his Spirit. And all this would be a sign of the last days.

Believe it or not, we’ve been in the last days for the last 2000 years.

Why does God fill us with his Spirit? To do his work.

What is his work? To preach the gospel before the day of judgment comes.

Time and again, the prophets warn of the day of the Lord.

Actually, there are many “days of the Lord.”

Any time God moves in judgment, it can be referred to as the day of the Lord. But all of this will ultimately culminate in the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Joel 2:31)

It will be a day when all mankind is brought before the throne of God and judged. On that day, only those who have called on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Joel 2:32)

As we all know, part of this prophecy was fulfilled in the second chapter of Acts.

The Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentecost, and in explaining what was happening to the wondering crowd, Peter quoted this passage in Joel.

But one thing that Jesus made clear was that the reason he was sending his Holy Spirit was that they should receive power.

Power to do what?

Power to be his witnesses, and to take the gospel into all the world. (Acts 1:8)

God hasn’t given his Spirit to us in order for us to brag about the spiritual gifts we have.

He hasn’t given us his Spirit for us to look down upon each other for what gifts we have or don’t have.

He has given us his Spirit that we might take his gospel to a dying world before the day of judgment comes. Because when that day comes, their fate is already sealed.

God has given you his Spirit that you might make a difference in this world.

The question is, are you?

Or are we focused on ourselves and what we can get from God instead?

May our lives be filled with his Spirit.

And may we touch the lives of those around us that they may come to know him before the day of judgment comes.

Categories
Joel

True repentance

repentance

Sometimes, when people say that they’re sorry, you can tell that they really aren’t. Sometimes, the “sorry” is dragged out of them.

Other times they seem more sorry that they were caught than for their actions.

That’s what God addresses in this passage.

In the first part of chapter two, he continues letting the people know that this disaster of locusts did not just happen by chance. Rather, it happened because of the people’s sin.

And then he told the people,

“Even now return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:12–13)

“Rend your hearts, not your garments.” As a sign of grief or humility, people back in the Old Testament days would tear their garments.

But God said, “I don’t just want outward appearances of repentance. I want your heart. I want to know that you are truly sorry for your actions.”

David once wrote,

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16–17)

God told the people, “If you repent, then I will heal you. All the damage done from the locusts will be undone. You will have new grain, new wine and oil, and all your trees will bear fruit once more. And you will no longer have to know shame.”

God tells us the same today. It is never too late to repent and turn from our sins.

If we will just turn to him, he is quick to show compassion and mercy and to bring healing in our lives from all the damage we caused by our sin.

Categories
Joel

How we respond to tragedy in this world

Locusts

Why is there evil in this world? Why is there so much tragedy?

That is one of the haunting questions that people have asked throughout the ages.

And as we take a look at the book of Joel, that’s what we see here. A swarm of locusts swept down upon Judah and stripped the land of its harvest.

It’s uncertain when Joel wrote this prophecy, but there are a number of people who believe that Joel wrote this right about the time of King Joash.

He was probably still an infant or young child at the time, with the priest Jehoiada serving as his mentor and perhaps as his regent as well.

It was a time when the people were coming out of the rule of three ungodly leaders—Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah—all three of whom had led the people of Judah into idol worship.

And now this tragedy hit. And into this tragedy, the prophet Joel spoke. What did Joel tell the people to do?

Basically he told them to turn to the Lord, to wake up from their spiritual slumber and repent. He said,

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips. (Joel 1:5)

He particularly called on the priests, the spiritual leaders of Judah, to lead the people in repentance, saying,

Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God… declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:13–14)

Why did he call them to do this?

For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. (Joel 1:15)

Why is there evil in this world? Why do we see earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, and tsunamis?

I think one reason God allows these things is to wake people up from their spiritual slumber. And I’m not just talking about unbelievers, but believers as well.

If there were no evil in this world, people would probably just live their lives in comfort, not even thinking of the judgment that is looming because of their sins. God would not even cross most of their minds.

But that judgment to come is far worse than any earthquake, typhoon, or natural disaster that hits. Because once judgment is passed, there is no remedy, and the consequences are forever.

And that’s what Joel was saying to the people.

“Wake up! Do you think this tragedy is bad? It’s nothing compared to the judgment to come. Repent from your sins. Turn your face towards God, lest something worse happen to you.”

It reminds me of the words of Jesus that he spoke to a man he had healed. He said, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14)

In other words, “The suffering you endured from your disability is nothing compared to the suffering you will endure if you don’t repent of your sins. Being condemned to hell is far worse than suffering from being lame.

So repent that your soul and spirit may be restored, not just your body.”

How do you respond when you see tragedy in this world? May the tragedies we see bring us to our knees. As it was in Joash’s day, so it is today.

God calls us, his priests, to pray and repent of our own sins, and then to pray for the people around us, calling them out of the kingdom of darkness into God’s marvelous light.

Let us not be, as Keith Green once put it, asleep in the light.

Let us be awake and call the people around us to awaken too.

And let us all turn our faces to God before the true day of judgment comes.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

The rightful king

Kings & Chronicles

One wonders what Jehoshaphat would have done if he had only seen the future. 

He had made an alliance with Ahab’s family through the marriage of his son to Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter. 

What would Jehoshaphat have done had he known that this daughter would turn his son away from the Lord?

What would he have done had he known Athaliah would convince his son to murder his brothers?

What would he have done had he known she would then attempt to wipe out the rest of the royal family upon the death of her son so that she could seize control of the country?

Fortunately for Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah’s sister was able to save one of Ahaziah’s sons, Joash, from the hand of Athaliah. 

And after hiding in the temple for six years, he was brought out by the priest Jehoiada and crowned king of Judah.

We can look at the actions of Athaliah and despise her for what she did. 

But how often do we do the same thing as her:  seize control of the throne of our hearts and displace the true king?

The Bible says that God is to be our king, but so often we push him off of the throne of your hearts, and we usurp his position. 

Instead of living for him, we live for ourselves.  Instead of following him, we follow our own desires.

And when God tries to take his rightful place in our hearts, like Athaliah, we scream out, demanding our right to sit in that throne.

So often, when we take control of the throne of our hearts, we think it’ll make us happy. 

But when all is said and done, we end up making a mess of things. 

Our marriages fall apart.  Our families fall apart.  And everything we looked to build up in our lives comes tumbling down.

But what happens when God takes the throne? 

That’s when true joy comes. 

And God can bring healing to what has been damaged or destroyed by our bad decisions. 

The people of Judah suffered under the reign of Athaliah for 6 years.

But when the true king took the throne, they had hope once again.  And they rejoiced. 

You may be suffering from the bad choices you have made.

But if you put God on the throne, there can be hope in your life once again.  And with that hope, joy.

Have you usurped God’s position on the throne of your heart? 

Let us restore God to his rightful place and make him king of our lives once again.

Categories
2 Kings

Doing the right thing (or the wrong thing) for the wrong reasons

2 Kings

Jehu had a mixed legacy as king of Israel. 

On one hand, he fulfilled God’s will in destroying the house of Ahab, for which he was commended.  God told him that because of this, his dynasty would last four generations.  (2 Kings 10:30).

But unlike the promises he had made to other kings, namely David and Solomon, God did not promise a lasting dynasty.  Why not? 

Perhaps because he saw the heart of Jehu.

In chapter 9, you see that Jehu didn’t particularly take his anointing seriously until the men with him pledged themselves to him as king. 

In fact, it seems very much as if his actions came more from a desire for power than from a reverence for God.  God’s anointing and the prophesy made over him just gave him justification for his actions. 

He would then use this justification time and again in these two chapters.

As well as killing off Ahab’s family, Jehu also killed Ahaziah king of Judah, and a number of Ahaziah’s relatives.  Not only that, he killed off Ahab’s chief men and close friends. 

God never commanded any of this, and it was perhaps for these actions that God pronounced judgment on Jehu in Hosea 1:4.

But beyond this, he showed that his actions weren’t purely out of his love for God because while he destroyed Baal worship in Israel, he continued the sins of Jeroboam, namely the worship of the two golden calves.

What about you?  What are your motives as you live your life? 

Are you motivated by your love for God and your desire to serve him? 

Or are you motivated by your own selfish desires. 

You may be doing the right things and may even be praised by others for your actions. 

But if your heart isn’t right, you gain nothing before God who sees your heart.

Let us never serve God or do anything else for our own selfish gain. 

Rather, let us make God king in our lives, and do everything for his glory.

As Paul wrote,

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  (Colossians 3:17) 

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Who to listen to?

Kings & Chronicles

There was an old song in the 80s that said,

You’ve got to know who to, who not to listen to.
They’re gonna hit you from all sides.
You’ve gotta make up your mind who to, who not to listen to. — Amy Grant

This is very true.  Where are you getting your counsel from?  Because where you get your counsel from will shape your life, whether for the good or for the bad.

Ahaziah learned this to his regret. 

This Ahaziah was the king of Judah, not the king of Israel that we looked at earlier in 2 Kings 1.

And like his father, he took bad advice. 

He got bad advice from his mother, Athaliah, and since she was a relative of King Joram in Israel, Ahaziah took bad advice from Joram as well. 

As a result, he continued to worship the Baals as his father did.  As 2 Chronicles 22:3-4 put it,

He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him in doing wrong. 

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death, they became his advisers, to his undoing.

Those last three words are the key to this passage. 

By following bad advice, it led to his undoing.

He followed Joram into a war with the king of Aram, and after Joram got injured, Ahaziah went to visit him. 

But it was at that time that a man named Jehu came to kill Joram. 

And because Ahaziah had associated himself with Joram, particularly in the evil he had committed in following false gods, Jehu killed him too. 

Ahaziah died because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

But he was there because he chose to follow bad advice.

How about you?  Whose counsel are you following? 

Are you following the counsel of people who are godly? 

Or are you following the counsel of those who are not?

This is not to say that non-Christian can never give good advice.  They can. 

And there are times when Christians can give you some very bad advice. 

The key is to measure all things you hear by God’s word.  Because he is the only one who gives perfect counsel.

David wrote,

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  (Psalm 1:1-2)

May we be people who take the counsel of God, and if we do, we will be

like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. 

Whatever he does will prosper.  (Psalm 1:3)

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Contradictions in the Bible?

Kings & Chronicles

One interesting thing about trying to chronologicalize the events set forth in Kings and Chronicles is that the details are not always exactly the same. 

In fact, there are times when they seem downright contradictory. 

The death of Ahaziah (that is, the king of Judah), namely how he died, is one of these times.

In this blog, I’ve tried not to avoid these kinds of issues or other issues that are sometimes “uncomfortable” to discuss. 

Before I address the issue of Ahaziah, I should set forth my thinking on dealing with these kinds of passages.

One thing to keep in mind is whenever you have two people relating the same event, it’s very rare that you’ll have complete agreement on the details. 

Very rarely will you have word for word agreement on any two accounts of the same event. 

You often see this when people give testimony in a courtroom. 

But it doesn’t mean that the event didn’t happen or that there is necessarily a contradiction in the testimony. 

So what I try to do is find ways to reconcile the testimony given.  And if there’s a reasonable way to do so, I’ll go with it.

So how did Ahaziah die? 

Kings seems to imply that he was wounded, escaped to Megiddo and died there from his wounds shortly thereafter.  He was then buried by his servants in Jerusalem.  (2 Kings 9:27-28). 

Chronicles seems to imply that Ahaziah was captured and executed by Jehu in Samaria.  

But what do the accounts really say?

It says in 2 Kings that when Jehu killed Joram, king of Israel, he also ordered the death of Ahaziah who was visiting Joram. 

Ahaziah was injured, but escaped to Megiddo. 

2 Chronicles, however, gives us more information.

Jehu apparently sent out a search parties to find Ahaziah, and they found him in Samaria. 

So what happened?

Here’s one possibility. 

When Ahaziah was injured, he went to Megiddo first.  Jehu heard from his search parties that Ahaziah was there and followed him. 

But when Ahaziah heard that Jehu was coming, he ran once again, this time hiding in Samaria. 

When Jehu arrived in Megiddo, he found that the bird had flown the coop, so he sent out more search parties. 

They eventually found Ahaziah, and had him brought to Jehu in Megiddo, and there Ahaziah was executed. 

Note that nowhere in Chronicles does it say that Ahaziah was killed in Samaria.  It only says that he was found and captured there and was then brought to Jehu.  It doesn’t say where Jehu was when Ahaziah was brought to him. 

Kings on the other hand, doesn’t say anything about Ahaziah dying from his wounds.  It merely says he died in Megiddo. 

At that point, either Jehu buried him there, and Ahaziah’s servants then later moved him to Jerusalem, or Jehu simply left Ahaziah in the care of Ahaziah’s servants.

If that’s the case, when Kings says Jehu buried Ahaziah, it simply means he allowed him to be buried.

Is this what really happened?  I don’t know.  But it is a reasonable explanation.

So what’s my point? 

There are some difficult passages to reconcile in the Bible.  Some are found here in Kings and Chronicles.  Others are found in the gospels. 

But I think if we can remember that generally these accounts complement rather than simply copycat each other, we can resolve most of these supposed discrepancies with some thought.

Categories
2 Chronicles 2 Kings

Ignoring God’s warnings

Kings & Chronicles

I wish sometimes that the Israelites had been a bit more creative in naming their children.  It gets a little confusing to keep track of sometimes. 

First you have Ahaziah, king of Israel, and Joram (short for Jehoram) his brother taking over for him when he died. 

Then in Judah, you have another man named Jehoram/Joram who becomes king, and when he dies, his son, another man named Ahaziah, takes over as king. 

So in two nations, at just about the same time, you have two kings named Jehoram/Joram and two kings named Ahaziah.

Anyway, enough of that rant. 

To be clear, these passages talk not of Jehoram/Joram, king of Israel with whom Elisha had much contact with, but of Jehoram/Joram of Judah, with whom Elisha had little, if any contact with.

This Jehoram was the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. 

But unlike his father, he did not follow after God with his whole heart. 

The trouble probably started with who he married, a woman named Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab. 

I mentioned in an earlier blog the problem with allying yourself with ungodly people, and it finds its culmination here.

When Jehoshaphat died, Jehoram immediately decided to kill all his brothers to make sure they wouldn’t try to take his throne. 

One wonders if he wasn’t prompted in this by Athaliah, who showed a similar ruthlessness after Jehoram’s son Ahaziah died.

She apparently was also the one who led Jehoram into idol worship. (2 Chronicles 21:6; 2 Kings 8:18)

For the sake of David, God wasn’t willing to destroy the dynastic line, but he did bring discipline into Jehoram’s life, trying to get him to see the error of his ways. 

Edom and Libnah both revolted against the Israelites, because, “Jehoram had forsaken the Lord.”  (2 Chronicles 21:10)

In fact, Jehoram came perilously close to dying and had to be broken out of a situation where he was surrounded by the Edomites. 

Despite this near-death situation, he still didn’t repent.

God then played his final card in order to get Jehoram to repent:  a letter from Elijah the prophet.

While the book of Kings writes extensively about Elijah and Elisha, you only see Elijah’s name once in Chronicles, and Elisha is never mentioned at all. 

But this one time has stirred up all kinds of controversy. 

It seems from the chronology set up by Kings that Elijah had already been taken to heaven by this time. 

How is it then that Jehoram received this letter from Elijah?

As is often the case, nobody really knows, but there are a lot of theories. 

I’ve read one theory that Elijah wasn’t really whisked away to heaven, but was taken somewhere quiet to live out his retirement. He then sent this last letter out to Jehoram at God’s prompting. 

I don’t think I buy this, but it’s an interesting theory. 

Another theory is that these things weren’t written chronologically.

Under that theory, Elijah still had not ascended into heaven when Jehoram took sole possession of the throne.

Still another theory is that God told Elijah what would happen. So before Elijah was taken away, he wrote a letter and gave it to one of his disciples to deliver to Jehoram at the proper time.

Considering that Elisha was able in great detail to see what Hazael would do in the future, I see no reason why Elijah wouldn’t be able to do the same for Jehoram. 

For that matter, both Cyrus and Josiah were specifically mentioned by name and their actions written about years before they were born.  (Isaiah 44:28-45:1; 1 Kings 13:2)

If we truly believe these were prophesies (and I do), what Elijah did would’ve been a piece of cake.

At any rate, whatever the case may be, Jehoram received this warning, apparently from the grave. 

It should’ve been enough to shock anyone into repentance.  But Jehoram didn’t, and God passed judgment on him. 

Jehoram died a terrible, painful death, and when he died, it was “to no one’s regret.” (2 Chronicles 21:20).

What can we get from this? 

God, because of his promises, often shows patience and mercy to us when we sin and turn from him. 

He will give us warnings and allow difficult circumstances in our lives to try to get us to turn back to him. 

But if we refuse to listen, judgment will come. 

I’m not saying you will lose your salvation.  But you will not simply get away with your actions.  God will not allow it. 

And judgment can be a most painful thing.

Let us not ignore the warnings and discipline of God in our lives. 

Rather, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, let us “submit to the Father of our spirits and live.” 

For “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”  (Hebrews 12:9, 10)

Categories
2 Kings

Nothing hidden from God

2 Kings

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

That’s the age-old question.  Of course, as Christians, we’d say the chicken.

In the case of this story, which came first, Elisha’s prophesy of Hazael’s assension to the throne, or Hazael’s intention to usurp Ben-Hadad’s throne? 

I also kind of wonder if Elisha was fulfilling God’s command to Elijah to anoint Hazael as king of Aram (I Kings 19:15), or whether Elisha is merely confirming the message Elijah had already given him.

I don’t know the answer to either question, but I’d like to focus on the first one. 

I’ve always thought that Hazael heard Elisha’s words and then took it upon himself to fulfill it by murdering Ben-Hadad.

But there is another possibility. 

It’s possible that Hazael had already been planning in his heart to take advantage of Ben-Hadad’s weakened condition and to murder him.  And what Elisha was doing was to expose what was already in Hazael’s heart.

Whatever the case, nothing is hidden from God.  Neither the future, nor what lies in people’s hearts. 

Everything is laid out before him.

In this, we can take warning…and comfort.

The warning we can take is that we cannot hide the sin that we do, nor can we hide the sin that lies within our hearts. 

And so we need to be very careful how we live, because we all will stand before God’s judgment seat some day. 

As Hebrews says,

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  (Hebrews 4:13)

But we can also take hope in knowing that God holds the future.  As David wrote,

You saw me before I was born. 
Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. 

Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.  (Psalm 139:16 — NLT)

I mentioned in my last blog that God’s timing is perfect.  And if we can remember that God does hold our future, it makes it much easier to trust him and wait for his timing. 

There’s an old song that I love.  It says,

You haven’t rested for days
And you’re so wrapped up in worry
That you can’t even think

You’ve done the best you can do
But the answer still evades you
To the problems that you face

He’ll lead you if you just ask
But you’ve got to trust His wisdom
And believe in His word

He sees what you cannot see
And He knows and wants the best for you
So it’s time that you learned.

God holds the future — He’s got a plan
There’s no need to worry, ’cause it’s all in His hand.

So if you are struggling, with what you should do
God holds the future for you.
–David Meece

Categories
2 Kings

God’s perfect timing

2 Kings

The story here is an interesting on a couple of levels. 

First, the issue of Gehazi.  The last we saw of him, he had been struck with leprosy for his deception of Naaman in chapter 5. 

Now he’s seen here talking to King Joram about Elisha.

There are several possibilities. 

One is that the story is not in chronological order, so that this incident happened before Gehazi’s leprosy.

Another possibility is that God relented and healed him. 

One interesting rabbinic theory is that the four lepers in chapter 7 were Gehazi and his sons, and that because of their actions, God healed them. 

There are other possibilities as well, but I would say these are the two most likely.

The second thing that’s interesting about this story is God’s timing.

Here is this Shunnamite woman, who had been warned by Elisha to leave the country because of the famine to come. 

When she comes back, apparently her husband had died in Philistia, and she and her son had come to the king to beg for their house and land back.

At the exact moment they walk in, there is Gehazi talking to the king about how Elisha had raised this woman’s son from the dead.

Imagine the shock on Gehazi’s face when he recognized her. 

“This is the woman, my lord the king!  And this is her son whom Elisha restored to life!”  (2 Kings 8:5)

The king questioned her about the incident and apparently was so impressed, that he immediately took care of this woman’s case, restoring her land and everything that belonged to her.

God’s timing is always impeccable. 

I can think of so many times in my life, when things fell into place at just the right time. 

When I think, for example, of how God brought my wife and I together, it particularly amazes me. (But that’s a story for another time).

But I have to admit, in the midst of trial, it can be difficult to wait.  Sometimes, it’s tempting to try to move ahead of God’s timing, and to force things to happen. 

I was talking with a guy who really wants to get married, but right now things don’t seem to be moving in that area. 

Many single Christians in Japan get tired of waiting and force the issue, getting married to a non-Christian. 

Only they find that when they do so, they’ve just replaced one problem with another, bigger problem.

Let us always remember that God’s timing is perfect. 

As David wrote,

I am still confident of this: 
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.  (Psalm 27:13-14)

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2 Kings

Out of patience, low on faith

2 Kings

The respite that the Israelites gained from the kindness they showed to the Arameans didn’t last long. 

Once again, the king of Aram led another assault on Samaria, the capital of Israel, laying siege to it.  As a result, no food was coming into the city, leaving the people starving.

Things got so bad, that one woman complained to the king about a horrid agreement she had made with another woman:  She cooked her own baby and they ate it, agreeing to cook and eat the other woman’s baby the next day. 

But the second woman hid her child, and so the first woman brought the case before the king, asking for justice.

What did King Joram do?  He placed blame on God and the prophet Elisha, saying,

May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today. (2 Kings 6:31)

He then went in search of Elisha to kill him.  When he found him, he told Elisha,

This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? (2 Kings 6:33)

In other words, “Elisha, I’m out of patience, and low on faith.  Why should I follow God any longer when things are going so badly?”

Yet one wonders what Joram was doing long before this? 

Had he sought Elisha’s advice before?  Had he sought the word of the Lord before this? 

In all probability, he hadn’t.  Instead, he had tried to handle his problems his own way, and in his own wisdom. 

Now that he realized that he couldn’t handle things, he still didn’t seek God.  Rather, he tried to place blame on God once again for his bad decisions. 

(You remember he did this before when he led an attack with Jehoshaphat on Moab in chapter 3 of 2 Kings).

When Elisha told Joram God would take care of the situation, Joram apparently took his word for it, but one of his officers had also apparently run out of faith and muttered to the king his doubts concerning Elisha’s words.

So Elisha basically told him, “You will see God’s deliverance, but you will not get to enjoy the benefits of it.”  (2 Kings 7:2)

God did deliver the people, and while Joram’s officer stood at the gate watching the people rush out of the city, he got trampled and died.

What can we learn from this? 

How much faith do we have when things aren’t going well?  Do we just give up?  Not only on the situation, but on God? 

Or do we keep trusting him, even though we can’t see how he could possibly deliver us?

It’s easy to believe in God when things are going well. 

Do we continue to believe in him when things are not?

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2 Kings

Returning good for evil

2 Kings

“If I ever get my hands on him…”

“You won’t know when.  You won’t know where.  But someday…”

Have you ever said these things? 

When we’ve been hurt, these are common thoughts to have. 

But they’re not the way God would have us live.

In this story, with the Aramean army surrounding the city Elisha was in, God struck them with blindness. 

I’m not sure whether it was complete blindness or if it was a situation where God simply caused them to be unable to recognize what they were seeing.

They may have been very much like Mary Magdalene and the two men on the road to Emmaus who could look right at Jesus and not recognize him. 

I kind of guess it was the latter, considering an entire army had to be escorted to Samaria. That would’ve been tough if they were completely blind.

Then again, maybe the men of the city did escort the army down. 

Whatever the situation, King Joram had the Arameans in his hands. 

And with the Aramean army surrounded by his own, Joram asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them?”

Perhaps he was thinking, “This is my chance to strike a huge blow against the Arameans, taking out a large part of the army.” 

Or “It would only serve them right.  They attacked us; we didn’t attack them.”

But Elisha instead had them treat the Aramean army to a giant feast, and then sent them on their way.

Apparently, this so shamed the Arameans, that they would actually stop their attacks for a time.

When people ill-treat you, how do you respond? 

God doesn’t call us to act as the world does.  Rather, he calls us to respond as his Son did. 

When Jesus was mocked, beaten, and put on a cross, he forgave his enemies. 

Not only that, he returned good for evil by paying the price for their sins by dying on the cross.

Remember the words of Paul who wrote,

Do not repay anyone evil for evil…

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

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2 Kings

Eyes that see beyond

Elisha and chariots of fire

I can’t say I read this story very often, nor do I think I’ve ever heard it preached on in Japan in the 17 years I’ve been here.  But I’ve got to say it’s probably one of my favorite stories in the Bible. 

It’s one of my favorites because it’s one of the few times we catch a glimpse of the spiritual world that surrounds us.

Here are Elisha and his servant surrounded by the enemy, and it seems that they’re in deep trouble. 

But while Elisha’s servant is panicking, Elisha never blinks an eye.  Why? 

Because he saw beyond what his servant saw. 

His servant could only see the enemy around them.  Elisha saw an even greater army surrounding them, an army on his side. 

He prayed, “Lord, open my servant’s eyes.” 

And when he did, his servant saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17)

I have to admit, I worry and fret about a lot of things.  At work and at home, it’s easy to see the problems that I have and have them consume my thoughts. 

How I long to have the eyes of Elisha.  Eyes that see beyond my circumstances, to the God who is greater than any problem that I could possibly have.

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2 Kings

Nothing too small

2 Kings

What amazes me about God is that he is concerned even with the minor details of our lives.  There is nothing that he considers too small to bring up to his attention.

In this story, some of the prophets were building a place for all of them to live and were cutting down some trees. 

But as one of them was doing so, the axhead flew off the handle and landed in the water. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t his own axe.  It belonged to another. 

But when Elisha heard about the problem, he didn’t brush it off.  He didn’t say, “I don’t deal with trivial things such as this.” 

Instead, he cared enough to help recover the axe.

I wonder if we truly understand the loving care that God has for us.  That he cares not only about the big things in our lives, but the small. 

How often do we hold back in our prayers, not asking for things, because we believe it’s not worth God’s attention?

  But to God, we are worth his attention.  And if we are concerned, then so is he. 

So when we face worries or concerns in our lives, let us be quick to bring them up to our heavenly Father. 

Know that he will not reject our requests because they are beneath him or unworthy of his time or attention.

He who notices every sparrow that falls to the ground, notices every detail of your life as well, down to the number of hairs on your head. 

Let us rest and take comfort in the love that he has for us.

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2 Kings

The salvation that comes from God

2 Kings

As I read this passage, it reminds me of the salvation that we receive from God.

First, we learn that it needs to be proclaimed in order for people to receive it. 

It’s amazing to me that this girl, who goes nameless in this story, would show such compassion for her master when she was stolen away from her own people to become a slave. 

And yet, she cared so much for her master, that she told his wife, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”  (2 Kings 5:3)

Had she never said a word, he would have wasted away in his leprosy. 

In the same way, many people are wasting away in their sin, and unless we tell them about the one who can save them, they will die in that sin. 

Paul wrote,

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? 

And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? 

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 

And how can they preach unless they are sent? 

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”  (Romans 10:14-15)

The second thing about salvation is that it has to come God’s way, not our own. 

When Naaman was told that he would have to bathe in the Jordan, his first reaction was revulsion. 

“Why should I go to the Jordan?  Why not the rivers in my own land?  They’re much better than the Jordan! 

“What kind of prophet is this anyway?  I thought he would just wave his hand over me and I would be made clean.  This guy wouldn’t even see me!”  (11-12)

But Naaman had to learn that healing wouldn’t come by doing things his own way, but through God’s. 

God required that he show humility, admitting that he couldn’t help himself.

And God required that he demonstrate faith, believing his word and then obeying it. 

He requires the same from those who seek salvation today: That we would humble ourselves, admit we are sinners who need help, and then putting our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of ours sins.

Finally, salvation is not a gift we can buy. 

I believe that it was for this reason that Elisha refused payment and that Elisha’s servant Gehazi was punished with leprosy for lying to Naaman and saying that Elisha had changed his mind. 

God had wanted to make clear that this salvation Naaman had received was a free gift. 

But Gehazi ruined that picture God was trying to show Naaman and the Arameans.

In the same way, salvation from sin is a free gift. 

We cannot pay for it.  We cannot earn it. 

All we can do is humbly receive it. 

As Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.

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2 Kings

The God who preserves, the God who provides

2 Kings

In these two short stories, we see the loving care of God.

In the first, in the midst of a famine, Elisha has his servant prepare a stew for a company of prophets that were meeting with him.

But unbeknownst to the servant, he put in a some kind of herb or gourd that was poisonous.

The men realized this while eating and cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” (2 Kings 4:40)

But God in his love preserved their lives, and not only that, turned what was poisonous into something that sustained them.

In the second story, we see a situation very similar to what Jesus did twice in the New Testament.

Someone brought bread to Elisha, but he didn’t feel right about keeping it all to himself.

So he told his servant to divide it among the 100 men that were there, saying, “This is what the Lord says, ‘They will eat and have some left over.'”  (43)

And that’s exactly what happened.

Right now, my wife and I are somewhat concerned about our finances, and so my wife is looking for a job right now to help supplement our income.

And there are specific things that we need in terms of her working hours and conditions in order for it to all come together.

But we believe that God is the one who will provide.

We are grateful that he has provided all these years up until now, and based on that, we will trust in him.

It’s not always easy.  But if he could provide for Elisha, and watch over his life and the life of his men, I believe he can do the same for us.

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2 Kings

Giver of life, restorer of hope

2 Kings

The life of Elisha, in many ways, parallels that of Elijah in terms of the miracles that he performed. 

At a guess, this list of miracles was noted to show that Elisha did indeed receive that double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

And in this story, like Elijah, Elisha raised a woman’s only son to life.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

This woman and her husband thought their chances for having a child were passed.

But they still had a deep love for God and did not let themselves grow bitter over their circumstances. 

Still, you get the feeling from the woman’s words to Elisha that she did feel an emptiness from not having a son. (2 Kings 4:16)

Yet out of her love for God, she desired to do something to help Elisha, and so she had her husband make a room just for Elisha to stay in whenever he happened to be in the area. 

And so Elisha asked what he could do for her. 

She probably thought that asking for a son was impossible, and since that was the only thing she really wanted, she told Elisha that she didn’t need anything.

But Elisha learned from his servant Gehazi that this couple had no son, and so he told her that they would have a son by the next year.  And God did as Elisha said.

But after several years, the child was in the fields with his father. Suddenly, he grew faint, and he eventually died in his mother’s arms.

Devastated, she went out to Elisha. 

Refusing to say anything to his servant, she went directly to him, pouring out her heart to him. 

Elisha returned to her home with her, and when his servant’s efforts to restore the boy failed, he himself went in and prayed for the boy. 

And by God’s grace, the boy’s life was restored.

In this passage, I think we find two truths. 

First, God is the giver of life. 

He did it twice.  Once in allowing the woman to give birth, and the second time in breathing life back into her son’s dead body.

In the same way, he also breathes life into us, not just once, but twice. 

He breathes life into us once at birth.  Then when we receive Jesus as our Savior, he breathes spiritual life into us. 

And in both cases, life is a gift.  It’s not something we can work for or attain.  It’s God-given. 

As Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.

Second, God is the restorer of hope. 

God restored hope that this family’s name would be carried on with the birth of her son.  And he restored it again, when he brought the boy back to life.

God can do the same for us, restoring hope, when all hope seems to be gone.

I love a song that someone in my church wrote.  It says,

May the God of hope fill you with all joy
And peace as you trust in him,
That you may overflow with hope by the Holy Spirit’s power.

May the God of hope fill you up.
With joy and peace as you trust in him.

He works all things for good.
God of hope, you’re my hope.

Categories
2 Kings

An unpayable debt

2 Kings

I hate being in debt. 

I don’t use my credit cared often, but when I do, I always pay it it off before the end of the month. 

My only other debt is the one I owe on my house.  I pray I never have to take out another loan for the rest of my life. 

The problem with debts, of course, is that you eventually have to pay them back.  And if you can’t, you’re in trouble.

That’s what happened with the woman in this story. 

For whatever reason, after her husband died, he left behind debts that she couldn’t pay. 

Perhaps they were medical bills from his final illness.  But whatever they were, she was in trouble, because in those days, if a person couldn’t pay their debts, they were often thrown in prison or forced to work as slaves.

In this case, her creditors were planning to take her two sons as slaves, which would have left her with no one who could support her in her old age. 

And so she came up to Elisha for help.

Very much like the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17), he had the woman take what little she had from her house, and miraculously was able to multiply it. 

He just told her to get as many jars as she could get from her neighbors, and upon doing so, told her to fill the oil she did have into those jars. 

The oil never did stop flowing until all the jars were filled.  Not only was she able to pay off her debt, whe was able to live off of the rest the money she had made.

In the same way, we too had an unpayable debt:  the debt of sin. 

In Romans 3:23, it says, “For all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). 

And we must all pay for our sins. 

How can we pay for them?  The truth is, we can’t. 

And because of that, we are doomed to be separated from God forever when we die.

But God loved us so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  And by doing so, he paid the debt for our sin. 

When Jesus died on the cross, he said “It is finished.” 

The word he used on the cross was often used when a person paid off their tax bills in Rome.  It means, “Paid in full.” 

What Jesus was saying was that our debt of sin was paid in full by his death on the cross.

And just as God poured oil into all those jars, he pours his Holy Spirit into our hearts, guaranteeing our inheritance in heaven someday  (Ephesians 1:13-14). 

But not only does he pay off our debt and give us eternal life, he also gives us a life worth living on earth and promises to provide for our needs here.

So let us always keep in mind Paul’s words.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  (Romans 8:32).

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2 Kings

Doing God’s will, or our own?

2 Kings

Joram, king of Israel, was facing a rebellion by Moab. 

After being subject to his father Ahab, the Moabites now refused to pay tribute to Israel, and so Joram allied himself with Judah and Edom to attack the Moabites.

Once again, Jehoshaphat showed poor judgment, as he had much of his life, in choosing his friends. 

Perhaps it was because his son was married to Ahab’s daughter that he allied himself with Joram. 

Perhaps it was because of Jehoshaphat’s own problems with Moab earlier. 

But whatever the reason, it got him into trouble again.

As he and the two other kings were traveling with their armies to attack Moab, they soon found themselves with no water to support themselves.

Then, typical of many people today, Joram placed the blame on God, saying, “What!  Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?” (2 Kings 3:10)

Jehoshaphat at least had the wisdom to ask Elisha for help. 

But Elisha showed his scorn for Joram saying, “What do we have to do with each other?  Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”  (13)

Once again, Joram placed blame on God for his circumstances basically saying, “No.  The only reason we’re here is because God led us here.  This is his fault.”  (13)

But God in his grace, not only provided water for the three kings and their armies, but he also gave them the victory as well.

Nevertheless, the question we need to ask ourselves is this: 

“Are we doing God’s will?  Or are we simply doing our own will in God’s name?”  What’s the difference?

When we simply make our own plans, and ask God to bless them, that’s not doing God’s will.  That’s doing our own will and attaching God’s name to it. 

So often when we do that, we get in trouble, and we start wondering why. 

Then we start blaming God for our problems. 

But that’s not how we are to live.

Rather, we need to be asking, “God, what is your will?  May your will be done in my life.” 

And if we seek him first, and seek his guidance, he will lead. 

It is as we obey him, that we will be prosperous and find success in the things we do.  (Joshua 1:8)

How about you?  Are you doing God’s will?  Or are you doing your own will in God’s name?

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2 Kings

When we defy God’s word in our lives

2 Kings

This is a passage that is an uncomfortable reminder of what happens when we defy God’s word in our lives. 

I’m not talking about ignorance of God’s word.  I’m talking about outright defiance.

In this passage, Elisha was going up to the city of Bethel, when some youths came up to meet him. 

I should note here that while some translations say it was small boys, the words in the Hebrew are much broader in meaning than the definition in English. 

The very same word for boys is used when talking about the soldiers that led the charge against Ben Hadad in 1 Kings 20:14-17. 

In this case, it was probably young men, perhaps in their teens or perhaps a bit older, that came out to confront Elisha.

And that’s exactly what they did:  confront Elisha. 

Elisha didn’t enter the town and run into these young men by chance.  Rather, they came out of the town to chase him away.

They went up to him en masse saying, “Go on up, you baldhead.”  (2 Kings 2:23).

They seemed to be referring to Elijah’s ascension into heaven, and they were essentially saying, “Get out of here.  Go join your master and leave us alone.  We don’t want anything to do with you.”

Some Bible commentators have suggested that their hostility went beyond words, that they were actually hinting at physical violence. 

I don’t know if that was true or not, but what is clear is these young men’s utter contempt for the word of God and the prophet who brought it.

As a result, Elisha called a curse on them, and God sent two bears that attacked these men.

It seems a bit extreme, to be sure.  If these young men were indeed threatening violence against Elisha, then perhaps it was necessary in order to preserve his life.

But whether they were actually threatening Elisha’s life or not, God made something crystal clear to these men and to the people of their town: 

If you despise the word of God, and utterly reject him, there will be judgment for it. 

It may come sooner.  It may come later.  But it will come. 

In the case of these men, it came sooner, to their regret.

What can we learn from this?

How do we respond to God’s word in our lives?

Sometimes, God’s word can make us uncomfortable, because it shows us areas in our lives which are wrong. 

Sometimes it makes us mad, because we don’t like what it says.

But however it makes us feel, God calls us to respond to what he has said.  We cannot just ignore it. 

And if we openly rebel against it, we will pay the price.

God is a patient God.  But his patience will not last forever. 

In 2 Chronicles 36, it talks about the judgment that would eventually fall on Judah, for like Israel, they would eventually fall into sin and corruption. 

It says,

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 

But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

How about you?  How do you respond to God’s word in your life?  How do you respond when it makes you uncomfortable or angry because God is confronting you in your sin? 

Do you just ignore it?  Do you even openly rebel against it?

By doing so, you harden your hearts to God, just as the Israelites did. 

And if you do it long enough, eventually, there will be no remedy for you any longer, and judgment will come.

But if you soften your heart to God, confess your sin, and let his word transform your life, then forgiveness and healing will come into your life.

Which will you choose?

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2 Kings Bible Original

Being salt to an unproductive and dying land

2 Kings

This country is a swamp.  In time you will come to see that for yourself. 

This country is a more terrible swamp than you can imagine. 

Whenever you plant a sapling in this swamp the roots begin to rot, the leaves grow yellow and wither. 

And we have planted the sapling of Christianity in this swamp. (p. 237)

Such are the words of the apostate priest, Father Christovao Ferreira, in Shusaku Endo’s book, “Silence.” 

In the book, Ferreira tries to convince another priest that all his efforts to bring Christianity to Japan were in vain. 

And in a country where even today, the Christian population remains miniscule (less than one percent), not much seems to have changed. 

I have heard Japan even described as a missionary’s graveyard, where people have come with great hopes of spreading the gospel, only to return home down and discouraged.

All this comes to mind as I read this passage in Kings. 

Here, Elisha comes to a city and the people say,

Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive. (2 Kings 2:19)

People say the same of Japan. 

“It’s a great place.   The people are nice.  But the water is bad and the land is unproductive.  No matter how much we try to spread the seeds of the gospel, nothing grows.”

But what does Elisha do?  He throws salt into the spring, and says,

This is what the Lord says:  ‘I have healed this water.  Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ (21)

This is what Jesus wants to do with Japan. 

He calls us the salt of the earth, and by spreading us throughout Japan, he wants to heal the “water” of the land. 

Instead of being a stagnant swamp that rots whatever is put in it, he wants to fill Japan with the living water of his Holy Spirit.

His will is that death should not reign here, but that the seeds of the gospel would find fertile ground.

But for that to happen, we need to be salt.  Jesus said,

You are the salt of the earth. 

But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  (Matthew 5:13)

How can we lose our saltiness? 

By blending in with this world. 

By being exactly the same as the rest of this world in our way of thinking and in our actions. 

By being self-centered in our daily lives, rather than God-centered. 

By focusing on the things of earth, rather than the things above. 

The list goes on.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, “How salty are we?” 

If we want to see a change in Japan, if we want to see it turn into a fertile, productive land for the seeds of the gospel, it starts with us.  It starts with us being the salt in this land that God calls us to be.

Let’s be that salt.

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2 Kings

Never alone

2 Kings

Elijah’s time had come to leave this earth and to be with God. 

But before he departed, he asked Elisha, his disciple, “What can I do for you before I’m taken from you?” 

Elisha replied, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”  (2 Kings 2:9)

Elijah wouldn’t promise that outright, saying only that if Elisha saw how Elijah was taken, his request would be granted by God. 

And as they walked along, suddenly a chariot of fire came and took Elijah away, right before Elisha’s eyes.

When they had crossed the Jordan together, Elijah had struck the water with his cloak and it divided for him. 

Now as Elisha came back, he said, “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?”  (14)

In other words, is God with me as he was with Elijah?  Or have I been left lonely? 

His answer came, as he took Elijah’s cloak that was left behind, struck the Jordan and saw it split before him.

This story calls to mind what Jesus told his disciples at the last supper.  He told them,

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it…

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:12-14, 18)

Just as God’s Spirit was with Elisha after Elijah departed, God’s Spirit is with us. 

And just as Elisha was able to do greater things than even Elijah, we are able to do even greater things than Jesus did while he was on earth. 

Why?  Because as with Elisha, God does not leave us lonely.  He does not, as Jesus put it, leave us as orphans. 

Rather he comes to us and imparts to us not only his love, but his power. 

More than that, Jesus promises that we may ask anything in his name and he will do it.

So let us be like Elisha was with Elijah: 

Faithful to our Lord. 

Constantly following him. 

Willing to do whatever he asks. 

As Jesus said,

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.  (John 14:21) 

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2 Kings

A God who demands more than lip service

Elijah and Ahaziah's men

Ahaziah’s reign as king of Israel didn’t last long.  Two years to be exact.

And just as his father Ahab did, he worshiped Baal as well as worshiping Yahweh through the calves that Jeroboam had set up years before.

But Ahaziah had no real desire for dealings with Yahweh on God’s own terms.  And when Ahaziah had an accident, he sought another god to see if he would live or not.

But God sent Elijah who told him,

This is what the Lord says:  Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?

Therefore, you will not leave the bed you are lying on.  You will certainly die! (2 Kings 1:6)

When Ahaziah heard these words, he sent a captain and 50 men to Elijah.

What his purpose was, I’m not sure, whether to arrest Elijah, or to simply question him more.

But twice, Ahaziah’s captains came up mockingly saying, “Man of God, the king says, “Come down!”

And twice, Elijah said, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.”  (10,12)

The third captain, however, came humbly saying, “Man of God, please have respect for my life and the life of these fifty men, your servants!  (13)

God then sent Elijah down.  Eljiah confronted Ahaziah, and shortly thereafter, Ahaziah died.

What can we learn from this?  God demands more than lip service from us.

Ahaziah, like most of the Israelite kings, paid lip service to God, but refused to worship him as God had prescribed.

Not only that, when the chips were down, they went to other gods rather than the one true God.

The two captains called Elijah, “Man of God,” but they didn’t mean it.  The third did, and his life was spared as a result.

How do we treat God?  Do we give him only lip service?  Or are we truly humble before him, doing what he has asked?

The day is coming when at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord.  (Philippians 2:10-11)

Some will confess it with joy and thanksgiving.  Others will confess it, grinding their teeth.

But all will confess that he is Lord, and there will no longer be any lip service from that time on.

So let us stop any lip service now.  Rather, let us serve God from our hearts, and acknowledge that he is truly Lord.