How I Do Not Want to be Described!

In Ezekiel 3.7, this morning. God's description of his own people is that they are hard of forehead and stiff of heart. It is a shocking indictment when we understand that Pharaoh was described in the exact same way. The people would not be willing to listen to Ezekiel because God had sent him. In the same way Israel had rejected Samuel in favor of a king, so they would now reject Ezekiel because they did not want to hear God's message.

Strong words to make us search out our hearts again and again so that we do not become hard of forehead and stiff of heart, because that is a sign of a people who have gone their own way and will not listen to God any more. Lord, give me a soft forehead and a pliable heart!

God is the Righteous Judge...

...therefore no passing judgment on other believers, or unbelievers for that matter. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5.4,5, that God will judge him. It doesn't matter what the Corinthians think of him, or even what he thinks of himself. What matters is what God thinks of him.

We do not serve man, nor do we seek to serve man. Nor ought we to serve or please ourselves. We serve God. He is our final judge.

In Demonstration of the Spirit and Power

In 1 Corinthians 2.4 this morning. Paul made a deliberate decision not to present the gospel in a way that accorded with what the Greeks perceived as human wisdom and eloquence (he was smart enough that he certainly could have). Rather, Paul decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. This ensured that the results that came would be by way of the Holy Spirit and demonstrate God's power.

The obvious question for us is: "Do we do the same in our presentation of the gospel and in our lives?" It is rather easy to allow worldly thinking and arguments into our lives in a vain attempt to "get results." Paul consciously rejected this approach. The message was Jesus Christ and him crucified. Always.

Preaching the Cross

I am struck reading through 1 Corinthians 1.17-25, that what stands out as clearly as a bell tower is that what Paul preached above everything else was Christ crucified. Sure he spoke about love, and faithfulness, about God's judgment and justice. He taught about the second coming of Christ. He taught about the law in relation to the gospel. However, he taught as most important Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If our preaching and teaching are not saturated with the cross of Christ; if we don't, as Spurgeon once said, "wherever I start in the Scriptures, I make a beeline for the cross, then we are not preaching the gospel as Paul preached it. Let us proclaim to the world until our last breath that the only answer to the question of who we are, and why we are here, and what is our purpose, lies at the foot of the cross.

Saul Fails (in Sin) Where David Succeeds: Mysterious are the Ways of the Lord

I came across 1 Sam 18.17 this morning in my Bible reading. Saul hates David and wants to kill him, but realizes that he can't just murder him. What to do? Send him out to fight against the Philistines so that perhaps the Philistines will do what Saul himself cannot do. Despite Saul's best efforts, David is not killed.

Contrast this story with 2 Samuel 11.14,15, where David does the exact same thing when he gets Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, pregnant. David, in contrast to Saul, is successful. Uriah is killed in the battle (with a little help from Joab, commander of the army).

In one case, God protected David from the designs of Saul. In the other case God did not protect Uriah from the designs of David. Why the difference?

I have no clue. God could certainly have prevented David from being successful in his attempt to have Uriah killed. He chose not to do so. Events like these are why it is so useless (not to mention foolish) to try and put God into a box and say, "in situation a, God will always do b." In fact, in situation a, God does not always do b. Sometimes he prevents us from enduring the consequences of our sin, and sometimes he allows us to endure the consequences of our sin.

What is very clear from both stories is that God is ultimately just in both of them. Saul is eventually punished for his wickedness by losing not only the kingdom, but his life as well (along with the life of the rest of his household). David's child dies after it has lived for a week, and God's punishment on him is very severe.

May we take a lesson from the stories of Saul and David's sin. God will not allow sin to go unpunished, and in his grace he sometimes (but not always) prevents us from succeeding in our sin. He is, however, always a righteous judge.

The Essential Step to the Wealth and Riches (of God)

The essential step to God's wealth, or as the Hebrew more directly puts it in Lamentations 2.14, to having our captivity turned away, to restoring our fortunes, is having our sin exposed. Sin and success are mutually incompatible in God's design. We cannot have both. This is the blessing of having our sin exposed.

Wicked = Sorrow; Righteous = Surrounded

From Psalms 32.10 this morning, where David contrasts the wicked with those who trust in the Lord. The wicked will have many sorrows, or, as Charles Spurgeon put it: He who sows sin will reap sorrow in heavy sheaves. How empirically true this is. It doesn't matter what their station in life is, or how much money they have, or how well they appear to be doing, their sorrows are many.

Those who trust in the Lord, on the other hand, are surrounded, by God's steadfast love. Spurgeon again works out what that means quite well: Faith in God is the great charmer of life’s cares, and he who possesses it, dwells in an atmosphere of grace, surrounded with the bodyguard of mercies. May it be given to us of the Lord at all times to believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot see traces of its working, for to the believer, mercy is as all surrounding as omniscience, and every thought and act of God is perfumed with it.

May we believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot see traces of its working. This is the life of faith.

On Not Assuming God's Goodness

Psalms 31.19 has a precious promise, but we must not miss the careful prescription that is included. Oh how abundant is your goodness! Ah. Here is great news. God's goodness is like a spring that keeps bubbling up from who knows where that fills up it's cistern and then overflows and runs over the sides and down to the ground creating a brook. It just keeps coming and coming forever.

But. His goodness is abundant for those who fear you. This is what we must not miss. God's goodness is abundant with qualification—towards those who fear him. We must not expect God's goodness to overflow if we don't fear him, but this is exactly what we often do. We presume upon God's goodness even when our heart is far from him, and then are baffled that we don't receive it.

Is your life miserable? God's goodness is a spring waiting to fill up your life so that you cannot contain it, but it certainly won't, if you do not fear, reverence, honor, and glorify him.

Created By Power, Wisdom, and Understanding

The Scriptures are remarkably consistent in their claims concerning how the world was created. Jeremiah 51.15 agrees with John 1.1-3. The universe was made by the power of God. As he spoke it came into being. This is a theological description of origins, not a science textbook, so the mechanics of the world coming into being are only described in the vaguest way. The reason for this is that the Scriptures' emphasize who created the world, not how it was created.

The world was created by God's power, wisdom, and understanding and this is self-evident by simply looking at what is around us. This is exactly Paul's argument in Romans 1.20. It is a measure of how deep God's wisdom is, how great his power is, and how rich his understanding, that the deeper we delve into the mystery of nature, the more complex it becomes. Our God is great!

The Lord Will Hear Us...

...else we have no hope. The essential message of Psalms 28.1. David cries out to the Lord that the Lord would not be deaf to him. Why? Because that is all he has. If the Lord does not hear David, who will hear him?

Just so for us. We have one place to go for help in trouble, to the Lord our God. If he will not hear us, then we are without hope. This is why God is our only rock. If God is silent, then we are hopeless, just like those who go down to the pit. Hear us, O Lord, when we cry out.

The immutable Jehovah is our rock, the immovable foundation of all our hopes and our refuge in time of trouble: we are fixed in our determination to flee to him as our stronghold in every hour of danger. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our rock attends to our cries. Charles Spurgeon

If God is for Us

Romans 8.31 this morning. This introduces my favorite part of my favorite chapter in the NT.

Paul begins the most sublime section of all of his writings with this question: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" It is a conclusion drawn from what he has just argued, from the Scriptures, from history, and from his own experience. Who can be against us? No one can be against us if God is on our side, meaning, no one can prevail against us. As JFB says in their commentary, "If God be resolved and engaged to bring us through, all our enemies must be his." Just so. My enemies are God's enemies and it is a solemn and desperate thing to be an enemy of God. If God sets his face against you, then your destruction is sure and certain.

As followers of Christ we rest in the fact that God will vindicate us. God is the rock upon which we stand, and to which we cling in the storms and trials of life. He is for us. Why worry about who or what is against us?

The Ugly Truth

Nothing good dwells in us. This is the truth of Romans 7.18. Like Paul, we have the desire to do what is good, to honor God, to be obedient to him, but we find that nothing good dwells in our flesh and we have no ability to carry out God's commands. It's all pretty humbling as Paul freely admits here.

The good news is contained in chapter 8. What the law could not to because of the weakness of our flesh, God did do. Through his Son the requirments of the law were fulfilled and now, we too can fulfill the righteous requirements of the law as we walk according to the Holy Spirit and not according to the flesh.

Humility and How the Remnant did not Attain It

Jeremiah 44.10 this morning. Despite Jeremiah's faithfully proclaiming the word of the Lord to those left in the land by the Babylonian army, they would not listen to his message and fled to Egypt for safety and then took up their practice of sacrificing to the queen of heaven, vowing that they would continue to do so! As Jeremiah describes their situation he gets to the crux of the problem. Even though God had brought all of this calamity on Judah, they did not humble themselves. They did not fear God. They did not walk in his ways and according to his statutes.

From this we can easily see that God's aim for God's people is to fear him, to walk in his commandments, and to walk in humility before him. So...how are you doing?

The Dangers of Man's Logic

In Jeremiah 43.2 this morning. The remnant who had been left in the land promised Jeremiah that whatever God spoke through him, they would do. “Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us.” (Jer 42:5 ESV) Jeremiah comes back in 10 days and tells them to remain in the land of promise. Jeremiah 43.2 is their response. "Jeremiah, you are lying!"

Why this response? Human logic and reason. There were two great powers in the world at the time. Babylon and Egypt. If Babylon was your enemy, then Egypt was your friend. For protection from Babylon, you go down and live in Egypt. They took everyone and moved into Egypt. In 568 BC, Babylon conquered Egypt, just as Jeremiah prophesied.

This is the danger of Man's logic and reason, and the necessity of faith. Sometimes the proper thing to do is not to rely on your reason, especially when there is a conflict between what seems smart, and what God calls you to do.

Grace as a Gift

I was struck this morning by the verse after Romans 3.23. Have we heard the message of Romans 3.24? We are justified by his grace as a gift. Certainly as followers of Christ this is a concept that we've heard again and again...and again. Has it sunk in? We cannot earn grace. We cannot work for it. It is given. A gift. A gift is given and received, not earned. May we receive the gift of God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, with wonder and thanks and God-glorifying excitement, but without thinking we earned it.

Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed. Prosper of Aquitaine

A "Graced" Woman and a Servant of The King

Two compelling biblical characters today. First from 1 Samuel 1.20, we see Hannah whose name means "grace." She thought that her name was a mockery, since she was childless which was about the worst thing that could happen to a Hebrew wife. Yet in due time she who thought she was "graced-less" received a son of the Lord. He would be the greatest judge in Israel's history and a type of Christ (see Galatians 4.4). She who thought she was cursed of God discovered that her name was true. Hannah was graced by God in a marvelous and unmistakable way.

From Jeremiah 39.16 we find Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian whose name means merely "servant of the king." We aren't even told his Ethiopian name. Ebed saved the life of Jeremiah, no doubt because he believed Jeremiah's word and honored the God whom Jeremiah served. Ebed-melech is in some danger—he is fearful of those who oppose him at the (now destroyed by Babylon) court. Jeremiah promises him that he has nothing to fear because God will deliver him from these evil men. So the one who is nothing more than the "servant of the king," is proven to be the "servant of the True King."

Like Hannah, may we find God's grace in our greatest difficulties, and may we serve the True King with the devotion and commitment of Ebed-melech.

Unexpected Blessings

Thinking through the implications of Acts 28.9, this morning. The people of Malta gladly accepted and cared for the 276 survivors of the shipwreck, among whom were Paul and Luke. Because of this treatment when they brought their sick to Paul, he healed them. They provided sustenance to people in need, and in turn their own people's needs were met.

We do not provide aid and comfort for what we can get in return; we do it because that is who we are and what Christ calls us to do. However, sometimes God brings unexpected blessings to us when we do these things.

One further interesting note that Barclay makes in regards to this passage: Paul could exercise the gift of healing; and yet Paul had forever to bear about with him the thorn in the flesh. He healed others while he could not heal himself. Like his Master, in another sense, he saved others when he could not save himself.

A People of (Very) Hard Hearts

Thinking about Jeremiah 37.2 this morning. The people of Israel had everything that they needed to repent and turn away from their sins. They had the prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar and the army of Babylon would destroy them. They had Jeremiah's repeated warnings of God's impending judgment. They would not listen.

A couple of thoughts. First, God will do what he says. All of the hope in the world will not undo what he has said that he will do. King Zedekiah was hoping that the withdrawal of the Babylonian army after their first venture into Israel meant that Jeremiah was wrong. Zedekiah was the one who was wrong.

John Calvin makes the second point: For he intimates, that though God did not appear from heaven, it was sufficient to condemn the unbelieving, that he spoke by his Prophets. Hearing God's word through Jeremiah ought to have been enough to make them repent. They did not need for God to appear to them. The lesson for us is that we have God's word. It ought to be sufficient for us to repent of our sins and follow God.

Third, as Calvin also points out, the people exhibit a strange blindness to their position. They have already seen the king's own sons slain before his eyes by the Babylonians, and yet they do not listen to God's word through Jeremiah.

One Verse Gospel

From Acts 26.20 this morning. Paul summarized his message to all men in this way: Turn away from your sins. Turn to God. Prove the change in your life by doing good works.

Meditation = Groaning

Reading in Psalms 5.1 this morning. The ESV translation is pretty good here. My groaning is the noun form of the Hebrew verb ‏ הגה‎which means to groan or mutter or growl, or even to coo as a pigeon. It is the same word used in Ps. 1.2, and in his law does he meditate day and night, as well as in Josh 1.8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. To my way of thinking this gives a certain color to meditation. We think of it as silent prayer or silent thought, but to the Hebrews it was more thought and prayer that was so deep and focused that it came out as groaning, or muttering.

May I meditate/groan/mutter/coo/growl ever more deeply on the Scriptures.

Delight in God's Word

Reading in Psalms 1.2-3 this morning, and I'm struck that the way to prosper is to delight in the law of God, or as we see it in the Church Age, in the Word of God.

Indeed the contrast between the righteous person and the wicked person seems to rest on whether or not they delight, treasure, desire God's Word. Thus the importance of being saturated, drenched, and bathed in the Scriptures.

Are you struggling with doubt? Get thee to the Word. Questioning God's character? Take and read. Wrestling with truth? Tolle Lege - Take up and read.

Samson's Death

In Judges 16.28 this morning where Samson brings God's judgment on the Philistines when they bring him to a giant party to mock him. One commentator points out that this is the only time we ever see him praying before he uses his superhuman strength, so the gouging out of his eyes and the time in prison, enslaved, have—we think—brought him to repentance. Did he have his own motives for vengeance in addition to bringing God's judgment? It's certainly possible. He wouldn't be the first follower of God to act by both God's direction, and personal motives, nor the last.

The things that stand out to me here are:

1. God accepts his prayer and answers it, so whatever else we can conclude, the event was God-ordained to bring exceptional judgment on the Philistines.

2. In the process, it is clear from the incident that Dagon did not bring about Samson's capture and humiliation, God Almighty, the God of Israel brought it about for his own sovereign purposes.

3. This is the only time we see Samson praying before he uses his greath strength.

4. When God's judgment falls, it is often swift and immediate.

5. As Matthew Henry puts it: That strength which he had lost by sin, he recovers by prayer. That it was not from passion or personal revenge, but from holy zeal for the glory of God and Israel, appears from God’s accepting and answering the prayer.

6. The Lord acts in response to prayer by his people.

Not What I Will

Christ praying in Mark 14.36. A fascinating picture of Christ's humanity as he approached the cross. He fully understood both the physical and mental suffering he would undergo. I suspect that the separation from his father was the worst pain of all, for to be righteous, God as the supreme judge had to punish sin.

Christ's willingness to suffer stands out clearly. "Not what I will but what you will." This is the foundation of the Christian life, that we submit our lives and livelihood to Christ and with him say, "not what I will, but what you will."