April 29, 587 B.C.

On this date Ezekiel, having received a message from the Lord, declares that Babylon will destroy Egypt; that Egypt's idols will be smashed and destroyed; and that her people will be carried off into captivity. The year before this Pharoah Hophra had come to Zedekiah's aid when Babylon besieged Jerusalem. He had been soundly defeated and went back to Egypt licking his wounds. After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar would invade Egypt and destroy her. So prophesied. So done. Egypt would never again be a prominent world power, to this day.

The point here, the faith lesson, is that God will do what he says he will do. Men are often stupid enough to mock God's promises because they have not all been fulfilled since the day they were made. This is a foolish position indeed. God doesn't feel the need to chain himself to man's expectations; this would be something akin to a lion responding to an ant; it is beyond the bounds of possibility. God holds his own council, but he accomplishes all he has promised. And by all, I mean all.

Dear Generation X...or Y...or Z...

What is God's message to each successive generation? I'm glad you asked. It's quite simple really, given to us in Ps. 78.7. Each generation should:

1. Set its hope anew on God - Which is to say, realize that whatever one feels about the environment or politics or war or the other hot button issues of the day, the ultimate answer to every problem of society and Man is for each generation to set its hope anew on God.

2. Do not forget his glorious miracles - What God has done in the past gives us hope, strength, and courage to persevere in the difficulties of our lives/generations. Never forget the past, O Generation X, Y, Z never forget all that God has done for his people.

3. Obey his commands - This sounds so easy, but its not so easy, we tend to prevaricate, to hedge, to fudge God's commands and turn them into our own policies as filtered through our hearts (aka idol factories). We must obey God's commands.

Prayer: O Lord God, may my generation do these three things, while not forgetting the 4th, to pass on a passion for God to the next generation. Do thou, O Lord, raise up the next generation that follows mine to have no other god, but you alone.

Want to be a Servant of God?

Then you cannot have as your aim to please people. This is a huge danger, especially if one is a people person. If people pleasing were my goal, writes Paul, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal 1.10). Paul leaves no wriggle room for us in that statement. Either we are servants of Christ, or we are people-pleasers. We are never both. As servants of Christ we would do well to keep that fact in mind.

Prayer: O Lord God, may my aim be to serve Christ with all of my heart, soul, and mind, and not to attempt to please people.

Human Defiance and God's Glory

I love the way the NLT paraphrases Ps 76.10: Human defiance only enhances your glory, for you use it as a weapon. I'm not sure I agree with the whole paraphrase, but I do think they get the first part correct; human defiance does enhance God's glory, and it appears to be a fair paraphrase of: surely the wrath of man shall praise you (ESV).

How does human defiance enhance God's glory? When God overcomes it; when God demonstrates himself more powerful than human defiance, then his glory is enhanced. We see again and again and again in Scripture and history that indeed, God is always and everywhere more powerful than human defiance. In comparison to God's glory, human defiance is like a single ant attempting to destroy a huge concrete building. It's laughable.

Prayer: O Lord, your glory is enhanced by human defiance. May we not be defiant as followers of you, but may we side with the one who is all-powerful and will win any confrontation with human defiance. May we side always and ever with you.

A Strangely Contemporary Comment

In Ps 74.9-11, this morning. We no longer see your miraculous signs, all our prophets are gone, and no one can tell us when it will end, writes the psalmist in vs. 9. How contemporary this reads. God has gone silent (we do not see, at least in America, his miraculous signs, we do not hear from his prophets, indeed, we believe that verbal revelation has ended). This period seems much like the 400 silent years between Malachi and John the Baptist. The enemies of God seem to have the upper hand, or at least God is not fighting them overtly, and while the gospel advances in some areas, our experience here is that it is stagnant or even decreasing. Which makes us agree when the psalmists says, Why do you hold back your strong right hand, unleash your powerful fist and destroy them! Why don't you win this war, Lord, win now? Or as Matt Chandler tweeted last week when he dealt with two people whose loved ones had passed away, "Come Lord, and stop this madness!"

The mystery of God's silence and apparent lack of motivation to finish history. God doesn't feel the need to give us too much of his plans, and certainly none of his timetable (which is just as well because we would probably immediately sin trying to take advantage of it). This is where patience and faith comes in. Patience as we wait for God to destroy his enemies and end history, and faith that our hope in Christ is sure and certain.

Prayer: Maranatha (Come!), Lord Jesus.

We Can Ask Questions

Thinking through the implications of Ps. 73.21-23, this morning. Then I realized that my heart was bitter and all torn up inside...Yet, I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. I take from this that it is okay to have questions; it's okay to ask questions. God doesn't smack us down. Even though, in the midst of his questions Asaph was bitter and torn up, yet God did not leave him.

Go on then with your questions, O follower of Jesus Christ. You still belong to God. Indeed, God holds your right hand.

The Source of True Justice

Is...no surprise here, God. Solomon asks the Lord in Ps 72.1 to give him as the king, God's justice. The NLT puts it Give your love of justice to the king, O God. An apt paraphrase. God loves justice, true justice, because that is his character. He is a loving God. He is a just God. Both characteristics are true of God. Solomon realized that, as God's leader of the people, he needed to have God's sense of justice. Thus his prayer.

Prayer: O Lord, God may I love justice as you do, but, like you, may I mix it with love.

The Foundation of (Our) Generosity: God's Character

I love, love, love how the NLT puts 2 Cor 9.10: For God is the one who provides seed for the sower and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. This grounds God's provision AND our generosity in God's own character. It all flows from him, which is a reason for both humility and profound gratitude. Humility because I realize that, despite my own opinion, what generosity that can be traced to my character comes from God's blessing me in the first place. Profound gratitude because one of the very reasons for God's generosity to me is so that I might have enough with which to be generous to others.

O Lord God, forgive me for how I often try to steal your glory by attributing generosity to myself rather than to you and to your blessing in my life. I understand that all of what you have given could be (rightfully) taken away in an instant. May I not pursue the things you have given, but the One who has given them. And may I bless others; be radically generous to others because you have been radically generous with me.

For We Know...

Struck by a comment from John Calvin on one of my favorite verses this morning, 2 Cor 5.1. He wrote: Even the heathens had some idea of the immortality of the soul, but there was not one of them, that had assurance of it — not one of them could boast that he spoke of a thing that was known to him. Paul has no question at all that there is a building to come, made by God, which is eternal and will replace our earthly bodies. This is precious food for the soul, especially of a 50 year-old. This old body is a pretty good one, but it shows the marks of death and decay more and more. It will not last forever, but I will last forever. We know this. What great hope to read Paul's confidence in 2 Cor 5.1.

Prayer: Thank you, O Lord God, for the truth Paul states here. That we can know what lies beyond the grave; that it gives strong hope; that we will have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Bathsheba to David: I am pregnant

Thinking through the repercussions of 2 Sam 11.1-5, this morning. The narrative makes it clear that Bathsheba is pregnant and that she is pregnant by David. Neither David nor Bathsheba nor the author of Samuel have the least doubt that David is responsible. Her only recorded words in the narrative "I am pregnant," set forth a string of events that ends in the death of her husband with David being fully responsible for that death (after attempts at coverup). It is a shocking story; one designed to expose us to the reality and wide effect of sin.

Prayer: O Lord, may I understand more fully through David's actions the wide-ranging effects of sin that begin with such minor actions - he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and she was very beautiful.

Faith Without Love is Wasted

In 1 Cor 13.2 this morning: And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Faith without love is wasted because it is nothing. The gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries and knowledge, if I do not combine them with love is worthless. This is the importance of love.

Oh Lord God, may I remember that in your kingdom it is always love and... It is easy to deal with people on a practical level without thinking through what love would do in a situation. Sometimes love appears merciful; sometimes love appears judgmental; it takes great wisdom and commitment to understand the difference. May I love people, O Lord, as you love people.

Paul: Be Imitators of Me

A fascinating statement from Paul in 1 Cor 11.1, with many implications.

1. He implies that he has the authority to tell the Corinthians to imitate him. In other places he directly states that he has such authority because he is an apostle, on par with Christ's other apostles.

2. He implies that he is imitatable. By that I mean that he implies that it is possible for other believers to imitate his life and character. He was not a "super-saint," out of the reach of the normal Christian.

3. He directly states that his life and character imitate Christ's life and character and that such life and character is in the realm of possibility for his readers.

4. He implies that we ought to have a goal in terms of the Christian life and that goal ought to be to imitate Christ, with Paul as an example of how that is done.

A lot of power and truth packed into a few words.

Now to actually doing it...

The Source of all my Joy

Absolutely LOVE Ps 43.4 in the NLT: "There I will go to the altar of God - the source of all my joy."

Can the same be said for me? What would that look like in my life? The altar was a place of worship. Is worshipping the Lord the source of all my joy? Or does my "joy" too often come from what God has created rather than the one who created?

Prayer: Oh Lord God forgive me for too often taking joy in what you have made rather than in you alone. May my life agree with the Psalmist here. May the source of all my joy be in you alone.

Abigail

Pondering the character and conduct of Abigail this morning in 1 Sam 25. The name Abigail means: Abigail #1 (ab’-e-gul) = Father of exultation; father of joy; cause of joy; the joy of my father; exultation; joy; gladness; my father is joy. She was a cause of joy, perhaps, to her father? From her character and conduct one can imagine that she lived up to her name, although her marriage to Nabal was unfortunate (did her father give her in marriage to Nabal because he was wealthy? It seems like a genuine possibility).

We find her both honest enough to admit the character of her husband (which his servants also recognize and admit, this was not an embittered woman making things up) and filled with tact, diplomacy, and wisdom as she recognizes the slight to David's character by not reimbursing him for protecting Nabal's interests, and acts quickly to defuse the situation. She was also faithful to her worthless husband.

Her humble response to David's marriage proposal (she knew somehow that God had anointed David as the future king of Israel) reveals again her wisdom and tact. One imagines that she was a good wife to her (new) husband.