A True Heart and Skillful Hands

In Ps 78.72 this morning. Asaph finishes this great Psalm commenting on God's character. "He [God] cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands." Precious and deep truth. Our God has our best interests in mind because our best interests are found in what glorifies God the most. We do not serve a fickle God who treats us according to his whim at the moment, our God has a true heart and hands that are infinitely more skillful than the finest surgeon.


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

Location:Home

The Song of the Redeemed

When God redeems his people, when he finally finishes history and completes salvation; when he swallows up death forever, the redeemed will sing a song to him, part of which is in Is 25.9 - "In that day the people will proclaim, this is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!"

I look forward to that day and to that song, and I - along with all who are there - will sing at the top of my lungs!


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

Location:Home

Who can stand before a great king.

"No wonder you are greatly feared. Who can stand before you
when your anger explodes." Ps. 76.7

A good example of why I like to read the NLT from time to time. The imagery is so vivid, especially in the Psalms. The answer of course is that no one - no person or thing - can stand before God when his anger explodes. He is the great king before whom all bow, whether willingly or unwillingly.


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

Location:PHX

This Wicked Congregation

Reading in Numbers 14.35, this morning, where God refers to the generation of the Exodus as This Wicked Congregation. He could not have chosen harsher words. The remarkable thing is that this generation saw God move in power like perhaps no generation has seen before or since, except maybe the generation of Christ. They witnessed the ten plagues; they lived through the release from Egypt; they walked across the Red Sea between two walls of water; they experienced the miracle of manna; they saw water come from a rock in the desert, and yet when it came to take the land God had given them, they shrank back, to their own destruction; thus earning the name, This Wicked Congregation.

What to take from this? First Hebrews uses them as an object lesson on (lack of) faith. The writer says, "don't shrink back from following the Lord like his own people shrank back; they did not enter God's rest because of their unbelief. Don't miss out on God's rest because of your own unbelief." Second, a lesson for us is to trust God's promises despite appearances. This Wicked Congregation became distracted by appearances and refused to trust in what God had promised.

The Word of God is Not Bound. Ever.

Reading in 2 Tim 8,9, this morning. A couple of favorite verses. Paul is in prison. He is suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. However, where he is bound and unable to go anywhere without permission, the gospel is not bound, it is free to go wherever the Spirit of God would have it go. This is a profound truth. One never knows where words spoken will have an effect. One illustration comes to mind in which a preacher goes to visit people in their house. He shares the gospel with them, they do not come to faith. However, their child is listening in the next room. The child is saved. The word of God is not bound!

The Insatiable Nature of Money

Reading in Ecc 5.10, this morning. Solomon says that the pursuit of money for its own sake is endless. You will never be satisfied with what you have. Life proves this statement beyond a shadow of a doubt. How much money do men need to live on? Apparently, there is no answer to that because one watches men make billions of dollars in a year, only to turn around the next year and try to make billions more. It becomes a matter of ego, rather than actually needing money. Beware the pursuit of money—or anything else besides God the Father—for its own sake. This is vanity.

Tested By Praise

In Proverbs 27.21, this morning (I LOVE Proverbs). We are tested [tested as silver and gold is tested in a crucible, i.e. the dross is separated to see if there is any true silver or gold] by how we handle praise.

The Preacher's Commentary (which doesn't get any love from preachers and I'm not exactly sure why) gets it exactly correct: There are not wanting men in modern days who uphold the maxim, Vox populi, vox Dei. Septuagint, “The action of fire is a test for silver and gold, so a man is tested by the mouth of them that praise him.” No surer test of a man’s true character can be found than his behaviour under praise; many men are spoiled by it. If a man comes forth from it without injury, not rendered vain, or blind to his defects, or disdainful of others, his disposition is good, and the commendation lavished upon him may be morally and spiritually beneficial.

Does it Appear that Evil is Successful?

Don't worry. Take the long view. This is the message of Prov 24.19,20. Evil will not triumph. Those who are evil and appear to be "getting away with it," will not get away with it. They are accountable to God. He will hold them accountable.

Do You Rob the Poor?

God will certainly rob you of life. Thus the message of Prov 22.22,23. This is known as "talionic justice" or "poetic justice." Do not think that if you oppress the poor because you can get away with it, that you will get away with it. You will not. God will see that you do not. As Derek Kidner writes in the Tyndale commentary: To be ruthlessly on the make is to make, above all, an Enemy.

The Word of Truth = The Gospel

So says Paul in Col. 1.5. If Pilate had only understood this. When he asks Christ, "What is truth?" (John 18.38), Christ doesn't bother explaining to Pilate because Pilate obviously was not open to what exactly truth was. He commands/allows the murder of Christ (heeding the predetermined plan of God by making his own choices—a mystery). A guy who is going to let an innocent man be murdered in the most heinous manner is not a person who is open to hearing the truth; however, it does explain why he allows Christ to die. If one does not believe in absolute truth, then whatever is expedient is fine.

He Loved Them to the End

In John 13.1 this morning where John says that Christ, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. The phrase to the end might not be the best way to translate the expression, to the uttermost is perhaps a better way. It is an expression that while Christ fully understood what he was about to suffer and why he was to suffer it, he pressed forward because of his love for his own. He did it for us.

On Being Stiff-necked

Thinking about Ex 33.3 this morning where God tells his own people that they are a stiff-necked people. Ouch! That must have hurt. Events prove that God read his people exactly correctly. Despite having seen the ten plagues decimate Egypt; despite witnessing the great deliverance at the Red Sea; despite seeing the daily miracle of manna; and God bring water from a rock, the people fail as a generation. They do not go up and take the land that God commands them to do. They are stiff-necked.

It is easy to see events from 3000 years and throw stones at the generation of the Exodus, but despite having all of the promises of the Scriptures, and seeing God's work completed in Christ's resurrection, and having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as an ever present reality, we are often stiff-necked as well, when the Holy Spirit commands us to do what we do not want to do. Rather than condemn the generation of the Exodus, we should probably evaluate our own lives in light of this verse. Am I stiff-necked?

Some Were Paying Attention

In John 10. 41, 42, this morning. Some in Israel were paying attention. They had watched John's ministry and understood that he had preached about the coming of Messiah, but had done no works. Along came Christ who said he was Messiah and who did miraculous works. They rightly concluded that everything that John said about this man was true. The result: And many believed in him there.

One cannot overemphasize the importance of paying attention like this. The Pharisees and scribes had the exact same information as those who believed, but because of their preconceived notion of how Messiah should act and what he should do, they were spiritually blind.

Purpose of Christian Freedom: Slavery to One Another

Reading in Galatians 5.13 this morning. Paul instructs the Galatians that they were called to freedom, but lest they assume he means autonomous freedom, he carefully explains. Christian freedom is a freedom that serves each other in love. The word serve might be better translated "is enslaved to" one another in love. Chrysostom thinks that Paul used the word to forcefully make his point:

He did not say “love one another” but “be slaves to one another,” to express the most intense possible love.

On Eagle's Wings

I love Exodus 19.4! How beautifully God expresses his care and concern for his people. Remember what I did to the Egyptians, he says. Remember how I protected you from all of the might and power of Pharaoh, and you did not have to lift a finger. When I protected you, it was as if I bore you on eagle's wings, and brought you to myself.

One could scarcely find a more tender example of God's love in all of the Scriptures!

The Resurrection is Everything

This from 1 Cor 15.17-19 (a favorite chapter of Scripture). Paul does not mince words here. He is short and to the point. If Christ has not been raised, Paul writes, futile (worthless) is your faith. He emphasizes futile by putting it first in the clause. He doesn't want us to miss this. Everything rests on the resurrection. If Christ is still dead, then we should stop wasting our time and eat, drink, and be merry, because we will die tomorrow and that will be the end of that. Fortunately, as Paul points out, Christ has been raised; our faith is not vain; we have hope in our resurrection to be with Christ in glory!

3 Day of Darkness

Thus Moses records the plague of darkness with which God struck the Egyptians in Exod 10.22,23. One can imagine the intensity of the darkness since it was brought by God and his destroying angels (Ps 78.49). It must have been a darkness with which the Egyptians were not familiar, able to stymy what light the Egyptians could produce. This was emphatically not an eclipse or any sort of darkness that can be explained naturally. It was the hand of God, and therefore, one assumes, a supernatural darkness; one that brought fear to the Egyptians throughout the land. The Israelites were protected.

Adam Clarke has some interesting comments: So deep was the obscurity, and probably such was its nature, that no artificial light could be procured; as the thick clammy vapors would prevent lamps, &c., from burning, or if they even could be ignited, the light through the palpable obscurity, could diffuse itself to no distance from the burning body. The author of the book of Wisdom, chap. xvii. 2–19, gives a fearful description of this plague. He says, “The Egyptians were shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness: and were fettered with the bonds of a long night. They were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with strange apparitions; for neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear; but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them; and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.

Reject the Disciples' Message = Reject Christ = Reject God

Yet another outlandish statement from Christ this morning (Luke 10.16). The one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me. Pretty much as clear as it could get. Christ is saying this: The message that you (72 disciples) brought was given by me. Whoever rejects it, rejects me. I brought my message from God the Father, whoever rejects it, rejects him. Christ is therefore claiming to bring a message directly from God. Can you imagine that? Who says stuff like this? No one ever has, not before or since. Except Christ. He says it without hesitation, without shame, without any sense of irony, much like Joseph told his brothers about his dream. We can either believe it is true, or we can reject it (and thereby reject Christ); we are not free to say that Christ was a good man, but nothing more. Good men do not say stuff like this, if it isn't true.

Astonished at His Majesty

Luke uses a curious choice of words at the end of the section in which Christ casts a demon out of an epileptic boy (Luke 9.43). Luke says that Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. Then he follows with his comment about the reaction of the crowd. All were astonished at the majesty of God. Matthew and Mark who record this same incident do not include this comment. I'm wondering why the crowd was astonished at the majesty of God when the boy was healed? It seems like a more natural comment would be to say that the crowd was astonished at the power of God to heal, or maybe the crowd was astonished that God did heal. Why majesty?

Luke must be trying to tell us something here. BDAG defines μεγαλειότης as quality or state of experiencing high esteem because of awesome performance, impressiveness. Louw-Nida further defines it as: : a manifestation of great power—‘mighty power, mighty act.’ which Luke seems to want to communicate that those who witnessed Christ's actions and words understood that they were not witnessing the ordinary here. They were witnessing the extraordinary. Christ could not be a man with a penchant to heal. He was something beyond that, and his commanding an evil spirit out of the boy demonstrated the fact.

The Mystery of God's Ways

In Exod 5.22,23, this morning. God orders Moses to go free the people from slavery. After some "encouragement" from the Lord, Moses goes. He declares his purpose to the people. They believe, bow their heads, and worship. And then...things get worse, much worse. The people have to find their own straw to make bricks, and still have the same daily quota of bricks. Moses expresses his feelings to God here. Why did you ever send me?...You have not delivered your people at all. I no doubt would have felt the same. Moses expectations did not meet God's actions, which is a problem one sees over and over again in the Scriptures (the whole book of Job comes to mind).

What do I take from these verses. God's actions and my expectations will often not mesh and God feels no obligation to explain himself. This is where faith and trust come in, not to mention God's promises in Scripture.