Days 186&187: Habakkuk & Joel

The minor prophets are a little tough to really feel like you know what is going on. I think to really understand you need to do more background research than you get by just reading the text. However, the fact that we're reading through in a chronological fashion does help to put these writings into their historical context. We know that we're getting toward the end of the Divided Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom has already fallen to the Assyrians and the Southern Kingdom is still holding on but their days are numbered. It seems that the prophets Habakkuk and Joel are warning the people of Judah about what is to come.

There are a few more or less unrelated passages in these two books that stood out to me...here's the first:

For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
   it speaks of the end
   and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
   it will certainly come
   and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)

This is just a reminder that God will indeed keep His word. We can count on it. And since we know this is true in history we can trust that it is true in the future.

Then there is this well known sentence:

The LORD is in his holy temple;
   let all the earth be silent before him. (Habakkuk 2:20)

What went through my mind as I read that was the NT teaching that the temple of God is now within us. Not sure what to make of that exactly but I think it's sort of interesting.

Then there is this beautiful expression of worship regardless of circumstances. God deserves our humble adoration no matter what is happening around us or to us...

Though the fig tree does not bud
   and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
   and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
   and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
   I will be joyful in God my Savior.
 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   he enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

I've always loved this verse in Joel. The custom in Bible times was that when you were deeply moved, grieved or repentant you would tear your clothing.

Rend your heart
   and 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 2:13)

Then there's this passage from Joel that Peter quotes on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. It struck me that Joel specifically mentions that it's not just men, but both men and women who will receive His Spirit and serve Him.

And afterward,
   I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
   your old men will dream dreams,
   your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
   I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)

Days 184&185: Zephaniah 1-3, 2 Kings 22-23, 2 Chronicles 34-35

What a fascinating character Josiah is! He becomes king of Judah when he is 8 years old. 2 Chronicles tells us that he began seeking the Lord, the God of his father David, when he was 16 (2 Chronicles 34:3). At age 20 he begins to purge Judah and Jerusalem of all the pagan idols and practices which had become so prevalent (also 34:3).

And then, in the 18th year of his reign (he is 26 years old), while the workers are cleaning up the temple and getting it ready to be used for what it was intended, something remarkable happens...

     Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
     When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:8-13)

There are a couple of things that amaze me here. One is that the book of the law was lost in the first place. How could that happen? These were the very words of God given through Moses. This book spells out the covenant God made with the people...and that the people agreed to. How could it be lost? Was there not a single person, a single priest or prophet who thought to preserve and protect this priceless volume?

The second thing that amazes me is that Josiah begins his journey to seek God and to bring his nation back to God 10 years before this book is ever found. Everyone acts as if they didn't even know it existed! How does he go about seeking the "God of his father David" without it? How does he know what to do to turn his nation back to God without this important document?

I was raised in the independent Christian Church. The Bible was, and is, our only source of faith and practice. It is the Word of God. It is God's revelation of Himself to humanity. I'm beginning to wonder, though, if maybe we have gotten to where we equate the Bible and God. We can get to know God through the Bible, for sure, but knowing the Bible does not equal knowing God. How many people do you know who can quote scripture but don't know God? Somehow, Josiah started down a path of getting to know God apart from any written communication from Him. How did he do that?

I think what I'm starting to learn is that God can't fit in a book...not even the Bible. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I still believe everything that I've been taught about the Bible...it is our only source of faith and practice...it is God's revelation of Himself to humanity...we need to get to know it well. But let's be real - God is God. He can reveal Himself however He chooses...and to whomever He chooses.

God is alive in the present...not just in the pages of the past.

Days 182&183: 2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33, Nahum 1-3

Manasseh, king of Judah, is a bad dude. He was one of the most evil kings in a series of evil kings. 2 Kings tells us that "Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end" (21:16) and that "he sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger." (21:6) In fact he led the people of Israel into so much evil that they were worse than the people the Israelites drove out in the first place...

Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. (2 Kings 21:9)

However, Manasseh becomes another illustration of the truth that no one...absolutely NO ONE is ever so evil that they are beyond redemption. Look at what happens...

The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God. (2 Chronicles 33:10-13)

Even as he is being led to his certain humiliation and death for all his evil the Lord is "moved" by Manasseh's entreaty.

He is also moved by ours.

No one is so far from God that he/she cannot be brought near...
                             ...and as long as there is breath it's never too late.

Days 180 & 181: Isaiah 59-66

This is what the LORD says:
   “Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
   Where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things,
   and so they came into being?”
            declares the LORD. (66:1-2)

Ok...it is really hard, maybe even impossible, to get your mind around the idea of a God like that. I mean He is the all-powerful creator of everything that is. As if that's not hard enough...add this...

In all their distress he too was distressed,
   and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
   he lifted them up and carried them
   all the days of old. (63:9)

This all-powerful Creator of everything that is becomes distressed when we become distressed. He feels our pain. Knows and understands everything we face...and cares. I just read something today that reminded me that I'm not the center of the universe...however, it seems like maybe to God I am. Is it possible that I (all of us) am the center of God's universe? Especially when you consider this...

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
   and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (64:6)

And yet, in spite of this, God still loves us, and still wants us to come back to Him.

All day long I have held out my hands
   to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
   pursuing their own imaginations. (65:2)

It really is a mystery. It's not religion...it's a relationship...it's love. And love is a mystery.

Day 179: Isaiah 54-58

It really is true that we spend most of our resources - our money, our time, our energy - on the stuff that we know is only temporary. It's true that we have the responsibility to work to support ourselves...to do our best to make sure that we are not dependent on others. But then sometimes that becomes sort of a pride thing, doesn't it. While we work to be independent we also must realize that we are totally dependent. Jesus said that we should lay up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20). Jesus said if we seek His kingdom first that our needs in this life would be met (Matthew 6:33).

We (I) have a tendency to get it all backwards. I "spend money on what is not bread," and I "labor on what does not satisfy" when all the time Jesus simply invites us to...

“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 you will delight in the richest of fare. (55:1-2)

Days 177&178: Isaiah 46-53, Psalm 135

Who would have thought that by reading Isaiah I would be so powerfully moved, once again, by the amazing Gospel? This message of love and forgiveness is absolutely stunning! And to think that Isaiah wrote these words hundreds of years before Jesus was even born! Isaiah 53 could be one of my all-time favorite chapters in the Bible. Please read the whole chapter, it's only 12 verses, and consider what our God has done...

Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
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.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.
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 its shearers is silent,
   so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
   Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
   for the transgression of my people he was punished.
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.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
   and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
   and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
   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.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
   and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because 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 53:1-12)

This salvation from sin is for all people, in all times, and in all places. Why are we so shy about sharing it? I dare not keep it only for myself...or just my family...or keep it in my church family...or only go to other middle class Americans...or other white folk...or other political conservatives...or only the people I enjoy being around...or any other wall we like to build to separate us from "them"...whoever "they" may be, God's salvation is for "them" too. There are WAY too many walls in our society...we need more bridges. It was NEVER God's plan to bring salvation to only one group of people...

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
   to restore the tribes of Jacob
   and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
   that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)

Day 176: Isaiah 43-45, Psalm 80

Life is good. Sometimes, when I'm really honest, I have to admit that my life, when compared to many others, has been very easy. I talk with people every week who face challenges and difficulties every single day that have never touched me. I admire them for their faith and courage. Truly, I don't really know how I would cope in similar situations. The thing that I have come to realize is that this situation could change in a moment. My easy life could be turned upside down in the blink of an eye. A car accident, a doctor visit, walk in to the wrong place at the wrong time and everything can change.

None of this changes who God is.

Regardless of my life's circumstances, God is good...to me.

These thoughts were prompted by this:

“Do not fear, 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" (Isaiah 43:1-2)

What I realized, when I read those words, is that the writer assumes that we will indeed pass through the waters and walk through the fire. I suppose it would be nice if he had said, "Do not fear, you won't have to pass through the waters...you'll never be faced with walking through the fire." I think many people believe that way...consequently their faith, rather than giving them strength when they need it most, is shattered when these difficulties come.

But that's not what he said.

What he said was that when we are faced with hardship and difficulty God is there with us. He doesn't remove the difficulty...he gives us strength when we need it.

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. (Isaiah 43:10-11)

Day 175: Isaiah 40-42, Psalm 46

Here are a few of the verses that really stood out to me today:

First, there's this one that, even though I believe it was written about the end of the captivity that was coming, it sounds almost like a "gospel" message...

Comfort, comfort my people,
   says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
   and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
   that her sin has been paid for... (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Then this beautiful passage has phrases that sound very familiar because they're used in many songs of worship today...

Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He 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. (Isaiah 40:21-22)

Another powerful verse of God's comfort and help...

So 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. (Isaiah 41:10)

This one is clearly a prophecy of the coming Messiah (see Matthew 12:20)...

“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.
He will not shout or cry out,
   or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
   and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
   he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
   In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4)

And, continuing the theme of God's protection, one of my favorite Psalms...

God is our refuge and strength,
   an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
   and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3)

Day 174: Isaiah 38-39, 2 Kings 20, 2 Chronicles 32:24-33

Hezekiah was truly a great king. If my memory serves, he was the last good king of Judah. (I guess we'll find out for sure as we continue reading.) At one point he became very ill and was soon to die, but he pleaded with God and God granted him 15 more years of life on earth. (Isaiah 38) Unfortunately, during these last years, he became somewhat prideful.

He received some visitors from Babylon who had heard about the miracle God had worked in healing Hezekiah and during their visit he decided to show off a bit for them and gave them a grand tour of everything he had acquired during his reign as king.

The 2 Chronicles passage says this:

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. Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD’s wrath did not come on them during the days of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 32:25-26)

I'm trying to put these passages together in my mind and I suppose that, after this prideful demonstration to the visitors from Babylon, God confronted Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah. Apparently, after this confrontation, Hezekiah repented and God delayed any punishment He was planning...at least until after Hezekiah's final 15 years of life...

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors 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)

I suppose, to one degree or another, it's true for everyone that everything we work for in this life is "carried off to Babylon" when we die. That's why it's so important that we not limit our work to things that cannot last beyond this life.

Eventually Hezekiah dies. He was indeed a great king...one of Judah's best...and he was honored as such:

Hezekiah rested with his ancestors and was buried on the hill where the tombs of David’s descendants are. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king. (2 Chronicles 32:33)

This makes me sad because, if I remember correctly (and I think I do), Manasseh, his son, was as evil as Hezekiah was good.

Day 173: Isaiah 36-37, 2 Kings 18:9-19:37, 2 Chronicles 32:1-23, Psalm 76

Today's readings from Isaiah, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles all tell of the same events - Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invades Judah and threatens to bring down Jerusalem. The Northern Kingdom has already been taken captive and now Assyria is knocking on the door of Jerusalem in the Southern kingdom. However, Judah has a king who has not forsaken God. Hezekiah prays to the Lord...

“It is true, 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, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God.” (Isaiah 37:18-20)

What strikes me about this prayer is the last sentence. He's not simply praying for his own safety and comfort...he's praying that God would be glorified. He sees the bigger picture of what the nations will think of the One True God. It's not about Hezekiah...it's about God's glory. Man, I have a lot to learn about prayer.

Here's God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer:

Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (Isaiah 37:36-37)

There would be no question in anyone's mind whose victory this was. I mean Hezekiah's army didn't even lift a finger.

The account in 2 Chronicles adds an interesting observation that would be easy to overlook:

They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the gods of the other peoples of the world—the work of human hands. (2 Chronicles 32:19)

See, the Assyrians made the mistake of putting God in the same category as gods. Their experience of dealing with the gods of all the other nations was pretty much the same...they were worthless superstition. So when Hezekiah speaks of God it's easy to understand the Assyrians' misunderstanding. It's the same misunderstanding so many make today...even people who claim to know God. I suppose it's an interesting anthropological study to look at and compare the various religious views of the world...but there really is no comparison. It's not that we shouldn't have respect and compassion for people who believe differently than we do...that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that we dare not make the mistake of putting God in the same category as gods.

God is the one who created the people who created the gods.

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, learned the hard...

The valiant lie plundered,
   they sleep their last sleep;
not one of the warriors
   can lift his hands.
At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
   both horse and chariot lie still. (Psalm 76:5-6)

Days 171&172: Isaiah 27-35

Have I mentioned that I find Isaiah difficult to read? Much of the imagery is very foreign to me, plus he seems to skip back and forth in time like one of those movies that flash forward and flash back and keep you confused...you never know for sure the time he's referring to.

However, in the midst of all that there are some verses that you read and they just sort of jump out at you...like they're already highlighted in your Bible and they seem to say something about God or about people that isn't restricted to any time at all.

Things like...

So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
   Do this, do that,
   a rule for this, a rule for that... (28:13)

Isn't that the truth? Isn't that the mistake so many people make today when they come to God's word. They're looking for rules and laws and commands and guidelines, when really what God wants, what He's been pleading for all along as I've been reading the OT, is a relationship with His people...a committed love relationship.

The same theme continues in this bit that was quoted by Jesus when He confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8 and Mark 7:6...

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 based on merely human rules they have been taught. (29:13)

 It's not a question of doing all the "right" religious rites and following all the rules...it's a question of who we love.

Here's a famous passage that also seems to describe a very contemporary attitude:

You turn things upside down,
   as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
   “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
   “You know nothing”?   (29:16)

Or then there's this:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
   “In repentance and rest is your salvation,
   in quietness and trust is your strength,
   but you would have none of it." (30:15)

We like to do things for ourselves. We make a big deal of our independence and self-reliance and consequently try to carry the responsibility for things that we simply are unable to bear. We work hard to be accepted by God...who has already accepted us. What He wants us to do is rest...in Him...in quietness and trust. I don't think that means we simply sit around and do nothing. I do think it means we stop trying to earn something that's already been given. Often, however, we "would have none of it." I think we have a pride issue.

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
   therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
   Blessed are all who wait for him! (30:18)

Again with the stopping and trusting...and waiting.

LORD, be gracious to us;
   we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
   our salvation in time of distress. (33:2)

Day 170: 2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 48

The Northern Kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians but Judah remained. It seems to me that the reason Judah still had not been conquered was largely because of king Hezekiah. He instituted reforms in Judah that re-established the temple worship which had been neglected and eliminated the pagan and idol worship that had been so detestable to God.

He tried to get everyone, even those who remained of the Northern Kingdom, to return to the true God:

At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read:
   “People of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your parents and your fellow Israelites, who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them an object of horror, as you see. Do not be stiff-necked, as your ancestors were; submit to the LORD. Come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. If you return to the LORD, then your fellow Israelites and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will return to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.” (2 Chronicles 30:6-9)

He seemed to understand that the reason they were being overrun by the Assyrians had little if anything to do with the strength of their armies but was because of their unfaithfulness to God. But there response was underwhelming:

The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but people scorned and ridiculed them. Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:10-11)

Hezekiah faced the same problem we do. He had to get people to see life from God's perspective. We have to do the same. The problem is compounded when the very idea of God is ridiculed...or at the very least dismissed as fantasy. But look at the results. Because of Hezekiah's efforts the Southern Kingdom remained strong against the Assyrians. It wasn't because they had a better military. It was because...

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. (2 Kings 18:5-7)

The God of Hezekiah is our God...

For this God is our God for ever and ever;
   he will be our guide even to the end. (Psalm 48:14)

Day 169: Isaiah 23-26

Reading Isaiah is a bit of a challenge. He writes of the destruction and captivity that is coming to specific cities and places of the time...and then suddenly it seems as if he's shifting the focus to a distant future...beyond even this world...

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
   a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
   the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain 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 his people’s disgrace
   from all the earth.
            The LORD has spoken. (25:6-8)

"He will swallow up death forever." I like that. Death is most definitely the enemy. That becomes clearer to me every day.

Day 168: Isaiah 18-22

God calls people to repentance. Hope and forgiveness can be found - in fact it is promised - if we repent and turn to Him. Why is repentance too much to ask for so many people? They would rather live their short lives on their own terms and trade eternity away...much like Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of soup.

The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
   called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
   to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
But see, there is joy and revelry,
   slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
   eating of meat and drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
   “for tomorrow we die!” (22:12-13)

We need to do everything we can to keep an eternal perspective on this life...it can have many joys but it is so fleeting.

I want more.

Through the grace of God I can have more.

Infinitely more.

Days 166&167: 2 Kings 16-17, 2 Chronicles 28, Isaiah 13-17

One of the things I've been reminded of as I've read through scripture to this point is that, even though no one really sees it at the time, God is in control of the events of history. The prophets of the OT serve to remind people of that fact...if they choose to listen. These verses from 2 Kings 17 illustrate what I mean:

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the LORD’s anger. They worshiped idols, though the LORD had said, “You shall not do this.” The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.” (2 Kings 17:7-13)

If a person was listening to the prophets of the time he/she would see the events unfolding for the reasons mentioned in this passage. However, my guess is that most people didn't see it that way. I could be wrong but I'm thinking that most people lived through these upheavals and saw only the power of the Assyrians and the failure of their own defenses without much thought to God's role in the matter. I know that's the way it is now. I, myself, sometimes have serious questions about God's activity in world events. I have a hard time believing that He orchestrates the events of history (i.e. outcomes of wars, results of presidential elections, bringing certain regimes to power in third world nations and overthrowing others). I suppose my view has generally been that God pretty much allows these events to play out as they will...and at the end of time He exerts His power and takes over.

This isn't the picture that's painted in the OT. In the OT the events of history are portrayed as being in the hands of God...events occur because He orders them...and He orders them for a reason. Is that still true? Should I look for God's purpose behind each event I read about in the newspapers? Who are today's prophets that point out for us God's plans and purposes?

This is the plan determined for the whole world;
   this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
   His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:26-27)