Year 6, Day 273: Malachi 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father, King

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.
• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

In this chapter, God gives Malachi two images to present to the people.  God can either be a father or a master.  This is an interesting choice.

In the first case, God is father.  One loves a father.  One is also protected by the father.  To have God as a father implies relationship.  It also implies a certain amount of familiarity.  With God as father, we want to please because we desire His pleasure upon us.  We want Him to be proud, so we obey and live up to His gracious love.  We offer our best effort and obedience to the father because of our relationship with Him.

In the second case, God is king.  One respects the king.  One might even fear the king.  One is protected by the king.  However, one gives tithe to the king.  One gives homage to the king.  One gives the best of the flock to the king because he deserves it.  While one is not usually in relationship with the king, we still give our best effort because the king is the king and he is empowered.

Of course, our God can be both Father and king.  We can be in a relationship that reflects His love.  We can be in a relationship that honors His power over us.  This chapter in Malachi reflects the fact that His people are not responding in either way with respect to God, but we do not need to reflect this dynamic.  We can be in relationship with a God who is Father and King.  We can give Him his due not just because He deserves it but also because of our relationship with Him.

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Year 6, Day 272: Zechariah 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

We end the book of Zechariah on a very bleak note.  God promises judgment.  God promises plague.  God promises a difficult life as the world comes in rebellion against Him.

When I hear these words, I can’t help but think about God as king.  As human beings, we like to rebel.  We like to do our own thing.  We like to walk away from God’s ways and live our own life.  But the reality is that no matter how much we rebel, we can’t get away from God forever.  We will eventually die.  Our sin will catch up with us and we will then truly be at the mercy of God’s grace.  Even when we rebel and reject, we cannot deny that we will eventually find ourselves in God’s hands because He is king.

This chapter is not all bleak, though.  Do you hear the part of this chapter that speaks about the surge of water that will come from Jerusalem?  When I read those verses, I couldn’t help but think about the same imagery from Ezekiel 47.  While God may be the king in judgment, He is also king in grace and mercy.  He can heal the world in spite of our rebellion.  He can do it because He is indeed king.

As an aside, if you want a look at how we can see multiple interpretations of this chapter rather than just an interpretation of the Last Days, see the theological commentary that I offered up three years ago and link to above.

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Year 6, Day 271: Zechariah 12-13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Imitation

• Imitation: This is the second over-arching step of the discipleship process.  First we gain information, then we imitate our spiritual mentor.  Imitation leads to innovation of spirituality in our own life.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while – or if you follow the link above for the theological commentary – you’ll know that three years ago I took a position on this passage as finding truth in the first coming of Christ.  Mind you, that doesn’t mean that the typical second-coming look at these scriptures is wrong.  It simply means that like much of scripture, the depth of scripture is found in the layers of interpretation.

This passage talks about pouring out God’s Spirit upon those who look upon the one who was pierced.  This sounds like a dead ringer for what happened to Jesus.  He came, He died, and God poured out His Spirit upon those who look upon Him.  There is a fountain of grace and mercy opened up to us.  We are cleansed of our sinfulness and our unrighteousness through Jesus.

In Christ, we also see the end to idolatry as we are brought into genuine relationship with the Father.  We see the end to false prophecy because those who are genuinely following Christ have access to the Spirit of God directly.  Because Christ’s followers listen directly to Him, they obey Him.

This is what leads us from the example of Christ to the idea of imitation.  He came and died so that we could have relationship with the Father.  He came and died so that we could know righteousness.  He came to point us to the Father.  We should do the same.  We can’t die for the sake of other people; we can’t even die for our sake meaningfully!  But we can continue to point people to the fountain of righteousness that Christ opened up.  We can point people to true and genuine prophesy and putting away their idols.  We can imitate Christ and participate in the work of the kingdom.

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Year 6, Day 270: Zechariah 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In Zechariah 11 we hear about the rebellious flock.  I usually wonder about this topic when I read this chapter.  After all, the Hebrew people are just returning from exile!  How on earth could they possibly be rebellious?

Remember, they are human.  Therefore, they are still full of selfishness and sinfulness even as they return home.  They are looking for the best land.  They are looking for the choice fields and pastures.  They aren’t caring about their neighbors.  They aren’t really caring about the community around them.  They are selfish human beings.

However, it goes deeper than this.  Before the exile, the Hebrew people we engrossed with their freedom.  Their freedom led them into rebellion against God.  As they return from exile, they are focused on legalism, their own rights, and ways to legislate proper behavior.  This legalism will likewise lead to sin – we see it in the depravity of the Hebrew people at the time of Christ.

Yet, God doesn’t turn His back.  He promises the Good Shepherd.  He promises that there will be a righteous leader who will open the door to greater righteousness.  This is a continued sign of God’s forgiveness.  We show our sin day after day.  God continues to forgive and welcome us into relationship with Him.

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Year 6, Day 269: Zechariah 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

This is a very neat chapter through which we can study the concept of obedience.  This chapter starts with a reminder that everything comes from the Lord.  The spring rain comes because the Lord ordains it.  True wisdom comes solely from the Lord.  We know the redemption comes from the Lord.  Everything good comes from the Lord.

The question that we are left asking is that if everything good comes from the Lord, then why do we not obey Him?  This chapter takes that question and focuses it in even more deeply.  If everything good comes from the Lord, then why do even His leaders have such a difficult time obeying Him?

Do you hear the critique of the vast middle of this chapter?  The people have illegitimate leadership.  The religious leaders of the Hebrew people are not leading the people in the ways of the Lord.  They are like sheep without a shepherd.  Why do the leaders of the Hebrew people not act like spiritual leaders?  They lack obedience.  The want to lead; but they forget that to lead people in God’s ways often means to forsake the ways of the world and live an entirely different life.

Therefore, the Lord takes over.  He will lead His people. He will collect them.  Although He scattered them, He will bring them together.  We can best be led by the Lord and only the Lord.

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Year 6, Day 268: Zechariah 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

This chapter starts with judgment.  God promises judgment to those nations around the Promised Land, nations that took advantage of His people when He was bringing judgment upon them.  What does this tell us?  When we see people who are down, our first instinct shouldn’t be to kick them while their down.  The King of the universe doesn’t appreciate people who take advantage of others.  This message truly intertwines with what we heard yesterday.

From this section, we hear a natural transition to God being king.  We hear that God will cut of the enemies of His people.  He will rule over them.  He will remember His covenant.  Unlike us, the king can be trusted.

This leads us back to the people of God.  The Lord will save them.  He will redeem them.  He will send a spiritual leader among them – a leader that we see in Jesus, who ultimately fulfills this section of scripture. 

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Year 6, Day 267: Zechariah 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

We cannot focus on bearing fruit and truly be a follower of God.  We can’t start by looking at our fruit.  After all, does a seed give birth to fruit directly?  No, of course not. A seed gives birth to roots, then a stem, then branches, then a stem, and finally the fruit comes.  The same is true about following God.  We cannot believe in God and then immediately look for fruit to appear.  We need to grow, develop, and mature before we can truly expect to bear fruit.

That being said, fruit is the ultimate goal.  While a young follower of God cannot focus on fruit, the mature follower of God should be concerned with fruit.  It is important for those people who have developed and grown and matured to take a look around and see how they can follow and participate in God’s hand at work in the world.

This is the core of what the exile and its return is all about.  God’s people had been blessed by Him.  They had been given an opportunity to grow and mature.  Instead, they took their prosperity and focused on themselves.  They wanted to better their own life and stopped caring about the lives of the people around them.

This is why God gives Zechariah the following message.  “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”

When God asks us to focus on fruit, He wants us to focus on how we treat one another.  He loved us when we did not deserve it.  He restores and redeems us when we do not deserve it.  We should do likewise, imitating His unconditional love in community.

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Year 6, Day 266: Zechariah 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Zechariah 7 opens up a discussion that is always profound in any time period of human history.  People come to Zechariah and ask God how much longer they need to fast.  Be clear on this question, though.  This isn’t the people asking to stop obeying the Lord.  This question is regarding a fast that was instituted by humans at the beginning of the exile when Gedaliah was killed in an act of treason.  The people are coming to ask Zechariah how much longer they need to follow the human fast.

This is a very legitimate question that should be asked.  The people are to be commended for asking this question.  We should always ask whether or not we should be following human directives.  This truly goes back to our identity.  Whose people are we?

In fact, God supports this line of thinking.  Do you hear what God says in reply?  “Was it for me that you fasted?”  God wants the people to hear and know that they are violating their relationship with Him if they stop following directives that were not instituted by Him.

This truly is a fundamental perspective with respect to identity.  Who are we following?  Are we following others?  Are we trying to be like other human beings?  Or are we trying to be like God and living in obedience to Him?

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Year 6, Day 265: Zechariah 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

I think that this chapter is one of my all-time favorite chapters when it comes to seeing the prophetic wisdom of God.  This chapter shows His true dominance over truth and His ability to layer meaning upon meaning in His Word.  In short, it truly goes far to show us that He really is king.

As we look at the last section in this chapter, we hear that God’s servant will rebuild the temple and sit as king and priest over His people.  We hear that such a person will be called God’s Branch.  More importantly, we hear that this person will be Joshua.

Of course, we do know that Joshua was the priest serving under the reconstruction effort of Zerubbabel.  Joshua would have made a natural spiritual leader of the people.  In the context of Zechariah, this is a very true and appropriate interpretation.

However, we now know even more that there was a servant to come who would serve spiritually as both king and priest.  We know this person to be Jesus.  However, this isn’t just a spiritual analogy.  Quite literally, we know that Jesus is the Anglicization of the Greek word Iesous.  Iesous is the Greek version of the Aramaic name Yeshua, which is the name that Jesus would have heard when he was alive and living in Judea and Galilee.  Yeshua is the Aramaic version of the Hebrew name Joshua.  Quite literally, Jesus is the Joshua who will be both king and priest over His spiritual people.

It is chapters like this that brings light to God’s power.  Not only can God do amazing things like create worlds out of nothing and bring out the plagues of Egypt.  He can do the seemingly unthinkable and make a scripture truthfully proclaimed about a different context several hundred years prior to be even more true about His own Son.  This is a different kind of power.  This is a power that is far more subtle and wonderful.  This is a God who isn’t just king of creation, He is king of logic and reason and understanding.

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Year 6, Day 264: Zechariah 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

In Zechariah 5, we have two very unusual symbols.  I’d recommend looking back at my theological commentary from three years ago to get a firm understanding of each vision.  As we saw yesterday, Zechariah is a good bit clueless about each vision until it is explained to him.  We shouldn’t feel too badly about needing each vision explained to us, either.

As we look at the meaning of these visions, though, there is something that jumps out.  Human beings have a sinful appetite.  It doesn’t really matter the sin.  We can always find human beings who are willing to sin in a particular manner.

If we look at the scroll, we notice that there is a distinct connection to people who steal and lie.  Honestly, how many of us have never told a lie?  If we are honest about it, how many of us have never wished we had something that someone else had, either?  The reality is that our appetite for sin is deep within each of us.

Furthermore, when we look at the second vision we can notice even more about God’s witness to our sinfulness.  God claims that wickedness is in an ephah, which is the largest of the Hebrew measures.  Not only do human beings have sinfulness within, we have an incredible amount of sin within.

Zechariah has to be told God’s point, but once told it is really clear.  We have a tremendous appetite for sinning.  We think of ourselves.  We make decisions about what we want and what is best for us.  We say things that aren’t true to protect ourselves.  We do indeed have an appetite for sinning.

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Year 6, Day 263: Zechariah 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

If you are coming here to understand this chapter, I’d like to refer you to the theological commentary that I wrote three years ago.  This is a very confusing chapter.  I’ll leave that work to what I wrote before.

For today, I want to be inspired by the confusing nature of this chapter.  We are supposed to be confused.  Zechariah was supposed to be confused.  Notice that he is confused!  What’s more important is that God doesn’t mind that he is confused.

Look forward in time a little.  Do people understand what God is doing in Jesus?  Do Jesus’ own disciples understand what Jesus is doing?  Even in the midst of the crucifixion, do Jesus’ disciples understand what is going on?  Even when Jesus is raised from the dead, do they really get it?  Of course not!  The disciples only get it when it is all said and done and Jesus comes to them and explains it all to them.

Now we turn back to Zechariah. Zechariah’s competency is not found in his ability to know what God is doing.  Zechariah’s competency is found in his willingness to ask and confess that he doesn’t know.  Zechariah’s competency is found in his humbleness, which allows him to be curious and find his answer.  If you want a great image of competency, it is this prophet who finds understanding by acknowledging that he doesn’t know the mind of God.

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Year 6, Day 262: Zechariah 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Joshua is the priest at the time of Zerubbabel and the return from exile.  When we open up Zechariah 3, we see Joshua standing before the altar, going through the service that would be required of him.  We also see Satan – one of the few appearances of Satan in the Bible – come before Joshua and accuse him of sinfulness.  This is the way of life.  We as human beings cannot live perfectly.  We will always be guilty before those who desire to accuse us of sinfulness.  There is nothing that we can do except to realize that we are guilty and to acknowledge it.

You will notice that God seems to be okay with the fact that Joshua isn’t perfect.  God doesn’t hear Satan, agree that Satan is right, and then reject Joshua as priest.  Instead, God turns to Joshua and offers Him challenge.  God turns to Joshua and tells him that He has taken away his iniquity.  He then challenges Joshua to live righteously and uphold God’s ways before the people.

This is how it is with God.  He knows our sinfulness.  He knows our hearts.  He knows that we cannot be righteous on our own.  Therefore, He proclaims us righteous and then offers us challenge.  He acknowledges our condition and then asks us to live better with His help than we truly are capable of living on our own.

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Year 6, Day 261: Zechariah 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Zechariah 2 deals primarily with the message of return to the exiles.  Zechariah delivers a message from God that tells them to arise and come from the nation in the north.  He tells them to come home from dwelling among the nations.  He reminds them that they are the people of the Lord.

Zechariah also reminds them that they are in the kingdom of the north because it was God’s decree.  God sent them into exile.  God may be calling them back, but it was at God’s hand that they were sent under the oppression of the nations in the first place.

Where does this bring us?  God is truly king over the world and especially over His people.  God’s decrees are followed.  When God declared something to happen, it happens.  God sent His people into captivity.  They went.  He now calls them out of captivity and invites them home.  He is the king.

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Year 6, Day 260: Zechariah 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

Zechariah is a prophet who happens to be a contemporary to Haggai and Zerubbabel.  While Haggai largely focuses on the people and their attention to the construction of the temple, Zechariah is concerned about the people and their righteousness before the Lord.

The introduction of this book is profound.  The first thing that we hear is a warning from Zechariah.  He tells the people to not be like their fathers, who ignored the messages that the prophets brought to them and went into captivity under the nations.  Zechariah desires that the people would be in genuine relationship with their God, caring about His ways and living a life that is in life with God.

Zechariah’s honest message continues.  Zechariah reminds the people that all of their ancestors are dead.  In fact, even the prophets are dead.  The only thing that remains after the time of captivity is His Word.  Where is it that we should put our faith?  God’s Word, of course.

Zechariah wants to make sure that as the people are returning from the exile that they are bringing a right mindset with them.  He doesn’t want them to come back and be solely focused on what they can make for themselves.  Even through the message of the four horses we hear that it is God who will prosper Jerusalem again and it is only through relationship with Him that we will find a life truly worth living.  This is the message that the prophet desires to drive home to his people.

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Year 6, Day 259: Haggai 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

As we open up the last chapter of Haggai, we hear a neat message from God.  The work has started up, but it is slow.  The work is hard.  They didn’t have machines upon which they could rely.  The Hebrew people had to spend time protecting themselves from the people in the land who had come in when the Hebrew people were dragged off into captivity.  The work is starting, but it is slow and hard work.

In this context, God wants to tell the people that He is there for them.  God wants the people to understand that He will provide and He is the ultimate source of their provision.  So long as their eyes are focused upon God and His desires, the Hebrew people can be sure that God will be there with them, ensuring that they will have what they need to survive.

This is a great chapter.  Doing the work of the Lord is sometimes hard.  It sometimes feels tedious.  We don’t always know when it will end.  It can be frustrating from time to time because we have a human perspective rather than a divine one.  But God is always with us.  When our eyes rest upon God’s desire for us, we can be assured that God will provide what we need for the completion of His will.

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Year 6, Day 258: Haggai 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Haggai opens with a stern warning.  God is unhappy with the people.  He has arranged for them to be able to return to their homeland under the Persian leadership.  He has arranged for them to have some resources with which they can even begin to rebuild their lives.  God is upset with them, however.  The people have returned home and have begun building a reasonably luxurious lifestyle for themselves.  This isn’t so much the problem.  The problem is that they are building luxurious homes and neglecting the temple, God’s home.

The leadership hears Haggai, however.  They repent.  They change their tune.  They commit to doing as the Lord asks.  They have an obedient heart in spite of their natural human disobedience.

The thing that I love about this chapter in Haggai is that it shows how much our obedience means to God.  As soon as the people repent, God sends Haggai with a second message.  We hear Haggai come to the people and tell them that they are forgiven and God is with them.  God knows that we have a streak of human disobedience.  He knows we are selfish and self-centered.  What matters to Him is not our corrupt nature but rather our desire to overcome that nature and obediently listen to Him.

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Year 6, Day 257: Zephaniah 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father, King

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.
• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

I love the words of restoration found in this chapter.  These are words spoken over the nations – after the haughty and the proud are removed.  These are words spoken over all the people who come before God seeking His salvation.

In this chapter, we hear words of peace and joy and love.  It is the Lord who takes away our judgments against us.  He clears away our enemies.  He is in our midst.  It is on account of Him that we shall not fear our enemies.  He saves us.  He rejoices over us!

This one causes me to pause.  He rejoices over us.  We sin.  We rebel.  We chase after false gods.  We turn.  We repent.  He rejoices over us.  How cool is that?

He quiets us with His love.  He sings over us.  He gathers us so that we no longer suffer reproach.  He deals with the oppressors.  He tends the lame and gathers the outcast.  He changes shame into praise.  He brings us in.  He restores our fortune.

I need to hear those words today.  It is so easy to only see my failure and weakness.  It should be about Him and His work, not mine.  He is in control.  He is the mighty one.  He is powerful.  The world rests in His hands, not mine.  Thanks be to God!  He is King of the world, as it should be.  He is our forgiving Father, as we need Him to be.

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Year 6, Day 256: Zephaniah 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Zephaniah just gave us a scorching prophesy in the last chapter.  He spoke at length about the problems of the Hebrew people and how they have earned the judgment that is coming.

In chapter 2 we hear Zephaniah prepare to give prophecy against the nations around the Hebrew people.  They, too have earned God’s wrath.  They are like the Hebrew people and care more about establishing themselves and their own passions.  For this, they will find judgment.

Do you hear the change in tone with respect to the Hebrew people, however?  Today he is pleading for them to repent.  He is pleading for the Hebrew people to turn around and seek righteousness. Zephaniah begs them to seek the Lord.  He asks them to live humbly.  He asks them to do as the Lord commands.

Zephaniah knows something about God.  While His wrath is certainly great, His grace and mercy is far greater.  Zephaniah knows that if the people repent and turn to the Lord that He will forgive.  Zephaniah’s desire is not to see other people punished, in spite of what he said yesterday.  He wants repentance for the people so that they can live in relationship with a forgiving God.

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Year 6, Day 255: Zephaniah 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Zephaniah is a book that starts in a very foreboding manner.  Almost the entire first chapter is a warning of judgment.  The judgment that is predicted is incredibly harsh.  When you read through these words, there is little reason to hope and even less avenue to look for a way to escape.

The identity of God is righteousness.  The identity of His people is not rooted in righteousness.  This is why judgment is coming.  God’s own people have an identity that is not only not coming from God, it is utterly incongruous with God.  Because of this, great judgment will come upon the people.

How do we know that it truly is their identity that has God upset with them?  We know that they have sinned against the Lord.  Zephaniah 1:17 tells us as much.  But look at the specifics that Zephaniah 1:18 gives to us.  Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them.  The fire that comes from the Lord is a fire of jealousy.  The Lord is a jealous God.  When our identity comes from things other than Him, we invoke His wrath.

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Year 6, Day 254: Habakkuk 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Habakkuk 1 opened with Habakkuk’s challenge.  Habakkuk didn’t understand how so much violent and unrighteous behavior could exist in the world when God was King.  Habakkuk didn’t argue the sovereignty of God; he simply didn’t understand how the two things could be true together.

As this book ends, we hear Habakkuk change his tune.  I’m not really sure Habakkuk comprehends how unrighteous behavior can be occurring in the world.  I’m not really sure I comprehend why God allows it, either.  I tell myself that it is because God allows us to have free will.  But in truth, I’m not sure I comprehend why God allows that, either.

Where we do hear a change in Habakkuk’s tune is that he is more firmly aware of God’s omnipotence.  Habakkuk knows how God is king.  Creation obeys Him.  The sun and the moon stay out of His way when He looks to earth.  The mountains quake before Him.  Plague and Pestilence obey His command.  Water rushes out of the way before Him.

What I truly love about Habakkuk, though, is the conclusion to which he arrives at the end. Habakkuk says that even if his circumstances are poor, he will continue to praise the Lord.  If the crops fail, he will remain with the king of the universe.  I love this, because it shows that Habakkuk is not on a bandwagon.  He doesn’t walk with God when life is good and accuse God when life is bad.  He praises God at all times as a king deserves.

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Year 6, Day 253: Habakkuk 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition, Identity

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Habakkuk 2 is often summarized by a single quote.  “The righteous will live by faith.”  This is a huge hint towards our identity.  If we are in God, we will live in faith.  If we are in God, we will be obedient to His teaching.  If we are in God, we will desire to be righteous.  We will live by faith.

On the other hand, Habakkuk spends a great deal of time talking about the Chaldeans in this chapter.  The list of grievances is long.  They are willing to deal evilly with the people around them in order to prosper themselves.  They are willing to spill blood just for the sake of building their own towns, cities, and other things of importance.  They are willing to get their neighbors drunk in order to take advantage of them.  They deceive themselves by making idols out of their own creations.

In contrast to the identity of righteousness we have the self-centered ambition of the Chaldeans.  I am convinced that Habakkuk has put these in obvious juxtaposition.  We are to notice that the Chaldeans are going to come under judgment because they choose to pursue their own ambition. 

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Year 6, Day 252: Habakkuk 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

The book of Habakkuk is an unsung hero of a book in the Old Testament.  In this book, we see a man come to God and ask a legitimate question without really offending God.  If you have ever wondered how to do this, read the book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk comes to God and complains about the violence that he sees around him.  He complains about the unrighteous behavior that seems to go unpunished.  But make sure that you understand Habakkuk here.  How he can do this and not fall into judgment is because he doesn’t ever accuse God of anything.  What he does is admit his own inability to truly understand.  That is an incredibly important point to understand.  Rather than accuse God of being unjust, and thus attack His character, we should rather confess our inability to understand how our current circumstances can be occurring in the midst of His righteousness.

How does God come back to Habakkuk?  God gives him guidance.  God allows Habakkuk to see what he cannot understand.  When we accuse God, we find ourselves in judgment.  When we express our inability to understand, we get guidance from God.

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Year 6, Day 251: Jude

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Jude is a book that is all about perseverance in the face of a secular world.  Jude was a letter written, probably by a brother of Jesus, to a people who were a generation or so removed from the death of Jesus.  It was written to a people who likely never saw Jesus in person but who certainly heard about Jesus from people who had seen Jesus in the flesh.  What this means, though, is that Jude is written to people who are like us.  They hear about Jesus from others, but they are faced daily with the reality that they have to choose between the strong call of a materialistic culture that drowns out everything else and the call of a God that they have not met in the flesh.  This is an incredible challenge at times.

Jude encourages the people to persevere.  Jude reminds them to hold fast to the faith.  Jude reminds them that part of the calling of Jesus is to accept the challenge of rejecting the secular world.  They are not called to be of the world.  Living in Christ does not mean embracing all things!  There are things to which Christ calls us; there are things away from which Christ calls us.  Again, this is the challenge of being in Christ while living in a secular world.

More to the point, Jude also challenges the people to watch out for teaching and teachers who follow the desire to embrace the world and Christ.  Jude calls them false teachers who creep in stealthily.  These are teachers who emotionally desire to follow Jesus but cannot find it within themselves to forsake the things of the world.  Therefore, they teach that they do not have to.  They desire the reward of Christ, but they reject His authority over the things of the world.

In the end, Jude is a book of challenge.  It is a challenge to find the narrow road and walk it.  It is a challenge to not listen to the people who talk about the narrow road but who actually walk the wide road.  It is a challenge to pursue God and His ways above all else.

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Year 6, Day 250: Nahum 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

There is often a pattern to human behavior.  It’s not a perfect pattern.  We can’t count on it like clockwork, but we can count on it.  We hear it in phrases like “pride comes before the fall.”  Human beings will rise up in power.  But we all – and the nations that we make up – will fall.  Our pride and arrogance will drag us down.  Our unchecked ambition will create a blind spot which will become our Achilles’ Heel.

We see this in Nahum 3 today.  The people of Nineveh were arrogant.  Their ambition had led them to the pinnacle of human existence in their day.  They were the masters of the known world.  Their armies were the best and fiercest.  Their leaders made all the right decisions.  There was no reason to think that they would fall.

But then again, there was no reason to think that Egypt would fall, either.  Yet, the Assyrians had played a significant role in their fall.  The pride of the Egyptians had made them blind to the rise of the Assyrians and they fell.  God tells us that the same would be true for the Assyrians as well.  Their own desire for ambition would blind them to the rise of the Babylonians, whom God would use to judge the Assyrians.  That’s the warning that Nahum delivers in this chapter.

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Year 6, Day 249: Nahum 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

Make sure to understand the historical significance of what is being said in this chapter.  Remember that God’s people, Israel specifically, had fallen away and refused to repent.  When they refused to repent, God sent Assyria upon them to judge them and to bring them into captivity until they repented.  God absolutely called Assyria forth.  God absolutely empowered them to accomplish His task.  God doesn’t have an issue with the fact that Assyria conquered Israel.

What God takes up issue with is how they went about fulfilling His calling.  They did not conquer the Hebrew people of Israel in any sort of dignified way.  We know that they slaughtered people mercilessly.  We know that they intentionally killed the babies of the Hebrew women to break the will of the people.  We know that they intentionally humiliated people publicly and disfigured the captives as examples to others.

Yes, the Assyrians were called to humble the Hebrew people of Israel.  But they were not called to do it in the manner in which they accomplished the task.  As followers of God, this is an incredibly important thing for us to remember.  Just because God calls us to a task does not give us permission to go about the task in any way possible.  Remember that God judges us with mercy, sending His own Son to die so that repentance is always an option.  We should follow the same mindset.  When we are called by God to accomplish a task, we should go about it in a way that promotes mercy and grace, not judgment and wrath.

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Year 6, Day 248: Nahum 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Nahum, like Jonah, was a prophet whose career revolves around Assyria and its role in the world.  If we remember the story of Jonah, we hear that Nineveh repented when Jonah went into its midst – much to Jonah’s dismay.  However, when Nahum proclaims judgment, Assyria will not repent.

By the time of Nahum, Assyria has grown in great power.  They are the big dogs in the world.  They are on their way to conquering the world that they know.  Nothing seems to be able to stand against their tyrannical surge of power.

Naturally, nothing can stand in their way until God purposes something to come in their midst.  God steps forward and tells them that their destruction is coming.  They had been called to bring judgment to Israel, but they went too far.  They were too violent.  They became drunk with their power.  They became arrogant in their success.

Therefore, God declares that they will be cut down.  He will break the yoke of oppression that the Assyrians placed upon the Hebrew people they conquered.  We know that God raises up the Babylonians to judge the Assyrians – and to then even bring judgment against His people in Judah.  But the point of Nahum is that Assyria will find themselves judged by a God whose power is greater than their own.  God is king, not the Assyrians.

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Year 6, Day 247: Micah 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Listen to the anguish of Micah as he speaks about the social environment around him.  The godly perish.  The people are not interested in being upright.  Everyone around them seems to be willing to use each other for their own personal gain.  Even the people who are assigned to watch over the people – princes and judges – ask for bribes.  Neighbors cannot be trusted.  People twist one another’s words.  Children treat their parents with contempt.

What is Micah’s response?  Look in Micah 7:7.  As for me, I will look to the Lord.  I will wait for the god of my salvation.  He will hear me.

The rest of the chapter speaks largely about the deliverance that comes from the Lord.  He forgives our iniquity.  He pleads our cause when we are unable to do so.  He executes judgment.  He brings light into darkness.  He shames the unrighteous enemy.

In the end, we can speak like Micah.  Who is like our God?  He does not hold onto His anger.  Instead, He prefers to deal with His people in love.  He is the faithful one.  He is the one that we can depend upon when we are in need of protection.

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Year 6, Day 246: Micah 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Micah 6 gives us one of the more memorable character passages in the Old Testament.  What does the Lord require of us?  Do justice.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with our God.  That is the character of a godly person.

Do you notice what kind of things that God does not seem to care about that deeply?  Does He want all kinds of burnt offerings?  Des He desire us to sacrifice our own children?  No.  All God asks is that we look after one another, care about one other, seek the good of the people around us, and to live humbly.

If we look at the passage that follows this verse, we can see the consequences for not having a godly character.  Those who cheat one another with unethical business practices will be judged.  Those who speak lies will be judged.  Those who seek to preserve their life through their own wealth will find that they have not preserved it at all.

The reality is that when we look out for ourselves we aren’t really following a design for character that God desires.  When we are willing to use others for our personal gain we simply aren’t being the people God wants us to be.  He wants us to do justice.  He wants us to love mercy.  He wants us to walk humbly with Him.

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