Year 9, Day 120: Lamentations 3

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This chapter feels a bit like a rollercoaster.  Jeremiah laments frequently about his circumstances.  He feels abandoned.  He feels like wasting away unjustly.  He feels like his enemies lie in wait against him like a bear of lion.  He feels like his escape has been blocked at every turn.  He is trapped, and it feels oppressing and dangerous.

These dark feelings turn Jeremiah to the truth.  Rather than wallow in his circumstances, Jeremiah finds hope.  He knows that he cannot stay in the darkness, even though it is where life has led him.  He seeks truth.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.  This is a profound statement.  Remember what Jeremiah has endured.  Remember what Jeremiah has complained about in this passage!  If the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, then the steadfast love of the Lord was present in the midst of Jeremiah’s suffering.  The reason that this is powerful is because it gives witness to Jeremiah’s mindset. 

Yes, he is complaining.  Yes, he is lamenting.  Yes, he is recognizing that his life has ad some serious low points.  But he is not blaming God.  He has not lost faith.  He recognizes that where the valley of the shadow of death resides, God walks with us through it.

In the midst of his suffering, Jeremiah talks about how good the Lord is. Though the Lord bring grief, He does it through compassion.  In the midst of his misery, Jeremiah attests that the Lord has taken up his cause.  Great is His faithfulness, even in the midst of suffering!

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Year 9, Day 119: Lamentations 2

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This second chapter of Lamentations continues where the first left off.  We open with a discussion of the Lord’s supreme power.  The Lord has crumbled the strongholds.  He has broken the iron.  He has allowed Jerusalem to become wild like an untended garden.  He has destroyed the luxurious places.  He has sent the powerful into exile.  The Lord did this.  He is indeed greater than His creation.

The danger to blame the Lord is even greater in this chapter.  There are fewer verses of guilt and understanding here.  However, there is one particularly useful stanza for keeping perspective.  Lamentations 2:19 gives us great advice in the midst of our trial.  Pour out our hearts before the Lord like water.  In other words, repent!  Lift our hands to the Lord.  In other words, turn back to Him and see Him for the source of salvation that He is!

This chapter helps us gain perspective in the midst of sorrow.  We can choose to either see God as the adversary or as the hero.  It’s easy to pick the side of adversary.  Even Jeremiah tells us in this chapter that the Lord has become like an adversary.  In the midst of doom and destruction, especially with a being who controls absolute power, it is easy to see that being as the source of our trouble and therefore the enemy.  Such a view, though, ignores our guilty.  The one with the power is not always the guilty power.  Sometimes the one with the power is the righteous judge standing before a guilty people forcing Him to take action.

When we choose to see God as adversary, we close our eyes to the truth.  We are enough of our own adversary!  God is powerful, but humans can bring destruction on ourselves and others around us well enough on our own.

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Year 9, Day 118: Lamentations 1

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Lamentations gives us what we expect.  In this book of the Bible, Jeremiah speaks about the abandonment of Jerusalem.  Here is a city that was once God’s beloved.  It now is a joke among the nations because Babylon has laid it low.  Babylon has exiled it wealthy and its useful.  Babylon has put the destitute in charge.

The fact that this book is in our Bible should speak volumes to us.  Mourning is a part of our life.  Things will go wrong.  We will experience loss.  We will be sad.  There will be times in our life when we simply don’t know joy.  God knows this.  He expects it.  He will walk with us through those moments.

Second, if we aren’t careful we can read these words and get the wrong idea.  At points in this passage it sounds like Jeremiah is blaming God for the devastation.  That is not true.  Jeremiah does understand that God is the power behind the exile, but He is not the cause of it.  God brought the exile because of the sinfulness of the people.  God would have preferred the people listen and obey so that He could have celebrated with them instead of bringing judgment upon them.

Third, we understand that human beings bring our own judgment upon ourselves.  God brought the punishment, but He brought it in response to our actions.  He brought judgment upon Jerusalem because they would not listen, they would obey, and they would not repent.

Jeremiah mourns what is lost.  But he mourns properly.  He mourns by recognizing God’s authority and righteousness.  He mourns by seeing guilt where it truly resides.  Here is a prophet modeling godly mourning for all.

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Year 9, Day 117: Hebrews 13

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Hebrews 13 gives us a final note from the author.  Unlike the majority of the book, which is about the divinity and supremacy of Christ, this chapter is about us as humans.  The authors speaks primarily about behavior and attitude.

What leaps off the page in the author’s voice isn’t so much the expected behavior – which is important to note.  Rather, it is the motivation of the author that is striking.  Today we get a sense of why the faith exists.  Today we get a sense of why the followers of Christ live as they do.

We might think, as many people do, that we worship God in some kind of response to death and eternal life.  People think that the followers of Christ behave like they do to earn God’s favor.  Other treat following Christ as some kind of fire insurance.  Still others look for an advantage of their own making.  Still others do it because of outside expectations and peer pressure.

Fortunately, the author of Hebrews does not ascribe to any of those measures.  We are hospitable because we might just be entertaining God and His angels.  We watch out for the orphan, widow, poor, and imprisoned because we are ourselves understanding of persecution and turmoil.  We are content with what we have because we know God is with us. We remember our leaders because they are spending themselves watching out for us.  We seek the world to come because we have no place in the current world.

In other words, we are a people of response.  We do because of what He has done.  We live because of what He has given.  We watch and mentor because we know what it is to be judged and outcast by the world.

We are not a people who look for our own gain.  We are not people who appease out of fear.  We are a people who respond to a God who has come down and shown the way to us.

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Year 9, Day 116: Hebrews 12

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Hebrews 12 begins with a look at suffering.  For the Christian, this is an important conversation to have and context to understand.  To follow Christ will put us at odds with the world.  To follow Christ will put us at odds with ourselves.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks frequently in his writings about what it means to follow Christ.  He says that “when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”  To follow Christ means that our own desires and our own wants – much less the desires and the wants of the world – will need to be evaluated against the was of God.  This process often brings about suffering, strife, turmoil, etc.

The author’s point, though, is unexpected.  He tells us that we should not worry when struggle comes our way.  In fact, we should expect it and embrace it.  After all, God expertly uses struggle to teach us.  Through struggle, we gain perspective, endurance, wisdom, and several other good traits.  As the author of Hebrews says, God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share in His holiness.

All too often we think that struggle means God has abandoned us.  In fact, quite often it is through struggle that God has drawn the closest.  He walks with us, shares with us, and even carries us through struggle.  It is in the midst of struggle that we can often see God the most active in our life in hindsight.

None of us likes struggle, strife and turmoil.  However, I’d not like to see what sort of man I’d be today if I never had struggle, strife, or turmoil in my life.

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Year 9, Day 115: Hebrews 11

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Faith.  Clearly, that’s the main topic in Hebrews 11.  By faith, everything righteous in the Old Testament was done.  I can’t really say that I disagree.

I do find it interesting to realize that the faith examples involve the positive and negative.  In fact, that’s one of the things about this chapter that lends truth to it.  Nothing in life is every completely positive or completely negative.  The fact that faith involves both positive and negative dynamics makes it very real.

By faith, the exodus happened.  By faith, Noah was saved.  By faith, Enoch was taken up into heaven.  These are all great opportunities of faith.

However, by faith Moses was rejected by the Egyptians as well as his own people.  By faith others were tortured and flogged.  By faith, people were imprisoned, stoned, or even sawed in two.  These are also great opportunities in faith, but not opportunities most of us would sign up for.

How do we think about the positive and negative elements of faith?  That answer is simple.  Our eyes are on the kingdom to which we belong.  Our eyes are on the eternal, the kingdom of heaven.  It is easy to say – and far harder to execute – but what is a little suffering in this present world when our future contains an eternity with God?  We will not receive our reward in this life but the next.  That is why by faith we endure persecution yet reap the harvest of God.

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Year 9, Day 114: Hebrews 10

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Hebrews 10 continues to talk about the sacrifice of Christ.  Naturally, he continues the assertion that His sacrifice was good forever.  He’s doesn’t need to die again.  We don’t need a different sacrifice at some other time.  Christ’s death was sufficient once for all time.

I can’t speak for others, but I tend to forget the meaning of this.  Sure, it makes sense to think that we don’t need to offer any other sacrifices.  Yes, it means I can come and worship God, thankful for the grace He gave to us through Christ.  It means all these things.  But I so often forget what the core of this is.

God has forgiven.  He has washed away our sins.  Yet, how often to I continue to hold myself accountable for my mistakes?   How often do I beat up on myself for my errors and sins?  If God can forgive me, why is it so hard for me to forgive myself?

Granted, this doesn’t give me permission to be cavalier about my sins, either.  God’s grace is not permission to sin.  Neither is God’s grace permission to be uncaring about the consequences of my sins.  But it is permission to confess my sins, understand why I fell into temptation, try to not put myself in a similar circumstance, and then let go of the guilt that my sins hold upon me!  God gives me permission to release my sins as He has already forgiven them.

There’s more to this, though.  Forgiveness is more than simply allowing the guilt to flow away.  Forgiveness means living confidently.  We can go forth in the world and try to help God accomplish His will with confidence.  We can do this because we know that if we err, He will forgive.  We won’t need another sacrifice, our forgiveness is already assured because Christ has already died.

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Year 9, Day 113: Hebrews 9

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In this chapter, the author of Hebrews desires to make a comparison to the sacrifices of old and the death of Christ.  He makes several very good points.  First, if the blood and ashes of animals have any impact, then the blood of God must have far more impact!  Second, Christ ascended to heaven, whereas earthly sacrifices still continued on earth.  Third, Christ will return again for all those who await eternal life.

I think these points are often forgotten.  So often Christians talk about righteousness and godly living that we lose sight of how it is that righteousness comes to us.  Sometimes we get so focused on the resurrection that we forget about the crucifixion.  Don’t get me wrong.  I look forward to the resurrection and can’t wait until eternal life with God.  But my desire for eternal life should never cause me to look past the crucifixion.

Jesus died for our sake.  He died so that our sins could be dealt with once and for all.  He died, allowing His own blood to be rather violently spilled, so that we could once more enter into permanent relationship with God.  He died so that instead God dwelling in some far away place behind a curtain, God could dwell within us.  He sacrificed not a goat or a bull, but Himself.

Furthermore, God ascended into heaven so that He could be our mediator.  He ascended into heaven to show us that the changes He affects reach into the divine and the eternal.  He doesn’t have to die once a year for us to know God.

And, yes!  He will return.  He will come back so that we can know eternal life.  Because He sacrificed Himself once-for-all, we will know life with God eternal.  And, yes!  I can’t wait to experience it.  I believe it will be like life we cannot imagine.

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Year 9, Day 112: Hebrews 8

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The author of Hebrews extends his point from yesterday.  We received a new priest who is better than those of the lineage of Aaron.  We have a high priest who lives forever.  We have a high priest whose purity can affect us.  We have a high priest who is a priest because of righteousness, not biology.

With this change in priest, there comes a change in the Law.  In former days, God’s ways were written in stone and obeyed out of fear.  We followed the Law because of tradition and obligation.  Because of this, there was always tension between our hearts and God’s Law.  We know what to do that is right, but we also have hearts that desire our own ways.

With Jesus, there is a change.  A new order comes about.  No longer is the Law written on stone to be externally viewed.  God’s ways are now written upon our hearts.  They are internalized.  Because of this, God can dwell within us.  We don’t need to be taught to obey God, because our obedience can come from within! [Aside: this doesn’t mean that a little mentoring along the way is a bad thing.]

Note, though, that this doesn’t mean we are perfect.  There is still tension in our lives.  While our hearts know what is right, our hearts still struggle with our own desires.  Instead of the tension being between us and an external Law, the tension is now within us.  We know what we should do; we also know what we want to do.

This is why it is good that we have Christ.  Over the past few chapters, we have been putting together a great argument.  We have the Law within us now, but there is still tension.  We have a new law, though, because the old one was external.  The new law came because we have a new great high priest.  This great high priest knows what it is like to be human and understands our failings.  He can personally affect our righteousness through His own righteousness.  This is why Christ is a very good thing.

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Year 9, Day 111: Hebrews 7

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The author continues to speak about Jesus and His supremacy in this chapter.  It does not comes quite in the way that we expect.  Instead of relying upon how much Jesus fits the mold, he speaks about a different way.  The author takes the traditional, shows its inadequacy, and then offers a different perspective.

Jesus isn’t a priest in the traditional sense.  Jesus comes from the lineage of Judah, not from Levi and the priests who descend from Aaron.  For Jews, that is an issue.  The priests come from the tribe of Levi and Levi alone.

However, the priests are limited.  Before they can offer sacrifices for the purity of others, there must be sacrifices for their own purity.  The Levitical priesthood is passed down through biology, excluding a great many.  Priests would eventually grow old and die, needing to be replaced. There are great limitations to the Levitical priesthood.

Jesus, on the other hand, has no such limitations.  He already is pure, and therefore can affect the purity of others directly.  His priesthood is not passed down through biology but through righteousness.  Jesus does not grow old and die, therefore He is a consistent source of righteousness in our lives.

The author is making this case to prove a simple point.  God is not confined by human boxes.  We set up patterns and rules and regulations.  We try to define the future through our understanding and tradition.  God thinks outside the box.  God does the unexpected.  As the author of Hebrews writes, because a change in the priesthood was necessary, a change in the Law must follow.  The author’s very point is that God is doing a new thing.

We don’t need salvation through our human understanding.  We need salvation through God’s new thing.  We need a permanent change, one that will reach into our lives and make us a new thing.

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Year 9, Day 110: Hebrews 6

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We have a certain hope.  We have a hope that has been laid upon a foundation of grace, repentance, forgiveness, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life.  These are the foundations of our faith.  It is these things that inspire us and cause us to continue to strive every day.

If this is the foundation of our hope, we should not routinely be producing thorns in life.  We should not be causing other people to stumble.  We should not be continual sources of anger and strife.  We should not be people who look and feel like hypocrites to the world around them.  We should produce a harvest, not a briar patch.

Other places in the Bible speak about this same concept.  Jesus Himself tells us that we will know what lies in people’s hearts because we will see it in their actions.  Paul tells us that by our fruit we will be known.  This is the same point being made here.  If our foundation is in grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, repentance, and eternal life, then those dynamics should be seen all over our lives!

What does it mean when our lives are not giving evidence of these things?  It means that we may be in a rough spot of life and we need to spent time with God.  It may mean that we ourselves need to experience a bit of grace love and mercy so that we can be recharged.  But it might also mean that our foundation isn’t what we thought it was.  When we go through a stretch of life and realize that we aren’t putting grace, love, and mercy on display very often, it is a great time to do a self-check and evaluate our life.

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Year 9, Day 109: Hebrews 5

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Hebrews 5 continues to speak to Christ and His nature as High priest.  He was given the mantle of high priest by the Father.  He came to die for our sake.  He came to deal with sin once and for all.

The interesting dynamic that what we learn in this passage with respect to how Jesus developed.  Jesus was heard because of His submission.  He learned obedience from His suffering.  The author of Hebrews is making a point that most human beings simply don’t want to hear: submission and suffering are a natural part of life.  If we want to develop into mature people of God, submission and suffering must be seen as events to be embraced because they teach us rather than seen as things to be avoided at all costs.

We like to avoid suffering.  I know I do.  I don’t enjoy the hard moments of life.  I don’t enjoy the times when I feel my life is crumbling round me.  I don’t enjoy the uncertainty, the sorrow, and the bleakness.  But I do learn through them.  I learn to survive.  I learn to live.  I learn to endure.  I learn what is truly important in life and what can be lost.

The same is true about submission.  Human beings don’t like to submit.  We like to do what we want and when we want it.  We start that pattern of behavior from moment one of our life!  Yet in submission we learn order to life, we learn how to get along with others, we learn community, and we become well-rounded.

The author of Hebrew takes this point and goes a step further with it.  After talking about Christ, he then speaks to his audience about their maturity.  He speaks to them about needing milk instead of solid food.  But in doing so, he uses a great expression.  It isn’t so much that his audience is incapable or immature.  The issue is that they are no longer trying.  They’ve become complacent.  They should be teaching others, but they are still at a place in their life where they need to be taught themselves still.

God doesn’t expect perfect, because He knows we cannot deliver.  He doesn’t even always expect maturity, because we all have to learn and grow.  What God does expect is that we try.  We must avoid complacency at all costs, because when we are complacent we stop learning and start diminishing.  Complacency is the great enemy of discipleship.

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Year 9, Day 108: Hebrews 4

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Today, the author of Hebrews extends the conversation where he left off last chapter.  We must be careful that we are not disobedient.  We should be striving for life with God.  We should be looking forward to that eternal day of Sabbath when we are with God.  It should be our primary goal.

We should also be concerned that we don’t lose it.  The author of Hebrews isn’t inviting us to be living in fear – the phobia kind of fear.  He wants us to take our obedience seriously.  He wants us to live a life of self-examination.  He doesn’t want us paranoid about salvation; he wants us to be mindful of who we are and our goals/desires of our heart.

In this, though, the author of Hebrews reminds us that we have a God who understands.  He knows what temptation is like.  He knows what living in a sinful world is like.  He knows what it is like to have people turn on Him, reject Him, refuse to listen to Him.  He knows what it is like to get angry.  He knows what it is like to suffer loss and to have people around Him lose faith.

In short, Jesus knows.  While we are to be mindful of our actions and our dreams, Jesus knows what it is like to be human.  When we get it right, He celebrates with us.  When we fail, He understands our struggle.  We have a great High Priest who knows us and what it is like to be us.  We don’t worship some far off god who looks down upon us without understanding.  We have a God who dwelled with us and knows.

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Year 9, Day 107: Hebrews 3

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There are a pair of neat conversations in this third chapter.  First, the author of Hebrews begins a conversation about Jesus being greater than Moses.  From a Christian perspective, we would agree wholeheartedly with this.  In fact, most Christians would even wonder why this has to be discussed.  Jesus was, after all, the Son of God.  Moses was a great man, but he was just a man.

Remember, though, that Hebrews was written in a time when most Christians still considered themselves Jews.  Most Christians were Jews who followed the teachings of Jesus.  There wasn’t a great need to distinguish between Jew and Christian – although the time was coming quickly when that distinction would matter a great deal!  Because many of the listeners to this letter would consider themselves Jews, this passage takes on new meaning.

After all, Moses was the great Law-bringer.  Naturally, God was the Law-giver.  Moses was the agent through whom God gave the Law.  Moses was the one whom God chose to go before Pharaoh and accomplish the Exodus.  Abraham was the recipient of the covenant, But Moses was the leader that really got the ball rolling!

While Moses was the Law-bringer, Jesus is the Law-fulfiller.  Jesus completes the Law.  Jesus lived the Law.  Jesus died as the Law demanded so we could live.  While Moses was there when the first stones of salvation were laid, Jesus was the meaning behind the project and the completion of it.  Moses deserves to be respected for his place, but Jesus deserves to be lifted up as the Son of God He is.  Moses was a great man, but Jesus is salvation.

The second major issue here in this passage is an understanding of the recipients of salvation.  Don’t forget that the generation who received the Law didn’t obey it.  Because of their disobedience, they were kept out of the Promised Land.

There is a charge here.  We need to understand that salvation comes through Jesus Christ.  We do not earn salvation nor do we deserve it.  It is a gift from God.  If we do not receive the gift – or worse, if we are disobedient against the gift – we can find ourselves on the outside looking in.

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Year 9, Day 106: Hebrews 2

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Hebrews 2 takes the focus and places it where it solidly belongs.  Hebrews 2 is about Jesus Christ.  As the author says, he is the founder of salvation.  He was made perfect through suffering.

Pause for a moment there.  He was made perfect through suffering.  I know many people who strive for perfection.  Teaching teenagers, I know many who accept nothing less than perfection!  Yet, Christ was made perfect through suffering.  How badly do we want perfection if it is attained through suffering?  How many human beings say they long for perfection, but then can’t manage to go through the suffering when it comes?  Is it possible that we give lip service to what we want without having the courage to go and get it?  While that may be an overgeneralization, it is worth considering that anytime we desire to strive after perfection that there will b a little suffering along the way.

Through Jesus’ suffering, He also helped bring us to the source of power.  Jesus came from the Father, and the Father is the power.  Through His death He brings us to the Father.  Prior to His sacrifice, our sin kept us from God.  Our sin was a barrier that prevented us from approaching the throne of God.  Through the death of Christ, though, our sins are atoned.  We can know forgiveness.  We can know the Lord and His grace.

The author tells us that Christ did just that.  Through His death – as proved by the resurrection – Jesus defeats our greatest adversary, the Devil.  The Devil accuses us before God.  The Devil accuses us to ourselves.  He seeks to defeat us and remind us that we are not worthy of life, and certainly not worthy of the presence of God.  In sacrifice for our sake, Jesus defeats the accusation of the Devil.  He defeats death, showing us that God loves us enough to die for our sake so that we might know the presence of God, know life in Him, and know the source of power.

Jesus is the one who does all this.  He was made lower than the angels for our sake.  He died for our sake.  He took on death and the Devil so that we wouldn’t have to.

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Year 9, Day 105: Hebrews 1

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Hebrews 1 takes the reader to a topic about which there isn’t much content in the Bible.  These would be the angels.  These are beings who exist in the presence of God and who have done so since before the creation of mankind.  The author of Hebrews – unidentified, but many think it is Paul – calls them ministering spirits.

The angels are not sons of God.  They are beings who dwell with God in the heavenly realm.  In several books of the Bible – Daniel and Revelation are the biggest examples – the angels are seen as messengers who serve as a go-between with respect to God’s truth and human understanding.  These angels are in the service of God, helping accomplish His will in creation.

As great as these angels are, though, the author of Hebrews teaches us that they are not the Son.  They are not to be worshipped.  N fact, the author of Hebrews makes the point that the angels are to worship the Son.

The author of Hebrews in making a very poignant decree that related culturally to his context and from which we can extrapolate an important message for those of us who don’t worship angels.  In the time Hebrews was written, people worshipped many gods.  Anything that had special power was a subject of worship.  People within the church began to worship angels, thinking that if they could catch the attention of an angel they might be able to get closer to God.  The author of Hebrews wants to put a stop to this.  The angels are different than us to be sure, they like us they are called to worship God.  Angels are not meant for us to worship, they are meant to help us worship God.

This is an exceptionally valuable point for us to learn.  We may not worship angels, but we have no shortage of things we worship in place of God.  In fact, we have many things – like church buildings, books (the Bible, to name the most grievous example), and family – that we end up worshipping instead of letting those things draw us more deeply into the worship of God.  The things we worship change, but humans are no different than the time of the Hebrew people.  We will worship things that have power over our lives.

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Year 9, Day 104: Jeremiah 52

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At the end of this chapter, we hear about how many people were dragged into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.  Of course, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t take the whole of the Hebrew people into exile.  He left the poor and destitute in the land.  Instead, he took the people of note, importance, and skill.

They numbered 4,600 people.  That’s it.  At the end of the Babylonian conquest, at the end of the siege, and at the end of the freedom of the Hebrew people there are 4,600 people whom Nebuchadnezzar deems worthy of being brought to Babylon.

That is a far cry from the hundreds of thousands who came out of Egypt several centuries earlier.  I find this amazing.  God rescues everyone in Egypt.  He finds value in everyone.  By the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the numbers have dwindled substantially, and Nebuchadnezzar finds a small amount of value among the Hebrew people. 

It’s interesting what the effects of generational sin can have upon a nation.  How far the people have fallen!  They have drifted away from God, and in doing so their lives have become squandered on pursuits that are less than significant.

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Year 9, Day 103: Jeremiah 51

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Jeremiah continues the prophecy against Babylon.  Babylon will be destroyed.  In fact, this is one of the longest chapters in Jeremiah (yesterday was also against Babylon and another long one).  God ahs much to say when it comes to Babylon.

I always find it interesting that God takes so much vengeance against Babylon, whom He raised up to do His will.  God empowered Babylon against the Assyrians.  God empowered Babylon against His own people.  Now, God rails against Babylon and promises their own destruction.

It’s important that we get this theology right.  It isn’t that God has changed.  It isn’t that God has tricked the Babylonians.  God lifted them up and empowered them.  However, once the Babylonians are lifted up the don’t acknowledge the God who lifted them up!  They take what God gave to them and run with it by doing what is good in their own eyes.  It is their arrogance and their brutality, not their conquest of Assyria and Babylon, that has God riled up against them.

We nee to be careful when we go about our life.  God has blessed us in many ways.  Are we humble or arrogant in the areas in which we excel?  Are we repentant or ignorant in our sinfulness?  Do we take what God has given to us and bring it to enhance our relationship with Him or do we use it as a reason to no longer need Him?

Before finishing for the day, there is a section of the scripture that is worth bringing out.  In the middle of this chapter God talks about the people that He is going to raise up to defeat Babylon.  The chapter calls them the Medes, but we know them as the Persians.  These are the people who will defeat Babylon.  In humble leadership, these are the people who will allow God’s people to go home.  These are a contrasting agent to Babylon.  They come and execute judgment, but do it according to God’s ways instead of in antithesis to them.  This is why Cyrus is the first in the Bible to officially be called God’s Messiah.  Cyrus will execute God’s will appropriately, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, who led contrary to the one who empowered him.

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Year 9, Day 102: Jeremiah 50

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Today we hear about the judgment of Babylon.  There is no hiding the pleasure that Jeremiah seems to have in this chapter.  These are the people who took down Jerusalem.  These are the people who conquered his home.  There is reason for Jeremiah to enjoy this topic.

Have no doubt bout why Babylon is judged.  They aren’t judged because they overtook Judah.  God called them to do that task.  They were the weapon in God’s hand when they did that task.  Jeremiah knows this much, too.

The Babylonians are undergoing judgment because of the cruelty they used as they went about the Lord’s calling for them.  They didn’t display any grace.  They didn’t give God the glory.  They didn’t respect the people they conquered for what they brought to the world around them.  They tortured.  They burned.  They killed.  They employed fear.  They used their God-given position as a means to their own gain.

There’s a deep message for those with power or station in this world.  With great power comes great responsibility.  To those who have been given much, much will be expected.  Babylon has failed on both accounts.  Babylon did not act responsibly with the power they had been given.

The lesson for us is if we do they same.  Are we good stewards of what God has given to us?  Do we use our power appropriately?  Are we looking to complete God’s will for our lives or are we looking to use what God has given to us to complete our own agenda?

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Year 9, Day 101: Jeremiah 49

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Jeremiah 49 is a bit of a mixed bag.  Naturally, there is the promise of restoration after judgment.  Note, though, that the promise of restoration isn’t universal.  Some of the countries mentioned here are promised a second chance.  Other places are promised to be scattered and subsumed into other areas.  Still others are promised destruction with no promise of restoration.

What is the difference?  The Bible doesn’t really say what the difference is.  It is hard to tell.  However, if we go to other places in scripture it seems that the difference between the sinner who is forgiven and allowed a second chance and the sinner who is condemned is the heart of the sinner.  The sinner who acknowledges sin and struggles against it and who goes before God and admits their sin makes them impure is forgiven and redeemed.  It is impossible to say that for certain about the nations who are told about the possibility of redemption and not, but it is a good place to start the conversation.

For the rest of the blog, I’m going to focus on Ammon.  The four questions Jeremiah asks at the beginning of the chapter are intriguing.  Has Israel no sons?  Is there no heir?  Why has Miclom dispossessed Gad?  Why has his people settled in the cities?

In other words, the Ammonites have filled the vacuum left in the Promised Land when the nation of Israel was deported into the Assyrian Empire.  The Ammonites settled the land and took over.  Their greed was on display.  They were happy to take advantage of another’s downfall.

God seems none-to-pleased at this development.  God doesn’t mind us working hard and getting ahead.  God doesn’t want us taking advantage of others.  God doesn’t want us to prosper at the expense of the poor, orphaned, and displaced in life.  Judgment comes against those who do such things.

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Year 9, Day 100: Jeremiah 48

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are three main ideas that came to mind as I read this chapter.  The most obvious one is its length, especially when contrasted with the last chapter about the Philistines.  Yesterday, Jeremiah didn’t seem to have much to say.  Today, Jeremiah seems to cycle through the same ideas over and over.  This chapter is personal.  This chapter wants to indicate that Jeremiah and the Lord are highly interested in the downfall of Moab.  Additionally, Jeremiah mentions specific cities found in Moab.

Why would Jeremiah make this so personal?  Jeremiah wants to drive the point home to the Hebrew people – and the Moabites, should they ever hear this message.  Destruction happens.  Bad days, bad weeks, bad months happen.  But we like to think they won’t happen to us.  When it gets personal, we can’t hide anymore.  When it gets personal, it hits home.  When it gets personal, it causes us to think about what is involved.  That’s one of Jeremiah’s motives for this passage.

The second idea is how often Jeremiah speaks about the concept of destruction.  Time and time again Jeremiah specifically says the word destruction.  He calls the Babylonians the destroyer over and over.  Jeremiah wants the people to understand that Babylon isn’t going to come and take their stuff.  Babylon is coming and the culture will be destroyed.  Life will irrevocably change.  This is a big event that will shake the face of life itself in the Promised Land.

Finally, though, in the very last verse, we do get a glimmer of hope.  As personal as this utter destruction is, God tells them that in the end they will rebuild.  Moab will be restored.  God’s judgment need not be as permanent as His love.  In the end, especially after a long chapter about destruction, this is important.  Babylon is coming.  Moab will be destroyed.  Yet, after Babylon is gone, God will still remain.  Babylon will fade, but God will be there to help rebuild and restore.

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Year 9, Day 99: Jeremiah 47

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Jeremiah is not very kind to the Philistines.  By the time of Jeremiah, they were a dwindling people anyways.  Constant wars and tribal disputes had kept their growth and prosperity in check.  Invaders have come and gone.  Jeremiah tells them to not get too comfortable.  Babylon will come.  They will be like a sword.  Their assault will be swift and deadly.  In fact, the assault will be so swift and so deadly that parents won’t have time to go to their families.  While I’m that’s a bit of an exaggeration, it makes a point.

In fact, judgment will come so swiftly and thoroughly that the Philistines won’t be able to ask for help from allies.  We already know that the Egyptians will have their hands full with the Babylonians.  This chapter tells us that Babylon will keep Tyre and Sidon at bay, too.  Judgment was coming and it wasn’t going to be diverted.  There will be little help coming.  Philistia will fall.

A meaningful part of this chapter comes at the end when Jeremiah begs for mercy from the Lord.  He asks how long judgment will come upon the land.  Anyone can cry out for mercy when they are being judged.  Most people will celebrate when one’s enemies come into judgment.  We know a true prophet of God, though, when he mourns judgment at any time, even against his enemies.  Judgment is harsh at all times.

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Year 9, Day 98: Jeremiah 46

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In this chapter, Jeremiah proclaims disaster upon Egypt.  They will experience judgment in much the same way as Jerusalem has.  Their rebellion will be punished.

There are two interesting dynamics in this chapter, however.  We continue to see the grace of God upon a people who are undeserving – not unlike all of us.  God tells Egypt that after judgment by the Babylonians the land will return to normal.  He also reminds the Hebrew people that they too will return to their land.  God is not about extinction; God is about reminding people of the truth.

The second interesting dynamic is a deeper reflection upon human nature.  In this chapter, Jeremiah compares Egypt to the flooding of the Nile.  When the Nile flooded, it was devastating.  The river didn’t creep out of its banks, it flooded the land and brought tons of rich silt that it would deposit upon the banks.  This is where the farmers in Egypt would grow their crops.  The floods were devastating, but necessary.

This is important because it teaches us about human civilization.  Nations rise and fall.  After all, can’t we see power in the Promised Land constantly cycling?  Canaanites.  Hebrews. Egyptians. Hebrews.  Assyrians.  Babylonians.  Persians.  Greeks. Romans. Muslims. Christians.  Muslims.  Nations rise and fall.  Power comes and goes.  Civilization, like the Nile, ebbs and flows.

The good news is that this means that bad times won’t last forever.  That’s the glass half full perspective.  The bad news, or glass half empty perspective, is that every cycle of greatness will be followed by a fall.  No nation, no group of people, rise and stay risen.  Only God is truly supreme.

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Year 9, Day 97: Jeremiah 44-45

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This is a devastating chapter in God’s Word.  Jeremiah brings a message from the Lord to the people in Egypt.  They will die.  In fact, God even says that He is no longer watching over the people for good but for disaster.  God is watching over them, but He is watching them encounter suffering and hardship instead of looking for signs of repentance.

What have they done to incur God’s wrath?  The list is fairly long, too long to state here in its entirety.  The short version is that they did not listen to the prophets.  They did not repent.  Even when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar, they did not repent.  They rebelled against Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar’s appointed governor of the land.  They went to Egypt, against God’s desire.  They now refuse to stop worshipping other gods when Jeremiah confronts them directly.  Rebellion after rebellion has brought God’s wrath.

Diving into the logic of the people shows human tendency.  The complaint that they lift up is that their life has only gone poorly for them after they stopped worshipping the queen of heaven!  Think about this for a second.  The siege itself lasts a couple years.  The invasion lasted longer than that.  This also wasn’t the first time Babylon had come!  They came years earlier and made Judah a vassal state.  Things had been going wrong for quite some time, yet the people don’t seem to acknowledge it.

This shows us an issue with perspective among human beings.  The people can’t see how bad their life is because they have been focused on their own desires to consider the splendor of God!  They didn’t know what genuine life lived under God’s ways could be like.  In a sense, this reminds us of a few chapters back when it became apparent that the besieged people in Jerusalem had slaves!  The truth is that human beings will settle for a perception of reality that isn’t the worst.  Better to be lord over a dung heap than a servant in a magnificent castle, right?

The people continue to refuse God’s ways because they want to be in charge.  They don’t know what the love of God can mean in their life because they are too focused being in control.  They want to do things their own way, so they will happily settle for a lesser reality than what could be had with God.

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Year 9, Day 96: Jeremiah 43

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we hear the inevitable conclusion from yesterday’s chapter.  The people don’t hear Jeremiah.  They don’t want to stay under Babylonian control.  They want to do what is right in their own eyes.  They want out from under the Babylonians, whom God has put upon them.  While they might not say it this way, effectively they just want out from under God’s hand.

I find it interesting to see this unfold after hearing the words yesterday.  In Jeremiah 42, the people said that they would listen to Jeremiah.  They would do what the Lord requires of them.  Today, though, we hear that was just a set of words.  They aren’t interested in obeying God.  They are interested in seeming like they are obeying God as long as God is doing what they want.

Here is another problem with human begins.  We often pay lip service the things while our heart heads in a different direction.  It is easy to say words of loyalty or truth; it is another thing completely to live them.  We don’t care for living out truth as much as we care for saying it.

The people do what they want.  They people head to Egypt.  The even compel Jeremiah to go with them!  They have learned nothing in the process of exile.

God knows this, too.  He also knows that he had been planning on bringing the Babylonians to Egypt to teach them a lesson as well.  God reveals to the Hebrew people that they have removed themselves from a place of peace to a place of unrest!  While they could have lived in relative peace under Babylonian watchfulness, they will instead get to live through another invasion, another time of war, and more unrest. 

This is the fruit of their own will.  They have done what they thought was right instead of being obedient to God.  They have made their bed, now they will sleep in it.

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