Year 9, Day 233: Jonah 1-2

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Jonah is a very intriguing story.  It is a fantastical story.  A man runs away from God and is met by a strong storm.  The man asks to be thrown overboard, knowing that the storm will stop.  It does, and Jonah is swallowed by a giant fish.  Instead of seeing this fish as a predator, from within the belly of the fish Jonah knows that the fish is his salvation.  The fish then vomits him upon dry land.  There are so many elements of this story that are fantastical.

Just because it is fantastical doesn’t make it fictional.  The events of this story simply demonstrate the relationship between God and one of His prophets.  A prophet has a very unique relationship with God; why shouldn’t the prophet experience very unique events?  When a prophet rebels, why shouldn’t God use a unique means to bring Him back in line?

There is a question that this story should raise – a question that will not get answered until the last part of this story.  Why didn’t Jonah follow God’s wishes?  Why did Jonah head the complete other way?  Why doesn’t Jonah go to Nineveh and preach against their behavior?  Why is Jonah willing to die in the sea so that he doesn’t have to complete the mission?

The answer will come tomorrow.  Today, though, look at what we can learn.  God’s prophets are not perfect.  They are human beings like us.  They have disobedient streaks.  They have moments when they are told to do things and they do the exact opposite of what they are told.

After all, we are God’s children.  Any parent knows that the children do not always obey.  Sometimes the child exerts independence and goes their own way, thinking they know best.  Sometimes rebellion happens because the child thinks they can get away with it. Either way, though, a prophet is a child of God.  Sin and rebellion are battles they face, too.

What I love about this first half of the story, though, is Jonah’s sanity.  He is more than sane when he runs away.  He is more than sane when he sleeps during the storm.  He is more than sane when he volunteers to be thrown into the sea to save the people.  His sanity is proven when from within the fish He lifts up praise to God.  Jonah has full knowledge about what is happening every step of the way.  Even in his rebellion, he has the clarity of mind and the sanity that we expect when a prophet acts.

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Year 9, Day 232: Obadiah

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Obadiah is a small book.  The focus of Obadiah is Edom, which is the nation of people that grew out of Esau.  The rift between Edom and the Hebrew people runs the whole way back to the twin sons of Isaac: Jacob and Esau.  Jacob stole Esau’s birth right, therefore Esau has no issue trying to steal it back.

The problem is that the people are doing it without asking God’s blessing – not that He would have given it anyway.  The people are seeking after the desires of their own heart.  The people are proud.  They will seek their own way.  They will do things according to their own understanding.

God hates it when we bring violence to other people.  The violence, though, is not the biggest issue.  The issue is where the violence comes from.  The violence stems from the pride of the people.  The violence stems from their humanity and their desire to be the top dog.  God has an issue with the sin in their heart, which leads them to the violence.

This is why Jesus teaches the Pharisees in the New Testament that it is not what we put into our mouth that defiles us but what comes out.  God is offended by the things we do to others and the things we say to others.  He knows, though, that the outward offenses have a deeper core.  Our outward offenses are evidence of an inward problem.  When we fix our heart, the fruit of our heart will be fixed as well.

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Year 9, Day 231: Amos 9

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In this final chapter of Amos, we hear of the proised destruction.  Amos has been told his prophecy isn’t welcome, so he completes his work and goes away.  The people will hear God’s plan, but they won’t benefit from Amos’ gifts any longer.

What does God promise?  First, He promises destruction.  The Hebrew people will be scattered.  He promises to pursue them with destruction.  They won’t beable to hide in the mountains or at the depths of the sea.  The world will serve Him in judgment.

As is typical with prophetic messages, though, the last word isn’t one of judgment.  The last word is one of hope and restoration.  God promises that the Hebrew people will return.  There will be life after judgment.

This is important to remember about prophets.  The prophetic message is always harsh.  After all, who wants to hear that they need to change?  Who wants to hear about the sin in their life that must abandon?  At the same time, it is impossible to be complete without dealing with the sin.  You don’t cure a disease unless you resist against it.  The prophet doesn’t give the harsh message because they enjoy the pain; the prophet gives the harsh message because they know relationship with God leads through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

The process of dealing with our sin hurts.  It costs.  There is a sacrifice involved every single time.  However, the only way to righteousness is through the fight with our sinfulness.  It is the prophet who leads that charge.

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Year 9, Day 230: Amos 8

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Amos 8 shows the final act of Gods wrath.  Many people think that the end of God’s wrath is some cataclysmic force.  We read passages like the Exodus and how God deals with the Egyptians and think that this is the greatness of God’s wrath.  The truth is, though, that stories like the Exodus or the Flood are not the greatest moment of God’s wrath.  Passages like Amos 8 expose the greatest act of God’s wrath.

In this chapter, God threatens to take His Word away from them.  He threatens to remove Himself from their midst.  He threatens a spiritual famine.  He threatens a time when God will not be able to be found.

Without Him, there is not wisdom, not salvation, no grace, no mercy, no love.  Without Him, there is nothing worth living for.  Without Him, there is no cause for hope.  When God threatens to remove Himself from our midst, that is the greatest act of cataclysm that can happen.

To take this passage where it doesn’t naturally go, I think of this in terms of Hell, too.  What is so awful about judgment into Hell?  Is it the fire?  Is it the torment?  I don’t think so.  I think the worst part about Hell is life without God.  The worst part about judgment is knowing that existence will never be about anything other than human sinfulness.

When push comes to shove, that is exactly why I hold onto faith.  I can’t imagine life without God.  I don’t want a life without God.  I never want to experience life when God removes Himself from my midst.  I never want to feel a famine of His Word.

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Year 9, Day 229: Amos 7

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Amos 7 is an interesting conflux of stories.  It shows us the joy and pain of being a prophet.  As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

The first half of this chapter is a conversation between Amos and God.  God shows a plan to destroy the land by a famine brought about by locusts.  Amos asks God to repent and He does.  Amos then sees God’s plan to destroy the land by fire.  God relents once more when Amos intervenes.  Finally, God tells Amos that the Hebrew people will be judged.  A plumb line is drawn as a standard. 

Judgment may come, but a remnant will survive.  Amos has intervened.  That’s what prophets do.  Prophets stand in the gap between man and God.

Next comes the second half of the chapter.  Amos is accused.  He is told to get lost.  He is told that he is unwanted.  People don’t want to hear his call to repentance.  They want him to take his messages and go away.

People don’t realize the work that prophets do.  Culture doesn’t realize how important prophets are.  Instead, people only hear the critical nature of the prophet and feel the accusation.  They don’t understand the role that the prophet plays as they speak on behalf of the people to God and speak on behalf of God to the people.

What does Amos get for his trouble?  Amos gets the ire of the people.  They could be dead by starvation or consuming fire.  Instead they are alive and hateful towards the man that argued on their behalf.

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Year 9, Day 228: Amos 6

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Amos 6 is a tremendous prophetic passage.  It challenges us deeply to consider the human condition.  It pushes us until we look in the mirror and recognize what we see.  It causes us to make sure we understand what sin looks like.

Amos’ primary issue – or perhaps it is fairer to say God’s primary issue spoken through Amos – are the people who seem content to let the Hebrew culture slide into unrighteousness.  The first and sixth verses of this chapter sets the tone.  Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Zion ... but are not grieved over the ruin of Zion.  God is bothered that the people are content to live in luxury without caring that their community is sliding into spiritual and ethical disrepair!

There are a couple of ways to think about this passage.  First, look at the human condition.  What do humans want?  We pursue our idols because we think if we can obtain them we will be able to live in ease.  We want a boatload of money because it will mean the cessation of work.  We want fancy things because it will prove our worth to our neighbors.  We want positions of power because it means we give orders and not take them.  Yet, so often we don’t care about the costs of our pursuit.  What are we willing to compromise on our journey to idolatry?

This doesn’t quite reach the full meaning of Amos.  This passage isn’t just a wailing against the human condition.  God says that what troubles Him is that people are not grieved by it.  It’s one thing to do it.  It’s another thing to see it happen.  It’s still another thing to see it and not even feel sorrow for it.

The thing is human beings are human beings.  We cannot force another person into righteousness.  You can lead horses to water, but you cannot make them drink.  Ever human has free will.  While we cannot force society to choose wisely, we can be grieved by a society that chooses poorly.  The Hebrew people are missing this element.  There is no grief for the fall of their society.  They are going along rather happily.  This has God – and Amos – grieved.

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Year 9, Day 227: Amos 5

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Amos 5 gives a great dialogue between judgment and appeal.  It reveals the heart of God as He inclines toward us.  He loves us and wants relationship.  Yet He is righteous, and that demands judgment and atonement.

Tis passage starts with a word of judgment.  “Fallen, no more to rise, is virgin Israel.”  That’s a serious word of judgment.  God plans on wiping Israel off of the map.  The will be decimated, not just judged.

To this, God calls out to seek Him and live!  Here is the rebound towards grace.  God doesn’t desire to destroy us; He desires that we repent so He can forgive!  If God can create the universe, He can restore us.  In doing so, He wants us to realize that it is He who can save us.  Our manmade gods, our idols, the desires of our heart cannot save us.  He alone can save.

God then turns again to the sins of humanity.  We pervert justice.  We make fancy dwellings while others dwell in squalor.  The rich tax the poor.  The unrighteous pervert the righteous by tempting them with bribes.  We turn away the needy because we cannot be bothered.

This is why the Lord says to us to seek good and not evil.  Evil will seek us out.  It will come to our doorstep. It will pursue us.  We need to actively seek good and live.

The world will pervert justice.  We need to let justice roll down like water.  We need to pursue what is true and right in the world rather than let the world dictate what is true and right to us.

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Year 9, Day 226: Amos 4

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Amos 4 gives one of the best descriptions of the rebelliousness of Israel that has ever been written.  Amos speaks of the Hebrew people as cows.  What are cows?  Cows are large, relatively unintelligent, herd animals that honestly are either beasts of burdens or raised for slaughter.  They trample everything that gets underfoot because of their girth.  These are the things to which Amos compares the Hebrew people.

Keep reading.  What does Amos say?  These cows of Bashan oppress the poor.  They crush the needy.  That makes sense.  Heavy beasts of burden are good at crushing things and imposing their will.  If you’ve ever been near a cow that didn’t want to do what it was expected to do, it’s a real force of wills!

What is God saying about the rebellious?  In their rebellion – in their selfish ambitious pursuit of their own dreams – they are crushing the life out of the very people that God has asked them to care about!  They are hording all the resources to themselves and not distributing the as needed.  They are cows in that their own girth is proof of their opulence!

In this context, God delivers His perspective.  He has tried to get their attention.  He started by giving them blessing, but they walked away.  He tried to give them hardship in famine and drought, but they would not pay attention.  He raised up opponents to get them to realize their need for Him, but they refused to humble themselves and rely on God.  He sent plagues of disease and insect upon them to get them to cry out to Him, but they refused to call.  Therefore, God has only one way left to deal with these cows of Bashan.  He will bring the Assyrians down upon them and take away their nation.

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Year 9, Day 225: Amos 3

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“You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”  Normally, those words would be a sign of honor.  Normally, those words would bring joy to the heart, especially when said by God.

Unfortunately, there is a second half of the verse.  “Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.”  That verse sends chills up the spine.  That verse curdles blood.  That verse makes for a serious downer.

God desires to pour out His blessing on those He loves.  When we rebel against Him, though, the wound is more profound because of His love.  It is true what they say.  Those who are closest to us are also able to hurt us the most.  Betrayal by those who are closest to us is the worst kind of betrayal.  In the words of Julius Caesar, “Et tu, Brute?”

God promises to be like the lion who roars with his kill.  He promises to be the snare that captures the bird.  He promises to be the cause of the blown trumpet and the disaster on the horizon.  The Hebrew people have rebelled against God and the time has come to pay back vengeance for rebellion.

Fortunately, though, vengeance is not the final word.  It is a part of the story, but it is not the final word.  God promises to rescue.  As a shepherd rescues their flock out of the mouths of a predator, so will God do to His people.  It’ll be a long time coming, but redemption will come.

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Year 9, Day 224: Amos 2

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Amos 2 continues in the expected manner for a minor prophet.  Amos continues to speak out about the way that human beings mistreat each other and trample on their relationship with God.  From Amos’ perspective, judgment is coming.  It’s time the people make sure they understand why.

Amos keeps his typical tradition against Moab and Judah.  Judgment is coming for them because they are filled with human sinfulness.  However, Amos knows that judgment is still a fair distance off for them.  Their paragraphs are short.  Their descriptions are fairly generic.  The words against Judah do contain a reference to direct offense to God, but they remain quite brief.

The words against Israel, however, are anything but brief.  Compared to the words against the other nations, Amos writes a novella.  Judgment looms closely for the people of the northern kingdom.  Their offenses are personal and grievous.  Amos goes into considerable detail.

What do the people of Israel do?  The people of Israel see one another as a means of economic gain.  They don’t care about the poor.  They are sexually impure.  They corrupt the religious, especially the Nazirites who take vows with God.  They have forgotten that it was God and His power that made them what they are.

What is God going to do?  God plans on removing the strength of the people.  The strong will flee.  The quick will become slow.  The mighty will not be able to stand.  Those with weapons will become timid.

There’s a subtle point here that likely got completely lost by the Israelites who didn’t care.  The Israelites have become so sinful because they are relying upon their own strength and have forgotten God.  God plans to show them the error of their ways.  He will remove His presence and watch the so-called strength of the people evaporate.  We only have strength and greatness when He bestows it upon us.

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Year 9, Day 223: Amos 1

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Amos was a prophet who lived around the time of Isaiah.  This places him among the earliest of the prophets in the Bible who have books named for them.  As with Isaiah, Amos is concerned about the culture of the Hebrew people.  He concerned about the priority of the people.  He’s got quite a bit to say about humans interact – and how that interaction is not the way God wants it to be.

At the beginning of Amos, the prophet is focused on the surrounding nations.  Notice the complaints Amos brings.  He accuses them of expanding the territory – implying that they are forcibly taking what isn’t theirs to take.  He accuses them of tearing the citizens of other nations apart.  He accuses them of taking advantage of the weaknesses of their neighbor and not showing pity.  Amos accuses them of selling each other.  In short, Amos sees how human beings treat each other and is repulsed by it.

What is it about human beings that repulses Amos?  Amos sees the self-centeredness. Why are the people in the lands around Israel behaving they way they are?  They want more for themselves.  They want to use each other to buy off the major power of the Assyrians that are moving in and threatening the area.  Amos sees how our instincts of greed and self-preservation turn us away from what God wants for us.

The reality is that we all have these instincts.  Self-preservation is a good thing in life or death situations.  When used inappropriately, though, it turns into something ugly.  Self-preservation turns into greed, where we oppress others because we want the biggest pile of toys.  After all, the person with the most toys wins, right?  That’s exactly what Amos finds repulsive about the cultures around him.

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Year 9, Day 222: 2 Peter 3

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This final chapter of 2 Peter gives us insight into the culture of the followers of Jesus at the time of the writing.  It shows us that humanity is always present, even among people who want righteousness and God’s peace.  We can’t help it; it’s impossible for us to know the future.

2 Peter is likely written several decades after Jesus’ death.  His promised return has seemed to take a lifetime.  He told His disciples He would come back, and many of the have died for Him and His Gospel.  You can’t fault the followers of Jesus for beginning to doubt.

Here we are, two millennia later.  Jesus still hasn’t come back.  His kingdom continues to be imminent, as it has been to every generation since Jesus called His first disciples.  Everyone has thought they lived in the final days of His return.  Yet, here we remain.

This is why Peter writes this.  He understands the frustration.  We need to put God’s work into perspective.  As Peter writes, a day to the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.  God’s timing is not our timing.  We think our generation is the important one because our life is limited.

This is where wisdom comes into play.  Remember that the timespan from Abraham to Jesus was likely in the vicinity of two thousand years.  David to Jesus was a thousand years.  We have no idea how many generations it was from Adam and Eve to Jesus.  The point is that from the fall of creation to Jesus was hundreds of generations.  We should not be surprised if the time from Jesus to His return is also hundreds more generations.  It may not be what we want, but it isn’t our plan!

How do we respond?  We put our focus where we should.  Focus on God’s grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  If God is gracious, we can be saved whether we are the last generation or not.  If we have knowledge of God, then we know tat what He has called us to do is be His witness to the world regardless of whether we are the first or the last generation – or more likely, somewhere in between.

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Year 9, Day 221: 2 Peter 2

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This chapter has much to do with false prophets.  Thee are people who claim to be speaking from God’s perspective but their message just doesn’t match up.  Jesus called them whitewashed tombs.  Bonhoeffer would have called the prophets of cheap grace. In the modern church we tend to call them prophets of glory.

Here’s the good news.  Wherever God is, there are false prophets, too.  They were around in the Hebrew history, they were around when Jesus lived on earth, and they certainly were here when Peter was writing!

How do you recognize such people?  It’s surprisingly not that hard.  These people are the ones who seem to talk about God but do not hold people up to a standard with consequences.  Prophets of glory are all about doing what feels good or justifying what they want.  Prophets of glory don’t lift up God’s ways.  Instead they choose to focus on living according to their fleshly pleasures and justify their actions by God’s ability to forgive whatever we do.

What’s important to remember is that such people are against God.  Their messages are not god for us to hear.  They will be judged according to their preaching and teaching.  There are plenty of people out there who are willing to use their religion to justify their sin.  The true prophet reaches into our life and exposes the sin for what it is so that we can cast it out and deal with it.

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Year 9, Day 220: 2 Peter 1

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2 Peter is a little more difficult to read than 1 Peter.  The words are more ethereal and the meanings of the words often feel a bit out of reach.  There is much to learn from this book, though, in spite of a feeling of difficulty.

For example, take what Peter lists as a cycle of holiness.  Not surprisingly, Peter starts with faith.  To faith, Peter adds virtue as a support.  He then adds knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

There are a number of neat perspectives to take from this list.  First, it starts with faith.  Faith is given to us by God.  Peter begins the list with the most important idea – something that is given to us and not something we can create on our own.  The path to righteousness begins with God’s gift.

To faith, Peter begins to add things that help preserve faith.  Virtue helps us understand applied faith.  Knowledge helps us understand God’s calling for us and the world’s need for faith.  Self-control keeps us from being rash and harming our witness of faith to the world.  Steadfastness helps draw others to ourselves as we display our faith in our reliability and security.  Godliness helps us show our faith to the world.  Brotherly affection helps others see the faith within.  Love, of course, brings us full circle to God, who gave us faith.

As Peter says, if we have these qualities we are fulfilled by God.  If we lack these qualities, we are ineffective and unfruitful.  We are blind without faith and its pillars of support.  Our faith becomes unsupported and eventually forgotten.  Our witness is spoiled and what God intended to do through us He must then do through someone else.

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Year 9, Day 219: 1 Peter 4 & 5

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As Peter winds down this letter, he speaks about suffering.  I love how he breaks it down.  He begins by talking about our own internal suffering.  This is the kind of suffering that we feel when we deny ourselves.  As a bit of a silly example, it is the kind of suffering when we check out of the grocery store and walk right past the kit-kats without buying one.  On a more serious note, it is the kind of suffering we feel within when someone slanders us and we want to fight back but instead we turn the other cheek.  We suffer inside when we deny our humanity in order to behave in a godly manner.

Peter then speaks about external suffering.  This is the kind of suffering that we receive when we live in holiness within the world.  It’s the kind of suffering we experience when everyone else is having a beer and we opt out.  It’s the kind of suffering we often receive when someone is being bullied by a crowd and we stand up to defend the victim.  It’s the suffering from not going along with the crowd.

Then, Peter speaks about spiritual suffering. He speaks about the devil as a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour.  It’s one thing to suffer when we do it to ourselves.  It’s another thing to walk into a situation where our actions bring suffering.  It’s a different thing entirely to think that there is someone out their seeking to bring suffering to us.  That reminds us of spiritual warfare.  It is a daily battle, one we’d do best to not forget.

How we fight, though, is ironic.  We humble ourselves.  We prepare ourselves for battle against suffering by being humble.  We don’t seek our own exultation, we seek opportunity for God to exalt us.  After all, God is the God of restoration.  What can we suffer that God cannot restore?

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Year 9, Day 218: 1 Peter 3

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Peter continues to talk about godly life in this chapter.  Much like yesterday, rather than break down group by group, it is worth looking at the underlying current.  In doing so, Peter bravely speaks of the external versus the internal.

Human culture has always known that there is a difference between what is easy and what is important.  We know that beauty is more than skin deep.  We know that it is what is on the inside that counts.  God teaches us that we judge people on the outside while He judges us by our hearts.  Jesus teaches us that it is not what is on the outside that makes us unclean, but rather it is what is on the inside that determines our cleanliness.  The outside looks important and is easy to judge; yet it is our character and our heart that determines who we are.

If we are to adorn ourselves with beauty – our true selves on the inside – what does that look like?  Peter begins by telling us to have a quiet and gentle spirit.  We are to search for understanding.  We are a people who think before we act.  We are a people that search for true answers, not simple solutions.  Our presence leads, not our imposing outer features.

Peter also reminds us to be humble, filled with love, and searching for unity.  We are to bless those who pay us with evil.  Christ was reviled.  The world hated Him.  The leadership of the Hebrew people saw no value in His teachings.  They killed Him.  Naturally, we all benefit through that act as God dealt with human sinfulness.  The point in that is that Jesus was not concerned with repaying the human agenda.  Jesus was focused on doing the will of God.  Jesus was concerned with doing what was right, not doing what was in His rights.

This is how the human transcends human existence and replaces it with unity with God.  Anyone can take advantage of their rights.  Only people with the proper focus can always do what is right.

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Year 9, Day 217: 1 Peter 2

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1 Peter 2, like much of the New Testament after the book of Acts, is about the Christian perspective on life.  Specifically, this chapter is about our position towards others.  God has come.  God has sent Christ.  God has redeemed us.  None of it is deserved.

Therefore, we are to live while longing for spiritual food.  We are to be a shining example that lives according to God’s standards and not the world’s.  We are to live honorably so that when people look at us, they see something that they desire to emulate.  We are to live honorably so that when we do the right thing and not the expected human thing, God is honored.

Because we are living with God’s perspective, our position to authority should be clear.  We are to live as though we are free.  Love community.  Love God’s people.  Honor our authorities.  Fear God.  We are not a people of retribution and revenge.  We are a people of love and respect.

To close this chapter, Peter gets very real.  He tells us rather bluntly that there is no credit when a servant who does poorly gets beaten.  In a similar line of thinking, there is no credit when a servant who acts properly gets rewarded.  When the Christian shines is in their response to inappropriate treatment.  When Christians turn the other cheek, we show God.  When Christians live well but get treated poorly, we show what we are made of.  When we withhold our retaliation and instead reply with love we demonstrate the same spirit that Christ had when He died for us.

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Year 9, Day 216: 1 Peter 1

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The transition from Joel to 1 Peter is incredible, especially considering the point from yesterday that taught God is upset about how treat each other.  What makes the transition incredible is its unified message.  It is awesome when two unrelated books of the Bible are placed side by side to form a unified message.  It shows how the authors may not intended their union but because it is all God’s message it comes out as unified anyways.

God’s main issue with the sinfulness of humanity is that we tear community apart.  Our sin divides and destroys.  We are individually broken.  We are communally broken.

Along comes Jesus.  Peter’s point in verse 2 could not be clearer.  We have been purified through Christ; we should be about loving one another.  We are born again.  We do not need to be a people who are spreading sin like an infectious disease.  We are a people who can bring unity to the world around us through the message of God’s love.

That is the story of God in a nutshell.  God is interested in creating community.  He wants relationship.  He wants relationship between us.  He wants relationship between us and Him.

There is one other cool point.  Earlier in the chapter, Peter speaks about how the prophets and others who came before Christ told about God’s work.  He says that they were working for us.  They were serving us.  God is not only about making community, He is concerned about perpetuating community.  He is concerned about community laying the foundation for future community.  He is concerned about us looking ahead to the needs of those who will come after us.  Our perspective is not just on what God did in the past and how it affects our present.  Our perspective is on where God is taking us because of what He did in the past to affect our present.

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Year 9, Day 215: Joel 3

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Joel 3 looks ahead to God’s final words with the world.  The world gathers against God.  God even asks if they are here to pay him back.  God promises that whatever they have come to do that God will return.  The sky will darken.  It’s an apocalyptic vision of war.

The cool point comes out when we dig for the why.  In Joel 3:2-3, we learn why God has come.  The nations have traded His people.  They have scattered His people.  They have diluted them among the nations.

There are many great travesties among humanity.  We lie.  We cheat.  We steal.  We are sexually immoral.  We kill.  We murder.  We can go down the Ten Commandments and then turn to the book of Leviticus and find fault after fault among humanity.  We are sinful.

Yet, this isn’t the end.  The sin is bad.  The sin rips us away from relationship with God.  But that doesn’t summarize why God is so upset.  Our sin upsets God, but not just because of the sin.  Our sin upsets God because of what it does to relationship.  Our sin upsets God because of what we do to one another.

Sin is bad.  Sin causes us to act inappropriately.  But the truly dark side of side is what it does to relationships between human beings and God.  Our sin rips us away from each other.  Our sin rips us away from God.  When we look at Joel 3, we can understand that this great struggle with God is rooted in how we treat each other.  When we sin, we destroy community.  Eventually we destroy community so much that God has to take extreme measures.

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Year 9, Day 214: Joel 2

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Joel 2 is a classic prophetic danger.  A threat looms.  The threat seems insurmountable.  The prophet calls to people to repent.  He tells them to pay attention to the condition of their hearts instead of their outward appearances.  This is classic prophetic literature.

The interesting thing is that it actually works!  God relents.  He forgives.  He once more becomes jealous for the land and brings back life to it.  Harvests happen.  Streams and rivers gain water.  Vats overflow with wine and oil.  The process works.  God absolutely respects and hears genuine repentance!

God goes further than that.  He promises to pour out His Spirit – a promise fulfilled in Christ.  God wants relationship with us.  He wants more than that, actually.  God wants to dwell with us.  He wants to be our God personally.  He wants relationship, not just worship.

The neat thing about God’s promise, though, is His interaction with everyone.  Sons and daughters will prophesy.  Male and females will receive God’s Spirit.  God doesn’t intend for there to be anything – even our gender – to come between Him and us.  Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  Everyone.  Not just the priests.  Not just the men.  Not just the rich.  Not just the Hebrews.  Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

God loves the repentant.  God loves those who desire a relationship with Him.  Interestingly enough, that’s exactly what the prophets are all about.  God wants us to not forget Him but to be in relationship with Him.

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Year 9, Day 213: Joel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

We journey with the prophet Joel for a few days.  There is a good amount of debate about when Joel lived.  Most people think he lived somewhere between the Assyrian threat and the Babylonian exile.  A few date this book as late as only a hundred or so years from the coming of Jesus.  It’s a large time gap, and its not an easy job to date the book.

What this means is that this book is likely a literal book, not an analogy to the Assyrians or the Babylonians.  This is preferred, since when in question the easiest interpretation is the literal one.  Therefore, Joel is likely writing about a time among the Hebrew people that a plague of locusts just came through the land and ate what crops were there.  The locusts coincide with a time of drought, which had already dried up the fields and streams.

There are greater consequences to this.  It isn’t just human beings that are suffering.  The cattle in the field are unable to find pastures to use as feed or streams to find water.  The grapevines are drying up.  The fruit trees are withering.  Everything is being attacked because of the drought.

Joel calls the people to lament and repent.  He begs them to remember the Lord.  He begs the priest to have a solemn assembly.  He begs the elders to come together and cry to the Lord.

This chapter is such an incredible chapter to read after ending of Hosea.  We know that Hosea had much warning within.  Remember how Hosea said that the priests neglected to be a true role model.  Remember how Hosea end chapter 13 with the pronouncement that the people forgot their God.  Joel has learned.  He knows that we must call people to remember.  Joel calls people into relationship. 

Joel knows that righteousness is so much more than obedience.  People can obey without buying in emotionally and spiritually.  Joel knows that righteousness is about relationship with God.  When our relationship is right, obedience will follow.

That’s a profound learning that comes from pairing Hosea with Joel.  So often people boil Christianity down to doing the right thing.  People make Christianity about strict obedience.  Christianity is about relationship with God.  When we are truly in relationship, the rest of the Christianity – obedience, faithfulness, kindness, generosity, etc –takes care of itself.

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