Year 9, Day 256: Zephaniah 2

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A humble nature is a common theme among the prophets.  It is also common for the prophets to have a message for the people before judgment comes upon them.  These two things should go together.  When judgment comes, it comes for a reason.  Judgment comes to us because we are sinning.  Sin inherently comes when we are acting for our own sake and not living humbly.

This is why Zephaniah encourages the Hebrew people to be humble.  He asks that those who are in relationship with the Lord to seek righteousness and humility.  He asks this because there is a chance they might be spared. The humble and the righteous might find that judgment passes over them.

In contrast, look what Zephaniah has to say about the Moabites and the Ammonites.  They insult and taunt the Hebrew people.  They mock God.  Judgment is coming in return for their pride. 

Look also to the prophecy against the Assyrians.  Nineveh will lie desolate.  They who boasted to be greatest among the nations will lie empty and devoid of civilization.  They will be ruled by wilderness and the beast of the wilderness.  Anyone who passes by will know their ruin.

God has an issue with pride and boasting.  He has an issue with people who mock and taunt.  Humbleness – the ability to recognize one’s place – is a great cure against pride and boasting.  This is why Zephaniah encourages the people to try to avoid judgment by seeking humbleness.

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Year 9, Day 255: Zephaniah 1

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Zephaniah is nothing if not honest.  He’s also not afraid of layering out a healthy dose of fear.  Very little about this first chapter of Zephaniah is what we would call pleasant.  It is honest, but not much to anticipate.

Zephaniah speaks to the whole world.  God says that He is going to sweep away everything from the face of the earth.  When He says everything, He means everything.  He is going to sweep away man, beast, bird, and fish.  There is something else at the end of verse 3 that is worth noting.  God will sweep away all idols that cause mankind to stumble.

I believe this to be quite significant.  God is not just interested in cleaning house, He is interested in showing that He is the dominant influence in the world.  In fact, it is His world to begin with!  He is interested in showing us that what truly concerns Him is getting rid of that which distracts us from Him.  He wishes to do away with the very things that we turn into idols.

As a prophet, Zephaniah is not ashamed of speaking about this process in honest terms.  God’s Day of Judgment will be a harsh day.  Zephaniah describes it as wrath, as anguish, and trouble, as gloom, and as blackness.  Because of our sin, we will grope around as blind. 

Our wealth won’t be able to save us.  His jealousy will consume the world.  It’s an image we don’t think about God.  His jealousy will come against our idolatry.  His jealousy will be our downfall.  He desires relationship with us so much that it will be the cause of our judgment.  His wrath will come against us in judgment because He is jealous for us.

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Year 9, Day 254: Habakkuk 3

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Habakkuk 3 is Habakkuk’s response to God.  I find it interesting to see how the prophet responds when he turns to God.  Habakkuk understands.  He even praises God!  He recognizes the omnipotence and wisdom of God and His position.

I love what Habakkuk says.  He will be patient in waiting for vindication.  Though the famine pursues the land and the herds are diminished, he will rejoice.  God is his savior and he knows it.  Hearing from God does not change his opinion; it bolsters it.

I also love what Habakkuk says about God.  The prophet has a different perspective of God than is typical.  The prophet sees God the whole way around, not just from a preferred perspective.  Most people see the God that comforts them however they need to be comforted; the prophet can look to God and enjoy facets that might disturb others.

For example, look at how Habakkuk describes God’s coming.  We get the normal expressions about God’s splendor being like the coming of the sun.  His glory covers the heavens.  His power flashed forth.  Habakkuk also says that plague went before Him and pestilence followed.  These are unusual descriptions of God, and certainly they are not the images that comfort most people!  However, they are true.  God often uses pestilence and plague when going about His business.  With the God of glory is also a God who controls and utilizes pestilence.

Habakkuk hears of the Lord and his heart pounds.  His lips quiver.  Many could relate to these expressions.  Habakkuk goes further.  He says that decay creeps into his bones and his legs quiver.  So often we think that God is a welcoming grandfatherly figure.  He is also the one who brings pestilence and plague within His judgment.  Habakkuk recognizes the full spectrum of God, not just the things that we find pleasing.

That is why I love reading the prophets.  Their perspective is often so refreshing!

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Year 9, Day 253: Habakkuk 2

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Habakkuk 2 gives us the Lord’s reply to Habakkuk’s second complaint.  How does God respond to the fact that sin and human treachery abound?  What is His reply to Habakkuk?

God reminds Habakkuk that His judgment is eternal.  He is watching over the people and weighing their actions.  He understands that action leads to consequence.  He understands that repeated actions lead to habits, customs, and traditions.  God is concerned not just with injustice, but patterns of injustice.

God understands the danger of extortion.  When people take what is not theirs, where will the pattern of behavior stop?  How many poor, defenseless, and unprotected people will someone who is accustomed to extortion overrun before they see the error of their ways?

God understands the danger of violence.  When those who oppress others through violence become accustomed to their ways, when will they stop?  When does the bully see the error of their ways?  When do the warring nations decide to put aside their differences and live in peace?

God understands idolatry.  When do the gods of our own making actually answer us?  When can the gods of our own making actually help?  On the other hand, when will we stop worship things that we ourselves have made?  When will we understand the fallacy of worshipping what has come out of our own creativity?

God knows the answers to all of this.  No matter what punishment He brings upon the world, the world will continue to be itself.  The only solution will come in the end, when humanity is judged for good, and as we hear elsewhere in the Bible, it is remade.  To that end, God sits upon His throne in the temple.  He is watching, waiting, and planning.  He knows who we are, He continues to see who among us are willing to recognize what we are as well.

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Year 9, Day 252: Habakkuk 1

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Habakkuk is a most interesting book.  In its most basic premise, it is a conversation between a faithful man and his God.  Habakkuk has questions for God, so he takes the to God.  God does him the favor of answering.

Habakkuk’s first question is straightforward.  Habakkuk looks around him and sees people abusing one another.  There is physical violence.  There is plotting and scheming to take what someone else has.  Conflict is just about everywhere in society.  I can’t say that I disagree with him.

Habakkuk’s conclusion is also common.  When evil reigns, it flaunts itself in the presence of good.  When evil abounds, it makes righteousness seem impotent.  When everyone is doing evil and nobody seems to be suffering consequences, it spreads.  How can God tolerate this?

God’s reply is also classic God.  God’s perspective is not the present but the eternal.  God desires to let human beings show their heart.  He wants us to see ourselves for who we are.  He knows us, He wants us to know ourselves as well as He knows us.  He gives evil time to show its ugly head before He comes in with judgment.  He wants to see the root of the evil before He comes in and cuts the head off the snake.  God is going to bring in the Babylonians to execute His judgment once sin has come to its full head.

God’s ways are often hard to understand.  From our temporary perspective, God sometimes seems indifferent or uncaring.  He seems slow to move and even slower to judge.  From God’s perspective, though, He knows what He is doing.  The only way to get to the truth of humanity is to allow our sinfulness to fester and fully expose itself.  Then we can see who we truly are, not just who we let the world see in the light.

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Year 9, Day 251: Jude

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Jude is a tough book to read.  It’s also a Toughbook to translate.  It is filled with obscure words and obscure images not found elsewhere in the Bible.  We hear stories about Michael debating with Satan over Moses’ body.  We hear about Enoch’s supposed prophecy.  It’s a difficult book on a good day.

What can we learn from the book?  Jude is concerned about the faithfulness of the people.  He fears for their perseverance.  False teachers are infiltrating the believers.  Jude wants the people to stay faithful.

How does Jude tell us that we will recognize the false teachers?  They follow ungodly desires.  They are not merciful.  They reject authority.  They slander what they do not understand.

Jude is fearful of people who follow their own hearts.  He knows how difficult it is to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before one’s God.  It takes perseverance and drive to stay loyal.  That is Jude’s hope for his audience.

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Year 9, Day 250: Nahum 3

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Nahum 3 has much to say about human drive.  Make no bones about it.  The Assyrian nation was around for a couple of millennia.  It ebbed and flowed throughout the bronze age and found its prime as the Middle East was headed firmly into the iron age.  The Assyrian nation rose to extreme power and became the top dog in the area.  They were the first nation to have a professional army.  They consumed nations around them, annexing land to grow their Empire and making vassals of whatever land they were unwilling to annex.  They were the pinnacle of nations for several hundred years.

Interestingly enough, historians have put forth the idea that the rise of the iron age is concurrent with a decline in society.  I find this idea inspirational.  What is it about the transition to iron age that leads to a decline in culture?  As society transitioned to iron, weapons became more reliable.  Cultures began to dominate over other cultures.  Professional standing armies became a thing.  Warfare goes from a thing to do in the summer to a thing that can happen whenever.  Power is gained more easily through brute violent force than through trade and cultural exchange.  Ideas are taken and appropriated more easily than they are developed.

Look at how this concept comes out in Nahum.  City of blood.  Full of lies.  Full of plunder.  Clatter of wheels and jolting chariots.  Flashing swords and spears.

Where does it lead?  Many casualties.  Piles of dead.  Innumerable bodies.  People stumbling over corpses.

Why did this happen?  Nahum tells it is all because of wanton lust.  Nations are enslaved because the Assyrians desired to take the things of the cultures around them by force.

Assyria thinks they can dominate, and for a while they do!  However, they cannot dominate forever.  The people of the sword die by the sword.  The people who believe they can take through cruel warfare are themselves taken by cruel warfare.  The people that the Lord raised up to bring judgment against the Hebrew people are themselves judged because of their love of power and the corruption it brings.

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Year 9, Day 249: Nahum 2

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Nahum 2 gives a unique perspective in the Old Testament prophets.  We have many accounts of the Assyrian conquest and occupation of Israel.  Nahum, though, is an accounting of the defeat of Nineveh.  This is a book about God’s vengeance upon the vengeful.

Assyria was conquered by the Babylonians, who had allied with the Medes and several other smaller factions.  A joint army marched against Nineveh.  Ancient accounts claim that the city, built around the Tigris river, was defeated when the damns along the city were breached.  This allowed an access point into the city and led to the destruction of Nineveh.

I do love Nahum’s description of the battle.  The river gates are thrown open.  Nineveh is like a pool that is draining.  It tells us how important the conquest of the Tigris was to the downfall of the city.  The Assyrians thought their walls were strong enough and their soldiers were trained enough.  God still found a way to bring them down.  Before the Assyrians could know what was happening, the Babylonians-Mede soldiers were taking the fight house by house and block by block.

So often we think we are in the prime of life.  We think we are secure.  Our trust is in the walls we build and the plans we make.  The stronger we think we are, the more blind we become to our weaknesses.  God can find a way in.

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Year 9, Day 248: Nahum 1

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With respect to Nahum, here is a prophet that is watching the Assyrians come towards Judah.  Yet, he knows that the Assyrians will not breech Judea.  They will threaten.  They will challenge.  They will boast about their victory.  Yet they will not have it.  God will defeat them.

One of the great aspects of Nahum is his portrayal of God.  He is slow to anger, but He is a force to be reckoned with when His ire is raised.  He makes mountains quake.  His ways are the whirlwind.  The clouds are nothing more than the dust of His feet.  He even shatters rock!

These images would bring peace to the Hebrew people.  After all, the Assyrians are a serious threat.  They’ve mastered every country they’ve come up against, including their northern kin!  Who can stop the Assyrians with all the power they bring?  It turns out that God can.

This speaks to our relationship with God.  So often we want to solve our own problems.  So often we want to see the resolution before faith is necessary.  So often we want the power to save ourselves.  Yet, so often we cannot!

We are better off relying upon God.  He has the answers.  He has the power.  He knows the future.  He knows what we need.  We do best when we understand that we should put our faith in the one who masters mountains, clouds, and oceans.  If He can do that, what are human problems to Him?

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Year 9, Day 247: Micah 7

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As much as Micah 6 is the perfect stereotypical prophetic passage, Micah 7 is the pinnacle of the last part of Micah 6:8.  God says, “What do I require of you?  Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before your God.”  This chapter is all about walking humbly before our God.  Micah closes His book on a humble note.

We begin the chapter with a bleak perspective on humanity.  People lie in wait to do violence.  They hunt each other with nets.  The faithful are swept away.  Leaders demand gifts.  Judges demand bribes.  It’s a disgusting perspective on the worst of humanity.

What is Micah’s response to all of this?  Enter in the prophet.  He recognizes the evil.  He says that he is going to sit in silence because of his sin.  He knows that the wrath of the Lord comes.

This is the image or the repentant heart.  We don’t hear anyone lashing out.  We don’t hear Micah speaking ill of God because of the impending judgment.  Micah walks humbly before God, embracing the judgment to come because of the sin in his life.

What is the response from the Lord?  God pardons.  He forgives.  He encourages Micah to stand up and shepherd the people.  He will have compassion.  He will have mercy.  God responds in exactly the same manner as He asks from us.  Act justly.  Love mercy.

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Year 9, Day 246: Micah 6

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Micah 6 is a stereotypical prophetic chapter.  This chapter contains a warning against the Hebrew people.  It gives God’s past grievance as well as expectation for behavior.  It also lists consequences should the warning not be heeded.  When someone mentions a prophet, this chapter is typically what comes to mind.

To take the issues in order, start with God’s grievance.  What have the people done wrong?  The people have not remembered God’s previous loyalty.  He brought them out of Egypt.  He gave them the promised land.  He is their source and their sustenance.  Yet, they continue to ignore Him and do their own thing.

What is God’s expected behavior?  I love Micah 6:8 because of its simplicity.  Life is seldom ever this easy, but Micah 6:8 isn’t complicate.  First, act justly.  Second, love mercy.  Third, walk humbly.  Promote justice, understand that the world isn’t perfect, understand that you aren’t perfect, either.  It’s really a simple message.

What I love about God’s expected behavior is that it is outwardly focused.  In fact, the only thing that is inwardly focused is focused on our humbleness!  It really is about killing the selfishness that lies within and paying attention to the world around us.  To act justly means to make decisions that are right, not right-for-me.  To love mercy means to be understanding about the flaws of those around us.  To walk humbly means to accept that we are not perfect and to follow the one who is, God.

What are the consequences of not being obedient to this?  God tells the people that their life will become difficult.  When they try to store up for the future, they will be unable to do so.  Their crops will fail.  Their meals won’t satisfy.  Their culture will be ruined.  The nations around them will hold contempt for them.  In other words, God will give them over to their humanity and allow them to push the self-destruct button.

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Year 9, Day 245: Micah 5

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Micah 5 continues to speak of the time of the Lord.  What will the faithful look like when it is actually the Lord who is reigning over them?  Our strongholds will be gone.  Our witchcraft will be gone.  Our idols will be gone.  The things and places where we worship will be gone.

In other words, God is going to take and uproot all the things from humanity that cause us to pull away from Him.  He is going to take away the temptations that distract us.  He is going remove the things in our life where we place our trust when we should be trusting in Him.  When God truly rules our life, He will truly rule it.

There is a neat thought that comes out of this chapter about the status of God’s people.  Micah tells us that God’s people will dwell among the nations.  When God truly rules us, His people will be among the nations to shepherd and teach and guide and mentor.  We will be like mini-Christs – followers of Jesus Himself – who came and dwelled among the masses to teach and preach and to see who was desiring to follow Him.

So many people think that the prophetic passages of when God will rule over us speak about the end times after some great cataclysm.  That’s entirely possible.  However, it is also possible to see that we live in the time of this prophecy.  God’s Messiah has come.  God is actively assaulting our lives to teardown our human strongholds whenever we will listen.  His people do dwell among the nations.  While we are waiting for the time of God’s eternal reign, we are living in days of promise right now.  We are close enough to God’s plan to know the end of the story; we are simply waiting to see the final chapter come to pass.

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Year 9, Day 244: Micah 4

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Micah 4 contains one of the iterations of a very famous phrase that is twisted back and forth in the Old Testament in order to reflect the context of its usage.  “They will beat their swords into plowshares.”  In other places, places where judgment is being prophesied, it is turned to say, “They will beat their plowshares into swords.”  In this case, though, God is speaking about the time when His rule will be obvious.

What is God saying about this?  When God rules over the world, there will be no need for warfare.  Nation will not rise against nation.  People will no longer lust over the goods of another.  Unlike the passages from the last two days, people will no longer scheme over the goods of another and then take them in plain sight.  Under God’s rule, under God’s provision, people will be satisfied with what they have, knowing that God is in control of their needs.  We won’t need swords to defend ourselves.  We won’t want swords to use against others.  We will be free to turn our weapons of warfare into weapons that sustain life.

As with all great prophetic passages of peace, it is important to look at the beneficiaries of this prophecy.  Who will be there to see the peace of the Lord?  Who are the ones that God will make into His remnant?  God will take the lame, the exiles, and the grieved.  The outcasts of the world will become the prized of the Lord.

There is much to love about the line, “Why do you cry aloud, have you no king?”  In this world, it is easy to think that we are defenseless.  The world kicks us and we feel alone.  Yet, we are princes of the King.  We are kings under the King of kings.  We must not lose sight of the fact that God fights for us.

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Year 9, Day 243: Micah 3

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Micah continues his diatribe against the powerful.  He speaks about people who tear the skin off His people and devour their flesh.  God isn’t speaking literally, He is speaking about the leaders who are using their power to take what they want.

God says that He will hide His face from them.  He will fight against them.  He will not listen to them.  God wants no part of people who use what He has given them for their own glory.

Micah doesn’t stop at the powerful, though.  Micah also rails against the prophets.  The people who are supposed to challenge the powerful and remind them what it means to be righteous are turning a blind eye.  They are prophesying peace, not judgment.  They are giving permission to the sinfulness instead of challenging it.  They are not prophets but soothsayers!

God promises that they will become blind.  He will take away their visions.  They will lose their credibility.  Those who use their power for their own gain will simply lose what power they have.

Judgment is coming.  The leadership of the people is dead.  God will hold the people accountable for their choices and their actions.

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Year 9, Day 242: Micah 2

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Micah rails against the Hebrew people once more.  However, he doesn’t have an issue with everyone.  Micah is pretty clear against whom he speaks.  Micah has an issue with the people who have power.

Those who have power are flexing their muscles to take what they want.  They plot.  They scheme.  They don’t even have to do it at night or behind closed doors.  They go out in the light of day and arrogantly throw their weight around.  They take people’s fields.  They take people’s homes.  These are the villains.

This is really interesting, because the world would tend to disagree.  What does the world say?  Those with all the gold make the rules.  If you’ve got it, flaunt it.  Bigger is better.  If you aren’t in first place, you are best the first loser.  There are clichés upon clichés that we can add here.

God, however, is not impressed.  Human beings flaunting their temporal pride is nothing to God.  Why should God be impressed by human beings who claim to be a king of a small corner of the universe God Himself created?

Instead, God comes in judgment.  God will put such people in their place.  To those who destroy community through their gigantic ego and desire to consume, beware.

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Year 9, Day 241: Micah 1

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Micah returns us to the typical lament of the prophets.  God is coming in judgment.  He plans wrath on the people.  The time for reckoning has come.  This is not a new message for those of us familiar with the prophets.

What is it that causes the mountains to melt like wax before the Lord?  The sin of the northern tribe is Samaria.  What was Samaria?  Is was the capitol city where the northern kings lived and where the worship happened.  What is Micah’s point?  The leadership of the northern kingdom is bad.  They people are being led astray as the leaders go.

We know that God is targeting the worship and leadership in the way that he speaks about His wrath.  He says that the idols will be broken to pieces, the temple gifts will be burned with fire, and the gifts in worship will be turned over to prostitutes.  That makes it pretty clear.  God is upset and the religious milieu of the nation.

It gets worse.  God says that the sins of the northern kingdom are infecting Judah.  Samaria is incurable.  I don’t know about anyone else, but hearing God speak about me as incurable is something I hope to never hear.  God is the God of restoration.  It has to be pretty bad for Him to pronounce it as incurable.

What is the proper response?  We are to mourn.  Micah tells the people to shave their heads in acknowledgment of the coming judgment.  God’s judgment cannot be forestalled.  The best the people can do is acknowledge its coming and embrace what God is going to do through it.

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Year 9, Day 240: 2 & 3 John

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2 John is a letter from a man named John to a prominent lady in one of his churches.  There is a single theme running throughout this letter.  The theme is love, much like what was seen in 1 John.

2 John also connects the theme of love to obedience.  We know love when we are obedient to God.  Since God is love, when we are obedient to Him we will demonstrate love in our obedience.

This is a very unique perspective on love.  Most people, when thinking of love, think of things like passion, spontaneity, romance, and intimacy.  When John thinks of love, He thinks of obedience.  True love is not a romantic feeling but an obedient state of mind.  True love is positioning the heart so that it is prepared to listen to God and respond.

In 3 John, we hear a letter from John to a Christian brother named Gaius.  This letter, unlike the two that came before, it is not overtly about love.  Instead, John speaks to Gaius about receiving Christian brothers who have gone out to spread the Gospel of Jesus.  John asks Gaius to receive them.  In fact, he says that in extending hospitality to brothers and sisters in Christ – even unknown brothers and sisters – we are obedient to God and demonstrate our desire to work together.

In a sense, though, this is about love.  What is hospitality except a form of love?  When we embrace fellow followers of Christ, are we not showing God’s love?  When we work together with fellow believers, are we not obedient to God’s will?  This is why John concludes the third letter with a talk about doing good.  When we do good – when we are obedient to God – we demonstrate that we are from God.

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Year 9, Day 239: 1 John 5

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1 John 5 concludes this first letter of John.  It ends on a strong note about worshipping God.  God has overcome the world.  He is deserving of our worship.

What does our worship provide for us?  What does God make available to those who worship Him?  We are given life.  Those who worship Him are in the Son, and those in the Son have everlasting life.  If we have the Son, we also have life.

If we have life from God, then we also know that He hears us.  If He hears us, then we can have confidence that we will receive anything for which we ask so long as it is in His will.  Naturally, this shouldn’t be a problem if we worship Him.  If we are truly worshipping Him, then our hearts should already be inclined to His desires.  This is why John says that we can be confident.  If our hearts are aligned with Him, He should want us to have what He knows we need.

If we have life from God, we also know that He gives us understanding.  This also makes sense.  If we worship Him and He gives us what He knows we need, then we should have understanding!  Why would God give us what we don’t have the understanding to accomplish?  Understanding His truth is fundamental to our being a part of Him.  We worship Him and He invites us into His will.  His understanding comes as a part of His will.

What does all this add up to?  We conclude with the thought that John used to begin this whole chapter.  How do we know we are in His love?  We know we are in His love because we obey Him.  We are able to obey Him because we understand His will and because He equips us to be able to participate in His will.  Our obedience to Him is evidence of His gracious provision in the first place.

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Year 9, Day 238: 1 John 4

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In this chapter, John continues to speak about love.  We know that God is in us when we love our brothers and sisters.  Those who love are showing that god lives within them.  This love started when God sent His Son to die for our sake.

While this is all good, John knows that there are false prophets in the world.  There are people who would like to assert that love is possible without God.  There are people who would love nothing more than to assert that God does not hold a monopoly on love.  There are people out there who would love nothing more than to separate the concept of love from God.

What does John say in response to this?  Anyone who denies Jesus has no part in God.  Those who deny Jesus have no part in true love.  Those who deny Jesus are against Christ.

John then encourages us.  Because we have Christ and we have love, we are more powerful.  We have overcome those who are not in Christ.  This makes sense, because the greatest force in this world is love.  It is love that brought God to create us.  It is love that brought Jesus to save us.  It is love that conquers our humanity.  Of course those of us who are in Christ – and thus in His love – have overcome the world!

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Year 9, Day 237: 1 John 3

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In this chapter, John talks about the world and its opinion of us.  John has some difficult things to say – even more difficult to hear.  After all, we all long for acceptance and approval.  Yet, John tells us that we won’t get what we need from the world.  The world will not understand us.  The world will not approve of us.

This is a difficult teaching!  Who wants to get up every day knowing that if we are following Jesus then we will catch the rebuke of the world?  Who wants to wake up and realize that the world with disapprove of us and perhaps even mock us?  Who wants to go through life being misunderstood and rejected?  John even warns us that the world might just hate us.

What is it about us that the world rejects?  When we live like Christ, we sacrifice ourselves.  We lay down our life for one another.  We stop looking out for ourselves and begin to consider what is best for those around us.  We make decisions that are self-less, not selfish.

At first, it sounds like the world should love us.  After all, isn’t the selfless person the easiest target if you want to take advantage of someone?  Of course it is!  This is why John says that we will feel the hatred of the world.  They will take advantage of us.  They will persecute us.

They will hate us, though, because of what we will do in their midst.  The selfless person bring condemnation to the selfish.  The example of the selfless casts a shadow upon the life of the selfish.  The world hates us because even as they selfishly take from the selfless their lives are judged and exposed to the light.

If we desire to follow Christ, we desire to live a selfless life that trusts God and His ability to meet our needs.  We also live a selfless life that sheds light upon the ways of the world.  We are set apart as we follow our Lord.  We are hated by the world because even as they take advantage of us they expose their condemnation.

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Year 9, Day 236: 1 John 2

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1 John 2 speaks often of love.  There are multiple dimensions of love, however.  In fact, there is a bit of dichotomy with respect to love.  We often hear that love must be inclusive.  John doesn’t teach that way.

What John does say is that we are to love our brother and sister.  If someone is in Christ, then they are our brother or sister.  If they are truly in Christ, then they are living like Him.  What does it say about us if we cannot bring ourselves to love someone who is living like Christ?  John is correct when he teaches that we walk in darkness when we have hatred in our hearts towards a brother or sister in Christ.

We must be careful with love, though.  John warns us to be careful to not love the world.  We shouldn’t love the things of the world.  The lust of our eyes and the lust of our heart – our love for the things of the world – can bring chaos into our life.  Such love is a destructive influence in our life.  It wrestles our love of God away from our focus and replaces it with an inferior love.

Elsewhere in the Bible we hear that God is love.  When we are focused on Him, we truly experience love in that we truly experience Him.  When we allow our focus to shift onto the world, however, our love turns into lust and a great thing is placed with a far inferior thing.  True love – a love unlike any other – comes to us when we are walking in His light.

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Year 9, Day 235: 1 John 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

John pens a letter to a group of believers with whom he has relationship.  His writing looks to serve a threefold purpose.  First, it verifies the Gospel account.  Second, it speaks to people about deceit.  Third, it speaks to people about truth.

John wants to verify the account.  There are a myriad of reasons for this.  First of all, it is one thing to hear from someone who heard the story from someone else.  However, hearing from someone who was present and can verify the information is far more reassuring.  Second, there has been a fair bit of years since Jesus’ ascension and the writing of this letter.  No doubt John wants to reassure the people that God has neither forgotten them nor changed the plan.  Third, he desires to validate the message and teaching that the people have already received.

Wrapped up in these purposes is John’s desire to refute deceit.  He reminds the people that God is light and He does not permit darkness.  At the same time, we have darkness within our being as we live out the evil within our heart.  If we do not acknowledge the sin within us, we live in darkness and have no part in Him.  This is interesting because we would expect the darkness within to eliminate us from the presence of God.  However, it is actually our refusal to acknowledge the sin within that threatens to remove us from the presence of God.  God can deal with our sin so long as we acknowledge that it needs to be dealt with.

Third, John wishes to speak to truth.  What is truth?  Jesus came to allow us to be in relationship with the Father.  He is the light.  He shatters darkness.  He paves the way to God.  In this fact, we not only have fellowship with God but fellowship with one another.

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Year 9, Day 234: Jonah 3-4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The last two chapters of Jonah are classic.  They are also often portrayed wrongly.  We teach our children that Jonah happily goes off to Nineveh, preaches, and saves.  He does go.  The people do listen.  God relents.  But Jonah is not happy at all about doing it.  He is obedient, but he’s angry.

What does this tell us?  Again, prophets are human.  Prophets feel anger.  They aren’t robots who obey without emotion, they feel for what they are asked to do.  In the case where they are asked to do something pleasant, they have joy.  In the case where they are asked to do something unpleasant, they can feel anger.

We also learn that a prophet’s humanity can make them wrong.  Jonah feels anger over the fact that the people of Nineveh are saved.  He tells God that he tried to go to Tarshish in the first place because he knew that God would relent and the Assyrians would be spared.  Jonah is angered because God is showing mercy.  We shouldn’t ever be angered by god’s grace and mercy, but as human beings we are.  We want people to get what they deserve, forgetting that we ourselves are only saved because of the mercy God first showed us.

Finally, we do learn that prophets are obedient.  While Jonah is not in the right frame of mind, the job gets done.  The conflict between Jonah and God is left unresolved, but the people of Nineveh are saved.  God is willing to work with us, flaws and all.  While I am sure that God would rather have willing obedience, He can work with any kind of obedience.  Prophets get the job done.

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