Why listen to the Lord if you don't plan to do what He says?

8/9/11 Jeremiah 42-44; Psalm 48; Revelation 13

S: Jeremiah 42:1-16 Then all the guerrilla leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.”

“All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says. I will hide nothing from you.”

Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do! Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.”

Ten days later the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah. So he called for Johanan son of Kareah and the other guerrilla leaders, and for all the people, from the least to the greatest. He said to them, “You sent me to the Lord, the God of Israel, with your request, and this is his reply: ‘Stay here in this land. If you do, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you. For I am sorry about all the punishment I have had to bring upon you. Do not fear the king of Babylon anymore,’ says the Lord. ‘For I am with you and will save you and rescue you from his power. I will be merciful to you by making him kind, so he will let you stay here in your land.’

"But if you refuse to obey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘We will not stay here; instead, we will go to Egypt where we will be free from war, the call to arms, and hunger,’ then hear the Lord’s message to the remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and live there, the very war and famine you fear will catch up to you, and you will die there. That is the fate awaiting every one of you who insists on going to live in Egypt. Yes, you will die from war, famine, and disease. None of you will escape the disaster I will bring upon you there.’

Jeremiah 43:1-4 When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the Lord their God to all the people, Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The Lord our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt! Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.” So Johanan and the other guerrilla leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to stay in Judah.

Jeremiah 44:11-18 “Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you! I will take this remnant of Judah—those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt—and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease. Of that remnant who fled to Egypt, hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they long to return home, only a handful will do so.” Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols—a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt—answered Jeremiah, “We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshipping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”

O: This reminds me of James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Johanan and the other guerrillas were right to ask the Lord whether they should stay in Judah or flee to Egypt, but then they were foolish to not listen to the Lord when He gave them an answer they didn't like, and so they all perished in Egypt.

Actually, Jeremiah 44 shows that they were not faithful to the Lord but tried to worship the Queen of Heaven alongside the Lord. This will never work. The First Commandment says "You are to have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) It's YHWH alone or nothing. Worshipping any other gods alongside YHWH is as good as not worshipping YHWH at all.

A: We must not only read or listen to the Word of the Lord, but obey it, too. We must not have any other gods alongside YHWH. P: Father, thank You for saving us while we were still sinners. Help us to be faithful to You alone. In Jesus' name, amen.

Repent before it's too late!

7/9/11 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36; Jeremiah 40-41; Revelation 12

S: 2 Chronicles 36:15-17 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done. So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians killed Judah’s young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young men and young women, the old and the infirm. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

O: God gave the His Chosen People a lot of opportunity to repent, sending warning after warning, but they continually refused to repent. So finally God had to bring judgement.

A: Time and time again I give in to temptation. I must take heed of the warning and repent. Fortunately, I've been keeping short accounts with God -- when I sin, I quickly repent and get back up.

P: Father, thank You for your grace and your patience with us. Let us not presume on that grace and patience but always repent quickly! In Jesus' name, amen.

Satan wasn't the Prince of Tyre

9/6/11 Ezekiel 29-32; Revelation 11

S: Ezekiel 28:11-17 (New English Translation of the Septuagint)

And a word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lament over the ruler of Tyre, and say to him, This is what the Lord says: You were a signet in likeness and a crown of beauty.

In the delight of the orchard of God you were born; you have bound on every fine stone, carnelian and topaz and emerald and carbuncle and lapis lazuli and jasper and silver and gold and ligyrion and agate and amethyst and chrysolitea and beryl and onyx. And you filled with gold your treasuries and your storerooms among you.

From the day you were created, I placed you with the cheroub in a holy, divine mountain; you were born in the midst of fiery stones.

You were born blameless in your days from the day you were created until acts of iniquity were found in you.

From the abundance of your commerce you filled your storehouses with lawlessness, and you sinned and were wounded from God’s mountain, and the cheroub drove you from the midst of the fiery stones.

Your heart was exalted because of your beauty, and your knowledge was corrupted by your beauty. Because of the multitude of your sins, I threw you on the ground; before kings I gave you to be made an example.

O: This passage immediately follows the one we focussed on yesterday, where God condemned the Prince of Tyre for his pride.

Many Christians have linked this passage with Satan, saying that it is a description of Satan, and how he was a guardian angel in heaven before his fall and people also often link it to Isaiah 14:12-14 and say that it was after this claim of greatness that Satan was cast down as described in the Ezekiel passage.

However, Isaiah 14:4 clearly says that the taunt in Isaiah 14 is directed at the King of Babylon, not at Satan. And, as we saw yesterday, as well as at the start of today's passage, Ezekiel 28 is directed at the Prince or Ruler of Tyre, not at Satan.

Some people say it cannot be directed against the Ruler of Tyre because it says that he was an “anointed guardian cherub”. However, as you can see from the Septuagint translation I quoted above, it might not even have said that in the original prophecy, but rather, this may be one of the many minor scribal mistakes in the Masoretic Text.

Even if this isn't a minor scribal mistake in the Masoretic Text, as Jim McGuiggan argues in his article Satan and the kings Of Tyre and Babylon,

It's so much simpler to allow the whole section (26-28) to stand together as a description of the grandeur of the Tyrian kingdom, its fall and the reasons for its fall. It's described as the foremost trading nation of the world, a renowned city and an about-to-be destroyed city (chapter 26). She sees herself as a rare beauty in chapter 27 and is described as a beautiful sailing ship with timbers, masts, decks and sails from around the world and sailed by mariners from all nations. Her pride is bursting out and though it is a human kingdom it deifies itself (28:1-2). “Will you then say, ‘I am a god,' in the presence of those who kill you? You will be but a man, not a god.” (28:9)

A: I quote again from Jim McGuiggan, "If despite the obvious difficulties, people still insist in finding Satan in this section I don't suppose it matters a whole lot. The trouble is that a whole theology of Satan is built around such flimsy textual work and before you know it all kinds of (often outrageous) assertions make their appearance “supported” by such misused texts. ... Now it's perfectly acceptable to say that a passage like Isaiah 13-14 has a message for arrogance and pride wherever and in whomever it shows itself. But it is foolishness to take a text and say it directly speaks to a specific someone when it clearly doesn't. This undermines our credibility as biblical students who let the scriptures speak to us rather than telling the Bible what to say."

P: Father, help us to stay away from taking our theology out of small passage of scripture taken out of context. Help us to be careful to base our theology on the whole counsel of scripture. In Jesus' name, amen.

The need for humility

5/9/11 Ezekiel 25-28; Revelation 10

S： Ezekiel 28:2,6-10 Son of man, give the prince of Tyre this message from the Sovereign Lord: “In your great pride you claim, ‘I am a god! I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea.’ But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast that you are a god. ... Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you think you are as wise as a god, I will now bring against you a foreign army, the terror of the nations. They will draw their swords against your marvellous wisdom and defile your splendour! They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die in the heart of the sea, pierced with many wounds. Will you then boast, ‘I am a god!’ to those who kill you? To them you will be no god but merely a man! You will die like an outcast at the hands of foreigners. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

O: The Prince of Tyre had had great success. Tyre was a great trading empire and the Prince of Tyre was very powerful. Unfortunately, in his success, his pride grew until he thought he was a god.

The One True God showed him his error.

This passage brings to mind another ruler who was so proud that he thought he was a god -- King Herod (Acts 12:22-23). God struck him down, too.

A: When we achieve success, we must guard against pride. As Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall."

For me, one of the things I've been feeling like I have had good success with is my marriage. Juliane & I have a good marriage -- not without problems, mind you, but a good one. I've had to be humbled lately with areas I still have to improve on, even as we have started taking on the task of helping others with their marriages -- we have started helping to run the Alpha Marriage Course.

It is fine to be happy with our successes, but let's not become big-headed.

P: Father, thank You for the blessings You have given me, like my marriage. Help me to keep the right perspective and be thankful, and not to be proud or boastful. In Jesus' name, amen.

Disgusting?

4/9/11 Ezekiel 22-24;Revelation 9

S: Ezekiel 23:5-8, 18-21 Then Oholah lusted after other lovers instead of me, and she gave her love to the Assyrian officers. They were all attractive young men, captains and commanders dressed in handsome blue, charioteers driving their horses. And so she prostituted herself with the most desirable men of Assyria, worshiping their idolst and defiling herself. For when she left Egypt, she did not leave her spirit of prostitution behind. She was still as lewd as in her youth, when the Egyptians slept with her, fondled her breasts, and used her as a prostitute. ... In the same way, I became disgusted with Oholibah and rejected her, just as I had rejected her sister, because she flaunted herself before them and gave herself to satisfy their lusts. Yet she turned to even greater prostitution, remembering her youth when she was a prostitute in Egypt. She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse. And so, Oholibah, you relived your former days as a young girl in Egypt, when you first allowed your breasts to be fondled.

O: A Muslim evangelist in his attempts to convert me to Islam once challenged me about passages like this in Ezekiel, saying that this proves the Bible is not from God, for how can God write pornography?

Do you find this passage pornographic? Is this disgusting?

God makes a very strong statement here about how He views idolatry. It's like pornography and is disgusting when His people commit idolatry. And recall that in the Life Journal from just a few days ago, we saw that idols are not just statues of wood, stone and precious metals, but also wrong motivations held in our hearts.

This is how God views it when we raise any other gods up in our hearts before before Him.

For us as practising Christians, explicit idolatry isn't such a danger. I am even willing to do things that might be associated with explicit idolatry in some people's eyes, for the furtherance of the Gospel. For example, a good Hindu friend of mine invited us to his housewarming yesterday, and it turned out to be a Hindu blessing ceremony complete with priests and incense and rituals. At one point, the guests were asked to bless them with a prayer of blessing and putting a pottu on their foreheads.

Some Christians would say that as Christians who worship the Living God, we should not participate in such a ceremony as it's idolatrous. But the principle we learn from passages like Romans 14:14-23, 1 Corinthians 8:9-13, and 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 that whether we do something or not is whether it will cause someone to stumble will draw them towards Christ.

So Juliane and I went ahead and did the blessing, with me praying over them for God to bless them and their marriage and Juliane praying for them to have children who will be a blessing to them, and putting the pottu on their foreheads. I believe they were touched -- we were the only non-Hindus they invited -- in fact, I believe we were the only non-relatives they invited. Had we refused, it could have possibly driven a wedge between them and us, and us being the ambassadors for Christ to them.

In another part of the ceremony, they asked if we would like to receive a pottu on our foreheads. Since they gave us the option, we preferred not to, since the pottu is a symbol of Hinduism and it appeared that they wouldn't be offended if we didn't take it as they gave us the option. (Note, however that there are Indian Christians who wear the pottu as merely a cultural decoration, so not everyone who wears a pottu is a Hindu.)

A: There are no black-and-white across-the-board rules regarding this -- we need to evaluate each situation according to the principle as noted above -- whether we do something or not is whether it will cause someone to stumble will draw them towards Christ.

Our motives must be right -- man looks at the outside appearance, while God looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7). And when God looks in our hearts, let's not let Him see anything disgusting, like He saw with Oholah and Oholibah.

And if we fail, we should quickly repent and get back up. (Proverbs 24:16, 1 John 1:9)

P: Father, I commit my life to You. I want You to be always on the throne of my life. I am sorry that I have not always done that, and have allowed my own sinful desires to dethrone you. Help me to see how disgusting that is, as You so vividly illustrated in Your revelation to Ezekiel. Thank You for your forgiveness and grace. In Jesus' name, amen.

God will take care of us

2/9/11 Ezekiel 17-19; Revelation 7

S: Revelation 7:10-17 And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshipped God. They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun. For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

O: In yesterday's meditation, we saw that God doesn't want us to take revenge on our persecutors, but rather, to trust Him.

Here we see God's vindication of those who perish in persecution. This passage speaks specifically about those who perished in Nero's great tribulation, but I think God's promise "They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun. For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes” will apply to all who are steadfast in Christ.

A: So let us stay steadfast in following Christ! Even in the face of opposition! And let us not repay evil for evil, but rather, repay evil with good and perhaps lead to the salvation of our enemies.

What a glorious day it will be when we are in heaven together singing “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

P: Father, give me your heart and your eyes to see the lost. In Jesus' name, amen.

Pour your heart out to God

1/9/11 Ezekiel 15-16; Psalm 70; Revelation 6

S: Psalm 70:1-2,5 Please, God, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me. May those who try to kill me be humiliated and put to shame. May those who take delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace....But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my saviour; O Lord, do not delay.

O: This is a psalm of David, David wasn't shy to pour out his heart to God and ask for God to destroy the people persecuting him (presumably Saul and his men.) Yet, when he had the chance, he did not take the law into his own hands and kill Saul.

A: We can be honest with God in our prayers. We don't have to hide our feelings. God calls us to a certain standard of conduct -- like in David's case, not to take the law into his own hands and kill Saul -- but in our prayers we can be honest with our desires -- in David's case, for Saul to be humiliated.

Jesus tells us "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" and Paul elaborates on this, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

So, while we are not ourselves to take vengeance on those who persecute us, we can pour out our honest feelings to God.

P: Father, help me to restrain my hand from vengeance, knowing that I can our out my heart to you. In Jesus' name, amen.