Jeremiah 3
How do you picture God? Aloof? Distant? Unconcerned with your life? Too many much more pressing things to worry about than to care about what you’re doing? Au contraire. “‘If a man divorces a woman and she goes and marries someone else, he will not take her back again, for that would surely corrupt the land. But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, so why are you trying to come back to me?’ says the Lord.” (vs 1)
Isaiah 56
In this chapter, God addresses two groups of people who were considered outcasts in Israel: the eunuchs and the foreigners. Back in Deuteronomy 23, both groups had been forbidden from entering “the assembly of the Lord.” Incidentally, that phrase is only used three times at the beginning of Deuteronomy 23… and nowhere else in the Old Testament. So, all scholars don’t agree on what “the assembly of the Lord” means, but it likely had something to do with taking part in ceremonial or religious practices.
Job 17
There is a very interesting verse in this chapter of Job. Look it up in several versions at home or online, and you’ll find a number of different renderings: "Give me, O God, the pledge you demand. Who else will put up security for me?"(vs 3) In other words, Job is crying out to God and saying, "You will have to set things right, God. I don’t have what it takes."
1 Chronicles 19
When reading through the Old Testament, it’s very easy to jump to the conclusion that God is an elitist, exclusive kinda guy. After all, it seems He chose a nation (Israel) for Himself, called them out of slavery, and worked very hard to try to give them everything He could. On such a cursory reading, it could be easy to conclude that God loved and protected Israel to the exclusion of all other nations.
The burning bush
was burning
but it was not.
Burning,
but not burning up
or burning down
or burning out.
Just burning.
A vessel
not too imperfect
to hold
Perfection.
Perhaps I could be
such a vessel.
One you burn, but don't burn up.
One you wear, but don't wear out.
One you break, but don't break down.
Consume me.
Engulf me.
Overwhelm me.
Do whatever it takes.
Enshrine your Perfection in me.
Use me
to get the attention
of your prophets
and priests.
I am just a simple shrub
ready to burn.
RUTH 1
I have always loved the story of Ruth. To me, it is a great story of how God doesn’t harbor any prejudices. No matter where we have come from, no matter our background or family history, no matter our past life’s experience and choices, God’s arms are always open to us. He is eager and ready to receive us, and He is always working to woo us back to Him.
Perhaps Jesus said the Kingdom was for children
because children accept their lot in life.
Often, they don't know any different
and even if they did,
what can they do about it?
Children accept
and try to find ways of being content.
Adults, on the other hand,
have learned better?
and have trouble accepting
what they don't want or can't understand.
Er wouldn't accept a mantle of morality.
Onan wouldn't accept a surrogate's role.
Judah wouldn't accept the position of widower.
Shelah wouldn't accept his brothers' leftovers.
Tamar wouldn't accept childless singlehood.
It's no wonder, then, that
centuries later,
Mary is called "favored of God"
and chosen as the one
to bear the burden of raising the Savior.
For how many people—
even in the very pages of sacred Scripture—
ever responded
to what they didn't want or couldn't understand
by saying
Let it be to me according to your will?
We so idolize those who
won't acquiesce
refuse to bow down
fight back
stick it to the man
get angry
that we are blind
to the holiness that comes with
accepting the lot we wouldn't choose—
if only it were up to us.
JOSHUA 5
Ah, I just love it when the Bible hits me upside the head like a 2×4. How is it that I know I’ve read these things before, yet when I read these verses, it was as if I was reading for the first time? "Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' 'Neither,' he replied, 'but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.' Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, 'What message does my Lord have for his servant?' The commander of the Lord’s army replied, 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so." (vs 13-15)
JOSHUA 2
So, once God saw that He had people who were bent on fighting, He issued orders that when they had conquered a heathen town, they were not supposed to leave anyone alive. If they were going to conquer it, they were going to conquer it all the way. We’ve examined some of those passages, and I must admit, they can seem a little perplexing.
LEVITICUS 1
In the book of Leviticus, God begins laying out instructions for the Israelites so they would know how to bring offerings to the sanctuary. There was a specific reason for this: so they would know that they were accepted by their God. "If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him." (vs 3-4)
