Isaiah 63
This chapter of Isaiah begins with a question and an answer from God Himself: “Who is this Who comes from Edom, with crimson-stained garments from Bozrah? This One Who is glorious in His apparel, striding triumphantly in the greatness of His might? It is I, Who speaks in righteousness, mighty to save!” (vs 1)
Isaiah 11
Oh, we think we’re so smart. We think we’re so enlightened. We look back at what people did in other times and other places and other cultures, and we judge, judge, judge. We’ve come a long way, baby. We would never act so ignorant and unrefined. We are educated and enlightened and politically correct. We look at the world around us, and we know what’s going on. We’ve got the 411.
Ecclesiastes 11
How, then, shall we live? Solomon has spent a whole lot of time despairing about the condition of this world—how many things are empty and meaningless and random! He says we don’t have control over our lives, and much of what we do goes either unnoticed or unrewarded. So, we must come to this question: How, then, shall we live?
Job 33
Well, what can we say about Elihu? Except that he is insufferably wordy—it took him a chapter and a half to say “I’m going to speak!”—and fearfully pompous—”Be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.” (vs 33) He hasn’t even really gotten around to any major points yet, although my suspicion is that he won’t have much to add to the conversation. (We’ll see.)
Job 24
There is a lot of talk about justice these days—especially in the "enlightened" and "educated" culture of the West. And this topic of discussion is not limited to any particular arena. You hear it discussed both inside and outside of the church. There are a lot of different ideas about justice. What is it? When is it achieved? How is it achieved? Is justice achieved at the level of treatment (that is, how people are treated) or at the level of outcomes (that is, what happens to people)?
Job 21
Awful, heart-wrenching things happen in this world. I’m going to tell you about two of them to start this blog. I once heard about a little, eighteen-month-old boy who was rushed to the hospital with a very high fever. He had been having some flu-like symptoms, but his parents weren’t worried until his fever spiked. After the doctors ran all their tests, they concluded that the small boy had meningococcemia, a bacterial infection which can be one of the most dramatic and rapidly fatal diseases.
Job 18
I don’t remember when it was that I finally worked up the courage to watch the movie Braveheart. It was a long time after it was released, and even then, I remember watching most of it through the laced fingers covering my eyes. (I have a problem with graphic violence.) But I can never forget the final moments of that film, as Mel Gibson’s character, William Wallace—bound and seconds away from death—cries with his last breath, "Freedom!"
Ezra 4
I was recently discussing the topic of The Judgment with some friends. I think this is a widely misunderstood concept. I believe that when most people think of The Judgment, they envision some sort of heavenly court where we are each going to stand before God and hear Him pronounce a verdict about us. Are we wicked? Are we righteous? He will make His decision and bang His gavel, and that will be that.
Photo © Unsplash/Bill Oxford
Righteousness does not mean God averts His
Eyes from an ugly reality
And pretends that what is true is a
Lie to be ignored.
It means a new Power has
Taken over the operations of
Your heart.
Photo © shutterstock.com/Melnik
The problem with sin is that we
want to have our cake
and eat it too,
just like Pharaoh,
who wanted to have his slaves
and free them too.
But not to decide
is to decide,
and not to give in
is to remain stubborn
and that has an effect.
We all think
/or want to believe/
that no matter
what we choose
we automatically
revert back to
this neutral default place
after each decision,
that our choices
don't have any lasting
consequences.
But that's ridiculous.
If you've lived in darkness
your entire life
and someone suddenly
turns on a light
you are no longer a person
who has only known darkness.
You cannot return
to saying that you do not know
what light looks like.
You may say it still,
all right,
but in your heart
you know it's not true
and that has an effect.
God is the Light of the World,
that Great Confronter who
scouts out
runs down
and passionately pursues
His darkness-dwelling
children.
He would not dream
of letting you remain
forever in your darkness.
He knows nothing of
live and let live,
has no hands-off policy,
and is generally unaccommodating.
He does not prefer to avoid confrontation.
As surely as He lives,
you live,
and as surely as He lives,
you will experience Him.
And when you do,
you cannot return
to saying that you have never
experienced Him.
You may say it still,
all right,
but in your heart
you will know it's not true
and that will have an effect.
And if you persist
in ignoring or avoiding reality
for long enough
you may just find yourself
in a chariot
at the edge of the sea,
unable to bat an eyelash
at the rising walls of water,
unable to wonder how or why the briny deep
is drawing back to reveal dry ground,
unable to think twice
before rushing headlong
into the foregone destruction
of a hardened heart.
For where there was no blood on the post,
the Angel brought heartbreak deep in the night.
Those oldest boys may have been perfectly upright;
no wickedness in them had been diagnosed,
no judgment that they were, to evil, a host,
but doomed even if they were kind and polite.
For where there was no blood on the post,
the Angel brought heartbreak deep in the night.
Even a Hebrew who thought smeared blood the most
distasteful and gruesome of any known sight,
who neglected to paint the jambs crimson-bright
would suddenly find his own firstborn a ghost,
for where there was no blood on the post…
Rondel: a French form consisting of 13 lines—two quatrains and a quintet—with a rhyme scheme of ABba abAB abbaA (the capital letters are the refrains, or repeats).
Poor David. Fleeing from Jerusalem, rumors flying around him, and now, being abused by a man from Saul’s family. Not only was the man cursing David, but he was throwing stones and dirt at him and his troops as well. Finally, one of David’s men asked if he could go over and cut the guy’s head off. (What a nonchalant request.) David’s reply was very interesting:
Photo © Unsplash/michael podger
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
Always a tangled web you're weaving,
dependent, as you are, on your deceiving.
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
You searched Abimelek's soul and found no respect for God—
or so you thought.
You concluded that you were in danger
since nobody in that land, you thought, would ever listen to God.
Were you including yourself in the count?
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
As between you and Abimelek,
he was revealed as the one with ears open.
Your judgment was wrong.
Yet your judgment was right.
It wasn't so much that your conclusion was wrong,
just the person to whom you applied it.
Perhaps Jesus said to be careful with judging,
because others can be more of a mirror than we think.
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
In misjudging others,
you judged yourself.
You imagined that no one in Gerar would respect God
...because you didn't.
NUMBERS 5
Women didn’t always have it so good in Bible times. Especially women with jealous husbands. Treated as "property," the majority of women were at the whim of their husbands. I suppose it is still like this in many, many countries around the world. So, it’s no wonder that we find this elaborate "test for an unfaithful wife" in Numbers 5.
LEVITICUS 14
After the description of the sacrifices cleansed lepers were to make, Leviticus 14 goes on to describe how a priest could determine whether a house was infected with mildew. These instructions sound very much like the instructions in the previous chapter for how the priests could determine whether a person had leprosy. Involved were inspection, incubation periods, diagnoses, and treatments.
EXODUS 12
No, seriously. The Judge doesn't judge.
Okay, at least get one paragraph in before you write me off just based on the title of this post. What do I mean by God doesn’t judge? Check out these verses from Exodus 12: "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn — both men and animals — and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." (vs 12-13)
