Jeremiah 37
Poor Zedekiah. He was so deceived. He thought that making a military alliance with Pharaoh would help him. It didn’t. He thought if he asked Jeremiah to talk to God for him, he might get some good news. He didn’t. Somehow, in his mind, he thought there still might be a way out of his predicament. There wasn’t.
Isaiah 50
When we talk about God, one of the first things that comes to mind is light. Jesus is described in the Gospels as the Light of the World (Jn 8:12) and the true light that gives light to every person (Jn 1:9). In fact, the Bible begins with God saying, “Let there be light!” (Gen 1:3). So, that’s why it seemed a bit odd to come to the end of this chapter and discover that, sometimes, those who follow the Lord walk in the dark:
Isaiah 9
No, I’m not talking about convicting you of a crime! I’m talking about convicting you of truth, helping you to see and understand when you’re on the wrong path. Could Isaiah have said it any more clearly? “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” (vs 2)
Psalm 145
I wrestled for a long time over the title of this blog post. I wanted to be blunt and just title it God destroys the wicked. But I was afraid that might turn some people off before they even read what I had written, so I decided to leave it as a question and, hopefully, invite investigation.
Psalm 139
And so we’ve finally come to this—my most favorite psalm in the Bible, possibly my most favorite chapter in the Bible. I just love how the picture of God in it is all-pervasive. There is nowhere we can go to outrun Him. He is everywhere—even with us in the womb, long before we are capable of perceiving Him.
Psalm 105
If you read this psalm in your Bible today, you discovered that it is a recitation of the history of God’s acts in Israel—including a long passage about the ten plagues of Egypt. So, even though this is Psalms, I decided to reiterate a great lesson about God that we learn from the Egyptian plagues: God is a light. Just imagine what it must have been like to be Pharaoh. He was “the” god in a land of gods. The ancient Egyptians had a god for everything—and I do mean everything. They worshiped over 2,000 gods that they believed controlled everything—from the sky to the River Nile to childbirth.
Psalm 62
Ex-trem’ ist, n. One who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm.
We usually don’t think of extremism as a good thing. If you’ve done much paying attention to politics—especially American politics—you’ve probably heard the phrases far-left loons and right-wing nutjobs before. Those terms describe people who are thought of as extremists, as being out on the fringe of political thought.
Psalm 43
God has an agenda. It’s a simple one—to draw us ever closer to Him in relationship. I believe He does this even with His perfect creatures—those who have never fallen into sin. Why? Because no creature—even a perfect one—can ever fully understand the mind of the Creator. There will always be more to learn, more to be revealed. And so God is in the business of personal revelation.
Job 20
Are you feeling like I am about the speeches of Job’s friends? Come on, enough already. When I opened my Bible to chapter 20 today and saw that Zophar was going to launch off yet again into the same, old thing, I felt a huge yawn coming on. It’s like being on the telephone with an automated answering service—no matter what number you press, you get the same recording: Thank you for holding. One of our representatives will be with you shortly. It gets frustrating when there’s no way to break through the monotonous drivel and reach someone who is actually alive and breathing.
Darkness does not exist
It has no properties
no matter
no makeup
Darkness does not exist
It cannot be measured
or observed
or heard
Darkness does not exist
It functions only as a corollary
It's a symptom
a condition
/and a temporary one at that/
Darkness does not exist
It's just the absence of something else
a ghost quantity
a negative integer
Light obliterates darkness.
Every time.
It's not even a contest.
There's never a doubt.
When darkness presses in around you,
you need only remember the Lampstand.
Let the tiniest, flickering flame appear—
the darkness must obey
and immediately poof away.
Photo © Unsplash/Sidney Severin
Mighty God,
Great Dispeller of Night,
Awesome Disbander of Murkiness,
Glorious Dismisser of Shadows,
we prefer to hail You
as the One
who banishes darkness.
We prefer hymns which extol
the world-illuminating power
of Your light.
We never sing songs
about Your darkness-dwelling tendencies.
We don't lift our voices
to praise Your presence in the shadows,
but to question Your delay in dissipating them.
And we are careful
to keep our distance from dark clouds,
though we seem to find them just the same.
/or, rather, they methodically
hunt down and engulf us/
Mighty God,
Strong Dismantler of Gloom,
when the inky blackness swirls around me,
may I choose to praise You,
the ever-present Holy Squatter
in Earth's rundown tenement.
As long as evil persists in this place,
draw my heart out
and steel it to brave
the onslaught of the whirlwind,
emboldening me
to seek You where You are,
willing to share and shoulder
some of the sorrow and suffering
that lives in Your own heart
for this forlorn and much-loved race.
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.
DEUTERONOMY 12
Emmanuel. God with us. This is the name of the God we know, love, and serve. A God who is not distant, far-off, aloof. A God who pursues us relentlessly — as Michael Card once put it, the Hound of Heaven. He doesn’t stop to test the temperature of the water before He jumps right in. He is a hands-on kinda guy.
NUMBERS 17
This chapter contains one of my favorite Bible verses. But I doubt it’s one that makes the usual "Top Ten" list of most-quoted Scripture: "The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds." (vs 8)
NUMBERS 8
At the beginning of Numbers 8, God instructed Aaron on how to set up the lampstand in the sanctuary: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to Aaron and say to him, "When you set up the lamps, see that all seven light up the area in front of the lampstand."' Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord commanded Moses." (vs 1-3)
EXODUS 27
At the end of the instructions for building the sanctuary comes this commandment from the Lord: "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come." (vs 20-21)
