Ezekiel 4
What a strange chapter! One thing’s for sure: God certainly asked His prophets to do weird things at times. And I don’t know about you, but if I had answered the call to be a prophet, and the first assignment God gave me was to lay on my side(s) for 14 months, I might have to lodge a complaint!
Jeremiah 52
Once again, in this chapter, we are reminded of how the residents of Judah were finally carried off into Babylon, and Jerusalem was destroyed. How depressing. And even though he was given every opportunity to change his course, I still couldn’t help but feel bad for Zedekiah, whose sons were killed right in front of him before his eyes were plucked out. That would be an awful image to have to remember for the rest of your life. It’s just another stark reminder of the evil darkness we face when we try to live life without God.
Jeremiah 51
To the Hebrew mind, the sea was associated with evil. In Isaiah 57, Isaiah wrote that the wicked were like the sea. In Psalm 89, the psalmist wrote that the raging sea was akin to the opponents of the Lord. In Revelation, the sea is pictured as the birthplace of the Satanic beast (Rev 13) and the place of the dead (Rev 20). No wonder, when John pictured the earth made new, he wrote that the sea had disappeared (Rev 21).
Jeremiah 41
There’s just no getting around it—especially when you read a chapter like this. God allows awful stuff to happen in this world. He allows evil men and women to do evil things to innocent people for (apparently) no reason. He allows things to happen to His children that most of us think we would never allow our children to go through if we were in His shoes.
Or would we?
Jeremiah 14
This is such a pitiful chapter, detailing the great drought that had come over the land of Israel: “Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads. The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.” (vs 2-4)
Jeremiah 13
The Israelites were in a predicament. They were on the verge of being captured and carted off to captivity, and that was just their external problem. Their internal problems were far more dangerous. Lust, greed, and idolatry were eating out the very heart of the nation. Everywhere you turned, there was corruption and wickedness.
Jeremiah 7
This chapter mentions one of the great “unmentionables” of the Bible—the pagan practice of burning one’s own children alive in the fire to the god Molech. It is unthinkable that the Israelites—who were supposed to know the God of Love—could ever have gotten caught up in such a detestable practice. God thought so, too:
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)
Jeremiah 2
I was so struck by this passage in today’s chapter: “‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?… Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” (vs 13-14, 19)
Isaiah 59
This chapter touches on one of the greatest theological questions of our time: how can there be an all-loving, all-powerful God when there is so much suffering in the world? For, certainly, if we had the power to end the suffering of someone we loved, wouldn’t we do it? That’s how many people come to the conclusion that (a) God must not be all-powerful and, thus, cannot do anything about our suffering or (b) God must either not love us or not exist at all.
Isaiah 34
Whoa, scary chapter! No wonder lots of people read the Bible (especially the Old Testament) and get the idea that God—while He may graciously be biding His time—is out to “get us” in the end. In fact, this chapter is so scary that it (and lots of other chapters in Isaiah) got completely cut out of the Revised Common Lectionary, used by many (if not most) mainline Protestant churches. If you attend such a church, that means you will never hear this chapter of the Bible read in worship. Ever.
Isaiah 15
I have been reading a book on Job, and it recently reminded me of something Elihu said to Job during his ordeal: “If you sin, how does that affect [God]? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.” (Job 35:6-8)
Isaiah 5
It is one of the paradoxes of life that, while God takes total responsibility for dealing with the sin problem, He is in no way responsible for sin. It entered His universe through the free choice of Lucifer, one of His beloved creatures. He is not to blame for sin. It has infected His creation through no fault of His own.
Ecclesiastes 10
Solomon begins this chapter with an interesting proverb: “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.” (vs 1) He’s saying that it takes far more energy to create something beautiful than it does to muck it up. And unfortunately, in this world, there are people who would rather spend their time going around tearing things down than building things up.
Proverbs 29
I don’t think I’ve yet seen in the Bible a better description of the fate that awaits the wicked than this: “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” (vs 1) This is what Romans 6:23 calls the “wages of sin.” It is destruction that comes as a result of a stubborn insistence to continue in sin, not as a result of something God does to you!
Proverbs 25
This chapter begins in a very intriguing way: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.” (vs 2) To conceal a matter… hmmmm, perhaps like the meaning of this proverb? Whatever could this mean? It has been my habit to praise God for His commitment to self-revelation. Why would Solomon say that God not only conceals things, but that it is His glory to do so?
Proverbs 22
It seems that, time and time again, I run up against things in the Bible regarding the “rich” and the “poor” that just aren’t as clear-cut as our modern thinking tends to be. Take this verse from today’s chapter, for instance: “Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.” (vs 2)
Proverbs 20
Alright, let’s start today’s blog with a pop quiz. It’s been a while since we studied Psalm 16. Do you remember this verse? “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy. In Your right hand, there are _________ _________.” (Ps 16:11) Can you fill in the blank without looking it up?
Proverbs 11
While statistics vary widely from place to place, it is generally estimated that more than seven million people around the world die each year from cancer. In 2019, nearly six billion dollars was spent on cancer research in the United States alone. I wonder how many times God has heard the prayer that a cure for cancer be found.
