365 Reflections

Continuing from the chapter-by-chapter revelation of the Gospel from Isaiah 53 onward we come now to the place where God speaks to us of the assurance of His salvation for everyone who receives it. Isaiah 56 commands the new members of God's family to fully embrace the assurance of their salvation.  Isaiah 56:3 (ESV) Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” God will not cast out the foreigner. Nor will God let the eunuch be defined by his physical inability to produce offspring.  Isaiah 56:4–5 (ESV) For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. The interesting thing about this passage is that it follows Isaiah...

When friends let Job down, he doesn't turn from God. That's perhaps one of the special skills Job possesses that many professing Christians do not. I have heard many people talk about the harm they have suffered at the hands of other humans being the reason they do not believe in God. Most notably, I have heard many claim their unbelief is justified because of the ill-treatment they have received or experienced at the hands of other professing Christians.  Why don't these people ever read the Bible?  Job has been viciously attacked by professing believers at every turn in the midst of his misery and pain. Instead of concern, prayer, and ministry, he has received accusation, animosity and superiority. YET, there is no breaking his steadfast trust in God's ultimate redemption. Consider how he ends his response to Eliphaz's second speech: Job 16:19–22 (NLT) Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. 20 My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears ...

It's a refrain familiar to us from one of Pixar's most beloved films. Dorey, the absent-minded fish tells Nemo's father to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" through the ocean. Why? Because that's all you really can do.  Well, for Nehemiah, we see that his decision was very similar. No matter what he faced, no matter what he heard, no matter what people said, he just kept building, just kept building the walls around Jerusalem.  Nehemiah 4:1-2 (ESV)  Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” Notice the context of the opposition here. Sanballat attacks them "in the presence of his brothers and of the ...

Nehemiah 3 picks up the story of a building project seemingly underway instantaneously. Just before, in chapter 2, Nehemiah was only inspecting the walls and hearing the threats of his enemies. He had just finished calling upon the men to join him in the work and declared that God’s hand would be upon them and they would prosper. How was it that this man got the people to work so fast after decades of inactivity?  Nehemiah 3:1 (ESV) Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. This is how the chapter begins and ends… a long list of men who rose up to build. But there is a consistent refrain in the passage and a consistent reality that runs through the text like a thread yielding an insight into this building project we should learn well.  First, the phrase, “next to” appears repeatedly among the ov...

How do you know you're called to something? A few realities emerge along the way.  FIRST: You can't stop until it's done: Nehemiah 2:9–12 (ESV) Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. 11 So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. Nehemiah has authority and resources from the king yet he makes his way to Jerusalem and immediately finds resistance. Sanballat and Tobiah will be thorns in his side during this work. But it proves once again in the scriptures - as soon as you step out in faith for the Lo...

Genesis 25:21 (ESV)   And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. What an immense detail we run right by in this passage. For Isaac was newly married to Rebekah at the age of 40. Eventually (and usually quickly in those days) they found out she was not able to have children. So what does Isaac do? He prays. And she conceives. Simple right? Not so fast.  Look at five LONG verses later: Genesis 25:26 (ESV)   Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. That means this man prayed for 20 YEARS for his wife to conceive. Now think of his father Abraham. He would have heard the stories. How long did Abraham wait for the son of promise? He left Ur at age 75, and Isaac was born when he was 100. That's 25 years of waiting. Perhaps that helped Isaac stay devoted in prayer.  I...

The end of the longest Psalm is this verse: Psalm 119:176  (ESV)   I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. Sounds strange coming from someone who has been writing for 175 verses about how much he loves God's law, trusts in God's law and desires to obey God's law. After all, shouldn't he consider himself a found sheep on the right path? This introduces the apparent paradox in any who come to God in faith. The ever present reality that apart from God we can do nothing. Isaiah was a great prophet. Yet he wrote, "We all like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6). Paul was a powerful Apostle yet "beat his body" (1 Cor. 9:27) to stay strong in the Lord and referred to himself as "least of the Apostles" (1 Corinthians 15:9), "worst of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:16) and a "wretched man" (Roman 7:24). We are the people who walk with a limp. We cannot do it apart from th...