365 Reflections

Are you like me? Do you languish over the state of our world? Do you see the oppression and injustice and long to give up? Do you wonder where hope is to be found? That was Solomon's case in Ecclesiastes 4.  Ecclesiastes 4:1 (ESV) Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. The world is full of oppressors and oppression. They are those who take power or gain power and abuse power over those whom they overpower. It hurts to see and it causes many to question God's existence.  What is at the heart of oppression? It is segregation of mankind. The division of brother and sister, neighbors, boss and employee or ruler and citizen. When we forget that we belong to each other, oppression is one of the inevitable results.  Then Solomon looks at the rat race: Ecclesiastes 4:4 (ESV) Then I saw that all ...

When the Northern nation of Israel is deported into Assyria, the king of Assyria repopulates the land with exiles of other nations. This was a strategic practice of ancient kings to remove people from their land and resettle it with strangers. Why? Because gods of the ancient world were considered territorial deities. An ancient king would, therefore, consider the captive people totally powerless to rise up if he displaced them from their land. When this happens, the resettled immigrants are oblivious to Israel's laws and they suffer immediately at the hand of the Lord for their pagan ways.  2 Kings 17:25 (ESV) And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD. Therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. The king of Assyria decides to remedy this problem by sending a priest from Israel back to teach them how to worship the God of Israel so as to keep peace in the land. The result of this is a religiously mixed group of people who wor...

Matthew 14:3–5 (ESV) For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day.  We pause to remember the man who stood up to segregation and helped to change our nation. I was reading today that his assassination may have been based on something other than civil rights of African Americans.  Some believe it was a conspiracy of the government because King not only stood opposed to segregation, but started also preaching against US military action in Vietnam. You see, King wasn't afraid to stand up to injustice in government on both sides of the aisle. Even some of his closest allies didn't like this stance.  In one sermon, he spoke extensively on Jesus' command to "love your enemies."...