365 Reflections

Why didn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh? He knew God would be merciful to them, as we find out in chapter four. With that framing in mind, we should consider why Jonah assumed they would be repentant in the first place to receive that mercy. By this time, the people of Nineveh had experienced a famine, two plagues within 7 years, and an earthquake (according to history and as mentioned by Amos). They were primed for a message that destruction was imminent.  Yet these were hardened sinners of the most sordid type. We have written testimony of Ashurnasirpal II, king of Nineveh (at the time of Jonah), in 883–859 BC. This king's inscriptions describe in detail how he had enemies flayed alive, impaled, and decapitated. He boasted of burning cities and piling up human heads into pyramids as monuments of his victories. Moreover, they lacked the Law of God. Why would they have fear of their actions?   Remember that Romans 2 tells us the non-believers have a natural law written on their...

The world is dark, run by evil forces in the heavenly realms. We are born sinners, enslaved to the passions of our flesh along with everyone else. Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. The answer is simple: Repent - turn to God for mercy and grace. Joel calls on the nation of Israel to do just that as they watch the invading army decimate the Northern Kingdom.  Joel 2:15–17 (ESV) Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegro...

Is it possible that 70 years of exile were decreed for Israel because God knew the nation would take that long to truly repent? If so, it would reveal something incredible about our relationship to God as He promises to discipline those He loves (Hebrews 12). He even plans what that discipline should be and for how long. I get this idea from the intercessory prayer Daniel makes in chapter 9.  Daniel 9:13–14 (ESV) As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. Sometimes it takes a while before we learn to return to God. Israel was a prime example. Daniel stipulates that the lack of seeking God's favor had prolonged the exile, yet God had known beforehand and an...

Daniel 9:1–2 (ESV)  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. In Daniel 9, we find the prophetic backstory of the fall of Babylon and Daniel's insight into the rise and fall of empires, as Israel lay in exile. He, unlike many in Israel, listened to God's true prophet, Jeremiah, who foretold 70 years of exile, rather than the 2 that Hananiah and other false prophets were declaring.  Daniel knows that just because the Babylonian empire had fallen, it did not mean that Israel was now to be sent back prematurely to their land. God would accomplish His purpose through multiple regimes to prove His Word, and not the declarations of emperors or wise men would prove true.  ...

There's no avoiding sin in the life of a believer. John affirms that any of us who deny sin are living in self-deception.  1 John 1:8 (ESV) If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So when we read the texts of God's judgment upon sinful believers in the Old Testament, a certain apprehension grips our hearts concerning our own imperfect behavior. What would happen to us? What would God do to discipline us? Would He treat us as Israel of old? No matter what might befall us in the Lord's discipline, there is a pattern outlined in Lamentations 5 that guides our prayer life back to the Father.  Lamentations 5:1–5 (ESV) Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace! 2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. 3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. 4 We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. 5 Our pursuers are at our necks; we are weary;...

Trouble has come to Israel. And in Lamentations, Jeremiah pulls no punches about what has happened. The Lord Himself has taken her down. Lamentations 2 rehearses the nature of her judgment as nothing less than God's active wrath poured out upon His own chosen people.  Lamentations 2:5 (ESV) The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel; he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds, and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. When we are disciplined for sin, it can seem like God is our enemy. And let us not forget that Lamentations is the cry of Jeremiah's heart over what has transpired. He expresses what the people perceive. They felt abandoned by God but it was they who abandoned Him. Sin carries severe consequences.   Lamentations 2:11–12 (ESV) My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because i...

Jeremiah makes a stunning pronouncement in chapter 3.  Jeremiah 3:11 (ESV) And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Israel had been more wicked than Judah up to this point by far. They are the nation of Ahab and Jezebel. They are the prophet-killing kingdom. They were the spiritual offspring of vile Jeroboam who taught Israel to abandon the Lord and worship in the high places. Yet here, Jeremiah says Judah is less righteous than Israel. How? Simply put, because Judah saw what happened to Israel. They were handed over to the Assyrians and destroyed. Judah should have paid attention and learned in order to avoid the same fate, but they did not, they ran in the same rebellious direction without care. There is a greater condemnation on the people who should have learned from the failures of those before them.  Jeremiah offers that northern nation hope: Jeremiah 3:12 (ESV) Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, an...

Isaiah 63-64 is a beautiful prayer for mercy from the prophet on behalf of the people. Sometimes we think a prophet's job is only to speak for God. But Isaiah and many other prophets oftentimes speak to God on behalf of men.  Isaiah 63:15 (ESV) Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. Isaiah's prayer for mercy is based not on their righteousness at all. He bases his pleas on God's compassion within. I think of the ministry of Jesus in Matthew 9 as He looked upon the people who came to Him.  Matthew 9:36 (ESV) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Isaiah 63:16 (ESV) For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Isaiah will acknowledge...

Nehemiah 9 is the recounting of God's faithfulness throughout Israel's history and apostasy. It ends with the returned exiles ratifying a covenant before the Lord. Nehemiah 9:38 (ESV)   “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests. Chapter 10 opens with the names of those who ratified the covenant with the Lord.  Nehemiah 10:1 (ESV) “On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah... and the list goes on. What I love about that list is they put themselves out there in public. This was no silent ceremony or commitment of the inward person. They wrote their names down and sealed the documents for keeps!  These are the commitments they make: Nehemiah 10:28–29 (ESV) “The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of G...

Nehemiah 9:1–2 (ESV)  Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. They say confession is good for the soul. Nehemiah 9 is an amazing chapter in that regard. In this one chapter, the people who have returned to the land and now completed the walls of Jerusalem gather for worship, the reading of the Word and confession of their sins. Nehemiah 9:3 (ESV) And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it t hey made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. If you read the chapter, you will see they literally go chapter by chapter through the narrative of their nation starting with Abraham. They move right through the history of Egypt, the wilderness, the judges, the...

The Lord can use a man like Ezra. What was it about Ezra that established him so powerfully in the era of rebuilding the Temple and reestablishing the Promised Land? He truly understood the fear of the Lord.  When a report comes to him about the intermarriage and pagan associations among the people of the land, INCLUDING the priests and Levites, Ezra is mortified.  Ezra 9:3 (ESV) As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. He expresses such remorse that he actions are not only visible they are adopted by others. Notice how the scripture refers to these people with him: Ezra 9:4 (ESV) Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. Consider this in context. The common practice among the people is one of immorality. Ezra repents and humbles himself. He stands out. The rest of the co...

Josiah exemplifies for us a resolute desire to rid the land of Israel from all vestiges of evil practice. When the writer of 2 Kings unpacks for us the several stage process of his purification of Israel, we find out just how long-standing and involved the idolatry of Israel was. 2 Kings 23:4–5 (ESV) And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. Josiah's reforms begin with the priests - those who led the false worship of Judah. This is importan...

Jehu, king of Israel was a man on fire. The Lord appointed him to wipe out the sin of Israel and he acted with intense zeal in accomplishing that task. At one point he boasted to an associate:  “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.”  2 Kings 10:16.  Yet there is a lesson for the modern church in the life of Jehu. Let us first recount his expedition of vengeance.  Once anointed Jehu unleashed a torrent of God's wrath on the unfaithful royal families of both southern and northern Israel. Joram (Ahab's son), Jezebel, and all 70 of Ahab's sons were killed. He piled the heads of Ahab's sons at the gate in a proud display of his accomplishment. Ahaziah, the king of Judah and all his relatives were slaughtered at Jehu's command. Finally, Jehu coordinated a fake Baal worship ceremony in order to bring all the Baal worshippers into one place and he commanded his men to slaughter all of them as well. You could say Jehu was the John Wick of the Bible.  Yet in spite ...

If God's grace does not seem unfair and/or too much for you at times, you may have never experienced its fullness. I bring you to the second to last chapter of 1 Kings where we find the ruthless, evil, wicked and abominable king Ahab rebuked by Elijah for his acts toward Naboth and his response: 1 Kings 21:25–27 (ESV) (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. 26 He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.) 27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.  Look at the beginning and end of this passage. This moment seems so out of place for Ahab's character commentators figure Ahab's repentance was only a show. Seeing Bible scholars have a hard time believing Ahab was repentant says something significant about the pa...

Solomon is making his intercessory prayer over the Temple of Israel in 1 Kings 8. It is a very long prayer filled with theological and practical truths for us today. In the last post we looked at how this Temple and it's dedication prefigures the Church of Jesus Christ, the true Son of David who builds His people as a living Tabernacle to bring the broken, defeated, sinful and stranger into God's presence. As we continue in the prayer, Solomon speaks of the future of Israel, that they would be the people who turn to God for grace when they experience punishment for sin in the form of exile. Notice what Solomon says: 1 Kings 8:48–50 (ESV)   if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, 49 then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and ma...

2 Samuel 24:10 (ESV) But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” David's heart is convicted of his sin of counting the military. He is given choices of punishment and he chooses to fall "into the hands of the Lord for (David knew) His mercy is great" (Verse 14). And so 3 days of pestilence captures the land and 70,000 men die. It should be noted that this number is 5% of the previously counted army. Modern people struggle with God's judgment but consider that only 1 in 20 members of the army perished while 19 in 20 remained. God's mercy FAR outweighs His judgment. When the Lord brings judgment upon the nation, He stops the destroying angel over Jerusalem and the future site of the Temple. This is significant. Scripture is speaking to something far larger than this current ...

2 Samuel 24:1–2 (ESV) Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.”  The first sentence in this passage understandably troubles Bible readers. But we have to understand Biblical narrative and let the scriptures interpret one another. First, the text wants us to understand the Lord's displeasure with Israel. Perhaps this is due to how they treated David upon his return after abandoning him. Perhaps this is due to inner spiritual rot. We can guess any number of reasons. We also have to turn to the Chronicles account of this same moment for clarity: 1 Chronicles 21:1 (ESV) Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. The Chronicles account makes clear that Satan was th...

David has been rebuked strongly by the prophet Nathan. He has also lost a child knowing full well it was the results of his sin. Though he prayed earnestly and continually for the child's life to be spared, the child died. David then does something we can all learn from: 2 Samuel 12:24–25 (ESV) Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him 25 and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD. It's a small moment at the end of a series of far larger moments. But it's an important moment for our understanding of the life of faith. Faith believes God even when we don't get what we want. We have lost the art of waiting on God for His plans to be fulfilled when they conflict with our desires. Most people want to serve the Lord so long as the life they map out goes according to plan. The name Nathan provides for the chil...

Deuteronomy 4:25–31 (ESV)   “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you wil...

You are going to be disturbed by the contents of Numbers 31 if you don't understand ancient cultures and how to read the Bible. In this chapter, Moses is commanded by God to take vengeance on the Midianites for how they turned Israel from the Lord at Peor in Numbers 25. We remember that episode ended with Phinehas' zeal taking out the rebellious man and his Midianite concubine in one stab of spear. During the conquest upon the Midianites God instructs Israel to carry out their first "holy war" as defined by theologians. This kind of war involved total elimination of a culture. Men, women, everyone and everything... except for one group of people. The people carry out only a portion of those commands and they let the women live. Moses' response? Read for yourself: Numbers 31:15–20 (ESV) Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of ...