2nd Evangelical Free Church

Blogging Through Isaiah: Misplaced trust.

Isaiah 38-39

These chapters tell of events that took place some years prior to the attack by Assyria. Isaiah placed them here to highlight the fact that the destruction of Judah may have been delayed but not halted. Hezekiah’s terminal illness caused him to utter a weak but effective prayer of repentance and sorrow over his sin. The Lord gave him a reprieve and he was healed. Sometime later, the King received ambassadors from Babylon, at that time a small kingdom trying to throw off the yoke of the Assyrians. They came seeking to stir up Judah to resist as well. The mistake Hezekiah made was to take pride in the treasures of the Temple and palace as if they were his own. He did not consult the Lord or Isaiah when he displayed them to the Babylonians. The Lord then revealed to the king that though Judah would not fall to Assyria, she would fall a century later to Babylon. 

The lesson here is that the Lord often withholds judgment to spare the righteous but for other reasons as well, reasons which He is not obligated to disclose to us. The Lord keeps His own counsel. We know that His justice and His decisions will surely be carried out according to His plan. Therefore in every situation, in every crisis or dilemma we are to trust Him and seek His guidance so we can make godly choices.

Many people even believers fail to trust God. They choose people or idols or things that will prove false and lead then away from God. Many people (yes believers too!) put great faith and trust in the words of psychics, mediums, fortunetellers and media marketing gurus who tell people what they want to hear. In the long run such advice will lead them away from God into the arms of Satan. 

 

Blogging Through Isaiah: Don’t place your trust in pleasure.

Isaiah 22

The valley of vision refers to Jerusalem and Judah. It was a misnomer, for in reality Judah lacked vision. She was blind to what the Lord was doing. The Lord was angry because the people, as a whole, failed to heed the prophecies Isaiah has just declared against the nations. If mighty Babylon was going to suffer a crushing defeat, how could little Judah survive? The Jews may have been filled with dread at this prospect, but this did not turn them to God for answers, help or comfort. Hezekiah may have repented but not the nation as a whole. They chose to follow other leaders who only led them astray. And, in the light of the doom that would come shortly they decided to seek comfort in sensuality and pleasure rather than in the Lord. 

Many of the people of our world are like this. Many are quite pessimistic about their lives and about the world in general. That feeling of dread and fear causes them to adopt lifestyles of hedonism and sensuality. All they have is the pleasures of the flesh. These delights numb them to the pain of life and block out their feelings of despair and grief but do not eliminate them. They reason that if this life is all there is, then it is vital to enjoy themselves by finding meaning and comfort in indulging fleshly appetites. But they lack vision. They do not see what God is doing; they fail to heed any of His warnings; they reject all of His loving invitations to come to Him and find rest. Non-believers lack vision because they are blind to their sinfulness, their need for repentance and their need for a Divine savior. The hope of the cross shines like a beacon in this dark world. Pray that many would see it and come to faith in Jesus. 

 

Blogging Through Isaiah: Sharing the gospel.

Isaiah 12

This is chapter fits neatly in with the previous one. We have just read about the coming of the Messiah and His awesome kingdom. What else can we do but praise Him? After all when all these things come to pass we will be praising and rejoicing for eternity. The first reason we praise Him is because we want to thank Him for His deliverance and salvation. Then we want to praise Him as a community of faith, of believers bound together with Him. We praise Him as a way of exhorting one another to join us in the hymns of praise band to persevere in obedience and righteous living.

The Lord our God, Jesus, is the wellspring of life. Those who come to Him and drink of these waters find strength, wisdom and new life forever and ever. Thus salvation and eternal life are found nowhere else in the universe but in this well of life. This is what we declare to the nations. We praise God that they might hear the Good News of life found in no other but in Him. We have found the greatest news, the meaning and purpose of life and we must share it with others before it is too late. If we do not tell them the good news then they will perish. The joy we experience in being united to the great and merciful Lord of the universe will enable us to do so. We cannot keep such a great joy within ourselves for it must be expressed and shared so all will know the Lord. 

 

The root of Jesse brings peace.

Isaiah 11

After images of war and destruction, Isaiah returns to the vision of the future. This is the time when the Lord will reign supreme. The time he depicts is a time of perfection and complete peace. All creation will be changed. No animal will be dangerous or predatory for they have become as they were before the fall of Adam, before sin had its ill effects on the whole of the creation. Every animal will be docile and if we do any eating in heaven we will all be vegetarians! 

This is the time when the Messiah, the root of Jesse will reign. He will bring peace to all humanity. In this age to come then there will be no strife, no war, murder, bloodshed or crime. This is the age all humans long for but never achieve. Thomas More wrote of Utopia, the ideal place, but one which, as the title suggests is nowhere. Many other authors, TV and film writers have written of similar times and places where life is peaceful and ideal, but all humans can do is dream. Sin is so firmly entrenched in our world that though we all long for peace, we find that we actually work against it. Violence and oppression will not cease until King Jesus recreates the earth and rules with justice, love and mercy.

Just because we have to wait for the return of Jesus does not mean we have to curtail our efforts to achieve peace and harmony. We should work at it as much as possible, being careful not to be sources of hate and strife ourselves. And yet the very gospel message we preach of faith in Christ alone will engender strife for many do not want to hear about the cross of Jesus for it runs counter to their selfish ways of living. The truth will lead many to Christ but it will also condemn those who oppose Him.

 

 

Blogging Through Isaiah: Here is good news - God with us.

Isaiah 7 

We encountered Ahaz in the book of 2 Kings. Here we find him troubled by the threats made against Judah by Samaria and Syria who tried to force him to ally with them against Assyria. He refused, preferring to ally with Assyria, but then he became afraid. The Lord sent Isaiah to him to allay his fears and to keep trusting in Yahweh. Ahaz rejected the message and the sign that he was offered. For this reason, the sign of Immanuel is one which he cannot understand. Immanuel, as we know from Matthew 1, is the Messiah, Jesus, “God with us”. Yet the immediate reference is possibly to the birth of the remnant of Israel, the righteous group of Jews who remain committed and faithful to the Lord or it could refer to an actual birth to a young woman in the court of Ahaz. The point is that by the time the child is weaned, in 2 or 3 years, Assyria will have overrun Syria and Samaria and would threaten Judah.

Ahaz rejected the Lord and so rejected the protection the Lord could give him. He could receive no hope from the sign and its fulfillment because he could not understand them. The faithful remnant did understand and had hope. They would travail in defeat and exile along with the ungodly yet they would remain loyal to Yahweh. They knew that, in time, a young woman would spring forth from the remnant who will give birth to a new King, Immanuel who would be God with us. The young woman is a virgin: in Hebrew understanding an unmarried woman of childbearing age was a virgin. The virgin birth as Matthew tells us is the sign to us of the hope of all mankind who would save us from sin and death.

 

Blogging through Esther: Haman, why so sad?

Esther 3

The events regarding Haman took place 4 years after Esther became queen. Haman was a descendant of Agag, an Amalekite king whom King Saul had failed to execute. Mordecai was descendant of Kish, the father of Saul. His refusal to bow to Haman may have stemmed from this age old feud and ethnic rivalry, not from religious conviction. This was not a question of worship but mere respect for all Mordecai had to do was to bow. This he refused to do and his stubbornness placed all the Jews in jeopardy. 

Haman cast the lot. Pur is the Persian word for "lot", which means he cast stones or dice to find out the best day to wipe out the Jews. In ancient times it was common practice to cast the lot in the first month of the each year to determine the course of action for that year. In this case we know, though it is not stated, that the Lord controlled the lot-casting giving the Jews almost a year to prepare for their conflict with Haman. 

Ahasuerus allowed his servant to carry out this foolish and costly request because he thought he would benefit financially. He was not even aware that the Jews were involved. He serves as the example of a leader or really any person who lets others control him rather than take time to think things out and make wise choices. If we want to make wise decisions we must rely on the counsel of the Lord and those who serve Him. We should never let ourselves act based on prejudice, lust, greed or the desire for vengeance, or for that matter, on the casting of lots.

 

Blogging Through Nehemiah: Grieving over sin.

Nehemiah 9:1-37

In response to the reading of the Law of God, the people gathered after their time of feasting for a special day of mourning to express grief and repentance over the sinful rebellion of the nation. They knew that they had to get right before the Lord. Led by 2 teams of Levites the people prayed to the Lord a prayer that confessed their sins as well as the sins of their ancestors. The prayer confessed their faith in God as it magnified His greatness and His grace by delineating all the wonderful deeds He did for Israel starting with His sovereign choice of Abram through His just punishment of their sins. The people grieved through all this because their ancestors had rejected God’s love by willful disobedience.

This prayer reminds us that another important aspect of worship should be a reminder of all that the Lord has done for us. He chose us as He chose Abram, not because of any value or worth or merit in us, but because of His sovereign will. Thus all we have has been given us by His grace including not just our salvation and eternal life but all of our material goods and health. As we look at what the Lord has done for us, we will mourn over the way we behave, the way we ignore Him and worship and serve self. Thus worship should not be all one joyous celebration as is the predominant format of most contemporary services. As we look at God we rejoice in His glory but we also cannot help but mourn and weep for our sins that remind us how we have broken faith with Him. 

 

Blogging Through Nehemiah: Dealing with slander and threats.

Nehemiah 6

Nehemiah kept his focus on the Lord and His work as he went from crisis to crisis. As the work neared completion, so did the hostility from his enemies. He turned down all their invitations to meet because he knew they wanted to trap him and either at the least distract him, halt his efforts or else kill him. The last letter sent by Sanballat was an open letter to all the Jews designed to divide them and turn them against Nehemiah. It spread the slanderous rumor that he was doing the work for selfish reasons. He simply denied the allegations. The slander failed because he had a reputation for godliness and integrity among the Jews as well as the Persians and so no one believed such ridiculous claims.  

A final plot came in the form of a false prophet who wanted to intimidate Nehemiah to disobey the Lord. This ought to remind us of the threats we all face from false brethren who seek to advance themselves not only through false teachings but also through church politics, usurpation of authority, intimidation and even slander against meek and humble believers. These carnal Christians may claim to act in the Lord’s name and in His interests but they are really acting out of pride, egotism and self interest. They seek to promote self while actually disrupting the work of the Lord. Such are unwitting but foolish tools of Satan. We must recognize such attempts and expose them so that the Lord’s work will go on. 

 

Blogging through Nehemiah: Working in God’s kingdom.

Nehemiah 3

The work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem is recorded here in some detail. Nehemiah listed the names of all those families and people from surrounding towns who assisted and the sections where they worked. Although not everyone took part, those who did represented quite a diverse group: men and women, skilled professionals and unskilled helpers, the nobility, the upper classes, those in leadership as well as the High Priest, his fellow priests and Levites. These all consecrated their work as an act of worship to the Lord.

The Lord wants all of His people to take part in the building of His Kingdom. Although it really is His work, He has decided to use us frail human beings as His instruments. Yet not all those He calls upon will respond positively, to their detriment. Others will prove themselves useless as they will consider themselves indispensable because of their money, talents or education. This is because the Lord calls and empowers each according to His desire to carry out His plans. The Kingdom of God will be built by all those who come together under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This group will be composed of not just a select few skilled or “ordained” ministers or educated and wealthy lay people, but everyone who believes in Him regardless of their caste or station in society or even their abilities. We should all be willing to add ours name to those working on the building of God’s Kingdom.

 

Blogging through Ezra: Terminating ungodly marriages.

Ezra 10

Ezra was so overcome with grief at the poor spiritual state of the Jews that he was at first unable to act to correct the situation. Yet he received encouragement and advice from Shecaniah and other faithful Jews. This should remind us that our leaders are often faced with difficult decisions. They need our help and support rather than our constant condemnation. Rather, our criticism of their actions should be constructive and godly.

In this case of Ezra, he knew that God hated divorce. On the other hand these marriages were in violation of God’s law and were so were invalid and immoral from the beginning. Based on this criterion, all marriages such as homosexual and polygamous ones, though sanctioned by our modern day governments, if they violate God’s will as expressed in Genesis 1 and 2, they are immoral and invalid no matter who says anything to the contrary. 

Ezra’s day the best cour In se of action was the divorce the offending parties. This drastic action was needed to preserve the integrity of the whole community and ensure its continued existence under God’s blessing. The actions that Ezra and the leaders of the Jews take here illustrate the way we all ought to deal with temptation and sin. After prayer and confession to the Lord, we must do everything in our power according to God's will to change the situation. Such actions are not always easy and some people will get hurt in the process especially in the case of improper sexual relationships and emotional attachments. Yet drastic responses are needed to terminate these if we want to honor the Lord and live in obedience to Him.