A Nation’s Final Decision

Posted on August 4, 2011 by JohnJ

Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people both small and great approached and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that the LORD your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.” . . . . “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message with which the LORD your God will send you to us. “Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God.” Jer 42:1-3, 5, 6

So it has come to this. That the once great and proud nation of Israel, governed in the past by two of the greatest kings ever honored by God, David and his son Solomon, a nation once enslaved by Egypt and brought out by the majestic arm of the Lord, conquering the nations in the land of Canaan, ruling all of the land from the Euphrates to the Sinai peninsula, but now cast off like a worn out shoe, a people dimished to almost nothing and still living in Judah after being conquered by a filthy hoard of barbarians, who, taking all the best people of the land, left behind only the poorest of the poor. This little band comes to Jeremiah and asks for guidance swearing they will do whatever they are told.

Oh how deceptive is the heart of man. I wonder if they really knew they would rebel in a final desparate act of stupidity, or if they actually planned it all along.

“Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God.” This is the final nail in the proverbial coffin. Time after time, in numbers too large to count, this people did the identical thing. Told by the prophets that if they obeyed they would be blessed beyond their dreams, or if they rebelled their worst nightmare would consume them, they chose the latter! Blessing or curse? ‘I’ll go with the curse.” And so here Jeremiah, for seemingly one final time, tells them to stay in the land or perish if they depart for the imaginary protection of Egypt. And what is their last national decision, after they swore by the life of the Lord? But of course, they immediately turn and head for Egypt! Indeed, can a leopard change his spots? The heart of this people was darkness magnified.

But they started out this way, even after being led out of Egypt by God they still maintained their household gods as if insecret. What did God say to them about their wandering in the desert after Egypt,

“When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?” Zec. 7:5 And fittingly for a stiff necked people, the last national resolve was one final act of flat out rebellion.

And so, with the majority of Israel and Judah exiled to Babylon, this small band still remaining departed the land of Canaan and returned to Egypt. It didn’t have to be this way. They could have given their hearts to God and enjoyed the riches of His blessing and grace. But out of the heart of darkness comes all kind of evil and rebellion. And Israel comes full circle, returning to the place of their enslavement so many hundreds of years previous. If Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses could only see them now, how appalled they would be. But God’s grace and mercy did not die with the nation of Israel. He would again call them out of Egypt, and from all the other corners of the world, to come back to the land. Always giving one more chance, but also fulfilling His promise, that an heir would certainly come from the seed of David, though they still had hundreds of years to wait. And most of them in silence as God would no longer talk through he prophets after the death of Malachi in about 415 BC. Four hundred long silent years. Until the fulfillment of the promise in a birth in a manger in Bethlehem at the second dawning of man.

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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The Obstinate

Posted on August 3, 2011 by JohnJ

Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim.
But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. Jer 37:1, 2

One of the more compelling reasons to trust in the veracity of the Bible is the amazing fact that this book which the people of Israel hold so dear contains so abundantly stories that put their people in the most despicable light. I find that astounding. Add to that observation the adage that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it and I’m astounded that the Jews would care for the book at all. I know my own family would just as soon forget all the ugly things I’ve inflicted on them during my formative years. After I wrote a story about my courtmartial while I was stationed in the Army in Ft. Bliss, Texas, my Dad asked me why I would want to proclaim that to the public, it brought back so many bad memories. I know how he feels, and wonder why the Jews wouldn’t feel the same way.

In Jeremiah chapter 37 we have one more instance of the spiritual failing of the leadership of eh Kingdom of Judah. But not just the leadership, but the king, his servants, and indeed, the people of the land shared in the spiritual poverty! And this in spite of the continuous proclamation of their Lord’s words, spoken as a carrot and a stick – how He’d enrich and nourish them if they obeyed, and how He’s utterly decimate them if they continued in their obstinacy and rebellion. It makes you wonder what they are using for brains – the choice seems utterly obvious.

But now that I think about it I seem to recall a time when I did pretty much the same thing. There were people who tried to tell me that the path I was on was leading to destruction and failure. Oh, how I wish I knew then what I know now – I would have avoided so much painful heartbreak and struggle.

But that’s the way it is for those who have avoided the kind of relationship with God that He’s meant for us to have. It brings to mind the lesson of Sunday School that so many children learn, the first question of catechism, “What is our purpose in life,” the answer, “to love God and enjoy Him forever.” (See the WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM, Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.) Most of us have heard that with our ears but it doesn’t go any further. In a sense we’ve all been like the people in the verse above. And still there are those continually speaking the word of the Lord, in the off chance that an individual here and there will take it to heart, and receive that indescribable gift. The seemingly insurmountable odds Jeremiah faced didn’t become an obstacle preventing him from speaking. The Lord promised to him a strength and power far beyond his own capability. Like the power available to us as we surrender to the Word of God and His Spirit.

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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What Do You Know?

Posted on August 2, 2011 by JohnJ

“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'” Jeremiah 33:2-3

What does man really know? He thinks he knows a great deal. He sees things around him and makes suppositions and theories, but in the end, starting from himself he knows so very little. Comparably. That is one of the main lessons of the book of Job. After he and his friends banter and theorize the whys and wherefores of Job’s great fall from wealth and health, and with all their posturing about how and why this could happen, ultimately they really didn’t know very much at all, though to a man, they each thought they had the final answer. But then came God. The fascinating tack He took in response to their posturing was to deliver a series of questions, by my count 93 probing questions, besides the other descriptions of God’s omnipotence, a monumental series of questions revealing all the things these mere men didn’t know or consider about God and His creation. Just read four of the last five chapters, where the Divine perspective is pronounced. The following is just a sampling of questions Job (and all mankind) should ponder when he feels he knows it all:

Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding,
Job 38:5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it?
Job 38:6 “On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone,
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:18 “Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.
Job 38:19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place,
Job 38:20 That you may take it to its territory And that you may discern the paths to its home?

Job 38:31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, Or loose the cords of Orion?
Job 38:32 “Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, And guide the Bear with her satellites?
Job 38:33 “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or fix their rule over the earth?
Job 38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, So that an abundance of water will cover you?
Job 38:35 “Can you send forth lightnings that they may go And say to you, ‘Here we are’?
Job 38:36 “Who has put wisdom in the innermost being Or given understanding to the mind?

We humans love puzzles, though, and that on its face is how this life appears. Merely starting and ending with the things that are visible life becomes a vast puzzle, but ultimately an unsolvable puzzle because the key lies outside his perception. But that doesn’t seem to bother man, of course, and since God has embedded in man His spirit, even if it is only a cold ember, he feels compelled to pursue the mystery of life. Why are we here? What’s it all about? Mankind has evaluated all that he sees and has jumped to all kinds of conclusions, many elaborate, many elegant, many conflicting. Paul in his letter to the Romans summed up this pursuit, “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22) simply because they have rejected the key to solving the puzzle, and think that in man all things begin and end.

This is not to say that with the gift of God mankind should not explore and exercise his intellect and try to solve the puzzles. We would be less than human if we didn’t ponder and reflect, and explore, for the benefit of humanity. But it is in only realizing the limitations of the narrow spectrum of reality that we can detect through our senses that we must in honesty search with other senses to find the meaning behind the material world.

From the very beginning life was a two part proposition, the world of the physical and the world of the spiritual. Man was given eyes to see the physical, and a soul to see the spiritual, eyes to see the creation and the soul to perceive knowledge of the One who created him and everything else. But when the life of the spirit was rejected in the Fall, so too was the comprehension of the key to the puzzle of life. Which is why for man to really know the things of this world, he needs to call to God and have Him explain those things that are beyond the limited capacity of eyesight. The astounding thing is that He is there and He is not silent,1 and has permitted Himself to be found by those who seek Him and call upon Him.

So we really need to call to God and have Him explain all the things we can’t figure out for ourselves. And they are indeed “great and mighty things.” That’s the inescapable majesty and overwhelming power with which we are confronted when we read the Word of God.

1 A not so subtle nod to the title of one of the best contemporary volumes concerning Christian phiolosphy, He is there and He is not silent, Francis A. Schaeffer, Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL 1972

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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Christ in Isaiah

Posted on July 28, 2011 by JohnJ

One last note about Isaiah before commenting on Jeremiah. One of he most spellbinding elements of the book of Isaiah are the references to the Messiah, and the verses used by Jesus Christ from the book. The link between Jesus and Isaiah’s prophesies are amazing. In fact I’d say out of all the Old Testament books Isaiah is the one that most completely explains the Gospel proclaimed by the Lord Jesus. It has all the elements, the warnings the encouragement, the grace of redemption. The fullness of the Gospel is quite evident in this book. Here are a few select verses revealing God’s wrath and grace, His destruction and re-creation, His love and compassion:

Isa 3:13 The LORD arises to contend, And stands to judge the people.
Isa 3:14 The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

Isa 4:4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,
Isa 4:5 then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.
Isa 4:6 There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.

Isa 29:13 Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
Isa 29:14 Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

Isa 30:18 Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

Isa 35:4 Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”
Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Isa 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isa 41:10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Isa 42:9 “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

These new things came in the form of a Saviour whom Israel was hardly expecting. Though by the statements scattered throughout Isaiah they certainly could have deciphered the clues. They knew a Messiah was coming, clearly foretold in these verses:

Isa 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
Isa 42:1 “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

But in what form would surprise and shock them; instead of a regal political king, vanquishing their many foes and securing in Jerusalem a royal kingdom surpassing the likes of David’s and Solomon’s, someone very humble would appear quietly and His ministry would confuse them all since it would end in violence and apparent failure:

Isa 42:2 “He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street.
Isa 42:3 “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.
Isa 42:4 “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth;
Isa 50:6 I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.
Isa 50:7 For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

Such verses may have been cryptic even to those familiar with the Scriptures. But other statements in Isaiah were so bluntly clear concerning precisely what would happen to this Messiah, one who would not look at all as expected, but someone who, once seen, might be someone to be avoided:

Isa 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
Isa 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
Isa 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
Isa 53:10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
Isa 53:11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

In one particularly powerfully moving verse is a majestic description of God’s love in which can be seen in a reference to being nailed to a cross:

Isa 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
Isa 49:16 “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

No wonder that even six hundred years after Isaiah Jesus contemporaries would have difficulty comprehending this type of a Redeemer, even when it was described to them multiple times.

Jesus even begins His ministry using the book of Isaiah. On a Sabbath in a Synagogue He is invited to speak. Standing up and taking the long scroll of Isaiah, written by hand and containing run-on words with no spaces between and no verse markings He locates a particularly fitting verse and reads:

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD

and declares to a stunned crowd that its fulfillment is occurring that very moment.

Isaiah is such a beautiful book, full of hope and promise, declaring Good News for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, speaking to those who long for a better life than the meager wasteland of the present, who can depend on God’s strength and power for help, and who want to live in harmony with our Lord:

Isa 55:1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Isa 59:21 “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth,
Isa 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.

There’s the Gospel. There’s the promise of redemption. A gift without cost, the promise of the Spirit for help, treated to the glory God shares with us, unburdened by guilt or regret, enjoying a restored creation as He had intended it. The invitation stands. Just take it.

Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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Hearing the Call

Posted on July 27, 2011 by JohnJ

What to do, what to do? You see your family, friends, loved ones, neighbors, your nation, sliding headlong to Hell. What do you do? You want to tell them, “Here is the path, walk this way.” You have the Word of God that can guide them, can you just tell them, like the prophets of old? Do you just sit by and watch the magnificent decent like Lot in Sodom? Maybe like Jonah you run the other way to escape the call. Maybe like Moses you want to argue with God, and give excuses, even suggest substitutes.

How does an ordinary person, minding his own business one moment, become a prophet the next, called by God to deliver a message? Is it in a dream, is it a lightning bolt from the sky? With Moses it was a singular event, seeing as he walked along a bush engulfed in flame but not burning. With Paul it was a literal light from the sky and a voice – everyone around saw it, though only Paul heard anything. The most amusing call was Samuel, who heard his name and rushed three times to Eli to ask why he was calling to him, but Eli denied calling, and by the third time realized it was God talking to him. (1 Sam. 3)

But the most awesome calls are like Ezekiel and Isaiah. Either in a night dream or a waking dream they see an overwhelming, powerfully awesome vision of the glory of God. This is something I’d love to experience – shouldn’t we all? In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Is. 6:1-4

And just like almost every encounter a human has before the face of God, the reaction is supremely humbling. Isaiah’s first response is of his own sinfulness before the majestic holiness of God. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” verse 5. But God doesn’t leave him there wallowing in his sin, He raises him up and cleanses the vessel for a holy purpose. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” verses 6 and 7.

Accepting the call of God to be His spokesman is a daunting task, full of peril, since no one likes to be told they are so irredeemable in spirit and behavior. People tend to get upset when they are degraded like that, kind of like fighting words. Such is the warning God gave Jeremiah in chapter 1: “Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD. . . . gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. “Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD. But there is something in the invitation, a direct invitation from God that is irresistible. That’s what seeing the glory of the Lord face to face will do. It will take your life’s direction and move you 180 degrees in the other direction, such as Paul, who went from persecuting the Church to becoming its greatest protagonist.

The real conundrum is in waiting for a real call and being ready and willing to hear it.

Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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