He's a King like no other

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest…”
Luke 2:13-14

The fourth Advent Candle is the Angel’s Candle.  It reminds us that just as the angels were messengers proclaiming Christ’s birth to the shepherds, we are God's messengers proclaiming the gospel of Christ’s to the world.

Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies,
With the angelic host proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."

Christ, by highest heaven adored: Christ the Everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come, to the earth from heaven's home;
Veiled in flesh the God-head see; hail the incarnate Deity;
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."

Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace!  Hail, the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."   Amen.

Charles Wesley, who wrote this Christmas hymn, is credited by some with having written over 6,000 of our hymns!  He was inspired to write this carol as he walked to church on Christmas morning in 1793, hearing the ringing of the church bells.  An organist, William Cummings, in 1856, set the words to music that Felix Mendelssohn had composed in 1840. 

This is a familiar song—but look again at the words.  Jesus Christ is King.  He came to reconcile us to God.  He is adored in Heaven and certainly should be adored in our lives.  Without ceasing to be God even for a moment, He laid aside His glory (not His divinity) to come to live as man in order to give us new life.

What a King indeed!

Better than being a bath-robed shepherd in a Christmas pageant, let me be as sensitive to Christ as the Christmas shepherds were...

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Luke 2:8-9

The third Advent Candle is the Shepherd’s Candle. It reminds us of: (a) the fear the shepherds felt when the angels appeared, (b) the curiosity that urged them to go to Bethlehem to see the newborn Child, (c) the eagerness they sensed to tell others about the Christ-Child, and (d) their worship of God “for all the things that they had heard and seen.”

Take a moment to read the following familiar Christmas carol, thinking about the words.

WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS

While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around,
And glory shone around.

“Fear not,” said he—for mighty dread had seized their troubled mind—
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind,
To you and all mankind.”

“To you, in David’s town this day, is born of David’s line, the Savior,
who is Christ, the Lord, and this shall be the sign:
And this shall be the sign.”

“The heavenly Babe you there shall find to human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands, And in a manger laid,
And in a manger laid.”

Thus spoke the seraph, and forthwith appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus addressed their joyful song:
Addressed their joyful song:

“All glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace:
Good will henceforth, from heaven to men, Begin and never cease!
Begin and never cease!”

This is a very old carol. The words were written by Nahum Tate in 1700 (George Handel wrote the tune we sing in 1728). Let us experience similar sensations and actions as did the Christmas Shepherds this Christmas season.

Why no one but Jesus can be the Savior.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
Micah 5:2

On this second Sunday of Advent, we light the Bethlehem candle.  This not only reminds us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but that God foretold this fact through the prophet Micah somewhere between 680 and 750 years before Jesus was in fact born.  Bethlehem was and is a real place.  The Christmas story is no made-up fairy tale that happened in a mythical location—it’s all true!  And Jesus, who is eternal God, was born as a real baby who grew into a real man. 

Why is this important?  Jesus had to be God to be sinless in order to die in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.  But because God cannot die, He had to be a man—so He could live sinlessly for us, and die and rise vicariously for us.  For whom did Jesus do this?  He did it for those who believe that Jesus is who He said He is (God) and that He did what He did as the only way to be forgiven and accepted by God as righteous.

A favorite Christmas hymn is “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.”

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel, Amen.

This carol was written by Phillip Brooks, the pastor of a small church in Boston.  While visiting the Holy Land, Brooks composed a poem while on a hillside overlooking Bethlehem.  On his return home he took the poem to his church organist, Lewis Redner, for the tune.  Redner composed the melody on Christmas Eve, and the song was first sung in that church on Christmas day 1868.

God wasn’t making this up along the way…

“For thus says the LORD of hosts:

Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

Haggai 2:6-7

On this first Sunday of Advent, we light the Prophecy Candle which reminds us that long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God spoke through the Old Testament prophets to foretell of the coming of the Messiah, who would bring forgiveness of sins to His people and establish His kingdom.

The following hymn was written by Charles Wesley in 1744.  Note the line that references Haggai 2:7, which promised that Jesus (the “Desire of All Nations”) shall come.

COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us; Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child and yet a King;

Born to reign in us forever, Now Thy gracious Kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit, Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit, Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Note some of the things (there are many others!) the prophets foretold about Jesus, what Jesus accomplished for the people He came to save:  He came to set us free, to give us rest and joy, to deliver, to reign, to rule, to raise us to Himself.

May Christ and His kingdom be the greatest “desire” in our lives.

Three things many do not understand about the book of Job

And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. 

Job 42:7

Reading Job is tricky.  Here are three realities about the book you must keep in mind when reading it:

First, the reader knows what neither Job nor his friends knew about God’s conversations with the devil in Chapters 1-2.  We must not assume they knew what we know.

Second, Job’s three friends were mostly wrong.  Why else God’s rebuke in Job 42:7?  They made a few statements that were true, but even then, they came to wrong conclusions about God and about their friend’s suffering.  When speaking about Job’s suffering, they made God out to be a dispenser of karma, insisting that when good things happen, it must mean a person is good and when bad things happen it must be because the person is bad.  Not true.  God is gracious so in this life, even the worst person doesn’t get what he deserves.  And since no one is good but God (Mark 10:18, Romans 3:10-18), any good we receive from God is not earned, but is grace.  Any good we receive from God is not earned, but is by God’s grace.

Third, even a relatively righteous man can be worn down.  As human beings go, Job was a good man, but because of his suffering, and because his friends were miserable comforters, Job finally succumbed and questioned God in a less than proper manner.  Let us not provoke those who suffer with too much counsel.  What they need most is quiet, sympathetic love.

God’s purpose is not to solve the mystery of suffering, but that His people will humble ourselves and glorify Him.

God's boast in us is really about Him

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?"

Job 2:3

God bragged about His servant Job.  To the devil no less!  And what was the content of His boast regarding Job?  “There is none like him on the earth.”  He is “a blameless and upright man.”  He “fears God and shuns evil."

Could God make that boast about you?  I know He can’t about me.

Actually there is only one person about whom that boast is 100% accurate.  Jesus.  As good as Job was, Jesus is the only human being ever who is sinless.

Here is the good news for all believers.  Because we are “in Christ,” God can and does make this boast of us, not because of who or what we are, but because of who we are “in Christ.”  Get this, child of God, because we are “in Christ,” our Father in Heaven sees us as He sees Jesus.  As the Father can boast in Christ, He can boast in us.

But His boast in us is not for our glory—we have none of our own, the Father’s boast in we who are in Christ is for His Glory.  It is for His glory because He has saved us.  He has not only declared us to be holy (as we are “in Christ”), He is making us holy as He sanctifies us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have nothing in ourselves in which to boast.  But our Heavenly Father can boast in us because we are in Christ.

Let these truths both thrill us and humble us.

What a true conversion testimony looks like

I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me.  3  How great are His signs, And how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And His dominion is from generation to generation.

Daniel 4:2-3 

Daniel 5 is Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony of how God saved him.  The backstory is important.  In chapter two, Daniel explained the king’s dream.  God showed the king that though he was a great king, he would be replaced by another, who would be replaced by another, who would be replaced by yet another, who would ultimately be destroyed by God Himself.  The king was impressed with Daniel’s ability to interpret dreams, and gave verbal acclaim to “Daniel’s God,” but the king refused to repent.

In chapter three, the king erected a statue like the one in his dream, but the statue represented his belief that he would live and reign forever.  When three Jewish men refused to worship this statue, the king had them thrown into a furnace.  When the king saw that they survived, he again paid verbal tribute to their god, but again he refused to repent.

Now in chapter four, God gives the king another dream to warn him that God was going to humble this proud man.  Rather than humbling himself, he swelled with pride in the face of God, so God made the king insane for seven years after which God restored the king’s sanity and changed his heart so that he finally repented and he praised God for what “the Most High God has worked in me.”  The king was at last a believer—not in Daniel’s God, but in the God the king now knew.

Read the king’s declaration of Almighty God recorded in Daniel 4:34-37 and tell me that he was not a converted man.  May we all have similar testimonies of coming to know God as He truly is.  Our stories s may not be as spectacular, but in content they must be similar.

And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation.  35  All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"  36  At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.  37  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.  Daniel 4:34-37 

What kind of fools?

Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words,  (2)  that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, "You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.'

Jeremiah 43:1-2

The people ask Jeremiah to find out from God what His will was regarding moving to Egypt, promising to do whatever the Lord said through the prophet.  God told Jeremiah to tell them not to go.  Their response is classic: “You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’”

It is so tempting to cluck our tongues and wag our heads at how foolish they were.

But while we might not verbalize our rejection of God’s Word as flagrantly, each time we disobey what we know God’s Word says, are we not also being foolish?

We are not looking for “words from the Lord,” but are to search the unchanging verified word of the Lord in scripture.  What is there to challenge?

When it comes to receiving counsel from other people, if it is not scripture, let us consider other people’s advice for what it is—advice, and then act wisely.

But when God speaks?  We must either obey, or become fools.

Identify false prophets

This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They keep saying to those who despise me, the LORD says: You will have peace. And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.…’ See, the storm of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand it clearly.”

Jeremiah 23:16-20

False prophets have always plagued God’s people.  In Jeremiah’s day, sin and apostasy was widespread and God had already purposed to turn Judah over to the Babylonians who would plunder them and carry many off into a distant exile.  The prophet Jeremiah continually warned of pending disaster and deportation.  No one wanted that to happen, so Jeremiah’s message was unpopular, to say the least.  The false prophets, on the other hand, sought to comfort people with promises of peace and safety.  The only problem was, these prophets were not from God and therefore didn’t speak God’s truth.  Instead they spoke what the people wanted to hear—falsehood.  God continued to take the false prophets to task (v.25-40) for daring to claim they spoke in God’s name when they did not.

God’s wrath was against them as He promised (v.39-40): “Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along... I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”

Lest anyone think this was merely a problem in “Bible Times,” let us beware that there are MANY false prophets in pulpits and cluttering up the airwaves on TV and radio today.  Like their co-conspirators in Jeremiah’s day, these modern false prophets do not preach the Word of God.  They preach what people want to hear.  They may refer to scripture, but never faithfully or accurately.  And even if they do not speak outright lies, they water down the Word of God so their listeners will listen.

I shudder to think of the judgment of God on these false prophets who pervert the Word of God and mislead who-knows-how-many!

But think also of this: though the false prophets will have Hell to pay, what about the vast numbers of people who profess faith in Christ who listen to and support these wolves in the pulpit?  Are we not also responsible to see that our preachers are preaching the truth—and if they are not, to either throw the deceivers out, or leave?

Meddling and knowing everything

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. But he sent messengers to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you."

2 Chronicles 35:20-21 (read v.22-17 for the rest of the story)

Why did good king Josiah insert himself and his army into a battle that was not his?  Even the pagan king Necho of Egypt, warned Josiah that the battle was not his to “meddle” in.  Granted, seldom does godly counsel come from pagans, but in this case we may wonder because as the story unfolds, Josiah goes to war and is killed!

Here again, we may not know for sure that it wasn’t God’s will for Josiah to be killed.  But I sincerely doubt it was since Josiah was arguably the most godly king to occupy the throne of Judah.  What then do I learn from this?

(1) I must be careful about meddling in things that are not mine.  Think about that when tempted to “take a dog by the ears,” as Solomon describes meddling in strife that is not your concern in Proverbs 26:17. 

(2) While it was “ultimately” God’s decreed will that Josiah should die since it happened, that doesn’t mean it was God’s will that Josiah jump into a fray that was none of his business.  This reminds me that I do not have perfect knowledge or insight into why certain things happen as they do.

Mixing worldliness in worship and in marriage?

Then the king [Josiah, 648-609 BC] defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel [who reigned from 970 to 931 BC] had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon.

2 Kings 23:13

This verse, which might easily be passed over with little or no thought is highly instructive.  First, the circumstance: Josiah was one of the godliest kings Judah ever had.  He led the nation in the greatest spiritual revival in the nation’s history.  The Bible lists that many momentous changes Josiah made, including clearing the temple of all the pagan idols that had been set up there over the many years.  Did you notice what you just read?  Yes, the temple of the Lord was loaded with pagan idols!

Of particular note in the verse mentioned here (2 Kings 23:13), Josiah removed at least three pagan idols (Asheroth of the Sidonians, Chemosh of the Moabites, and Milcom of the Ammonites) from the temple of the Lord.  The Bible notes that these were erected in the temple of the Lord clear back in the days of Solomon (over 320 years earlier).  Two lessons from this:

First, you will remember that Solomon multiplied wives to himself—many of who were pagan.  These pagan marriages led Solomon away from the Lord to serve false gods (1 Kings 11).  These pagan wives and their spiritual influence did not end with the fall of Solomon.  The false gods he erected in the Temple were still there over three hundred years later.  When will the people of God stop becoming romantically involved with, and marrying non-believers?  When will we stop thinking we know more than God in this matter, insisting that our situation is different?  And when will we realize that the effects of this sin will last for generations?

Second, when will the people of God stop thinking it is alright to mix worldliness with worship?  We do this because we love the world more than we realize, and because we want the world to like us.  God’s Word is crystal clear (Deuteronomy 21) that we are not to worship the world’s false gods, nor are we to think it is okay to worship the true and living God in the manner in which the pagans worship their gods.

If there is to be a revival in the church today (and Heaven knows we need one!), among other changes that will have to take place will be to stop intermarrying with non-believers, and to stop desecrating the true worship of God, with worldliness.

Let us learn to be strong while it is easy to be strong so we will know how to be strong when it isn't

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses?...”

Jeremiah 12:5 

In the opening verses of Jeremiah 12, the weeping prophet had grown impatient with God because of His patience.  God had repeatedly spoken judgment on Judah through Jeremiah, but alas, because God is so incredibly gracious, He hadn’t unleashed His judgments on the people.  Jeremiah began, it seems, to wonder why.  He may have even wondered if God ever intended to execute judgment on Judah.

Beginning in 12:5 God answers Jeremiah’s impatience.  Before the chapter is over, God again spoke of impending judgment, but God begins in (v.5) challenging Jeremiah about the weakness of his faith in God.  We all need that same challenge from time to time.  If we cannot remain faithful when things are relatively easy, how shall we expect to fare if and when the going gets tough?

This question is particularly important for American Christians in our day and age.  Compared to most of the world, we have it so easy!  Believers in other places face daily persecution for a faith for which we face none.  And yet our faith wavers.  Our spiritual tottering and frequent complaining, in the face of even the most benign difficulties, should cause us to wonder how we shall survive if the spiritual bubble in which we live, pops!

“Dear Lord let us learn to be strong while it is easy to be strong so we will know how to be strong if & when we find ourselves stripped of our affluence and baptized into persecution.  And as Judah was warned to repent time and again, but didn’t, let us not think that we can claim Christ’s name, while living worldly lives—and survive if Your patience with us wears out.”

Who is ready for the next Day of the LORD?

2 "I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land," Says the LORD;  3 "I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, The fish of the sea, And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land," Says the LORD… 7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the LORD is at hand…

Zephaniah 1:2-3, 7

Zephaniah, in three relatively short chapters, employs the phrase “the day of the Lord” seven times.  What is “the day of the Lord?”  Ultimately, the day of the Lord is God’s final judgment of all the world when Christ comes again.  We tend to think excitedly of the Second Coming of Christ with glowing expectation of the full realization of Christ’s Kingdom in the New Heavens and the New Earth.  While that is true, the flip side of the day of the Lord is the outpouring of God’s most severe wrath on all sin and on all sinners.  That aspect of that great day of the Lord is not so appealing to us.

There have been other “days of the Lord” along the winding path of biblical history.  The great and terrible day of the Lord for Israel was in 722 BC when the Assyrians destroyed Israel and cruelly marched them into exile, from which they never returned as a people. 

The great and terrible day of the Lord for Judah was in 586 BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, enslaving most of the population in far away Babylonia.  God graciously delivered the Judeans back after 70 years, since the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah.

As already mentioned, the final great and terrible day of the Lord will be the day of final judgment.  At that judgment, those sentenced to God’s unending wrath will never return.  Those in Christ, will be delivered into the everlasting bliss in God’s kingdom.  Those who will be spared in the final judgment are spared because of another great and terrible day of the Lord.  That day took place 2,000 years ago in a cross on a hill called Calvary, where God the Father poured out the wrath deserved by those He purposed to spare on His only Begotten Son, Jesus.  What a terrible day that was when the Son of God experienced the full fury of Father’s wrath!  What a great day that was for those who will be ultimately and forever spared because of what happened on that day 2,000 years ago!

Is fasting doing without, or doing?

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?  7  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?”

Isaiah 58:6-7

When believers fast (and that is not a widespread discipline in our world of self-indulgence rather than self-sacrifice), we normally think of fasting as doing without food for a season. That is a kind of fasting, but it is only one kind.  More generally, fasting is denying ourselves something lawful for the sake of seeking the Lord without distraction.  I say “lawful,” since giving up sin isn’t fasting.  It is not sinning!

But through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds us of the flip side of fasting.  It is not only what we don’t do, but what we do. 

Not eating, or denying ourselves any lawful thing—as we commit ourselves to seek the Lord more diligently without distraction—is a good start, but God says “make your fast complete not merely by what you don’t do, but by doing good instead.” 

Not eating?  Give the money you would have spent on food to the needy.  In other words, seek the Lord, not merely by not doing something for yourself, but by doing something to serve others.

Read all of Isaiah 58 for more insights into God’s idea of fasting.

How vast is God's grace in your mind?

"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”

Isaiah 43:25

Chapter 43 begins with the words, “But now, thus says the Lord who created you…”  Clearly, Jehovah God is speaking and He continues to speak throughout the entire chapter.   In verse 25, He states emphatically: I, even I,” am the one who forgives your sins; blotting them out and remembering them no more.  How shall we understand such statements?

First, God deals with our sin because we are incapable of doing so.

Second, by blotting them out and remembering them no more, God comforts His people with the promise than He will never change his mind.  He will never un-forgive us.  He will never throw our sins in our faces.  Are you forgiven, child of God?  Then be comforted that you will never be otherwise.

Third, please note that God says why He deals with our sins so completely.  God says He does so “for My own sake.”  Does God not grace us so richly for our sakes?  While we certainly receive great benefit from God, ultimately He saves His people for His sake.  How can forgiving us be for His sake?  It is for the sake [purpose] of putting His incredible grace on display for His eternal glory (see Ephesians 2:7).

How glorious is God’s grace?  If He had saved good people who had made some minor mistakes, He would be a forgiving God worthy of thanks.  But He did so much more.  He saved terminally sinful people who had no hope of, or even desire to, save themselves (see Ephesians 2:1-5 and Romans 5:6-8).  There is not one thing in any of God’s people that could even mildly commend us to God, and yet He saved us.  And at what cost?  The life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Thinking on these things, let us be comforted.  Let us be astonished by His grace, and let us give Him all glory both now and forevermore.

Worldliness & Religion, or a Precious Cornerstone?

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.

Isaiah 28:16

In the beginning of this chapter, God scolds His people for their pride and drunkenness (v.1-3, 7).  They appear to have been religious in their devotion to the law, but it was merely rote externalism.  Therefore God promised (v.16) to send “a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.”

This cornerstone is a Person, and the Person is none other than Jesus Himself.  We need not guess at this, since twice in the New Testament (Romans 9 and 1 Peter 2), Paul and Peter make it clear that these words in Isaiah are about Jesus.

Instead of worldliness and religion, Jesus is a sure, immovable foundation on which we can stand and not fall.  Jesus is not common in the world but precious, worth more than all the treasures we could ever imagine.  Jesus is a cornerstone that squarely aligns all that is built on Him (e.g., His people, His Church, and His kingdom), in line, never crooked or skewed.  Whoever believes [on Him] will not act hastily—which means will not be quick to lay any other foundation, resting patiently on Him.

Let us not be those who profess faith in Christ, but whose lives tell a different tale.  Instead let us trust in and be built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and on Him alone.

None of us knows the future; no, not one. Only the prideful think they do.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!  13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;  14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’  15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.

Isaiah 14:12-15 

Isaiah 13 and 14 were likely penned about the fall of Babylon in around 732 AD.  That was over 200 years before  Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian armies in around 516 AD. (Remember AD years get smaller, not larger, as time moves forward.)  In fact, Isaiah wrote chapters 13 & 14 before Babylon was even a super power.  When these chapters were written, Assyria was the super power in the near east.  Assyria defeated Israel in the North in 722 AD, and then fell to the Babylonians in 616 AD.  Years later in 586 AD, Babylon conquered Judah in the South—who after 70 years, were liberated and allowed to return home in 516, when the Medo-Persians sacked Babylon.

Why the history lesson including dates?

First, what is written in God’s Word is true and it happened in history, not fictional fantasy.

Second, only God knows the future and He had prophets write the future before it happened to verify that these are not the writings of mere men.

Third, Isaiah 14:12-15 foretells of God’s plan to wipe Babylon off the map and why.  And why did God decree the destruction of Babylon?  As judgment on their pride—thinking they were greater than God Himself.  Foolishness!

But that prophecy is also written in a manner that looks back to the fall of Lucifer from being an archangel to the devil.  Again why?  Pride.

Let us not only learn our history, but a most valuable lesson about what lies ahead for the prideful.

"Peoples"? or "People"?

Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.

Micah 1:2 

God’s plan was never limited to Israel.  His plan was always to save people from every tribe, tongue and nation.  His plan will be fully accomplished as seen in Revelation 7:9-10.

This saving of “the nations” or the “peoples,” was not Plan B because Plan A failed when the people of Israel rejected their Messiah (John 1:11).

God intended for the Jews to be a light to the Gentile nations bringing them the truth about Him (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 52:10, 60:3; John 8:12; Acts 13:47, 26:23). *

Here the prophet Micah cries out to the “peoples” referring not to all people, but to every people group.  He cries out to the “earth and all who live in it” (NIV).   And what does Micah say?  The Lord God is a witness against us all!  “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23).  All have broken God’s Law (James 2:10).  “All have fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Therefore all are guilty before a holy God no matter how well we stack up against other sinners.  This is bad news indeed.

But the prophet Micah is also the one who announced the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2.  Jesus, the sovereign God of the universe was born in insignificant Bethlehem so He could live, die, and rise from the dead to secure complete and final forgiveness for those He came to save—a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, who will ever be the Israel of God.

* Many verses (not all) are cited to demonstrate that this is not an obscure doctrine without overwhelming scriptural support.

Are you prepared to meet your God?

“Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

Amos 4:12

God sent the prophet Amos with a message of judgment on six pagan nations.  Each message was short, though not sweet.  Amos delivered a seventh short message to Judah (in the South), but the longest (the last seven of nine chapters) was for Israel (in the North.)  God denounced Israel for many things: violence, injustice, idolatry, and false outward shows of worship of God.  One of the most terrifying statements is God’s promise that He will visit them with the judgments He promised them, followed by the words: “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

Every human being who has ever lived either has or will meet and answer to God.  Like it or not!  There is a day of reckoning—of Judgment.  The standard by which each will be judged is the righteousness of God.  Next to that standard,  we have all fallen infinitely short—no matter how poorly or well we may do when comparing ourselves with fellow sinners.

Everyone is guilty before God and all will meet Him for judgment. Every human being is in real trouble.

But Wait!

There is a way to prepare to meet our God.  It isn’t the way of trying harder.  Even if we could be perfect from now on (which we can’t!), that would do nothing to undo the sins we have already committed, which by themselves would condemn us.

The only way to prepare to meet our God is to trust in Jesus Christ.  Because we are all sinners and have no hope of saving ourselves, Jesus lived sinlessly and died vicariously (that is, in our place) to pay the penalty for our sins.  His death in our place only helps us if and when we trust in Him, and Him alone for forgiveness.  Prepare to meet your God by trusting in Jesus.  If you do there will be no judgment because Jesus already took that judgment for those who trust Him.

Godliness only when someone is looking

Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. Yet He sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.

2 Chronicles 24:17-19

Jehoiada was a godly priest when 7-year old Joash became king of Judah.  Obviously, Joash was not ready to rule the nation, so Jehoiada took the lad under his wing and saw that Joash led the nation back to serving the Lord.  “Back to serving the Lord?”  Yes.  During the previous six years Judah was ruled by wicked Athaliah (daughter of Israel’s Queen Jezabel!), who began her evil reign over Judah by murdering all the heirs to David’s throne—all but the baby Joash who was safely hidden.  During Athaliah’s disastrous usurping of the throne of David, Judah plunged headlong in to every sort of idolatry.  Not surprisingly, the nation suffered!

Under Joash’s reign (under Jehoida’s godly influence), Judah returned to the Lord and experienced God’s blessings.  When Jehoida died however, Joash listened to the people instead of to God, and like a dog returning to its vomit, the nation chose to return to their former ways of idolatry.  Not surprisingly, God’s displeasure was evident as the nation suffered under the rest of Joash’s rule.

Here are two take-aways:  First, that Joash was only good as long as Jehoida was alive, but turned from the Lord when the priest died, is a sober reminder that it isn’t enough to start well if one finishes badly.  This is also why we must not stop praying for our children’s salvation until they are walking with the Lord independently of us; since when many taste “freedom,” they lose all taste for the things of the Lord!

Second, why do people who have known the bitterness of sin and its consequences, who then taste the sweetness of God’s blessing, so often return to what they should know is a recipe for spiritual disaster?  It must be partly that we are forgetful and partly that we are stupid.  God have mercy on our nation, that is largely enamored with godlessness and sin—thinking that doing what history has demonstrated will not work, will be good.  It will be our undoing as it was in Joash’s day.