Isaiah 50
When we talk about God, one of the first things that comes to mind is light. Jesus is described in the Gospels as the Light of the World (Jn 8:12) and the true light that gives light to every person (Jn 1:9). In fact, the Bible begins with God saying, “Let there be light!” (Gen 1:3). So, that’s why it seemed a bit odd to come to the end of this chapter and discover that, sometimes, those who follow the Lord walk in the dark:
Isaiah 31
After I read this chapter, I thought for a long time about how to sum up all the thoughts that were swirling around in my head. Even after reading about this time and time again in the Old Testament, it is still incredible to me that the Israelites were eager to put their trust in the Egyptians instead of God! I mean, this is the same nation God whooped with the plagues hundreds of years before. He exposed their gods as frauds and all their “strength” as interminable weakness. But it seems the Israelites had forgotten all of that.
Isaiah 26
There are times in our lives when circumstances cause us to step back and realize just how fleeting life is and just how little control we have over the things that happen to us. This isn’t a reality we often face; most of us go merrily through the day, living out the plans we have made for ourselves, gleefully unaware that it could all come crashing down around us in a moment (although somewhere, in the back of our minds, we know it’s true).
Ecclesiastes 9
Just in case we didn’t get the message in chapter 8 yesterday, Solomon continues to drive home the point about having little control over the things that happen to us in life: “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (vs 11)
Ecclesiastes 8
In this chapter, Solomon continues his theme that life isn’t fair: “There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” (vs 14-15)
Psalm 102
I have been preparing church services out of the Old Testament for the last few weeks, so I currently have my head filled with thoughts of Pharaoh and the ten plagues. And that may be why this verse from today’s psalm jumped out at me: “My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.” (vs 11)
Psalm 46
This psalm contains one of my favorite texts in the Bible: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (vs 10) This, after a vivid picture of utter chaos: “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (vs 2-3)
Job 13
This chapter of Job contains one of my most favorite verses in the Bible and one of the most beautiful things Job said during the course of his ordeal: "Even if God kills me, I will still trust him." (vs 15) Wow—what a statement! Job knew God so well and trusted Him so much that he felt comfortable to place his life totally in God’s hands.
Esther 3
My, my. What a startling portrait of insecurity in the third chapter of Esther: "When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes." (vs 5-6)
2 Chronicles 16
I’m sure you’ve heard this famous saying: God helps those who help themselves. A popular idea, but is it true? King Asa’s experience in 2 Chronicles 16 would seem to contradict the idea. For what was Asa doing, but helping himself? "In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. 'Let there be a treaty between me and you,' he said, 'as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.'" (vs 1-3)
2 Chronicles 12
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the idea we have that our lives here on Earth should be easy and relatively painless. We must have this idea buried deep somewhere in our minds, for it seems that when any of us face adversity or crisis, we react with shock. How could this happen to me? Next, we focus our energies on how to get out of the unpleasant situation.
1 Chronicles 22
Just before Solomon ascended to the throne, his father made all the necessary preparations for the building of the temple. David had wanted to build the temple himself, but God had decided that Solomon would build it instead. This was because Solomon would not be a warring king, as his father had been. In fact, Solomon’s very name was related to the Hebrew word for peace. It seems that God wanted the idea of peace to be an integral part of His dwelling place on Earth.
Photo © Unsplash/Thu Trang Nguyen Tran
The question Egypt's officials
put to their king
haunts me
How was he so blind
or so stubborn
or so arrogant
that he didn't see how
everything he loved
was slowly crumbling around him
Or did he see
Maybe the problem wasn't
that he didn't know
but that he did
Maybe the problem wasn't
that he thought he wasn't ruined
but knew he was
and thought there was
still a chance
still a way
he could fix it
One more opportunity
one more try
one more day
to start over
to redouble his efforts
to get it right
Maybe the problem wasn't that Pharaoh
didn't know Egypt was ruined
but that he still believed
he could repair the damage
But there is only
One
who can restore
There is only
One
who can rebuild
There is only
One
who can recover
all that has been lost
and it’s not us—
To be ruined
is not the problem
The problem is
we no more want to obey
than Pharaoh did
those two little words
God spoke:
Let. Go.
1 Kings 19
For those of you who may not be fans of poker, there frequently comes a point when a player will go "all in." That means that he will bet everything he has left because he believes he has the best hand at the table. Everything is on the line. If he has the best hand, he may be in a position to win the whole game. But if he doesn’t have the best hand, he could lose everything.
Poor David. Fleeing from Jerusalem, rumors flying around him, and now, being abused by a man from Saul’s family. Not only was the man cursing David, but he was throwing stones and dirt at him and his troops as well. Finally, one of David’s men asked if he could go over and cut the guy’s head off. (What a nonchalant request.) David’s reply was very interesting:
2 SAMUEL 6
Right off the bat, I must confess that I owe a debt of gratitude for the way I look at Uzzah’s story to Eugene Peterson’s insights in his book Leap Over a Wall. If you’d like to read more about the life of David, I highly recommend picking up that book. It helped me see a lot of things in a new way—including the story of Uzzah.
