Isaiah 58
In this chapter, God exposed the Israelites’ empty practice of two religious rituals—fasting and Sabbath-keeping: “On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high… If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, (vs 3-4, 13-14)
Isaiah 40
You know, there are some days on this blog when it seems like I’m grasping at straws to find something, anything in the chapter to write about. I particularly remember feeling that way during the ten genealogy chapters of 1 Chronicles! Today, I had the opposite problem. I think I could have written 15 different blogs from things in Isaiah 40. How come he had to cram all the great stuff in the same chapter?
Isaiah 35
Have you ever watched a movie about the struggle between good and evil that ended up with evil defeating good? I know I have. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a good example right off the top of my head, but I know that more than once in recent years, I have come to the end of a movie with a knot in my stomach because the story didn’t end well. What does Hollywood have against happy endings?
Ecclesiastes 6
I think Solomon hit on something extremely important in this chapter. It would seem he’s been building up to it for six chapters, running through lists of nearly everything that can be experienced in this life and calling all of it meaningless—wealth, poverty, wisdom, folly, justice, injustice, toil, laziness, and so on.
Proverbs 9
It’s always interesting to notice patterns in literature, and the Bible is no different. There have already been numerous recurring statements in the first eight chapters of the book of Proverbs, but this chapter contained its own special pattern. Did you notice the invitation that was issued twice?
Whoever is easy to fool, let him turn in here! (vs 4, 16)
Psalm 72
When my kids were very young, I remember having conversations with my mom about modern children’s toys and the concerns I had with giving too many of them to my girls at too young an age. Nowadays, kids grow up with so much to entertain them. Especially with the baby toys, it seemed like everything blinked or beeped or played music. Not to mention, most of the electronic toys we ended up with talked in more than one language! It was quite overwhelming even to me, and I remembering wondering if there would be room for my kids’ imaginations to grow. I had the urge to raise them in as “unplugged” an environment as possible. And we tried to do just that.
Psalm 47
In this psalm, David says, “He chooses our inheritance for us.” (vs 4) When I read this, I remembered how, after the birth of our first child, my husband and I suddenly realized we didn’t have a will and that we needed to get one put together. Of course, we wanted to make sure that if something happened to us and we weren’t around, our children would be taken care of (without too much red tape!).
Psalm 40
There is something in the nature of love that makes it everlasting. It never ends, but keeps going on and on forever. By contrast, there is something in the nature of sin that makes it self-destruct. It cannot last, but quickly spirals down to nothing. In this chapter of Psalms, we get a glimpse of God’s nature, the nature of love:
Job 24
There is a lot of talk about justice these days—especially in the "enlightened" and "educated" culture of the West. And this topic of discussion is not limited to any particular arena. You hear it discussed both inside and outside of the church. There are a lot of different ideas about justice. What is it? When is it achieved? How is it achieved? Is justice achieved at the level of treatment (that is, how people are treated) or at the level of outcomes (that is, what happens to people)?
Job 16
Eliphaz and his friends accused Job of attacking God. Job claimed it was the other way around: "I was living in comfort, but He has taken that away. He has taken hold of me by the neck and shaken me to pieces." (vs 12) Commentators are divided (on this verse and the surrounding ones) as to whether the "he" is referring to God or Satan. Regardless, we’re going to proceed as if Job was talking about God. Have you ever felt like life was going along smoothly, and all of a sudden, God stepped in and messed it up?
Job 11
I have a feeling that the title for this blog will pique the curiosity of more than a few. There may be some who are inclined to "tune out" right from the get-go, but... please don’t! If you disagree with what I have to say about this chapter of Job, I want to hear from you! Please leave a comment, and let’s have a discussion about this important topic.
Job 10
Here is the passage from today’s chapter that I want to focus on in this blog: "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness." (vs 18-22)
Ezra 3
This was a short and sweet chapter, so I thought a short and sweet blog would be in order. Did you catch these verses? "When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: 'He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.' And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." (vs 10-11)
2 Chronicles 28
In this chapter, there is a wonderful example of God’s principle of returning good for evil, inspired by leaders of Ephraim who urged the people of Israel to release the captives from Judah they had defeated in battle: "'You must not bring those prisoners here,' they said, 'or we will be guilty before the Lord. Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel.' So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and plunder in the presence of the officials and all the assembly. The men designated by name took the prisoners, and from the plunder they clothed all who were naked. They provided them with clothes and sandals, food and drink, and healing balm. All those who were weak they put on donkeys. So they took them back to their fellow Israelites at Jericho, the City of Palms, and returned to Samaria." (vs 13-15)
2 Chronicles 1
I think this is one of the neatest stories in the Bible. Solomon asks for what is most important—and ends up receiving everything that is most important as well as all the "perks." It always reminds me of what Jesus told His disciples: "But seek first [God's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matt 6:33)
"Israel drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them,
and that rock was Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:4
God gives.
He doesn't know how to do anything else.
He gives rain to the righteous
and rain to the wicked.
He gives water to the grateful
and water to the complainers.
God is good.
He doesn't know how to be anything else.
If you are good to Him,
He will be good to you.
If you are evil to Him,
He will be good to you.
Moses struck the rock
with his rod at Meribah
and life-giving water flowed out.
We strike the Rock and
Life is still the thing
that gushes out after us,
a flood of grace
to meet our anger,
a deluge of mercy
to defy our shame,
a surge of good
to repay our evil.
