A Boomer in the Pew

Do you Believe in Isaiah's Prophecy of the end of all Creation?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #205 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Isaiah 34-35.

The book of Isaiah tells of the destruction of Israel, Judah, and then speaks of a final future destruction of creation itself with all of its inhabitants.

Chapter 34 is very difficult to read.  Who can understand such things? 

To complicate things, at least in my mind, I can hear false preachers thumping their pulpits looking to scare people out of their money.

Like it or not, Isaiah has made it very clear.  There are two groups of people in this future judgment:

• the judged
• the ransomed

Now, a decision by almighty God is forced upon us:  choose.

I suppose, when staring at this final day of the Lord, and trying to wrap one's mind around creation being torn asunder, and the unrighteous being slaughtered by God, and sent to an eternal living judgment in hell, we must keep in mind that it isn't like he didn't warn us about such a day.

Just as in the destruction of Israel, and Judah, God sent centuries worth of prophets warning people to stop defying their Creator.

So too, for thousands of years, God has also given us this warning of a final day of judgment.

The great problem is that our fallen natures are prone to scoff at such things. 

"This is nonsense", says our human reason!

And again, it all boils down to a choice.  Do we believe in God?  Do we believe that the Bible contains God's word to us?

As Josh McDowell has written in his many books, there exists, to the serious student, a mountain of evidence that requires that we make a decision.

Furthermore, to simply stick our heads in the sand and make no decision is not only cowardly, but is always a foolish thing to do.

If we go all the way back to Joshua, as God was preparing the Promised Land for Israel, Joshua stood before all Israel and said the same thing:

"...choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

I'm with Joshua on this one.  How about you?

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #204 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Isaiah 31-34.

How was your worldview shaped, and where do you now turn when you find yourself in need of true truth?

Did you know that, according to the Barna Group, a majority of Americans believe that the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves" is found in the Bible?

This little phrase, evidently actually coined by Benjamin Franklin, seems rather benign.  But isn't it interesting that over the centuries this phrase has come to be believed by most, and even believed to be part of God's holy word?

Furthermore, because this phrase has indeed become a part of the American psyche, a great many will defend this worldview without really understanding all of its implications.

So, does God help those who help themselves? 

I suppose it depends on how we are going to define "help themselves". 

Certainly God has made it clear that if we don't work, then we don't eat.  So, in this sense, this maxim seems to be true.

But, if we take this maxim to a matter of faith, then it is clear that God would take issue. 

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord! (Isaiah 31:1)

The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together. (Isaiah 31:3)

One of the many charges that God brought against Israel and Judah is that they continually placed their faith in things other than God.  This included false gods, themselves, and even other nations.

In this particular case, the nation of Judah is afraid of Assyria and amazingly turns back to their former captures (Egypt) for help, rather than calling upon Yahweh.

One amazing example of this is the narrative of King Jehoshaphat.

Therefore, I think a better worded maxim would be:

God helps those who place their trust in Him, and lives their lives according to His precepts.

Who knows, perhaps Benjamin Franklin's maxim will be replaced by mine.  It could happen!  :)

God: Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Bible in a Year Series - Day #203 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Isaiah 28-30.

As painful as it is to watch this period of history, this chronological journey through the Bible is really helping me to gain a better perspective on how all of this ties together.

Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped! (Isaiah 29:1)

As I was reading the 29th chapter of Isaiah this morning, I remembered that this scene will play out again many centuries later with Messiah lamenting of Jerusalem.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39)

In both of these occasions, God brought destruction to Israel.

Although this judgment seems harsh to the unlearned, our current journey through these many prophets gives us a better understanding of God's heart.

It is very difficult to understand the weeping of God's heart here, and in Hosea for example, and to fit that together with the mighty roaring lion that will soon destroy Jerusalem, and has already destroyed Samaria.

I suppose we better learn that God hates sin, yet loves the sinner.  Shortly, in coming chapters of Isaiah, God is going to make it clear that we must choose:  judgment or salvation.

Ah, here's the rub isn't it.  Our fallen nature abhors being told what to do.

We will be the captains of our soul.

However, the One who created us has a differing reality, and it is good for us to spend time contemplating these things.

Listen as God Sings to you From Hosea 14

Bible in a Year Series - Day #202 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Hosea 8-14.

I find Hosea's poetry to be most beautiful.

The first three chapters of Hosea describe the indescribable love of a husband toward and adulterous wife.

In chapters 4-13, God, as the righteous attorney and judge lays out his case against Israel, and through the lips of his Prophet Hosea, tells of their impending doom through the armies of Assyria.

However, the last chapter Yahweh again pleads for his bride Israel, "turn from your wicked ways, and I heal you and take you again in my arms.  If you do, then your beauty will be like the olive tree, and I will be to you like the dew."  (my paraphrase)

Here is Hosea 14 put to song by the 1970's group Lamb:

Book of Hosea: A Gut Wrenching View of God's Bride in the Arms of Another Lover

Bible in a Year Series - Day #201 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Hosea 1-7.

One of the most excruciating circumstances one can find themselves upon is to see one's bride, the love of your love, in the arms of another lover.

It will absolutely tear your heart out, and leave you screaming in the night with pain.

Yet, amazingly yet, try to imagine what kind of love can endure this torture, swallow the immense pain, and have the forgiving strength to start over again at the very innocent beginning.

How can you enjoy the rapture of the first kiss after such betrayal?  How can you again enjoy the first ecstasy of the wedding night?

The book of Hosea is about exactly that.

Israel, God's metaphorical wife, has become the harlot, and has been found in the bed of another man (the false god Baal, and many idols).

We have seen a great deal of Holy God's judgment as he has dealt with his wayward bride Israel, but I can't think of an episode where we are privy to such a tender display of God's heart.

And to help the Prophet Hosea understand this, most surprisingly God instructs him to marry a harlot so that he might have his heart torn asunder, and only then clearly understand the message that God will deliver through him.

I can't read these pages without weeping.

Dear reader, you can not understand God's love unless you understand his searingly painful marriage to the harlot.

Here is how God lovingly responds to his harlot:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord." (Hosea 2:14-20)

I stand mute, and weep, as I gaze upon this manner of love.

Oh my soul, how greatly are you loved by Yahweh!

Behold the Power of a Godly Mother in Hezekiah's Life

Bible in a Year Series - Day #200 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Kings 18:1-8, 2 Chronicles 29-31, Psalm 48. 

If there ever was a king who should have been messed up in the head from the beginning, it was the young 25 year old King Hezekiah.

His father, King Ahaz, was one of the worst kings of Judah in that he brought back Baal worship, tore down the implements of God's holy temple replacing them with idols, and even sacrificed one of his sons to Baal.

Further, God was not happy with all of this and sent Assyria and Israel down to confiscate some of Judah's lands, and even took away thousands of Judah's citizens into exile.

What a mess!

Yet amazingly, through all of that indescribable horror, here comes young King Hezekiah full of vigor for Holy God.

Certainly, this was the hand of God. 

But it didn't escape my notice that King Hezekiah's mother (Abijah) was mentioned.  Further, the Scriptures tell us that Abijah was the daughter of Zechariah, who was the spiritual counselor to another of Judah's fairly decent kings, King Uzziah.

I just have to believe that Abijah played a significant role in keeping this young Hezekiah away from the evil influences of Ahaz, and brought him up to fear the Lord.

Therefore, we now see Judah in the throws of a revival, and King Hezekiah's name is mentioned alongside the great King David.

My grandmother held great influence over my life, and it was she who singularly, and faithfully keep the name of God continually before me.  Further, she constantly told me how she would pray for me every night.

What a blessing for King Hezekiah to have Abijah's influence, and what a blessing for me to have my Grandmother Eliza.

More Than A Skeleton by Paul L. Maier

I just finished reading More Than a Skeleton, by Dr. Paul L. Maier. This is my second Maier novel, the first being A Skeleton in God's Closet.

Both of these books read like a good Grisham novel.  Both center around the church, and have been called by some "theological thrillers".

"When Joshua Ben-Yosef, an Israeli from Galilee --- born in Nazareth to parents Mary and Joseph --- begins assembling 12 followers, attracting crowds and performing miracles, the world takes notice. Could Dr. Melvin Merton have been correct about the imminent return of Christ? It seems everyone is a believer in this "Messiah," including Weber's wife, Shannon --- especially when Joshua performs the "ultimate sign" by raising his disciple from the dead. Plagued by skepticism, Weber may be the only one who can intervene before the very foundations of the Christian faith are shattered."

These novels are very easy reading, yet will force you to contemplate your own belief system when you peer at Christianity's potential undoing in both of these novels.

Both would make great summer reading, and I highly recommend them both.

Up next, I am going to read Maier's historical novels The Flames of Rome (about Nero), and Pontius Pilate.

I'm looking forward to them both.

The Prophet Isaiah Foretells a Coming Final Apocalypse

Bible in a Year Series - Day #199 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Isaiah 23-27.

We have been viewing Isaiah's prophecies about God's judgment of the nations surrounding Israel, as God has been making it clear that His people must not place their faith in nations.

Now, with great wonder, we come to what has been called the Isaiah Apocalypse. (Isaiah 24-27:13)

Here we can see:

• A final judgment of all the earth
• Satan (Leviathan) being slain
• A final city (heaven) for God's chosen
• The redemption of Israel
• A bodily resurrection of mankind
• Death swallowed up forever

When you read these words, what thoughts go through your mind?

I am reminded of conversation with a dear Arizonan Jewish friend who said, "I am jealous that you believe in an afterlife".

I now wonder if he has ever noticed these words from Isaiah?

It seems to me that these prophecies of Isaiah will produce one of two things: a scoffer or a grateful worshiping child of God.