Month: September 2016

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ISAIAH 19:1-21:17 | GALATIANS 2:1-16 | PSALM 59:1-17 | PROVERBS 23:13-14

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Isaiah’s prophetic streak continues with specific references to Egypt, Cush, Babylon, Edom, and Arabia. It is to the reader’s discretion and preference for dissecting the detailed foretellings on these ancient lands to ascertain which might have been fulfilled to date.

We turn next to Paul’s epistle to the Galatians where Paul starts out by making clear his position on his mission:  he is the apostle to the non-Jews, also known as the Gentiles.  He says, ⁸ For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 

And in line with this, Paul is not one to succumb to pressure to conform to Jewish practices of circumcision, and cites that Titus, his colleague and a Greek by birth has remained uncircumcised.  Paul is adamant on this point, and mentions his direct opposition to Cephas and Barnabas, two other missionary colleagues of his who evidently practiced hypocrisy concerning some personal habits of dietary laws and such. 

Paul asks them, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Paul will have none of this hypocrisy, and is determined to make clear what really matters, i.e., personal belief in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose work on the cross we have received a justification of our sins. 

That is what is important and relevant—not what you eat and whether or not you are circumcised.  It does not matter anymore, regardless of whether you are a Jew or Gentile. 

The Law cannot save us, only faith and grace can.  If the Law could save, why would have God come down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to take upon himself the sin of the world?  To what purpose is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?  Was it all in vain? 

Nay, dear reader, it is not.  It is the very essence of the faith wherein we can boldly say that all such observances of the Jewish Law is to naught because the Law has not—and cannot—ever accomplish the forgiveness and redemption offered by the work of Christ.

Paul cannot say this enough, and says it again in no uncertain terms here:   ¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

Turning next to our psalm for the day, we find David distraught over his enemies, and yet not without hope in the Lord’s protection and provision.  Would that we would also have the same level of confidence to cry out to God in our hour of need.  After describing how he is beset by his enemies, David has a clear refrain that goes like this:

¹⁶ But I will sing of your strength,
   in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.

¹⁷ You are my strength, I sing praise to you;
you, God, are my fortress,
my God on whom I can rely.

Finally, a set of verses from the book of Proverbs for the day.  The “rod” is to be taken metaphorically in my strongest opinion ever.  The rod is a metaphor for instruction.  Woe is to the parent who takes a literal interpretation of this saying:

¹³ Do not withhold discipline from a child;
   if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
¹⁴ Punish them with the rod
   and save them from death.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.

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ISAIAH 15:1-18:7 | GALATIANS 1:1-24 | PSALM 58:1-11 | PROVERBS 23:12

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Isaiah’s prophecies are legendary.  He has the most lamentable prophecies for many a people, and in the same breath has the most wondrous of prophecies for the world.  In this passage, he has a few choice things to say about Moab—present-day Jordan’s ruin. 

Isaiah says:  But now the LORD says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

But Isaiah also has this to offer as a ray of hope—the reference to the “house of David” to be none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah.  He says:

⁵ In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
one from the house of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.

Next in line are prophecies against Damascus, in modern Syria and the kingdom of Cush in modern Sudan and Egypt.  Even in that day, Israel had few neighbors that she could call friend.  As is the case today, in those ancient times also, there were more foes than friends that surrounded her.  Isaiah’s prophecies to these nations were as follows:

¹² Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
¹³ Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
¹⁴ In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.

We turn next to our reading from the New Testament, and find ourselves commencing a new book titled Galatians—yet another epistle or letter written by Paul to the churches in Galatia, present-day Turkey. 

Paul starts out with a standard greeting, but is quick to launch into one of the main purposes of his letter, which is to strengthen the faith of these young Christians.  These were people who had descended from the Gauls—a mix of Roman and Greek stock—who most likely worshiped many pagan gods, and even after their adoption of the gospel of Christ as preached to them by Paul, some had been led astray to believe in other “versions” of the gospel.

On this matter, Paul is much concerned for them, and writes to them these words, ⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. 

Paul writes on, ¹¹ I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. ¹² I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 

And further down: ²⁰ I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.

Paul goes on to refresh their memory of who he really is:  a zealot Jew who persecuted the Gentiles at one time, but one who came into contact with the marvelous grace of God through his son Jesus Christ by whose work on the cross, the righteousness of God was made complete and offered to both Jew and Gentile, a priceless gift—offered free of cost to all who believed. 

This was the gospel that Paul preached to the Galatians and to all the other churches in Asia Minor. 

He says to them regarding this:  ²² I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³ They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they praised God because of me.

Turning now to our psalm of the day, we find one which must have undoubtedly have been written by David in a rage of emotions.  There is no softening the blow of his words; here is a man seething against his enemies, and he is not afraid to heap curses upon their heads.  If anything, a psalm like this affirms the humanity of this great king David, who despite being a man after God’s own heart, was one who displayed all the universal human emotions of anger and even revenge. 

All these base emotions make us who we are, and despite our best efforts, there are times when we succumb to them in echoing the kind of thoughts and words that David had for his enemies.  In a lighter vein, one can take a lesson or two in how to heap curses upon another from these colorful verses:

⁶ Break the teeth in their mouths, O God;
LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions!
⁷ Let them vanish like water that flows away;
when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
⁸ May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along,
like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

Finally, one verse from the book of Proverbs worthy of record and rumination:

¹² Apply your heart to instruction
   and your ears to words of knowledge.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.

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ISAIAH 12:1-14:32 | 2 CORINTHIANS 13:1-14 | PSALM 57:1-11 | PROVERBS 23:9-11

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Isaiah is on a roll.  The man has much to prophesy, and he spares no time in doing it. 

There is at first, the prolonged prophecy against Babylon—the rulers of which subjugated the children of Israel for many a generation.  Isaiah foretells this of this nation-state:

¹⁹ Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the pride and glory of the Babylonians,
will be overthrown by God
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰ She will never be inhabited
or lived in through all generations;
there no nomads will pitch their tents,
there no shepherds will rest their flocks.
²¹ But desert creatures will lie there,
jackals will fill her houses;
there the owls will dwell,
and there the wild goats will leap about.
²² Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds,
jackals her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand,
and her days will not be prolonged.

Next, there is a no-mincing-of-words prophecy for the Philistines, from whom arose the mighty Goliath who was felled by a few smooth stones in a sling by a young boy named David.  Isaiah says this of these people:

29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
³⁰ The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.

³¹ Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!
Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
³² What answer shall be given
to the envoys of that nation?
“The LORD has established Zion,
and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

Turning next to our reading of Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, we have arrived at the very last chapter of this book, and we find Paul’s continued exhortations to the young Christians there to continue strong in their newly found faith. 

He says to them,  ⁵ Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? 

Finally, he concludes his letter with this timeless advice:  ¹¹ Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

Next, we turn to our reading of the psalms, and we find David, the psalmist, plaintively asking for the Lord’s help.  Surely, these must have been words that had an origin in danger and fear of life even as David spent much of his youth being pursued by Saul, king of Israel, who was determined to kill him.  David’s prayer for help and protection is one that is a timeless one, and it would behoove us to exercise similar trust in God’s provision.  David says:

¹ Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed.

 ² I cry out to God Most High,
to God, who vindicates me.
³ He sends from heaven and saves me,
rebuking those who hotly pursue me—
God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

And it is with a matchless confidence that David proclaims toward the end of this psalm, these words:

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
   your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Finally, a few verses from the book of Proverbs that are worthy of record and deep rumination:

 ⁹ Do not speak to fools,
for they will scorn your prudent words.

That, in and of itself is a most priceless nugget for the day, but there’s more where that came from, as can be seen in these verses below that implicitly exhort one to take up the cause of the weak:

¹⁰ Do not move an ancient boundary stone
   or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
¹¹ for their Defender is strong;
   he will take up their case against you.

May God bless the reading and reflection of His Word.