Behold, The Days Are Coming
In the midst of warning the people of Judah that they will soon go into exile in Babylon, God also informs them that they will be returned to their homeland in 70 years. In today’s reading we hear of Israel and Judah eventually being restored by God. Is this a reference to restoration in 70 years or in some other time?
Jeremiah 30:8-9
“And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
Now on the surface this might easily be seen to be a reference to the return from Babylonian exile but if you look deeper you will see that the reference to foreigners no longer making them servants denies this possibility. Rome later conquered Israel after their return from the Babylonian and Assyrian exiles. If we realize that there has not been a king of Israel or Judah since they went into the Babylonian exile we understand that these verses refer to a king that has yet to come.
Let me clarify here. Jesus Christ is this king that God refers to here but the reference is to His second coming as the bonds of foreigners have not yet been broken from Israel’s neck. You may say that Israel is today a free country with no yoke around its neck, but you would be wrong. The modern state of Israel is only part of what God refers to as Israel. God gave deed to the land to the descendants of Jacob. While some of it remains in foreign hands the prophecy above cannot be considered fulfilled. That is why we are talking about the second coming of Christ when discussing this passage.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
God is in the process of fulfilling this prophecy. God has made a promise to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has also made a promise to the other nations of the world. Those promises depend on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When one submits to Christ’s authority God sends His spirit to dwell with in you. His Law is written on the Christian’s heart. You are now capable of obedience because He is with you every step of the way. Isn’t it wonderful to know that you and I today can know God.
Of course this prophecy has not yet come to fruition. As the passage implies there is still the job of teaching our neighbors to know the Lord. It is only after judgment comes, and only those who belong to Christ remain, that the job of proclaiming the Gospel will be finished. My heart aches for the lost but rejoices for the faithful.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
God’s Plans For You
I have a couple of thoughts to share with you about today’s reading. First a bit of review. The individual who is king in Jerusalem at this point in time is Zedekiah. He is king because the king of Babylon placed him on the throne after taking his brother, the previous king, into exile. Since Jeconiah is still alive in Babylon, one could argue that Zedekiah is not a legitimate king. I make this point because the genealogy of Jesus, as listed at the beginning of Matthew, shows that He is descended from Jeconiah not Zedekiah.
Jesus is descended from David through most of the kings of Judah, through Jeconiah in the Babylonian exile down to Joseph his father. Now you might rightly point out that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father so how is it that he is credited with being descended from David through Joseph. This was a male dominated society. Genealogy was traced through the father and Joseph had taken Jesus as his own son. Still the biology of the deal raises questions until we consider that Mary was also a descendant of David. Some do not believe that we can prove that Mary was descended from David, while some scholars believe that the genealogy of Joseph is listed in Matthew and the genealogy of Mary is listed in Luke – which explains the fact that those genealogies differ so greatly. Still, Mary’s genealogy proceeds through the son of Jeconiah as well, not Zedekiah.
My final point is a bit repetitive from previous posts but it never ceases to amaze me how even in the midst of declaring the greatest of punishment God always includes a ray of hope. He has sent some of His people into exile and shortly will exile some more while destroying others. Israel is to be wiped out. And yet, He tells them this:
Jeremiah 29:10-14
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
Never forget brothers in the midst of God’s discipline that He has plans for you – plans for welfare and not for evil.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Are You Like Hezekiah?
Isaiah 37-39, Psalm 76
I had to chuckle as I read about Hezekiah in today’s reading. Out of all the kings of Israel and Judah after the kingdom split in two, Hezekiah was the most “godly”. He was the only one to tear down the Ashtoreth poles and high places of worship to foreign gods. He returned the nation to worship of the One True God. He turned to God in his troubles and trusted in His salvation. At the beginning of our reading today Hezekiah is ill and Isaiah tells him he will die. Hezekiah turns to God in prayer and asks to be saved from his illness. In response God gave him another 15 years. Still he is a flawed human.
After Hezekiah recovered from his illness, the king of Babylon sent envoys to him to commend him on his recovery. Hezekiah was very pleased to have been honored this way by such a powerful and distant king. In his pride he showed these envoys the wealth of Israel. This foolish display of pride planted the seed of the coming exile to Babylon. Having seen the wealth of Israel Babylon would eventually come to claim it.
Isaiah came to Hezekiah to tell him of the eventual results of his own foolishness.
Isaiah 39:5-8
“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”
It was Hezekiah’s reaction to being told that his nation would be conquered and taken into captivity, and that his sons would be castrated and forced to serve a foreign king that made me chuckle. Hezekiah basically said “as long as I’m alright I am good with that!” Is there no selfless person in the entire Bible? Here is the best king we can find during the divided kingdom era and he is content as long as things go well for him personally! “God gave me another 15 years, I’m rich, I’m comfortable – who cares about what happens to my children and my nation after I’m gone?” Wow!
Of course, there is only one human in the Bible who is selfless and that is Jesus the Christ. He is the only hero of the Bible that never sinned, that never made Himself a priority over the wellbeing of others. So, maybe that lets you and me off the hook. I mean if Jesus was the only truly selfless person in the Bible how can I be condemned for being selfish? I’m assuming you are at least a little bit selfish. Is that fair? Do you always put the wellbeing of others before yourself? Do you always put the will of God before your own? No? Then you have some measure of selfishness within you. Still, that’s okay isn’t it? I’m mean you’re just being human right?
If you haven’t submitted your life to the authority of Christ then I don’t expect you to behave in a selfless manner. If you have submitted to Christ you have His Holy Spirit residing within you don’t you? Does He not empower you to be like Him? Does He not make it possible for you to be selfless? No doubt we won’t become completely like Him until we are untied with Him in Heaven, but with Him in our heart we should truly care about the wellbeing of those He came to save. Do you care about the lost or are you like Hezekiah simply thankful that you are safe? Do you care what happens to others once you are gone? Do you care what happens to them today? If so, how are you actively caring for the lost? Are you busy doing that which Christ commanded you to do – make disciples?
Brothers, submitting to the authority of Christ is not the end of the race but the beginning. Having submitted to Christ, His love for the lost is within you. He is actively urging you to run the race He has given you. He is asking you to care about the lost. He is asking you to make disciples.
In the play Hamlet, the depressed little prince by that name states rhetorically “To be or not to be – that is the question”. With all due respect to the Bard, I believe a better question would be “To be like Hezekiah or to be like Christ – that is the question.” Start running your race guys!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Satan & Lucifer Are Not The Same Dude?
Isaiah 13-17
In today’s reading we hear a prophecy concerning Babylon and its king. Some have felt that “Day Star” was a reference to Lucifer and that Lucifer is another name for Satan. I actually thought all of this myself until I started reading commentaries about the verses below.
Isaiah 14:12-15
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.”
Isaiah has prophesied that Judah will be conquered by Babylon. He also has prophesied, as seen above, that Babylon will be punished for what it will do to Judah.
I find the Bible to be a bit like a diamond. God’s light shines through the Bible in a dazzling display of shimmering color. Turn the diamond just a bit and you get yet another sparkle of light. What I mean by all of this is that the Bible has layer upon layer of truth. We read the Bible from a particular vantage point and perceive a certain level of truth. Another day we may read the same passage from a different spiritual or even emotional place and suddenly see truth we had never seen before. There is great depth in God’s Word.
The king of Babylon had exalted himself as a god – Caesar did that too. Our reading today refers to this king as “Day Star”. This is another way of saying “Morning Star” which was Venus. It is a star that you can see just before sunrise. The Morning, or Day, Star has also been used as a designation for Lucifer which is a translation of the Hebrew word meaning “light bringer” or “shining one”. The word “Satan” means “accuser”. Somehow we have come to think of Lucifer and Satan as the same being but this doesn’t appear to be supported by Scripture. If any of you guys can show me Scriptural references that prove otherwise please do. I’m reading several commentaries but that doesn’t mean they are correct.
Guys, I got home last night from being out of town on business all week, and my daughter has just come down and asked me to watch a movie with her. I need to do that. I’m going to stop my comment here so I can take care of my fatherly duties. Our kids need time with their dads. I guess this means I’ve left plenty of room for comments, so hit me with your best shot!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Babylon: The picture shows the sacred area of the city Babylon in the late 7th and early 6th century BCE as it was rebuilt by Nabopolassar and especially by his son Nebuchadnezzar. The Euphrates River on which the most important commodities of Mesopotamia were transported is seen in the forefront. The ziggurat of the city, the so-called Tower of Babel, is on the left. To its right is the Temple of Marduk, one of the forty-three larger temples of the city. In the background one can see residential areas. (Courtesy of 1000 Bible Images. 2009. Stuttgart, Germany: German Bible Society.)
You Can’t Work Your Way To God
Genesis 10-11
I made a mistake in yesterday’s post. I had said that God had called Abram from Haran – in Iraq. That was incorrect. My memory failed me. God’s call on Abram was from Haran but Haran was in what is today Syria. It is pretty close to the Iraqi border but I confused its location because I was thinking of Abram’s origin of birth which was Ur. Ur is in Iraq. I have since made the necessary correction in the post.
Today we read of the tower of Babel. Babel is just one more example of man’s arrogant attitude toward God. Here man wanted to build his way to heaven. Isn’t that just like us guys? We want to get to heaven so let’s get ourselves up there; let’s build a tower to take us there. I think many of us today still take a similar approach to God. Even when we accept Christ we can attempt to do so in our own power.
I’m afraid as a teenager I used a certain line of reasoning in order to help a fellow teen struggling with the issue of accepting Christ. I was horribly wrong in my reasoning and I hope it didn’t cause long-term negative consequences for that young man. The reasoning went something like this: “If Jesus is the only way to be saved and you accept Him then you are saved but if He can’t save you then at least you’ve lived a better life.” Okay, I can’t really remember the exact words, but the idea was “what do you have to lose”. I have to admit, the memory of that conversation is causing me some discomfort.
I was basically telling that guy that accepting Jesus was some kind of insurance policy that you hope you never need put you’re glad you have if the worst happens. You can’t accept Christ that way. That kind of thing is putting you in the driver seat. It is the “prospect” that “buys” Christ. You can’t buy and sell Christ. Who will accept Christ is already determined. Accepting Him isn’t an option you can take or leave. If you accept Him it is you who are selling yourself to Him. You are surrendering every right and prerogative you previously attempted to retain for yourself to Him. He is your Lord and your life from that point on is about Christ not about you.
When we take on Christ as a sort of cosmic insurance policy we are not accepting Christ at all. We are attempting to build a tower into Heaven. We are attempting to work or earn our way into the presence of God. It isn’t going to happen that way my friends. There is a judgment coming for all of us. We will stand before the creator of the Universe and we will stand there accused of all our unrighteousness. Our only hope is to reject the false notion of our own divinity, acknowledge God’s divinity, and accept the pardon only Christ can give. We often say that salvation is free but I don’t think that is completely accurate. Salvation does cost us something and it is something we hold quite dear; ourselves.
Surrendering ourselves to the Lordship of Christ means that life isn’t about us but about God. Can you live that way? Can you live with Christ as the center of your universe instead of yourself? That’s what it means to be His follower. Whatever you decide I hope you are not of the mistaken notion that you can have Christ “just in case” and go about your life as you did before. It doesn’t work that way. You cannot work or earn your way into Heaven. Christ isn’t an insurance policy. He is your master or He is not. When you gain Christ you lose everything else. Your life can never again be the same.
May God bless you!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Daniel Had A Good Father
Ezekiel 47 – Daniel 1
Well, we finish Ezekiel today and proceed into Daniel. I want to make just a short comment about an image from the end of Ezekiel and then a thought about Daniel. I’ll then provide you with some information from a commentary about the Book of Daniel and its outline.
Ezekiel 47:1-11 discuss water that flows from the temple. Jesus referred to Himself as living water. I have discussed the idea of Christ as a flowing river of life in earlier posts. Scripture has given us imagery of the life sustaining power of Jesus Christ in the form of a tree planted by a flowing river that never experiences drought. So too these verses are a vision of Christ. His living water will flow from His dwelling place and where ever this river flows it will make things fresh.
Ezekiel 47:8-9
“And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.”
“Everything will live where the river goes”; Amen and Amen brother!
My thoughts as I read Daniel centered on his father. Daniel was, at most, a teenager when he was taken to Babylon and yet he had the courage and commitment to reject the king’s food and request simple fruits and vegetables so he wouldn’t defile himself. Does this resemble and teenager you know? This young man had a father that not only did his job, he did a good job. His son knew the importance of a close, personal relationship with God. When it would have been easier to go along so as to get along he said no. You will see that throughout Daniel’s life; he remained true to his relationship with God even when his life was on the line.
Daniel should get the bulk of the credit for this since every individual has the ability to chose for themselves. Even if we have had a horrible beginning with no parental leadership we can still choose to do what is right. And yet, for Daniel to have such a strong, settled faith by the time he is a teenager I have to believe someone pointed him to the father. Maybe it is simply my bias but I like to think it was his father. You see, that is our job. God put precious children in our care so that we would point them to a right relationship with Him. They are His children and we have been given a sacred trust to raise His children to know Him and to walk with Him. We are God’s stewards
Well, those are my thoughts on the reading today. Let me now provide you with an outline and some commentary on Daniel. The book of Daniel contains a great deal of prophecy that has already come to pass as well as much that is yet to be. Liberal criticism of this book attempts to give it a very late date of origin. This is because of their supposition that no one could predict the future with such detail and accuracy as did Daniel. In other words, since they cannot believe in a god who provides his prophets with knowledge of the future the book must have been written after the events took place. I guess that kind of approach to inconvenient evidence is what passes as scholarship in a liberal world view. That view has been widely discredited due to the fact that many ancient references to the book of Daniel have been discovered which makes the liberal later dating impossible.
Here are the words of J. Vernon McGee:
“We know more about Daniel the man than we do of any other prophet. He gives us a personal account of his life from the time he was carried captive to Babylon in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim (about 606 b.c.) until the first year of King Cyrus (about 536 b.c.). Daniel’s life and ministry bridge the entire seventy years of captivity. At the beginning of the book he is a boy in his teens. At the end he is an old man of fourscore and more years.
Here is God’s estimate of the man Daniel: “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved” (Dan. 10:11). I would not want to be one of those critics who have called the Book of Daniel a forgery. Someday I am going to face Daniel in heaven and find that he has a pretty good reputation—“a man greatly beloved.”
There are three words which characterize Daniel’s life: purpose,prayer, and prophecy.
1. Daniel was a man of purpose (Dan. 1:8; 6:10). When the king made a decree that everyone had to eat the same thing, Daniel and his friends decided they would abide by the law of Moses—and they did. Daniel was a man of purpose, and we can see this all the way through his book. Here was a man who stood on his own two feet and had the intestinal fortitude to speak God’s Word.
God have pity today on men who claim to be His messengers to the world but haven’t got the courage to declare the Word of God. I also thank God that there are many who are declaring the whole Word of God, including prophecy, in our day. You see, the proper study of prophecy will not lead us to sensationalism and fanaticism, but it will lead us to a life of holiness and fear of God. John said in 1 John 3:3, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” The study of prophecy will purify our lives, my friend.
2. Daniel was a man of prayer (Dan. 2:17–23; 6:10; 9:3–19; 10). There are several incidents recorded in this book about Daniel’s prayer life. By the way, prayer got Daniel into the lion’s den. How about that for answered prayer? Well, God also miraculously saved him from the lions. Daniel was a man of prayer.
3. Daniel was a man of prophecy. The Book of Daniel divides itself equally: the first half is history, and the last half is prophecy. Daniel gives us the skeleton of prophecy on which all prophecy is placed. The image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2) and the beasts (Dan. 7) are the backbone of prophecy; the Seventy Weeks (Dan. 9) are the ribs which fit into their proper place.
The key verse to the Book of Daniel is Daniel 2:44: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan gave this theme for the Book of Daniel: “Persistent Government of God in the Government of the World.” This is the book of the universal sovereignty of God. Prophecy is here interwoven with history to show that God is overruling the idolatry, blasphemy, self-will, and intolerance of the Gentiles.
More specially, Daniel 12:4 brings together “… the times of the Gentiles …” (Luke 21:24) and “the time of the end” (see also Dan. 8:17; 11:35, 40) for the nation Israel in the Great Tribulation Period. This coming crisis eventuates in Christ’s setting up the millennial kingdom. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”(Dan. 12:4).
The Book of Daniel deals with political issues apart from ecclesiastical matters, giving the final outcome of events and issues which are at work in the world today. He answers the question—Who will rule the world?—not, How will the world be converted?
The Book of Daniel is the key to understanding other Scriptures. Our Lord, in the Olivet Discourse, quoted only from the Book of Daniel. The Book of Revelation is largely an enigma without the Book of Daniel. Paul’s revelation concerning the “… man of sin …” (2 Thess. 2:3) needs Daniel’s account for amplification and clarification.”
OUTLINE
I. The Historic Night with Prophetic Light, Chapters 1–6
A. Decline of Judah; Fall of Jerusalem; Daniel Taken Captive to Babylon; His Decision to be True to God, Chapter 1
B. Dream of Nebuchadnezzar about a Multimetallic Image;Interpretation by Daniel Concerning the Four Kingdoms of “The Times of the Gentiles,” Chapter 2
C. Decree of Nebuchadnezzar to Enforce Universal Idolatry;Three Hebrews Cast into the Furnace for Refusal to Bow to Image of Gold, Chapter 3
D. Dream of Nebuchadnezzar about a Great Tree Hewn Down to a Stump; Fulfilled in Subsequent Period of Madness of the King,Chapter 4
E. Downfall of Babylon Foretold by Daniel as He Read the Handwriting on the Wall at the Feast of Belshazzar, Chapter 5
F. Decree of Darius, the Median, to Enforce Worship of Himself; Daniel Cast into Den of Lions for Praying to the God of Heaven, Chapter 6
II. The Prophetic Light in the Historic Night, Chapters 7–12
A. Daniel’s Vision of Four Beasts Concerning Four Kingdoms of “The Times of the Gentiles,” Chapter 7
B. Daniel’s Vision of Ram and He Goat and Another Little Horn, Chapter 8
C. Daniel’s Vision of Seventy Weeks Concerning the Nation of Israel, Chapter 9
D. Daniel’s Vision Relating to Israel in Immediate Future and Latter Days; Historical Little Horn and Little Horn of the Latter Days, Chapters 10–12
1. Preparation for Vision by Prayer of Daniel; Appearance of a Heavenly Messenger, Chapter 10
2. Prophecy Concerning Persia and Grecia, Historical“Little Horn,”; Eschatological “Little Horn,” Chapter 11
3. Preview of Israel in Latter Days; Great Tribulation;Resurrections; Rewards; Final Word about the End Times, Chapter 12
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 3:527-528
Have a blessed day guys!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
