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July 2014

Daily Bible thoughts 655: Tuesday 8th July 2014:

2 Corinthians 10:1-6

In this passage Paul may have had in mind Joshua’s victory at Jericho (Josh.6). It was an unusual battle fought with unusual weapons, but Joshua and the Israelites were mightily successful through God.

It is an occupational hazard for a church leader to be criticised and misrepresented (1b, 10). At times you will have bad things, and even wrong things, said about you. So you have to develop a thick skin without becoming hard hearted. In dealing with all people, and especially those who give us a difficult time, we must seek to act in a Christ-like way (1a). By God’s grace, show Jesus to all people. Make this your aim. But being Christ-like is not incompatible with grasping nettles in the ‘field’ of the church (2). Some tables need to be tipped over; there will be that which requires removal from the temple. There will be rebuking words to speak. Jesus’ loving gentleness did not accept all behaviour uncritically. Church leaders, likewise, have to exercise discipline in certain circumstances (6).

Sorting problems out in the church is part of our spiritual warfare (3). The local congregation is not immune from the devil’s influence. In fact, Satan loves to ‘go to church’, but in disguise, so that he is not spotted until it is too late. By then he is, no doubt, wreaking all kinds of havoc. If God were to pull back the curtain and show us all that goes on in the unseen world to try to cripple the local church, we would probably all turn the colour of whitewash. This war is real and more savage than any worldly war. But we don’t wage war with tanks and guns and bombs and lies/deception etc. We have spiritual ”weapons” filled with ”divine power” (4). You might like to take a moment to write a list of as many of these as you can think of. But it’s not knowing that you have them in the cupboard that counts. It’s actually reaching in there and making use of them. When we do we find they have a devastating impact on the enemy’s kingdom. They really do work, but again, you do have to use them. They must not be like weapons put on display in an armouries museum. As you look at them in their display cases, you can easily see what they have been capable of, but it’s not happening now. I knew a man once, and he had a fascination with weapons. They were hanging on the walls all over his house. They were on display, but thankfully not in use! There are Christians who simply hang their weapons on the walls of their lives, but they never take them down and fight the devil with them. Or rarely do they do so. If they were to really take the Christian fight seriously, and stop playing toy soldiers, they would be open-mouthed at what God would do through them.

Fundamentally, the battles are for men’s minds (5). This is true both inside and outside the church. The devil sets up strongholds that are formed with ”arguments” (against God and His truth), and ‘pretentions’ and unruly thoughts that don’t want to obey Jesus. Our battle is to see Christ’s Lordship established over every mind and heart and life. There will be an end to trouble in any church where Jesus is truly allowed to reign as Lord. I read a question today in ‘Search the Scriptures’. You might like to consider it: ”Have you known in your own experience: (a) of lawless elements in your own thought-life brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and (b) of winning such victories for Christ in the thought-life of others?” We need to ensure that our thoughts are not like mutinous soldiers. May they all come under the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.

”…every thought of the soul, which is hostile to the authority of the divine Truth, must become a prisoner of war in the camp of Christ.” F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.429.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am aware of a great war that rages in me, and often spills over to affect the life of the church. But I give myself afresh to you today, and my desire is that every thought will march in line behind you.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 654: Monday 7th July 2014:

Isaiah 19:16-25

In the Bible there is a breath-taking breadth of vision. This passage shows the Egyptians coming to God following His work of judgment. There is going to be a remarkable turning to the Lord: ”On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith…GOD will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day…They’ll make vows and keep them. GOD will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to GOD, and GOD will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.” The Message.

But this turning isn’t restricted to Egypt. It also includes Assyria. Either side of Israel, two major enemies worship the living God with her: On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessings from the center.” The Message. A ”highway” (23) of friendship will connect Assyria and Egypt, along with Israel, and they will be a ”blessing on the earth” (24; see Gen.12:3). Egypt and Assyria were enemies throughout much of the Old Testament period. Isaiah foresaw that they would become friends. Israel had been persecuted by both nations, but would now form a link between them. So Isaiah paints a picture of the Messianic age in which Jews and Gentiles (the latter represented by Egypt and Assyria) will live in unity and peace and worship one true God together (see Is.2:2-4; Eph. 2: 11-22.) Jesus reconciles former enemies (Lk.23:12).

 

What encouragement for missionary work we find here. God is able to reveal Himself to those who are far from Him, and steeped in slimy depths of paganism.

 

”…the love of God…overleaps the barriers of nationality and caste, and gives itself to all who humbly seek after Him…What a radiant prospect is thus suggested to us, when the most inveterate enemies of God’s church shall be received into her borders and regarded with the favour that God shows to his people! Who, standing amid the terrors of the plagues, could ever have supposed that Egypt would be addressed as ”my people”? Who could have thought that Assyria, the tyrant persecutor, would ever be called ”the work of my hands”? Yest these are the trophies and triumphs of divine grace. Our Shepherd has many sheep, which are not of the Jewish fold: these also He must bring; and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd. Never despair of any, for God’s grace abounds over mountains.” F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.276.:

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the beautiful unity we share in Christ. Thank you that I can meet believers from other lands, and know instantly that we ‘speak the same language’ even though we may not share a common tongue.

 

 

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 653: Friday 4th July 2014:

Isaiah 19:1-15

A strong  faction in Judah advised the king to get help from Egypt (chapter 31). Isaiah warned that Egypt could not help them. The mighty land of Egypt, and its economy, was about to fall under the judgment of God. There would be no help for them there.

God hates idolatry in all its forms (1). The first commandment says: ”You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex.20:3) He is a jealous God, and rightly so. What husband wants his wife to give herself to another man? That is what we do when we worship idols. We commit spiritual adultery. There is a strong link between occultism and idolatry (3b). The devil has a vested interest in getting people to worship him (in the veiled form of idols). He wants to steal the worship that rightly belongs to the Lord. He wants to prise human hearts away from God.

One of the ways God brings judgment on the enemies of His people is to cause confusion in their camp (2; see 2 Chron.20:23). An army divided against itself cannot stand. What God did to the Egyptians in the past He can still do to any nation in the world, for He is the Sovereign Lord of history (2-4). Egypt was conquered by the king of Cush in Isaiah’s lifetime, and later by the king of Assyria shortly after Isaiah’s death. Isaiah could have been referring to either of these kings (4). You may notice a similarity to the ten plagues of Moses’ time in (1-15). There is a strong resonance with that era.

God’s judgment will also be worked out in nature. The River Nile, the nation’s liquid lifeline, its watery main artery, will ”dry up” (5) bringing destruction to  fields and fisheries and other industries (4-10). We should not forget, and our leaders especially should remember, that God is able to work out purposes in nature that cripple economies. Many Christians believe that the U.K. has received a number of dire warnings in recent years. These surely are a wake up call? God has done it before and He can do it again. ”Fishermen will complain that the fishing’s been ruined. Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers and workers in linen and cotton wool Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness – everyone who works for a living, jobless.” The Message.

But of course, if a nation’s leaders are themselves ”deceived” (13) they will prove to be blind leaders of the blind, and they will all fall into the same ditch together. So it was in Egypt (11-15). ”Zoan” and ”Memphis” were two important administrative centres. The leaders of the people did not have eyes in their heads in order to truly see. This was another way in which heaven’s judgment was implemented, in giving to the Egyptians such leaders. ”The honored pillars of your society have led Egypt into detours and dead ends. God has scrambled their brains, Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk. Egypt’s hopeless, past helping, a senile, doddering old fool.” The Message. ”Who but the Lord Almighty can bring such judgments on a people! Who but the Lord can bring a nation to its knees!” Tom Hale: The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1018.

In the Bible, Egypt symbolises the world. We too can be tempted to look to ‘Egypt’ for help, but we will find none there. The world’s wisdom is folly, but we know where we can find true wisdom (James 1:5).

Prayer: Thank you for your most gracious promise Lord to give wisdom to those who ask you for it I know you mean what you say, and so I ask for eyes to look at life in the way you do. Please give me true understanding.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 652: Thursday 3rd July 2014:

Isaiah 18

When Alex Hayley’s book, ‘Roots’, became a sensational success on television, he was interviewed and asked the secret. His reply was, ”I don’t really know, but I remember something my grandmother told me. She used to say, ‘You never know when the Lord’s going to come, but He’s always on time!’ ”

Verses 4 to 6 lie at the heart of this passage. When we don’t know what to do, God does know what He will do. Instead of fretfully plotting and scheming, let us also ”remain quiet and…look on…” Here is one of the big lessons of the Christian life: learn to wait on and for the Lord. Don’t run ahead of Him, and certainly don’t lag behind Him, but wait for Him. When the time is ripe He will act, and, although it may not seem so to us, He’s always on time. He is unperturbed by the things that bother us. He knows the end from the beginning, and what He will do to put things right. Relinquish those worries to Him today. You may not know how to untie that knot, but God will come through for you as you look to Him.

So, Cush was a large area to the south of Egypt, covering present day Sudan and Ethiopia, and the river Nile ran through it. It was ”the land of whirring wings” because of its numerous insects (or its mighty armies.). We need to understand that its leaders had sent envoys to various nations, including Judah, with the intention of trying to form an alliance against Assyria (1, 2). However, Isaiah tells the envoys to return to where they came from (2), and carry the message that the Lord Himself will lead the fight against the Assyrians. But the message is not only for Cush; it is for all the ”people of the world” (3), meaning, in this case, the nations of the Middle East. There is coming a time when a ”banner” will be raised and a ”trumpet” will sound, and the nations will be called together to fight Assyria. But this will be according to God’s timetable, not man’s, and when it happens, they who once preyed on others will themselves become the prey(6). The passage ends with a wonderful promise that the people of Cush will one day come to worship God at the temple in Jerusalem, the place where the Lord has put His ”Name” (Deut. 12:5). They will see for themselves that the Lord God of Israel is more powerful than all the nations of the world, and they will come to honour Him. (See 2:3; 11:10; chapters 60 – 62; Pss.68:31-35; 87:4. There is a world vision in the Bible that sees people coming to Israel’s God from all over the globe.)

”Is not this a marvellous conception of God – being still and watching? His stillness is not acquiescence. His silence is not consent. He is only biding his time, and will arise, in the most opportune moment, and when the designs of the wicked seem on the point of success, to overwhelm them with disaster. As we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of wrongdoing; as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us, let us remember these words about God being still and beholding…he was only waiting the moment He could interpose most effectually…He will come to save thee when the precise moment has arrived.” F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.276.

Prayer: Lord God, you know the things that weigh on my mind today. I have no answer to them, but I leave them with you, knowing that you are not puzzled or perplexed, and you have a plan and a timescale for intervention. Knowing this settles me down and brings peace to the troubled waters of my heart.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 651: Wednesday 2nd July 2014:

 Isaiah 17

”If the people you trust do not trust the Lord, their judgment may become your judgment.” Warren W.Wiersbe: With the Word, p.462. This chapter calls to us across the centuries to trust in the Lord and not in mere people.

This prophecy is given against Damascus, the capital city of Aram (Syria), and also against Ephraim (Israel, the ten northern tribes of the divided kingdom.) It relates to a time when both Aram and Ephraim were in an alliance against Judah (see 7:1 – 9:21). The Israelites were going to be judged along with Aram, because they put their trust in their pagan neighbours instead of in God. (The reference to ”imported vines” in verse 10 also concerns this unholy alliance.) The judgment of God is a real thing. Imagine words such as those in (1) being spoken about a great city today: Leeds, for example: ”Watch this: Damascus undone as a city, a pile of dust and rubble! Her towns emptied of people, The sheep and goats will move in And take over the towns as if they owned them – which they will! (2) The Message. This prophecy proved true within a few short years. The Assyrians captured Damascus in 732 B.C. and ten years later conquered Israel. Israel and Syria had huddled together for warmth against the approaching storm of the Assyrians, but their alliance was unable to protect them from the severe weather. To trust in man is always futile.

Verses 4 to 11 relate primarily to Israel. In (5-8) Isaiah says that a small number of Israelites will remain faithful to God and survive His judgment: ”She’ll be like a few stalks of barley left standing in the lush Valley of Rephaim after harvest. Or like the couple of ripe olives overlooked in the top of the olive tree, Or the four or five apples that the pickers couldn’t reach in the orchard.” The Message. No doubt some of these people turned away from paganism to God because they feared the judgment that was coming. Indeed many of them would eventually leave Israel and settle in Judah. But what of those who would not turn to God? They would be driven from the ”strong cities” (9) they had taken from the Canaanites. As the people of Canaan had fled before them, the people of Israel would now show their heels to the Assyrians.

Isaiah pictures the nations of the Middle East ‘‘raging’’ like the ”raging sea” (12). They are raging against the Lord, His people, and ultimately against Jesus (Psalm 2:1-6; Acts 4:25, 26). However, God is so powerful He will drive them back like ”chaff” before the ”wind” (13). Assyria was one of those turbulent nations God the Lord was going to deal with decisively. There is no doubt about as to who is in ultimate control. These verses (12-14) can comfort and encourage us today as we hear terribly disturbing reports from that region of the world.

God’s holiness is dangerous to sinful man. Like Aslan, in C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe’, He is good, but He isn’t safe! The key to security when faced with the reality of God’s judgment is to trust in Him alone (7 and 10). To place your confidence anywhere else is to court disaster. (See Deuteronomy 8:19, 20). Without trust in God you can have apparent success (10, 11), but it will only be for a limited time. ”We shall never garner the harvest without his help and blessing…The co-operation and blessing of God, sought in answer to prayer, cannot be left out of our calculations, if we are to win lasting success.” F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.275

Prayer: Forgetful I may be at times Lord, but cause me to always remember you, and know that you are trustworthy.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 650: Tuesday 1st July 2014:

Psalm 106:1-15

This psalm is a prayer of confession. The psalmist describes Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness and rebellion from the time of the Exodus up to the fall of Jerusalem, and he asks God to once again save His people (47) It is thought possible that the writer was an exiled Levite, who asks God to include him in the salvation of the Israelites (4, 5) i.e. in their rescue from captivity. Almost the whole Psalm consists of a list of Israel’s sins. Yet over and over we see God forgiving and restoring His rebellious people whenever they cried to Him for help. The theme of the psalm could be described as ‘God’s faithfulness and man’s unfaithfulness.’ There is a stark contrast. It is also important to understand that in spite of our unfaithfulness, God sometimes does great things for us anyway, just to glorify His own Name (8). Here are some issues today’s passage surfaces:

Confess your sins: In recent weeks I have been in three different churches where a prayer of confession has been offered early on in the service, and then there has then come the pronouncement of forgiveness in the light of Christ’s work on the cross. I am increasingly seeing how important this is. When we come to Christ we have a one-off’ bath’, and this does not have to be repeated. However as we walk through this world our feet get ‘muddy’ and we need the opportunity for regular ‘foot-washing.’ (See John 13). Personally and corporately it is important to ‘come clean’; to ‘keep short accounts’ with God. We can be ‘honest to God’ knowing that ”…he’s good…his love lasts.” (1) The Message. It is important to come out into the open and not try to cover up our sin. (Psalm 32:1-5). There is no hiding place from God anyway. ”We’ve sinned a lot, both we and our parents; We’ve fallen short, hurt a lot of people.” (6) The Message. The psalmist begins his confession with the sins of his own generation (6), then in (7) he looks over his shoulder as far back as the time in Egypt (See Exodus 14:10-12). In spite of how the people were, God was (and always will be) true to Himself and He brought glory to His Name.

Remember God’s goodness (1, 2; 8-12): Never forget His remarkable acts of deliverance in the past. He is still God and He is always able. How eloquently (9b) speaks of the amazing miracle the Lord performed at the exodus: ”… – no one so much as got wet feet!” The Message. Verse 12 is interesting and instructive. The toughest test of Christian faith does not come in ‘days of wonder’ when everything is going well. It’s easy to sing in the daylight, but what about when you face the dark night of the soul? How are your vocal chords then? When the sunshine is absent and it’s pouring with rain, then what will you do? If you pull the dipstick out of your soul in the midst of great trial, what will be the oil of faith level?

Learn the lessons of Biblical history: Here are two:

a.) Don’t forget God (13; see Deut.8:11-20). If we forget God’s works we will soon forget God Himself, because He makes Himself known through them.

b.) Seek to know and do God’s will (13-15; see Numbers 11 – especially verses 4 and 34/ also 1 Cor.10:6). It is important to know ”his counsel’’ (13b) in our lives and prayers. However much I may think I want it, I don’t want God to give me anything that is not according to His will. I don’t want the ”empty heart”/ the ”leanness” of soul/ even the ‘‘wasting disease’’ that can come in the wake of getting your own way. ”He gave them exactly what they asked for – but along with it they got an empty heart.” (15) The Message.

”…do not seek to impose your will on God; do not insist on anything with too great vehemence; let God choose. Whenever you make request for things which are not definitely promised, ask God not to grant them, except it be for the very best.” F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.233.

The ‘lusts of the flesh’ can exert a strong pull over our lives still. We can only resist them in the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet.2:11; Gal.5:16).

Prayer: Lord, let me always be clear about what I should say ‘No’ to and what I should say ‘Yes’ to. Thank you that I am empowered by your Spirit to do both.

 

 

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