Daily Devotional thoughts by Stephen Thompson

Daily Bible thoughts 579: Monday 24th March 2014:

Do you really want to hear God’s Word to you? Don’t be too quick to say, ‘Yes’. Of course, I hope your answer to the question is in the affirmative and that it rises from your heart. But are you sure you want to hear God speak to you if His Word contradicts your ways? Isn’t there something in your fallen nature that wants to contradict His Word in such circumstances? Well, not exactly contradict it, because that would never do. (Here we run into the deceitfulness of sin.) But you’d like to be able to say that it doesn’t really mean what it appears to assert. There must be some other and more appealing interpretation. Never forget that God’s Word does good to those who want to do God’s will and walk in His ways (7b). Such people need not fear it. So what is your heart attitude today?

Micah’s preaching was not popular because he went ‘straight down the line.’ There was no messing about with him. He shot from the hip; told it like it was. He saw that the people of Israel had a forthcoming appointment with the justice of God (6, 7), and that this would mean eviction from their land (10). Again, we encounter cause and effect, sowing and reaping: You rob unsuspecting people out for an evening stroll. You take the coats off their backs like soldiers who plunder the defenseless. You drive the women of my people out of their ample homes. You make victims of the children and leave them vulnerable to violence and vice. Get out of here, the lot of you. You can’t take it easy here! You’ve polluted this place, and now you’re polluted – ruined! The Message. They had unjustly put people out of their homes; the Lord would justly rip up their tenancy agreement. They had made the land ‘sick’ and there would be a purging (see Leviticus 18:24-28). (Note: it has been pointed out that God is not against those who become rich by hard work and honest means, nor does he take the side of people who are poor because of laziness or sin in other forms. But He is anti every form of oppression and injustice. He wants everyone to have fair and equal possibilities.)

We still have false prophets in the church today who do not preach the unpalatable parts of the Bible and do not want to hear them taught. They want to silence faithful Biblical preaching. I am appalled when I hear, from time to time, how far some clergy veer from the clear standards and precepts of the Bible. I am sure that many do it to justify their own infidelity. It is also likely to elevate your ratings in the popularity stakes (in some sectors) when you regularly dish up 5 minutes of what people want to hear. Don’t put anything in front of them that will disturb them. They might leave and then we’d lose their 50 pence from the collection plate. It all adds up you know!

Not talking about the anger and judgment of God against sin won’t make it go away. In fact, to continue wilfully in sin, and encourage others to do so, is to invite it to draw nearer. Here is a word to those who occupy a pulpit from time to time: It is a solemn responsibility to preach God’s Word. Never say anything other than what the Bible clearly says, even if you don’t like it; even if you think it will make your congregation squirm. Here, too, is a word to those in the pews: search the Scriptures yourselves to see if what you are hearing is true. Test all things. Just because he (or she) is wearing a back to front collar it doesn’t necessarily mean the preacher is telling the truth. It ought to, but that’s another matter! (See Jer.6:13, 14 for a similar situation to Micah’s)

There is a contemporary resonance to these words. They wanted ‘prosperity’ preaching: If someone showed up with a good smile and glib tongue and told lies from morning to night – ‘I’ll preach sermons that will tell you how you can get anything you want from God: More money, the best wines…you name it’ – you’d hire him on the spot as your preacher! The Message.

If you stay on the highway of God’s truth you will remain safe; but if you veer from it you will end up plummeting to destruction. False prophets drive off the cliff, with a bus load of passengers. In destroying themselves they destroy many. These prophets are eagerly listened to; they talk about the Lord’s blessings but they say nothing about His demands. They prophesy what people want to hear, not what God wants to say. Thus they are ideal ”prophets” for those who love prosperity more than they love God. Tom Hale: The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1264.

Prayer: Lord, speak into my life all you want to say that is for my good and your glory. Help me listen.

March 24, 2014 0

Daily Bible thoughts 578: Friday 21st March 2014:

Micah 2:1-5

There always have been, and there always will be (at least until the end of time) evil people who plot and plan dastardly things, without even a flicker of an impact on their consciences (1). Doom to those who plot evil, who go to bed dreaming up crimes! As soon as it’s morning, they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned. The Message. They do wrong because they can. They are powerful and able and they don’t believe anyone can stop them. They are also convinced that they will get away with it. This section says otherwise. As a man sows so shall he reap. God has His own plans for those who do evil against the poor and needy (3), and who …see people only for what they can get out of them. GOD has had enough. He says, ”I have some plans of my own:’ The Message. The mighty in the land had not respected proper boundaries. God says through Micah that when the invader comes in nobody’s boundary lines will be respected.

GOD HATES INJUSTICE. This is the particular form of iniquity/evil in mind in (2). It’s the rich and powerful trampling on the poor and exploiting them. As part of our discipleship, we do need to ensure that we are siding with the God of justice, and not inadvertently supporting things that grind the poor into the dust. The prophetic books will show to us again and again a God who cares deeply about social justice. As Christians we should do all we can to stand with the poor (all-be-it, according to Jesus, poverty will never be eradicated this side of the second coming.)

God judges sin (3-5). I know this is highly repetitive, and there will be no evading this point as we study the prophetic books. Perhaps God wants us to understand how serious a matter this is and that He really does mean what He says. (This is one of the key doctrines the devil has persuaded many theologians and preachers to ditch. Or at very least, he’s got people to soften the message and dilute the truth.) But here are some of God’s Words to an unrepentant people: Mocking ballads will be sung of you, and you yourselves will sing the blues: ‘Our lives are ruined, our homes and lands auctioned off. They take everything, leave us nothing! All is sold to the highest bidder.”’ And there’ll be no one to stand up for you, no one to speak for you before GOD and his jury. The Message.

The gospel message is enshrined in (3a). A disaster is coming against ever sinner. It is the ‘disaster’ of God’s wrath and judgment. The gospel is bad news before it is good news. We have to understand how bad the bad news is before we will be ready to receive the good news. The good news is that we can be saved. We cannot save ourselves, and this point must be fully understood. But God sent His Son Jesus into the world to be our Saviour, and the Saviour of all mankind. He saves from the wrath of God, all who turn away from a me-centred life and put their trust in Him. That is the best news in the world!

Prayer: Thank God for Jesus!

March 21, 2014 0

Daily Bible thoughts 577: Thursday 20th March 2014:

Micah 1:8-16

Sin saddens (9): An old song goes like this: ‘Lord crucified give me a heart like thine, teach me to love the dying souls of men…’ When we watch the news and see just something of what sin does (and let’s face it we only see a fraction of the damage and suffering) how can we remain unmoved and dry-eyed. Micah wept like a man at a funeral. He could see that the Assyrians would invade Judah too (which they did in 701 BC, and they destroyed nearly 50 villages.) Does the certainty of coming judgment cause us to feel deep concern for lost people and seek to win them to Christ?

Sin spreads (9): Samaria, the capital city of the northern tribes, had a wound that was incurable. The wrongdoing up north had passed the point of no return. Punishment was inevitable. But now Micah pronounced that the evil he saw there, with its attendant consequences, had travelled as far as the gate of Jerusalem itself. The influence of badness will spread like …yeast…through the whole batch of dough (1 Cor.5:6).

Sin starts (13): You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion… For each one of us there is a beginning of sin and that is the point at which we must nip it in the bud. At the faintest hint of temptation show it your heels; be Joseph like and flee as fast as you can, even if you have to leave behind your cloak. You can’t even begin to consider the possibility of yielding. That is to surrender too much territory to the devil. It is to expose your ‘goal mouth’ to trouble. You’ll be down one – nil before you know it. I heard a well-known Christian leader speaking, and I was impressed by his honesty. He said, ‘One day I was walking in a wood, and just ahead of me I saw a pile of pornography laying on the ground. Someone had just dumped it. You know what I did? he asked. I went as fast as I could in the opposite direction, because I know I can’t handle material like that!! ‘That’s honest. It’s also radical. He wasn’t going to let that ‘litter’ be the beginning of sin to him. It is illustrative of the kind of evasive action you may have to take when feeling under moral pressure. I think it is one example of the kind of approach Jesus was advocating when He said If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away…And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away… (Matthew 5:29,30)

All you who live in Chariotville, get in your chariots for flight. You led the daughter of Zion into trusting Not God but chariots. Similar sins in Israel also got their start in you. The Message. Sin ‘starts’ somewhere. We must try to head it off at the pass; cut it off at its source.

(By the way, in these verses there are a lot of word plays in the names of towns listed. You may see this reflected in the footnotes in some Bibles. But it also comes across brilliantly in the text of the ‘the Message.’.

Prayer: Lord God help me to go into this day wearing the breastplate of righteousness. Enable me to take my stand against everything you hate.

March 20, 2014 0

Daily Bible thoughts 576: Wednesday 19th March 2014:

Micah 1:3-7

There are unmistakable messages here:

Sin leads to judgment (5): Sins have consequences. The punishment may be a long time coming (because God is patient and merciful), but it will arrive. There is cause and effect in this verse: …because of…because of… This coming national tragedy has a cause.

Cities and nations can be adversely affected by sin (6): Samaria and Jerusalem are mentioned, but it could be applicable to London, New York, Paris, and Rome etc. Jacob (Israel) and Judah are referred to, but these words could apply to the U.K., the U.S.A., France and Italy etc. Nowhere escapes God’s all-seeing vision and no-one is immune to His judgment. Cities in the Western world could become heaps of rubble (8) as well. We don’t want to see this happen. It’s a terrifying prospect. But if we persist in our wilful rebellion against God there will be a price to pay.

God’s judgment is a terrible and fearful thing (3, 4): This is a powerful picture of God coming with enormous power to deal with His errant people, and nothing and no-one can stop Him. Psalm 104: 32 describes God in these terms: …he who looks at the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

Sexual sin will be punished (5, 7): Of course, there is much more to sin than sexual sin, and all sin is sin. But there was an abundance of sexual immorality/promiscuity in Israel and Judah in Micah’s day. You ask, ”So what is Jacob’s sin?” Just look at Samaria – isn’t it obvious? And all the sex-and-religion shrines in Judah – isn’t Jerusalem responsible? The Message. However, as you can see in that quote, the bad sexual stuff was linked to false religion, and that was the real problem. They were worshipping pagan gods who were okay with this kind of living. (You might say they lived that way themselves.) A religion will only ever be as good as its gods, and these gods were bad. The religion actually taught that it was fine to have sex outside of God’s boundaries. It was expected and permitted as part of the worship. So it was a very popular religion. (This reminds me of the second half of Romans 1, which says, in effect, that people don’t like the true God who has revealed Himself in nature, so they swap Him; they trade Him in for gods who will give them the thumbs up to do what they like. But Paul also emphasises that there is a major cost to doing this.) When you consider the tidal wave of immorality in our sex-sodden society, you have to say that it also is linked to idolatry. The media reflects the popular culture, and to some degree helps to shape it. It is full of illicit sex. When do you see a normal, faithful marriage between a man and a woman represented on a T.V. drama? Hardly ever! The sexual sin we see everywhere, on the television, at the movies, in the papers and magazines etc. is linked to the idolatry of self. People want to be their own gods, establish their own boundaries, and basically say what goes. They may call it freedom, but they will pay a terrible price both here and hereafter if they do not repent and trust in Christ. Sin brings us to our own because.

Prayer: Lord God, I acknowledge that your way is right and best. Help me to always remain true to this conviction, and banish the tempter by your grace.

March 19, 2014 0

DailBible thoughts 785: Tuesday 6th January 2015: Proverbs 23:19-28

Here are three more sayings of the wise men, from that collection of 30 proverbs that begins at chapter 22:17.

The first is a warning against excessive living, particularly with regard to food and drink (19-21). There are practical reasons for self-restraint. If you go down the route of over-indulgence it will take your money and sap your strength and health. Again, we marvel at the down to earth wisdom of the Bible. If only the world heeded it! This could have saved a lot of people a lot of problems over the Christmas season. ‘’Don’t drink too much wine and get drunk; don’t eat too much food and get fat. Drunks and gluttons will end up on skid row, in a stupor and dressed in rags.’’ The Message. Live like that for too long and you may well end up featuring in a documentary about obesity or binge-drinking! Perhaps both!!

The second proverb concerns honouring father and mother throughout life, and bringing joy and delight to them (22-24). Live in a way that will make your parents proud, if at all possible. The writer envisages doing this by obeying the ‘’truth’’ (23) taught by parents. For him, this will mean the truth that is in God’s Word, or in agreement with it. This is an important word to us all. Whatever God our Father has shown us we should cling to tightly, and live it. ‘’Buy truth – don’t sell it for love or money.’’ The Message. ‘’Do not sell the truth at any price…It costs something to live by the truth, but it costs even more to abandon the truth.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.429. (See also Proverbs 4:7)

The third is about the danger of falling into sexual immorality and adultery, and the destructiveness of such behaviour (26-28). This is a repeated theme in ‘Proverbs’. The ‘fruit’ may look delicious on the tree, but once eaten it is found to be poisonous.

How many lives and marriages could be saved by this Bible passage alone!

Prayer: Lord, let your Word spread through all the earth, and cause men to hear and heed its wise truth. Thank you Lord that ‘a fence at the top of the cliff is better than ‘an ambulance at the bottom.’ Thank you for your ‘fences’ – lovingly put in place to protect us; not to ruin our fun!

January 1, 1970 0

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