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Daily Bible thoughts 744: Monday 10th November 2014:

 Isaiah 48:12-22

  •  God is creator and controller of the universe (12, 13). It’s like everything in the universe stands to attention at God’s command. They all salute Him and obey His bidding.
  •  God knows the end from the beginning (14 -16). Here we arrive again at this repeated theme in the later chapters of Isaiah, about God knowing and predicting the future: ‘’None of the gods could predict that the man I have chosen would attack Babylon; he will do what I want him to do. I am the one who spoke and called him; I led him out and gave him success…From the beginning I have spoken openly, and have always made my words come true.’’(14-16) The Good News Bible.
  •  God knows what is best for your life (17). ‘’I am GOD, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go.’’ The Message. God’s will is not your worst nightmare. The devil will try to sell it to you in those terms, but in fact it is always His ‘’good, pleasing and perfect will.’’ (Romans 12:2b).
  •  God’s Word requires obedience on our part (18, 19; compare 18, 22): ‘’…the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.’’ Holiness is actually in our best interests. Enjoyment of God’s full blessings is contingent on obedience. ‘’If you had listened all along to what I told you, your life would have flowed full like a river, blessings rolling in like waves from the sea.’’ The Message.
  •  God will bring His people home (20, 21). The ‘second exodus’ theme appears yet again. As the Lord once led His people through the desert, He will do so again. If God has set us free from slavery, this is something to be joyfully ‘announced’ and ‘proclaimed’. In the Bible, ‘’Babylon’’ was a nation and a city, but it also represents this present world system (Revelation 18; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). It is so easy to settle down in ‘Babylon’ and make a life there. But the call of the Bible to God’s people is to come out. We need to heed this call constantly. We can ensure that we are not ‘of the world’ even as we live ‘in’ it. ‘’This is the first time God (or Isaiah) mentions the name Babylon in connection with Cyrus’ mission. The Israelites must have been doubly confused when they heard this message because Babylon was not even a great power when Isaiah wrote these words. And yet someone named Cyrus (who hadn’t been born yet) was going to destroy Babylon and free the Jews from exile – an exile which itself was a hundred years in the future!’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1048.
  •  God speaks (12, 14, 16, 17; see 1). Are we listening today?

The chapter closes with the challenging thought that there is ‘’no peace’’ for those who rebel against God. The ‘Good News Bible’ translates this word as ‘’safety’’. The word ‘’peace’’ includes health, security, prosperity, and, above everything, fellowship with God and everlasting salvation. ‘’To forfeit such peace is truly a high price to pay for the momentary ‘’benefits’’ of rebelling against God!’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1049.

Prayer: I don’t want to live as a citizen of ‘Babylon.’ Help me to live as a citizen of heaven in ‘Babylon’

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Daily Bible thoughts 740: Tuesday 4th November 2014:

 Galatians 5:1-6 (why not have a listen to the talk on Galatians see talks page)

Here are two balanced points to hold together in our understanding:

  1. Faith does not need the addition of works to save a person: The Judaizers were saying to the Galatian believers, ‘You need Christ plus circumcision to be saved.’ Paul’s reply was adamant: ‘No, you need Christ only.’ Paul’s message was about ‘’grace’’ (4) and ‘’faith’’ (5). A person becomes a Christian because of God’s grace (His undeserved favour) and through faith. God doesn’t ask you to be circumcised to belong to Him, or to do anything else, but to trust in Christ alone. It really is that simple. Paul saw that their pre-Christian lives under the Jewish law had been one of carrying a heavy burden – ‘’a yoke of slavery’’ (1). Having been set free by Christ from trying to earn God’s favour, he urged them not to return to ‘the land of bondage.’ Keith Green recorded an album some years ago which was entitled, ‘So you wanna go back to Egypt?’ That was Paul’s question!

 

  1. Faith without works is dead (as the apostle James would say, verse 6): You don’t need to add any good works to faith in order to become a follower of Christ, but, (and here’s the subtle, nuanced balance we need to maintain) as a person of true faith you will manifest this in good deeds (Ephesians 2:10). You’re not trusting in the good deeds to get you saved; but as a saved person you will do good deeds. Faith in Jesus will be accompanied by the fruit of Jesus’ own character reproduced within. We will see more of this shortly. Faith will express itself ‘’through love’’ (6; see Romans 5:5 and James 2:14, 17). People of faith in Jesus have a growing love for God and for others, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament law is fulfilled in them. It is written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). They are not trying to keep the law in order to get right with God, but they do keep it as the overflow of God’s life within them.

The point has been well made that to fall ‘’away from grace’’ (4) does not mean to lose your salvation. It means to move out of the sphere of grace and operate in the realm of law. It is to substitute regulations for a living relationship with Christ. Beware of any teaching that bases your acceptance with God on any kind of religious performance.

As the hymn-writer said: ‘’Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to thy cross I cling.’’

Prayer: Lord, I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that what I do can make me more acceptable to you. Today I am reminded that my acceptance with you is all because of you. It is based on faith in the finished work of Christ, and even that faith is your gift. Thank you for your amazing grace! But I also ask that you will keep me from falling into the trap of thinking that it doesn’t matter how I live because you accept me. I recognise that it does, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit I will go on being changed. I want to fully co-operate with you in this work of transformation.

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Daily Bible thoughts 739: Monday 3rd November 2014:

Galatians 4:21-31

In this next section ‘’Hagar’’ represents the Old Testament law, and Sarah stands for the new covenant of grace. The challenge for the Galatians lay in this: would they return to slavery, trying to be made right with God through works of the law; or would they maintain the freedom of trusting in Jesus alone for salvation? Would they substitute human effort for faith? There are at least two key ideas here

  • Promise (23, 28): We might say that Abraham ‘worked’ for the son he had with Hagar, ‘’the slave woman’’. Ishmael was born because of human reasoning and effort. ‘’The son of the slave woman was born by human connivance…’’ The Message. On the other hand, Abraham ‘believed’ for the son he had with Sarah. It was biologically impossible for him and Sarah to have a child, but he believed God’s promise that they would, and they did! (Romans 4:18-25). A son was conceived and born ‘’by the power of the Spirit’’ (29). Christians are Abraham’s true children because they also believe God’s promise that they will have a right standing with God if they put their trust in Jesus. Through faith in Him the impossible happens: we are forgiven our sins and made right with our Maker. So ‘’like Isaac’’ we ‘’are children of promise’’ (28). We can try to get saved and fail, or trust for salvation and enter into it. Hagar (and Abraham) represent trying; Sarah (and Abraham) represent trusting. Paul saw clearly that to go back from trusting to trying was a return to religious slavery. That really should not be seen as a viable option for anyone in Christ (30). We want to put distance between ourselves and any form of slavery (30; see 5:1; Genesis 21:10, 12-14). As Abraham ‘got rid’ of Hagar, Paul says the Galatians should rid themselves of the Jewish false teachers (and their teaching) who were wanting to take them back to the law and bondage.
  • Persecution (29): The persecution of Isaac by Ishmael was a foreshadowing of the difficulties (in Paul’s day) created for true believers by the Judaizers (those with a message of ‘works righteousness’.) Paul taught ‘believe and you will receive’. Salvation is by faith in God’s promise. But his opponents taught the need for human effort for salvation. Faith alone was not enough. It had to be supplemented with certain good deeds, such as circumcision. So the Christians were experiencing this painful antagonism: ‘’Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? The Message.

‘’God’s promise – that is, His word – is powerful. It is a living word. It gives life. Through God’s word Sarah gave birth to a child, Isaac, even though she was ninety years old! In the same way, through God’s word of grace, THE Galatians have been born by the power of the Spirit (verse 29). They too are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, the true offspring of Abraham, not by natural descent but by the grace of God. Why should the Galatians now turn back and seek to live like children of Hagar the slave woman?…Let us not throw away the grace of God by putting our faith in the works of any law or any religion. Let our faith be in Christ, and in Christ alone.’’ Tom Hale: ‘The applied New Testament Commentary, p. 715. ‘’…to live by grace, through faith, gives one a free and fulfilling Christian life…you and I need to beware lest Ishmael and Hagar have crept back into our lives. If they have-let us cast them out.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiesbe Bible Commentary’ (NT), p.570.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that our salvation does not depend on works. We could never know if we had done enough good works. I am so grateful for the freedom that simple trust in Jesus brings.

 

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 738: Friday 31st October 2014:

 Isaiah 46:5-13

Here are some common themes from the later chapters of Isaiah. We are becoming familiar with them as they are hammered into our hearts by repetition:

  1. The folly of idolatry (5-7): If you are alive you can move; if you are living you can answer when someone talks to you; if you have the breath of life in you can help those who ask for it. The pagan gods could do none of these things. They were dependent on people to create them and (effectively) control them. How stupidly blind can you be to worship such a hand-crafted deity? The Message captures a sense of the absurdity of it all. It is just ludicrous to bow down to idols: ‘’People with a lot of money hire craftsmen to make them gods. The artisan delivers the god, and they kneel and worship it! They carry it around in holy parades, then take it home and put it on a shelf. And there it sits, day in and day out, a dependable god, always right where you put it. Say anything you want to it, it never talks back. Of course, it never does anything either!’’
  2. God’s knowledge of the future as a point of contrast with idolatry (8-10): An idol cannot speak about the future (or anything else!), but the Lord has an impeccable track record in terms of forecasting tomorrow: ‘’I am GOD, the only God you’ve had or ever will have –incomparable, irreplaceable – From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul, I’ll do exactly what I set out to do.’….’’ The Message.
  3. Cyrus as an example of God’s foreknowledge (11): ‘’…Calling that eagle, Cyrus, out of the east, from a far country the man I chose to help me. I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it. I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done.’’ The Message. ‘’The theme of prediction, a constant ingredient in these passages (cf.e.g. 41:23), receives its classic statement in v 10a; and the twin realities of the conqueror’s career-as both predatory and predestined-are set side by side in v 11a (cf.41:2, 25; 44:28; 45:1-7).’’ Derek Kidner: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.660

The chapter concludes with a further appeal to turn to this unique, one and only God (12, 13; see 45:22ff) and take hold of a salvation ‘’near’’ at hand. But God is speaking through Isaiah to ‘’rebels’’ (8); addressing ‘’stubborn-hearted’’ people ‘’who are far from righteousness’’ (12). Will they respond? Even more pertinently, will we?

What idols do we cling to? If our trust is in anything other than the Lord God Himself, we cannot expect any help from that quarter (7b). We are looking for life among the dead.

‘’So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable? Can you picture me without reducing me?’’ (5) The Message. This remains a challenge for us.

Prayer: How grateful I am Lord, that when I call you answer, so long as I do not cherish sin in my heart.

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Daily Bible thoughts 737: Thursday 30th October 2014:

Isaiah 46: 1-4

As we saw yesterday, God said that one day every knee will ‘’bow’’ before Him (45:23). In the opening words of this chapter, Isaiah sees the two main gods of Babylon bowing before the God of Israel as they are being carried away on animals while Babylon falls. ‘’Bel’’ is an alternate name for ‘Marduk’, the chief god of the Babylonians; ‘’Nebo’’ was Marduk’s son. These gods could not save Babylon; they couldn’t even save themselves. They too ended up in captivity. They were incapable of bearing the burdens of those who worshipped them. Instead they would be a burden to the beasts carrying them! ‘’The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules And have to be hauled off, wearing out the poor mules – Dead weight, burdens who can’t bear burdens, hauled off to captivity.’’ The Message.

‘’Both gods were commonly transported in processions, but in this scene they are monstrous refugees, weighing down their struggling pack-animals. The contrast between these burdens, with their demands on money and muscles (6-7), and the lifelong burden-bearer, Yahweh (3-4), brings the series of attacks on idolatry in these chapters to a telling climax.’’ Derek Kidner: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.660.

In contrast to the gods of Babylon, the God of Israel does not have to be carried. Rather He carries His people (3, 4). Although many of us may hope to live a long time, the prospect of aging and what it may bring with it can be a fearful thing. It is encouraging to know that for as long as you live in this world God will carry you, and then you will see His face in eternity. As your days so will your strength be. Here and now, those ‘everlasting arms’ are invisible, but no less real and strong. He made you. He will carry you and sustain you. When required, He will rescue you. You are in the best Hands possible. Old age can be a lonely time, where people feel isolated, neglected, forgotten, invisible, and anonymous. We live in a culture in love with the young and beautiful. But even the beautiful young things will get old (God-willing), and a lot more quickly than they imagine. Then they will no longer be the centre of attention and obsession. It is good to know that the Lord is no less interested in us when we are old. He doesn’t forget or abandon us. He doesn’t merely visit, but He is always with us as our Wonderful, supernatural ‘Home Help’, and so much more!

Prayer: ‘O God, Thou hast made us, and not we ourselves; we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture; still bear with our wanderings and sins, we entreat Thee, till thou hast made us what we would be, and made us meet for thy use.’’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible’, p.286.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 736: Wednesday 29th October 2014:

Isaiah 45:14-25

‘’Foreseeing the great influx of the Gentiles, these verses leap far beyond the liberation. Chs.60-62 will take up the theme more fully. Here it is expressed first in an address to Israel (14-19) and then in an appeal to mankind to acknowledge its Lord, as one day it must, and thereby find salvation in company with the nation it once despised (20-25).’’ Derek Kidner: The ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.659

The words in (14) are similar to Paul’s in 1 Corinthians 14:24, 25. In fact, Paul may have had Isaiah in mind when he wrote that letter. God was speaking through the prophet about a more distant day when Israel’s former enemies will be gathered into the Messianic kingdom (see Isaiah 14:2). These people will submit to the rule of Israel’s God. They will come ‘’in chains’’; but they will come willingly. Because they know that ‘’there is no other god.’’ We are seeing this worked out now in the global extension of the kingdom of God. When people come into Christian gatherings and they fall down in worship, and say, ‘’God is really among you!’’ this prophetic word is still coming to pass. (See also 20 and 23-25 for this global vision).

The opening of (15) reads like this in The Message: ‘’Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes…’’ Someone said that God moves behind the scenes and He moves all the scenes He is behind. Verses 15-17 contrast the destinies of those who make (and, by inference, trust) in idols, and those people of Israel who will trust in God.

There is a paradox in this chapter. In one sense, God ‘’hides’’ Himself. As we saw yesterday, His ways can be mysterious, and He doesn’t owe us any explanations. But He is also the God who reveals Himself (19). He shows us what He wants us to know. There are secret things that are only known to Him, but there are also many revealed truths that we can enter into by the Holy Spirit’s illumination. One of those is that God’s people will never seek Him in vain (19b). This truth has helped and sustained me through many years. I know there are mysteries to God’s ways; nevertheless I also know He answers prayer. He is ‘’the Lord’’ (18): the Creator of all things. We are not ‘’praying for help to a dead stick’’ The Message (20b).

In (20, 21) God tells the world’s unbelieving nations that because He has predicted future events accurately (such as the role played by Cyrus in freeing the Jews) He has established His claim to be the one and only God and Saviour (see Isaiah 43:8-13; 44:6-8). Because of who He is; His uniqueness, God issues this heartfelt appeal to all people everywhere, to ‘’turn’’ to Him ‘’and be saved’’ (22-25). The words in (23b) are picked up in the New Testament by the apostle Paul and applied to the Lord Jesus (Phil.2:10, 11; Romans 14:9, 11). Take time to reflect on this and allow its significance to sink in.

‘’The concluding verses are remarkable for their picture of world-wide and heart-felt conversions, and secondly for the bold use the NT was to make of vs 23-24, applying them directly to Christ in Phil.2:10-11 (and indirectly in Rom.14:9, 11).

Prayer: Lord Jesus you are truly wonderful – the only God and Saviour, and Lord of all. Help me to know you more, and love you more, and serve you more.

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Daily Bible thoughts 735: Tuesday 28th October 2014:

Isaiah 45:8-13

There is a picture of ‘showers’ of ‘’righteousness’’ falling down from the sky in (8). How we want such holy rain to fall on the nations of our world! This verse speaks of heaven affecting earth. God pours out something good that causes ‘’salvation’’ to ‘’spring up’’ and ‘’righteousness’’ grows with it; for God saves people to glorify Him by right living. That way this sin-cursed earth gets ‘flooded’ with righteousness. Salvation, of course, is God’s idea. It is His invention. It’s all of Him. People can’t be saved and live righteously without a sovereign work of God’s grace in their hearts. (By the way, salvation and righteousness are closely linked in Isaiah: 46:13, 51:5, 56:1; and, indeed, throughout the Bible.) ‘’Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, GOD, generate all this.’’ The Message. I really would like it to rain heavily today if we can have this sort of cloudburst!

The salvation spoken of in Isaiah 45 mainly concerned the captives being saved from exile in Babylon. (But when we take the Bible’s big picture we know that there is a greater dimension to the doctrine of salvation, finally and fully revealed in Jesus.) Maybe it would seem strange to God’s people that He would use the fearful pagan emperor, Cyrus, to deliver them (9-13; see Isaiah 29:16 and Jeremiah 18:1-10). Perhaps they would want to question God on this matter. Maybe there would be a sense of God fumbling His work. So the exalted, sovereign Lord of history, the Creator of the universe, reminds them that He is God and they are not! He knows what He is doing, even when others may not understand. The object lesson from the starry universe has been similarly, if more gently, used in 40:26-31. ‘’Does clay talk back to the potter: ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’…Are you telling me what I can or cannot do? I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it. I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings. And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move. I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him. He will build my city. He will bring home my exiles. I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him. I, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.’’ The Message. God was going to raise up Cyrus in His ‘’righteousness’’ (13). It was not wrong for the Lord to use him; He would employ him to bring about right. All the time this powerful man would be under God’s control and not realise it!

There may come times for us when we do not understand what God is doing, and we are tempted to question Him. How appropriate, then, are these words for us: ‘’We must will and dare to believe that God is doing his very best for us, and doing it in the very best way.’’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible, p.286.

Prayer: Let your showers of righteousness pour down on this needy world today Sovereign Lord.

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Daily Bible thoughts 730: Tuesday 21st October 2014:

 Galatians 3: 26-4:7

Christian people are no longer slaves to the law but are sons of God. That is the big idea in this section. At just the right time, Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world to make it possible for us to become sons of God (4:4, 5). Be sure that God will never be premature or tardy. He will always be on time.

  • You become a son of God ‘’through faith in Christ Jesus’’ (3:26), and you signify this in water baptism (3:27). Baptism alone doesn’t make anyone a child of God, apart from genuine trust in Christ. Someone said that baptism, as a mere rite, is as valueless as a currency note without gold to back it up. The true children of Abraham are those people who believe God’s ‘’promise’’ and are counted as righteous as a result (3:29).
  • The ‘’sons of God’’ become part of a big family in which all the old distinctions no longer apply (3:28). You will notice that the term ‘’sons of God’’ applies to both male and female. In this new society you don’t cease to be a man or a woman, a Jew or Gentile etc, but those old differences no longer have the power to keep people apart. They no longer form barriers between men and women. In Christ we transcend them. There is a story told about a private soldier and an officer ,sitting in the same pew at a church service. When It came time to receive communion, the soldier stepped out into the aisle and stood back to allow his officer to go first. But the officer said to him, ‘’Not in here!’’ There is unity and equality in Christ. We are on level ground before the cross.
  • As a son of God it is your privilege to have the Spirit of God in your heart (4:6). He enables you to enjoy a relationship of intimate communion with your Heavenly Father. Because of the Spirit’s presence you can call God ‘’Abba’’. This is an Aramaic term meaning ‘dearest Father’. Its nearest English equivalent would be ‘daddy’. This is the same word Jesus used in prayer (Mark 14:36). As adopted children of God, we share with Jesus all rights to God’s resources.
  • Through Christ you become a son of God with the full rights of an heir (3:7). Under Roman law, an adopted child was guaranteed all legal rights to his father’s property, even if he was formerly slave. He would not become a second class son. Rather he would be equal to all the other sons, whether biological or adopted, in the father’s family.

‘’Are you a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ? Then you are also an heir and all of Christ’s riches are yours (Eph.1:3)! A child must wait until maturity to inherit the family wealth, but God’s children can have His wealth now (Phil.4:19).’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.768.

Prayer: Lord God, help me to always remember who I am in Christ Jesus, and live no longer as a slave to the law, but as a son of God.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 729: Monday 20th October 2014:

 Isaiah 44:6-23

Dagon will always fall before the Ark of God! Perhaps the best way to expose error is to set it alongside the truth, and it will be shown up for the poor and pitiful thing it is by comparison. So, a classic Bible passage on the folly of idolatry opens with another exalted picture of the living God (6-8). When the light of truth shines on heresy, the erroneous doctrine is seen for the dark and shadowy thing that it is. Again, there is an emphasis on God being able to foretell the future – something no idol can do. God’s people were witnesses to His ability in this area.

A religion can only be as good as its gods (9-11). If you make a god to worship, it will obviously be worthless. How can something you have complete power over in the process of construction have any power to help you? It’s a ridiculous notion. Idols are only pieces of metal or blocks of wood. However, behind idols there are spiritual forces of evil. When someone worships an idol, he or she is serving a demon (1 Corinthians 8:4; 10:19, 20). This is how people get into idolatry. Satan uses these lifeless idols to entice people to put their trust in them rather than in the living God. They are spiritually blinded (18) and ‘’deluded’’ (20), believing in a ‘’lie’’. ‘’All those who make no-god idols don’t amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing – they’re total embarrassments!

The absurdity of idolatry could not be spelled out more clearly than in (12-20). ‘’Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships – carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: ‘’Ah, this is the life.’’ And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design – a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, ‘’Save me. You’re my god.’’ Pretty stupid wouldn’t you say? Don’t they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all?’’ The Message. We must have something to worship. But we’d prefer it to be something we’re in charge of and control, as ridiculous as that is. ‘’All worship of things given by God (9; cf. v 14) and shaped by man contains the same absurdity and blasphemy (cf.Rom.1:25). Man’s eventual inability to see this (which is as modern as it is ancient) comes of a prior refusal to face it (18-20; cf. Rom.1:21).’’ Derek Kidner: The ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.659.

We need the God who made us (21), and He wants to forgive us all our sins (including our foolish idolatry). He will do so if we ‘’Return’’ to Him. This message went out to His people centuries ago, and was certainly heeded by some. Still this message is being proclaimed today. God wants to remove all our sins (22). Will we hear, and repent?

Prayer: ‘’The dearest idol I have known, whate’er that idol be; help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee.’’

 

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