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Daily Bible thoughts 734: Monday 27th October 2014:

Isaiah 45:1-7

It is remarkable that these words were spoken at least a century before their fulfilment. It is also jaw-dropping to think that they were addressed to a pagan ruler. This man’s great success was in fact the Lord’s success. We often think today of God opening doors of opportunity for service/witness to Christian people(Colossians 4:3; Revelation 3:7), but this thought was first used in relation to the job of a man who was an outsider to true faith (1b).God has the right to use people we would not choose. He does not need our permission to add people to His workforce we don’t approve. He doesn’t come to us for references. He will even employ unbelievers to get His work done (4, 5). But all that He did through Cyrus He did a.) for the sake of His people ‘’Israel’’ (4a), and b.) above all, for the glorifying of His own Name (3b, 5a, 6). This wasn’t fundamentally about Cyrus, but about the Lord Himself. Remember, it’s never about us; it’s always about God.

The reference to ‘’treasures of darkness’’ (3) is to those which were most carefully hidden, being the most precious. In conquering Croesus and Babylon Cyrus acquired inestimable wealth. As far as God was concerned, the high point of his career was the release of Israel (4, 13) but it is unlikely that he saw it like that (55:8). We find it hard to ‘get on the same page’ as God.

‘’Over and over in these remaining chapters of the book of Isaiah, God teaches us about Himself, about His greatness, His uniqueness, His sovereignty over all the earth. We need to let these chapters enlarge our vision of God and increase our love and reverence for Him. Isaiah isn’t simply piling up poetic phrases here; he is teaching us about the most important subject in the universe and in our lives: the subject of God.’’ Tom Hale: The Applied Old Testament Commentary, pp.1044. 1045. (By the way, the intriguing comment in verse 7 is a Hebrew way of saying that The Lord is Sovereign over all that is. He is in absolute control.)

God had two purposes in using Cyrus. The first had to do with the near future (1-4). It concerned the restoration of Israel, as we have seen. His second, and more long-term plan had to do with making Himself known. In the first place this revelation would be to Cyrus (3), and then to the whole earth (6). This second purpose is still being worked out today through the church.

It’s been observed that if God would do all this for unbelieving Cyrus, how much more He will do it for Christ, His true Anointed One, and for His followers. As we go out on Jesus’s mission, the Lord Himself goes before us and removes obstacles from our path. Look at church history. Consider what God did for a handful of despised and persecuted Christ-followers in the years following Jesus’ death! In country after country God has been opening doors for the gospel, and He will continue to do so until Jesus returns. The calling is ours, but any success is always His!

Prayer: Enlarge my heart’s vision of you Lord; clear the mist from the windscreen of my soul, that I may see you more clearly.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 733: Friday 24th October 2014:

 Isaiah 44:24-28

These words provide an introduction to the next chapter.

The Bible teaches that there is one creator God and He ‘’alone’’ (24) made the Universe. He didn’t sub-contract it out. He didn’t require any help. Although there is no specific mention of Genesis in this passage, we know from the first book in the Bible that God spoke and things came to be. It is interesting that we see that same pattern in the final verses of Isaiah 44. God’s Word is a creative Word.

  • He gives His Words to His ‘’servants’’/ ‘’messengers’’ and then ‘’fulfils’’ them (26a). It’s not that they can say any old thing that comes into their heads and God will do it for them. True prophets (as opposed to false ones: verse 25) hear from God, and He then does what He has said through their mouths. At the same time, He will thwart the work of those who are false. When God says that He ‘’overthrows the learning of the wise’’ (25) He is referring to worldly wisdom (see 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 and 3:18-20). He will expose it for the empty thing it is.
  • God promised again and again to restore and repopulate Jerusalem (26b). That is what He said would happen, and it did. May God speak a word of ‘population explosion’ over His church this day! If He speaks it happens. Surveying the church landscape in the western world, we know that there are churches that need inhabiting; there are new churches to be ‘’built’’; there are ‘’ruins’’ to be ‘restored’. God only has to command it and it will be!
  • What God had done before by His Word He would do again (27). At the Exodus He had commanded the Red Sea to part, and it happened. There was going to be a new ‘exodus’ in which He would bring His people home to Judah and Jerusalem. Every barrier and obstacle in the way was going to be overcome. He would ‘’dry up’’ any figurative waters in the way of His people.
  • All of this would happen: the captives would return across the desert to their homeland; and that home would be restored, rebuilt and re-populated, because God was going to raise up a Persian Emperor named Cyrus to get the job facilitated (28). The Lord was going to employ him for His own purposes. (See 45:4 and 41:25). God foretold this , and, of course, it happened!

One final thought: verse 28 pictures Cyrus saying essentially what God says in (26b; see Ezra 1:1-4), and what God wants happens. What God decreed, Cyrus did. When God’s Word incubates in our hearts, and faith grows; when we declare it, lining up our words with God’s Word, then powerful and creative things take place. I’m not suggesting that we can speak anything we like into existence. But when our words line up with God’s Word mighty things happen. Who of us has truly begun to understand the power in our Bibles?!! May that power be unleashed through lives and lips that are in line with Scripture.

Prayer: Help me Lord to be so immersed in your Word that I live and speak in agreement with its truth

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Daily Bible thoughts 732: Thursday 23rd October 2014:

 Psalm 108:1-5

This psalm is made up of parts of two other psalms. Verses 1-5 correspond to Psalm 57:7-11; for verses 6-13 see Psalm 60:5-12. Someone pointed out that the Edomite crisis reflected in Psalm 60 was probably not the last David heard from that quarter. In some later critical moment David drew on his earlier psalmody and moulded and shaped it anew for fresh needs.

The worldwide vision in the Old Testament is one of its notable features (3, 5b). This outlook doesn’t belong only to the New Testament era. I am reading a book at the moment called, ‘The mission of God’s people’ by Christopher Wright. It is about the Biblical doctrine of mission, and much of its teaching is drawn from the Old Testament. David’s desire and intention was to glorify God ‘’among the nations’’ and ‘’among the peoples’’. His prayer was that God’s glory would be ‘’over all the earth’’. Indeed, his vision was not only as wide as the world, but as high as ‘’the heavens’’ (5a). Back in Genesis 12, Abraham was called to be a blessing to the nations (Genesis 12:3) and that missionary pulse can be felt throughout the Old Testament. There is a missionary/evangelistic aspect to our praise/worship. Preaching the gospel itself is a form of praising the Lord. ‘’I’m thanking you, GOD, out in the streets, singing your praises in town and country.’’ The Message. David Watson, writing about the day of Pentecost, said, ‘’A praising church preaches to answer questions raised by its praise.’’

God’s ‘’great’’ love and expansive faithfulness (4) will give anyone cause for song. The first stanza (1-5) of this three stanza psalm hinges on the reality of God’s unchanging love. But we do not always feel like singing. Reminding yourself of great doctrinal truth, such as that expressed in (4) can stir you to sing again. It can stoke the fires. But most of all, you need a ‘’steadfast’’ heart (1) to continue being a music maker to God through all the days of your life. Such a heart causes you to say with determination: ‘’I will…I will…I will…I will…’’ You make a commitment to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. ‘’I’m ready, God, so ready, ready from head to toe. Ready to sing, ready to raise a God-song: ‘’Wake, soul! Wake, lute! Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!’’ The Message. It seems like David is up and about even before the sunrise, keen to get on with worshipping God. You certainly need a ‘’steadfast’’ heart to get you out of bed that early in the morning. David’s ‘quiet time’ wasn’t all that quiet it appears. But it was ‘quite a time’! He made so much noise he woke up the dawn!! There is no rule in the Bible about having to get up early for personal devotions. Not everyone is a ‘morning person’. That said, there is something special about the early morning, and many of the great Christian leaders through the centuries have kept David’s company in the early hours.

Prayer: Lord, I want to sing to you and of you always, not necessarily because I will always feel like it, but because you are worthy.

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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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Daily Bible thoughts 728: Friday 17th October 2014:

Isaiah 44:1-5

Here is something for you to do: ‘’…now listen…’’ (1). Don’t switch off the phone! Always stay alert to hear (and act on) God’s voice. Position yourself to be in a place where you will be most able to receive God’s communications. Remember that ‘’if you want to meet God everywhere you must meet Him somewhere; and if you want to find Him all the time you must find Him some time.’’ If you know someone, and their phone is always off, or on silent, it can be frustrating. You want to get a message through to them, but they are not in a position to hear from you. Don’t be like that where God is concerned.

Here are some things for you to know:

  • You are God’s ‘’servant’’ (1, 2, 5). So if you hear His instructions you will want to convert them into actions. ‘’Do whatever he tells you.’’ (John 2:3). You are His possession; not just His employee. ‘’That one will write on his hand ‘GOD’s property’… The Message (5).
  • You are part of His elect. He has ‘’chosen’’ you (1, 2, 5): ‘’Israel, my personal choice.’’ The Message. (1).
  • You are His creation (2). Your life has great significance. You are made in His image. You matter to God. You have a purpose in the world. You are not a ‘waste of space’.You are the product of choice, not chance.
  • God doesn’t want you to be afraid (2). He doesn’t want your life to be ruled by a spirit of fear. Why would it be when you have such a good Master?
  • The Lord will help you (2). If your help is going to come from the Maker of heaven and earth you have to say: ‘What help! What a Helper!!’
  • The Lord will enable you to become what He calls you to be: ‘’Jeshurun’’ (2) means ‘upright’. God’s purpose is to make us holy and He will help each of us to get there.

Here is something for you to believe (3-5. For similar passages of promise see also 32:14-18, 35:1-4; 41:17-20).I would summarise it like this: it is that God wants to pour out His Spirit in reviving, renewing, refreshing blessing. Further, He wants to bless your children and all your descendants. If there is a condition to the promise, it is probably that God looks for ‘thirsty’ hearts (3a). Compare this to what we saw yesterday in 43:22 about the importance of earnest spiritual desire. By and large, I think it’s true to say that you tend to get what you go for in the Christian life. Of course, Isaiah was writing about the blessings to be poured out on the returning exiles, but He was also looking forward to the era of the Messiah (the time in which we now live) in which many people from all over the world will become believers. Verse 5 seems to suggest that many who are not Israelites will say, ‘’I belong to the LORD’’ and will call themselves by His ‘’Name’’ (see Isaiah 43:7, Psalm 87:4-6). This very day, as we live in a dry and thirsty land (spiritually speaking) let’s cry out to God for the outpouring of His Spirit and ask for many new Christians to ‘’spring up like grass in a meadow’’ (4). There is a plentiful supply of God’s Spirit available to the desperate soul. May we see an abundant crop of growth in the church!

‘’The book of Acts traces part of this current of life through the thirsty land’’. Derek Kidner: The ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.658.

Prayer: ‘’Come Lord Jesus, pour out your Spirit we pray.’’

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Daily Bible thoughts 726: Wednesday 15th October 2014:

Isaiah 43:1-13

For God’s people in this world there is no cast iron guarantee that they will not go through fire and flood. On the contrary, there should be an expectation that they will. It’s not a case of ‘if’ but ‘’When…when…When…’’ (2). Suffering will come. Hard times will pay a visit. Tribulation will knock on the door. But God calls His people to remember who He is (3a), how much He loves them (4a), that He is with them (2, 5), and has created them for His glory (1, 7). Therefore, if God is for them, who can be against them? So they are not to fear (1, 3a). None of this trouble takes God by surprise. He is working to a plan. ‘’This is inevitable. He is too transparently truthful to engage us without telling the nature of his service. Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom.’’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible, p.285.

God’s love is a costly love (3, 4). In order to redeem or ‘’ransom’’ His people, God ‘gave’ Cyrus‘’…Egypt…Cush and Seba…’’ in their stead. Cyrus was later to conquer these countries. ‘’I paid a huge price for you : all of Egypt , with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.’’ The Message. When times are hard, and maybe we are tempted to question the love of God, it’s good to remember the ultimate price Jesus paid to redeem us; to buy us back from sin’s slave market.

God’s people must always keep in their minds and hearts their calling to be His witnesses (8-13). Those redeemed by Him should say so. He is the Almighty, awesome, overwhelming God who fills these pagers with His dominant presence. He has come to the rescue of His people. He is the true god and no idol. We are to testify that there is no other god, and no other Saviour. Of course, a large number of God’s people were spiritually blind and deaf, verse 8. See also 42:18-20. These people had nothing to say for they did not see. They could not comprehend. But all who have experienced God’s redemption and do understand, are called to be His witnesses in the world. ‘’Redeemed how I love to proclaim it…’’ Eventually, in the unfolding revelation of Scripture, the title ‘’my witnesses’’ was to have its full force (Acts 1:8). The point at issue here is the non-existence of any god but Yahweh, in ages past, present, or to come.

So, the people of God have been redeemed by God to glorify Him by witnessing to Him in this hostile world. This will not be always easy, but the Lord will never leave or forsake them, so there is no need to fear. The gates of hell will never prevail against the church. They will try, but they will not succeed!

Here, then, is a great thought to carry with you through the day ahead: ‘’When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end – Because I am GOD, your personal GOD, the Holy of Israel, your Saviour. The Message.

Prayer: May I never think that fire and flood mean you have abandoned me Lord. Amid burning and overwhelming problems, let me always know that you are with me.

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Daily Bible thoughts 724: Monday 13th October 2014:

Galatians 3:15-25

Paul’s message was about the promise of God in the gospel: if you believe in Jesus you will be saved. That is God’s commitment; His guarantee; His ‘price-free promise’! (‘Price-free’ to you and me, that is. We just have to believe.) This is all of grace and received by faith. (To my mind, verse 22 is at the heart of today’s passage and provides a definition of Paul’s message.) But the Judaizers who dogged Paul’s steps, and who were particularly active in the churches of Galatia, taught that one is saved by law rather than promise. So in this section Paul shows that the promise came first and cannot be altered by the later appearance of the law. He writes about the purpose of the law and shows why it is inferior to the promise.

Paul begins with an illustration from ordinary life. People make various covenants with each other. Once one is ‘’established’’ it cannot be easily changed (15). Salvation began not with law but a promise (16). It was not a promise to the ‘’seeds’’ (i.e. all the natural children) of Abraham, but to Christ (and through Christ to all who believe). In (17) the apostle makes his main point. God gave the promise of salvation to Abraham long before the giving of the law at Sinai. So how could the Judaizers say that the law is necessary for salvation? The promise of salvation never depended on the law. It preceded it in time and importance. The coming of the law could not change that original covenant of God. When that covenant was ratified, Abraham was asleep (see Genesis 15). The covenant was all about grace and the promises God made to Abraham. ‘’This is the way I interpret this: A will, earlier ratified by God, is not annulled by an addendum attached 430 years later, thereby negating the promise of the will. No, this addendum, with its instructions and regulations, has nothing to do with the promised inheritance in the will.’’ The Message.

So what was the purpose of the law? (19a, 23-25) It was to prepare people for the coming of Christ; to show us that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. But it cannot save anyone. That’s not its purpose. (Someone has pointed out that the law does not contradict the promise, but it cooperates with it in fulfilling God’s plan. While law and grace seem contrary to one another, if you go down deep you find that they complement each other. They work hand in glove.) In Paul’s day wealthy families hired special tutors or custodians to look after their children. The children were under the authority of the custodian. Paul paints the picture of the law being a custodian to people in (24). Once we come to Christ, however, we don’t need the custodian’s supervision anymore (25). ‘’Until the time came when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.’’ The Message.

So that is the purpose of the law. Paul also points out that the law is inferior to the promise because a.) it is temporary (19, 23-25); b.) it was not given directly from God to man, but came third – hand, from God to angels to Moses (19b, 20), and because it cannot impart life (21). The law cannot save anyone, and that is why Paul stood his ground against the Judaizers. He knew the important place of the law. He knew what it could do. But he was also aware of what it could not achieve. To be saved we have to go back to the promise given to Abraham and not to the law given to Moses.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for your wonderful grace. Help me to never go back to a futile religion of self-effort.

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Daily Bible thoughts 723: Friday 10th October 2014:

Galatians 3:10-14

There are two key messages in these verses:

  • We are saved by faith and not law (10-12);
  • We are saved through Christ (13, 14). His work on the cross is central to our believing and receiving the gift of the Spirit. So see:
  •  The curse of the law (10, 12): Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 27:26 and later from Leviticus 18:5. The Law demands obedience, and the problem is that it’s not just a bit of obedience that will suffice. There must be obedience in ‘’everything’’. As someone has said, the law is not a religious cafeteria where you can pick and choose (see James 2:10-11). I took an examination some years ago, made up of four parts. But if you failed one section you failed the entire exam. It’s rather like that with the Law. To be saved by the Law you have to do it all No one can and that’s why no one can be saved by the law. If you think you can be spiritually rescued by keeping the Ten Commandments, the bad news is that if you’ve so much as broken one of them you’ve failed to get the pass mark!
  • The content of Paul’s message (11): Habakkuk 2:4 was a key text for the apostle Paul. We could say that it is theme text out of which Romans is developed (Romans 1:16, 17). Paul was insistent that people are not saved by doing good deeds but by believing in Christ. It’s not just that the law can’t save anyone (and that much is clearly obvious) but it is also about what is written in the Old Testament Scriptures. Way back when, the Word of God said you cannot be saved by working and earning, but by believing and receiving. The only way to find true life is by faith.
  • The cross at the centre (13, 14): Paul quotes some more from Deuteronomy (21:33): ‘’Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’’ The Jews did not crucify criminals; they stoned them to death. But in cases of shameful violation of the law, after the stoning, the body was hung on a tree and exposed for everyone to see. This was a great humiliation, because the Jewish people were very careful in their treatment of a dead body. After the body had been exposed for a time, it was taken down and buried (see Josh.8:29; 10:26; 2 Sam.4:12). Of course Paul’s reference to ‘’a tree’’ has to do with the cross on which Jesus died (Acts 5:30; 1 Peter 2:24). He was not stoned and then left exposed on a tree. But by dying on the cross Jesus bore the curse of the Law for us. We can be free from it, and experience redemption, with the Holy Spirit in our lives by faith.

Abraham was saved by a faith that works, and not by faith plus works. The Judaizers, who were infecting the church with their error, were arguing for the latter. The flesh loves legalism. It means we can boast about our religious achievements, and compare ourselves with others who don’t keep the rules as meticulously as we do. But this is not the way of Jesus. The gospel calls us to a simple faith in Him. All boasting is excluded. Through trust in Jesus alone we are made right with God, and even the faith to believe is a gift from God. The cross lies at the centre of our message and experience, and at the cross pride has to die.

Prayer: Lord keep me from trusting in Jesus plus my own efforts. Teach me to live by the gospel.

 

 

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