Tag: faith

Lamentations: An Invitation to Grief

Text from the book of Lamentations highlighting the desolation of a once-thriving city, with a backdrop of an abandoned urban landscape.

Daily Bible Readings

Lamentations 1-2

Psalm 135

Luke 18

Today’s Devotion by Jake Ballard (IN)

Over the next three days, we will be reading the book of Lamentations.

If you are anything like me, when you are wanting to open the Bible and hear the word of the Lord, a book called “Lamentations” doesn’t CALL to you. Who wants to be told about being sad and mourning when we want a pick-me-up? However, the Bible is full of poetry in the genre of “lament”.

Before we talk about genre, let’s get situated in the book of Lamentations. In our English and Christian Bibles, we place Lamentations in a section we call the “Major Prophets”, the section from Isaiah to Daniel. However, Lamentations is not prophecy. Even if we recognize that prophecy is about BOTH foretelling (speaking about the future with God’s wisdom) and forth-telling (speaking about the current culture with God’s wisdom), Lamentations isn’t that. It is a poetic work in response to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. As a book of poetry, in the Tanak (the Jewish order of the Old Testament), Lamentations is a part of the “writings,” which included the book of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. (The Tanak is referenced when Jesus speaks about how everything must be fulfilled that was written of Jesus in the Law (Torah), Prophets (Nevi’im) and Writings (Ketuvim), TaNaK.)

Why is Lamentations included with our major prophets? Because many have attributed the poems to Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet”, who foresaw the destruction of the city and then lived through it in the early 580s BC (587/586). While we don’t know if it was by him, tradition has long held this to be the case, and it does make sense. Therefore, it has been included after the book we know Jeremiah wrote. This book was written after the destruction in response to the pain of loss that the people feel.

But why write the work? Lamentations is written to declare to the reader, but ultimately to God, the pain of the author. In chapter one, the author gives Jerusalem a voice, crying out to God in pain, despair and loss. The city is destroyed and betrayed. (1:1-2) What’s worse: it was because the people of the city and the Kingdom of Judah had sinned and turned away from God (1:8, 18) and therefore the destruction is Judgement from God. (1:15) Even in the midst of this pain, the city cries out for the Lord to look at them, see their suffering, and forgive (1:20). The author asks for God to vindicate the city in the presence of the evil enemies under which they suffer. (1:21-22).

However, the book is not just a factual recounting of the sufferings, nor a simple prose narrative. The author takes the time to write using the constraints of an acrostic in chapters 1-4. In chapters 1, 2, and 4, each line begins with a new Hebrew letter (basically, if we wrote a poem and started with “A”, then “B” and so forth.) There are 22 Hebrew letters, thus the 22 verses. And in Chapter 3, the pattern is even heightened so that every three lines start with the same letter. (“A… A… A… B…B…B” and so on for the 66 verses.)

However, knowing all this simply sets the stage. As you read the book, I want you to recognize that Lamentations is included in the word of God to allow you to see the beauty and the necessity of grief, especially as we take our grief to the Lord. God is willing to hear your lament. He is willing to receive all that you speak to him. Lamentations lets us know that God’s wrath against sin is severe, but those who come to him as children will always have a loving father listening to them.

Reflection Questions

What are you lamenting? Let lamentations give you permission to give it to God, to write it down and turn it into something beautiful.

Where does the world press against you? Lamentations shows us that God is over even the Kingdoms of the world, and we can go straight to him for forgiveness.

Where does sin cause a break between you and God? Let this book of sorrow become a book of repentance to turn back to him through faith in Jesus.

Tomorrow, we will focus on the messages found in Lamentations 1-4 and then we will pay close attention to the final chapter.

Prayer

Dear God our Father – I praise You because You are a holy and righteous God through all the ages. I am humbled to know that You, the same God who listened to Jeremiah, listens to me as well. Help me to grieve well, not only over the consequences of my sin, but over my sins that go against what You have made me to be. I repent of my sins. Show me, God, where I have gone astray and guide me in the way You want me to go, even when that requires correction and discipline.

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Surrender | Jeremiah 52

For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. Jeremiah 52:3 ESV

Daily Bible Readings

*Jeremiah 52

Psalm 135

Luke 17

Today’s Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

Today we’ll be finishing up the book of Jeremiah in our reading, and we’ll take a look at some of the historical information and alternative sources which confirm the events recorded here.  It is very difficult to read the blow by blow description of the looting and destruction of the Temple that is recorded here, for both Christian and Jew.  This event (@586 BC) signaled what most consider to be the beginning of the Exile*: both literally and symbolically (from God).

The Babylonians recorded their histories on clay tablets, and while the fall of Jerusalem (and the Temple) is well documented in scripture (2 Ki 25, 2 Chron 36, Jer 52), it’s also very well documented in the Babylonian records, specifically: “The Jerusalem Chronicle” (ABC 05), and tablets VAT4956 and BM21946.  A separate Babylonian document, the Weidner’s Ration List, records that Jehoiachin received royal rations in Babylon for over 30 years, and a tablet from 561 BC notes his release from custody.   All of these directly support the biblical narrative given here, although usually more as a dry administrative note than a profound theological narrative such as is found in scripture.

During these last days before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, Jeremiah had been adamantly warning the leaders that surrendering to Nebuchadnezzar’s forces was the only way for the city to survive, warning that those who stayed would die by sword, famine, or pestilence.  This wasn’t a popular stance: the people believed that they were untouchable since the Temple was in their midst, and as a result Jeremiah was branded a traitor despite just relaying the word of God as it had been given to him.

It’s interesting to me that during Zedekiah’s reign he often privately sent for Jeremiah, asking for “the word of the LORD” (Jer 37:17, 38:14).  Each time, Jeremiah delivered the same message: surrender to Babylon and live.   In private, Zedekiah swore secret oaths to protect him but then publicly refused to act, fearing his own officials and the pro-Egyptian faction in the court.  Here in the last chapter of Jeremiah, we see recorded both the fates of King Zedekiah, and also King Jehoiachin.

I was a little curious about this, because according to the scriptures (and the Babylonian historical accounts) Jehoiachin surrendered around 597 BC.   So how was it that Zedekiah was king after him, until the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 586 BC? 

Well, on digging a little, after Jehoiachin surrendered, Nebuchadnezzar installed Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah as the new ruler.  Nebuchadnezzar changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah and made him a vassal king, requiring him to swear an oath of allegiance to Babylon (2 Ki 24:17).  This is because as a political strategy, Babylon preferred a compliant native monarch over direct occupation both to ensure short-term stability and to signal its dominance.

Zedekiah was the last king of Judah; his reign ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC.  While Nebuchadnezzar had put him in power (@597 BC), Zedekiah  eventually rebelled against Babylon due to internal political pressure, fear of his own court, and the promise of Egyptian military support** (see Eze 17:15).

Jeremiah spent years warning his people of God’s judgment, telling them that if they would just surrender they would live.  This was not a popular stance: the Jewish people considered themselves as “divinely elect”, chosen by God, and (despite rampant idolatry) it was inconceivable to the Jewish people of the day that they would be harmed: after all, wasn’t the Temple right there in Jerusalem?  That’s where God lived!  This “divinely elect” mentality, despite not electing to exclusively worship the divine God who had chosen them, led to their downfall.  Pride, in other words, despite rebellion and idolatry.

As a result of his rebellion and disobedience, Zedekiah’s fate is well detailed here in this last chapter of Jeremiah (Jer 52:10-11):  his sons were murdered in front of him, after which his eyes were gouged out, and then he was taken as a prisoner to Babylon (where he later died a prisoner). Ouch.  Imagine the last thing you (ever) see being the slaughter of your children.  That’s harsh.

As a result of his listening to Jeremiah and his obedience (despite it being an extremely unpopular stance with the people), Jehoiachin surrendered and lived.  This isn’t to say he had a great time, he was a Babylonian prisoner for 37 years.  He did his time, in modern parlance.  After that 37 years though, he was not only freed but given a position of honor and a daily allotment from the king.  Even more, he was of the line of David, and if you flip over to Matt 1:11 he’s actually listed (as Jeconiah***) in the ancestry of Jesus.

I can’t help but make some correlations between this and modern Christian life.  Sometimes, we are so secure in the bastion of our own selves that  we become prideful.  We forget that we are required to listen to the word of God, to obey, even when that isn’t comfortable or popular.  Even when we might have to go through some stuff, to do our time, to comply.  We are told that we are the temple of God, and like the ancient Jews, think ourselves unassailable because…this is where God lives!  Does he though?  Are you allowing the God who made you to sit on the throne of your heart, or are you insisting on occupying that seat yourself?  Think about it.  We all have our own plans.  We all have our own desires.  Sometimes though, God just calls us to surrender, and live.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. What are you being told by God to surrender, right now in your life?
  2. Are you going to?  Why, or why not?
  3. How could you be more obedient and surrender: what could you give up that you cling to that is dividing you from God, right now?

PRAYER

Father God, You are my Creator.  Please forgive me when I am prideful, help me to be humble, and to submit to your will and the word of the King you’ve anointed, the Christ.  Help me to not just say the words, but to surrender all to your authority.  Come, sit on the throne of my heart, rule my life.  In Jesus name, Amen.

* TECHNICALLY, The Babylonian Exile (or Captivity) occurred in multiple waves, going from 597 BC to 582 BC.  1st wave (@597): King Jehoiachin and approximately 7,000–10,000 prominent citizens, including the prophet Ezekiel. 2nd wave (@586): after the destruction of the temple, exiling the remaining population. 3rd wave (@582): A smaller group was exiled following the assassination of the Babylonian-appointed governor Gedaliah.  The Return happened in waves as well, starting in @538 with Zerubbabel and Joshua, and ending @445 with Nehemiah.

** The Lachish Ostraca (archaeological letters from the period) corroborate Judah’s expectation of Egyptian relief, mentioning watching for signal fires from Lachish and Azekah.

*** Jeconiah and Jehoiachin are the same person: they are different Hebrew transliterations of the same royal name, with the components “Yahweh” and “establish” simply swapped or abbreviated. Jehoiachin (Yəhōyāḵin) is the longer throne name meaning “Yahweh establishes,” while Jeconiah (Yəḵonəyā) is a variant form meaning “Yahweh has established”. Coniah is an abbreviation of Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:16), which is another form of the name Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:6).  You’re welcome, history nerds.  Many (most) of the names you’re familiar with in the English translation of the scripture bear very little resemblance to the actual, original, names: they’re “anglicized” for your reading convenience (and textual inaccuracy/confusion).  That includes Yeshua/Yehoshua/Jesus, by the way.

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God Help Us to Grow Our Trust | Luke 17

Image of hands raised towards the sky with a quote from Luke 17:5 NIV that says, 'Increase our faith!'

Daily Bible Readings

Jeremiah 50-51

Psalm 134

Luke 17

Today’s Devotion by Tom Siderius (MI)

Luke 17:5-6(REV)

Trust

5And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our trust.”
6And the Lord said, “If you have trust like a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be rooted up and be planted in the lake,’ and it would obey you.

This passage has the same subject as the parable in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13:31-32(NKJV) Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The mustard seed is a brassica seed which is dark or black, and very small, almost like a pencil point size.  I have some experience with planting brassica seeds, mostly turnips and other radishes. They are difficult to plant because you cannot see the seeds as they are dispersed from the seeder and cannot see them on the ground against the dark earth.  The people of that time hand seeded their fields so they would have to be very intentional about collecting the seeds, storing them and then seeding them in the next year’s field.

The mustard seed here is probably Brassica Negra and grows normally to about 3-4’ in size.  But there are some plants that given the right soil and conditions would grow to as much as 10-12’ in height with stems as big as a man’s forearm.  These plants give us mustard powder spice and also mustard oil. All were valuable commodities in their culture just as mustard is used to make mustard sauce to use on your hot dog today.  It had to be intentionally seeded and cared for to make it grow.  The ground needed to be prepared, then seeded and weeded to help the plants grow and flourish.  This doesn’t happen by accident or by chance.

When Jesus is telling us to have trust (or faith) in God as small as the mustard seed, he is saying for us to intentionally plant and cultivate the things that we plant in our lives.  If we plant the things of God and His Word in our hearts, then the plantings will grow all out of proportion to the size of the planted seed.  Trust in God starts with small decisions that will grow into great and important results. 

What are the ways that we can plant more seeds of the Word in our lives?

How about the lives of others that we have contact with?

The Kingdom of God will start with small seeds that are planted by intentional gardeners with their eye to an eventual valuable harvest of righteousness.  The smallest things that we do now can grow to become a tree which will fill the whole world with righteousness.  We don’t have any control over the growing of the Kingdom, except to plant, water, and cultivate the plants.  Jesus tells us that if our trust in God grows like these plants then we will be able to produce miraculous and wonderful works that God will direct our hearts to do

Ephesians 2:7-10(NKJV) – that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The trust that we develop by walking with God daily and studying His Word will change us and give us power in this world to do His will.  We don’t necessarily need to uproot trees and plant them in the middle of the lake, but Jesus’ point is that we can do things that we never thought possible if we trust in God.

What are the truly “good works” that God has called you to do?

1 Corinthians 3:4-9(NLT)  When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

What a privilege to become a part of the wonderful family of God and walk together on the path to the coming Kingdom that God will include us in.  As we are faithful to obey His Word and then to give it away to those who are perishing God will give the increase of harvest of righteousness.

Reflection Questions:

What can you do to send the message of the coming Kingdom to others today?

See other questions above in bold text

Prayer:

Father God, we come humbly to You who are the creator of the heavens and the earth.  We ask for Your care and help in all that we do.  Help us to plant the seeds of Your Word and intentions in our hearts as we try to walk with You.  Help us to plant and water the integrity and accuracy of Your Word in our hearts and the hearts of others.  Show us the works that You would have us do to further Your kingdom to come.  We ask these things in the name of Your Son our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Parables: What the He…ck? | Luke 16

"If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." Luke 16:31 ESV, with a backdrop of autumn foliage.

Daily Bible Readings

Jeremiah 48-49

Psalm 134

Luke 16

Today’s Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

Entering the Kingdom of God | Luke 16:16-17

I suppose I’d be a bit remiss if I didn’t point out an important verse that should have probably come up at the end of yesterday’s devotion about the Unrighteous Steward, but since it’s still in our reading today let me point it out, Luke 16:16-17 says: “The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the good news of the kingdom of God is being proclaimed, and everyone who enters forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ornamentation of the law to fall.”  (REV translation, see yesterday’s note about that).

There are 2 points I’d like to mention in these verses.  Firstly, everyone who enters into the kingdom will be forcing their way into it: it’s not easy, and it goes against our sinful nature.  If you are not struggling with yourself, correcting yourself, and constantly trying to improve and give glory to God, don’t be surprised when you don’t get to enter in to the Kingdom, Jesus himself has told us we’re going to have to force our way in.  Push harder, if you’re not.

Secondly, Jesus said it’s easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny bit of the law to fail: that is, the law as given in the scriptures.  I know that a lot of our modern churches teach that adherence to the law is unimportant: that’s old testament stuff,  we just need to do what Jesus said.  Well, that’s my whole point; Jesus said it was important.  Just something to consider.

The Rich Man and Lazarus | Luke 16:19-31

Jesus taught a lot in parables.  ALL of them make you think a little bit, and while most of them I understand pretty well (I think), to be honest some of them have always confused me a little bit.  I will be very honest with you all and tell you that of them all, this is the parable that confused me the most, the parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” (as my Bible header reads).  You’re probably all familiar with it.

In this parable, which takes place in Luke 16:19-31, we see a rich guy who is super rich: living the good life, wearing fancy clothes, and having huge feasts daily.  Then, in contrast we have Lazarus, a poor guy who is super poor: living right outside the rich guy’s gates, starving and destitute, covered in sores, and ignored.  Since this parable is kind of a continuation on the other parable in Luke 16, I encourage you to go back and read yesterday’s devotion about the “Unrighteous Steward” if you haven’t already: the rich guy in this parable probably wishes he did.  It should also be noted that this IS a parable, which takes place after the rich man dies (and before the resurrection/judgment/establishment of the kingdom).

So they both die, the parable goes on to say, and the poor man goes to rest in “the bosom of Abraham”, whereas the rich guy lies down in torment: thirsty and suffering in flames.  This parable is where a large portion of the orthodox (mis)understanding of “Hell” comes from, by the way.  While everyone who reads the Bible can clearly see that there will be a lake of fire that the wicked are tossed into, this parable is likely one that led to the idea that they’d suffer there for an eternity of torment.  There are a couple of verses that I suppose could be read this way*, but the majority of verses that speak of the wicked after punishment** are finite, and describe the righteous walking on their ashes.  But what happens to the dead between death and the resurrection/judgment?

Let me be very direct and not dissemble in any way: I believe in the sleep of the dead, because that is what the Bible describes.  It does raise a question though, if we are being honest: even though this is a parable, why would Jesus describe this particular scenario in such a fashion?  I could speculate and say “those who sleep sometimes have nightmares” and also “God will not leave the guilty unpunished” and neither of those things would conflict with my overall understanding, but the truth is: there is no single Bible verse that says anything like that directly, it’s pure speculation.

More to the point, I’ve got some experiential knowledge that most people don’t get.  I’ve actually died (2/14/2022).  I laid on a table dead for about 5 1/2 minutes.  I’ve read a lot about NDE’s (Near Death Experiences…most seem a little “iffy” honestly), so let me tell you about mine.  After I died, I was still self aware: just like when you’re asleep and dreaming you have a sense of “self”.  I couldn’t see anything, but I was aware that I was “me”.  It felt like I was in a dark cave, and I had the sense of waiting.  I could hear a low susurration around me, so I had the feeling that I wasn’t alone.  That was it.  I wasn’t uncomfortable, I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t in torment, I was just…sleeping (the book of Enoch has a startlingly similar description of the state of death: it’s a “non-canonical” book but is quoted in the Bible).

Then I woke up, surrounded by a very concerned and wide-eyed group of physicians, one of whom was holding a pair of AED paddles.  “Are you ok?” one of them asked (Dr. Neal Barry, I think it was, now my primary cardiologist).  “Yeees…” I said, “are you ok?”.  Please note that your experience may vary significantly, but at the time of my death I was NOT living a righteous life. 

In this parable, the rich man says “Let me go back and tell them…”, and is told in v31: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if one rises from among the dead.”.  This, I think, is one of the 2 main points of this parable.  FIRSTLY, come on man, if you’ve got that much wealth, don’t you think you should have given that guy a little love? (See yesterday’s devotion “True Riches”).  SECONDLY, this was some heavy foreshadowing, because Jesus WAS raised from the dead.  True to the parable though, the people didn’t listen to Moses and the prophets, and most of them didn’t listen to Jesus either.  What about you?

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Do you feel like following the law (the 10 commandments specifically) is important today for Christians***? Why, or Why not? 
  2. What about the rest of Jewish law? (again: why, or why not?)
  3. What lesson did you think was prominent in this parable?
  4. Why do you think Jesus used these specific circumstances in this parable?

PRAYER

Father God, please lead us.  Help us to listen when you speak.  Forgive us of our many shortcomings.  Lead us into the kingdom, and give us the strength we need to enter.  Help us to understand, and to listen, and to act in the manner which glorifies you.  In Jesus name, Amen.

* Rev 14:11-could be read this way at a stretch I suppose,  but to contrast please see note about Jude 1:7 below. Rev 20:10 describes an (unique) ongoing torment for the devil, the beast, and the false prophet that lasts (literally) “for ages and ages” (not forever) but that is a special circumstance and an end is implied for the devil in Eze 28:19 and Isa 14:15.  Mark 9:43 and 48 notably mention “where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched” but even more notably, these verses are not found in the earliest manuscripts and are “later additions”, so they’re not used at all by knowledgeable scholars when debating this issue as there is strong evidence that they were added by later copyists. Isa 57:21 does say, “there is no peace for the wicked”, but the word for peace can also be translated as “completeness” so it’s not really convincing that this is a proof verse.

** Jude 1:7 describes Sodom and Gomorrah as suffering the “vengeance of eternal fire”, yet those cities are no longer burning, suggesting the fire’s effect is irreversible extinction rather than ongoing consciousness.  Similarly, Malachi 4:3 and Psalm 37:20 (among others) indicate the wicked will be turned to ashes or consumed away, contradicting the idea of indestructible, eternal burning and seeming to support the concept of an irreversible extinction instead.

*** Disturbingly, the Catholic church omits #2 (graven images) in order to continue some practices without condemnation, and says “it’s just part of no other gods“, and splits the covet commandment at the end into 2 to make 10.  Conversely, almost the entirety of the rest of the Protestant churches completely ignore #4 (or, #3, if you’re Catholic) about the Sabbath.  Curious, no?

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True Riches

A collection of gold coins in a stack with text overlay quoting Luke 16:13: 'No one can serve 2 masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.'

Jeremiah 46-47

Psalm 133

*Luke 16

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

Jesus taught a lot in parables.  ALL of them make you think a little bit, and while most of them I understand pretty well (I think), to be honest some of them have always confused me a little bit.  The reading for today and tomorrow have the 2 in them that always confused me the most.  Today we’ll focus on the first one (this one has the header “The Parable of the Unrighteous Steward” in my Bible), and tomorrow we’ll look at the other (with the header “The Rich Man and Lazarus”).

Matthew 13:34-35 says, specifically: “Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds, and he did not speak to them without using a parable, so that what was spoken through the prophet was fulfilled, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.” (REV* translation used). Which prophet are they quoting here**? Why does he always use parables? I think it’s because it makes you think, and that you can also get layers and layers from them sometimes, revealing more than just a simple concept.

As a kid, I never got the “Parable of the Unrighteous Steward”.  I mean, we have this guy who’s running the house, he’s about to get fired, and then he cheats his master.  How is being a cheater good?  Is the Bible advocating cheating here?  These are things that stick in a young kid’s mind and make them wonder.  What’s even more mind boggling was that his master praised him for his cunningness, after he was cheated!  I never got it, it seemed to be antithetical to all the things the Bible was teaching.

I think I get it a little better now, particularly because I’ve learned how to dissect word problems to find the real things that they’re asking (or, in this case, telling us).  The key bit of information here is found in Luke 16:4, “I know what I will do so that when I am removed from management, people will receive me into their houses.’ ”  The guy knows he’s about to get kicked out, he’s already said (in v3) that he’s not really qualified to do other jobs, and he’s trying to set himself up so he’s not homeless out in the streets.  To do this, he uses his master’s wealth, and lets some of the folks who owe his master money to shave off some (quite a bit if you look at the numbers) of their debt, so that they’ll now be indebted to him.  Then, despite being robbed (in a sense), the master commended him for being cunning.

So let’s apply this to real life.  Look around you.  Some people are richer than others, some people are in authority over others, some people have advantages over others.  It’s just the way it is.  We also know from scripture (Ps 24:1 being my favorite example) that GOD OWNS EVERYTHING.  This means that you are just a steward.  Probably an unrighteous one, if you’re being honest with yourself (see Romans 3:23).  So why not, like this unrighteous steward, use your master’s wealth to your own advantage?

If you have been given much or little is irrelevant, because everything belongs to God anyway.  The question is: how are you using that wealth?  How are you using that authority?  How are you using whatever advantages you have?  If you are cunning and wise, you will use them to make sure you’re not kicked out and homeless in the kingdom, when it comes. 

Is this about the kingdom though? It absolutely is: check out v9: “And I myself say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they will receive you into their tents in the age to come. ”  Any time we see the phrase “age to come” it’s talking about after the return, in the kingdom of God.  You know, the Kingdom, that thing we’re supposed to be seeking first?

The moral of this story is: use your wealth, use your authority, use whatever advantages in this life you may possess to try to win friends and enter in to the kingdom of God.  Jesus tells us very clearly in v13: “No servant is able to serve two masters, because he will either hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and think little of the other. You are not able to serve God and Wealth.”  Please don’t get me wrong, having money is not bad in and of itself.  The love of money is, though.  It’s simply a matter of where we are putting our priorities.  We are to love God, with all our hearts, with all our minds, and with all our strength.

This means that if we have much or if we have little, we use what we have to glorify God.  If you have wealth, buy the groceries of that lady behind you in line at the supermarket.  Buy a homeless person a hamburger.  Support people who are less fortunate than you, and don’t take credit for any of it, but give God the glory.  Support ministries as you can.  Love your neighbor as yourself in other words, and every now and again when you are taking care of yourself (which we all seem to be really good at), take care of your neighbor as well.

If you don’t have wealth, well, use whatever you have.  If you have authority, use it to help the servants of God.  If you have your health, go mow the lawn of the widow who goes to your church.  Give some extra clothes to the homeless.  Visit the imprisoned and give them hope.  Feed the hungry.  Use whatever you have to benefit your neighbor, and it is to the glory of God.  If someone you’re helping tells you “thanks!”, you tell them “don’t thank me, thank God!”.  Remember that this current evil age that we live in is not our final destination, and that we are striving for a place in the age to come, a place in the kingdom.  Use the Master’s wealth that He has given you to secure your own advantage in the age to come.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. What gifts have you been given, and how can you best utilize those to secure your own entry in the kingdom, in the age to come?
  2. Do you currently view your own personal wealth as the goal, or the tool which may help you to reach your goal?
  3. How can we shift our thinking to be more cunning and wise, and plan for the kingdom? What specific things can you do that may help you?

PRAYER

Father God, thank you.  You have given me so much, please give me also wisdom to use it well.  You have given life, breath, and all things.  Help me to use discernment, and to remember not the blessings, but the hand from which all these blessings have come.  Help me to glorify you in all things.  Thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.

* Some of you may have noticed that recently I’ve been using the REV version of the Bible in almost all of my Bible quotes.  I am going to give it a shameless plug here, because it’s probably one of, if not the, most honest translations I’ve come across and it uses the name of God (YHWH, or “Yahweh”) where the name of God is written.  This is a huge deal for me. The REV bible is available for free here: https://revbible.com/bcuk online, put forth by “Spirit and Truth” (https://stfi.org/).  Check it out.

** David, that’s found in Psalms 78:2 (a lot of times we forget that David was a prophet but he absolutely was).

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Two Sons

Jeremiah 41-42

Psalm 132

Luke 15

-Devotion by Whitney Myers (AZ)

“And when he [the shepherd] finds it [his lost sheep], he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.” (Luke 15:5)

Sometimes followers of Christ tend to stray away from the good path that we as believers try to always follow. We consider ourselves lost and almost forgotten. We feel as though we don’t have a purpose and there’s no sense in trying because we’re just going to fail and even if we do succeed nobody will notice or care. However, that is not true.

Take the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Your worth is something that cannot be taken away. What one person may see as impractical may be another’s most prized possession. For example, when you were a child you probably had a favorite stuffed animal. Mine was this brown bear with a little Christmas hat and a scarf with two pom poms on the end and his name was Belkey. I was only 10 months old when I received him but we were inseparable. I brought Belkey everywhere. I actually remember one day I lost one of the pom poms on the end of his scarf and held a private funeral for it. I cried for about a day. I told my mom and obviously she was sympathetic about it but she wasn’t crying on the floor making a fuss about it like I was. I was so disappointed that I lost something so valuable to me and even though my mom didn’t feel the same level of letdown she was still very sad for me because she knew how much I loved that bear.

This parable in Luke 15 gives three examples. One of a shepherd losing one of his one hundred sheep, one of a woman losing one of her ten silver coins, and one of a father losing one of his two sons. For the silver coin, the woman probably misplaced it but the sheep and the son could have run away. Now, a sheep is an animal and doesn’t have many feelings but we can imply that the sheep did not know its surroundings and was lost until his shepherd found him. However, the son ran away on purpose. He left to live a lavish life of spending and partying. Eventually, he ran out of money and the country he set off to had begun to experience a severe famine. He then “went and hired himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.” (Luke 15:15). At this point he was regretting his decision of running away and he felt truly lost. He didn’t know who he was anymore and felt as though he didn’t have a purpose. I mean, he literally went from living lavishly with so much money to feeding filthy animals. He concluded he should probably do something about this. He went home to his father and accepted the truth that he had sinned and voluntarily said he would be his own father’s slave. The moment his father saw his son returning back to him he was “filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20). The father immediately suggested they have a feast and celebrate because his son “was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:32) The son was ashamed of his sins and rightfully so but the father was so grateful to have him back. The father’s other son however was not. He resented the father for being so welcoming while the whole time he’d been working for him and didn’t get any recognition. Even though the son’s brother didn’t appreciate his return, the father did which solidifies that the son’s worth never changed. The son just went through a rough moment in time and had to open his eyes and realize that his actions were the problem.

Everyone wasn’t as happy as the father was when the son arrived back home (like how sad I was when I lost my bear’s pom pom) but that didn’t make the son any less of a person. All of us are just as valuable as the other and when one of us wavers away in our faith, God yearns for us to return. When we return, it’s a par-tay!!!! “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7). The sooner we can recognize that the feeling of being lost and unwanted is all in our head and we make a move to return back to God, the sooner we can enjoy being in His presence rejoicing with Him.

Reflection Questions

  1. What do you think gives you worth? What do you think God says gives you worth? Who is right?
  2. When or in what ways have you run from God? Did you have a wake-up moment like the son did? What did that look like? What did you experience when you returned to God?
  3. If you have been more like the faithful, but bitter, son, what advice would Jesus who gave this parable have for you?

Prayer

Dear God, I thank You for Your love and faithfulness! Thank you for Your love for the faithful and for the lost. Help me to have that same love and longing and welcoming arms. Give us wisdom to know how good we have it being Your child. Keep me, and Your church, from all foolishness and rebellion.

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Bad Shepherds

*Jeremiah 23-24

*Psalm 127

Luke 10

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

      “1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says Yahweh.” (Jer 23:1, REV).  Jeremiah isn’t called the “weeping prophet” for no reason, he is not only torn and anguished by the compounded sins of his people, but he’s distressed because there are prophets who are telling the people lies (See Jeremiah 14:14), bad shepherds.  We see in that chapter that not only are the “prophets” lying in God’s name, but the people who are listening to these lying prophets instead of God are going to be penalized (See Jer 14:16).  He is constantly and faithfully relaying the word of Yahweh to the people, a word of warning and a call to repentance, and the lying prophets are saying “there will be peace.”  Of course he’s frustrated to the point of tears, these are his people, and God is speaking to them but they’re just not hearing it.

            So while there is a woe that will befall the bad shepherds (this is also brought up in a few other places: see Eze 34:2 and Zech 11:17 for a couple other references to this theme), it should be very sharply understood by the sheep that if they choose to ignore God and have their ears tickled instead, it won’t end well for them either.  For us.  We are the sheep.  So how do we know if we’re doing right, and following the right shepherd?  How do we know we’re not galloping en masse toward the edge of a cliff, or about to be eaten by wolves?  We, as sheep, need to take some responsibility for our own well being: because it’s our lives that are at stake.

            Here are just a few suggestions:

  1. Scripturational Awareness:  “Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light of dawn in them. ” (Isa 8:20, REV).  Situational awareness is very important, but scripturational awareness (yes, I know it’s a made up word, but it works so shh!) is even more important.  Know your scripture.  It is SUPER easy to believe something a charismatic smiling guy is telling you with a look of sincere conviction, even if the only reason he believes it is that at some other time some other smiling charismatic guy told him the same thing with a look of sincere conviction.  Don’t fall for it.  The scripture is our ruler, our standard.  Not tradition, not guys in suits, not any specific denomination, but God’s word, and God’s word alone.  I don’t need a  guy in a suit telling me something that sounds beautiful if he has no dawn, I want to see the dawn.
  • Situational Awareness: “…You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you are not able to interpret the signs of the times. ” (Jesus, Matt 16:3, REV).  I have watched someone I love happily and obliviously counting out a stack of money onto their lap while a street gang looked on with intensely growing interest behind her.  Acknowledging your situation can save your life.  Ok, look around you.  Be honest.  Does it look like we, as a people, are listening to the voice of God and humbly and obediently following His will?  If not (spoiler alert, the answer is no) you should be reeeeeeeaaaally careful to not listen to anyone saying “peace, peace, tomorrow will be just like today, only better” because at least according to scripture (the testimony and the law), that’s just not how God operates.  Read the room, because like it or not, this is the room that you’re standing in.  Maybe clean out your corner of it before Dad comes home.
  • Relational Awareness: “The earth is Yahweh’s, and all it contains; the world, and those who dwell in it. ” (Ps 24:1).  Since the beginning of time, when man was created in the image of God, man has taken that authority and ran with it.  Sometimes a little too far and a little too fast.  Yes, we were created in the image of God, but we were also created by God.  So is everything else here on the earth.  It’s all created by God, even us, and it all belongs to Him.  We are all under the authority of God, but most of us have either forgotten or chosen to ignore this very simple foundational understanding that brings life: there is a God, and you are not Him.  Know your role, and humbly seek to obey your creator.  Pray, fast, humble yourself, and seek God.

            This is all very concerning, for those who are paying attention, but there’s hope.  Jer 23:4-5 says “I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor will any be missing, says Yahweh.  Behold, the days are coming, says Yahweh, that I will raise for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (REV).  We believe that this righteous branch has come and will come again, our Messiah, the king, Jesus.  Please also note that the word that is translated as righteous/ness here is (once again) “tzedakah”, do a search (just type in “tzedakah” in the search bar on this website) to get a fuller understanding of what that means and implies.  It’s important.

            This is of the utmost importance.  In a world with thousands of shepherds, each herding their sheep in a different direction, we need to ensure that we’re listening to the Good Shepherd, the man God sent, our Messiah.  Yesterday’s devotion touched on this a little as well.  We need to listen to Jesus.  There’s an ancient book called “The Didache” that deals extensively with the workings of the (very) early church.  In it, one of the methods offered by which to discern a false apostle or bad shepherd was “do they ask for money? If they do, they’re a false apostle.”.  Jesus never asked for any money, just saying.  All I remember Jesus saying about money is that one cannot serve both God and money (Matt 6:24).  Hrmm, interesting.

            That means that even if someone else has a very melodious voice, even if they’re very handsome and charismatic, even if they preach at a mega-church (which are in and of themselves all fine things), even if they have thousands and thousands of followers: if they say anything other than exactly what Jesus was saying, it’s because they have no dawn.  They won’t see the morning when the morning comes.  The people who are following them blindly won’t either.  Let that sink in.

            We have a God that loves us intensely, whom we have grieved over and over with our disregard and misplaced priorities.  Yes, God is love.  He sent us Jesus as a way for us be be reconciled, to once again dwell with our God: we have one good shepherd that will lead us back to our God, and a thousand bad shepherds that will lead us to destruction.  We only need to listen to the one that God sent.

            “If Yahweh does not build a house, those who built it labored in vain. If Yahweh does not watch over a city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. ” (Ps 127:1, REV).  Please, be careful.  Examine yourself daily, speak to God regularly, ask Him to reveal to you your own hidden faults, and seek His wisdom in correcting them.  Act generously towards your fellow creation, and seek to the best of your ability to fulfill the tasks that we as servants of the living God have been given.  Listen to Jesus, follow the only Good Shepherd, the one God sent.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Why do you think there are such a large number of bad shepherds in the world, and why do you think they are thriving?
  2. If I gave you $100 for every bible verse you memorized, would you memorize more verses? 
  3. Why? (It’s a deep question.  Think about it.)

PRAYER

Father God, Thank you for life.  Please guide me, there are so many distractions here, so many things and theories that are not from you, please grant me discernment and wisdom and help me to follow Jesus alone, to your glory.  Thank you Father, in Jesus name, Amen.

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Clay Vessels

A person shaping a clay pot on a spinning wheel, with hands covered in clay. The image features the quote from Jeremiah 18:2 NIV overlayed on top.

*Jeremiah 17-18

Psalm 126

Luke 9

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            Genesis 2:7 states that God made man from the “dust of the ground“, and the literal translation of “dust” in this could equally be translated as “dirt/dust/clay/mud/earth”.  The literal origin of the species* happened at this time, according to scripture, when God made man (from the dirt/clay/mud  of the earth) and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life“.  “Breath” in this verse is also the same exact word for spirit in the original language, by the way, so you could honestly say with accuracy that every human being who is living and breathing at this moment in time has a small piece of the “spirit” or “breath” of God in them.  That’s what animates us all, and gives us life.

            This is an important concept and it’s ramifications to our place in the universe are pretty extensive.  We exist solely because God (1) formed us out of the dirt and (2) breathed into us His breath or spirit, which gave us life.  This is a conscious act of creation, an act of will, an intentional making which caused us to be.  It’s easy to forget sometimes, when we see some of the other tiny little humans walking about that are famous, wealthy, beautiful, full of pride, etc. Etc.; but we are all creations, jars of clay formed by our creator, God.  We live solely because our lungs are filled with the “breath”, or “spirit”, of God.  Regardless of our status towards the other humans, we are all the same before God: vessels of clay, which He has formed and animated, creations which He owns since He made it all.

            There are a couple verses in Job that I like a lot specifically because they highlight these simple teachings.  In Job 33:6 it says: “Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay. ” when the young Elihu speaks to Job, and later in that same conversation, in 34:14-15 he says: “If he set his heart on himself, if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would die together and man would turn again to dust.“.  Think about that for a moment.  God, as the creator of the earth and all the things in it (even us) has absolute authority over all of it, because it is His.  This is clearly stated throughout scripture, and most beautifully put in Psalms 24:1 “The earth is Yahweh’s, and all it contains; the world, and those who dwell in it.“.

            In our Jeremiah reading today, we get a pretty clear restatement of this simple concept.  Jeremiah 18:1-4 reads: “The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, “Get up and go down to the potter’s house and I will tell you my message there.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels. Whenever the vessel that he made of the clay came out ruined in the hand of the potter, he made it again, into another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. “.  It’s a very straightforward visual lesson: perform the purpose for which you are created or else back in the bucket you’ll go.  God is the divine potter, we are his clay.

            A while back, there was a famous (and now disgraced) comedian who had a great bit in his show about a parental warning that his father gave to his 7 year old self that went something like this: “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out. And it don’t make no difference to me, I’ll make another one look just like you”.  Hilarious when presented in the comedy show, it’s a bit ominous and concerning when it turns out to be a scriptural accuracy that is clearly demonstrated in our reading today.

            Here are a couple verses to compare and consider, from Jeremiah 17 (please note that ALL scriptures from today’s devotion are quoted from the REV translation, available free online):

“5This is what Yahweh says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in humans and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.” 

“7Blessed is the one who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is Yahweh.”

“9The heart is deceitful above all things, and is incurable; who can know it?”

            To trust in humans is a curse, to trust in Yahweh is a blessing, and our own hearts are deceitful above all things.  This means that even if we really feel like something is right, we need to compare it to scripture and see if it meets the criteria before we can make a discerning judgment. 

            In my sabbath school class this morning, I heard for the second time a teaching I was unfamiliar with from scripture, the concept that Adam and Eve wore “robes of light” in the garden of Eden.  It’s a common belief in the denomination of the church I was attending this morning.  Everyone in the class was on board with this belief, but I was unfamiliar with it. 

            I double checked in scripture, and then raised my hand and politely asked about it.  We all had a very respectfully polite and loving conversation about it; while there were some later verses that could be read in a specific way to imply that such a thing might exist (or come to exist for believers), nothing in scripture stated this specifically and more to the point in question, there was nowhere in scripture during the creation story that stated or even implied that Adam and Eve were wearing such a thing (and some verses which seemed to potentially contradict this belief).

            As a result, and since scripture is the ruler by which we should measure all of our beliefs, we as a group came to the conclusion that while it was not necessarily detrimental to salvation and perfectly acceptable to be held as a personal belief, the belief that Adam and Eve wore “robes of light” in the garden couldn’t be found anywhere in scripture and therefore shouldn’t be spoken of with certainty when teaching (at least without a caveat mentioned).  This conversation was all done in love and unity, with a common seeking an understanding of God’s word.  We didn’t all agree on the “robes of light”, but we did all agree that scripture should be our guide.

            I offer the above (true) story as a template to a loving and respectful way that we can, as a body of believers, seek after the truth of God’s word in humility and respect and to weigh the truth of scripture against what our heart may hold dear as it has been presented to us in the traditions of man.  It’s ok to raise your hand.  It’s ok to ask questions.  It’s ok to lovingly request clarification on any specific belief or tradition.  Then, it’s required to compare that to what the scriptures say, because trusting in men is a curse, but trusting in Yahweh is a blessing.  Even if you really feel strongly about something in your heart, because the heart is deceitful above all else.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. Think of a time when you really wanted something to be true, but it just wasn’t.  How many things did you just think of?
  2. Of all those times you just thought about, how many times was your mistaken belief because you were deceived by others compared to you deceiving yourself?
  3. Do you find yourself sometimes thinking that your jar of clay is better than someone else’s, or vice versa?  Why?  Do you think that’s scripturally accurate?

PRAYER

Father God, you have created not only me but all things here on the earth.  You are my maker, I am your creation.  Father forgive me when I fall short, please mold me to serve the purpose which you intended for me.  Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me, for your glory.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

*-The question of the origin of the species can be boiled down to a simple and single binary question: is the existence of man(kind) planned or random?  Mathematical Physicist Robert Pemrose has calculated that the probability of a life-supporting universe arising by chance as 1 in 10^10^123, which is an infinitesmally small percentage.  This in turn suggests that the precise constants required for life make a random origin of our existence statistically impossible, thereby increasing the likelihood of a conscious creator to near certainty.  Just some math stuff for you nerds.

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Who Touched Me?

*Jeremiah 15-16

Psalm 126

*Luke 8

-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)

            If you read yesterday’s devotion, do you remember there being at least 8 devotions worth of material in Luke 8?  Well, lucky day, since Luke 8 is partially in today’s reading too, one of them (the woman who touched Jesus and was healed) is going to be our primary study today.

            Before we go there though, just a touch upon our Jeremiah reading today.  If you read through these chapters, it really sounds like God is super-pi….well, let’s just say really angry. If you wonder why, check out the devotion from  June 17th this year entitled “Tingling Ears”.  Manasseh means “forgetting” or “causing to forget”, and Manasseh caused the Israelites to forget about God, while being credited in a number of scriptures as being so bad that he pretty much caused the babylonian exile (and the destruction of the temple) because of his sins.  In Jeremiah 15:4 specifically it says: “And I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.”.   Just another clear reminder that just because you come from good stock doesn’t mean you’re good.

            Moving forward to Luke 8, let’s talk about the woman who touched Jesus, as there are a couple interesting points to make here.  First let’s set the scene a little.  Jesus and the twelve are travelling about, preaching and healing people, along with a group of benefactor ladies (Luke 8:1-3).  Huge crowds are gathering to hear what this Jesus guy is saying, people are even being healed, so everywhere he goes there’s a crowd either curious to hear his words or maybe even to get lucky enough to be healed of an affliction.  Maybe even both.  Jesus got in a boat to get some peace, calmed a storm, cast out demon(s), and then returned.  When he got back, the crowds were waiting on him.

            So, did you ever wonder if Jesus obeyed Jewish law?  He did.  When the woman in the crowd touched Jesus and was healed, she touched what is commonly translated as “the hem of his robe”.  What she actually touched was the fringe (or tassel) of Jesus’ garment, which was the part of the clothing known as the “tzitzit” worn by faithful Jewish men in obedience to biblical commands (found in Num 15:38 and Deut 22:12).  So yes, our Messiah was a very faithful and law obeying Jewish man, just as it was prophesied throughout scripture that he would be.  The seed of the woman, an Israelite man which God would raise up from among his brothers “like Moses” who would be completely obedient, a genealogical descendant of David.

            When the woman touched Jesus’ tassel and was healed, he felt the power go out of him.  There’s an interesting discussion here in Luke 8:45-48, in which Jesus asks who touched him.  Once, while attending a “traditional, orthodox” church,  a teacher speaking about this event told me (and the rest of the class) “well, he actually already knew, because God is omniscient…”.  Let’s pause a moment there and consider that.  While I’d agree that omniscience is probably a trait of God (Yahweh),  it seems as if in addition to many of the other notable traits and characteristics that distinguish the son of God (Yeshua) from God Himself (Yahweh), Jesus did not share this trait.  To imply that Jesus, our Messiah, would intentionally dissemble and mislead seems rather silly to me, and ill informed and ungracious at best.  Jesus, as the man God sent, only spoke the words that God told him to speak (and that’s according to Jesus himself, see John 12:49) so I think we can safely rule that theory out completely and move on to the simpler, more honest, reading.

            We don’t know the woman’s name* who touched Jesus in the crowd, the bible doesn’t mention it.   We do know that she was suffering for 12 years from  a chronic bleeding condition, “a discharge of blood” (possibly menstrual), which would render her ceremonially unclean and socially isolated under Jewish law.  To even touch an unclean person under Jewish law meant that you became unclean too.  What’s the big deal though?

            It’s a bigger deal than you can possibly imagine.  In the ancient world, the Jewish people had at the core of their social identity as a people the common belief in the one God, the God who had saved them from Egypt and claimed them as a people, and there was only one place in Israel that it was acceptable to go and worship this God, and that was at the Temple in Jerusalem.  You could not enter the temple if you were unclean, not without a very specific (and time consuming) ritual cleansing.  If you had a chronic bleeding condition, you could never become ritually clean, and therefore you could never enter the temple.  You couldn’t make your sacrifices before God.  You were cut off, not only from your people, but from your God. 

            Put it in your own social terms.  Let’s say you live in a medium-sized town, and everybody in this town goes to one church.  Now imagine that nobody will socialize with you or even approach you, and the only place that you can go to that everyone else goes to is denied to you.  In addition, even though you want to serve God, the only place you’re allowed to do it is at this church, which you’re not allowed in.  Feel isolated yet?  It was exponentially worse for this woman, because the core of the Jewish identity centered around the temple, and the belief and worship of the one God, which could only ritually take place in the temple.  This woman had no friends, and couldn’t even officially approach God, not like the rest of the Israelites could.  Just imagine how that would make you feel.

            When Jesus found out who had touched him, he didn’t rebuke her.  He didn’t scold her as an unclean woman touching a faithful and ritually clean Jewish man.  He blessed her, and told her that her faith had made her clean.  From this point, all she had to do was to go and see a priest, serve out the prescribed time for purification, and then she could enter the Temple.  Jesus restored her ability to have a direct relationship to God.  He brought her back in to the tribe of Israel socially as well, and enabled her to be a part of the nation that was no longer isolated and excluded.

            No matter who you are, no matter what tribe you are from, no matter what the color of your skin is, what language you speak, or what nation you live in: Jesus offers us this same invitation.  A chance to remove our affliction, to restore us to our God, and to be a part of the kingdom.  An opportunity, for those of us bold enough and willing to just reach out and try to touch him.  Even if it’s just the hem of his robe.  All praise to the God who sent him, our king is a restorer, a mender of the breach, a repairer of what is broken.  Thank you, Jesus.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

  1. Had you ever considered the social and spiritual ramifications of having a chronic bleeding illness in the ancient Israelite world, based on Jewish law?
  2. Had you ever considered that our king, Jesus, was a (Jewish) law abiding man, and what the ramifications of that are to us today?
  3. Had you ever considered the deeper implications of why Jesus didn’t know who touched him?

Prayer

Father God, thank you for sending us your son.  Please heal us.  Thank you for all of the blessings that you have given us, all undeserved and unwarranted on our part.  Please help me to glorify your name, to obey your laws, and to follow the teachings of the one you sent to us.  In Jesus name, Amen.

* It should be noted that later “church tradition” does identify her by name with some other interesting and apocryphal trivia about her, but like any church traditions that aren’t explicitly in scripture, they should be discarded with the waste water.

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What path are you walking on?

Explore the call to holiness in Isaiah 65-66 and discover the hope of redemption through God’s sovereign love and grace.

Isa 65-66

Ps 122

Luke 4

-Devotion by Cayce Fletcher

We live in a world that takes a soft view of sin. Our highest virtue is acceptance. We believe that a person is noble if they are flexible on their boundaries. The person who is the most “loving” is the one who is willing to conform their beliefs to what is trending in culture. 

Isaiah 65 speaks to the same tendencies. The people are “obstinate” and pursue “their own imaginations” (v. 2). They say they are holy (v. 5), but they are actually doing the most base and unclean acts (“burning incense in altars of bricks,” “sit among graves”, eating the “flesh of pigs” (v. 3–4)). Quite simply, they call good evil and evil good (Is. 5:20). 

Though the sins of the people are different from those we see today, the heart behind it is the same. Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “We may not have metal idols, but we may have mental idols.” And when we choose to pursue these idols, we exchange the good things of good for the “dirty” things of sin. 

Romans 1 describes this downward slope into sin that comes from a heart of rebellion. It is the great exchange. We exchange the almighty Creator for these simple and unfulfilling created things. That ultimately results in a life that is debased and defiled. 

The beauty of the gospel is that we are rescued from this even if—on our own—we would never choose it. Is. 65:1 says, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name,  I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’”

God calls us to him. He beckons us. 

We may be caught in the downward spiral of sin, but even there, God meets us and invites us back into relationship with him. 

The ending of our reading in Isaiah today points to our great and glorious hope. We see God’s sovereignty over all of time and space (“The heavens are his throne and the earth his footstool” (Is. 66:1)). And we see that the sovereign plan of God is ultimately to bring redemption to the world. 

God sets before us a choice—echoing that of Deuteronomy 30—in Is. 66:17: “‘Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,’ declares the Lord.”

Under the New Covenant, we don’t have to worry about what we put into our bodies (other than making sure that we choose things that are healthy). But we do have to worry about what is coming out: our speech, actions, and attitude. 

Will we choose to follow the right, holy, and righteous path of God? Or will we pursue idolatry? Will we choose the unclean act of sin? 

May we choose the path of life!

If we do, we will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth. We will see the beauty, delight, and joy of the promises of Isaiah 65:17-25. There will be no more death, no more grief, no more mourning, no more scarcity. 

God will dwell with us. We will be His people. And He will be our God. 

What a wonderful hope! 

Cayce Fletcher is a wife and mom of three. In addition to homeschooling and other ministry projects, she writes and podcasts at amorebeautifullifecollective.com about faith, motherhood, and theology. 

Reflection Questions

  1. What are some of the idols that people pursue today? 
  2. What is the relationship between sin and uncleanliness or impurity?
  3. How does your future hope help you to live for God now? 

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you so much for the gift of your Son. Thank you for the ability we have to take off the clothes of sin and unrighteousness and be dressed in the perfect, white clothes of righteousness. We look forward to your Kingdom. Help us to glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

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