Devotions in Isaiah (**Indicates very visual devotions)
Isaiah 1:16 - Wash Your Hands
Isaiah 1:16 - Make Yourselves Clean (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
Isaiah 2:3 - Teach Us Your Ways
Isaiah 11:9 - The Knowledge of God (Holy Day Lesson - Feast of Tabernacles/millennium)
Isaiah 26:3 - Stayed Upon Jesus
**Isaiah 26:3 - Be Peaceful
**Isaiah 30:15 - In Repentance and Rest
Isaiah 32:17 - To Be At Peace Forever
**Isaiah 32:18 - Peaceful, Secure, Quiet
Isaiah 35:8 - The Holy Highway
Isaiah 40:31 - Wait for the LORD
**Isaiah 40:31 - Wait Upon the Lord
**Isaiah 41:10 - Dancing Corn
Isaiah 41:13 - God Helps Me
**Isaiah 42:7 - What Do You See?
Isaiah 48:10 - Affliction
**Isaiah 48:10 - Tried in the Fire
Isaiah 53:6 - Every One To His Own Way
Isaiah 55:6 - The Time is Now
** Isaiah 55:8 - A Godly Perspective
**Isaiah 59:1 - God Can Save
**Isaiah 59:2 - Sin Separates Us From God
**Isaiah 64:8 - We Are the Clay
Isaiah 64:8 - The Work of Your Hand (Holy Day Lesson - Countdown to Pentecost)
Devotions in Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1:6 - I am Only a Youth
Jeremiah 9:24 - Of What Do You Boast?
Jeremiah 9:24 - To Understand and to Know (Holy Day Lesson - Pentecost)
Jeremiah 12:5 - You Haven't Seen Anything Yet!
**Jeremiah 17:10 - The Heart of the Matter
Jeremiah 24:7 - 24.7.365
Jeremiah 29:11 - What Are Your Plans?
Jeremiah 29:13 - Hide -n- Seek
**Jeremiah 31:3 - A Lasting Love Story
Jeremiah 32:27 - Is Anything Too Hard For God?
Jeremiah 42:5 - Words
Jeremiah 50:5 - They Shall Ask
Devotions in Lamentations
Lamentations 3:22-23 - Great is God's Faithfulness
Lamentations 3:26 - Wait
_
Isaiah 1:16 - Wash Your Hands
Isaiah 1:16 - Make Yourselves Clean (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
Isaiah 2:3 - Teach Us Your Ways
Isaiah 11:9 - The Knowledge of God (Holy Day Lesson - Feast of Tabernacles/millennium)
Isaiah 26:3 - Stayed Upon Jesus
**Isaiah 26:3 - Be Peaceful
**Isaiah 30:15 - In Repentance and Rest
Isaiah 32:17 - To Be At Peace Forever
**Isaiah 32:18 - Peaceful, Secure, Quiet
Isaiah 35:8 - The Holy Highway
Isaiah 40:31 - Wait for the LORD
**Isaiah 40:31 - Wait Upon the Lord
**Isaiah 41:10 - Dancing Corn
Isaiah 41:13 - God Helps Me
**Isaiah 42:7 - What Do You See?
Isaiah 48:10 - Affliction
**Isaiah 48:10 - Tried in the Fire
Isaiah 53:6 - Every One To His Own Way
Isaiah 55:6 - The Time is Now
** Isaiah 55:8 - A Godly Perspective
**Isaiah 59:1 - God Can Save
**Isaiah 59:2 - Sin Separates Us From God
**Isaiah 64:8 - We Are the Clay
Isaiah 64:8 - The Work of Your Hand (Holy Day Lesson - Countdown to Pentecost)
Devotions in Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1:6 - I am Only a Youth
Jeremiah 9:24 - Of What Do You Boast?
Jeremiah 9:24 - To Understand and to Know (Holy Day Lesson - Pentecost)
Jeremiah 12:5 - You Haven't Seen Anything Yet!
**Jeremiah 17:10 - The Heart of the Matter
Jeremiah 24:7 - 24.7.365
Jeremiah 29:11 - What Are Your Plans?
Jeremiah 29:13 - Hide -n- Seek
**Jeremiah 31:3 - A Lasting Love Story
Jeremiah 32:27 - Is Anything Too Hard For God?
Jeremiah 42:5 - Words
Jeremiah 50:5 - They Shall Ask
Devotions in Lamentations
Lamentations 3:22-23 - Great is God's Faithfulness
Lamentations 3:26 - Wait
_
Wash Your Hands
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil. Isaiah 1:16
When do you wash your hands? How many times a day do you wash your hands? You’re supposed to wash your hands after using the bathroom, after playing with pets, after blowing your nose, before handling food, before eating a meal. I’ll tell you: with having a wood-burning stove in the house and two black labs, I find myself washing my hands all the time. But it wasn’t always that way. I remember Mom telling us kids to go wash our hands for supper. Now I don’t know why we decided that was too much work. But we did. So we just grabbed the bar of soap, wiped the excess off on the towel, and headed back to see Mom for supper. She wasn’t fooled in the least, as her “Let me see those hands” quickly intimated! It didn’t matter that our hands smelled like we’d washed them, she knew. Perhaps it was the dirt all over our hands. Perhaps it was the lack of hearing water running. Perhaps it was the speed at which we returned to the kitchen. The funny thing is: it’s not just kids who don’t wash their hands. Studies have been done (They have to spend our tax dollars on something!) to determine how many people wash their hands after using the bathroom in a public place. You’d be shocked at how few do!! They’ve done studies on the most germ-laden places. The gas handles on the gas pumps came in pretty high for germs! Even in your own home, where would you guess you’d find the most germs. Nope. It’s not the toilet. Mom’s aware of that one, so she scrubs it with germ killers. The germiest (if I can coin a word) place is the telephone! Think about it. You’ve just been playing with the dog, or you’ve just blown your nose, and the phone rings. Do you go wash your hands before you answer? Not usually. You just grab it. And then, if you do have any germs that you’re carrying around, you breathe them all over the phone as you’re talking. Ewwww.
Health-wise, it’s really a good idea to wash your hands. But this verse in Isaiah 1:16 isn’t just talking about physical washing.
Wash yourselves;
make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil.
Many times a Hebrew writer would use a couplet to help emphasize the meaning of the verse. Here there’s a double couplet. First, and this is God speaking to His people, He says, “Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.” Here’s the first couplet. He’s telling the people that they aren’t clean - and they need to do something about it. Then the second couplet in the verse clarifies: this is not dirt which is making them unclean. It is their behavior. They are doing bad, evil, sinful things. If you read the rest of the chapter, it sounds as if the people are keeping God’s Holy Days and sabbaths. They are going through the motions of serving Him, but their hearts are far from Him. They are observing the rituals - like the Passover ceremony - but they are not bringing justice to the orphans or helping the widows. They are not acting very godly. They are not conducting themselves like people who really, truly love God would.
The two couplets together are a statement that God expects the people to do something about their behavior. The story I told you about us kids rubbing soap on our hands is a very good analogy of what they, God’s people, were doing. It might have appeared that they were upright and godly, but God knew how clean they truly were. The amazing thing to us, reading these words all these years later (2800 years or so) is that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. With the exception of Ahaz, who wasn’t a good king, these were good kings. These were good years in Judah - or so we thought. We would have expected God to say these kinds of things if it were said during the reigns of Manasseh or Ahab, but to Uzziah or Hezekiah?
The reality is: we live in a fallen world. We are fallen, carnal human beings. God said to Noah in Genesis 8:21 “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We are unclean. We are sinful. We have a lot of cleaning to do - and God expects us to do it. We make good choices. And when the choices we make don’t turn out well, we pick ourselves up and try again. We wash our hands, and then, after we sneeze, we go wash them again.
The hands are a symbol of what you do. Are your hands clean? Are you doing the right thing? Have you used soap and really scrubbed? Are you just going through the motions, but there’s really a layer of dirt underneath?
One final thought: are you tired of washing your hands all the time? Do you just skip it because it seems like that’s all you do during the day? How tired are you of making right choices, choices that are pleasing to God?
Maybe we’d better go back and wash our hands again. Or perhaps we need a better solution.
Make Yourselves Clean
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my face; cease to do evil. Isaiah 1:16
Have your hands ever been so dirty, you didn’t think you’d ever get them clean?
Sometimes when I come in from pulling weeds in the garden, the dirt under my fingernails is almost impossible to clean out. I wash. I scrub. And, if that doesn’t do it, I find the fingernail clippers.
Sometimes when Ron has been working on the cars, he comes in with his hands covered with the blackest, grimiest hands. He asks for Goop, but sometimes that doesn’t even take it all off.
When Christopher broke his jaw and I held him on my lap until we got to the hospital, the shirt that I was wearing was covered with blood. It was one of my favorite shirts, but there was no way to get all that blood out. I ended up throwing it away.
Dirt. Stains. Blemishes. One of the good things about the Passover is the thorough house cleaning that I do. But one of the bad things about the Passover is the thorough house cleaning that I do. It’s good because the house is thoroughly cleaned. But as I’m thoroughly cleaning, I get a close up view of the stains that won’t come out, the nicks in the hardwood floor, the chips out of the paint on some of the corners of the walls. There are blemishes that cannot be scrubbed away. Additionally, it takes me awhile to clean the whole house, and once I’m completely done and I walk back into the first room that was done, there is dust on the shelves again, there are Japanese lady beetles crawling in the window, and the floor has to be swept all over again. When you’re talking about cleaning house, there’s never a time when you are done. Even when you think you are done, just wait five minutes. The dog will walk across the floor; someone will drop crumbs from their food onto the counter and then inadvertently knock them onto the floor; life happens. It’s a great object lesson from the Passover: we can’t get our house completely clean - and if we can’t clean up our house, how in the world are we possibly going to clean up our lives? How can we completely accomplish what Isaiah says?
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my face; cease to do evil. Isaiah 1:16
This inability to completely clean ourselves up is Biblical.
In Genesis 8:21, God says, “ . . . the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;”
Paul says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Romans 7:18)
Paul goes on in Romans 8:7-8 to say, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The Bible is very clear: we are sinful, carnal human beings. We are evil, the intention of our desperately sick and deceitful heart tends towards evil. There’s nothing good that dwells in us and we are hostile to God, unable to please Him. We cannot clean ourselves up. In fact, the carnal mind doesn’t even want to! It doesn’t matter how many times we wash our hands, so to speak; they are never going to be clean. We need a different solution.
Paul recognized the human condition: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25a)
Even though everyone has sinned, everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for those sins (Romans 3:23-25). But more than paying for individual sins, Jesus bought us from the slavery to sin (Romans 6:6). We no longer have to serve our carnal nature; when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can choose to serve God (Romans 6:16-19). But what Jesus Christ did was even more than that! He not only paid the penalty for our sins, He not only freed us from slavery to sin, He has reconciled us to God the Father (Romans 5:10-11).
The Passover celebration is huge. It is the memorial of Jesus’ suffering and death in our place. But that’s not where it stops. He died so that we can live, reconciled to God - we live in newness of life, even while we still feel the pull of the carnal nature, the desires of the sinful nature. Even though there’s a battle between the flesh and the new creature in God, we live to please our God because we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 7:23), the price of the Son of God, our Savior Jesus Christ. What commandment from God will we refuse to obey considering all that God the Father and God the Son have done on our behalf?!
What was previously impossible for carnal man to do, God has now made a way for us to do through the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my face; cease to do evil. Isaiah 1:16
You have all week to enjoy another object lesson. The Passover is past: you’ve been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Now, every day, for seven days (the number of completeness) you get to take in the unleavened bread - a symbol of our sinless Jesus Christ. Don’t just avoid leavening (and sin) for these seven days; eat the unleavened bread. Fill yourselves full of Jesus Christ. Spend some extra time praying, reading His word, seeking Him. And then, when the seven days are over, don’t stop seeking Him with all of your heart. He gave His very life so that you can live. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my face; cease to do evil.
Teach Us Your Ways
“and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 2:3
You don’t have to look very far to see a corrupt government, a country whose leaders are not following the way of the LORD. And it’s not working. Our country is becoming more and more immoral and ungodly. We live in a dangerous, violent, evil society and it’s becoming increasingly so.
But some day, all nations, all peoples will go to God’s government, to His mountain, and will ask to be taught His ways. That word ways means a way of life, a manner of living, the path you take in your daily choices. People will ask for God to teach them the way that they should go.
I’m looking forward to that day! It gives us great hope!
The Knowledge of God
“They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9
We recently watched a video about the windmills in the Netherlands and those in Denmark. There’s a huge difference in their uses. The ones in Denmark are used for grinding grain. The ones in the Netherlands are used to hold back the sea, to pump the water out that wants to retake the land from the people who built the dikes. I cannot think of another country which has fought the sea for the right to the land for so long. And it truly is a never-ending battle.
Isaiah 11:9 refers to the waters covering the sea. The waters of the ocean are a powerful, almost irresistible force. Even along the coast where the water is not deep, relatively, it’s a powerful force. But think about how deep the oceans truly are. When the scientists plumbed the depths (which just means “measure”), they could only estimate the deepest part of the ocean: the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is located in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is 1580 miles long, about 69 miles wide, and the deepest known spot is 36,069 feet, give or take 131 feet. At this depth, the water exerts over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure found at sea level.
So this image is the analogy used to help the reader understand how the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD - as the waters cover the sea. It’s a powerful image. It’s a hopeful image to those of us who love God. And it’s very reminiscent of the verse, Isaiah 2:3, “and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
In Isaiah 2:3, the people are asking for God to teach them; the word of God is going out from Jerusalem. Now in Isaiah 11:9, we see the effect of God’s word covering the entire earth, as the waters cover the sea: The first part of verse nine says, “They shall not hurt or destroy. . .” The Hebrew word translated “hurt” means “to spoil by breaking to pieces, to make something useless or evil.” It can also mean “to live wickedly, to be angry, to be envious.” In the moral realm it is any activity which is contrary to God’s will. The Hebrew word for “destroy” means “to decay, mar, destroy, devastate, or kill.” It can mean to corrupt morally. It is also used to describe a rampaging lion.
O.K. So what is it that Isaiah is talking about not hurting or destroying? If you look back at Isaiah 11:6-8, it reads:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
This whole section sounds very much like the description of the New Heavens and the New Earth in Isaiah 65, where verse 25 reads:
"The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
The description of the New Heavens and the New Earth in Isaiah 65 sounds very much like Revelation 21:1-4: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
I’m looking forward to a time when there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain. In Hosea 2:18 God says: "And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety."
It will be absolutely amazing to play with the animals that are now to dangerous for us to touch. It will be amazing to live in a world that is free from pain. It will be incredible to have God’s government established on this earth. We know it’s coming. So what should we do now? If we know that someday the knowledge of the LORD will cover the whole earth, I think I want to get started on knowing God now - I’ll never plumb the depths of our incredible God!
Stayed upon Jesus
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
I have three questions for you today: Are you at peace? Upon what have you stayed your mind? In what or in whom do you really trust?
Are you at peace? What does it mean to be at peace? Are you a peaceful person? Do you know anyone who is at peace? Peaceful people tend to attract others because they have a calming influence. They are restful and soothing. They are all too rare in today’s society. So many people today are the opposite of peaceful. They are agitated and angry. They are restless and searching. They can’t sit still. They have to be doing something and going somewhere all the time.
Upon what have you stayed your mind? We are not used to this phrasing. We don’t talk about “staying our mind” in the normal course of conversation. But this Hebrew word (#5564) camak means “to place or to rest upon something, or to lean upon something for support.” This same word is used a lot in phrases like “he shall lay his hands on the head of the lamb.” So if we phrased this in more modern terms, we might ask, “Where does your mind rest? When you’re not thinking about something actively, what’s the foundation of your subconscious? Where do your thoughts rest?” A person who is restless or agitated defaults to a much different place than someone who is peaceful.
In whom do you trust? Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses . . .” Isaiah 31:1 cites trusting in Egypt, horses, chariots, and horsemen. Some trust in themselves (Luke 18:9). Some trust in money (or more specifically, what money can buy), in spite of money having an inscription on it which tells us to trust in God!! So in what do you trust? When things get bad, where do you go for help? What do you rely on?
Isaiah 26:4 says, “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” What does an everlasting rock look like? It’s unmovable. It’s unshakable. It’s unstoppable. It’s unchangeable. An unmovable rock is solid. It’s not going anywhere. It can’t be budged. An unshakable rock cannot be unsettled or thrown off balance. There’s nothing that takes it by surprise or moves it off course. An unstoppable rock cannot have its path changed. Once it’s going in a certain direction, you can’t slow it down. You can’t speed it up. An unchangeable rock means that it doesn’t vary. It doesn’t become reshaped. It’s doesn’t transform into something else when pressure or heat is added. It doesn’t erode into smaller particles. It is the same yesterday, today and forever. We don’t have rocks like this in our physical world. But our rocks are enough like this that we can conceive of what one might look like. And it’s this image of a rock that becomes an analogy of Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1)
Over and over the psalmist also talks about God being his rock, his fortress, his strong tower, his place of refuge (Ps 18:2, Ps 61:2, Ps 95:1). And perhaps the psalmist wasn’t just thinking in a physical sense. Perhaps the psalmist also meant that God is his rock, his security when he was in distress. Maybe he meant that his mind was stayed on God because he knew God was his place of refuge. God told His people that “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15), but they refused to listen to Him.
Jesus brought the same message to the people in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
In John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.”
And again in John 16:33, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Are you lacking peace? Are you restless? You need the Prince of Peace. You need to have your mind stayed on the Prince of Peace. But your mind won’t stay on Jesus Christ if you don’t trust Him.
So how do you come to trust God? The Psalmist says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’re told to taste and see - and that the first of God’s holy days carries with it the commandment to eat unleavened bread. It’s the very start. Take God into your life and follow Him. See how He blesses you! See how incredibly good He is! And revel in the peace you find, the perfect peace.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
**Be Peaceful
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3
Materials: a sponge cut into small squares, containers of clear water, containers of colored water
What do sponges do? Their name has become synonymous with soaking something up. In the physical case of a sponge, it’s liquid. If you’re talking about little kids, they soak up (and imitate) your words and actions.
But once the liquid if soaked up, then what does the sponge do. It releases the liquid - just like someone who soaks up, and imitates you, will then turn around and do exactly what you were just doing.
So do you ever get “squeezed” in your life? Sure you do! Whenever you feel pressure to do something, or when you feel anger and frustration bubbling over, or when something bad or unexpected happens - that’s when we feel “squeezed.”
The Biblical word “tribulation” comes from a Latin word which means “to press” - like when you squeeze grapes to get the juice.
That squeezing in your life, that tribulation, is not unexpected. Jesus knew we would be squeezed, that we would have tribulation. He told His disciples in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
So squeezing is going to happen. But what comes out? When a sponge is squeeze, what comes out is whatever was soaked up. Whatever is in you, good thoughts or bad thoughts; angry and hateful actions or kind and generous actions; love, joy, peace or hatred, discontent, and discord; that’s what comes out.
So what determines whether we’re going to have good things or bad things in our thoughts and actions and words? Do you pick up negative thoughts or positive thoughts from others? Do you spend time around people who use good language or bad language? Do you watch tv and pick up attitudes and ideas that are God-honoring or which are not pleasing to God? Music. Movies. Books. Whatever it is that we fill our mind with is what we will display to others when we’re under pressure and what’s inside is squeezed out.
But do you know that if you are filled with the peace of God, there’s not room in your life for discord. If you are filled with the joy of God, there’s not room in your life for discontent. If you are filled with the love of God, there’s not room for hatred.
This is how it works. Look at the sponge soaking up the clear water. Once the sponge is full, if I put it in the container with colored water, there’s no room to soak up any more water.
So how can we be so full of God’s peace that we won’t be upset and full of discord? Isaiah (26:3) says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” When you keep your mind on God - because you trust Him - you trust that He loves you, He’s got your best interest at heart, He’s working all things out for your good because you love Him, when you keep your mind on God, God keeps you in perfect peace. And when the pressure comes and you’re squeezed, the peace of God is what the people around you see.
I want to be a sponge that soaks up God’s peace so much that that’s what people around me see when I’m squeezed.
Based on: https://www.creativebiblestudy.com/Bible-object-lesson-sponge.html
**In Repentance and Rest
“In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
Materials: big rock, small rock (ream of paper, one sheet of paper, small cup of water, large cup of water); watercolor paint, water, paint brush, large piece of paper, tissue/paper towel
Newton’s second law of motion states that acceleration is equal to the force exerted on an object divided by the mass of that object. It could also be stated that the force needed to move an object depends on acceleration times the mass of the object. In simple terms, the bigger an object is, the more effort you are going to have to exert in order to move it.
If you have a little rock and you want to move it across a table, you can simply flick it with your finger. If you have a big rock, flicking it with your finger is not going to do anything but make you stick your finger in your mouth. You might actually have to give the rock a pretty good shove to get it to move across the table. If you have a huge boulder, you will have to brace yourself, put your back into the effort, and then you’re still probably not going to be able to move it one iota!
So how does this relate to a Biblical principle? Well, think of it this way: we all make mistakes. We all sin. Our sin puts us out of fellowship with God, because God does not sin; He has no fellowship with sin. To restore the relationship with God, we need to repent. That means telling God that we are sorry for what we have done and resolving not to do it again. It literally means changing your mind. So if you change your mind about wanting to do something, your actions should follow those thoughts. Our actions demonstrate what we think. In any case, when we ask for God’s forgiveness, He tells us that He is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9). That sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, we come up with reasons why we don’t go to God and ask for forgiveness. Perhaps it’s because we feel so guilty that we don’t want to face God (as if He didn’t already know what we’ve done). Maybe it’s because we really want to do that certain thing and don’t really want to change. Maybe it’s because we’ve decided that God really doesn’t care if we do that certain thing, we’ve decided it isn’t sin (even though it is sin), so we don’t really need to repent. (That’s actually still rebellion to God’s word.)
For whatever reason we don’t ask for forgiveness, the amount of sin just continues to grow. Pretty soon, instead of a small rock of sin that can be flicked away, now we have a large rock of sin. It takes more effort to repent because it’s harder to walk away from something that has become a habit.
It’s like a drip of paint. If it’s one drip of paint and I get to it right away, I can almost make the paper look brand new. That’s like the person who does something wrong (sins), and then goes to God in repentance right away.
But if I let that drip of paint dry and continue to drip on my paper and let that paint dry, it’s really hard to make the paper look like it’s brand new. That’s what it feels like to the person who has made it a habit to sin. That habit has become so strong, it’s really hard to repent, to ask for God’s forgiveness. You can see it is always best to deal with the mistake, the paint, the sin, as quickly as possible.
We want fellowship with God. He’s our Savior. He’s our Help in time of need. He’s our Shield. He’s our Shepherd. We need Him guiding, directing, protecting, providing!
That’s why Isaiah 30:15 is so beautiful!
“In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
When we turn from our sinfulness and rest in Jesus Christ, we are saved, saved from sin, saved from isolation from God, saved from more and more bad choices. We want the relationship with our Great God, to trust quietly in Him. That’s where we find strength.
To Be At Peace Forever
“And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” Isaiah 32:17
Several weeks ago Kael told the kids he had twelve rules. By the time they told me the story, they could remember the first four:
- Don’t trick people.
- Don’t lie.
- Don’t eat rotten berries.
- Don’t walk into fire.
Why did Kael have rules? (Or perhaps, more accurately, why was he making up rules on the spot?) Perhaps he’d run afoul of his mom’s rules that morning. Perhaps his older sister had run afoul of the rules and he’d been the beneficiary that day. Regardless, even a little guy like Kael knows that there are rules. The first question is: who gets to make the rules? The simple answer is that the person who is in authority gets to make the rules. Children on the playground make rules for the games they’re playing. As long as the rules are fair, usually everyone will agree to the rules. As soon as someone tries to insert an unfair rule, the game usually falls apart as one leader among the kids announces, “Well, then I’m not playing. I’ll take my marbles and go home.”
Jennifer noticed on the Stanford tests this week a question about rules. “Who makes the laws in the United States?” She thought perhaps it’s an old test booklet because, as she told me later, judges sometimes legislate from the bench, the Congress passes laws, the President rules by executive order - they are all sometimes making the laws in the United States, even though that authority was supposed to have been given to the Congress.
The person, who has been given the power to make the rules, gets to make the rules. But, why do we need rules in the first place? On the playground, there are rules so that all of the kids will know how to play the game, so that everyone will know who the winner is. It’s not so different for adults. We have rules, called laws, so that we’ll know how to play the game called interacting with your neighbor. The laws are supposed to help regulate society so that sometimes there are clear winners, usually there are not unfair losers, and mostly so there is not complete disorder!
So, are rules and laws good? We could talk about that all day. A more accurate answer would be to say that rules and laws are necessary - and the less thoughtful, the less humble, the less considerate, the less moral people are, the more laws we need. To say it another way, the more evil, the more selfish, the less godly a people are, the more laws (and consequences) are needed to provide guidelines for living, a curb on lawless behavior, and restraint against encroachment on others’ rights.
Many people mourn the myriad of rules and laws that are enacted by our governments. We see that avalanche of laws as eroding the freedom and liberty we have had in this country. And it’s true. We are very much less free than we were 25 years ago! Our Founding Fathers from 250 years ago would be appalled at the loss of freedom from their day - the freedoms for which they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor!
Nevertheless, as John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” When people are no longer moral, when people no longer follow Jesus Christ, the government has to make more rules to control them. People, who no longer control themselves out of reverence for God, have to be controlled by an external force, i.e. the government.
It’s a vicious cycle. We take God out of the schools. We tell teachers they can’t post the Ten Commandments on the walls of their classrooms. The students grow up believing there is no God and that each person gets to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. They start to act in unacceptable ways in society. So the government passes more laws to keep them under control. But these kids grow up to become part of the government. So now the laws that are being passed are not always based on what is right, what is fair, what is good for people; the laws which are passed often benefit who has the most power. And, to make matters worse, those who have the power sometimes don’t follow the rules they make for everyone else.
But there’s good news. “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness . . .” Isaiah 32:1 says. There is coming a day when Jesus Christ will return to this earth. He will put an end to evil and wrong and sin and unjust governments. The laws which Jesus Christ will enact and enforce will be righteous and good because He is righteous and good. And the result?
“And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” Isaiah 32:17
We will live in a world where the laws and rules will be just and righteous. And there will be peace. It will be quiet - without tumult of war and discord. The ESV translates the last noun “trust or security.” The KJV says “assurance.” The NIV says “confidence.” These words all give a picture of lack of strife, a lack of contention. They give a picture of total peace.
We hear new rules all the time. “Don’t trick people. Don’t lie. Don’t eat rotten berries. Don’t walk into fire.” Some new rules make a lot of sense. But some new rules are unjust and contentious and are a stark reminder of just how far we, as a society, are from God. Nevertheless, there is a day coming when Jesus will rule in righteousness. We will quietly trust in Him and be at peace forever.
***Peaceful, Secure, Quiet
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32:18
Materials needed: lots of different containers, pouches, packaging
Just a quick survey of your house reveals your possessions and how you keep them. On my desk is a box of kleenexes, a bottle of eye glass cleaner, a zippered pouch with a car phone charger, a glass container for pens and pencils, a tape dispenser, a stapler, a box of note papers, a CD etc. Once I’ve used all the kleenexes, the box is thrown away. Once the tape is used up, the dispenser no longer has any value. Once the stapler is empty, it is not useful. Once the eye glass cleaner bottle is empty, I throw it away. In each case, it’s what’s inside that is valuable. And because it is valuable, I want to keep it safe.
In a similar way, God is has a place for His people. Isaiah 32:18 says, “My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Peaceful, secure, and quiet - that sounds very nice. In John 14:2-3, Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Just like I have prepared a place to put my tape, eye glass cleaner, kleenexes, etc. because they are valuable to me - I need them, I use them - Jesus is preparing a place for those who belong to Him because we are valuable to Him.
It’s also interesting to look at the places where my things are. It wouldn’t work to try to keep the tape in the eye glass cleaner bottle. It wouldn’t work to keep the eye glass solution in the CD case. It wouldn’t work to put the phone charger in my stapler. Each place has been specifically designed for the item it holds and protects. In a similar way, God is preparing a place for each of us in His kingdom, a place especially suited for our talents and abilities, a place that has my name on it or your name on it.
And Isaiah tells us that it will be peaceful and secure and quiet. That sounds heavenly right about now. 😉
The Holy Highway
“And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.” Isaiah 35:8
In Isaiah 2:3, we talked about the “way” - the manner in which you live your life, the way in which your daily choices lead you. This is the same word - way. There is a highway, a way of living. But it’s not for the unclean. It’s not for the common. It is for those people who have gone to God and asked to be taught His ways (Isaiah 2:3) and who belong to Him. They are the ones who have been made holy and clean. They are the ones who will walk on the Way of Holiness.
That word “Holiness”? It’s the same word for holy that we saw in Isaiah 11:9 . . . “in all my holy mountain.” It means holy, separate, and comes from a word which means to be, to make, or to pronounce clean.
This is direct contrast to those who are unclean. And there’s another interesting play on words here. The word for “shall pass over” can mean 1) to cross; 2) to go between two places; 3) to surpass; 4) to transgress. Interestingly, the unclean are not going to be allowed to pass over, to cross, this Way of Holiness because they have passed over, transgressed, God’s laws.
This phrase is contrasted with the “fool,” who shall not go astray. The word for “shall go astray” means “to err, to wander, to go astray, to be deceived, to be lead astray or seduced.” Even if that person is foolish, makes poor decisions, is not wise - as long as the fool walks on the way - makes God’s way of life his goal - he will not lose his way. That’s extremely encouraging to me. I know that I am often foolish. I know that often fail to attain the high standard that I desire. But there’s a huge difference between being unclean and being foolish. Being foolish is making poor choices or not being wise. Being unclean means transgressing God’s laws and not repairing the relationship with Him. But where’s the line between unclean and foolish? The line is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the One who makes me clean. It is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that I am led on the right path. The person who is unclean doesn’t have the relationship with Jesus Christ and is also foolish. The person who is clean has Jesus Christ even if they still make foolish choices from time to time.
So what do I do? That’s the other cool part of this verse! The phrase “it shall be called” comes from a word that means “to cry out, call aloud, roar, proclaim, pronounce. It is the enunciation of a specific message, addressed to a specific recipient, intended to elicit a specific response.” The proclamation that there is a highway called the Way of Holiness is a call for us to seek God, to seek His holiness, to turn from uncleanness, and “purify ourselves from everything which contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness, out of reverence for God” (2 Corinthians 7:1, NIV).
Wait for the LORD
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Are you ever tired? Are there days when you just reach the end of your strength, your reserves of energy, and you’re done? Of course. Unless you are a total couch potato, you’ve experienced tiredness and exhaustion.
Yesterday our 4H club planned a 3.5-mile hike at the Shaw Nature Reserve. We were not leisurely strolling to look at some beautiful, wild spring flowers; we were walking with a time limit. In addition, we weren’t just meandering around the cultivated gardens; we were picking our way over rocky descents to the river valley and then climbing back up the winding trail to the lookout points. It was a good walk, but a couple of the boys weren’t interested in walking. They were interested in expending energy - which they did in competitive sprints back and forth along the trail and off the trail on side branches. If that wasn’t enough, on the heels of hiking for a couple of hours, we had two hours of volleyball practice afterwards. Granted, the volleyball was not nearly as strenuous, but it did require numerous short bursts of energy to try to save the ball from going into the creek - which, of course, acted like a ball magnet. By the time we got home, we were all tired.
How appropriate, then, to be talking about Isaiah 40:31 today.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Because we were walking and running yesterday and were tired at the end of the day, does that mean that we don’t wait for the LORD? I don’t think that’s Isaiah’s message here.
The 40th chapter of Isaiah begins “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned:” The chapter begins by comforting and encouraging the people. Yes, they have sinned. Yes, they have experienced judgment because of those sins. But God will save them and He will feed His flock like a shepherd (vs. 11). The rest of the chapter describes God’s incomparable power and majesty. There is none like Him. All of the idols are nothing; they cannot save. They have to be fixed so they won’t totter; they can’t move (vs. 20). It is our God who gives strength to do what needs to be done, even when those who are normally strong have expended all of their energy (vs. 30); God can renew the strength of His people! Our God never faints or is weary!
I do believe that God can give physical strength to His people to continue - a physical miracle almost like Samson or the Israelites’ shoes not wearing out for 40 years. But in addition to this physical strength, I think that they who wait for the LORD are given a strength of mind, of conviction, of determination, to accomplish the task, to attain the goal. I think that’s part of the message to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation. “To him who overcomes” encompasses more than just physical strength; it is reliance on God and on the strength God provides to those who do rely on Him.
I think this strength is based on two things (at least two things): faith in God and Godly hope. That is, the strength that God gives to us comes because first, we have faith in Him. We believe that He is God, He’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, He has our best interest at heart. Because of that faith, we make decisions in our lives that seek to please Him because the relationship with God is so precious to us. That faith, then, leads to hope. Godly hope is not the wishy-washy hope of the world - the kind which says, “I hope it doesn’t rain on our picnic.” Godly hope is confident assurance that what God says He will do, He will do. As the song sings, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” That’s a pretty sure foundation for basing our assurance of God’s trustworthiness and faithfulness to His people!
So then, I think this verse in Isaiah 40:31 (but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. ) is talking about being able to persevere because of the faith and hope that we have that God is mighty to save, He is able to deliver us - even in the face of overwhelming odds, humanly speaking.
So what does this mean to you? It means that if you seek God first, if you seek to do His will in your life, if you truly make Him your God - submitting to Him in all things, then He can give you the strength to keep fighting the good fight. If you rely on Him who cannot fail, you will have the assurance that you’ll be victorious in the end. You know the end of the story. God will be victorious over all of His enemies. If you are on God’s side, you’ll likewise be victorious over everything that sets itself up against God.
The next time you are very tired, you’re extremely weary, remember this verse. Remember that God never grows tired. When things get tough, rely on the hope that you have in Christ. Isaiah 40:31 is a good verse to memorize to remind you of that hope.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
**Wait Upon the LORD
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Materials: hair dryer, ping pong ball
Do you know how far some butterflies migrate each year? Some Monarch butterflies travel 2,000 miles!
Do you know how far some hummingbirds migrate each year? Some travel 1,300 miles - 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico in 18-22 hours!!
Some eagles migrate from Northern Canada to northern Mexico each fall. That’s about 3000 miles. A stream of migrating eagles can be 20 - 30 miles long and half a mile wide, with the birds averaging about 30 miles an hour. They can travel as much as 225 miles a day. How can they go that far? They depend on the wind. If there’s no wind, the eagles can’t soar. So when there’s no wind, eagles stay put or only travel locally. Eagles take advantage of wind currents. They find a thermal - a column of rising warm air. Once the warm air carries the eagles really high, they glide until they find another column to take them up again.
Imagine how exhausted a butterfly or a hummingbird or an eagle would be if they didn’t have the wind helping them travel!!
In a similar way, when you belong to God, He gives you the support that you need in order to endure troubles and problems. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do anything. You can’t give up when faced with difficulty. You can’t just sit back and do nothing. God expects you to stay the course, to fight the good fight, to persevere to the end. But He also promises to help you - to renew your strength, to mount up with wings like eagles, to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint.
It’s like a ping pong ball. The ping pong ball can fly through the air when hit or thrown. It can roll along the floor. It can bounce. But it cannot hope to lift itself up - not any more than you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But just like the air dryer can support the ping pong ball, God can give you the strength and determination, the courage and the hope to persevere in following Him and serving Him with all your heart!
Problems don’t go away, but God promises that we don’t have to go through them alone. We don’t have to find the strength on our own to endure. We can trust Him. We need to trust Him. He promises never to leave us or forsake us.
But we can lose God’s support if we decide we’re not going to walk in His ways. Here’s where the support is - in this stream of air. If we place the ball outside of that support, the ball will fall. If we try to live our lives outside of God’s support - outside of His ways, we’re going to find ourselves without the strength to persevere and succeed. Why would we want to live without God’s Spirit helping us in our lives? It would be so foolish!
So stay close to God. Read your Bible every day. Talk to God every day in prayer. Go to church. Think about God and what He wants you to do in every situation. Trust God. Wait upon Him.
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Concept from: Science and the Bible: 30 Scientific Demonstrations Illustrating Scriptural Truths, Donald B. DeYoung, “Floating on Air,” Baker Books, 1994, pg. 52-54.
**Dancing Corn or Encouraging One Another
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
Materials needed: mason jar, water, vinegar, baking soda, popcorn Directions: dancing-corn
God never promised that this life would be problem-free. On the contrary, we’re going to face problems. It’s part of a world subjected to decay, the second law of thermodynamics, Romans 8:20. And just because you belong to God, that does not give you a free pass in this life on trouble. No Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Cards. In fact, Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble . . .” (John 16:33) But don’t let that discourage you! God has also promised that He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). What does that look like? How might that work in practical terms? Well, it might be kinda like this:
I have a mason jar. Let’s say that’s our world. In our world is found water - everything that is around us, our environment. Within our environment are things which could cause trouble - the 2 T of baking soda. The popcorn is us. Almost immediately we encounter trouble - it’s dissolved into our environment (aka the water). God intervenes (add the vinegar). God’s intervention changes what the outcome might otherwise have been. He can use trouble to refine us, to lift us into a closer relationship with Him, and to encourage others.
Interestingly, you notice that all of the people [aka corn] reacts at different times to the trouble [aka baking soda] and responds differently to God’s mercy [aka vinegar]. It’s also interesting that God doesn’t keep us lifted up. We feel like God has encouraged us with someone else, the solution to a problem, etc. But then we experience the world again and we start to become discouraged. And God lifts us again.
God’s mercy can come in many different forms. It could be a verse you read in the Bible, a line that you’re singing in a hymn, your mom or dad, a relative, a friend, some random stranger. Sometimes it’s the sunshine popping through the clouds, a bird singing outside your window, or your cat purring at you from your lap. Sometimes it’s someone who is obedient to God’s command to encourage one another, “and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). So look for ways to lift someone else up.
And the next time you’re down and discouraged, think of the dancing corn and God’s mercy.
God Helps Me
For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” Isaiah 41:13
Have you ever thought about God holding your right hand and helping you? What kind of picture does that create in your mind? How many times have you experienced help just when you needed it?
How does God help you? Can you think of a time when God helped you and you know it was God working for you? Many years ago, Ron had tennis elbow - he’d pulled the tendons in his elbow. It was so bad that he wasn’t sure he could climb a telephone pole to do his work. He was seriously thinking about putting in for time off. He couldn’t even hold a coffee cup!! So at church he asked to be anointed. The minister mistakenly asked for healing for Ron’s shoulder. So the next day, Ron was sitting in his truck, eating lunch and he just asked a quick prayer, that God would apply that request for healing to his elbow. About thirty seconds later, Ron felt something give and he was able to use his arm again. God helped Ron when no one else could.
How else does God help us? One day Ken and Dan were driving home from our house. It was late. It was raining. It was not a good time for the serpentine belt to come off. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that it means the van doesn’t move. There just happened to be a gas station right there. And there just happened to be a mechanic who just happened to be filling up his car with gas right then who knew exactly how to put the belt back on. God helped Ken and Dan by providing a person in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
There’s a third way that God helps us. One day my parents got home from church and parked their car in the driveway right next to the house and unloaded everything from church. Mom had a really strong feeling that they needed to move the car back behind the house in front of the garage. So they did. During the night, a huge wind blew up and blew down a black walnut tree onto the driveway next to their house, right where the car would have been. So sometimes God helps us by giving us nudges by the Holy Spirit.
We could sit here all day long and talk about how God has helped us. Whether it was a direct miracle, whether it was help from exactly the right person in the right place at the right time, or whether it’s a strong feeling (I’d call that a nudge from the Holy Spirit), God provides what we need - if we love Him and if we seek Him with all of our hearts.
I encourage you to write down those times when you know God held your hand and helped you. It helps for those times when you’re facing something really tough.
***What Do You See?
. .to open the eyes that are blind . . . Isaiah 42:7
Materials: water, wooden spoon, glass bowl, coffee creamer, flashlight
When you shine a flashlight through water, the water tends to bend the light rays a little bit because of particles in the water. Since pure “white” light is made up of the colors of the rainbow and because these individual light rays bounce at different angles, when the light from the flashlight hits the particles, we see different colors. If you stand on the side of the light beam from the flashlight, you’ll see blue. If you look at the light beam from directly in front, you’ll see a yellow tint.
The more “stuff” that is in the water (minerals, particles, coffee creamer), the more stuff there is for the light to bounce off. The blue becomes more blue. The yellow becomes more orange and red.
This is what happens during sunrise and sunset. As the rays of the sun hit our atmosphere during the day, we see the sky as blue when the blue rays scatter through the atmosphere. At sunrise and sunset, the reds and oranges are intensified because of the particles in the atmosphere.
As beautiful as the sunrises and the sunsets can be, I always think about how those colors are made possible because of the debris and particles in the air. More particles means more vibrant colors.
Think about this as a spiritual analogy. Each of us receives the light of God into our lives, the work of the Holy Spirit because of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are profitable servants, we don’t simply absorb that light like a black hole. Rather, we take in Jesus Christ and then reflect the light and love of Jesus Christ to everyone around us. But as individuals, we each reflect that light a little differently. God has given us each different personalities, interests, skills and abilities. We might reflect God’s light and love through musical ability, or through artistic design, or through architecture and engineering, or through friendliness and joyfulness, or through service. When people know that we’re a Christian, we are reflecting who God is to them through our words and actions. Our goal is to shine authentically and brilliantly for our great God.
Affliction
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 44:10
Affliction is never easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be affliction! And we can be afflicted by many things and for many reasons. Perhaps you have sinned and you are experiencing the discipline of your Heavenly Father. Perhaps you have made a choice which has a natural consequence - and God doesn’t even have to get involved. Perhaps your affliction is merely a part of living in this sinsick world. Or, sometimes, your affliction can fall into the category of being tried by God.
Regardless of the whys of your affliction, you have a choice. You can get mad at God, refuse to repent, ignore His ways, or grumble. All of these fall into the category I would call “Not a Good Choice.” If you grumble, you are in danger of God’s displeasure (1 Corinthians 10:10). If you ignore God’s discipline and correction, you’re in even bigger danger (Romans 1). If you curse God, you can expect death (Job 2:9-10).
Your other choice is to seek God, to turn to Him, to repent, and to praise Him. This is not what the normal carnal nature wants to do. So when we endure suffering that we do not deserve, and we endure patiently, it is well-pleasing to God (1 Peter 2:20). It’s an incredible witness to those who do not know God (1 Peter 2:12). It’s a powerful exhortation to believers (Hebrews 10:24, Hebrews 3:13).
Why can we praise God when we are going through something very afflicting? Because we know who holds our future and what is waiting for us there. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being
renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal
weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to
the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things
that are unseen are eternal.
Whatever we are enduring at this time is nothing - light and momentary! - compared to what God is preparing for us.
Why would you throw that all away by being grumpy over something that will not last very long?
**Tried in the Fire
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10
Materials: cold water, hot water, cups, tea bags
(Pour the cold water over the tea bag in the cup. Then pour the hot water over the tea bag. Then, when you’re talking about relying on yourself vs. relying on God, pour the hot water over an herbal tea bag in one cup and then over a black tea in another cup.)
If you want to brew a cup of tea, what do you have to do? You have to place a tea bag in a cup of hot water. Why? What happens when you put a tea bag in cold water? It may brew, but you really haven’t maximized what you can get out of your tea bag. To release the most tea, you have to use hot water.
So, you can’t just look at a tea bag and know the strength of the tea possible. There’s a big difference between herbal tea, white tea, green tea, and back tea.
It is much the same with God’s people. You don’t really know what you are made of, how much you rely on God for strength and endurance, until you are put in a situation to show your strength or weakness; it’s not obvious by just looking at you. It requires a difficult or stressful situation, aka hot water, to reveal where your strength comes from.
God tells us that He refines us, trying us in the furnace of affliction. The word furnace doesn’t bring to mind a cold room; rather, it makes us think of heat and stress and the necessity of reacting right away. Why would God do that to His people? Wouldn’t it be more loving just to take all of our troubles away from us and make life smooth and easy? No, actually, that’s not more loving.
Those trials by fire remind us of a couple of things: 1) we live in a world corrupted by sin; 2) we don’t want to focus on this world as if it were the goal. God has a better place for us where there will be no more pain or sorrow or death; 3) we cannot overcome the difficulties through our own strength. God is our strength. He is our Rock and our Salvation; and therefore 4) we need Jesus Christ. And if we need Him, we need to focus our attention on our relationship with the only One who can save us, the One who loves us and can strength us in the midst of any trouble.
Sometimes we don’t know how strong we are - or, more accurately, how much we rely on God for strength - until we face trouble, the furnace of affliction. We can come out the other side of the trial knowing with more certainty that we serve the Mighty God, the King of the Universe, the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Savior and that He is the One who gives us strength.
And that’s a good thing!
Every One To His Own Way
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
George Frideric Handel was a German-born, British Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. But probably, he is best known for his oratorio, The Messiah. In that work is probably his most famous piece, “The Hallelujah Chorus.” The Messiah was written in 28 days,
- beginning with Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 40: “Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye, My People”,
- working through his birth - “For Unto Us a Child is Born,”
- his crucifixion - “Surely He Hath Born Our Griefs,”
- his resurrection “But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul in Hell,”
- Jesus’ second coming - “He Shall Break Them in Pieces” and “The Hallelujah Chorus,”
- and the establishment of His kingdom - “Worthy is the Lamb That Was Slain.”
- Handel caps the oratorio with more than six pages of “Amen.”
In the middle of this oratorio, in describing Jesus’ death for us, the chorus sings, “All We Like Sheep.” It’s eight pages of sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses weaving around each other as they sing, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way.” Handel paints the picture, through his music, of sheep who are wandering just where they want to go, each motivated by their own desires.
It’s such a good picture of human nature - or carnal puppy nature. This morning I took the puppy for a half-mile walk to wear off some of his energy. Then when I came inside to work, I was constantly getting up to see where he was. I found him on the couch! So I told him he had to get down, gave him a chew toy, and he followed me back to my desk. He chewed for two minutes, then ran back into the living room and hopped up on the couch. I went back to see where he was, scolded him, and put him down on the floor. He followed me back to my desk, lay down to chew for two seconds, and then was off again. I found him on the couch again! I couldn’t help but think of the irony of writing about this verse - all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way. Whether it’s puppies or it’s human, we all want to do what we want to do.
But there comes a point in your life - if God is calling you - that you realize all of those sins, all of those desires to go your own way, all of that doing what you want, has a consequence. There are minor consequences along the way - built in consequences like if the puppy decides to jump off the porch, he’ll likely break a leg. These are the natural consequences of trying to defy God’s laws. If the puppy continues to misbehave and is more trouble than he’s worth, I put him in the kennel. That’s kind of like the impairment of our relationship with God. God is not going to have a close relationship with people who are constantly disobeying Him, seeking their own way, redefining God’s laws to suit their own needs. But the ultimate consequence of sin, of defying God, of going our own way, is death.
And yet, God loves us so much that He made a way out. Our Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for our sins, while we were yet sinners. God made it possible for our sin debt to be forgiven. More even than that, Jesus’ death and resurrection restores the relationship with God and makes it possible for us to have eternal life. God did this for each of us. “And the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Handel depicts this reality very powerfully. Sheep are wandering all over, turning every one however they want to go - for eight pages. Then they all come back together. In unison, in powerful emphatic half notes, the chorus sings: “We have turned everyone to his own way.” Then suddenly, the tone changes from skipping and scattered, to slow and somber as the chorus sings “And the Lord hath laid on him.” They get louder as they again emphasize “hath laid on him.” Then suddenly, softly, in unison they sing, “the iniquity of us all.”
For the Christian, this reality is heart-wrenching. I want my own way so much that I defy God. I go and do whatever I want, out of weakness, out of ignorance, perhaps because I find all kinds of excuses for disobedience. But, in the end, if I want a relationship with God, if I want eternal life in His kingdom forever, Jesus takes my punishment. He bears the stripes that I earned. He dies a horrible death in my place. God lays on Him my iniquity.
The next time you’re tempted to do something that you know would not be pleasing to God, think about sheep wandering wherever they want to go, turning everyone to their own way. And think about God laying on Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all.
The Time is Now!
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6
Why would anyone want to call upon the Lord?
Psalm 18:3 says “I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” Being saved from your enemies is a very good thing!
Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to me and I will answer you . . .” We want to be answered by God.
What about seeking? What are the benefits of seeking God?
Amos 5:4, 6 says “Seek me and live . . . Seek the Lord and live.” I like being alive.
Matthew 6:33 says “Seek first the kingdom of God . . . and all these things shall be added unto you.” All of the treasures and good things in life - food, clothing, shelter! I think it’s a good thing to seek God.
Hebrews 11:6 says that God “rewards those who seek him.” I like being rewarded by the most powerful and gracious being in the universe.
But is it really that easy? Can I live my life any way I please, day in and day out, until I want to call upon the name of the Lord? Will He then hear me and answer me and save me from my enemies? Will I be rewarded for living any old way most of the time, but when I seek him, when it’s convenient for me, can I then expect to be rewarded?
That wouldn’t work with any other intimate relationship in your life. Why would it work with God? In fact, it doesn’t. Read Isaiah 58. These people were seeking God daily. They delighted in seeking Him. But He was very displeased with their worship; they missed the blessing that comes with an intimate relationship with God.
This idea is buried in Isaiah 55:6 in the word “seek.” The Hebrew word which is translated “seek” means to tread or frequent, usually to follow (pursuit or search); by implication it means to ask or seek, specifically to worship. When you seek God in the way He desires, it is worship - which means submitting your will to His, seeking what pleases Him, and humbling yourself before the Creator and Redeemer of your life.
It’s not time to wait for a more convenient time to develop that relationship with your Redeemer. Who knows how quickly you’re going to need God to save your life, to protect you from your enemies, to answer you when you call. It’s time for each and every one of us to seek the Lord while He may be found.
**A Godly Perspective
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
Materials: three rocks (small, medium, large); three paint brushes (small, medium, large); a small glass of water
If I gave you a pebble, would you describe it as large or small? What if I asked you to put it in your shoe and walk across the room? Does that pebble now feel small or large? What if I gave you a small paintbrush and asked you to paint your name on a 3 x 5 index card - would that paintbrush be large or small? What if I poured a small glass of water for you - would it make a difference about whether you thought it was big or small if I asked you to drink it or if I asked you to pour in on your lap? So much of the time, how we see things depends a lot on how we experience those things. Weeding a garden doesn’t seem like a huge task . . . . unless you’re the one doing it. Ice doesn’t seem all that cold on a hot August day . . . but it does in January.
Our perception, how we see things, also depends on what else is around. For instance, a rock might seem really big . . . until you see a bigger one. That same rock might seem really small until you pick up a pebble. A paint brush that seemed really big becomes really small next to a larger one. And a toddler seems enormous next to a newborn.
Our perception of things, then, depends on comparing them to other things and it depends on our experience of them. And so many people go through life relying solely on their perspective. They compare things one to another and they experience things, classifying things as good or bad, better or worse, as they go. Is that the only way to view situations and experiences? What if there’s another way to see things.
What if we had God’s perspective? What if this huge problem (like a big rock) is really not even important in God’s perspective? After all, He’s sovereign and He can use that “problem” for your good. What if this little choice (like a pebble) that you don’t think is a big deal at all actually ends up changing the course of your life? We would probably find ourselves in less stressful situations, in less trouble, and having fewer health problems if we could just see things from God’s perspective and live our lives accordingly.
The good news is that we can read the Bible and know what God’s perspective is for many areas of our lives. Some little action that we didn’t think really matters could actually be defined as sin - and therefore something that will negatively affect our lives. We wouldn’t know that though, if we weren’t reading God’s word. God’s word, the Bible, gives us God’s perspective - defined by the law. Sometimes we read the Bible and don’t see how it applies to us. That’s where God’s Holy Spirit comes in. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13).
Our way of perceiving things (by comparing or by experiencing) gives us a way of evaluating that is limited. We don’t know everything. We don’t understand how everything fits together. We don’t always see from God’s perspective. How different, how much better, our perspective would be if we could see all things the way God sees them.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
**God Can Save
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that he cannot save . . . Isaiah 59:1
(Place an object on the table within reach, e.g. chocolate bar, rubber ball)
Can you reach this?
(Once they do, move it farther away and ask an older kid to reach it. Then place the object all the way across the table. Ask if anyone can reach the object now.)
We’ve all had times we wished our reach was a little longer. Maybe there’s something on a high shelf you need. Maybe you dropped something important behind the couch and you cant quite grab it. I bet Chloe and Cabella know how important it is to put things up and out of Elijah’s reach sometimes. And I bet Cayla knows how important it is to put things out of Chloe and Cabella’s reach sometimes. But obviously, it’s a common problem because they mass produce claws and extensions to help.
(Pull out the grabber tool)
So, is that what this verse is talking about? Is Isaiah saying that that God can reach anything He wants, no matter how far away it is? While it’s true that all things are in God’s control, Isaiah is getting at something a little deeper. So, tell me the verse again.
So Isaiah is telling us that God is not handicapped. He is fully able to save us and change us to be more like Him. But he goes on to say this. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face for you, so that He will not hear.”
It’s like this ball. I could be going down the right path, following God (roll the ball across the table in a straight line) then oops! I start sinning. I get off the path. And pretty soon, (roll the ball off the table) I face the consequences. That ball can’t roll itself back up onto the table, can it? It’s depending on sometime to pick it up and put it back on the table. In the same way, once we get off the path, we need God to grab us and get us back on His path.
Now, could one of you have grabbed the ball before it fell off the table? Yes. And sometimes God stops us when we go off the path. Sometimes He intervenes and keeps us from making a bad choice. But sometimes He lets us feel the consequences of our actions. That’s not very fun, is it?
The good news is that God is always there when we realize our sin and repent. If we turn and ask for God’s forgiveness, He will always forgive us and help us back onto His path. Just like in the story of the prodigal son, God’s arms are always wide open to receive his returning children. His arm is in no way shortened.
**Sin Separates Us From God
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Isaiah 59:2
Materials: cup of water, three nickels, eye dropper, rubber band, single-ply tissue
We very much want to be close to God. We very much want Him to hear our prayers. The cup represents being in fellowship with God.
Sometimes we sin. The memory verse today highlights the fact that our sin separates us from God. (Put a single-ply piece of tissue over the top of the glass and put a rubber band around the top of the glass to secure it. Then put the nickels on the tissue.) Whether it’s a little lie, being disrespectful to your parents, shop-lifting at a store, or any other sin, our sin separates us from God. This is not a good thing. God provides for us. God heals us. God protects us. We want to be able to go to God with our daily needs. This verse tells us that God doesn’t hear our prayers because of our sins. That’s not good when we really need God’s involvement in our lives! But more importantly, we want to live with God forever. There is no way that we can live with God forever until the sin is dealt with because our sin separates us from God.
When we repent, telling God that we truly are sorry, and then we go to God and ask for forgiveness, He has promised to forgive us. Not only are our sins covered by the blood of Jesus, we are washed clean by His death and resurrection. (Just like the eye dropper dripping water over the nickels, we are washed clean again.)
Being forgiven by God is very important. But Jesus’ death and resurrection does something more: it reconciles us to the Father. It’s more than just forgiveness - where we no longer have to pay the penalty for our sin (death). It’s no longer being separated from God! That’s BIG!! That’s life!! (At some point in the discussion, the tissue will have become weak enough to allow the nickels to drop into the glass.)
We never want to do anything that will intentionally separate us from God. But if we do, and if we are truly sorry, God has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him: Jesus Christ our Lord.
**We Are the Clay
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
Materials: clay (recipe below)
Colored Playdough
Materials
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• Food coloring
• Saucepan
• 1 cup flour
Directions
1. Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan and heat until warm.
2. Remove from heat and add flour.
3. Stir, then knead until smooth. The cream of tartar makes this dough last 6 months or longer, so resist the temptation to omit this ingredient if you don't have it on hand.
4. Store this dough in an airtight container or a Ziploc freezer bag.
https://www.familyeducation.com/fun/playdough/play-doh-recipes
I started with water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, food coloring, and flour. Once I mixed it all together, added some heat, and kneaded it, I had some fun playdough from which to make things. I could make a pot. Or I could make a bird. Or I could make an elephant. Well, someone could take the clay and make it look like an elephant. And that’s the beauty of clay: if I don’t like what it looks like, I can smush it and start over again.
So I have a question for you: have you felt like you’ve been smushed lately? Do you feel like things aren’t exactly going smoothly? Have you felt kinda bent out of shape? Well, maybe God is molding you into a more usable vessel, to His glory. That’s what Isaiah says in chapter 64, verse 8:
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
God is the Potter. He’s our Father. We are the clay, the work of His hands. Does He have the right to change our shape? Yes. He’s the One Who made us. He not only took the ingredients and formed them into a human being, He also created the ingredients. He started from nothing and spoke us into being, by His will, for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11). So He has the right to mold us into anything He desires.
Maybe you’re thinking that God’s smushing isn’t very nice. After all, you were quite happy being a pot. At this point, it’s quite helpful to remember that God loves you:
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV)
God loves you - loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son for your sins. But God didn’t stop there! Having paid for you with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God began a good work in you. A good work! Not a mediocre work, not a passable work, but a good work! And He will continue working in you - and that work will be revealed when Jesus returns.
Philippians 1:6 - And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (ESV)
There’s one other thing to consider: Yes, God loves you. Yes, He’s creating a good work in you. But what is that work? It’s you being molded into the image of His Son. You are being perfected to look like the best, Jesus Christ! (Gal. 4:19; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18)
Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
So although you know this means God is going to continue to smush you, molding you for His glory, you know that you can trust Him because He’s good and because He loves you. And you know that all the changing is for your good. He wants you to be formed into the image of Jesus Christ and He has plans for you in His kingdom. Try to remember that the next time you’re feeling bent out of shape and smushed.
The Work of Your Hand
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
I had a weird dream last night. I was in a court of law as a spectator, watching the prosecution of a popular man. Everyone thought he was a really good guy, doing good things for a lot of people, well-liked by everyone. But I had inside knowledge. I knew, as the prosecutor knew, that he really was guilty of the crime for which he was being tried. And it wasn’t just a little thing. It was a horrific crime, that, if everyone knew what he’d really done, they would turn on him like a Gilbert and Sullivan chorus.
That could be any of us - the guy on trial for a crime - especially before we came to Christ, accepting Him as our Savior. We were lost in our sins, guilty before God of transgressing His laws - no matter how well-liked we were, no matter how many friends we had.
That’s where God’s people found themselves in Isaiah 64. Isaiah confesses that Judah has sinned and that they deserve the punishment God is giving to them. Jeremiah says that Israel was faithless, but Judah was treacherous. Israel served false gods, but Judah served false gods while appearing to serve the One True God (Jeremiah 3). God accused them of outward loyalty, while inwardly, their hearts were far from Him.
But in Isaiah’s prayer in Isaiah 64, he confesses that God is Sovereign and that he is willing to submit to His will. But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand (Isaiah 64:8). Because God is Sovereign, the Potter, He has the right to form the clay in any way He wants to. The end result is completely up to God: we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah acknowledges that not only is God Sovereign, he also states that God has a special relationship with His people. But now, O LORD, you are our Father. This implies the trust that God is working in their lives for their good.
That’s where we all are when we come to see our need for Jesus Christ, drawn by our Father to His gift, His Son, as our Savior. Charlotte Elliott says it so well in her well-known hymn:
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me.
And that Thou bids me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
In the timeline of God’s holy days, this is what is pictured by Passover. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is crucified on the cross for my sins. I’ve confessed my sins, my complete reliance on God for salvation, and the Sovereignty of God. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture a new creature in Christ, without sin (no leavening), who is subsisting on Jesus. We walk in newness of life, in Christ. Then we start the countdown to Pentecost. This is harvest season, seven weeks of harvest season culminating in the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost. What is being harvested? Is it good fruit, profitable for the kingdom? Or is it somehow less than desirable?
You see, once we accept Jesus as our Savior and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we still have choices to make. We can make good choices in serving God, doing and saying the things which glorify Him. Or we can make choices which are less than honoring to the One who saved us. And our choices don’t just happen in our actions, we also find them in our thoughts. At the point of our baptism, we confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the only One who can save. He has complete authority over my life. But then, I hurt my shoulder and it just doesn’t get well. I know God can heal it, but it isn’t getting well. Maybe I start to grumble inside. On the outside, I’m asking my friends for prayers that I’ll get well, but inside I’m thinking that I don’t deserve a sore shoulder.
But wait a minute! I confessed that God is Sovereign. He is the Potter. I’m the clay. He has the right to do anything in my life that He wants. If the path He leads me down involves pain or persecution, I’m still in covenant with Him to stay on that path. That’s not an easy thing to wrap our minds around. We’d like to believe that because we serve God only good things will happen to us. We’d like to believe that because God is able to heal us, to keep us safe from all harm, to make our lives smooth and easy, that He will lead us down that comfortable path. But that is rarely the case. There are few Christians, if any, who never experience any difficulties, pain and problems.
But we do have another promise from God. Isaiah 64:8 starts out, “But now, O LORD, you are our Father.” We are not only in covenant relationship with the Supreme, Sovereign God of the Universe, we are part of His family and He cares for us. When we suffer, He knows. When we hurt, He understands. But He is planning for our future. He knows what we need now to make us perfect for His kingdom. We might need a broken jaw. We might need an aggravating older brother. Because He’s God, and because we’ve acknowledged Him as our God, we have to stop complaining about the things in our lives that He’s placed there. We have to learn to praise God in the storm - because He’s forming us into usable servants, even priests, for His kingdom.
The next time something crosses your path that you’re tempted to complain about, to start grumbling over, remember that your life is in God’s hands. You placed it there when you said He is your God. He’s in charge of what crosses your path, and He’s put it there for a purpose - to complete the job of forming you in His image. Instead of being grouchy because of the situation, you might consider praying this as part of your prayer, to remind yourself that God is your God: But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8
I am Only a Youth
Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” Jeremiah 1:6
Do you believe that God is all powerful? Do you believe He is Sovereign? Do you believe He can do anything He wants to do? Then why do you sometimes doubt that He can use whomever He wishes to accomplish His work? Why did Jeremiah think that he couldn’t speak because he wasn’t old enough? Throughout the Bible we are given verses which completely contradict this idea that God can’t use you because you’re too young or too old or too . . . whatever.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger. Psalm 8:2
The ESV footnote says, “The Greek translation of the Septuagint (See Matt. 21:16) rightly interprets strength as ‘strength attributed to God in song,’ or ‘praise.’ ” This praise from children stills, or silences, the enemy! This is the Psalm Jesus quoted during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the children were calling, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The chief priests and the scribes were indignant and asked Jesus if He heard what they were saying. Jesus’ response was, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:15-16)
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12
In this verse, Paul tells Timothy that he isn’t to let people look down on him because he’s young. His actions are to be godly - and in verse 14, Paul reminds Timothy not to neglect the gift he was given by the laying on of hands by the council of elders. If God has given you a gift, and it’s publicly recognized, stand firm in that knowledge. Do the job God has given you to do regardless of how someone might want to dismiss you, to think you are too young to do the task.
But why would God use someone young when there are lots of older people around? I think God makes it very clear that He’s the One who is doing the work. Notice 1 Corinthians 1:26-29:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
I find this passage very comforting! If I start to think that I’m something special, that God’s using me because I’m so great, this verse reminds me that, if I’m truly being used by God, it’s His work and His power, and He chose to work through me because I was and am nothing special. On the flip side, if I start to doubt that God is really using me because I know who I am, I know that I’m not gifted, I know I’m nobody, nothing special of myself, He reminds me that He can use me because of who I am to do great things.
Paul was given a thorn in the flesh and pleaded three times that God would take it away. God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:9
God uses a humble person, a person who knows how weak he (or she) is, and who knows how great God is. Why? God is great! He’s Sovereign! He’s the King of the Universe! He’s the Creator, the Originator of everything! And He says, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11; Isaiah 42:8; Psalm 46:10).
Just in case you’re still not convinced that God can use whomever He wishes to accomplish His purposes, take a look at Numbers 22:22-35 and the story of Balaam. Here’s a man who was going to curse God’s people. God wasn’t going to let him. To make it completely clear to Balaam how very much God was opposed to him because his way was perverse (vs. 32), God opened the mouth of a donkey to speak to Balaam. A donkey!
When God gives you a task to do, do it. Don’t worry that you’re too young. But the key is being close enough to God that you know, without a doubt, that God has truly given you the task. You need to read your Bible every day. You need to pray every day - talking with God and sharing your heart. You need to make choices that are pleasing to God. And you need to recognize how great God is and how weak you are. Then He can use you to accomplish His purposes - even if you are only a youth.
Of What Do You Boast?
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD. Jeremiah 9:24
What are you proud of? Have you done something, had a great accomplishment that you want to tell others about? Maybe you scored very high on a test. Maybe you created a beautiful piece of artwork. Maybe you ran a half marathon in record time. Maybe you broke the state record for consecutive push-ups. Maybe you set a new Guinness World Record.According to the Guinness Website, Steven J. Backman set a huge record.
The San Francisco-based toothpick artist holds the Guinness World Records title for world’s smallest toothpick sculpture, a seemingly incredible 19.86-mm-tall (0.782-in) replica of the Empire State Building made from a single toothpick. (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/5/video-steven-j-backman-and-the-worlds-smallest-toothpick-sculpture-379197)
And there are amazing things which people do which happen around us all of the time! But God says, in Jeremiah 9:23, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.” God says that no matter how wise you think you are, how powerful you think you are, or how wealthy you think you are, God isn’t impressed.
Think about that for a minute! Seriously! We tend to think that someone who is wise, or powerful, or wealthy is pretty impressive. We value these things - especially when we compare them to the opposite end of the spectrum. Poverty, weakness, and stupidity are not usually goals people set for themselves - at least, not intentionally.
So, should we practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness? God says in these things I delight. What is steadfast love? The KJV usually translates it loving kindness. Other translations render it kindness or faithful love. This is a great characteristic of God, a good one to emulate. What is justice? The dictionary says it’s the quality of being fair and reasonable. This is also a great characteristic of God. What is righteousness? The dictionary defines righteousness as the quality of being morally right or justifiable. It is doing what is right according to God’s definition. These are all good things. They are all things we should practice. But are these things we can boast about?
Not hardly.
The loving kindness, justice, or righteousness that we can exhibit is a pale shadow of the great loving kindness, justice, and righteousness that is our God. We fall so short of His magnificence in every area. There’s no comparison! It would be like my puny efforts at toothpick sculpture compared with Mr. Backman.
So of what do we boast? We, as God’s people, boast that we understand and know God, that He is the One who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. Because God delights in them, these are the character traits that we should desire to emulate, but when we practice them, our goal is not to obtain glory for ourselves. Our goal is to honor God, to give Him the glory. If we achieve anything worthwhile, it is because He’s working in us . . . but that’s a topic to explore tomorrow.
To Understand and To Know
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD. Jeremiah 9:24
What is boasting? The dictionary defines it: to talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one’s achievements, possessions, or abilities. We already talked about God not being impressed with man’s wisdom, power, and wealth. Neither can our steadfast love, justice, or righteousness compare with our great God who practices these things. So we’re back to the question we didn’t exactly answer yesterday: about what should we, or can we, boast?
Jeremiah 9:24 says that the person who boasts should boast that he understands and knows God. Let’s think about this for a minute. Count up all the people you know. That might take awhile. I suspect that you know a lot of people. I know a lot of people . . . or actually my list of acquaintances is quite long. There’s a huge difference between being acquainted with, knowing, and understanding - especially how these words are used in this verse.
“Understand” is the Hebrew word sakhal (Strong’s number 7919) and means basically “an intellectual comprehension or an intelligent knowledge of the reason for something.” The other word “know” is the Hebrew word yada Strong’s number 3045) and means “understanding or knowledge by experience or by the senses” and has the conotation of “desiring to be in the presence of.”
So look at your list of acquaintances again. How many of these people do you understand? For which of them do you have an intellectual comprehension? That is, can you pick out their favorite hobbies, clothes, places, foods, music, etc? O.K. For some of the people you have on your list, you might be able to do that. But can you guess how they are going to act in any given situation? That narrows down your list considerably! Do you understand why they make the choices they make? I suspect that your list is now quite short or, perhaps, empty. To understand why someone would choose to act in a certain way requires a very close relationship. Think about it. Let’s say you wanted to get to know someone famous. You could look up all kinds of facts about them: their birthday, their favorites foods, their favorite activities, etc. But you wouldn’t really know them; you’d only have a knowledge of a lot of facts about them. You could study someone for many years and if you knocked on their front door, they wouldn’t let you in. They don’t know you from Adam!
That’s where this Hebrew word for “to know” - yada - is so cool! In order to know someone in this sense, you have to experience them. You know what ripe strawberries taste like because you’ve tasted them. You know what the beach sand feels like under your feet because you’ve gone barefoot on the beach. You know how much water there is in Wyoming because you’ve traveled from one side of the state to other; you’ve lived there; you’ve experienced walking along the shores of Yellowstone Lake and Lake Jenny. Oh. You’ve never picked a ripe strawberry straight out of the garden and popped it into your mouth? You’ve never built a sand castle on the sugar white sands of Destin, Florida? You’ve never been to Yellowstone or lived in Wyoming? Then maybe you don’t really know, in the Hebrew sense, these things. You haven’t experienced them. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
It’s the very same thing with God. There are a lot of people who have a knowledge about God. They can quote scripture. They can recite Biblical history. But they don’t pray to God. They don’t talk about Him with others. They don’t have a desire to be in His presence. They really don’t know God. But they can fool you because they look like they know Him - they know so much about Him. But like that famous person you studied, if you knocked on God’s front door, would He know them from Adam - in a figurative sense? To understand God means to have an intellectual comprehension of Him. Do you comprehend why God does what He does? To know God means to have experienced Him because you’ve desired to be with in His presence. How are you doing with knowing God?
This is what God says we can boast about - that we understand and know Him!
How are you doing on having something to boast about?
Here’s where the incredible blessing of Pentecost comes in! It was on the day of Pentecost almost two millennia ago that God poured out His Holy Spirit on His people who were gathered that day in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4). It is the Holy Spirit which leads us into all truth (John 16:13). It is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that our spirits can testify with His Spirit that we are the sons (and daughters) of God (Romans 8:16). It is by the Holy Spirit that we are being changed from the inside out to have that desire for God and His ways (2 Corinthians 5:17-18; John 6:63; Gal 5:22). We want to know God. We want to be like Him. We want to understand His ways. And, we greatly desire to be in His presence.
But do we understand and know God? We’re learning about Him. We coming to understand and to know Him more and more every day - but we’ve barely scratched the surface of what there is to know about our great God.
So of what can we truly boast? Nothing.
Here’s where another scripture complements Jeremiah 9:24 so well. Micah 6:8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? When it all comes down to it, we have nothing about which we can boast. And if that’s the case, then our reasonable attitude is humility! We must walk humbly with our God. And through the gift of Jesus Christ who reconciled us to the Father and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, given on Pentecost, we have been given that great blessing - to be allowed to walk with our God. As we come to understand and to know God more, to taste and see that He is good, we cannot help but walk in humility. Oh that we all would come to truly understand and to know God!
You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet!
“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5
Ever been in a race? Most of the time, we race against people that we think we have at least a small chance of beating. No one wants to race if they think they’re going to be beaten every time. That’s no fun. So the imagery in the first half of the verse hits a chord with each of us. If we have raced against people in an even race, and we are worn out - we’re not winning, how in the world can we hope to stay in the race against horses? We’re just racing against people right now, but pretty soon, we’re going to be racing against horses. What does that mean?
God is telling Jeremiah that as bad as things were in Judah at that time (so much so that Jeremiah’s weary!) things are going to get much worse. We can apply that idea to the time right before the return of Christ: times are going to appear to be really bad, but they are going to get worse.
O.K. So what does the second half of the verse mean? “And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” That’s what the ESV says. That’s a little vague. So let’s look at other translations:
The NIV says, “If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”
The KJV says, “and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”
Sometimes when we’re reading through the Bible, a translation can be very confusing. That’s the time to go look at another translation. In this instance, the ESV doesn’t make sense to me. But the NIV and KJV seem to be giving us the same thought in a different way. That is, Jeremiah is complaining to God about what’s happening to him. God is telling him he’s going to experience worse. If you’re complaining now, what in the world are you going to do when things really get bad?
Does that describe you? Are you complaining about how bad your life is? Are you at the end of your rope and don’t know what you’re going to do? You have to put your trust in God. He is our Refuge, our Rock, our Hiding Place. And how will we compete against the horses? Where can we find an answer to that? How about Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
There's a church marquee in St. Clair which is currently displaying this message: “No task before us is as powerful as the force behind us.” There is nothing that we will face that God cannot handle. Take one step at a time and believe that He will not give you more than you can handle. Put your trust in Him for safety, for strength, for salvation, for everything.
Selah!
**The Heart of the Matter
I the LORD search the heart and test the mind . . . Jeremiah 17:10
Materials: a variety of pencils
We’ve talked about the different things you can learn about your relationship with God from a pencil. The pencil doesn’t work unless there’s a hand to guide it; Christians work best when they allow God to direct their lives. The pencil works best when it’s sharp; Christians fellowshipping with one another can learn more about God, His ways, and serving Him. The pencil comes with an eraser; Jesus Christ is the only One who can take away our sins.
Today we’re going to talk about the lead - or more specifically, the graphite in the pencil.
A pencil can look great on the outside. It can be different shapes, different colors, different sizes. But what really matters is how well it does the job it was designed for - writing, drawing, sketching. And that all depends on what’s inside: the graphite.
It’s the same for a Christian. We all look different. We come in different shapes, with different hair color and eye color, big and small. But what really matters is what is inside, what is going on in your heart.
Are you hard hearted? You are determined to go your way no matter what.
Are you half-hearted? You will do what God says, but you don’t really want to.
Are you broken-hearted, depressed or sorrowful? It’s okay to be sorry for past actions, but you can’t stay this way.
Are you whole-hearted, committed to serving God with all that you are?
You know when you look at a pencil, you can’t really tell how nice the graphite is. There are some pencils I just won’t use because I don’t like how they feel. There are other pencils that make writing a joy and I’d rather use them than a pen.
It’s the same way with Christians: we all look differently on the outside. What we do demonstrates what’s on the inside. Our actions show who we really are and what’s important to us. I the LORD search the heart and test the mind.
And sometimes we don’t even know who we really are until we see how we react in different situations. We never knew that we would act in a certain way when faced with that problem.
In pencil terms, I hope you are good graphite. I hope what is inside of you is very usable and a joy to your Creator. I hope you are committed to serving Him with your whole heart.
Based on : https://www.creativekidswork.com/all-ideas/117-77-five-lessons-a-pencil-can-teach-us
24.7.365
I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7
Have you ever cut out a heart to put on a card to give to someone? Why did you do that? What does it mean? Usually it means that you love them. Why does putting a heart on a card mean that? It’s the idea that you love them with your whole being, with everything you are.
But does doing something with your whole heart always mean loving them? You can put all of your heart into playing a piano piece. Your mom might tell you to do your chores - and put some heart into it. You certainly don’t love doing your chores. So what does that mean? Putting your heart into someone means that you are doing it with everything that you are; you are giving your very best; you are trying your hardest. I remember my grandfather saying that a horse really had heart. That meant that horse would work hard all day long for him.
So when God says that he’s going to give His people a heart to know that He is the LORD, it’s another way to say that God is going to give His people the desire to come to know who God is. And this word “know” is the Hebrew word yada’ which carries to connotation of knowledge by experience. It’s the Psalm 34:8 idea of tasting and seeing that the LORD is good.
Do you see what God is telling the people through Jeremiah? Once God has given them the heart, the desire, to come to know Him, to spend time in His presence, they will return to Him with their whole heart. That is, they will come back to Him with everything they are.
It’s the definition of God being God to you personally. If God is your God, then you recognize that He is Sovereign. He’s in charge. He makes the rules. He gets to decide what is right and wrong. He has your life in His hands. He plans your path.
But most of us don’t like letting God be our God all the time. We want to make some decisions. We think that as long as we are good most of the time, that’s good enough. Is it good enough to give someone half of a heart on a card? It’s like saying that I love you when it’s convenient or when I feel like it, but I don’t really feel like loving you all the time. That might mean that I have to do something that I don’t want to do because you want me to do it.
Or think of it like this: we are called to make our lives an offering to God (Romans 12:1). If He’s our God, that’s our reasonable worship. So it’s like making a pan of brownies. You work hard to use the best ingredients, but then you put a tablespoon of dog poop into the brownies. You wouldn’t give the brownies as a gift to anyone, well, maybe to your worst enemy. Yuck! But you certainly wouldn’t give them to someone you like or to someone that you say you love. So if your life is to be an offering to God and you’re walking worthy of the calling you’ve received (Ephesians 4:1), but then you decide you’re going to do something that is displeasing to God, that goes against what He says is right and wrong, then it’s like putting a tablespoon of dog poop into your life and offering it to God as if it would be acceptable to Him!
You can’t go through the motions of serving God just when someone is watching or when it’s easy. If God is truly your God, if you tell people that He is your God, then you are held to a higher standard. You submit to His authority. You show others through your words and deeds what it truly means to be a Christian. You bring honor and glory to Him through what you do. You follow God with your whole heart.
I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7
This covenant with God that He will be your God and you will be his people is something you do all the time if you’re truly a Christian. And I think it’s really fun that the scripture reminds of us that in a very contemporary way. Did you notice that this is Jeremiah 24:7? Kind of a fun coincidence - because this is how we’re supposed to live 24.7.365.
What Are Your Plans?
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Do you have any plans this summer? We plan to go to Six Flags. We plan to go to Little Indian Creek numerous times. I plan to get the pool set up soon. We are planning to have my niece and nephew come to visit us. And some good friends from Texas plan to come for several days in July.
But, what are plans? Are they set in stone? Are they tentative? Do you mean that you intend to do something? Or do you mean that I can count on it?
The word “plan,” as a noun, actually means the intention or decision to do something. It can also mean a detailed design or drawing. This definition has inherent problems. Think about it. What if someone means that they intend to do something, but you take it that they have decided to do it. For instance, if I tell the kids I plan to take them to Little Indian Creek on Monday, it can taken two different ways. They want to go to the creek and they heard me say that I’m planning to do it. So they understand that I am working out all the details so we can go to the creek. They tell their friends that we’re going to the creek. They make plans, detailed arrangements. On the other hand, I have told the kids that I’m planning to take them to the creek, so if it is raining or something else comes up, we won’t go. When something else comes up and we can’t go, they are incredibly disappointed because their definition of the word “plan” didn’t match my definition.
It’s the same with building plans. When the builder has the plans in front of him, he has the detailed instructions for putting the house together. But sometimes as he’s building, it becomes obvious that building a certain way is not going to work. When I sketched the plans for the upstairs and sent them to the architect, I’d forgotten one important thing. The upstairs bedrooms don’t have eight-foot ceilings all the way across the room. We have a steeply slanted roof. The ceiling may start out at eight feet, but about halfway across the room, the ceiling slants because it’s the other side of the roof. This is a problem for the closets I planned. In one room, they’d have been great! In the other room, the closet would have been in that slanted area and would have been a terrible closet in which to hang clothes. It is a good lesson for us that even when the plans are written down in ink, sometimes reality necessitates changing those plans.
So then we read Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. We have experienced changing plans. What kind of plans are these? Is God making something happen or is this changeable? Sometimes it’s helpful to read the verse in other translations.
The KJV says: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Young’s Literal Translation says: For I have known the thoughts that I am thinking towards you -- an affirmation of Jehovah; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give to you posterity and hope.
The NIV says: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
The lexicon shows that this word can be translated “plan, device, thought, intention, purpose.” So that’s not exactly helpful in determining the definition. So, as in many cases in the Hebrew, we have to look at the context. The KJV has a wonderful phrase at the end of the verse “to give you an expected end.” This lends credence to the idea that God’s plans are dependable. Young’s Literal Translation has a great rendering: “an affirmation of Jehovah.” Sometimes we forget that when God says something, it’s an affirmation. It’s dependable. When God says something, it is definite. It’s a promise because God cannot lie. He’s Sovereign. He works all things to the good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
But there’s one other part of the definition of the word “plan.” It’s in the future. When I tell the kids that I plan to take them to the creek, they might think I mean tomorrow. I might mean when it works in my schedule. Similarly, just because you have house plans doesn’t mean the building will go according to plan. You might plan to have it all done in three months. It rarely goes that smoothly. Something usually interrupts those plans.
So when God told the exiles in Babylon that He had plans for their good, to give them a future and a hope, they had to realize that God would work out His plan in His time. It wasn’t going to be any time soon. He told them earlier in chapter 29 to settle down, to build houses, to plant vineyards, to marry off their children and have more children - and to pray for the prosperity of the land where they’d been taken captive.
It’s a good lesson for us. First, we have to remember that God’s plans for us, if we belong to Him, will ultimately be for our good. But you can’t use Jeremiah 29:11 to encourage someone that things are going to be good immediately. There were seventy years before the exiles returned from Babylon. Some of them died in captivity. Yet, even for those who died, when Jesus returns, they will experience that promised future. Secondly, when we are planning something, we have to be careful about stating our plans as an absolute. “We are definitely going to do this or that.” The reality is that we don’t have much control over the future. That’s under God’s control. James 4:13-15 says, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” Our lives are completely in God’s hands - and that includes all of our plans.
Hide -n- Seek
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
Have you ever played hide -n- seek? If you’re just playing around your house, chances are the game will progress rapidly. But if you’re playing, for instance, on a 5-section ranch, chances are much greater that the game will last all day. When I was a kid, we used to play hide -n- seek on my grandparents’ 5-section ranch, and yes, sometimes the games lasted for hours!
Even when we had to move our game inside, Grandma’s house had all kinds of nooks and crannies where we could hide. I remember many a rainy day spent playing hide -n- seek with my brother and sister.
When my oldest son was about three years old, he started playing hide -n- seek with a family friend at church. When everyone was in the fellowship hall, Ken would take my son to the sanctuary and tell him to hide. After a few minutes, Ken would walk in and call, “Where are you hiding? I’m going to find you.” Jonathan would jump out and exclaim, “Here I am.”
Most people like to play hide -n- seek with God the same way Ken and Jonathan played. They want to look with little effort and find God right away. It’s the “O.K., I’m done. I did that and I can move on with the rest of my life.”
In reality, seeking God requires persistence and determination and desire. It includes prayer, Bible study, church attendance, fellowship with believers, meditation and fasting. It requires obedience to God. This is what it means when it says “with all your heart.”
There’s only one problem: me. Romans 8:7 says that the carnal mind is enmity against God. My carnal nature can’t please God; it doesn’t want to seek God; it is God’s enemy. So now what do I do?
How can I seek God when I have this carnal nature pulling at me? Romans 7:24-25 says, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Praise be to God, through Jesus Christ my Lord.” Seeking God, truly, requires a relationship with Him. That relationship begins when we accept what He’s done for us on our behalf and we accept Him as our Personal Savior. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that when we accept Jesus into our hearts, we are a new creation in Christ. And if we are a new creation, then the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And if the Holy Spirit dwells in us, then we will be led into all truth by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13).
Part of what the Holy Spirit teaches us is how to seek God. But you have to want God with all your heart; it can’t be a one-time, five-minute hide -n- seek. It has to be a lifetime desire to develop that relationship with the God of the Universe - the One who also wants to be your Friend. That sounds like a great person to seek. What do you think?
**A Lasting Love Story (Holy Day Lesson)
“The Lord. . . said, ‘I have loved you with a love that lasts forever’” (NIrV). - Jeremiah 31:3
Materials: weights, YEA lesson YE2D.6
How does God love us? Where do you see His love? He created a lovely world that was very good! Delightful animals. Beautiful flowers. A veritable paradise garden.
God created set laws so that life would work predictably - gravity and inertia and friction.
God created food for us to eat and water to drink - so incredibly yummy and varied a diet!
God created colors and textures and smells and sounds and tastes. What an interesting world we live in - and it’s for our benefit!!
And that’s just creation! How else does God show His love for us? He helps us when we’re in trouble. He provides for our needs. He guides us and leads us. He gives us hope and a future. He invites us into fellowship with Him. And He rescues us.
Rescues us? Why do we need to be rescued? Well, you remember that paradise that God created? Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s direct commandment. What is that called? Yes, it’s called sin. When sin entered the world, so did death and pain and famine and drought and trouble of all kinds. The world that God had pronounced “very good” was now no longer that way. We inherited that sin nature from our ancestor Adam. And every time we sin, it’s another weight added to our very being.
It’s why Jesus would say to the crowds “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Jesus paid our sin debt and took our burden. That’s why we’re celebrating these holy days this week - in remembrance of what Jesus did for us! It is incredible just how much He did for us. And what does He ask us to do this week - one simple thing: eat unleavened bread every day. (Of course, that doesn’t mean any of the rest of God’s law is suspended! We are still going to honor our parents and tell the truth and respect the property of others!)
As you make it a point to eat unleavened bread this week - to obey God’s command to do so - remember the weight that Jesus took from you when He paid your sin debt. That’s the love of God.
Is Anything Too Hard For God?
“I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:27
If you were asked to write down something that is too hard for you, what would you write? Would you write that leaping tall buildings in a single bound is too hard? Would you write down “having a 1.000 batting average”? Would you write down something like breaking the world record in running the mile?
What is too hard for God?
Nothing.
Think about it. The God who created all the diversity of animal and plant life and set them in motion so they would all co-exist and work together, also set all the stars and galaxies in place and caused them to work in harmony and logically. When God created it, before sin entered the picture, God said it was very good! Just thinking for few moments about what God has created boggles my mind!
What could He not do?
What about healing? Yes. God can do that too.
The question becomes though, why doesn’t God heal everyone who asks Him?
The simple answer is: He doesn’t want to. Why? We don’t know.
But we’ve seen enough healings, miraculous healings that have no other explanation than that God’s hand was involved in the healing, to know that God can do it whenever He wants to.
Our job is to trust Him no matter what happens. If we’re in a relationship with the God of the Universe, then our job is to trust that He’s going to do His job. His job is forming us into a new creation so that we will be prepared for whatever job He’s designed for us in His kingdom. Our job is to trust and obey. Our job is to praise and glorify Him in everything we think, say and do. It is not our job to tell God how to do His job. We know that. . . but sometimes we get very close and we’re advising God on how we think these ought to go in our lives.
I think we could take a lesson from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzer’s golden idol. They told the king that the God they served could save them, but even if He didn’t, they still would not worship the image. So the king threw them in the fiery furnace. It was interesting. God didn’t automatically cause the king to back down; those three men still had to do what they said. They had to be willing to lose their life regardless of what God did or didn’t do for them.
So what is too hard for God? Nothing.
And especially nothing in the physical realm. It’s a little more difficult to change people’s hearts without taking away their free will. My daughter, when I asked her what is hard for her, she told me, “Getting along with my older brothers.” She didn’t list something physical; she got right to the heart of the matter. What God is truly concerned with is the changing of our hearts to seek Him and His ways, glorifying Him in all of our lives. Is it too hard for God to change our hearts? No, it’s not too hard. But it was a great price. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that He could create in each of us a new heart, one that would seek Him.
No, there’s really nothing too hard for God. He’s God after all.
Words
Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. Jeremiah 42:5
They say the first thing you should teach a puppy is to “sit.” I can understand the logic behind that! Think about it: if you can get a puppy to sit still for 5 seconds, you might have the chance to get him to listen to whatever you want him to do!
For children, it’s a little different. I think the first thing most parents teach their children, at least verbally, is “no.” That little two-letter word has a wealth of implications behind it. It carries with it the idea that the child is to stop and desist immediately, whether he knows why or not. The child learns that disobeying the “no” means swift intervention from his parents. He learns, in that little word, that he must obey if he wants things to be pleasant.
This is true in the language of the Ten Commandments, specifically (and ironically) in the 5th commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Obedience to this commandment carried with it the promise of things being pleasant; that is, that his days would be long in the land.
God’s people knew that obedience to God’s word carried blessings. Disobedience carried curses. When they first entered the Promised Land, half of the tribes stood on Mt. Ebal and half stood on Mt. Gerizim (Deuteronomy 11:29). They heard the blessings and cursing. They heard the consequences of obedience and disobedience.
The remnant of the people, those left after Nebuchadnezzar had taken the rest of Judah captive to Babylon, knew this history. It was these people who came to Jeremiah and asked him to go to God on their behalf. They were scared. They wanted to know what to do. Should they stay in the land? Should they go to Egypt for protection? Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us (Jeremiah 42:5). This is amazing! They said that God Himself would be their witness. God would hold them accountable if they didn’t do whatever Jeremiah told them after he went to God for direction. But that’s not all. They continued, “Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God” (Jeremiah 42:6) Regardless of whether they liked what Jeremiah told them from God, they were going to do it. This sounds good. They went to God for direction and expressed their desire to follow His leading.
The rest of the story is not so rosy. Ten days later, Jeremiah came back with the word from the LORD. He told them to stay in the land, not to go to Egypt. The people immediately responded that Jeremiah is lying to them and they’re going to Egypt.
It’s mind-boggling that they could even respond this way! After they’d told Jeremiah they’d do whatever he said, that God was the witness against them, that whether it was good or bad - they would do it, it’s absolutely amazing that this is their response!
And yet, it’s human nature. When we’re faced with a frightening situation, we promise God all sorts of things. Then, when we come face to face with our part of the bargain, we try to weasel out of our promises. We rationalize that God wouldn’t really want us to do THAT. Jephthah comes to mind (Judges 11). You’re probably right. God would not have thought to ask you to do that particular thing. But once you’ve promised to do something, God expects you to fulfill that vow. In Numbers 30:1-2, we find this: Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the Lord has commanded. If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Jesus told his disciples that they should not take an oath. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil (Matthew 5:37).
God takes what you say very seriously. When you say you’re going to do something, you need to do exactly what you say. Psalm 15 starts, “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” Then there’s a whole list of honorable characteristics. Embedded in this list, in the middle of verse 4, is this: who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Whatever you’ve said you’re going to do, even if it turns out bad for you, you are expected to keep your word - if you want to dwell with God.
Obedience matters to God. Doing what He says matters. And what you say you will do matters as well. Consider carefully your words. In the words of a song, “Words can build you up; words can break you down.”
They Shall Ask
They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’ Jeremiah 50:5
Who is “they”? Who is it that will be asking the way to Zion?
What about “Zion”? What’s so special about Zion? And where is Zion?
And what about this covenant? Was a covenant forgotten sometime in the past? Is that why this says the everlasting covenant will never be forgotten?
This verse is a companion to the one in Isaiah 2:3 that we looked at earlier. ‘[A]nd many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’
So, who are the “they”? It is the people of God, the ones who don’t think God cares about them. They certainly don’t care too much about God. Their life is fine just the way it is without God’s interference.
But at Jesus’ return we know that all knees will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. (Phil 2:10-11) This New Testament verse is another way of saying the same thing Isaiah 2:3 and Jeremiah 50:5 are saying: Even though people are now rejecting Jesus Christ, there is coming a time in the future when we all will turn our faces towards Him and seek Him with our whole hearts.
That’s what is so special about Zion. Jesus Christ will be there. See what is says in Isaiah 2:3: “. . . for out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” The inference is that Jesus will be there, because He is the law-giver. He is the Word of God. Is it not the place that is so special; it is Jesus Christ who makes the place special because of His presence.
And this everlasting covenant? The word “way” means the manner of living, the choices you make throughout each and every day that you make without thinking and those you make with conscious determination, the road of life, the way you live. Everyone is going to ask God to teach them how to live in His way, making godly choices. They will want to be part of God’s kingdom, to live in a place where there is no sin, no pain, no crying, no death. They will want to be part of that covenant, that contract, that treaty with God that has no ending. They will want, as we each want now, to be part of God’s kingdom forever.
So as you look around church this week and you wonder why so many people aren’t there, just remember that a day is coming when everyone will be asking the way to God. Perhaps part of your job will be to help show them the way.
Great is God’s Faithfulness
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
We don’t use the word cease a lot. We sometimes hear it in phrases like, “Cease and desist,” or “The wind ceased,” or “He never ceases to amaze me.” Cease simply means “to come to an end, to stop.” We can think of lots of stuff which will come to an end: someday we will all cease to breathe; the annual blueberry crop will cease; the spring rains will cease. But there are fewer things which will never cease: eternity, infinity, and the steadfast love of the LORD.
The author of Lamentations, likely Jeremiah, pairs the next phrase as a couplet to the first. Not only will the steadfast love of the LORD never cease, His mercies will never come to an end. That’s incredibly comforting to think about. God’s steadfast love and His mercy never stops! The author goes on to say that God’s love and mercy are new every morning, that God is so incredibly faithful.
Think about where this verse is found. It’s found in the middle of the book of Lamentations. It’s found in the middle of the book which is mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people of Judah. It’s a book of deep sadness over the consequences of turning away from God and God’s subsequent wrath and judgment upon the people who have turned away.
And yet, in the middle of the book, here’s this verse.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
God, in His great mercy, gives us a taste of what this is like. This is like making your mom and dad so angry because of what you have chosen to do, but the next morning, they still tell you they love you. They might still be angry and there will still be consequences to your actions, but you are still their kid and they still love you.
The author hints at the great wrath of God in verse 23. In stating that “they are new every morning,” there’s an implication that God’s love and mercy has been sorely tested, so He’s bringing punishment upon His people. It’s a result of turning away from God. It’s God’s judgment, but the calamity is also designed to bring the people to repentance. The affliction and suffering has a purpose. If they will repent, God - in His steadfast love and mercy - is willing to restore them and bring them back into a relationship with Him.
The reality is this: God’s punishment, the suffering and affliction that are inflicted upon the people, the realization of the curses - this is discipline, corrective and loving discipline. If the people turn back to God and seek Him with their whole heart, then they will be restored eventually.
It’s much like training the puppy. He has to be taught not to chew on things, not to aggravate the other dogs, not to bite, and to stay down. If he learns, the relationship improves with his master. If he will not learn, he is punished. Rolled up newspapers and banishment to the kennel work wonders in changing the mindset of a puppy. But if he persists in biting, he cannot live with us. We cannot have a dog who could inflict pain on the family or on visitors. We will get rid of him. So we give him time. Is he going to learn? Is he getting better? Is it enough?
There is a limit to God’s willingness to allow people to reject Him. Their sinfulness is not good for them and it’s not good for the people around them. God will deal with rebellion and sin. But God is patient and merciful. The KJV states Lamentations 3:22 this way: It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Because God is so long suffering, we are not destroyed immediately. When we sin, there isn’t an immediate thunderbolt which strikes us dead on the spot - usually.
It’s a message of hope. But it’s also a message of warning. We cannot continue to disregard God and His laws and hope to live blessed lives. God’s our Creator. He’s the Potter. He makes the rules. He gets to tell us what pleases Him and how to live so that life works right. He’s the One who made it - He should know. But He also has the right to destroy us if we refuse to live according to His way.
Take the message to heart. Turn to God and repent of your sins. Seek Him with your whole heart. Sometimes I think we humans are as stubborn and stupid as our five month-old puppy. The jury is still out on whether he’s going to be a good dog or not. What about you?
Wait
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:26
Have you heard the saying: Good things come to those who wait?
Is it true? Do good things really come to those who wait?
Romans 8:22 says that the whole creation is groaning, waiting eagerly for our adoption as children of God and for our bodies to be redeemed.
We are all waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, for God’s kingdom to be established. We are all waiting for His return. We are waiting, as Lamentations says, for the salvation of the LORD.
But do good things come to everyone who waits? Well, no. We are, each of us, waiting - and as we wait, we get older. These bodies break down and don’t work so well any more. That certainly is not good. Furthermore, the person waiting on death row is not going to get something good; he’s going to get death. And I can think of many children who were told, “Just wait ‘til your father gets home.” They weren’t waiting for hugs and kisses now, were they!
Those who wait with the anticipation of good things have to have the assumption, the assurance, the hope of something good coming. That only happens when you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s the context of Lamentations 3:26. Look at the verses just before verse 26. Starting in Lamentations 3:21:
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
You are going to have pain in this world. But, if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you know that the pain isn’t forever. You have hope of a day when that that pain and suffering will be gone. But there’s not an unlimited amount of time for you to respond to God’s call. If He’s urging you to come to Him, now is the time to respond. If you have already responded, and you know you have a relationship with God, now is the time to make it stronger. Pray. Read your Bible. Go to church. Meditate. Fast. Seek God with all your heart. Now! While He may be found.