Category Archives: God’s Promises

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December 11, 2023

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OH COME, IMMANUEL (3) – THE FIRST ADVENT

Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! [Isaiah 40:3 (NLT)]

John the Baptist [Georg Pencz (1500-1550)]

Conquered and oppressed for centuries, the 1st century Jews were despondent. From its beginning in Genesis to its end in Malachi, their Scriptures were filled with prophecies of Israel’s deliverance and some 500 verses pointed to, described, or referenced the coming Messiah. Where was the descendant of David who would reward the righteous and punish the wicked? 1,000 years had passed since God’s covenant with David and 2,000 since His covenant with Abraham but God’s chosen people still weren’t free from their enemies and oppression. The Jews of Palestine easily could have sung the words, “Oh come, oh come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel.”  Where was he?

Where was the Messenger prophesied by both Malachi and Isaiah—the one who would prepare the way of the Lord and tell the towns of Judea. “Here is your God!”? And, where was the Messenger of the covenant?

The first Advent or coming of the Messiah occurred quietly the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem and only a few shepherds and some pagan astrologers took notice. When the first Messenger’s voice was heard, it was that of John the Baptist. Calling the people of Judah to repent, John told them the time of the promised “Messiah” was at hand. The promised Messiah, however, was not what the people expected.

Except for the 79 troubled years under the Hasmoneans, Judah had been governed by foreign Gentiles for over 600 years. It’s understandable that they longed for a king who would redeem them from foreign rule—a king who would sit on an earthly throne. But, with Jesus, the world got a king who redeemed them from sin and sits on a heavenly throne. Judah, however, wanted someone to liberate them from foreign rule, not sin! They were looking for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, not the Lamb of God and, because they expected a conqueror, they didn’t recognize the suffering servant God promised in Isaiah 53.

With that first advent or coming, God made a new covenant with His people—one prophesied in Jeremiah: “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days…. I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.…. And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” [Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NLT)]

Jesus confirmed this new covenant while eating with His disciples in the upper room at His last Passover when, “He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, ‘Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.’” [Matthew 26:26-28]

In this new covenant, we receive the forgiveness of sins and God’s empowering Spirit to help us live lives full of self-giving (rather than self-serving) love. Jesus paid the ransom only God could pay and, by his death and resurrection, He freed us forever from Satan’s tyranny. Because the shedding of His blood paid our debt and purchased our forgiveness, we are secure as God’s adopted children. As the light of the world, Jesus banished hopelessness, rescued us from hell and unlocked the doors to heaven.

Our redemption only began when Jesus brought His light into the world. Death, disease, decay, and calamity remain and our enemy Satan continues to prowl. Jesus’ work is not finished and there still are Messianic prophecies to fulfill.

My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. [Isaiah 53:2-3 (NLT)]

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December 7, 2023

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Challenges & Difficulty, God's Promises, God's Word: The Bible, Holidays & Holy Days, Trusting God

OH COME, IMMANUEL (2) – THE SILENT YEARS

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. [Isaiah 61:1-2 (NLT)]

Greek god Zeus

While the Bible is silent about the centuries separating the Hebrew Scriptures from the New Testament, history is not. During those hundreds of years, Judah suffered. Although they were allowed to worship Jehovah under Persian rule, the pagan nation ruled them, required their political obedience, and demanded exorbitant taxes to support its king, court, armies, and self-serving foreign governors. When Persia weakened and fell to Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Judah simply traded one set of foreign rulers for another.

When Alexander died, the Greek Empire was divided among his generals. Ptolemy the 1st and his descendants ended up controlling the Jews. Under Ptolemaic rule, as long they maintained order and paid their taxes, Judeans were free to worship and Judaism thrived. Nevertheless, Judah was an occupied country and, for twenty years, the people were caught in a violent cross-fire between the Ptolemies and their rivals, the Syrian Seleucids. When the Seleucids defeated the Ptolemies, the Jews ended up with rulers who mercilessly persecuted them. The Temple was robbed, Jerusalem’s walls destroyed, Scripture burned, sacrifices to Jehovah banned, circumcision outlawed, Jews were forced to eat pork, and observing the Sabbath and feast days was prohibited. Statues of Greek gods and idols were placed in every town and those who refused to worship them were put to death.

The Jews must have wondered what became of God’s covenant with David as well as the one He made with Abraham promising that Israel would be a great nation, that He’d bless Abraham’s descendants and curse his enemies, and that Canaan would belong to his descendants. God even confirmed that same promise to Isaac and Jacob. But now, Israel’s promised homeland belonged to Greece and they were ruled and persecuted by their enemies. If anything, Abraham’s descendants were the ones cursed. Was Jehovah a liar?

When the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, rededicated the Temple to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on the altar, Judah finally rebelled and a guerilla army was formed. Three years after the Temple’s desecration, the Syrians were defeated and the Temple recaptured and rededicated. Tonight is the first night of Hannukah which celebrates the eight-day miracle following that event. Even though the Temple was reclaimed, Judah remained a Syrian province and fighting continued between Syrian and Jewish forces for twenty more years.

Eventually, the constant fighting between the various Greek city-states weakened the Greek Empire and Judah’s independence was realized in 142 BC. Simon Maccabee became head of state and the Hasmonean dynasty was established. For the first time since the fall of Jerusalem in 586, a Jew sat on the throne but the prophecies hadn’t been fulfilled. He wasn’t from the tribe of Judah and David’s lineage, his realm didn’t extend from sea to sea, and peace did not reign. The Hasmoneans’ time in power was troubled by corruption, political infighting, terrorism, and violent clashes between the Pharisees and Sadducees. The nation became divided and weak.

After the Roman general Pompey defeated the Greeks, he had no trouble extending control over the divided nation of Judah and, in 63 BC, Rome conquered Jerusalem. Once again God’s chosen people were subservient to a foreign power. When the New Testament opens, rather than a descendant of David’s, it was Herod the Great, a descendant of Esau, who sat on the throne!

The people of Judah wondered when Jehovah would fulfill His promises. Would the time of His favor ever come? When would His anointed king avenge His people?

It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation! It is I, the Lord, who has the power to save! … For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to ransom them from their oppressors. [Isaiah 63:1,4 (NLT)]

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December 4, 2023

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OH COME, IMMANUEL (1) – PROMISES MADE

Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. … I will destroy all the weapons used in battle, and your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth. [Zechariah 9:9,10 (NLT)]

O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

Advent wreathYesterday was the first Sunday in Advent—a season when Christians throughout the world prepare for the coming of Christ. For most of my life, I attended liturgical churches where, on each of the four Sundays in this season, we’d sing “Oh, Come, Oh Come, Immanuel” as the Advent candles were lit. Although this song is sung by 21st century Christians, its words easily could have been sung by 1st century Jews. Immanuel means “God with us” and, after centuries of being subject to pagan nations, they yearned for God to come and ransom their captive land.

They certainly wondered when God would fulfill the promise made to David 1,000 years earlier. Found in 2 Samuel 7, God promised David a secure homeland for the people of Israel; assured him of a never-ending dynasty; that one of his descendants would build God a house and sit on the royal throne; and that the descendant would have a Father/son relationship with God. God’s promise ended with these words: “Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.”

“Forever” meant the promise was eternal and absolute. With no restrictions placed upon the promise’s fulfillment, it didn’t depend on the obedience of David or Israel. This promise rested solely on God’s faithfulness and it was this promise that became the basis for Israel’s hope of a Messiah—the anointed one who would deliver Israel from God’s enemies.

No timeline for the fulfillment of God’s promise was given and, in the thousand years that followed, Israel was anything but free of enemies and opposition. The nation divided, its two kingdoms fought one another, the northern kingdom was exiled to Assyria, the southern to Babylon, and David’s earthly dynasty ended.

When the exiles returned after Persia defeated Babylon, no heir of David sat on the throne and Judah was just a tiny part of Persia’s vast empire. The Old Testament leaves Jewish history around 432 BC in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah with the Temple rebuilt and Jerusalem’s walls reconstructed and closes with the prophetic voices of Zechariah and Malachi.

Prophesying about Israel’s future, Zechariah spoke of a coming king and the restoration of God’s people. God promised, “I will strengthen Judah and save Israel; I will restore them because of my compassion. It will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, who will hear their cries.” [10:6] The prophet Malachi relayed God’s promise of two messengers. The first would prepare the way for the Lord and the second, the one for whom the people longed, would be the messenger of the covenant—the Lord Himself.

Because only one page in our Bibles separates the book of Malachi from that of Matthew, we may not realize that about 500 years pass in the turn of that page. There were nearly five centuries of silence from God and His prophets until we hear a voice like that of Elijah, in the Judean wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.

Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming. [Malachi 3:1 (NLT)]

Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!” [Isaiah 40:3 (NLT)]

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November 16, 2023

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Bible Stories, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, God's Word: The Bible, Miracles, Salvation: A New You

UNCLEAN – Mark 5 (Part 2)

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” [Jeremiah 31:33-34 (NLT)]

little blue heronThe book of Leviticus outlined several things that could make someone ceremonially or ritually unclean. These things included bodily discharges, touching a corpse, and skin infections, as well as contact with any unclean person or thing. By Jesus’ day, even entering a Gentile’s home made someone unclean. Anything and anyone an unclean person touched became unclean and, anyone who touched them or what they touched also became unclean.

People deemed unclean were barred from participating in worship, offering sacrifices, and having access to the Temple. Because ritual impurity was contagious, anyone unclean had to remain separated from the community. Purification ceremonies were required before returning to a state of ritual cleanness and they varied with the severity of the uncleanness. Because uncleanness could come from normal bodily functions or factors beyond their control, even devout Jews became unclean at some time. Nevertheless, people didn’t deliberately put themselves in situations that would make them unclean. Jesus was the exception to the rule!

Along with their miraculous restoration, the three people Jesus healed in Mark 5 have something else in common—their ritual uncleanness. Living among the dead in the burial caves made the demoniac unclean. Since pigs fed on the hillside near him, he also was unclean because of contact with them. Considering the demoniac’s wild behavior, he probably was soiled by his or the pigs’ feces or urine which also made him ritually unclean (as well as filthy). Jesus, however, didn’t see an unclean Gentile demoniac; he saw a child of God who desperately needed to be freed from Satan’s control!

While Jesus was on the way to Jairus’ home to heal the man’s daughter, He was approached by a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years. Because her bodily discharge made her ritually unclean, she was a pariah who shouldn’t have been out in public. Just by touching Jesus’ robe, she would have passed her uncleanness to Him but, rather than rebuke the woman for her action, He called her “Daughter,” commended her faith, and healed her.

While Jesus was speaking to the bleeding woman, messengers arrived to tell Jairus his daughter was dead. Undeterred, Jesus continued to the man’s home and went into the room where the dead girl lay. Even though He could raise the dead with just a word (as He did with Lazarus), Jesus deliberately held the child’s hand before telling her to get up.  Although having direct contact with a corpse made Him ritually unclean, the moment He took her hand, she transformed from an unclean dead body into a living child.

Those weren’t the only times Jesus put His concern for people before ritual purity. He offered to go to the Roman centurion’s home to heal the man’s servant even though entering a Gentile’s home would make him ceremonially unclean. When Jesus returned to the Gerasenes, he had no qualms about laying hands on a Gentile deaf man. Perhaps the most shocking of Jesus’ actions is found in Mark 1 when a leper kneeling before Him asked to be made clean. In an amazing display of compassion, Jesus deliberately reached out and touched the man to heal him. Rather than being made unclean by the leper, the leper was made clean by Jesus’ touch!

Ritual impurity made people unfit to be in the presence of God. Although many of the things Jesus did would have made a normal Israelite impure, we never read of Him undergoing any sort of purification ritual. Jesus, however, wasn’t an ordinary Israelite. He didn’t need to be purified to enter into the presence of God; He was God! Rather than becoming polluted by touching the unclean, Jesus transformed their impurity to purity because His holiness was contagious! In the New Covenant, people’s purity no longer depends on external regulations; it now depends on the cleansing power of Jesus Christ. His purity is greater than our impurity! Thank you, Lord.

So then, my brothers and sisters, we have boldness to go into the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus. He has inaugurated a brand new, living path through the curtain (that is, his earthly body). We have a high priest who is over God’s house. Let us therefore come to worship, with a true heart, in complete assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. [Hebrews 10:19-22 (NTE)]

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November 9, 2023

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Church & Worship, God's Promises, Nature, Temptation & Sin

PRAYING FOR BENIN

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. [Colossians 2:8-10 (NLT)]

voodoo dollWithout a globe, I allowed a random number to decide the nation for which I’d pray this week. Number 19 was Benin and I’m embarrassed to admit knowing nothing about this narrow strip of land in West Africa between Nigeria and Togo. These three nations once were part of the kingdom of Dahomey and it was in Dahomey that the ancient practice of voudon/vodun/vodou (commonly called voodoo) began. Now a republic, Benin is a severely underdeveloped nation, rife with corruption, where the life expectancy for men is just 60! A little over 40% of the population are Christian, nearly 30% Muslim, about 17% practice voodoo, and another 10% follow other indigenous/animistic religions. As a side note, ARDA (The Association for Religion Data Archives) stated that many of those identifying as Christian also practice voodoo.

Since my limited knowledge of voodoo comes from bad movies with zombies, hexes, and pins stuck into dolls, I did some research. The voodoo of movies and fiction bears little resemblance to real voudon beliefs or practices. Rich with proverbs, songs, and folklore, voudon includes belief in a universal energy, many spirits, a soul that can leave the body during dreams, spirit possession, and folk medicine. Nevertheless, even without the gruesome zombies, voodoo (no matter how you spell it) is incompatible with Christianity.

Voudon came to the New World with enslaved West Africans and is the only traditional African religion to survive here. While it’s the primary religion of a little over 2% of the Haitian population, ARDA noted that a much larger number of people identifying themselves as Christian continue to practice it. ARDA also found that a number of Christians in the Dominican Republic secretly practice witchcraft (brujería) or voodoo.

Converting isn’t easy and it’s not just voudon practitioners who have difficulty completely abandoning their culture’s traditions for Christianity. I had a Japanese friend who struggled to find a way to honor her ancestors without praying to them as she’d done for decades before converting.

Back in Paul’s day, the Colossians had difficulty preventing their new faith in Christ from becoming a mixed religion combining Christianity with elements of their Jewish roots and the popular philosophical movement of Gnosticism. What they ended up with were human traditions, circumcision, a requirement to observe both the Sabbath and the annual and monthly Jewish holy days along with dietary laws, the worship of angels, and even self-abasement—none of which were compatible with Christianity.

Rather than voodoo or Gnosticism, it’s belief in things like Kabbalah, tarot reading, astrology, manifesting, reincarnation, the spiritual energy of objects, psychic mediums, channeling, and crystals that have found their way into American Christians. Often called “new age,” there’s nothing new about them. While they may seem “spiritual” or self-affirming, they cut us off from God’s divine sovereignty, power, and purpose. Nevertheless, in 2018, Pew Research found that 61% of Americans identifying as Christian also believed in at least one of these things: reincarnation, astrology, psychics, or that spiritual energy can be in physical things.

Christianity doesn’t come with an ala carte menu. We don’t get to pick and choose individual dishes according to our preferences, make substitutions, or add a few extra sides because they’re intriguing, trendy, or promise earthly rewards. Christianity comes with a table d’hôte or prix fixe menu. Additions or substitutions aren’t allowed because the menu was set by God and Christ is all-sufficient.

Salvation is offered to everyone but, in Matthew 7, Jesus warned us that God’s gate isn’t wide enough for the addition of other beliefs! He continued with his caution when He said that some who expected to enter the Kingdom wouldn’t be allowed entrance; a similar warning is found in Luke 13. Those who identify as Christian but also follow voodoo or other non-Scriptural beliefs probably expect to enter through that narrow gate. I suspect they are mistaken and will find it shut tight.

As I prayed for Benin, I also prayed for all people who’ve combined false doctrine or pagan practices with their belief in Jesus. May they know and understand that the broad road leading to the wide gate is the road to destruction!

He replied, “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’” [Luke 13:24-27 (NLT)]

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October 16, 2023

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BATTLE PLANS

O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help. [2 Chronicles 20:12 (NLT)]

rabbitYosemite Sam, the cartoon arch enemy of Bugs Bunny, used to exclaim “Jumpin’ Jehosophat!” I was an adult before learning that Jehosophat was the fourth king of the southern kingdom of Judah. It’s ironic that the king said to be jumping in Sam’s pseudo-swear is best known for standing still in 2 Chronicles!

Judah had been invaded by the armies of Moab, Ammon, and some of the Meunites. Surprised by the invasion and terrified of their powerful enemies, they turned to God. After ordering a nationwide fast, Jehoshaphat called the people to prayer in the Temple courtyard. Acknowledging God’s power and might, his prayer recalled God’s covenant relationship with His chosen people, admitted they were powerless against such foes, and asked for the nation’s deliverance. A Levite named Jahaziel relayed the Lord’s response. Telling the people not to be afraid, God assured them the battle was His, not theirs, and the battle would be won without any of them lifting a sword. They were to take their battle positions, stand still, and watch the Lord’s victory. Worship and praise followed this amazing pronouncement.

Nevertheless, as enthusiastic as Judah was that day, I wonder how confident they were the following morning when they marched into battle. Would they become easy targets as their army, clearly outnumbered, stood unmoving in front of their formidable foes? Perhaps Jehoshaphat heard some grumbling about this perplexing battle strategy because he stopped and reassured the men, “Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”

Jehoshaphat appointed a chorus to walk ahead of the army and sing praises to the Lord: “Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!” As the choir’s voices rose, the Lord caused the armies of Moab and Ammon to turn against the Meunites, after which they attacked one another. By the time Judah’s army arrived, not one of their enemies had survived the melee; all they had to do was pick up the spoils of war. As God promised, the enemy was defeated without Judah lifting a sword.

While we’re not likely to encounter an enemy army, we do encounter difficulties, temptations, and challenges every day. In essence, Jehoshaphat’s prayer was a simple one: “We are powerless, Lord—you must fight for us!”  Are we as willing to admit our weakness and turn to God at the outset of trouble or do we wait until we’re in the midst of a losing battle before calling on Him?

The hardest part, however, comes in trusting God’s plan. Jehoshaphat wasn’t the only one to be given an unconventional battle strategy by the Lord—God told Joshua to circle a fortified city for seven days, Gideon to severely limit his army, Amaziah to dismiss the trained mercenaries he’d hired, and David to wait for a sound in the trees before attacking. Yet, it was by trusting God’s inexplicable plan that all were victorious. Let’s face it, God’s way is often contrary to what we’d normally expect—turn the other cheek, love your enemies, bless those that curse you, forgive seventy times seven, and find strength in our weakness. Nevertheless, God’s way must be our way!

Jehoshaphat and his army trusted so much in God’s plan that they thanked Him for victory before the battle began. Their praise came before their victory, not because they thought God would keep his promise but because they knew He would! The previous day, the moment God said the battle was His, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites were vanquished; they just didn’t know it then! Let us march into our daily battles as did the Judeans—trusting God and singing, “Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!”

This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. … Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you! [2 [Chronicles 20:15b,17b (NLT)]

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