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September 4, 2023

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Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, God's Plan, God's Promises, Obedience, Prayer

NEHEMIAH’S PRAYER (Nehemiah – Part 1)

When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer!” [Nehemiah 1:4-5 (NLT)]

sourthern fogfruitThe books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the reconstruction of Jerusalem. Nearly fifty years after Jerusalem was destroyed, the first of the exiled Jews returned to the ruined city. Although his brother Hanani returned to Judah, Nehemiah, who served Persia’s King Artaxerxes as cup-bearer, didn’t. While his job included ensuring the safety of the king’s food and drink, Nehemiah was more bodyguard than waiter. In constant contact with the king, he served as both confidant and companion to Artaxerxes. He carried the king’s signet ring and possibly served as his chief financial officer.

When Hanani returned from Jerusalem to visit, Nehemiah casually asked how the exiles were doing in the city. When his brother replied that Jerusalem’s walls still were in shambles and without any gates, Nehemiah was distraught. Without its walls, Jerusalem’s residents (and the Temple’s treasures) were vulnerable to attack by gangs, bandits, and wild animals. Worse, having remained in ruins for over 140 years, Jerusalem’s broken walls signaled a defeated and weak people. After hearing his brother’s distressing report, Nehemiah spent days mourning, fasting, and praying.

Nehemiah’s prayer is beautiful in its simplicity. Reminding God of His unfailing love for His people, the cupbearer humbly asked God to hear his prayer. After confessing both the sins of Israel as well as those of his family and himself, he repeated God’s promise to Moses that He’d restore the people when they returned to Him. [Deut.1-4] Nehemiah asked God to hear his prayer and the prayer of those “who delight in honoring you” and closed by asking the Lord to grant him the king’s favor. What Nehemiah didn’t do was tell God how Jerusalem’s problem should be solved. He simply laid his burden on God, claimed God’s promises, and let God get to work!

It was three months later that Nehemiah’s downcast demeanor caused the king to ask what was troubling him. Although terrified to answer, the cupbearer told the king he was sad because Jerusalem’s walls remained in ruins. Nehemiah was frightened for good reason. A sorrowful expression in the king’s presence was considered an insult to him and, several years earlier, Artaxerxes ordered Jerusalem’s reconstruction to stop. [Ezra 4:21] The king’s response, however, was to ask what he could do. After praying again, Nehemiah responded that he’d like to go to Judah and rebuild the city’s walls. When his request was granted, Nehemiah went all in and requested the king’s financial, political, and military support in Jerusalem’s rebuilding.

Without a doubt, Nehemiah was a man of action. Once in Jerusalem, he rebuilt the city’s walls in 52 days (when it took 22 years for the Temple’s restoration). Nevertheless, he waited three months before speaking to the king. Although Scripture doesn’t tell us what Nehemiah did during that time, I imagine he spent it in prayer while patiently waiting for the God-appointed time to take action.

By working on God’s timeline rather than his own, Nehemiah had a well formulated plan, knew how much time was needed, and what materials and help he needed. If he’d impetuously spoken to the king immediately upon hearing about the city walls, things wouldn’t have gone so well. Without God having softened the king’s heart, the cupbearer might have been punished for his disrespect in daring to look sad, his insubordination in expecting the king to reverse a previous decree, and his impudence in asking the king to fund the project!

Although Nehemiah’s prayer tells us he knew the king’s favor was essential to any solution, I suspect he didn’t know that he’d be the one to lead the rebuilding effort when he first prayed. Nehemiah saw Jerusalem’s need but, rather than devise his own plan, he relied on “the gracious hand of God” to fulfill that need. Moreover, when the time came, he willingly accepted God’s call to leave a cushy job in the king’s palace to serve as a construction foreman in a land he’d never seen! If we want God’s will to be done on earth, like Nehemiah, we must let Him devise the plan and be available for His use!

With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”… And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me. [Nehemiah 2:4b-5,8b (NLT)]

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August 31, 2023

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Bible Stories, God's Promises, God's Word: The Bible, Trusting God

SEVENTY YEARS

This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. “Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” declares the Lord, “for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.” … For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.” [Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10 (NASB)]

leopard lacewing butterflyThe timelines in most Bibles indicate that the first captives were taken to Babylon in 605 BC and the first exiles returned to Judah in 538 BC. No matter how you figure it, the years don’t quite match Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years. Is “close” good enough for God or does He round up? If we are to trust Biblical prophecy, it should be accurate, and this apparent discrepancy is troubling.

First, we must determine exactly what Jeremiah prophesied would last seventy years. Thanks to a variety of theologians far wiser than I, my research led me to see three different overlapping seventy-year prophecies in Jeremiah’s words!

The first prophecy was that Judah and the surrounding nations would serve Babylon for seventy years. The original Hebrew was abad, meaning to work, serve, or labor for. Jeremiah 25:12 refers to seventy years being completed for Babylon rather than in Babylon. The Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire became the most powerful state in the ancient world in 609 BC when they defeated the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit II. For the next seventy years, all of the nations served them until Babylon was conquered by Persia in in 539 BC. The Babylonian kingdom could not withstand God’s promised judgment and, as prophesied by Jeremiah, it fell seventy years after it ascended.

The second of Jeremiah’s prophecies may have been about the Temple. In 25:11, he prophesied that the land would become a chorbah (meaning a ruin or desolation) and a shammah (meaning waste or horror). While I’d interpreted this to mean untended fields, the Babylonians left the poor and uneducated Jews behind to tend to the land. Rather than the fields, the prophet may have been referring to the ruins of Jerusalem and its demolished Temple. Indeed, the city of Jerusalem was desolate and “an object of horror” after the Temple’s destruction in 586 BC. In 516, exactly seventy years after its destruction, the second Temple was restored and there was feasting and celebration at its dedication. The city had returned to life and the second of Jeremiah’s prophecies was fulfilled.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah’s mention of bringing the people back in 29:10 certainly implies deportation. If the third overlapping prophecy is about the exile, how do we reconcile the dates? Let’s start with what we know for sure! The exile began in 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. The Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem for the first time and returned to Babylon with Temple gold and the first of the exiles. We also know that Persia’s Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Judah in 538 BC.

What we don’t know is what part of the year Cyrus’ proclamation was made, how long preparations took, the date the Jews departed, or when they arrived in Jerusalem. We can, however, make an educated guess! If the proclamation was made toward the end of 538, preparations for departure may not have started until sometime the following year. The Jews weren’t slaves in Babylon—they’d integrated into the economy and many had prospered. Except for the oldest exiles, Babylon was the only home they knew and a decision to resettle in Judah would not have been made quickly or easily. Those who decided to return had homes to sell, businesses to liquidate, possessions to pack, and livestock and provisions to gather. Along with everything else they packed, the exiles brought at least 61,000 gold coins, 6,250 pounds of silver, and 100 robes for the priests. Ezra tells us that Cyrus returned 5,400 articles of gold and silver taken from the Temple; cataloguing and carefully packing those items certainly took time. The exiles’ caravan consisted of 42,360 Judeans, 7,337 servants, and 200 singers (for a grand total of 49,897 people). There were 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. Regardless of when the proclamation was made, it’s not unreasonable to think that organizing and preparing for their departure may have lasted the better part of a year or more, bringing the departure date well into late 537 or early to mid 536.

The distance from Babylon to Jerusalem is over 500 miles as the crow flies; the exiles, however, weren’t crows and their route was about 900 miles. 80 years later, it took Ezra four months to make that journey (with fewer people, livestock, and supplies) so it probably took this first group at least that long (and probably longer) which easily pushes the timeline for their arrival well into 536! Even though Cyrus’ proclamation was made in 538, the Jewish exile didn’t end until that first group set foot back in Jerusalem which probably was in 536. In ancient times, any part of a year counted as a year and, counting inclusively from 605 to 536, that’s seventy years!

It seems that Jeremiah made three overlapping but equally accurate seventy-year prophecies. The first dealt with Babylon’s seventy years of power, the second was about the Temple’s seventy years of desolation and ruin, and the third concerned the Judean exiles’ years away from Jerusalem. As it turns out, “close” isn’t good enough for God and He doesn’t round His numbers! Jeremiah’s prophecy was right on the money!

He took into exile those who had escaped from the sword to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept the Sabbath until seventy years were complete. [2 Chronicles 36:20-21 (NASB)]

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August 28, 2023

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, God's Word: The Bible, Temptation & Sin, Wisdom & Guidance

BOOMERANGS AND BOMBS

The man who sets a trap for others will get caught in it himself. Roll a boulder down on someone, and it will roll back and crush you. [Proverbs 26:27 (TLB)]

Because the wicked are unfair, their violence boomerangs and destroys them. [Proverbs 21:7 (TLB)]

coyoteEven without knowing what a petard is, we probably know that when someone gets “hoisted by his own petard,” he’s been foiled by his own scheme. When Shakespeare’s audience heard this phrase spoken by Hamlet in 1600, they knew a petard was a bomb. In the bard’s day, hoisted had more than one meaning. Along with lifted, it meant removed or taken out. Taken literally, Hamlet’s phrase meant that his enemy would be blown up by his own bomb!

Proverbs has much to say about evil schemes backfiring and, when reading them, I often think of the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote. This hapless canine continually plotted ways to capture the noisy Roadrunner and he probably holds the record for having the most schemes backfire. For example, when he dropped an anvil on the bird from a hot air balloon, the balloon rapidly lost altitude and sunk to the ground just in time for the anvil to land on the coyote’s head. When he tried to capture the bird using a boomerang covered in glue, Coyote ended up stuck to the weapon when it returned to him. He literally was the one hoisted by his own petard when he mistakenly tossed a grenade’s pin at the bird rather than the grenade in his paw. While the bird safely whizzed down the road, the schemer was blown into the air when the grenade exploded.

It’s not just fiction’s villains and Looney Tune characters whose devious plans backfire—we see plenty of petard hoisting in Scripture. When Israel’s King Ahab and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat joined forces against the king of Aram, Ahab tried to defeat the prophecy that he’d die in battle by disguising himself so he wouldn’t be recognized. To ensure his ploy would succeed, he put a bull’s eye on Jehoshaphat by insisting he wear his royal robes. Told only the kill Ahab, Aram’s soldiers mistakenly chased after Jehoshaphat but stopped when they discovered their error. Although Jehoshaphat remained unharmed, Ahab’s ruse backfired when he was fatally wounded by a random arrow.

Jealous of Daniel’s government position, King Darius’ officials plotted to have the pious Jew arrested and put to death for praying to Jehovah. But, after Daniel emerged from the lions’ den unscathed, those schemers (and their families) met their fate in that same lions’ den! When Moab’s King Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel, his evil plan backfired when Israel was blessed and Moab cursed! When Haman’s wickedness was revealed in the book of Esther, the evil man really was hoisted up and impaled on the 75-foot sharpened pole he erected to kill Esther’s cousin Mordecai.

Many years ago, my son and his wife gave us a boomerang. In theory, when thrown correctly, a boomerang flies in a circular path before returning to its starting point, but the only way that boomerang returned was if the dog brought it back to us! Evil plans, harmful schemes, and spiteful behavior, however, have a way of boomeranging and we don’t have to be Wile E. Coyote to have our maliciousness backfire or explode. If we wrong others or scheme against them, gossip, betray friendships, sabotage other people’s plans, or start pointing fingers, our strategies may well return to us. Remember the old phrase, “What goes around, comes around”? While that may not have been true for our boomerang, it appears to be true for malice, animosity, and evil plans.

The wicked man conceives an evil plot, labors with its dark details, and brings to birth his treachery and lies; let him fall into his own trap. May the violence he plans for others boomerang upon himself; let him die. [Psalm 7:14-16 (TLB)]

God has made the sins of evil men to boomerang upon them! He will destroy them by their own plans. Jehovah our God will cut them off. [Psalm 94:23 (TLB)]

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August 24, 2023

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, God's Word: The Bible, Prayer

THE REST OF THE STORY (THE LORD’S PRAYER – 2)

Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen! [Psalm 41:13 (NLT)]

Praise the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does such wonderful things. Praise his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen! [Psalm 72:18-19 (NLT)]

The version of what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” in Luke 11 and the one we find in Matthew 6 are somewhat different. The shorter version in Luke was given to His disciples (probably on the Mt. of Olives) while the one in Matthew was taught to the crowd gathered on the hill by the Sea of Galilee as part of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s quite likely that Jesus gave this prayer example several times during his three-year ministry, each time with slightly different wording. Both versions, however, are probably shorter than the prayer most Protestants recite today. Missing is the phrase, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.” Because this phrase was not found in the two earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew’s gospel, most modern Bible translations do not include it. Although found in later manuscripts, most Biblical scholars believe it to be a later liturgical addition to the original prayer. So, how did we come to pray this prayer in its longer form?

That those additional words were not found in the earliest New Testament manuscripts doesn’t necessarily mean Jesus never said them; after all, the gospels don’t include everything our Lord did or said. If the additional words did not come from Jesus, they probably came from any one of several psalms, 1 Chronicles 29:11, or some other Jewish prayer. Jesus never said this was the only prayer to be said nor did He tell His followers to stop saying the prayers they learned in the temple. The Apostles and early church were Jewish and Jewish prayers often ended with what is called a “doxology.” Meaning to speak glory and praise, a doxology is a short, hymn-like verse exalting the glory of God. It’s understandable that this prayer, taught to Jewish disciples by a Jewish Jesus, took on some of its Hebrew heritage and flavor with the addition of this doxology.

The version of the Lord’s Prayer with which most of us are familiar comes from a Christian manual written before 300 AD. Bearing neither date nor author, some scholars believe it was written as early as 65 to 80 AD. The only complete copy has two titles: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and The Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles. Known now as the Didache, meaning teaching, it is not part of the Biblical canon because it is not considered God-breathed or divinely inspired. Nevertheless, as a sort of handbook for the early Christians, it gives us valuable insight into the early church. Beginning with a statement of faith, the Didache may be the first Christian catechism. Its second section describes how to perform rituals like Baptism and the Eucharist and gives instructions to recite the Lord’s prayer three times a day. This direction reflects Christianity’s Jewish heritage since Jewish men were supposed to pray the Amidah three times a day. The Didache’s third section covers ministry and dealing with traveling teachers while the fourth includes several passages from the New Testament and reminds believers that Jesus will return.

As famed radio broadcaster Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of the story.”  As for me, knowing the rest of the story—that the Lord’s Prayer was regularly prayed by the earliest followers of Jesus—makes it an even more meaningful prayer to say.

Neither pray you as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray you: Our Father, Who are in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debt, as we also forgive our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one; For Yours is the power and the glory for ever and ever. Pray this three times in the day. [Didache 8:3-11]

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. [1 Chronicles 29:11 (NLT)]

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August 21, 2023

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Prayer

THE DISCIPLES’ PRAYER (THE LORD’S PRAYER – 1)

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.” [Luke 11:1-4 (NLT)]

apache plume

While the ability to calm storms would have been handy, rather than asking Jesus how he managed to do that or turn water into wine, heal the sick, provide a miraculous catch of fish, make the paralyzed walk, one of Jesus’ disciples asked the Lord how to pray. Scripture makes frequent mention of Jesus praying so the disciple knew that prayer was an integral part of His life. Perhaps he suspected that Jesus’ power sprang from His prayers.

Although rabbis often taught their disciples prayers, by Jesus’ day, every Jew knew at least one prayer, the Amidah (or Eighteen Benedictions), that was to be prayed daily. No doubt, Jesus and His followers prayed that prayer regularly. With the Amidah’s promise to sanctify God’s name; its acknowledgment of God’s power and glory; and its petitions for forgiveness, deliverance from affliction, provision, the righteous reign of God, and the Messianic kingdom to come, the prayer Jesus taught was a somewhat abbreviated version of this much longer and more formal Jewish prayer.

Although Jesus’ prayer has come to be known as the “The Lord’s Prayer,” its title is somewhat misleading. This is unlike the prayers Jesus said for His disciples or when He asked that His “cup of suffering” be taken the night before His death. It’s not like Jesus’ prayers on the cross when He asked why He’d been forsaken, that God forgive the people, and when He entrusted His spirit into God’s hands. Those prayers truly were the Lord’s prayers; the prayer Jesus taught us is ours!

Rather than offering this prayer to God, Jesus was giving this prayer to His disciples. Because the possessive determiners and pronouns are plural, we are not asking as an individual but as a group. United in faith, we pray to our Father, not mine. We’re asking for ourselves along with one another. It’s not give, forgive, and let me; it’s give, forgive, and let us. It’s not the food I need or the people I forgive who sinned against me; it’s the food we need and the people we must forgive who hurt us. This is a prayer meant to be said with one another. A prayer of community, it is a corporate prayer of submission and dependence. Perhaps a more appropriate title for this well-known prayer would be “The Disciples’ Prayer.”

Some version of this prayer is found in the liturgies of the Christian church as early as 65 AD and it continued to be used regularly through the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, the Lord’s Prayer was used in Protestant liturgies as well as Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Church leaders like Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, and John Knox included it as a regular part of public worship.

In spite of this being the only prayer Jesus taught, many of today’s non-denominational churches don’t say it. Perhaps they see it as a relic from the past, believe that Jesus meant it only as a model, fear that people might treat it as a “magic formula,” or are concerned that such a familiar prayer will be repeated thoughtlessly. While special power should never be ascribed to words and no prayer ever should be said carelessly, anything Jesus said is worth repeating over and over again! Although we attend a non-denominational non-liturgical church on Sundays, we attend a liturgical church Saturday evenings. There we join with other believers reading a psalm, reciting the creed, and praying the Lord’s Prayer as one; there is nothing unthinking or perfunctory about any of it. Singing, declaring, and praying with one voice reinforces our oneness in the Spirit and the Lord.

When Cyprian wrote about the Lord’s Prayer early in the 2nd century, he emphasized the importance of praying it with other believers as a way of uniting them with their church family: “Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one.” Indeed, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer to be said with other believers as a way of uniting us in the Body of Christ!

May we never hesitate to offer this beautiful prayer to our Father!

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. [Acts 2:24 (NLT)]

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August 17, 2023

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Bible Stories, God's Plan, God's Word: The Bible, Holy Spirit, Miracles

THE APOSTLE PAUL (Part 2)

Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. [Galatians 1:8-9 (NLT)]

chickoryIn his letter to the Galatians, Paul refutes the message of those who preached that adherence to Jewish laws was required of all believers. His are harsh judgmental words from a man who never even walked with Jesus on earth. Why was Paul’s Gospel the definitive one rather than the one the Galatians heard preached by the Judaizers? For the first two chapters of his letter, Paul explains the source of his apostolic authority.

Paul clearly states the divine origin of his message in verse 12: “I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.” Saying that he came to the Gospel neither by his own understanding nor by another person’s teaching, Paul claimed his message came from a divine source—the Lord Himself! Indeed, nothing but divine intervention can explain Paul’s incredible conversion from a fanatical persecutor of Christians into an equally fanatical evangelist for Christ’s church! No one with Paul’s background and personality could have been convinced and converted by anyone other than the Lord! He is the poster boy for the Holy Spirit’s transforming power!

To emphasize that he didn’t get the gospel from any man, Paul explained that he spent three years in Arabia after his conversion before returning to Damascus and finally going to Jerusalem to meet Peter. Strict chronology seemed unimportant to Scripture’s writers and, without any punctuation or breaks between words, sentences, paragraphs, or chapters in the original writing, it often is unclear. As best as scholars can figure, Paul’s time in Arabia probably began in Acts 9 between verses 19 and 20. Since any part of a year was considered a year, Paul spent anywhere from as little as 14 months to as much as 36 months in Arabia.

In Paul’s day, Arabia referred to Nabatea, a large and prosperous kingdom east of Galilee extending as far north as Damascus and beyond Petra to the south. When considering those three years, I used to picture a confused Saul retreating into the Nabatean desert to study Scripture and try to reconcile the Christian-hating, Gentile-detesting Pharisee he’d been with the Christ-loving, Gentile-welcoming evangelist he became! I was wrong!

Although it resulted in temporary blindness, Saul’s conversion didn’t result in confusion; meeting Jesus brought clarity to the man. From the moment of his conception, God had been preparing Saul to meet Jesus on that road to Damascus! When that happened, everything he’d learned in the Hebrew Scriptures finally made complete sense! The Apostle has been described as a man who wouldn’t learn to swim by reading about it. He’d jump in the deep end and start paddling and that’s exactly what Saul did following his conversion. Acts tells us he “immediately began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues.” [9:20]

To further emphasize that his message did not come from men, Paul told the Galatians that, when he finally went to Jerusalem (after his time in Arabia), he stayed only two weeks and met just Peter and James. It was some fourteen years after his conversion that Paul went to Jerusalem and finally met with the leaders of the church. At that time, he shared with them the message he was preaching to the Gentiles “to make sure that we were in agreement…and the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching.” [Galatians 2:2,6] Independent of the other Apostles, Paul preached the very same gospel they did because, like them, he learned it from Jesus! Paul’s apostolic authority came from God Himself!

“Who are you, lord?” I asked. “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.’” [Acts 26:15-16 (NLT)]

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