August 31

A Remnant Flees to Egypt - Jeremiah 40:7-16, 41:1-18, 42:1-22, 43:1-13, 44:1-30, 51:64; 2 Kings 25:23-26

Egyptian Queen of Heaven

Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 42:7

The people ask Jeremiah to consult with God as to what they should do. It takes ten days for God to get back to them. Why? Is it to illustrate to us that sometimes part of God's answer is that we need to have patience? Certainly God didn't have to weigh His response. The delay was obviously for the people's good. Was it so they would anticipate and long for His answer? The tension building? Wondering and whispering among themselves, guessing at how He might respond.... Or was it so their request for a direction from God would impress itself on them?

The people wanted God's direction and they made it clear that they would follow it. But, then, Jeremiah comes back - 10 days later - with the word of the Lord and they immediately say they won't do it. Because He asks them not to go to Egypt to remain in captivity in Babylon. They were ready to do anything. Just not that. It seemed counter what they thought God would expect of them. God doesn't often do what we think He should do. His ways are not our ways.

Lord knows.

August 30

Jeremiah's Lamentations (Continued) - Lamentations 3:1-66, 4:1-22, 5:1-22

For men are not cast off

by the Lord forever.

Though He brings grief, He will show compassion,

so great is His unfailing love.

Lamentations 3:31-32

This idea of eternal damnation seems at odds with the nature of God as revealed in scripture. Yes, there is His holiness, His purity, His need for justice but always there seems to be forgiveness and His great unfathomable love. So I wonder. [I know I've said this before, but] In general, man thought the Christ would come as a military king and He wasn't. So have we got this idea of eternal punishment wrong? I'm not saying we don't deserve it. We all deserve it. I can't see God damning anyone for all eternity. It just doesn't seem to follow the pattern of behavior He establishes in the Bible. He was always ready to forgive His children. Lord knows.

August 29

Jeremiah's Lamentations - Lamentations 1:1-22, 2:1-22

Broncho Jack - Cowboy, Steeple Painter, Poet, Preacher

The enemy laid hands
on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
enter her sanctuary --
those you had forbidden
to enter your assembly.
Lamentaions 1:10

Here, a poem is drawn from a horrific event and a horrific event will become a thing of beauty, a poem. For suffering will ultimately return the people to God. But why a poem? Why a literary device to describe something so horrible as the destruction of the place where God's name was, a place where the people wander the streets now looking for food, a place where they will even consider eating their own children? Is it to soften the horror? Is it to immortalize? A monument of words to a landmark event in the history of the people? So few words are committed in scripture to the actual destruction. Is it necessary for Jeremiah to draw more attention to it in poetic lamentation so that we will not forget what happens when the leaders and the priests and the people do not honor God?

Lord knows.

August 28

Fall of Jerusalem - 2 Kings 25:2-21; Jeremiah 39:2-8, 52:5-14, 39:12-14, 52:24-27, 52:17-23, 39:9-10, 52:27-30; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Gedaliah and Jeremiah - 2 Kings 25:22, Jeremiah 39:15-18, 39:11-14, 40:1-6

"When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, "The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the Lord has brought it about; He has done just as He said He would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey Him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists." - Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, Jeremiah 40:2-4

I wonder what Jeremiah thought when a Babylonian official, Nebuzaradan, spoke to him with an understanding of God's prophecy and will? He had a better understanding than Judah's King Zedekiah. Was it shocking to Jeremiah? That these invaders, these non-Jewish people, someone other than God's chosen, had such a clear understanding? For God had chosen him/them for this work. I wonder how Nebuzaradan had come to this intimate understanding of God's will? He was an instrument for the Lord who knew he was. Is he a believer? It sounds as if he is. How many believers in Babylon and Egypt outside the Jews? What is the story of these people? I love to know the story of the Babylonian believers. Just as I love the stories of those who did not grow up Christian but found the Lord and made the conscious choice to go in a direction other than the one their families had pointed them in. It takes courage in those circumstances to go your own way. How can the family not feel it's a condemnation of their lifestyle? The struggles and arguments, the desire to see them know Christ.

So after chapters and chapters and so many prophecies pointing to this moment, Jerusalem falls in a handful of verses.

August 27

Jeremiah Escapes Death - Jeremiah 37:3-21, 38:1-28

...King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: "As surely as the Lord lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who are seeking your life." Jeremiah 38:16

King Zedekiah comes to Jeremiah to inquiry what the Lord has to say. The King swears on the living God. Yet the word from God's prophets has always been the same - how Jerusalem will fall at the hands of the Babylonians and how Zedekiah will be blinded and die.

Zedekiah believes in God, inquires after Him and wants to know what He has to say. And Jeremiah and others tell him. He just doesn't hear. We, as believers, talk to God, read His word, inquiry of Him and seek His will. But do we have ears to hear? And do we listen? Lord knows.

August 26

Ezekiel's Prophecies During the Siege (Continued) - Ezekiel 26:1-21, 27:1-36, 28:1-26

By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud. Ezekiel 28:5

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. Ezekiel 28:17-18

Wealth, beauty, splendor, pride. We have such a hard time dealing with "blessings." We think what we have is a measure of who we are and not who He is. We think the blessing are ours and not a receiving God's resources to be used for others. But still the Lord keeps heaping on us so much. Do we see ourselves as conduits of blessings or receivers of blessings. Keep them to ourselves and we will grow proud of our accomplishment and think there is nothing we can't do. We may even grow dishonest to have more.

Tyre was destroyed because of these sins. What makes us think we as individuals and we as a country won't be?

Lord knows.

August 25

Ezekiel's Prophecies During the Siege - Ezekiel 25:1-17, 29:1-16, 30:1-26, 31:1-18

Ezekiel's prophecies are so specific and direct and relatively immediate in nature. But who listened? How was his message delivered to the nations of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia and Egypt? Who brought the words of Ezekiel to the leaders of those countries and to the people? Was the word known to them? Was that necessary? Was the word meant for conviction of those nations? The prophecies suggested there would be no repentance and, therefore, no forgiveness. It predisposes what the nations referenced reaction will be. God's power was demonstrated in their fulfillment and that was the prophecies purpose.

How would we deal with a prophet in this day and age? It's possible that God would raise them as He did long ago? Not to give the law or gospel -- that's not a prophet's purpose -- but to point us back to law and gospel and God. What would it be like to be a prophet in modern times? Or to receive one? Would we believe?

Lord knows. We could sure use one.

August 24

Jeremiah Sees Spiritual Restoration Under the Messiah - Jeremiah 23:1-8, 33:14-26, 31:27-40

Photo found when using Google Image and searching for "God's Gift."

"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:33-34

Interesting. We can read. We can study. But it's God who puts the law in our mind and writes it on our hearts. I believe this is more than poetry. God does so much for us. So what do we have if we're just reading and studying without God doing His work? Knowledge but not wisdom? Scholarship not relationship? Works not grace? Our thoughts not His? I like this idea of God planting and writing within us. It's exciting. He gives the meaning. It's not a puzzle or mystery for us to discover or figure out. It, like most of the things we receive from God, is an unmerited gift.

Lord knows.

August 23

Jeremiah's Prophecies During Siege - Jeremiah 33:10-13, 30:1-24, 31:1-26

"This is what the Lord says, 'You say about this place, "It is a desolate waste, without men or animals." Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither men or animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voice of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, "Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; His love endures forever." Jeremiah 33:10-11

Even after all Israel has done -- worshiped other gods, even set up idols in the temple and sacrificed their children to false god, horrible things, seemingly unforgivable things -- God says His punishment will not last forever and there will be joy again. It will be a deeper, truer joy because it will be the joy of a people finally returned to their true God. It's truly amazing what God will forgive. I'll be honest. It's passages like this that make me question eternal punishment. Yes, the Bible plainly says that there will be those condemned to hell. But God also said everyone would die and there were those that didn't. Over and over again I see it's God's nature to forgive. So I wonder will anyone be lost? Yes, the Bible is plain on the subject. But God's nature is plain, too. And His people have a track record of misinterpreting the mean of scripture. Think of those that missed Christ because He wasn't a military king.

I pray everyone will be saved. It's my deepest hope. Lord knows.

We are His children. His love is more perfect than mine. And there isn't anything I wouldn't do for my children. How much great is the love of God.

August 22

Jeremiah's Prophecies During Siege - Jeremiah 21:1-14, 22:1-9, 34:1-7, 32:1-44, 33:1-9

This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. Jeremiah 21:8-9

Wait. God helped them take the Promised Land. He has stood up for His people and protected them. But now the way life is not to fight the invader but to give in. Surrender and not fighting is the way to win. It's counter intuitive for us. But it is truth. The truth of a Christ who totally surrendered to win the fight. Lord knows.

August 21

Siege Announced to Ezekiel - Ezekiel 24:1-27

I googled an image for "mourning a wife" and got this picture of Alonzo Mourning's wife. I needed to smile. Thank you, Lord.

The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead.... "

So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.

Ezekiel 24:15-18

The editor of the Daily Bible offers this commentary: "Perhaps Ezekiel's wife was dying in any event, and God simply used her death as a way of bringing an important message." Daily Bible, p. 1072

Nice try. God makes sure that Ezekiel and we know that He is responsible, that "I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes." I must confess this is a difficult passage for me. God uses the death of Ezekiel's wife as a sign of Jerusalem's fall. And, yes, he doesn't require of Ezekiel anything that He doesn't endure Himself with the death of His son. But isn't that different? Because God sees and knows the whole story, intimately, and so there must be comfort in the knowledge of the victory and salvation. It's a comfort and knowledge we can't ever obtain in this world.

It's hard for me. God who knows the number of the hairs on our head (getting easier to know on mine) and who values the lives of the widow and orphan and alien takes from Ezekiel the delight of his eyes. He takes the life a woman to make a point.

I'm certain in the next life this may very well seem inconsequential and just a minor inconvenience compared to the eternity of joy and blessing we will know. But that's then and this is now. And right now I struggle what this verse says to me about our God.

Lord knows.

August 20

Ezekiel's Denunciations of Judah (Continued) - Ezekiel 23:1-49; Siege of Jerusalem - 2 Kings 24:20; 2 Chronicles 36:13; Jeremiah 52:3-4; 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1

Ok, I don't know how I read over it before. Perhaps its shocking nature put it out of my mind. God will go to any lengths to save us from ourselves. He's willing to paint our story of infidelity to Him in the most graphic manner imaginable. There's a reason you've never heard the Bible story of Oholah and her sister Oholibah preached. We have more shame than to repeat it. But in our lives, don't we repeat it? So we won't tell the story out of decency, even though we live lives of gross indecency. But God will say anything to save us. Even verses you'd never thought uttered in the Bible:

"She lusted after her lovers , whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." Ezekiel 23:20

Are you blushing? We should be. Lord knows.

August 19

Ezekiel's Denunciations of Judah (Continued) - Ezekiel 19:1-14, 20:1-49, 21:1-32, 22:1-31

"'You say, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.'" Ezekiel 20:32

We get painted as conservative, pew-sitting wackos by the mainstream. But really we're something far more daring. We're called to be counter the culture, rebels with a cause, the truly free indeed from the status quo and the way its always been. It's never good when God's chosen people long to be just like everyone else. To disappear into the crowd rather than into the clouds.

Its hard to laugh at the thought of people wanting to serve wood and stone when we serve paper money or things or success. Lord knows.

August 18

Ezekiel's Denunciations of Judah (Continued) - Ezekiel 15:1-8, 16:1-63, 17:1-24, 18:1-32

A 1,500-year-old cedar in Lebanon...the country Lebanon, not Tennessee. Cedar's have long majestic life in the right environment. Don't we all? Lord make me a cedar on your mountain.

"'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar.'" Ezekiel 17:22-23

Even in the midst of pointing out our fidelity as his children, even while comparing us to the beloved bride that leaves to make love with others, even though forced to use such crude pictures and language to shock us and show us just how awful our sin is in God's eyes. He can't help Himself or can't help but be Himself, who He really is and He paints such a beautiful picture of His forgiveness. Not allowing us to perish completely, He snatches a bit of our highest most branches and finds new soil to plant us and begin with us again. He is love. He is both the storm and the calm in the middle of it.

And it's a cedar He plants. A cedar whose natural properties and sweet aroma wards off insects that would destroy. God is a poet.

Am I focused on the wrong things? Should I point to the destruction rather than the salvation? Lord knows. But may I suggest...I'm here to tell the Good News.

August 17

Ezekiel's Denunciations of Judah (Continued) - Ezekiel 12:1-28, 13:1-23, 14:1-23

The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, tremble as you eat your food and shudder in fear as you drink your water. Say to the people of the land: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They will eat their food in anxiety and drink their water in despair, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there." Ezekiel 12:17-19

The Lord has Ezekiel run around packing up his things in front of the people and he has him tremble and shudder when he eats. It can only mean, God is into skits, too. There's something about a story told in dramatic fashion, real people acting out a scene before us that intrigues and draws us in and touches and informs us. Our churches and our Sunday morning services would be a little better off with a little less preaching and a little more story telling and drama. Because what is accomplished if someone talks but no one hears? Unfortunately, ministers have learned one way to communicate when there are so many.

Lord knows and Jesus knows. Just look at the parables.

August 16

Ezekiel's Denunciations of Judah - Ezekiel 8:1-18, 9:1-11, 10:1-22, 11:1-25

Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, "Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." Ezekiel 9:3-4

The man clothed in linen marks the saved. The mark as a means of salvation goes back to Cain, who was marked as a murderer but the mark kept others from killing him. The mark on the door frame in Egypt protected Israel from the Angel of Death who took the first born. It was the final plague on Egypt that served to free God's people. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is a mark of our salvation. So here continues this model, this motif, salvation's refrain. And this man clothed in linen, marking those who are saved, is he Christ? One wonders. And Lord knows.

There is also a very inspirational passage in today's reading, underscoring that the purpose of punishment and pain and trial in life is to bring us closer to God. And in that renewed relationship there is blessing:

"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:19-20

August 15

Ezekiel, Prophet in Exile - Ezekiel 1:1-28, 2:1-9, 3:1-27, 4:1-17, 5:1-17, 6:1-14, 7:1-27

If eating a scroll isn't your sort of thing, how about a taste of Bible bar?!

Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. Ezekiel 3:3

Ezekiel strikes me as this wild-eyed mystic/seer/prophet. His visions feel hallucinogenic. Seems like he would have fit right in in the '60s Wonder what he was like? Of the royal priest lineage become a prophet for the people in exile. God calls Ezekiel at 30 and starts his mission by giving him a taste of His word. Jesus would remark later to the devil that man lives not on bread alone but on the word of God. We take the word into our mouths in symbolic fashion when we take the bread, Christ's body, as part of communion.

Ezekiel eats the scroll. It's almost a comic image. And, he's surprised. This isn't half bad. Actually, its very, very good. The word of God is as sweet as honey. It's our true food, sustaining us, filling us, providing what we need to grow. Lord knows.

August 14

Jeremiah's Prophecies Under Zedekiah (Continued) - Jeremiah 50:41-46, 51:1-64, 49:34-39, 34:8-22

The Topsy Turvy as seen on TV. It's sort of like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Or maybe not.

Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord's hand;

she made the whole earth drunk.

The nations drank her wine;

therefore they have now gone mad.

Jeremiah 51:7

For 70 years Babylon keeps Judah enslaved. Under Nebuchadnezzar, the nation of Babylon flourishes and crafts such architectural wonders as the Ishtar Gate and the famed Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. As the years stretched on and on, it must have seemed to the people of this incredibly successful country that this is the way things would always be. Don't we believe that the U.S. will retain its preeminent position? A laughable thought given every civilization there has ever been has eventually fallen. So why should we be different?

I imagine the people of Babylon thought the same way. They were in control undertaking impressive feats. God had handed them the cup of victory and they got drunk with it. Success went to their head. It's drunkenness and madness for man to ever believe in his own power. Things will sober up for Babylon soon enough.

Lord knows.

August 13

Jeremiah's Prophecies Under Zedekiah (Continued) - Jeremiah 51:59, 50:1-40

So there is this running joke in prophesy. I've seen a couple of references to it now. And here it is in today's reading. And that's to call out a group of warriors as "women."

Here Jeremiah comments on Babylon's fighting force: "A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become women." Jeremiah 50:37. In tomorrow's reading, we see the same sophomoric jab: "Babylon's warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women." Jeremiah 51:30.

So is God or Jeremiah or both sexist? Are they denigrating the gender? I think God is just speaking in the vernacular of the time. He speaks to us in a way we will understand. If that's through a talking ass, so be it. If it's a wrestling match, ok. If that's in a parable that has the sneaky servant rewarded, He'll do it. If that means telling women jokes, well...hmmmm, I know. The gender-sensitive age we live in sort of cringes. Seems juvenile, insensitive to women and decidedly un-divine.

Or is it more a reflection of our inability to see the forest for the trees? Is it more of a condemnation of how our views are so influenced by the sensitivities of our age. The truth is something bigger than the things we seem to focus on. The Devil and not God is in the details. God is far bigger and more obvious. He is the elephant in the room we walk by unnoticed...until He makes some gender joke and we go, "Ohhhhh, that's Him!" No, He's just God trying to get your attention. And it's working.

Lord knows.

August 12

Today marks Mariana and my 26th anniversary. Two things have kept us together. The good Lord and a good sense humor - His and ours. Happy anniversary, Mariana...I wish you many, many more...with me. And surely it's only coincidence that today's scripture reading is regarding the Babylonian Captivity. lol

A picture taken on our 24th anniversary. Yeah, we went hiking in the smokies and camped out in a shelter. Did I tell you she's quite a woman?

Jeremiah's Prophecies Under Zedekiah (Continued) - Jeremiah 23:9-40

This is what the Lord Almighty says:

"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;

they will fill you with false hopes.

They speak visions from their own minds,

not from the mouth of the Lord.

They keep saying to those who despise Me,

The Lord says: You will have peace."

Jeremiah 23:16

I'm thinking about this one. Thinking. Long and hard. Because I believe that God's grace reaches farther than we dream. Honestly, we need it to. Sometimes I feel the various flavors of Christianity are all a million miles from God's will, arguing about who is two inches closer. Does this make me a prophet who says "You will have peace" to those who despise the Lord? Is that what it's saying? What He is saying to me in this reading?

How would the people of Jeremiah's day have known the false prophets from the true? Well, this scripture points it out quite plainly. Of course, this scripture wasn't scripture. It was Jeremiah talking - a prophet preaching about not believing prophets. I'm sure there was confusion because even Jeremiah preached hope for Judah and Israel and the exiles. The people heard what they wanted to hear. But wouldn't they have known what Jeremiah was saying was true because of how accurately he described their relationship with the Lord, the one true God? I suppose they didn't want to hear they hadn't been following God or remaining true to the covenant. But they would have known this true, wouldn't they? Wouldn't they?

I think we should view this scripture as speaking to believers rather than condemning the rest of the world. Do we? Do we know truly what our idols are and whether are hearts are truly turned to God? How well do we truly know ourselves? Are we hearing the truth or only what we want to hear? Am I?

Lord knows.

I don't have the answer on this one but thankfully I know the one that does.

August 11

Jeremiah's Prophecies Under Zedekiah - Jeremiah 24:1-10, 29:1-32, 27:1-22, 28:1-17

The Divine Servant statue that stands on the campus of Sterling College founded in 1887 as Cooper College in Sterling, Kansas. I wonder if we truly understand the implications of our need to serve? I know I don't.

"Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you will live." Jeremiah 27:12

God's will can be so hard to fathom. Today's reading answers my questions from yesterday. It seems that the people taken in exile are more blessed than those who remained in Jerusalem. The slave more blessed than the free. Those in exile are encouraged to spend their 70 years in captivity serving the good of the nation that is their master. In exile, the people will become closer to God they "will seek Me [God] and find Me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you." Jeremiah 29:13-14

Those who remained in Judah were plagued by false prophets who promised the quick return of the exiles and the items taken from the temple. This was a popular belief. Wouldn't it be? Don't we think it's God's will for us to be free? Isn't it God's will that we worship in freedom and that His church go untouched? In this case, no. God commands, "Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you will live." Jeremiah 27:12

It seems counter to our way of thinking. That God will's is people to live in slavery to others. But then so much of what God is and does and thinks is counter to us.

Lord knows.

August 10

The Great Deportation - 2 Kings 24:6, 24:8-9; 2 Chronicles 36:8-9; Jeremiah 22:24-30; 2 Kings 24:10-16; 2 Chronicles 36:10; Daniel 1:1-2; Reign of Zedekiah - 2 Kings 24:17-20; 2 Chronicles 36:10-16; Jeremiah 37:1-2, 52:1-3

He [Nebuchadnezzar] carried into exile all Jerusalem: all the officers and fighting men, and all the craftsmen and artisans -- a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left. 2 Kings 24:14

When Judah undergoes the second wave of deportation and captivity to Babylon, the Bible says Nebuchadnezzar removed the "leading men of the land." The poor remain. Was this a show of the special love and grace God has for the poor? Did they thrive no longer leaving in economic subjection to the "leading men"? Or did they miss the leadership skills of those who'd been taken into captivity? Probably a bit of both. I wonder what their society consisted of, what culture they developed, how they organized themselves now gutted of their government? Did they mourn their losses or look at it as a chance to begin anew? And what would they do when the captives return in 70 years? Would they be reluctant to give up their new found freedoms and self governance?

A Kingdom of the Poor. The remnant of Judah in Jerusalem. Is this a metaphor for us given we wait for the return of our king? Lord knows.

August 9

Jehoiakim's Last Years - 2 Kings 24:1-4; Jeremiah 48:1-47, 49:1-33, 22:18-23; 2 Kings 24:5-6; 2 Chronicles 36:8

In 2003, the U.S. military introduced the Moab bomb, the largest conventional bomb in America's aresnal. It's a weapon of incredible destruction. But should Moab be shorthand for destruction or an symbol of the breadth of God's grace and salvation? Would it be better to name a restoration company Moab? Moab restoration?

"Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come," delcares the Lord. Here ends the judgment on Moab." Jeremiah 48:47

Jeremiah prophesies how the nations that destroy Judah will themselves be destroyed. Yet for Moab and Ammon, the prophesies end with a bit of hope. The Lord's forgiveness is broad and reaches beyond His chosen people. Israel was chosen to give witness to God's power and love. The rest of world was not to be denied it. They, too, had access to God's grace depending on where they put their trust. So why is it of the several nations Jeremiah says the Lord will destroy only Moab and Ammon are told that in the end God will restore them? What is different? I imagine it is a matter of the heart. Perhaps there were a number of believers there. Lord knows.

But it's nice to know that the Lord is working in the world and not just going to church.

August 8

Daniel the Faithful Captive - Daniel 1:3-20; Nebuchadnezzar's Dream - Daniel 2:1-49

"No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men." [The magicians, enchanters and astrologers of Babylon responding to King Nebuchadnessar's request they not only reveal the meaning of his dream but tell him what he dreamed.] Daniel 2:10-11

While the concept of God among us is central to the Christian faith, I don't really think we believe it. Oh, we believe that God came down and lived among us as Christ, died and rose again. But that was a long time ago, not now. Hasn't God since the days of Adam and Eve always lived among us? Perhaps it was hard for us to see him or draw close to him as a gardener or wrestler or thunder on a mountain top or cloud of smoke or pillar of fire or a voice from heaven descending with a dove or a baby or a carpenter or a condemned criminal on the cross.

From the beginning, He's been with us. What makes us think that will ever change? That He still isn't actively among us today? What will it take for us to see Him? An invasion? Our captivity? A moment when the world is in need? Lord knows.

August 7

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah's Scroll - Jeremiah 36:1-4, 45:1-5, 36:5-32

"So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them." Jeremiah 36:32

lol, not only did burning the book not work.... Jeremiah just added more words in the second pass.

A king thought to kill the word by burning it. Only to have it return, stronger than before. Just as a king would try to kill the word by putting it on a cross. Only to have it return, stronger than before.

What kills without God enlivens and liberates with God. What is punishment to some is power to others. Lord knows.

August 6

First Deportation from Judah - 2 Kings 24:1, 7; 2 Chronicles 36:6-7; Jeremiah Tells Length of Captivity - Jeremiah 25:1-38, 35:1-19

How remarkable is God's patience....

And so it finally happens.

For 23 years Jeremiah said it would and the people didn't listen. Arrested him. Humiliated him. Tried to kill him. And now it happens. They thought it never would. Lived like it would never happen. Built houses like there was no tomorrow. And now everything they had and put their heart and soul in is gone. Crops and animals, gone. Families...gone, too.

And that's our life. We do things that are destructive, that are against God's will and we know it. But we do them never thinking anything bad will happen because it hasn't to this point, right? I thought God would punish me but He hasn't. But is that because of God's patience or talent for getting away with things?

It's God's patience. Lord knows.

August 5

Habakkuk's Questioning Prophecy - Habakkuk 1:1-17, 2:1-20, 3:1-19

A deer that interrupted John and my hike up LeConte in July of 2008. Was it God trying to get our attention?

You've got to love that name: Habakkuk. Say it out loud. It's fun even funny to say. So why is it you hardly ever hear a sermon from Habakkuk? Is it because the questions Habakkuk asks are even more difficult than his name? And God's answers far more difficult than that.

Habakkuk asks the question we all ask - why? Why do the wicked seemingly prosper while the righteous suffer? Why has God used evil nations to punish the God-fearing? Ahhhhh, Habakkuk, if it were all that simple. Hasn't Judah rejected God and worshipped other gods? So which is better to reject God as His chosen nation? Or to follow evil as a nation that doesn't know God? I think rejecting God having known Him would be the greater evil. But that's just me. And Judah.

What it all comes down to is all of us are evil. All of us are putting something in front of God and so are really following other gods along with God. And so we should share Habakkuk's prayer, asking God: "in wrath remember mercy." [Habakkuk 3:2]

In the end, we must praise God. Even in the hard times? Especially in the hard times when evil or work or success or things or wants have taken us into captivity, the Lord is our strength...if we have any strength. Lord knows.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

He enables me to go on the heights.

Habakkuk 3:19

The closing verse of today's reading is especially powerful for one who takes great joy in hiking the mountains and seeing the deer lightly wandering a mountain forest. John, remember the deer that bounded onto the path in front of us on LeConte? Was that God or an angel or just like us, part of His work?