Category: Devotional

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You Were There

H – Highlight

Job 38:21

You know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

E – Explain

Job 38 is where God begins to ask Job a series of questions as a rebuke. Job has been demanding to know why God allowed Job to face calamities. Job believes that he knows that there is no reasonable explanation for what he faces, because Job is not aware of actively doing unrighteousness.

The Lord’s rebuke of Job is a reminder that, while Job may know a few things, Job does not have nearly enough understanding to accuse the Lord of treating him unjustly. God gives multiple examples of simple things that he knows Job cannot explain. Job was not present at creation. Job does not know how God controls the day and night, the wind and rain, the stars in the sky, or the creatures in the sea. How then could Job expect to understand all the ways of the Almighty?

In the verse I highlighted, God is sarcastic with Job. After asking about things related to creation, light and darkness particularly, God says that Job must understand it; after all, Job was alive back then. Of course this is sarcasm. Job was not created then, and God is making sure that Job realizes just how ridiculous he looks in thinking that he can demand answers of God or that he could accuse God based on his puny knowledge and experience.

A – Apply

The first application for me is the reminder that I do not have nearly enough knowledge to ever question God and his ways. I do not know even the little things. I do not know how God actually hung the stars in space. Nor do I understand how God chose to make the tides work. Nor do I understand what makes atoms hold together and not fly apart. So, if I ever get to a place where I think that God must answer to me and my understanding, I’m making a mistake.

With that in mind, I also see an application for humanity as a whole. We think we have figured out the answers to many of the questions in Job 38. We think we know how the universe came into being. We have put people on the ocean floor to see the strange creatures down there. WE think we understand the patterns of the weather. And perhaps this shows that people believe that they do know the answers to God’s questions to Job and therefore have the right to question him and his ways.

But, in point of fact, all our knowledge is tiny. All our thinking is warped by sin. And we do not know even the most minuscule fraction of the truth of the universe to set ourselves up as opponents for God. Eve sinned in a grab for knowledge. Humans still sin because we think that our little knowledge makes us superior to the God of the Bible.

R – Respond

I want to think a little more on how the human grasping for knowledge, our assumption that we know how things work, has actually moved us away from praise and into further rebellion. Seeing the science behind the universe should lead us to worship the Lord. It has led us to arrogance and sin.

Pray: Lord, I know my knowledge is small. I was not there when you laid the foundation of the earth or set the stars in space. I do not know things that are easy for you. And I have no right to ever question your goodness. When you say in your word that a certain thing is right, it is right. When you say that a certain thing is wrong, then it is wrong. I submit to you, for you are God and I am not.

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Turn My Eyes From Worthless Things

H – Highlight

Psalm 119:37

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.

E – Explain

This psalm is 176 verses of proclamation of praise to God for his holy word. Here, David prays that God will stop him from being distracted by worthless, useless things, things that do not matter. Instead, David wants God to focus him on his ways, on God’s word and revealed will and character.

A – Apply

This is not hard to apply in general. Our hearts need to long far more to see God than to see things that are of no consequence.

It does raise questions about entertainment, hobbies, sports, etc. And I do not think that this text would say to us that there is no room for enjoying anything that is not Scripture. But I think that we can see that, if our eyes are drawn away from God’s holiness and God’s holy word to things that do not matter, then our hearts are not as in love with the word of the Almighty as they should be. If our eyes or imaginations are drawn toward the immoral, then they are turned from the ways and word of the Lord. And it is good then that we pray that God fix our eyes on him and to help us turn them from the unworthy pursuits of this world.

R – Response

It is wise that I consider well where my mind goes. Do I let myself dwell on what is worthless? Do I turn from the word to what would dishonor God and find more pleasure in the sinful? Do I find more joy in what does not matter than what does?

Prayer: Lord, I would ask that you would, as the text says, turn my eyes and my mind from what is worthless and let me love you and your ways. May your word be a true treasure to me. I pray that you not let me enjoy anything in this world more than you and your ways. Yes, let me love my family. Yes, let me love beauty and the happy blessings you give. But let me never be turned to what is worthless and away from you. Please give me wisdom and conviction here. Please forgive me where I have failed here.

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Blessed Belief

H – Highlight

Luke 1:45 – “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

E – Explain

Elizabeth is rejoicing at Mary’s arrival and the news that the Christ has come. Contextually, there is something interesting. In 1-25, Elizabeth’s husband had not believed the message from the angel, and he had suffered the inability to speak because of it. Now, Elizabeth knows that Mary is carrying the Savior in her womb, and Mary believed the Lord.

A – Apply

The biblical principle I draw here is that belief leads to blessing. I know that the Lord must bring us to faith, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). At the same time, all through Scripture, the Lord has rewarded faith. God counted Abram’s faith to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).

What must I believe? What have I struggled to believe with my heart even when my head knows what to acknowledge?

R – Response

Prayer: Lord, I believe you and your word. I know this is a gift from you, and so I give you all the glory for any faith I have. I also know that, even as a believer, I have times when my own life would show that I only am believing with my head and not my heart. I pray that you would strengthen the faith you have given me. Help me to believe that you will fulfill all you have promised. And help me to find your blessing in faith.

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Trust, Rest, and Praise

H – Highlight

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 2:1-3 – 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

E – Explain

Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the first account of creation in Scripture. These introduce us to God who creates all things out of nothing.

Genesis 1:1 declares to us the simple fact that God created everything. Genesis 2:1-3 show us that, at a moment in time, God was finished with the work of creation and rested. We know that God did not rest from fatigue. But God made the seventh day, the day when he did not work, a special day, a holy day.

A – Apply

There are a few truths to apply here. First is that God created everything and, in doing so, proved his existence and his power. We should take confidence from the fact that the God we served created this universe. We should see that this God is our Lord, as he made us by his power and for his purposes.

The fact that God rested and called the seventh day holy should remind us that rest is good. Rest involves trusting the Lord to fulfill his purpose in creation. Rest reminds us that our constant work is not required to keep God on his throne or to see his kingdom built.

The rest on the seventh day also points us to Jesus. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that we enter into the true Sabbath rest when we place our trust, not in our work and obedience, but in Christ and his finished work. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the natural fulfillment of the Sabbath command. This is not to say that resting a day in the week is not a good and God-honoring practice. But it is not a New Testament legal requirement.

R – Respond

I think the biggest responses for me from this text are trust, rest, and praise. God created the universe without my help. He does not need my wisdom to fix it. God rested, and he clearly designed me to trust him enough to rest too. And there is a response of praise for Jesus, as he is my Sabbath rest.

If I’m going to do this rightly, I will have to intentionally take time to rest this week in trust of the Lord, even in a chaotic and stressful time.

Prayer: Lord, I worship you, Maker of heaven and earth. You are almighty and glorious. I pray you will forgive me for the times I have forgotten to trust you, the one who is powerful enough to create the universe from nothing. I pray that you will help me to rest in Christ for my standing before you. I truly praise you and thank you for Jesus, whose finished work is my only hope. I pray that you will help me to rest physically, knowing that you do not need me to keep the universe going.

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Working Salvation with Your Own Hand

Gospel is found all throughout the Old Testament. We see clear pointers to Jesus in the tabernacle, in the Passover, in Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, or in Noah’s ark. But we can also find pictures of the gospel in places we do not expect as well.

I found myself thinking of the more subtle presence of the gospel when reading about three strange yet similar incidents in the life of David in 1 Samuel 24-26. In 1 Samuel 24, David has the chance to kill King Saul in a cave. David nearly does, but instead cuts off a corner of the king’s robe. And David feels guilt for stretching out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and repents. In 1 Samuel 25, David straps on his sword and moves to kill Nabal, a foolish man who insulted him. Abigail, a godly woman, intercedes with David and prevents him from killing the unworthy Nabal. In 1 Samuel 26, David will not allow Abishai to strike Saul down when they sneaked into the camp of Israel and took Saul’s spear and water pitcher.

Where do I see gospel in these incidents? Look at David’s response to Abigail.

1 Samuel 25:32-33 – 32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!

David thanked Abigail for keeping him from working salvation with his own hand. Tie that thought back to the incident with Saul in the cave or in the camp, and you will see that, in those incidents too, David did not use his own strength to accomplish his own physical salvation. And there is where I think the gospel pointer is found. In our salvation, the one thing that we cannot do is accomplish our own salvation by the strength of our own hands.

When we are lost, we have no hope of saving ourselves. The offense we have committed in sinning against the Lord is infinitely great. We could never pay the penalty for our own sin without spending eternity in hell. Also, the gap between our own righteousness and that required by God for us to be welcome in his presence is infinite. Thus, we cannot behave well enough, even were we to be perfect from today forward, to earn entrance into the presence of the Lord. No, we cannot accomplish our own salvation by our own hands. We must instead trust in the Lord to accomplish our salvation for us.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus, God the Son, has in fact accomplished our salvation for us. Jesus pays our penalty, a debt we could never repay. The Lord imputes to us Christ’s righteousness, granting us the ability to stand in God’s presence which we could never earn. And all of this comes to us, not by our works, but by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

The temptation to earn your way into God’s favor is a large one. And it is an anti-gospel. Thus, we should praise God for every picture he gives us to remind us that we are not to seek to work our own salvation.

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Unequal Yoking is About More Than Marriage

Do not be unequally yoked. When Christians today hear those words, we immediately take a mental leap to the issue of marriage. The Bible has been clear, from Old Testament to New, that it is against the command of God for a follower of the Lord to unite in marriage to someone who is not a follower of the Lord. This was partly why God told Israel not to intermarry with the nations around them (preserving the line of Messiah also was involved here). And it is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 that a widow is free to marry whom she wishes, but only in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39). And this is certainly a fair application of 2 Corinthians 6:14, that a believer must not yoke himself in marriage to a non-believer.

But the context of 2 Corinthians 6 is not matrimonial at its heart. Rather, the context is one of deep and treasured relationships. Early in the chapter, Paul talked about how he and his fellow servants of the Lord were commending themselves to the Corinthians through suffering, godly character, and the faithful proclamation of the word. This would be in comparison to the false teachers who were attempting to lead the Corinthian church away from being faithful followers of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 – 11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

Paul is clearly saddened by the fact that, though he and his ministry cohorts love the church in Corinth, the Corinthians have been reserved in returning that love. The Corinthians have been divided in their affection between those who love the Lord and those who are preaching something other than the gospel.

Now, read the 2 Corinthians passage with more than marriage in mind. Read it with friendship and other bonds of relationship in mind as well.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 – 14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

I believe that God is wanting us to think about more than marriage here. Our chief relationships, our most valued and treasured friendships, are to be with those who follow the Lord. Yes, this has to apply to marriage. But it also must apply in all sorts of human affection. It applies to who are your friends. It applies to who are your business partners. It applies to in whom you delight.

I am reminded of David’s words on this subject.

Psalm 16:3-4

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.

David said that the saints, those who follow the Lord, have his delight. David will not delight in those who oppose the Lord.

Now, Christian, ask yourself if your delight is in the people of God. Be clear that I’m not merely talking about family and marriage. With whom would you most like to spend an afternoon? Whose life most interests you? Who would you most delight to meet? When you have free time, with whom do you want to just hang out? Are your answers people who are the saints of God, those who know and love the Lord?

It is wise that the people of God delight in the people of God. This is not to say that we do not develop kind relationships with those who do not know the Lord. But our delight, our soul-refreshing relationships, must be our relationships with people who are going the same direction we are. We must not be unequally yoked together with those who do not love our God. Ask yourself how this might impact your thinking and your actions regarding your local church. Pray that the Lord give you a primary delight in him and the people who love him.

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Why We Sing

Psalm 89:1-4

1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah

Why do Christians sing? There are really two good answers. Of course we sing to worship our Lord. WE honor him in an act of religious obedience. He commanded it, it pleases him, and we do it.

But there is another reason that we often miss.

Colossians 3:16 – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

We sing to teach. We teach one another truth as we sing songs full of truth.

In Psalm 89:1-4, the psalmist says that he will sing of God’s steadfast love and his faithfulness. The psalmist is going to sing lyrics that teach of the chesed, the covenant-making, promise-keeping, never-ending love of God.

Why put this at the beginning? If we do not remember that God’s promising love lasts forever, if we forget that God is always faithful, always true to his promises, we will not be able to handle what comes later in the psalm. We will give up and lose hope when it looks like his promises are too far away to come to pass.

In verse 2, we see that God has established his faithfulness in the heavens. The angels know that God is faithful. The sun, moon, and stars are testimonies to God’s power and consistency. The heavens declare his glory, and part of that declaration is their constant reminder that God is in control and does all he says he will do.

And then in verses 3-4, the psalmist tells us of one promise of God’s. The Lord made a covenant with David. And if God is faithful to his word, he will, he must, keep that promise too.

2 Samuel 7:16 – And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

God promised David that a son of his would build the temple. Solomon did. But God also promised that someone from David’s line, his house, will be established as king forever. A never-ending kingdom will come from David’s line. A king will come who will be king over all. That, of course, is the promise that Messiah, the Christ, will come from David’s family line.

Christians, sing and learn of God’s glory and God’s faithfulness. Sing truth. Sing of the fact that God is always true to his word. Sing and make the Lord known to others. Sing of the kingdom of God and the grace of a God who saves sinners like us. Sing that God fulfilled his promise when he sent his Son. Sing that his promises are still true today.

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Forgive and Forget

I’m sure we have all heard the phrase “forgive and forget” used. And we often hear it used by believers. But I wonder how many of us think of forgetting in this context from a biblical perspective.

Here is the question: Are we biblically required to forget what others have done? How in the world are we to do this?

Some people get the idea of forgetting the sins of others from some of the language that the Bible uses when it speaks of how God forgives us.

Isaiah 43:25

“I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

If God remembers our sins no more, that must mean that he forgets them, right? Yes and no. Take a look at this verse in Psalm 79, and perhaps it will help.

Psalm 79:8

Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.

The psalmist here prays that God would not remember the people’s sins against them. That is different than forgetting that the sins took place. The request is not asking God to blot a thing out of his memory, but to not remember the sins so as to use that memory against the people.

If a man sins by driving recklessly, crashes his car, and injures himself, he can certainly be forgiven. God will not remember his sin against him so as to punish him for it once it is forgiven. But I would not suggest that God then wonders to himself how that man got hurt. The driving and the crash are not data deleted from God’s memory banks. But God actively chooses not to remember that sin against the man so as to hurt him with the memory.

God forgets our sin by actively making a choice not to bring that sin up against us. When we forgive and forget, we can only forgive in a similar way. You cannot, to my knowledge, force a memory from your brain. But you can make a commitment not to bring a thing up against another person in order to do them harm. That is biblical forgetting when it comes to forgiveness.

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God’s Law, Logic and Sovereignty

The law of God teaches us about God. And the law of God teaches us about ourselves and our own nature. God’s law shows us just how greatly we need a Savior. And I think Leviticus 26 is a great example.

Notice these two opposite thoughts from Leviticus 26 set side-by-side.

Leviticus 26:3-4 – 3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Leviticus 26:14-16 – 14 “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Ok, nothing is complicated here. God told the people of Israel that, if they obey him, they will be blessed. The section from verses 3-13 is full of blessing after blessing after blessing. God says that he will bless the people so much if they follow him that they will be happy, healthy, and whole. It is really good.

But, if the people refuse him, if they ignore his standards and his ways, God is clear that he will curse the nation. Starting at verse 14, God spells out curse after curse after curse for the nation if they turn their backs on the Lord.

Now, as a quick reminder, the people had already agreed to all this. They, as a nation, swore before God on multiple occasions that they wanted to follow him, wanted his blessing, and would accept his judgment for their disobedience. So this chapter is no surprise.

But what gets me is what this chapter tells us about ourselves. You see, if you follow the history of Israel, you will find that they, as a nation, do not follow the ways of God. They turn from him. They begin to worship idols. They behave immorally. They turn from the Lord, ignore his blessing, and earn for themselves his curses.

What does this tell us about ourselves? We are nuts. If God holds out to humanity a hand full of blessing and a hand full of cursing, we will take the bad option 100% of the time. Sin has so corrupted us that we are incapable of desiring that which will do us good. We are sinfully so confused, warped, broken, and messed up that we will not choose the right if the Lord does not mercifully bring us to himself and change us.

Do you love the Lord? Let this passage in Leviticus and the subsequent history of Israel remind you that your love for the Lord is the result, not of your assessment of your situation, but of the kindness of God working on your rotten heart. Remember that you, like Israel, would have chosen the wrong 10 times out of 10 had God not grabbed your heart and made you alive together with Christ. Let this cause you to brim full with gratitude for the grace of the Lord.

Also, as you think about this passage, let it remind you that you are not going to convince a lost world to follow the Lord through simple logic. Logic would have told Israel to go for the good and turn from the evil. Simple logic would have said to behave well for blessing and avoid the curse. But they did not follow God’s ways. Adam and Eve did not follow God’s ways. No person you know will simply see the logic of their need and follow the Lord. It requires a miracle from God for people, deep down in their souls, to turn from sin and embrace Christ. We keep praying. We keep calling people to faith. And we keep trusting that the Lord will change hearts.

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Sabbath and Faith

The call of God to have the people of Israel observe the Sabbath is an amazing call to faith and a glorious pointer to Christ. Resting one day out of seven is something that requires discipline and faith. And the Sabbath command for the land is even greater.

Leviticus 25:1-4 – 1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.”

God called on the people of Israel not only to rest one day out of seven, he called the nation to let the land rest one year out of seven. God promised a harvest in year 6 that would be so great that it would sustain the people for years to come.

I’m sure you know that many Christians debate with one another as to whether or not we are legally required to keep a Sabbath day. Some folks do. Some others do not, but believe the Sabbath command to be a pointer to the ultimate rest we receive in Christ.

Hebrews 4:9–11 – 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

I am one who believes that the binding ordinance of Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ. But I also know that it is good for the people of God to take a day, focus on the Lord, and rest from their worldly labors. But this is not what I want to write about.

What grabbed my attention in this read through Leviticus and in thinking about the Sabbath commands is just how much faith the Sabbath required. The week-to-week Sabbath required faith. People had to believe God, that he would provide for them if they worked only 6 out of 7 days. If you look at our world, at businesses open 24/7, you know that it requires faith to believe that you can sustain life without constant labor. And if you take that further, if you consider the nation’s call to let the land rest for a full year, you know that would have required incredible faith. In fact, as far as I know, the people of Israel never once obeyed that command.

But, dear friends, that faith, that impossible faith, that stunning faith is what points us so greatly to Jesus. It takes faith to let a day go by without working. It takes faith to let a year go by without farming. And it takes faith, genuine faith, to believe that the holy God of the universe will welcome you without you performing a single religious ritual to earn your way to him. IT takes faith to believe that you can be forgiven without a special gift, a special sacred item, a special sacred incantation, a special object or word of power. But the Lord tells us that such is the case. There is no way for you to be made right with God other than by you letting go of sin and self and fully entrusting your soul to the person and the finished work of Jesus.

The author of Hebrews tells us to enter into the Sabbath rest of Jesus. He tells us to turn from the ideas that we do things to gain God’s favor. He instead tells us to fully rely on Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation. This is not him saying that there is no obedience to God that follows salvation. But it is to say that, as counter-cultural as the Sabbath felt to all who did not understand it, so too does it seem crazy to all other worldviews that a holy and just God would accept us based entirely on God’s own choice and God’s own work in Christ. Salvation by grace through faith requires a faith that is depicted for us in the crazy faith required to keep the Sabbath day and the Sabbath years.

No, I do not believe that the Sabbath regulation is a binding regulation on the modern Christian. Instead, I believe that the Sabbath regulation is a shadow that points to the finished work of Christ and our salvation by grace through faith. But I do believe it is good for Christians to shape our lives with work, with rest, and with worship on a regular cycle in the week so that we can, in our lives, show the world that we are resting in Jesus rather than trusting in our labor.