Bible in 90, Day 33: I would not say such things if I were you!

2 Chronicles 23-35

*image courtesy of bewinca at www.sxc.hu

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.”  (Galatians 6:7)

The story of Sennacherib has always fascinated me (2 Chronicles 32).  I’ve often wondered how a man could be so arrogant, so spiteful, and so blind.  While trying to intimidate the king and the people of Judah, he spews out blasphemy like few people recorded in the Bible.  He has the audacity to compare the God of the Jews to the false gods of the other nations he has conquered.  Of course, in his sin-warped mind, he probably saw no difference.  He probably thought of Yahweh as just another inferior god whose people would be easily enough subdued.  He says in v. 17, “As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.”

I would not say such things if I were you!

The Chronicler tells us that Sennacherib was directly trying to insult the Lord and to speak against Him!  What boldness!  What arrogance!  If you read the account of this event in Isaiah 36-37, especially 37:21-38, you discover that God has a direct answer.  He informs Sennacherib that all his mighty exploits and conquests were the result of His doing, not the king.  God then lets him know that he will not enter the city, or even fire an arrow into it.  The battle belongs to the Lord, and He already knows the outcome!  As expected, the word of the Lord comes true when Sennacherib’s army is wiped out by an angel, he goes home, and is eventually killed by his own sons while worshiping his false god.

When Paul wrote in Galatians that God cannot be mocked, he meant more than just words.  Certainly, anyone bold enough to openly mock God, such as Sennacherib and his servant Rabshakeh did, will face His judgment.  But do we mock God with our lives, while claiming to honor Him with our lips (Isaiah 29:13)?  We may not stand before the people of God and openly blaspheme His character, but do we deny Him with our actions?

God cannot be mocked.

Paul goes on to tell us that we will reap whatever we sow (Galatians 6:7-10).  That is to say, whatever we plant in our lives, we will harvest later.  I have  a garden in my backyard.  This season, my wife planted all kinds of seeds – cantalope, tomatoes, green beans, corn, squash, and peas.  Guess what we collected for the next few months?  Yep – cantalope, tomatoes, green beans, corn, squash, and peas.

If you plant watermelon seeds, in a few months you will be eating watermelon.  If you plant corn, you will eat corn.  If you plant sin, you will harvest destruction.  If you plant to please the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life.  And here’s the thing, all those seeds didn’t really look like much to start with.  We put a little tiny white thing in some dirt, and for a few weeks, it didn’t do a thing!  But after a little more time passed, we knew what were the green beans and what were the squash.  It might not seem like there’s consequences for sin in this worlds sometimes, but give it some time.  If the consequences don’t come here on earth, they’ll come later.

Let’s not plant sin in our lives.  Let us plant that which pleases the Spirit of the Holy God.  He wants what’s best for us, and so we are best to heed His commands and warnings.  Let’s not mock God, in word, or in deed. Let’s not profess the name of Jesus with one breath, and curse our brother with the next.  Let’s not claim to be children of God in the morning, and live like children of Satan that night.  Let’s let our actions match our passions and so not deceive ourselves, God cannot be mocked.

originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 32: Someone drew at random…

2 Chronicles 7-23

*image courtesy of chutipron at www.sxc.hu

After many failed attempts to get into the courtyard of the Jade Palace, kung fu-geek Po finally succeeds by rocketing himself over the wall on a chair loaded with fireworks.  He manages to land right in the path of master Oogway’s pointing finger as he chooses the Dragon Warrior.  Oogway declares, “The universe has sent us the Dragon Warrior!” and celebration ensues.  Master Shifu, understandably, insists that this fat panda can’t possibly be the Dragon Warrior- that it’s all an accident.  “There are no accidents,” the old sage replies.

While the Eastern mysticism is a poor foundation, and terrible theology, Oogway’s declaration is nevertheless true.  As biblical Christians, we believe that there are no accidents.  God’s sovereign hand is at work in the world today, He is not a distant, uninterested God.

And so we saw today, illustrated in the story of the death of Ahab in 2 Chronicles 18.  This being the second time we’ve encountered this story (1 Kings 22), we should be familiar with it.  Micaiah prophesied that Ahab would die in battle.  Ahab decides to try and cheat death (and God!) by going into battle in disguise.  What’s worse, he tells Jehoshaphat to dress in his best royal clothes, which makes him a better target.  The plan almost worked, because the king of Aram had all his men gunning for the Ahab, king of Israel.   Then, the Scripture makes an almost humorous statement.

Can you picture it?

I like to picture stories as I hear or read them.  I always see this battle like a good war movie.  The fighting is intense.  There goes Jehoshaphat, almost defeated.  Suddenly, the enemy realizes they’ve been duped and it’s not Ahab.  They whirl around, trying to find their real target.  The camera pans about wildly, settles on an archer, and zooms in.  Dazed by the battle, he draws his bow and shoots it aimlessly.  The camera jumps onto the arrow, arcing over the chaos of the battle below, then screaming toward the ground.  The tip slides in between two pieces of armor on a random soldier.  Right at the moment of impact, everything slows down, the camera pulls back as the soldier reals in pain, and looks into the camera.  It’s Ahab!

Dun dun duuuuuuhhh!

Try as he may, Ahab could not cheat death on the battle field that day.  All his cunning and trickery was aimed at making himself a less valuable target on the field.  What he didn’t realize was that God never misses.  He used the seemingly random shot of an arrow to fulfill His Word through Micaiah.  What seemed like an accident in battle, was the perfectly timed and aimed arrow of the Lord.

There are no accidents.

Do we live like this?  Do we realize that everyday, God is at work around us, working everything together for our good and for His good purpose (Romans 8:28; Philippians 2:13)?  Seemingly random events are all part of God’s design.  Fractals, chaos theory, random chance – these are all God’s tools.  What should this do for our attitude when things don’t go according to our plan?  We should rest assured that God’s plan is better.  Paul wanted to go into Asia, and Mysia to preach the gospel, but the Spirit would not let them (Acts 16:6-10).  God had a better plan.  Perhaps you didn’t get the job you wanted, the job you thought God wanted you to have.  God has a better plan.  My best friend, Daniel, was all set to go for training to go overseas as a missionary, when suddenly he received a phone call that funds had dropped and they weren’t sending him after all.  He spent the next three years waiting on God to send him to Romania, and while he waited he became the interim youth pastor at my church, invited my wife (then girlfriend) and I to help in the youth department, and gave me my first taste of youth ministry.  I’m a youth pastor today, and Daniel is in his fourth year of ministering to the Roma people.

God had a better plan!

Let’s remember that there are no accidents.  God is at work in the world today, and he loves us.  Let us take every situation in stride, knowing that God is still on His throne, He is the King of the universe.

Bible in 90, Day 28: The Bad Samaritan

2 Kings 15-25

*image courtesy of alitaylor at www.sxc.hu

Today we witnessed the down-hill tumble of both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.  It wasn’t pretty.  If you’ve tried at all to keep up with which king was in which kingdom (which ain’t easy!), you may have noticed that all the kings of Israel were judged as wicked, and only some of the kings of Judah were judged as doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.  They both trace back to Jeroboam (the wicked king of Israel who set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, 1 Kings 12:25-33), or David.  Because of Israel’s idolatry, worship of false gods, and wicked kings, the kingdom fell first.  We also witnessed the birth of the people who would later become known as the Samaritans (1 Kings 17:1-6, 24-41).

In 722 B.C., Shalmaneser, king of Assyria deported the people of Israel to other lands, and brought people from other lands into Israel’s land.  This was to keep the people subdued.  When God’s anger struck the new settlers in Israel, Shalmaneser had some of the Israelite priests return to the land to instruct the people in how to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.  The people accepted some of these teachings, but continued worshiping other gods and simply blended the belief systems.  The Israelites left in the land also began intermarrying with these new people.  Thus, a new group of people arose who were both ethnically mixed, and religiously mixed.  This is why the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans existed by the time of the 1st century (John 4:9; Luke 10:25-37).

First Kings 17:7-23 tells us that all this happened because Israel had sinned against the Lord.  The kingdom of Judah, unfortunately, doesn’t learn anything by watching this happen.  Even after the amazing reforms of Josiah (2 Kings 22-23), Judah still went after other gods and worshiped with idols.  God is a patient God.  He gave chance after chance after chance to both kingdoms in Israel.

And still they rebelled.

God sent prophets to warn the people.  He promised blessing if they would follow Him, and yet they rebelled.  He threatened cursing if the would not follow Him, yet they rebelled.  He sent disasters on them, trying to get their attention and draw them back to Himself, yet they rebelled.  Finally, he sent Israel off into captivity as He promised He would (Deuteronomy 28).  Even then, Judah did not listen.  In the end, Judah went into captivity at the hands of the Babylonians, just as God had foretold (2 Kings 20:12-21).

Let us heed God’s warnings in our lives.  Let’s not let sin so entangle us that we lose sight of who we are in Christ, and just how righteous He is.  Paul told the Corinthians that there were those who were weak and ill, even dead, because of sin in their lives (1 Corinthians 11:27-32).  Just as God sent warning after warning before taking Judah out of the land and into captivity, sometimes God may have to take a Christian out of the world to put an end to their sin and shameful blaspheming of Christ’s name.  Let us not be those who have to suffer the punishment of God before we repent.  Let us heed the warnings and turn back to Jesus in repentance, casting ourselves on His mercy.

Bible in 90, Day 24: Wisdom

2 Samuel 22 – 1 Kings 7

*image courtesy of

God asks you what you want.

Pleading with Rehoboam to get wisdom

James 1:5

Bible in 90, Day 19: Right in our own eyes

Judges 15-Ruth-1 Samuel 2

*image courtesy of jeffphoto at www.sxc.hu

So that last part of Judges is pretty rough huh?  Did you find yourself reading and thinking, “How in the world could they do these things?!”  How is it that the people who not long ago were begging Joshua to accept their vow to follow the Lord (Joshua 24:19-22) were now killing, raping, mutilating, and generally running amok?  The answer is found repeatedly throughout Judges (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25) – “There was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Mark Driscoll talked about this in a sermon last year.  In that sermon, he said that without God, we are capable of anything.  He’s right.  The old cliché “But for the grace of God, there go I,” holds true.  If we totally abandoned ourselves to our sinful desires, held no regard for the things of God, and kept ourselves outside of the means of His grace, we might be shocked at what we would be capable of.

Oddly, it is in the midst of this period that the story of Ruth is told (Ruth 1:1).  In the original Hebrew ordering of the books of what we call the Old Testament, Ruth follows right after Proverbs.  Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous woman, and then is followed by an example of such a woman – Ruth.  It is noteworthy, and speaks to Ruth’s character that her story should shine in the midst of the dark, perverse time she lived in.  Interestingly, Ruth is a not a Jewish woman!  The most faithful and noble character in this story is a Gentile!  Ruth has the honor of being one of only two women to have a book of the Bible named for them (Esther is the other), as well as being one of a handful of women who are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (The others are Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary – Matthew 1).

After this story, we are introduced to a new character, Samuel, and a new era in Israel’s history.  The wickedness continues into 1 Samuel, and is found now in the priesthood!  But God has a plan in place to bring Israel back to him.  We see the first peeks of this plan as God honors Hannah’s prayer and brings forth a very special son.  “Samuel” is Hebrew for “God hears/heard” and will be an ironic pun used later when God calls him as a young boy.

There are at least two things we can take from the theme we’ve examined today.  The first is that God is always working out His plan.  No matter how dark and twisted the times may get, God is still on the Throne (see Day 4)!  God kept enough people for Himself to maintain the holy line of the Messiah and bring about a beautiful story such as Ruth’s.

Second, is that we must never allow the culture or our sinful selves to determine our values.  Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes in Israel.  How similar this is to our culture today!  “If it feels good, do it!”  “I’m ok, and you’re ok, and that’s ok!”  “It’s all relative.”  We do not live a day of firm moral conviction and undeniable truth.  We live in a day of lax ethics, uncertainty, pride, and selfishness.  We are not the only society to raise our own views and thoughts above everything and everyone else.  Rome did it, France did it, even Israel did it!

Let us never assume that 50% + 1 equals truth or right.  Let us never assume that our own views, formulated in the selfishness of our own hearts are the best.  Let us look to God and His Word for what is good and just, what is evil and corrupt.  Let us not do merely what is right in our own eyes, but let us walk humbly before our God.

Bible in 90, Day 4: Large and In Charge

Genesis 40-50

*Image courtesy of hisks at www.sxc.hu

What a story huh?  My wife commented yesterday that it’s interesting reading such large chunks of the Bible in one sitting because for the first time you see it as one story.  You make connections you might not have made before.  Yesterday, we left Joseph in prison, forgotten by the chief cupbearer of Pharaoh.  By the end of the our passage today, he rose to be essentially Prime Minister of Egypt, reunited and reconciled with his family, and dies a hero to his family and all Egypt!

It’s amazing what God can and will do through the various events in the world and in our lives.  Isn’t it amazing to know that God is on His heavenly throne?  He is Large and In Charge!  Even the evil schemings of men cannot escape His sovereign control.

When I was 15, I got a phone call one day when I was getting ready for school that would change my life forever.
My dad told me to pack my things and he would be in Richmond to pick me up that day.  My sister and I were going to live with him now, in Chesapeake.  For months I considered that day the worst day of my life.  I still consider it one of the most traumatic moments in my life, being uprooted with only nine weeks left of my sophomore year and moved to a place where I knew no one, all with no notice.

As time passed, I grew into my new life.  I met a great girl, found a good church, and started making a home at my new school.  It was because I moved to Chesapeake and got involved at South Norfolk Baptist Church that I discovered I was (am!) a sinner in need of a Savior.  I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.  Later, I preached a sermon at SNBC, began following God’s call to be a pastor, and eventually proposed to and married Keelie.  Almost everything I am today stems from that traumatic moment.

When Joseph’s brothers threw him in that well all those years earlier, I’m sure that Joseph had no idea where he would end up.  I’m sure he thought he was doomed, that life was over.  When he was sold into slavery, what went through his mind?  I’m sure he never envisioned that this was the way that God would exalt him to prominence and fulfill the prophetic dream he’d had.  But God was on His throne!

Large and In Charge

God has a way of confounding the wisdom of men with plans that no earthly mind could conceive of.  No matter where we find ourselves in life, we can rest assured that, if we are following God’s commands, we are not beyond His protection and plan.  If we follow after Him, and yet find ourselves in a desperate situation, we can rest in the peace that surpasses all understanding.

I can’t say that it’s easy, or that it’s not scary, but there is a freedom in this.  Over the years, I have been in many terrifying situations as a result of following God’s leadership.  Never once has He let me down.  And each time, I’ve gained more and more confidence that no matter what, He is on the Throne.