(ctrl) and (+) magnifies screen if type too small.              me         quotes             scripture verse             footnotes       Words of Jesus      Links

9/25/2023     Yesterday     Tomorrow


Micah   1 - 7



Micah 1:1     The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

2  Hear, you peoples, all of you;
pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
3  For behold, the LORD is coming out of his place,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4  And the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
5  All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6  Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
7  All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

8  For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
9  For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.

10  Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
11  Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12  For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13  Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
14  Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15  I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
16  Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.


Micah 2

Woe to the Oppressors

Micah 2:1     Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
2  They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
3  Therefore thus says the LORD:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
for it will be a time of disaster.
4  In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you
and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5  Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the LORD.

6  “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
7  Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Has the LORD grown impatient?
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
8  But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.
9  The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
10  Arise and go,
for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11  If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!
12  I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13  He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the LORD at their head.


Micah 3

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

Micah 3:1     And I said:

Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?—
2  you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
3  who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.

4  Then they will cry to the LORD,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.

5  Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6  Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7  the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.
8  But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.

9  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10  who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11  Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the LORD and say,
“Is not the LORD in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”
12  Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.


Micah 4

The Mountain of the LORD

Micah 4:1     It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2  and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3  He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
4  but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
5  For all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
forever and ever.

The LORD Shall Rescue Zion

6  In that day, declares the LORD,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted;
7  and the lame I will make the remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time forth and forevermore.

8  And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
the former dominion shall come,
kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9  Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
10  Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
there the LORD will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.

11  Now many nations
are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12  But they do not know
the thoughts of the LORD;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13  Arise and thresh,
O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
and shall devote their gain to the LORD,
their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.


Micah 5

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

Micah 5:1     Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
2  But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.

Though there may be a foreshadowing here of the humiliation of Christ, the reference cannot have Him in view primarily, for three reasons. First, Christ was not smitten in any siege. Second, He was not smitten with a rod. (Cp Is 50:6; Mt 26:67-68; 27:30.) Finally, He was smitten by His own people, while the besieger here is an alien enemy.

Isaiah 50:6 (ESV) 6 I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.

Matthew 26:67–68 (ESV) 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”

Matthew 27:30 (ESV) 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.


Micah is predicting the shameful treatment of King Zedekiah at the time of the Babylonian invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Any siege of Jerusalem after that time would not fulfill all the requirements of our passage. In the smiting of her king, Israel was thus bearing the reproach of her sins which occasioned the Babylonian captivity.
     Minor Prophets - Charles Feinberg

3  Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4  And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5  And he shall be their peace.

When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6  they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

7  Then the remnant of Jacob shall be
in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the LORD,
like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man
nor wait for the children of man.
8  And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through, treads down
and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
9  Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.

10  And in that day, declares the LORD,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;
11  and I will cut off the cities of your land
and throw down all your strongholds;
12  and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
13  and I will cut off your carved images
and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14  and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
and destroy your cities.
15  And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
on the nations that did not obey.

Micah 6

The Indictment of the LORD

Micah 6:1     Hear what the LORD says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice.
2  Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD,
and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the LORD has an indictment against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.

3  “O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
4  For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
5  O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”

What Does the LORD Require?

6  “With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8  He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Hoses 6:6  For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.


Destruction of the Wicked

9  The voice of the LORD cries to the city—
and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
10  Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
11  Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12  Your rich men are full of violence;
your inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13  Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
making you desolate because of your sins.
14  You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
15  You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16  For you have kept the statutes of Omri,
and all the works of the house of Ahab;
and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing;
so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”


Micah 7

Wait for the God of Salvation

Micah 7:1      Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
2  The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
3  Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
4  The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
5  Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
6  for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
7  But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.

8  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be a light to me.
9  I will bear the indignation of the LORD
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.
10  Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the LORD your God?”
My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down
like the mire of the streets.

11  A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12  In that day they will come to you,
from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13  But the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their deeds.

14  Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
15  As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them marvelous things.
16  The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
17  they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.

God’s Steadfast Love and Compassion

18  Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19  He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
20  You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.

Some critics have challenged the authenticity of certain portions of chapters  6 and  7 on the ground that they contain thoughts and motifs which occur elsewhere only in passages from a later period of Israel’s history. For example, they prophesy the regathering of God’s dispersed people after a term of exile, and foretell the destruction of Israel’s foes on a catastrophic scale, to be followed by the ultimate triumph of Israel over the heathen under the lordship of the Messiah. Heinrich Ewald assigned chapters  6 and  7 to an unknown author living in the reign of Manasseh (697–642). Julius Wellhausen even regarded  7:7–20 as exilic in origin and contemporary with Deutero -  Isaiah; yet some of his more moderate successors like Driver (ILOT, pp. 308–13) question the necessity of so late a date being assigned to it. But all antisupernaturalists unite in denying the genuineness of  4:10: “Thou shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies” (ASV). Such predictions as these are impossible except upon the basis of supernatural revelation. Hence no eighth - century author could have written this verse; it requires a foresight which is more than human. Therefore this verse is denied to  Micah on the grounds of  antisupernatural bias,  just as  Isa. 40–66 is denied to an eighth - century author, ...  Idiots! Higher criticism is the economy of atheists. --- A Survey of Old Testament Introduction

ESV Study Bible

What I'm Reading

The Historical Reality of Adam

By Guy Waters 1/01/2014

     “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” So begins the New England Primer, which taught generations of early Americans to read. In introducing our forefathers to the letter A, the primer was also administering a generous dose of biblical theology. As Paul puts it crisply in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Through Adam, sin and death entered into the world. By Christ, sin and death were conquered. Adam forfeited life by his disobedience. Christ achieved life by His obedience. These simple, basic truths, Paul tells the Corinthians, are the very structure and content of the gospel.

     In the modern world, skeptics have long questioned or denied the historicity of Adam. Neo-orthodox theologians added their voices to this chorus in the last century. More recently, and under the pressure of evolutionary theory, some prominent evangelical voices have as well. One prominent evangelical Old Testament scholar has argued that “it is not necessary that Adam be a historical individual for [Genesis 1–2] to be without error in what it intends to teach.”

     Another well-known evangelical Old Testament scholar denies that “a literal Adam [was] the first man and cause of sin and death.” Even so, he continues, we may retain “three core elements of the gospel,” namely, “the universal and self-evident problem of death; the universal and self-evident problem of sin; the historical event of the death and resurrection of Christ.”

     It may help to pause and review what the issues in this particular debate are and what they are not. The issues do not concern the age of the earth and of the universe. Neither do they concern how we are to understand the days of Genesis 1. Reformed evangelicals have disagreed on these issues for generations, all the while affirming their common belief that Adam was a historical person.

     We may frame the issue in the form of two related questions. First, does the Bible require us to believe that Adam was a historical person? Second, would anything be lost in the gospel if we were to deny Adam’s historicity?

     In answer to the first question, yes, the Bible requires us to believe that Adam was a historical person. Some of the clearest testimony about Adam comes from the New Testament. When explaining Genesis 2, Jesus clearly speaks of the first man and the first woman in historical terms, and of the institution of marriage in historical terms (Matt. 19:4–6). The Apostle Paul, in referring to Genesis 2, speaks of Adam and Eve in terms equally historical (1 Tim. 2:12–14).

     In 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5, Paul places Adam and Jesus in parallel relationship. Paul calls Jesus the “Second Adam” — there is none between Adam and Jesus (1 Cor. 15:47). He also calls Jesus the “Last Adam” — there is none after Jesus (v. 45).

     This relationship requires Adam to be a historical person. Paul compares Adam and Christ in terms of what each man did. Paul speaks of Adam’s one trespass in eating the forbidden fruit, and of Christ’s obedience unto death and resurrection unto life. For the comparison to hold, Adam’s actions must be as fully historical as Christ’s actions are historical, and Adam must be as historical a person as Christ was and remains.

     So then, the Bible requires us to believe that Adam was a historical person. Now, taking up our second question, what are we to make of the argument that nothing in the gospel would be lost if we were to deny Adam’s historicity? May we uphold universal sin and death while discounting the way in which the Scripture says sin and death entered the world? The answer is no. The Bible does not give us that option. It clearly teaches that sin entered the world through the one action of one historical man, Adam (Rom. 5:12). If we reject the Bible’s account of a historical point of entry for sin into human existence, then, as Richard Gaffin has rightly observed, sin is no longer a matter of “human fallenness.” It is a matter of “human givenness.” It is just the way that human beings are.

     This understanding of our plight upends the gospel. Absent a historical fall, the Bible’s account of redemption through the Second and Last Adam, Jesus Christ, makes no sense at all. How can it at all be meaningful to say with the Bible that God, in His sovereign and infinite mercy, has recovered and restored what was lost in the fall? To deny the historicity of Adam is no trivial matter. It has radical implications for the way in which we look at human nature, evil, and redemption.

     The second lesson of the New England Primer, teaching the letter B, is “Thy life to mend / this Book [the Bible] attend.” Having clarified our human problem in biblical terms with its lesson on the letter A, the primer then articulates the solution in equally biblical terms with its lesson on the letter B. Wise counsel indeed. And what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

Click here to go to source

     Dr. Guy Prentiss Waters, per Amazon | Guy Prentiss Waters (BA, University of Pennsylvania; MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; PhD, Duke University) is Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. At Duke, he studied under Richard B. Hays and E. P. Sanders, two leading expositors of the New Perspectives on Paul. Dr. Waters is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America. He is also a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Institute of Biblical Research. is James M. Baird Jr. Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss., and a teaching elder in the PCA.

Guy Waters Books:

Exegesis has Consequences

By Anthony Carter 1/01/2014

     Ideas have consequences. Since the dawn of Western philosophy, we have witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly of this axiom. From the influence of John Locke upon the founders of America, to the disastrous results of the influence of Karl Marx in Communist Russia and Friedrich Nietzsche in Hitler’s Germany, it can hardly be argued that ideas don’t have consequences. Yet, not only do ideas have consequences, but so too does exegesis.

     The danger of erroneous interpretation of Scripture is not new in our day. The Apostle Paul instructed a young Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). There is a right way and a wrong way to handle the Word of God. Unfortunately, our era continues to be littered with those who may find themselves ashamed because they have mishandled the Word of Truth.

     Take, for example, Mark 16:17–18:

     And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poisons, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.

     Although the authenticity of this passage is debated, some have taken these words and used them to justify the practice of literally handling deadly snakes in the midst of the congregation as a demonstration of faithfulness. Tragically, many have died from snake bites as a result. Exegesis has consequences.

     Consider another well-known text of Scripture that when mishandled and misapplied has led to tragic results as well:

     Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14–15)

     The encouragement to call for the elders to pray for the sick has led some to misunderstand James as prohibiting the use of doctors or medicinal practices. Unfortunately, I have known families who have needlessly lost loved ones to sickness and diseases that were easily curable if only they had enlisted the help of a physician or used proven medical practices. Alas, erroneously interpreting and wrongly applying this text led them to believe that to call for such help would be disobedient to God. Again, exegesis has consequences.

     While misinterpreting Scripture can unnecessarily prolong sickness and even result in physical death, the greatest danger is in what it can do to the soul. Through wrongful exegesis, people can and have been led to eternal death.

     A few years ago, a popular charismatic pastor in the Midwest determined that God had given him the revelation that the Bible teaches that Jesus died to redeem every human being, without exception. This pastor began teaching universalism, a heresy that asserts that not one person will ever be lost in eternity, whether they repent in this life or not. Armed with this idea, he went to the Scriptures and began re-interpreting, re-exegeting, and reapplying many of the texts he had previously taught. For example, 1 Timothy 4:9–10 says, “We have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” From this passage, the pastor suggested that God’s plan is to save every human being, and not just those who believe in Him.

     In an interview, when asked about those who willfully sin, reject Christ, and die unrepentant, the pastor turned to Philippians 2:10–11: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Through misinterpretation and misapplication, this pastor suggested that Paul teaches that everyone will recognize and accept Jesus either before they die or after. He stated, “Even in the afterlife some will get the revelation of Jesus and be inspired by the Holy Spirit to confess His lordship.”

     Needless to say, the consequences for this interpretation and application are staggering. Not only is the preaching of the gospel made of no effect, but the suffering which the Apostles and the church have endured for preaching the gospel was in vain (Gal. 3:4). There is no more dangerous and deleterious an idea than the idea that men and women do not need to hear the gospel, repent of sin, and believe upon Christ in order to be saved. Exegesis has consequences. Some exegesis has eternally disastrous consequences.

     However, just as bad exegesis has eternally condemning consequences, faithful exegesis has eternally rewarding consequences. Second Timothy 2:15 encourages us that those who rightly handle the Word of Truth do not need to be ashamed before God. They will not shrink back when presenting their labors to God.

     Therefore, if we are faithful, then we, like Paul, seek to handle God’s Word not deceitfully but with integrity and open accountability before God and all those who hear (2 Cor. 4:2). We must not be peddlers or corrupters of God’s Word (2 Cor. 2:17). Rather, we preach Christ and faith in Him. We must remember that our exegesis has consequences.

Click here to go to source

     Per Amazon, A graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL, and Point University of East Point, GA, Tony is lead pastor of East Point Church, East Point, GA. Pastor Tony live in East Point GA with his wife and five children.

Anthony Carter Books:

God's Use Of Sin     Job 13:26

By H. R. Mackintosh, Life on God's Plan

Job 13:26 (ESV) For you write bitter things against me
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

     One of the commonest ideas regarding sin, at the present time, is that when once done, it is also done with. Half the human race persist in viewing sin as no more than a conventional name applied by religious people to the minor slips of life’s journey, mere blunders and peccadilloes scarcely worth mentioning, which anyhow leave no trace behind them. They would stare at the suggestion that sin becomes a living bit of ourselves. If some bad habit, like cheating or vanity or drunkenness, begins to get the upper hand, and too much obtrudes its presence, they imagine that there is no more difficulty in dropping it out of the character quietly than when a train shunts a heated wagon into a siding. Only speak the word, and the power of the past is broken.

     Let me speak of four ways in which God makes us to inherit our iniquities. They are closely bound up with each other, but we may consider them briefly in separation.

     I. Our sins come back on us as bitter memories. These bad deeds or thoughts leave poisoned wounds; they leave stains that burn as well as soil; even if there were no God, still we should feel them a disgrace to manhood. And perhaps of all the feelings that visit the human heart none is sadder than the helplessness with which we behold time flowing on resistlessly, bearing with it into the past wrongdoing we can never now set right.

     I. Our sins come back on us as disqualifying infirmities. It is common knowledge that a man may so live that he becomes unfit for certain kinds of delicate and important work; his hand shakes, his eyesight deteriorates, and he has to step down in the scale of industry, and adopt some lower form of employment. Never more in this world, perhaps, will he be fit for his old business. Now the same thing may happen in the moral and spiritual life. Sin may be pardoned, while yet punishment remains. ‘Thou wast a God that forgavest, but Thou tookest vengeance on their inventions.’ Moses, for his sin, had to lie down in a lonely grave outside the Promised Land, after one look at the country others were entering. David, because of his blood-stained hands, was refused permission to build God’s temple. So, like these men, we may shut ourselves out by sin from certain fields of usefulness or enjoyment.

     III. Once more, our sins come back as guilty burdens. Time never wears out sin’s guilt. To-day in the Egyptian sands they are finding manuscripts two thousand years old; and when the skilled expert pours the reagent over the papyrus surface the old writing stands out again, bold and clear; and God can do that with a human soul. He can give the startled conscience a telescopic and a microscopic power which makes past sins present and small sins great.

     IV. Lastly, our sins come back as motives to seek God’s mercy. And here at last we light upon the hidden purpose operating in all the other uses God makes of our transgressions. For remember the most important thing about sin is not its power of embittering memory, or its disqualifying consequences, or even its burden of guilt; the most important thing about sin is this, that it can be forgiven. The prodigal son had been dissolute and reckless; but then the prodigal son had a father. That changed all the outlook. There are two wrong ways of regarding sin, levity and despair; the one declaring that forgiveness is unnecessary, the other protesting that forgiveness is impossible, and that we have no choice but to carry our burden to the end without hope or relief. And the one right way is just trustful penitence, just coming back to God, like the lad in the parable, and saying, ‘Father, I have sinned, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son’.

H. R. Mackintosh, Life on God's Plan, p. 212.

Delighting in the Trinity

By Michael Reeves 2/01/2014

     “It is not to be expected that we should love God supremely if we have not known him to be more desirable than all other things.” So wrote the great hymn writer Isaac Watts. And of course, he was quite right, for we always love what seems most attractive to us. Whether it be God, money, sex, or fame, we live for and love what captures our hearts.

     But what kind of God could outstrip the attractions of all other things? Could any unitary, single-person god do so? Hardly, or at least not for long. Single-person gods must, by definition, have spent eternity in absolute solitude. Before creation, having no other persons with whom they could commune, they must have been entirely alone.

     Love for others, then, cannot go very deep in them if they can go for eternity without it. And so, not being essentially loving, such gods are inevitably less than lovely. They may demand our worship, but they cannot win our hearts. They must be served with gritted teeth.

     How wonderfully different it is with the triune God. In John 17:24, Jesus speaks of how the Father loved Him even before the creation of the world. That is the triune, living God: a Father, whose very being has eternally been about loving His Son, pouring out the Spirit of love and life on Him. Here is a God who is love, who is so full of life and blessing that for eternity He has been overflowing with it. As the Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes put it: “Such a goodness is in God as is in a fountain, or in the breast that loves to ease itself of milk.” Here in the triune God, in other words, is an infinitely satisfying God, one who is the very fountainhead of all goodness, truth, and beauty.

     That means that with the triune God there is great good news. For here is no mean and grasping God, but a Lord of grace and mercy — one, in fact, who offers a salvation sweeter than any non-triune God could ever imagine.

     Just imagine for a moment a single-person god. Having been alone for eternity, would it want fellowship with us? It seems most unlikely. Would it even know what fellowship was? Almost certainly not. Such a god might allow us to live under its rule and protection, but little more. Think of the uncertain hope of the Muslim or the Jehovah’s Witness: they may finally attain paradise, but even there they will have no real fellowship with their god. Their god would not want it.

     But if God is a Father, whose very life has been about loving and delighting in His precious Son, then you begin to see a God who would have far more intimate and marvelous aims, aims to draw us into His life and joy, to embrace us with the very love He has for His dear Son.

     Indeed, this God does not offer some kind of “he loves me, he loves me not” relationship whereby I have to try to keep myself in His favor by behaving impeccably. No, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12) — and so with the security to enjoy His love forever.

     The eternally beloved Son comes to us to share with us the very love that the Father has always lavished on Him. He comes to share with us and bring us into the life that is His, that we might be brought before the Most High, not just as forgiven sinners, but as dearly beloved children who share by the Spirit the Son’s own “Abba!” cry.

     In other words, the God who is infinitely more beautiful than all the gods of human religion offers an infinitely more beautiful salvation. Here is a God who can win back wandering hearts by the mere opening of eyes to who He is, who can give the deepest hope and comfort to the stumbling saint.

     The Trinity, then, is not some awkward add-on to God, the optional extra nobody should want. No, God is beautiful, desirable, and life-giving precisely because He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Only here can be found the God who is love and who shares with us His very own life and joy. Only here can be found the God whom it is eternal life to know.

     John Calvin once wrote that if we try to think about God without thinking about the Father, Son, and Spirit, then “only the bare and empty name of God flits about in our brains, to the exclusion of the true God.” Quite so, and that means that if we content ourselves with speaking of God vaguely or abstractly, without the Father, Son, and Spirit, we will never know the life, beauty, and comfort of knowing the true God.

     Here and here alone is the God for whom our hearts were made, the God who can win our hearts away from the desires that enslave us, the God who is endlessly, unsurpassably satisfying.

Click here to go to source

     Dr. Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in Oxford, England. He is the featured teacher on the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans. Michael Reeves Books:

Discipling Every Age

By Brad Waller 2/01/2014

     For the first time in the history of our country, four generations are living and working together. There are the Traditionalists (born 1925–1945), the Baby Boomers (1946–1964), Generation X (1965–1980), and the next demographic explosion, the Millennials (1981–1999). Each of these generations has been uniquely influenced by the world in which they were raised.

     The Traditionalists lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. Baby Boomers were introduced to the television during their birth years. Generation X was influenced by the arrival of twenty-four-hour cable news, where they witnessed the harsh effects of life in a fallen world at all hours of the day and night. The Millennials are growing up in a “virtual world” of social media, online classes, and technologies that seem to update by the hour.

     With such generational diversity and all the challenges that come with reaching each demographic, how can the church effectively disciple each of these groups in a way that honors Christ?

     Our tendency is to want and shape ministries that address each demographic differently. But the human condition is the same no matter when we were born. The wages of sin do not vary according to age.

     Therefore, whatever may be the particular challenges of presenting the gospel to each generation, they are overshadowed by the factors held in common with every generation.

     Donald Gray Barnhouse said:

     Man is the same today that he has always been. He is a rebel against God. He may, in some generations, hide his rebellion a little more carefully than at other times, but there is no change in his heart. The men who built the city against God back in the days of Babylon had the same hatred as that which possessed the men who nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross.

     So the task of the church is the same, regardless of age or generational differences, and that task was given to the Apostles by Our Lord Jesus:

     Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:19–20)

     Discipleship is the process whereby we seek to teach others the Word of God. Notice that the Great Commission is not only to teach people God’s commands, but to teach them to “observe” or “obey” all that He commanded. There is a world of difference between teaching someone everything the Lord commanded and teaching them to obey everything He commanded. One is through words, the other through a way of life. Teaching someone to obey God’s commands requires intentionality in the context of relationship throughout the span of a lifetime.

     Even though the word discipleship is never used in the Bible, Jesus embodied discipleship in all He said and did when He came and dwelt among us. He was, literally, the Word made flesh (John 1:14). As we study how Jesus interacted with others in this fallen world, we learn what discipleship looks like.

     The disciples were taught to obey God’s Word by what they heard Jesus teach, but just as important, by what they saw Jesus do. The Master Discipler never instructed His disciples to do anything He had not done first. The one who told His disciples to “go” (Matt. 28:19) was the one who went from His Father “into the world” (John 16:28). The one who said “the first shall be last” (Matt. 20:16) was the very one who washed the feet of His disciples (Luke 13:1–17). And the one who through Paul told them to “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3) was the one who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v. 8).

     Our call to discipleship is a call to follow our Lord’s example before others. As we seek to live obediently by God’s grace, we teach others. Even our struggles demonstrate to those around us that truly it is by grace alone through faith alone that we are saved.

     Our sojourn in this fallen world is from cradle to grave. The lessons we learn at every stage are the very lessons we pass on to others (2 Tim. 2:2). Therefore, children need parents who seek to embody the gospel in their homes daily through loving relationships and family devotions. Teenagers need parents and older church members to share how they have experienced the great doctrines of the Bible. College students who have come from broken homes must learn from spiritually mature men and women how to be godly husbands and wives, fathers, and mothers. Young families look to every church member to fulfill their baptismal vow of assisting in the Christian nurture of their child by teaching Sunday school and working in the nursery. Discipleship is for all stages of life.

     Through the power of the Holy Spirit, may we endeavor to effectively disciple every age with the unchanging Word of God.

Click here to go to source

     Rev. Brad Waller is senior pastor of Grace Church of the Islands in Savannah, Ga. He served at Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Ga., for six years.

How To Die Welll

By F. Watson

     Death doth not bring about an end of being, but only a change of state; it is not a goal but a gate. Of what infinite importance is it that we should die well! Is it not wise to learn how to do that which it is of infinite importance to do well?

     I. Unless our death be sudden and unexpected, there will come to us all a moment when we shall realize that our life on earth is over, and that our last moments have come. Now it is plain that the time, the circumstances, the causes of our death are beyond our power. There is one thing—and that the essential thing—within it. It matters comparatively little when or where we die, and these things are decided for us. It is of infinite importance how we die, and that depends on ourselves.

     II. What, then, is the secret of dying well? The secret is no secret for us, i.e. it is a secret which has been revealed long ago: to die well, the hand of the dying man must clasp the hand of the Lord of Life. This is the one thing needful for us all. Gaining that, we have not lived in vain, whatever we have lost. Losing that, though we have gained the whole world, better were it for us that we had not been born. That our dying hand should grasp the living Christ’s, or better still that His hand should grasp ours—this should be our life-long aim, longing, and prayer.

     III. Die a penitent and you cannot die ill. One would wish to be prepared for the last difficult steps of our journey by the ministrations of the Church—to be encouraged to make acts of faith and hope, and love, to have our wandering gaze constantly directed to that Lamb of God Who takes away our sins. The conclusion to be drawn from this is plain. We ought to live as men who have to die some day and may die any day. The thought ‘Can I meet Jesus thus?’ should be a continual restraint to us in our business and our pleasure, in our sorrows and in our joys.

F. WATSON, The Christian Life Here and Hereafter, a Selection from the Sermons of F. Watson, Ed. by C. B. Drake, p. 207.

Defining Marriage

By Joe Carter 2/01/2014

     Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” “Five,” his audience would invariably answer. “No,” he’d politely respond, “the correct answer is four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

     Like Lincoln’s associates, many of our fellow citizens — including many Christians — appear to fall for the notion that changing a definition causes a change in essence. A prime example is the attempt to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions. Simply calling such relationships “gay marriages,” many believe, will actually make them marriages. Such reasoning, however, is as flawed as thinking that changing tail to leg changes the function of the appendage.

     Consider the change that must occur in our tail/leg example. A dog’s tail cannot perform the same functions as its leg. He can’t use his tail to run or swim or scratch an itch. In order to use the term for both parts, we must discard all qualities that make a tail different from a leg. The new meaning of leg will require that we exclude any difference of form (for example, we can no longer say that a paw can be found at the end of a leg) or function (for example, legs are not necessarily used for standing). In other words, by redefining the term tail we have not made it equivalent in form or function to a leg; we’ve merely stripped the term leg of its previous meaning and made it as generic a term as appendage.

     The same is true with the attempts to redefine marriage. Because marriage requires the specific form of a union of man and woman (Gen. 2:24), applying the term to same-sex unions alters the very concept of what a marriage is for and what functions it takes.

     For example, a significant percentage of people in same-sex sexual partnerships do not view monogamy or sexual exclusivity as part of the meaning of marriage. They may still use the term monogamy, but they have redefined that term too, in a way that means “monogamish,” that is, relationships in which they are emotionally intimate with only one partner yet remain free to engage in sexual infidelities or group sexual activity. Changing the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions does not make it more inclusive, but rather more exclusive, since it requires excluding all the functions that were previously believed to be essential to the institution of marriage (for example, sexual fidelity).

     Some Christians, recognizing the change that occurs because of the redefinition of marriage, argue that we need a two-track system: marriage as defined by the state and marriage as defined by the church. The problem with this view is that it also misunderstands the nature of marriage. Neither the state nor the church has the authority to change the essential nature of marriage, since the institution was neither created by nor belongs to either the church or the state. As Dr. R.C. Sproul wrote in a previous issue of Tabletalk (June 2013):

     Marriage is ordained and instituted by God—that is to say, marriage did not just spring up arbitrarily out of social conventions or human taboos. Marriage was not invented by men but by God.

     Because the three institutions of church, state, and marriage have interdependent yet independent existence, they can decide whether to recognize each other’s legitimacy, but they cannot delineate each other’s boundaries. In this way, the relationship is similar to nation-states. The U.S. government, for example, can decide to “recognize” the state of Israel, but it cannot redefine the country in a way that contracts its border to exclude the Gaza Strip. The U.S. either recognizes Israel as it defines itself or it rejects its legitimacy altogether.

     Some Christians may even concede that while the state doesn’t truly have the authority to redefine marriage, we should go along with the legal fiction for the sake of the gospel witness. Although such Christians may have the best of intentions, they are actually subverting the very gospel they want to protect.

     In acceding to laws that redefine marriage, they are doing the very opposite of what Jesus calls us to do: they are hating their neighbors, including their gay and lesbian neighbors. You do not love your neighbor by encouraging them to engage in actions that invoke God’s wrath (Ps. 5:4–5; Rom. 1:18). As Christians, we may be required to tolerate ungodly behavior, but the moment we begin to endorse it, we too become suppressors of the truth. You cannot love your neighbor and want to see them excluded from the kingdom of Christ (Eph. 5:5).

     What is needed is for the church to have the courage to speak the truth of the gospel: we cannot love our neighbor and tolerate unrepentant rebellion against God. We cannot continue with the “go along to get along” mentality that is leading those we love to destruction. We must speak the Word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31) and accept the fact that those who have fallen away may not ever return. We must choose this day whom we will serve. Will we stand with the only wise God or with the foolish idol-makers of same-sex marriage?

Click here to go to source

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, the editor of the NIV, Lifehacks Bible, Hardcover: Practical Tools for Successful Spiritual Habits, and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator. He serves as an elder at Grace Hill Church in Herndon, Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter.

Preaching the Wrath of God

By Steven Lawson 2/01/2014

     The Genevan Reformer John Calvin said, “Preaching is the public exposition of Scripture by the man sent from God, in which God Himself is present in judgment and in grace.” Faithful pulpit ministry requires the declaration of both judgment and grace. The Word of God is a sharp, two-edged sword that softens and hardens, comforts and afflicts, saves and damns.

     The preaching of divine wrath serves as a black velvet backdrop that causes the diamond of God’s mercy to shine brighter than ten thousand suns. It is upon the dark canvas of divine wrath that the splendor of His saving grace most fully radiates. Preaching the wrath of God most brilliantly showcases His gracious mercy toward sinners.

     Like trumpeters on the castle wall warning of coming disaster, preachers must proclaim the full counsel of God. Those who stand in pulpits must preach the whole body of truth in the Scriptures, which includes both sovereign wrath and supreme love. They cannot pick and choose what they want to preach. Addressing the wrath of God is never optional for a faithful preacher—it is a divine mandate.

     Tragically, preaching that deals with God’s impending judgment is absent from many contemporary pulpits. Preachers have become apologetic regarding the wrath of God, if not altogether silent. In order to magnify the love of God, many argue, the preacher must downplay His wrath. But to omit God’s wrath is to obscure His amazing love. Strangely enough, it is merciless to withhold the declaration of divine vengeance.

     Why is preaching divine wrath so necessary? First, the holy character of God demands it. An essential part of God’s moral perfection is His hatred of sin. A.W. Pink asserts, “The wrath of God is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin.” God is “a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29) who “feels indignation every day” (Ps. 7:11) toward the wicked. God has “hated wickedness” (45:7) and is angered toward all that is contrary to His perfect character. He will, therefore, “destroy” (5:6) sinners in the Day of Judgment.

     Every preacher must declare the wrath of God or marginalize His holiness, love, and righteousness. Because God is holy, He is separated from all sin and utterly opposed to every sinner. Because God is love, He delights in purity and must, of necessity, hate all that is unholy. Because God is righteous, He must punish the sin that violates His holiness.

     Second, the ministry of the prophets demands it. The prophets of old frequently proclaimed that their hearers, because of their continual wickedness, were storing up for themselves the wrath of God (Jer. 4:4). In the Old Testament, more than twenty words are used to describe the wrath of God, and these words are used in their various forms a total of 580 times. Time and again, the prophets spoke with vivid imagery to describe God’s wrath unleashed upon wickedness. The last of the prophets, John the Baptist, spoke of “the wrath to come” (Matt. 3:7). From Moses to the forerunner of Christ, there was a continual strain of warning to the impenitent of the divine fury that awaits.

     Third, the preaching of Christ demands it. Ironically, Jesus had more to say about divine wrath than anyone else in the Bible. Our Lord spoke about God’s wrath more than He spoke of God’s love. Jesus warned about “fiery hell” (Matt. 5:22) and eternal “destruction” (7:13) where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (8:12). Simply put, Jesus was a hellfire and damnation preacher. Men in pulpits would do well to follow the example of Christ in their preaching.

     Fourth, the glory of the cross demands it. Christ suffered the wrath of God for all who would call upon Him. If there is no divine wrath, there is no need for the cross, much less for the salvation of lost souls. From what would sinners need to be saved? It is only when we recognize the reality of God’s wrath against those deserving of judgment that we find the cross to be such glorious news. Too many pulpiteers today boast in having a cross-centered ministry but rarely, if ever, preach divine wrath. This is a violation of the cross itself.

     Fifth, the teaching of the Apostles demands it. Those directly commissioned by Christ were mandated to proclaim all that He commanded (Matt. 28:20). This necessitates proclaiming God’s righteous indignation toward sinners. The Apostle Paul warns unbelievers of the “God who inflicts wrath” (Rom. 3:5) and declares that only Jesus can “deliver us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). Peter writes about “the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Pet. 3:7). Jude addresses the “punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). John describes “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). Clearly, the New Testament writers recognized the necessity of preaching God’s wrath.

     Preachers must not shrink away from proclaiming the righteous anger of God toward hell-deserving sinners. God has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). That day is looming on the horizon. Like the prophets and Apostles, and even Christ Himself, we too must warn unbelievers of this coming dreadful day and compel them to flee to Christ, who alone is mighty to save.

Click here to go to source

     Per Amazon | Dr. Steven J. Lawson is founder and president of OnePassion Ministries, a ministry designed to bring about a new reformation in the church. He is a teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries, director of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master's Seminary, and a visiting professor in the Doctor of Ministry program at the Ligonier Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies.

     Steven Lawson  |  Go to Books Page

Read The Psalms In "1" Year

Psalm 106

Give Thanks to the LORD, for He Is Good
106

106:1 Praise the LORD!
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD,
or declare all his praise?
3 Blessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!

4 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people;
help me when you save them,
5 that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance.

6 Both we and our fathers have sinned;
we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

ESV Study Bible

The Coming of the Kingdom part 35

By Dr. Andrew Woods 03/20/2015

We began scrutinizing New Testament texts that "kingdom now" theologians employ in an attempt to argue that the kingdom is a present reality in order to show that none of these passages teach a present form of the kingdom. We have examined the typical texts from the Gospels,  Acts, Paul's letters, the general epistles, and  Revelation used by "kingdom now" theologians. At this point, we largely find ourselves in agreement with the following statement by E.R. Craven. Concerning "the passages which have been referred to as proving the doctrine of a present establishment" and "those passages which, it is alleged, logically imply a present establishment of the Basileia," Craven notes, "There is no critically undisputed passage in the Scriptures which declares, or necessarily implies, even a partial establishment in New Testament times." [1] In this and the next installment, we will begin to take a look at some other miscellaneous arguments used by "kingdom now" theologians.

Argument From Silence

Since the biblical text itself fails to positively teach or convey the notion of a present spiritual establishment of the messianic kingdom of God, it is common for "kingdom now" theologians to appeal to an argument from silence. According to this line of thought, since the New Testament fails to mention or emphasize a future earthly kingdom, then the promise of a future terrestrial rule of Christ has somehow been cancelled. Since this promise of a future earthly reign of Christ is cancelled, due to this alleged silence, the Bible's kingdom promises are being fulfilled now in the present Church Age. Amillennialist and "Kingdom Now" and Replacement Theologian Bruce Waltke makes this common argument:

Not one clear New Testament passage mentions the restoration of Israel as a political nation or predicts an earthly reign of Christ before His final appearing. None depicts the consummate glory of Christ as an earthly king ruling over the restored nation of Israel. The silence is deafening. [2]

Knox Seminary resorts to the same argument. According to a document entitled "The Knox Seminary Open Letter to Evangelicals":

Instructively, this same Simon Peter, the Apostle to the Circumcision, says nothing about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel in the land of Palestine...No New Testament writer foresees a regathering of ethnic Israel in the land, as did the prophets of the Old Testament after the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. [3]

Regarding "Kingdom Now" theologians (or Christian anti-Zionists), Bruce Scott observes how they:

...use a fallacious argument from silence to prove their point. They falsely assume their position on the holy land is true simply because the New Testament writers spoke so infrequently of God's land promises to Israel and Israel's restoration to its land. On one occasion, when confronted about his argument from silence, Gary Burge countered, "It is such a loud silence." [4]

For the sake of discussion, let us assume that Bruce Waltke, Knox Seminary, and Gary Burge are all correct in their assessment that the New Testament is silent on the matter of Christ's future earthly rule. Is it true that subsequent silence on a prior subject is the same thing as a cancellation of it? Such thinking represents a logical fallacy known as an "argument from silence" where it is incorrectly assumed that silence on a matter is the same thing as a cancellation of it. For example, suppose I, as a professor, inform my students on the course syllabus of the date of the final exam. If I fail to mention the final exam's date again throughout the course of the semester, would my students be justified in concluding that the final exam has now been cancelled? In other words, is subsequent verbal silence about the final exam throughout the course of the semester the same thing as canceling what the original syllabus indicates concerning the final? Of course not. The syllabus says what it says and is to be followed unless I as the professor expressly alter it verbally in the presence of my students. In the same way, it cannot be presupposed that New Testament silence somehow cancels Old Testament predictions and promises.

If the New Testament somewhere expressly canceled the Old Testament earthly kingdom promises, then "kingdom now" theology would be valid. However, the great problem for the "kingdom now" theologian is that there is nothing overt in the New Testament that cancels these future kingdom promises, thereby forcing the "kingdom now" theologian to rely upon alleged New Testament silence or its lack of emphasis on the topic. Arnold Fruchtenbaum makes this very point in his critique of Replacement Theologian Stephen Sizer:

Furthermore, the New Testament does not have to mention something specific from the Old Testament to maintain that the Old Testament promise is ongoing. What the author needs is a clear statement that says all the Land Promises have been fulfilled in at least a spiritual way, but this does not exist in the New Testament. [5]

Paul Feinberg further explains:

Why should something that is clearly a matter of Old Testament revelation have to be repeated in the New Testament for it to have continuing validity? Should not the very opposite be the case? Should not the promises of the Old Testament be regarded as still in effect unless the New Testament states otherwise? [6]

Thus, it is incorrect to assume that God must declare something twice, both in the Old and New Testaments, for it to be valid. God need only articulate something once for it to be valid. If God declares His earthly kingdom promises in the Old Testament alone, that is enough to establish their validity. This is especially true considering that it is impossible for God to lie ( Num. 23:19; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18 ).

The New Testament's Focus

Beyond this, why should we expect the New Testament to repeat exactly what was already revealed in the Old Testament? Would not such an expectation be an exercise in redundancy? If the New Testament simply repeated the very kingdom promises found in the Old Testament, why would we need a New Testament, or even an Old Testament for that matter? Moreover, there is a very good reason why the earthly kingdom promises do not receive the same expansive coverage that they have already received in the Old Testament. This reason has to do with the fact that in the New Testament, the Church is the center of salvation history and God's redemptive program. In the New Testament, God is not using Israel, as He did in Old Testament times and as He will use Israel again in the Tribulation period and millennial kingdom. Rather, in the New Testament age, the Church has become His vehicle to reach a lost and dying world. Since the Church is a mystery ( Eph. 3:3, 9 ), or unrevealed in the prior age ( Rom. 16:25-26; Col. 1:26 ), it would stand to reason that the New Testament authors would spend the bulk of their writings explaining this new spiritual organism rather than merely repeating what the Old Testament had already revealed concerning national Israel. Price explains:

However, there are good reasons why the promise of Israel's national restoration, so often stated in the Old Testament, would not be repeated in the New Testament. First, the Old Testament, as the Bible of the early church, already contained sufficient instruction on the subject, and New Testament authors would have assumed this doctrine and expected their audiences to understand it from the Old Testament text. The frequent citations and allusions to the Old Testament by New Testament authors demonstrate that the Old Testament had priority as the first authoritative revelation of God containing everything necessary to understand the divine program, which had its fulfillment in Christ...The New Testament was not written to replace the Old Testament, but to add new revelation that attended to the coming Messiah and the formation of the church. Therefore, the New Testament does not need to repeat Old Testament revelation concerning national Israel, but builds upon it by explaining the relationship between Israel and the church....While the New Testament does not change the original intent of its authors, who wrote about Israel's future restoration in the land, neither does it feel compelled to repeat what was already taught and understood in Scripture...Second, the New Testament does not put Israel in a central position, as does the Old Testament, because the church has become the central position in salvation history. The New Testament epistles are written for the instruction of the church, and therefore should not be expected to include discussions about Israel's restoration. [7]
The New Testament's Reaffirmation Of The Land Promises

Furthermore, the "kingdom now" theologian is wrong in assuming that the New Testament is completely silent on the subject of the restoration of Israel's terrestrial kingdom promises. While not emphasizing this truth to the same degree as is found in the pages of the Old Testament, the New Testament still affirms this truth in several places. For example, Luke 21:24 says, "...Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (italics added). The mere existence of the preposition "until" (achri) implies a time when Gentile dominion over Jerusalem will come to an end and Israel will be restored to her rightful place of rulership over the nations. Other verses revealing a future earthly kingdom will be highlighted in our next installment.

Continue Reading (Part 36 on Sept 26 web page)

ENDNOTES
[1] E.R. Craven, "Excursus on the Basileia," in The Revelation of John (A commentary on the Holy Scriptures ... by J.P. Lange ... Tr. from the German, rev., enl., and ed. by P. Schaff) (New York: Scribner, 1874), 97.
[2] Bruce K. Waltke, "Kingdom Promises as Spiritual," in Continuity and Discontinuity (Essays in Honor of S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.): Perspectives on the Relationship Between the Old and New Testaments, ed. John S. Feinberg (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1988), 273.
[3] http://www.bible-researcher.com/openletter.html
[4] Bruce Scott, "Christian Anti-Zionism: On the Wrong Side of History, Justice, and the Bible," Israel My Glory, January/February 2014, 33.
[5] Arnold Fruchtenbaum, "Israel's Right to the Holy Land," online: http://www.pre-trib.org/articles/view/israelsright-to-promised-land, accessed 4 February 2015, p. 21.
[6] Paul D. Feinberg, "Hermeneutics of Discontinuity," in Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Relationship between the Old and New Testaments, ed. John S. Feinberg (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1988), 124.
[7] J. Randall Price, The Temple and Bible Prophecy: A Definitive Look at Its Past, Present, and Future (Eugene, OR: Harvest, 2005), 596.

     Dr. Andrew Woods Books

Note I copied this article from The Bible Prophecy Blog.

Dr. Andrew Woods Ministry Page, YouTube Channel, and Church.

By John Walvoord (1990)

Prophecy In  2 Thessalonians

     The young church at Thessalonica, since they had received Paul’s first letter, had experienced false teaching on the part of some who came to visit the church. In addition to the persecutions they were facing from unbelievers, they now were dealing also with confusion and division in their midst. To remedy this situation, Paul wrote this epistle reminding them of what he had taught them when he was there and giving them further instruction on the major subject of the day of the Lord and the man of lawlessness.

The Coming Judgment of the Wicked and Reward of the Righteous

     2 Thessalonians 1:5–10. Because the Thessalonian church was experiencing persecution from unbelievers, Paul assured them that, on the one hand, the righteous will be rewarded in the future and, on the other hand, the wicked will be punished. Paul wrote, “All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well” (vv.  5–7 ). The truth that God will judge all men sometime in the future is taught in Scripture, but such a program is a comfort and a strength to those undergoing persecution because, on the one hand, they know that God will deal with their persecutors in judgment and, on the other hand, that they will be rewarded and blessed.

     Our expectation appears in the further details that Paul gave when he stated that God will “give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (vv.  7–9 ).

     Scripture reveals that there are several times when God deals in direct judgment on the world. Some of this will occur in what is referred to as the great tribulation, the forty-two-month period before the second coming. Some will occur at the second coming of Christ when people, living in the world who rebel against God and have not put their trust in Christ, will be judged unworthy of the millennial kingdom and be purged out. A further judgment is recorded in Revelation 20:11–15 where the wicked dead will be raised and judged. This is the final judgment.

     The problem that some have with this passage is that the wicked unbelievers who are persecuting the Thessalonian church will not receive their final punishment until the judgment of the great white throne (vv.  11–15 ). Those who are punished at the time of Christ’s second coming will be those living at the time who are unbelievers, but will not include those who persecuted the Thessalonian church who, of course, have died. The exact time is not indicated here because there are several periods of divine judgment.

     The Thessalonians were assured that, in God’s time and in God’s way, those who persecute them will be punished, including their being shut out from the Lord. Because neither Paul nor the Thessalonian Christians knew when the Lord was coming, they could gather from this revelation the assurance that the wicked would be taken care of in God’s program, whether sooner or later.

     A further difficulty in explaining this passage is that this destruction is linked to the day of the Lord’s glorification. According to  2 Thessalonians 1:10, the punishment of the wicked will be “on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (v.  10 ).

     The Lord will come at different times in the future program and will be glorified. He, first of all, was glorified when He went to heaven following His period on earth. He will be glorified and His majesty will be revealed also at the second coming when the world will be put under His power and judgment, and those who have trusted Him, referred to here as “his holy people,” will be glorified. The glory of Christ again will be manifest at the end of the millennial kingdom at the great white throne judgment when He deals with the wicked dead and commits them to eternal punishment. Accordingly, the prophecy must be taken as not referring to a specific moment in the future program but to the fact that in the course of these various fulfillments of prophecy the wicked will be judged and Christ will be glorified.

The Coming of the Day of the Lord in Relation to the Rapture

      2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. In  1 Thessalonians 5, the apostle had pointed out to the  Thessalonians that the day of the Lord would begin at the time of the rapture and that it would be a time period in which God deals in direct judgment in the world before the second coming and at the time of the second coming as well as in the millennial kingdom. In all this, God will deal directly with human sin, in contrast to His withholding judgment in the present age.

     The false teachers had come to the Thessalonians, however, and told them they were already in the day of the Lord, contradicting Paul’s teaching, unsettling and alarming the Thessalonian church because they had understood Paul to say that they would not be in this period. Accordingly, Paul attempted to correct this difficulty by pointing out that the major events of the day of the Lord had not occurred and that there was no evidence that the day had already begun.

     The problem was stated in the opening verses of  2 Thessalonians 2: “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (vv.  1–4 ).

     In approaching the interpretation of these verses, distinction must be made between the concept of the day of the Lord beginning at a specific moment and the major events of the day of the Lord coming that will occur some time after it has begun. The parallel is the ordinary twenty-four-hour period. The day actually begins at midnight, but no activity marks the day until one is raised from sleep to greet the morning. Then as the events of the day unfold, it is evident that a new day has come. The time period, accordingly, begins before the major events of the period come.

     The same is true of the day of the Lord. The time period begins at the rapture of the church, but the major events do not come immediately. However, if the day of the Lord has progressed very far, there will be unmistakable signs that they are in the day of the Lord.

     Paul, accordingly, warned the church not to be deceived by any report that is received from him, a forged letter or report, because he did not send it. His view was expressed in his first letter to them, which dated the day of the Lord as following the rapture.

     The reasons why Paul was sure they were not in the day of the Lord was that there were no signs of it. One of the major signs will be the emergence of a human leader, “the man of lawlessness” referred to as the “little horn” of  Daniel 7:8, who according to  Daniel’s prophecies, will bring together ten countries in a political confederacy that will be located in the Middle East. For a careful Bible student, he would be recognized at once when the event takes place seven years before the second coming because  Daniel described him as first conquering three countries and then, apparently, all the remaining seven (vv.  8, 24–25 ). His prominence will be progressive. As there was no sign of his existence, it was proof that the day of the Lord had not begun.

     As  Daniel stated, in addition to conquering the ten countries, he eventually “will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it” (v.  23 ). Before he conquers the world, after he has gained control of these ten countries, he will make a covenant with Israel, apparently settling peacefully the problems that exist between Israel and her neighbors ( 9:27 ). Though the details of this covenant are not revealed, it is clear from verse  27 that it will be planned to last for seven years, that it will be observed for the first three and a half years and then broken, making Israel the object of his persecution in the second half of the seven years, which will culminate in the second coming of Christ.

     There will be unmistakable evidence then that they are in the day of the Lord, which comes by stages: first, when the ruler conquers three, then ten countries, then makes a seven-year covenant with Israel, observes it for three and a half years, and then breaks it and desecrates the temple and persecutes the people of Israel. None of these events had occurred. Many Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments give further details on this process of fulfilled prophecy.

     Paul’s argument, accordingly, was that the Thessalonians had no proof at all that they were in the day of the Lord, and as a matter of fact, this was contrary to what he had taught them when he was with them.

     The key to the whole program of the day of the Lord at its beginning is this “man of lawlessness,” who may be identified with the “little horn” of  Daniel 7:8 and the “ruler who will come” of  9:26, who prior to the second coming of Christ will desecrate the temple and become himself the object of terrible judgments from God as defined in  Revelation 6–18. The “man of lawlessness” may also be identified as the ruler mentioned in  Daniel 11:36–39 and as the beast out of the sea ( Rev. 13:1–10 ). The “man of lawlessness” will become a world conqueror for forty-two months (vv.  5–7 ), and he will be the persecutor of Israel in the last forty-two-month period with countless martyrs (Rev.  7:9–17 ).

     In addition to the appearance of this man in fulfilling prophecies related to him that had not yet occurred, Paul pointed also to the fact that the one who is helping to restrain sin in the world, most probably a reference to the Holy Spirit, has not been “taken out of the way” ( 2 Thess. 2:7 ). This will occur at the rapture when the church indwelt by the Spirit will be removed. It is evident from Scripture that God uses various means to restrain sin in the world, one of them being the presence of the Holy Spirit. Though the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and cannot be removed from the earth in the sense of restricting His access to the world, His retraining ministry apparently will be limited during the end time, and God will allow the wickedness of the wicked to have full display. This will begin after the rapture. As the “man of lawlessness” will be revealed at least seven years before the second coming, the rapture, which removes the Holy Spirit, must occur before the seven years begin. Hence, the fact that the rapture had not taken place was another evidence that the teachers who had told them they were already in the day of the Lord were teaching false doctrine.

     At the time of the second coming the lawless one will be destroyed (v.  8; Rev. 19:20 ). Though his miraculous signs will deceive those who do not want to believe in Jesus as Savior, the prophecy states that they will perish because they do not “love the truth” ( 2 Thess. 2:10 ). It is possible that some who are here worshipping the beast were unbelievers at the time of the rapture of the church, and because of their settled unbelief against Jesus Christ, they were allowed to believe the lie rather than the truth and of course, receive the judgment that this merits (vv.  10–12 ).

     It is quite illuminating that the Thessalonian church early in the church age experienced what today is called posttribulationism, the idea that the rapture occurs after the day of the Lord has begun. Posttribulationism usually makes the rapture a phase of the second coming of Christ to set up His kingdom. It is clear that Paul denied this teaching and affirmed that the day of the Lord, which includes the activities of the future world ruler, must follow rather than precede the rapture of the church. Though it is a popular view that the rapture will be a part of the second coming, those who hold this view, generally speaking, are not able to assign specific fulfillments of prophecy in the period that precedes the second coming in spite of the fact that there are so many detailed prophecies at the second coming that require fulfillment. Paul obviously wanted the Thessalonians to have the challenge of believing that Christ would come at any time for them and the assurance that this event had not already occurred.

Protection from the Evil One

     2 Thessalonians 3:1–5. In view of the problems of being easily deceived by false teachers as well as other problems in the Christian life, Paul requested prayer that he and his companions “may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith” (v.  2 ). As Paul anticipated God’s faithfulness meeting his needs in answer to prayer, he also had confidence that the Thessalonian church would be strengthened and protected from the evil one (v.  3 ). His prayer for the Thessalonians was that they would continue in God’s love and continue to serve the Lord (vv.  4–5 ).

Prophecy In  1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon

     The pastoral letters to Timothy do not contain much prophecy, as the problems with Timothy related to other areas of biblical truth. When prophecy is mentioned, however, it is in harmony with other portions of Scripture.

The Coming Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ

     1 Timothy 6:14. In connection with Paul’s charge to Timothy to obey God and to have his testimony “without spot or blame” (v.  14 ), Paul viewed the Lord Jesus Christ as the final judge of this situation, who will judge Timothy at the time of His appearing. Though Christ will not appear to the entire world until the time of His second coming, He obviously will appear to those who are raptured in the period before these end-time events. At that time, Timothy’s exemplary life will be evaluated. The Christian life has its completion at the time of Christ’s coming.

The Apostasy to Come

     2 Timothy 3:1–9. In Paul’s final epistle addressed to Timothy, a detailed revelation was given concerning the extent of the departure, or apostasy, from Christ in the latter times. Paul stated, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (vv.  1–5 ).

     In this detailed analysis of the wickedness of the human heart, Paul was referring, of course, to those who were unsaved, who may have a form of religion but turn away from it to manifest their true character. Apostasy, of course, was already present in the time that Paul lived, but with the progress of the present age, in spite of the dissemination of the truth and the availability of Scripture, the world undoubtedly will continue to follow the sinful description that the apostle Paul gave here.

     Paul gave further description of the character of the apostates: “They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone” (vv.  6–9 ).

     The apostasy that existed in Timothy’s day, and has continued to be manifest in human history, is in contrast to the testimony of Christians. Paul characterized his life as being one of “faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings” (vv.  10–11 ). By contrast to the way of the wicked, Timothy also had been taught the Holy Scriptures from infancy (v. 15). Paul closed with the great affirmation, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv.  16–17 ).

          __________________________________________________________________

Every Prophecy of the Bible: Clear Explanations for Uncertain Times

The Continual Burnt Offering (1 Corinthians 3:16)

By H.A. Ironside - 1941

September 25
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?    ESV

     Individually each believer’s body is spoken of as a temple of the Holy Spirit, as in 1 Corinthians 6:19. Collectively, the entire church is called “the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16). This is the building of living stones (1 Peter 2:5), the house of God (Hebrews 3:6; 1 Timothy 3:15), the habitation in which He dwells and through which He reveals Himself to the world (Ephesians 2:20-22). We read in Psalm 93:5, “Holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.” So, whether as individuals or in our collective capacity, we are responsible to walk before God in holiness and righteousness, controlled by His Spirit who dwells within us.

     The Holy Spirit in the believer is grieved by any careless behavior or intemperate indulgences which war against the soul; and so long as He is thus grieved He is not free to carry on His special ministry of taking the things of Christ and making them real to us.


1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

1 Peter 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 3:6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

1 Timothy 3:15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.


Psalm 93:5 Your decrees are very trustworthy;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, forevermore.
  ESV

Created by Omnipotence,
And fashioned by the Only Wise,
Who bade us from the dust arise,
I bow before unerring love,
And humbly say before His throne,
“Thine am I, Lord, and not my own.”
Created now anew in Christ,
By faith in His atoning death,
And quickened by the Spirit’s breath
I own God’s two-fold in-wrought claim,
And gladly say without reserve,
“Thine am I, Lord, and Thee I serve.”
--- W R. Moore

The Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations on the Word of God


  • Was Darwin Right?
  • Was Hoyle Right?
  • Chapel

#1 Owen Gingerich | Gordon College

 

#2 Owen Gingerich | Gordon College

 

#3 John Perkins | Gordon College

 


     Devotionals, notes, poetry and more

UCB The Word For Today
     Understanding Satan’s role (5)
     (Sept 25)    Bob Gass

     ‘Satan has demanded the right to test each one of you.’

(Lk 22:31) 31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, ESV

     Luke writes: ‘Jesus said, “Simon, listen to me! Satan has demanded the right to test each one of you, as a farmer does when he separates wheat from the husks. But Simon, I have prayed that your faith will be strong. And when you have come back to me, help the others”’ (vv. 31-32 CEV). Satan’s attack proves you have an important part to play in the plan of God. That’s why he’s trying so hard to defeat you. The truth is, the intensity and duration of his attack is an indication of your value to God and the level of blessing that God has planned for you on the other side of the attack. So, if you belong to Christ, view the attack as a sign of respect. And remember Who is in control. Satan needed God’s permission to attack Job. Jesus said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ (Matthew 28:18 NIV 2011 Edition). And this is proof. The purpose of this test is to provide you with a testimony to God’s goodness. Jesus was allowing Peter to experience a trial so that he could encourage his brothers. Perhaps God is doing the same with you. He knows that the church, and the world, need living testimonies of His power. So, your difficulty may be preparing you to be a voice of encouragement to others who are struggling. Remember what Joseph said to his brothers: ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50:20 NASB). Since God loves you and is in control of your life, good things will come from the difficulties you are going through right now.

Is 3-44
Philip 3

UCB The Word For Today

American Minute
     by Bill Federer

     “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thus began the Ten Amendments, or Bill of Rights, which were approved this day, September 25, 1789. They were passed because the Constitution did not limit the powers of the Federal Government enough. Indeed, sixteen of the fifty-five delegates refused to sign the Constitution. Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams even tried to prevent it from being ratified, as the abuses of King George’s concentrated power were still fresh. Only with the promise that ten limitations would be placed on this new Government did the States finally ratify the Constitution.

American Minute
The Soul of Prayer
     by P.T. Forsyth, (1848-1921)


     And so also with the universe itself as we rise in Christ to prayer. Joined with its Redeemer, we are integrated into its universality. We are made members of its vast whole. We are not detained and cramped in a sectional world. We are not planted in the presence of an outside, alien universe, nor in the midst of a distraught, unreconciled universe, which speaks like a crowd, in many fragments and many voices, and drags us from one relation with it to another, with a Lo, here is Christ, or there. But it is a universe wholly vocal to us, really a universe, and vocal as a whole, one congenial and friendly, as it comes to us in its Christ and ours. It was waiting for us—for such a manifestation of the Son of God as prayer is. This world is not now a desert haunted by demons. And it is more than a vestibule to another; it is its prelude in the drama of all things. We know it in another knowledge now than its own. Nature can never be understood by natural knowledge. We know it as science never can—as a whole, and as reality. We know it as we are known of God—altogether, and not in pieces. Having nothing, and praying for everything, we possess all things. The faith that energizes in Christian prayer sets us at the centre of that whole of which Nature is the overture part. The steps of thought and its processes of law fade away. They do not cease to act, but they retire from notice. We grasp the mobile organization of things deep at its constant and trusty heart. We receive the earnest of our salvation—Christ in us.

     There, where one centre reconciles all things,
     The world’s profound heart beats.

     We are planted there. And all the mediation of process becomes immediate in its eternal ground. As we are going there we feel already there. “They were willing to receive Him into the boat, and straightway the boat was at the land whither they were going.” We grasp that eternal life to which all things work, which gives all the waxing organization its being and meaning—for a real organism only grows because it already is. That is the mark of a real life. And soul and person is the greatest organism of all. We apprehend our soul as it is apprehended of God and in God, the timeless God—with all its evolution, past or future, converted into a divine present. We are already all that we are to be. We possess our souls in the prayer which is real communion with God. We enter by faith upon that which to sight and history is but a far future reversion. When He comes to our prayer He brings with Him all that He purposes to make us. We are already the “brave creature” He means us to be. More than our desire is fulfilled—our soul is. In such hour or visitation we realize our soul or person at no one stage of it, but in its fullness, and in the context of its whole and final place in history, the world, and eternity. A phase which has no meaning in itself, yet carries, like the humble mother of a great genius, an eternal meaning in it. And we can seize that meaning in prayer; we can pierce to what we are at our true course and true destiny, i.e. what we are to God’s grace. Laws and injunctions such as “Love your neighbour,” even “Love your enemy,” then become life principles, and they are law pressures no more. The yoke is easy. Where all is forgiven to seventy times seven there is no friction and no grief any more. We taste love and joy. All the pressure of life then goes to form the crystals of faith. It is God making up His jewels.

     When we are in God’s presence by prayer we are right, our will is morally right, we are doing His will. However unsure we may be about other acts and efforts to serve Him we know we are right in this. If we ask truly but ask amiss, it is not a sin, and He will in due course set us right in that respect. We are sure that prayer is according to His will, and that we are just where we ought to be. And that is a great matter for the rightness of our thought, and of the aims and desires proposed by out thoughts. It means much both as to their form and their passion. If we realize that prayer is the acme of our right relation to God, if we are sure that we are never so right with Him in anything we do as in prayer, then prayer must have the greatest effect and value for our life, both in its purpose and its fashion, in its spirit and its tenor. What puts us right morally, right with a Holy God (as prayer does), must have a great shaping power on every part and every juncture of life. And, of course, especially upon the spirit and tenor of our prayer itself, upon the form and complexion of our petition.

     The effect of our awful World War I will be very different on the prayerful and the prayerless. It will be a sifting judgment. It will turn to prayer those who did not pray, and increase the prayer of those who did. But some, whose belief in God grew up only in fair weather and not at the Cross, it will make more sceptical and prayerless than ever, and it will present them with a world more confused and more destitute of a God than before; which can only lead to renewed outbreaks of the same kind as soon as the nations regain strength. The prayerless spirit saps a people’s moral strength because it blunts their thought and conviction of the Holy. It must be so if prayer is such a moral blessing and such a shaping power, if it pass, by its nature, from the vague volume and passion of devotion to formed petition and effort. Prayerlessness is an injustice and a damage to our own soul, and therefore to its history, both in what we do and what we think. The root of all deadly heresy is prayerlessness. Prayer finds our clue in a world otherwise without form and void. And it draws a magic circle round us over which the evil spirits may not pass. “Prayer,” says Vinet, “is like the air of certain ocean isles, which is so pure that there vermin cannot live. We should surround ourselves with this atmosphere, as the diver shuts himself into his bell ere he descends into the deep.”


--- Forsyth, P. T. (1848-1921).

The Soul of Prayer
Lean Into God
     Compiled by Richard S. Adams


     Kingdom praying and its efficacy
is entirely a matter of the innermost heart's
being totally open and honest before God.
It is a matter of what we are saying with our whole being,
moving with resolute intent and clarity of mind
into the flow of God's action.
--- Dallas Willard   The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.
--- Isaac Bashevis Singer

If God can gain glory for Himself from the unjustified murder of His Son, can we not trust Him to somehow glorify Himself in and through the things we struggle with on a daily basis?
--- Charles Stanley   How to Handle Adversity

... from here, there and everywhere

History of the Destruction of Jerusalem
     Thanks to Meir Yona

     3. Now the towers that were upon it were twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in height; they were square and solid, as was the wall itself, wherein the niceness of the joints, and the beauty of the stones, were no way inferior to those of the holy house itself. Above this solid altitude of the towers, which was twenty cubits, there were rooms of great magnificence, and over them upper rooms, and cisterns to receive rain-water. They were many in number, and the steps by which you ascended up to them were every one broad: of these towers then the third wall had ninety, and the spaces between them were each two hundred cubits; but in the middle wall were forty towers, and the old wall was parted into sixty, while the whole compass of the city was thirty-three furlongs. Now the third wall was all of it wonderful; yet was the tower Psephinus elevated above it at the north-west corner, and there Titus pitched his own tent; for being seventy cubits high it both afforded a prospect of Arabia at sun-rising, as well as it did of the utmost limits of the Hebrew possessions at the sea westward. Moreover, it was an octagon, and over against it was the tower Hipplicus, and hard by two others were erected by king Herod, in the old wall. These were for largeness, beauty, and strength beyond all that were in the habitable earth; for besides the magnanimity of his nature, and his magnificence towards the city on other occasions, he built these after such an extraordinary manner, to gratify his own private affections, and dedicated these towers to the memory of those three persons who had been the dearest to him, and from whom he named them. They were his brother, his friend, and his wife. This wife he had slain, out of his love [and jealousy], as we have already related; the other two he lost in war, as they were courageously fighting. Hippicus, so named from his friend, was square; its length and breadth were each twenty-five cubits, and its height thirty, and it had no vacuity in it. Over this solid building, which was composed of great stones united together, there was a reservoir twenty cubits deep, over which there was a house of two stories, whose height was twenty-five cubits, and divided into several parts; over which were battlements of two cubits, and turrets all round of three cubits high, insomuch that the entire height added together amounted to fourscore cubits. The second tower, which he named from his brother Phasaelus, had its breadth and its height equal, each of them forty cubits; over which was its solid height of forty cubits; over which a cloister went round about, whose height was ten cubits, and it was covered from enemies by breast-works and bulwarks. There was also built over that cloister another tower, parted into magnificent rooms, and a place for bathing; so that this tower wanted nothing that might make it appear to be a royal palace. It was also adorned with battlements and turrets, more than was the foregoing, and the entire altitude was about ninety cubits; the appearance of it resembled the tower of Pharus, which exhibited a fire to such as sailed to Alexandria, but was much larger than it in compass. This was now converted to a house, wherein Simon exercised his tyrannical authority. The third tower was Mariamne, for that was his queen's name; it was solid as high as twenty cubits; its breadth and its length were twenty cubits, and were equal to each other; its upper buildings were more magnificent, and had greater variety, than the other towers had; for the king thought it most proper for him to adorn that which was denominated from his wife, better than those denominated from men, as those were built stronger than this that bore his wife's name. The entire height of this tower was fifty cubits.

     4. Now as these towers were so very tall, they appeared much taller by the place on which they stood; for that very old wall wherein they were was built on a high hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that was still thirty cubits taller; over which were the towers situated, and thereby were made much higher to appearance. The largeness also of the stones was wonderful; for they were not made of common small stones, nor of such large ones only as men could carry, but they were of white marble, cut out of the rock; each stone was twenty cubits in length, and ten in breadth, and five in depth. They were so exactly united to one another, that each tower looked like one entire rock of stone, so growing naturally, and afterward cut by the hand of the artificers into their present shape and corners; so little, or not at all, did their joints or connexion appear low as these towers were themselves on the north side of the wall, the king had a palace inwardly thereto adjoined, which exceeds all my ability to describe it; for it was so very curious as to want no cost nor skill in its construction, but was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towers at equal distances, and with large bed-chambers, that would contain beds for a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is not to be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were rare of that kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful, both for the length of the beams, and the splendor of their ornaments. The number of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures that were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and the greatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver and gold. There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, round about, and in each of those porticoes curious pillars; yet were all the courts that were exposed to the air every where green. There were, moreover, several groves of trees, and long walks through them, with deep canals, and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with brazen statues, through which the water ran out. There were withal many dove-courts 11 of tame pigeons about the canals. But indeed it is not possible to give a complete description of these palaces; and the very remembrance of them is a torment to one, as putting one in mind what vastly rich buildings that fire which was kindled by the robbers hath consumed; for these were not burnt by the Romans, but by these internal plotters, as we have already related, in the beginning of their rebellion. That fire began at the tower of Antonia, and went on to the palaces, and consumed the upper parts of the three towers themselves.

          The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, by Flavius Josephus Translator: William Whiston

The War of the Jews: The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem (complete edition, 7 books)
Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)
     David Brown - Jews for Jesus

     Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, is at once solemn and joyful. It is solemn because of the Awe of judgment. It is joyful because it represents the hope of the future redemption of Israel. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the High Holy Days. It falls on the first day of the seventh month, according to the Hebrew calendar (see Leviticus 23:23). It could occur anywhere from the first to the last week of September on the Western calendar. (Sept. 11, in 1999) It ushers in the ten days of repentance leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

     The name "Rosh Hashanah" literally means "Beginning of the Year" You may wonder how this can be, since it is called the first day of the seventh month! The reason is that the Jewish calendar is built on two cycles-the religious calendar beginning in the Spring, and the civil calendar beginning in the Fall. In the Torah, the months are never named but only numbered, beginning with the month of Nisan in the early Spring, which is the first month according to the religious calendar.

     Rosh Hashanah Customs

     Among the many traditions of Rosh Hashanah are:

  Dipping of bread into honey after kiddush and ha-Motzi, as a symbol of the hope that the new year will be sweet.
  Dipping pieces of apple into honey, for the same reason.
  Also, the apple is said to symbolize the Divine Presence.
  Use of round loaf of bread instead of the usual braided hallah. Some say the round shape symbolizes a crown. Avoidance of nuts. This is because the numerical value of the Hebrew word for "nut" is the same as the word for "sin."
  Tashlikh ceremony, in which "sins" are ceremoniously tossed into a river and washed away, as penitential prayers are said.

     The Shofar

     The most obvious distinguishing feature of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn. The Biblical name for this holiday is in fact Zichron Teruah (Remembrance of the shofar blast), or Yom Teruah. (Day of the shofar blast). In some English Bibles it is called The Feast of Trumpets.

     Over a thousand years ago, the great Jewish sage Saadia Gaon came up with ten reasons for sounding the Shofar:

  1.The shofar is associated with the coronation of a King.
  2.The shofar heralds the beginning of the penitential period.
  3.The Torah was given amid blasts of a shofar
  4.The prophets compare their message to blasts of shofar.
  5.It is a reminder of the Conquering armies that destroyed the temple.
  6.It is a reminder of the Substitutionary Sacrifice of the ram for Isaac.
  7.It fills one with Awe-Amos 3:6.
  8. It is associated with Judgment Day-Zephaniah. 1:14, 16.
  9.It heralds the Messianic Age, Isaiah 27:13.
  10. It heralds the Resurrection.

     Significance

     Unlike Passover, the Bible does not clearly identify Rosh Hashanah with a historical event, so we must look to tradition to discover its significance.

     According to Talmudic tradition, the Ten Days of Awe which begin at Rosh Hashanah are the time in which God determines the fate of each human being. On Rosh Hashanah, the wholly righteous are supposedly inscribed in the Sefer ha-Hayyim, or Book of Life, while the wholly wicked are inscribed in the Book of Death. The fate of all others hangs in the balance until Yom Kippur. Consequently, it is a time for introspection, for taking stock of one's behavior over the past year and making amends for any wrongdoing.

     The Book of Life in the Bible

     In chapter 32 of the book of Exodus we find the first hint of the book of life. Moses has been on the mountain receiving the Torah while the people of Israel waited below. Seeing that Moses was taking a long time in returning, the people gave up waiting and made themselves a golden calf to worship, thus incurring the wrath of God. Moses asks to be "blotted out of the book" if God will not forgive the sins of the people. (See also Deut. 9:13).

     There are a number of other references in the Tanakh which mention God blotting out or not blotting out someone from the Book. In Psalm 51:3/2, David asks to have his sins blotted out. Psalm 69:29/28 uses the exact phrase "Book of Life" See also 2 Kings 14:27, Psalm 9:5/6.

     Rosh Hashanah in the Bible

     The Torah does not use the term "Rosh Hashanah," but calls this holiday Yom Teruah, The Day of the Sounding of the Shofar. According to Leviticus 23:23-25, it was to be celebrated by blowing a shofar, or ram's horn, by resting from all work, and by calling a holy assembly, and presenting an offering. The offering is described in Numbers 29:2-6. In Nehemiah 8:2-9 we find Ezra reading the Torah to the assembled people of Israel on this date. Psalms 93-100 are also believed to have been composed for Rosh Hashanah.

     Modern Observance and Jewish Tradition

     In modern Jewish observance of Rosh Hashanah, the principal themes are:

  1.Repentance (Teshuvah in Hebrew-literally "turning back" to God).
  2.Redemption-restoration of a severed relationship with God.
  3.The coming of Messiah.
  4.Judgment.
  5.Creation.

     The Coming Messiah

     The following quotes underscore the theme of the coming Messiah in Rosh Hashanah tradition: "The sounding of the shofar is related to the Messianic theme, and in one tradition, Rosh Hashanah is said to be the time of the ultimate redemption." - Philip Sigal

     "The prayers . . . in many ways allude to God's enthronement, for the kingship of Heaven materializes with the advent of Messiah, who presides over the last judgment." - Philip Sigal The Brit Ha-Hadashah (New Testament) also associates the sound of the shofar with the coming of Messiah. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, a book of the Brit Ha-Hadashah, tells us:

     "For the Lord himself (i.e., Yeshua ha-Mashiach) will come down from heaven, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call (Tekiat Shofar) of God, and the dead in the Messiah (i.e., those who believed in Yeshua and have died) will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. . . ."-I Thessalonians 4:16 - 17. (Believers refer to this coming event as the "Rapture," from the Latin word for "caught up.")

     The description of Things to Come given in the Brit ha-Hadashah fits well with all the modern themes of Rosh Hashanah. In order to participate in the Rapture, one must 1) Repent: Turn away from sin and toward God. Then you will be personally 2) Redeemed. The soul will be redeemed immediately, and your body on that day when 3) The Messiah comes again and "we shall all be changed/ we shall be like him as he is!" (1 Corinthians 15:51, I John 3:2) and therefore ready for the (4) Judgment.(Revelation 20:11-15) before the world is 5) created anew (Revelation 21).

     The Book of Life in the Brit ha-Hadashah

     The Concept of the Book of Life is found in the New Covenant Scriptures as well. In Philippians 4:3, Paul mentions his faithful colaborers as being written in the book of Life. The book of Revelation, dedicated to the themes of judgment and the coming Messiah, contains several references to the "Book of Life."

  Rev 3:5 - "he who overcomes" will not be blotted out.
  Rev 13:8 -- All who are not written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb will worship the beast.
  Rev 17:8 -- All who are not written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb will be astonished at the beast.
  Rev 20:12 -- Judgment by the Book.
  Rev 20:15 -- All who are not found in the book are thrown into the lake of fire.
  Rev 21:27 -- Those who are in the Book will enter the New Jerusalem.

     Tashlikh

     One very interesting ceremony of Rosh Hashanah is the custom of Tashlikh. In a Tashlikh service, worshippers go to a body of water such as a stream or an ocean, and toss the contents of their pockets into it while reciting passages such as Micah 7:19, ("You will hurl (Tashlikh) all their sins into the depths of the sea.") as a symbol of sin being swallowed up in forgiveness.

     A New Covenant

     This is not the only place in the Tanakh where God speaks of such total forgiveness for his people. Jeremiah 31:34 says: "For I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more." Only one verse before, God declares that one day he will make a New Covenant (Brit Hadashah) with Israel, and put his Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts: "See, a time is coming-declares the LORD-when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, so that I rejected them-declares the LORD."

     What is this "New Covenant"? What is to be the basis of Atonement under it? The Torah teaches that atonement requires the shedding of blood, i.e. a sacrifice. (Leviticus 17:11). Yet, there is no more temple in which to make the sacrifice, so how can there be atonement? It is impossible to keep the Torah completely as long as there is no temple. The rabbis declared that prayers would take the place of the sacrifices, but is that really enough? If prayer is as good as sacrifice, why did God ever demand sacrifice in the first place? Would HaShem allow the temple-so central to his service-to be taken away for so long without putting an alternative plan in place? Hass ve'halilah! If God has allowed the temple to lie in ruins for so long, could it be that it is because he has provided another way?

     Suppose someone you know to be reliable gives you directions to someplace and you suddenly find yourself at a dead end. You know the directions are good, so you back up to see if you missed a turn somewhere. Those directions are the Torah and the prophets. The dead end is the Hurban. The missed turn is the New Covenant-one that doesn't need a physical temple, because the ultimate sacrifice has already been made, making all other sacrifice obsolete. The Hebrew prophets predicted that a "Righteous Servant" would some day make such a sacrifice. (Isaiah 53:6, 8, 12)

     "And the LORD visited upon him the guilt of us all."-Isaiah 53:6 (JPS).

     "My righteous servant makes the many righteous, It is their punishment that he bears" -- Isaiah 53:11 (JPS).

     "For he was cut off from the land of the living Through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment " -- Isaiah 53:8 (JPS).

     "He bore the guilt of the many And made intercession for sinners." --
Isaiah 53:12 (JPS).

     We believe that Yeshua is that Righteous Servant (what other candidates are there?), and that his Atonement is the basis of the New Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah. If the New Testament ("Testament" is simply another word for Covenant or Brit) is true, it proves that God has not abandoned Am Yisroel. We believe that God has come in person to rescue his people from their sins as a prerequisite to the final restoration of Israel to the Land, when HaShem Himself will rule over them as King. Marana Tha!*

     *(Aramaic for "Our Lord, Come!")

     This article was originally published in 1978.

          Jews for Jesus

Proverbs 25:23
     by D.H. Stern

23     The north wind brings rain
     and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.


Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B'Rit Hadashah (New Testament)
My Utmost For The Highest
     A Daily Devotional by Oswald Chambers


                The “go” of relationship

     And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. --- Matthew 5:41.

     The summing up of Our Lord’s teaching is that the relationship which He demands is an impossible one unless He has done a supernatural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that there be not the slightest trace of resentment even suppressed in the head of a disciple when he meets with tyranny and injustice. No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring-cleaning until there is only one purpose left—‘I am here for God to send me where He will.’ Every other thing may get fogged, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must never be.

      The Sermon on the Mount is not an ideal, it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has altered my disposition and put in a disposition like His own. Jesus Christ is the only One Who can fulfil the Sermon on the Mount.

     If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally; as long as we have the dead-set purpose of being disciples we may be sure we are not. “I have chosen you.” That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we cannot get away from; we can disobey it, but we cannot generate it. The drawing is done by the supernatural grace of God, and we never can trace where His work begins. Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along that line always.

My Utmost for His Highest
The Fisherman
     the Poetry of RS Thomas


                The Fisherman

A simple man
  He liked the crease on the water
  His cast made, but had no pity
  For the broken backbone
  Of water or fish.

One of his pleasures, thirsty,
  Was to ask a drink
  At the hot farms;
  Leaving with a casual thank you,
  As though they owed it him.

I could have told of the living water
  That springs pure.
  He would have smiled then,
  Dancing his speckled fly in the shallows,
  Not understanding.

Selected poems, 1946-1968
Unfaithfulness
     The Teacher's Commentary


     There are many experiences that cause us pain. But one of the most painful of all must be the unfaithfulness of a marriage partner.

     For Hosea, who married “an adulterous wife,” that pain was not just something occasioned by a single fall. Hosea’s wife Gomer practiced unfaithfulness as a lifestyle. Ultimately she left the prophet and their three children, to live with a series of other men. Yet Hosea continued to care for her.

     While Hosea could have validly divorced his wife under the Law, this was something he simply could not do. Despite the anguish he felt, Hosea continued to love Gomer.

     This was admittedly unusual. Hosea had been called by God to demonstrate both the Lord’s personal pain and His utter faithfulness. Hosea did demonstrate God’s character and His commitment by his continuing faithfulness to his prostitute wife.

     Surely God must have given Hosea the grace to live through this agonizing experience!

     We don’t know how many years Hosea lived this way—rejected, feeling agonizing pain, but continuing to love.

The Teacher's Commentary
Searching For Meaning In Midrash
     D’RASH


     The Rabbis are not saying that if you steal a paper clip from work today, then some day you’ll end up on death row as a convicted murderer. Look closer at the examples that the Rabbis pick of transgressing a “minor commandment,” the offenses that will lead to more major sins. They aren’t mere victimless crimes. It’s not simply that if you steal a paper clip today, then you’ll steal a ream of paper tomorrow, a computer next month and—sooner or later—you’ll end up embezzling major funds from your employer.

     Each of the examples of a “minor commandment” is about interpersonal relations: “Love your fellow as yourself,” “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge,” “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart,” “Let him live by your side.” In each case, someone gets hurt.

     We start out being insensitive, and we see that it doesn’t hurt—us!—to be a bit cold and callous. Soon, it doesn’t hurt to be very cold and callous. We begin to move from emotional injury to physical harm. We start by calling him “Fatso” or telling everyone “She’s a JAP” Then we move on—from poking fun at them to actually poking them. We’re no longer just trash-talking; we’re now comfortable with trashing their property.

     A dictator referred to certain people as “rats” or “animals,” and sooner or later, his followers said to themselves: “Hey, it’s OK to ‘exterminate’ a pest. We’re not killing human beings; they’re vermin.” Throughout history, despots who have attempted to dehumanize their enemies by calling them animals have merely dehumanized themselves and their followers.

     This teaching is a good reminder that we don’t have to start out “lying in ambush to murder another person” in order to end up there. A minor loss of sensitivity can lead, over time, to a major transgression on our part.

     ANOTHER D’RASH

     The word קָלָה/kalah actually means “light” or “easy”; the word חֲמוּרַה/ḥamurah means “hard” or “difficult.” So the issue may not be minor versus major commandments; it may really be about a mitzvah that is easy, as opposed to a mitzvah that’s very difficult. Or to re-translate the maxim: “If he transgressed an easy commandment, in the end he will transgress a difficult one.” The Rabbis are thus asking us: If you can’t manage to do the simple ones, how are you ever going to do the hard ones?

     Let’s take an example: “Honor your father and your mother” (
Exodus 20:13). “What constitutes ‘honor’? Feeding them, dressing them, helping them to come and go” (Talmud, Kiddushin 31b).

     An Easy Mitzvah

“Joe, did you call your mother today?”
“No …”
“Well, what are you waiting for? It’s getting late.”
“I know what time it is.”
“So what’s the problem? Give her a call.”
“I wish you’d get off my case, already. I know how to use the
     phone …”
“Apparently, you don’t! You haven’t spoken to your mother
     all week.”
“Listen, she’s a pain in the neck. She’ll ask me what I had
     for lunch, like I’m twelve years old. Then she’ll complain
     that this hurts her, and that hurts her. And then she’ll tell
     me in great detail about her gastrointestinal problems. I
     don’t want to hear about it! And then she’ll ask me again
     what I had for lunch. She drives me crazy!”
“Don’t talk about her that way! She’s your mother, and she’s
     entitled to her aches and pains. The least that you can do
     is give her a call and listen to her. A measly little phone
     call. Five minutes. Is that so much to ask? I bet when you
     were a kid you drove her nuts; she didn’t stop talking to
     you for a week. Come on, honey, pick up the phone and
     give your mother a call. How hard can it be?”

     A Difficult Mitzvah

     Jeff came to spend a couple of days with his infirm dad, while his sister took a well-deserved day off from her role as caretaker. Father and son watched a ball game together, and then Jeff took his dad, in a wheelchair, for a “spin around the block.” Later, Jeff prepared dinner; he got a little choked up when he had to cut up his father’s food and help him eat. At bedtime, Jeff assisted his father out of his clothes and into his pajamas. But the worst experience came in the middle of the night. Jeff was awakened to hear his name being called. He rushed into his father’s room. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom!” “It’s OK, Dad, I’m here.” But his father was very slow in getting out of bed. Before Jeff could maneuver him to the commode, his father had “an accident.” As Jeff changed the pajamas, mopped the floor, and gave his dad a sponge bath, the father cried in shame and the son cried out of pity.

     If we don’t do the easy ones, how will we ever do the hard ones?

Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living
Take Heart
     September 25

     How great is God—beyond our understanding!
---
Job 36:26.

     Invisible! (Preaching Through the Bible) The invisibleness of God is not a scientific discovery; it is a biblical revelation: “No one has ever seen God” (
John 1:18). This is the difficulty of all life, and the higher the life the higher the difficulty. No one can see oneself and live! You can see your incarnation, but your very self—the pulse that makes you human—you have never seen, you can never see!

     Anatomy says it has never found the soul and adds, “Therefore there is no soul.” The reasoning overleaps itself and takes away its own life. Has anatomy found genius? Or has anatomy laid its finger on imagination and held it up, saying, “Look, the mighty wizard”?

     Anatomize the dead poet and the dead ass, and you will find as much genius in one as in the other; therefore there is no genius! Who that valued his or her life would set foot on such a bridge as the rickety “therefore”? But some people will venture on any bridge that leads away from God—because they do not like to retain God in their hearts (
Rom. 1:28). It is not because of intellectual superiority but because of moral distaste, an invincible aversion.

     Yes, God is unknown and unknowable. But that does not make him unusable and unprofitable. If scientists avow that they have not developed a theory of magnetism, do they therefore ignore it or decline to inquire into its uses? Do they write its name with a big M and run away from it, shaken and whitened by fear? Indeed they are not such fools. They actually use what they do not understand.

     Bring their example to bear on the religious life. I do not scientifically know God. The term does not come within the analysis that is available to me. God is great, and I know him not; yet the term has its practical uses in life, and into those broad and obvious uses all people may inquire. What part does the God of the Bible play in the life of the person who accepts him? Any creed that does not come down easily into the daily life to purify and direct it is imperfect and useless.
--- Joseph Parker

Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers
On This Day   September 25
     Problems?


     Pope Clement VII, son of Giuliano de’ Medici, was among the most unfortunate occupants of the Vatican. He was tall, slender, and moderately handsome, though wearing a “permanently sour” expression. He was upright and intelligent, but unprepared for the hornet’s nest of the papacy. When faced with hard decisions, he vacillated. The Venetian ambassador wrote, “The pope is 48 years old and is a sensible man but slow in decision, which explains his irresolution in action.”

     Clement, finding his treasury bankrupt, was chagrined that no Italian banker trusted him. The citizens of Rome didn’t like him either. And Clement agonized over his failure to stem Luther’s Reformation and to promote reform within his own church. At the same time he was caught between the conflicting aims of the kings of France and Spain. His attempts to steer a middle course invited the sack of Rome in 1527. As Clement watched helplessly from a tower, his city was plundered, raped, butchered, and burned.

     He was caught once again between two kings—Henry VIII of England and Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor. King Henry, frustrated he had no male heir wanted an annulment from Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. Pope Clement had the prerogative to set aside the marriage. But he was under the thumb of Charles—Catherine’s nephew. To grant the annulment invited disaster, including the alienation of the Holy Roman Empire from Catholicism. To refuse invited the fury of Henry VIII and the probable loss of England.

     Clement tried to steer a middle course, hemming and hawing, at his wit’s end, worrying that whatever happened, “the church cannot escape utter ruin.” He made catastrophic errors. King Henry seized his nation’s monasteries, split with the Vatican, and established the Reformation in England by the Act of Supremacy.

     On September 25, 1534, having barely survived his previous misfortunes, he met a final one—a miserable death, reportedly from gobbling down a bowl of poisonous mushrooms.

Moaning and groaning are my food and drink,
  and my worst fears have all come true.
  I have no peace or rest—
  only troubles and worries.
---
Job 3:24-26.

On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes
Morning and Evening
     Daily Readings / CHARLES H. SPURGEON

          Morning - September 25

     “Just, and the justifier of him which believeth.” --- Romans 3:26.

     Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvellous that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change his nature before one soul, for whom Jesus was a substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the law. Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer—having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that his people ought to have suffered as the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ, for he hath died, “yea rather hath risen again.” My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen.


          Evening - September 25

     “Who of God is made unto us wisdom.” --- 1 Corinthians 1:30.

     Man’s intellect seeks after rest, and by nature seeks it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Men of education are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the old net in which the Grecians were taken, and have a hankering to mix philosophy with revelation. The temptation with a man of refined thought and high education is to depart from the simple truth of Christ crucified, and to invent, as the term is, a more intellectual doctrine. This led the early Christian churches into Gnosticism, and bewitched them with all sorts of heresies. This is the root of Neology, and the other fine things which in days gone by were so fashionable in Germany, and are now so ensnaring to certain classes of divines. Whoever you are, good reader, and whatever your education may be, if you be the Lord’s, be assured you will find no rest in philosophizing divinity. You may receive this dogma of one great thinker, or that dream of another profound reasoner, but what the chaff is to the wheat, that will these be to the pure word of God. All that reason, when best guided, can find out is but the A B C of truth, and even that lacks certainty, while in Christ Jesus there is treasured up all the fulness of wisdom and knowledge. All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with systems such as Unitarian and Broad-church thinkers would approve of, must fail; true heirs of heaven must come back to the grandly simple reality which makes the ploughboy’s eye flash with joy, and gladens the pious pauper’s heart—“Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus satisfies the most elevated intellect when he is believingly received, but apart from him the mind of the regenerate discovers no rest. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” “A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.”

Morning and Evening
Amazing Grace
     September 25

          FADE, FADE, EACH EARTHLY JOY

     Jane C. Bonar, 1821–1884

     Love the Lord, all His saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud He pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31:23, 24)

     Each of us was created for the purpose of enjoying the fellowship of Almighty God. Our souls were made for eternity, not for this brief earthly pilgrimage alone. The Christian life should be lived each day as though we were already enjoying the blessings of heaven. We deprive ourselves of one of life’s greatest treasures when we lose this perspective and become bogged down with the trivialities of earthly living.

     An intimate fellowship with our Lord should produce at least three basic differences in our living:

•     More humility—a greater realization of our finiteness and the need for dependence upon God.
•     More happiness—a realization that this life has purpose and dignity as we represent God. And then a promised eternity in heaven with our Lord.
•     More holiness—a greater desire to be a worthy representative for God and to live a life of absolute purity.

     The author of this lovely devotional hymn text, Jane C. Bonar, was the wife of Dr. Horatius Bonar, generally regarded as the greatest of evangelical Scottish preachers and hymn writers. Jane, too, was a very gifted writer and Christian leader. For more than 40 years the Bonars shared life’s sorrows and joys together in a rich ministry for God. These devotional thoughts are still the sentiments of every spiritually mature follower of Christ:

     Fade, fade, each earthly joy—Jesus is mine; break, ev’ry tender tie—Jesus is mine. Dark is the wilderness; earth has no resting place; Jesus alone can bless—Jesus is mine.
     Tempt not my soul away—Jesus is mine; here would I ever stay—Jesus is mine. Perishing things of clay, born but for one brief day, pass from my heart away—Jesus is mine.
     Farewell, ye dreams of night—Jesus is mine; lost in this dawning bright—Jesus is mine. All that my soul has tried left but a dismal void; Jesus has satisfied—Jesus is mine.
     Farewell, mortality—Jesus is mine; welcome, eternity—Jesus is mine, welcome, O loved and blest, welcome, sweet scenes of rest; welcome, my Savior’s breast—Jesus is mine.

     For Today: Psalm 16:8, 11; 37:4, 23; 40:8; Proverbs 11:20; Colossians 3:2

     Allow the awareness of God’s presence to produce in your life more HUMILITY, HAPPINESS, and HOLINESS as you seek to represent Him.

Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions
The Existence and Attributes of God
     Stephen Charnock

          DISCOURSE VI - ON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD

     V. Use 1. For information.

     1. If God be unchangeable in his nature, and immutability be a property of God, then Christ hath a Divine nature. This in the Psalm is applied to Christ in the Hebrews (Heb. 1:11), where he joins the citation out of this Psalm with that out of Psalm 45:6, 7, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows; and thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth,” &c. As the first must necessarily be meant of Christ the Mediator, and therein he is distinguished from God, as one anointed by him; so the other must be meant of Christ, whereby he is made one with God in regard of the creation and dissolution of the world, in regard of eternity and immutability. Both the testimonies are linked together by the copulative and, “and thou, Lord;” declaring thereby that they are both to be understood of the same person, the Son of God. The design of the chapter is to prove Christ to be God; and such things are spoken of him as could not belong to any creature; no, not to the most excellent of the angels. The same person that is said to be anointed above his fellows, and is said to lay the foundation of the earth and heavens, is said to be the same; that is, the same in himself; the prerogative of sameness belongs to that person as well as creation of heaven and earth. The Socinians say it is spoken of God, and that God shall destroy the heavens by Christ; if so, Christ is not a mere creature, not created when he was incarnate; for the same person that shall change the world did create the world; if God shall change the world by him, God also created the world by him; he was then before the world was; for how could God create the world by one that was not; that was not in being till after the creation of the world.

     2 The heavens shall be changed, but the person who is to change the heavens is said to be the same, or unchangeable in the creation as well as the dissolution of the world. This sameness refers to the whole sentence. The Psalm wherein the text is, and whence this in the Hebrews is cited, is properly meant of Christ, and redemption by him, and the completing of it at the last day, and not of the Babylonish captivity; that captivity was not so deplorable as the state of the Psalmist describes; Daniel and his companions flourished in that captivity; it could not reasonably be said of them, that their days were consumed like smoke, their hearts withered like grass; that they forgot to “eat their bread” (ver. 3, ver. 4). Besides, he complains of “shortness of life” (ver. 11); but none had any more reason to complain of that in the time of the captivity, than before and after it, than at any other time: their deliverance would contribute nothing to the natural length of their lives. Besides, when Sion should be built, the heathen should “fear the name of the Lord” (that is, worship God), and “all the kings of the earth his glory” (ver. 15). The rearing the second temple after the deliverance, did not proselyte the nations; nor did the kings of the earth worship the glory of God; nor did God appear in such glory at the erecting the second temple.

     The second temple was less glorious than the first, for it wanted some of the ornaments which were the glory of the first; but it is said of this state, that when the Lord should build up Sion, he should “appear in his glory” (ver. 16); his proper glory, and extraordinary glory. Now that God who shall appear in glory, and build up Sion, is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world; he builds up the church, he causes the nations to fear the Lord, and the kings of the earth his glory; he broke down the partition wall, and opened a door for the entrance of the Gentiles; he struck the chains from off the prisoners, and loosed those that were appointed to death by the curse of the law (ver. 20): and to this person is ascribed the creation of the world; and he is pronounced to remain the same in the midst of an infinite number of changes in inferior things. And it is likely the Psalmist considers not only the beginning of redemption, but the completing of it at the second coming of Christ; for he complains of those evils which shall be removed by his second coming, viz., the shortness of life, persecutions and reproaches wherewith the church is aficted in this world; and comforts not himself with those attributes which are directly opposed to sin, as the mercy of God, the covenant of God, but with those that are opposed to mortality and calamities, as the unchangeableness and eternity of God; and from thence infers a perpetual establishment of believers. “The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee” (ver. 28): so that the Psalm itself seems to aim in the whole discourse at Christ, and asserts his divinity, which the apostle, as an interpreter, doth fully evidence; applying it to him, and manifesting his deity by his immutability as well as eternity. While all other things lose their forms, and pass through multitudes of variations, he constantly remains the same, and shall be the same, when all the empires of the world shall slide away, and a period be put to the present motions of the creation: and as there was no change made in his being by the creation of things, so neither shall there be by the final alteration of things; he shall see them finish, as he saw them rise up into being, and be the same after their reign, as he was before their original; he is the first and the last (Rev. 1:17).

     2. Here is ground and encouragement for worship. An atheist will make another use of this; if God be immutable, why should we worship him, why should we pray to him? good will come if he wills it; evil cannot be averted by all our supplications, if he hath ordained it to fall upon us. But certainly since unchangeableness is knowing, and willing goodness is a perfection, an adoration and admiration is due to God, upon the account of this excellence. If he be God, he is to be reverenced, and the more highly reverenced, because he cannot but be God. Again, what comfort could it be to pray to a God, that like the chameleon changed colors every day, every moment? What encouragement could there be to lift up our eyes to one that were of one mind this day and of another mind tomorrow? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that were so mutable, as to grant a petition one day and deny it another, and change his own act? But if a prince promise this or that thing upon such or such a condition, and you know his promise to be as unchangeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, would any man reason thus? because it is unchangeable we will not seek to him, we will not perform the condition, upon which the fruit of the proclamation is to be enjoyed. Who would not count such an inference ridiculous? What blessings hath not God promised upon the condition of seeking him? Were he of an unrighteous nature, or changeable in his mind, this would be a bar to our seeking him, and frustrate our hopes; but since it is otherwise, is not this excellency of his nature the highest encouragement, to ask of him the blessings he hath promised, and a beam from heaven to fire our zeal in asking? If you sire things against his will, which he hath declared he will not grant, prayer then would be an act of disobedience and injury to him, as well as an act of folly in itself; his unchangeableness then might stifle such desires: but if we ask according to his will, and according to our reasonable wants, what ground have we to make such a ridiculous argument? He hath willed everything that may be for our good, if we perform the condition he hath required; and hath put it upon record, that we may know it and regulate our desires and supplications according to it. If we will not seek him, his immutability cannot be a bar, but our own folly is the cause; and by our neglect we despoil him of this perfection as to us, and either imply that he is not sincere, and means not as he speaks; or that he is as changeable as the wind, sometimes this thing, sometimes that, and not at all to be confided in. If we ask according to his revealed will, the unchangeableness of his nature will assure us of the grant; and what a presumption would it be in a creature dependent upon his sovereign, to ask that which he knows he bass declared his will against; since there is no good we can want, but he hath promised to give, upon our sincere and ardent desire for it? God hath decreed to give this or that to man, but conditionally, and by the means of inquiring after him, and asking for it: “Ask, and you shall receive” (Ezek. 36:37; Matt. 7:7): as much as to say, You shall not receive unless you ask.

     When the highest promises are made, God expects they should be put in suit; our Saviour joins the promise and the petition together; the promise to encourage the petition, and the petition to enjoy the promise: he doth not say perhaps it shall be given, but it shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is unchangeably willing to give you those things. We must depend upon his immutability for the thing, and submit to his wisdom for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God; which dependence could have no firm foundation without unchangeableness. Prayer doth not desire any change in God, but is offered to God that he would confer those things which he hath immutably willed to communicate; but he willed them not without prayer as the means of bestowing them. The light of the sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the earth; but withal it is required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to the view of the sun, that they may receive the influence of it. If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the sun is changed into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the sun is not changed, but we alter ourselves; nor is God changed in not giving us the blessings he hath promised, because he hath promised in the way of a due address to him, and opening our souls to receive his influence, and to this, his immutability is the greatest encouragement.

     3. This shows how contrary man is to God in regard of his inconstancy. What an infinite distance is there between the immutable God, and mutable man, and how should we bewail this flittingness in our nature! There is a mutability in us as creatures, and a creature cannot but be mutable by nature, otherwise it were not a creature but God. The establishment of any creature is from grace and gift; naturally we tend to nothing, as we come from nothing. This creature-rnutability is not our sin, yet it should cause us to lie down under a sense of our own nothingness, in the presence of the Creator. The angels as creatures, though not corrupt, cover their faces before him: and the arguments God uses to humble Job, though a fallen creature, are not from his corruption: for I do not remember that he taxed him with that; but from the greatness of his majesty and excellency of his nature declared in his works (Job 38–41.); and, therefore, men that have no sense of God and humility before him, forget that they are creatures as well as corrupt ones. How great is the distance between God and us, in regard of our inconstancy in good, which is not natural to us by creation: for the mind and affections were regular, and by the great artificer were pointed to God as the object of knowledge and love. We have the same faculties of understanding, will, and affection, as Adam had in innocence; but not with the same light, the same bias, and the same ballast. Man, by his fall, wounded his head and heart; the wound in his head made him unstable in the truth, and that in his heart unsteadfast in his affections: he changed himself from the image of God to that of the devil, from innocence to corruption, and from an ability to be steadfast to a perpetual inconstancy; “his silver became dross, and his wine was mixed with water” (Isa. 1:22). He changed,

     (1.) To inconstancy in truth, opposed to the immutability of knowledge in God. How are our minds floating between ignorance and knowledge! Truth in us is like those ephemera, creatures of a day’s continuance,—springs up in the morning, and expires at night. How soon doth that fly away from us which we have had, not only some weak flashes of, but which we have learned and have had some relish of! The devil stood not in the truth (John 8:44), and therefore manages his engines to make us as unstable as himself: our minds reel, and corrupt reasonings oversway us; like sponges we suck up water, and a light compression makes us spout it out again. Truths are not engraven upon our hearts, but writ as in dust, defaced by the next puff of wind, “carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14); like a ship without a pilot and sails, at the courtesy of the next storm, or like clouds that are tenants to the wind and sun, moved by the wind and melted by the sun. The Galatians were no sooner called into the grace of God, but they were removed from it (Gal. 1:6); some have been reported to have menstruam fidem, kept an opinion for a month; and many are like him that believed the soul’s immortality no longer than he had Plato’s book of that subject in his hand: one likens such to children; they play with truths as children do with babies, one while embrace them, and a little after throw them into the dirt. How soon do we forget what the truth is delivered to us, and what it represented us to be (James 1:23, 24). Is it not a thing to be bewailed, that man should be such a weathercock, turned about with every breath of wind, and shifting aspects as the wind shifts points?

     (2.) Inconstancy in will, and affections opposed to the immutability of will in God. We waver between God and Baal; and while we are not only resolving, but upon motion a little way, look back with a hankering after Sodom; sometimes lifted up with heavenly intentions, and presently cast down with earthly cares, like a ship that by an advancing wave seems to aspire to heaven, and the next fall of the waves makes it sink down to the depths. We change purposes oftener than fashions, and our resolutions are like letters in water, whereof no mark remains; we will be as John to-day to love Christ, and as Judas to-morrow to betray hhn, and, by an unworthy levity, pass into the camp of the enemies of God; resolved to be as holy as angels in the morning, when the evening beholds us as impure as devils. How often do we hate what before we loved, and shun what before we longed for! and our resolutions are like vessels of crystal, which break at the first knock, are dashed in pieces by the next temptation. Saul resolved not to persecute David any more, but you soon find him upon his old game. Pharaoh more than once promised, and probably resolved, to let Israel go, but at the end of the storm his purposes vanish (Exod. 8:27, 32).

     When an affliction pincheth men, they intend to change their course, and the next news of ease changes their intentions; like a bow not fully bent in their inclinations, they cannot reach the mark, but live many years between resolutions of obedience and affections to rebellion (Psalm 78:17): and what promises men make to God are often the fruit of their passion, their fear, not of their will. The Israelites were startled at the terrors wherewith the law was delivered, and promised obedience (Exod. 20:19), but a month after forgot them, and make a golden calf, and in the sight of Sinai call for, and dance before, their gods (Exod. 32.); ncver people more unconstant. Peter, who vowed an allegiance to his Master, and a courage to stick to him, forswears him almost with the same breath. Those that cry out with a zeal, “The Lord he is God,” shortly after return to the service of their idols (1 Kings 18:39). That which seems to be our pleasure this day, is our vexation to-morrow; a fear of a judgment puts us into a religious pang, and a love to our lusts reduceth us to a rebellious inclination; as soon as the danger is over, the saint is forgotten: salvation and damnation present themselves to us, touch us, and engender some weak wishes, which are dissolved by the next allurements of a carnal interest. No hold can be taken of our promises, no credit is to be given to our resolutions.

     (3.) Inconstancy in practice. How much beginning in the Spirit, and ending in the flesh; one day in the sanctuary, another in the stews; clear in the morning as the sun, and clouded before noon; in heaven by an excellency of gifts, in hell by a course of profaneness; like a flower, which some mention, that changes its color three times a day, one art white, then purple, then yellow! The spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh quickly triumphs over the spirit. In a good man how often is there a spiritual lethargy; though he doth not openly defame God, yet he doth not always glorify him; he doth not forsake the truth, but he doth not always make the attainment of it, and settlement in it his business. This levity discovers itself in religious duty, “when I would do good, evil is present with me” (Rom. 7:21). Never more present, than when we have a mind to do good, and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good. How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand! place them upon a good object, and they will be frisking from it, as a bird from one bough, one fruit, to another: we vary postures according to the various objects we meet with. The course of the world is a very airy thing, suited to the uncertain notions of that “prince of the power of the air,” which works in it (Eph. 2:2). This ought to be bewailed by us. Though we may stand fast in the truth, though we may spin ou r resolutions into a firm web, though the spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice, yet we ought to bewail it, because inconstancy is our nature, and what fixedness we have in good is from grace. What we find practised by most men is natural to all; “as face answers to face in a glass, so doth heart to heart” (Prov. 27:19); a face in the glass is not more like a natural face, whose image it is, than one man’s heart is naturally like another.

     1st. It is natural to those out of the church. Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniel’s prophetic spirit, that he would have none accounted the true God, but the “God of Daniel” (Dan. 2:47). How soon doth this notion slip from him, and an image must be set up for all to worship, upon pain of a most cruel, painful death! Daniel’s God is quite forgotten. The miraculous deliverance of the three children, for not worshipping his image, makes him settle a decree to secure the honor of God from the reproach of his subjects (Dan. 3:29); yet, a little while after, you have him strutting in his palace, as if there were no God but himself.

     2d. It is natural to those in the Church. The Israelites were the only church God had in the world, and a notable example of inconsistancy. After the miracles of Egypt, they murmured against God, when they saw Pharaoh marching with an army at their heels. They desired food, and soon nauseated the manna they were before fond of. When they came into Canaan, they sometimes worshipped God, and sometimes idols, not only the idols of one nation, but of all their neighbors. In which regard God calls this, his heritage; “a speckled bird” (Jer. 12:9); a peacock, saith Hierom, inconstant, made up of varieties of idolatrous colors and ceremonies. This levity of spirit is the root of all mischief; it scatters our thoughts in the service of God; it is the cause of all revolts and apostasies from him; it makes us unfit to receive the communications of God whatsoever we hear is like words writ in sand, ruffled out by the next gale; whatsoever is put into us is like precious liquor in a palsy hand, soon spilt: it breeds distrust of God when we have an uncertain judgment of him, we are not like to confide in him; an uncertain judgment will be followed with a distrustful heart. In fine, where it is prevalent, it is a certain sign of ungodliness. To be driven with the wind like chaff, and to be ungodly, is all one in the judgment of the Holy Ghost (Psalm 1:4); the ungodly are “like the chaff which the wind drives away,” which signifies not their destruction, but their disposition, for their destruction is inferred from it (ver. 5), “therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment.” How contrary is this to the unchangeable God, who is alway the same, and would have us the same, in our religious promises and resolutions for good!

The Existence and Attributes of God

Micah 1-7
     Jon Courson


Micah 1-3
Jon Courson

click here
03-01-1989


Micah 5:2
Jon Courson

click here
12-20-1987



Micah 4-6
Jon Courson

click here
03-08-1989


Micah 4:1-2
Jon Courson

click here
03-05-1989



Micah 7
Jon Courson

click here
03-12-1989

Jon Courson | Jon Courson

Micah 1-7
     Gary Hamrick


Micah 1-7
The Sea of Forgetfulness
Gary Hamrick




Gary Hamrick | Gary Hamrick

Micah 1-7
     Paul LeBoutillier


Micah 1-2
Judgment and Deliverance
Paul LeBoutillier


09-07-2011



Micah 3-7
A Promised Ruler From Bethlehem
Paul LeBoutillier


09-22-2011

Paul LeBoutillier | Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon

Micah 1-7
     Brett Meador | Athey Creek

Brett Meador | Athey Creek


Micah
m2-385


02-09-2022



Micah 7:18-19
Forgiven
s2-379


02-12-2022


Micah 1-3
m2-386


02-16-2022



Micah 6:6-8
Do Justly-Love Mercy-Walk Humbly
s2-380


02-20-2022


Micah 4-5
m2-387


02-23-2022



Micah's Mindset
s2-381


02-26-2022


Micah 6-7
m2-388


03-02-2022

     ==============================
     *************************************


Micah

David Talley
Biola University





Overview: Micah

The Bible Project






Was Copernicus Right?

Owen Gingerich
Gordon College





Ministering to 13 to 34 year olds

Darrell Bock, Jay Sedwick, Mark Matlock
Dallas Theological Seminary






Jesus, What A Friend For Sinners

Mike Pocock
Dallas Theological Seminary





Engaging with LGBT Persons

Darrell Bock, Mark Yarhouse, Gary Barnes
Dallas Theological Seminary






Trusting in Times of Transition

Dr. Paul Pettit
Dallas Theological Seminary





The Energizing Power of Prayer

Dr. Rodney Orr
Dallas Theological Seminary






The Unfair Payment
Glenn R. Kreider
Dallas Theological Seminary





Overview: Micah

The Bible Project






Jesus Son of God:

Iconoclast of the World Religions
J. Scott Horrell
Dallas Theological Seminary





The Prophet Micah

David Talley
Biola University






Micah

Dr. Marv Wilson
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt





Micah - Isaiah

Dr. Marv Wilson
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt






How Badly did the Scribes

Corrupt New Testament
Daniel Wallace
Biola University





Micah Intro
Book of the Twelve
Dr. Gary Yates
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt







Micah 1-3
Book of the Twelve
Gary Yates
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt





Micah Restoration

Book of the Twelve
Gary Yates
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt






Micah 6:8

Nahum Book of the Twelve
Dr. Leslie Allen
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt





Micah

Unlocking the Old Testament
David Pawson






What Makes Micah Different

Dr. Chuck Missler
Dr. Ted Hildebrandt





Micah 3:11

Incongruent and Inappropriate
Dr. Ronald B. Allen
Dallas Theological Seminary






Daniel

Things to Do
before the End of the World
Greg Laurie





Faith
John Kerry
Gordon College






Your Calling
Michael Golden
Dallas Theological Seminary





Heal Our Land

2004 Seminary Project
Stan Russell






Surprised by Jack: C.S.Lewis

Mary Stewart-Van Leeuwen
Gordon College





MISSION - Following Jesus

Into the World
John Franke
Gordon College






Incongruent and Inappropriate
Ron Allen
Dallas Theological Seminary





A Biblical Worldview and Economic Flourishing
Darrell L. Bock, Greg Forster
Dallas Theological Seminary






A Little Mercy Now

Old remix from 2002
Richard S. Adams





Micah commentary (1Q14, 4Q168)

01-18-2021 | Bible Facts






Implausibility of Physical Determinism

Richard Swinburne
Biola University





A White Man's Journey

from Harlem Through Jerusalem
-After Dark
Curtiss Deyoung
Biola University






Love, Marriage, Imitating God

J. Scott Horrell
Dallas Theological Seminary





Psalm 90 on 12/31/2017

Lord In Your Mercy,
Hear Our Prayer
Alistair Begg






Interpretation: World Studies

Davide Keehn
Biola University





What Is The Biblical Year

Ken Johnson
Bible Facts