Some “through the bible” thoughts from the Old Testament book of Haggai.
“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4)
In post-exilic Jerusalem, everyone’s time is consumed working on their homes. Of course they need a place to live. But they haven’t gotten around to rebuilding the temple. The focus on day-to-day living left them little energy for their spiritual lives.
Working a job, raising a family, and maintaining a home demands much time and energy. Getting everyone up and out the door for an hour of worship is no simple task. Even when you do it for a living (like a pastor), squeezing God into life is challenging.
God knows this. Ultimately he builds his temple out of people, “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Instead of waiting for us to make room for him, God makes room for us in his church. Instead of God being a part of what I’m doing, I’m a part of what he’s doing. Rather than waiting for me to invite him into my life, he invites me into his. Pretty clever, huh?
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? (Habakkuk 1:2)
Habakkuk’s displeasure with God sounds familiar. Why doesn’t God do something? Why doesn’t God do something about the violence, wickedness, and injustice going on all around us?
It’s a great question. Why doesn’t God do something? Why does he seem remote, aloof, and unconcerned about our situation? From our limited point of view, there are two answers. Either God doesn’t care, or God can’t fix it.
God’s response is shocking. He’s assembling the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to sweep through and put an end to the horrible behavior and inexcusable idolatry of God’ people.
Well, that’s one way to deal with the problem, isn’t it? Let’s bring in an even great evil. Let’s burn down the house because the roof leaks. Cut a hole in a shirt to get rid of a stain. Trade in the car for a new one because the brakes are squealing. Put the TV on the curb because of an offensive word from a person in one episode of one TV show.
Would you consider any of those things be an overreaction? I would. Fix the roof. Remove the stain. Repair the brakes. Patch the roof. Watch a different TV show.
Clearly their sin was beyond repair. Their sin and idolatry called for extreme measures. Like foreign invasion. Destruction. Exile.
Bottom line: don’t challenge God unless you are willing to hear some hard truths about your sin, his holiness, and judgment.
Some “through the bible” thoughts from Nahum. Chances are you haven’t read the Old Testament book of Nahum for a while. Or ever. I’ll do my best to pique your interest.
The Old Testament book of Nahum begins with a list of God’s attributes
Jealous
Avenging
Wrathful
Slow to anger
Powerful
Indignant
Angry
Good
A stronghold
Interesting. Is that how you think of God? If so, do you find it easy to talk to him? I think most people either think of God as a nice guy or aloof and detached. You either love God and what he’s doing, or you’re disappointed and wonder what he’s up to. You like him or hate him. He’s either your safe place, or your worst nightmare. It’s a challenging dichotomy.
Nahum challenges us to think of God in terms of all his attributes. Not just love and forgiveness. Not just righteousness and justice. Not just kindness. Not just wrath.
Instead, the whole package.
A friend of mine said it was like one of those huge cheesecakes you bought at a big box wholesale food store. Sixteen slices of cheesecake all different. God is like that whole variety pack. You never get just slice or attribute. You get the whole thing. Wrath and mercy. Justice and grace. Forgiving and avenging. A whole bunch of opposite traits that compliment each other, comprising a God who isn’t so easy to comprehend.
So how will you (I) respond? Run from a wrathful God? Or run to a stronghold God? Avoid a jealous God? Or pursue a good God? Try to assuage an angry God, or be thankful that he is “slow to anger?”
Yeah, I know. We don’t have God all figured out. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be. He’s way more powerful than we know. And he is far more personal than we realize.
In Nahum, God cares about what the nations are doing, not just people. He sees the big picture. And he knows our personal challenges. It all matters to him.
“This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit” (Amos 8:1).
Old Testament prophets have great object lessons. Amos’s “basket of summer fruit” reminded me of one of my high school youth group’s favorite games, “Fruit basket upset.” (Yeah, this is how we had fun back in the 1900’s.)
We arranged our chairs in a circle, one fewer than the number of youth there. Everyone picked a fruit to identify with, including the person in the middle of the circle who started without a chair. That middle person would then call out two or more of the named fruits. Those fruits would have to exchange chairs, as the person in the middle attempted to steal one of their seats. The person left in the middle without a chair would then shout out fruits.
Every once in a while, the middle person would call out, “fruit basket upset!” which meant everyone had to leave their seat and find another. The ensuing chaos was hilarious.
A basket of summer fruit actually sounds delicious. Imagine strawberries, cherries, and ripe peaches. Add in a few blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, and you’ve got a wonderful bowl of fruit.
Fruit doesn’t last long in the biblical world with no refrigerators. In other words, time’s up. It’s the end of a season, and God’s judgment for a nation that has gone bad with injustice and greed is just around the corner.
There’s an interesting contrast here. Are our lives more like Amos’s summer fruit or the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)? On any given day, it could be either. When our greed gets the best of us, we don’t worry much about the needs of others. When the Spirit moves us, though, we bear the fruit of love, kindness, and goodness, as well as other Godly qualities.
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? (Micah 6:8)
On any given day, it’s easy to resolve first thing in the morning to humbly walk with God, be kind, and do the right thing.
Then life happens. I forget. I get preoccupied. I get busy. I get defensive. And suddenly it’s all about me. Suddenly, I’m no so humble, nice, or interested in “justice.”
It sounds so simple. But it’s so hard to do. It’s not my problem. I don’t want to be nice. And I want to be recognized and appreciated. My natural inclination is just the opposite of what God wants.
And that’s the problem, isn’t it? I’m on a whole different page than God. Justice? Only if it’s in my best interest. Kindness? Maybe, if I think I might like you. Humility? I mostly think about me. I’m not as humble as I like to think.
In context, God’s people wanted to bring more sacrifices and give more offerings. But that’s not what he wanted. He wanted them to be different, to be nice, to make the world a better place.
I think it comes down to this: God doesn’t want me to do more for him. He does something — everything — for me. My God is just, kind, and humble. For me. Because I’m not good at this.
Through Amos, God declares, “I sent famine and hunger, drought and thirst, blight and mildew, sickness, and destruction…Yet you did not return to me” (Amos 4). Now what? “Prepare to meet your God!” (4:12)
I can’t help but wonder, “What does it take to get someone’s attention?” Or better, “What does it take to get my attention?” And then, “Does God always get our attention with bad things? Couldn’t he communicate through blessings, too?” I’ve got lots of questions and lots of thoughts.
When bad stuff happens, and bad stuff will happen, I usually blame someone other than God. From greedy CEOs to corrupt government to lousy neighbors to aggressive drivers to a liberal agenda to self-absorbed people in general, God’s not the problem. They are. (Whoever they are.)
God’s not even on the radar. I am constantly talking to, listening to, thinking about, teaching about, praying to, and actively questioning God. But when life gets tough, I look for someone to blame. Blame God? No way. Not me. God is great and God is good, right?
Okay, so when good stuff happens (and if I’m paying attention, there’s so much to be grateful for), I give God credit. I say, “Thank you.” And then I get on with the rest of my life without much thought.
So back to my original question, “What does it take to get my attention?”
My conclusion? The grace of God. It’s not challenges. It’s not blessings. It’s not success. It’s not failure. It could only be God’s relentless pursuit of my heart through family, classmates, friends, employers, employees, critics, fans, and strangers I’ll only meet once in my life. God gets my attention through people who put up with me, listen to me, ignore me, irritate me, praise me, and insult me. God always spoke through people. I guess he still does.
Go figure. Ultimately, God sends his son, Jesus, a person, to talk to us, to get our attention. He was direct, compassionate, no nonsense, and merciful. He fed, healed, fished, sailed, walked, slept, ate, and drank to get their (my) attention.
“Prepare to meet your God.” If you won’t pay attention, he’s coming. He’s coming to you. He’s coming in the flesh.
A few more “through the bible” thoughts from Jonah 1.
It’s a life and death situation when the sailors cast lots and find out Jonah is responsible for the raging storm that threatens to capsize the ship (Jonah 1:4,7). Jonah says, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9).
Wait a minute. Doesn’t Jonah’s story begins with his deliberate disobedience to God’s command to go to call out Nineveh for its evil? He doesn’t sound like someone who fears God. I guess Jonah didn’t fear God until the storm hit. Either than, or fear of God doesn’t equate to obedience.
Since “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). Just like us, Jonah had a lot to learn about God and a lot to learn about obeying God. It’s a journey. It’s a difficult journey. It’s the journey of a lifetime.
We don’t have to learn to fear God in dire circumstances, although those situations are a great classroom. But we learn from others, too. God’s people learned a lot of lessons that “were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). Hopefully, we’ll learn to not make the same mistakes. In reality, though, we will, and we too will learn to fear God and maybe even obey him.
Some “through the bible” thoughts from the Old Testament book of Jonah.
After Jonah is thrown off the boat, swallowed by a fish, and spit up onto the beach, we find out why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. Jonah says to God, “That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2).
God’s grace is wonderful when applied to our lives. It’s harder to swallow when he’s gracious to someone else, someone we know deserves to be punished.
I find it hard to understand how God could forgive people who have done atrocious things. This struggle reveals a shocking self-righteousness, as if there was nothing very sinful going on in my life.
The truth? I’m much more sinful than I realize. The ugliness of the cross reveals the ugliness of my sin, which Christ took on himself. Rather than thinking of myself as less-needful of grace, I’m need to be reminded I’m less deserving of grace than I thought.
The Jonah in me needs a regular reminder of God’s unlikely yet very real grace, mercy, and steadfast love.
The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. (Joel 3:16)
In the 1950s and 60s, people built bomb shelters to survive radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons. In the midwest, people have storm cellars on their property to escape approaching tornados. Otherwise, go to an inner, windowless room in your house. Radio announcers urge listeners to “seek shelter now” when severe thunderstorms pop up on weather radar. When approaching hurricanes are a day or two away, shelters open where those who will get hit hardest along the coast can be safe.
We tend to think of a refuge or a stronghold as a place. But in the bible, it’s God. Ironically, in Joel, God is the one who roars, shaking the heavens and the earth, bringing judgment on the nations. And he is also the shelter from the approaching destruction and judgment.
Storms don’t always look like weather. Judgment doesn’t always come in the form of an earthquake or other “act of God.” Sometimes it’s a collision, cancer, or conflict. It could be failure at work or the loss of a job. Kids get in trouble and unexpected expenses pop up. You can run, but you can’t hide from the surprises of life.
The only thing that doesn’t change is God. That’s why he is the shelter, the refuge, the stronghold. Ultimately, with him, your life is safe.
Waite for it... 