Reading: Devotional
September 24
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Elijah’s Discouragement
1 Kings 19:1–5a
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
Rather than submit to the clear and powerful message that God gave on Mount Carmel, Jezebel, as the tool of Satan she was, resisted and pledged to continue her vendetta against Elijah. Ahab, who had seen firsthand what God had done, was neutral at best; his inaction showed his lack of godly character and his unwillingness to take a stand for God.
Elijah ran for his life. Even with his prophetic power and close connection with God he was unable to continue the battle. Sometimes going into hiding is an obedient response; Elijah’s departure from Israel after announcing the drought had been just that. But flight now was purely out of concern for his own survival, and likely served to diminish Israel’s newfound respect for the power of God.
Elijah had just seen the power of God displayed, but now felt alone and powerless in the face of the continuing spiritual warfare. His prayers proved it. He was no longer the bold partner-servant, sure of what God wanted. Elijah’s prayers now were pitiful cries for help. It was understandable; great spiritual victories are often followed by spiritual lows, temptations, and depression. It’s a familiar problem for those who work hard for the Lord. And some, like Elijah, at least temporarily desert their calling and compromise their previous witness.
The solution is not to deny fear and weakness. It is rather to understand the nature of spiritual warfare and the letdown that can occur so soon after displays of God’s power. Despite any feelings to the contrary we may be sure that God has an answer for every trouble and never leaves his servants on their own.
September 25
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An Answer for Elijah’s Discouragement
1 Kings 19:5b–18
Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me
from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!
Psalm 142:6 (ESV)
God answered Elijah’s need rather than his request to die; an angel was sent to give him enough energy to travel on to the mountain of the Lord. There God listened to Elijah’s complaints and then began to reveal himself through signs: a storm, an earthquake, and a fire. These were not the revelation of the Lord, but the signs of his coming revelation, which Elijah heard as a gentle whisper. The Lord repeated his earlier question, and Elijah answered with his earlier response. Elijah thought he’d done enough and wanted to retire, if not die. But it was not for Elijah to determine when his work was finished. The Lord was not through with him or with Israel.
In his new commission for Elijah, the Lord revealed both judgment and grace. Because Israel’s repentance was superficial, it could not escape the Lord’s judgment. Elijah may have hoped for such a reprieve when Mount Carmel resounded with cries of praise to God, but this hope was now taken away.
However, the Lord still had many left in Israel who remained faithful to him. Seven thousand is a significant number, being seven (the number of perfection or completion) multiplied by one thousand (the number representing the whole multitude of those who remained faithful to the Lord). In other words, although Israel as a whole was to suffer judgment, this would not impair God’s purposes. He would preserve a remnant of true Israel, the faithful, who would be heir to his covenant and promises.
With this fresh look at the Lord’s plans, Elijah became reenergized for service as the Lord’s prophet. But he was also given help—Elisha—to be his apprentice and to eventually succeed him as God’s prophet to Israel.
September 26
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Ahab’s Contempt for God’s Kindness
1 Kings 20
Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and
forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s
kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4 (ESV)
God had not yet taken the kingship of Israel from Ahab, so it was still possible for Ahab to do better than he had to this point. Or, he could do worse, moving farther away from the Lord until God removed him from office. Today’s Scripture tells the story of the path Ahab took.
Israel faced an imminent attack from Syria that worried Ahab greatly. God sent a prophet to tell him that he would give Israel the victory. And God did. Later, when Ben-Hadad threatened Israel again, the prophet returned to give Ahab a similar message. Again, Israel triumphed; God gave Israel the victory so that Ahab would give the Lord the honor he deserved.
Ahab twice saw God’s power in delivering Israel from certain defeat. If ever the time was ripe to give himself to full allegiance to the Lord, this was it. But, in sparing the life of the captured king of Syria and offering to make a treaty with him, Ahab opposed God’s judgment against this sworn enemy of Israel.
A prophet of the Lord made this clear to Ahab by a question he put to the king. The prophet pretended that he had been in the battle and accused of dereliction of duty. He asked Ahab for mercy. Ahab had no patience for this supposed shirker and condemned him to die. At that, the prophet revealed that Ahab had pronounced sentence on himself, since he had neglected to carry out the command of the Lord with regard to Ben-Hadad.
Ahab became sullen and angry at this judgment of the Lord. It was a telling reaction. If there had been any doubt about Ahab’s allegiance to the Lord, it was now erased by his negative response to God’s word.
September 27
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Ahab, Unfaithful Shepherd of Israel
1 Kings 21
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my
people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?
Psalm 14:4 (ESV)
Ahab’s unsuitability to shepherd God’s people, which had been proven by his unfaithfulness with respect to an avowed enemy of the Lord, would soon be confirmed by his equal unfaithfulness with respect to his own people.
According to the law of the Lord it was wrong for Ahab even to ask for Naboth’s inheritance. God had told his people, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers” (Lev. 25:23). God had provided each family with land as a permanent inheritance. But here Ahab was, trying to get around God’s provisions for even the most humble of his people.
When Naboth answered Ahab with a biblical response, the king reacted with his familiar disregard for what God wanted: he became sullen and angry. His wife Jezebel, the confirmed idol-worshiper and God-hater, affirmed Ahab in his attitude. Al-though she despised the law of the Lord, she now used it to have Naboth falsely convicted of blasphemy. As a result, Naboth was executed and Ahab got the property he coveted.
In this, of course, Ahab proved himself to be as unfaithful a shepherd with of his own people as he had been with respect to an enemy of God. So Elijah, at God’s prompting, called Ahab on it with a word of judgment from the Lord.
At hearing Elijah’s words, Ahab finally did the right thing; he repented. This may have been Ahab’s first experience with repentance; it is certainly the first that Scripture records. And because of it, Ahab received a measure of grace from the Lord (v. 28). However, only time would tell if Ahab’s humility before God would last.
September 28
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False Leadership Continues
1 Kings 22:1–9; 2 Chronicles 18:1–8
When I look there is no one; among these there is no counselor
who, when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all a delusion;
their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.
Isaiah 41:28–29 (ESV)
Ahab had humbled himself after his execution of Naboth, but his attitude toward God would be tested in the trouble that was brewing with Aram. Ahab asked for the support of Jehoshaphat, who was allied to him through marriage. The king of Judah answered that he was willing with one stipulation: “First seek the counsel of the Lord” (1 Kings 22:5). It was something that Ahab himself should have thought to do and he readily agreed.
The four hundred prophets Ahab summoned to determine God’s will on this matter were, in title at least, prophets of the Lord. But Jehoshaphat was obviously skeptical of their answer because he inquired whether there was not a prophet of the Lord to ask.
The four hundred were not prophets of Baal and Asherah like those who had been vanquished in the contest on Mount Carmel. But, as Ahab knew, neither were they real prophets of the Lord. Their presence in court was merely to give Ahab’s desires the stamp of authenticity. Their loyalty to the Lord apparently mirrored Ahab’s own—incomplete and fickle at best. In any case, Ahab knew exactly why Jehoshaphat was skeptical of their prediction of success, and he also knew the prophet Micaiah to whom he should turn for a real word from the Lord.
However, Ahab worried that Micaiah would be negative about his plans. Ahab already hated him for the same reason he regarded Elijah as his enemy—both prophets told him the truth about his failures as Israel’s king. So it was only with reluctance that he agreed to hear from Micaiah. Despite his previous humility, Ahab was still not inclined to hear about his failures or to truly seek the Lord’s will.
September 29
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Ahab Reaps what He has Sown
1 Kings 22:10–37; 2 Chronicles 18:9–34
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
Job 4:8 (ESV)
The messenger sent to get Micaiah warned him that he’d be wise to agree with the four hundred prophets who had predicted success for Ahab. But Micaiah, true to form, answered that he was bound to say only what the Lord revealed to him. Then he went on to mouth the words that Ahab wanted to hear: “Attack and be victorious, for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand” (1 Kings 22:15).
Knowing that the prophet’s words were insincere, Ahab pressed Micaiah for a true answer from God. And he got just the answer he had feared—nothing but defeat would follow his planned course of action. Micaiah also told Ahab that the other prophets were so far from being the Lord’s servants that God had put a lying spirit in their mouths.
This was a very bad omen for Ahab, who slapped Micaiah in prison and persisted in the course he had determined to take. Ahab took precautions to avoid the predicted disaster and Jehoshaphat felt compelled to go along with him; he put on the clothes of Israel’s king while Ahab wore the clothes of an ordinary soldier so that the enemy would not be able to find and kill Israel’s commander-in-chief. It almost worked. Jehoshaphat was mistaken for Ahab and almost killed for it until his pursuers realized their mistake at the last second and let him go.
Jehoshaphat would later be rebuked by another prophet for his cooperation with Ahab (see 2 Chron. 19:2). As for Ahab, all of his precautions could not save his life; it was ended by an apparently random arrow. Ahab died in dishonor because he despised the Lord’s leadership as well as the many opportunities he’d been given to change his ways and become a suitable shepherd for God’s people.
September 30
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Ahab’s Epitaph
1 Kings 21:25–26
The wicked…are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psalm 1:4–5 (ESV)
After the division of Solomon’s kingdom, the rulers of Judah (headquartered in Jerusalem) generally received a better report than those of Israel (headquartered in Samaria). However, Judah’s record was not consistently good, and Judah was eventually destroyed for disobedience, just like Israel. Nevertheless, Israel’s wickedness was typically the greater, and it would be the first to go into exile.
The relative level of wickedness in Israel is seen in part by the final evaluation Scripture gives to its kings. All of Israel’s kings tolerated the so-called sins of Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 12:28–33; 13:33–34). Scripture repeatedly says that they “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Some, however, were judged to have done more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of the kings who preceded them. Ahab stands as the preeminent example of this unholy line, as his epitaph indicates (see 1 Kings 21:25-26). That’s probably why Scripture devotes so much attention to Ahab—most of the attitudes and actions of his life are testimonies to the things God hates. God gave Ahab many chances to repent and change his ways, and when Ahab did not, God still stuck with his plan to redeem his people and show his grace to the whole world through them.
What a tragedy that Ahab showed such intolerance for what God wanted. By intent or not, Ahab trained his heart and actions to become more and more incompatible with what God loves. It’s the very thing, God forbid, that usually happens to those who refuse to take care of the little things that stand in the way of their love for God, instead allowing sin to have its way in their lives. May God help us to be more like Elijah and Micaiah.
October 1
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Jehoshaphat’s Epitaph
2 Chronicles 19:1–20:30
O our God…we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
2 Chronicles 20:12 (ESV)
Jehoshaphat was severely reprimanded by Jehu for his alliance with Ahab. Jehoshaphat also had other errors of judgment in his twenty-five years as Judah’s king. Even so, he compares well to Ahab in his readiness to accept correction and serve the Lord. Ahab always tried to have his own way. But Jehoshaphat genuinely sought God’s direction and help, not only when he faced Judah’s enemies. He also rid the land of idol shrines and appointed godly judges. Unlike Ahab, Jehoshaphat was judged at the end of his life to have done what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Jehoshaphat’s prayer and next actions in the face of the Moabite/Ammonite threat is still a model for the prayers and actions of Christ’s people facing adversity.
· He called people from all over Judah to come together and pray; they were as one before the Lord.
· He acknowledged the previously displayed wisdom and power of God, and called upon God to remember that he had promised to hear and answer the prayers of his devoted people.
· He confessed the complete dependence of himself and his people on the saving mercy of the Lord.
· After his prayer he obeyed the Lord’s instructions.
· He and his people began to praise God for his answer to prayer even before they witnessed it.
· After the victory, Jehoshaphat led the people in joyful rededication to the Lord.
Afterwards, Judah was given “rest on every side” and the fear of the Lord came upon the surrounding nations. Such rest and such a testimony is what God’s people can always expect when they truly depend on the Lord.
October 2
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Elijah’s Successor
2 Kings 2
On the day I punish Israel for his transgressions,
I will punish the altars of Bethel.
Amos 3:14 (ESV)
Elijah had proved himself to be a genuine and powerful prophet of the Lord, one without equal in Israel. God’s other faithful servants might have been excused for wondering what would happen when Elijah died. Would his spirit and his mission be given to another? As it turned out, Elijah would not die, but would be transported directly into the presence of God. Before he departed, however, he chose Elisha as his successor. Elisha wisely asked for and received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
As with Elijah, Elisha served as the agent of God’s messages of grace and judgment for Judah and Israel. A well-known story from early in his ministry emphasizes judgment for those who persisted in disobedience. Elisha, on his way to Bethel, was taunted by some youths from there. The curse he pronounced on them resulted in the injury or death of forty-two of them. To understand this severe judgment, it will help to remember that Bethel at this time was one of two centers of idolatrous worship that had been set up by Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 12:28–33). Also, the insults of these idolaters were not so much affronts to Elisha as they were to the Lord whose name Elisha bore and who had chosen Elisha to take Elijah’s place as God’s messenger.
Elisha’s ministry would not, however, be primarily one of judgment. He also would frequently demonstrate the healing power and mercy of God. His first miracle, healing the water of Jericho, showed God’s mercy to his own people. But Elisha would also repeatedly show and tell of the mercy of God to the poor and outcasts, and especially those who were outside of the covenant circle. Elisha’s ministry would demonstrate that the love and mercy of God was far more generous than most people imagined.
October 3
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The Grace of God Shown to Israel
2 Kings 4
Choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice
and holding fast to him, for he is your life.
Deuteronomy 30:19–20 (ESV)
The Scripture for today gives several illustrations of the power of God’s word and of the Lord’s intention to bless and prosper his chosen people through the ministry of Elisha.
First was God’s help for the widow of one of his prophets. It may be that the Lord’s earlier instructions for the care of widows and orphans were not being followed closely enough (see Deut. 24:19–21). For whatever reason, this widow was on the verge of bankruptcy. But, she had not forgotten that all things were possible through God, so she approached his prophet for an answer to her distress. Through the miracle of the endless supply of oil, God provided all the food and money she needed.
Next was a woman who already had plenty of food and money—and was generous with it—but had never been blessed with the child she desperately wanted. She had given up hope by this time, but Elisha blessed her; the result was that she miraculously gave birth to a son. When this boy died suddenly, the Lord used Elisha to perform another miracle—the boy was raised from death.
Crowds witnessed two other miracles of Elisha. In the first of these, the Lord proved his power over life and death by neutralizing the poison that threatened the lives of the hungry prophets. In the second, a few bread rolls were miraculously multiplied to feed a hundred people.
The miracles Elisha preformed, like those later done by Jesus, are testimonies both to the good will of God toward his people and to the truth that it is nothing for the one who created all things to supply every need of those who put their trust in him.
October 4
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Rumors of Grace Outside of Israel
2 Kings 5:1–8
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that
did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God,
and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Isaiah 55:5 (ESV)
Foreigners to Israel were sometimes more aware and more appreciative of the grace and power of God than were God’s own chosen people. The Syrian, Naaman, for example, heard of God’s work through Elisha from an Israelite slave in his household. His desperate hope for a cure for his leprosy was such that he made arrangements to travel to Israel to see the prophet.
Israel’s king, on the other hand, had little appreciation for Elisha or his God, even though the prophet correctly prophesied not long before that Israel would win an important battle against Moab. God used Elisha in other miraculous ways too. But Israel’s King Joram was so blind to the display of God’s grace to him and his people and had so little regard for the power of Elisha and the God he served that he considered the impossible request of Naaman’s king to be a pretext for war.
Hearing of King Joram’s dismay, Elisha rebuked him for his ignorance and instructed that Naaman be sent to him so that the power of God might be displayed in the life of this outsider to Israel. Naaman came eagerly, prepared for the occasion with lavish gifts to reward the one who could restore his health. Al-though he had heard of the grace and power of God, he had no idea that what he sought was unavailable for purchase. Nor did he know that what was about to happen would be such an important testimony for him and for everyone who heard of his experience.
Thank God for faithful servants like Elisha who persist in doing God’s will, and for those, such as the slave girl, who aren’t afraid to believe in and testify to the work of God.
October 5
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Grace is for Outsiders Too
2 Kings 5:9–14
[The Lord] says, “It is too light a thing that you should be
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the
preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:6 (ESV)
Naaman was significantly disappointed and angered when, upon arrival at Elisha’s house, he did not even get to see the prophet. Naaman had expected some deference and ceremony at the least. But all he got was a message. “Go take a bath in the river.”
General Naaman went off in a rage. His resistance was not unusual. In fact, it’s common for the human heart not only to want what it wants, but to want it according to preconceived ideas. People don’t mind rigorous procedures to achieve healing or salvation; in fact, most of us rather prefer them. We will endure all sorts of requirements so long as they seem reasonable. But, we’re too often reluctant to follow the simple prescription of the Word of God.
Something in Naaman had to die before he could follow Elisha’s instructions. He received wise counsel on this from his servants and came to see that he had to give up his pride and submit himself to the instructions of an ordinary and unimportant person. It was only when he did this—when he gave up his rights and obeyed the Word of the Lord through Elisha—that he was healed.
Seven times Naaman had to go into the river—to show that the healing was a work of God. Afterwards his skin became like that of a child. There was no more evidence of open, running sores, numb fingers and toes; he was made whole. It was a physical sign, both to Israel and the world beyond Israel, of the healing power and saving grace that cleanses the bodies and spirits of those who come under the power of the Spirit of God.
October 6
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You Can’t Buy Grace
2 Kings 5:15–19
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to his own mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:5 (ESV)
Naaman was overjoyed by his healing. He naturally appreciated the prophet Elisha. But more than that, he appreciated the God of Elisha who had shown that he was without equal in the world. In fact, Naaman said as much and wanted to show his appreciation in the customary way—with a generous payment for services rendered.
What Naaman did not understand, however, was that God is not impressed by worldly wealth. Nor did Naaman know that God takes delight in freely showering grace, not only on his servants, but on outside-of-the-covenant idol worshipers such as Naaman.
God meant to teach Naaman that he could never pay for his grace, but that it was a free gift offered to undeserving sinners. God also wanted Naaman to see that the only place to direct his gratitude was to the one by whose power he had been healed.
That Naaman began to understand these things is signified by his confession that Elisha’s God was the one true God and the only one deserving of his sacrifices. To that end, he requested permission to take some dirt from Israel, the land of the people of Yahweh, so that he could bring more acceptable sacrifices when he returned home to Syria, where the worship of Yahweh was unknown.
Naaman was thus given a taste of what God intended for many more outside-of-the-covenant, lost-in-sin people. He would be a sign of God’s grace to all such as he, and a message to Israel that they should neither take God’s grace for granted nor forget the love God has for strangers and aliens.
October 7
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God’s Anger over Misrepresented Grace
2 Kings 5:20–27
May your money perish with you, because you thought
you could obtain the gift of God with money…Repent,
therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord
that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
Acts 8:20, 22 (ESV)
Gehazi knew the lessons that God wanted Naaman to learn about God’s grace. However, in his greed, Gehazi put them out of his mind and secretly caught up with the Syrian to secure for himself some of the wealth that his master had refused to take. For his part, Naaman was happy to comply. He had tried to pay for the healing he had received. Now he got another chance. He saw that Elisha was not that different from other prophets after all—he wanted to take gifts secretly in order to preserve his image as someone who cared nothing for money.
Tragically, Gehazi’s greed gave Naaman the wrong idea about God. Naaman now thought, or was tempted to think, that God and his prophets were just like all other gods and their prophets.
We don’t know if Gehazi’s misrepresentation of God’s grace was disastrous for Naaman. But we do know that it was disastrous for Gehazi. The leprosy, which had not been a judgment for Naaman, became a judgment for Gehazi and his descendants. That’s the sort of unhappy results sin always has if it is not dealt with properly. Except for the surprising grace of God that sets people free, the sins of the parents become compounded and solidified in the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Such personal consequences are bad enough. But even worse is the compromised witness to the purposes and character of God. Those who are supposed to live for the Lord must never sidetrack or silence the message of redeeming love that can neither be earned nor paid for, but comes freely by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
October 8
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Jonah’s Failed Escape
Jonah 1:1–16
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Luke 15:21 (ESV)
The New Testament often describes the lengths to which God will go so that even those whom others deem most unlikely and undeserving might be brought under the umbrella of his grace. But, there is also ample evidence of this before the time of Jesus. We’ve just read of Elisha’s ministry to Naaman and others who were outsiders to Israel and its covenant relationship with God. Another significant example of God’s extravagant grace to outsiders is his call to Jonah to preach to the Assyrians in Ninevah.
Jonah was aghast at the mission that the Lord gave him. He agreed with God’s assessment of the evil in that city, but thought that the people there were beyond repentance and unworthy of mercy. So Jonah fled in the opposite direction, running not only from Ninevah but from God himself. In doing so, he left Ninevah in peril and also endangered both his life and the lives of the crew of the ship on which he took passage.
Everyone aboard the ship knew that there was something supernatural about the storm that refused to abate. But only Jonah knew that he was the cause. His failure was not one of unbelief, for he still believed in the Lord. He simply did not agree with God’s plan to offer the people of Ninevah a chance to repent. However, as Jonah finally came to understand, it is futile to resist the plans or try to escape the reach of the sovereign Lord.
Jonah knew that his life was forfeit for his attempt to run from God. How can it be otherwise for anyone who stands against God Almighty? We may wonder whether it is worse to live in wickedness and evil, as the Ninevites were doing, or, knowing God, to consciously resist his direction, as Jonah did. But, no wise person will do either.
October 9
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Jonah Gets another Chance
Jonah 1:17–2:10
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored
me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
Psalm 30:2–3 (ESV)
God could have found a replacement for Jonah. But the Lord is as persistent in correcting the disobedience of those who are in covenant with him as he is in calling new people into covenant with himself. In mercy, therefore, God provided a “great fish” to swallow Jonah and, after three days to deposit him on solid ground, alive and willing to serve according to God’s directions.
Jonah prayed in the interim. No doubt he recalled both his own faithlessness and the Lord’s faithfulness, and had time to reconsider both the futility of disobedience and the fruitfulness of a life of obedience. The psalms of Israel helped here; Jonah used the words that all of his people had memorized; he asked God for help and testified to the power and goodness of the Lord.
Some people cannot believe that Jonah could have survived such an ordeal. Others think that he actually died and then was raised to life three days later. Either way, this is a story of God’s provision and power, and the unswerving dedication God has to do whatever it takes to accomplish his purposes. It may be that Jonah even used the story of his deliverance in his preaching to the people of Ninevah.
Jesus himself later compared what would happen with him to what happened with Jonah (Matt. 12:39–41). Just as Jonah was delivered from the fish after three days, he would be raised to life after three days. Jesus also said that the people of Ninevah, who repented in response to Jonah’s preaching, would testify at the judgment to the foolishness of those who refused to repent and turn to God at the message of Jesus, a much greater prophet, and one who provided a much greater salvation.
October 10
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Ninevah Gets another Chance
Jonah 3:1–4:4
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place
among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
Acts 26:17–18 (ESV)
Jonah obeyed God’s second call to confront Ninevah with the need for repentance, although he was not particularly tactful in doing so. His message seemed designed to irritate and alienate people rather than draw them to his message and his God. But Jonah was not strategizing, as Christians often do today, about how to build bridges of mutually beneficial dialogue. Strategies may sometimes be helpful in evangelism, but the crucial factor is faithfulness to the message that God wants preached. Authorized and effective preaching is always informed and energized by God’s Spirit.
Because this was the case with Jonah, his lone voice among the multitudes of people who lived in this vast spiritual wilderness of a city prompted an amazing response. Masses of citizens mourned their wickedness, fasting and donning sackcloth and ashes. Even the king and his court joined in this heartfelt demonstration in the hope that God might turn from the prophesied destruction. And in mercy, he did.
It became clear then that Jonah’s obedience to God’s second summons to call Ninevah to repentance had been a reluctant one, for the escape of Ninevah from the judgment of God was not to his liking. Jonah offered God a reproach rather than praise: “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, and a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2). Jonah had learned that it was useless to try to escape the reach of the Lord or subvert his will. But he had not yet learned to love what God loved—the reconciliation of sinners and their inclusion in the circle of his grace.
October 11
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An Important Lesson for Jonah and Israel
Jonah 4:5–11
I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
declares the Lord God; so turn and live.
Ezekiel 18:32 (ESV)
Ninevah’s repentance didn’t last. The book of Nahum records a prophecy against Ninevah, which had reverted to its wickedness within a century. But the final lesson of the book of Jonah is less about what the Assyrians did with the grace they had received than about Jonah’s bad attitude toward God’s extravagant mercy to outsiders.
Jonah was so disgusted by God’s mercy to the Assyrians that he preferred death to the unwelcome prospect of seeing life and prosperity for these enemies. But God reproved him with a question that was very similar to one he’d asked an angry Cain centuries before (see Gen. 4:6). On that occasion, Cain had ignored God’s counsel that he should master his anger. On this one, we’re not told what Jonah did with his anger, but God schooled him in the foolishness of it by providing, and later destroying, a plant that Jonah loved for the shade it provided.
Jonah may have eventually learned his lesson, but we know that God’s extravagant mercy posed a perpetual challenge for Israel. The Pharisees of Jesus’s day—in their disdain for outsiders—were rather like Jonah, albeit without his eventual obedience. Even though Jesus took pains to instruct them in what God really wanted, it seems he had little if any success.
Even today, some people who benefit most from the mercy of God fail to appreciate it when God offers that same mercy to those they deem less deserving. Such an attitude not only misunderstands the nature of grace, but also vastly underestimates the debt that all servants of God owe to the gracious work of his Spirit in and for them. God’s lesson for Jonah is fully as important for us as it was for Jonah and his people.
October 12
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The Day of the Lord
Amos 5
Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you
have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light.
Amos 5:18 (ESV)
In the years following the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, spiritual conditions in the northern kingdom continued to deteriorate. About 150 years after Solomon’s death, God sent Amos, whom he had called from tending sheep, to convey his warnings to those called to be God’s sheep.
In his preaching, Amos spoke of a coming day of the Lord. This was not a new concept for the people of Israel, but the popular notion was that the promised deliverer would help God’s people by judging the wicked. Every wrong the people had suffered would be put right, every national enemy would be subdued, and the wealth of the surrounding nations would flow into the land. All of this would usher Israel into a wonderful time of abundance and happiness.
However, Amos tells his hearers that the day of the Lord will be the opposite of what they expect; it will be a day of judgment for them. God was sick and tired of an obedience that was confined to religious rituals, sacrifices, and songs. God had seen through the smokescreen of Israel’s sacrifices; the plight of the oppressed among them made their sacrifices a lie. What God wanted from Israel was worship accompanied by the integrity of service that promoted justice and righteousness in the land. Because the people were not giving God what he most valued, they would have to go into exile.
The day of the Lord would come within fifty years for the northern kingdom; Israel was conquered and taken into exile by Assyria in 721 BC. Israel’s fate is a prescient warning of a final and universal judgment for all who persist in pretend worship and thereby stand in opposition to God and his kingdom.
October 13
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The Visions of Amos
Amos 7—9
Whoever will not listen to my words that [the prophet]
shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Deuteronomy 18:19 (ESV)
God gave Amos several visions to illustrate the judgment he planned for Israel because of their failure to repent:
· A swarm of locusts that stripped the land of food (7:1–3)
· Judgment by fire that destroyed the land (7:4–6)
· A plumb line showing Israel to be like a leaning wall, so off balance spiritually that the nation was about to fall over and break apart (7:7–9)
· A basket of ripe fruit that symbolized Israel’s ripeness for destruction (8:1–2)
· The Lord standing beside the altar, poised to smash it and let its stones crush the heads of the people (9:1–4).
The last vision in particular speaks of the impossibility of escaping the Lord’s judgment. The inescapable omnipresence of the Lord, which Psalm 139 depicts as ultimate comfort for those who love God, becomes a terror for those whom God judges.
The reaction of Amaziah, the official priest of the altar at Bethel, showed Israel’s distaste for God’s message. Amaziah did not say that the message was wrong, he just told Amos to stop saying such things (7:10–13).
Although the message of Amos did not result in repentance, his news for Israel was not entirely bad. The book concludes with a vision of hope that looks forward to a time after God’s judgment against Israel has taken its course—a time when he would restore his people (9:11–15). The picture of wine dripping from the mountains and flowing from all the hills is a picture of God’s complete provision and his people’s complete satisfaction—a provision and a satisfaction that we now know comes only through Jesus Christ.
October 14
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Spiritual Prostitution
Hosea 1:1–2:13
Rejoice not, O Israel…for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors.
Hosea 9:1 (ESV)
Forty years after Amos’s prophecies, political and social upheaval was destroying Israel from the inside, and Assyria was threatening Israel from the outside. God raised up another prophet, Hosea, whom he instructed to marry a prostitute named Gomer.
I can imagine that the people would have seen Hosea’s choice of Gomer as wife as either extremely generous or extremely foolish. In their opinion only a saint or a fool would marry a prostitute. But that’s what Hosea did—because God wanted Israel to see itself as the prostitute he had married.
Hosea and Gomer had three children, each of whom, we infer from Hosea 2:4, was conceived in adultery, for Gomer was unfaithful to her marriage vows.
· The son named Jezreel signaled that God would vent his anger on the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel.
· The second child was a daughter, Lo-Ruhamah, her name a statement that God would no longer be merciful to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
· The third child was a son, Lo-Ammi, named to show that the Lord no longer regarded Israel as his people.
The message in this whole sequence of events was unmistakable. The covenant that the Lord had made with Israel was like a marriage relationship in which God and his chosen people pledged their love and commitment to each other. But Israel, like Gomer, had taken other lovers. Gomer’s false lovers were the men who paid her money for sex; Israel’s were the false gods of the surrounding nations, gods like Baal, who were credited with power over fertility and nature. How could either marriage continue under such circumstances?
October 15
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An Invitation to Recommitment
Hosea 2:14–3:5
I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband,
to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that…your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:2-3 (ESV)
Hosea’s hard message to Israel was not the end of the matter. He was compelled to speak of the unrelenting desire of God for a renewal of the covenant (marriage) commitment between God and Israel. There was something in Israel that had to have wanted this too, for the nation remained unsatisfied in its prostitution: “She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now’” (Hosea 2:7).
As a sign of what was possible for his people, God told Hosea to find his adulterous wife and bring her home, restoring her to the covenant relationship into which he had originally entered with her. This was costly, for Hosea apparently had to pay for her release from the one to whom she had prostituted herself.
We don’t know for sure that Gomer became a faithful and loving wife after this, but the implication is that she did. And we also infer from Hosea 2:21–23 that the names of her children were changed as well. The name Jezreel would now signify contentment, and No Mercy and Not My People would be renamed Mercy and My People.
If Israel had listened to Hosea’s graphic message, who knows what great mercy God would have shown to that very generation. But it was not to be. Within a few years Israel had become a vassal of Assyria, paying tribute to avoid destruction. A few years after this, the northern kingdom was destroyed, and most of the Israelites who were not killed were sent into an exile from which they never returned.
October 16
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Avoiding Destruction
Hosea 4:1–6
Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and
we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100:3 (ESV)
God’s hard message through Hosea could have had different results if only Israel had the sense and the heart to return to its first love. God’s people also might never have left their first love if they had cultivated the knowledge of the Lord. Hosea speaks for God when he puts it like this: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
God speaks here not mainly about more information or understanding, but about the kind of knowledge that exists between husband and wife in a good marriage relationship. To know one’s spouse is to be intimate with them. Hosea and Gomer didn’t have that. Israel also did not have the kind of relationship with God that would lead to spiritual growth. Without such a close and loving relationship, the marriage of God and his people was as doomed as Hosea’s marriage.
Whenever people refuse to be the friends and servants God created them to be—and run off and serve other gods—they die. No life is possible where the intimate relationship between God and people has been cut. Only death can follow spiritual adultery. Such death may be seen both as the Lord’s judgment and as the logical consequence of human sinfulness.
Coming to an intimate knowledge of God is a process that requires intention. After the Holy Spirit reaches out to draw us into relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, we, by the power of that same Spirit, are empowered to intentionally nurture our knowledge of God. That means continual feeding on the word of God, which directs us away from affairs with other gods and toward a mature and living relationship with the one true God.
October 17
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Isaiah Despairs in Seeing God’s Holiness
Isaiah 6:1–5
[I saw] one like a son of man…from his mouth came a sharp
two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full
strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Revelation 1:13, 16-17 (ESV)
In the declining years of the northern kingdom, God called Isaiah to prophesy to both Israel and Judah. This is the account of his call to ministry.
No one except Judah’s high priest—and then only once each year—was granted admission into the Most Holy Place of the temple. But in his God-given vision Isaiah is granted a glimpse into that innermost room of the temple, the very throne room of God. This is heaven; it represents the place where God has all authority, the entire universe over which he rules. His robe, his presence, fills the place.
Isaiah is astounded by what he sees (and that to which the angels and the smoke of incense testify)—the glory and holiness of the Lord Almighty. However, it is not grateful astonishment that Isaiah feels, but overwhelming dread. He is horrified by his own uncleanness, which stands out boldly and offensively against the purity and holiness of God. He sees his guilt and that of his people; he sees that he is ruined and responds in hopeless despair saying, “Woe is me!” (in modern language: “I’m damned”) knowing that he has no hope of withstanding the justice of God.
Isaiah does not exaggerate; to meet the holy God and see him in all his glory is to be overwhelmed by a sense of personal unworthiness and impurity. Part of Isaiah’s terror is that he cannot do anything to make himself worthy to stand in God’s presence. What he does not yet know is that awareness of his hopeless state is the necessary first step in becoming able to stand without fear in the very presence of the Lord. Moreover, as it was with Isaiah, so also it is with each of us.
October 18
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Isaiah is Cleansed and Forgiven
Isaiah 6:6–7
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)
How do the unclean and unworthy become clean and worthy? All too often religion gives some sort of legalistic solution:
· You must light so many candles.
· You must say so many prayers.
· You must deny yourself certain pleasures.
· You must study and learn.
· You must give so much money.
· You must reform your life.
But all of this gets the cart before the horse. These are not ways to become cleansed or worthy; they may be responses to God’s grace, but they aren’t ways to earn it. The only way to become cleansed is by the initiative of God, as is shown by the way Isaiah became clean and worthy. The burning coal with which the seraph touched Isaiah’s mouth is the grace and cleansing fire of God, a fire that wipes away sin and guilt and brings reconciliation with the holy God.
God’s presence inevitably shines a light on our own dark and unworthy souls. Isaiah’s experience also gives us fresh insight into God’s nature and his willingness to make the relationship possible. What a wonderful feeling Isaiah must have had in being cleansed. We who have been reconciled by grace through faith in Jesus Christ don’t really have to wonder what it was like; the cleansing, forgiveness, and freedom that we have in Christ is just like that Isaiah received when the seraph touched his lips with the burning coal from the altar. Our cleansing from sin and reconciliation with God is worth more than every other relationship and physical or material advantage that the world can offer.
October 19
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Isaiah Answers God’s Call
Isaiah 6:8
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 (ESV)
Isaiah knew that God’s question: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” was directed at him. He wouldn’t have dared answer it before, guilty and dirty as he was before God; he was too busy lamenting what he thought would mean his death. But after his forgiveness, after his purification, Isaiah saw that God was calling him to a task for which he’d previously been unqualified, and he accepted the challenge: “Here am I. Send me!”
As unique in some respects as Isaiah’s call was, it is not unique as an example of how God works, because God’s self-revelation always comes with an implicit invitation. First, the guilty and impure are invited to accept God’s cleansing and forgiveness. After this comes God’s invitation to join him in his work.
There can be no valuable service to God without God’s cleansing, given to us today by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Then, however, “Here am I. Send me!” is the inevitable response of all who have come to God in true faith. Reluctance to answer God’s call to a life of service, whether or not it is as clear and specific to us as it was to Isaiah, is not humility but disobedience.
Except for Jesus and his angels, not one of God’s servants has served him perfectly. But our imperfections and inadequacies must never be an excuse for ignoring God’s call to a life of intentional service to him. It is possible to waste our lives making excuses, if not for our sinfulness, then for our inabilities. But God can and will use each person he has redeemed. A good beginning for each day is to ask the Lord to open our eyes to the opportunities he puts before us. Beyond that we must ask for the wisdom and courage to respond as God directs.
October 20
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Isaiah’s Commission
Isaiah 6:9–13
[Our parents] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them,
but [God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Hebrews 12:10 (ESV)
It’s not clear whether Isaiah’s commission as God’s spokesman was to show just how hard-hearted and worthy of judgment God’s people were, or to encourage them to repentance. This ambivalence is also seen in the gospel accounts of Jesus’s use of this quotation from Isaiah.
· Mark’s account (4:12) indicates that God’s intention is the former: the preaching of God’s word serves to show just how worthy of judgment hard-hearted people are.
· Matthew’s account (13:10–13) indicates that God’s desire is the latter: the preaching of God’s word is meant to penetrate hard hearts and bring people to repentance.
God clearly intends both consequences. Jesus was given both the ministry of revealing God’s judgment against wickedness (Mark’s emphasis) and the ministry of revealing his infinite mercy to those who responded to his message in repentance and faith (Matthew’s emphasis). In fact, God’s judgment of sin recreates the possibility of life in harmony with him.
Isaiah, similarly, had a dual mission from God. God’s chosen people mostly closed their hearts and minds to his prophetic message. Despite his lack of success, however, Isaiah knew that he was to keep preaching until the end to make clear the inevit-able results of disobedience. But, Isaiah’s work was not entirely disappointing; he also understood that what he had experienced in his encounter with God was what the Lord wanted for all of his people. He knew that God would eventually make it happen too—God would give a remnant a different way to go into the future, a way that involved freedom from the guilt of sin and a life of trust in God and wholehearted service to him.
October 21
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Ahaz and Hezekiah
2 Kings 16:1–4; 18:1–7a
The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.
Proverbs 13:5 (ESV)
The response of God’s people to Isaiah’s ministry is illustrated in the contrasting ways two kings of Judah reacted to God’s messages. They were father and son—Ahaz and Hezekiah. Over the next few days we’ll look at their fears, the gracious invitation each received from God though Isaiah, their differing responses, and the consequences of their decisions. Take note, first of Scripture’s summary of their lives:
· Ahaz “did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” He is contrasted to David, far from perfect, but a man after God’s own heart. Ahaz was more like the kings of Israel, careless about the worship of the Lord and imitating the worship practices of the adjoining nations.
· Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” Late in his life God judged him for unseemly pride in his strength and possessions (see Isa. 39). However, for his overall trust and obedience, Scripture commends him as the best king of Judah since David.
Second Chronicles 29—31 gives more detail about the ways that Hezekiah demonstrated his faithfulness:
· He repaired the temple, reconsecrated it and Judah’s priests, and called for appropriate offerings to be made.
· He led his people in the celebration of the Passover, which had long been neglected.
· He approved the destruction of shrines of worship to false gods and made provision for the priests of the Lord to be supported in their service.
Both Ahaz and Hezekiah were called to lead the people in the service of the Lord. But only one honored the Lord and became a blessing to himself and his people.
October 22
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Ahaz’s Fear and God’s Counsel
Isaiah 7:1–9; 2 Chronicles 28:5–6
[The Lord has come] that we, being delivered from the
hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in
holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Luke 1:74–75 (ESV)
Ahaz, king of Judah, was very worried about two kingdoms to the north, Aram (Syria) and Israel. He had good reason to be: the armies of these nations had inflicted heavy losses upon the armies of Judah.
But Ahaz had also seen signs of God’s grace. After one devastating loss, Oded, a prophet of the Lord, secured the release of the people that Israel had taken captive together with the plunder they had taken from the people of Ahaz. Oded accomplished this by reminding Israel of their kinship with the people of Judah and of their call to serve the same God.
A while later, however, Judah again came under attack from the allied armies of Aram and Israel. In response, Ahaz and his people were shaking in their boots, worried that Jerusalem itself would be conquered. Ahaz considered asking for help from the major power of the world at that time—Assyria. Before he did so, however, God sent Isaiah to tell Ahaz not to rely on Assyria, but to stand firm in faith and trust the Lord for deliverance. With Isaiah was Isaiah’s son Shear-Jashub (meaning: a remnant shall return)—his name meant to be confirmation to Ahaz that God would take care of his people.
Ahaz did not have much practice in serving the Lord or standing firm in faith. Nor did he have much appreciation for Isaiah. But once again he was reminded that those who threatened him were themselves under the control of the Sovereign Lord. It’s a reminder that all of us still need in deciding how to respond to the things that frighten us. If we don’t stand firm in our faith, we will not stand at all.
October 23
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Ahaz’s Response and Its Results
Isaiah 7:17–25; 2 Kings 16:7–18;
2 Chronicles 28:20–25
Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent,
by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
Isaiah 1:27–28 (ESV)
Ahaz remained uncomfortably silent before Isaiah; he had already decided not to trust the Lord, but to trust his own instincts instead. The book of Isaiah implies the result, but we find out from Kings and Chronicles that despite the word of God to him, Ahaz went ahead with his plan to ask Assyria for help. Help is not free, however, and along with his request Ahaz sent along silver and gold from both his palace and from the temple of the Lord. Also, instead of true worship, he continued to build altars to idol gods, provoking the God of his ancestors to anger.
God’s anger did not reveal itself right away for, with the help of Assyria, both Syria and Israel were driven out of Judah. Isaiah’s second son was not two years old (see Isa. 8:3–4) before what Isaiah had prophesied had come true. Neither of the countries that Ahaz had feared was any longer a threat to Judah.
But then, just as Isaiah had prophesied, Assyria turned on Judah and treated it as an enemy. Fortunately for Ahaz, this trouble did not come in his lifetime; it happened thirty-four years after Isaiah first came to Ahaz, and after Ahaz’s son Hezekiah succeeded him as king of Judah.
But disaster, sooner or later, is the inevitable result of preferring one’s own counsel to that of the Lord. Some people, like Ahaz, seem to get away with wickedness and not even be called to account in this life. But his people suffered from his lack of godly leadership and he himself is remembered as one who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. His life was a testimony to the truth of Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death.”
October 24
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Hezekiah’s Fear and God’s Counsel
Isaiah 36:1–37:13; 2 Kings 18:17–19:13
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
John 15:4 (ESV)
The aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field was the setting for the meeting between the Assyrian commander and Hezekiah’s representatives. It’s the same place where, thirty-four years earlier, God sent Isaiah to Hezekiah’s father with the message that Ahaz should not depend on Assyria for deliverance from his enemies but should trust in the Lord.
Ahaz had refused, putting his trust in Assyria instead. Now, the so-called ally whom Ahaz had hired to fight his enemies had turned against Judah and conquered many of its cities. With Jerusalem itself being threatened by Assyria’s army, Judah was in more trouble than ever.
To this point Hezekiah had been a different kind of king than his father; he had tried his best to serve the Lord. But what would he do now that his enemies were so very near and so clearly powerful? Would he continue to trust the Lord, or would he believe Assyria’s message: “Be very afraid of us; no one can rescue you.”?
Hezekiah did not know what would happen. He had seen the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that the Lord would use Assyria to execute his judgment on Israel and Syria (Isa. 8:7–8). But he also knew of God’s determination to deal with Jerusalem and its images as he had dealt with Samaria and its idols (Isa. 10:10–11). In his distress he tore his clothes, donned sackcloth, and went to the temple to pray.
It was then that God sent Isaiah with a message suitable, not only for Hezekiah but, for all time and for all servants of the Lord—the message not to be afraid of the one who contradicts the Lord’s message and blasphemes him.
October 25
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Hezekiah’s Response and Its Results
Isaiah 37:14–38; 2 Kings 19:14–37
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12 (ESV)
Hezekiah had consistently demonstrated his character through his actions to promote the service of the Lord throughout Judah. But Hezekiah showed his intention here too in the silence of his representatives in the face of Assyria’s threats (Isa. 36:21). This was not like the prior silence of Ahaz—a stubborn intention to go against God. It was rather a signal of Hezekiah’s intention to resist the threat from Assyria by continuing to trust the Lord.
Hezekiah’s consistency in seeking the will and favor of the Lord in prayer is another indicator of his intention to keep trusting God. Hezekiah would not always be so selfless in prayer (see Isa. 38—his prayers on the point of death). But the prayer recorded in today’s Scripture shows only concern for the Lord’s honor.
That, by the way, is a wonderful way to pray. God does not reject prayers for our own welfare, but he desires that our main goal, even if it means present distress for us, is that we and people everywhere will know his authority over every person and kingdom, and will come to know and serve him alone as the one true God.
Assyria came to know God’s authority even if they did not join in service to him. Sennacherib’s retreat in disgrace and later murder by his own sons demonstrates that no worldly might is sufficient to prevail against the Lord. “So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side” (2 Chron. 32:22).
Hezekiah benefited personally from this deliverance. But it’s clear that the regard in which others held him was really a testimony to the Lord’s power and purposes.
October 26
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Signs from God and for Him
Isaiah 7:10–17; 37:30–32
Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that…you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation…from God.
Philippians 1:27–28 (ESV)
People who know that God wants their undivided loyalty often want a sign—especially in times of trouble—that things will turn out all right. God invited Ahaz to trust him but Ahaz had already decided to trust Assyria and so refused a sign from God.
God gave him one anyway—telling of the coming birth of an Immanuel who would not reach manhood before the kings Ahaz feared would lose their power. This prophecy would be doubly fulfilled, once in the lifetime of Ahaz, but ultimately and more completely in the life of Jesus. The promised Immanuel (God with us) would, in name and person, signal the presence of God.
Hezekiah also received the promise of a sign from God. He saw God’s provision of food for his people as a sign of the Lord’s presence and care. It was confirmation of his decision to trust the Lord.
It is interesting that although doubting and frightened people usually want immediate signs from God, the signs he gives, like those given to Ahaz and Hezekiah, are often seen only in retrospect. They were called to trust and obey; only later would they see their trust vindicated.
God’s faithful people repeatedly find this to be true. In times of trouble we often see only dimly what we later see clearly, that God was with us and helping us all the while. Furthermore, it’s as we persevere in faithfulness and trust that we ourselves may become signs for God. We may be privileged, as Isaiah himself was (Isa. 8:18), to become living signs that point not only to God’s judgment of sin, but also to his mercy for sinners.
October 27
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God’s Love for His Children
Isaiah 49:14–16
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Psalm 103:13 (ESV)
Consider the strength of feeling behind the Lord’s invitation to both Ahaz and Hezekiah to trust in God. Jesus would later compare his own desire to love and protect God’s people to the solicitous actions of a mother hen toward her chicks (Matt. 23:37). But Isaiah uses an even stronger simile, comparing the love of God to the love that mothers have for the children whom they have birthed and nursed and nurtured.
God’s love even goes beyond this for, impossible as it may seem, a mother can forget her child. Jeremiah tells of people being in such desperate straits and so starving that they killed and ate their own children (Lam. 4:10). I can’t imagine that. Even less can God imagine forgetting his own children. As Isaiah indicates, God has tattooed his children on the palms of his hand.
Hosea similarly points out the strong ties that bind God to his people: “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them” (Hosea 11:3-4). As parents feed their children and teach them to walk, kiss their wounds better, love them and lead them along; that’s how God treats his children.
All of this conveys a strength of feeling that leads one to sacrificial action on behalf of another. It’s that which led God to send his only Son to make the supreme sacrifice, both for the sake of those he called his chosen people, and for enemies who would embrace God’s offer to adopt them. That also tells us how much God was pained by the rejection of Ahaz and pleased by the trust of Hezekiah—and how much he desires our own trust.
October 28
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Revival under Josiah
2 Chronicles 34—35
I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him
who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit
of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)
Hezekiah’s son Manasseh succeeded him as king of Judah, but did not follow his father’s example. Manassah rebuilt idol shrines throughout the land and did much evil in the eyes of the Lord. Later in his life Manasseh repented and humbled himself before the Lord, but he could not undo all the effects of his rebellion.
Revival in Judah would wait until the reign of Manasseh’s grandson Josiah, who, as a young man, began to seek the God of his father David. At age twenty Josiah began to destroy the altars and high places of Judah’s idol worshipers and put to death the false prophets and priests.
A few years later Josiah began to repair the temple of the Lord. In the process, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. When Josiah, previously ignorant of its contents, heard it read, he became frantic and tore his royal robes in dismay at how far he and his people had departed from God’s law. He sought a word from the Lord through the prophetess Huldah. She returned with a message of God’s judgment against his people; albeit judgment that God would mercifully delay until after Josiah’s death.
Josiah redoubled his efforts to show the Lord that he and his people were determined to live for God with all their hearts. He removed all the false gods throughout the land. Once the people repented, Josiah guided them in joyful celebration of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The rededication of Josiah and his people also showed in their lives after the celebration. Eventually God would carry out his judgment, but a generation was saved from it by repentance and revival.
October 29
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Jeremiah and the Demise of Judah
2 Chronicles 36
I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until
they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them.
Jeremiah 24:10 (ESV)
Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry during the reign of Josiah and continued for about forty years, until after the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation of many of God’s people to Babylon.
Jehoiakim, who succeeded his father Josiah after a three-month reign by his brother, radically departed from the pattern Josiah had set, rejecting the service of the Lord for pagan practices. Jehoiakim’s reign was marked by oppression, dishonesty, violence, and the shedding of innocent blood; he even dared to put a prophet of the Lord to death. But Jeremiah did not cater to Jehoiakim. He made clear that if the people did not follow God’s law and listen to his prophets then God would make them and Jerusalem an object of cursing among the nations (Jer. 26:4–6).
Jeremiah was often ridiculed and persecuted for his message. One time Jehoiakim had the audacity to burn the scroll containing the words that the Lord had given Jeremiah to bring to the king (Jer. 36:22–26). Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar not long after.
Jeremiah told Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar put on the throne as his puppet governor, that it was God’s will that he not resist Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, it was time for the people to submit to God’s judgment, repent of their faithlessness, and once again learn to trust God. But Zedekiah and his leaders rebelled, and then witnessed Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, Zedekiah was forced to watch the murder of his sons and then was taken in chains to Babylon. It was the low point in the history of God’s people, now exiled for disobedience from the land God had given them to inherit and in which he had promised to care for them as his servants and partners.
October 30
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Jeremiah’s Tears and Hope
Jeremiah 20:7–18; 31:31–34
This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love
of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21–23 (ESV)
Jeremiah had a difficult life. He was lonely, unpopular, often sad, and doubtful of God’s ways. He was ridiculed, falsely accused, imprisoned, and regularly disappointed by the sins of his people. He sometimes resented the call of God on his life, even cursing the day he was born and taking issue with his mother for bearing a man so opposed by everyone (see Jer. 15:10).
Yet, in everything, Jeremiah proved to be the Lord’s faithful servant. His life itself was a testimony to the coming devastation that would follow God’s judgment on his people. That’s why he’d been forbidden several things permissible for others (Jer. 16:1–9):
· marriage and children—because of coming troubles,
· showing sympathy at funerals—as a sign that God had withdrawn his pity from his people,
· feasting and celebration—because of the coming end to joy and gladness in the land.
Jeremiah’s message was not entirely without hope, however. He spoke of the unfailing love and compassion of the Lord, and the Lord’s great faithfulness. And he looked forward to a new covenant that God would make with his people and a time when his law would be in their minds and on their hearts.
Jeremiah’s hope would ultimately find fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, whose life had similarities to that of Jeremiah’s, both in his sufferings and in his trust and hope in God. Although both men had many reasons to give up, they remained faithful to their God-given calling: Jeremiah as a witness to his generation and ours, and Jesus as the one in whom all sins are forgiven and all of the promises of God are fully realized.
Last modified: Thursday, August 9, 2018, 3:10 PM