Isaiah 35-10 Everlasting Joy

I would encourage the more serious Bible students who read my stuff to study the prophets in the Bible. 

Much of the Bible is pretty straightforward reading.  There is history, there are psalms, proverbs, and letters.  But then you have the prophets.  And there most of us need help.

One of the reasons they are so important is that they talk a lot about things we need to know about, and I don’t mean the end of the world.

Consider a few passages:

Luke 24:25–27 (NASB95) 25 And He [Jesus] said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Acts 3:19–24 (NASB95)  ¹⁹ “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. ²² “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. ²³ ‘And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ ²⁴ “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.

Acts 17:2–3 (NASB95)  2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

Acts 18:27–28 (NASB95) 27 and when he [Apollos] had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Acts 28:23 (NASB95) 23 When they had set a day for Paul, they came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening.

Jesus and the apostles found that the Old Testament, particularly the prophets, had a lot more to say about Jesus than we today know.

The big question in reading the prophets is discerning which parts talk about events in their days, which talk about the time of Jesus, and which talk about events still future, if indeed they do at all.

I have concluded from my studies that Isaiah 35 is one of those passages that speaks of Jesus’ first coming. 

You may well ask though, so what?  Why is that important for me today?  I’m just trying to get by from day to day.

Because it looks at your life in a way you would never think of.

It’s very poetic, highly symbolic language. 

Start at verse 8 of Isaiah 35:

Isaiah 35:8–10 (NASB95)  8 A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, 10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

There’s no time or space now to go into everything here, but note the expression in verse 10: everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

That is supposed to characterize the Christian life.  Maybe I didn’t make the case for that fully enough in a short Bible Bit, but that is my conclusion.

Now joy has always been difficult for me.  I’ve had times of immense joy, but more often than not, there was just nothing really.  Neither sad nor happy.  But I do know what sad is.  All too well. 

When I read this, it tells me that I am looking at a lot of things fundamentally wrong.

As I write this, I am going through the hardest time in my life.  I have said that before, and more than once.  It seems they keep getting harder.  And I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  It’s called growing.

I’ve been through cancer (stage 4) when the doctor wasn’t too hopeful.  I had a diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis (terminal).  I have been out of work and out of money too often to remember.

It’s too soon to give details on the latest crisis here, but this verse only makes sense if our life and experience with God should make us feel like nothing needs to disturb or discourage us.  Things will work out good.  Really good.

But, but, but    You will tell me of Christians for whom things did not work out good. 

I understand that.  The Christian life is not a free ride.  It involves growing, learning, effort.  It’s not automatic.  But one of the clues that you are on the right track is the amount of joy that you experience.  Just don’t panic when you find you can’t just turn it on when you want.  But you do need to know what the final product looks like so you can tell how you’re doing.

 

 

 

Mark 11:25 The Forgotten Secret

When I say that the secret is forgotten, I’m not saying that this is some obscure thing hidden for the ages that I recently discovered and can be yours for the low price of a year’s subscription to my spiritual newsletter.

But I have been wrestling for a long time with unanswered prayer.  Not so much prayers for myself, but there are those as well. 

But there is a theme in the Bible that appears sometimes in strange places that makes you wonder if and how they are connected.

Mark 11:25 is one such passage.  Jesus had just taught His disciples one of the most outlandish things in the Bible, about faith moving mountains.

First He says that you can move mountains by commanding them to move without doubting.  But then He moves to prayer as though moving mountains and speaking to them is a part or form of prayer, and how by doing a certain thing, we will get what we prayed for.

Oh, but then He adds something seemingly unrelated: whenever you pray, you have to forgive if you have anything against anyone.  Mark 11:25 (NASB95)  25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.

Now Jesus didn’t come right out and say that if you don’t forgive, then everything He just said before becomes null and void, but He might as well have.

And then there’s the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus expects us to pray every day, because we are to ask for bread only for today.  So tomorrow we are supposed to do that again.

And then right there in the middle we are to ask for forgiveness for our own sins which seems connected to how we forgive others.

Luke 11:4 (NASB95) 4 ‘And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”

Matthew 6:12–15 (NASB95) 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ 14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

There are passages in the Bible about how we are to treat enemies, those who wrong us willfully, those who hate us.  And in each case, there is either a promise of God’s specific blessing or a statement of blessings.

Proverbs 20:22 (NASB95) 22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.

Proverbs 25:21,22 (NASB95) 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you.

Matthew 5:43–48 (NASB95) 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

We may show consideration to the more obvious evil people in life yet show less to those from whom we expect so much more.  Evil people are, well, evil.  They can’t help themselves, but Christians, and spouses, and friends, well, they are inexcusable.  They should know much better. 

Yet the words still stand:  Romans 12:17–21 (NASB95)  17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. . . .  18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “vengeance is mine, i will repay,” says the Lord. . . .   21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Matthew 18 is too long to print out here.  It talks a lot about forgiveness, but much of it in a roundabout way.  But it ends with a long parable about a man who was forgiven an enormous debt but who refused to forgive a much smaller debt that was owed him. 

The ending of the parable is strange: 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Many of the passages that deal with forgiveness suggest that it is not an option, thar there are real and significant consequences when we don’t. 

Consider this passage:  Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

But Christians are not judged, we are not condemned, we are pardoned.  But does that mean that there are no consequences if we judge, condemn, and refuse to pardon?

Look at Ephesians 4:26–5:1 (NASB95)  26 be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

When we allow anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness to rule in our lives, we give the devil an opportunity, and we grieve the Holy Spirit.  Not a good combination.  But this shows us how this all affects us personally and spiritually.

Colossians 3:12–14 (NASB95) 12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

1 Peter 3:8–12 (NASB95) 8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9 not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For, “the one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. 11 “he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. 12 “for the eyes of the lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the lord is against those who do evil.”

And, lastly, even those who are looking for forgiveness from others need to see the importance of restoring the relationship.   

Matthew 5:23,24 (NASB95) 23 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

I have tried to be brief, and in so doing, I know that many will just skim through the verses, because they are familiar and I haven’t explicitly pointed out certain things.   If I make it any longer, a lot of people won’t even read it.

This is important.  Take a few minutes.  Who knows, maybe it will change your life?

 

I Chronicles 1 Why Are There so Many Genealogies in the Bible?

The first time I read the Bible through I skipped the book of Leviticus.  Even now when I read through the Bible, I put certain parts of the Bible in a separate category.  I don’t want to spend an hour reading Leviticus or Numbers or I Chronicles in one sitting.  I only do a few chapters at a time when I read those books.

There are whole chapters in the Bible that are basically just names or descriptions of offerings or buildings or clothes of the priest.  If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then why is so much of it uninspiring?

I would like to offer three suggestions:

1)         The Bible is grounded in history.  It is not the musings of somebody sitting on a mountain top thinking about God.  It is not a self-help book or a devotional or a collection of sermons.  It’s a record of God interacting in human history, real people in real time.  It’s not about what happened a long time ago in a land far, far away.   It happened in specific places, and the people involved are identified through their genealogies. 

Much of this history is with the nation of Israel, such that the history of that nation tells the story of God and humankind.

This nails down the existence and work of God to specific times, places, and events. 

I was talking with a lady at work about Passover.  The Jewish people have been celebrating Passover for 3500 years.  I told her, something happened 3500 years ago.  You don’t create a tradition that lasts that long over nothing. 

That history, that tradition, involved rituals and ceremonies that were created to teach things.  The rituals are important and mean something, but it can make for very tedious reading.

If you were writing your own Bible, your idea of an inspired book on religion, you would not include genealogies or detailed descriptions of buildings or priestly attire.  The Bible does, because God revealed Himself in the innerworkings of His chosen people.  In fact, I would include that as a proof of the inspiration of the Bible.  The Bible is not the kind of book you would write if you wanted to write your own Bible.

2)         A second reason is that it demonstrates the importance of people to God.  He knows all our names, and we are all part of a bigger picture.  Humans are not just one big mass to God; they are all individuals who He knows by name.

3)         The third reason may be the most important of all.

A big reason for genealogies in the life of Israel was for the sake of inheritances.  God promised a land to Abraham’s descendants, and the genealogies confirmed who is a descendant of Abraham.

The land was divided up into 12 parcels according to their families, hence their genealogies. 

But this land was passed down as an inheritance to their children.  The Israelites received the Promised Land as an inheritance from their father Abraham.  Each Israelite received his inheritance from his father, which was their land.

The whole idea of inheriting your land from your father(s) was ingrained into the minds and consciousness of God’s people.

Why is that important?

Because salvation as we know it in the New Testament is an inheritance.  It is not a reward for our achievements but an inheritance passed down to the heirs.  Jesus secured the original inheritance and those who unite themselves with Him through faith become heirs of the promise. 

It is so common for people to think that they earn heaven or eternal life through how they live.  But it’s actually based on a relationship with Somebody else such that we inherit what belongs to that Somebody else. 

That Somebody else has life in Himself, and we receive that life by becoming united with Him.  And that Somebody is Jesus.

A few Scriptures are in order here:

Matthew 19:29 (NASB95)  ²⁹ “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

Matthew 25:34 (NASB95) ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

1 Corinthians 15:50 (NASB95)  ⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Galatians 3:18 (NASB95)  ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Galatians 4:30 (NASB95)  ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, For the son of the bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.”

Galatians 5:19–21 (NASB95)  ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 1:13,14 (NASB95)  ¹³ In Him [Jesus], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 5:5 (NASB95)  ⁵ For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Hebrews 1:14 (NASB95)  ¹⁴ Are they [angels] not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

Hebrews 6:11,12 (NASB95)  ¹¹ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, ¹² so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Revelation 21:7 (NASB95)  ⁷ “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

 

It reminds me of The Karate Kid movie, where Daniel trains by doing things that seem totally unrelated to karate.  And those very things made his karate moves second nature.

The genealogies of the Bible should reinforce on us the idea that salvation is not a reward or the prize for our achievements.  It’s an inheritance given to us by virtue of our relationship with Jesus.