God Destroys the Old in Order to Create New - Jeremiah 1-6

 Jeremiah 1:9-10 (ESV)

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet” because of his reaction to the message that God gave him to speak to Judah (the southern tribe of Israel).  He prophesied from the reign of Josiah to the captivity of Jerusalem (1:1-3).   The message he had to deliver was mostly doom and gloom.   God was punishing His people because of their disobedience and He was using wicked nations as the tool for that punishment.  But, there were also moments in the message of hope and possibility.  The above passage is outlining this central theme of Jeremiah’s work.   This is a very important theme of God’s plan and God’s universal work in creation.    Once the sin of Adam took place all men fell into a mindset that they would only choose evil, continually (Romans 6-8).   To redeem mankind, God has to destroy that desire for sin and create a new way.  This is what Jeremiah is saying in the above passage.  This is the theme of his book:

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.” (v. 10)

If we talked about this in archetypal terms we would say God is the Destroyer and then the Creator.  Together He produces a revolutionary moment in the lives of mankind.   God sent Jeremiah to give both the Destroyer messages (doom and gloom) and the Creator message (hope and redemption) (see chapters 31-33).   

This is the hope we have in Christ.  Even though God must destroy the old nature of our lives (through Jesus’ death-burial-resurrection), He creates within us a new nature.   Before redemption there must be death and resurrection.   God destroys in order to build up.  

God is Powerful - To What End, However? Job 25-26

 Job 26:10 (ESV)

He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

Job 26:10 (NIV 1984)

He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters

for a boundary between light and darkness.

Starting in Chapter 26, Job is about to go a long dissertation responding to his three friends, his suffering and to God, Himself.   The last of the three friends as spoken in chapter 25.  Bildad took on Job’s earlier request of wanting a face-to-face meeting with God.   Bildad puts Job in is place by arguing that God is mighty and powerful and you, Job, are just a maggot.   These are certainly words every counselor should say to their suffering client ... how absurd.   

Job’s response now is going to be to talk about why he wants a face-to-face meeting. His argument in the above verse is that God is the ONLY one who can help him.  Whereas Bildad tells job that God is so powerful how can any man be right before God (25:4) and therefor unapproachable, Job maintains that since God is so powerful, He is the ONLY one who can be approached to solve Job’s problem.    Notice the contrast of philosophy. To some in the world, God’s power is a threat.  To others in the world, God’s power is a solution.   

Job opening talks about how God has set creation in a specific order.  God set a boundary for the seas and a boundary for the sun.   Note:

Genesis 1:4 (ESV) 

And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

Jeremiah 5:22 (ESV) 

Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;

though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;

though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

Proverbs 8:29 (ESV) 

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

Jeremiah 5:22 (ESV)

Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.

Do you not tremble before me?

I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,

a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;

though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;

though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

We do not know how the three friends respond to Job’s dialogue, either the above argument or the thoughts that follow.  But we do know how God does.  After Job (and the fourth friend, Eihu) finishes their speeches, here is what God says:

Job 38:8-11 (ESV)

“Or who shut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

when I made clouds its garment

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed limits for it

and set bars and doors,

and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

God, Himself, declares His power to Job and the friends.   Job is not on the wrong path with his philosophy and response to Bildad (and the others).  But, Job doesn’t come to God to worship that power.  God approaches God demanding answers to his problem and suffering.   God simply highlights His power to Job, as we will eventually read.   The key thought here is that God is powerful and separates light from darkness and land from seas and puts the horizon in place.   But, God is not a holy butler being compelled to carry about out wishes and wants.   God is a holy sovereign who wants our loving worship simply because of His power, not because we want to take advantage of it.  

God Does Not Regret His Plans - He Regrets Our Response to His Plans - 1 Samuel 11-15

 1 Samuel 15:10-11 (ESV)

The word of the LORD came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.

1 Samuel 15:29 (ESV)

And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

1 Samuel 15:35 (ESV)

And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Does God have regret?   It might depend on which one of the above verses you read.   The writer of this chapter goes to great lengths, however, to tell us that God regretted He made Saul king, but that God does not regret.   So, we might ask, “Can both of these positions be true?”   Could it mean that God is regretful about Saul’s kingship in the sense, “God regrets how Saul responded to the kingship?”   The reason for God’s regret in verse ten and eleven, above, is not focused on God.  It is focused on the fact that Saul “turned back from following” God.   God regrets He made Saul king because Saul did not live up to the moment.   God does not regret His plans, He regrets Saul’s response to His plans.   

An illustration of this may be that you decide to go away with your spouse for the weekend and you leave your teenage children home alone.   When you get home and hear the utter destruction and bad behavior they did in your absence, you would regret that they acted poorly and didn’t rise to the occasion.  You regret that you left them alone, but not because you didn’t have pure intent and desire for them to live up to their calling.   You regret that they didn’t take advantage and live out that opportunity in a better way. 

This is the sense that God regretted Saul.   God regretted Saul’s response to the moment.  He had the chance to show God’s power and holiness.  But, he didn’t.   He failed to live up to the moment and God regretted his behavior.  But, God does not regret His plans and how He approaches working with mankind.   God’s plans are holy.  Those who carry out His plans, are not.  

Anger Destroys Future Blessings - Genesis 48-50

 Genesis 49:5-7 (ESV)

“Simeon and Levi are brothers;

weapons of violence are their swords.

Let my soul come not into their council;

O my glory, be not joined to their company.

For in their anger they killed men,

and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,

and their wrath, for it is cruel!

I will divide them in Jacob

and scatter them in Israel.

In chapter 49 we read the blessings (and curses) of Israel, in regard to his sons. As he is dying, he prays over each of them.  The first three sons, Rueben, Simeon and Levi, are not blessed.  Instead Israel says nothing of blessing and instead, curses a trait of theirs.   In the above passage we see that Israel cures the anger of Simeon and Levi.   This anger comes from the story in Genesis 34 concerning Simeon and Levin defending the honor of their sister, Dianah.  She was raped by one of the men of Schechem.   In their anger, but after they had deceived the men of Schechem, they killed all the men of Schechem.   This brought disdain on Israel’s reputation. It could easily be imagined that both Simeon and Levi did not see this curse on their anger coming.  Here their dad was dying and they fully expected, as the early born sons, to have some kinds of blessing and/or favor from their father.  But, not so.  Dad remembered their evil ways.   Perhaps this is were a New Testament verse might fit:

James 1:20 (ESV)

for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

We don’t see anger carrying the weight that God sees it carry.  Certainly these two boys did not see their anger has something that would come back to hurt them in the later days of their lives.  But, anger is a bitter emotion that does not produce what God intends in our lives.  Solomon would also speak to this plight of anger:

Ecclesiastes 7:9 (ESV)

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,

for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

Anger is a deceiving and destructive emotion of the heart.   We would do well to control it quickly. 

James 1:19 (ESV)

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Proverbs 16:32 (ESV)

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Lover Corrals Knowlege and Knowledge Is Subject to Love - 1 Corinthians 7-8

 1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (ESV)

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

To understand the above sentence pulled out chapter eight, we have to know what Paul is talking about.  The Corinthian believers had requested that Paul would help them clarify an issue the early church (and our church today ... but in different subjects).   The question was about Christian liberty and freedom.   The specific question in this passage is meat offered to idols. As the church began to grow and more and more Gentiles were coming to Christ,  more and more of the Body of Christ was made up of individuals who had, at one time, worshipped gods and idols.  Paul’s point in the entire chapter is that even though we know that there is ONLY ONE God, some in the Body have a conscious level about their old worship habits.  The question was, “How far can the believer without the high conscious level about idol worship go in their indulging in the world, when those with a high conscious level are watching or participating?   Meat offered to the idol was a big deal.  The Greeks would offer the meat because they believed that demonic host could enter the meat and subsequently enter the body.  So, the offered the meat to purify it.  One-third was burnt, one-third went the priest of that god, and one-third could be eaten.  It would be eaten in the home, at weddings, at occasions of group activities.  So, the question to the Corinth believers was, “Can we eat the meat or not?”   Paul will give them several reasons in the subsequent verses, but in the above verses he tells them the overriding principle to follow.  Yes, some have the “knowledge” about the meat offering to gods and idols that idols to false gods means nothing.   There is nothing in a idol but the material it was made from.   But, Paul gives us a very important truth in these verses:  Knowing strong Biblical truth is NOT ENOUGH to navigate our Christian walk.   If you think you have superior knowledge about a Biblical situation that is not enough.  Real accumulation of knowledge ought to make you more and more questing more knowledge.   It was said, “The pursuit of knowledge is moving from an unconscious state of ignorance to a conscious state of ignorance.”  Knowledge doesn’t end when you know something. It is only the beginning.   Paul states that knowledge must be accompanied by love.   Love is the ultimate guide to these areas of dispute.  Being loved by God and loving God is the overriding principle to deal with matters of conscience and Christian liberty.  Paul will give more direction in the following verses but he sets the stage by saying don’t think just because you know something others don’t that you have the freedom do to what you want at the expense of others.  Knowledge of God and about God obligates you to the love like God.  Jesus is the prime example for us.  He set aside His “rights” to give His life a ransom for others.   Love must corral knowledge and knowledge is submissive to love.  

Mob Mentality - At One Time a Good Thing - Mark 3-4

 Mark 3:7-11 (ESV)

A Great CROWD Follows Jesus

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great CROWD heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the CROWD, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

Mark 3:20 (ESV)

20 Then he went home, and the CROWD gathered again, so that they could not even eat.

Mark 3:32 (ESV)

32 And a CROWD was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.”

Mark 4:1 (ESV)

The Parable of the Sower

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large CROWD gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole CROWD was beside the sea on the land.

Jesus could draw a CROWD.  Imagine how that truth would be exploited today ... by the religious world.  Or, by the “rock star” preachers.   What would the marking world do with Jesus ability to draw massive groups of people?  You have to wonder what the street vendors in Jesus day did with this phenomenon.  What would the nightly news be like if it was our day when Jesus came and drew these type of CROWDS?  

Jesus drew CROWDS because He was the Son of God who healed people.   Today if people were being healed because of Jesus name, think of the CROWDS that would be gathering.    But, that is the problem, isn’t it?   In Mark’s gospel we read of these massive crowds because of Jesus physically healing them.   It would not be until Pentecost that we would read about these same type of CROWDS because people were being healed Spiritually (Acts 2-4).   Later would read about Paul in Ephesus where there was a large CROWD gathered, actually burning books about evil to believe the good of Christ (Acts 19).   Where are our CROWDS today because we are seeing people healed spiritually?  

But, it would also be CROWDS that crucified Jesus:

Mark 15:15 (ESV)

So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

It was the CROWD that almost had Paul killed in Ephesus:

Acts 19:33-35 (ESV)

33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?

Today CROWD mentality will destroy a city.   But, in Jesus’ ministry He was able to gather the CROWDS to heal and to save.   That is the CROWD mentality we want today.  

What Would Happen if We Saw God? Isaiah 63-66

 Isaiah 64:1-3 (ESV)

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

What would happen if the world actually saw God in all His glory?   Imagine the news coverage.  Think about how the markets would react.   Ponder the thought that the rulers and government would be faced with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.   Consider the concept that all the military power of the world would gaze at the awesome power of God’s Word, the flaming sword of His tongue. These are the thoughts contained in the above prophesy of Isiah’s prayer in the above verses.  It states that the “mountains would quake.”   Has anyone in these days seen so much awesomeness from God that they would consider that mountains would quake?  It states that the nations will “tremble.”   We don’t see a lot of the nations trembling these days.  We see them flex.   We see them puff their chest out.  We see them threaten.   We see them boast.  But, we have never seen the nations tremble.  Notice what John says about these things in The Revelation of John.   This is what will happen to the nations when Christ begins the end times with wonders and awe:

Revelation 6:12-17 (ESV)

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Notice what happens with the leaders of this world.  The kings, the great ones, the generals, the rich, the powerful, the slave and the free will hide from God’s holy presence.   That is what will happen when God reveals Himself from heaven.   The prophecy of Isaiah will be filled in the prophecy of John.   That is the future of the world.