Friday, September 28, 2018

A privileged indifference toward God will result in judgment from God...


This week, we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Amos, which is the next letter that was written by prophet chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. Amos was a herdsman and grower of a type of figs, which were known as sycamore figs, until God called Him to leave his home to be His messenger and gave him the responsibility to proclaim God’s message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Lord, through Amos, proclaim to the Jewish people that He was about to exercise judgment upon them as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.

The Lord reminded the Jewish people that even though He had delivered them from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, even though He had chosen the Jewish people from all the nations to enter into a special covenant relationship with in order that they might represent Him to all the nations, He was ready to punish them for breaking that covenant relationship with Him.  Despite the privilege that they had received to be in a special relationship with the Lord, the Jewish people rebelled against the Lord. The Jewish people responded to privilege by refusing the responsibilities that came with that privilege.

The Lord used several powerful word pictures to describe the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people and the judgment and punishment that they would receive from the Lord as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.  Despite the privileges and blessings that they had received from God, these Jewish women exploited the poor and needy instead of sharing their resources to help meet the needs of the poor and needy. In addition the Lord’s punishment and judgment would come as a result of their worship of false gods instead of the Lord as the One True God.

Amos proclaimed their refusal to repent; their refusal to recognize and respond to their selfishness and rebellion, and the consequences that their selfishness and rebellion had brought them, would result in the ultimate judgment and punishment from the Lord. The Northern Kingdom would come face to face with the punishment that comes from the Lord, who alone is the One True God. They would come face to face with the One who created the universe and who had proclaimed His just and right judgment for selfishness and rebellion through Amos. And that judgment would be inescapable. Just a few chapters later, we see the Lord reveal to Amos the standard for that judgment in Amos 7:1-9:

Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing. 2 And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, "Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is small?" 3 The LORD changed His mind about this. "It shall not be," said the LORD. 4 ¶ Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land. 5 Then I said, "Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?" 6 The LORD changed His mind about this. "This too shall not be," said the Lord GOD. 7 ¶ Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. 8 The LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 9 "The high places of Isaac will be desolated And the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."

Here we see the Lord give Amos a series of visions that paint for us pictures of His judgment for the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people.  First, in verses 1-3, we see the Lord give Amos a vision of a swarm of locust destroying the food source for the Jewish people. Amos, upon seeing this vision, pleaded and interceded on behalf of the people before the Lord. Amos explained that the Lord changed His mind and did not send the swarm of locusts.

Then, in verses 4-6, the Lord gave Amos a second vision, this time of a fire that would destroy the farm land of the Jewish people. And once again, upon seeing the vision, Amos pleaded and interceded on behalf of the people before the Lord. Amos explained that the Lord again changed His mind and did not send the fire.

Then, in verses 7-9, the Lord gave Amos a third vision, this time of a plumb line. Now a plumb line is used by builders and mason to measure the straightness of a wall. The Lord, in this vision is painting a word picture for Amos. The wall that is to be measured by the plumb line is the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The plumb line that would be used to measure the Northern Kingdom would be the Law, which referred to the first five letters that are recorded for us in our bibles today. The Law revealed God’s nature and character and the nature and character that the Jewish people would need to possess and display in order to experience a right relationship with God.

And as Amos looked at the plumb line of the God’s word held up against the selfishness and rebellion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the crooked and twisted nature of their selfishness and rebellion was unmistakably clear. And as a result, Amos did not intercede. Instead Amos agreed that God was right and just in His judgment and punishment of the Northern Kingdom.

You see, when Amos stated that the Lord changed His mind about this, this referred to how he would judge the Jewish people, not whether or not he would judge the Jewish people. And by the way, who changed? Did God change? Or did Amos change? Amos changed. God used the plumb line so that Amos would see God’s rightness and justice and understand why the Jewish people needed to be judged. We see the Lord give Amos two final visions in Amos 8:1-14:

Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 3 "The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day," declares the Lord GOD. "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence." 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?" 7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 "Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt. 9 "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord GOD, "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight. 10 "Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day. 11 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. 12 "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. 13 "In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. 14 "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' And, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again."

Here we see the Lord give Amos a fourth vision, this time of a basket of ripe fruit. The Lord gave Amos this vision to reveal the reality that just as there is a time when fruit is right for eating, the Jewish people were ripe for judgment. The Lord wanted Amos to clearly understand that there was no hope for the Northern Kingdom. There was no hope because the greed of the Jewish people pursued profit at the expense of the poor. There was no hope because the Jewish people refused to humble themselves before the Lord.

There was no hope because the Jewish people despised the fact that they had to interrupt their times of profit and pleasure for church. There was no hope because the Jewish people insisted on finding new and creative ways to cheat others. There was no hope because the Jewish people forced people into slavery for financial gain. And because of their rebellion, the Jewish people would experience a drought that would lead to death. And that drought would be the loss of God’s presence and God’s message. Amos then received a final vision to reinforce the certainty of God’s judgment in Amos 9:1-6:

I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, "Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape. 2 "Though they dig into Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down. 3 "Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. 4 "And though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good." 5 The Lord GOD of hosts, The One who touches the land so that it melts, And all those who dwell in it mourn, And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt; 6 The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name.

You see, the Lord wanted Amos to clearly understand that judgment was certain and inescapable. The temple in Bethel would be razed to the ground. And wherever they fled, whether they fled to the dense forests surrounding Mount Carmel; whether they attempted to hide in the limestone caves around Mount Carmel, escape was impossible. Wherever they went the Lord would fix his eyes on them for evil and not good in order to exercise His right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion. 

And it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: A privileged indifference toward God will result in judgment from God. You see, the point of the book of Amos is that there are responsibilities that accompany privilege. Yet, despite the privilege that they had received to be in a special relationship with the Lord, the Jewish people rebelled and rejected the responsibilities that came with that privilege.

And as the Lord brought consequences upon the Jewish people for rebelling and rejecting the responsibilities that came with that privilege in hopes that they would return to Him, the Jewish people responded with indifference. The Jewish people lived in an arrogance against God as they exploited those who were created in the image of God. The Jewish people viewed time with God as getting in the way of their times of profit and pleasure. And it was this attitude of indifference to God, in spite of the privileges that they had received from God, that led to their judgment by God.

So here is a question to consider: How are you responding to the privileges that you have received from God? How are you responding to the reality that you have been given the opportunity to be rescued from your rebellion into a relationship with God through Jesus? 

And how are you responding to the responsibilities that you have been given by God as a result of the privileges you have received from God? How are you responding to the reality that you have been rescued for something, not just from something? Are you responding with indifference to the privileges you have received from God? Are you responding with arrogance to the privileges you have received from God? Are you rebelling and rejecting the responsibilities that come from God as a result of the privileges you have received from God?

Because, as we have discovered this morning, a privileged indifference toward God will result in judgment from God…

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Amos, the man and the message...


At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled When God speaks. During this series we are spending our time together looking at a set of letters in the Bible that we often have a tendency to skip over, which are referred to as the prophets. We are going to discover who these letters in the Bible that we have a tendency to skip over were written to. We are going to discover what these letters in the Bible that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are going to discover what these letters in the Bible that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity in history. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts and hands so that we understand and embrace the timeless and timely truths that these letters that we often skip over have for our lives.

This week I would like for us to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Amos, which is the next letter that was written by prophet chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. Amos, the man, lived during the reigns of King Uzziah, who was the king of the southern kingdom of Judea, and King Jeroboam who was the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. These kings ruled and reigned from 790-753 B.C.

This letter was written during the times described in a section of another letter in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the book of 2 Kings, in 2 Kings 14:23-29. Amos was from a rugged small town named Tekoa, which was located 10 miles south of Jerusalem on the edge of a mountainous region that precipitously dropped toward the Dead Sea in the East. In Amos 7:12-15, we discover that Amos was a herdsman and grower of a type of figs, which were known as sycamore figs, until God called Him to leave his home to be His messenger and gave him the responsibility to proclaim God’s message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

So let’s jump into this letter that is found in the Old Testament of our Bibles, because it is in this letter that we will discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and His activity in history that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live today. We see Amos describe the circumstances that led God to send him to the Northern Kingdom revealed for us in Amos 3:1-15:

Hear this word which the LORD has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt: 2 "You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." 3 Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment? 4 Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something? 5 Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all? 6 If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it? 7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets. 8 A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy? 9 Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the oppressions in her midst. 10 "But they do not know how to do what is right," declares the LORD, "these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels." 11 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "An enemy, even one surrounding the land, Will pull down your strength from you And your citadels will be looted." 12 ¶ Thus says the LORD, "Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion's mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, So will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away-- With the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch! 13 "Hear and testify against the house of Jacob," Declares the Lord GOD, the God of hosts. 14 "For on the day that I punish Israel's transgressions, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; The horns of the altar will be cut off And they will fall to the ground. 15 "I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house; The houses of ivory will also perish And the great houses will come to an end," Declares the LORD.

Here we see the Lord, through Amos, proclaim to the Jewish people that He was about to exercise judgment upon them as a result of their selfishness and rebellion. The Lord reminded the Jewish people that even though He had delivered them from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, even though He had chosen the Jewish people from all the nations to enter into a special covenant relationship with in order that they might represent Him to all the nations, He was ready to punish them for breaking that covenant relationship with Him.  Despite the privilege that they had received to be in a special relationship with the Lord, the Jewish people rebelled against the Lord. The Jewish people responded to privilege by refusing the responsibilities that came with that privilege.

The Lord then asked the Jewish people a series of questions through Amos to reveal the reality that the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s judgment was both sure to happen and soon to happen. After asking these rhetorical questions, in verse nine the Lord called the nation of the Philistines and the nation of Egypt to bear witness to the punishment that the Lord was going to bring upon the Jewish people for their selfishness and rebellion. In verse 11, we see the Lord begin to describe the judgment that would come upon the Northern Kingdom: "An enemy, even one surrounding the land, Will pull down your strength from you And your citadels will be looted." The enemy that the Lord refers to here was the Assyrian Empire, who within 50 years of Amos’ words, in 722 B.C., would conquer the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

You see, the Lord was proclaiming that He would exercise His judgment and punish the Jewish people who worshipped the false gods that their king, King Jeroboam, had set up in Bethel. When Amos states that the horns of the altar will be cut off, he is painting a word picture to reveal the reality that the Jewish people would not find safety from God’s punishment even in their sanctuary of last resort. Even the houses of ivory and great houses, which referred to the luxurious homes of the rich, would be destroyed. There was no place to hide from God’s judgment and no one would be spared from God’s judgment as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.

Now a natural question that could arise here is “Well Dave, what exactly was their rebellion? What did the Jewish people do that promoted the Lord’s judgment and punishment. We discover the answer to that question in what Amos says next in Amos chapter 4:1-13:

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring now, that we may drink!" 2 The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness, "Behold, the days are coming upon you When they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks. 3 "You will go out through breaches in the walls, Each one straight before her, And you will be cast to Harmon," declares the LORD. 4 "Enter Bethel and transgress; In Gilgal multiply transgression! Bring your sacrifices every morning, Your tithes every three days. 5 "Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened, And proclaim freewill offerings, make them known. For so you love to do, you sons of Israel," Declares the Lord GOD. 6 "But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities And lack of bread in all your places, Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD. 7 "Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you While there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city And on another city I would not send rain; One part would be rained on, While the part not rained on would dry up. 8 "So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, But would not be satisfied; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD. 9 "I smote you with scorching wind and mildew; And the caterpillar was devouring Your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD. 10 "I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses, And I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD. 11 "I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; Yet you have not returned to Me," declares the LORD. 12 "Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel." 13 For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD God of hosts is His name.

Here we see the Lord use several powerful word pictures to describe the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people and the judgment and punishment that they would receive from the Lord as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.  However, to fully understand these word pictures, we first need to understand a few things. When Amos uses the phrase “cows of Bashan” he is painting a word picture to describe the well fed and wealthy women of Samaria, which was the capital city of the Northern Kingdom.  Despite the privileges and blessings that they had received from God, these Jewish women exploited the poor and needy instead of sharing their resources to help meet the needs of the poor and needy.

And as a result of their selfishness that led them to exploit and disrespect those who were also created in the image of God, just like animals, Amos proclaimed that “they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks.” Amos paints this word picture to predict and proclaim the reality that upon being conquered by the Assyrian Empire, they would be treated like animals who would be herded away to captivity. And as they were herded away to captivity, the Assyrian Empire would run out of hooks because so many Jewish people would be taken into captivity. They would look on as they passed Harmon, which marked the Northern border of Israel as they entered into the Assyrian Empire.

But not only would the Jewish people be judged and punished for their exploitation of the poor and needy. In addition, in verse 4-5, we see Amos reveal that the Lord’s punishment and judgment would come as a result of their worship of false gods instead of the Lord as the One True God. Instead of worshipping the Lord at the Temple in Jerusalem according to the Lord’s desire and design for worship, the Jewish people in the Northern Kingdom chose to worship false gods in their own temple in Bethel and at a worship site for false gods located in Gilgal.

However, it wasn’t as though the Lord, one day, out of the blue, was going to punish without warning. Instead, in the rest of chapter four, we see Amos recount all the ways that the Lord had warned the Jewish people when it came to the punishment that was coming. The Lord sent drought upon the Northern Kingdom, only to have the Jewish people refuse to return to the Lord. The Lord sent an infestation of caterpillars upon the Northern Kingdom to destroy their crops, only to have the Jewish people refuse to return to the Lord. The Lord sent a plague that brought disease and illness upon the Northern Kingdom, only to have the Jewish people refuse to return to the Lord.

The Lord sent military defeats upon the Northern Kingdom that resulted in many of their cities being destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah, only to have the Jewish people refuse to return to the Lord. But now, Amos proclaimed, their refusal to repent; their refusal to recognize and respond to their selfishness and rebellion, and the consequences that their selfishness and rebellion had brought them, would result in the ultimate judgment and punishment from the Lord.

The Northern Kingdom would come face to face with the punishment that comes from the Lord, who alone is the One True God. They would come face to face with the One who created the universe and who had proclaimed His just and right judgment for selfishness and rebellion through Amos. And that judgment would be inescapable.

Just a few chapters later, we see the Lord reveal to Amos the standard for that judgment. Friday, we will look at that standard together...

Friday, September 21, 2018

God compassionately pursues humanity in order to offer them an opportunity to return to relationship with Him...


This week we have been looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. As a prophet, Jonah was God’s spokesperson who was used by God to see and to proclaim His message to His people.

However, instead of responding to God’s command to proclaim His message to the resident of the city of Ninevah with obedience, you choose to head for Tarshish. Jonah basically said “Where is the farthest place that I can go to get away from God”. The Lord responded to Jonah’s plan to run from God by bringing a great storm that started to destroy the ship.

After trying to save the ship by rowing back to land, they realize that the storm is only getting worse. Reluctantly, the sailors threw Jonah overboard, which calmed the sea. As the storm miraculously disappeared, the sailors responded to the sudden stoppage of the devastating storm by recognizing and worshipping the Lord as the one true God.

God supernaturally provided a fish capable of swallowing Jonah, where he reluctantly vowed to keep his promise to God and obey his call to do His will.  The Ninevites, upon hearing the message of condemnation from Jonah the prophet, recognized their wickedness and repented. Now, as a prophet of God, you would think that Jonah would have been totally fired up about seeing an entire nation come to repentance. Jonah was fired up alright, but not in the same way as I mean, which we see in Jonah 4:1-3:

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."

What is so interesting is that the word angry here, in the language that this was originally written in, literally means to be hot. You see, Jonah was fired up alright; he was fired up with anger over God displaying compassion. Jonah wanted justice, Jonah did not want God to extend grace and mercy to the Ninevites. But why is Jonah so angry?

To understand why Jonah was so angry, we must first understand who the Assyrians, who were the people that lived in Ninevah, were. The Assyrians were the bitter enemies of the Jewish people. Jewish people considered the Assyrians to be barbaric and subhuman. Part of this would be attributed to how Assyrians dealt with their enemies in war, which the Jewish nation had experienced. A historian wrote the following when describing how the Assyrians treated those who they captured:

“The usual procedure after capturing a hostile city was to burn it, and then to mutilate all the grown male prisoners by cutting off their hands and ears and putting out their eyes; after which they were piled in a great heap to perish in torture from the sun, flies, their wounds and suffocation. The other members of the community would be burned alive”.

You see, Jonah wanted to God of Holy wrath, not the God of compassionate love. Jonah quickly forgot God’s mercy upon him after he had selfishly and rebelliously disobeyed God’s first command to go to Tarshish. Maybe you can relate to some people that we might feel the same way about. You see, we often want justice dispensed when wronged, not grace and compassion.

Maybe its justice against the terrorists. Or maybe its justice against the coworker who steals from the office, or your lunch from the refrigerator. Maybe its justice against the neighbor who abuses himself and others around him. Jonah, in his anger, responded by making a shelter outside the city, hoping that God would still destroy the enemies of the Jewish people. For Jonah, it was time for an object lesson from God. Let’s look at it together at what happens next, in verse 4-11:

The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?" Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life." Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

Now to fully understand what God is saying to Jonah here, we first need to understand what God means when He asks “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

This question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Should I not have compassion on the 120,000 children who are so young that they do not even know the difference between their right and left hand, never mind right and wrong?” 

We are never told how Jonah answered that question. The letter never tells us whether or not Jonah learned the lesson and had a change of heart. The book of Jonah ends with Jonah unrelenting in his desire for justice and not mercy toward the Assyrians.

However, it is here, when God speaks, that we discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God and God’s activity in history. And that timeless truth is this: God compassionately pursues humanity in order to offer them an opportunity to return to relationship with Him.

You see, the point of the book of Jonah is not about the fish; the point of the book of Jonah is the plant. The story of the book of Jonah is about the story of a God who a God of grace, mercy, and compassion that is slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness, desiring all to come to the knowledge of the truth. God desires all to have the eternal relationship with Him they were created for, including the terrorist across the planet from you, the coworker in the cubicle next to you, your neighbor next door to you, the classmate that sits next to you, and the person you look at in the mirror every morning.

So here is a question to consider: If you were to find yourself in this event from history, who would you be?

Would you find yourself as Jonah? Self-righteously demanding the God of wrath, not the God of compassion? Would you find yourself as Jonah, running from the opportunity to be used by God to bring mercy and grace upon others because you desire to sit in judgment and dispense justice and not mercy?

Or would you find yourself as a resident of Ninevah? Would you find yourself in a place where you have become aware of your selfishness and rebellion that has hurt God and others and desire to turn from that rebellion and to God?

You see, both Jonah and the Ninevites needed to turn from what was pushing them from God back to God? Both desperately needed the compassion, mercy and grace of God. So the question is how are you going to respond to God’s pursuit of you? Because, God compassionately pursues humanity in order to offer them an opportunity to return to relationship with Him.

The only question is how are you going to respond to Jesus compassionate pursuit of you?

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Is the book of Jonah just one big fish story?


This week we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Jonah. Jonah, the man, lived around 760 years before Jesus came to earth. In addition to the book of Jonah, Jonah is also mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 and was a member of the nation of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II. And as such, Jonah was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. As a prophet, Jonah was God’s spokesperson who was used by God to see and to proclaim His message to His people.

Jonah received a message and command from God to go do his job as a prophet, but instead of responding to God’s command with obedience, he choose to head for Tarshish. In essence, Jonah basically said “Where is the farthest place that I can go to get away from God”. AHA!! Tarshish, I’ll head there.” Jonah buys his ticket for a cruise from God and heads aboard. And it is at this point that God begins to teach Jonah a lesson about His character and calling. If you have been around church for any length of time, you probably know the story.  Let’s look at the story together, beginning in Jonah 1:4-16:

The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, "How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish." Each man said to his mate, "Come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us." So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, "Tell us, now! On whose account has this calamity struck us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land." Then the men became extremely frightened and they said to him, "How could you do this?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"-- for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." However, the men rowed desperately to return to land but they could not, for the sea was becoming even stormier against them. Then they called on the LORD and said, "We earnestly pray, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us; for You, O LORD, have done as You have pleased." So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows

The Lord responded to Jonah’s plan to run from God by bringing a great storm that started to destroy the ship. The sailors, who were most likely skilled Phoenician’s and had made this journey many times before, responded by throwing all the cargo overboard in an effort to save the ship. The fury of the storm is revealed by the fear that overtook the sailors, who then began calling out to their God’s which were of the rain, thunder, and sea. In total desperation, the sailors finally woke Jonah up.

Upon being questioned by the sailors, Jonah informed them that he was a Hebrew and worshiped the God of heaven, the maker of the sea and land. When the sailors ask Jonah what they should do, he replied “throw me overboard”. After trying to save the ship by rowing back to land, they realize that the storm is only getting worse.

Reluctantly, the sailors threw Jonah overboard, which calmed the sea. As the storm miraculously disappeared, the sailors responded to the sudden stoppage of the devastating storm by recognizing and worshipping the Lord as the one true God. In the meantime, we see what happened to Jonah in verse 17:

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

It is at this point that many question the validity of this letter. After all, is there a fish large enough to swallow a man whole and even if there was one; could someone survive 72 hours in a fish? Unfortunately, many people view Jonah as simply another fish story- a fable, a campfire story that is fiction and has no real practical meaning apart from a great Sunday school story.

The question of the reality of the events of the Book of Jonah is an important question, because if the story is fiction, then the message of the letter can be ignored or dismissed. So, is Jonah reality or fantasy?

Well, for people living in the time that the Bible was being written, Jonah was viewed as objective history. The Jewish scholars of the day viewed the story as factual. Jesus Himself spoke of the events of Jonah as historical fact in two passages in the gospels, which we will look at a little later. Even members of the early church who liked to view Scripture with symbolic rather than literal meaning viewed the book of Jonah as objective history. The fact that the events of Jonah are factual is important, because this forces us to take the message of the book seriously.

Now to answer the second question first, 3 days and 3 nights does not require 72 hours, but only one 24 hour day and parts of two other days. This was the common meaning of this phrase in the Jewish culture of the day, and Jesus Himself used this phrase when referring to His own death and resurrection.

In terms of what kind of fish swallowed Jonah, the short answer is that we do not know. The word for fish here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, was used to refer to any sea creature. In addition, the word appointed, in the language that this letter was originally written in, conveys the sense of a supernatural provision of something. So God supernaturally provided a fish capable of swallowing Jonah.

Now her is something to consider: is that really so hard to believe? Is it so hard to believe that the Being who created the universe and everything in it could not create a fish to swallow Jonah? Now, you might be thinking “I know this story. I know what it is about”.

If I have just described the thoughts that are running through your mind, I have a question for you to consider. And that question is this: is Jonah just about a fish eating a man? We find the answer to this question in the verses that follow, beginning in Jonah 2:1-10:

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. "For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. "So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.'  "Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. "I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. "Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD." Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

 As we look at Jonah’s prayer, do you see anything missing from it? Do you find it interesting that at no time in his prayer does Jonah ask God for forgiveness? At no time does he admit his disobedient selfishness and rebellion. Though he vows to keep his promise to God and obey his call to do His will, it is only out of the fact that God is that one holding all the cards, so to speak.

God is the one who rescued him from the sea by His power and it is God who holds Jonah in His all-powerful hand. As Jonah agrees to be obedient to the Lord,  he is vomited out of the fish onto dry land. That must have been pleasant. If you have ever been on the receiving end of projectile vomit, you know of what I speak. God, having deposited Jonah on land, repeated His command and received a different response, as we see in chapter 3:1-4:

            Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second
            time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and 
            proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell
            you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to 
           the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly
           great city, a three days' walk. Then Jonah began to go
           through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said,
          "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

Now the reason that the visit required three days because the circumference of Ninevah and its suburbs, so to speak, was 60 miles. Most scholars believe that the population of Ninevah was approximately 600,000 people. Now imagine being a resident of the city of Ninevah. Here comes this Jewish man who has seaweed all over him, who smells like fish, whose skin is all jacke dup as a result of being in the stomach of a fish. And this Jewish man then begins to proclaim “40 days and your city will be destroyed.” You are a resident of Ninevah. How would you respond? We see how the residents of Ninevah responded to Jonah and his message in verse 5-10:

Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish." When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

 The Ninevites, upon hearing the message of condemnation from Jonah the prophet, recognized their wickedness and repented. But why put on sackcloth and ashes? Sackcloth was a coarse dark cloth that was extremely uncomfortable to wear. Wearing this material was used as a sign of sorrow and repentance. The act of sitting in ashes was a sign of utter helplessness and despair. Now here is a question to consider: how many of us, when confronted with our selfishness and rebellion, our sin, would display that type of sorrow, repentance, helplessness and despair?

When we are told that the Ninevites repented, this word means more than simply feeling sorry for something you did; to repent means that you feel sorry for what you did and the sorrow that you feel drives you to change something in your life. Now can you imagine what it looked like to see entire nation respond in such a matter to the revelation of selfishness and rebellion in their midst.

God, upon seeing their repentance, responded by having compassion upon them and removed His wrath from them. Now a natural question that arises here is “well Dave, while God removed His wrath, does that mean that we will see the Ninevites in Heaven?” We find the answer to this question from Jesus Himself as he talked about this group in Matthew 12:41:

"The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Maybe you are struggling with whether or not God will truly forgive you of your selfishness and rebellion. As the people of Ninevah found out, the God of the universe meets those who repent, who turn from selfishness and rebellion with a desire to trust and follow Him, with open arms.

Now, as a prophet of God, you would think that Jonah would have been totally fired up about seeing an entire nation come to repentance. Jonah was fired up alright, but not in the same way as I mean, which we will see on Friday…

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Looking at a section of the Bible we have a tendency to skip over...


At the church where I serve we gather together as a community of faith to create the space where people can explore faith, grow in their faith, and experience genuine and authentic community. And as part of our time together, we examine the message and teachings of the letters that make up the Bible. What is so fascinating about the letters that make up the Bible is that they are timeless and timely.

On the one hand, the message of the letters that make up the Bible are timeless. The truths contained in these letters transcend time. At the same time, the message of the letters that make up the Bible are timely. The truths contained in these letters speak to the times and circumstances that we experience in life. However, while we often talk about the reality that the letters that make up the Bible are timeless and timely, there are some parts of the Bible that we spend more time in than others.

For example, most people like to spend time reading the four accounts of Jesus life in the Bible, which are referred to as the gospels. Many people spend time reading from the wisdom that comes from the book of Proverbs. Many people spend time in the book of Psalms as a source of comfort and encouragement. Many people spend time in the letters that were written by the Apostle Paul for doctrine and theology.

Yet, for the vast majority of people, there is a section of the letters that make up the Bible that most people spend very little time in. I know for me personally, I never really spend much time in this section of the Bible until I went to study to be a pastor. And that section that people spend little time is in the middle of the Bible and is called the prophets.

However, when we fail to spend time in these letters, we miss a part of the picture of the story of God and God’s activity in the world. When we fail to spend time in these letters, we miss out on gaining a fuller understanding of who we are, who God is, and how God engages and enters into our story.

So for the next several weeks, at the church where I serve, we are going to spend our time together in a sermon series entitled when God speaks. During this series, we are going to spend our time together looking at these letters that we often have a tendency to skip over. During this series, we are going to discover, who wrote these letters that we have a tendency to skip over. We are going to discover who these letters that we have a tendency to skip over were written to.

We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about who we are. We are going to discover what these letters that we have a tendency to skip over reveal about the nature of God and God’s activity in history. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts and hands so that we understand and embrace the timeless and timely truths that these letters that we often skip over have for our lives.

Now before we jump into the first of these letters, we first need to understand a few things about the prophets. In the letters that make up the Old Testament of the Bible, a prophet was either called a prophet or a seer. A prophet was a spokesman and messenger for God who was responsible to proclaim God’s message to a specific audience.

A descriptive title that was used to describe the role of a prophet was the term watchman. A watchman, in ancient times, was a person who was stationed on the walls of a city to keep watch over a city. A watchman had two duties and responsibilities. The watchman was responsible to see and interpret what he saw outside the walls of the city and then call out to others what he saw outside the walls of the city. And the watchman was responsible to see and interpret what he saw inside the walls of the city and then call out to others what he saw inside the walls of the city.

Similarly, a prophet was responsible to proclaim for God what God saw and interpreted was happening outside the people of God. And a prophet was responsible to proclaim for God what God saw and interpreted was happening inside with the people of God. And as we will discover during this series, being a prophet was a lonely, dangerous, exciting, emotionally draining position that often positioned the prophet closest to God.

Now with that background in mind, I would like for us to launch this series by looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Jonah. We are starting with the book of Jonah because during this series we are going to read these letters chronologically, which is not necessarily the order that they are found in the Bible, where they are organized by size. So let’s look at the man and the message of the Book of Jonah.

Now Jonah, the man, lived around 760 years before Jesus came to earth. In addition to the book of Jonah, Jonah is also mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 and was a member of the nation of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II. And as such, Jonah was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. As a prophet, Jonah was God’s spokesperson who was used by God to see and to proclaim His message to His people.

So let’s jump into this letter that is found in the Old Testament of our Bibles, because it is in the events that surround Jonah’s life that we will discover a timeless truth about the nature and character of God that has the potential to powerfully impact how we engage others. So let’s look together beginning in Jonah 1:1-3:

The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Now imagine yourself as Jonah for a moment. You receive a message and command from God to go do your job as a prophet. But instead of responding to God’s command with obedience, you choose to head for Tarshish. Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave, why would Jonah choose Tarshish? To better understand why Jonah chose Tarshish, we need to understand what a map of the known world at Jonah’s time would have looked like. On the right hand side of such a map, you would see Joppa, which is where Jonah boarded the ship. Then on the left hand side of the map, if you could go as far as you could go o n the map, you would see the city of Tarshish, which is in modern day Spain.

So in essence, Jonah basically said “Where is the farthest place that I can go to get away from God”. AHA!! Tarshish, I’ll head there. Now another question that could arise here is “why would Jonah think that he could run away from the Lord? Has Jonah lost his mind?” I mean we all know that there is no place that we can go to hide from God, don’t we?

Have you ever felt like running from God? Maybe you are trying to run away from God. I know that there have been times when I have wanted to run from God. I have had my “Jonah experiences”, so to speak. Maybe you are trying to run from God because of some area of selfishness or rebellion that is in your life.

Maybe like Jonah, you are running from God because you trying to avoid being used by God in a way that impacts others for Him at home, work or as part of a ministry team. Maybe God has laid something on your heart that you are not dealing with but are running from.

Well, Jonah buys his ticket for a cruise from God and heads aboard. And it is at this point that God begins to teach Jonah a lesson about His character and calling. If you have been around church for any length of time, you probably know the story.  

Tomorrow, we will begin to look at the story together…

Friday, September 14, 2018

God honoring convictions exercised in a God honoring way will produce God honoring results...


This week, we have been discovering how we are to live out Biblical convictions in a world that is hostile to those convictions. In other words, how should we live out the convictions that we have as followers of Jesus in the midst of a culture that may not believe, buy, or share those convictions? How should we live out our convictions as followers of Jesus when those convictions are mocked and minimized?

And to do that, we have been looking at an event from history that has been preserved and recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Daniel. So far this week, we have seen Daniel introduced to a three-year process of reeducation and indoctrination of the language, culture, and religious practices of the Babylonian Empire. The goal for Daniel and the others who were taken was that they were to be immersed and enculturated in the culture of the Babylonian Empire.

However, Daniel, from the core of his being, Daniel had a conviction that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s choice food or drinking the king’s wine which would have violated a clear command from God. Yet Daniel did not object to the name given to him, because he knew who he was.  And Daniel did not object to the Babylonian education, because he knew what he believed. Daniel did not object to the Babylonian education, because he knew how to distinguish truth from error.

Daniel had developed convictions that were based solely on the truth of God and the commands of God. Daniel recognized that there were beliefs that may or may not change as a result of being exposed to truths that they were not exposed to before. And Daniel recognized and developed convictions that were based on truth that would drive his behavior in a way that was obedient and uncompromising to those truth.

In addition, Daniel opposed by making a polite request, showing discretion and wise discernment. Daniel did not picket or boycott. Daniel did not scream in protest. Daniel respectfully requested to not violate his convictions by eating from the king’s table. And as a result of his convictions, and the posture by which he expressed his convictions, instead of immediately punishing Daniel and his friends, the commander of the officials expressed his concern that the exercise of their convictions would result in a negative result in his life, namely losing his life.

Instead of objecting, protesting, yelling, or screaming about the overseer’s concerns, Daniel saw the situation through the overseer’ eyes and addressed his legitimate concerns. You see, Daniel wouldn’t let the overseer pay the price for his convictions. Instead, Daniel was willing to put himself and his convictions, based on his faith in God, to the test.

In addition, did you notice Daniels approach? Did you notice that there is something so reasonable about Daniel’s approach? I mean Daniel could have gone on a hunger strike or made some other kind of protest. Instead he made a polite request, he made it to the right person and said, “Put us to the test.” And that test was to go on a vegetarian diet.

Daniel and his friends chose a vegetarian diet because it would be available and accessible to the overseer in a way that would not violate his convictions, as the meat at the king’s table was not prepared in a kosher manner and was sacrificed to idols. As a result of Daniel’s response and approach, the overseer granted their request to be tested for ten days. We see what happened at the end of the ten days in Daniel 1:15-16:

 At the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food. 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

Daniel explained that at the end of ten days, their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food. Now, there was no biological reason why a vegetarian diet should make them appear better and fatter. Perhaps their diet would make them appear the same as the other Jewish young men who ate the king’s food, but not better and fatter.

You see, this was the hand of God at work. God moved upon the overseer to allow Daniel and his friends to follow their convictions, and God was at work as a result of Daniel and his friends following their convictions in a way that honored God when it came to how they expressed their convictions.  As a result, the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables. We see how God continued to be at work in Daniel and his friends lives as they continued to hold to their convictions in a way that honored God with their approach to their convictions in verse 17-21:

 As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. 18 Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's personal service. 20 As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. 21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

As Daniel and his friends continued to hold to their convictions in a way that honored God with their approach to their convictions, God continued to be actively at work in their lives. God was actively at work in their lives to give them knowledge and skill. As a result of having convictions about God that were expressed in a way that honored God, Daniel had a long, successful career under the worst of circumstances. Daniel worked for tyrants who thought nothing of killing their staff and advisors, much less of firing them.

Eventually, Daniel’s employer, the Babylonian Empire, suffered the worst kind of hostile takeover when the Medio-Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C. However, instead of being killed, Daniel was folded into the leadership of the Medio-Persian Emperor and became one of its most trusted advisors. Throughout his life, Daniel was used by God in a way that made much of God.

And it is here, in this section of this letter, that we discover a timeless truth when it comes to convictions. And that timeless truth is this: God honoring convictions exercised in a God honoring way will produce God honoring results.

You see, when it comes to living out the convictions that we have as followers of Jesus in the midst of a culture that may not believe, buy, or share those convictions, simply having convictions that honor God may not produce God honoring results. Instead, God honoring results are all about having God honoring convictions that are exercised in a God honoring way.

Just because we may be right, if we express our rightness in a wrong way, we end up being wrong. We end up being wrong because we express our convictions in a way that dishonors God. When it comes to living out the convictions that we have as followers of Jesus in the midst of a culture that mocks and minimizes those convictions, how we express our convictions is just as important as our convictions.

Daniel consistently lived a life that embraced God honoring convictions. Daniel consistently lived a life that exercised his convictions in a way that engaged the concerns of those who did not share his convictions in a reasonable way that honored God. And as a result of living a life that exercised his God honoring convictions in a God honoring way, he was used powerfully by God to advance His kingdom mission in the world.

So here is a question to consider: Do you have beliefs or do you have convictions? And how do you exercise your convictions? And how do you respond when your convictions are opposed? 

Do you boycott, picket and scream in protest when your convictions are opposed? Or do you exercise your convictions in a way that is respectfully made to the right person and that says “Put our convictions to the test.”?

Because the timeless reality is that God honoring convictions exercised in a God honoring way will produce God honoring results.