Psalm 50

Psalm 50:12-15

“¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine. ¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats? ¹⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
    and perform your vows to the Most High, ¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

I love this passage for numerous reasons:

1)      God has some serious dry wit.

Exhibit A: “Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” Like no, His being doesn’t require sustenance from mortal things that He created. He created us. He created the animals and plants that keep us alive. I’m assuming this passage is talking about the guilt and sin sacrifices/offerings the Israelites performed. So God is asking if we seriously think offering sacrifices to Him actually benefits Him in some way. No way Josè.  The guilt and sin sacrifices (and then the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior) our meant to benefit us. Us: the little puny humans whose lives aren’t more than mists in the wind (James 4:14). Us: the mortals who rely on God to give them strength (Psalm 28:7).

Exhibit B: Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3)

Exhibit C: God’s reply to Job’s suffering (Job, chapters 38-42)

2)      We don’t need to DO anything

God doesn’t have to be appeased. God literally appeases Himself through His creation. We don’t have to earn salvation through good works. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.” We don’t have to earn the approval of God. Thus…

3)      Everything we DO do should be in thanksgiving

Because we can’t earn God’s grace (it has already been freely given to us) we should thank the Lord by glorifying His name, which is ultimately what He requires us to do. And if He wants us to glorify His name, He will not lead us astray. Psalm 23:3 says, “He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake.”

Getting Something Out of It

Why do we feel the need to “get something out of” our time with God??? Either in a sermon, or from reading the Bible, we feel that we have to have this huge 'eureka!' moment. But I've been realizing that our relationship with God shouldn't be about that.

In Knowing God, by JI Packer, he talks about the Holy Spirit, and how we sometimes seek all the good feelings that the Spirit can afford us without first seeking a relationship with the Father.

“The cause of such troubles as we have described is a false, magical type of supernaturalism, which leads people to hanker after a transforming touch as from an electric, impersonal power that will make them feel wholly free form the burdens and bondages of living with themselves and other people. They believe that this is the essence of genuine spiritual experience. They think the work of the Spirit is to give them experiences that are like LSD trips. (How unhelpful it is when evangelists actually promise this, and when drug users equate their fantasies with religious experience! Will our age never learn to distinguish things that differ?) In fact, however, this quest for inward explosion rather than an inward communion shows deep misunderstanding of the Spirit’s ministry.”

I think we all realize that reading our Bibles will not be akin to an LSD trip, but we still long for feelings of affirmation and empowerment when we read the words and yearn for God to speak to us. The words in Leviticus recording the types of sacrifices to perform are not as likely to give those feelings as the words in the gospel of John describing Jesus’ life on earth. But God’s word is holy and perfect. Every word in the Bible is there for a reason.

In my opinion, when we read any part of the Bible, we are learning more about God and Who He Is – The I Am. Our relationship with Our Heavenly Father is a long process, one that takes our whole lives to complete. It’s a dance: sometimes fast and sometimes slow and sometimes in between. A dance that we don’t even realize we are growing in until we look up perhaps even months later. There are so many verses about seasons in the Bible. We can’t bloom and show fruit in every single season, or else we’ll quickly die out.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the heaven."
• Psalms 1:3 "He is like a tree, planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season..."
• Acts 1:7 "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority."

Sometimes the Bible challenges us: we read a verse and maybe haven’t had the experiences in life to understand it until years later. The Bible can be just totally and utterly confusing, but only by prayer and continuously being conscious in putting God first may we learn what it means. Sometimes we do get an “AHA!” moment where everything falls into place. Sometimes a verse/chapter/book affirms us and keeps us on the right path. Sometimes a verse/chapter/book shatters our world and we have to choose whether to totally change directions. But every time we read the Bible, we are learning about God. And no matter what the feeling is we “get out of it”, be they large or small or none at all, we are still learning about the God we worship, and that is totally enough.

An Elephant's Faithful One Hundred Percent

I’ve been reading straight through the Bible since last January, and it has been an incredibly eye-opening experience. I never knew I didn’t know the stuff that I didn’t know. I’ve already read through the New Testament and am currently in the Psalms, so I only have a little more to go.

In Psalms 15, it talks about what a righteous man is; someone who is fit to dwell on God’s holy hill. And it mentions that a righteous man in someone “who swears to his own hurt and does not change” (v. 4). So what does that mean?

Someone who “swears to his own hurt” does what he says. He carries out what he has promised to do, even if it comes to his own harm. This makes me think of Horton the elephant, in Seussical The Musical. Horton promises a flighty bird that he’ll take care of her egg for an afternoon because she needs a break. The bird, Maizy, takes advantage of Horton’s good character and flies away with no intention of coming back. Horton still protects that egg even though he is faced with hunters, poachers, extreme weather, and then put in a circus to be gawked at. He maintains throughout the story that he won’t go back on his word, because, “I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.” Even though he was ridiculed and ostracized for taking care of another bird’s egg, he kept his word. As a Christian, Jesus warns us in Matthew 10:16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.” There are people in this world that will take advantage of someone who keeps their word, so sometimes it is okay to say no. I think as we grow in wisdom in our dance with the Lord, it becomes easier to discern when we can truly help or when someone is just trying to take advantage of us.

In Matthew 14, King Herod gave an oath to Herodias’s daughter that she could have anything that she asked for. When she told him she wanted the head of John the Baptist, “the King was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given” (v. 9). To his own hurt of having a fairly innocent man killed, Herod kept his word. In this instance, we must learn that it’s never a good idea to be so filled with lust that we promise anything to our cunning step-daughter.

But anyway, Horton is commendable because he swore to his own hurt and did not change. He didn’t waiver one bit once he set out to do what he promised. In Matthew 5:37 Jesus tells us, “Let what you say be simply, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” If I have to swear up and down to someone that I will indeed do what they ask, then somewhere along the way my character has become tainted. It can be a long process to get it back, but most certainly not impossible with God. And lastly, in James 5:12, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be “no”, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

American Dream

I saw this picture as I was scrolling through Facebook, and honestly it made me want to vomit. An anxious feeling crept up from my toes, and I started getting nervous.
I was thinking, what if this is what actually happens in my life? What if this is all I ever achieve? And I could barely stand it the feelings of hopelessness and emptiness.
America has crippled a nation with the invention of a dream that allows people to be comfortable.
I don't want a normal house with a normal yard with normal kids that go to normal schools. I don't want normal neighbors that I wave to when I get the paper but never converse with. I don't want a normal life with a good steady job, and I don't want to never have to wonder if I'll be financially stable the next week. I don't want to be comfortable.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't want the "American Dream." I want to do so much more.
I want people to know who I am and the God I represent.
I want to depend on God to get me from day to day.
I don't care where I live, if I have a white-picket fence, 3 dogs, 5 turtles, or a Bengal tiger in my backyard.
I know that I want to do something. I want to help change the world. I honestly don't know what that looks like, or where I can do that to the best of my abilities, but I know that God has big plans for His people. And if I can be a part of that, all praise and glory be unto Him!

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God's Goodness

God's goodness is a tricky concept. If God is good, and He is loving and kind, how does He allow bad things to happen?

First of all I will state that I do not know the full answer to this question. But I have been reading a book (Knowing God by JI Packer) that talks a lot about this concept. And while he answers some questions, he also leaves others kind of hanging in the air, but I have been able to get kind of a grasp on the concept of God's goodness.

• ·         Psalm 100:5 – “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
• ·         Ps 136:1 – “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
• ·         1 Chronicles 16:34 – “O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
• ·         Nahum 1:7 – “The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

And I could go on and on with these examples. Just google “God’s goodness” and about a hundred verses will pop up.

So what does being good mean? To me it means that God is the culmination of every perfect thing. He is holy and perfectly encompasses every holy attribute wholly in Himself. And He doesn’t just keep those things to Himself – He is generous. He generously gives His love and affection, generously doles out mercy and grace.

~ ~ ~

God has to somehow hold His goodness to a standard. There is retribution and punishment for evil. If you were to spurn His generosity and His grace that He freely gives, that’s on you. That is your decision – you have cut yourself off from the Father’s goodness. And if you continuously spurn His teachings and commandments, and do not stick to goodness but instead cling to evil, there will be punishment for those choices. As Packer puts it – God’s wrath will be incited.

• ·         Jeremiah 18:6-10 – “’O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?’ declares the Lord. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.’ ”

So how can a loving God be able to possess wrath?

This is the part where I get a little confused. I think of wrath being exhibited by a mighty hand extending from the sky, perhaps with a lightning bolt or two, or the anger of a woman scorned (lol). 

But God possesses righteous wrath. He IS righteous wrath.

Righteous wrath is the punishment of wrongs. In order to be a good God, there must be a standard of good, and something to back that standard up. We are human beings, we are sinful. Sin is wrong in God’s eyes. Therefore since we are human we deserve punishment.

It’s almost like a reflex – wrong deserves punishment. But it is also not a reflex because God possesses mercy and grace that pardons us from the wrongs we committed – the embodiment of Jesus Christ.

~ ~ ~

Alright so God has to back up His goodness. What about bad things happening to good people? What about cancer, and plain suffering?

• John 9: 1-7 – “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”

So the bad things that happen to us, like cancer or blindness (or even diabetes – #holleratme), are not because of some wrong we may have committed. The things that we go through, the trials we persevere, are all for the glory of Him who commissions us. While we are on this earth and while we endure our sufferings, God’s works are being displayed, and what greater role than that can we play?

God loves all of His children more than we can comprehend. I think that His greatest desire is for us to draw closer to Him (side note: desire may not be the best word because God isn’t human and doesn’t necessarily possess human emotions, but I digress). If we were to live perfect lives and never go through anything, very few people would see the necessity of God, and very few people would want to draw close to Him. So, besides the fact that there is sin in this world and there is pain and suffering, God uses the strenuous circumstances to draw us and others closer to Him, and closer to each other.

• Isaiah 64:8 – “But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

When we go through trials and suffering, or experience the tribulations of someone close to us, God is simply shaping the relationship between us and Him. It may be arduous for both, but at the outcome, the relationship will be stronger. And strengthening your relationship with God is what Christianity is really all about. 

Ezra 9 - The OG

I like Ezra, he's a pretty cool dude. If he were still alive, we'd definitely be homies.

The book of Ezra (after the book of 2 Chronicles and before Nehemiah) is short and sweet. Israel has been through a lot at this point, and they have a period of good years. The Kings of Persia, rather than oppressing the Children of God, are on the Israelite's side and the Persian Kings are trying to get the city of Jerusalem rebuilt.

Ezra the prophet, "set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach His statutes and rules in Israel." He loved God's word, studied it, and wanted other people to know about it. Sounds like he was a passionate guy. But hold up here, there’s a wrench in the cogs becauase a bunch of Israelites have intermarried with the peoples of Canaan, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

Tangent: so this intermarriage thing is like superbad in God's eyes, and Ezra knows it. But what's the big deal about intermarriage? Why is that a sin? In my personal, very humble, opinion, it's not necessarily the intermarriage itself, but the morality of the act they committed with marrying other races.

You see, after the Israelites left Egypt, God gave them promises, and told them that they were His people and He would be with them wherever they went. He's pretty repetitive in stating that He is Lord, and to love Him they must follow His commands. He chose the Israelites to be His chosen people, and through that lineage came Jesus, who saved the entire world. The laws that God set for the Israelites in their wilderness wandering were (again only in my opinion) set so that the Israelites could be holy and set apart. Granted, the Israelites messed up, sometimes pretty badly. They were still far, far, far, far from perfect, but in the imperfections God demonstrates that we can be used by Him to carry out His perfect will. So this intermarriage that some of the Israelites were doing wasn't bad because they were marrying people of another race - it was bad because God had told them that they were His people and didn't want them to do that, but they did it anyway.

Off the tangent and back to Ezra. He realizes what's going on, and cries out to God. In His prayer to God, you can simply feel the love that he has for his people, and his desire to plead on their behalf. Also he wants the best for the Israelites, in that they’ll be able to know God and keep his commands.

Ezra 9:6-15:

“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.

10 “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14 shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? 15 O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.”

I don’t know if there’s necessarily a lesson we can learn from here, because the story ends with the transgressors sacrificing a ram for their guilt, and Jesus has since died for our sins and abolished the Old Covenant and established the New. But I think anyone can take a page from Ezra’s book (haha, punny) and strive to be passionate about God’s Word, and desire for the friends and family the same.

Judges 3 - The Left-Handed Benjamite

                This story is probably my most favorite story in the Bible. Scratch that, it’s my second favorite. Top favorite has to be when Jesus dies, takes the wrath for all of our sins, and then comes back from the dead so we can have ultimate freedom in life through Christ (say whaaaaat!? CanigetanAMEN! HollatyourboyJESUS).

                In Judges 3:12-30 the Israelites aren’t listening to God (what else is new), so Eglon the King of Moab oppressed them. Then the Israelites cried out to God (typical) and he sent them a deliverer, Ehud the Benjamite, a left-handed man. Now the Benjamites of Israel were notorious warriors, and if you were left-handed that meant you were even better. Because being left-handed meant you got the upper hand in battle (score one for lefties). Another advantage of being left-handed (so says the internet) is that when someone went into an audience with a king, his attendants would check for weapons. Usually a sword would be strapped to a person’s left thigh, but if a person was left-handed than a weapon might passed by unnoticed, especially if it was hid under clothing. (Sneaky, sneaky.) So this leftie, Ehud, went along with some Israelites to pay tribute to the evil King of Moab. It says in verse 17, “Now Eglon was a very fat man”, so I picture him to be very much like Jabba the Hutt, not only in stature but in character as well. Once the oppressed Israelites finish paying their dues and tributes, they go on their merry way, but Ehud the leftie doubles back and says he has a secret message for the king.

                At this the King of Moab/Eglon/Jabba rubs his greedy paws together and is like, “Hmmm a secret message?" His nostrils flare and dollar signs pop in into his pupils. So the king sends away all of his attendants. When Jabba and the Benjamite are the only two left in the room, the king asks the warrior, “What is this secret message?” Then Ehud the leftie musters all his courage and with a shout, “It is a message from God!” he whips out his sword and plunges it into Eglon’s belly. Verse 22 says it all, “And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out.” Ehud, being the cunning leftie that he is, escapes out the window to the land of Seirah, rallies the Israelites, and then they seize the land of Moab back for Israel. Meanwhile, King Eglon is still defecating in the room and his poor attendants are still waiting outside. Verse 25 continues, “They waited until they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor.”

Lessons we can learn:

-        -  Don’t be Jabba the Hutt

-        -  Be left-handed

But on a serious note, although this story seems kind of silly, I think it just shows another example of God’s mercy and patience. It is another instance where the Israelites have turned from God to their own ways, yet He still listens and hears their cries when they run back, He still sends them a deliverer. And he does the same for you and for me.