Contents:  Part 2:  1 Chronicles to Lamentations

    

21. 1 Chronicles

22. 2 Chronicles

23. Ezra

24. Nehemiah

25. Esther

26. Job

27. Psalms

28. Proverbs (1)

29. Proverbs (2)

30. Ecclesiastes (1)

31. Ecclesiastes (2)

32. Songs of Songs

33. Isaiah (1)

34. Isaiah (2)

35. Isaiah (3)

36. Jeremiah (1)

37. Jeremiah (2)

38. Jeremiah (3)

39. Lamentations

     

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 21. 1 Chronicles

1 Chron 17:16,17 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O LORD God.

Verses can stand out for different reasons. These verses stand out, I believe, because they both reveal David's humility and God's oversight. In going into Chronicles we backtrack on history for this part of scripture covers from a different perspective the matters covered in 2 Samuel. David has become king and is settled in Jerusalem , and the ark of the covenant has eventually been brought into Jerusalem and is located in a tent. David has it in mind to build a house for the ark and God, a temple, but Nathan the prophet brings him a word to the effect that his son will do it and not him. Now that might have been a real downer if it wasn't for the fact that in the word that Nathan brings to him there are many encouragements about Israel 's future and that of his chosen son. Read the passage in 1 Chron 17:7-14.

Note it concludes with a promise: “ When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.” (1 Chron 17:11-14) Now, note within that a) the promise of an eternal throne, b) father and son intimacy with God, c) a kingdom over all others that d) will last for ever.

Now of course from our perspective today we can see that such promises apply to the coming of Jesus and his bringing the kingdom of God on earth that will last for ever. From David's perspective it is just mind blowing and it is this which provokes his response in our starter-verses: “ Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O LORD God.”

Yes, the Lord has reminded him that he has been brought from looking after sheep on the hillside and been made king and if that wasn't amazing enough the thought of him ushering in through his family, a kingdom that will be greater than any other on earth – and eternal! - just blows him away.

Now let's think about this some more. First of all, David is aware of his humble background and he completely accepts that he is where he is today because of the Lord. David's story shows very clearly that he is a man who knows the Lord and has relied upon him through thick and thin – and there have been seriously difficult times along the way!

The second thing to note is that he now struggles to accept what the Lord has said about him, and in this sense these verses stand out as examples of what so many of us struggle with. I have been privileged to bring many personal prophetic words to people and in line with the apostle Paul's teaching I hope they have always come for “strengthening, encouragement and comfort,” (1 Cor 14:3) and so often I have watched the responses of those to whom such words come and so often they are, “Me? Who am I that you should say this?”

The third thing to note is that David cannot, from his limited view of history, comprehend the future. And neither can we. When the Lord speaks a word of encouragement about our future we cannot see from this present perspective how that will work out. We need to remind ourselves that for that end product to come about there needs to be a process, the Lord working in us, through us and around us to fulfil the things upon His heart. He knows what He wants to achieve and how He wants to do it and, more often than not, it doesn't come with a flash of lightning, it comes over a long period of time, bringing many changes along the way. When Zechariah heard his wife was to conceive in old age, he struggled with it, basically in unbelief. When Mary heard she was to have a child without the help of a man, her response was , “I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38) She didn't know how such a thing could happen and so she just trusted God to do it as the angel had said.

Perhaps behind all this, there is a fourth thing to be noted and it is the fact that the Lord would not let David build the Temple , but had to leave it to his son. For what ever reason, the Lord knows we are not the people for some things but, on the other hand, He knows what we are good to achieve and that is why we find ourselves gifted in some ways but not in others in the body of Christ. We may marvel, like David, that God has chosen to do wonderful things in and through us, bringing about changes that years back we could never has dreamed of, and we may praise Him for what He reveals of His plans for us, and then play out part in bringing it about, but we also need to rest in who we are in the body – yes, available for greater things, but not striving with inadequacy that mourns that we are not like someone else. Be who God calls you to be and rejoice in it.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 22. 2 Chronicles

2 Chron 36:15,16 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place / But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets / until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

I choose these two verses from 2 Chronicles as the highlights of this book as they summarise everything else that had gone on, and explain how the book concludes in the way it does. There are three parts to it, I suggest, and I have put dividers in the above verses to show those divisions.

It starts with God. Now we might expect that a book on history, which is what 2 Chronicles basically is, should start with a focus on people because usually history is all about how people have acted in different periods of ‘history'. However the Bible is all about God and the revelation of His purposes for the earth and specifically, as He sought to use them to reveal Himself and His plans and purposes to the rest of the world, about Israel . So it starts out with God's activity.

I am tempted to produce a long list of references showing how God spoke into the life of Israel and its kings from the period of the reign of Solomon to the Exile but instead I will simply recommend you read the book and make the list yourself. The truth is that God spoke again and again into the lives of these people and, says the recorder, it was because He had pity on His people. Now that is quite remarkable for I have to confess if it had been me overseeing Israel's history I would have been first of all frustrated, then annoyed and finally angry with Israel, and all that quite quickly – but God held back again and again and again. As I have studied the judgments of God in detail, the thing that amazed me most of all is that during the period of the kings of the two kingdoms, was the Lord's restraint. I have concluded that there must be various reasons why this was so, but ultimately the thing that stands out most, in the apostle Peter's words, “ He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 pet 3:9) or, to apply that to the period of the Kings, He was giving them opportunity after opportunity to learn from past mistakes and eventually get it right.

However, that is where one of my favourite quotes kicks in: “The one thing that history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing.” i.e. we fail to learn from the past! This takes us into the second part of these verses and we see here the folly of Israel as the recorder observes, “ But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets”. And we might add – and kept on doing it! That is the tragedy of the Old Testament historical record – that Israel failed to learn and, instead of rising to greatness with the wonder of all the things that God had done for them, especially in their early days, they mocked the prophets, they despised what they were saying and generally made fun of them. These were men (and the occasional woman) who sought to get Israel back into a good place with God, but again and again and again the folly of Sin broke through and they continued to worship idols and pick up on other nations' false religions.

For those who have never thought about these things, the last part may come as a shock: “ until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.” Anger, or wrath, is a signpost within our consciousness that things around us are going wrong and are contrary to what we feel is right or just or fair. It is, in fact, right to become angry in the presence of such things, but what we do with our anger is another matter. Bear in mind that we are talking about God tolerating Israel 's folly for centuries, and we see that God's anger is not hasty! Now in assessing the judgments of God throughout the Bible, as I have noted before in these studies, ‘terminal judgments' are those which involve death and destruction (as against ‘disciplinary judgments' which are designed to change people's minds) and in the light of how long it takes for God to bring a terminal judgment, I have also named them as “judgments of the last resort”, i.e. God only brings them when He sees there is no hope of getting the people to change. “There was no remedy” or there was no other way to stop what was going on.

That is why in the last chapter of 2 Chronicles we have the record of King Nebuchadnezzar coming and destroying Jerusalem and taking most of its inhabitants into exile. The book was either compiled much later than the events recorded, or there was a postscript added for the book concludes with the record of King Cyrus, decades later, under the inspiration and direction of God, sending back the Jews to rebuild, first the temple and then the walls of Jerusalem . There are two major events in the life of Israel : the Exodus and the Exile. The Exodus had brought them out of Egypt, taken them to Mount Sinai to become a nation before God, and then on into the Promised Land forty years later. The Exile was the ‘last resort' action of God to take Israel out of the Land to be purged of their idolatry while in Babylon until they could be brought back forty years later. It would appear that the presence of God was absent from Jerusalem for a unique period since the reign of David who captured Jerusalem and made it his capital, a period of seventy years, as prophesied by Jeremiah, from the destruction of the Temple until its rebuilding completion.

These are enormous sweeps of history and they reveal the wonder of the plans and purposes of God stretching over centuries and millennia. Living with our slow day by day lives, it is difficult to comprehend such long periods and the things that went on in them, which is why the last chapter of 2 Chronicles is such a remarkable record. We may not be able to see much significance as we look back over our lives, and find it difficult to think about the years yet ahead, but both are still within the ambit of the plans of God. Someone once wrote, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origins and culture is like a tree without roots.” The book of 2 Chronicles provides that history and God-culture for Israel and provides endless learning resources that we can apply into our lives today as part of the Church.

Perhaps these notes will challenge us to also become more knowledgeable about the beginnings and history of the Church so that we may see ourselves in a greater perspective. In one of his books, author Terry Pratchett wrote, “If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become part of someone else's story.” Your story with God is your testimony. Like Israel 's, it probably has highs and lows, but if it reveals the love and goodness of God, we have indeed had our eyes opened to reality, and that is worth sharing.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 23. Ezra

Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia , in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

I find the book of Ezra is like a firework display, not one of these amazing modern displays you see at New Year in capitals of the world, but the more amateurish ones with a rocket going up, darkness, a blaze of light and colour, darkness, more startling colour and light, darkness, and so on. Our starting verse is the reason for all that follows. It is the launch firework and it brings a continuation, being a repeat of the closing verses of 2 Chron, the amazing move of God on king Cyrus that released Israel to return to their land to rebuild the Temple (that is what Ezra is all about) and then rebuild the city and its walls (that is what Nehemiah that follows on is all about). After the darkness of forty years silence while Israel remain in exile, suddenly these two rockets, Ezra and Nehemiah blaze out and then after the accompaniment of some of the minor prophets, darkness falls again for over four hundred years until John the Baptist appears on the scene.

So Cyrus makes provision for people to return, with wealth to help them (Ch.1), and lists are provided of those who returned (Ch.2) some 50,000 people all together. And so the work of restoration begins (Ch.3) and the next amazing firework bursts upwards: “ With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: "He is good; his love to Israel endures forever." And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.” (3:11-13) A time of immense celebration that evokes different responses according to generation. Understandable.

But then darkness falls. The enemies of Israel come (4:1) and offered to help build, but they are aliens who were imported into the Land long back, and Israel decline their offer. But the darkness continues: “Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.” (4:4) And so it continued: “At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem …and .. wrote a letter to Artaxerxes,” (4:6,7) and the king replied, “Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order,” (4:21) and so, “Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” (4:24) Thus chapter 4 is a chapter of darkness as far as the rebuilding is concerned.

But then up goes a rocket which bursts into great light : “Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them,” (5:1) and the light that came with the word of God, released faith so that, “Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.” (5:2)

But then comes a moment of darkness: “At that time Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates went to them and asked, "Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?" (5:3) and they send a letter, a very honest and complete letter (see 5:6-17), to king Darius asking that this be checked out. Meanwhile a Catherine wheel of light continues to splay out light: “But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.” (5:5)

Eventually the king investigates and confirms that the word had been authorized by Cyrus. Suddenly another great display bursts into the darkness that had been hanging there: “Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God . Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site. Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop.” (6:1-8) and further reinforces this initial order with instructions that severe punishment will be meted out on anyone who disregards it. (see 6:9-12) It is awesome!   

There is a moment's pause and then one very bright rocket bursts upwards: “The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.” (6:15) It is almost exactly seventy years since the Temple was destroyed and it has taken three and a half years to rebuild. There then follows an enormous and varied display as there are great celebrations at the dedication of the Temple (6:16-18) and they then celebrate the Passover (6:19-22).

After a pause a new firework bursts into the sky. It is the arrival of Ezra, a great, great, great etc. grandson of Aaron. (7:1-6) It is quite amazing that throughout the period of their exile, people like Ezra had managed to keep to their priestly role and learn the Law so they could pass it on to future generations. There are more bursts of light: “He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel , had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him… Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel .” (v.6,10)

But then sky is filled with light as the present king, Artaxerxes, sends a letter of commission which is truly amazing. (Read it in 7:11-22) and the chapter finishes with a peon of praise from Ezra himself for what the Lord has done (7:27,28). The remaining chapters, if we may conclude our picture language is one long burst of light as we observe Ezra's administration and then his reforms that bring a great public affirmation that they are indeed still the Lord's people!

What is the big lesson from this book? It is that although the Lord may provide great vision and release great faith for us to achieve His purposes, the enemy will seek to rise up again and again but, as the ministries of the (now) body of Christ operate and the word and faith are released, the obstacles and hindrances and attacks will be overcome. This calls for us to hold to the vision of the kingdom of God and the body of Christ, and to remain faithful to Him, to seek Him and listen to Him, be empowered and directed by Him, and as we are obedient to His leading, triumph! Hallelujah! (PS. Sorry, the one verse highlight turned into a book highlight!)

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 24. Nehemiah

Neh 1:4-6 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying.

Nehemiah is the counterpart book to Ezra except, while Ezra focuses on rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem , Nehemiah is about the rebuilding of the walls of the city, re-establishing it as a city. We could have just cited verse 4 but it makes more sense to include the three verses for they really explain all that follows. The explanation for these verses comes in the one before it: “ Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem .” (v.3) This is it in a nutshell: Nehemiah hears of the terrible physical state of Jerusalem and he is so moved by it that he can only pray and fast and mourn. It is because Nehemiah was so moved that the rest follows.

If we were to follow the same analogy as we used with Ezra, it is not filled with so many ‘fireworks' as Ezra although the pattern is similar. Chapter 1 is about Nehemiah's reaction to the news about Jerusalem and getting the king's permission to return, and chapter 2 is about his journey back and secret inspection of the walls as he desires to make plans but without yet making it public. At the end of that chapter we get the first inkling of opposition that is going to arise against his plans: “But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. "What is this you are doing?" they asked. "Are you rebelling against the king?" (Neh 2:19) Mockery and suggestion of treason are the first shots fired.

   Chapter 3 lists off the sections of the wall being rebuilt and who is involved in each section but no sooner has that been done than the threats against them really start in earnest in chapter 4 . In verse 1 to 3 mockery is again employed and we see Nehemiah turn to prayer yet again: “Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of A the builders,” (4:4,5) and we then read, “So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.” (v.6) No prophecy, just prayer. And so the conflict carries on: the opposition plot an attack (4:7,8) Prayer was the response yet again (v.9). Yet problems with the work and the possible enemy attack continue (v.10-23) but with obvious wisdom they overcame.

In chapter 5 the next problem Nehemiah had to overcome was an internal one, involving complaints by those who were poor (v.1-5), canceling debts against them (v.5-13), and Nehemiah's good example (v.14-19). Chapter 6 sees the opposition seeking to distract and possibly kill Nehemiah (6:1,2) but he refused to be drawn away (v.3,4). When this ploy had failed four times, the enemy sent him a letter claiming a plot by those in Jerusalem to make Nehemiah king and to rebel against the king and demanding that they meet together (v.5-8), but Nehemiah resisted and prayed again (v.8,9). He then had to resist false prophecy (v.10-13) and prays yet again (v.14) with the result that the wall rebuilding was completed (v.15). So, although the book has 13 chapters, it is only the first 6 that are given over to the subject of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem .

So what is significant about all this? Various things come to mind. First walls delineate boundaries of a city. Until the walls were rebuilt the occupants of the city would be vulnerable to intruders. The fact of broken down walls spoke of the years of shame and they were best put behind them. God had brought them back, it was a new day! Walls enabled the city to be identified as a distinct city. Second , this is a story of a spiritually sensitive man. Nehemiah recognized the significance of the broken down walls in this new day and he recognized that this had been God's city and now it is a shame. It was his heart anguish that provoked action. Third , this is a story of a man of prayer. I have underlined above the word ‘prayer' and you will see it occurs again and again. Whenever something went wrong, whenever the enemy rose up against them, he prayed. What an example! Fourth , it is a story that involves opposition, those who took it on themselves to mock and deride the people of God and even plot to come against them and then schemed to bring about their downfall. (Yet, it is interesting that in reality it is all talk and physical opposition never occurred!)

Now what does this say to us today? First , are we aware today of the state of the Church, when it is often almost impossible to distinguish between people inside the church and those outside it? The ‘walls' are the things that should mark out the Church as different from the world around it, in a good way – holiness, righteousness, honesty, integrity, love, compassion, obedience to the word of God.

Second , are they clearly visible and if not, are we moved by that? The challenge is there to ask whether we have hearts that are moved by the honour or disgrace of the Lord's name as expressed by the church in our land today. It was in that period that the prophet Haggai asked, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (Hag 1:4) i.e. you have spent much time on your own homes, but what about the house of God? Yes, that was about the temple but no doubt the same could have been said about the walls and therefore we might ask about the state of the Church today. We are called ‘the temple of the Lord' so what state is the temple in and are we moved by it?

Third , are we people of prayer for whom it is automatic to turn to the Lord whenever any difficulty arises, any opposition occurs to the outworking of the kingdom of God ? Is our prayer life a demonstration of our reliance upon the Lord? Is it the natural direction for us to turn, not only in times of need, but also in times of plenty when we should be grateful?

Fourth , are we aware of the opposition of the enemy, aware that we are in a spiritual battle that will only be won by those who hearts are knit with His, who seek Him regularly and are open and obedient to His leading. Are we aware of the strategies of the enemy – temptation, deception and outright attack – that need countering by faith. These, I believe, are some of the challenges that arise here, challenges that are equally pertinent today as in Nehemiah's day.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 25. Esther

Esther 4:13,14 Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

A highlight verse? It certainly seems a verse with a distinctly threatening tone to it, but it is nevertheless, as we shall see, a highly significant verse on which much turns in this book. Just in case you are not familiar with Esther, we had better pick up the key things that have happened so far in the book. In some ways it is almost like a stage play with key characters.

It starts with Xerxes, the king , (1:1), son of Darius who we read about in Daniel. He rules over the mighty Persian empire, and Susa (1:2) is one of the four ‘capitals' of the Persian kings. He is very powerful and therefore somewhat arrogant. He holds a feast for his male friends (1:3) and during the course of it calls for Vashti, his queen, to show her off to his men friends (1:11). She is affronted by this and refuses to come (1:12). He is equally affronted and after consultation she is banished from the royal court (1:19)

He therefore needs a new queen and so a search is made for beautiful young women to be brought into the royal palace. (2:1-4) In what follows, we are introduced to a Jew called Mordecai who had been caught up in Nebuchadnezzar's deportation and exile of Israel and who still lives in Susa (2:5,6). He has a cousin who he cares for and who lives with him, called Esther (2:7). Esther is caught up in the sweep for young women and ends up in the palace winning favour and becomes queen (2:9-18 Long story, cut short!) Mordecai keeps in touch with what is going on (2:10,11,19,20). In a small aside, there is a plot to kill the king, which somehow Mordecai hears about and the king is warned and a record is made including reference to Mordecai. (2:21-23 End of aside).

We are then introduced to another character who appears on this stage, an Agagite named Haman , whose ancestry possibly goes back to Agag, the king executed by Samuel (1 Sam 15), and who would have been an enemy of the Jews. If it was a stage production, Haman would clearly be the villain! To cut a long story short, Haman is honoured by the king making him next in honour to the king himself. All were supposed to bow before him, but Mordecai would not! (3:1,2) Haman finds out that Mordecai is a Jew and so plots to kill ALL the Jews in the kingdom (which included Israel) and sends out edicts throughout the kingdom that on a certain date all the Jews in the land are to be executed (3:5-15)

When Mordecai hears of this he prays and fasts and sits outside the palace in sackcloth and ashes. The word gets back to Esther who tries to persuade him to desist. He clearly wants her to approach the king and appeal for mercy but she explains that unless she is called in by the king it is against court protocol for her to do this. (4:1-11) It is at this point that our verses above occur: “ Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Look, Mordecai is saying, if all the Jews are killed, that will include you. Don't think you will be safe just because you are queen. If you don't act, I'm sure God will save us by some other means but you may not get saved. But then comes the highlight: “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” i.e. is it just possible that God has allowed you to be in this place so that you can be the means of our salvation? There it is! What a challenge of belief. Now we won't follow the story through, you can read it in your own time. Suffice it to say, she plots how to approach the king and get him on her side and eventually the Jews are saved and Haman killed.

So what have we got here? Genocide planned and Satan's plot to wipe out the Jews and thwart God's promises to Abram to bless the world through him and through his family. If Haman succeeds, there will be no nation into which the Son of God can come and display the works, the love and the goodness of God. The whole of God's plan of salvation for the world is under threat. That is the magnitude of this threat. And there is one little Jewish girl forcibly taken into exile, forcibly taken from her family into the royal court and forcibly given to the king. It is NOT a happy set of circumstances! But she is all that stands between the destruction of God's people and the plan of salvation for the world. She would not have realised or known the significance of all this, but that is what this is all about.

Throughout the Bible, Satan is shown to be a liar, a deceiver and a murderer, out to thwart the plans of God (but we'll see the reality of that when we get to Job) by using sinful mankind for his own ends. It is amazing that God should trust His plans to a single Jewish girl.(Single? What about that other young Jewish girl named Mary?) What is amazing is that God uses the weak and the vulnerable and yet in both the instances we have just referred to, they have free will and can refuse! But they don't! In the book of Ruth we saw a young foreign girl who gave herself over to join the plans of God (without realizing it). Now we have another young girl being challenged to see herself as a similar player in the plans of God.

Stop there! Neither Ruth nor Esther saw themselves as part of God's plan for His people and for the salvation that would come about involving them. Isn't that how it is with most of us? How many of us are sharply aware that we are key players, significant characters on the stage of God's production? The world around us teaches us to be self-centred, self-concerned, seeing the world as revolving around us but the story of Esther (yes, and of Ruth) challenges us to see that there is a very much bigger picture and we are part of it. We never know the significance of our actions.

I can never forget the story of a man who had a lorry that he used to pick up young people to take them to the church young people's group, week in week out. One young man wasn't particularly interested, so the story goes I believe, but went along and got saved at the church, but if the man with his lorry hadn't have persisted and been a servant for the kids, that young man wouldn't have been saved. And that young man? Billy Graham, who went on to be God's instrument as the greatest evangelist in history! Did that man with his lorry understand what he was doing and what would follow? Almost certainly not. We have small parts to play but they may have massive significance. They may be difficult parts to play but God's grace and protection is always there.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 26. Job

Job 2:3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."

We are getting near the half-way mark in the 39 books of the Old Testament, Job being the 18 th and I have pondered why exactly am I writing this particular series? (apart from the fact that I prayed and this seemed to be what the Lord was putting on my heart.) What am I trying to do, what do I feel is the aim of each study? Well perhaps as far as each study goes it is to lift up for inspection some of the gems found in every book of the Bible. As far as the entire Bible is concerned it is to see that although books vary in what we might call weight or significance, every book is part of the canon which the apostle Paul said was seriously useful for bringing us up, (2 Tim 3:16,17) and every book has gems within it worthy of our reflection and meditation.

Job is a book that for many is hard going. I did a series of meditations on it years ago and it is heavy stuff. If we are honest, I think many people think of Job as a valley covered with mist, so difficult is it. Now if that is an accurate analogy, then I would say as I come to it now, I come as if standing on a mountain looking down on this mist-covered valley and as I look various rockets burst up through the mist and explode in the clear air above producing a beautiful display. These rockets or highlights come at various places in the book and they bring light or clarity to the whole. The problem we struggle with is that the book largely comprises arguments between Job and his three friends about the reasons for Job's state and, and here is the difficult part, so much of the time these three friends get it wrong, either partially or completely! That's what makes it hazy or misty. So, all I intend to do is highlight these ‘rocket verses' and make the briefest of comments.

1:1 “ In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” The start of this story is to describe Job as blameless and upright etc. Hold on to that when you read the book.

1:8 “Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” We are shown into heaven where the angels (and Satan is a fallen angel but is included here) parade before the Lord and it is the Lord who initiates discussion about Job. All that happens is because the Lord initiates it.

1:12 “everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Satan challenges whether Job will be so righteous if he is put under pressure and so the Lord allows that in a limited way. And then later ( 2:3 ) we get our verse above where the Lord points out that Job had NOT failed despite being under awful pressures.

2:10 “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” With all that Satan brings about, the record is clear: Job had not sinned.

Now those are the key starting ‘rockets' that reveal what the whole book is about. Job is put under the most severe of physical and mental trials but has not sinned. For the next 29 chapters we have the debate between Job and his three ‘friends'. In the midst of these confusing pages, Job makes a most remarkable declaration:

19:25,26 “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” As this is thought to be one of the earliest books in the Bible with so little revelation existing beforehand, this is a most remarkable declaration.

In chapters 32 to 37, a young man, Elihu, presents a further viewpoint. Then in chapter 38 the Lord speaks:

38:1-4 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” Ooops! Job you may have been right about being blameless before all this, but when you start declaring about God you are on tricky ground! In the chapters that follow (38-41) the Lord demonstrates His knowledge and His power. When the Bible describes God as ‘holy' it means He is utterly different from anything else we know, and the lesson God brings Job is that when it comes to talking about God we need to guard our lips sometimes.

42:1-6 “Then Job replied to the LORD: "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted….. Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know….. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job is humbled by his encounter with the Lord.

42:7 “After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has .” That is a remarkable affirmation of Job. Not only has he not sinned but he hasn't spoken wrongly about God. It appears that if God has a problem with Job (as He previously chided him) it was simply that he had not maintained a humble spirit when he talked about the Lord. That needed remedying.

42:10,12 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before…. The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.” The Lord didn't just leave him but totally restored him and blessed him twice over.

There it is. Rocket after rocket being fired up out of the mist that shed light. It is both a strange and amazing book. The lessons are incredibly challenging. First, the enemy does NOTHING without the permission of God first. Second, God is thus supreme over all. Third, the Lord looks for faithfulness to Himself and to themselves, in each of His people. Remain true to God and be true to who He has made you and don't let other people try to tell you that you are something else! Fourth , because the Lord has given us free will, He knows that in this ‘Fallen Post-Genesis 3 World' things will go wrong and He will be working to ultimately put them right. There may be a variety of reasons for those things and they do NOT necessarily mean we got it wrong. Some things are down to our own folly, some to that of others and some to the works of the enemy, and sometimes, just sometimes, the Lord allows or even provokes those things to come about simply to discipline us for our good, but it is ALWAYS for our good. Rest in that and rejoice.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 27. Psalms

Psa 37:3,4 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart .

Arriving at Psalms we find a quandary. How do you choose a verse from 150 so varied psalms? Do we study David's anguish that is found in so many of the psalms? Do we take the basic statements about studying the word as in Psalm 1 or Psalm 119? Do we catch the Messianic theme such as in Psalm 2 or Psalm 22? Do we study the sovereignty of God in such an amazing psalm as Psalm 139 or the simple assurance of security in psalm 121, or of course the wonder of the relationship that comes through in the famous Psa 23? So many psalms that teach so many things! Where will we go?

Well, I've chosen Psalm 37 because it has within it a principle of guidance that I have found is applicable to so many people in need of direction. Even within the last week a Christian lady asked my wife and I, do you think I should sell my house and buy the one in a street nearer my church? Psalm 37 is packed with helpful teaching.

In a day of news bulletins, worry, anxiety and stress, this psalm starts off with basic wisdom: “ Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.” (v.1,2) You will note the initial verses come as couplets, principles linked together. Put another way we might summarise these two as ‘Don't let the antics of the world around you get to you. They will get their comeuppance in due season!

Then comes the double package of the two verses we've chosen for today, two verses that go together but also two verses each with two parts. “Trust in the LORD and do good.” (v.3a) What a great starting point. Yes, I know our salvation is far more complex than this but if you are looking for the most compact approach to life you can find, this is it. Start by simply “trusting the Lord”. When you trust someone you have confidence in them and maybe even rely on them. If I had lots of money and was advised to use a particular financial advisor because, “you can have complete confidence in him and I know this from years of working with him” you know you can trust this person to know all about everything to do with money and, even more, you can have confidence in their integrity, that they will always have your best interests at heart. Now if those are the sort of things that go with a financial advisor, how much more true will they be in respect of God? We can put our life entirely in His hands with the utmost confidence that He will be there for us, guarding us, guiding us, protecting us and providing for us.

But that is only the first part of that first half of the verse; there is also, “and do good”. That sounds so obvious but it comes from our knowledge of the Lord, that He is good, He is just, and He loves us and desires the best for us. We experience all of that as we imitate Him and that is summarized by ‘do good'. Put those two halves together and you have the ingredients for ‘the good life'.

Now when we make this the basis of our life then the second part naturally follows: “dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” (v.3b) If God is there for you, then you can just get on with life (‘in the land' – where you live) and know that whatever you do (‘safe pasture' for the agricultural community was key) in daily living, daily work etc. will have a security dimension to it that is found nowhere else – because He is all those things we noted previously.

Now when you move into verse 4 we find exactly the same (and see it like that) but put in a different way. It is an example of Jewish writing parallelism. Verse 3 says, “Trust in the Lord,” and now verse 4 says, “ Delight yourself in the LORD.” Now that does add an additional facet to the meaning. ‘Delight' implies enjoy, and perhaps, put first in all things. If I delight in my grandchildren, say, I take pleasure in them and they become a focus of my thinking. If I delight in them it also implies I will interact with them; there is something of experiential relationship here. It is putting God first, trusting Him, relying upon Him, enjoying Him – all of these things are part of this delighting in Him.

I would suggest this is a concept certainly foreign to the unbeliever but actually it is often foreign to believers as well, simply because they have not taken time to spend with Him and in His word, to find out about Him. The more you find out about Him the more you are able to ‘delight in Him'.

Now verse 3 concluded, if we may summarise it, with, “and He'll make your life safe and secure and blessed.” Now verse 4 has, “and he will give you the desires of your heart,” which I believe has a double edged meaning. Is this, “and He will give you a big mansion, fame and fortune”? I don't think so. That may be part of His package for you but only He knows what is the best package for you and it may not be that! As I have meditated on this over the years, I believe the double-edged or two sided meaning of this is a) He will put desires upon your hearts and then b) give you those desires.

You see as we delight in Him, we delight in His ways, we delight in the things He thinks are good and we want those things as well. He changes our hearts the more and more we delight in Him, and that changed heart conforms more with what He sees is the very best for us. He longs to give us the very best for us, but only He truly knows what that very best is. It may include financial blessing but that may NOT be the best for you. This is where the so-called ‘prosperity teachers' so often go wrong. ‘Prosperity' is more to do with well-being and that may include financial success or it may not. The Lord does want us to be at peace with our accounting and our giving but having lots of money may or may not be part of God's package for you.

When we trust in the Lord and we delight in the Lord, then we are first and foremost concerned with what HE wants for our lives because He longs to express His love to us by bringing blessing to our lives, which may involve changing them, changing their direction, changing their motivation, finding yearnings to be a blessing to Him and to His world in specific ways that will be unique to us. When I find someone who IS delighting in the Lord, to help when they ask for guidance, I ask, what is the Lord putting on your heart? Put aside resource limitations (I don't have enough money or enough brain power), if we could wave a magic wand over your life, what would you like to be doing that would make you feel fulfilled and a blessing to God and His world? When we ask it like that, it often opens up a realization of things we had deep down but didn't dare utter, that turn out to be the desires HE is giving. Isn't that great! Enjoy Him, enjoy the things He puts on your heart and then enjoy them as He brings them into being with your cooperation. Hallelujah!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 28. Proverbs (1)

Prov 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies .

If we had a problem choosing a highlight from the Psalms, it is even worse when you come to the book of Proverbs. I'm afraid I always find it a very bland book, full of truth but nevertheless, bland. It is strange in its makeup. The first nine chapters are a general writing about the superiority of wisdom. Chapters 10 to 22 are Solomon's proverbs and then chapters 23 to 31 are several series of sayings and proverbs from other sources. The last chapter, chapter 31:10-31 is all about the ideal wife and it is there we will alight and ponder what is there. Why? Because the first nine chapters, although containing much good stuff, tends towards being heavy. Well …. Let's not go through the rest, let's just say there are things here in this last chapter that scream great things to the world in which we live.

We live in a day when the world around us has struggled with the whole concept of a lifetime, committed relationship and the devastated shards and fragments of broken homes litter the landscape. We have come through a period where women have sought to break free from the image of a slave or a servant or, at the very least, an inferior of man. Child-birth, monthly cycles, and usually being physically weaker than the men who went out to do physical work or wage wars, all conspired to sustain that image through the centuries. The argument can rage in church circles about God's order for leadership and our inabilities or failures to overcome our confusion about equality with diversity. While the world has demeaned women, the records of the Gospels show that Jesus never did. And now, as we go back through the centuries and come to Solomon, a king of great power and authority we might expect to see the world's mould there also, but instead find something very different. Let's pick up on elements of what he says.

“ A wife of noble character who can find?” (v.10a) This isn't to say, I would suggest, that they are hard to find, just that you need to look and here are the things HE has observed and now records with words that are, without doubt, covered with an atmosphere of praise. He extols this woman. He appreciates her – and there is much to appreciate. But she does exist. The concept of a ‘noble character' would provide a good basis for discussion of many a house group or study group. ‘Noble' suggest first, something that is visible, seen, able to be appreciated. But in itself it is, as a dictionary says, “having or showing high moral qualities or ideals, or greatness of character; lofty, having excellent qualities; superior, grand; stately; splendid; magnificent.” In a world that has demeaned both men and women, what a goal to aspire to. Oh that people might say I had ‘a noble character'. Still something that is a work in progress!

“She is worth far more than rubies.” (v.10b) How we take for granted our partners. Would you say your partner is worth more than riches, more than affluence? If not, it is because we have not blessed, encouraged and built them up. Our partners are, in a measure at least, what we make them. If we nag or demean them they will be defensive, brow-beaten and fighting against low self-esteem. I am as ‘rich' as I am because I have a wife who for over forty years has loved me, supported me, encouraged me and blessed me (and I've done the same for her) and we are today the fruit of all that. When the good partner does all this, the fruit is a life changed for the better.

“Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.” (v.11) There it is, the end product of her life – he is blessed! He continues, “She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (v.12) Can any one of us in whatever relationship say this has been true of us. A goal to go for! Paul's teaching in the New Testament was, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:25) Do I sacrifice myself for my wife? “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Eph 5:22) Does my wife elevate me, esteem me, build me up? Yes, she does.

But then he moves into serious activity mode: “She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.” (v.13-15) In an agriculturally based society she goes all out to provide for her family. The husband would be off with a business or a trade but she provides all the basics that bless the family.

But she's not content with the mere basics, she becomes a business woman: “She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.” (v.16-18) Now I suspect you react to this according to your background and your outlook. Some may say, “She sounds like a slave!” I suggest she sounds more like a woman in control of her destiny, a woman who is fulfilled and has a sense of achievement. How many of us today truly feel that?

But there is more: “In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.” (v.19-22) What words sum up these descriptions: industrious, a carer, a provider. What fruits will come from it? Her children will feel secure, those in the community know she is one they can turn to. “Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.” (v.23) There it is again, he is blessed, not only at home but in the wider community because of what she has made him ! And so it goes on.

“She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.” (v.26-28) Now is this creating a sense of failure and diminishing self-esteem as you read these sort of things? Well for all of us, male or female, may they be sources of challenge: can I get the grace of God to be this sort of person? Will people – especially my family – be blessed because of me? Do they see in me someone who is self-concerned and out for what gives me pleasure or do they see these verses being outworked in me putting content to Jesus' command to ‘love one another as I have loved you'?

Yes, this calls for self-sacrifice and for drawing on the grace of God but consider the fruit it brings: a secure family, a blessed partner, blessed and secure children, a building block for a better society, an example to reveal the Lord. Yes, we have to think a bit to find modern parallels to the things of this chapter but as a chapter it is a highlight that shouts, with God there are possibilities that seem far from the life of much Western modern society. Dare we reach for it?

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 29. Proverbs (2)

Prov 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

I feel a coward! I often want to say to groups studying the Bible, hey, let's move away from the comfortable and easy stuff, let's study the more difficult parts of the Bible, and yet here in this part of the Scriptures I wanted to shy away from some of the most basic and fundamental truths of the Bible – and perhaps that is why I wanted to avoid them, because they are so basic and really need thinking about. So forgive me, and come with me, please, to this very basic verse early on in Proverbs. Let's chew on it, let's wrestle with it and see what it might say to us today.

Our obvious starting point has to be to consider the word, ‘ fear' but more especially, ‘fear of the LORD'. The expression, “the fear of the LORD” occurs a number of times in the Scriptures: 2 Chron 17:10, 19:7,9, Job 28:28, Psa 19:19, 34:11, Prov 2:5, 9:10, 10:27, 14:27, 15:16,33, 16:6, 19:23, 22:4, 23:17, Isa 11:2,3, 33:6, Acts 9:31. Moreover there are countless other injunctions to fear God. When Scripture speaks of “the fear of the LORD,” it refers to a characteristic or attitude that a person can hold. I confess I used to play this down and speak of ‘awe and respect' for God but in reality it is stronger than that. Let's consider one such use of this phrase, “the fear of THE I AM” (see Ex 3 – remember that's what LORD in capitals in your Bible means).

Let's consider what the psalmist David taught: “ listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” (Psa 34:11) He then spoke about behaviour that avoided wrong speech, that turned from evil and did good, seeking and pursuing peace (v.12-14) i.e. this behaviour would be a response or outworking of this attitude. But then David gives two things the Lord does, things that should cause us to have a holy, awesome, even fearful respect for God: i) “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry” (v.15) and then ii) “the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” (v.16)

Wow! This is a God who acts against wrong. He watches over the righteous and responds to their cries, but those who do evil…. He wipes them out!!!! Now whether He does this quickly now, or delays and then does it, or even waits until the Final Judgment, is really irrelevant; the fact is that He IS going to hold ALL sinners accountable and He will bring judgment on those who refuse to repent. Now if that doesn't make Him scary, I don't know what does!

Now the next word that bears consideration here is ‘ knowledge' which in ordinary usage simply means a body of facts or information. Knowledge is often linked with ‘understanding' but understanding means realizing the significance of something. Knowledge at this moment refers to observing and recognising and taking in this verse. Understanding speaks of realizing its significance. So, the fear of the Lord refers to the attitude that has come to learn that ‘THE I AM', the Eternal One, the one Abram, Moses etc. encountered is one who holds people accountable and when they fall short, He deals with them, e.g. Eli in 1 Samuel, Saul in 1 Samuel, and so on. ‘Understanding' this phrase means we realise that His demand for accountability puts us in the firing line, it puts ME right in front of Him, having to account to Him. This is what this is all about.

But there is another word we need to consider: ‘ beginning' . Now that is tricky because the writers here and elsewhere are saying that the starting point for any real knowledge about existence starts at this point. That drives us back to the word ‘knowledge' which in this use must be more than that basic usage – information, facts, data etc. – it must mean the basic, fundamental knowledge of what life is all about.

Really understanding what this world, this life, is all about starts here, it starts with the realization that a) there IS an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God as revealed in the Bible and b) He is not far off but is here and c) He involves Himself in the lives of the people on earth – His earth, the earth He designed and made and thus d) He acts for those who are righteous (living according to His design) and against those who are unrighteous (living by rejecting His design and contrary to it). The end product, as far as we are concerned, should be fear of Him, an awesome, scary respect, that recognizes that He holds ME accountable and without His grace, His mercy and His salvation I am doomed.

When we truly understand this, then when we are confronted with the news of His salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, we will grab at it like a drowning man at a straw, and we will receive it with gladness and wonder and thankfulness.

And the rest of the verse? “but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” OK, quickly. ‘ Wisdom' = the knowledge of how to do, or how it works. Wisdom comes to realise that the knowledge and understanding we have been considering needs to be applied to me. ‘ Discipline' = taking control of oneself and bringing change. A footnote in your Bible probably says, “The Hebrew words rendered fool in Proverbs, and often elsewhere in the Old Testament, denote one who is morally deficient.” The person who ‘falls short' does so in God's sight. It is God who declares them what they are. They are what they are because they refuse wisdom, they refuse to take note of these truths that will be put before them at some points in their lives, and they refuse to respond accordingly.

So, sorry, we nearly missed the wonder of this verse that is clearly a highlight verse. Think on these things, act on them, for they are fundamentals of life, and a key to how we live and our future destiny.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 30. Ecclesiastes (1)

Eccles 1:2 Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.

If we had difficulties with Psalms and then bigger difficulties with Proverbs, in choosing ‘highlight verses', when it comes to Ecclesiastes, it is even worse. This is a book that is considered by many to be utterly dry and arid and yet I have to confess it is one of my most favourite books in the Old Testament, in that it speaks so clearly and vividly to modern materialistic people who are so often so intent on obtaining ‘things' or having ‘experiences'. I have no doubt that it was written by Solomon – for who else could speak about wisdom as the one gifted by God with wisdom and known worldwide for it and for his incredible achievements and riches (1 Kings 10:6,7) – but as it so often uses the phrase, ‘under the sun', it has an earthly perspective with only few godly remarks and seems to come from a man in the latter part of his life with a jaded outlook, exactly what you would expect from a man who has so fallen off the rails and rebuked by God (see 1 Kings 11:1-13). And yet there are underlying truths here that speak to today.

I much prefer the NIV's ‘Meaningless' to the ‘Vanity' used my some other modern versions. It comes up 35 times in the book. Vanity is good in that it points out our human folly in relying upon so many of the things covered by this book, but ‘Meaningless' seems to me to be much wider, and much more embracing of so much that is done by godless, self-centred mankind. Perhaps rather than try and pick up on one or two verses, we might profit from noting the things that the writer of Ecclesiastes says are meaningless. We'll see how far we can get.

First of all – everything! (v.2) “Everything is meaningless”. Well if that is not a jaded, all embracing condemnation of human life, I don't know what is – and I don't agree with it; that is the jaded mind, losing contact with God, speaking. In verses 3 to 11 of chapter 1 he seeks to put content to this condemnation. Lives come, lives go, days come, days go, there is “nothing new under the sun” (v.9), it's the same old, same old; what people say or do today has been said or done before. Tedium or “wearisome” (v.8).

Second, he has studied and considered all things (1:12) but its all seemed meaningless. Third, he thought he would check out every sort of pleasure he could find, but that too was a meaningless exercise (2:1) Fourth, he undertook great projects, but at the end of it all, it still seemed a meaningless exercise (2:4-11). Fifth, he considered the merits of having wisdom as against folly, but that exercise too seemed meaningless (2:12-16). Sixth, he considered the work he had done, and the effort he had expended and the anxieties he had experienced in it all, and realised he would have to leave the results to someone else when he died so it all seemed pretty meaningless activity (2:17-26)

Yet at the end of that comes his first comment in respect of God: “ A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v.24,25) i.e. take God out of the work equation and it is a chasing after nothing. With God there is the hope of “wisdom, knowledge and happiness” (v.26)

There is a rhythm to life, that he acknowledges (3:1-8) and God has made everything beautiful and even put a sense of eternity in the hearts of mankind (3:11) but you can't add to anything God has made (3:14) so just get on with your life and do good (3:12) and work and enjoy it (3:13), recognising God's sovereignty (3:14c) recognising we will all be answerable to Him (3:16,17)

But then, seventh, he realises that we all die – just like animals, and that seems meaningless, that death is the end for all (3:18-21), so just get on and enjoy your work while you are still here (3:22). And then, eighth, he looks at the world and sees so much oppression (4:1-3) and sees that so much work is motivated by envy which makes it meaningless (4:4-8). Relationships can be tricky, but we need support from one another (4:9-12) but ninth, watching the rise and falls of leaders, politicians and kings, all of that is meaningless activity (4:13-16).

Be honest with yourself and with God when you approach Him, and keep your promises to Him (5:1) and tenth, don't rely on false dreams and just uttering many words before God because He will see through them, and so that makes them meaningless (5:2-7). Watch out for corruption in public life (5:8,9) and eleventh, beware making money and affluence the foundation of your life (5:10) for that is meaningless because a life of graft is folly, because you can't take it with you (5:11-17) Conclusion? Yes, being able to be happy and content in your work, as given by God, is the best path (5:18-20)

This grabbing after wealth is a deception. Twelfth, you may earn a lot but not be able to enjoy it (6:1,2). You can have a great family and much wealth but unless you can enjoy them it is all meaningless (6:3-6). In fact, thirteenth, when it comes to your appetite you can eat and eat but never be satisfied (6:7-9). Meaningless! What is yet to come is unknown (6:10-12) and, fourteenth, a life of false values – trusting only in laughter and failing to see the values and lessons of sorrow is equally meaningless (7:1-6). Understanding the true values of life is important – wisdom heeds the rebuke of a wise person, but refuses the folly of godless comedians (7:5,6). Don't look to the past as better than today (7:10), just get wisdom (7:11,12) and remember the good and the bad in this fallen world, are all ultimately the gift of God (7.13,14) and realise that because it is a fallen world, fifteenth it may appear meaningless when the righteous fall and the sinner flourishes (7:15-22) but we are all imperfect and (implied) it is only by the grace and mercy of God will we get to heaven.

And so it goes on but time and space stop us going further. But the lessons are clear and as you read through this book they are like the waves on the shore coming in one after another, and there are plenty more waves in the remaining chapters. So what do these lessons say? Well, take God out of the equation of life and you are left with a materialistic world where people with a whole raft of self-centred and godless mixed motives, struggle with live, trying to make meaning by achievement, trying to obtain fame and fortune. Some appear to make it, but so often at a high cost. So often the lives of the rich and the famous do not stand up to scrutiny.

Over recent years, I have taken a new interest in history, and whether it is writers or painters, money-makers or politicians – or royalty – the landscape is littered by messed up lives. So called famous poets or painters leave a trail of illegitimate children and abandoned lovers. So called celebrities go through marriages like new cars, a new one every couple of years. Trying to achieve great things is only folly when you are godless. That is the lesson of Ecclesiastes. In modern parlance, Solomon would say, “You name it, I've been there, done it and got the tee shirt – five times over – and without God it was a total waste of time! If you refuse God, then try for wisdom and contentment and fulfillment in work – but in all those you will be short-changed without Him!” And he knew what he was talking about!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 31. Ecclesiastes (2)

Eccles 1:3,9   What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? …. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

My original intent was simply to cover the one meditation in Ecclesiastes but as time passed I found myself pondering on one of the specific things the writer said was meaningless. In the first study we considered a whole range of things that the writer of Ecclesiastes said are meaningless. Now we'll just focus on one which is, possibly, one of the real things people feel today. I have linked verses 3 and 9 (which I think is legitimate to do) in the light of what I have been doing recently.

The other day, the sun was shining and, as we didn't need to go out shopping and we had nothing else on our family agenda, I settled down to catch up on various jobs in our garden. Our garden is not the proverbial ‘back yard' but is a three hundred foot long plot. It rained a day or so ago and the grass had grown and so I started by mowing the lawn. Then I had noted that the front hedge had grown and was bulging out over the front footpath, so I took an electric hedge-trimmer to it and carted away and mulched three wheelbarrow loads of cuttings. We also have several little ‘box' hedges (low dividing hedges in the garden) and these too needed trimming and shaping. With the sun still shining I noted that a couple of fence panels desperately needed preservative applying and so an hour later, it was done.

Now late into the afternoon, I was sitting feeling a little weary when Solomon's thoughts came to mind. Here was a classic example of what these two verses said. In two week's time the lawn will need cutting again. In three months' time the hedges will need attention again and in two years' time the fence panels will need painting again. Whatever was the point of my activities that took a day, when given the passing of time it will all need doing again? Is indeed life a meaningless array of repetitious tasks?

It was at that point that I thought, what is the answer to Solomon's jaded thinking? And so I sat there and considered how many meaningful reasons I could think of for following this repetitious cycle. Here are four:

Reason No.1: It needs doing! The fact is that left to itself my garden will run amok: the lawn would end up as a three foot high grass jungle, the front hedge would force people into the roadway, the box hedges would overcome the flower beds, and the fence panels would rot and fall down. Some of the things we do in everyday life are just things that need doing but that doesn't make them less significant. When God originally said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it,” (Gen 1:28) I'm sure He had this sort of thing in mind. In addition, because of the Fall, we are now constantly battling with a planet that would run out of control if we did not expend energy to deal with it (see Gen 3:17,18). Much of what we do is us taking control of the world around us. See a divine purpose in it!

Reason No.2: It is satisfying! After some more rambling Solomon concludes, “ A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.” (2:24) Yes, sometimes work can be satisfying. At the end of the day I looked at the various things done, and thought, “Good job! Stuff achieved!” and it was a good feeling. The Lord, having made us in His own image, has given us creative abilities and the ability to work and achieve things. Psychologist Abraham Maslow produced a Triangle or Hierarchy of Needs, the top need of which was about self-fulfillment – achieving one's full potential, including creative activities. It's actually how God has made us. It feels good to achieve and we shouldn't be ashamed of that! When it comes to gardening, scientists, psychologists and health experts increasingly speak of how therapeutic and health-giving working in a garden can be. Are we able to see some of the things at least, that we are involved with on a daily basis, as things that contribute to wellbeing, ours and that of others? If not, look and pray and listen.

Reason No.3: We control our environment for good! I spoke of cutting the hedge so that people would not be forced into the roadway. A legitimate concern. Cutting the law, cutting the low hedges and painting the fence panels all help create a pleasant environment. Over the years, I have come to see that being creative with our garden means that we can bless people with it, whether it be ourselves sitting and appreciating the wonder of God's creation as we look at varieties of flowers, hedges and trees and listen to and watch a whole variety of birds, or the grandchildren using it and repeating what their parents did in it decades ago, or friends who come in and sit and absorb peace and beauty. Not long ago I came across a little quip: Three things we each need to make us happy – someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. Now I would want to put then into a spiritual context but they do apply generally as well. Do I find purpose in the things I do daily (something to do) and do I see these things going somewhere, creating an anticipation of something more or better in the days to come? (something to hope for).

Reason No.4: We use God's gifts and enjoy God's world – and thus bring pleasure to God. Whatever task we perform, great or small, we are exercising gifts or abilities that God has given us and we are operating within the world He has made AND it is patently obvious that He has made this world for us to enjoy. The whole of the modern fad of mindfulness is about being aware of the moment and in that respect it does us a favour by suggesting we slow up and take stock.

Now being realistic, many of us work in materialistic environments and often we are striving to survive, striving to make money to get by, and striving to cope with the stresses and strains of the job (and maybe the people we work with.) It is quite likely that many of us will be involved in repetitious jobs, jobs that (let's be honest) don't seem to change the world for good, but that need not mean that none of my four reasons above apply.

So to recap: at the most basic level, am I doing something that just keeps life going? Fine, that's quite valid, you're stopping the world falling down around you!. Perhaps many people appreciate your end product but never tell you. Can you have a sense of satisfaction achieving something, even if it is shelves neatly filled, a park neatly tidied, papers delivered on time or a million and one other things we take for granted. As a child of God, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” ( Col 3:23) Bless God with your heart attitude, perhaps as you serve others (that could be your boss, your fellow workers, or even your employees). Consider how you can bring good to the environment in which you work, or maybe by your work, that somehow blesses others. Ask the Lord for wisdom how to do that (Jas 1:5). And finally, recognize your gifts and abilities and take nothing for granted. Thank the Lord for them and for what you do and enjoy being who He has made you to be. And above all, cast off the jaded attitude that Solomon had and which so many people have today. This is God's world, His gift to us, and you are His gift to this world as well. Bless people and bless Him in what you do. We each have the possibility of bringing light into this world – even within repetitious work cycles!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 32. Songs of Songs

Songs 5:6 I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him.

Oh my goodness, it gets worse! If there was an increase in difficulty in choosing ‘highlight verses' as we progressed through Psalms, Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes, it gets even worse when we arrive at the Song of Songs. This is a controversial book, controversial in that it doesn't mention God, and controversial in that is has very explicit love language in it that has caused past commentators to become nervous wrecks trying to make it an allegory, while more modern writers tend to say it's just what it is, a love song to be enjoyed as that, a celebration of God's fundamental gifts of sexuality and love. In order to try to make sense of it, a number of years ago I took the text and put it in the form of a stage production. If you read it straight from a Bible, you need one that inserts ‘Beloved' (the girl, us) and ‘Lover' (the man, possibly Solomon, Jesus) throughout to make clear who is speaking.

I confess I struggle with the ideas of analogies in this book. There are some obvious ones that have blessed me over the years. The girl's early description of herself, I find poignant: “ Dark am I, yet lovely.” (1:5) She goes on to explain that she is beautiful yet she is dark as a result of working in the open under the sun. She is a humble worker. But then I think of that as a description of the Christian. I am dark. My background is dark, my character and personality is dark – without Christ. I am a sinner. And yet now I am a redeemed sinner, a child of God with all of Christ's character and personality available to me via his indwelling Holy Spirit. Are you able to hold this balance when you think of yourself? ‘Dark' maintains a humility in me. ‘Beautiful' releases praise and worship in me.

I like the man's “Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.” (2:2) Dare we hear Jesus saying to us, “You stand out in this world and I love looking at you”? Or there is her response: “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.” (2:3) Is that how we see Jesus? Does he stand out from all the names in the world as one who brings fruit to my life, and shade, a place of serenity free from the blasts of the sun, the ways of the world?

Yes, there are individual verses like that which have blessed me over the years, but this particular passage that concludes with our verse above has always seemed particularly poignant. See the whole picture:

“ 2 I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking: "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night." 3 I have taken off my robe-- must I put it on again? I have washed my feet-- must I soil them again? 4 My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him. 5 I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6 I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.” (5:2-6)

It is night. She is at home. She is awakened by the sounds of gentle knocking and his whisper for her to let him in (v.2). But she had got undressed. Has she got to get up and get dressed again? She had washed her feet and so if she gets up she may dirty them again. Oh, this is all most inconvenient! (v.3) But he makes sounds of lifting the latch and coming in. That stirs her heart. (v.4) She quickly gets up, but not without quickly putting on perfume to smell nice for him, to overcome the scent of night-time sweat in a hot climate. She eventually goes to the door (v.5) But it is too late; he has gone. (v.6)

What a picture. Put in general terms, Jesus comes to us, he calls to us, his Spirit stirs within us, calling us to respond. But it seems an inconvenient moment, we have other things on our mind, or we have other responsibilities to attend to. We feel inconvenienced and so we ponder on it, we hesitate and only then we respond, but it seems he is no longer there. Nothing happens.

In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us about the error of making excuses. There was the farmer, building bigger and bigger barns but never getting his life right with God. Just one more barn, and then it was too late (Lk 12:16-20). There were those who put off following Jesus because of family responsibilities (Mt 8:21,22) or because of opposition (Mt 13:21) or personal worries (Mt 13:22). In each case there is a hesitation which develops into a drawing back. Each of these people, just like the girl in the song, put personal concerns first and in so doing they failed to realise the wonder of the one they were holding back from.

Again Jesus told two parables about this. The first was a man finding treasure in a field (Mt 13:44) – so he sold all he had and bought the field – and the second a man finding a pearl of great value so he too sells all he had and buys it (Mt 13:45,46). The lesson is clear: Jesus looks for whole-hearted commitment, not a self-concern shown by this girl in the Song.

But was that incident the end of the story? No, but it was the cause of pain, anguish and concern and delay. The good news is that God's grace is bigger than our hesitations but that doesn't mean we will enter into all we could without that hesitation. Let's take the simple lesson as it stands: when Jesus calls (by whatever means) let's not hesitate, especially when our hesitation is founded in self-concern. There is a treasure to be taken, a pearl to be admired and relished and our hesitation may mean with miss out in some measure. Let's not presume on His grace, hoping for second chances, let's go when he calls – straight away!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 33. Isaiah (1)

Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple .

From the sublime to the ridiculous! Going from a love song to a mountain of prophecy in search for highlights is probably the definition of culture shock! There is so much in this incredible mountain of prophecy that includes a short passage of history. Commentators often divide the book into

•  Part 1: The Book of Judgments (Ch.1-35) which also includes a heavenly vision and Isaiah's calling,

•  Part 2: An historical interlude, which anchors Isaiah in the reign of Hezekiah (Ch.36-39), and

•  Part 3: The Book of Comforts (Ch.40-66),

the titles giving a sense of the overall themes found in these prophecies.

I was originally intending to move into looking at two different sorts of prophecy in Isaiah but as I think about it, the calling of some of these prophets is so dramatic that they must feature among the highlights of the Bible. In Jeremiah it comes in the first chapter, in Ezekiel it comes in the second chapter, but in Isaiah we have to wait until the sixth chapter before Isaiah's calling is shown to us.

Uzziah reigned from 792 to 740 and in 1:1 we are told he saw visions in the reigns of four kings of Judah (the southern kingdom), starting with Uzziah, and so it is possible that he received the contents of chapters 1 to 5 before Uzziah died. We cannot be sure but if that was so, it shows us that prophets could receive words from God (and there a number in Old Testament history of whom this is true) without having that personal encounter that we find here and in Jeremiah. (We don't hear of it, for example, of Daniel) So why does the Lord give Isaiah such a revelation? Perhaps the answer is in the historical context and what the vision reveals.

From the verses of chapters 1 to 5 (and, indeed, many subsequent chapters) the state of Judah was not spiritually good. However, there had been a period of stability under Uzziah who we can see from above ruled for over fifty years, yet in the last five years, Assyria had started expanding its power under Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727) and had started invading neighbouring areas, which included Canaan in the north at least. And now Uzziah dies. I parallel this with the death of Queen Elizabeth II in the UK (which must happen one day!). She has presided as head of the UK , as at early 2017, for 65 years, the longest reigning monarch. As such she has been and remains a figure exuding stability. When she eventually dies, there will be an enormous psychological hole in the psyche of the United Kingdom . Such is how it would have been when Uzziah died after a similarly long reign – and especially as there was an air of uncertainty about the future with the rising power of Assyria . It is into this context that this revelation comes. So what does it reveal and how does that impact on this historical context?

Note how the vision starts off: “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (v.1) In the vision (and so it is a mental and spiritual picture, not actual reality) he is shown God and the picture of God is of a mighty ruler. He is seated on a throne which historically is the place from which rulers make pronouncements but it is in a temple. He is robed as a king quite obviously and the train of this robe stretches out to fill this temple. Now this is difficult to comprehend but what it does say is that the size, magnitude or length of this train is so great that if there are any other occupants of this temple, they would have to be standing on it (have you ever thought that?). If that is so it signifies a closeness but also a submission to this king. Above this king there are angels (v.2) singing or at least declaring the truth about this king (v.3) that this king is “the I AM almighty” and He is holy, thrice holy emphasizing it, He is utterly different from any other being in existence, and His glory can be seen (by those with eyes to see) throughout the earth. As they speak, the place shakes, such is the power of the revelations they speak out.

The impact on Isaiah is immediate. He feels totally unworthy, unclean, doomed! (v.5). Now there is obviously an altar in this temple with fire upon it and one of the angels takes a red-hot coal from this altar and touches his mouth with it and declares, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (v.6,7) However we may interpret this it means that before anything else, Isaiah's past human history – and by implication, guilt – is removed by an act of God. He is put at ease before the Lord.

What follows is intriguing. The Lord implies a task and in so doing presents it before Isaiah: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (v.8a) The redeemed and cleansed Isaiah now feels able to be used by God and, “I said, "Here am I. Send me!” (v.8b) to which the Lord gives him marching orders for his future ministry. (v.9-)

Now what has all this said, this historical context and this vision? It says that naturally speaking Isaiah, no doubt like everyone else in the land, would be feeling uncertain about their future now the stability of Uzziah's reign has gone and there are threatening noises from the north. They lacked a king, a protective ruler. And so Isaiah is given this revelation of God on high, God who is the I AM, the Eternal One first revealed like this to Moses, but also the Almighty One, the All-powerful One, the utterly different one who is THE king, the ruler over all things. Isaiah, through the experience, is transformed and knows that God has cleansed and equipped him, made him fit for the task. Isaiah, through the revelation, has been transformed in his thinking, in his understanding for he has seen the Lord of the Universe; he has a king who is supreme, he knows the Lord and in that he will be utterly secure, in the face of his own people's unbelief and in the face of invading unbelievers. Bring it on!

Now you may not have had a vision in this form but, as a Christian, a child of God, you have had and have received the revelation of the Son of God who has come and put you right with God. The more we know of this revelation the more we, like Isaiah, see we have a Lord who is Lord over all, who is in total, supreme and sovereign control, ruling (as Psa 100 prophetically says) in the midst of His enemies. He is working out His plans and purposes and no one will stop them coming to fruition at the appointed time. You and I can have the same sense of having been cleansed as Isaiah was. You and I can have the same sense of security through revelation that Isaiah had. You and I, like Isaiah, when we have a need presented before us by the Lord, can say with him, “Here am I lord, send me,” in the sure knowledge that He has done everything that has needed to be done to prepare and equip us for whatever He puts before us. Whatever He places before us, will not be too much for us, because He is with us and He has given us all we need to accomplish it. Hallelujah!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 34. Isaiah (2)

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

Faced by this mountain of a book, we started off yesterday by observing the revelation of God that Isaiah was given in chapter 6. It was, without doubt, a highlight passage. Now I know at the beginning of this series I suggested that I would take just one verse or maybe two from each book, but as you will already have seen that was an unknowing, unrealistic goal. The word of God is too big to be limited to one verse sometimes or even one set of verses and so now as we look into the book of Isaiah and ponder on highlights, our search will have to be enlarged yet again.

For this search, I am going to suggest that we can distinguish between Messianic Prophecies and General Principle Prophecies, and so today we'll look at the Messianic Prophecies and tomorrow pick up on one or more general principle prophecies.

Isaiah is a gold-mine for messianic prophecies with words about the Messiah appearing in the seams of general prophecy. It is like God cannot help sharing with His prophet the plan on His heart for the redemption of the world and it comes through in Isaiah, perhaps more clearly than anywhere else in the Old Testament. There is sufficient here to map out the whole plan of salvation.

The first hint is our verse from above: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isa 7:14) which Matthew in his Gospel applies to the coming of Jesus and to this quote he simply adds an explanation, “which means, ‘God with us.'” (Mt 1:23) although at the time it is probably unlikely the listeners realised it had a double meaning. In Isaiah ‘the virgin' simply means a young woman (possibly, without child) and in Matthew the context is clearly a virgin, a girl with no male sexual relationship, producing a unique child.

In chapter 9, a location is spoken about: “in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-- The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (9:1,2) and again although the people at the time would not realise its significance, Matthew did (see Mt 4:14-16), identifying Galilee as the area where Jesus' light would shine brightest.

The peak of these ‘baby prophecies' comes further on in chapter 9 with THE most incredible of prophecies: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” (Isa 9:6,7) Look at that! A son! A ruler! An increasing rule! An everlasting rule! And he is called the wonderful counselor, mighty God (!!!!), Everlasting Father (!!!!), Prince of Peace. Who???? What???? And all this declared some 700 years BC about someone from the line of David! Awesome!

There are also little glimmers of Messianic warnings, e.g. “In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it-- one from the house of David-- one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.” (Isa 16:5) or “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.” (Isa 28:16 with echoes in 1Co 3:11 and 1Pe 2:4-7) Also 32:1. Then come the so-called “Servant Songs” which mainly point towards the ministry of the Messiah, but also have echoes for the life of Israel . See the First Servant Song in Isa 42:1-17 (echoed in Mt 12:18-21), the second one in Isa 49:1-6, the third one in Isa 50:4-9 and the fourth one in Isa 52:13-53:12. Each one has sufficient in it to form the basis of a full meditation on its own!

However, as amazing as each of these is, the pinnacle of the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah must be that in 61:1-11, part of which Luke quotes when Jesus, reading from the scroll in the synagogue, announces his ministry: “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, " Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk 4:17-21)

Apart from the general prophecies in Isaiah, these Messianic prophecies of his make this book itself stand out as a highlight, let alone the individual verses! Each of these prophecies that we have referred to in this particular meditation deserve to be read, studied and meditated upon. Do take time to do that sometime.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 35. Isaiah (3)

Isa 1:17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

I suggested yesterday that, here in Isaiah, we can distinguish between Messianic Prophecies and General Principle Prophecies, and yesterday we looked at the Messianic Prophecies and so now we pick up on one or more general principle prophecies. What I am calling ‘general principle prophecies' are those words from God that certainly applied to specific situations in the day they were spoken, but also can act as general principles for us today.

1. Obey the Law: Our starting verse above is a classic example of this. Seeing it in context, it comes at the end of the Lord rebuking Israel for having rebelled against Him (v.2), having forsaken Him and turned their backs on Him (v.4), resulting in them having been vulnerable to attacks of enemy nations who had devastated them (v.7-9), but nevertheless carrying on meaningless religious ritual (v.11-15). The Lord didn't want this; it is a message that is repeated again in Isaiah and Isa 58 is a classic against meaningless fasting. He wanted then to live out good lives which this verse characterises. It is very simple and straight forward, a basic keeping of the Law to produce a just and caring society. Easy! Our calling is similar.

2. Consequences: Verses 19 and 20 of chapter one are really just a synopsis of all the laws of blessings and curses found in Deut 27 to 29: “ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Obedience brings good – God's blessings, His decrees of good, while disobedience brings bad – God's curses, His decrees for bad. Not only does the Lord lay out quite simply the fundamentals of keeping the law for blessing the community of God, but He also reminds them of the consequences of obedience and disobedience – yes, there WILL be consequences, and so we need to choose which path we take.

3. Future Glory: It is easy to get morbid when a nation is not doing well and wonder about how it will all work out and perhaps that is why Chapter 2 opens with, “This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.” (2:1). Under the anointing of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter applied the phrase “the last days” to the period of the Church, the period of the Spirit (see Acts 2:17,18), which perhaps distinguishes it from the phrase “end times” suggesting the very last days before Jesus winds up all things. These ‘last days' last from Pentecost to that future time.

Some may wish to interpret the verse above as referring to Israel but the teaching of the apostle Paul suggests that a true ‘Jew' is only a member of ‘the people of God' if he is Spirit born (Rom 2:28,29) and therefore the ‘people of god' comprise both Jew and Gentile born of the Spirit, and thus the “mountain of the Lord's temple” is what today we simply refer to as Christianity or ‘the Christian Church'. God's people may have looked in a poor state in Isaiah's day but that did not mean the Lord's plans would be frustrated. The nation was the precursor to the Church (i.e. both believing Jew and Gentile)

4. Revival for Israel in End Times: For those who think this is detrimental to Israel , a further prophecy comes: “In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel . Those who are left in Zion , who remain in Jerusalem , will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem .” (Isa 4:2,3) It is difficult to believe that this means anything less than the geographical Jerusalem and thus signifies a day of revival in Israel yet to come even as the apostle Paul appeared to teach (Rom 11:25-27). We are to watch for such signs.

5. Dullness & Blindness: There comes a strange instruction at Isaiah's calling, that reveals a spiritual principle: “He said, "Go and tell this people: " `Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isa 6:9,10) Jesus quoted this as his reason for using parables (Mt 13:13-15). Because of spiritual dullness (or maybe spiritual hardness) there comes a spiritual blindness and spiritual deafness so that people see the prophet and hear his words but the significance of them is lost on these people. The more they hear Isaiah's words the harder and more resistant they become and the less impact those words have. It's all about heart condition, is what Jesus taught. If your heart is hard and resistant to God, you'll hear His words but they'll have no impact on you.

6. Free Salvation: Let's jump to near the end of the book: “ Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” (Isa 55;1) It sounds like a market stall barrow-boy shouting an offer that just can't be believed. Summary: come and get what God is offering – it's free! A few verses later, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (Isa 55;6,7) You don't have to take exams to get to heaven. You don't have to be clever, handsome or beautiful and you certainly don't have to be famous. It's very simple: turn away from evil (repent) and turn to God and – and here's the amazing offer – He will pardon you, grant you mercy – it's a free pardon! Don't ever say God is hard when He reaches out to us in this way.

Yes, in this book of amazing prophecies there are calls to obedience, warnings about consequences of lifestyles, hope for the future, a warning against hard-heartedness and then offers of free salvation. It's all there, a variety of highlights of salvation basics. It speaks into the historical context of Hezekiah's day, it sends out peals of hope of a coming Messiah, and it lays out warnings and offers for all who would face the reality of the living God. The Lord, who Isaiah ‘saw' in chapter 6, is the same Lord today and all these things come by His revelation.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 36. Jeremiah (1)

Jer 1:5 “ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

The call of Jeremiah is very different from that of Isaiah. Whereas Isaiah had a vision of the Lord in heaven, Jeremiah has no such vision but hears directly from the Lord: “ The word of the LORD came to me, saying…” (v.4) and the verse above follows. Both books are mountains of prophecy but having said that, that is where their similarity ends. Yes, Isaiah does speak against the sin of the nation(s) but after the midway historical interlude, much of what follows is very encouraging. The encouraging elements of Jeremiah are much less. (Incidentally Jeremiah is said to be the longest book in the Bible with more words in it than any other.)

Jeremiah is very much more focused on the present while Isaiah has a strong present AND future overview. Jeremiah has elements of future hope but most of what he says speaks into the present in a unique way. He is God's primary mouthpiece at this point of history – the run up to the Exile. Ezekiel will be speaking to the chosen people soon to be exiled in Babylon, and Daniel will become God's mouthpiece in the royal courts of Babylon, but Jeremiah is God's man on the ground there in Jerusalem and he prophesied for forty years until Jerusalem was destroyed in 586/7 and then briefly to the fleeing rebels in Egypt (see Jer 44)

But like Isaiah, his calling is a clear highlight. For him it is the things the Lord says to him. The complete calling really includes a) the opening call and encouragement (v.4-10), then b) two visions that have significance in respect of what is to come involving him (v.11-16), and then c) some closing words of exhortation and encouragement (v.17-19). These are all significant verses for his future.

1. The Opening Call & Encouragement (v.4-10): “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (v.5a) You will see a footnote in your Bible that ‘knew you' could be ‘chose you'. This is very similar to what the apostle Paul taught us: “he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph 1:4) Both speak of the God who has planned all things even before He brought the world into being. He looked into the future and saw Jeremiah – but He saw more than just that: “before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (v.5b) I believe it is a case of the Lord looks at us and sees what we can become, what is our potential.

It is a mystery why we are what we are. Ongoing arguments have gone on over “nature versus nurture”, how much genetic makeup and experiences being brought up, together contribute to who we are, but there is always another dimension – that of God (for v.5a suggests God acts on us even as we are being conceived – a mystery!) The Lord sees these two elements and speaks and acts into our life situations and, as much as we are open and available to Him, He works into our lives by the work of His Holy Spirit (who indwells us Christians).

So, OK, Jeremiah, God has had His sights on you for a long time and knows what He can do with you and He has chosen you to be His prophet to speak to this nation. Jeremiah splutters a bit over this, protesting that he is too young for this (see v.6) but the Lord puts this aside with a) an instruction – just do what I tell you and say what I say (v.7) – and b) an encouragement – and I'll be with you so you need not be afraid, and I'll rescue you (v.8). Talk of rescue doesn't sound so good because it implies he will need rescuing and that is not exiting news!!! Then the Lord touches his lips (v.9) and says from now on He will give him His words and he will speak to nations and kingdoms (The fact that he says the Lord touched his lips, suggests an element of ‘vision of God' behind all this).

2. Two Visions (v.11-16): And so it begins. It starts with the Lord asking him what he sees – obviously visions. The first thing he sees is an almond tree and the Lord confirms he is right and says, “I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” (v.12) The almond tree was the first to blossom and it comes early and so the Lord implies that what is coming, is coming soon and He's watching for it. Again He asks Jeremiah what he sees and this time he sees a boiling pot tilting away from the north (v.13) The Lord explains that He is bringng an invader from the north (that will be Nebuchadnezzar) and that He is doing this because of the sins of Judah (v.14-16)

3. Final Exhortation & Encouragement (v.17-19): Now comes the tough bit. The Lord gives him a threefold starting instruction: i) get ready, ii) stand up and speak whatever I give you and iii) don't be afraid of them (v.17) How can that be? Because, the Lord explains, the Lord has given him great strength to withstand “ the kings of Judah , its officials, its priests and the people of the land.” (v.18) i.e. it sounds like everyone is going to be against him!!!! However, “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.” (v.19) It's OK, Jeremiah, WE will overcome them!

Now let's summarise what we have seen. First, the context of God's perspective,. He knew this was coming and He knew of what Jeremiah was capable. Thus he could be a prophet! Second, the big picture: it's all about the sin of God's people and the fact that God is going to have to discipline them with judgment in the form of Nebuchadnezzar and exile in Babylon . That is the end play of these next forty years! Third , He knows it is going to be tough because Jeremiah is going to be rejected again and again by all and sundry! But that's not a problem because the Lord's grace will be sufficient for Jeremiah to do the job.

Now here's an important question: If the Lord knows Jeremiah is going to be rejected and the people will refuse to repent so that eventually Jerusalem WILL be destroyed and they WILL   be carried into exile, what is the point of Jeremiah's ministry? Why is he going to have to go through forty years of rejection and even hostile persecution? The answer has to be at least twofold. First, that Israel will never be able to say that they didn't know what was coming and why, and they would never be able to make excuses for what happened. Second, so that we, the watching world, can see the fairness and justice of God in the way He deals with this faithless and foolish people. You can never say God was unkind because of Jerusalem 's destruction and the exile of the people, because He warned and warned again and again and again through Jeremiah (and through Ezekiel) and did everything He could to get His people to repent. THAT is what this book is all about and THAT is why the calling of Jeremiah has these specific features, as the Lord seeks to prepare him for what He knows is going to happen.

Now there is an underlying crucial lesion behind all this. Jeremiah's ministry was to speak out God's word – and that was all. What the people did with it, was up to them. In one sense, looking at the long-term you might think it was a ministry of failure because he failed to turn the people, but that wasn't his calling; it was simply to speak. He was called to obedience and faithfulness – and so are we – whatever the outcome.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 37. Jeremiah (2)

Jer 20:1,2 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD's temple.

In the previous meditation we considered the nature of Jeremiah's calling and noted that within it were various indicators that life was not going to be easy for Jeremiah over the coming years. You may wonder why I choose a couple of very negative verses as ‘highlights' of this book. The answer is that they, with a number of others, show how that early calling was so accurate when it spoke of the rejection he would encounter. The fact that he is still ‘the last man standing', so to speak by the end of the book, reveals the fact that God's grace WAS there for him. Perhaps, therefore, rather than an individual verse as a highlight, we may suggest that Jeremiah's life as a whole stands out above many others and he himself is the highlight of this book, and an example for us of one who stands for the Lord, faithful despite opposition.

We have already alluded to his self-deprecation – “ I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” (1:6) and as the book opens up he is shown to be a very human being (remember ‘prophets' always are!) with the same sort of questions that you and I have, for example, “You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (12:1) i.e. Lord, life so often seems unfair with the unrighteous appearing to prosper. Why do you allow it? The Lord's answer is to speak of the judgment He will be bringing soon.

On another occasion he complained to the Lord about the life he had been called to: “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?” (15:16-18) i.e. Lord, I took on board your words and they were a blessing to me. I never joined in with the unrighteous which tended to make me a loner. I have sought to walk the righteous path and yet I seem to be in anguish so much of the time and, Lord, when it comes to you (as the Message version puts it) so often you seem to be nothing but a mirage,   a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing! He certainly struggled.

And yet the Lord was clearly with him as he faced rejection: “ Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me.” (11:18,19) Nevertheless he was a complete mix of emotions. On one hand he was able to declare, “A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.” ( 17:12) and yet a few moments later he was crying out, “They keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!” (v.15) and then “Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror.” (v.18) On the one hand he knew that the Lord was indeed his protection and yet a few minutes later, fear and anxiety seemed to flow back over him like the incoming tide. Does that sound familiar?

Again he records, “They said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says." Listen to me, O LORD; hear what my accusers are saying!” (18:18,19) Now note where all these references come – before our starting verse that shows him being beaten and put in the stocks! All his fears were coming true in a physical way. Later we find (37:14-16) he is beaten again and put in prison and later into a cistern (38:6) and restricted by house arrest until the day Jerusalem fell (38:28).

Despite all this he receives amazing Messianic prophecy, for example, “The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” (23:5) and yet immediately afterwards, “My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.” (23:9) It's almost as if he is saying, ‘I'm seeing so many contradictory things, it leaves me reeling like a drunkard, I don't know which way to go!'

On the one hand as we look at the life of Jeremiah himself, we see this amazing prophet racked at times by self-doubt and yet upheld by the Lord so he is able to persevere in his ministry, speaking out the word of the Lord to all level of society, including the kings. On a physical level he is beaten, put in stocks and put in prison and yet when Jerusalem finally falls he is saved in a most remarkable manner. You must read 39:11-14 and 40:1-5.

The end gets even more bizarre. A man named Gedaliah is appointed governor of the land for when the Babylonians leave, after Jerusalem 's destruction, and Jeremiah stays there. Gedaliah is assassinated (40:6,7,41:1-). In the shambles that ensues, the people seek out Jeremiah for help and guidance (42:1-3). After waiting on the Lord for ten days (v.7) he receives a word to reassure them that it will be fine to stay there but disastrous if they go to Egypt (v.10-22). Indeed it is a very strong word against going to Egypt ; yet his word is utterly rejected (43:1-3) and the leaders took them off to Egypt (43:4-7). When the get to Egypt, Jeremiah gets a further word from the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar would yet come there (43:8-13) and further warned that that remnant that had gone to Egypt would all be destroyed for their rebellion (44:1-14) – and yet this word also was utterly rejected (44:15-19) but Jeremiah keeps on and reminds them that they are there because of their past apostasy (44:20-23) and that yet they would perish when Nebuchadnezzar came and vanquished Egypt (44:24-30). Apart from an Appendix containing a note to Jeremiah's friend, Baruch, a miscellanea of additional prophecies against the nations (from various times during his ministry), and an historical summery at the end, this is the last we hear of Jeremiah.

We have focused in this study on the man himself and his perseverance and his experience that followed exactly what the Lord had said at his calling. To the very end in Egypt , God's word is rejected but nevertheless Jeremiah kept an open ear to the Lord and brought whatever he was given. It is an amazing testimony of the faithfulness of the man, and as such it stands as a significant challenge to each of us to remain as faithful, regardless of how the people around us respond to us as witnesses to the Lord. May we be that.

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 38. Jeremiah (3)

Jer 18:6 O house of Israel , can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel .

In this longest book of the Bible we first saw Jeremiah's calling, particularly noting the implied warnings that were there that this would not be an easy ministry. In the second study we saw how that worked out and particularly observed the perseverance and faithfulness of this man who so often had self-doubts but kept on going, being the mouthpiece of the Lord to this unfaithful people. But what stands out, what highlight is there when it comes to his prophesying?

Well we could focus on the many warning he brought of coming destruction in the face of the ongoing apostasy of the people of Jerusalem and Judah, but that can be taken as read and is fairly negative reading at best. We could take any of the visual prophecies that the Lord put before Jeremiah, for example the linen belt that was spoilt (Jer 13:1-11), or the two baskets of figs (Jer 24:1-10), but undoubtedly the most famous of such prophecies is that in the Potter's house (Jer 18:1-6).

The Lord tells Jeremiah to go to the Potter's house (v.1,2), which he does and sees the potter working the clay and when it didn't work out as he wanted, he simply rethrew it on the wheel and remade it (v.3,4). It was at that point the Lord spoke the words of our verse above. The words of verse six are both simple and dramatic and staggering in their meaning. It is incredibly simple. Everything that Jeremiah has been talking about in his prophecies is summed up in this simple verse.

It is both scary and devastating and terrifying AND hope bringing. The scary part is that the Potter takes the pot that is not working out and dashes it on the wheel again. Judah is going to be ‘dashed on the wheel'. Jerusalem is going to be ‘dashed on the wheel'; the existing is going to be brought to an end. The way that that will happen – through the coming of Nebuchadnezzar – will be devastating and utterly terrifying. That is the bit that will consume the minds of all of Judah and yet there is a hope-bringing second part: the Potter remakes the pot. God will remake Israel and Jerusalem . There IS a future for Israel . This side of the events we take it all for granted, we are ‘wise after the event', but for Israel at the time of the siege all they saw was destruction. It took faith to believe the occasional words of hope from Jeremiah – but they were there – but this people were not a people of faith.

We have already made brief reference to Jeremiah's prophecy about the Branch (Jer 23:5,6) but that prophecy concluded, “ So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land .” (23:7,8) There it is, a clear promise of restoration, the future of Israel back in their land.

Then there was the picture prophecy that we referred to earlier, of two baskets of figs, one bad and one good (Jer 24:1-3). The interpretation of what they mean is surprising. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel , says: `Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land . I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” (24:5-7) You can't get any more clear than that. The exiles who are already in Babylon will come back under God's blessing and they will be a transformed people, a pot remade! The bad figs are the people and king still in Jerusalem who refuse to repent and they will be destroyed.

In chapter 25 we find Jeremiah prophesying in 605BC with the destruction of Jerusalem still some nineteen years off, but there he prophesies destruction of Jerusalem and Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and warns of a seventy year period before restoration. (Although Israel started to return within some 40 years, from the time of the destruction of the Temple to the time of its rebuilding completion was exactly seventy years. While it was absent the Lord obviously did not consider Jerusalem His).

Now we have noted the clear warning that the Lord is remaking Israel and it will take a number of years. What we now find is Jeremiah writing to the exiles in Babylon who the Lord says He will bless and bring back in due season. Observe: “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon : "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jer 29:4-7)

What does He say? Settle down guys, you've got to wait this one out. Build your own houses, plant gardens and grow your own produce (all these things take time and are a commitment to the future). If you're not married, get married and have children and increase in numbers. Oh yes, and seek to be a blessing to the people of Babylon because as much as you bless them, you will be blessed. Wow!

I find here one of the most poignant messages to Christians in the West today who are becoming a minority people. Pray for revival by all means, but while you wait for it to come, settle down in the midst of this pagan society, be established, plan for the future AND bless the world around you! There is no room here for enclave Christianity, ghetto Christianity. This is a call to shine in the darkness, to hold firmly to the word of God, to seek to be filled with the power of God and always be obedient to the leading of God – despite the darkness around you. We may live in unsettling times, but the call is still the same: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16) We will do that, not by being arrogant and isolated, but by being part of the community shedding God's love and goodness wherever possible.

The message of Jeremiah? God has a long-term plan and it is to restore His transformed people in due season. As He does that they will be a light to the rest of the world, revealing His power and His might. In this ‘alien land' we must break free from ‘words Christianity', a faith that just utters words. We are called to be a people who DO what Jesus did (Jn 14:12) and that means we must seek Him, know Him, obey Him, receive His power and His wisdom and His revelation, and live and work with it. When the world sees this, they will believe. Thank you for the message Jeremiah!

Meditations of Old Testament Highlights: 39. Lamentations

Lam 3:20-26   my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Having just covered two of the mountain of prophecy, Isaiah ad Jeremiah, it would be easy just to move straight on to the third of those major prophets, Ezekiel, and completely forget this little song of anguish, especially as it is simply an anonymous poem that bewails the state of Jerusalem. (Tradition has it that it was written by Jeremiah but that is by no means certain.) Reading through Lamentations and finding these verses above, is like walking through the devastated, burnt out city and then suddenly, in a pile of charred ashes coming across a golden goblet. They are that because of the nature of what precedes them and what follows them. Describing these seven verses as a highlight of this book, is an understatement.

When we come to see the content of this little book we find both descriptions of the city itself and descriptions of what has happened to the people in it, as well as the reasons why all this happened. Let's consider those three things before we look at the wonder of the seven verses above.

1. The State of the City: “How deserted lies the city.” (1:1) It is devoid of people. We are considering an empty set of ruins. “The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion . He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed.” (2:8,9) “The walls and its gates are gone. Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword.” (2:21) There are corpses still in the streets. “Because of thirst the infant's tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.” (4:4) The similarity of TV pictures of children in war torn countries does not escape us. the same picture continues, “Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick. Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.” (4:8,9) Those who remain are in a terrible plight from famine and lack of water. And that is it! Actually this ISN'T a poem about the terrible physical state of Jerusalem ; the physical state isn't the thing that consumes the author, it only covers a small part of the book.

2. What has happened to the People: We have had a tiny glimmer of this already as we have struggled to find records of the state of the city. “Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.” (1:6) The royal family have fled into captivity. “All her people groan as they search for bread.” (1:11 See also 2:11,12,19,20, 4:4,9,10) Those people who are left, battle starvation but “My young men and maidens have gone into exile.” (1:18) i.e. the majority have been carried off into exile, but “The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.” (2:10) i.e. those who are left are utterly humbled. Prophets and priest who remain are as nothing (4:13-16) This disaster struck everyone – women, girls, princes, elders, young men, old men (5:11-14) – all were included. All of the elaborate feasts and special days of the Law have disappeared (1:4,10). All that is left is a meager quest for survival.

3. Why it has happened: This is clearly a work of the Lord (1:12-15, 2:1-8,17,22). Yes, Nebuchadnezzar and his mighty army may have been the instrument that brought this destruction about, but ultimately he was simply the instrument in the hand of the Lord. And why? It happened “because of her many sins,” (1:5) and because of her spiritual and moral filthiness (1:8,9), even at the heart of the religious establishment, the priests and prophets (4:13). Yes it was the sin of the city (5:7,16).

Time and space precludes this exercise, but read through the book and catch the sense of how the reputation of Jerusalem in the eyes of the surrounding world has fallen. That encompasses all we have picked out above. The once glorious people of God sinned and sinned and sinned, and refused to repent. Thus God eventually (after many warnings) sent Nebuchadnezzar and Jerusalem was destroyed, many were killed, many more were taken off into captivity in Babylon , and those who were left, struggled to survive among the ruins. These are the things that consume the writer.

He is almost overwhelmed by them – and then we come to those words that fly in the face of all of this, words that have even been made into a modern song: “Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” God is faithful? God is compassionate? But yes, because if He wasn't He would have utterly wiped out Judah long ago. As it is, the majority have been carried off to a new life in Babylon where it appears they settled for forty years at least, before being returned to once again pick up the mantle of being God's people, the people into whom He would bring His Son, some four hundred years or so later. Oh yes, God feels for this people but knows the best for them is being freed from idolatry and being returned to be ‘the people of God' again, even if that does take decades. Their long-term history is all important and He remains faithful to His plans and purposes to bless the world through the people of Abraham (see Gen 12;1,2).

Yes, the writer recognizes what he feels – “my soul is downcast within me ” – but he will not be brought down by it and so he turns away from that: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope,” and he declares the truth above and concludes, “I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” i.e. I will trust the Lord. He is good and He is compassionate and He is faithful. That is the truth and I will resist all lies the enemy might seek to bring me and instead I will be quiet before my Lord and remember these things.

Yes, there are times in life when all hell seems to break loose or the sky seems to fall on us and we sit there in the midst of the debris of what was once our quiet and pleasant and ordered life, devastated. Yes, it does happen in this fallen world. The causes for such things are many and varied but in the midst of them we must come back to that incredible revelation of the apostle Paul: “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28). Lord, I do love you and I know you called me with a purpose. I may not understand all that is happening at the present but I will hold to the truth: you are good, you are compassionate and you are faithful and I can trust in you. Amen!