Bloody Red, Wool and Snow

“’Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land….” (Isaiah 1:18, 19 NIV)

The people were following the rituals God had prescribed but neglected justice and mercy to the most vulnerable of their citizens. They were rebellious and loaded with guilt. Their land was ravaged by other nations that burned, plundered and laid it waste. The leaders were dishonest rebels who consorted with thieves and lead the people into “sacred” groves of oaks, superstitions, divination, idols and dependence on those who knew not God.

They had become a stench in God’s nostrils and yet he offered hope. It doesn’t matter how stubborn the stain; God can eradicate it. He doesn’t offer to hide it but to take it away completely. He not only can, he wants to. He begs his people to come. He wants them (and us) to eat the best from the land rather than to be devoured by the sword (or guns).

“Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Reach out to those in need.

I haven’t been so good at this. An elderly widow lives alone next door and longs for stimulating conversation but when did I last spend time with her? Far too long.

God, you are awesome! You forgive and erase our sin and yet too often I find myself serving my own needs rather than trying to meet the needs of others. Change my heart, Lord! Change my heart!


[Okay, so that was a bit disjointed but I’m leaving it for now.]

A Tired God

“I have had enough of burnt offerings…Stop bringing your meaningless offerings…your incense is detestable to me…I cannot bear your evil assemblies…Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates, They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; I will not listen.” Isaiah 1:11-15 NIV

God seems to be contradicting himself in these verses because the very things he wants to stop, that he’s tired of, hates and finds detestable are exactly what he commanded his people, through Moses, to do. They thought they were being obedient and here was God, telling them that their obedience in these things was abhorrent to him. Why?

They were following the form of their religion without the substance. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the form but there was something lacking:

“Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” v. 17

I just realized something as I sat here thinking about it. This connects very closely to yesterday’s post. They were doing all the man-to-God things but had neglected some crucial man-to-man things. Their religion was incomplete without connecting to others, especially the needy and oppressed.

What really struck me a night or two ago when I was reading, was that we too have forms of Christianity that we follow. We tithe and give money at church and to meaningful mission organizations. We gather for church once or twice a week, celebrate Christmas, Easter (and other holy days depending on where we live), we pray. We sing songs of praise to God, preach sermons and witness. It’s not much different from what the Jews were doing in Isaiah’s day. Is God as annoyed with us as he was with them? Is he really listening to us pray or has he hidden his eyes and ears from us? How do we know?

God, I want to follow you in all ways. I want to be a delight to you, not burdensome or evil. Keep me on your path in all ways and not deluded into thinking I’m doing what you want when I’m not.

Lettuce Together

"...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart...Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess...Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together...let us encourage one another...." (Hebrews 10:22-25 NIV)

Five commands or invitations for believers. But note! Of the five, three depend on us connecting with others. We cannot live a Christian life in isolation from others who share our faith. We must meet together, spend time together, spur and encourage one to another. Oswald Chambers writes: "Individuals can only live the true life when they are dependent on one another.... The Holy Spirit makes a man fix his eyes on his Lord and on intense activity for others."*

Are you trying to go it alone? Just you and God and no one else? I tried that once, many years ago. It didn't last long. Before I knew it, it was just me. I was leaving God out of the picture.

Dear Father, keep me from ever supposing that I can be a lone ranger with you at my side. Keep me always connected with other believers who can encourage me and spur me on to your higher purposes and who can and will do the same for me.


*In "The Moral Individual--1" in "Biblical Ethics" in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers p. 97

I Can't Unless...

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets...I tell you the truth...not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law...Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-19*

Old Testament:
"You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3
New Testament:
"Put to death...greed, which is idolatry." Colossians 3:5

Old Testament:
"You shall not murder." Exodus 20:13
New Testament:
"...anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." Matthew 5:22

Old Testament:
"You shall not commit adultery." Exodus 20:14
New Testament:
"...anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28

There is often the misperception that when Jesus came to earth he lightened the load of the law. In fact, he made it more stringent. He made the law applicable not only to our actions but also to our thoughts. If God's people of the Old Testament found it impossible to keep the law how then can I, now that it is more exacting? I can't.

I can, however, when I live in relationship with Jesus, made possible by his death on the cross and by his Spirit living in me.

• "What the law was powerless to do...God did by sending his own Son." Romans 8:3
• "I am the vine; you are the branches...apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5
• "He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit." 1 Corinthians 6:17
• "...we serve in the new way of the Spirit...." Romans 7:6
• "...those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires." Romans 8:4
• "...the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace...." Romans 8:6

Father, thank you for making it possible for me to live in relationship with you. Thank you for the gift of forgiveness through Jesus' death on the cross. Thank you for sending your Spirit to live in me so that I can live in a way that honours you. Thank you for being you. Thank you for loving me. Amen




*All Scripture quotations from the NIV.

Intercession

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 Jobhas. So now ... go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Jobwill pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. Job 42:7-10 NIV

For those who don't know the story of Job, Satan challenged God to ruin the man in possessions and health to prove that Job's righteousness was only because of the blessings he had. In one day, Job loses everything he owns and his seven children are killed. Not long afterward he is struck by a disease that made him wish he was dead. The bulk of the book contains the words of Job and his friends as the friends insist that the only possible explanation for Job's suffering was because he was an evil man and Job arguing against that. In the end, God speaks and when he is finished, he tells Job's friends to go to Job so that Job could pray for them.

Curious thing, that. God was already talking to them, and they obviously heard him because they obeyed, and yet he wanted them to go through Job instead of directly to himself. Why? Why would he accept Job's prayer for them but not their own prayers of repentance? One could say that it was because Job was righteous and they were not but there are many other places in the Bible where the unrighteous call out to God and he saves and forgives them. Perhaps it was to illustrate in a concrete way God's acceptance of Job and his nonacceptance of the friends' diatribes. I don't really know.

What I do find interesting, however, was that the return of Job's wealth and the birth of new children did not come to him until after he had prayed for his friends. Interceding for his friends not only benefitted his friends. It also benefitted him. Oswald Chambers writes: "Pray for your friends, and God will emancipate your captivity also. The emancipation comes as you intercede for them ... it is the way God works." He suggests that this intercession can be spontaneous "as we go about our daily calling, and we shall see emancipation come all along, not because we understand the problems, but because we recognise that God has chosen the way of intercession to perform His moral miracles in lives."

God can do anything he wants whenever he wants and yet, for some reason, he chooses to wait for our prayers and act through them. He chooses to do his work through us and our prayers. Wow!

How do we do this? How can we pray for our friends, family and those we know? Some have set times for intercession in their day and this is good but prayer for others can also be part of our living and breathing. Someone comes to mind? Pray for him! My computer plays a slide show of all the photos on my hard drive. When I see a photo of someone, I pray for them. I have maps on the walls of my prayer room with pins to mark where people live. I make my way across the maps in my head as I'm trying to go to sleep and pray for each person on the journey.

It is a priviledge to pray for others--one that brings blessing to us and to them.

Thank you for choosing to use your people and our prayers to do your work and will on this earth. Thank you for listening and caring. Bring to my mind those you want me to pray for and keep them before me in my mind through the day and night so that my prayers for them become as integral to me as breathing.

Ambassadors of Reconciliation

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins gainst them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are threfore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 NIV

We are ambassadors of reconciliation. Our mission is to bring reconciliation to others--that they may be reconciled first to God and then to each other. If this is my mission (and yours), have I been reconciled to God? What about reconciliation to others? Have I sought reconciliation between me and those who have hurt me or who I have hurt? Can I be an ambassador of reconciliation if I haven't?

What does an ambassador of reconciliation do? What is reconciliation? "Reconciliation is changing for the better a relationship between two or more persons." (Dictionary of Theology) So the ambassador of reconciliation is someone trying to improve relationships between men and God and between people. God is aching for all mankind to be reconciled to him--to be in good relationship with him--though presently most are not. One could argue that even most Christians are not. He also wants us to be reconciled to each other (Romans 12--as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men).


In a sense, we ambassadors are mediators between man and God and between man and man. That sounds rather heavy but Peter writes, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood...." (1 Peter 2:9) We, as God's chosen people, are priests (mediators) to the unsaved. It's a serious responsibility. What am I doing to bring people into a better relationship with God and with each other? Am I doing this at all or does my behaviour cause others to break relationship with God and others?


God, I want to be an ambassador of reconciliation--to encourage better relationships in all spheres. Please show me where I fail to do this and give me wisdom and courage to do this task you have given to all believers.

Bible Genealogies (Did You Know?) V

Continued from previous post.



Did you know that a woman, Sheerah, granddaughter of Ephraim (son of Joseph) built three towns: Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah?

Did you know that temple musicians' only job was to make music day and night?

Did you know that other temple careers assigned were: gate keepers (212 of them), inventory keepers, property managers and bakers?


(The end--for now)

Bible Genealogies (Did You Know?) IV

Continued from previous post.


Did you know that Bathsheba, the wife King David stole from Uriah, was the only wife of David who had more than one son? Did you know that her son Solomon, who later became king, was the youngest of her four sons?

Did you know that one of the descendants of Judah, Saraph, ruled in Moab (one of Israel's enemies descended from Lot and one of his daughters)?

Did you know that Samuel was a Levite? The Levites were the tribe that was responsible for taking care of the tabernacle and later the temple. There were three clans, each given a particular aspect of the work. Samuel came from the same clan as the priests. Those in that clan who were not descendants of Aaron the high priest were the Levites who were allowed to get closest to the most sacred parts of the temple. So when Samuel slept in the tabernacle as a child, he had an ancestral right to be there. Did you know that?

Did you know that the chief musician during David's reign was Heman, the grandson of Samuel?


To be continued.

Bible Genealogies (Did You Know?) III

Continued from previous post.



Caleb was one of the two good spies who reported back to Moses and the people in the wilderness about what had been seen when they scouted the Promised Land. Because of that, he was allowed to live through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and claim land that Moses promised him when the land was finally possessed.


Did you know that Caleb was the great-grandson of Judah?


Did you know that Caleb's great-grandson was Bezalel, the artisan God appointed to construct the sanctuary will skilled assistans? Bezalel was probably at least 20 years old when given this assignment and this was before the 40 years of wandering in the desert began. If each father was only 15 at the birth of his first son, Caleb would have been at least 65 years old (and quite likely older) when he spied out the land and no younger than 105 when Israel crossed the Jordan River. (Except that Bezalel's grandfather was Caleb's fourth son so add a few more years to all these figures.) At that age (or older) Caleb drove out the three Anakites (they were giants), marched against the people living in the land promised him by Moses and offered his daughter in marriage to the man who attacked and captured a certain city. If his daughter was of marriageable age, she was probably in her early teens. Caleb sired a daughter at the age of 90 or so? The man who won her hand was Caleb's brother. Poor girl if Caleb's brother was even half Caleb's age!

Hezron was Caleb's father. Caleb was the third son. Hezron had three wives (I thought there were four but now I can find only three). He married his second wife when he was 60 years old. This wife was the sister of Gilead, descendant of Joseph's son Mannaseh and of the branch of the Mannaseh tribe that chose to live on the east side of the Jordan, along with Reuben and Gad (the other branch had their territory on the west side of the Jordan with the rest of Israel). Gilead is the name given to the east-of-Jordan territory of Mannaseh.


So, Caleb was from the tribe of Judah, his second wife from the tribe of Mannaseh. Their son, Segub, fathered Jair, who controlled 23 towns in the territory of Mannaseh, not of Judah. This is odd because men inherited land from their fathers, not their mothers. However, if a man died with no sons, his land was inherited by his daughters. Therefore, Hezron's second wife must have had no brothers and her son would have inherited from her instead of from his father, Hezron.

Hezron's third wife was pregnant when he died. This child's son was the father of a man named Tekoa. Tekoa was the name of the area where the prophet Amos was shepherd.

Did you know that because one of Hezron's descendants (about nine generations later) had no sons, the genealogy of his daughter for thirteen generations after her?

Did you know that Bethlehem was a great-grandson of Caleb's second wife, Ephrathah? We all know about the town of Bethlehem. The prophet Micah foretold Jesus' birth: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."



To be continued.

Bible Genealogies (Did You Know?) II

Continued from previous post.

Did you know that David had both a sister and a wife named Abigail?

Joab was the commander of David's army. He had two brothers, Abishai and Asahel. The three men were known as the "sons of Zeruiah." Did you know that Zeruiah was their mother, not their father? Zeruiah was David's sister so these three "mighty men" were David's nephews.

When Absalom rose up against his father David to take kingship of the nation, he appointed Amasa to be over the army. Did you know that Amasa was the son of David's sister Abigail and Absalom's cousin as well as the cousin of the sons of Zeruiah? After Absalom was killed, David kept his nephew Amasa as the commander of his army in place of Joab but Joab, pretending to kiss his cousin Amasa in greeting, stabbed him in the belly and left him to die in the middle of the road. David was so angry that when he put Solomon on the throne, he urged Solomon to avenge Amasa of his death. Joab fled to the "tent of the Lord" where he grabbed the horns of the altar in a bid to save his life but Solomon obeyed his father David and ordered Joab be killed there, at the altar.


To be continued.

Bible Genealogies (Did You Know?) I

I love the genealogies in the Bible. There is so much you can learn from them. Last night I read the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles, which are only genealogy. I have a lot of notes scribbled in the margins from my various readings through these chapters and would like to share some of my discoveries with you. The very cool part of these genealogies, which make then different from those in preceding books, is that they cover time from Adam to after the return from exile so you can see a broad sweep of time.

Did you know that Jews are called Semites because they are the descendants of Noah's son, Shem?

Did you know that Canaan, the son of Noah's son Ham, was the father of all the nations God drove out of the Promised Land when Israel moved in?

Did you know that Abraham had eight sons, not just two? Did you know that one of those sons was Midian, the father of the Midianites that Gideon drove out?

Did you know that the Amalekites, who Isreal fought successfully while Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms, trace their ancestry to a woman? Amalek's mom was Timna, granddaughter of Esau (Jacob's brother). Timna, a woman, was one of the chiefs of Edom.

To be continued

Mother's Day

I'm still sick. You'd think that I'd be well after a week or more but I'm not. My third son, who got sick a week before me is also still sick and now the rest of the family is dropping with it. Not fun.

We had a good Mother's Day, however. At least I think it was. I had some black tea Saturday, early evening, and so it was late before I could get to sleep (I'm very sensitive to caffeine and sometimes forget this because tea is my favourite drink) and my sleep was very broken after that because of all the coughing and nose-blowing. As a result, I missed church and slept all morning. When I got up, about noon, I was going to drive to a favourite bakery to buy my favourite lunch-to-go and then pick up Son Three so he could come home to play games but Son Four generously offered to go instead, which was very nice. Son Three needed more sleep so I sat here, at my computer, enjoying my lunch (eating dessert first, of course).

When Son Three arrived later on his bicycle, the boys and I set up a game by National Geographic that I love but haven't played for years, "On Assignment." You are given picture cards and, from looking at the photo, guess what country it is from. Some are easy, like two I got, one with the flag of Israel and the other with many flags of the USA. But others are more difficult, such as an aerial shot of a city being overtaken by the desert. The border around each photo at least tells you what continent it's in. If you guess the country wrong, you are given a clue in the form of a photo-journalist's assignment. Sometimes they're helpful and sometimes they're not. If you can't guess with that, there are three more clues that progressively give more information about the country until finally, you are given the coordinates. The game board is a map with the latitudes and longditudes marked so this last clue means that even if you've never heard of the country in question, you can find it and give its name. There are also general information questions ("Name the four largest islands of Japan," or "On what Hawaiian island is such and such a volcano?") for extra points. It was fun and very educational and the boys enjoyed it so much we played it twice.

My husband, after hosting a yard sale all weekend, prepared a lovely dinner. The day was warm and sunny (about 10ºC/60ºF) so the boys put a red gingham cloth on the table outside and we ate on the patio--the first time this year. I didn't have the energy but they all played a funny clapping game, shifting chairs when one of them goofed up.

I love our family times together and our sons are a lot of fun and a great delight to me. Too bad the eldest is roaming in Europe and couldn't join us. I miss him.

I'm Sick

It's been far too long since I've posted here. At the moment, I have a ferocious cold generously given to me by one of my sons. But I'm also struggling with depression and the last two weeks have been particularly difficult. Sometimes the simplest things seem incredibly overwhelming to do. Then I beat myself up and wonder, "What's wrong with me? Am I just being lazy?" In my saner moments I can say that I'm not. There are so many things I want to do, like writing here, but the ability to do those things escapes me. Thankfully I have a husband who has been very gracious about picking up the slack--washing dishes, making meals, vacuuming and so on.

I've been reading some interesting books in addition to my Bible (I try to read a minimum of half an hour a day, just before going to sleep and just started 2 Kings): two on prayerwalking, a novel and a half (not finished the second one yet) set in rural Mennonite Manitoba and The Box, a history of shipping containers and how they have changed the world's economy. This last one is fascinating. I bought it because, living in Winnipeg I see a lot of shipping containers on the many trains passing through and on the backs of trucks on the city's truck routes. I see them and wonder where they came from, where are they going, what do they hold.

It never occurred to me that the logistics of creating a system for using containers would be as complicated as it was. Ships had to be restructured and new ones built, the size and construction of the containers had to be carefully engineered and everyone had to agree to the same standard, new cranes had to be devised and, in fact, major things such as ports and industries wound up being relocated in order to adjust to a new way of shipping. But now, instead of a ship sitting in dock for a week while individual bales and barrels and boxes are unloaded by hand and then reloaded the same way, a ship can be on its way with a new load in less than 24 hours. That's a significant saving.

I'm not finished the book. It takes a bit longer to digest because much of the vocabulary and expected background understanding is beyond me but it's good and its stretching me. So now I'm thinking that every once in a while I should slip into my reading a book whose topic is completely foreign to me. Think of all I'd learn!

Well, this post wandered from the title I gave it but oh well. I think I'll write about the other books another day.