Reliable Promise-Keeper!

Numbers 23; Psalms 64–65; Isaiah 13; 1 Peter 1

My computer has a file of photos with a promise from God added. I use it as a slideshow to remind me of what God says about future events and present issues. This morning, I added this one: “O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.” (Psalm 65:2) This connects prayer to people coming to God through faith in Christ. It is a promise!

In Numbers, Balaam was charged to curse God’s people, but God would not allow it. Balaam knew the Lord made and kept His promises. He said, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19)

The psalmist knew it too. His poetic description of the power of God puts joy in my heart and confidence that every promise God makes, He will keep . . .  

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. (Psalm 65:5–8)

Isaiah also writes of a promise that God gave him; He would judge Babylon for their ruthless treatment of His people. He recorded this promise when Assyria was about to attack that area and the coming devastation would have a tremendous impact on Israel and other nations of the Near East. The culmination came when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sacked the city of Babylon in 689 B.C., thus showing that Babylon, the greatest city in its day, was not immune to the advancing Assyrians, all in the plan of God.

This prophecy came true yet as I read it, I thought of the modern Jewish man who believes in Jesus as his Messiah and who said that God works in patterns. Will this be a pattern for judgment on Babylon again? It is in modern day Iraq.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13:6–13)

The New Testament tells how those OT prophets were given the task of telling God’s people of His will, often revealing the immediate or distant future. Most important, they knew the Messiah would come . . .

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10–12)

These men of God did not fully understand all that the Holy Spirit authored through them. It was the Spirit who predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow, encouraging readers that Christ’s suffering would be followed by glory just as they also would experience glory after their suffering. Isn’t part of that glory seeing all flesh coming to Him! Those prophets did understand they were not writing for themselves but for those who would live later and who would hear and believe the gospel.

APPLY: Simply worship God! He always has kept His promises and He will never change His plans.

Want a rule for life? Try this one . . .

Genesis 7; Matthew 7; Ezra 7; Acts 7

Today’s reading is about two well-known Bible passages: John 3:16 and Matthew 7:1. However, the one that catches my attention is also familiar. We call it the Golden Rule . . .

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:12–14)

My first thought is how different the world would be if we lived out this rule, but would it? Would everyone agree on the best way to be treated? A child has different ideas than a parent. A greedy employee has different ideas than his boss. Women have different wants than men.

Not only would those differences confuse the issue, how many children would give back to their parents what they want for themselves? How many workers would give back to their employer what they would like for themselves. How many women would treat their husbands the way they want to be treated? I’m generalizing, but in thinking about it, the Golden Rule is not as easier as it looks.

The context offers one explanation. Jesus said to enter by the narrow gate. He is talking about the narrow way to eternal life, that life that is abundant and comes from Him. The broad way (trying to run my own life) leads to destruction. The narrow way is narrow because few find it. Jesus adds more . . .

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23)

The goodness that the Golden Rule refers to is a goodness that comes from and flows through people who know God. This is not merely knowing about God but having a personal relationship with Him through redemption and the new birth. Jesus also said:

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

Those with that kind of life are able to pass it on without selfish motivations. Otherwise, living by the Golden Rule becomes a “what’s in it for me” way of life. Anyone who is ‘nice’ to me because they want something makes me feel used and disrespected and I’m sure that goes both waysl

How do I want others to treat me? this is a great question. I want them to listen when I talk to them, respect my thoughts and opinions, correct me or at least question my errors, pray for me when I come to mind, bring me soup when I am sick. The list is longer, but this is enough to keep me busy for a long time!

Don’t let the bad news keep you from the Good News!

Micah 4:1–6:16, Acts 14:8–15:21, Job 23:1–17

The gospel is an offense to human pride. Too often I think I can be good, do the right things, even please God. But the gospel says I am a sinner, unable to obey God apart from Christ, and no one else can please God either. This is offensive, but it is also comes with an incredible hope.

In the OT, the good news of redemption from sin was often acted out in the drama of history. God depicted sin in events like Israel’s bondage in Egypt and their captivity in Babylon. He depicted their deliverance by taking them out of Egypt and bringing them from that later captivity. He also gave incredible promises for their future, and for the future of all sinners who put their faith in Him. One OT prophet puts it this way:

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” (Micah 4:1–5)

Because I believe in Jesus Christ, I will join those who walk in the name of the Lord forever and ever.

Job’s faith was in the same God, even during the testing of his faith. His life was filled with loss and pain, yet even in his distress, he continued to seek the Lord.

Most of the time I am aware of God’s presence, but at times, like Job, it seems as if He is hiding. Job experienced that sense of emptiness during his suffering, but he also declared his faith. God would bring him through this . . .

“Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me . . . . Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” (Job 23:3–5, 8–10)

Job was confident in a positive end to his situation, not because he deserved it, but because he knew the faithfulness of his God. He was afraid, yet he could still speak of God’s consistency and power: “But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; yet I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.” (Job 23:13–17)

Paul and the other apostles also knew that despite their trials, God would bring them through. Paul had been stoned almost to death, but continued to speak of the believer’s hope and the promises of God. “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21–22)

Later, Peter told how God first visited the Gentiles to win them to Christ. He quoted the OT prophets to show them that God was now beginning to fulfill His redemptive promises.  “‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,’ says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.” He then encouraged the Jewish believers to “not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God.” (Acts 15:14–19)

God promised salvation for sinners, not just the people of Israel, but whosoever will come to Him. No matter what anyone goes through or how dire their circumstances, those who believe in Him are saved. This salvation is not based on anything we can do, but on the faithfulness of God – as proven in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.