Resource Manager Posted August 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2013 26 August 20131 Kings 21Jeremiah 481 Corinthians 7"HAVE YOU FOUND ME, OH MY ENEMY?"The above saying was spoken by Israel’s bad king Ahab to Elijah when the prophet challenged him as he took possession of Naboth’s vineyard – after his evil wife Jezebel had organised the death of Naboth. Yet Elijah had only “found” Ahab because God had directed him, he was acting for God.Let us make sure we are always aware, as Ahab wasn’t, of the all seeing eye of God. We read earlier this month of Jeremiah’s prayer to the LORD, “O great and mighty God … the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his (or her) deeds” [Jeremiah 32:18-19].Ahab was a man of weak character, manipulated by an evil wife; both came to what we would call a ‘sticky end’! Their attitude, especially Jezebel’s, created problems for those who had allowed themselves to be associated with them. “The elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city” [1 Kings 21:8] obeyed the wicked Jezebel when she required them to set a trap for Naboth and get “two worthless men” to bring false charges against him leading to his death [1 Kings 21:10].There is a lesson in this for us – to avoid any situation which has the potential to oblige or force us to do something contrary to our conscience – for it is vital that our conscience is always activated to follow divine principles.Ahab had a no conscience and it would be tragic if we ever found ourselves descending into developing a character like his. What kind of mentality caused him to say to Elijah, “Have you found me, Oh my enemy?” [1 Kings 21:20]Listen again to Jeremiah’s words from God. “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth …” [Jeremiah 23:23-24] The world around us is more unconscious of this than ever – and, in today’s world, the challenge to our faith is greater than ever – for faith has to show itself by actions.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2013 27 August 20131 Kings 22Jeremiah 491 Corinthians 8; 9“… KNOWN BY GOD?”Our reading of chapter 8 in 1st Corinthians begins with an interesting use of the word ‘knowledge.’ Paul says, “knowledge puffs up” [1 Corinthians 8:1]. We can be proud of what we know – and this undermines our wise use of that knowledge – depending on what that knowledge is about. Paul then says, “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” [1 Corinthians 8:2-3]What is Paul’s point? What should we know as we ought to know but we do not yet know? A further question is, ‘What is it to be “known by God?” Surely, it is to have a relationship with him! Job spent all his life trying to understand God’s ways and have a relationship with him; when ultimately “the LORD answered Job” it was with a question, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” [Job 38:1-2] Job knew God in human theory and he spoke of him “what is right” [Job 42:7] but he in the end confesses, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees you.” [Job 42:5]What kind of “eye” was this? Paul makes the point in writing to the Ephesians, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” [Ephesians 1:18] Have our hearts developed “eyes.”? In the previous verse Paul had made the point that in “remembering you in my prayers” he had asked that “God … the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him…”There was only one who had a full knowledge of the Father! There is a significant verse in that wonderful prophecy about Christ in Isaiah 53 and we may fail to grasp its’ full significance: God says, through Isaiah, “… by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” [isaiah 53:11] Our Lord knew God in the fullest sense.Returning to Corinthians we see that Paul is challenging the thinking of the believers there – who had formerly been idol worshippers. The idols had been real to them! Was God now real to them instead? Was their faith so real that they were starting to “know” and have a relationship with him. Were the “idols” and the “worship” they had practiced still distracting them: evidently it was, with some. The world around us is full of the worship of idols – human idols! Are they threatening to distract us in various ways?Is God’s word coming ‘alive’ as we read it – driving out the distractions of today’s idols? Let’s focus our minds on the point Paul made to the Hebrews, “… the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” [Hebrews 4:12] Is that happening to us as we read and understand? Are we “known by God?”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 28, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2013 28 August 20132 Kings 1; 2Jeremiah 501 Corinthians 10“ELIJAH WENT UP BY A WHIRLWIND”Our reading of 2 Kings 2 today records the transfer of responsibility before God from Elijah to Elisha.Elisha requests, “Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” [2 Kings 2:9] and it is significant that it is recorded of Elisha that he ultimately performs twice as many miracles as Elijah. However, in doing God’s most important work and conveying God’s messages it is evident that Elijah is the greater prophet, he is the one with Moses on the mount when Jesus is transfigured.Elisha’s sight of his dramatic departure when “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” [2 Kings 2:11], is proof to him that he has a double portion of his “spirit.” But what kind of “heaven” does he go to? The next use of the Hebrew word for heaven is in 2 Kings 7:2 about whether the “windows of heaven” could be opened to provide flour and food! The rain comes from heaven (eg 1 Kings 8:25). The fact that a letter later came from Elijah to Jehoram, the son-in-law of Ahab, makes it clear Elijah was still somewhere on the earth (see 2 Chronicles 21:12).So God removes Elijah from the scene because his work is finished, just as John the Baptist, whom Jesus refers to as a promised Elijah [Matthew 17:11-12] came – and his work was finished in “turning the hearts” [Malachi 4:6] of people ready for the ministry of Christ. He was removed from the scene to leave the way clear for Jesus. The widespread impact of his work is clear from the way Paul encounters those who only knew the baptism of John – who were a great distance from Israel (see Acts 18:25; 19:3-4)The heavens of the sky are to be the scene of the most dramatic events yet! When Jesus returns those alive will see him “coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels … and they will gather his elect …” [Matthew 24:30-31] Only those looking for him will really know what is happening. Jesus says, “all the tribes of the earth will mourn … the sun will be darkened … the powers of the heavens will be shaken..” [Matthew 24:29] Some think this means the political heavens, but it seems more in context to see it as meaning the literal heavens.The world has witnessed dramatic events in the past, and frightening events in the present are increasing, but the most dramatic times of all are still ahead! How soon? Watch the Middle East! Let us make sure our faith is as strong as possible – and that we each have a real relationship with our Saviour.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2013 29 August 20132 Kings 3Jeremiah 511 Corinthians 11“THUS SHALL BABYLON SINK”We have nearly completed the book of Jeremiah. Today’s 51st chapter of 64 verses is quite remarkable, quite challenging. It is all about Babylon and God’s judgments on her, that mighty city and the country of the same name. She had destroyed Jerusalem and God’s great Temple and taken all its treasures. She is led by a king who, up to this time, had been all conquering. The book of Daniel fills out the details – and then her climactic collapse.Here in Jeremiah we have the Lord’s prophecies of that collapse - and we are told, “Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon” [Jeremiah 51:60] Seraiah is commissioned by Jeremiah, “When you come to Babylon , see that you read all these words, and say, ‘O LORD, you have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever…. Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more …” [Jeremiah 51:62-64]”This is still the case today, Saddam Hussein sought to restore some part of Babylon and ‘seat’ himself in it, his effort was a disaster. However, we recognize in some of the wording of this chapter that the LORD caused Jeremiah to “see” far beyond the time of the Babylon he knew. Some of his words are plainly echo’d in the book of Revelation. Babylon is a Greek word, but in Hebrew it is the word “Babel” – and we know what happened to Babel.The name Babylon is symbolic in Revelation of the entire anti-God attitude in the world since the time of Jesus. In these “last days” it also finds expression in the anti-Israel spirit that now so inhabits the world, especially in the Middle East. In our chapter, verse 48 is prophetic of a time when “the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for joy over Babylon …” [Jeremiah 51:48] The next verse says, “Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.” [Jeremiah 51:49]Earlier verses even more clearly have a latter day application, “… this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance … Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making all the earth drunken … therefore the nations went mad. Sudden Babylon has fallen and been broken … for her judgment has reached up to heaven, and has been lifted up even to the skies.” [Jeremiah 51:6-9] These words are echo’d and quoted in Revelation 14:8; 18:3,5,7,6,23 etc. God will surely deal with this latter day Babel; when Babel sinks, may we be so related to things Divine that we do not sink with it.-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2013 30 August 20132 Kings 4Jeremiah 521 Corinthians 12; 13“… A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY”We are told in several chapters in Acts, quite apart from the initial outpouring of the Spirit Gifts to the 12 disciples on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit was given by the laying on of the Apostles hands (see Acts 8:17) or the direct action of their unseen Lord [Acts 10:44] upon new believers.Clearly the gifts were a significant factor in the spread of the Gospel message and the functioning of the growing community of believers. The converts would not have had access to any Bible – apart from believers who had been and maybe still were associated with a synagogue which possessed the scrolls of the ancient writings, but most of these would be of the Mosaic Law which was now superseded; frictions with unconverted Jews would probably hinder or prevent access in most if not all cases.Today’s chapters [1 Corinthians 12; 13] are the first of 3 chapters in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which we learn extensive details of the spirit gifts the Lord made available to the first generation or two of believers. Unfortunately, as seems to be always the case with human nature, there was some misuse of the gifts.There is a misconception among some that the gift of the Spirit was only the ability to speak in other languages, but today we see how Paul writes, “To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge … to another faith … ” [1 Corinthians 12:7-9] It is the “Spirit” which “apportions to each one individually” [1 Corinthians 12:11]What wonderful experiences – yet, such is human nature, our reading of the 3 chapters shows there were aspects of jealousy between the recipients. The ideal was that they should harmoniously team together looking to “the head” for Paul had written, “the head of every man is Christ” [1 Corinthians 11:3] – and the result should be a wonderful team spirit.At the end of 1 Corinthians 12 Paul tells them, “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers …” &c [1 Corinthians 12:28] Then, after telling them to “earnestly desire the higher gifts” (note that ‘tongues’ is listed last) he says, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” His next words are (start of 1 Corinthians 13) “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong …” There follows words describing what real “love” is, for “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” whereas the gifts were to “pass away.” [1 Corinthians 13:7-8] Let us fully follow the “more excellent way.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resource Manager Posted August 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2013 31 August 20132 Kings 5Lamentations 11 Corinthians 14“IN YOUR THINKING BE MATURE”Today we read 1 Corinthians 14 which completes the Apostle’s message about Spirit Gifts. Paul is earnestly exhorting them to properly use the spirit gifts they were privileged to possess. The first verse stresses, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” Prophecy does not mean to predict the future but to speak to and on behalf of God; to be God’s representative among men, which may, on occasion include warnings and predictions about the future, it certainly did with Jeremiah.Today we read Jeremiah’s Lamentations: they were written after the terrible fall and destruction of Jerusalem. He laments in his first chapter, “how she (Jerusalem) took no thought of her future, therefore her fall is terrible … O LORD, behold my affliction …” [Lamentations 1:9] His intimate relationship with God is an example for us. As with Jeremiah, it will sustain us if we are alive when the “fall” of our world takes place, for it is going to be “terrible.” It will be essential to have a true relationship with God and his Son for they will deliver all who possess this - as we will read tomorrow in the final 9 verses of 1 Corinthians 15.Paul challenges the believers in Corinth, “do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” [1 Corinthians 14:20] . They are keen to use the “gifts” God’s Spirit created in them, so he tells them, “since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.” [1 Corinthians 14:12] and, as we saw yesterday, they should “earnestly desire the higher gifts.” [1 Corinthians 12:31]In today’s chapter Paul makes it plain that the least of the gifts, “tongues” which are mentioned last, should not be used. It is unwise to use them in church, “they are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers” [1 Corinthians 14:22] as on the day of Pentecost [Acts 2:5-11]. Paul says, “If therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are out of your minds?” [1 Corinthians 14:23] But those who prophesy, that is, preach God’s word, as Jeremiah did to those in Jerusalem, and an “outsider enters, he is convicted” (in his thinking) and “the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.” [1 Corinthians 14:24-25]Do we have “secrets” in our hearts we wrestle with? May all our “thinking be (come) mature” so that we fully realize that God and the Saviour are really among us, if we invite them! Look at 2nd Corinthians, on Wednesday we will read, “God who said, ‘let light shine out of darkness.’ Has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [2 Corinthians 4:6] May we more fully “let light shine .. in our hearts.”-------- DC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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