Category: Devotional

Indicting God

Isaiah 13:13-16 reads:

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated.

The accusation is often made against God that He is a monster! Enacting the worst crimes against humanity. How could any conscionable person support such a deity!? Here in Isaiah 13 we have a prime example of just that. God will bring wrath, which includes babies being killed before their parents eyes, and the rape of women! In the face of such horrifying acts, the only people who could worship this entity are either evil or ignorant! … right?

Obviously as a pastor and apologist I don’t think I am either evil nor ignorant, so how do I square this circle? Truth be told, I really don’t struggle with this one. I see it as something of a non-issue as far as morality goes. There are several truths we can point to in order to stand our ground that God is not some sort of moral monster.

Point #1: What value do we have? On the non-theist side we are merely the product of random chance! Luck! We have no purpose or reason for existing and our lives are only worth what we decide they are worth. On this view, I think our SHOES are more valuable than we are. At least they exist for some reason! Imagine Hitler had won World War II. Who is to say he was wrong to exterminate people because of their immutable characteristics or genetic heritage? It sounds awful to say, but if he had won, it would be the dominant view. And what charge would the Godless bring against a ruling Nazi party except that they “don’t like it”? Only through the value imparted to us by virtue of our creation in the image of God almighty can we even bring a charge against Him that carries any weight. The atheist sits in God’s lap and slaps His face.

Point #2: God can do what He chooses with His creation. If the destruction of one, or ten, or a hundred, or a million leads to the salvation of those who would otherwise be doomed to hell (which I contend is God’s primary goal on this earth), then it is well within His rights to do so. Do we look at the story of Moses & Pharaoh and cluck our tongues at God? Gee, Lord, weren’t you a little hard on the Egyptian rulers there? Why give Pharaoh over to the hardness of his heart just to make an example of Him? Well because that displayed God’s power, and glory, and became the cornerstone of the Jewish faith that was the foreshadow of what Jesus would do. And Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. God doesn’t do anything randomly, but with great care and foresight. So we can trust that no matter what has happened, it has happened because God has a greater plan. Even if we cannot see it, we know that He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him.

Point #3: WE DID IT TO OURSELVES!! This might be the biggest, most important one in my mind. Here we have Babylon, an evil kingdom that murders, kills, destroys, sacrifices their young on the altar of Molech, and treats women like trash. Yet, when God allows his wrath to be exacted by human warfare (and all the atrocity that comes with it) we clutch our pearls and scream “How dare God do this thing?!” We really need to get a grip here. God has not CAUSED these invaders to act so despicably¹, He simply allows them to proceed unfettered in their military conquest in order to achieve His goal of destruction of one side. We know this is how God works because that what He did to Israel — allowing evil Babylon to come in a capture them!

Questions? Comments? Ask away. Happy to get into this with anyone who is interested to do so.

Unless you are a Calvinist, like we talked about before. If so… godspeed to you but you’re on your own, Al Capone. ↩︎

Destruction of the Flesh

The latter part of Isaiah 1 paints a powerful and rather interesting portrait of Israel.

In verses 21-23 God lays out the charges against her. Israel is a prostitute, a murderer, worthless, weak, rebels, thieves, bought & sold, and calloused in their heart and spirit.

Verses 24-25a have God bringing his wrath down on an unfaithful Israel. Raising His fist against her — a metaphor that Isaiah uses constantly.

Verses 25b-27 has God talking about purifying Israel, restoring good judgement & counsellors, a rebuilding her reputation. But this process is bookended by rebellion and destruction.

Verse 28 again Has God visiting wrath upon the rebellious.

Verses 29 & 30 tell of a repentant people who understand the shame of what they have done.

Verse 31 once more has the evil-doer being destroyed, this time by their sin.

I think this is a fantastic flow and way to think about the effects of sin and how God uses them for His purposes of judgement. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:5 writes, “[H]and this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”

Sin comes to and for all of us. It is rather unavoidable. However, when we are convicted by the Lord or called out by a brother or sister in the faith it is our responsibility to act on that conviction and deal with the sin. If we refuse then Paul says we are to be disfellowshipped. The purpose of this is to let sin run its course. When it does there will be one of two outcomes.

Your sin takes a toll on you physically, mentally, spiritually, and/or emotionally (this part is unavoidable) and then you repent, see the truth and return to God. This doesn’t un-do the consequences of sin, but it still puts you in a good place in light of eternity.
Your sin takes a toll on you physically, mentally, spiritually, and/or emotionally (I told you, unavoidable) and you do not repent. Your sin continues to destroy you and you are lost in both this world and the next.

Why would God do this? Why cast out the immoral brother or sister? Because when the consequences of sin are minimized, the value of grace is diminished. And if we don’t see how our choices can bring us to ruin, the impetus to change is severely impacted, possibly even erased entirely. But when our sin causes us to lose things that we care about, we suddenly see that we need a way out. And then, when that way out is presented we take and are glad for it. And so this is why God wants our sinful and unrepentant brothers and sisters to be cast out. To fully experience the destruction of their sin. Because when they do, it will put them in the best position to begin to make things right.

One Small Mistake Gone Uncorrected

Well, it’s finally happened. The sin of the northern kingdom of Israel has lead to their dispossession of the land and their captivity in Assyria. They were cheats, liars, murders, drunks, idolators, adulterers, and even child-sacrificers, yet not none of those are the reason their land is dispossessed. No, Israel lost their land because a decision made roughly 660 years earlier — during the time of Joshua. But before we get to that, let’s take a look even further back, 690 years — during the time of Moses. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 reads:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you — and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

Destroy them totally. Make no treaty. Show no mercy. This serves as both the Lord’s judgement on the wickedness of the Canaanites as well as His promise-fulfillment and blessing on Israel. But what happens? 30 years later Joshua 17:13 reports:

However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely.

That’s where it all fell down. No one ever corrected this initial mistake. And so it festered and it grew and its roots got larger and went deeper and it eventually destroyed Israel. A long-time family friend who fostered many at-risk children was driving around Vancouver’s Downtown East Side some years ago and her foster kids asked about the drugged-out homeless people so prevalent in that area. My friend felt the Lord give her a word of knowledge and she replied to her foster children, “They never planned to come here and live on the street, but they made one bad choice. And that led to another, then another, then another.” (paraphrased)

So it was with Israel. One small mistake uncorrected led to destruction. Slowly but surely. In this case it took over 600 years, but it came. However, like I said yesterday, God is a gentleman and He has given us the ability to choose. Only God can save us, but we have to submit our lives to Him. Every part. Or that one, teeny tiny thing we are holding back will eventually turn into a mighty Oak tree that dominates the landscape of our lives. I’ll leave us today with this warning from the Prophet Isaiah:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “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 good things of the land;but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 1:18-20

God is a Gentleman

I grew up Catholic, which meant that God was far away and most waiting with a big stick to whack me if I stepped out of line. Eventually I became an agnostic and that lasted into my teen years. Then I got saved in a Pentecostal church when I was about 15.

During these formative years of my faith I was taught that much of what God does depends on what we do. I was always told that “God is a gentlemen”, He will never force Himself of you. God sort of reacts to what we are doing and orchestrates His will accordingly. This is broadly called “Arminianism”. In this way of understanding God, much is made of human free will, but God’s sovereignty suffers rather severely.

Once I became a pastor I worked for a few churches and one of them was staunchly “Calvinist” — the opposite of Arminianism. This says that everything that happens is because God willed it to be so. On this understating of God, much is made of God’s sovereignty, but human free will suffers severely.

By the way, if this stuff makes your eyes glaze over, don’t worry about it. Both of these camps are going to be in heaven. This is absolutely NOT a salvation issue… even if both of these groups are wrong.

We see throughout Amos, Isaiah, and now Hosea that God repeatedly tells that people that once they turn back to Him, He will restore them. So clearly we need to find a way to balance the free will of the creature (God will not restore us until we repent) with God’s sovereignty (He is in control of everything). How is this done?

Well, it’s long and complicated, and takes more time to explain than I really want to invest in this particular post. But essentially I believe it works like this:

God knows how you would respond in any given set of circumstances.
God has total sovereign control over everything.
God chooses not to override our free will, but to arrange the circumstances to achieve His desired outcomes.
In this way God is sovereign over everything that happens, but we are also allowed to exercise our free will.

That to say that I think my youth pastor when I was 15 was right. And that position is backed up by the preponderance of the Biblical evidence. Essentially… God is a Gentleman.

Is Marital Sex for Personal Gratification?

No.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

In all seriousness, the answer is ‘no’. Of course it’s okay if you enjoy sex (within the bounds of Biblical marriage), but enjoyment is not why God created it. Sex actually serves two purposes. One is the production of children. God told Adam and Eve (and by extension, the rest of us) to “be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and steward it” (Genesis 1:28). The second — the one I want to highlight today — is union. This is also rooted in creation. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

This second reason is what Hosea is highlighting in today’s reading. God (via Hosea) uses a sexual metaphor to talk about the re-union of Israel to Himself. This is meant to help us understand that our commitment to God is singular, intimate, and eternal. It is an act of devotion. Obviously with God these adjectives describe a NON-sexual encounter, but nonetheless our refusal to be devoted in this way is compared to prostitution!

In the same way for our marriages to be Biblical, the primary reason for sexual union should not be an orgasm. The primary reason is an expression of singular, intimate, eternal devotion. That’s why we’ve called it “making love”. This brings me back to my pity opening statement…

The title of today’s devo asks, “Is Marital Sex for Personal Gratification?” and my response, “No”, while technically true does not tell the whole story. The answer is, of course, that while personal gratification IS an outcome of the sexual union, it is not the primary or even secondary purpose. Instead, that gratification is a reward for our faithfulness and devotion.

Getting it Twisted

One of the more surprising things in the Gospel of John is when Jesus says that He must be lifted up by God in the same way that Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. If we go back to that snake in the desert, we see that God used the instrument of destruction to bring about healing. We call that “redemption”. But here we see that King Hezekiah (the most righteous king of Judah) had to DESTROY the bronze serpent because people began to worship it. Seems like we will worship just about ANYTHING, if it doesn’t get the in way of us doing exactly what we want to do. And so the people took a thing originally designed for good and twisted it for evil. To the point where it had to be destroyed for the salvation of those very people.

Just because something was designed for good or accomplished good, doesn’t mean it will always be good for all time. We still need to evaluate those things. I know as a pastor I have done events that were a huge success the first time, but didn’t yield the same results the following year. I think it’s important that we bring everything back to God. And if that event, or job, or thing, or dream that God gave you has become twisted… it might be time to destroy it and start fresh.

Don’t Take Too Much Credit

As I’m fond of saying, God using you to accomplish His purposes is not necessarily good news for you. Here in Isaiah we have another prime example of that in the King of Assyria who God intends to use to bring His vengeance on Israel. But what’s interesting to me in this is the idea that the King of Assyria assumes the good times will keep rolling forever.

I remember being about 20 and getting a labour job working for a guy in my church. He paid me $17.50/hour — in 2002 dollars — and the first week I worked, it was 6am starts and 5-7pm finishes 6 straight days. I made $1260 in a week! That was $65,000 a year! I was rich! I had plans for all that sweet, sweet money. But the very next week there wasn’t as much work. I would call my boss at 5am Monday and he’d say there was nothing today. Same story on Tuesday. And Wednesday. Thursday he had a small job — 4 hours — that he needed me to take care of. Suddenly that $65K annual salary wasn’t looking so likely.

Like the King of Assyria, we can think that WE did something great and now we are reaping the rewards of our good choices. And because we are so smart and savvy, those good times will keep on keeping on. But that’s not always true. Sometimes — oftentimes — they come to an end.

Everything we have it because God allows us to have it. Let’s try to keep that perspective. There may come a time when it will be taken away from us. Heaven forbid we ever end up like Job, but if we did… how would we respond? How would our response be if we lived knowing that everything we have is a loan from God. How would our response be different if we lived believing that everything we have is OWED to us because of our effort, skill, and knowledge?

Remember: a change in perspective changes everything else.

Strong, Humble Leadership

Let me paint a picture: the King of Judah (not a good man) has just been attacked and ransacked by Kings Rezin & Pekah (of Aram/Syria & Israel, respectively) with many valuables and captives taken — though the people would be returned shortly afterward. And Isaiah comes to Ahaz, the aforementioned King of Judah, and tells him that the coup by Syria & Israel will be unsuccessful in their attempt to overthrow Judah and replace Ahaz with their own king. Given the sizeable losses that Judah just took, I wonder how the follow words of Isaiah were received…

[F]or Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria, and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah.
Isaiah 7:8-9a

Why is this? Because they stand against the purposes of God. He has said that He will preserve the line of David (from which Jesus will eventually come), and so anyone who tries to stand against the purposes of God will fail.

This is why I didn’t title this devotional “Strong Leadership”, but rather “Strong, Humble Leadership”. Strong to lead people in directions they sometimes do not want to go, but humble enough to be submitted to God as you lead. This is the kind of leadership exemplified by Jesus. This is the kind of leadership we should aspire to ourselves.

Consistency is King

I’m not sure where it came from — and don’t care to look it up — but over the years I’ve heard some variation of the phrase, “60% of the time, it works every time!” Of course the whole joke is that whatever the product or service is, it only works 60% of the time. No one wants something that only works 60% of the time! Let’s pop that thought in our pocket for a second and look at this verse in Amos

You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless.
Amos 8:5a, NLT

If you found that verse convicting, congratulations! The Holy Spirit is at work in your life! And that’s where we come back to that item in our pockets. No one wants something that only works 60% of the time. That includes God. Why would he want someone who comes to church on Sunday, but as soon as they leave those hallowed halls, they lie, they cheat, they steal?

Is your life segmented? This part for Jesus, but another for “real” life? I recently compared our lives to a hotel. When we say that we are “sold out” for Jesus, it means that every room is occupied by him. You love baseball? Is Jesus taking up residence in your “baseball” room? You love movies? Is Jesus living in your “movie” room? If there’s any room that He is not welcome in, then your life is segmented. You are just waiting for the Sabbath and religious festivals to end so you can get back to the Godless part of your life.

But the story doesn’t need to end there! renovate the room! Clear out the crap! And please, PLEASE, don’t suffer alone! Talk to a a brother, a sister, a friend, spouse, or pastor! Let us help you! Let us help you move the renovation from a “one day” project to an “in process” project! Let us help EACH OTHER be more consistent. Because consistency is king!

Can God Still Love Me?

God gives Amos a vision to share with Israel it starts with a warning against Israel’s enemies of coming calamity because of their treatment of God’s chosen people. I’m sure that seemed all well and good, until God — and Amos — turned their attention to Israel herself. Much more time is spend on Israel’s stubborn obstinance and the coming debt for that behaviour. Yet, in sprite of all of that God STILL offers reconciliation to His people if they will turn from their sin and return to Him. Despite their unfaithfulness, wickedness, selfishness, evil, plotting, and debauchery… God still loves them.

There is nothing you can do to get TOO FAR from God. No road so long that you cannot return. No path so twisted that it cannot be untangled. Yes, there will be consequences — both natural and spiritual — for whatever choice(s) you’ve made, but you are still welcome to come home. God will never, never give up on you. To your dying breath He is calling your name.

Can God still love me? The answer is an unqualified yes.