I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Isaiah prophesied the downfall of Assyria. He said that their own policies would kindle and feed the fire of their destruction. He predicted that they would be completely burned up in the fire. The interesting thing is that Assyria was so completely destroyed that in the 19th Century historians thought references to it in the Bible were evidence that the Bible was fable because they thought Assyria had never existed. Isaiah further prophesied that the sinners in Jerusalem would be terrified by the fire which destroyed Assyria.
The prophet predicted that the question that would be asked would be who could survive the fire which destroyed the Assyrians? The answer he told us was those who are honest and fair, those who refuse to do wrong, no matter what incentive they are given. They will be sheltered from the coming fire and supplied with food and water. A fire such as the one which destroyed the Assyrians is coming once more. Once more the only ones who will be able to survive this fire will be those who are honest and fair, those who refuse all enticement to do wrong.
The prophet goes on to say that God’s wrath will not be limited to Assyria, the mightiest nation of the day. He will pour out His anger on all of the nations which have oppressed those who serve God. The wilderness and the desert will bloom in the days after God’s wrath is revealed. We are to say to those who have been struggling to be righteous in a wicked world that God is coming. Let us strengthen those who are tired from the long fight, encourage those whose strength is failing, and give courage to those who are frightened at the evil in this world. God is coming to save them. God is about to lay out a straight road through the wilderness for those who are walking in His ways. Indeed, this prophecy has been fulfilled. There is a straight and direct road to God and soon we will see Him face to face. When that day comes, all sorrow and mourning will pass away and those who do His bidding will be filled with joy.
The prophet changes gears and recounts some historical events. During the reign of Hezekiah, the Assyrians began to invade the Kingdom of Judah. The king of Assyria sent some of his officials with a large army to confront Hezekiah at Jerusalem. Hezekiah sent some of his courtiers to parlay with them. The Assyrian field commander asked them what made Hezekiah confident that he could stand up to the Assyrians? Did he think that Egypt could protect them? The field commander told them that Pharaoh was unreliable and would cause them harm without aiding them in any way. He then asked if Hezekiah thought God would help him? The God which the Assyrians perceived Hezekiah as having insulted by insisting that the entire kingdom worship only in Jerusalem. The field commander finished his message from the king of Assyria by claiming that they were attacking Jerusalem at God’s direction.
Hezekiah’s envoys then asked the Assyrians to address them in Aramaic rather than Hebrew so that the people on the walls would not understand what was being said. The Assyrian field commander replied that he intended for the people on the wall to understand and began shouting in Hebrew. Initially he had said that God would not protect Jerusalem because He had directed the Assyrians to attack, but now he revealed what the Assyrians truly believed. He told the people not to allow Hezekiah to trick them into believing that God would rescue them. The Assyrian told them to trust him and open the gates. They would be taken into exile to a fruitful land where they would lead lives of leisure. Then he told them, do not be fooled into thinking that God will rescue them, or that He even could rescue them. The Assyrian asked them what had happened to other nations, had any of their gods rescued them from the Assyrians? Likewise, he said, their God was not able to rescue them from his hand.
This passage illustrates how some of our enemies will first attempt to make us question whether we deserve God’s salvation. It is only once they have gotten us to doubt whether we are worthy of God’s salvation (we aren’t, but that doesn’t matter), that they will tell us that God is not able to save us anyway. This strategy often works. If they first tried to tell us that God was unable to save us, we would reject that argument. However, if they convince us that God will not save us because we are not worthy of being saved, our human reaction is to then go for “sour grapes”; “Well, he couldn’t have saved me anyway.”
However, I have an answer for those who try to convince me that I am unworthy of being rescued by God. That answer is, “You are absolutely correct. I am a sinner, who does not deserve God’s grace. But God does not care. Out of His wondrous love, He has chosen to do so anyway.” As long as we remember that God’s promise to rescue us does not rely on our deserving it, we will not fall for this line of reasoning.
We have been called to live in freedom. However, Paul tells us not to use our freedom to indulge our sinful nature. Rather, he tells us to use our freedom to serve one another in love. If we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, we will find that we are not doing what our evil nature craves. The Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of those of our sinful nature. These two are in constant conflict, the desires of the Spirit in conflict with the desires of our sinful nature. Paul goes on to list the actions that show we have given in to our sinful natures. Many of them we are very familiar with, sexual immorality, impurity, jealousy and drunkenness to name a few. But some of them we tend to overlook, dissension, divisiveness, outbursts of anger, and selfish ambition. We know that these latter are there, but we often focus on the ones that are harder to disguise.
Then Paul wrote about the fruit that we will bear if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As followers of Christ, we nail our sinful desires to His cross and crucify them there. Then we strive to follow the leading of the Spirit in all aspects of our lives. Rejecting conceit and jealousy of each other, we avoid provoking our fellow believers to anger.
Every time I read this passage it reminds me of something I learned a few years back. I learned that the way to stop doing those things that I know I should not, but find hard to resist, is to fill my time doing those things that I know that I should be doing. Some years back, I struggled with a substance abuse problem. I was not a drug addict or an alcoholic. It did not effect my daily life, but I had started smoking marijuana in college and I could not resist the temptation when the opportunity arose. I had some friends who smoked and felt no leading to stop associating with them, yet whenever I was with them, I would smoke pot. At the same time there were some things I was feeling called to do, but I felt like I would be a hypocrite if I did them while still smoking marijuana. I struggled with this for about a year. Finally, I cried out to God and asked Him to take the temptation away. Soon after, the Spirit convicted me that I was to do those things He was calling me to (teach Sunday School, become involved in some Church leadership positions, a few other things), even though I was still doing something I knew I shouldn’t be. I followed that leading and started doing those things. Six months later, I realized that I had not smoked marijuana in six months. To this day, it amazes me. Looking back, I know what happened. When I started doing the things that God was calling me to do, I spent less time with my friends who still smoked marijuana. That made it easier for me to say no when they passed the marijuana around without condemning them, or implying I was better than they. But the point is that I did not reduce the time I spent with them in order to stop smoking marijuana. I reduced the time I spent with them because I was busy doing the things God called me to do. When we do the things the Holy Spirit directs us to do, we don’t have time to gratify the desires of our sinful nature.
When I read this psalm it reminded me of an exchange I have with some of my friends when we part:
Me: “Stay out of trouble.”
Friend: “That’s no fun.”
Me: “You’re not in trouble if you don’t get caught. And it doesn’t count if you like what happens when you do get caught.”
I started this because of a similar response to the opening phrase being, “Be good.” However, as time went by and I began to have a closer walk with God it took on new meaning. Today’s psalm contains pieces of what that exchange means to me now. The psalm talks about people who think they have a clever plan that no one will figure out. They are sure that they won’t get caught. The psalm assures us that if we do wrong, we will get caught. That, while other people may never know, God knows and He will hold us accountable. At the end where I say, “It doesn’t count if you like what happens when you get caught,” there is a corollary. That corollary is, “If you don’t like what happens, you got caught.” Sometimes I get an opportunity to make a longer exposition of what the phrase means to me. When that happens, I tell people that if someone else gets hurt, physically, mentally, or spiritually, you got caught.
Today’s proverb tells us to get the truth, wisdom, discipline, and good judgment and never sell them. I interpret this in two ways. We should strive to obtain the truth, wisdom, discipline, and good judgment and refuse to give them up for anything. But more importantly, when we know the truth we should not tell others something other than the truth, no matter what we are offered. The same goes for wisdom, discipline, and good judgment, we should not allow anyone to convince us to pass off as those something that we know is not. We should give the wisest advice we know, encourage others to live disciplined lives and exercise good judgment.