THE LORD SPOKE (September 3)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Proverbs 1-3

Proverbs 2:1-5

How do you pursue wisdom such as the Bible describes? How do you obtain it and how do you nurture it? How do you recognize it and how do you go about making it a defining characteristic of your daily experience? To start with, what exactly is wisdom as the Bible describes it?

The book of Proverbs uses the word 41x so this is certainly a good starting point to understand the concept. In a nutshell, it involves “skill in living - following God’s design and thus avoiding moral pitfalls” (NIV Study Bible, p. 946). Or, as Walter Kaiser describes it, “Biblical wisdom is religion gone out into the streets and marketplaces of life with the fear of God as its guide” (The Old Testament Documents: Are they Reliable and Relevant?, p. 150).

Religion?? Isn’t that something that relates to ritualized piety, liturgical robes, and drafty cathedrals? No! It is a biblical concern (e.g. James 1:27) that needs to be our concern. The term “religion” comes from Latin re + ligare, “that which connects again”. Because of our sin, we are separated from God and religion is what re-connects us or brings us back to God. Wisdom is simply the proper application of religion.

Proverbs 2:1-5 tells us what we must do to “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God” (vs. 5), i.e. how to obtain wisdom. Regarding God’s instruction, we must...

• accept (vs. 1a) - This involves teachability, openness to what Scripture teaches, never shutting our ears to what God’s Word says.
• store up (vs. 1b) - While memorizing God’s commands is an excellent first step, this involves much more. It means internalizing His commands with the intent to obey.
• turn your ear and apply your heart (vs. 2) - These two active verbs involve mental discipline, a conscious effort to pursue the wisdom and understanding that comes from Scripture.
• call out and cry aloud (vs. 3) - There is a divine/human cooperative at work here. We must do our part but God is ready and waiting to respond to our pleas for His aid. We must be prayerfully dependent to receive insight and understanding.
• look for it and search for it (vs. 4) - It is readily available but it doesn’t just fall off the shelf into our shopping basket. It requires diligent perseverance.

Our religion will never amount to much if it isn’t even strong enough to break the cords of slumber. If it isn’t powerful enough to get us up in the morning - if it isn’t at least as strong as that desire to get a cup of coffee first thing in the morning - how will it ever confront the Devil with success? We are engaged in a cosmic battle. What kind of soldier doesn’t put on his helmet or goes out to battle with his weapons left behind? Let us daily and early seek Him. Let His wisdom and understanding give us the equipment we need to face the daily grind, better yet, to finish strong.


New Testament: Revelation 9

The many similarities between the judgments in this part of the book of Revelation and the plagues in Egypt recorded in the book of Exodus are striking. The waters turned to blood, the darkness over the land, and the plague of locusts would suggest that this passage portrays the final exodus of God’s people from the ugly bondage of a world controlled from the Abyss.

At the end of chapter eight, an angel had flown over announcing a triple “woe” to the inhabitants of the earth. Each woe was to correspond to the last three trumpet judgments in chapters 9 and 10. The first woe (trumpet #5) brought horrid creatures of destruction. Their descriptions in Revelation 9:7-10 sound like some of the worst images of modern science fiction movies. Their vile leader is “the angel of the Abyss”. His name is Apollyon ("Abaddon", in Hebrew), which means “Destroyer”.

Four more messengers (Greek angelos) are released with the sixth trumpet. They had long awaited this very moment (Rev. 9:15) and take apparent delight in their task - to kill one third of the earth’s population. Assisting them are 200,000,000 troopers. The task? At today’s population figures, the task would be to murder over 2.5 billion people.

You’d think that might get the attention of the rest of mankind. But no! They continue on their merry way worshiping demons and idols. They “still did not repent” (Rev. 9:20). They prefer “their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, [and] their thefts” (Rev. 9:21). [Pardon the continual banging on this drum, but it sounds just like TV again.]

It’s not too hard to imagine all this, is it? We’ve gotten so accustomed to such stories of violence that we can almost accept it. Accept it, as long as it’s on the other side of the earth. As long as it’s in the Middle East and not in my neighborhood. And so we go along on our merry way not giving much attention to the ticking clock.

Meanwhile, the sands of time are sinking. The last grains will soon fall and we will be ushered into the end times. These prophecies, long-awaited, will begin to happen and John tells us that, once they do, they will happen fast. That’s the meaning of Revelation 1:1 when it says they will “happen quickly”. Are you ready?