THE LORD SPOKE (July 5)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: II Chronicles 31-32

Even a superficial glance at the archaeological record of the Assyrians' military machine will convince you quickly that they were ruthless, very violent, and extremely cruel. It's no wonder that Jonah did more than hesitate when God directed him to go to them with a message of condemnation and judgment. So, when our text says that Sennacherib invaded Judah (II Chron. 32:1) and "intended to make war on Jerusalem" (II Chron. 32:2), it's easy to understand Hezekiah's precarious position. The parallel passage in II Kings supplies several extra details but the basic information is here too.

Sennacherib's total war approach included:

• over-powering military force - 185,000 troops in this case
• a public information campaign to recount previous military exploits that were intended to terrorize the local population (= ancient version of CNN's coverage of news in the Middle East)
• learning Hebrew to get his message out more effectively to the common people
• memorizing verses of Scripture ("every man under his own vine and fig tree") to provide a "biblical basis" for what he planned to do
• learning some Judean doctrine to give a theological twist to his demands (use of "Jehovah" and references to Hezekiah's treatment of the altars and high places)

Hezekiah's actions are very clearly spelled out here too. First, he did everything humanly possible to prepare to meet the threat (II Chron. 32:3-5), including:

• significant work on the water sources to guarantee a steady supply under siege
• extensive repairs and reinforcement of the walls, towers, and other defensive positions
• provision of ample military hardware

Secondly, he went to the Temple and placed everything before the Lord, recognized his own inability to deal with the problem, and asked for God's help (II Kings 19:14-19).

Thirdly, he encouraged the people to trust the Lord (II Chron. 32:6-8) for the outcome

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of the flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.

God did respond decisively through the Prophet Isaiah (II Kings 19:20-34) promising that, under no circumstances, would Sennacherib enter Jerusalem. In fact, He "took care of them on every side" (II Chron. 32:22). Lord Byron said it well in his poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib (1815):

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Are you in need of that sort of divine solution to some problem you're facing today? The way forward is laid out clearly here: (1) do everything possible that God has equipped you to do yourself, (2) go to the Lord for His provision, and (3) believe that He will answer your prayer and encourage others to trust Him to do so.


New Testament: I Thessalonians 4

The Thessalonians had a problem. Expecting, as they should, the any-moment-return of the Lord, some of their number had died before it came. This led some others to question what would happen to the dead ones when Christ did come back. Would they miss out on that great event?

Speaking of the dead as “those who fall asleep” (I Thess. 4:13), Paul carefully lays down a chronology of end-time events, in answer to their questions. He concludes that “we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep” (I Thess. 4:15). Sleep is an apt metaphor for the death of a Christian because the certainty of resurrection removes the fear of the unknown. Death is not final. This truth also gives us hope so that we do not grieve like others who do not have this assurance (I Thess. 4:13).

Christ’s teaching on this was not recorded for us in the Gospels but Paul attributes this order of events directly to “the Lord’s own word” (I Thess. 4:15). This must have come either as a direct revelation to Paul himself or as some teaching of Christ that was passed down orally.

First, there will be that moment of the RETURN of Christ. It will be “from heaven”, “in the clouds”, “in the air”. Specifically, it will not be to the earth. That comes later. The souls of believers who have already died will come back with Him (I Thess. 4:14) for the RESURRECTION of their bodies. Then, and not before, those believers who are still alive will be snatched up in the RAPTURE. We will rise to the clouds for that glorious REUNION. The souls and resurrected bodies of the dead in Christ will be reunited. The dead in Christ and we who remain alive until that moment will be reunited. But most importantly, we will all be reunited with our Lord who bought us. The RESULT will be that from that moment we will be with Him forever (I Thess. 4:17).

That is, indeed, cause for encouragement and great comfort. And so “we wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13). We do not wait to go through the Tribulation first - how could that be a “blessed hope”? The church is nowhere present in Revelation 6-19. She will be gone by that time, taken up into the presence of the Lord, only to return with Him to rule (Rev. 19:11-21).

THE LORD SPOKE (December 20)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Micah 1-3

To start with, he ministered during the same time as the great Prophet Isaiah. Then there was the story of Tiglath-Pileser and the sack of Samaria by the Assyrians. Now they were back. King Hezekiah was facing them in Judah and all the headlines were filled with Sennacherib and the siege of Jerusalem. Who could ever forget the front-page pictures of 185,000 dead bodies outside (!) Jerusalem’s walls? And if you’re talking about grabbing people’s attention and getting a hearing, Hosea’s on-going saga made it hard to compete.

So who would listen to little ol’ Micah, nestled away in the Shephelah hills? Who’d even heard of Moresheth Gath (Mic. 1:1,14)? But with a word from the Lord burning inside, he begins his prophecy by saying:

Hear, O peoples, all of you,
Listen, O earth and all who are in it.... (Mic. 1:2)

His initial prophecies come to pass quickly. Samaria is made “a heap of rubble” (Mic. 1:3-7). The Judean towns get it next (Mic. 1:8-16). Here’s that story in Sennacherib’s own words:

As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: [I destroyed] forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, by leveling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. [Hezekiah] himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. From “Sennacherib’s Prism” (c. 689 BC)

Micah next turns his guns on the politicians (Mic. 3:1-4) and the clergy (Mic. 3:5-7). In both cases God will refuse to answer their phony cries for help (Mic. 3:4 and Mic. 3:7). In desperation the false prophets will tell Micah, “Stop talking that way!” (Mic. 2:6).

In the end Jerusalem, just like Samaria, will become “a heap of rubble” (Mic. 3:12; c.f. Mic. 1:6) and they already knew what that looked like. Even harder to think of and worse than they wanted to imagine, the Temple Mount would become “a mound overgrown with thickets” (Mic. 3:12). That destruction was temporarily averted in the days of good king Hezekiah but it too came to pass.

. . . . . . . .

Only by peeking ahead to the next chapter can we find hope. “In the last days” the situation will be reversed. Then all Israel will stream to Jerusalem. In fact, we’re told that “many nations” will come to hear “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic. 4:1-2). Others may do as they please but “we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever” (Mic. 4:5).


Proverbs 20

Does the Bible condemn all consumption of alcoholic beverages? No, it does not. But it does condemn all drunkenness at all times under any circumstances.

It’s because drunkenness is a form of losing self-control or, as our passage today says, “whoever is led astray by [alcoholic beverages] is not wise” (Prov. 20:1). Proverbs associates drunkenness with gluttony, which leads to poverty (Prov. 23:20-21); with woe, sorrow, and strife (Prov. 23:29-30); and with lawlessness and injustice (Prov. 31:4-5). It leads to no good!

From the first instance of drunkenness (Gen. 9:21), when Noah drank wine and lost his self-control, ugly sin was the result. He lost more than just his self-control. He lost his family. Isaiah describes the ugliness that results from being “befuddled with wine” (Isa. 28:7-8). The drunkard “staggers around in his vomit” (Isa. 19:14). With the loss of self-control goes self-respect and also the respect of others.

The New Testament is unequivocal in its condemnation of drunkenness and places it alongside some of the “worst” sins:

• Galatians 5:19-21 - Drunkenness is put in the same category with sexual immorality, idolatry and witchcraft, and orgies. “Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
• Ephesians 5:18 - Getting drunk on wine “leads to debauchery” which Webster defines as “corruption of fidelity”.
• Romans 13:13 - “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.”

Given the deceptive power of drink, if you have any weakness in the area of self-control (and who doesn’t?), teetotalism is not a bad policy.

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [KJV = “make no provision for the flesh”] (Rom. 13:14).

THE LORD SPOKE (October 1)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Isaiah 35-37

He came with tens of thousands of arrows, all ready to be notched and shot. The shields were all polished and the shovels ready to throw up the sieve ramps. The return trip was already planned to be one long victory march. But God had other plans and promised, through Isaiah, that Sennacherib would not shoot one of his arrows.

Instead, he had to write 185,000 death notices to the mothers and widows. Lord Byron got it right back in 1815, when he penned:

The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset was seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent - the banners alone,
The lances unlifted - the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

One glance from the Lord. That’s all it took! Sennacherib’s mighty army became food for the worms. Jerusalem was delivered without an arrow being shot. Now, some 2700 years later, who’s ever heard of Assyria, much less the gods of Assyria. Sennacherib himself was cut down by his own sons and the mighty Assyrian empire is only a distant, dusty memory. Yet the Jewish people are still in Jerusalem and God is still the one calling the shots.


Psalms 29-30

Have you wandered in the forest glades and heard the voice of the Lord in the thunder of a water fall? Has He shown you His glory in lofty mountain grandeur? Have you listened to His sweet song as sung by the sparrows? Psalm 29 is the expression of God’s greatness from a man who knew Him in nature and in his heart.

David ascribed to the Lord all the glory due Him in this psalm. Worship was the instant and very natural result. The Lord is King forever. His throne is majestic. His splendor overpowers us and we should “Glory!”

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"