Category: devotional

Ecclesiastes 7:20-22

20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.
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“I just can’t believe that he would say such a thing about me.” How often have you thought or said something like those words? How often have we found ourselves angry, indignant, and utterly amazed that someone would say something mean about us? How often do we find ourselves offended at the words of another, and want to demand satisfaction—either an apology or the opportunity to get them back with clever words of our own?

The book of Ecclesiastes is a tough one to interpret. It is difficult to recognize when we are seeing the worldly wisdom of Solomon that will be overturned with the eternal perspective of chapter 12. Sometimes there are things said in the book we can tell are simply the words of a man who is not viewing the world from a Godward perspective. But there are other times when we see real, Proverbs-like wisdom literature. I believe that just such wisdom writing is 7:20-22.

Solomon, with characteristic punch, tells us three things in a row that are worth our attention. First, he reminds us that all people are bound to error. Second, he tells us that we ought not get ourselves too worked up when we hear that somebody has said something against us. Then, he drops the hammer and closes the deal when he reminds us that, if we are honest, all of us have spoken ill of others before.

Is it not amazing that we will become so offended and demand justice when a person speaks ill of us, but, when we have spoken ill of others, we generally find ways to excuse our behavior? We say that we must be excused, because we were angry, because we did not understand the situation, because what they did was so horrible that we had to say what we said, or because, “Hey, nobody’s perfect.” We excuse our own flaws and we latch onto the flaws of others. We want to be excused while we want others not to be. We want justice for them and grace for ourselves.

So, perhaps we need to learn from Ecclesiastes 7:20-22. The next time we are hurt by the careless or even mean-spirited words of another person, perhaps we should remember verses 20 and 22. We too are sinners. We too have spoken ill of others in our past. We too have been mean-spirited in our own histories. And so, then we might be able to handle verse 21 and not get too worked up about it. Sure, if what they did was really a big deal, we can go to them and explain to them how hurtful were their words. But if we go, let us learn to go with grace, knowing that we have so often needed that grace ourselves for saying things just like what they said.

John 16:20-22 – 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Romans 8:22 – For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
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In the Garden of Eden, humanity began its rebellion against its Creator. Mankind sinned against God, choosing to throw off his loving commandments. We chose self-rule rather than following God, and we received for our crimes the due penalty for our transgression.

Since that time, all of humanity has lived under the curse of God. People get sick and die. People suffer evil at one another’s hands. People struggle against the natural world. Relationships are strained. Selfishness abounds. And all of this links back directly to Adams fall.

Yet, in the garden, God made a promise. It comes in the words of his judgment against the serpent. God promised one to come, one who would crush the serpent. This is the first sign that someone would arise, descending from woman, who would set right the wrong done in the garden. And most evangelicals understand this promise to be a promise of the coming of Christ.

What strikes me this morning is actually the text of John 16:20-22 taken in the light of Genesis 3. This weekend, lord willing, I will preach through John 16:16-33. But I will not take the time to make the point that is on my mind today as I review the passage.

Jesus, in predicting to his disciples their coming sorrow, uses an interesting illustration. The Lord Jesus is about to be arrested and crucified. In that time, the disciples will be greatly sorrowful, weeping and lamenting. They will feel great anguish as their Lord, the one they have followed for the last three years, is brutally put to death. But that sorrow will turn to great joy when Jesus returns from the grave, having conquered death and paid the penalty for the sins of all who will trust in him.

Now, here is the point on my mind. Jesus uses an image to describe the disciples going from sorrow to joy. The picture Jesus uses is that of a woman in labor giving birth. She hurts, but the pain is turned to joy when the baby is born. Similarly, the disciples will hurt, but the pain will be turned to joy. My thought is that this too can be connected to God’s words in the garden.

Immediately after the serpent was judged and the first glimpse of the gospel is given, God turns his attention to Eve. He promises Eve that he will greatly increase her pain in childbirth as a part of the burden she must bear for her guilt in the fall of mankind. So, in a very real sense, a sign of the curse of sin on humanity is the suffering and travail through which women go in childbirth.

Is it not fascinating that Jesus uses the reversal idea of joy coming after the birthing process is over to depict what his disciples will feel when they see him alive after death? Could we not make a larger application? From the time in the garden until the consummation of God’s Kingdom, humanity suffers. As Paul Says, creation is groaning in childbirth. But with the resurrection of Jesus and his finished work of atonement, our pains are being eased. With Jesus’ paying for our sins, we who know him no longer sit under the wrath of God. While we still feel the effects of the curse over the world, that curse is about to come to an end. Soon Jesus will return. Soon the curse will be put behind us. Soon we will rejoice as a mother rejoices at the birth of her child. Yes it is painful, but that sorrow will be turned to joy when we, the children of God, are gather together with the Lord to be with him forever. We will live in the presence of God, in full joy, apart from any lingering effects of the curse. What a glorious day that will be! What a glorious eternity stands before us!

Christians, let us not fail to keep our eyes on eternity. This hope is a hope that God wants us to feel. He wants us to see the joy that is set before us in Christ. He want us to long for the days of a life without sin, without suffering, without pain, and with the greatest possible soul satisfaction. God wants us to pray for his kingdom to come. He wants us to speed that day with our prayers and our faithful sharing of the gospel. God wants us to be heavenly-minded people. Let us look forward to eternity with the anticipation fitting the joy ahead.

Jeremiah 2:32

Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me
days without number.
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So, you’re here, reading a Blog—a Blog by a pastor no less. It can’t be possible that the above verse has anything to do with us, can it?

It seems impossible that a bride would walk the aisle without dressing up. It seems crazy to think that she would simply forget to get dressed for the wedding, totally an impossible thought. Well, God says that it should be just as impossible for his people to forget him.

Do we? Do we live in this world and forget that we are under the watchful eye of a loving Father, a righteous Judge, an almighty Helper, a faithful friend? Do we forget that, even on the job, God is still our God and still totally our Master and our Sustainer? Do we slip into patterns that would make us look like people who have no God instead of being the people of God?

I certainly hope that, for you and for me, God would never be able to say that we have forgotten him. But I know that, if we are not careful, from moment to moment, we can lose our focus on the fact that He is the one by whom, through whom, and for whom we exist. Christians, put it before your eyes and in your mind this day that God is, and we are his.

Hebrews 13:2 – Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Hebrews 13:16 – Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
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I simply want to add the above verses to yesterday’s discussion of a Christian’s appropriate response to the nation’s financial crisis. God calls us to be a giving, sharing, and caring people. He calls us to give and show hospitality. Who knows that he may not allow us to minister in very unique ways in this unstable economic time. For sure, we are to rely on him, trusting that he will care for his own.

I’m not trying to argue for us to be unwise. But I am wanting to argue that we should become more giving, less selfish, and less concerned with our own comforts at this time. Let us turn from worldliness to godliness. Let us show the world that God is worth more to us than anything on Wall Street. Let us give, love, show hospitality, and honor our God.

Though I normally head my posts with the scripture passage we will ponder together, I wanted to place a thought in your mind to set the context before you read this one. How are we to respond to the “financial crisis?” There appears to be a bill on the table that the House might pass. Perhaps 700 billion dollars is on the way to soothe our economy in shambles.

But still, we need to think about how to look at financial issues. How should we look at the economy? What kind of prayer should we pray as we ponder Wall Street, failing banks, and gigantic gas prices? How about this. . .

Proverbs 30:7-9

When is the last time that you talked with any person who said that they want neither too much nor too little? I’d hazard that you do not hear such an answer from the lost and dying world. Sadly you probably do not even hear this answer from Christians very often. But the prayer of Proverbs 30:7-9 is a perfect Christian response to times of financial difficulty.

This passage is also a perfect answer to give to a person on the street who wants to know what you think of these tough times. Just picture it. You are in a local café, and a lost friend across the table brings up the subject of the struggling economy. Your answer, instead of bemoaning the horror of the situation and acting as though your life rises and falls with the stock market index and the price at the pump , is to say, “you know what, I’m turning to God in this time, and I’m praying that he will give me neither too much nor too little money. I do not want too little, because I do not want his name to be dishonored by me not having enough. I want him to show that he takes care of me and mine. And so far, he has never let me down. I also do not want too much money, because I do not want to become enslaved to money, greed, and material things. I do not want to pretend that I think I can live this life on my own. I want just enough, so that I can get by and show the world that my God cares for me.”

We need to be sure that we do not fall prey to the materialistic and selfish culture in which we live. Let us learn to pray Proverbs 30:7-9 and mean it. If we cannot, then we need to repent and ask God to help us to treasure him over any material gain. This is harder than you might think, because we seldom really look at our finances as a resource for glorifying God by having just enough. Let us become more giving, more loving, and more God-centered with our money.

Proverbs 28:9

If one turns away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer is an abomination.
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How truly important is the word of God to the life of the Christian? How important is it that we read God’s word? How important is it that we listen, intentionally listen, when the word is proclaimed from the pulpit? Does it really matter if we are a Bible-based people?

Just take a look at Proverbs 28:9. All of us want our prayers to be effective. Even lost people pray. Even spiritually lukewarm people, on occasion, will toss up a prayer in a time of need, of stress, of suffering. And people, in general, think that, if they pray, they please God.

But God makes it clear to us in his word that not all prayers please him. Not all prayers are going to be answered in a positive way. In fact, some prayers are detestable to the Lord. And none of us want our prayers to be an abomination to God.

So, how do we avoid praying abominations? Listen to God’s word and obey it. The one who turns his ear away from the word of God does not have anything going on in his or her prayer life that is of any significance. Instead, his or her prayers offend God.

Christians, we need to be a people of prayer. We want our prayers to be heard as we pray for our lives, for our loved ones, for our nation, for the lost, etc. But if we want our prayers to be heard by God, we need to be praying as people who hear and obey God’s word. If we turn away from the Bible, if we ignore the scriptures, if we refuse to follow God’s commands, our prayers are abominable to God. Let’s not let that happen. Instead, let’s love God’s word, follow his word, and offer the kinds of prayers that are sweet to the Lord.

Isaiah 36:7 – But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?
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In our society today, many people use the word god to mean several different things. Oprah has a “god” about whom she talks. Many who claim Christ talk about god, but define him in ways that are contrary to the revelation of God in the holy scriptures. And many use religious language in such a way that Christians might have a genuine struggle knowing if the person to whom they are speaking really knows what he or she is talking about.

When Jerusalem was in danger from the attack of the Assyrians, the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh to attempt to convince the people of Judah to surrender their city. The whole point was to humiliate, deceive, or demoralize the people so that the Assyrians would not have to go through the trouble of the siege.

One of the tactics that the Rabshakeh tried to use is to convince the people of Judah that God was not on their side. He knew that King Hezekiah had commanded the removal of many of the high places that had been used for worship in ways that God had not commanded. Since the Rabshakeh only had in his mind the sort of commands made by the pagan gods of the other peoples around Israel, he assumed that the king had told the people to demolish places where God was genuinely worshipped.

In reality, the words of the Rabshakeh were exactly wrong. The high places were not commanded by God. In fact, the Lord had commanded that he be worshipped in Jerusalem at the temple, the place he chose for his worship to be performed. The high places were places where Israel had gone against the commands of God. The destruction of such places were Hezekiah’s acts of obedience to God, not acts of offending God.

One lesson that we should learn from this is to be very careful of the danger of being deceived by people using religious language. Politicians, philosophers, TV personalities, and people of almost any profession will sometimes resort to religious language to attempt to make their point, to be convincing, to show that they relate to the religious, or simply to sound spiritual. But just because a person says that he or she has faith, believes in a higher power, or even claims to be a Christian does not truly mean that the speaker really has the truth.

What shall we do? How do we defend ourselves against such tricky language? There is only one way, and that is to know God by knowing God’s word. God has revealed himself to us in his word. He has told us what he is like and what he expects. If a person claims Christianity or “God” in his or her speech, but the religion or standards that they set forth is inconsistent with or contrary to the revelation of God in the scriptures, such a person is not presenting truth. Either such a person is confused, deceived, or attempting to deceive; but such a person most assuredly does not present truth.

Take a warning from the words of the Rabshakeh. Lost persons will attempt to use religious language in order to deceive God’s people. The appropriate counter is to know the truth about God. The remedy is to know the Bible and to faithfully interpret it. God has revealed to us himself and his ways. He has not made this a subjective non-reality that is open for any number of variant interpretations. God has told us what he is like and what he demands; we must follow this teaching. We find God’s revelation in the Bible, and those who turn from the Bible, twist the Bible, or falsely interpret the Bible are not leading us to God, regardless of the religious language they use.