pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: mercy


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What a Day!

Reading: Zephaniah 1-3

Zephaniah 3:15 – “The LORD has removed your judgment; he has turned away your enemy. The LORD… is in your midst.”

Zephaniah proclaims the coming “day of the Lord.” Those who are humble and seek the Lord will find refuge in God. Those who relied upon themselves, their idols, their wealth and power – they will have nowhere to turn. Judgment will fall on the surrounding nations and then upon Judah. Zephaniah concludes with hope. He speaks of a time after judgment, when all people will “serve God as one.”

Zephaniah begins with judgment for the “world.” God will “eliminate humanity.” The prophet is likely referring to the small world surrounding Judah. He is speaking of and to God’s people. God’s hand will stretch out against those turning away instead of seeking God. Those in power will be punished for their violence, greed, and pride. It will be a horrible day, a day of “fury… distress… desolation… destruction… darkness.”

God encourages the humble to gather and to seek righteousness. They may be “hidden” on the day of the Lord. Zephaniah then turns to Judah’s neighbors next. Gaza, Ashod, Ekron, Philistia – doom is coming. Moab and Ammon will be made like Sodom and Gomorrah because of their taunting and boasting over Judah. Cush and Assyria will perish. And then in chapter 3 the focus shifts to Jerusalem – the city that wouldn’t listen and wouldn’t accept discipline. God will “rise up as a witness” against Jerusalem, pouring out “the heat of my anger.”

In verses 9-20 we read of the restoration that will follow. All people’s speech will change. They will call on God’s name and will “serve him as one.” Their shame will be removed along with their pride. A humble and powerless people will seek and find refuge in God. The lame and the outcast will be exalted. Judgment removed, enemies no more, Israel will know, “The LORD… is in your midst.” All will be restored. What a day that will be!

Prayer: Lord God, one day judgment will fall. As a God of justice and righteousness there will be an accounting. But as a God of love and mercy, a day of healing and restoration will follow. In the end, the world will be as you created it to be. Thank you, Lord. Amen.


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That Line

Reading: Nahum 1-3

Nahum 1:12-13 – “I won’t afflict you further, Zion. Now I will break off his yoke from you and tear off your chains.”

Photo credit: Nadine Shaabana

Nahum walks a fine line. The historical content of the book covers Assyria’s fall. The capital city, Nineveh, is the focus. In Jonah we saw a mighty God who was rich in mercy. In Nahum we read of a mighty God who pours out divine wrath on the Assyrians. In the long game, God will not tolerate any form of human pride or the existence of injustice. Here is where we get near that line. It can be tempting to rejoice in the downfall of an enemy. Is this not another form of pride?

Nahum describes God as “jealous… vengeful… strong in wrath… very patient… great in power.” The prophet declares that the world and all who dwell on it cannot stand before God’s indignation and fury. And he declares that God is “good, a haven in a day of distress.” In this spirit, Nahum assures God’s people. Though in exile now, God says, “I won’t afflict you further, Zion. Now I will break off his yoke from you and tear off your chains.” Hope is just around the corner.

From 1:14 through the end of the book, Nahum describes the great fall of Nineveh. God is against the city. The enemy’s sword will devour just as Assyria once devoured others. Assyria will become a spectacle. God declares there is “no remedy… your wound is grievous.” At the end we again come to the line. Nahum shares that all who had suffered under Assyria’s cruelty will “clap their hands over you.” To be relieved, even happy, when the yoke is broken,when the bully gets his or her due, – nearing the line. To be joyful and to celebrate someone’s utter destruction? Where did that line go?

Prayer: Lord God, we can sense your power and might today. We can feel your sense of justice and righteousness. You alone are the judge and the giver of just consequences. Help us to hold these things in holy awe. Curb in us the human tendency to find joy in another’s defeat. Keep us in our own lane. Focus us on our walk with you. Amen.


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Are Any Unworthy?

Reading: Jonah 3-4

Jonah 3:5 – “They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.”

Photo credit: Clay Banks

God tells Jonah a second time, “Go to Nineveh.” Deposited on the nearby shore, he gets up and goes. Jonah proclaims, “Just forty days and Nineveh will be overthrow.” This simple warning moves people’s hearts. Here is their response: “They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.” This is step one towards a repentant heart. Words get to the king and he proclaims the next steps: call on God, change your ways. When conviction came upon their hearts, all of Nineveh responded immediately. Conviction can come quickly up on our hearts too.

God sees their changed hearts and decides not to destroy Nineveh. Jonah is deeply angered, thinking this “utterly wrong.” He says this is why he ran. Jonah recognizes God as “merciful… compassionate… very patient, full of love, and willing not to destroy.” Jonah would rather die than see God save his enemy. He exits the city and plops down to see what happens, ignoring God’s question: “Is your anger a good thing?” God sends Jonah some shade. He is very happy about this mercy. Then God takes away his shade, provoking his anger and renewing his wish to die. Again God asks him, “Is your anger… a good thing?” Jonah believes it is good – “even to the point of death.”

God invites Jonah to consider God’s mercy, compassion… Jonah was grateful for the mercy that came in the shade. God asks, “Can’t I pity Nineveh?” They are a people that don’t really know any better. The story ends here, inviting us to consider ways that we want to limit God’s mercy, grace, compassion, forgiveness… Jonah’s hard heart calls us to reflect upon the condition of our own heart, especially as it regards to those who we might feel utterly unworthy of God’s (and our) forgiveness and grace.

Prayer: Lord God, the story ends in an uncomfortable place for Jonah and for us. Your love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness for the repentant is amazing. We can be less free with these things at certain times, with certain people. Lord, open our hearts to the vastness of your love and mercy and grace. It truly is for all people. Amen.


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When We Choose

Reading: Obadiah

Verse 15 – “As you have done, so it will be done to you.”

Obadiah condemns Edom for its attitude and for its behavior. The nation of Edom is proud. It rejoices when its ‘neighbor’ is defeated. They choose to then join in the plundering and violence. Edom kills those who escaped Babylon’s swords and they sell the refugees as slaves. There is much for God to condemn and judge concerning Edom and their choices.

There is a long history between Edom and Judah/Israel. These peoples are descended from Jacob and Esau. In real life there was great tension between these twin brothers. That tension persisted down through time. Perhaps today we’d say there is ‘bad blood’ between these two nations. Today, when one side or the other suffers or falls or experiences some defeat, there is often rejoicing on the other side. When long held animosity and tension lie just beneath the surface, that can flow out and lead to things like Edom did to Judah.

This same reality, this same scenario also scales down. We see it between the police and inner city residents. We see it between gangs who compete to thrive upon people’s weaknesses. We see it between neighbors and family members who refuse to even speak to one another. We see the tension there, just beneath the surface, always there. Then, at times, it rises up, it erupts, it shows its ugliness. Such was the case with Edom when Judah fell to the mighty Babylonians.

God declares to Edom, “As you have done, so it will be done to you.” About 750 years later a relative of God’s would share this same sentiment. He encouraged those who saw each other as less than to choose love over hate, empathy over apathy, compassion over condemnation, welcome instead of exclusion. Funny thing is this: when we choose love, empathy, compassion, welcome, grace, forgiveness… it is also said: “As you have done, so it will be done to you.” May it be so.

Prayer: Lord God, it can be hard to choose not to celebrate when a rival loses, to not rejoice when an ‘enemy’ falls. It can even be tempting to join in, to pile on, to release those old, bad feelings. These are the ways of the world. This is not your way. As your children and as your examples in this world, use us to choose the better way, to speak and act and think in ways that reveal your heart for all people. Amen.


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Prepare to Meet Your God!

Reading: Amos 1-4

Amos 4:4-5 – “Come to Bethel — and commit a crime!… Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice… publicize your gifts… for so you love to do, people of Israel!”

Amos is called from a small town in Judah in about 762 BCE. His task is to bring words of warning to Israel. Amos’ central message was that God is just and righteous and will uphold these practices. Chapters 1 and 2 contain judgments against Israel’s neighbors. Each begins with “for three crimes… and for four.” This is not strict math. It means that these sins were perpetrated again and again.

These sins or crimes include selling refugees as slaves, seizing land using violence, exacting revenge, and desecrating other leader’s bodies. Judah is ignoring the Instructions and disobeying the Law. Turn Israel’s sins are detailed. The rich and powerful mistreat and steal from the poor, often enslaving them. They disregard their rights – that’s using their blankets given as collateral for picnics instead of returning them each night, as required by the Law. Fathers and sons have illicit sex with the same woman. God then reminds them of all that God did for them. And of how prophets and Nazarites were sent. The deeds were forgotten, the words hushed. God declares that the fast, strong, and mighty will all fall.

Chapter 3 contains three beautiful verses: 2, 7, and 12. In verse 2 God declares, “You only have I loved so deeply.” This is God’s covenant love. God continues, “Therefore I will punish you.” This is God’s justice and righteousness at work. In verse 7 God says, “Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing his secret” through the prophets. This is God’s grace, again and again calling the people to justice and righteousness. Verse 12 speaks of God’s redemption and salvation. A remnant will be spared. God will rescue Israel in the end. This is a return to God’s covenant love through grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

I smiled when I read God’s taunt in chapter 4. God will try anything to bring the children back into right relationship. In verses 4 and 5 God says, “Come to Bethel — and commit a crime!… Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice… publicize your gifts… for so you love to do, people of Israel!” God wants them to clearly see their hypocrisy. They indulge and brag about it, but exclude the needy – again breaking the Law. God lays out the warnings, the revelations – famine, drought, disease, plague, war… “yet you didn’t return to me.” Again and again. So God proclaims, “Prepare to meet your God, Israel!” The day of justice and righteousness is coming.

Prayer: Lord God, oh how many voices we ignore. Oh how many signs we miss. We’re much like Israel. We hush the Holy Spirit. We read your word and take away what “tickles our ears.” This we too fall short of the justice and righteousness that is found at your core. You call us to hold to and to stand for these, especially in behalf of the poor and needy. Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours. Renew and reshape us with generous hearts and courageous souls, O God, so that we might be your healing balm to a broken and hurting world. Amen.


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Justice and Righteousness

Reading: Jeremiah 46-49

Jeremiah 49:2 – “The city will be demolished, and its neighboring villages will be burned to the ground.”

Photo credit: Mukund Nair

Chapters 46-49 contain oracles against the nations around Israel: Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Kedar, Hazor, and Elam. They roughly go from biggest or greatest enemy to least harmful. In each oracle God pronounces judgment and devastation. 49:2 sums up well what will happen to these nations: “The city will be demolished, and its neighboring villages will be burned to the ground.” This day, in each place, will belong to the Lord. The victory will be God’s on these days of reckoning.

There will be panic and no place to hide. The enemy Babylon will come in like a raging flood, sweeping over all nations. There will be screams and cries, mourning in the streets. The people’s pride and arrogance will be brought down low. The pain and devastation poured out on Israel and Judah will be poured back out on them. At the end of half of the oracles, God’s mercy declared that the scattered will be brought back.

We too can face difficulty and challenge when we choose to walk in the ways of these nations. When pride or arrogance drives our decisions and actions, when we oppress those without power or voice, when we gather at the expense of others, and when we ignore the injustices in our land, then we too will be brought down low and perhaps even be scattered by the Lord our God, the God of justice and righteousness.

Prayer: Lord God, help us to learn the lessons of the past that you place before us. Fill us with wisdom so we don’t walk these roads ourselves. And when we do make the wrong choices, lead us back home to you. Amen.


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Love and Compassion… Forever

Reading: Jeremiah 30-33

Jeremiah 31:33b – “I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Today we read chapters 30-33, known as “The Book of Comfort.” This “scroll” offers words of hope and restoration. It opens with a declaration that the time is coming when God will bring back the captives. This section has the “what you’re about to go through will be really, really hard, but…” feel to it. There will be “screams of panic and terror… a time of unspeakable pain,” but God will deliver them; God will break the yoke on their necks. God will restore and rebuild. There will be laughter and joy. The Davidic line and the Levitical priesthood will both be reestablished. “You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

The defeat and time in exile will be part of the process. This refining and reshaping process will lead to a new covenant. God declares, “I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts.” The sin that has been deeply engraved on their hearts will be written over. God states, “They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

Chapter 32 shares with us a critical moment for Jeremiah, offering him some tangible proof for these promises of God. Jeremiah is in confinement for prophesying the downfall of Jerusalem… He receives word that a cousin is coming to sell him some land. It all happens as God said it would. Jeremiah buys the land. In a practical sense this makes no sense. Judah is about to be conquered. Jerusalem and its temple will be destroyed. Most will die or go into exile. But this is an act of trust and faith. Jeremiah buys the land. God then declares that houses, fields, and vineyards will one day be bought and sold again in this land. Jeremiah responds with a beautiful prayer that recounts God’s power and might, that recalls the sins of Israel and Judah, and that reviews God’s promises of restoration and covenant renewal. Yes, hard times are ahead. Really hard times. But God is faithful. God’s love and compassion endure forever. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord God, we are reminded once again today of our frailty and failures, set against the hope and promise of your enduring and unending love and grace. What a sharp contrast. How different we are from you in so many ways. And yet, yet you hold on, yet you love us anyway. So great is your love for us, O God. Strengthen and encourage us today to be your people. Today. Amen.


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Hope Even Then

Readings: Jeremiah 21-24

Jeremiah 23:3 – “I myself will gather the few remaining sheep from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back.”

Today’s words from Jeremiah and God are mostly addressed to the kings and priests – the leaders. Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to go to God on their behalf because Nebuchadnezzar is besieging the city. God’s response is that God will join in the fight against Zedekiah and Jerusalem. God will send a plague, destroying them from within the city. They are told that surrender is the only way to live. Almost all will die instead.

Jeremiah elevates the correct behavior of kings. Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the oppressed. Don’t mistreat the refugee, immigrant, orphan, or widow. Don’t spill innocent blood. Defend the rights of the poor and needy. Care well for the flock. Be fresh, good figs. Instead, the leaders chose to be evil, selfish, greedy, willful. God’s efforts will join theirs in scattering the flock.

Jeremiah also addresses the priests or “prophets.” They are telling lies and selling false security. They commit adultery with idols and teach in the name of Baal. God declares them no better than Sodom – a city completely destroyed by God because of their sin. The prophets have “destroyed the very word of God.” They too will join the kings and other leaders in exile, becoming objects of disgrace and shame.

We also find hope within these oracles and judgments. God still longs for the people to know and to love God. God’s love for them remains strong and steadfast. In 23:3 we read, “I myself will gather the few remaining sheep from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back.” Thanks be to God for unfailing mercy and unending grace.

Prayer: Lord God, I am grateful for your standards and expectations. You call us to justice and righteousness, to mercy and compassion. You call us to love all people. You ask us to be who you are. It is good. Amen.


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God Will Teach Them

Reading: Jeremiah 13-16

Jeremiah 13:11 – “Just as a linen undergarment clings to the body, so I created the people of Israel and Judah to cling to me.”

Photo credit: Kenny Eliason

Our reading today begins with an illustration. Jeremiah buys, wears, and then buries an undergarment in the Euphrates River (in Babylon.) He digs it up and it is ruined, just like the people of God will be. God laments, “Just as a linen undergarment clings to the body, so I created the people of Israel and Judah to cling to me.” Because of their sin and disobedience, God will not have pity or compassion or mercy. They will be “dragged off to exile” and God will “scatter you like straw.”

Drought comes. It initially gets their attention. The people acknowledge their sin but then accuse God of being absent. God responds by telling Jeremiah not to pray for them. And God won’t accept their fast or their offerings. God will send war, famine, and disease. Brief attention is given to the false prophets. Yes, God says, they too will die – and their families. Chapter 14 closes with another attempt by the people. Yes, we’ve sinned. Yes, we’re sinning. But don’t reject us, don’t break your covenant. There is no repentance, no intent to turn from their sins.

God is so upset that God declares that even if Moses and Samuel came and interceded for the people, God still wouldn’t listen. God’s hand is set against Judah. The widows will “outnumber the sand.” In 15:10 Jeremiah laments his treatment. God asks, “Haven’t I taken care of you?” Jeremiah declares his love for God’s word. God offers to take him back – if he is faithful. God then promises to rescue and protect Jeremiah.

In chapter 16 God tells Jeremiah not to marry or to have children. That’s how bad it will be. The people are accused of being worse than their ancestors. Even so, in verses 14 and 15 we find hope. One day God will bring them home. But first they will be paid back double for their sins. God will teach them. “They will understand that I am the Lord,” declares God. Yes they will.

Prayer: Lord God, sin and disobedience break your heart. They create separation between who we are being and who we are meant to be. Teach us too, O Lord, how to walk faithfully and obediently. Guard us from sin. Plant your word in our hearts, enabling us to shine your love out into the world. Amen.


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Lament… and Hope!

Reading: Jeremiah 8:18-12:17

Jeremiah 10:21 – “The shepherd kings have lost their senses and don’t seek answers from the LORD. That is why they have failed and their flock is scattered.”

Our reading opens with Jeremiah’s lament: “no healing, only grief… darkness and despair overwhelm me.” He must’ve felt this often. He called out over and over but was ignored, ridiculed, and worse. Jeremiah then wonders where God’s healing is. If only there were enough tears, he would weep day and night for the people of God.

God then joins the lament. They don’t know God. They scheme, lie, and cheat. God weeps for the earth. It will be affected by the coming war. Jerusalem will become ruins, Judah a wasteland, all because they haven’t obeyed God’s Instructions. They have “followed their own willful heart.” God summons professional mourners. Maybe then Judah will understand the coming death and destruction. Maybe then they’ll quit boasting about themselves. Maybe then they’ll turn and boast once again about God and God’s kindness, justice, and righteousness. Maybe then their hearts will be circumcised.

Chapter 10 contrasts idols with God. One is “no different than a scarecrow in a cucumber patch.” The other is the living God, the creator of the earth. This one tells the people to “pack your bags” – exile is coming. Why? On the macro level, “The shepherd kings have lost their senses and don’t seek answers from the LORD. That is why they have failed and their flock is scattered.” Leadership has failed. God then laments that this generation is just like their ancestors. God worked and worked. The people ignored God, turning to idols, breaking the covenant. It is so bad, God instructs Jeremiah to not pray for them.

In chapters 11 and 12 there are schemes against Jeremiah. God will deal with that. God then again laments the reality with Judah. The leaders have “destroyed my vineyard.” Yet we see God’s great grace in verses 12-16. If the non-Israelites will turn to God, then God will build them up “in the midst of my people.” The circle might just open up a little wider. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord God, there is much sadness in today’s readings. It is centered on the state of your children. They are deep in their sin. Consequences are coming. The sadness must yet be present today. We can surely follow our own willful hearts. Lord have mercy. Please continue to be a God of kindness, justice, and righteousness. We so need you. Build us up to be your people, O God. Amen.