shinewriter

Habakkuk enters into a discussion with the Lord. Our prophet is concerned about the peoples response to his preaching. There is none; from the towns folk that is. The inhabitants of Judah are continuing on with their idolatrous living.

The prophet asks God straight out, what is He going to do about it? The Lord tells him to sit tight. He then informs Habakkuk that the Babylonians are being brought up to speed. That this empire will defeat Judah and teach them a severe lesson.

Habakkuk is not happy with this arrangement. He tells the Lord so. After all how can a Holy God use unholy people to teach the Jews a lesson. This does not sound right to the prophet at all.

God is patience and loving towards his people and to His prophets. He answers Habakkuk this way. Wickedness will always be defeated and so will wicked people. Those who trust in me will have nothing to fear.

We have learnt from the last verse in Ecclesiastes, to fear God and keep His commandments. Whether we are an individual or a nation it does not matter.

Lamentations is much the book of Jeremiah in a nutshell. It also gives us some insight as to what to expect, if we mess with God. Neither are his prophets, teachers or ministers to be taken for granted.

Jeremiah’s life was made miserable by people who were blinded by sin. He had been given a message by God, much the same as a minister prepares a sermon then preaches it. There is much we can learn from sermons especially in this day and age. With all this hi-tech equipment available there is no such thing as a boring sermon.

A good idea is to take notes, and discuss them with your family after lunch. One church I went to many years ago had home study Bible groups. Every so often we would have a sermon study. We would take notes on Sunday then dissect the message at our Wednesday group. This really helped bring the sermon alive. It reinforced what was being taught over the pulpit.

It has helped me to develop a healthy fear of God and to obey His commandments. Now what do you do?

Jerusalem is now occupied by the Babylonians. Lamentations tells about Jewish morale at this time. How it felt to see their city destroyed. Then how the remnant that survived coped with life.

All this came about because of a nations sin, and a failure to put it right. Jeremiah was constantly on their case. He warned them of what would happen. They ignored Jeremiah and their God who had sent him.

It seems that God has almost turned his back on His people the Jews. But God will never be an enemy to His people. He’s just like any father that loves his children. He is angry for a time, corrects them and then a restoration process begins.

More than anyone else Jeremiah is aware of what is happening and why. As he sits and watches these events take place he becomes quite disturbed. Perhaps deep inside he hoped that it wouldn’t have come to this.

To sit at a bus stop and watch pretty girls go by seems to be a harmless occupation. Or is it? King David obviously didn’t think so. Except he was on the roof of his home, the palace. He should have been away fighting battles. In chapter 11 it tells us it was the spring when Kings go to war.

The King couldn’t sleep so he went for a walk. Looking out over the city or whether admiring the landscape he spied a woman having a bath. It caught his attention. Bible says she was beautiful. The king thought so too because he sent for her.

They ended up doing their thing. I wonder what made them think that they could get away with committing adultery. Those of us that have been around awhile know full well that what is done in secret God rewards openly.

Unfortunately for these two it works in a negative sense as well. Bathsheba found herself pregnant. A cover up was planned; it failed. For these two people murder became the only option.

God sent the prophet Nathan to see David. He told the King a parable. It was about two men. One was rich with many sheep, the other poor with only one. Instead of slaughtering one of his own sheep to feed his guests he killed the poor mans only sheep.

The King demanded to know who it was so he could punish him. Imagine his embarrassment when the prophet told him it was to do with he and Bathsheba’s adultery.

As with many types of sin they just don’t happen over night. There is a gradual progression which arrives at the act itself. Suppose we have a slice of cake. Lets say its chocolate. It will represent sin. We look at it. We admire it but we don’t eat it so we think we have done nothing wrong.

We read a book about chocolate cakes enjoying the lavish photographs. We still haven’t eaten the cake so technically we have done nothing wrong. Then we gone online. We visit web sites. There are more pictures of chocolate cakes.

We still haven’t eaten the cake. But the momentum is slowly building. One day we come across a piece of chocolate cake that we think only we know about. So we might just pick a crumb of it. Then we pick up the cake and eat it. Sin is pleasurable for a season. Eventually we feel dirty inside like King David did. So we repent and come back to that rightful place in God.

Sex is a wonderful thing, without it I would not be here. But God created the institution of marriage which is where it belongs. After-all when things are done God’s way sex is His wedding present to a man and a woman.

In these times in which we are living it is sadly not so with some people. So how can we deal with this. Lets go back to our analogy of the chocolate cake.

At the early stages when the picture of the cake is in front of us it is purely an enticement. It leads to the next step downward. When confronted with this situation imagine that dirty feeling inside when you had committed sin the last time. You know, just before you repented. It will stop you in your tracks.

The Concise Oxford dictionary describes the liver as a large glandular organ. It then goes on and tells us about its function. Here’s what it says. It secretes bile which is a brownish-yellow colour. It is bitter and aids with digestion.

Having said that some parts of the body were having a discussion. The hand explained how he was the most important because none of the others had the ability to pick things up.

The eye interrupted the hand and told how he was far more important because it was only the eye could see what was going to be picked up.

The ear disagreed. He was the most important as only he was able to hear what the instructions were in the first place.

Just then the liver came in. The other parts of the body told him to go away because he smelt terrible. “With a smell like that you’ll never be the most important part of the body”.

“Is that right”, said the liver. “Then I’m going on strike”. The other parts of the body began to shut down. “Liver”, they cried. “We’re sorry, please come back”.

To see what the Bible says look up 1 Cor 12v12-27

This man liked to pray to God three times a day. He is told by way of a royal decree that he cannot do this for 30 days. Daniel looked forward to spending time with God. It is really no surprise that he carried on as usual.

Now the group of people responsible for this were jealous over his senior appointments. If only they could get rid of Daniel. Too bad it was they that got eaten by the lions.

In everyday life Christians are sometimes subjected to this type of behaviour. Take for example some new people come to your church. They are made song leaders and become best friends with your minister. The same one you have to make an appointment with a month in advance.

Some years ago my wife an I were part of a church planting team. We were living in a district that was unfamiliar to us. Work was scarce and money was carefully spent. A group of people from the congregation gave us a food parcel. The Pastors wife told us off big time.

At the time it shook us up. But we pressed into God, just like Daniel did.
The point is this. Daniel was got at. We will all be got at in some form or another. There is a saying I’ve picked up in my travels. It goes like this. When there is nothing left but God, God is enough.

When Jehoiakim was on the throne Daniel was taken captive. With many others he was taken to Babylon. He and three of his companions were placed in the kings service. Here they were taught the Babylonian way of doing business.

It is interesting to note that there are quite a few similarities between Daniel and Joseph.

Both taken captive in their youth.
Served in the ruling monarchs court.
Were set up and judged unfairly.
Became successful through their troubles.
Received promotion due to dreams and interpretations thereof.
Lived a godly life amongst the wicked.
Both died in a foreign land.

Daniel had been given something special by God. He was able to see further ahead than any other prophet. Daniel had seen the coming of Christ, and more.

In the time of Micah it was the farmers who suffered much. Their produce was brought for a pittance then sold for maximum profit. Today it is the price of a barrel of oil. Petrol, sugar and flour are the mainstays of the economy in which we live. The prices of these three govern just about everything else we need to sustain life.

What about wages? Can the working man who is the equivalent of the biblical farmer survive? How about those at the bottom of our food chain. The humble beneficiary. Does God hear their cries for a better deal? Yes he does. And as He answered prayers of the suffering back then God is still able to do that today.

But before God can act in our situation He wants to work in our lives first. Yes that means me and you. Trusting God has always been hard but it is possible. Micah has been used by God to even show us what is good and what is required.

The name of this book comes from two Greek words. They are deuteros which means second and nomos which translates as law. At first look much of the information presented here is repetitious of the previous volumes of the pentateuch.

When we read a little carefully it can been seen that the tone has changed. The law has been rewritten but as in a sense more for the people. Prior to this it was the priests who administered the word of God to the children of Israel.

There was now a whole new generation. A generation that knew nothing first hand of Egypt. A generation that trusted God and obeyed His commands, or did they. The tone in this book reflects some of this.

This story is more than just a floating zoo. It is about people. People who God chose to carry on with His great plan for mankind. Today there are some lessons for us as well. Some are obvious while a few maybe a little abstract. There will be more but I was able to find seven.

It took 100 years to build the Ark. Good things take time.

It is safer to travel in pairs.

The Ark was built by an amateur, the Titanic by professionals.

No matter what storms you face in life, when you are with God there will always a rainbow waiting.

When God has a job to be done He always calls a man. Never a committee.

When under pressure, float awhile.

Speed does not come into God’s equation. Snails were called with Cheetahs.