Category: Scripture

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Scripture

Minor Prophets

Zechariah 3:1-10

A Vision of Joshua the High Priest

3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan1 standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand2 plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 4 And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 5 And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.

6 And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. 8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. 9 For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes,3 I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

Footnotes

[1] 3:1 Hebrew the Accuser or the Adversary

[2] 3:2 That is, a burning stick

[3] 3:9 Or facets

(ESV)

Categories
Scripture

Minor Prophets

Habakkuk 2:1-5


2:1   I will take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
  and look out to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

2 And the LORD answered me:


  “Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
3   For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
  If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.


4   “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.1


5   “Moreover, wine2 is a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.3
  His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death he has never enough.
  He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”

Footnotes

[1] 2:4 Or faithfulness

[2] 2:5 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll wealth

[3] 2:5 The meaning of the Hebrew of these two lines is uncertain

(ESV)

;

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.


2   O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
    and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
  In the midst of the years revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    in wrath remember mercy.
3   God came from Teman,
    and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
  His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
4   His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
5   Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed at his heels.1
6   He stood and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
  then the eternal mountains were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were the everlasting ways.
7   I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
    the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8   Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    or your indignation against the sea,
  when you rode on your horses,
    on your chariot of salvation?
9   You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows.2 Selah
    You split the earth with rivers.
10   The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
  the deep gave forth its voice;
    it lifted its hands on high.
11   The sun and moon stood still in their place
    at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
12   You marched through the earth in fury;
    you threshed the nations in anger.
13   You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of your anointed.
  You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck.3 Selah
14   You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15   You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.


16   I hear, and my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
  rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
  Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord


17   Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
  the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
  the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18   yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19   GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer’s;
    he makes me tread on my high places.


  To the choirmaster: with stringed4 instruments.

Footnotes

[1] 3:5 Hebrew feet

[2] 3:9 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain

[3] 3:13 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain

[4] 3:19 Hebrew my stringed

(ESV)

Categories
Scripture

Minor Prophets

Jonah 2

Jonah’s Prayer

2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,


  “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
  out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice.
3   For you cast me into the deep,
    into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
  all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
4   Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
  yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
5   The waters closed in over me to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
  weeds were wrapped about my head
6     at the roots of the mountains.
  I went down to the land
    whose bars closed upon me forever;
  yet you brought up my life from the pit,
    O LORD my God.
7   When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the LORD,
  and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
8   Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9   But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
  what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

(ESV)

Categories
Scripture

Minor Prophets

Hosea 1:1-10

1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Hosea’s Wife and Children

2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy,1 for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People,2 for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”3

10 4 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children5 of the living God.”

Footnotes

[1] 1:6 Hebrew Lo-ruhama, which means she has not received mercy

[2] 1:9 Hebrew Lo-ammi, which means not my people

[3] 1:9 Hebrew I am not yours

[4] 1:10 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew

[5] 1:10 Or Sons

(ESV)

;

Hosea 3:1-5

Hosea Redeems His Wife

3:1 And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech1 of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

Footnotes

[1] 3:2 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; a lethech was about 3 bushels or 110 liters

(ESV)

Categories
Saturday Study Scripture

Saturday Study

Saturday Study

King Nebuchadnezzar (10-3-20)

As we look back over our reading about King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2-4:

The setting is the Babylonian court shortly after Nebuchadnezzar had a troublesome dream that led to insomnia (Dan. 2:1). Ancient Babylonians strongly believed in supernatural forces and looked for omens in the stars, dreams, and even the shapes of animal livers. Nebuchadnezzar could not understand its message, so he called his “magicians … enchanters … sorcerers” and other wise men to help him understand his vision (v. 2).   Anyone could invent a meaning they could attach to the dream, but to give the dream itself without help from the dreamer was a sign of clear inspiration of understanding. That is why Nebuchadnezzar demanded to hear both the dream and its meaning (vv. 3–11).

When no Babylonian wise man could help him, Nebuchadnezzar threatened to kill all of his wise men including Daniel and his friends. But Daniel prayed and God revealed the dream to him.  Before Daniel runs to the king with the interpretation, he sets his heart in the right place by proclaiming the sovereignty of God in his most famous words.

Daniel 2:20-23 “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.

21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

22 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

23 To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might,

and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was concerning the empires that would succeed Nebuchadnezzar. Most likely, we are to understand the kingdoms represented by the various part of the statue as follows: head of gold—Babylon; chest and arms of silver—Media- Persia; middle and thighs of bronze—Greece; legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay— Rome (vv. 25–43). But the end of the dream is the most remarkable part—a rock not cut by human hands would destroy all these kingdoms and become a mountain so large as to fill the whole earth (vv. 44–45). God’s kingdom, not established by human initiative, would rise victorious during the Roman era. Here we have a clear prediction of Jesus Christ.

In verses 46-49, King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

As we turn to Daniel 3 we read about King Nebuchadnezzar’s self-worship and how he made a huge image of gold and set it up where everyone could see it.  What a blatant move of sinful idolatry.  Mankind is so prone to make ourselves the center of our universe.   The command on the people was that whenever you hear music to bow and worship the image of gold and whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. 

Next, we read how Daniel’s three appointed friends would not bow when the music played.

Daniel 3:14 …and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?”

This is a direct attack on God’s command to not have any other gods before him.

It is a direct attack on the exclusivity of Christ who claims that he is the only way, truth and life. 

Let me show you how center this is in our culture today.

If you are in the business world: whether you own your own or are in sales or marketing or labor.

The culture plays by the rules that you must be ruthless and ride the line of ethics and honesty in how you do business if you are going to overcome your competitors and make it.  If you are a Christ-bled-for child of God, this is an incredible pressure on you.   Because to not play by the same rules is to likely mean you lose clients or bids or even your job because you are not willing to do what the next guy is. So now this affects your conscience, your livelihood, your character. 

This is not just a “WORK” thing. This becomes as core as it gets in your daily life. 

If you don’t feel this pressure, then you have likely given into the pressure and are compromising yourself more than you know. You have likely figured out a way to bow to the image at the market center without seeing it or feeling it.     

If you feel this pressure, then that is a sign that you understand you are an exile in this land and serve another God whose kingdom is very different than this one.  You embrace the struggle that comes with not bending to the twisted rules of this world in order to honor the God of the kingdom you are in.

In our passage today, we see that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had none of it.

Now, we assume that because they stood so strong against the cultural pressure that they must have been like the Amish set out and removed from the city life.

But they weren’t. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego all lived in the center of the city and worked for the very leaders that conquered them.  Daniel was one of the highest advisors to King Neb that there was (much like Joseph was to Pharaoh as the one interpreting his dreams).

But when they were asked to privatize their faith and to compromise their worship of the one true God, they say, “NO and we don’t care what the consequences are”.  Listen to their response…

Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Their response in the face of pending painful death is awesome.

-They believe that God can save them.

-They believe that God will save them. 

-But if in his sovereign plan he does not, they still will not bow down to that false image.

This is an awesome example of true devotion and faith. 

Despite the level of threat, despite the ability and authority of the rule they are conversing with to carry out their penalty for disobeying, they hold fast full of faith and devotion to God alone.

Now, what is so key in this that we must see here today is that:

they are saying “we do not trust in our God, worship our God, live for our God, suffer for our God because of what we get out of it”, but simply for who he is.  

àWe love God for himself!    Not just for what he can give us!

This unveils for us one of the biggest controversies we have in the church today.

People who claim faith and devotion to God alone.  People who claim to worship God alone

but in the end, when life doesn’t go the way they want it to, they are furious with God.

WHY?  Because deep down, God was just the means to an end.  A greater affection of the heart.

In the end, they want to be God and determine what they need and the way it should be.

Do you see the deception in that? The hypocrisy?   

Do you know what you are truly devoted to?  What you truly trust in to live and enjoy life?    

The apostle Paul understood this kind of devotion for who God is and not for what he does for us.

“To live is Christ. To die is gain.”    You have heard or said this before.    But do you really get it?

It means the most important thing is God. Not this life. Not my stuff. Not my status, my health, my family.

If I have to lose it all, if I die, if God himself determines I must go into the blazing furnace, then so be it.  WHY?  HOW? 

Because I have God.  Because God is my end!  TO LIVE… IS CHRIST!  To die is gain because I get to enjoy and feast with Christ all the more.

Do you see that when these three said, if God doesn’t save us from the fire we still will not bow down.  NO matter what happens next they have already won!   WHY? 

Because they are spiritually FIRE PROOF.   They are not clinging to something that they might lose. They are not trying to earn something they still need.   They have God.  They are satisfied in GOD!

These guys said, “You can have it all, but You can’t separate us from God.  So turn the heat up… let’s do this!”

What happens next?  King Neb is furious with these three.  He is steaming. So, what does he do? 

He has his men turn up the heat 7 times its normal temperature and has them bound fully clothed and tossed in.   The fire is so hot that the men who put them in die from the heat!!!!

NEXT, Neb sees two shocking things: 

1.  He sees Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking around in the blazing furnace.  

2.  He sees not 3 but 4 men in the fire.  The 4th he says, looks like a son of the gods.

What can we glean from here:   In the Bible, furnaces are a metaphor for trials, suffering and trouble.

Exile doesn’t mean comfort. It doesn’t mean HOME!

When you are in captivity or stuck in a strange and foreign land, you are not comfortable at HOME!

A few things to take away here:

  1. While in this life, you will suffer, struggle and experience great trials!  It is inevitable.

Job 5:7- …man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

1 Peter 4:12- Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

As Americans, we really struggle with fully accepting this as true. Americans deep down believe if you do life right you will not and should not suffer. The simple answer to that is:   Jesus lived a perfect life and he suffered greatly during his life and in his death.  

We need to hold to the truth the apostle Paul gives us “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

  1. If you truly trust in God and hold nothing as more valuable than him.  Then WHEN the fire of this life comes you will not burn up but instead it will be to you what FIRE is to GOLD. 

It will refine you at your very core.   Changing you from the inside out. Producing in you a character of the fruit of the spirit that you and I cannot produce ourselves.

But, if you hold onto something as more valuable to you than God the fire will consume you.

Why? Because it has something to cling to and consume!  But in God, you cannot be consumed by the fiery trials. You will instead be refined!

1 Peter 1:7 – These trials have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

The good news for us today is: “God says if you trust in me I will walk with you in the furnace of your trials and suffering”.

Isaiah 43:1-3 “…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 

2 …When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…”

I will be with you. Jesus said it to us before ascending to heaven.  “I will always be with you.”

How is he with us? The same way he was with the three men in the furnace.

We see in this encounter- the appearance of THE ANGEL OF THE LORD.

Did you catch it?     King Neb said it himself in verse 28:

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him.” 

The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament can be appreciated only if we understand him as a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ himself.

Why is this good news to you and I today? 

How does this help us walk through the fires and trials and struggles of our lives here and now?

You will feel Jesus Christ walking with you through the furnaces you face in this life to the degree that you know that Jesus was willing to be thrown into the ultimate furnace for you!

Now at the very end of this passage, King Neb says it right. Verse 29- …no other god can save in this way…

If you cling to any self-righteousness… any other God… any other power and try to walk through the furnace, it will not be able to save or sustain you.  You will be forever consumed with agony.

Jesus Christ suffered for me not that I might not suffer, but so when I suffer I might become like him who is victorious over suffering unto eternal LIFE with Yahweh!  No other god can save in this way.   AMEN?

Even though King Neb got it he still struggled making it all about himself!  Daniel 4:28-30 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”

Even with warning from Daniel about the coming judgment and his need to humble himself and be merciful to the oppressed, the King remained in his pride as we see him testify in verse 30!

Our knowledge of Babylon at the time indicates that, humanly speaking, the king had every right to be proud. Isaiah 13 alludes to Babylon’s reign over a huge empire that encompassed the area (in modern terms) from Egypt to Iran and Syria to Saudi Arabia. Nebuchadnezzar’s city was incredible. The king certainly had no shortage of reasons to be puffed up with pride.

But this never justifies a haughty prideful attitude.  We must not make this life about us.  It is all God’s. It is all from him and for him. 

In Daniel 4:31- 33 The word of the Lord came to King Neb and his judgment came quick and complete.

Only in humble judgment did King Nebuchadnezzar see God for who he was and honor him for it.

Read Daniel 4:34-37

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

Apparently, only a drastic humbling could convince the king of His proper place and so God brought him to his knees. To paraphrase one writer, a man who thought himself a god was made a beast to learn that he was but a man. Those who will not humble themselves in the sight of the Lord will be cast down, not lifted up (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:6–7).

May we live humbly before our God. May we not bow to any idol or manmade thing but only to the living God.

May we cling to nothing to be our hope or our joy but God alone so that when we face the furnace of this life’s trials, we will say bring it on and remain faithful to our living and eternal God.  To him be the glory forever and ever.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church