Meditate on it

From the Biblical Illustrator: "God finds vindication in nature: I well remember two funerals going out of my house within a few brief months during my residence in London. There were cards sent by post and left at the door, in all kindliness; but one dark night when my grief overwhelmed me I looked at some of the cards and could find no vibration of sympathy there. I had not felt the touch of the hand that sent them. I went out into the storm that moaned and raged alternately, and walked round Regent’s Park through the very heart of the hurricane. It seemed to soothe me. You troy I could not find sympathy there. Perhaps not, but I at least found affinity: the storm without seemed to harmonise with the storm within; and then I remembered that He who sent that storm to sweep over the earth loved the earth still, and then remembered that He who sent the storm to sweep over my soul, and make desolate my home, loved me still. I got comfort there in the darkness, and the wild noise of

"For the Lord will rise up, as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself, as he did in the Valley of Gibeon to accomplish his work, his peculiar work, to perform his task, his strange task." Isaiah 28:21 "God’s judgment of his own people is called “his peculiar work” and “his strange task,” because he must deal with them the way he treated their enemies in the past."  -net notes Isa 28:23 Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Isa 28:24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? Isa 28:25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? Isa 28:26 For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. Isa 28:27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Isa 28:28 Does one crush gr

In chapter 4, The Lord's complaint against the Northern Kingdom is three-fold: 1. Neither faithfulness (KJ--truth) 2. Nor loyalty (KJ--mercy, ESV--steadfast love, NLT--kindness) 3. Nor do they acknowledge the Lord (knowledge of God) No one likes doom and gloom, thus my impulse is to "get through" the prophets, as if they were a desert in marathon race.  However, my second impulse is that these three disappointments aren't complaints that I should rush by. He desires faithfulness.  Loyalty.   Acknowledgement.   His specific complaints were: *don't keep your vows *commit adultery *steal *kill *lying *violence The result: even the land will mourn and its inhabitants Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Understanding the Backdrop From Ellison via Constable's Notes: “For us alliances between nations are such a commonplace of life that we can hardly imagine a nation standing alone . . . “It should have been fundamental, however, for Israel that no foreign alliances were possible. The reason was quite simply that in those days the secular state did not exist, and so in practice it was impossible to distinguish between a state and its gods. In an extant treaty of peace between Rameses II of Egypt and Hattusilis the Hittite king it is a thousand of their gods on either side who are the witnesses to and guarantors of it.[86] So even a treaty on equal terms with a neighbouring country would have involved for Israel a recognition of the other country’s deities as having reality and equality with Jehovah. To turn to Assyria or Egypt for help implied of necessity that their gods were more effective than the God of Israel.” Breaking up fallow ground is what a farmer does when he plows land t

I'm forcing myself to slow down as I read the prophets---really I'm learning to slow down through the entire Bible reading process. There is great satisfaction in making headway through the Bible, even a type of spiritual pride can emerge--a sense that I am "faithfully mastering this text."  But the reality is, I'm not, and it's not designed to be mastered.  Instead, the hope is that it will shape and master me.  This requires a huge shift in perspective. A hope is that the Word will seep into me. And seeping takes time without substitute. If I want a strong cup of tea, I must leave the bag in...no dunking and dipping will achieve the same effect. Isaiah 8-11 requires savoring. After a few readings, subtle aspects of God's character become clearer. Chapter 10 clarifies powerfully that we are mere tools in His hand and should not misunderstand our role in the progress of time and events: "But the king of Assyria will not understand that he