Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Whew, that was a lot. It is chapter after chapter of the prophet telling Israel what will happen to them because they have been unfaithful to the Lord. It is completely focused on Israel and doesn’t include any of the other nations around it, but just Israel. Israel has “played the whore”, which means it has been unfaithful to God. As a result, God will not only turn his back on Israel, but he will actively bring upon Israel the type of destruction and future that no one would ever want. This will last some time.

But just like a Psalm of lament, that destruction will not last forever. The last chapter is what we expect in a lament, the promise of restoration and the hint of some type of faithfulness of Israel. God will forgive Israel, isn’t this what the coming Messiah is all about? The presence of God, God with us, in a way that provide grace and forgiveness. Yes, it comes, but after a long and torturous road.

We get to a Scripture where God asks one of his prophets to be an object lesson. Hosea is called to marry a woman who is unfaithful and to remain married to her. We see this in chapter 1, but we also see in chapter 3 that not only is he to remain married to her, even in the midst of her unfaithfulness, but he is not to have any intimate relations with her until a time that will be disclosed later. I hadn’t noticed that part of this book of the Bible before, but this is fairly extreme, all in order to show the extremes to which Israel and Judah have been unfaithful to God.

That is the point of object lessons, isn’t it, to show us how we are that which God has asked to show through story or through an object lesson. That is the point of parables, that is the point of miracles and healings. They are all signs to either show the glory and faithfulness of God, or the wretchedness and sin of the people of God. He is able to do both here. Hosea remains faithful even in the face of abject depravity by his wife. And Israel/Judah continue to play the field in the face of that clear faithfulness. So it is with us and God.

These prophets have two very different messages to two very different people. Nahum is actually speaking out against the enemies of Israel letting them know that their days are numbered. Normally we see the prophets speaking to the people of God, but here they are speaking to the enemies of the people of God. They do not have good things and there are promises of restoration after the exile and the downfall of those nations that took advantage of Israel’s status as an exiled nation.

Habakkuk, on the other hand, is the prophet who is basically complaining to God about how God does not seem to respond to the people of God in their time of highest need. He complains and then in chapter 2 he says he is just going to wait until God responds to him. Well, God does respond and like in so many other places, Job, Jonah, Isaiah, God asks Habakkuk who exactly he is to challenge or question God’s ways? That elicits both a recognition of God’s Providence by the prophet, but also a request, that God’s vengeance would happen during his lifetime. That is a bit of a strange request, but also one with which we can identify. Don’t we also want our prayers to be answered in our lifetime?

Who doesn’t love the Jonah and the whale story? But there is so much more to it than just that scene. Jonah runs from God because he is asked to bring the Gospel to a country who in his mind doesn’t deserve it. So he runs away and the boat on which he escapes and the people on that boat, bear the brunt of his disobedience. We don’t sin in a vacuum, people around us are affected even, or especially, if they are innocent and unaware.

He is thrown out of a boat, a whale/fish comes and swallows him up and spews him out on dry land. He goes to Nineveh and does what he is supposed to do and the people of Nineveh do what they are supposed to do: repent. It infuriates Jonah who goes out of the city to sulk and hopefully watch it get destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah style. None of that happens, and God teaches him a lesson that God is in control. He has the right to change his mind. So many great lessons for all of us.

Haggai is told by God to tell the people that it is now time to rebuild the temple. There is a direct correlation between the misfortune that the people of Israel are suffering and their disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. If they are more faithful and show that by rebuilding the temple, then their ability to grow and prosper will also change. There is a fine line between prosperity Gospel and believing that God will take care of us. The latter is healthy, the former is heresy.

We see a few passages in Joel that are used habitually, especially the 2:28-29 on the day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit is promised to all people. We also have a reversal of Isaiah 2:4 where instead of beating swords into plowshares you are taking in Joel 3:10 the plowshares and beating them into swords. The crux of the matter is that often we hear people waiting for and expecting and anticipating and looking forward to the Day of the Lord. But here Joel says that it is a terrible day, not one which we ought to long for, but rather one that we ought to fast and pray and hope that we are able to make it through it. A solemn fast is called to ensure that we do not get caught up in our own desires and wishes, but rather that God’s plans are realized.

And so the people of God, as the people of God who were governed by God’s emissaries, cease to exist. Judah is conquered by Babylon and taken into captivity, and the story ends. We now have to wait until Jesus comes back to pick the story back up, as far as the people of God are concerned, their time as a nation ends with their slavery to another nation. Today is an anomaly in the history of the people of Israel. The fact that there is a nation that is run autonomously is not the norm for the people of Israel. The history for the people of God is one of hardship, slavery, non-nation, and really nomadic living. I wonder which of the kings would God say is the current one living like: the ones who followed the Lord, or the ones that moved the people away from God.

As we move into other books of the Bible that depict stories that are similar, some even identical, to the ones that we read, it is important to note that we do not live in a context that is at all similar to that which Israel lived. We cannot claim to be a nation that God has established and that is seeking to pursue His purposes. We are a secular nation created by people in a format of government that is strictly secular. Whether God wants that or not is beside the point. The point is that we are not the people of God so what our task is, is to live our lives according to the principles of the Messiah, Jesus, who commands that we follow the laws of righteousness, even if it means that it could potentially go against the best interest of the country in which we find ourselves. Our primary loyalty has to be to God.

We see some historic occurrences here in these writings. The first that we see is the complete destruction of the northern kingdom, Israel. It is taken into captivity into Assyria and ceases to be completely. The king of Assyria even brings in other folks from the surrounding region so that there would not be people who were native to that land, like the Israelites. That doesn’t work great because God wants to be worshipped and so He sent some lions until a priest came to the north and showed them how to worship God. That made things a bit better.

In the south, king Hezekiah is reigning and guess who his prophet is? That’s right, Isaiah. I love it when Scripture overlaps. The Assyrians try to do to Judah what they were able to do to Israel, but God defeats them and so saves them for the time being. Then the Babylonians, in a good will gesture, send people to a sick Hezekiah to wish him well and basically take inventory of all the things that they want to take with them the next time that they come with their army. Isaiah wasn’t happy that Hezekiah let them in, but Hezekiah was thinking, it’s okay if we become captives to the Babylonians. At least there is peace then. There are worse things than peace.

Psalm 139 is a tremendous Psalm that I often use when I go visit pre-surgery because it reminds us of how God has wonderfully and fearfully made us. What a great reminder that it is God who commands, and not us.

The back and forth between the rulers of the north and the south continues with the rulers in the north being more or less unfaithful and those in the south being more or less faithful. In fact, we get to the point where Assyria takes the north into captivity which pretty much ends the rule of that region. We aren’t quite there yet with the south but we will get there.

Proverbs gives us some Scripture that we would do well to listen to. It reminds us wisdom should be our sister and insight should be our intimate friend. I like that imagery.

It is interesting that while the northern kingdom, Israel, remains unfaithful and tends to be the most unfaithful, we find ourselves in a time where a ruler takes over who was anointed by the Lord and then takes on the commands of the Lord. Jehu takes over in a most violent way, clears the house of Ahab in the most violent of ways, and rules over Israel in the most violent of ways even while the territory of Israel is being chipped away. We are seeing the beginning of the end for Israel, even while a somewhat faithful ruler takes over.

The saga of this type of Game of Thrones is just about over and we do not have anyone or anything taking its place except when Jesus comes, and then it is anything but a geopolitical rule, it is a ruler of the hearts and minds of the people of God. What a difference.

We see some of the favorite stories of Elisha that I have preached on consistently. We have the widow and the oil that pretty much never runs out until it is enough. We have the death of a son who then is raised after he was born against all odds. We have the cleansing of Naaman in the Jordan, which while it was not nearly the type of rivers that Naaman was used to, not nearly the size nor the power, served its purpose. Elisha continues to follow the Lord, even while he is the only one in all the land, and he is changing hearts and minds.

Proverbs warns against laziness and infidelity. Now, not that these two are related, they are not, but according to the author of Proverbs, they both produce that which the Lord abhors.