Month: July 2021

Nehemiah 1:9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from thence, and I will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

Nehemiah recounts in his prayer the words and promises of the Lord through Moses. He repents for the people and confesses their sin. He begs forgiveness and restoration and asks the Lord to bring them back from Babylon. Nehemiah reminded God of His conditional promise: if we turn to God and keep the commandments, then He will gather us and bring us back. This conditional promise runs through the Scriptures from Moses to John. He turned and God gathered.

The story of Ezra and Nehemiah is the story of the Return from Exile. They led the people in Repenting and Turning to the Lord, in Returning to and Restoring the land and the city, and in Rebuilding the temple and Repairing the walls. And God gathered the people and brought them back the place He chose, Jerusalem.

The Lord promises to do the same for us. We were born in sin with a rebellious and disobedient soul. And we live in exile in a far country (the world) away from our heavenly home where we belong, the place God chose for us. But the Lord grants repentance through the Law and faith through the Gospel. The Holy Spirit gathers us from where we have strayed or from the place where our sin has driven us, separated from God; and He brings us back to God and places the kingdom in our hearts. Surprisingly, we need to repent and return every day, for we still live in the world and with our sinful flesh all the time. By faith we firmly live in the Kingdom of God, in Christ, in the new man, but the kingdom of darkness, the world, and the sinful old man still clings to us. Thus, “turning” is a daily and weekly occurrence.

Ezra 8:31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered from the hand of our enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way.

Ezra acknowledges that the Lord brought the people out of exile; that the hand of God was upon them; and that God delivered them from the hand of the enemy. The people had been in Babylon a long time, long enough to get used to it, to settle in, and no longer old enough to remember anything different. And now to pull up roots and make a difficult and dangerous journey was challenging.

But Ezra, being a man of the Word, a man of prayer, and a man of faith, was up to the challenge. He took hold of God’s Promise and ran with it. We also are on a laborious and dangerous journey from exile in a sinful and foreign world to our heavenly home with the Lord. We too have the twofold promise that the power of God will be with us and that He will deliver us from our Enemy on the way. We pray with confident trust “deliver us from evil.”

The word “evil” (poneros) can also be translated “evil one.” The word “hand” (hand of God, hand of the enemy) symbolizes “power.” We are not deceived, for we do not underestimate the power of the devil, but we also know the truth that the power of our Lord is much greater. Grace and truth always win.

Surely Sin , Death and the devil lie in wait by the way. Some days we are ambushed and blindsided. Sin crouches at the door, Death lurks in the bushes, and the Devil prowls like a lion. So we repent of our own faulty reasoning and strength and we believe the Gospel, as it is the power of God. We believe, we pray “deliver us from evil,” we trust the promise, and we go merrily on our way. We will reach Jerusalem.

257. Strengthened by God

Ezra 7:28 And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counselors, and before the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

Ezra the scribe had received a decree by letter from King Artaxerxes of Persia, declaring that he may go to Jerusalem and build the house of the Lord. This was in answer to the long time prayers of God’s people. They had been praying and crying for a long time, and now when it was about to come about there was thankful and enthusiastic response. Now Ezra thanks God for putting this into the king’s heart to beautify the temple. The foundation had been laid, but much work had yet to be done. The king sent many people and much wealth to finish the job.

Ezra acknowledges that it was God’s doing, and not the king’s idea. The Lord was good and merciful to hear our prayer. The Lord may use the powers that be to keep His promises and hear our prayers. God does many things through ordinary human means, and so they don’t look like miracles. Ezra has the faith to see the spiritual reality, what is really going on. Ezra was a scribe who knew the word and the way of God; the Word gave him the faith to see.

The result of the people’s prayers, God’s answer, and the Word of God was that he was strengthened by the hand of the Lord to do the work He called him to do. And Ezra did a great work.

God promises us that he will give us the strength, the desire, and the ability to do the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” This is the promise: when we are facing a difficult challenge, a steep mountain, or a dark valley the Lord will strengthen us to walk in good works. He uses the Word of Gospel to strengthen us in faith. His hand will be upon us.

Ezra 6:22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

After the Jews had returned to Jerusalem from exile, Ezra had gotten them cleansed and ready to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. There are several notable celebrations of Passover in the OT after years of neglect. This is one of them, and apparently the Jews did so ever since, after the Return.

This celebratory occasion was the cause of great joy for the Returnees. It is noteworthy that Ezra records that “the Lord had made them joyful.” This is the promise for us also: “The Lord makes us joyful.” The Feast is both a remembrance of what God has done for us in the past and a promise of what He will do for us in the future. They remember the Exodus Salvation and anticipate the coming of the Lamb of God, the promised Messiah. It is the same for us when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper: we remember what God has done for us in Christ’s death and resurrection and look forward to the Feast to come at the Marriage Supper with the Lamb in His Kingdom.

This is a weekly cause of great joy for us believers. We look back and we look forward and it all comes together in the present. This is cause for great joy. The Lord makes us joyful.

And nothing can take that joy and peace from us. This is the promise to us when we believe in Jesus and celebrate what He did, who we are, and where we are going. We don’t have to put on a smile and act like we are happy, because we really are. We are filled with deep and lasting joy because it is the Lord who makes us joyful. So God promises, and so we are.

Ezra 3:11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

This common refrain is a promise: “The Lord will be good to His people, and His faithful love will never fail you.” Finally, God’s people came back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon under Ezra’s leadership, and by faith they laid the foundation of the temple. This was a monumental achievement by the Lord and a great moment of glory. The event caused stupendous rejoicing among the people, and they shouted extremely loudly in giving praise and thanks to God. It sounds like you would have heard a deafening roar if you had been there.

The moment that caused the exuberant praise was the laying of the temple foundation, but the underlying cause for the grand celebration was the evidence and conviction (faith) of the goodness of God, His faithful love, and His eternal mercy. This is why we rejoice by giving thanks. God is something worth getting excited about. We could never be loud enough or get truly excited enough to really give the Lord the praise and thanks He deserves. Until we join the heavenly throng.

How do we rejoice? By thanking God. How do we thank? With exuberance. Why do we rejoice and give thanks? Because He is faithful to His covenant promises. He promises to be good to us, all the time, no matter what. The Lord keeps His promises: to love us beyond our comprehension, to be kind beyond belief, and to be faithful to the end and far beyond. And so we “give thanks unto the Lord.”

2 Chronicles 34:27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend Thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.

The same conditional promise worked out well for Josiah, as it did for all six good kings of Judah. Josiah had begun temple reforms. Hilkiah, the priest, had found a disused book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. This was most likely the Book of Deuteromy, or at least a part of it. When Josiah heard the words of the book read to him by the prophetess, Huldah, he immediately repented and set about to do everything written therein. The reforms were deep and immediate. Things really changed for the better.

(Unfortunately, soon after Josiah died his evil sons succeeded him, and the spiritual life of the kingdom deteriorated so badly again that God used Babylon to crush the city and the kingdom and the temple, and send the people into exile. This devastating judgment occurred as predicted in Deuteronomy as the consequential curse of sin, disobedience and idolatry came into effect.)

But at least the blessings of repentance and faith were felt for a while. And, once again, “these things were written for our learning.” The conditions are real, the promises are real, and these things continue to happen in out lives to the degree that we listen to God’s Law and Gospel. The conditional promises will come true on condition. The blessings and curses are embedded principles of life.

What were the conditions that Josiah met that we can learn from? 1) His heart was tender, letting the Law hammer on his stony heart; 2) He humbled himself, admitting his sinfulness before a holy God; 3) He heard the words of God and did them; 4) He rent his clothes and wept, signifying godly repentance and faith. The Word and the Spirit has a transforming effect on the soul. The upshot is that the Lord hears the tearful prayers of a convicted and penitent heart, and changes things for the good.

2 Chronicles 33:12, 13 And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.

Manasseh is an example of God’s conditional promise to us: if you seek the Lord, humble yourself, and pray unto Him, then He will hear your prayer and bring you again into the kingdom. Repent, and God will restore. This is one of the more remarkable stories of repentance and forgiveness ever recorded. It is as amazing a miracle as the repentance of the Ninevites of Jonah’s day. It is as remarkable as the repentance of King David. It reminds us of the Prodigal Son. It is notable for Manasseh’s extreme turnaround. He had been perhaps the most evil of the kings of Judah, and after the Lord afflicted him and he repented he restored true worship and got rid of idolatry.

In the same way, the Lord afflicts us as a call to repent and turn to God. He promises to hear our prayers and cries, bring us back to the kingdom of God, and restore again what the “devourer” has taken away. And we can’t say we don’t need it. He did it with Job. We, too, are as evil as Manasseh and as righteous as Job, and we still need repentance and humility every day in order to be restored into the Kingdom. Jesus is in the business of restoration.

The sad outcome of the story, however, is that Manasseh’s son, Amon, returned Judah back again to the evil ways of his father’s former ways. That is why we don’t neglect to pray for our children and grandchildren.

2 Chronicles 32:8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

The Lord our God promises to help us and fight our battles. So relax! Rest yourselves upon the Word of God. That’s what the people did upon hearing the words of Hezekiah, who heard it from the Lord. It is not an easy thing to discern what it is that we are to do and what God is going to do when we “let go and let God.” Well, we do what we are called to do according to our role and responsibility. And we don’t tell God what to do. For instance, we would not even think about asking Him to send an angel to slay 185,000 soldiers in Sennacherib’s army. But the Lord knows what He is doing, even if we don’t

We just pray, “Thy will be done on earth (in my life) as it is in heaven (in Your life).” “Work out your good and gracious will in my daily affairs in Your way and Your timing. This will of yours has already been decreed in the spiritual world; now I’ll take my hands off and trust you work it out for good. Forgive me for not trusting and obeying. Thank you.” Then go about your business in faith and obedience. And rest.

Life is so much easier and better when we can trust our Lord to fight our battles. And such a faith and such a life comes from hearing the Word of Christ. So “Hear ye Him.” We see by faith the spiritual nature of the struggles we face. Then we put on the spiritual armor daily and “stand (believe).” We don’t fight. God does that. That is why He is with us. Jesus has, Jesus does, and Jesus will, fight.

251. More with us

2 Chronicles 32:7 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him.

This encouraging promise was given to Hezekiah, and he passed on his faith to the people of Jerusalem. The promise of “more with us” is also given to us for our encouragement. We are encouraged by the Spirit within us to be strong and courageous and not to be afraid or dismayed. At times we may feel overwhelmed by the Enemy within us and around us and by the horde of bad things that are coming against us from time to time. We may strengthen ourselves in the Lord and His promises. Our God has a word of comfort and hope.

Our problem is that we don’t see the whole picture; we can only see the physical, earthly, and worldly; we can’t see the spiritual world. That is why God has given us the inspired Word of God: to reveal to the eyes of the heart what is really going on. Faith in the gospel given by the Spirit sees. So we walk by faith, not by sight. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” “Faith is the conviction of things not seen.”

Elisha asked the Lord to open the eyes of the servant with him; then he saw an extremely vast army of angels on the mountain fighting for us [2 Kings 6:15-17]. So we open the Bible to behold wondrous things out of God’s Word to us. The Book of Revelation tells us that Satan dragged away one-third of the angels to rebel with him. That leaves two-thirds of an innumerable army fighting on our side in our regular daily spiritual battles. And we have the Word: one word from Jesus wipes our enemies.

The outcome of the Hezekiah incident is that an angel of the Lord slew 185,000 of the Assyrian forces in one night. Always remember: there are more with us than with them.

250. Prosper

2 Chronicles 31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Hezekiah is one of the best examples of the conditional promise of prospering, if one keeps the Law and the Commandments and seeks the Lord with all his heart. He sought the Lord alone and got the kingdom to do so as well; he restored the proper worship of the Lord; he did that which was good and right and truth. The result was that he prospered, and so did the people. The same conditional promise is also good for us. When he brought the tithes and offerings into the temple service and to the priesthood by heaps God blessed the people, and now He blessed them even more so that they could give even more.

The blessing and prosperity promised in this story is mostly seen as material blessings on the crops and herds. However, the real blessing is in the spiritual realm when believers dwell in the peace and love of God. Prospering in the spirit is a direct result of seeking the Lord and giving Him first place in thoughts, words, and service to others. Individuals, marriages, families, churches, groups, and whole nations will always prosper and enjoy blessings insofar as they obey God. We seek the Lord and His Kingdom by paying attention to the Lord and His Word, particularly in believing the gospel. We seek the Lord with all our heart through private devotions, Bible study and prayer. Looking for and receiving Jesus over and again on a daily and weekly basis does wonders for our spiritual prosperity and wellbeing. We will not fail to find love, peace, and joy, the spiritual commodities the Lord gives in abundance, as a result of seeking the Lord with all our heart.

1 Corinthians 10:11: “Now these happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.” We are inspired to believe when we learn from the Scriptures, OT and NT, and the Spirit gives faith to believe the Word and apply it to our lives. And we prosper.