Consider Your Ways, Israel! #2

Sunday, September 22, 2013

“Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5,6 KJV).

The Jews have built their houses, but they are apathetic that they have not finished JEHOVAH’S….

Today’s Scripture is amplified in the succeeding verses:

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands” (verses 7-11).

At this point, the LORD through the prophet Haggai has twice-instructed Israel, “Consider your ways” (verses 5,7). They are to reflect on the way they are behaving, to the extent that they will repent (change their minds), and then change their actions.

In verse 6 (today’s Scripture), we read how Israel is planting many crops, but their harvest is meager. Food, drink, and clothing cannot and do not satisfy them. The futility of their actions is summed up in the phrase, “he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

Verses 7-11 explain that God has caused Israel’s economic inefficiency. As per the Mosaic Law, God is chastising Israel, attempting to reform them. Will they reform, or not…?

Consider Your Ways, Israel! #1

Saturday, September 21, 2013

“Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5,6 KJV).

The Jews have built their houses, but they are apathetic that they have not finished JEHOVAH’S….

In the context of today’s Scripture, only a remnant of Jews has returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity (606-536 B.C.). Like Zechariah and Malachi, JEHOVAH has sent Haggai to instruct, encourage, and rebuke these post-exilic Israelis in Palestine. Both Haggai and Zechariah preached prior to Ezra, the priest-scribe who led a group of Jews from Babylon back to Jerusalem. Today’s Scripture, dated approximately 520 B.C., parallels Ezra 5:1.

Haggai, preaching to the returned Jews in Jerusalem and Judah, reminds them that though are now living again in the Promised Land, their lives are futile and empty (today’s Scripture). Some 15 years earlier, King Cyrus of Persia had granted the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild Solomon’s Temple (destroyed 586 B.C. by the Babylonians). However, Gentile opposition to the Jews building at that site halted construction until the time of the context of today’s Scripture (Ezra 4:23,24 cf. Haggai 1:1,2).

The prophet Haggai rebukes the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah who have built their own homes, but who could not care less that JEHOVAH’S Temple is still unfinished, nearly two decades since its construction began. “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled [roofed, covered] houses, and this house lie waste?” (Haggai 1:2-4).

We will better understand the meaning of today’s Scripture by taking a closer look at the minor prophet’s book. Let us see why Israel’s strenuous labor is yielding little reward, and if she will reform her ways….

Where Was God? #7

Friday, September 20, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

Jesus Christ said of Israel, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). Signs, miracles, and wonders are the nation Israel’s birthright: in Psalm 74:9, Israel confesses they are “our signs.” Paul wrote, “For the Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22a).

Rather than seeking visible and audible proof of God’s working today—angelic visitations, miraculous healings, financial deliverance, “small still voices,” et cetera—we walk by faith. When writing to and about us in this the Dispensation of Grace, Paul wrote, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight: )” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus Christ stated, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Where is God during tragedies? He is working in and through us Christians using His Word, that those troubles not destroy us. The way God intervenes today is by directly (yet invisibly) working in our inner man: He takes His rightly divided Word that we study and believe, and His indwelling Holy Spirit uses it to transform us from the inside out. Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “…the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

God gives us strength (Philippians 4:11-13) and grace to bear those troubles (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Paul prayed: “That he [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). See 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is exiled today. He is sitting at His heavenly Father’s right hand in glory. Until He returns to earth and deposes Satan and his minions, this “present evil world” will continue as is (Galatians 1:4; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4). Let us remember that we have hope: we Christians are not here forever, and while we are here, the Lord is in us and here with us! 🙂

Where Was God? #6

Thursday, September 19, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

When God does not react to situations, especially tragedies, the way people expect Him, He is accused of being “negligent.” They consider how He visibly and directly intervened and rescued people from various dangers in Bible times. Since He does not do this today, people erroneously conclude that He must be unconcerned, that He is judging us for un-confessed sin, et cetera.

This outlook results from a rather simple error—a failure to approach the Bible dispensationally. We are not Israel, so by going to the Bible verses written to and about Israel in an attempt to discover what God is doing today with us, is simply a dangerous—and, quite frankly, satanic—method of handling the Scriptures. To ignore the verses written to us, and to “name and claim” the verses not written to us, is dishonest. We cannot make God do something He is not doing: He is not operating Israel’s program today.

God is not using extra-biblical methods (circumstances, angels, feelings, emotions, “visions,” et cetera) to reveal His will to us—we have God’s complete, written, and authoritative Word, the Holy King James Bible (Ephesians 1:9,10; Ephesians 3:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17). Specifically, Jesus Christ is speaking to us through Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, for those 13 Bible books are God’s Word written to and about us Gentiles (Romans 11:13; 1 Corinthians 14:37). Today, God is dispensing grace, not law (Romans 6:14,15). God is currently forming the Church the Body of Christ, not the nation Israel (Ephesians 2:13-22). Today, God is forming a heavenly people, not an earthly people (Ephesians 2:6,7).

In this the Dispensation of Grace, members of the Church the Body of Christ endured bodily sickness and other difficult circumstances (Romans 8:18-25; 2 Corinthians 11:22-30; 2 Corinthians 12:7,8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20). Rather than God removing those troubles, He gave those Christians strength, hope, and grace to bear them (Romans 8:24,25; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; Philippians 4:11-13). In Christ, we are equipped to endure “all things….”

Where Was God? #5

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

The psalmist, like many today, wonders and inquires of God’s whereabouts in times of trouble. Actually, Psalm 10 is a prayer of imprecation: it is the prayer of a believing Jew living during the (future) seven-year Tribulation, a prayer in which that believer is beseeching the Lord Jesus Christ to appear and judge the wicked who are severely oppressing and mercilessly executing His people, to avenge the deaths of His believing remnant in Israel.

Actually, the Apostle John, centuries later, elaborated: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (Revelation 6:9-11).

Notice, in the future, the souls of the slain Tribulation saints will be in heaven, begging the Lord to no longer delay in avenging their deaths. Now we understand why the psalmist, still alive on earth, says what he does in today’s Scripture. Jesus Christ cannot come back and judge the earth in His righteous indignation until Satan’s evil world system has fully run its course.

Concerning us in this the Dispensation of Grace, Christ’s delay is advantageous to lost people. Jesus Christ Himself is truly the only hope planet earth has. Before He pours out His wrath and rids the world of Satan’s influence, He will continue to be “longsuffering” so people can escape that impending wrath by faith in Him (2 Peter 3:3-9,15,16). Jesus Christ is purposefully tarrying.

Until Jesus Christ returns to make every wrong right, God offers us a wealth of resources in Christ to cope….

Where Was God? #4

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

People usually blame God for their problems. Beloved, God is not “out to get us”—Satan is! God offers us peace, joy, forgiveness, salvation, and righteousness in and through Jesus Christ. Satan’s policy of evil attempts to prevent us from ever learning God’s Word to us (which averts praise and glory the Lord Jesus receives when someone does hear and believe His Word).

Frankly, Satan desires to keep us ignorant of God’s Word to us—he prefers lost people to stay dead in their sins and continue on their way to hell (2 Corinthians 4:3,4) and he wants Christians to remain uninformed regarding God’s will for their lives (2 Corinthians 11:3,4). The devil’s primary method of hiding God’s truth is to use religious tradition and works-religion.

Hence, very few, even Christians, understand suffering from the perspective of the Holy Bible rightly divided. Every person suffers because of: (1) living in a fallen creation due to Adam’s sin, and (2) poor choices made in life—their choices and the choices of others. For the Christian, there is a third source of suffering—persecution for Jesus Christ’s sake. These three sources of suffering are all the result of sin and Satan’s policy of evil. While God does not remove these troubles, that does not mean that God is unconcerned with us.

In the context of today’s Scripture, the psalmist is prophetically speaking from the viewpoint of a believing Jew living during the (still future) seven-year Tribulation. As that believing Israeli witnesses the antichrist (“the man of the earth;” verse 18) slaughtering the Messianic Jews (who trust Jesus as Christ), and God permitting it, the perplexed soul asks in today’s Scripture, “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”

So, why does God does not prevent such tragedies? He is allowing mankind to “do his own thing,” to let man choose between following His plan for creation and participating in Satan’s policy of evil. God is thus laying the groundwork to cleanse and restore creation unto Himself….

Where Was God? #3

Monday, September 16, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

Adam, the federal head (representative) of the human race, exercised his free will, and he deliberately made the wrong choice (1 Timothy 2:11-15). Today, all of creation, especially man, suffers the consequences, as the Apostle Paul explains so clearly: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:… for if by one man’s offence death reigned by one… therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation… for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…” (Romans 5:12,17-19).

By Adam, sin infiltrated the original, perfect (sinless) world system: hence, the Scriptures speak of “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). God had already warned Adam, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). After partaking of that forbidden fruit, however, Adam continued to physically live another 930 years (Genesis 5:5). And yet, he and Eve died right there in the Garden of Eden just as God had foretold (in Eden, they died spiritually, unable to commune with God, which is the natural state of man right from birth).

Where was God on September 11, 2001? In the same place He was when Adam sinned that first time. From heaven’s glory, God Almighty watched man make a choice to follow Him or Satan. God’s wrath against the world’s sin is coming, but the 9/11 terrorist attacks were just sinful man’s actions (remember, where there is sin, there is death). Our world has never seen God’s wrath, yet.

Thankfully, just as God was there to provide man with a free will, and He was there to observe man exercise that free will, He was also there to graciously make provisions (Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork) for the inevitable sins that man would commit….

Where Was God? #2

Sunday, September 15, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

How in the world did the world ever get the way it is? Does God really care about us? If so, why does He not do anything to make it better? Or, as the deists claim, is God completely unconcerned with the universe He created? Will God ever intervene and set things right?

One of the most basic teachings of Scripture is the concept of sin and death. Wherever we find sin, we find death; wherever we find death, we find sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).

When the Lord Jesus Christ placed Adam on planet earth, He instructed Adam: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16,17). Notice the word “freely,” as in, free will—God refused to have man be a robot. The Lord knew good and well that, by giving man these choices, there was the risk of Adam making the wrong decision.

Once God made Eve, Adam repeated God’s instructions to her. At this point, either Adam failed to properly communicate God’s Word to Eve, or Eve just did not remember God’s Word correctly. Whichever the case, the serpent (Satan) tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6). The Bible says Eve was “deceived,” but Scripture also says Adam knew exactly what he was doing (1 Timothy 2:11-15).

Again, God knew full well what would happen. He watched the fall of man occur in the Garden of Eden, and did not prevent it. Man had to choose, and choose he did….

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Where Was God? #1

Saturday, September 14, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

We in the United States of America recently marked the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the twelve years since those events, the question has been asked myriads upon myriads of times, “Where was God?” That is, “Why did He allow such a tragedy?” There were no miraculous interventions of God, no guardian angels to help the 3,000 souls who would perish on that awful day. The Bible teaches “God is love,” and yet the heavens were silent as the worst disaster in United States history occurred. Why?

One of the most basic teachings of Scripture is that the Lord Jesus Christ created man as a “free moral agent.” Simply put, man is not a robot. He is a creature who can willfully submit to his Creator’s will, or he can willfully reject it. Man can choose to obey the Lord, or he can choose to do something else. This is how much God loves freedom.

Luke 7:29,30 is one of the Bible’s clearest examples of free will: “And all the people that heard him [John the Baptist], and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.” Some people accepted God’s will: they declared God “just” (right) by accepting John’s baptism as true. The rest rejected God’s will: they declared God a liar by denying the necessity of John’s baptism.

As free moral agents, we have been granted the responsibility of making our own choices and bearing the consequences (whether good or bad). Again, God will not make our decisions for us. In His Word, the Holy Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ has already declared what is right, good, acceptable, and perfect. Nevertheless, He does not force us to agree with Him. We can push Him out of our thoughts and do what we want in life, pretending as though He did not exist (Romans 1:18-32).

However, God is still there….

Waste Not Thy Time

Friday, September 13, 2013

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).

Thy time on earth is short, so use it wisely!

There are so many distractions in this world, especially various electronic devices popularized in the last half-century. Technological progress and its products are not evil in and of themselves. Our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, equipped mankind with extraordinary mental abilities that allow him to take resources from His creation and make various objects. The problem is when we become so distracted by and addicted to these inventions that we have neither time nor energy to think about the literal eternity that awaits once those things pass away!

How true are the words of the late Christian brother who said, “People throw away the things that matter and they hold on to the things that do not.” Although he was referring to lost people, even many Christians have fallen prey to this improper thinking. Think of the hours upon hours upon hours the average Christian sits in front of the television and/or computer per day. Where is the Bible study? The prayer? The soul-winning? The inner man is starving, waning and becoming lean, saturated with the world’s foolishness. Instead of the Christian teaching the lost and dying world the things of God, the lost and dying world is teaching the Christian the things of the adversary!

Beloved, do not let the world distract you from your Christian ambassadorship (today’s Scripture). We all need to guard against this by understanding God’s will. We need to study God’s Word rightly divided every day; otherwise we have no sound doctrine to compensate for the error of the evil world system that we hear and see every day. Extended exposure to the “wisdom” of the world pollutes the Christian’s soul, that which will profit you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-20).

Thy time on earth is extremely brief, so redeem it for God’s glory! 🙂