Monthly Archives: June 2023

Chapter-a-Day

Profane

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Profane (CaD Mal 1) – Wayfarer

“But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’”
Malachi 1:12 (NIV)

Having just finished the prophecies of Jeremiah and the events of Jerusalem’s destruction on this chapter-a-day journey, I’m going to travel in time 150 years to the future. I’m going to spend the next few days back in Jerusalem around 430 B.C.. Taking a quick view of the landscape, I notice the contrast to the rubble I left behind at the end of Jeremiah.

The walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt. People are once again living inside the walls of the city. Many have returned to their homeland from exile in Babylon. It’s certainly not the splendor of Jerusalem in its glory years, but it’s home. There is a new Temple standing where Solomon’s Temple once stood. It, also, is not quite the same. Solomon’s Temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This Temple is, well, functional if not awe-inspiring.

Jerusalem and the surrounding area is now a back-water province of the Persian Empire. There is a Governor in charge. The new temple was finished some 85 years earlier. The walls completed some 30 years earlier. The rebuilding was a monumental task carried out and documented by Ezra (a priest) and Nehemiah (a governor). Exiles returned. The city is back on the map! What a comeback story! Ezra and Nehemiah charged the people to follow the law of Moses, to be faithful in worshipping of God as prescribed in the Law of Moses.

So, as I look around the streets and listen to people talking in the courts of the temple, why is everyone so depressed, so cynical, so…negative?

Enter the prophet Malachi. He is the last of the ancient Hebrew prophets. His four chapters close the door on the period formally known as the Old Testament. After Malachi there will be four hundred years of political upheaval and prophetic silence until we hear the cries of a newborn baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Back to the temple courts around 430 B.C. Life is, more-or-less, working. The word functional keeps coming to mind, but not flourishing.

The design God gave the Hebrew people through Moses was an entire system designed to perpetuate life, health, and blessing throughout the entire community and beyond. The temple would be the center of the community. People would honor God, bring their first-fruit offerings and unblemished sacrifices to the temple. The priests and temple workers were provided for through these tithes and offerings and, in turn, blessed and served the people. When everyone puts their heart into it, it works relatively well.

Therein lies the problem.

Witness the people bringing a meager offering to the temple, certainly not the ten percent tithe the law requires. They also bring grain and animals for sacrifice, but that lamb is certainly not the shepherds best. The thing is half-staved and looks to be diseased. The priests go through the motions of accepting the sacrifice, but they certainly don’t want to feed themselves and their family with this farmer’s harvest dregs and diseased, meager livestock.

The system isn’t working. Everyone is going through the motions, but no one’s heart is in it. They hear the promises of Jeremiah and Isaiah of a blessed and abundant restoration under a glorious messiah, but that’s not what they’ve experienced. They’ve lost the faith. They’ve lost hope.

In God’s opening message through Malachi, God addresses the people’s cynical, defensive, and defiant attitudes.

“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?'” (vs. 2)
“But you ask, ‘How have we showed contempt?'” (vs. 6)
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?'” (vs. 7)

God through Malachi goes on to tell the people that what they are doing amounts to “profanity” (vs. 12). To modern readers, “profanity” is synonymous with saying naughty words. But the concept of profanity is much deeper and is differentiated from obscenity or vulgarity. Profanity is when I empty something of its original meaning. If I take my family’s precious and priceless fine china and antique silver spoons and use them to feed a stray dog on the back patio, I’m profaning it. If I take the name of Jesus, who I have chosen to make my Lord and believe to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and believe that someday it will be at that name that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, and I use his name as a common expletive when I’m pissed off at somebody or something, I’m profaning that name.

In the quiet this morning, I enter the time machine once again and fast forward to present day. I’m in a church building watching people walking in and out on a Sunday morning. I watch myself (welcome to the multi-verse!) entering and leaving worship. I compare myself in worship to my daily life, words, actions, relationships, and attitudes during the week. Is my heart and soul in it? Or, am I just going through the motions? Am I bringing my best to God, or just the leftovers of my time, energy, and resources? You know, the minimum required by my conscience to be free of any guilt and shame?

Does my daily life profane the very faith I profess to believe?

As God says through Malachi in today’s chapter: “I’d rather you just the shut the doors and not even pretend, than simply go through the motions because that’s profane.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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A Parable of Kings

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A Parable of Kings (CaD Jer 52) – Wayfarer

Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison.
Jeremiah 52:11, 31 (NIV)

In today’s chapter, the compiler of this ancient volume of Jeremiah’s prophetic works (it’s possible it was Jeremiah’s faithful scribe Baruch), ends the compilation with what publishers today would call an Afterword or Epilogue. It’s almost word-for-word a repetition of 2 Kings 24:18 – 2 Kings 25:21, 27-30, meaning that the compiler most certainly had access to the same source material or to the text of Kings itself.

What fascinated me was the contrast of treatment that was given to the two final Kings of Judah who were taken into exile in Babylon.

Jehoiachin had the distinction of ruling for just three months, and he was on the throne during Nebuchadnezzar’s first siege of Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and avoided Jerusalem’s destruction and the death that would have accompanied a long siege.

Nebuchadnezzar placed Jehoiachin’s uncle on the throne as his puppet and named him Zedekiah. Zedekiah’s job was to pay tribute to the king of Babylon and remain a loyal vassal state to the Babylonian empire. In this chapter-a-day trek through Jeremiah, I noticed that it was Zedekiah who, time-and-time again refused to heed Jeremiah’s prophetic words. He rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and when God through Jeremiah told Zed that he’d be spared if he simply surrendered, the hard-hearted Zed refused to do so. At every turn, Zed refused to listen to Jeremiah’s divine guidance.

The Epilogue of Jeremiah contrasts the outcome of the last two monarchs of Judah. Jehoiachin was released from prison by Nebuchadnezzar’s successor. He was given a place of honor at the king’s table, given an allowance, and allowed to live freely in Babylon until the day of his death. Zedekiah, ironically blinded by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of his captivity, remained blind and in a Babylonian prison until the day of his death.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I found the two kings to be a living parable. Along my life journey I’ve encountered difficult stretches of the journey when I have a choice to surrender to God in the midst of my circumstances, seek His strength, and trust the Story. I can also choose to harden my heart, fight against my circumstances, and embitter myself. I couldn’t help but think of God’s words to the stunned persecutor Saul on the road to Damascus when he said, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads.” The Greek proverb referenced a yoked ox who struggled against the “goad” or “prod” and succeeded in only hurting himself.

I recently finished reading Bono’s autobiography Surrender (I plan to publish my review this weekend), and it came to mind as I contemplated this parable of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. Bono shares his path of surrendering his unbridled passions and bull-headed individuality to God, to his bandmates, to his wife, and to his family. The path of being a disciple of Jesus is one of perpetual surrender. Despite the health, wealth, and wisdom promised by name-it-and-claim-it preachers who spring up like weeds in every generation, Jesus’ called His disciples to perpetual surrender on this earthly journey. I only have to look at Exhibit A, the arguably two most famous and fervent disciples in history. Both Paul and Peter followed Jesus into their own personal exiles, their own captivities, and their own executions. It was in their surrender, rather than their “personal empowerment,” that they found the Source of true eternal power.

As I walk away from over three months in the book of Jeremiah, I find myself wanting to be a Jehoiachin not a Zedekiah. In a world that seems to only value power and triumph, I’m reminded that God’s ways always flow in the opposite direction of raw humanity. Eternal power is found in the surrender.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Books

Book Review: Surrender

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It’s fascinating how music becomes part of one’s life journey. I’ve always been amazed out a song can conjure up a specific moment in time. U2 came to fame during my college years and their music became intertwined with so many memories of my journey into adulthood.

There are three distinct and indelible memories I associate with U2.

SCENE 1
Fred Thompson’s car. It was my freshman year of college. He introduced me to this Irish band who, he said, is going to be the next big thing. It was the War album. Fred was a senior and told me he was an aficionado of a well-played guitar. The Edge, he told me, was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before. He made me listen. In my memory, Fred will always be a musical prophet. The next year came The Joshua Tree and U2 became the biggest rock group on the planet.

SCENE 2
I had a great college friend who was rabid about both rock music and conservative politics. Initially high on U2’s early albums, he quickly soured on them when The Unforgettable Fire and then Rattle and Hum failed to march lock-step in line with his political world-view. I endured several ranting diatribes about U2’s heretical liberalism. Interestingly, I also fell out of favor with my friend. I personally found that the questions U2 were asking in their music to be more intensely personal and spiritually honest than a rock group making dogmatic diatribes.

SCENE 3
I was just out of college and working as a youth leader at a small town Baptist church in Iowa. The movie Rattle and Hum was playing in Des Moines and I scheduled a trip to Des Moines for any kids who wanted to go see it on the big screen. I had to endure a grilling from strict parents who were afraid of me taking their impressionable teens to a “rock and roll” movie. I was surprising successful, in retrospect, and I think U2 made some young fans that day.

For the record, I listened to the audiobook of Bono’s autobiography, Surrender based on a recommendation of a good friend. Bono narrates the book himself and adds sound effects and music clips to make it a larger more of a multi-media experience than your basic audiobook. He also does voice impersonations of people and it’s hilarious. Bono reads the book so conversationally that it made if feel as if he was simply telling me his story over a pint. I recommend it.

I found Surrender to be a humble and transparent telling of Bono’s story (and U2’s story). He doesn’t shy away from confessing the tragic flaws of his stubbornness, his passions, and his ego. At the same time, I appreciated him peeling back the curtain on his rabid, faith-fueled compulsion to make a difference in this world. I felt no soap-box virtue signaling. He just shares his heart, and I found myself continually shaking my head with respect. Bono has continuously channeled his wealth and privilege into a tireless effort to make a difference for the poorest and most marginalized people in the world. I confess that I was unaware of just how much Bono has accomplished on the world’s political stage and the personal sacrifices he’s made to do so.

For me, the most pleasantly enjoyable part of the book was the fact that Bono has seemingly met and befriended the most strange and broadly diverse group of people imaginable. I thoroughly loved listening as he regaled with anecdotes about Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Prince, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Johnny and June Carter-Cash, and others.

Then, of course, there is the overarching story of U2. Four teen lads from Dublin who have somehow managed to survive stardom, push the envelope, remain together, and continue making chart-topping music despite their stark differences in personality, their individual tragedies, and the outside pressures that become the doom of most rock-and-roll bands. Surrender is certainly Bono’s take, but I couldn’t help but sense that he was speaking for the group in the same way he’s always been the voice of U2.

Surrender is probably not going to appeal as much to those who are unfamiliar with Bono or with U2. Even then, I would recommend it as the rare story of a rock-and-roll superstar who has doggedly endeavored to be faithful to his family, his faith, and his band mates while audaciously trying to make a difference in this world.

Chapter-a-Day

Babylonian Lessons

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Babylonian Lessons (CaD Jer 51) – Wayfarer

Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Jeremiah 51:64 (NIV)

Babylon still exists, at least its remnants exist. It was during the U.S. war with Iraq that I first saw images of the site of ancient Babylon. Sitting just over 50 miles south of Baghdad, the walls of the ancient city remain, and one source I read said that 85 percent of the ancient city has not been excavated. Iraq began to rebuild some of the walls and a major gate with a long-term dream of restoring the ancient city as a landmark and center for tourism. Fascinating.

Babylon occupies a deep historical and metaphorical presence throughout the Great Story. From the erection of the Tower of Babel in the opening chapters of Genesis, to the angelic destruction of a metaphorical Babylon in the final chapters of John’s end-times Revelations, Babylon is synonymous with humanity’s hubris, pride, and spiritual antagonism.

Today’s chapter is the continuation and end of Jeremiah’s prophetic message against Babylon, and it marks the end of his recorded prophetic works. It’s a long one, coming in at a total of 64 verses. It’s ironic that for the better part of fifty chapters, God uses Babylon and its ruler, Nebuchadnezzar as a vehicle of divine judgement, but in the end they can’t escape judgement for their own evils.

As I have meditated on the roles of good and evil in life, history, and literature, I’ve observed some recurring themes. One theme is that evil will at times unwittingly play into the hand of good or become its agent. In my annual reading of The Lord of the Rings, I’ve been contemplating how Saruman’s turn to evil actually creates a chain-of-events that assures victory for the forces of good at Helm’s Deep which, in turn, creates the momentum which prompts Sauron’s arguably fatal mistake in launching his offensive too early. It was Nebuchadnezzar’s own pride, thirst for power, and self-aggrandizing hubris that motivated his rise to Imperial power in Mesopotamia (see Daniel 1-4). Jeremiah’s prophetic messages simply reveal how God wove His eternal purposes through Neb’s own power-hungry empire building.

Another recurring theme I’ve noticed in the conflict between good and evil is the fact that evil tends to implode from the inside-out. Once again drawing from my most recent reading of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam are able to survive Frodo’s abduction at Cirith Ungol and make their way into the land of Mordor because all the orcs of Cirith Ungol got into a fight and killed one another. Likewise, it was the conflict between the orcs holding Merry and Pippin that allowed for their eventual escape into Fanghorn forest. In the same way, I would argue that Nebuchadnezzar’s own ruthlessness, arrogance, and self-centeredness assured that his empire could not long outlast him. He failed to look beyond his own life and success in order to ensure his descendants would be a dynasty that would ensure his legacy for generations to come.

In the quiet this morning, this has me thinking about my own life journey. There is so much in life that I cannot control. I live in a fallen world in which evil exists and holds sway in so many ways. This trek through Jeremiah has reminded me that even evil can unwittingly become an agent of God’s purposes. I may not escape the momentary pain and consequences of evil, but I can trust the larger story God is authoring, knowing that all things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to His purposes (Rom 8:28). Likewise, when I see evil succeeding on the landscape of current events, I can take solace in the fact that evil eventually implodes.

In both of these observations, I just might have to wait for it.

I end this morning with Peter’s words which came time mind in the quiet this morning:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Kingdom and Empire

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Kingdom and Empire (CaD Jer 50) – Wayfarer

For I will stir up and bring against Babylon
    an alliance of great nations from the land of the north.
They will take up their positions against her,
    and from the north she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like skilled warriors
    who do not return empty-handed.
Jeremiah 50:9 (NIV)

Human history is, at a glance, the story of one conquest after another. Families became tribes. Tribes became nations. Nations became empires. Empires rise and fall. That, in a nutshell, is the Great Story from Genesis through the fall of Jerusalem that Jeremiah predicted. It starts with Abraham having a family. The family grows into the twelve tribes. God delivers them from slavery in Egypt and makes them into a nation. Under King David and Solomon they became a regional empire. As with most empires, a combination of internal implosion and external enemies lead to decline and defeat at the hands of the next emerging empire.

We are nearing the end of the voluminous compilation of Jeremiah’s prophetic messages. For 49 chapters the prophet has been proclaiming the defeat and exile of his own people at the hands of what he referred to early on as a “nation from the north” and later revealed to be the emerging Babylonian empire. Now, at the very end of his prophetic works, Jeremiah turns the tables 180 degrees.

In today’s chapter it is Babylon who receives God’s prophetic word of doom. This time it is the Babylonians who will fall to an alliance of nations from the north (i.e. the Medes and Persians). And, while Jeremiah proclaims this event from afar, the prophet Daniel is present in Babylon for the event as God presents the Babylonian regent with the literal handwriting on the wall (see Daniel 5) as Babylon falls to the invaders and a new empire takes over.

I found myself mulling this over in the quiet this morning.

Amidst the prophecy against Babylon, God reminds His people in exile of the promise He’s been making to them all along. A remnant will return to Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The temple will be rebuilt. Out of her a messiah will emerge as Jeremiah prophesied back in chapter 23.

What a contrast Jesus was to the human history of empire building. He came, not as earthly monarch, but as the King of Heaven. “My kingdom is not of this world,” He told Pilate. The paradigm He gave His followers was antithetical to human empire building. His paradigm was for a radical love to change the heart of an individual. The individual then spreads that radical love to change the hearts of others in their spheres of influence. The love spreads exponentially and begins to change communities, tribes, and nations from the inside out. The Jesus Movement of the first century rocked the Roman Empire with this paradigm.

Then, in what I consider to have been a brilliant chess move by the evil one, whom Jesus referred to as the Prince of this World, he gave control of the Empire itself to the Jesus Movement. Slowly, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and humans turned the Movement into another human empire, just like we always seem to do throughout history.

I also thought this morning about the prophetic end of the Great Story that was laid out for John in his Revelations. It ends with the Prince of this World and all the nations of the world, the human empires, lined up against the King of Heaven.

And, I think that’s a macrocosm of the spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus. Jesus asks me, as an individual, to turn away from the human way of doing things, the rat-race of wealth and earthly success, the dynamics of power and personal empire building. Jesus wants me to live with radical love, extravagant generosity, and a servant-hearted kindness to others, even my enemies who want to roll over me with their own power-plays and personal empires.

In the end, Jeremiah reminds me that what goes around comes around. Empires rise, they fall, and other empires emerge on this earth.

Or, as U2 put it:

Kingdoms rise, and kingdoms fall,
but You go on,
and on,
and on,
and on…

Personally, I want to be part of a Kingdom that’s not of this world.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Bad Blood

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Bad Blood (CaD Jer 49) – Wayfarer

“But I will strip Esau bare;
    I will uncover his hiding places,
    so that he cannot conceal himself…”
Jeremiah 49:10a (NIV)

If you’ve followed my writing or my social media posts for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m my family’s resident historian. In fact, right next to my desk is a stack of letters, photographs, and ephemera that my dad gave me. They were keepsakes my mother had in her possession when she died a few months ago.

Family is an interesting thing, and what’s ironic in my self-appointed role of family historian is that neither my maternal nor paternal families are particularly close. I can at least say that my maternal family has had a number of reunions that I can remember over the years, though it’s been quite a while since the last one. My paternal family has never had a reunion. Were it not for Facebook, I’d probably not have any meaningful connection to them.

“Blood is thicker than water” is the idiom we use to express the importance of family over everything else in life. But I’ve equally observed that bad blood runs deep. Along my life journey, I have observed a number of families in which bad blood ran so deep that it divided siblings and cousins for generations until no one knew why their family was so distant and never spoke to one another.

Today’s chapter is the continuation of short, one-off prophetic messages that the prophet Jeremiah gave during his career. There are five short messages in today’s chapter aimed at small towns and people groups in the region. The one that resonated with me as I read it was God’s message to the Edomites, whom the prophet refers to as “Esau.”

The Edomites were descendants of Isaac’s son, Esau, who was also known as Edom.

The Israelites were descendants of Isaac’s son, Jacob, who became known as Israel.

Jacob and Esau were brothers. They were twin brothers. Their story is told all the way back in Genesis. Esau foolishly sold his birthright as the eldest male child to his younger twin brother for some soup. Jacob then deceived his own dying father to give him the blessing of the eldest child. Esau fled to the east of the Dead Sea and took up residence in a mountainous region known for it’s cliffs and caves.

Today’s chapter and Jeremiah’s message takes place about a thousand years later. The descendants of Esau and the descendants of Jacob have been feuding for a millenium.

Bad blood runs deep.

That simple fact is what I found myself mulling over in the quiet this morning. It’s tragic when family become sworn enemies. It’s even more tragic when later generations continue feuding after the original grievances are long-since forgotten.

When Jesus said that His followers were to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, there was no exemption made for feuding family members. Bad blood may very well make them the most difficult enemies to forgive, love, and bless.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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I’ll Drink to That

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I'll Drink to That! (CaD Jer 48) – Wayfarer

“Moab has been at rest from youth,
    like wine left on its dregs,
not poured from one jar to another—
    she has not gone into exile.
So she tastes as she did,
    and her aroma is unchanged.”
Jeremiah 48:11 (NIV)

It is summer. For Wendy and me, summer is a time of hospitality. We host family and friends at the lake. We have friends over for dinner on the grill and evenings on the patio. We love a good meal and good conversation with good friends. And, we enjoy good wine with the meal and the conversations.

Just yesterday, Wendy and I took delivery of a case of wine for the summer season. It always gives me joy to unpack the case into our humble little Harry Potter wine cellar in the cupboard beneath the basement stairs. For me, the wine is associated with the friends, food, and fellowship with which it will be enjoyed.

Today’s chapter is the message that God gave the ancient prophet Jeremiah concerning the nation of Moab. Moab was a small nation directly to the east of the Dead Sea, and they had been an established people for centuries. The Moabites were known for their vineyards and orchards. The wine they produced was well known in the region. During the time of Jeremiah, the Moabites had, thus far, escaped the captivity and exile that other nations had suffered at the hands of regional Empires (e.g. Assyria, Babylon). God’s message through Jeremiah to the Moabites was that they would escape this fate no longer.

True to form, Jeremiah’s prophetic message uses metaphors that would have resonated with the people of Moab. In ancient wine-making, the wine would be poured from one storage jar to another during fermentation in order to filter out the “dregs” or the sediment that lay at the bottom of the vessel. The Moabites, who had thus far escaped judgment being “poured out” on them were compared to a wine left in its original fermentation vessel, sitting on the dregs while other idolatrous nations, like the northern kingdom of Israel, had been conquered.

In his prophetic message of doom, Jeremiah mentions Chemosh, the national deity of the Moabite people. Chemosh was Canaanite deity worshipped with child and human sacrifice. In critical situations, humans were sacrificed to Chemosh to obtain favour. After a military victory, captured enemies were immediately sacrificed to Chemosh as a thanksgiving offering.

Jeremiah goes on to proclaim the defeat and exile of Moabites with a metaphorical end to the flow of their wine:

Joy and gladness are gone
    from the orchards and fields of Moab.
I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy.
Although there are shouts,
    they are not shouts of joy.

The ancient historian Josephus states that Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the “twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.”

In the quiet this morning, the prophetic word to Moab has me thinking about judgment and justice. It’s one of the overarching themes of the Great Story. Jesus spoke frequently about judgment. He even said, Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” He also said that He would be the ultimate judge on Judgment Day, a final reckoning before the end and anew beginning.

Judgment is not a comfortable subject, precisely because I have a boatload of willful and selfish choices along with painful mistakes along my life journey that have caused hurt to others. Not only that, but as a follower of Jesus I know that He raised the standard to impossible levels. In the Sermon on the Mount He said that calling another person an “idiot” is equal to murder, having a lustful thought is equal to adultery, and loving my own people isn’t enough. I have to love my enemies, those on the opposites sides of my political beliefs, those who don’t look like me or talk like me or believe like me. I have to love those who hate me for being who I am.

The bottom line is this: I’m guilty, and I know it.

And, this is when I remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus during Nick’s clandestine visit in the middle of the night:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned…“

Judgment was not the motivation. Salvation was the motivation.

That’s why Jesus went to the cross. He suffered the condemnation and death that I deserve so that I no longer stand condemned but graciously forgiven if I simply, by faith, believe it.

Let me pour you a glass of wine. I’ll drink to that.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Flash Flood

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Flash Flood (Cad Jer 47) – Wayfarer

This is what the Lord says:
“See how the waters are rising in the north;
    they will become an overflowing torrent.
They will overflow the land and everything in it,
    the towns and those who live in them.
The people will cry out;
    all who dwell in the land will wail…”
Jeremiah 47:2 (NIV)

It was early summer in 1993 and I made a quick trip to a car dealership just a mile or two up the street from my house with the whole family in tow. I don’t recall being there very long. The girls were just toddlers at that point, so it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes to look at whatever car it was that we were interested in seeing.

By the time we started pulling out of the dealership a creek the runs just a hundred yards or so to the south of the dealership had risen to flood the intersection between the dealership and our house. Over the next hour, I drove for mile and miles trying to find an open route that would get us safely home. I eventually had to drive about ten miles north and east of our location to successfully connect to the interstate that was still open and could get us back home.

Floods are an ominous thing. As I look back on my life journey, I realize that floods are the most consistent natural disasters that I’ve had to deal with throughout my life journey. What’s crazy is that you can’t always see them coming before the floodwaters start wreaking havoc. I’ll never forget waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of rushing water and discovered water pouring through a basement window. Talk about feeling helpless. Ugh!

Today’s chapter is another one of the prophet Jeremiah’s one-off prophetic messages to people groups in his region. This one is directed to the Philistines who lived to the south and west of Jerusalem. Like Jeremiah’s own people, the Philistines were caught in the no-mans-land between the two warring empires of Egypt and Babylon. Like Jeremiah’s people, the Philistines would have felt the tension of who they should side with in the conflict in order to avoid disaster.

In the message God gives to Jeremiah for the Philistines, it opens with the metaphorical imagery of a devastating flood coming from the north (that would be the Babylonian army) which the Philistines will be helpless to stop. In the ancient Near East, treaties often included curses for the people who broke the treaty. The curses were sometimes a “flood.” In surviving treaties from this same century, the Assyrian empire made vassal treaties with weaker city-states and promised destructive floods should those city-states break the treaty. This adds some context to Jeremiah’s message to the rising “flood waters” to the north.

The Philistines have been part of the geo-political landscape in this area for centuries. It was the Philistines who gave Samson troubles back in the time of the Judges. King David was always at war with the Philistines some 500 years before Jeremiah. What’s ominous about Jeremiah’s prophetic prediction of destruction for “all the Philistines” is that it turned out to be true. After Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon storms through the region in 605 B.C. the Philistines disappear from the historical record.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think about floods in life. Along this life journey I have observed that sometimes troubles rise like floodwaters, and I am helpless to avoid them or prevent them. In those instances, the crucial question is how I will handle the reality of them. Jesus taught His followers to expect troubles. Those followers quickly learned that it was those troubles that required the production of character qualities such as faith, trust, perseverance, character, maturity, and hope. I have found the same to be true in my own life.

When troubles hit like a flash flood and the waters are rising, faith is the Life preserver that allows me to rise with them.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

An Ancient Smackdown

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An Ancient Smackdown (CaD Jer 46) – Wayfarer

“Go up to Gilead and get balm,
    Virgin Daughter Egypt.
But you try many medicines in vain;
    there is no healing for you.“
Jeremiah 46:11 (NIV)

For much of my life, I was a radio guy. I listened to the radio a lot. As a child, I woke up every morning to my dad tuning into WHO radio. I always remember it being on in the mornings. Sunday mornings he tuned to KRNT’s Hymn Time sponsored by Anderson-Erickson dairy as we got ready for church. In college, I did a couple of years as the morning guy on the college radio station, and I loved it. When I was younger and spent a lot of time on the road for work, I listened to countless hours of radio.

With the advent of streaming music, podcasting, and having audiobooks right on my phone, I don’t listen to much radio anymore other than to have the Cubs game on while I’m doing something else. One of the genres of radio that I first lost all interest in was that of Sports Talk radio. If you love it, that’s cool. I just got to the point that I thought it was all the same. Some bombastic, loud talker (often with a New York or New Jersey accent) speaking this sort of code language they’ve developed for their show and followers. Rather than intelligent conversation about sports it’s like an on-air version of professional wrestling with people insulting one another and their rival teams.

I thought of Sports Talk radio as I read today’s chapter. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post/podcast, we’re entering the final chapters of the compilation of Jeremiah’s prophetic messages. It’s sort of an appendix to the compilation with some one-off messages Jeremiah delivered during his ministry. Today’s chapter was delivered to the nations of Egypt and Babylon way back during the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon’s reign.

Jeremiah’s message to Egypt reads like a Sports Talk smackdown on the highest level. It’s dripping with sarcasm and full of irony. Let me provide an apt sports metaphor.

The Egyptians had been the perennial Imperial power in the region forever. They were the nation everyone feared. They were rich and used their wealth to sign free-agent contracts with the greatest mercenaries in the world. Egypt was the New England Patriots at the height of their Tom Brady dynasty. They were a powerhouse. They were unstoppable.

Babylon, on the other hand, were like my Minnesota Vikings. Sure they’d had a few good seasons in the past but, but lately they’d been an average team in fly-over country overshadowed by others in their division (like the Assyrians). However, the Babylonians have a new quarterback at the helm, a young rookie named Nebuchadnezzar. He’s newly drafted and untested. There’s a huge battle anticipated between lowly Babylon and the powerhouse Egyptians.

Jeremiah’s message is basically his Sports Talk take on upcoming showdown between the two nations.

Consider the verses I quoted at the top of the post/podcast:

“Go up to Gilead and get balm,
    Virgin Daughter Egypt.
But you try many medicines in vain;
    there is no healing for you.“

Egypt was well-known for their medicinal knowledge and practices. They’d learned a lot embalming and mummifying people for centuries. Gilead was a small town in Judah known for spices and healing balms. Jeremiah is writing these lines is like a Minnesota Vikings fan calling a Sports Talk station in Boston and saying:

“The Patriots are going to be so utterly destroyed by the Vikings that they’re going to have to rush Tom Brady to Mayo Clinic, but even Mayo Clinic won’t be able to heal the damage that the Vikings defense is going to do to him!”

To take the sports metaphor one more step. Jeremiah’s prognostication of a Babylonian defeat of Egypt was equivalent to Joe Namath’s promise of a Jets victory in the Super Bowl. It’s NC State winning the Big Dance. It’s the Miracle on Ice. And, he was right.

The battle of Carchemish (a city on the Euphrates River) in 605 B.C. remains one of the most important and decisive victories in history. It completely shifted power in the Near East.

In the quiet this morning, I find it interesting that Jeremiah’s prophetic works mark a major shift of thought. To this point in the Great Story, the narrative has been almost entirely focused on God’s relationship with the Hebrew people. Other nations are mentioned as they play various supporting roles in the story, but the focus has always been on the Hebrews. Jeremiah’s prophetic works are the first time that God claims another leader of another nation to be His “chosen servant.” Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t even know or worship the God of Abraham and Moses, though God uses Daniel and his friends to make the introduction.

Along most of my spiritual journey, I’ve focused time and energy on my personal relationship with God. As I’ve progressed, I’ve learned to increasingly embrace the understanding that God is at work in every person’s story. Like Nebuchadnezzar, a person may not recognize it and may freely and willfully reject the idea. It doesn’t change God’s desire to know and be known by that person.

I’ve also come to embrace the knowledge that my role as a disciple of Jesus is to be a loving conduit of God’s love to the Nebuchadnezzars in my life. That’s why I’ve purposefully tried to diminish my personal judgment and condemnation of others, no matter who they are or what they’ve said, believed, or done.

When I look at others through the lens of God’s love for them and God’s desire to be in relationship with them, it changes how I see them. That is foundational to what Jesus came to teach me.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

My Core Weakness

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My Core Weakness (CaD Jer 45) – Wayfarer

“Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’”
Jeremiah 45:5 (NIV)

One of the things I’ve experienced as an Enneagram coach is that it’s is common for people, upon reviewing their Enneagram Type, to say, “I don’t want that to be my Type!” In fact, there have been people I’ve encountered who insisted on mistyping themselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, because they were uncomfortable with embracing their true selves. This is, I have discovered, sometimes part of the self-discovery journey for people.

Every Enneagram Type has its core fear, core weakness, core desire, and core longing. These may manifest themselves differently in different individuals. As an Enneagram Four, my core desire is to be “special and unique” while my core weakness is the sin of envy. It’s easy for me to feel that others have something special or unique that I lack. Without realizing it, I sometimes feel an intense antagonism toward people I don’t even know that’s rooted in my envy. It’s taken a long time for me to recognize that in myself and address it.

Coming in at only five verses, Jeremiah 45 is one of the shorter chapters in the Great Story, though there are a handful that are even shorter. When the messages of Jeremiah were compiled into what we now know as the book of Jeremiah they were compiled thematically. The final chapters of the book are a kind of appendix. Today’s chapter is a fascinating, personal message that God gave Jeremiah for his friend and faithful scribe Baruch.

I saw shades of myself as I read Baruch’s lament in the quiet this morning. Baruch’s brother occupied an important position in the administration of King Zedekiah. Baruch was Jeremiah’s scribe, writing down the prophets dictated messages and then rewriting them all over again when the king burned the original copies in his anger. Let’s face it, the doom-and-gloom of Jeremiah’s prophetic works are bit repetitive and depressing. Add to that the fact that all of the anger, hatred, and animosity of Jeremiah trickled down to Baruch. When Jeremiah was banned from speaking in public, it was Baruch who got the job of proclaiming the words no one wanted to hear. Baruch sometimes got blamed when an accuser was afraid to confront the prophet himself.

“Why am I stuck doing this my whole life?” I can hear Baruch muttering to himself. “Why didn’t I get a cushy, high-profile job in the King’s administration like my brother?”

Jeremiah hears the muttering of his friend and scribe. God tells Jerry to tell Barry: “Don’t seek great things for yourself. Believe me, your brother’s story is not going to end well, but I will protect you and your life as the scribe of my anointed prophet.”

We don’t know what happened to Baruch’s brother Seraiah, though it was likely either captivity or death. Baruch, on the other hand, was still alive with Jeremiah in Egypt after the fall of Jerusalem.

In the quiet this morning, I confess that it’s always been easy for me to feel a certain level of discontent with my life. I was called specifically to do what I’m doing, and I trust that with all my being. Nevertheless, whenever I go through a tough stretch of the journey, my core desires and core weakness make it hard for me to stay in my lane without some dramatic and pessimistic brooding, and Wendy can tell you that I excel in this.

But that’s where God’s words to Baruch really resonate with me in all my “Fourness.” I can focus on obediently and faithfully fulfilling that to which I’ve been called, or I can waste a lot of time pining away in envy for what others have been called to do. The reality is that I have been and continue to be extremely blessed, and when I focus on that blessing, and the Source of that blessing, then I find contentment is soon to follow.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.