Tag Archives: Prophecy

Chapter-a-Day

Wise Investments

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Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
1 Peter 1:17 (NIV)

I’m always amazed how much you learn about someone simply by listening.

The old man at the retirement center had a lot on his mind. His brain worked at a feverish pace despite being advanced in years. I was impressed. I could almost see it spinning inside his silver pated cranium as the stream of his consciousness flowed from his lips.

Money.
Finance.
Business.
Debts.
Investments.
Real Estate.
Savings.

The future.

When my new acquaintance learned that I was once a pastor there a definite shift in the course of his stream of consciousness. The questions started flowing directly at me.

Along the journey, I’ve had a number of people want to pick my brain about prophecy and the end times. Some chase theories. Others chase reassurance.

What’s going to happen to me?
How afraid should I be?
How can I insulate myself from what’s coming?

For the sharp old man, I sensed there was a hope of leveraging insider knowledge for personal gain. In every market crash there are always a few who make a fortune. I could see his brain calculating the possibilities.

It was a fascinating conversation, even though I think I may have disappointed him. The greatest religious scholars of Jesus’ day were completely wrong in their theories regarding who the Messiah would be. They didn’t even recognize Him when He was standing among them. The only ones who correctly interpreted His arrival were Zoroastrian priests from Persia who arrived with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

If all of those religious scholars got it wrong with Jesus first coming, I suspect we’ll all get it wrong with Jesus’ second coming. Even Jesus shrugged and said He didn’t know when it would be. I think trying to predict anything is a fool’s errand. I was sorry to disappoint my new friend looking for an edge.

I dusted off one of my favorite old jokes for him and told him I when it came to Revelation I consider myself a “pan-tribulationist.” It’s all going to pan-out in the end.

[cue: rimshot]

As I left the retirement center that day I thought about my new friend. What struck me most about our conversation was how invested he was in this earthly life. He had been retired for who knows how many years. Who knows how many days he has left on this earthly journey but it doesn’t take a prophet to know there’s a precariously small amount of sand left in his hourglass. Even if he reads the tea leaves and escapes the coming Tribulation as the one who made the right financial play, what will it profit him?

I felt a pang of sadness as Jesus’ words echoed in my soul.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”
Matthew 6:19-21 (MSG)

Peter’s letter was written to a largely non-Jewish audience of Jesus followers. Like the recipients of James’ letter, these believers had been scattered by persecution. Interestingly, Peter begins his letter to non-Jewish believers by referencing a deeply Jewish paradigm: exile.

Exile is one of the overarching themes of the entire Great Story. Some scholars consider it the primary theme. As these believers live scattered abroad living in strange places far from the homes they knew Peter is saying to his Gentile brothers and sisters, “Welcome to the club!”

Later in the chapter, Peter takes the paradigm a step further. He tells his audience to consider themselves permanent “foreigners.” As the old song says, “This earth is not our home, we’re just passing through,” or the other old song I personally favor, “I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger travelin’ through this world of woe.”

Peter was urging his fellow believers to embrace the very words Jesus spoke to him. Consider your investment strategy.

Eighty-years or so on this earth – I leave everything behind.
Eternity waits beyond, and I can begin investing today.

I don’t know. If I really believe what I say I believe, then the portfolio I really want to invest in seems pretty clear.

I never saw my friend again. By now, I suspect his earthly journey is finished.

I hope he made some deposits in his eternal accounts.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

Presence, not Possession

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If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
Deuteronomy 18:22 (NIV)

It is New Year’s Eve day. It’s always a special day for Wendy and me as we celebrate our anniversary. This year marks 20 years, which makes it all the more special. There are many things I love about having our anniversary on New Year’s Eve. We always have the evening off, along with the rest of the world. I have never forgotten my anniversary. And, it’s already a fun day of celebration, so celebrating our marriage just adds another layer to the festivity.

On the day of our wedding, I remember feeling another apt connection with holiday. Old things pass away. New things come.

New Year’s by its nature causes a pause for reflection on what has been. It prompts a view toward the road ahead with a curiosity for the path forward and what lies ahead. There will be many prognosticators and prophets throughout media today making proclamations and predictions.

In a very similar fashion, the Hebrews in our chapter-a-day trek through Deuteronomy stand at a precipice in time. The wanderings are over. The promised land awaits on the other side of Jordan. Moses’ message in the entirety of Deuteronomy is a father’s heartfelt preparation for his children and grandchildren regarding what has been, and what is yet to come. Today’s chapter whispers wisdom for me on this precipice of time between 2025 and 2026.

The chapter begins with a reminder that the tribe of Levi will not inherit land once the dust settles in the promised land. No acreage. No deed. No security blanket tucked into a filing cabinet. “The Lord is their inheritance.”

It’s a strange economy, isn’t it?
Everyone else gets fields and vineyards. The priests get… presence.

Not everything valuable can be owned. Kingdom economics never promises deeds, dividends, or earthly security. Jesus asks me to forego earthly treasure and invest in valuables of an eternal kind . Some callings are intentionally unmoored. Some lives are meant to be lean so they can listen. As the year exhales its last breath, that question hovers: What have I been holding that was never meant to be possessed?

Then Moses turns, almost urgently, to forbidden shortcuts.
No divination.
No sorcery.
No necromancers knocking on the thin wall between worlds.

Why? Because uncertainty makes us desperate—and desperation makes us sloppy lovers of truth. When the future feels slippery, we reach for anything that promises control. The people are warned not against curiosity, but against counterfeit certainty. And counterfeit certainty comes cloaked in many guises.

Ouija boards.
Retirement funds.
Spreadsheets and infographics.
Fundamentalist rulebooks.
Charismatic leaders.
Preachers with prophesies.

Counterfeit certainty seduces me into believing I don’t need faith..

But, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

And here—oh here—is the heart of the chapter. Moses promises his Hebrew progeny that God will not leave them guessing.

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you… You must listen to him.”

This is not a vague spiritual shrug. It is intimacy offered. God knows their fear—that unmediated holiness once made them beg at Sinai, “Do not let God speak to us or we will die.” And so God leans closer, softer, clothed in flesh and voice and language they can bear.

The true prophet, Moses says, is not measured by charisma or confidence, but by fidelity. Does the word align with the character of God? Does it call people forward into faithfulness rather than sideways into fear? Does it come true—not because it was clever, but because it was obedient?

False prophets, by contrast, speak with urgency but no authority. They rush. They seduce. They promise control instead of covenant.

And that brings me back to New Year’s Eve. To the road forward and what awaits Wendy and me the 21st year of our marriage. What awaits this nation in the celebration of 250 years. What awaits our globe in the approximately 2026th journey around the sun since Jesus’ own earthly journey.

Moses wisdom whispers to my soul at this precipice of time.

Presence. Faith. Listening with discernment.

As the year turns its page, that distinction matters. Not every loud voice is a true one. Not every confident prediction deserves my trust. And not every silence means God has stopped speaking—sometimes it means He is waiting to be trusted.

Happy New Year, my friend! I am taking the holiday weekend off and then start 2026 with a week of business travel. I’ll be returning to this chapter-a-day trek on Jan 12.

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

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These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
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Chapter-a-Day

My Desire

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“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Matthew 24:12-13 (NIV)

One of the spiritual lessons that I’ve learned along my earthly journey is to be aware of synergies between different things in my life and meditations. I begin each weekday reading a chapter and sharing my thoughts in this post/podcast, but my trek through the Great Story does not end here. I listen to and read other sources of study and meditation. I study as part of preparation for messages I’ve been tasked to give. Usually it’s like striking down a separate path of thought. Sometimes, those roads converge, and it’s then that I have learned to pay heed.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts/podcasts that I’ve been listening to a series of podcasts by the Bible Project on the metaphor of mountains throughout the Great Story. One of the most impactful for me was an episode about the prophet Elijah. Elijah had a great spiritual victory on Mount Carmel, but despite the miraculous and big-screen worthy triumph he inexplicably sank into suicidal depression. He flees to Mount Sinai where he gives up, hands in his resignation, and God accepts it.

Elijah did not finish well.

Nevertheless, the prophet Malachi prophesied that Elijah would return. Jesus stated clearly that John the Baptist was that Elijah. Just this past Sunday I gave a message in which John sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if He is really the Messiah or if he should expect someone else. John was languishing in Herod’s prison. It was not what he expected, and it prompted a crisis of faith. Jesus cryptically tells John to expect no such miraculous deliverance, then adds: “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

John did not finish well.

Just last week I celebrated my 59th birthday. That mean’s I’ve entered my 60th lap around the sun. And, that has me thinking about what’s out there on the horizon.

In today’s chapter, Jesus has left the Temple and His showdown with the power brokers of that earthly religious kingdom. He and His disciples camp out on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem (More synergy. There’s that theme of mountains cropping up!). Jesus is talking about the end times. As I read all the prophetic words that create so many questions, I decided to focus in on what can’t be questioned. I paid heed to the things Jesus demanded of His disciples in light of the events He prophesied. I found three (and there’s that number three again).

Don’t be alarmed. (vs. 6)
Don’t let your love grow cold; Stand firm to the end. (vss. 12-13)
Keep watch. Be ready. (vs. 42, 44)

In the quiet this morning, I find myself simply feeling the desire to spiritually end this earthly journey well and meditating on that desire. I don’t know the number of my days. I could have 31 years (or 14,976 days) left on this earthly journey and make it to 100. Nevertheless, there are certainly fewer days ahead than there are behind (today is day 21,558). The world I observe around me is not the same place I remember from my youth. I can already see how easy to fall into cynicism, criticism, negativity, and despair. I witness it in others. But, I have yet to see what Jesus described as “distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” And, the fruit of the Spirit includes the attributes of joy, peace, patience, and faithfulness.

So I enter this another day of the journey determined to practicing the things I need to do to keep cultivating and bearing the fruit of God’s Spirit to the end. Not being alarmed, not letting my live grow cold, and being ready for the end. The end of my days, or the end of the age, whichever comes first.

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

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Arrogant Luxury

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Arrogant Luxury (CaD Matt 3) – Wayfarer

“[The one who comes after me], his winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:12 (NIV)

We live in very unique times. In fact, I believe that we are in one of the most tectonic shifts in the history of Christianity. It is, perhaps, the most significant shift since the Reformation. Mainline denominations who held sway over the lives of millions of believers around the globe for centuries have imploded and fractured into countless factions. Some are still in the process of their implosions. After Covid, millions of regular and semi-regular church goers simply stayed home and never returned to church. Here in rural Iowa where Wendy and I live, small churches have shut their doors in record numbers. The institutions of academia and government around the globe, many of them founded by Christians and/or Christian principles, have become hostile to Christianity, some claiming it to be the worst thing that ever happened to humanity.

I can see the result of these things in our own local gathering of believers. It broke with the mainline denomination it was part of for a century and a half. Suddenly it is a melting pot of sincere and committed Jesus’ followers from widely diverse denominational backgrounds and theological bents. It is forcing our gathering to reexamine all of our beliefs and ritual practices. I personally consider this a great thing.

A while back I ran into someone among our gathering who came from a slightly different theological bent than our gathering’s tradition. One of the differences, which I consider to be minor, is in the interpretation of the prophesies of the end times such as in the book of Revelation. My friend was obviously disturbed, believing their interpretation to be the one true way of belief, and the gathering’s traditional interpretation to be heretical. These are the kinds of hair-splitting that created so many denominational silos over the centuries. In my mind, we can no longer afford such proud luxuries of smug assuredness in our interpretation of theological non-essentials, especially as it relates to the prophetic.

The truth of things is that humans have a long tradition of getting God’s prophecies wrong. The greatest, most educated theological minds of Jesus’ day had interpreted that God’s Messiah would be a warrior King (wrong) who would wipe out Rome (wrong), establish Himself as a human monarch on a throne in Jerusalem (wrong), and rule over all the kingdoms of this world (wrong).

In today’s chapter, we meet John the Baptist. John was the fulfillment of multiple prophesies. He was a herald and forerunner of Jesus as proclaimed by Isaiah. The prophet Malachi, in the final prophetic words of the Great Story before the time of Jesus, said that the prophet Elijah would return. In the story of Elijah, he did not physically die but was taken up to heaven. So, naturally all of the great theological minds in Jesus’ day with the proud luxury of espousing and proclaiming their learned thought were assured that Elijah himself would physically return in bodily form. They were all wrong.

Of John, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” Yet as I pondered John’s words in the chapter it was obvious that John had his own preconceived notions about who Jesus would be and how things would play out. John expected Jesus to immediately be the superhero Messiah in his cape, wiping out the bad guys and ushering in a new world order. In fact, in just a few chapters John will find himself unjustly languishing in Herod’s prison. The fact that Jesus has not dashed into a phone booth, come out wearing his cape, given Herod his just desserts, and freed John from prison has John at the point of having a crisis of faith.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself asking a simple question. If the prophet whom Jesus said was greater than everyone was completely wrong in his interpretation of the ancient prophesies and what Jesus’ life, ministry, and mission would actually be, then how can I possibly afford to be smug in my own personal theological interpretations? History proves that humans regularly get the prophetic wrong. God through Isaiah made it clear that God’s ways are not our ways and His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than our own. Why on earth would I conclude that I am one-hundred percent right and other learned, sincere believers are one-hundred percent wrong in their interpretation of how things will play out at the end of the Great Story? Why on earth would I judge them and let our differences of opinion divide us?

The further I get in my journey, the more humbly I find myself simply choosing not to ascend theological hills to die on. I find myself more open than ever to loving and learning from my brothers and sisters in our diversity of thought, experience, and backgrounds. I am more convinced than ever that we are entering a time when believers will find unity in the essentials of our faith and learn to appreciate and learn from our diversity in the non-essentials. The world has shunned the arrogance, division, and pride of our forebears in their denominational kingdoms. Perhaps we can learn to be the Light of the World in our humility and love for one another in the age to come.

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

“Break This Wild Pony!”

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“Break This Wild Pony!” (CaD Lev 26) – Wayfarer

“‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.’”
Leviticus 26:18-19 (NIV)

Last week I wrote about our granddaughter Sylvie and her two-year-old willfulness. I will never forget the words of our son-in-law as he and our daughter addressed the subject of their daughter’s stubborn self-will.

“We’re going to break this wild pony!” her father proclaimed with all of the love and resolve of a parent who ultimately wants what is best for his daughter. He knows instinctively that allowing her self-centered tenacity to continue will not be healthy for her or those around her in the future.

Exactly.

We are down to the final two chapters of God’s ancient priestly manual for His ancient Hebrew people in the toddler stages of humanity. Today’s chapter reads like a father addressing his toddler in simple and direct terms.

“Trust me on this, kiddo. If you obey and do as daddy says, then things are going to be good between us. Life is going to be better and more enjoyable all around for you. If, however, you refuse to obey and continue in your stubborn, willful disobedience, then I’m afraid life is going to get extremely difficult and not at all enjoyable for you. You can learn this the easy way or the hard way. It’s your choice, but I love you and I am not going to let you get away with being a self-centered little shit-hill.”

[By the way, “shit-hills” is what my grandma Vander Well called me and my siblings after spending a week with us while our parents were on vacation in the UK. I was five. I’m sure we earned the four-letter-laden moniker. It seemed apt in this context.]

What really blew me away as I read through God’s warning to His brood of toddlers is that it is a prophetic foreshadowing of exactly what is going to happen 750 years in the future:

“I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.”

Eventually, about 500 years after God warns His children about this in today’s chapter the Hebrew family splinters into two with the siblings factions at war with one another. That’s what happens when stubborn toddlers grow up to be pig-headed adolescents. About 200 years later, one set of siblings is conquered by the Assyrian Empire. About 150 years after that, the other set of siblings falls to the Babylonian Empire.

“When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.”
Leviticus 26:25-26

When they were conquered, the city of Jerusalem was surrounded in a siege by the Babylon. The Hebrew people stuck inside the walls slowly used up all of their provisions until starvation set in. Jeremiah describes it in his poem of Lamentations:

All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
    for I am despised.”
Lamentations 1:11

God goes on in Leviticus:

“You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.” (vs 29)

Jeremiah goes on to describe this eventuality:

“Look, Lord, and consider:
    Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children they have cared for?”
Lamentations 2:20

God continues in today’s chapter:

“I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.” (vs. 33)

Jerusalem was utterly destroyed along with Solomon’s famous temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Both the Hebrew children of the northern kingdom and southern kingdom were taken into exile by the Assyrians and Babylonians, just as God foreshadowed.

But the bitter consequences of a child’s stubborn will and rebellion do not change the love of a parent. The hope is that those harsh life lessons will eventually lead to a change of heart. God even foreshadows this in today’s chapter.

“‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me… I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them.’” (vss. 40, 42, 44)

It was while in exile in Babylon that the stories of Daniel, Esther, and Ezekiel take place. Just as promised, God does not abandon them in exile, but uses them to encourage His people and bear witness to their enemies. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, God brings His humbled and repentant children back home to Jerusalem like the Prodigal Son in Jesus’ parable. They rebuild Jerusalem and their lives.

There are even more direct prophetic connections and spiritual truths in today’s chapter than I have time and space to unpack. I hope you get the picture. In the quiet this morning I am amazed at the layers of meaning and spiritual truth contained in one chapter. God and humanity, parents and children, prophecy and fulfillment, historical events and metaphorical spiritual lessons that are applicable for me today are all crammed into 46 verses.

As I enter my day, I am reminded that no matter how old I get in physical human terms I never stop being a child of God. Each day my heart, my mind, my actions, and my choices can search out and follow my Father’s will. I can also choose to follow my own stubborn will, self-centered desires, and indulge my base human appetites. It is the same every day. It is my choice. My choices have natural consequences of both flesh and Spirit.

What choices will I make today?

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Best of ’24: #8 Transformation

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For two weeks, while Wendy and I are away enjoying some warm weather, I’ll be counting down the top ten chapter-a-day posts of 2024 (based on total views and plays). It’ s always interesting which posts resonated with readers and listeners. The chapter for tomorrow’s post will be listed at the bottom.

Transformed (CaD Ezk 11) – Wayfarer

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)

I got to bless a friend yesterday. A few weeks ago a mutual acquaintance told me how blown away he was by a conversation the two of them had. “Tom, the person I spoke with is not the same person I knew ten years ago. He’s changed!” It was a compliment of the highest order. One friend saw in the other friend the life transformation that happens when God’s Spirit indwells a willing heart. What a cool thing.

The life of John the Apostle is another wonderful story of transformation. When Jesus first meets the fisherman and his brother, they are brash men. When a village refused to let Jesus and His disciples into the town, John and his brother suggested to Jesus that He call down fire from heaven and burn the village and all the people in it. Jesus called the pair “The Sons of Thunder” for their quick, unbridled tempers.

A few years later, John is a different person. No longer “Son of Thunder,” John has become “the disciple Jesus’ loved.” That love had a transforming effect in John’s life. It is John that Jesus chooses to give the responsibility of caring for and loving His mother after His death. John’s letters repeat the importance of love over and over and over again. Late in life, the aged John reportedly said nothing but, “Little children, love one another” repeatedly.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision, which began back in chapter nine, comes to a conclusion. Zeke, having seen God’s judgment and anger cries out and asks God if He is any of His people will survive. God responds with a promise that a remnant will survive. Exiles like Zeke will return to Jerusalem and Israel. God then gives Zeke a fascinating metaphor, telling the prophet that He will put a “new spirit” into them, “remove their heart of stone,” and “give them a heart of flesh.”

One of the powers of metaphor is that they are layered with meaning. The Hebrew people had spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt, and Egypt was a popular place to flee in times of trouble (e.g. Mary and Joseph took flight to Egypt with baby Jesus to avoid Herod’s wrath). So the beliefs and customs of Egypt were known.

The Egyptians believed that the heart was used to judge a dead person’s worthiness for the afterlife. During the mummification process, the heart would be literally weighed. A heavy heart, weighed down with guilt and shame, would not make the cut. Those who heard Zeke’s prophetic word, would have recognized that “a heart of stone” was not a good thing. To this day, we understand that a hard heart is a bad thing.

When God says He’ll remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, there is hope of a new life. It is a beautiful picture of the transformation that occurs in the life of Jesus’ disciples. Paul wrote that anyone who is in Christ is a “new creation.” Old things pass away and new things come. The rock-hard heart is replaced with a heart of flesh, pumping new Life into the person.

In the quiet this morning, I reflected on the transformation I’ve felt in my own life over the course of forty-plus years as a disciple. Like John, like my friend, I can look back at things I felt, things I did, and things I said and feel ashamed for all of it. I’m so grateful to God that my heart has increasingly softened and I don’t feel, act, or say the things like that any more. I pray that God continues my spiritual heart-replacement therapy as long as I am on this earthly journey. I never want God’s transforming work to end in me. Ten years from now I’d like to have someone say, “Tom’s not the person he was ten years ago! He’s changed.”

Tomorrow’s Chapter: Romans 8

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

The End Times & .38 Special

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The End Times & .38 Special (CaD Ezk 38) – Wayfarer

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.”
Ezekiel 38:10-11 (NIV)

I once had a professor who was a vain know-it-all. Among the many things that he loved waxing eloquent about in his intellectual pride was the prophesies regarding the end times. Even when a class had nothing to do with the subject, he found ways to bring up the subject. I also noticed that he regularly used the occasion to hawk his recorded messages on the subject.

A number of years ago, I recalled some of the professors assured interpretations that didn’t come to fruition as he said they would. I’ve added it to a mental heap of modern-day prophets and end-times interpreters who made sure-fire predictions and interpretations that turned out to be completely wrong.

Along my spiritual journey, I’ve learned that one has to approach the prophetic with humility. The prophetic is mysterious, and I’ve observed that it’s very easy for people to get lost down the rabbit hole with the vast minions of those who’ve gotten lost in it before them. While it can certainly be an entertaining pursuit, I have never found it to be of much value from a personal, spiritual perspective.

In addition, I constantly remind myself that all of the greatest and most learned scholars and interpreters in Jesus’ day got the Messianic prophecies completely wrong. The Messiah they predicted was almost the exact opposite of who Jesus turned out to be. If all of them got it wrong, why should I expect that all of the modern scholars and interpreters have everything right when it comes to the end times?

This all came to mind today as we enter two of the most mysterious prophetic chapters in the entire Great Story. They speak of a mysterious land of Gog and Magog (Magog may simply mean “leader of Gog”). Today’s chapter speaks of Gog leading the nations in an invasion of Israel. John also references “Gog and Magog” in describing a final great battle against God led by Satan and the “kings of the earth” in Revelation 20:8. So Ezekiel 38-39 are prophetically connected to Revelation. Exactly how and what it all means? There’s a lot of different interpretations and I humbly confess I don’t know for certain.

What I do know, is that as I read today’s chapter it felt a bit like it was ripped from the headlines of the past year. My mind immediately conjured up images of the unsuspecting Kibbutzes in Israel last October 7 as I read:

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.”

I also know that the description in today’s chapter of all the nations of the earth joining in a combined hatred of Israel seems pretty apt when you look at the current political landscape.

So, I know that there are prophecies about how this Great Story ends. I believe them to be true and that they will eventually be proven true in the course of time. This is what’s called faith. I can even share with you various interpretations and schools of thought regarding how it’s going play out and the identity of the mysterious Gog in today’s chapter. I can even muse with you about which of those interpretations are more plausible in my mind. Yet, I will also humbly admit that they could all be wrong.

So when it comes to the prophetic and the end times, I take my interpretive advice from .38 Special: “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go.”

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

Chapter-a-Day

Lost Sheep, Living Hope

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Lost Sheep, Living Hope (CaD Ezk 34) – Wayfarer

I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
Ezekiel 34:15-16 (NIV)

Zeke and his fellow Israelites are strangers in a strange land. Having been forced to make a thousand mile march some ten years before, they have been making due eking out a life for themselves far from home. There’s no temple for worship. The thing around which their entire lives were centered for centuries. There are no pilgrimages. No feasts. No sacrifices. Everything they had is lost. They themselves are lost.

For ten years there was at least the hope of returning home one day. Then, in yesterday’s chapter, word came that Jerusalem had been destroyed. Solomon’s temple had been destroyed. Even the little hope that remained is now lost. There is no longer a home. In short order there will be more exiles arriving. King Zedekiah, his eyes gouged out after witnessing the slaughter of his own children will arrive in chains with the other leaders and “shepherds” of their people.

There are no shepherds. The flock is scattered with no one to protect the lost sheep.

That’s the backstory of today’s chapter. It’s important to know what Zeke and his fellow exiles are feeling as the prophet begins to share his message from God.

God Himself will be their Shepherd. God Himself has always been their Good Shepherd.

The temple and the sacrifices were never really the point in an of themselves. They were an object lesson to point His people to something much larger. He said so Himself in Psalm 50.

I have no need of a bull from your stall
    or of goats from your pens,
for every animal of the forest is mine,
    and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird in the mountains,
    and the insects in the fields are mine.
If I were hungry I would not tell you,
    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?

In today’s chapter, God foreshadows the Good Shepherd, the Messiah. There are so many parallels to Jesus’ teaching and parables I hardly know where to begin.

“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

“I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.”

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”

Right at the moment when Zeke and his compatriots are feeling hopeless, God reminds them where their true hope lies. Their hope is ultimately not in an earthly city or a temple made with hands. Their hope is in the living God who has always been a Good Shepherd

Who led Abraham to Canaan and made a covenant with him

Who led His people out of slavery in Egypt.

Who provided for His people for 40 years of wilderness wanderings.

Who led His people to a Promised Land.

They may no longer have a nation, or a city to call home, or a temple around which to worship, but it was never ever about the rituals or the religion. It was always, and still is, about the relationship. They still have a Good Shepherd who will “search for the lost and bring back the strays” who will “bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking back to stretches of this life journey when I was lost and trying to find my way. I often hear people say that they found God, but the spiritual reality is that God found me. I was the lost sheep, but I have a Good Shepherd and because of that I have a living hope no matter where I find myself, even if like Zeke I find myself a stranger in a strange land.

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

Chapter-a-Day

“Go to Hell!”

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I will throw you on the land
    and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
    and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.
Ezekiel 32:4 (NIV)

A number of years ago I read a fascinating book that has become one of my favorite all-time reads. The book is called Holy Sh*t by Melissa Mohr, and it’s subtitled “A Brief History of Swearing.” I have always been fascinated by words and phrases and their histories along with culture’s mores and taboos regarding what is acceptable and unacceptable to say.

In her book, Mohr explains that there are basically two categories of swear words in the history of English. There are swear words that have to do with that which is sacred (e.g. “Holy”) and then there are swear words that have to do with body parts, bodily acts (especially sex), and excrements (e.g. “Shit”). Mohr goes on to explain that through history these two categories waxed and waned with regard to which was more prominent and fashionable.

I thought of Mohr’s book this morning as I read today’s chapter which contains the final two of Ezekiel’s seven prophetic messages regarding ancient Israel’s former enslaver and millennial nemesis, Pharaoh and his Egyptian empire.

In the first of the final two, Ezekiel writes another song of lament, a funeral dirge, in which God tells Pharaoh that He:

will throw [Pharaoh] on the land
    and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
    and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.

What is easily lost on casual modern readers is the fact that the Egyptians, especially the Pharaohs, had an entire religious belief system around death and the afterlife. All those Egyptian mummies we see in museums come from a highly orchestrated process that was rooted in Egyptian religion. The Egyptians preserved the bodies, the organs, and then buried the Pharaoh with all of his treasures, worldly goods, and sometimes even with dead and mummified servants because they believed that Pharaoh would need all of those things in the ancient Egyptian version of the heavenly afterlife.

When God through Ezekiel proclaims that Pharaoh’s dead body will be thrown into an open field where all of the carrion fowl and wild beasts can feast on his flesh, it means there is nothing to preserve and mummify. God is going to rob Pharaoh of the heavenly afterlife he believes he’s going to have according to his own faith system.

The second and final message to Pharaoh is addressed to both Pharaoh and “his hoards.” God through Ezekiel tells the Egyptian king that he will be drug down to “the pit, the realm of the dead.” When he gets there, he’ll find out that he is joining the leaders and military hoards of a bunch of regional nations like Assyria, Elam, Meshek, Tubal, Edom, and the Sidonians. All of these kingdoms were devastated and destroyed. Pharaoh would have known this.

Instead of ascending to a cushy afterlife with all of his servants and treasures, Zeke’s prophetic messages are telling Pharaoh that just the opposite is going to happen. He will find himself in a very different afterlife with all of the other fallen kings and their empires who had gone before. He’s headed down to the pit. The realm of the dead.

In short, Zeke’s prophetic message is really an ancient form of the same colloquialism that we still use interpersonally today with enemies or individuals with whom we’re angry. . He’s telling Pharaoh “Go to hell” in a much more creative way. I would argue, however, that it would have been just as blunt in Pharaoh’s mind when he received the message.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded that history teaches us lessons about evil and about tyrants and dictators and emperors bent on conquest and power. They don’t respond to polite requests to be nicer. Any offer of a joint counseling session to work out the issues and find reconciliation will be rejected, mocked, and laughed at. Those who try the appeasement approach quickly find themselves the next victim. Evil only responds to direct force, and God through Zeke is delivering a direct, forceful message. One of the things that I have learned through the study of both theatre and mass communication is that in certain human situations the use of a well-timed, well-turned expletive is a powerful tool in getting through thick heads and hard hearts.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Choosing to Know

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Choosing to Know (CaD Ezk 30) – Wayfarer

Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he brandishes it against Egypt.
Ezekiel 30:25b (NIV)

One of the changes in reality of life that I’ve observed along my life journey is how spread out family has become geographically. When my great-grandfather settled in northwest Iowa from the old country, his children all lived within a small geographical area their entire lives. My parents’ generation started spreading out around North America, My generation continued to spread, and our children’s generation has spread around the globe. While technology has made it easier and easier to communicate, there is no doubt that geographic distance makes it more difficult to know and be known.

Yesterday, Wendy and I enjoyed time with family. Our nephew, Elias, celebrated his first birthday. Wendy and I headed to Ankeny where we hung out with five of our nephews and nieces. Wendy’s sister and her two kiddos are back in Iowa from their home in Mazatlan, and we’re feeling really blessed to have them staying with us in Pella for a few days. It was our first opportunity to meet our niece Rosie, and only the second time we’ve been physically present with our nephew, Ian. Of course, the first order of business was for the two of them to get comfortable knowing their Aunt Wendy and Uncle Tom.

We have 15 nephews and nieces. We love them all, but have varying degrees of relationship with them. Some of that is proximity, but some of it is also choices that are made.

One of the overarching themes of the entire Great Story from Genesis to Revelation is God’s expressed desire to be known and to have a relationship with the pinnacle of HIs creation, human beings who have the free will to choose or refuse to be in a relationship. Complicating this is the nature of evil which sets itself up against such a relationship.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel continues his seven-part prophetic rant against Pharaoh and Egypt. Four times God through Ezekiel says, “Then they will know that I am the LORD.” I was once again struck by the synchronicity with the story of the ten plagues (or “strikes”) against Pharaoh back in the story of Moses, which I talked about in my message yesterday among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers. Pharaoh refused to know or acknowledge the God of Moses, though he had over a thousand gods of Egypt and was considered a god himself. In this, Pharaoh becomes an example of those who choose personal empire over a relationship with the God of Creation. Seven times in the ten plagues God says “then you will know that I am the LORD.”

One thousand years later, Egypt is still refusing to know and be known.

Ezekiel’s prophetic message was fulfilled. The Babylonians did invade Egypt, did defeat Pharaoh, and did a lot of damage. It would be the Persians, however, who would finish the job and complete the prophetic message. Ezekiel’s prediction that “no longer will there be a prince in Egypt” was fulfilled when Pharaoh Nectanebo II became the last Pharaoh ever in 340 B.C. The Pharaohs of Egypt remain an example to this day of hearts that remain hardened in their refusal to acknowledge and know Yahweh.

In the quiet this morning, I fast forward my thinking to Jesus, the Son of God, who came to earth that we might know God. The Story is the same. God inviting His creation to know and be known in an intimate spiritual relationship.

““I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
John 10:14-15 (NIV emphasis added)

Along my spiritual journey, I’ve come to understand that the degree to which I know God is proportionate to my willingness to choose into a relationship with Him and the degree of my refusal to do so.

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