Sun, 21 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Peter 2:1-3

¹ But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Peter has just finished talking about the authors of scripture, referring to the Old Testament. But even in the Old Testament times, there were false prophets who were competing against the true prophets of God. This is nothing new. False prophets troubled the Old Testament church. False prophets will plague the New Testament church as well.

What do we learn from this?

Peter is telling us that this is nothing new. There were false teachers. There are false teachers. There will continue to be false teachers. We see them in our own time. This shouldn’t surprise us, for the New Testament is full of warnings to be on our guard against those who teach false doctrine.

Jesus warned us against false teachers. “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”

Paul warned the Ephesian elders of the coming of false teachers. “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”

Paul warns Timothy against people who will fall from the faith and teach false doctrine. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.”

What is a heresy? What do we need to beware of from these false teachers? The word means literally an act of choosing. It is used of those who choose an opinion contrary to the orthodox faith. A heresy is a doctrine that contradicts or goes against a point of orthodoxy. If something contradicts one of the foundational creeds of Christianity, it is a heresy. For example, to deny the Trinity is a heresy. To deny the Divinity of Christ is a heresy. To deny that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary is a heresy.

There are things we can disagree about without accusing each other are heresies. The timing of Christ’s return is not a point of orthodoxy. People can hold differing views and not be heretics. The mode and meaning of baptism are also not points of orthodoxy. In my own denomination, we only sing the Psalms as part of worship. Those who do not hold to this view are not heretics.

So, how do these false teachers bring their heresies? Secretly. They usually don’t teach outright heresy, although that does sometimes occur. These false teachers are subtle in their teaching. They will have much true teaching and slowly bring in the false. They affirm enough truth to appear to be orthodox, all the while undermining orthodoxy.

Usually, false teachers teach what sounds like orthodox Christianity unless you listen carefully to realize that they have subtly changed the meaning of the words they use. The resurrection of Christ is not an historical fact to them. Instead it is the idea of renewal. Salvation is being freed from our human limitations. Sin is anything that holds us back from our full potential. They will use the Christian vocabulary, but will pack the words with different meanings.

Another technique is to simply leave out the most important parts of Christianity. Don’t talk about sin, the wrath of God, and the coming judgment. Usually this is done in an attempt to not offend people and drive them away, but the result is to compromise the gospel and to be a false teacher.

How should we conduct ourselves knowing that there are subtle false teachers who would like to deceive us? We need to very careful about what we accept from our Bible teachers. We need to carefully consider what they tell us, and compare it to scripture. Read all of your Bible, so you know the context of scripture. Listen carefully to what your pastor teaches. Compare it to what the scriptures say. Ask questions. Talk to your pastor and your elders about the meaning of what you are hearing in the teaching of your church. Ask them to explain the scriptures.

Be careful. There will be false teachers among you.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Peter tells us these false teachers deny the Lord who bought them. How do they deny the Lord? Peter seems to be referring to their conduct. Specifically, their false teaching leads to or encourages immoral conduct.

Jude tells us, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In other words, their evil conduct denies Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean that the Lord bought them? This is a passage that some will use as a proof text for losing your salvation. Some claim that Peter here says that Jesus bought them, and they through falling into heresy are now lost.

I don’t agree with that position, for that isn’t the point Peter is making. Peter isn’t trying to warn people against losing their salvation. Rather, Peter is warning people against conduct that is incongruous with their profession. He is warning us against teachers who don’t live a life in harmony with the gospel.

Peter is saying that these people claimed that Jesus died to redeem them from their sins, but then they live lives of profligate sin. To live such a life of unrepentant sin is to deny the very Lord you claim has bought you.

We are bought with a price. We are owned by Jesus Christ. Therefore, our conduct must be governed by Jesus Christ. If our conduct isn’t governed by God, then we are denying that Jesus Christ has bought us.

Sat, 20 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 21:1-10

¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
² A stern vision is told to me;
the traitor betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
⁴ My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
⁵ They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
oil the shield!
⁶ For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
⁸ Then he who saw cried out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
⁹ And behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.

Isaiah served as prophet from around 740 until about 700 B.C. Assyria was the dominant power that threatened all the nations in the region, including Judah. During Isaiah’s time, Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, took many fortified cities of Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem. Due to God’s intervention to protect Judah, they survived the threat from Assyria and remained a nation. But in Isaiah’s time, Assyria was the nation people dreaded.

Yet we see Isaiah prophesying about the fall of Babylon! The nation that hadn’t yet arisen to unseat Assyria as the main power is clearly presented as being themselves unseated by the Medes, and event that is a hundred years or more in the future for Isaiah.

What do we learn from this?

No event is a surprise to God. He is in control of these events, and so He can tell what is going to happen. He isn’t able to tell of the fall of Babylon due to His omniscience, but due to Him omnipotence. He foreknows what will happen because everything happens according to His will.

God sees beyond the immediate threat of Assyria to tell His people through Isaiah of the fall of Babylon. Why? Not to show off His ability to see the future and impress people. Not to give them some useless trivia that doesn’t impact their lives. God is showing His people that He is in control of the events that are going on around them. He tells them this to build their faith. They know they can trust the God who brings about the rise and fall of nations.

Where is Christ in this passage?

In the time of Isaiah we see that God raises up Assyria and brings them down by raising up Babylon. He then brings down Babylon by raising the Medes. In all of this, He protects His people and preserves a remnant.

Now we look to Jesus Christ to exercise His power on behalf of His church. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the one who controls all history as all authority has been given to Him. He is the one who leads and protects His people. He brings about the rising and the falling of nations according to His will to accomplish His purposes in the world.

Fri, 19 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 72:1-4

¹ Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
² May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
³ Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!

The superscript of Psalm 72 tells us this Of Solomon which means it is either by or for Solomon. Solomon, the son of David, and the great king of Israel is either the author or the subject of this Psalm. The Psalm is about the king, Solomon. But obviously it is about the great King, the Messiah, the Christ.

What do we learn from this?

The king acts as God’s representative to bring God’s justice to the people. It is his primary mission to see that wrong is punished and right is rewarded. This is the God given roll of governments.

A government that tolerates injustice and moral wrong is a government that is in rebellion against God, for it should defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the need, and crush the oppressor!

Where is Christ in this passage?

Although the government is God’s instrument for justice, all governments (including Solomon’s) fall short of perfectly keeping standard. But we see that this points us beyond our fallen human governments and points us to Jesus Christ as the perfect King. This Psalm is ultimately about Jesus Christ.

Thu, 18 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Numbers 27:12-14

¹² The LORD said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. ¹³ When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, ¹⁴ because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)

Moses was a man who was marvelously used by God. He experienced God in ways we will not fully understand until we go to heaven. When we read through his life and learn how he communed with God, we are amazed. Here is a man who was uniquely favored by God.

From what I read in scripture, I can easily start to think that Moses was super-human and beyond sin. I can begin to think that he is not a man like me. But Moses was like me. True, he was uniquely gifted by God, but he was not sinless. And in today’s passage, we see that even with the special communion Moses had with God, sin still had consequences.

What do we learn from this?

When I sin, there are results that occur. Moses disobeyed God’s command to speak to the rock and instead hit the rock. Perhaps some other time we can discuss the significance of this action. For today’s purposes, it is enough to note that this was a direct disobedience of God’s express command. It was a sin. As a result, neither Moses nor Aaron were allowed to enter the promised land. Both died across the Jordan, just prior to Israel’s entering Canaan.

Moses missed out on entering the promised land because of his sin. Sin has consequences, and just because I am a Christian, it doesn’t exempt me from them. If I steal money, I can go to jail. If I am unfaithful to my wife, I can end up with a venereal disease or divorced (or both). If I am continually abusive in my attitude to people at work, I can lose my job. Just because I’m a Christian doesn’t change this.

Moses was a mighty leader, used by God to lead His people out of bondage and into the promised land. Yet because of sin, Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land. Why would God be more lenient with me? Sin has consequences.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land because of sin. Instead, Moses died, leaving Joshua to lead the people into the promised land. But if you recall, in the New Testament we see Moses in the promised land: at the Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus about His coming crucifixion, where He would bear the sins of His people, freeing them from the penalty of sin.

There are consequences in time for our sins. Our salvation doesn’t change that. But Jesus bore the penalty for our sins, taking away the consequences in eternity for our sins.

Moses died before entering the promised land. But after death, he entered God’s presence, justified, and free from all guilt of sin. So, we too face the consequences of our sin in time, but we have the great hope of being accepted into heaven, based upon the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to us, and our sins being imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross.

Wed, 17 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

1 Peter 4:1-2

¹ Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, ² so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Christ has completely triumphed over death, hell and the grave. He has all authority, power and dominion now. At his ascension, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples….” (Matthew 28:18-19)

What do we learn from this?

Christ’s authority should impact our conduct now.

Christ has won the victory over sin. He is in control now. This is something fundamental we need to understand.

We sometimes think that we suffer because God isn’t in control of things. That is incorrect. The suffering we face does not prove that Christ is not in control. He is in control, even in the midst of our sufferings. If we can grasp what Peter is trying to teach us, we can have a great help for our times of trouble, for we all will face some degree of suffering. Difficult times should not drive us away from Christ and into sin; rather, they should drive us to depend even more upon His grace and providence. He has all authority, and will work in our lives to make us more like Himself.

Peter says that if we can have the same mind as Christ, if we can remember that Christ suffered in the flesh for us, we can change our conduct. With this mindset, we can grow in our obedience. How do you gain the victory over the passions of your flesh? By thinking the same way Christ did. By recalling what Christ has done for us.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Our sanctification is, just like our justification, based upon the death of Jesus Christ. It is in our dying with Christ that we can have victory over sin.

C.H. Spurgeon writes:

“We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins…. Take your sins to Christ’s cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with Him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration—you want to overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted Him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, ‘Lord I trust Thee to deliver me from it.’ This is the only way to give it a death-blow…. Take it to Christ. Tell Him, ‘Lord, I have trusted Thee, and Thy name is Jesus, for Thou dost save Thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!’”

[Morning and Evening, devotions for the morning of April 23, C.H. Spurgeon, p. 228]

We need to arm ourselves with this attitude. It is a battle we fight against sin, and we need to fight it based upon Christ’s victory over sin and death. He died for our sins, and was raised for our justification. He is ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father ruling with all authority. What should we do? We should change our conduct, obey His commands, and live not for our lusts, but for the will of God.

And so we see that Christ’s suffering is not only the basis for our salvation, it is the basis for our living a right life. It is the basis of our sanctification.

Tue, 16 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 15

¹ An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
² He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
On every head is baldness;
every beard is shorn;
³ in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;
her fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
⁶ the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
the greenery is no more.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;
for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
a lion for those of Moab who escape
, for the remnant of the land.

In chapters 15 and 16, Isaiah brings an oracle against Moab. In chapter 16 we learn the reason for God’s judgment against Moab:

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab–
how proud he is!–
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
in his idle boasting he is not right.
⁷ Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
let everyone wail.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

What do we learn from this?

God is angry against with the proud. He destroyed Moab because of their pride, and He continues to destroy those who are proud, insolent and boastful. Those who believe themselves to not need God are the ones who have set themselves up as God’s mark for humbling.

We hear people talk all the time about the chronic problem of low self-esteem. They tell us we need to think more of ourselves. They even use scripture to prove their point. “Jesus told us, love your neighbor as yourself,” they explain. “Therefore we are supposed to love ourselves.” Of course they are ignoring Jesus point: We are to love our neighbors. They completely turn Jesus’ teaching on its head. Jesus wasn’t teaching us to love ourselves, but to love others.

What we see in scripture is that we love ourselves too much. Scripture tells us we need to think more of others. We need to love others. We need to consider the needs of others. We need to stop thinking so much of ourselves, and think more of others. We need to humble ourselves. We need to kill our pride.

The lesson we learn from the destruction of Moab prophesied by Isaiah is that we must humble ourselves before God.

Where is Christ in this passage?

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Those who humble themselves and come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ receive His grace. But all those who in their pride believe they can save themselves are under God’s wrath and face God’s resistance.

Mon, 15 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 66:1-4

¹ Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
² sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
³ Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
⁴ All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah

Psalm 66 follows an interesting pattern. It starts with all the earth praising God (v 1-4), then moves the nation of Israel’s praise (v 5-12), and ends with one person praising God (v 13-20). From the general to the specific. From the corporate to the individual.

For today’s meditation, we will briefly think about the world-wide worship due to God.

What do we learn from this?

All the earth is to praise and worship God. There is no exemption. All are to offer Him their worship.

We know that not everyone worships God right now. This is because they are in rebellion against Him. Why does this Psalm say that everyone worships God when so many are clearly not doing so?

Derek Kidner is helpful in his commentary “Psalms: an introduction and commentary”:

The tenses allow a present sense but prefer a future one, as in AV, RV. The future also does more justice to the facts: it is a promise which is yet to materialize.

Verse 4 is a promise of what is to come. Not everyone acknowledges God and worships Him now, but the day will come when all the earth will do so.

Where is Christ in this passage?

All God’s enemies will come cringing to Him. Here is another promise of Jesus Christ ruling until all His enemies will become His footstool. (Psalm 110) They will “kiss the Son” or He will “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2)

Sun, 14 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Numbers 23:18-24

¹⁸ And Balaam took up his discourse and said,

“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
¹⁹ God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
²⁰ Behold, I received a command to bless:
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
²¹ He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
²² God brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
²³ For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘What has God wrought!’
²⁴ Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”

Balaam. What a curious fellow. He is a man through whom God spoke. God speaks to him, and uses him to bring His word to people. Yet despite this intimate knowledge of God, to his own ultimate demise, Balaam attempts to manipulate God and turn the blessing of God into a curse.

What is God’s response to this manipulation?

God speaks through Balaam to teach us all that He is not like us, in that He does not change His mind. He doesn’t commit to doing one thing and then then, through the manipulation of others, change His mind and do something else. Magical incantations don’t work with Him. We can’t influence Him by repeating a prayer many times, or by doing some acts to earn His favor. When He says He will do something, He will do it.

What do we learn from this?

We can trust God. We can believe His word. What He has promised to do for us, we can confidently claim, because He does not lie, and He does not change His mind.

We see in His word that If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We know this is true. We can truly be forgiven of all our sins. And since God doesn’t change His mind, we also know that He won’t renege on this promise and later hold these forgiven sins against us. He will not go back on His word.

Thank God that our salvation is not based upon our own works. If so, we would have no assurance that we would be saved, since we are so unpredictable. We do change our minds. We do lie. We have the best intentions of remaining steadfast for God, but then we don’t do what we promise.

But our salvation is based on God and His promises, not on our own ability and promises. God is not like us. Therefore we can trust His promise, and we know He will save us, despite ourselves.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Our salvation is based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He came to pay the price for the sins of His people, and He did so. He has saved His people. We have yet to see how that works out in time, as not all His people have come to Him in faith. Many may not even yet been born. But God will not change His mind. He will faithfully save them. He will not change His mind about them, but will unfailingly bring them to faith, and will work in their lives so that they persevere in their faith through the ages.

Sat, 13 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

James 5:1-8

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

⁷ Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸ You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Oh, to be rich. I’ve heard many people express their great desire for money. “I don’t have any problems money can’t solve,” is a common thought.

But how wrong they are. They have a problem much bigger than money. Though money can be a great blessing, and it can ease some of our troubles in this life, our money can’t buy salvation.

There is nothing wrong with having money in and of itself. But James teaches us something about people who gain their wealth by cheating others.

What do we learn from this?

There are people who prosper in this life by their misdeeds. They cheat the poor. They take advantage of others to enrich themselves. James tells us that though they thought they were laying up great wealth to their benefit, in fact they were laying up punishment for themselves in eternity.

We have a tendency to see the opulent wealth of the wicked and to be jealous. But when we look at things from an eternal perspective, we realize that to live an obedient life in submission to God and His word is far better. We might have to forego opportunities for illicit wealth, and it could cause us to be poorer in this life, but their wealth is bought at too high of a price. They buy temporal wealth at the cost of eternal punishment.

Where is Christ in this passage?

There is a day of judgment coming: The day of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day, the books will be opened, and the living and dead will be judged. Those who have lived their lives for the accumulation of wealth at any cost will be judged for their misdeeds. James tells us these people will weep and howl for what is coming upon them as a results of their desire for wealth. Their money, though it brought them great enjoyment in this life, will do them no good on the day of judgment.

But for those who are in Jesus Christ, what a difference! Because their sins have been punished upon Jesus Christ, and they have the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to them, they are declared to be just and are accepted into His presence. The day of the Lord is a great joy as they enter into the perfect felicity of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Fri, 12 May, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 10:24-27

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. ²⁵ For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. ²⁶ And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. ²⁷ And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.”

Why does God allow bad things happen to His people? God is in charge of all things, and He could make is so that His people never face troubles. Yet they suffer. Why?

God doesn’t always reveal to us His reasons, but in this passage, God tells His people why they are suffering under the Assyrians. He is disciplining them for their sin.

What do we learn from this?

One reason (though not the only reason) God gives us over to trouble is because of our sin. In order to break us of our sin and to bring us to repentance, He allows us to suffer. It is in the times of trouble that we turn from our sin and turn back to God. Unfortunately, we are hard-headed, and often need a good whack over the head to get our attention.

As Job’s friends learned, sin is not the only reason for hardships in our lives. But whenever we suffer, it is good to start by considering our own lives. Are we sinning? Do we need to repent? Is God trying to get our attention to bring us back to Him due to our sin?

Where is Christ in this passage?

God has promised that His fury will be turned away from His people. Their sin must be punished. And so they are. Jesus Christ has taken the sins of His people, and the full fury of God’s anger is expended upon Jesus Christ on the cross. The guilt of their sins is taken away, and God’s fury is turned from His people. Justice is done as sin is punished, and mercy is given as His people are spared.