Sat, 10 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Revelation 12:1-6

¹ And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ² She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. ³ And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. ⁴ His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. ⁵ She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, ⁶ and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days

The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is full of highly symbolic language. But, although much is hard to understand, the basic message of today’s reading is clear: Satan opposed the birth of Jesus Christ and tried to thwart it. But God the Father protected the incarnate Son and preserved Him as He carried out the mission assigned by the Father.

What do we learn from this?

We see several times in the life of Jesus when people tried to kill Him. From Herod at His birth, to the people who were offended at His “blasphemy”, people desired to kill Jesus Christ. But they were unable, due to God’s protection. Despite all of his demonic scheming, Satan was unable to change God’s plans. He was unable then, and he is unable now.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is the baby who was born to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. This is not some future event we are awaiting, for Jesus Christ is ruling now. He has been caught up to God and to his throne, where He is bringing everything into submission to His rule.

Note the reference to Psalm 2 as the Messiah will rule with a rod of iron, smashing His enemies.

Fri, 9 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 41:1

Listen to me in silence,
O coastlands;
let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
let us together draw near for judgment.

Isaiah calls the nations to listen in silence and then come to the Lord.

What do we learn from this?

Throughout the scriptures, we see promises that the nations will come to God in faith. From the Bible, we expect a day when there will be mass conversion to true religion. It hasn’t happened yet, so we still are looking for that day. But we expect God to work in the world through the ages to eventually bring the world into subjection to Himself.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is ruling now, although not everyone acknowledges it. But the day will come when the nations will submit to Jesus Christ as their Lord and King.

Thu, 8 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 97:6-7

⁶ The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
⁷ All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods!

This isn’t the best proof text for general revelation, but the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 97 that The heavens proclaim his righteousness.

What do we learn from this?

There are some things we can only know about God if He chooses to reveal them to us. He does this by special revelation in His word. But there are things we can learn about God just by looking at the world around us. One of the things we can know about God from general revelation is that He is righteous. We can know that there is a God and that He is holy. We can know that we have a big problem because we have offended this all holy God.

You can go anywhere in the world and you find people have created some sort of sacrificial system to try to deal with the problem of the guilt from offending some deity. People just know from observing the world that they are in big trouble with the creator.

People might suppress this knowledge, and refuse to acknowledge what they deep down know to be true. Nevertheless, we all know there is a holy God, for the heavens proclaim his righteousness.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We find people throughout the world offering sacrifices for their guilt. People know there must be some death in order for the guilt of sin to be paid, and so they offer their own substitutes to some made up deity.

But in reality, their sacrifice could never pay the price for any sin. The only sacrifice that could avail is that of Jesus Christ Himself. He offered Himself once for all His people, taking all of their sin upon Himself. We can’t know this from general revelation. God only reveals the work of Jesus Christ through special revelation. That is why it is so important that we as Christians are sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the people around us. We must share the special revelation God has given about how we can be right with God through faith with Jesus Christ.

Wed, 7 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

¹⁸ “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ²⁰ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.”

Much of the book of Deuteronomy is about the blessings God promises upon obedience to His word and the curses upon disobedience. In the midst of this chapter of blessings and curses, God commands us to teach the commandments to our children.

What do we learn from this?

We desire that God’s blessing will be upon our children. Our heart’s desire is that they will love and serve God, and that He will bless them. Since we see that God promises to bless obedience and to curse disobedience, our desire is that out children will obey God’s word.

How can they obey what they don’t know? Therefore we should teach God’s word to our children, at every opportunity. We should teach them when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

How much time do we spend teaching God’s word to our kids? Consider it a measure of our desire for God’s blessing to be upon them.

Where is Christ in this passage?

As we teach God’s word to our children, we will be teaching them about the content of scripture: the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament foretells Christ’s coming to bring salvation. The Gospels tell of what Jesus did during His life. The epistles tell us what Christ’s coming means.

We want our children to be saved, therefore we must teach them to come to God in saving faith.

Tue, 6 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Revelation 8:1-5

¹ When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. ² Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. ³ And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, ⁴ and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. ⁵ Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Back in the sixth chapter we saw the martyrs under the alter crying out for vengeance upon those who have been persecuting the church. In chapter eight, we see the prayers of the saints being presented to God. These prayers culminate in God sending His angel to exact vengeance upon God’s enemies.

What do we learn from this?

It is appropriate for the church to pray for God to act against the enemies of God and of the church. We see that God acts in response to the prayers of His people. It is not that God changes His mind and does something different than He would have done, because the prayers of His people have forced Him to go against what He really wanted to do. No. God ordains the ends as well as the means. He ordains the prayers and He ordains the results of the prayers as He acts in response.

And so we see the prayers of the martyrs and of the saints are answered as God moves against His enemies to bring judgment upon the earth.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The Lamb who is opening the seals is Jesus Christ. He is the one who is bringing judgment upon the earth in response to the prayers of His people. He is not unaware of the needs of His people. He knows what they are suffering, and He hears their cries for help. He hears their prayers for Him to act against the enemies of the church and the enemies of God, and He is only awaiting His exact time to act.

When the time is right, Jesus Christ will bring His judgment upon His enemies.

Mon, 5 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 37:33-38

³³ “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. ³⁵ For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁶ And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. ³⁸ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

The Assyrians have just destroyed the northern tribes of Israel. They have continued their conquest, taking most of Judah, and they are now threatening to complete the job by taking Jerusalem. No nation has been able to stand against these fierce warriors. Yet God, through the propet Isaiah, has made the most outrageous promise. Not only will the Assyrians not take Jerusalem, as they have threatened, but they will not even come to the city to start the siege.

What do we learn from this?

We don’t often get such clear promises of God’s protection in our earthly sojourn. I don’t expect to ever have such an episode as Hezekiah here experienced. But yet we can learn from this. No matter how outrageous God’s promise might be, we can believe Him to keep His word. If we have a promise from God, we can trust it to be true.

Where is Christ in this passage?

We do have an outrageous promise from God that we can claim. He has promised that everyone who comes to Him in faith, trusting in Jesus Christ, will be saved from their sins. God will take the guilt of their sins away, laying them upon Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, and He will grant them the perfect righteousness they need, earned by Jesus Christ.

Can we believe such an outrageous claim? How could God become man? Why would God Himself take our sin and give us His righteousness? Why should I believe such a thing?

We can believe because God always keeps His promise. Just as God sent His angel to kill 185,000 Assyrian warriors fulfilling His promise to protect Jerusalem, we know that He will keep His promise to us to grant salvation to all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

Sun, 4 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Psalm 91:1-2

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

This Psalm describes what it is like for the child of God to be in great danger. When we face difficulties, how should we react as Christians? What should we do? The Psalmist starts Psalm 91 by answering the question.

What do we learn from this?

Trust in God. Dwell in the shelter He provides. Abide in His shelter. Come to Him as your refuge and fortress. Trust in Him.

As we face the things that come into our lives, we must come to God in faith, trusting Him for His provision and sustenance. It is in the difficult times that we realize this the most. For when things are going well, we have a tendency to forget about God, thinking that we can handle the situation ourselves.

Perhaps that is often why God allows us to face troubles in the first place.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. His work on our behalf is the basis of our salvation. In His life and death, He earned the righteousness we need while paying the penalty for the sins we have committed.

As we come to God for shelter, we come through faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. We trust in perfect righteousness, and His death upon the cross as sufficient for our great need. We trust in Jesus Christ.

Sat, 3 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

⁶ “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

The reformed doctrine of God’s sovereignty in salvation is all through the Bible. In today’s passage, we see Moses teaching the people to realize that God chose them, not the other way around.

What do we learn from this?

God chooses His people. He doesn’t look for the smartest, brightest, best looking people. In fact, He doesn’t choose people because of any merit on their part.

No one earns their salvation by being the right kind of person. We haven’t done the right things or been the right kind of person and therefore been chosen by God. He chooses according to His own purposes in accordance with His love. He chooses a people to love, not because they are worthy of His love but because of His love.

In this way God demonstrates His grace, mercy and love to the world as all will see that the salvation of His people is all because of Himself alone.

Where is Christ in this passage?

The God the Father has chosen a people for Himself. God the Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth to win their salvation. The people of God’s choice are saved because of Jesus Christ’s work of salvation applied to them by faith. What a great God we have who has done so much for His people.

As we consider this, also consider Moses admonition for us to be careful to obey. In light of all that God has done for us, what should our response be? Obedience. We should obey His commands.

Fri, 2 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Revelation 4

¹ After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ² At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. ³ And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

In his vision, John is caught up into heaven to witness the never ending worship that surrounds the throne of God.

What do we learn from this?

Day and night, the angelic beings cry out that God is holy (three-fold holy at that), and they offer Him their worship. He only is worthy of worship.

In scripture, we see a few instances of people offering their worship to angels. (Later in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John will offer worship to an angel only to be rebuked.) The angels always stop the person from worshipping them, because worship is due only to God.

The angels in heaven declare that God is the one (and the only one) we are to worship.

Where is Christ in this passage?

One of the proofs of the divinity of the Deity of Jesus Christ is that He accepts worship. In the very next chapter, John will see Jesus Christ, as a Lamb that had been slain, receiving the worship of these same angelic beings who have just been worshiping God the Father. Jesus Christ, along with God the Father, is worthy of our worship.

Thu, 1 June, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Isaiah 33:5-6

⁵ The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
⁶ and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.

I have some pretty neat treasures. I have a classic 1989 Dodge Ram 50 pickup truck. I have a 1963 Ben Franklin silver half dollar. I have more books than I’ll ever read, and more CDs than I regularly listen to. God has richly blessed me with many treasures.

But Isaiah promises an even greater treasure is the possession of the church: The fear of the LORD.

What do we learn from this?

We are such selfish, worldly people. When we think of treasure, we think of gold and silver. We think of the things we covet and horde. What a strange thought this is to think of the fear of the LORD as our treasure. How can that be a treasure? Shouldn’t a treasure be something we love and desire?

And that’s the point. We don’t love God as we should. We don’t desire to grow in knowledge of Him as we should. Not only do we not fear God as we should, but most of us don’t even want to fear Him as we should.

God has to work in us to give us these desires. And as He is working in our midst to bring justice, righteousness, stability, salvation, wisdom and knowledge to His church, His people will grow to love Him and treasure the fear of the LORD.

It doesn’t all happen at once, and most of us are far from where we should be. Yet God continues to work. He is bringing us to sanctification so that we will ultimately be the people He intends us to be.

Where is Christ in this passage?

To fear God is to love and honor Him as we should. It is to show Him the respect that is due to Him. This love and respect is due to all the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But as we consider God administering justice and righteousness, we think of Jesus Christ ruling as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the one who is ruling with an iron scepter until all His enemies are His footstool.