Mon, 11 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

John 1:1-3

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John begins his gospel with this great statement of the eternal nature of Jesus Christ.

What do we learn from this?

The Word existed before time began, since the Word was present with God at the beginning. The Word is not a created being, since the Word was present before creation and in fact is the agent of creation. The Word is separate from God, since the Word is with God at the beginning. And then we come to the amazing statement that the Word was God.

Where is Christ in this passage?

As we read John’s first chapter, it is clear that the Word is Jesus Christ. He is God, but He is a separate person than the Father (or the Spirit). John is telling us about the Trinity as He is informing us about the Second Person of the Trinity taking on human flesh and being born as Jesus Christ. He is God incarnate.

Sun, 10 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Zephaniah 2:1-3

¹ Gather together, yes, gather,
O shameless nation,
² before the decree takes effect
–before the day passes away like chaff–
before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the LORD,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the LORD.
³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the LORD.

Zephaniah is about to declare God’s judgment upon the nations surrounding Judah. He calls for a convocation of the people of God, that they might understand the coming judgment, repent, humble themselves and escape judgment themselves.

What do we learn from this?

When God brings judgment upon the wicked, it is a time for us to consider our own sin. We should not gloat when others are being punished for their sin. We should not think we are superior to those who are suffering. Rather, we should realize that we too are sinners. We too have offended God and deserve punishment.

It is still possible for the righteous to be caught in the punishment of the wicked. There were righteous people in Judah when it was captured by Babylon (see the books of Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel for further details). They suffered along with the wicked. But we have also seen God work in mighty ways to spare the righteous from the judgment of the wicked (Noah and Lot for example). If we repent of our sins and humble ourselves before God in the face of His judgment on others, perhaps we might be spared the judgment that is to fall upon our own sinful nation. We might be part of a national repentance that causes God to withdraw His hand of judgment, or we might be personally spared. Who knows? In any case, it is a good thing for us to repent and get right with God, especially in the light of coming judgment.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Zephaniah is speaking of the temporal judgment coming upon the nations around Judah, and the coming judgment of the Babylonians carrying Judah into captivity. The lives of righteous people were spared, and they were taken alive into captivity.

But ultimately, we know that everyone who is trusting in Jesus Christ is spared the judgment of the last day. There is no uncertainty about it. We do not have to say that “perhaps” those who seek God through Jesus Christ may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord. We know they will. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. They will be spared on the great day of the anger of the Lord, when eternal punishment is poured out upon all those who have not come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

Sat, 9 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Jude 1:3-4

³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude, Jesus’ brother, was concerned that his readers were being deceived by false teachers. He had wanted to write about their salvation, but found that he needed to warn them to contend for the faith.

What do we learn from this?

Doctrine is important. False teachers will undermine the crucial doctrines of the faith, and we need to fight to maintain the doctrinal purity of the church.

We need to believe. Belief is vitally important to a Christian. But we must believe the right things. Thus when there are people teaching wrong thing, things that are heretical, we must contend with them.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jude tells us that the false teachers who are undermining the doctrine of the church ultimately deny Jesus Christ. They teach that Jesus Christ less than God. This is a damnable heresy, for if Jesus Christ is not fully God, He can’t bear our sins. And if He is not fully man, He can’t represent us as our substitute, the second Adam. In taking away from Christ, they are denying the salvation that is only available through faith in Jesus Christ.

Fri, 8 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Chronicles 8:12-15

¹² Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built before the vestibule, ¹³ as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts–the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. ¹⁴ According to the ruling of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, for so David the man of God had commanded. ¹⁵ And they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.

Solomon has finished building the temple. He now establishes the worship at the temple. There are specific duties that must be fulfilled daily, monthly, and yearly. There are particular actions that must be done at specific times. Solomon appointed the people to do these required tasks each day, and he is commended for it.

What do we learn from this?

God cares about what we do in our worship. There are tasks that we are commanded to do. We must do these. We are not free to do more, and we can not do less. This is called the regulative principle of worship.

We must not turn aside from God’s commands to us in what we do as part of our worship. We must not get creative and go beyond His commands. He has told us in His word what He wants from us.

Where is Christ in this passage?

All of our worship is to point to Jesus Christ. God has given us commands on what He wants us to do. If we add to or take away from these commands, we are adding to or taking away from that which points to Christ. We are adding to or displacing divinely inspired elements that reveal Jesus Christ with man made, fallible elements. We are giving an inaccurate picture of Jesus Christ, for we are not doing what God has commanded.

We must do the duty of each day required in our worship. No more and no less.

Thu, 7 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Luke 21:1-4

¹ Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, ² and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ³ And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. ⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Jesus and the disciples are watching people putting money into the temple offering box. Some are putting in vast sums. Others are putting in less. One woman puts in two coins.

Who put in the most? We would answer that the rich clearly put in most. But that is not Jesus’ answer. He tells us that the poor widow’s two coins are more than anything anyone else gave.

What do we learn from this?

We often don’t have the correct perspective on what is significant. We look around us and think we can judge how much people are doing for God. I am an officer in the church and an usher. You are just a member. I am doing more for God. But the pastor is doing more than both of us. He is doing more for God.

This is the wrong way to look at these things. We are each responsible to serve God with what He has given us. Some have been given more, and so more is expected of them. Some have been given less. Often those who have been given less are doing far more for God than those who have been more richly blessed.

We must be careful about judging ourselves against others and ranking ourselves in the kingdom of God. I am not greater than others just because I have been enabled by God to do things that are more visible. Everyone is needed in the kingdom of God, and all have an important role to play.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ Himself is the one praising the widow for her service to the kingdom of God. She has served to the utmost of her ability, and this does not go unnoticed by our Lord. He honors her in our text as He will someday honor all those who have gone unnoticed but have done so much for the kingdom of heaven.

Wed, 6 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Habakkuk 1:1-4

¹ The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

² O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
³ Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
⁴ So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.

Habakkuk complains of the loss of the presence of God. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?

What do we learn from this?

This is a familiar cry to the people of God. We pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but there seems to be no change. To all appearances, things continue to get worse. Lord, why don’t you hear my cry?

In times of despair, as we fight to understand how things can be the way they are if God is really in control, we can lose our sense of God’s presence. It seems that our prayers go no higher than the ceiling.

How about you? Have you felt that way? I am all alone. No one knows what I am facing. There are no answers to my prayers. The wicked continue to thrive, and the godly are repressed.

Job in his despair, cried out, “If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard. If I cry aloud, there is no justice. He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths.” Job 19:7-8. Job understood this feeling.

Sometimes, we can feel like God has left us. In times of great stress, we can lose the sense of God’s presence. In those desperate times, what promises can we cling to?

Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (5 negatives in Hebrew) (Quoted in Heb 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”)

Ultimately, in our times of feeling deserted, we need to take our cares and concerns to God. That is what Habakkuk does. Even in his times of feeling that God does not hear his prayers, what does he do? He prays to God! So should we.

Where is Christ in this passage?

There might be times when we feel that God has abandoned us, but it is not true. He has promised to never leave us. He has promised that because of Jesus Christ, we will never be abandoned by God.

Romans 8:18-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?…. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tue, 5 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

1 John 4:7-8

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

We are very familiar with the statement, God is love. That is a great comfort to us, knowing that God is loving and merciful. But John brings this up to teach a specific point: We should love each other.

What do we learn from this?

Beloved, let us love one another. The Greek is very striking: “agapehtoi, agapomen”. Both come from the root word, “agapeh” Self-less love. The first is a noun “Beloved, Dear, Worthy of love”. It signifies the object of another’s love. The second is a verb. It is present tense subjunctive. Present tense – continue to love. Subjunctive – it is an exhortation. John is telling us what we should be doing on a continual basis. Placed together, we see: We are the objects of God’s love, and we should continue to love each other.

In verse 7, John gets in another dig against the false teachers he has been combating throughout the book. These false teachers claim to have a secret knowledge of God. John tells us we are loved by God and that all love is from God. If you love, you have been born of God. So if you love in this way, you know God. This is in contrast to the false teachers who claim a knowledge of God but don’t love the brothers. Our love for the brothers will prove the validity of our claim to know God. This disproves the false teachers claim that they know God, for they do not continually love others.

In verse 8, John turns this around and states the same thing negatively. Anyone who does not love does not know God. This is saying the same thing as verse 7. Our loving others will prove the validity of our claim to know God. Does someone tell you about their great knowledge of God? If it is real, it will show in their actions. (If they have to tell you about about their great knowledge of God, it probably isn’t real.)

So we have here the command to love fellow Christians.

Where is Christ in this passage?

God is love, and we show we know God by loving our fellow believers. John will go on to show that God ultimately showed His love for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins. This is the perfect example of loving our fellow believers.

Mon, 4 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Chronicles 3:1-7

¹ Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³ These are Solomon’s measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. ⁴ The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was ¹²⁰ cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. ⁵ The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it. ⁶ He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim. ⁷ So he lined the house with gold–its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors–and he carved cherubim on the walls.

In our reading today, we see Solomon beginning to build the temple. Everything is of significance. Even the place where it is to be built is important. The temple is built on Mount Moriah, where David offered the sacrifice to end the plague afflicting Israel. So now this place David’s sacrifice will become the officially appointed place for the nation to make their sacrifices.

What do we learn from this?

In the Old Testament times, sacrifice was important. Everything about the temple was important. This was where the people would meet to come before God. They presented their sacrifices for the animal to be their substitute. Everything had to be according to God’s plan, as they were coming before God on God’s terms.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Everything in the temple, all that took place there, was to point people to the coming substitute. It was to point them to Jesus Christ. That is why everything in the temple, everything that occurred at the temple, including where the temple was built, was important. It was all about Jesus Christ.

The temple was built at the site where the angel was stopped from killing the people in the plague. Now all the animal sacrifices would happen at this site. David had offered a sacrifice on that site, as God’s anger was appeased. That was what sacrifice about: turning God’s anger aside. The sacrifice is about placing God’s punishment upon a substitute. The animal sacrifice was not what took their sin. It was only a picture of the coming true sacrifice for their sins. The animals only pointed to Jesus Christ.

Sun, 3 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Luke 17:5-6

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” ⁶ And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

We are saved by faith. As a Christian , faith is crucially important. But how much faith do we need? How much is enough? Jesus teaches us that the amount isn’t what is important, for the faith isn’t what has power. The power is in the object of our faith.

What do we learn from this?

We must not trust in our faith. We are saved by faith, but our faith is not what saves us. God saves us. Faith is the instrument of our salvation, but our faith is not a work that earns our salvation.

So the question is not if we have the right amount of faith, for even a mustard seed of faith is powerful. The question is what is the object of our faith. A boat load of faith in the wrong object has no effect, while a mustard seed of faith in the right object is effectual.

Where is Christ in this passage?

For salvation, Jesus Christ must be the object of our faith. A mustard seed of faith in Him is sufficient for salvation. We desire to increase our faith, and it is appropriate that we pray to that end. But the bigger issue, the issue of ultimate salvation, is who is the object of our faith. If our faith if in Jesus Christ, we are saved.

Sat, 2 December, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Micah 7:1-7

¹ Woe is me! For I have become
as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
² The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
³ Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
⁴ The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
⁵ Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;
⁶ for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.

Micah laments that the godly have all perished. There are no more righteous people, and as a result, the society is a mess. Evildoers abound, and no one can trust their neighbor or their relatives.

What do we learn from this?

The presence of Christians in a society is a great benefit to all. Christians, in obeying God’s word, are salt and light to the people around them. They have a preserving and enlightening presence that restrains the evil that would otherwise be done. If all the Christians were to be removed from a society, there would be increased suffering and increased evil.

Conversely, the more people who are devout followers of Christ, the greater peace and harmony within society. As more people in the culture are true believers in Christ, and are living in accord with His word, the greater will be God’s blessing upon that society. A society will flourish and prosper as people within it are obedient to God’s word.

God will bless a society that is obedient to His word, and He will curse a society that lives in rebellion against His word.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ alludes to this passage to explain the hostility that people feel against Him.

Luke 12:49-53

⁴⁹ “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! ⁵¹ Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. ⁵² For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”