Author: Meredith Beatty

In the book of Haggai we read of God’s wonderful ways with his people. Words of discipline coupled with words of compassion.

God calls them to work on his house after years of opposition and delay. These are the words of discipline, discipline for the ones he loves.

“Give careful thought to your ways…” Haggai 1:7

The leaders of the people and the remnant begin to obey the words of the Lord. And God gives words of encouragement!

“I am with you,” declares the Lord. Haggai 1:13

Then God does more. He doesn’t leave them to their own will power. No. He does the secret inner work. He gives mysterious motivation.

“So the Lord stirred up the spirit of …. the whole remnant of the people.” Haggai 1:14

Even more encouragement comes in chapter two. God speaks again to the people and specifically to Zerubbabel.

Be strong.

I am with you.

My Spirit remains among you.

Remember where they have been! In exile for their own entrenched rebellion and stubborn idolatry. But God remains faithful to his name and his covenant. His steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting. His faithfulness endures forever.

Somehow stories in the Bible get ripped from their contexts. The stories in Daniel are especially susceptible to this error.

The fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion’s den, and the handwriting on the wall become stories hanging by their own thread instead of divinely ordained events woven into the fabric of God’s sovereign plan.

In Ezekiel we read time and again this declaration: then they will know I am the Lord.

The stories in Daniel are meant to elaborate on this theme. The young men of Judah are in exile, in service to King Nebuchadnezzar, the very instrument of God’s discipline. But God is bent on displaying the glory of his name to all peoples, not just his people.

God reveals his plans and purposes in history to Nebuchadnezzar through dreams and visions in Daniel 2. This is grace! But the king uses this gracious revelation to exalt himself.

He sentences Daniel’s three friends to death in chapter 3, but God again displays his grace and power in front of Nebuchadnezzar by saving them. Nebuchadnezzar witnesses a miracle and acknowledges God.

Again Nebuchadnezzar dreams and Daniel interprets in chapter 4. Another act of grace from God to reveal himself to this pagan king. God desires to make himself known to all. But again the king exalts himself and incurs the punishment of God. In the end Nebuchadnezzar repents and is restored. He acknowledges God as the Sovereign King of all Kings and then his story ends.

Lately all the reading has been about judgment on God’s people but here in Daniel you realize that God is just as much at work in Babylon revealing himself to those in power. He truly desires for his name to be known in all the earth.

It’s easy to get bogged down and confused in books like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Words of judgment fill the pages and unfamiliar nations are spoken of.

Tyre, Sidon, Edom, Egypt, Philistia.

How do you interpret all of these messages? How can it possibly encourage a believer in the 21st century?

Many times I’ve read through the book of Ezekiel with a furrowed brow and puzzled heart. “What is going on?” I think. “How can I possibly follow this?” Today included the passages about Gog and Magog. Who are these nations? Bible scholars can’t even tell you definitively.

It’s natural to want to get encouragement from the Bible. We should come to the Word desiring to fellowship with the Father, drawing closer to him. So here’s what I’m doing today with these hard to understand chapters in Ezekiel:

• I am thinking of God’s character on display. He is a God who is in control of history, and not just for the sake of his people. At least 65 times in the book of Ezekiel there is the phrase, “and they will know that I am the Lord.” Above all else, God desires to display his glory in his people and to the nations.
• Even if I can’t understand who all these various enemies are, I do understand the biblical concept of having an enemy. From the beginning of the grand narrative of Scripture, from Genesis 3, the people of God have had an enemy. God has been in the business of defeating the enemies of his people whether that be the King of Moab from Numbers 22 who wished to use Balaam to curse God’s people but instead had them be blessed, or Goliath from 1 Samuel who God defeated with a shepherd boy using a sling and a stone. Here in Ezekiel, God pronounces judgment on Israel’s enemies but declares that Israel will be restored. Again, there’s the theme of salvation through judgment.
• Finally, I am thinking of the assurance of restoration that’s promised. The flow of the whole book of Ezekiel has been the coming judgment on Jerusalem, its destruction along with the cleansing of the land, and then the judgment of God on Israel’s enemies followed by a restoration of the people to their land where God will dwell with them in a gloriously restored temple.

Tomorrow I will read about that restoration. It’s another passage that is confusing. It’s notoriously difficult to interpret. But the main concept is clear. God desires to dwell with his people in a restored land. That’s the consummated kingdom of God – God’s presence in God’s place in the midst of God’s people. It will happen. The Sovereign Lord has declared it and everyone will know that he is the Lord.

Two observations:

In Ezekiel 21, Ezekiel describes Babylon as the sword of the Lord to execute punishment on Jerusalem. In verse 19 there are two options for the king of Babylon and he will use various methods of divination to choose who to attack. But all the while, God is in control of the whole process.

This is such a striking example of God’s sovereignty and really encourages me. The king of Babylon thinks he is in control. He consults his methods of divination: arrows, idols, even a liver. But just as in Proverbs 16:33 where it says that God controls the lot, God is in control of these false methods of gaining guidance.

All throughout Ezekiel, the phrase, the Sovereign Lord, is repeated.

Even man’s rebellious ways serve God’s purposes.

The second observation also has to do with God’s sovereignty but in a mysterious way. In Ezekiel 22:30 we read this:

“And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.”

Is God in need of man to accomplish his will? Not at all. But, he desires us to pray. He desires us to intercede. What a powerful privilege!

Today was a very hard read. Over and over Ezekiel is called to pronounce the judgment of God on idolatrous and rebellious Israel.

But I feel like we’ve been at this point for a long time now. How much longer?

But the length of time it takes shows the patience of God. God sends many warnings and many prophets. He is slow to anger. But now is the time for judgment as it says in Ezekiel 12. There will be no more delay. Over and over these words are repeated:

This is what the Sovereign Lord says.

Ezekiel is in Babylon with the exiles, but God brings him in a vision to see everything the people are doing in Jerusalem. They think God can’t see their idolatrous worship but he does. And he shows Ezekiel exactly what they’re doing. He calls it detestable.

What idols do I have? Do I carve them from wood or stone? Are they things of my own making to which I bow down?

The heart is a tricky and deceptive organ. And often we believe we are so much more sophisticated than these ancient people.

Bow down to a block of wood?! Never.

But what about bowing down to something else I’ve made? What about a reputation that I’ve spent years crafting and protecting? It’s precious to me. I don’t think God notices but he does. He really knows.

In chapters 15 and 16 there are two pictures. One of Israel as a worthless vine and one as an adulterous wife. How wonderful to know the whole story and see that later God will call his Son the vine, the true vine, and will call him the faithful bridegroom who comes for his bride.

Our faithlessness and idolatry can be healed. We can be remade and become fruitful and faithful. Right now, Israel’s rebellion isn’t surprising to God. He knows. He is working through discipline and judgment to bring about a great salvation.

This is what a Sovereign Lord is able and willing to do.

“Your punishment will end, daughter Zion; he will not prolong your exile. But he will punish your sin, daughter Edom, and expose your wickedness.” Lamentations 4:22

Zion and Edom. Who are these? They are Israel, the people of God descended from Jacob, and the Edomites who were descended from Esau.

In Genesis, Rebekah was told by God that the older, Esau, would serve the younger, Jacob. This prophecy has been working itself out through the Scripture.

As God’s people are sent into exile in Babylon, the Edomites take the side of their enemies and mock the destruction of Jerusalem. They look down on their brother. The whole book of Obadiah describes how God feels about this and now here in Lamentations 4:22 is God’s verdict on these two.

Yes, Zion has sinned! They have rebelled shamelessly and are being punished by God. But the end of their punishment is not destruction. It is healing. God disciplines those he loves and he knows exactly how long it will take. He will not prolong their exile.

But the end of Edom is destruction. Their punishment is just beginning as the NLT translates it.

Has Zion done anything to deserve this? Absolutely not. It is the free and gracious work of God in saving his people. He will have mercy on who he will have mercy.

Sometimes what God directs us to do makes little sense to us. Our own common sense and the advice of everyone around us tells us to do one thing but God tells us to do something else.

God wants the remnant left in Judah to stay even though things are very unstable and still threatening. He promises to build them up and protect them. But those who remain are determined to go to Egypt for protection.

Do they not know? Have they not heard? This is a broken record, this going back to Egypt. They are trusting in what they see, not the word given through Jeremiah.

But isn’t this the same with us? We want to depend on our eyes, and on other things and other people instead of God.

But they cannot escape from God. If they go to Egypt, God will follow them and bring the Babylonians with him to discipline them.

In chapters 46-50 of Jeremiah God pronounces judgment on the nations surrounding Israel. Why would this be an important message for the people of God? This is actually meant to be an encouragement to them. God is sovereign over all these nations. And he is still faithful to his covenant with Abraham. Yes, his people have turned from him. He will discipline them but not forsake them. But for those nations who come against his people, God will bring judgment.

God is relentless in his pursuit of his people, even in spite of their rebellion.

Have you ever looked back at your life to see how far you’ve come?

I wonder if the Israelites ever did.

God took one man, Abram. He had Isaac, the son of the magnificent and overwhelming promise. God would make of him a great nation.

Isaac had Jacob and Jacob had twelve sons.

Jacob became Israel and Israel sojourned in Egypt for 400 years. They grew into a mighty people but an enslaved people. Had God’s promise failed? No. God delivered them through signs and wonders and led them in the wilderness.

Over hundreds of years Israel grew and God provided for them a land and a king. God proved faithful to them when they were faithless.

The high point is the reign of King David. In 2 Samuel 7, God makes a glorious covenant with David promising him that he will not lack a descendant on the throne. But after Solomon things go from bad to worse. The kingdom broke apart and the people turned their backs on the God who created them and redeemed them and chose them for his own.

But God…

God is never surprised. God knows what is in man. And God is in control the whole time. His people have turned their backs on him but he will continue his faithfulness to them. He will discipline them by exiling them out of the land. He will cleanse the land of idolatry and bring them back.

This is a very low point in Israel’s story, but this is not the end of the story for Israel, the nation created from one man and borne along by God’s mercy and grace.

Jeremiah 26 is very interesting. The whole message of the book so far has been impending judgment and destruction on Judah and Jerusalem. God has promised dire discipline to come upon his people.

But here in Jeremiah 26, God commands the prophet to stand in the midst of the people who have come to worship in the house of the Lord. He tells Jeremiah to give a specific message but it’s not a message of judgment. It’s a message of mercy.

All throughout this book God’s complaint against his people has been that they do not listen. But look here:

“Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.” Jeremiah 26:3

Perhaps they will listen, though they have not listened.

Mercy after mercy is offered to them. It’s not what they deserve and it’s not what we expect God to do here. But it proves God’s character. He is truly merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Unfortunately, this final offer of mercy becomes the final witness against them as their response shows:

“But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, ‘You must die!'” Jeremiah 26:8

Follow your heart? That’s the advice everyone gives these days. Figure out your passions, your desires and go for it. But is this really wise? Do we really even know our own hearts? In reading Jeremiah, it’s obvious what God thinks of the inclinations of the heart.

“But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.” Jeremiah 5:23

“But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.” Jeremiah 7:24

Following your heart is not wise advice. The people of Judah to whom Jeremiah is prophesying don’t understand the judgment that is about to come upon them. They think they are safe because of their false prophets who prophesy a false peace. Jeremiah seems to be the only one who speaks truth.

In Jeremiah 16 the people are completely oblivious to the true nature of their own hearts:

“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?'” Jeremiah 16:10

How could they not know? Reading the history of Judah’s kings makes it obvious to us what they were doing. It makes me wonder what lurks in the secret corners of my own heart. Only God can search out those shady nooks and cracks.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.'” Jeremiah 17:9-10

Don’t trust your heart. Instead, do what Jeremiah does. He gives his heart to the Lord who alone knows all things.

“But you, O Lord, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you.” Jeremiah 12:3