OUR LORD WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISDOM OF THE WISE

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 19, the scripture pointedly indicates that the Lord destroys the wisdom of the wise and He frustrates the intelligence of the intelligent. Placed in its context, the verses 18 - 20 read like this;

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

This incredible passage reinforces a very notable aspect of the nature of our God: He is very contrarian toward the  pretensions of the wisdom of men. This is why our infinitely precious salvation is entrusted to the simplicity of the unadorned message of the cross. 

To those who are not being saved, this message is seen as foolishness even though it is the very power of God unto salvation. 

The Lord our God, so as not to imbue the wisdom and philosophy of men with any credit of salvation of mankind, provided, as the only means by which men may be saved, the stark and unembelished message of the death that was suffered by the Son of God to pay for our sins.

Because the wisdom and intelligence of men is of no ultimate value when it is the salvation of our souls that we desperately need, God has rendered the wisdom of men worthless and the intelligence of the intelligent pointless.

Bless our Lord who has made salvation available to all without regard to their wisdom or intelligence.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOM WE MUST ALWAYS CONSULT

In Joshua chapter 9 verses 12 - 14, a scene unfolds where the leaders of Israel are being tricked by the neighbouring people of Gibeon (called Hivites) into signing a treaty not to do harm to them.

The Hivites concocted a fictitious tale saying that they had come from a distant land and wanted a peace  treaty between themselves and Israel.

To carry out the deception, they equipped themselves with elaborate costumes and props to provide the Israelites with evidence that they were from a distant land and had travelled a long distance to reach them. 

The passage goes like this:

This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

The Israelites were suspicious at first so the Hivites presented cracked winskins and worn cloths as proof that they had traveled a long distance and thus the Israelites, after examining the evidence, took their claims to be true and signed an oath-bound treaty with them.

The scripture mentions that the Israelites did not inquire of the Lord. It was only later that the Iaraelite's realized that they had been duped but by then, they had already bound themselves by oath to a treaty with the Hivites.

The lesson in this story is that no matter what the evidence that we have around us is, we must always seek the counsel of the Lord our God. He sees all things and His guidance  would include perspectives that would save us from deception and trickery.

Let us inquire of the Lord when faced with conundrums and propositions especially when we do not know all the facts.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO FORGIVES AND CLEANSES US

In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, we find a well known scripture that reads this way;

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The scripture before this one and the one after it assert that there is no one without sin and thus this activity of confessing our sin is something that all human beings who belong to God  will be participating in.

Confessing our sins to the Lord our God imposes on His faithfulness and His justness. When we do this,  two things occur: The Lord forgives our sin and second, the Lord cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

When the Lord forgives us, it means that all remembrance of our sin is cancelled and He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west as Psalm 103 verse 12 says.

The Lord then sets up conditions to purify us from unrighteousness. This is a process that works to purge from us our tendency to commit that sin with the aim of yielding a harvest of righteousness in us.

Let us always yield ourselves to the Lord's forgiveness and cleansing by readily and sincerely confessing our transgressions to the One who gave His life for us and shed His blood to pay for our sins.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PRESENCE WAS CAPTURED AWAY FROM HIS PEOPLE ( part 2 )

Continuing from yesterday where we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 and followed through to the end of the chapter at verse 22, we  now look at 1 Samuel chapter 5. 

In this part of the narrative, a significant change has occurred. Whereas up to this point, Israel's army was the focus of the nation's ability to contend with their enemies, we now see that after their defeat and humiliation, the nation had  lost faith in their strength. 

With Israel in despair, it is now the Lord God Himself who takes issue with the Philistines and begins an intensifying campaign of psychological warfare against them.

1 Samuel chapter 5 begins this way;

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.  Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon.  When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 

The Philistines had carried the ark of God into the temple of their deity called Dagon but the next morning, they found Dagon face down in front of the ark of the God of Israel.

They had to have believed that this event was mere happenstance and thus put Dagon back in his place but the passage continues to describe how the next morning, they found Dagon's torso face down again but this time with his hands and feet broken off and laying on the threshold of their temple.

Shortly thereafter, a plague of tumors started afflicting the Philistines causing them to realise that keeping the ark of the God of Israel in their midst was causing a dangerous state of affairs. The Philistines tried moving the ark from city to city but everywhere it went, it brought mayhem, disease and death to the people there. 

The Philistines, seeing the pattern, called a meeting of their leaders and demanded that the ark be sent back to where it came from. The text reads this way;

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 

The God of Israel was with the ark when it was taken and He, by His own power, escalated a war  on the Philistines that  compelled them to reach their own conclusion to return the ark of God to Israel.

Our Lord is not dependent on the strength of the armies of men to win battles. When the strength of men is exhausted and broken down and defeated, the Lord then arises quietly and creates conditions of panic among the enemies of His people.

What God's children have lost is then restored to them by the might of God.  Bless the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PRESENCE WAS CAPTURED AWAY FROM HIS PEOPLE

1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 tells of a change in fortune against the armies of Israel as they fought the Philistines.

During a battle, the ark of God  fell into the hands of the Philistine army  and the two sons of Eli, the priest who was the leader of Israel, were killed. 

A messenger left the battlefield to bring the bad news to the people. The passage reads this way;

The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

 That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust on his head.

The torn clothes and dust-covered head of the messenger represented the terrible defeat and humiliation suffered by Israel's army.

The worst possible scenario had occurred; Israel had lost the ark which was the seat of the Lord's presence into the hands of their sworn enemy. 

Further to that, the two sons of Eli died and Eli himself died shortly after when he learned what happened. 

Eli's daughter-in-law, who was pregnant with his grandson, also died after going into labour  when she heard of her husband's death, the death of her father-in-law and the loss of the ark of God. 

As she died, she said these words found in 1 Samuel 4 verse 22 , “The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” 

Israel was now truly vulnerable and leaderless and faced a dark future.

At this bleak juncture, a change in the landscape brought a new factor into the story which we shall look at in tomorrow's study.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESPONDS TO INJUSTICE (PART 2)

Continuing with the first chapter of Habakkuk, we looked at the corruption that plagued the people of God and now, in verses 6 - 10, we find the response that the Lord prepared in order to de-fang the powers of wickedness that polluted the land. The passage reads like this;

I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. They mock kings and scoff at rulers.

They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.

Here, we see that the Lord raises a horde of ruthless and dreaded people who abruptly appear at the doorstep of the wicked forces and defiantly scoff at the authorities of the nations. 

There is no defence or fortification that can withstand their headlong and unrelenting assault. 

These are the conditions that are prepared long before the day of reckoning. The Lord builds up an army unbeknownst to the wicked enemies of His people and on the day of His choosing, He  summons them suddenly and they appear like roving wolves at dusk, inexorably advancing against the entrenched power and savagely overwhelming it.

Such are the resources of the Lord God where a mighty and fearsome army is mustered completely out of sight and when the day of justice comes, no one can escape the fierce intent of their conquest.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESPONDS TO INJUSTICE

In the first chapter of Habakkuk verse 2 - 4, the prophet asked the Lord these questions;

Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

As an observer of the society around Him, Habakkuk agonized over the explicit corruption that was gaining prevalence while strife and conflict propagated unchecked. 

The prophet wanted to understand why the wicked could prosper and gain dominance over the righteous.

The Lord God began His answer to the prophet's questions in Habakkuk 1 verse 5 like this;

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,  even if you were told.

This response by God tells us that all the things that Habakkuk was concerned about had not gone unnoticed by the Lord.

In fact, the response points to the preparation that has already been done to address the situation and the Lord declares that His remediation will be a spectacle to marvel at. The Lord declares that when He takes action, it will be so miraculous, it will defy belief. 

We are living in a day when we are as perplexed as Habakkuk was but the Lord is poised with His spectacular intervention that will be so astonishing that, as described in Psalm 126 verse 1,  "When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream."

Amen.