Song of the Wailing Wall

 

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Revive us so we can call on your name once more.  Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.  Psalm 80:18-19

In the last two months there have been many prayers offered to accompany the grief and agony of loss in both Israel and Palestine.  It is the prayer heard from those who are in the path of destruction; it is the song of the wailing wall. 

The October 7^th attack[1] by Hamas in Jerusalem and surrounding communities, and Israel’s counter-attack on Gaza, is the latest in the conflict between Arabs and Jews, stemming-back to the womb of Rebekah, where there was a battle going on between her unborn twins, Esau and Jacob.  Esau was born first, with Jacob “hot on his heels” (literally) grabbing his brother’s ankle.[2]  Esau’s descendants are the Arab nations, while the Jews trace their lineage back to Jacob.  Their conflict has been the focus of heartache and struggle for dominance.  The modern-day location of this quarrel’s violence is the Gaza-Israel barrier, the land commonly called the Gaza Strip, which separates the Western Bank of the Mediterranean Sea from southern-most Israel.  

The right to this land has been in dispute for many years, but is originally-documented as part of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-31.

As it is with any war, it is hard to be precise about who is right and who is wrong.  Generally the motives that trigger wars are muddy, messy, and inevitably dark.  In the end it’s difficult to conclusively justify any war; God alone knows. 

 Thirteenth-century venerated priest Thomas Aquinas said:  For a war to be just, three things are necessary – public authority, just cause, right motive.^[3]  These are difficult issues.  I’m not against doing the hard-thinking about such things; it’s in my nature to do so.  A bigger problem is not being consumed by that process, or our own prejudice.  I therefore usually default to what I’m believe is God’s call for grim times – prayer.  We pray for Jerusalem…and for Esau’s descendants. 

Many people say you must take a side.  Well, I do…I choose the side of all humanity in the way God says He does…love everyone, and despise the real enemy, the destroyer, the purveyor of death, the lover of all that sin embraces.  This stand does not come easily, or without real consequences, and I attempt to keep from judging other peoples’ stand…sometimes with success.

Israel has had its share of wailing at the wall for the atrocities they have suffered, and I weep with them in their loss, and the pain they must endure.  I also take the Palestinians to that weeping wall; they are also part of my tribe.  That tribe is the oldest of earth…begun by a couple in a pristine garden called Eden.

In following the events from afar (mostly media reports), I find I must work very hard to keep in mind the only “winners” in any war are those who can go forward without malice, deeply humble, and committed to putting an end to such madness.

For You Today 

Thinking about these things always makes me want to answer everybody’s questions and I can’t do that, because I’m not God.  The second-best thing I want to do is go home, pull the covers over my head, and not think about it.  That also fails, merely closing the darkness on me as I hide from the truth.  All I can offer is to tell us we must raise our hearts and voices in prayer.  And in doing so, we will find answers…when God desires to reveal them.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Read more about the background and history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Wikimedia.com

[2] See Genesis 25:19-34

[3] Bob Phillips, Book of Great Thoughts…, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1993), 326

Mighty Israel

 

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Like a lion, Israel crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to arouse her?  Blessed is everyone who blesses you, O Israel, and cursed is everyone who curses you.”  Numbers 24:9

As far back as I can remember my family went to church…a lot!  My Mom was the Sunday School Superintendent and volunteer church secretary; so our life included plenty of church.  Whenever our pastor mentioned Israel in a sermon he called them the children of God.  He would also refer to this blessing or cursing of Israel, and how we were to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Reflecting on this childhood memory, when it came to the nation of Israel, there was one thing that stood above all else:  God’s children were loved by God, and nobody should mess with them!  I didn’t understand why…but I knew there was something special about being God’s children.

Many Sundays, after church, we would drive an hour to visit with Mom’s sister and family.  When I was about 7 or 8, one week the Sunday School lesson was on Exodus, when God sent Moses to get His children out of bondage.  The pastor had even preached a sermon on being God’s children.  During the drive to my Aunt and Uncle’s house I was deep in thought about what the pastor had said.  He talked about the church tent in the wilderness, and how God’s children were always worshipping, offering sacrifices, praying a lot, and messing up.  I guess something about all that church stuff in the wilderness, and our life in church all the time…I leaned forward from the back seat and asked Mom and Dad (loudly over the roar of our 1948 Plymouth’s engine)…Are we Jewish?  Even in a car with a broken muffler, windows open and the air rushing by…you could have heard a pin drop….for about three seconds.  Then my parents began to laugh.  They laughed so hard, Dad almost ran off the road.  I didn’t have a clue what was so funny!  Mom…the resident theologian in our tribe, did her best to make the distinction between Old Testament children of God, and God’s New Testament family.  

To this day I am nothing of an expert on Israel, or the politics of the Middle East.  But I am a student of God’s Word, and the singular characteristic that stands out in my mind is holy.  The word means other, or special, a prized possession, set-aside for a unique reason and purpose.  They, the descendant family of Abraham, Issaac, Jacob, Joseph, (and, by the way, Jesus), are a special, loved, and cared-for possession of God, treasured like no other:

For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.  Deuteronomy 32:9-10

For You Today

I sense that the founders of America’s republic had deference to Israel’s special place in history and God’s heart.  I think, of late, Jerusalem’s apple-status has given way to political expediency, and military alliances.  But the Word of God stands strong, nonetheless.  Curse Israel, and you’ve awakened the crouching lion.  And the Lion of Judah will one day remember, like a herd of elephants, all who blessed, and all who cursed his loved people.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Wearing the Mess You Made

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Do not gloat over me, my enemies!  For though I fall, I will rise again.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.  I will be patient as the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him.  But after that, he will take up my case and give me justice for all I have suffered from my enemies. The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.  Then my enemies will see that the Lord is on my side.  They will be ashamed that they taunted me, saying, “So where is the Lord—that God of yours?”  With my own eyes I will see their downfall; they will be trampled like mud in the streets.  In that day, Israel, your cities will be rebuilt, and your borders will be extended.  People from many lands will come and honor you—from Assyria all the way to the towns of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from distant seas and mountains.  But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.  O Lord, protect your people with your shepherd’s staff; lead your flock, your special possession.  Though they live alone in a thicket on the heights of Mount Carmel, let them graze in the fertile pastures of Bashan and Gilead as they did long ago.  “Yes,” says the Lord, “I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt.”  All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you.  They will be embarrassed at their feeble power.  They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them.  Like snakes crawling from their holes, they will come out to meet the Lord our God.  They will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence.  Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people?  You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.  Once again you will have compassion on us.  You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!  You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.  Micah 7:8-20

Of course the story of Israel, starting with Abram, is like the story of us all, starting with Adam.  The story begins with God’s kindness and gifts; it quickly progresses to a fall.  Sin is more than endemic, or pandemic, it is universally common to human DNA.  I have (what is probably) an annoying habit of taking impromptu surveys when I preach.  I may have asked one question more than any other; how many of you have NEVER sinned…not even once?  In 40 years of preaching I’ve never seen a single hand raised to claim perfect innocence.  The obvious conclusion is that we ALL make a mess of life.  Jeremiah said so in the Old Testament, and Paul validated it in the New Testament: 

Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too.  We all have sinned against you.  Jeremiah 14:20
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Romans 3:23

If you listen very closely to what Micah wrote about Israel’s mess-up, and how the prophet steps into Israel’s shoes, he, on behalf of his people, is owning it, confessing it, wearing the mess.  And in the middle of that messy-dress admission of guilt, the prophet speaks a word to every one of us who possesses human DNA:

When you’ve messed up it’s right to confess two things:

     1.     That YOU messed up, you’re not a victim; you’re the perp!

     2.     That God’s not done with you, because you’re willing to admit the mess-up, and ask for help to change.

For You Today

It’s important to see the hand of God mete out punishment for our sinfulness.  And it’s just as important (maybe more so) to see that God derives no joy in doing so; as the perfect parent, our Heavenly Father punishes in order to correct.  And that tells us He hasn’t written us off.  You correct what you are still going to keep and use; you don’t throw away what you love.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Enough

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

And they left Egypt and returned to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan.  “Joseph is still alive!” they told him.  “And he is governor of all the land of Egypt!”  Jacob was stunned at the news—he couldn’t believe it.  But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived.  Then Jacob exclaimed, “It must be true!  My son Joseph is alive!  I must go and see him before I die.”  So Jacob set out for Egypt with all his possessions.  And when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.  During the night God spoke to him in a vision. “Jacob! Jacob!” he called.  “Here I am,” Jacob replied.  “I am God, the God of your father,” the voice said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation.  I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes.”     Genesis 45:25 – 46:4

If you do a pulse-check on most any of the days of Jacob’s life, you’ll find a calculating, selfish, wheeler-dealer.  Stuff like that always comes back to haunt you.  Jacob did not escape that.  After his ambitious conniving to steal his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing, Jacob had to leave town in the middle of the night to avoid everyone’s anger.  It cost him twenty years estrangement in the school of hard knocks.  He lived with his uncle Laban, a much sharper knife in the drawer when it came to manipulation.  The PhD degree Jacob earned in his time spent with Laban was the futility of a lack of integrity.

Another inescapable casualty of Jacob’s manipulative lifestyle was how his children learned at their daddy’s knee how to live that way too.  The older sons were jealous of their father’s attention to the youngest, Joseph, and eventually hatched a plan to throw him in a pit and watch him die.  They eventually settled for selling him into slavery to a band of nomadic traders.  With Joseph out of sight, they led Jacob to believe he’d been eaten by wild animals.  For the next twenty years the old man lived in paralyzing grief, mourning for Joseph, the son of his old age.

Finally, a famine gripped the land and Jacob sent his brother-killing sons to seek food down in Egypt.  The sons wound up right in front of Joseph, their supposedly long-dead little brother, who had managed to survive and thrive; he was the second most powerful man in the world under Egypt’s pharaoh. 

Now, the whole point of this epic story of family-fail came next, as Joseph is reunited with his murderous brothers, forgives them, and sends them home to Jacob.  Once Jacob gets over the shock of Joseph still being alive, he knows he must see this long-lost son face-to-face before he dies.

As he’s travelling to Egypt God spoke to Jacob in a vision assuring him that all will be well, and the promises of God would be carried out, and his son would be there to tenderly close the old man’s eyes in his final moments of life on this planet.  And, for Jacob, a man once steeped in trickery, thievery, deceit, and conspiracy, which had all (predictably) turned into a massive pile of internal strife and sorrow, now humbled by the effect of God’s mercy extended to such a one as Jacob the manipulator, imposter, despicable excuse for a human being, one word from God was…ENOUGH!

For You Today

No matter how much you may have made a mess of your opportunities in this life, or destroyed trust with family, friends, or even your own integrity, the promise of God is mercy to those who repent, humbling themselves before God, to seek His face[1].  Jacob did all that in a wrestling match with God one night near the Jabbok River.  He meant to get right with God, and, in mercy, God forgave Jacob and gave him a new name, Israel, the special, chosen, friend of God.

His story isn’t about airing the family’s dirty laundry; his story is all about letting you know this God you’ve been hunting forgives…and He’s only waiting for you to come calling.  And, when you do, you’ll see…like Jacob, it will be…ENOUGH!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Jacob’s family problems see Dysfunction in the Desert and No Place Before God - Part 2      

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[1] 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

From Eternity to Eternity

 

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.  Gather the nations together!  Assemble the peoples of the world!  Which of their idols has ever foretold such things?  Which can predict what will happen tomorrow?  Where are the witnesses of such predictions?  Who can verify that they spoke the truth?  “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord.  “You are my servant.  You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God.  There is no other God—there never has been, and there never will be.  I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.  First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.  No foreign god has ever done this.  You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord.  “From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.  No one can undo what I have done.”  Isaiah 43:8-13

The prophet is taking his beloved kinsman to task (as most prophets did!).  Their history was unmistakably orchestrated by the sovereign will of Jehovah, Creator of the universe and all it holds.  Yet, they had somehow forgotten that, and taken the seemingly more convenient approach of accepting their neighbors’ gods.  It was “convenient” in the sense of going along, to get along.  It is easier, in the short run, to  surrender truth to those who only believe what denies the facts.  But, in the long run, you eventually run into….God, specifically, the one, true, living God.  Everything else is an idol. 

Isaiah reminded Israel they were supposed to be faith-believing witnesses of the God Who stretches from eternity past through eternity present and future.  There is no time when God did not exist or rule the universe, and that includes forever, as well as today.

So, the question for Israel, for us, for anyone, is:

When does it ever make sense to trust in anyone but God?

Consider this picture; a 7-year-old boy was delivered from his mother’s womb.  She and the dad fed, diapered, and loved him.  They trained him to walk and talk.  They taught him to act like a human…sort of.

One day the dad took his son to work with him at the nuclear reactor energy plant.  He showed him all the dials, levers, gauges, and control panels that ran the place.  He showed the boy how, when he flipped a switch, things buzzed, moved, and either turned on or off.  He even let his son get in on the fun, allowing him to flip one switch that returned electricity to a neighborhood that had been powerless due to a storm.  The emergency crew had finished their repairs, and the boy was permitted to flip the switch, and voilà, there was light!  

Well, as 7-year-olds are wont, the young man decided he wanted more of a good thing.  If it was fun to press one switch that turned on thousands of lights, there must be plenty more where that came from!  So, in his newfound joy of turning dials, switches, handles and control panel buttons, he began running around touching everything. 

I do not need to carry this imagined scenario any further.  A seven-year-old, turned loose near the controls of a nuclear reactor is a tragedy just waiting to be written (assuming, of course, anyone lives through the day).

Imagine Israel as the little boy; favored by their Father, Jehovah, and heir to the power of the universe, far superseding anything manmade, such as a little nuclear energy plant.  This is what Isaiah saw, an heir of universal greatness, running around in juvenile playtime, instead of growing up to boldly proclaim the name of Yahweh to the nations.  Like the little boy in the imaginary tale of going to work with daddy, Israel had grown bored with just pushing buttons as instructed.  I can just hear the words:  OK, dad.  I got it from here.

That is the condition of our world today.  God is largely ignored, and we, human children are pressing as many buttons as our pudgy little fingers can reach.  Some day we will press the wrong button – not the nuclear annihilation one connected to all those bombs – but the one that crosses the line of God’s patience.

For You Today

If Yahweh was God before the beginning, and He will be God after whatever ending we humans engineer, it is safe to assume He is God right now.  What further call do we need to worship Him at this (and every) moment?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com ∞  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Isaiah 43 see Eyes that Do Not See; Ears that Do Not Hear and No Other God

 

Something to Weep About

 

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

You may never have entertained this thought or been troubled about it…or, perhaps, you’re like me and have often wondered about Israel in God’s plans.  The 12 Tribes are, after all, God’s special and treasured possession.  They serve a central role in Sovereign Yahweh’s hands to bring His message of hope, and His message of judgment to the world.  However (and this is my troubling thought), as followers of Jesus Christ, embracing the cross, with an uncompromising belief that there is only one way to approach God[1], and that through placing your faith in Jesus, how does that square with God’s embracing Israel, which denies the deity of the Son?

Admittedly, when I wonder about this, I always feel a little like Peter after the resurrection when Jesus tells Peter about how the future will not be kind to him, and the impetuous disciple questions Jesus about John’s future.

Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?  As for you, follow me.” John 21:22

The rebuke…it’s none ‘o your business, son…is stark, and meant to be.  Peter’s question borders on challenging God’s plans, which is to challenge God’s sovereignty.  Peter was headstrong, which is the beginning of the downward spiral leading to separation between human and God.  Peter had to learn that responding with your emotions before putting your brain to work never really ends well.

The Apostle Paul’s brain always seemed to be on the job.  For me, Paul’s answer, concerning Israel’s place in prophecy and God’s eternal plans, are enough to put my questioning to rest. 

And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.  For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”  Romans 9:27-28

Revelation[2] pictures 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel as being redeemed in the end.  That 144,000 is less than 2% of the 8.3 million population of Israel today, and 1 out of 100 if you consider an estimated 14-15 million Jews globally.

For me, this fits together with the point held by many Bible scholars, that, at the end, these are those who once rejected Christ, but now accept Him as Lord, Messiah, the anointed One of the lineage of David.  In their hearts they crown him King of Kings.

For You Today

Jesus told Peter not to worry about what plans God has for other believers, it was Peter’s job to follow Jesus, not approve of Jesus’ leadership.  This is especially important for us with plagues, natural disasters (can we say earthquake, North Carolina?), or any of the wars, famine, and other pandemics.  These are but the beginning of Christ’s new day.  Hear it from Jesus’ own testimony:

So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”  Luke 21:28

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com ∞  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on this text see:  Burning the Bridge of Integrity 

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[1] Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

[2] See Revelation 7:4 & 14:1-3

 

The Problem with Knowing

 

Friday, July 3, 2020

Romans 7:7-20

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful?  Of course not!  In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.  I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”  But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me!  If there were no law, sin would not have that power.  At one time I lived without understanding the law.  But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died.  So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.  Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.  But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.  But how can that be?  Did the law, which is good, cause my death?  Of course not!  Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death.  So we can see how terrible sin really is.  It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.  So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good.  The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.  I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it.  Instead, I do what I hate.  But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.  So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.  And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  I want to do what is right, but I can’t.  I want to do what is good, but I don’t.  I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.  But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

There’s a story that rolls around in my head about the campaign to end the second world war.  Secrecy about the place and time of the invasion was of utmost importance, so the Commanding General called in all the reporters travelling with the Allied Forces and told them the exact details of the plan…where, when, how many, and where the plan was vulnerable.  He ended his talk with:  Now you know everything…and if this plan fails, I will know one of you leaked it, and I will have every one of you shot for treason.

History assures us the reporters kept their mouths shut!  But what rolls around is Paul’s common sense portion of Romans 7 – when you know, it is then a natural response to want to do.  And that’s the rub.  Each of those reporters had the scoop of the century, and had to sit on it.  After all, what good is playing Bernstein and Woodward[1]if you’re lying in an unmarked grave? 

And this is the problem of sin.  Scripture tells us that sin is enjoyable…for a season.  Reason tells us this is true; why would any of us get involved in sin if there wasn’t something attractive about it?  But the wages of sin is still death, and therein lies the rub of why we do what we do, when doing so causes such pain.  Paul answered that question:  I really don’t understand myself. 

Past that self-confessing riddle of “why” we do what we abhor, Paul arrives at the only possible conclusion – it is not our nature to do good; we are prone towards rebellion and destruction.  If you have doubt about that, 20 minutes with the morning news cast will open your eyes.

And all of this shouts volumes about trying to legislate the hearts of people.  If that worked at all there would not have been a cross.  God laid out law upon law, written on tablets of stone for His children.  They sinned anyway.  He sent prophets to reinforce how wrong that was; they sinned anyway.  He sent more prophets, rulers, and priests; they stoned them, drowned them, hacked some to death, and set others on fire…and sinned, anyway.  The problem with knowing what’s wrong is it entices us to do wrong.  And if you doubt that, just tell a child he can’t have something.  Or tell a teenager to be home at a certain time.  Or lay down the rules for social distancing, handwashing, or mask wearing.  You’ll be convinced of the shortcoming of rules. 

The only answer is the heart; and to get to that you need a Savior, a cross, and blood.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, our hearts are the real place for Your law and Your love.  We don’t accept rules; our nature sees to it, and is only challenged to break rules.  Help us to see love with our hearts; Your love – the kind that went to the cross for us, and willingly took our punishment.

For You Today

I’m thankful for every officer of the court, sworn police, and the system of justice we have.  But if you’re counting on any of them to make a difference in the hearts of violent people with laws, enforcement tactics, and threats, you’ll have a long wait.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Romans 7 see Free Will and Somebody Stop Me

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[1] The reporters who broke the scandal of Watergate, June 8, 1972