Weeping While the Harps are Silent

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem.  We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.  For our captors demanded a song from us.  Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn:  “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”  But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?  Psalm 137:1-4

I kinda know how the Psalmist felt…captured, caught, defeated, deflated of any hope that the future will get better.  There are millions of scenarios you could draw from the history of human experience to match the pathos of a soul caught in weeping, unable to sing, or even manage a faint shadow of a smile.  All tragedy (and even humor) arises out of the difficulties of life. 

It's impossible (for me) to talk about trouble without remembering that Job said we humans were born for it, just as certainly as the sparks fly upward from a fire.[1]  Each week in untold numbers of churches across the world, hands are raised to call a name in prayer.  These requests are the communication of the compassion of Christians for believers and unbelievers alike.  We pray for all sorts of illnesses, surgeries, accidents, and war victims.  We pray for a myriad of life’s mayhem and mourning.  And then, we’ll sing a hymn.  Often a joyful one. 

The point is, nobody likes to stay in the dark too long.  We want to be lifted by brighter thoughts and posssibilities.  And thus it is ever – we pray against the dark, drawing hope against the extant shadows.  But sometimes our darkness sings a joyful song as if it were a funeral dirge.  We know the words, but have sadly lost the joy of the melody.

According to the Psalmist, it was worse than that for the former residents of Jerusalem.  They’d been defeated politically; their homeland decimated by the unstoppable armies of Babylon, and all their young people carried off to the enemy’s homeland, to serve as slaves.  Not much to celebrate there.  It was time to hang the harps on the tree branches – there would be no happy songs with which to sing and dance.  Life was going to be one long, dreary treadmill; the only relief would be the graveyard.  That certainly would not be the advertisement you’re looking for on a travel brochure!

Jeremiah understood the national mood of the captives, and their weeping.  It’s not stretching the truth when I say most Christians understand that profile in our day, even though we still live in a land of relative prosperity and personal freedom, greater than many countries in the world.  We still celebrate remnants of a Christian national heritage.  However, truth be told, we can also see the gathering storm clouds, a darkening horizon of godlessness in this worldly culture.  We have moved past the God is Dead stage of the 1960’s to the next-worse stage; we have entered the age of God is Irrelevant!  And…God help us…if that is an accurate forecast, we are in the Days of Noah, just waiting for the flood of judgment’s hammer to fall.

For You Today

If there is one thing I have learned about dark times, it is that it is proof that God’s promises are true, and always kept.  It matters little what cultural trends want to proclaim…God is never irrelevant…He is patient, but even that will end some day.

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

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Boiling Point   and   Joy in Troubling Times   

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

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[1] Job 5:7

Us Too?

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Peter asked, “Lord, is that illustration just for us or for everyone?”  And the Lord replied, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.  If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward.  I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.  But what if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk?  The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful.  “And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished.  But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.  Luke 12:41-48

Jesus was telling the disciples about responsibility in being his follower.  If you choose to respond and follow Jesus, the reward will be reconciled with the faithfulness of your service.  In true teaching mode, Jesus had to go over the main points a few times before even the sharpest disciple got it…there is no inside group…it’s the same instructions for everybody. 

It's much more popular (for obvious reasons) to dwell on the loving, inclusiveness of Jesus, than to even mention the possibility of judgment.  However, if you check the Gospel accounts closely, or even scan them quickly, we find that Jesus regularly taught about the reality of judgment.  His parables all consistently contrasted reward and punishment.  In fact, there is much more about Hell in Scripture than Heaven.  Consider these:

·       In Matthew’s Gospel there are foolish virgins who let their oil run out, a lazy manager who abuses his power, faithful and unfaithful servants who face an accounting on judgment day.  They are the goats separated from the sheep in final reward and remorse.  (Matthew 25)

·       In just two chapters of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 16, 17) there is the judgment of a lazy manager who abused his power, religious leaders who loved money more than the God they were supposed to be serving, serial wife-changing power people, and a rich man in Hell, begging a poor man in Heaven to bring him a drink.

·       In the Old Testament account of Esther, Haman, a proud official, second only to King Xerxes, plotted against the Jews, and particularly Esther’s uncle Mordecai.  Haman’s plan was to kill all the Jews, and impale Mordecai on a 75-foot high sharpened pole, to highlight his power.  But, in the final chapter, this is how Haman’s plan turned out:

Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole because he tried to destroy the Jews.  Esther 8:7

For You Today

Punishment and Reward are as understandable (to even a child), as is the simple fact that keeping your fingers out of the fire will be better than not. 

It may be more popular to dwell on a loving God who forgives us.  But to ignore the righteousness of God who judges those who will not obey His Word, is to walk on the edge of a cliff overlooking the eternal abyss.  Be wise!

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  Meet You at the Woodshed and When You Have a King for a Friend      

[1] Images:  Wickimedia Commons     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Too Late

 

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

“So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:  May all your jars be filled with wine.’  And they will reply, ‘Of course!  Jars are made to be filled with wine!’  “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord means:  I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem.  I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the Lord.  I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”  Listen and pay attention!  Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.  Give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late.  Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains.  For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.  And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone because of your pride.  My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be led away into exile.  Say to the king and his mother, “Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.”  The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them.  The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.  All will be carried into exile.  Jeremiah 13:12-19

Jeremiah, ever the weeping prophet, received a “not-so-veiled” threat to lay at Israel’s feet:  from the throne room to the common rooms, drunk with the power of personal choice, the hangover of exile for God’s people was coming. 

As the grandson of an alcoholic, I am aware of the results of too much celebrating, and not enough common sense, or self-respect.  My mother’s childhood was spent moving from one rented apartment to the next.  My grandfather had a good job, but his habit consumed even the rent money.  He was not a physically-abusive person, but addiction to alcohol carries its own brand of abuse.  When my mother was asked where she lived growing up, she had lots of addresses from which to choose.  One of those addresses she never even saw.  She had been hit by a car while walking home from school, and spent over a month in the hospital.  The family was in the process of moving that week; they moved-in, but had to move-out a few weeks later.  Mom added a new address to the pile, even though she never saw the front-doorstep.

Jeremiah’s prophecy was about the consequences of drunkenness, but this hangover wasn’t really about wine filling every jar.  Rather it was the confusion of why the kingdom fell apart, and every citizen would be at odds with every other citizen, from the palaces to the playpens.  In a massive pandemic of arrogance, Israel assumed the role of bad-chilld, leaving the Father no other choice but the woodshed from the North.  Destruction was on its way like a juggernaut of grief and mourning.  The rent money was due, and it wasn’t there; it was too late.

For You Today

It is impossible for me to read any of the prophets and not make the mental leap from Jerusalem in Judea, to Washington D.C.  I pray every day for the leaders of our nation in that jungle of self-importance called “government”. 

That for which I pray is an awakening, and the resultant sweep of revival.  Because, without revival in the lives of leaders, and without it spreading to the board rooms, businesses, schools, and every main street, back street, and dirt street, our drunken stupor of anger and violence, with its accompanying wrecking of the homes across the land, will make us a ripe, low-hanging fruit for a trip to Babylon’s jail.  In the darkness of national disaster, we won’t even know what happened.

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

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

Jeremiah's Message from the Garbage Dump

 

Thursday, January 21, 2021
This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a clay jar.  Then ask some of the leaders of the people and of the priests to follow you.  Go out through the Gate of Broken Pots to the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and give them this message.  Say to them, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem!  This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:  I will bring a terrible disaster on this place, and the ears of those who hear about it will ring!  “‘For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of wickedness.  The people burn incense to foreign gods—idols never before acknowledged by this generation, by their ancestors, or by the kings of Judah.  And they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children.  They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal.  I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!  So beware, for the time is coming, says the Lord, when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.  “‘For I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem.  I will allow the people to be slaughtered by invading armies, and I will leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals.  I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity.  All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp at the destruction they see there.  I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone.  Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends.  They will be driven to utter despair.’  “As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash the jar you brought.  Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:  As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair.  They will bury the bodies here in Topheth, the garbage dump, until there is no more room for them.  This is what I will do to this place and its people, says the Lord.  I will cause this city to become defiled like Topheth.  Yes, all the houses in Jerusalem, including the palace of Judah’s kings, will become like Topheth—all the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to your star gods, and where liquid offerings were poured out to your idols.’”  Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, the garbage dump where he had delivered this message, and he stopped in front of the Temple of the Lord.  He said to the people there,  “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:  ‘I will bring disaster upon this city and its surrounding towns as I promised, because you have stubbornly refused to listen to me.’”  Jeremiah 19:1-15

The state of Judah and Israel, along with its people, smelled like Ben-Hinnom, the garbage dump outside Jerusalem.  Metaphorically, it was like the dumpster behind an abortion clinic…it smelled of death, and nothing living could survive there long.

Jeremiah’s message, something of a children’s sermon object lesson, was unmistakable; the broken pieces of a clay pot belonged on a rubble heap, useless – its purpose forever shattered.  God was telling his people they’d done this to themselves, become a shattered mess of what hopes and dreams they’d sinned-away by worshipping other gods, and even resorting to the unthinkable practice of child-sacrifice.  Disaster was about to be applied to the fragile clay pot of an unsuspecting nation.  A message like this could not have had a pretty reaction.  Indeed, Jeremiah’s future was probably sealed by this sermon.  It would be thirty years later that Jerusalem would fall, but the memory of God’s enemies is long.  The prophet’s message was fulfilled just a few years later as Jerusalem fell in BC 586.

I have long seen this as a shroud of warning to our country, once a beacon of life, now copying the practices of the garbage dump with opulence, hedonism, and children sacrificed to the god of convenience.

Today is the first full day of a new administration in our country.  Some have said that the new president’s most daunting challenge is to unify a divided population.  While that is an expected and somewhat laudable idea, I disagree.  You cannot unify (in any lasting or genuine sense) people who have antithetical values.  For Christians, guided by Holy Scripture, you cannot simply request that they accept darkness as light.  Opposites may attract, but eventually they negate each other.  When cold decides to coexist with hot the result is nauseating lukewarm.  Frankly, shades of gray (produced by the marriage of light and darkness) may do well in a charcoal drawing, but as a life principle, anything short of stepping into the light of God’s will is well-short of the mark.

For You Today

I do not approve of anarchy or the kind of bloody insurrection we have seen of late in Washington.  But neither can I keep from praying to God that we wake up to the smell of the garbage dump of Hinnom and turn away from the culture of death.

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 this topic see Broken Pieces and Shattered Beyond All Hope of Repair      

 

What Sorrow Awaits...

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Monday, November 4, 2019

“What sorrow awaits you who build cities with money gained through murder and corruption!  Has not the Lord of Heaven’s Armies promised that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes?  They work so hard, but all in vain!  For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.  

“What sorrow awaits you who make your neighbors drunk!  You force your cup on them so you can gloat over their shameful nakedness.  But soon it will be your turn to be disgraced.  Come, drink and be exposed!  Drink from the cup of the Lord’s judgment, and all your glory will be turned to shame.  You cut down the forests of Lebanon.  Now you will be cut down.  You destroyed the wild animals, so now their terror will be yours.  You committed murder throughout the countryside and filled the towns with violence.  “What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you?  How foolish to trust in your own creation—a god that can’t even talk!  

What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, ‘Wake up and save us!’  To speechless stone images you say, ‘Rise up and teach us!’  Can an idol tell you what to do?  They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside.  But the Lord is in his holy Temple.  Let all the earth be silent before him.”  Habakkuk 2:12-20[2]

A true prophet only speaks the words God puts in his mouth.  And it’s a bit more than threatening to hear over and over, what sorrow awaits, especially when the voice thunders from Heaven’s throne!  The targets of these warnings are leaders of nations that have the lust to control other lands through violence and manipulation.  

The payoff for such evil will look like the landscape of the Sahara, or the denuded Brazilian forests.

This message of Habakkuk is all about climate change, but not the physical actions of slaughtering endangered animal species or cutting down Lebanon’s cedar forests.  This is about systemic evil that ignores God’s Word, thinking our Sovereign Creator is like the idols carved from the cut-down trees, unable to speak or have any consequential factor in the affairs of men…especially powerful leaders of powerful nations.  The prophecy falling from the lips of Habakkuk decry the evil earthly leaders who are stockpiling misery against the day of judgment.

While this prophecy was spoken to the corrupt leaders of the Chaldeans, who had invaded and devastated Judah in the 7^th Century^(B.C.) it also speaks a word to our culture.  The prophet has asked ^(1:12-17) if wrong and violence are to continue forever.[1]  It doesn’t seem right for the ungodly Chaldean nations to triumph over God’s people, but the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk’s question is that the violence of the invaders is going to be used by God to bring Judah to her knees, and, like the Northern Kingdom a century before, they will know the devastating consequences of forsaking their God. 

In the end God will bring retribution on the likes of the Chaldean raiders, but Israel will be forgiven and restored.

The word for 21^st Century leaders is cautionary; if you use the manipulative, lying, bullying as did the strong-willed Chaldean/Babylonian invaders, you become them! 

And their fate becomes yours; what sorrow awaits!

For You Today

Strong-arming weaker nations and bullying your way through life will bring its reward, but it won’t be pretty!  Truly strong leaders are those who trust in Christ, and fear God.  These are the ones who are silent before Holy God, who is in His sanctuary. 

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

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

[2] For another post on this text see:  Fingers With a Brain

[3] Thompson Chain Reference Bible notes (B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co, Indianapolis, Ind., 1964 ), 205

Sometimes It's Better for the Ship to Sink

[1]

Friday, July 26, 2019

“The leaders of Judah have become like thieves.  So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.  The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols.  I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool.  I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.  “When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria—to the great king there—but he could neither help nor cure them.  I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah.  I will tear them to pieces!  I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them.  Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me.  For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.”  Hosea 5:10-15[2]

Hosea’s prophecy is not gentle bedtime reading.  As a native of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8^th Century B.C. this man of God was familiar with the corrupt ways of God’s leaders, the priests.  He also had a front row seat to how the people had bought-into the priests’ leading, and how close to the edge this ship was to sinking into the East…namely giving allegiance to Assyria (modern day Iraq).  Hosea’s message was a severe warning of an event that colors today’s tension in the Middle East, and the ancient struggle between Isaac and Ishmael.  The prophecy came to fulfillment at the start of the 7^th Century; Israel was devastated.  Those who survived the siege were scattered and most of the young, bright men and women brought into captivity.  This was a national ship destroyed by its own rotted wood.  They had worshipped idols and it cost them everything!

At the risk of sounding like a “broken record” it’s hard to hear the familiar strains of this tune humming in the background, of ancient Israel’s having God’s blessing, then turning apostate, leaving the God they once loved, as being what is now playing out in the New Israel, God’s church falling apart with rotting timbers.

Scholars debate whether it’s just figurative imagery that Hosea really did marry a prostitute to dramatically illustrate how serious it was that a righteous God, Jehovah, would have an illegitimate bride, Israel.  It may have been that Hosea did just that; there are stranger things in God’s Word.

But, whether we have a metaphorical illustration, or a flesh and blood harlot, the message cannot be missed – Israel’s prostitution of her Godly, spiritual heritage had put them squarely in God’s crosshairs.  They were in for it!

And the point is…so are we. 

Israel turned away from the God they couldn’t see to the native culture of worshipping idols they could carve with their own hands.  That sounds alarmingly like today’s church vesting a whole lot more trust in balance sheets, demographic preferences, technology, and slick presentations…all which we can see, touch (and manipulate for greater impact), trying to get the world’s attention with the world’s methodologies…rather than a plain stepping out in faith in-between the walls of water through the Red Sea.  We have come to trust more in ourselves (leaning on our own understanding), rather than rest in the arms of Jehovah. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6

With a mild apology for co-opting a campaign slogan, the church has chosen to buy-into Making America Great Again rather than worshipping at the feet of the  One who was never anything but Magnificent!  Are we making the same mistake Hosea’s hometown made nearly 3000 years ago?  I cannot help imagining I hear the roaring young lions about ready to rip into the rotting wood of Zion’s ship.

For You Today

God is the Master Builder; the church is His ship; it belongs to no one else!

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

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

[2] For another devotion on Hosea 5:15 see HERE

Too Late

[i]

Valentine’s Day Thursday, February 14, 2019

“So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:  May all your jars be filled with wine.’  And they will reply, ‘Of course!  Jars are made to be filled with wine!’  “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord means:  I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem.  I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the Lord.  I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”  Listen and pay attention!  Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.  Give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late.   Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains.  For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.  And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone because of your pride.  My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be led away into exile.  Say to the king and his mother, “Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.”  The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them.  The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.  All will be carried into exile.  Jeremiah 13:12-19(NLT)

This part of Jeremiah’s prophecy is consistent with his characterization as Israel’s weeping prophet.  Jeremiah loves his homeland and their people, and the word of God, flowing from his lips tell a harsh truth; they have blown it, and judgment is on the way.  Their arrogance won’t let them see just how far they have fallen from being God’s people; they’ve gotten to the point where God was their enemy, and trouble was already on the way.  Jeremiah would weep for them, but only they could do something about it; only they could turn back to God.

Now, wait a minute, preacher, this is Valentine’s Day…this isn’t the time; can’t you just leave it alone for a day and let’s talk about romance and love, dinner and a nice evening of dancing, or watching a nice Hallmark feel-good movie?

Well…no, not really.  Besides, “love” as this generation sees it, is just exactly what Jeremiah called drunkenness.  The prophet isn’t talking about inebriation, falling-down foolish fraternity party stuff.  He’s pointing to losing control of our senses and being deluded into acting like heathens have always acted…arrogant, as if we created ourselves, and have no responsibility towards the One who did create us.  And it is as evident in our culture as it was in the 7^th century BC.  Jeremiah spoke of the one sitting on David’s throne, the King of Israel, as well as the priests and false prophets – something like our White House, Congress, and Supreme Court.  But this weeping prophet saw the people were infected with it too.  He said it was all the way down to the common people of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah’s words are just as true for today’s America and this world’s culture, as when he spoke them to his country 2700 years ago. 

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Our churches are mostly empty, but we pat ourselves on the back for having In God We Trust stamped on our real god.

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We consider ourselves wise and sophisticated, but we settle for bathroom humor, sexual perversity, and violence to entertain ourselves.

·     

We celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, except for the not-yet-born among us.

·     

We feel safe because we have violent weapons that are more effective at mass-killing than the rest of the world’s technology.

In many ways America is on the brink of game-over!  Those who think a stronger military, or more government, or louder trash-talk will chase away the nightmare that’s coming on us for our willful rejection of Godliness, blow-off any possibility that God will judge us.  That’s just preacher-talk; it’s like a news cycle – it’ll blow over in 24 hours. 

No – that light at the end of the news cycle tunnel is the train of God’s retribution for decades of arrogance and selfishness.  We are Jeremiah’s tears, and it’s just about too late.

For You Today

Jeremiah’s message was love in its purest form, truth; perfect for Valentine’s Day!

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

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[i] Title Image:  via Pixabay.com