Howling At the Moon (and accomplishing what?)

Monday, May 15, 2023

The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty.  Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.  Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.  You yourself are from the everlasting past.  The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.  But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the Lord above is mightier than these!  Your royal laws cannot be changed.  Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.  Psalm 93:1-5

God’s sovereignty is proclaimed throughout the Lord’s Holy Scripture.  In Heaven there is no doubt Who reigns in the universe.  Not so much on planet earth. 

King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon, an arch-enemy of Jerusalem, howled at the moon more than once in his life.  A poetic what-goes-around-comes-around is portrayed by the arrogant king’s pursuit of power, riches, and the ultimate humiliation that lust brought.  He fought, won, and destroyed Jerusalem, killing, capturing, and looting, the nation’s treasures and temple, devouring God’s people like a monster[1].  Nebuchadnezzar imagined himself invincible; he never lost.  He even set up a gold statue of himself, 90-feet high, and everyone had to worship the statue, because the king proclaimed himself god! 

But in the end, God removed Nebuchadnezzar from the throne of Babylon, and he roamed the countryside for seven years, like a madman, howling at the moon.[2]

Scripture tells us that the whole panorama of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule and life was orchestrated by God.  Jeremiah had prophesied it long before it began:

This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord early in the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah.  This is what the Lord said to me:  “Make a yoke, and fasten it on your neck with leather straps.  Then send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who have come to see King Zedekiah in Jerusalem.  Give them this message for their masters:  ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:  With my great strength and powerful arm I made the earth and all its people and every animal.  I can give these things of mine to anyone I choose.  Now I will give your countries to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who is my servant.  I have put everything, even the wild animals, under his control.  Jeremiah 27:1-6

The great professional boxer, Muhammhed Ali, was known for his brash, self-promotion.  Without blushing he often proclaimed after winning a match against his opponents:  I am the greatest.  At one press interview a reporter asked him if he really meant what he said, or was it just bragging.  Ali looked at the reporter and sneered:  It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

Nebuchadnezzars and professional boxer’s trash-talking may have some teeth, and last for a news cycle, but their (so-called) reign is tied to a leash.  The One who holds the other end of that leash is God…the one (and only) true God.

For You Today 

When it comes to classical narcissism, otherwise known as bragging, aggrandizing, or self-promoting…choose the humility of keeping your mouth closed.  People may think you’re a fool, but opening your mouth often proves them right.

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

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Game Over  and  The Trouble With Theological Heels  and God Sovereign Series:  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] See Jeremiah 51:34

[2] See Daniel 3-5

Game Over (from before the beginning)

 

Monday, May 23, 2022

The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty.  Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.  Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.  You yourself are from the everlasting past.  The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.  But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the Lord above is mightier than these!  Your royal laws cannot be changed.  Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.  Psalm 93:1-5

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”  And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End.  To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.  Revelation 21:5-7

My brother, Thom, is a month shy of being four years older than I am.  That made a huge difference when we were kids.  With his size and maturity, every athletic contest was over before it began.  Because of my stubborn nature, it never kept me from trying to beat the odds.  In all the years of human existence it has been thus…we resist the irresistable, and fight against the unconquerable!

Ultimately there were some changes with my brother.  I may have won a time or two.  He’s still the better athlete, but with what’s left of two sets of knees (his and mine), neither of us has the inclination to return to the contests.  Old men have their memories, and that’s enough of a playground.

I see a parallel on a grander scale in the wrestling match featuring God and humans.  It’s also way over from before the beginning.  The Psalmist rehearses the power of the thundering seas, which was a foreshadow of mysterious dark, menacing forces in the ancient mind.  Then he turns the page to the heavens, declaring the mightier power of the Creator.  The seas may be violently raging, but it is still the lesser, contained in the greater, the one, true eternal God.

This is the “Alpha” of Revelation’s vision of “Omega”.  God began the beginning for humanity and the globe of dust we inhabit.  He is also the end point of God’s heart-plan for us; He is our omega, our ending, or, frankly, the whole point of our existence!  He is, as the Revelator’s pen declares, the one sitting on the throne.  And THAT throne, which is above every other throne, is what decides the outcome of whatever is in its view.  There is nothing which escapes its power.

Back to the playground metaphor with my brother playing the lead part.  There came a time when we were more evenly-matched, and the scores of the games became closer.  But that’s where the analogy ends; humans will never get closer to the power, majesty, and splendor of He who sits on Heaven’s throne…not with physical power, nor because we wish or will it to be so.  None of us can overwhelm, outsmart or out-maneuver the Almighty.  We are, as the raging, violent seas, still the lesser, contained in the Greater.

For You Today

If you struggle sometimes with that final surrender of your destiny, understand that is the chink in our human nature…to hold out some vestige of hope that, one day our way, our choices, or our terms may be in charge, not God’s rule over our existence.  But that is the dream of a fool. 

Knowing that God has good plans for us, and His might will bring them about for those who acknowledge His Kingdom, is the “win” of all wins.  Bow before the throne, acknowledging Jesus, the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.

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

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

Lost in Thoughts of Eternity

 

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Psalm 93:1-5

The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty.  Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.  Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.  You yourself are from the everlasting past.  The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves.  But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the Lord above is mightier than these!  Your royal laws cannot be changed.  Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.

My children have no memory of me.  That is, they have no memory of me before they were born.  They only have what they have seen in pictures and been told by me, and others, of what I was like before they were born.  

They might be able to pick out their father, or name their uncle and his cousins entirely based on family resemblance, but it’s a guess, not a memory; they weren’t there in 1950.

My children’s children (and grandchildren) have no first-hand knowledge of what their parents were like before they were born.  And so on. 

The memory we all have of the time before our time exists, resting entirely on the faith we have in what we are told, and by whom it is who tells us.

In the same way, we can only imagine eternity.  And it somewhat hurts the head to do so.  If you’ve ever tried to imagine nothingness, as if nothing existed, such as Genesis suggests, you understand this head-hurting activity:

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.  Genesis 1:2a

Pondering eternity can produce a wide range of emotions among the vast possibilities; we can get overwhelmed with awe for the vastness of time and space. Depression is also possible, because of the prospect of an unanswerable line of questioning about our beginning; to think deeply and run into the same, frustrating answer, we’ll see, or maybe is a sure formula for a straight jacket. 

And those straight jackets come in many colors and sizes.  Of the many ones we put on, (perhaps as an intentional insulation against the cold, dark, reality of our questions being unanswerable) is the common agnostic approach, simply throwing hands up in the air, admitting:  well…no one can really know how it all began; you can’t prove God or creation, or something nobody was there to see…so why bother even thinking about it?  Some like to think that is an “intelligent” position of accepting your losses and moving on.

Nonetheless, the quest to know from whence we trod remains fundamental to humankind, because we desire to know purpose, the WHY of our existance.  To NOT at least ponder these is to live in a shallow pool of self-importantance.

Enter – the loveliness of faith.

Somewhere in the deepest crevices of our being, even deeper than DNA, and more pronounced than personality, there is singing a song of our origin, the music and message of our Creator’s love.  This song calls out to the individual from within.  It cries a thornbird’s gift as Fr. Alfred McBride wrote:

“According to legend, the thorn bird sings just once in its life. Leaving its nest, it searches for a bush with long, sharp thorns. Upon finding such a bush it impales itself on the biggest thorn. At that moment it begins to sing.
“The bird out-carols the lark and the nightingale and the world pauses to listen. God smiles with pleasure at the captivating melody. What is the message of this sacrificial music? Life's most satisfying moment can be purchased only at the price of great pain – so says the legend.[1]

Christ on the cross, was our thorn bird.  This was Father God’s precious gift that causes our souls to sing, All glory to the dying lamb…sweetest note in seraph song.[2]

For You Today

You have no memory of the creation, or Christ’s cross, or even your great-great grandfather; you DO have a song of faith waiting to be sung…an eternal song.

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 Psalm 93 see God Sovereign - Part 1

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[1] The Seven Last Words of Jesus by Fr. Alfred McBride (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1990, paper, 87 pages

[2] Hymn – The Great Physician, William Hunter (public domain) Hymnary.org