Tuesday, February 28, 2017

WAIT AND SEE (PART 1)



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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. 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.  Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

Habakkuk 1:5-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“ Why Lord? Why?”

“How long Lord must I call out for help before you do anything?”

As we saw in yesterday’s devotion, these are questions that Habakkuk had on his mind as he looked at the Israelite society and saw nothing but social injustices and spiritual apostasy all around him. He was yearning for the Lord to step in and do something about it, something that would change things, something that would show His people that He was not going to tolerate their sinful behavior.

Today, we find the Lord providing His prophet some answers, answers that could be centered on one statement:

“Wait and see.”

Look again at what God had to say to Habakkuk here:

“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. 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.  Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”  Habakkuk 1:5-11

First of all, the Lord wanted to make one thing clear to His chosen messenger:

What was about to happen would be something completely surprising and unbelievable, something that would leave every witnessing nation amazed.

Would He do something supernatural, something that would be powerfully magical, leaving everyone in awe and wonder?

Not exactly. The Lord was going to do something much more conventional than that.

No, what was going to make the Lord’s actions incredible was His choice of His instrument of judgment on His people. For as we read in today’s passage, God told Habakkuk He was sending the Babylonians to bring punishment on the Israelites.

Why was this so astonishing and astounding?

Because the Babylonians were just as sinful and wicked as the Israelites, maybe even more so. God even called them “guilty people” who saw their strength as their god.

And yet, God chose them to be instruments of His judgment. They were His pick to bring their ruthless, impetuous ways to Judah where they would be feared and dreaded in the way they assaulted, plundered, and destroyed. The Babylonians were likened to leopards and wolves and eagles for the way they attacked and devoured their prey. Indeed, when the Babylonians came, they came mocking and scoffing at kings and rulers, laughing at fortified cities as they assailed them “intent on violence”.

Essentially, the Babylonians opposed whoever they wanted and when they did, they had their way, sweeping across territories and seizing land that was not originally their own. It’s how empires are built.

Habakkuk wanted to know what God was going to do and God told him. It was probably the last thing the prophet would have expected God to say and certainly no one would have believed that an empire steeped so much in evil would be the one chosen by God to do His work.

But that’s exactly what happened.

So what is our takeaway? What is the Lord trying to convey onto us through these verses and this account of Judah’s predicted judgment?

I believe God is reminding us that He will react and respond to all matters of life in His way and at His time. He doesn’t need to consult mankind for their opinion and it doesn’t matter one way or another what we think about His decisions.

In the end translation, He is God and we are not. His ways are always perfect and ours aren’t. And even if God shared with us what He was going to do in advance, we probably would find ourselves left amazed and in disbelief like Habakkuk and any other nation who would watch His judgment unfold against Judah in completely unpredictable ways.

Yes, we can certainly ask, “Why Lord? Why?” but in response we can almost always find Him answering, “Wait and see.”

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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Monday, February 27, 2017

WHY LORD? WHY? (PART 1)



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but You do not save? 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.”

Habakkuk 1:1-4

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In our continuing study of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, we turn to Habakkuk today who served as God’s messenger during the time of Jeremiah which puts him in a period prior to the Babylonian attack and exile of Judah. Pay close attention to the dialogue in this book as it isn’t what you might normally see when it comes to one connected to a prophet. In Habakkuk, you will find the prophet speaking directly with God through the entire book, lodging two complaints with responses by the Lord after each one before ending with a prayer.

In today’s devotion, we’ll look at Habakkuk’s first grievance. Here’s the scriptures which form the text for the message:

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but You do not save? 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.”  Habakkuk 1:1-4

Have you ever found yourself like Habakkuk, wondering why the Lord is doing things in a certain way?

Maybe it’s about something in your life or the life of someone else you know. It could be health related. It could be financial. It could involve any number of life challenges that we or they might encounter.

Maybe it’s about something in your community or church. Possibly a serious crime has occurred. Maybe there is discord among people in your community or within your congregation.  

Maybe it’s about something in your nation or the world at large such as wars or threats of wars, terrorism, racial disharmony, or political/economic unrest.  

There’s just more things that can concern us that can be listed here, that’s for sure, things in life that can often leave us simply crying out for answers, asking “Why Lord? Why?”

Maybe you’ve been there before. Maybe you are there as you read this today.

As we look at our scripture passage for today, drawn from the opening verses of Habakkuk, we find the prophet essentially asking the same question out of frustration with the sins and injustices he sees within the Israelite nation he is immersed in. Further, we see Habakkuk feeling like the Lord isn’t even giving attention to the prayers he has lifted up, prayers that included cries for help in the midst of the wickedness in Judah.

Today’s verses tell us that this wickedness was grounded in violence, unfairness and inequality, and destruction. Basically, overall general wrongdoing was pervasive throughout the culture as the people did what they wanted to do, committing transgression after transgression in plain sight of the Lord.

So why wasn’t the Lord doing anything about it?

This is what Habakkuk wanted to know. When was God going to intervene in his situation where strife and conflict abounded, the law was paralyzed, and justice was perverted and non-existent?

Maybe you have your own questions, questions you are waiting for God to answer about the circumstances you are facing in your life. Maybe you have even lifted up your own prayers to the Lord and feel like He hasn’t listened to you.

In tomorrow’s devotion, we’ll find God providing His messenger answers, just as He will provide us answers to our questions in His perfect time. As we wait, let us be a little more patient than Habakkuk, keeping our faith and trust in knowing the Lord has been, is, and will always be in control.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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Sunday, February 26, 2017

IMMERSED IN WOE



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.”

“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.  Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”

“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.”

“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”

Nahum 3

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Ninevites had tasted the sweetness of redemption. They knew what it was like to be on the brink of annihilation and pulled out of it into a place of safety. They had experienced the merciful nature of a second chance.

You remember this, right?

You have to go back to our recent study of Jonah. It was then that God had ordered Jonah to bring a message to the Ninevites, a message of the judgment that was soon to come upon them. To refresh your memory, here was the simple message:

“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah 3:4b

The scriptures in Jonah 3 tell us the reaction of the Ninevites was one of immediate belief in the warning Jonah had given. They believed God would and could do exactly what they had heard and so they collectively began an effort to stave off the coming consequences for their sinfulness, an effort which looked like this:

A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:5-9

Indeed, even the king of Nineveh believed God would do what Jonah was prophesying. But He also believed other things he had heard about Israel’s God for note he thought there was a chance God might change His mind, relent from what He intended to do, and spare them from His fierce anger through compassion.

And so the Ninevite people did what the king commanded and, in return, God did reward them for their repentance, opting to not bring them the punishment He had intended to bring (Jonah 3:10).

Now, you would think that any intelligent person would have made sure they never placed themselves in that position again, in a position where they had angered God so much that He would raise utter destruction and devastation against them. But as we see in today’s final chapter and the closing words in the Book of Nahum, the Ninevites did just that and this time, there would be no opportunity for a reprieve. Look again at these words here:

“Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.”

“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.  Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”

“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.”

“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”  Nahum 3

How far had Nineveh fallen back into evil, wicked ways since God’s pardon?

They had hit rock bottom.

The scriptures detail their transgressions as they assailed and assaulted other nations. Those transgressions included murderous bloodshed, deceitfulness, thievery, prostitution, slavery, sorcery, and witchcraft. It was a laundry list of travesties committed against God and others, and as we see by His own words, God was not going to stand for it any longer:

“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.  Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”

“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.”

“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”

All God really had to say was that He was against Nineveh and the nation, Assyria, of which it was the capital city. But we get a sense here that Nineveh was going to hear the full extent of what He was planning on doing. Unlike the warning from Jonah, God was going to say more than a simple one sentence statement. Here’s what He promised:

1. Exposure.

“I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.”

The people of Nineveh would be treated like the spiritual prostitutes and adulterers that they were and the penalty often imposed on prostitutes and adulteresses was to have them lift their skirts up over their faces in a form of public shaming. In the case of Assyria and Nineveh, their naked vulnerability would be exposed to the surrounding nations and kingdoms, many of which they had attacked in the past.

2. Humiliation.

“I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.”

Imagine being exposed in public and people throwing trash of all kinds at you. A quick glimpse inside my trash can here at the house showed me things I don’t think I would want to be covered in.

As part of God’s penalty, the Ninevites were going to be embarrassed to the nth degree and made a spectacle of in the worst possible fashion.

3. Isolation

“All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

Once in God’s judgment, Assyria and Nineveh will be on their own. After all, would you even want yourself to look like you had any affiliation with them? You might get included in God’s Judgment-palooza.

And so the Ninevites would not be able to find anyone who would be feeling sorry for them, no one to mourn their losses at the hands of God, and no one to bring her comfort during the terrible judgment they would endure.

4. Defenseless.

“Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.  Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.”

“You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater. Look at your troops—they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down—they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, Multiply like locusts! You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day—But when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.”

Assyria and its capital city of Nineveh had seemed to be bulletproof. They were the aggressors and no one dared come against them. The fiercest fighting forces belonged to them and their fortresses were all impregnable, that is against conventional foes but God was no conventional foe. Not by a long shot.

God reminded the Ninevites about other groups who thought they were safe and secure, bringing up Thebes which was located on the Nile. They had the waters as a line of defense and allies in other nations like Cush, Egypt, Put, and Libya. And yet, Thebes fell and fell hard. Her people were taken captive and into exile. Many of her people perished to include the children and those who survived were made slaves, even the greatest of the citizens.

Assyria and Nineveh would experience the same as they found themselves besieged with nowhere to run. Even their best efforts to prepare for the coming assault would prove fruitless and enemy forces would overrun them, consuming them with fire and slaying by the sword. This would be followed by captivity and exile as God dispersed the Assyrians and Ninevites like a swarm of locusts might fly away to places unknown after they have done their damage on crops.

The bottom line was that Assyria and Nineveh would have no protection or security from God who they had chosen to oppose.

5. Helplessness and hopelessness.

“King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”

Defenselessness will give way to helplessness which in turn will result in hopelessness. We see this in many places in the scriptures when God brings His judgment on a people and Syria and Nineveh are no different.

God gives us a snapshot of this as He addresses Assyria’s once mighty king who after being defeated was left with no one to lead or shepherd his people who were scattered all over the place, even on the mountains, with no one to hear them. The depth of the assault on the once proud and mighty kingdom had left it with a fatal would, one that would no one could heal. And no one would have any sympathy for Assyria or Nineveh. Rather, surrounding nations would applaud the Assyrian downfall with a sense that they (the Assyrians and Ninevites) were getting pay back for the way they had shown such wicked cruelty to others.

Oh how the mighty Assyria and its main city of Nineveh were about to fall and you could sum their pending plight up in one simple statement:

They were going to be immersed in woe, for that’s what happens when anyone decides to blatantly sin against God and others, bringing on His judgment.

Friends, God’s word in the closing chapter of Nahum is sending a powerful message and warning to us all. We all would be well served do ourselves a favor, learn from the mistakes of the Assyrians and Ninevites, and stay far away from anything that would place us in the crosshairs of God’s wrath and the judgment that follows.

Trust me when I say we’ll all be glad we did.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com