disgusted with idolatry

The LORD has given commandment about you:

“No more shall your name be perpetuated;

from the house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the metal image.

I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

Nahum 1:14

The book of Nahum is all about the end of wicked Ninevah. Jonah was a story of grace undeserved to a wicked and violent people who repented at God’s warning of judgment. Ninevah was a given a reprieve under Jonah. In the oracle of Nahum however, Ninevah is handed over to complete annihilating judgment. Assyria’s dominance and violence would end. Ninevah’s idolatry would be finished. God would deliver the judgment He demanded.

God does not tolerate idolatry. We must remember that Ninevah did at one point repent and turn to God. So these harsh words against idolatry are right of God to pronounce. He had forgiven them only to be rejected. His worship was abandoned for idolatry once again. Here then is what God really thinks about idolatry!

The results of Ninevah’s idolatry look like this:

1) Ninevah would be destroyed and forgotten. Not only does nobody remember Ninevah’s false gods… nobody remembers Ninevah! The name of Ninevah is trivial. It is as if her gods never existed.

2) Idolatry would be cut off at its source. The temples of Ninevah’s false worship are no more. There are no more wooden or metal images of what was worshiped there. Idols, as mere physical objects, are easily destroyed by God.

3) The Assyrians themselves are gone. God dug their graves Himself in this prophecy. He ended idolatry in Ninevah by ending idolaters. False worship kills. It’s that serious.

4) False worship makes a person vile. It isn’t a little thing to turn from God to something else. We must see worship of anything other than God Himself in the most disgusting terms. God does.

Before I Call

Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24

When my spirit is weary

feels like I have faced it all

God knows my burden

even before I call

He sees my trouble

He knows my need

He longs to deliver

from sin and sorrow freed

I am struggling

even to begin to pray

and His Spirit is interceding

with words I cannot say

He speaks when I can’t

silence is broken above

as He clears my confusion

with God’s unfailing love

Before I call

I am already heard

Before I pray

God answers with His Word

While I am waiting

His work is alive

When I am failing, falling

He is making me thrive

Words are flailing

faithful is His power

I feel forgotten

He is yet in this hour

Always ready

Jesus is here

Always answering

my unvoiced prayer

Jesus, I love You

my faithful friend

You will hear and care

bringing a joy-filled end

mountains tremble

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

Isaiah 64:1-2

Do I pray like God is this powerful? Do I believe, in my prayers, that were God’s presence revealed, the Himalayas would shake to gravel and the seas would boil? This vision in prayer asks a fearful God to make Himself fearfully known to a world that does not fear Him. The God Who makes mountains shake should make people tremble as they are aware of His holiness, His greatness, His power, and His authority!

I long for that sort of power to be known in this world. I want God to shake things up. I want the deafening rattle and hum of His power to electrify this world. A mighty God is in control. And He is our Judge and our Savior! My soul is moved to worship God in His truly awesome power this morning. He Who has shaken all my mountains, boiled my life in His hands, burned up the brushwood around me… He is making Himself known by His sole greatness. At the center of all fallen mountains stands the majesty of my Savior… all I need!

Did you feel the mountains tremble
Did you hear the oceans roar
When the people rose to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one

Did you feel the people tremble
Did you hear the singers roar
When the lost began to sing of
Jesus Christ, the saving one

And we can see that, God, You're moving
A mighty river through the nations
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide, you heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord

Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring Your hope
Songs that bring Your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice

Do you feel the darkness tremble
When all the saints join in one song
And all the streams flow as one river
To wash away our brokenness

And here we see that, God, You're moving
A time of jubilee is coming
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide, you heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord

Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring Your hope
Songs that bring Your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice

—Matt Redman

Light of my world

Your sun shall no more go down,

nor your moon withdraw itself;

for the LORD will be your everlasting light,

and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:20

There is a time coming, Jesus, O Light of the world, where You will be all the light this world will need. No more night will bring dread. No more long darkness, alone, weary, cold and tired, will prolong our hope of Your new day. There will be only Your bright dawn shining on. It will be glorious!

And Jesus, You are even now the light of this heart! I am weary. I am cold. I am anxious as the long lonely winter nights come to me. I miss the warm days… the bright sun… the brilliant hope… the healing warmth of light. And so I pray for the seasons You have made to keep turning… for this long year that You control to change for me, even as winter nights serve Your purposes to remind me of what was in my past by what is in the present so I trust what will eventually be in Your future. I live with anticipation.

The hope of each dawn that You bring, Lord, points me to a greater hope yet to come for all the world. A day will come where with Your light all mourning everywhere, even in my heart, will end… all sorrows in the night will be forgotten… all weeping will be eclipsed by the bright joy of the light of Your revealed love. Shine soon, O Great Light of the World! Amen

Sometimes at night, when I am afraid

I cover my eyes, cover my shame

So here in the dark, broken apart

Come with Your light and fill up my heart

O Great Light of the World

Fill up my soul

I’m half a man here

So come make me whole

O Great Light of the World

Come to impart

the light of Your grace

to fill up my heart

— Bebo Norman

A Redeemer has come.

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.

Isaiah 59:20

God promised a very sinful and disobedient people (read Isaiah 58 and 59 for the full context of just how disobedient Israel had become) that He would, in an act of pure mercy, provide the means for their sins to be atoned. God Himself would both punish sin and redeem sinners. God saw the complete inability for Israel to either keep covenant with Him, or to atone for their own wicked ways. They were completely incompetent and impotent. No human could intercede between God and mankind. God would have to provide the intercession and He promised to do so Himself (Isaiah 59:14-16).

God stepped in when sin was the great divider that kept His loved creation from Him. God interceded when there was no person who could. When justice needed to be done, God sent His Son to perform it. When righteousness was far away, Jesus came near. When truth was stumbling and falling in the public square, Jesus came to boldly declare Himself the Light of the World… the only Way… the only Truth… the only Life! When God’s people and the entire world needed saving, Jesus was the hero who arrived to be our Savior!

Armed like a warrior for battle against all evil (see the description in Isaiah 59:17-19), Jesus arrived to fight for all that was needing to be saved. His righteousness was on display. His salvation became ours. He came in holy zeal to right all wrongs, to make evil pay for past oppression, and to renew a godless world with a rushing, glorious river of mercy and grace!

Lord Jesus,

Today I thank You for being my Redeemer. Today I am grateful that You have become the salvation of all who believe the gospel. Today, my prayers of gratitude are for the glorious hope Your salvation has renewed, not just in my heart, but for the entire world. The Redeemer has come. You are here now, saving now, loving now, and You rule this world in Your saving mercy!

Amen

at peace and grateful

“Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,

“and I will heal him.”

Isaiah 57:19

God’s peace is extended in this prophecy to the entire world. It is a peace offer that is global. All people far (Gentiles) and near (Jews) are offered the same peace. It is a peace that is Messianic. Only Jesus can offer this kind of universal peace. It is a peace that is gracious. God offers it despite knowing our sins, and in a mercy, He limits His judgment (Isaiah 57:16, 18). It is a peace that renews and restores. God heals the wounds made as sin has festered in our hearts.

As I reflect on this extended grace, mercy, and peace, I realize they all pour into my heart daily. I am one of those far from God that Jesus has now drawn near in peace. Thank God He calls those who are far from knowing Him into His love and grace! I too know that Jesus is my peace. He is my only solution. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. I know the grace of God… the riches of His love in Christ… as I live in Jesus, given all that I need for life and godliness in His great and precious promises. 

It is a peace that showers mercy over me who by nature am  a broken and awful sinner. I know my heart. I know where my sin and pain and broken experiences have twisted me. And God’s mercy is more than all my sin! 

And I also know His healing peace… especially this year of change, loss, and humiliating sorrow, when the broken pieces of this shattered life dream have begun to be healed, strengthened, and restored as only Jesus can do!

Lord,

I thank You for all this. And in peace I trust where it is all going. I am Your Work… Your redeemed life… Your story to write for Your glory!

Amen

wasteland no more

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the LORD,

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah 55:13

I felt the heat

gritty sand at my feet

hot blast in my face

of moisture not a trace

I staggered through the thorns

hands and feet sore and torn

the wilderness I knew

felt abandoned, Lord, by You

The empty dunes stretched for miles

I’d forgotten all the past smiles

distance magnified by my pain and sin

desert blast of burning wind

dry brush and weeds all scattered

staying alive was all that mattered

Wandering further, drifting away

I tried to reach out — tried to pray

Words fell empty to the sand

desperately needing Your saving hand

Reduced by wasteland to my bones

I cried out for You to lead me back home

And then one drop of rain fell

and showers watered that dry personal hell

until verdant flowers and leaves appeared

and once again my Lord came near

Thorns replaced by river cypress

briers broken, washed into that old mess

Your vibrant Word watered it all

into a woodland shady and tall

and as this fragrant garden grew

I saw it all renewed by You

I felt Your Word reshape this husk of a soul

I know Your Spirit has made me whole

cool breeze of heaven in the air

calls me by faith to see Jesus here

wasteland eclipsed by new creation

I am in awe of this grace-filled situation

everlasting sign from my Father above

I praise the Lord of renewing, saving love!