dust devils

O my God, make them like whirling dust,

like chaff before the wind.

Psalm 83:13

In this psalm Asaph prays for God to reduce Israel’s oppressors to mere dust in a whirlwind. The poetic imagery is a faith-filled appeal to God to make His power and rule known. It asks for God to rule as final Judge definitively over wicked nations that mock and disobey Him and conspire against His purposes for His people.

Before Asaph makes this request of the Lord, he appeals to God’s faithful deliverance of Israel from evil enemies of their past (Psalm 83:6-13). None of them truly succeeded in eradicating the children of Israel or of taking permanent possession of their land. God faithfully kept His covenant with Israel to be their God, to give them their land, and to save them from their enemies as they faithfully endeavored to keep His laws. Israel was under divine protection. God would hear this prayer.

As I contemplate the fiercely loyal love of God and the fine, slow grind of His justice, I realize that all rebellion against Him shall suffer this same fate at the close of history. All human efforts to rise against God and His redemptive work shall fail. It shall be ground as fine dust under God’s judgment and carried away in the whirling dust devils of history’s oblivion. Only the kingdom of God shall be left.

The wicked are like chaff that God’s wind drives away (Psalm 1:4; 35:5). All the most powerful human nations that rise in defiance of God are just more chaff before His wind (Isaiah 17:13; 29:5). All the schemes of unregenerate humanity are just dust blowing in God’s wind (Isaiah 4:15).

Lord,

From dust I am created and to dust I shall return. All human civilization will blow away before you like so much dust in Your whirlwind at the Day of the Lord. And only You remain... faithful, constant, secure, and beautiful. I rest my soul in Your unchanging, stable, permanent grace, even as all this dust is destined to blow away.

Amen

Nothing Left

So Jehu struck down all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, all his great men and his close friends and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

2 Kings 10:11

Lord God

Almighty Judge

Your justice is thorough.

There is nowhere we can go...

There is nowhere we can run

to escape the judgment of God.

Righteous King

Heart Examiner

Your knowledge is complete.

Nothing ever is hidden.

Your gaze penetrates our schemes.

We know that You see.

Triumphant Conqueror

Holy Savior

When You judge sin

it is all known to You.

Nothing is left unsettled.

No sinner escapes Your power.

Loving God

Salvation bringer

You Son bore all sin I’ve ever done

or will ever do so that nothing escaped

His sacrifice, and I am remade

so there’s nothing left of my old life.

Jesus over all

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Colossians 1:18

Jesus rules first over all things. Jesus is the head of His church. Human history has tried to place popes, bishops, pastors, or personalities as the major players in the church’s advance, but that is just human pride. We are pawns. Jesus moves His pieces. The real leader of the Christian church is Jesus. He is the head... we are the body. Jesus controls where His church is going and what we are doing and how we should worship Him. No council of theologians.... no human government... no individualistic consumer preference overrides His leadership of His church!

Jesus is the beginning. No one can come to God the Father except by His Son. He is the only way to begin a true relationship with God. He was there at our creation. His heart was broken by our sin. He chose to give His life through the cross according to the will of the Father as led by the Spirit to begin our beautiful redemption!

Jesus is our renewer and the only hope for our future. He is the firstborn from the dead by virtue of His resurrection. A vaccine MIGHT buy us time in a raging pandemic. But only Jesus gives eternal life that never ends! He is the ruler over death, the defeater of Hell, and our eternal securer of abundant, everlasting life!

Jesus stands first over all things. And He must stand first over my heart so that other things in my life are ruled by one affection only: I want Jesus over everything!

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise

Thou mine inheritance, now and always;

Thou and thou only first in my heart.

High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won.

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Son!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall.

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all!

“Where are the nine?”

Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:17-19

Ten lepers were healed all together by Jesus one day between Samaria and Galilee. They cried out for mercy to Him and He simply told them to go show themselves to the priests, which is what the Law commanded for lepers who had been cleansed of disease. Obeying Jesus’ command, all ten were healed of their leprosy. All ten believed the word and were healed of leprosy... visibly cleansed from horrific scars and festering wounds.

Yet of those ten, only one of them quickly returned to fall down at Jesus’ feet in adoring praise and grateful worship. One lone Samaritan actually worshiped the God of his salvation. All ten begged for mercy yet only one was grateful for receiving the blessing Jesus gave.

Jesus was pleased to acknowledge the true faith and worship of the lone Samaritan. But Jesus was also dismayed at the lack of gratefulness from the other nine. Ten lepers cleansed... one was grateful... nine were complacent. And there is a lesson worth pondering as Jesus asks: “where are the nine?”

So... “Where ARE the nine?” Is it possible that a majority of lives touched by the powerful healing Word of Christ barely give Him acknowledgement? Could that happen today? Polls have for decades shown many more people in America “claim” to be evangelical Christians than actually attend church. It is true that in this passage, Jesus did not command the worship of the lepers, but really, shouldn’t a life changed by Jesus naturally well up into adoration and WANT to be with Him? That is the point of the passage... Jesus deserves the worship of changed lives.

But when I look at my own heart, I realize there are times I have too often been content to be in the company of the nine. How quickly I can go my own way healed, but not in awe of my Healer, as if the touch of Jesus in my life is just routine. Oh how the tender Samaritan heart needs to be in me, to remember the leper I was... the outcast, forsaken, and cursed sinner... and to rejoice in and proclaim the wonderful Savior Who has made me whole!

Where ARE the nine? Physically whole, but spiritually broken and distant from Jesus. Instead, I want to be the one... worshiping at the feet of my Lord completely grateful by offering Him my worship both body and soul!

the worst judgment: God letting you have what you want

“As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.”

Ezekiel 20:39

Israel had a history of divided religious loyalty to both God and to idolatry. In this message by God through Ezekiel to the leaders of Israel just before the exile, this history of idolatry is recounted, and God acts with the penultimate penalty.

Even while still slaves in Egypt, Israel worshiped Egyptian gods. But God had mercy on His covenant people. He delivered them from the slave bonds of Egypt and under Moses led them to freedom. They received His law and were taught how to love and worship their gracious and merciful Lord. Yet they still held onto their idols.

In the wilderness, God provided their every need. Moses received the Law and the people agreed through the covenant to worship the Lord. They built a tabernacle, honored a priesthood, and sacrificed gratefully to God. Yet they did not last, and again embraced their idols and grumbled against their gracious and caring God.

The Lord judged that ungrateful generation as they wandered to fall dead in the Sinai sands. And their children committed to His covenant and God gave them the land of Canaan. They settled into cities and farms they did not build, received God’s blessings and then promptly started worshiping the idols of the gentiles around them.

God gave them a king and made of Israel a nation that the world came to visit. They built a temple for God’s worship, sacrificed to the Lord, and still secretly kept a fondness to love their idols at every turn.

Finally, God let them go the way of their idolatry. He told them, through Ezekiel, to just serve all the idolatry their wicked hearts desired. He was done with them. The covenant had been shredded by generations of their detestable idolatry, and now, in the worst judgment that God can deal humanity, God simply let them do what they wanted so much. When God leaves us to our idols, the worst judgment is upon us. And that principle is still true today. I’ve seen in individually. I have had to confront my own idolatry repeatedly. And culturally, I can’t help but believe that this principle hovers over the church right now, in these times, and just may be exactly what we are experiencing right now, lest we repent!

wisdom personified

I have counsel and sound wisdom;

I have insight; I have strength.

By me kings reign,

and rulers decree what is just;

by me princes rule,

and nobles, all who govern justly.

I love those who love me,

and those who seek me diligently find me.

Proverbs 8:14-17

Wisdom makes her appeal to all who would seek to join her side and learn, by her wisdom, to live well. I’ve been reading the book of Proverbs at least once per year for over four decades now. It spoke to the needs of my life as a teenager. It speaks to me now, a member of the generation now frequently targeted with AARP membership appeals! In fact, I would say that seeking wisdom now is more important than ever.

No year of my life has been more humbling of my trust in my own abilities than 2020. It seems to me that this time of complete disruption at every level has shredded any trust in my own faculties for decisions and direction. Worldwide deadly pandemic? I need wisdom to stay healthy. Shifting directives from authorities in my county, state, and nation? I need wisdom to understand the chaos. Cultural upheaval over racial injustice? I need wisdom to demonstrate Christ’s love for ALL people. Complete political chaos that smells like I live in a Banana Republic and not the United States of America? I need wisdom to trust that God will direct our governing authorities despite their divisiveness and what looks like utter constitutional disregard. A church divided over best health practices, responses to racial tensions, and political ugliness? Oh how I need Lady Wisdom to take me by the hand and speak her truth to me and to the believers to whom I am called... now more than ever!

Lord God,

I thank You that You grant wisdom to those who seek her diligently! And I humbly admit I have no resources either from my culture or from within myself to navigate this current mess. I always need Your wisdom. And Jesus, in You are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). I will trust in You, Jesus. I will seek Your wisdom in Your Word. I will wait for Your Spirit’s guidance. I will find peace in Your gracious gift of wisdom!

Amen

He Who tends us

Then we shall not turn back from you;

give us life, and we will call upon your name!

Psalm 80:18

This is part of a psalm written to call to worship a people broken and bitter in their suffering. It is prayer for restoration with the repeated passionate refrain: “Restore us, O God, let your face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:3, 7, 19). It was written as a result of Gentile oppression, mentioning the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin specifically. It appears that all of Israel is identifying with the pain and hardship these tribes had endured.

Psalm 80 opens with the imagery of God being the Shepherd of Israel, Who leads Joseph (the father of Ephraim and Manasseh) like a flock. He is enthroned upon the cherubim (a reference to the ark of the covenant in the temple at Jerusalem) and is called upon to save the three broken and hurting tribes quickly (Psalm 80:2).

The second stanza makes it clear that whatever these three tribes had suffered, God had brought punishment to them out of His righteous anger. It is an acknowledgement of their wrong and a confession that God was right to bring His correction (Psalm 80:4-6).

The bulk of the song before the last refrain recounts God’s deliverance of Israel throughout their history. It begins with the Exodus (Psalm 80:8). And the nation is described by the metaphor of the vineyard planted in the promised land that thrived (Psalm 80:9-11). The vine was then uprooted and savaged by a wild pig (code for Gentiles) (Psalm 80:12-13). The psalmist then makes a passionate appeal for God to look down from heaven and see His tattered vine and then, by His healing hand to tend and restore His vineyard (Psalm 80:14-17). It is only then that His people will be able to re-experience the life that only God could give them as they passionately return to His worship.

A quick gospel perspective comes to me. Jesus is the True Vine and I am grafted in Him as a branch to bear fruit for the glory of God the Father (see John 15:1-11). It is the Father that brings the growth by pruning and tending this vine as I am nourished in my attachment to relationship with Jesus. And when hardships come, I too must trust and call on the Father, through the Son, Who tends His vine in love.