TOMS: Jeremiah 48-49

For an introduction to this series, click here.

Sept. 20, 2006

I have to admit, I have a hard time with prophetic passages like this. In this passage, Jeremiah pronounces judgments on the nations of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, and Elam. I am trying to make these as much about my reaction to the text as I possibly can, so I'm trying to just read and react without consulting a lot of commentaries, Bible notes, whatever. Actually one of my problems is I can't afford a lot of commentaries and it's too hard to find good commentary on the Internet.

Anyway, my reaction to this passage is simply that God is in control of everything, and He has His reasons for why he does everything. God's ways are not our ways. I hear people say "If I was God, I would do thus and such," to which I respond, verbally if appropriate, "No you wouldn't!  If you were omnipotent and omniscient and stood outside of time like He does, you would do things exactly the way He does them."

Back to the subject, these nations all in some way or another oppressed Israel, and that was their major sin, besides their idolatry and other sins listed. I guess the key verse here is 49:19, which reads, in reference to Edom, the descendants of Esau:

"Behold, like a lion coming up from the jungle of the Jordan, against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make him run away from her. And I will appoint over her whoever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me?"

Psalm 115:3 is also applicable here:

"Our God is in the heavens; He does all that he pleases." (ESV)

I have given up trying to figure God out. I have come to the conclusion that I can rely on Him that as His child He is doing good for me, and that my attempts to fight it or try to figure it out are counter-productive to both my good and His glory.

TOMS: Jeremiah 44-47

For an introduction to this series, click here.

Sept. 19, 2006

This will be an introduction to what I hope is a daily or every few days' summary of what I am reading in my devotions.  I am now toward the end of the book of Jeremiah.

I never cease to be amazed when I read the book of Jeremiah. The man went through so much heartache and struggle. He was dropped into pits, thrown in jail, and so much more just for telling the people God's truth. It's too bad Jeremiah didn't have all the health-and-prosperity gospel preachers we have today. They could have told him a few things. I would like to see what Jeremiah's response. What would Jeremiah say if he were invited as a guest speaker at the Crystal Cathedral or Lakewood Church? It would certainly be entertaining.

One of the most amazing passages in all the Bible to me is the bold-faced response of the Jews to Jeremiah's message in chapter 44. They had already seen the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and they were living in Egypt (which Jeremiah told them not to do, by the way). Jeremiah has just told the people to get rid of their idols, and the people respond this way:

Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and famine." Jer. 44:15-18, ESV

The people just said no, we are not going to listen to you, we don't care if your message is from the Lord or not. We had it good when we were worshiping our idols, but you persuaded us to quit, and we have had nothing but heartache.  

Most people are not that blatant about their rejection of God's Word, but in reality, the world and sadly too many Christians act the same way when they are confronted with their sin when reading the Bible or hearing a preacher or someone else teach the scripture. Man's wicked heart hates the truth of the Bible.  

Another thing I will say before I stop here is the fact that Jeremiah didn't sugar-coat his message. He didn't subscribe to the Mary Poppins philosophy (I think it was her) that "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." Sadly, too many churches today don't give their people any kind of medicine- just sugar.  

8 Years Ago Today on The Old MySpace blog (TOMS)...

Ok, so I know it's been a long time since I've written anything here. I don't know why: just not in the mood to write, I guess. Being un- (or under-) employed has a way of messing with your mind after a while.

You'll be seeing a lot more on here in the coming months. It may be "old content," but chances are it's new to you. Back in 2006 I started a blog on that old, weird social media experiment known as MySpace. At the time I was living in Boonville, Mo., writing for the local paper there. I wrote a few posts on movies and other topics, but mostly I just kind of wrote out my thoughts as I went through the Bible in my devotions. I started my MySpace blog 8 years ago tomorrow, September 19, 2006. Beginning tomorrow I will be reposting my thoughts (including most of the movie and miscellaneous posts) here on my new corner of cyberspace (only people of a certain age even know that word these days).

I started exactly where I happened to be at the time, somewhere toward the end of Jeremiah. I commented mostly on 2-3 chapter portions per post. When I got to the New Testament, I slowed down to one chapter per post, sometimes doing more than one post per chapter.

As I was reviewing some of the stuff, I noticed that my first few posts were surprisingly brief. I hit my stride pretty quickly though. I also noticed some stuff that I would never write the same way these days. I reserve the right to edit my own writing, and will do so on occasion. I will also probably expand on some of what I wrote back then. When it's appropriate I will also include what I wrote at the time with my edits in parenthesis or something.

My old blog came at an important time in my life, and it was part of what made it an important time. I am looking forward to the opportunity to share it with you.

Who Is God's "Chosen Nation?"

This is adapted from an article I wrote about three years ago.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all over the news these days, for obvious reasons. Any time you have a real shooting war, people are going to want to know what’s going on. And lots of people have strong opinions about it. Some people are going to say that Israel is wrong, others are going to say they are right. I generally fall into the latter camp, but not for the same reasons as others, like this post I saw on Facebook this morning:

It is not my intention to call anyone out (that’s why I got rid of any personal identifiers in the screen shot). But here’s my main problem with this statement: The modern state of Israel does not necessarily equal the Israel of prophecy. The state of Israel could be wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow and it would not change the certainty of God’s Word. Don’t take that to mean I am not a dispensationalist: I am. I believe that there are numerous Biblical prophecies about Israel and the Jewish people which have yet to be fulfilled. But we cannot know how those prophecies will be fulfilled, and it’s wrong for us to connect dots that God has not necessarily connected.

20th and 21st century conservative Christianity is enamored with Israel. I have seen people wearing Israeli flag pins in church, lots of “Support Israel” bumper stickers, and churches with Israeli flags permanently displayed in the sanctuary. Certainly this is a welcome change from the sad history of anti-semitism which has characterized the majority of church history, but we can't let our excitement for seeing prophecy fulfilled cause us to forget that we are still in the church age. God does not specially bless or protect political nations in this age; He works through the Church.

Most of the prophecies that refer to “Israel” could just as easily refer to all Jewish people living in the world rather than just Palestine. It was less than a decade ago that the Jewish population of Israel actually surpassed the Jewish population of the United States. When we include Jewish people living elsewhere in the world, the majority of Jews do not live in Israel. Of the references specifically to Jerusalem or other geographical locations in Palestine, these do not have to have the Star of David flying over them for the foretold events to happen there.

Maybe I am making mountains out of molehills, but I have heard too many Christians in casual conversation and in some cases from the pulpit blindly defend anything Israel does, even when they mistreat their Arab citizens or blatantly violate treaty agreements. I personally admire their courage to hold onto their land despite decades of attempts by nearly all their neighbors to get rid of them, and I applaud their noble attempts at democracy in a region dominated by dictators. But I don’t think we can say for certain that the modern state of Israel is necessarily the fulfillment of prophecy. We don't know God's time line. God could wait a thousand years or more before He carries out these prophecies.

I hope we understand as believers that in this time God still calls on all people, Gentile and Jew alike, to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A Jew who rejects Jesus is just as much under God’s wrath as a Gentile who rejects Him. There is no “chosen nation” right now, other than the Church, the nation that Christ is building out of every nation, tribe and tongue.

We can debate the rightness or wrongness of Israel’s actions in the current flare-up and in the past. I happen to think they have a mostly positive record, notwithstanding accidents and, more troubling, their continued insistence on building new Jewish settlements in lands set aside for Palestinians. Their record is stellar compared to the record of the various Palestinian authorities and organizations. But let’s not let Christian religious views cloud our judgment of the situation, especially when those views may not actually be as scriptural as we think they may be.

Why I'm voting "NO" on Amendment 1

Tomorrow, July 15, is runoff election day in Alabama. This election figures to be a quiet one as there aren't a lot of big contests out there. There are some hot local races in various counties and state house districts, but that's about it. There is also a very odd constitutional question on the ballot.

Photo Credit

Amendment 1 asks voters if the cotton check-off should be mandatory. Currently $1 out of the price of every bale of cotton sold in Alabama goes to the Alabama Cotton Commission for the purposes of research and promotion of cotton. This tax is known as the cotton check-off. The funds raised go to scientific research and to pay pretty young country stars to sing on TV about cotton being the fabric of their lives.Currently cotton farmers have the option to receive a refund of their cotton check-off tax. According to current estimates, only about 7 percent of farmers actually request this, so apparently most farmers are fine with the tax.

What I would like to know is this: what does this have to do with the 99 percent of us here in Alabama who don't raise cotton? And if it has nothing to do with us, why are we voting on it? Couldn't this just as easily be done by a vote of cotton farmers, the people who will actually be affected by this legislation? It probably could, but then the minority of farmers who request a refund would be voted down without being given a chance to state their case.

Most of the blame for this lies with the endless web of nonsense that is the Alabama Constitution. I'm all for popular sovereignty at the state and local level. The people should have a voice in their government when practical. But Alabama's Constitution is so broad and nitpicky at the same time that we have stuff like tomorrow's vote or 2012's statewide vote on whether or not a local water district could be annexed into the Mobile city water service. In a sane world, such things would be voted on by the people directly involved, whether it be a statewide group of farmers or the people of Mobile County. But Alabama's constitution is not known for sanity.

So why am I voting no? I'm voting no for two reasons: One, the state government should not be involved in promoting products. I am aware that the only funds are those that come from the sale of cotton. I'm not saying my taxes go to promoting cotton. But the fact that the state is involved is a problem for me. This could be done much better by a private organization, one that is not tied to state government. State governments should spin off these agricultural organizations - the cotton commission, the beef commission, etc. - and let them raise their own money promote their products on their own without even a hint of state involvement.

The second reason I'm voting no is because the Alabama Constitution needs an overhaul. It is too complicated and outdated for the efficient governance of the state. The US Constitution, ratified in 1789, is a model of efficiency. It has 7 articles and 27 amendments. The Alabama Constitution, which was ratified in 1901, has 287 sections and 772 amendments. I understand state constitutions are generally more detailed than the federal constitution, but that's ridiculous. We need to take steps toward a simpler constitution that provides safety, justice and services for the people and does little else. But those steps won't be taken if the people in power keep getting what they want by throwing bewildering amendments on the ballot that most people will vote yes on because they don't care about that particular issue.