Jeremiah 15: Past The Point Of No Return

One of the reasons that Jeremiah is such a depressing read is that God's mind about judgment for His people is made up.  This is not a prophetic book urging, persuading, and cajoling the Lord's people to get back to following the covenant before it is too late.  This is an announcement of the punishment that is already decreed and is surely coming upon them, and there is nothing they can do at this late date to escape their fate.  The nation is past the point of no return.

Jeremiah 14: A Drought Of Mercy

Can the Lord ever get so fed up with the sins of His people that He stops listening to their prayers?  Jeremiah 14 suggests so.

Psalm 121: God Is A Keeper

Have you ever considered how fortunate we are to have a God like God?

Jeremiah 13: Dirty Underwear

Prophets are given all kinds of strange tasks by the Lord.  Jeremiah, for instance, is instructed to buy and wear a linen loincloth.  After some time, Jeremiah received a second message to go and hide that loincloth by the Euphrates River.  Okay.  Then, Jeremiah hears a third message from God to retrieve it.  When Jeremiah obeys, he finds that the loincloth is ruined and good for nothing.  While these commands may seem inexplicable, God is demonstrating a spiritual parallel with the nation of Judah.

Jeremiah 12: Planted Or Uprooted?

Jeremiah calls out to God in chapter 12 with a pointed complaint.  How can He let all those evil people plotting against him escape consequences?  Why aren't bad things happening to these bad people? Why does God plant them securely in the land instead of uprooting them?

Jeremiah 11: Jeremiah's Hometown Blues

And Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown" (Luke 4:24).

Jeremiah 10: The Difference

Idolatry is a profound insult to God.

Jeremiah 9: Why Judgment?

God isn't punishing His people for no reason.  As He prepares to discipline them severely, the Lord wants the Israelites to understand why they are about to suffer.

Jeremiah 8: The Mess In The Message

Did you ever stop to think that a preacher might not always like the message that he or she is called to preach?

Jeremiah 7: Trusting In The Temple

"Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (vs. 4).

Psalm 120: Beginning The Ascent

Psalm 120 is the first of 15 psalms subtitled "A Song of Ascents."  There is considerable debate about what this designation means.

Jeremiah 6: Terror On Every Side

Jeremiah's divine mission of warning the people of doom from the north continues.  This chapter is full of imagery of rebellion, battle, and judgment.

Jeremiah 5: No Way Out

Twice in this chapter the Lord speaks through Jeremiah and asks, "Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?" (vs. 9 and 29)  It seems that there is no way out, either for the people to be punished or for God to act in judgment.

Jeremiah 4: You'd Weep, Too.

"'Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you.  This is your doom; how bitter it is!  It has reached your very heart.'  My anguish, my anguish!  I writhe in pain!  Oh, the walls of my heart!  My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war" (vs. 18-19).

Jeremiah 3: Faithlessness

As Jeremiah expounds God's case against His people, one particular comparison surfaces repeatedly: Israel and Judah have been like unfaithful spouses.  "As a faithless wife leaves her husband, so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the Lord" (vs. 20).

Jeremiah 2: Worthless Things

"Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?" (vs. 5)

Jeremiah 1: The Call Of The Prophet

Jeremiah 1 contains several noteworthy insights of God and His calling of prophets.

Psalm 119: Love Of The Law

When you first learned to read, do you remember books like, "A is for Alligator, B is for Ball"?  Imagine that concept applied to the Bible, and you would have Psalm 119!

Zephaniah 3: After The Fire

Zephaniah 3 foretells destruction coming upon the earth, even Jerusalem.  But this is not the end of the story!  The prophet completes his book by sharing the good news of hope after the fire.

Zephaniah 2: Survival Strategy

In the second chapter of his prophetic book, Zephaniah goes on to warn the nations that have historically oppressed Judah that something terrible is coming for them.  Also tucked away in Zephaniah 2 is a verse giving advice on how to adopt a survival strategy to withstand the great day of the Lord.

Zephaniah 1: The Great Day Of The Lord

Many Christians look forward with anticipation and even glee to the coming Day of the Lord.  It is often presumed to be a time when believers will be vindicated for our faith.  The righteous (read "us") will be embraced into God's bosom, while the unrighteous (read "them") will be thrown into the outer darkness.  The only problem is that the biblical picture of the "great day of the Lord" sounds a lot more distressing than pleasant - even from the perspective of God's people!

II Kings 23: Consecration And Desecration

The Bible emphatically states that the best king Judah ever had was Josiah: "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all  his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him" (vs. 25).  Josiah earned his reputation from his spectacular acts of consecration and desecration.

II Kings 22: A Blast From The Past

An unintentional time capsule is discovered in II Kings 22.  During the course of a rather routine maintenance project in the temple, the book of the law was found (vs. 8).  Apparently containing previously unknown information, the book is taken first to the king's secretary, then to King Josiah himself.  When it is read to the king, he tears his clothes because he realizes how far the nation had fallen away from God's law.  Determined to make it right, Josiah sends a delegation to inquire of the Lord.  Interestingly, these men consult with a woman, the prophetess Huldah (vs. 14).  She informs them that, because of the idolatry of the people, the Lord is surely sending destruction upon Judah.  However, because of the humble, penitent response of Josiah, God has mercifully determined that the day of reckoning will not happen during his reign.

II Kings 21: God Vs. Gods

The spiritual history of Israel can be viewed as a war for allegiance fought between the Lord God and the lesser idols that sometimes swayed the hearts of the people.  Manasseh, a king of Judah who ruled for 55 years, goes down in scripture as one of the worst kings for his misguided leadership in turning the nation to worship false gods.  In fact, the Bible lays the blame for Judah's destruction at his feet.

Nahum 3: Nothing Lasts Forever

"Are you better than Thebes?...You also will be drunken, you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from your enemies" (vs. 8 and 11).

Nahum 2: Nineveh Faces The Judgment

God had once had in mind to overthrow wicked Nineveh.  But, in His mercy, He sent Jonah to warn the city by way of whale*.  To the prophet's own exquisite displeasure, Jonah's ministry succeeded and the Ninevites of his day repented.  Their city was saved.  But in Nahum's day, there would be no such escape for the empire this time.

Nahum 1: When Negatives Are Positive

Jealous...Wrathful...Rage...Vengeance.  These words sounds like they are describing a truly awful person, someone that good Christians should avoid (or perhaps witness to!)  Yet the Old Testament prophet Nahum applies them to God, and he expects that we should view such typically negative terms positively!

Psalm 118: The Art Of Repetition And Redundancy

Did you see what I did there?  One of the literary techniques employed by many of the psalms is the use of repetition to drive a point home.  Psalm 118 may be one of the best examples of this.  In addition to housing a number of classic, pithy, prophetic sayings, it also sounds like a psalm that Dr. Seuss could have written!

Isaiah 66: To All The Earth

The book of Isaiah ends on a triumphant note.  The prophet reveals that God will prosper Israel and the whole world will send representatives from every nation to worship the Lord.

Isaiah 65: Better Times A' Comin'!

As we approach the end of the book of Isaiah, the prophet unveils the wondrous new things that God will work as a part of the glorified creation.  This is a beautiful glimpse ahead and a good promise of better times a' comin'!

Isaiah 64: God Of The Second Chance

Have you ever wanted a second chance?  If so, perhaps you can understand how the Israelites felt after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

Isaiah 63: Grapes Of Wrath

Just like we hear in the song, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the prophet Isaiah sees God trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.   "I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth" (vs. 6).  This is an iconic image that will reappear in scripture in Revelation 14:19-20.

Isaiah 62: New Names

Names are a big deal in the Bible.  Name changes usually accompany a major event in a person's life, such as Abram becoming Abraham or Simon being called Peter.  Isaiah reveals that new names are coming for the land of Israel itself to reveal the Lord's blessing upon the nation.

Isaiah 61: A Year And A Day

According to Luke 4:16-21, when Jesus was ready to initiate His public ministry, He chose to read from this section of Isaiah to announce the fulfillment of scripture.  The Messiah was at hand!  But Jesus also chose to abruptly stop reading at a specific point, perhaps giving us a further clue about His mission and what was to come.

Isaiah 60: Israel's Empire?

One question that many Christians ask is, "How could the people of Jesus' day have missed His coming?  They lifted their Messiah up on a cross instead of lifting up His Name in worship.  They crowned their King with thorns rather than with gold and jewels.  Why?"  The answer may be, in part, that the people of Jesus' day had radically different expectations of their Savior.  In their minds, He wasn't coming to be a suffering servant, but a conquering king!