July 27–Jeremiah 9-11

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things’ declares the Lord”(9:23-24).

What makes you rejoice? What makes you excited and grateful? In Jeremiah 9, God calls us to consider our boasting. The Hebrew word is halal. (Note the English word “hallelujah”). The word means, “to shine forth, to praise.” To boast is to express the thing that makes us joyfully confident.

The problem is NOT that we boast. The Lord is not sorry when His people are glad. The problem is that we boast in the wrong things. Wisdom. Power. Wealth. Control. These things fill us with false confidence. We brag (are self-pleased) when we have them. Ultimately, however, they pass away and disappoint us.

In Christ, we learn new wisdom, true boasting. The only legitimate and durable source of joy is God! The person who understands God, who sees God actively at work, accomplishing His purposes, exercising lovingkindness and justice and righteousness, finds true treasure. Jeremiah knew it. Jesus exampled it.

In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul gives his own short summary of the same wisdom. “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . .that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Dear friend, have you learned this wisdom? Have you set your heart to know Christ, to find rest in Him? Those who boast in Christ are never disappointed.

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times” (Martin Luther).

“In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”(Philippians 4:12-13).

July 26–Jeremiah 6-8

“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal. . .and then come and stand before Me in this house and say, ‘We are delivered’? Has this house which is called by My name, become a den of robbers?”(7:9-11).

Scholars call it the “Temple Sermon”. Dramatic story. Tense moment. This sermon got Jeremiah arrested. See chapter 26. Six hundred years later, when our Lord cleansed the Temple (a similarly tense moment), He quoted these words. See Mark 11:17.

Uncomfortable, but true. Public worship divorced from moral repentance is an empty waste of time! Security in the Lord is found only in the inner integrity of soul-shaping repentance and faith. Public worship without this repentance is hypocrisy. “If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth”(1 John 1:6). Perfection is not required, but authenticity is.

There are now, and always have been, advocates for a happier, easier gospel. Ear-ticklers. See 2 Timothy 4:3. “God will ALWAYS save Jerusalem, for the sake of the temple,” said the smiling salespreachers of Jeremiah’s day. “We are His people. God would never destroy us.” “Deceptive words,” said Jeremiah.

We must remember. Our true safety, and the safety of our family and nation, is in repentance and obedience. A holy God can never be other than He is. His people are only safe as we stand with Him in holiness.

God’s house is NOT a safe place for a sinner. God never intended it to be a den where the unrepentant can find comfort. Those who make this invitation are deceiving themselves and thousands of others.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer),

“If My people, who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear. . .and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

July 25–Jeremiah 4-5

“You have smitten them, but they did not weaken; You have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent”(5:3).

I have discovered a real problem. I am STUBBORN!

Deep inside me is an “old me” that doesn’t yield. Can’t. Even when painful consequences come “he” stubbornly holds onto what he thinks and wants. Can I get a witness? Anyone else struggle with this vice?

As Jeremiah looked to the future, he saw stubbornness in the people of Judah. Disaster was coming. Apart from repentance, the wrath of God would soon come. “On a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself?”, God asks in 5:9.

For forty years, Jeremiah spoke God’s word, but His warnings were ignored. The people refused to soften. Even as the discipline of God began to fall on their nation, they only grew more determined to have life on their own terms. Sound familiar?

Surrender is hard. No question about it. Non-surrender, however, is harder. The Spirit calls us to return to God as the center, the first principle. He offers us life as NEW men, forgiven and restored. The condition, however, is repentance and faith. So long as the OLD man stays in control, we will miss the power of these promises.

In the Gospels, Peter often talked and seldom listened. Sadly, I am his twin. His stubborn confidence was in himself, his own ideas, the force of his own will. He was convinced (as I often am) that he could make things better by his own wisdom and effort and opinions. Thankfully, he eventually learned a new way, but only through significant pain and failure.

You, dear one? Are you stubborn? As you experience the discipline of God, will you humble yourself?

“Sometimes we don’t have the answer because it’s less about getting the answer and more about our unwillingness to acknowledge that we don’t have it and God does”(Craig Lounsbrough).

“Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth” (Joseph Joubert).

July 24–Jeremiah 2-3

“What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they walked away from Me, and walked after emptiness and became empty?”(Jeremiah 2:5).

It is an irrational decision! People who drift from God do so without logic or reason. Without cause or benefit. Sin brings hardship. It makes no sense!

In Jeremiah 2, God asks the obvious question. WHY? What injustice did Israel experience in Him? What failure on His part did they encounter that would explain their disloyalty? Very similar to America in the last fifty years. Blessed by God, recipients of His care, why have we turned to a world of secular thought and humanism? It doesn’t make sense!

Scripture teaches that the human heart has a deep flaw. We carry an illness in our hearts. On this side of the fall (Genesis 3), we are partial to sin. Prefer it. Resonate with it. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

In each of us exists a deep tendency toward the dark, the dishonest, the selfish, the cruel. We are proud and demand our own way. “The mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so” (Romans 8:7). Some deny this teaching of inborn sinfulness. They argue that it is pessimistic and self-fulfilling. Scripture, however, never waivers its somber testimony. History provides proof. The human race is sin sick.

Against this background, the great love of God shines with greater glory. “For God so loved the world.” To know Christ is to marvel at God’s grace. His patience! His mercy! His love!

Friend, today will you reflect on the illness of your natural heart? Will you confess the irrationality of your own disloyalty? Will you allow this reflection to send you running to Christ in gratitude and praise?

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

“Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole, I want Thee forever to live in my soul; break down every idol, cast out every foe; now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (James Nicholson).

July 23–Isaiah 66-Jeremiah 1

“But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word”(Isaiah 66:2).

Those who love God must also fear Him. The Spirit and Scripture constantly call us to an inner balance of God’s great love and God’s great wrath. “They went on in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit,” says Acts 9:31. ” ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, ” says John Newton.

God looks for people who tremble at His word. People who react to the voice of God with appropriate reverence and humility, those who realize the scope and seriousness of a relationship with God and respond at a visceral level. Trembling is the opposite of apathy!

Contrite is a similar term. The Hebrew word is nakeh and meant “lamed or maimed”. It is what Jesus called “poor in spirit”. As I hear God’s word, it wounds and weakens my pride. Contrition is the opposite of self-sufficiency.

In Jeremiah 1, God puts the young prophet through a probationary period. He tests Jeremiah to observe whether he will accurately report what he sees without adding or subtracting anything. See Jeremiah 1:11-16. In Jeremiah’s case, trembling points to a deep caution in the communication of God’s word. Neither needing the approval of others, nor fearing their rejection, the duty of the believer is to speak God’s word.

I once was blind. Truth be known, I was also numb. Dear one, do you tremble?

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury. . .and those slain by the Lord will be many” (Isaiah 66:15-16).

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord? O, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble”(American spiritual song).

“Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You”(Psalm 90:11).

July 22–Isaiah 62-65

“The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate”(62:2).

We encounter this idea in Scripture. Often. When the world is restored, those who belong to God will receive a new name from Him. A better name. A larger/better/truer identity. He has always known who we truly are, who we were created to be. On that day, we will finally know it, too.

Recall, please, these moments in Scripture. Abram is renamed Abraham. Jacob becomes Israel. Cephas becomes Peter (the Rock). It is one of the sweet surprises for those who know God! As you walk with Him, He reveals a “new you” to you.

Isaiah envisions this coming day for Israel. They will be called Beulah which means married (62:4). In the ancient world, an unmarried woman was vulnerable and often victimized. Marriage, then and now, is a way for a woman to be protected, defended and loved.

For her sin, God abandoned Israel to her enemies. She was (for a time) desolate and weak. Ultimately, a time would come for her restoration. She would become the Bride of Christ. Through faith in Jesus, this prophesy is fulfilled. Israel is married, secure and strong. Praise God!

Friend, do you know God has a new name for you? A vision of you that is higher and more noble than you can conceive! What prevents you from rushing toward the One who knows this true you? What hinders you from opening your heart to such remarkable, redeeming love?

“Beulah land I’m longing for you, and some day on you I’ll stand. There my home shall be eternal. Beulah land, sweet Beulah land”(Squire Parsons).

“To him who overcomes. . .I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it”(Revelation 2:17).

July 21–Isaiah 59-61

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. . .to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning”(61:1,3).

Seven hundred years after these beautiful words were written, Jesus quoted them to begin His public ministry. Taking hold of Isaiah’s prophecy, Our Lord called it His own, claimed that He, Himself, was the fulfillment. See the beautiful story in Luke 4.

Isaiah prophesied joy! He saw a coming day when GOOD NEWS would be preached to brokenhearted people. To a mourner with ashes on his head, One would come to smooth the ashes out of his hair, place a garland around his neck, anoint him with oil and invite him to a feast! Neither mourning nor defeat is God’s plan. JOY is.

At one level, Isaiah had in mind the GOOD NEWS that came to the exiles of Judah in 539 BC. King Cyrus allowed them the opportunity to go home. GOOD NEWS! Liberty from captivity!

At a deeper level, Isaiah saw a coming Servant who would fill the prophecy of joy to its fullest meaning. A Messiah, anointed by God with the Spirit (for which oil is the symbol) would make GOOD NEWS accessible to all people. In Jesus, captives find freedom. Brokenhearted people experience hope.

Friends, have you grown weary, defensive, grumpy? Eyes on self and situation rather than on the Savior, walking in flesh and reaping the harvest of it? Since both Isaiah and Jesus predicted JOY to be the outcome and proof of Christ’s presence, shouldn’t the people of God know JOY and announce it to others? Without it, aren’t we still captives?

“The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”(Romans 14:17).

“Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of love; Hearts unfold like flow’rs before You, Op’ning to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!” (Henry Van Dyke).

July 20–Isaiah 55-58

“They seek Me day by day and delight to know my ways, as a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. They ask Me for just decisions, they delight in the nearness of God. Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice? Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire (58:2-3).

In Isaiah’s day, the people of Judah were very religious. Great crowds gathered on holy days. They viewed themselves as faithful believers. It led them to a perplexing question. Why isn’t God answering our prayers? Specifically for the growing threat of Babylon.

It was Isaiah’s unenviable task to explain the problem. It was (still is) possible to do religious things, do them religiously, but with an unchanged heart. It is possible to pray, but with an inward and undeniable priority of SELF rather than GOD. When this is the case, prayer will be unheard, unanswered.

As a pastor for many years, I have real appreciation for (and investment in) religious things. Our Savior participated in the patterns and disciplines of religion and taught others to do so. He was no critic of religion.

Even so, (and every pastor knows this truth) religion is a sign-post to God, but a poor substitute for Him. Unless God is first, until the Spirit displaces the self in the human heart, religion is an empty thing.

For all of their religious devotion, the people of Judah were slow to face this reality. They fasted but still “desired” the same things (58:3). They observed the Sabbath but, at the deepest level, were doing so in search of their own “pleasure or profit” (58:13). The poor were ignored. Self was still the goal.

When the Holy Spirit comes, believers are given a new heart. A beautiful and different “you” is born. This being so, every believer must daily deny self and walk forward in the new man. If we turn back to the old man and his empty pursuits of comfort and credit and control, our prayers will be unanswered.

Friend, how is your prayer life? If there is no power in it, the problem may be in your heart (ambitions).

“Wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5, italics mine).

“Pray, then, in this way; Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).

July 19–Isaiah 51-54

“Look to me, you who pursue righteousness. . .look to the rock from which you were hewn. . .look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; when he was but one I called him, then I blessed and multiplied him” (51:1-2).

Are you ever discouraged? Timid? Self-protective in your prayers? Do you ever lower your expectations to avoid being disappointed? Will you consider your faith-ancestors?

As people of faith, we benefit when we think back. “Ancestry.com” in a spiritual sense. When we recall the stories of Scripture, courage comes. Gods’ people are made of strong stuff. We are cut from a rock! Endurance is part of our heritage.

We are cut from the rock of ABRAHAM AND SARAH. All alone, without any encouragement from those around them, they believed God. He blessed them for it! He multiplied them. From them came millions! We have the same infinite potential for bearing fruit.

We are cut from the rock of PROPHETS AND PREACHERS. Continuing the figure in chapter 53, we consider Isaiah and his brother prophets. Such a hard and thankless task they performed! “Why should we continue to preach, Lord? No one believes us!” Even in the face of near-universal criticism, they persevered. We have the same infinite potential for faithfulness to God in generation of unbelief.

We are cut from the rock of the SUFFERING SERVANT. See chapter 53. Jesus is not only our Savior, He is also our example. In union with Him, we are called and empowered to carry our own cross. We have the same infinite potential for suffering love.

Will you look back, dear one? Will you see your true identity and potential, your true DNA? We are not defeated and discouraged people, rather overcomers and members of an eternally successful family! We are cut from a rock!

“Without endurance there can’t be any truth. And truth means going to the end like you mean it” (Charles Bukowski).

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”(Hebrews 12:2).

July 18–Isaiah 48-50

“It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light to the nations so that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth”(49:6).

In the future, Isaiah prophesied a glorious EXPANSION of God’s focus and activity. He predicted a day when, through the Messiah (Spirit-anointed Servant), the Father would effectively bless all nations. Rescuing Israel, as significant as this is, is “too small” a task for the Messiah. Working through a redeemed Israel, Christ would be the light of the WORLD. In this beautiful verse, Isaiah heard and reported the Father giving this HUGE assignment to His much-loved Son.

Remember the amazing story in John 12? Holy Week. Days before the cross. Greeks (secular people, not necessarily from Greece, but people whose culture and assumptions were more Hellenized) came seeking Jesus. They wanted to speak with Him, ask questions.

Earlier in the gospels, Jesus restricted His ministry to the JEWISH NATION ONLY. Aware of this, Philip hesitated to give access to these Greeks. Hearing the news, Jesus declared it a sign. The time for the prophesied shift had come! “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”(John 12:23). On the cross, Jesus would open the door of salvation to the WHOLE WORLD. See Pentecost. See the book of Acts.

As we read Isaiah today, will you consider the Son’s large assignment must also be ours? How easy, how common, for us to concentrate on small and near projects, leaving the prayer and the planning for the LARGE ENTERPRISE almost entirely ignored. Go to a prayer meeting (if there even is a prayer meeting in your church) and listen to what believers ask. Is the focus narrow and near? Prayers for our families, our church, our needs? Little else, usually.

Have we not fallen short of God’s true vision? Go make disciples of all nations! Anything else is a job too small!

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”(David Livingstone).

“Not failure, but low aim, is crime” (James Russel Lowell).