Secret Sins

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Pete

My bible says Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses. And as you read it, you gotta think that this a poem written while he led them in laps around the wilderness. A time when all were keenly aware that God “returns a man to dust” (90:2), as each day over those 40 years more bodies were left behind in the desert of that generation which had refused to enter the land. Mindful that while every day brought new mercies (known at the least by the daily provision of manna); that though they were renewed each morning, they were renewed “like grass” only to fade and wither by evening (90:5-6). While they were a people under the Almighty’s care, they were still a people whose days passed away under His wrath (90:9). So, says Moses, “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (90:12) — a redemptive purpose even amidst a chastening period.

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction . . . ” (1Cor. 10:11).

And this morning, I’m picking up on something being laid down concerning secret sins.

You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

(Psalm 90:8 ESV)

Our secret sins . . . Our hidden things. Things about ourselves, things about our actions, that only we know about. Concealed. Tucked away out of sight. Securely stashed away in a safe place. Nobody else’s business but our own. Nobody needing to know. In fact, better if I can forget about them as well.

Not talking the big stuff here. Not like bodies stuffed away in a closet somewhere. Not like an offshore, undetectable bank account filled with ill-gotten gain. Instead, we’re talking the small stuff — that stuff we’re told not to sweat. Anger that simmered but never got to the boiling point. Little white lies that remained undetected and never really harmed anyone. Pride allowed to percolate while never manifested itself by blowing off steam. You know, hidden stuff. Iniquities nobody knows about but us. Secret sins.

Yet, though secret in our wishful thinking, iniquities set before an all-knowing God. Secret sins exposed in the light of His presence.

Those wilderness wanderers weren’t dropping in the desert only because of their one big, blatant sin of rebellion at the border of Canaan. No, there were more than enough daily secret sins since then to justify the wages of death apart from some amazing grace and some atoning intervention. Secret sins exposed in the light of God’s presence.

“Written for our instruction . . . ” Hmm . . .

Thank God for amazing grace and atoning intervention. Thank God for a Savior who was ready, willing, and able to deal with our sins — even our secret sins. Thank God that our confidence in the gospel and the finished work of the cross is such that, even if we could hide our inner transgressions from an all-knowing God (and we can’t), that we don’t need to try and keep our sin secret. For “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn. 1:9).

Our sins, all our sins, even our secret sins, atoned for at the cross of Calvary. That which we don’t want to admit, even to ourselves, laid bare before the eyes of a God who has promised never to leave us or forsake, and covered by the blood of His Son who has promised to live in us.

Thank God we don’t need to try and keep secret sins.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me (aka secret sins?),
and lead me in the way everlasting!

(Psalm 139:23-24 ESV)

Trusting in the abundance of His grace. Wanting, in some measure, to live only for His glory.

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Fully Known (2017 Rerun)

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Pete

Too late a night last night . . . not early enough a morning this morning. Opted for reading over writing. So went back into my archives. Encouraged by these thoughts from 7 years ago.

Opening up 1Corinthians 13 usually evokes two streams of consciousness. The first encompasses Paul’s inspired definition of love, and thus of the Savior. For if love is patient, kind, without envy nor boast, and not arrogant or rude. If it is not self-serving, nor irritable or resentful. If it shuns wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. Then, if God is love (and He is, 1Jn. 4:8) , and if Jesus is God (and He is, Jn. 10:30), then Jesus is the embodiment of the greatest of all virtues, love. And there is enough in that alone to feed one’s soul.

The other area of awe and wonder that is evoked from reading this portion of Scripture comes from trying to fathom what it will be to see “face to face.” The reminder that, though we were once blind but now we see, we still only see in a mirror dimly. “We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist” (MSG). But a day is coming when the fog of faith will clear and we will be in His presence, and then we will see more clearly than we ever could have imagined. Meal number two served up.

But this morning, something else grabbed me as I hovered over 1Corinthians 13. Not necessarily a new thought, but one that’s been brought to mind from a new place. The reminder that I am fully known.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

(1Corinthians 13:12 ESV)

Whatever I imagine it to be when I see Him face to face and to “know fully”, that is how He knows me, even now. Though I wait for the day when faith will give way to sight, when my somewhat cloudy mirror will become a clear and transparent glass, the Father sees me today with perfect 20/20 vision. His Son, the Great Shepherd, knows this sheep, fully and perfectly, nothing hidden.

Fully known. Thoroughly acquainted with. Accurately aware.

As I head into this day, I’m reminded that He is aware of my thoughts and feelings, of my triumphs and failures, of my tendencies toward temptation and my desire to be faithful. As I have thought before, while it can be somewhat intimidating to consider that I am fully known by a Holy, Holy, Holy God, there is also something incredibly comforting, and even empowering, that comes from the fresh realization that I am fully known by a Good, Good Father.

He fully knows all our anxieties, and still calls us to cast them upon Him (1Pet. 5:7). It’s with full awareness of our weariness and burdens (both external and self-imposed) that He continues to invite us to come to Him and find rest for our soul (Matt. 11:28-29). Thoroughly acquainted with every thorn in the flesh, He assures us, “My grace is sufficient. See My power made perfect in your weakness” (2Cor. 12:9).

While we now see in a mirror dimly, He doesn’t. Though we wait for face-to-face, He knows us through-and-through. Whatever we can imagine it is to “fully know”, even now, we are fully known.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar . . . and are acquainted with all my ways. . . . Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. . . . How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

(Psalm 139:1-3, 6, 17 ESV)

Then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Because of grace. For His glory.

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Avenge My Eyes? Really?

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Pete

I’m a sucker for happy endings. Don’t really care much for movies that end without the guy getting the girl, without the wrongs being made right, without good triumphing over evil. So, while I’d like to think that Samson “got it” at the end, I’m not sure he did.

Reading in Judges 16 it seems that Samson had finally found “true love” with the woman he was with. While the others were women who caught his eye (Judges 14:3,7; 16:1) — relationships that might be thought of more as “true lust” — this was a gal who had captured his heart (Judges 16:15, 17). Had she been “the one” maybe there might have been a happier ending. But she wasn’t. For her eyes were on the gold — well, actually the silver (Judges 16:5) — and her heart was far from him. So, Samson gives away his heart, she cuts away his hair, and the Philistines gouge out his eyes (Judges 16:17-21). Heavy sigh!

But wait, the final credits haven’t run yet. Maybe there’s still time for a great turnaround to come in this epic tale of Samson’s life. Perhaps a reason to walk out of the theater with a bounce in your step.

Keep reading and a packed house of Philistine revelers have gathered “to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god.” Impetuously, they call for the blinded Samson to be their halftime entertainment. And Samson does something that we’ve not seen Samson yet do — he prays.

Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

(Judges 16:28 ESV)

That Samson prayed? Good, really good. What Samson prayed? I don’t know. Avenge my eyes? Really?

No sense of mission. No sense of contrition. Just an apparent desire for retaliation, to be avenged for my two eyes. Wanting revenge for the two eyes that had got him into so much trouble throughout his life. Eyes that had repeatedly directed him in what seemed right to them, blind to the God who had set Samson apart for Himself. Eyes not cast on things above. Eyes which, using Jesus’ language, were “bad.” And thus, according to Jesus, as the eyes are the “lamp of the body”, caused Samson’s entire being to be “full of darkness” (Mt. 6:22-23). The physical darkness he now lived in was but a type of the spiritual darkness he had walked in since being set part for God. But Samson prayed for his eyes. Those bad eyes, those lustful eyes, those straying eyes. That those eyes would be avenged. Really?

Yet, God answers Samson’s prayer. He remembers Samson as Samson asked to be remembered. He strengthens Samson as Samson asked to be strengthened. But to avenge Samson’s loss? I don’t think so. For while Samson may have still been trying to do what was right in his own eyes this prayer too “was from the LORD, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines” (Judges 14:4). God graciously responds to Samson’s faith — though but a mustard seed and perhaps a bit misplaced — in order for God to accomplish what He had determined to accomplish.

Another morning where I’m chewing on the story of Samson. Another morning where it’s impressed upon me that God’s grace has nothing to do with my goodness. That God’s grace is independent of how much I “get it.” But that God’s willingness to answer even my most feeble prayer is ultimately for God’s final purposes. That God’s unmerited provision always comes in the context of God’s unfailing promises. That while His grace is certainly for our good, it is ultimately for His glory.

So, maybe this is a happy ending after all. Samson’s fickle faith over-matched by God’s amazing grace.

Really!

To God be the glory!

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An Unequal Yoking

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Pete

Hovering over Judges 14 and 15 this morning. Talk about your unequal yoking! But then again, 2Corinthians 6:14 specifically defines being unequal yoked as a partnership with unbelievers. And though you could argue Samson was a bad believer, he had been set apart from birth (Judges 13). Thus, I guess the unequal yoking I’m chewing on just may be another example of unparalleled grace. Because who’s Samson yoked to? The Spirit of the LORD.

Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”

(Judges 14:1-3 ESV)

Right in my eyes . . . That rung a bell. A bell of foreboding. For later in Judges, the author of the book will summarize the depths of Israel’s depravity during this era as those days when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Samson sees one of the daughters of his oppressors, the Philistines (Judges 13:1) and wants her to be his. Never mind that she’s of the people who have their foot on the necks of Israel. Never mind that God had specifically commanded Israel not to intermarry with the idol-serving nations around them. Never mind all of that. Because having this girl is what he wanted. For she is right in my eyes.

But wait. There’s more!

His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

(Judges 14:4 ESV)

It was from the LORD. What?!? God was gonna use Samson’s crummy character, his rebellious nature, and his uncontrollable libido to accomplish His purposes? Apparently. Sounds like an unequal yoking to me.

But wait, it gets worse (or maybe better, depending how you look at it). It’s not like God somehow uses Samson at an arms length. But God intimately intertwines Himself with this ingrate.

When Samson comes across a lion on his way to woo the woman who would be his wife . . .

Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

(Judges 14:6 ESV)

And when he decides to settle his wedding feast bet with the Philistines with the lives of Philistines . . .

The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house.

(Judges 14:19 ESV)

And then — so as to establish a matter by three witnesses and not just two — it’s made clear how Samon is able to take out 1,000 Philistines by himself with but the jawbone of a donkey in hand.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.

(Judges 15:14-15 ESV)

Three times! Three times it’s made clear that the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him.

The Spirit of the LORD. The Holy Spirit. The Third Person of the Triune God who dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim. 6:16). He comes powerfully upon Samson. The sinful Samson. The first person of the only person who in his own eyes really matters, one who walks about in darkness and will only come to really see the light after the Philistines physically blind him. That Spirit of the LORD partners with that Samson.

Hmm . . . See why it seems to me to be an unequally yoking? But also see why it cries out of unfathomable grace?

Grace is not due to our goodness. Grace is not dependent on our potential. What makes grace grace is our undeservedness (is that a word?). And what makes grace so irresistible is that it is bound up with God’s purposes and promises, independent of our propensity to want to live according to what seems right in our eyes. And so, by such unimaginable grace, Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune God, is also willing to be in a seemingly mismatched partnership as He offers not just to rush on me but to live through me.

“Take My yoke upon you. ” ~ Jesus

(Matthew 11:29a ESV)

An unequal yoking.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Heart Highways

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Pete

When we moved to the U.S. over twenty years ago, we adopted a new bible. Not one that replaced the one we took to church, but one which was added and referenced almost always when we got into the car. Not one that was meant to point us to God and help us make our way in the world, but one that pointed us to our next destination and helped us navigate the road. Not the Kings James Version but The Thomas Guide.

Anyone remember those? You were in an area you weren’t familiar with and yet you had to find your way around, and so, you bought The Thomas Guide for that region? Talk about your distracted driving as you kept one eye on the road and the other eye on that behemoth book.

What a gift our modern GPS, aka phones, are. While I may not like being told what to do, I’ll take that lady’s voice saying “Turn left in 2 miles” if it’s going to get me to where I want to go without having to have a book (or one of those multi-folded, you can never get it back the way you bought it maps) in front of my face while I try and navigate unfamiliar streets.

So, what’s got me flashing back to The Thomas Guide days of living in the greater Seattle area? What’s primed the pump of thought about the blessing of now having Google Maps on my dashboard? Something the songwriter refers to as heart highways.

How lovely is Your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, at Your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house,
ever singing Your praise! Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in You,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

(Psalm 84:1-5 ESV)

Psalm 84 has got to be among my top 10 — if only because of the emotion it stirs, the intense longing it promotes to be where the presence of God dwells. A day in His courts really is better than a thousand elsewhere (84:10a)! Amen? And so, says the songwriter, “Blessed are those . . . in whose heart are the highways to Zion.“

Well, actually . . . technically . . . it doesn’t. That’s how the ESV translators have rendered the two Hebrew words found here. That’s the idea they believe we should be picking up from what the psalmist is laying down. Other translations render it a little differently: “Blessed are those . . . whose hearts are set on pilgrimage” (CSB, NIV). But literally, the lyrics of the song here say that blessed is the one with heart highways.

Blessed are those internally wired with the path to God’s presence. A deep and abiding happiness is the fruit to be realized by those programmed deep within for holy ground, that place being the halls of worship of the living God, the altar of the LORD of hosts, the One we bow before as my King and my God.

That wiring, that internal GPS, those heart highways are ours from re-birth. Baptized and sealed with the Holy Spirit when we first believed (1Cor. 12:13, Eph. 1:13, 4:30), our inner man, our inner woman, was programmed for such a pilgrimage. “God’s Dwelling Place or Bust!” is the sign that was hung within our souls.

So, the map is present, the GPS address has been entered. Ours is but to desire, with great desire, the destination. The way, whether easy or hard, whether by a fairly straight path or a sometimes frustrating circuitous route, is set. Ours is to want to be where God wants us to be — with Him, abiding in Him, worshiping only Him.

Blessed are those with heart highways.

There for our good. There for His glory. There only by His grace.

Yes?

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Hero of the Faith

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Pete

It’s kind of weird how many “heroes” seem to have emerged from the book of Judges. How guys like Samson and Gideon have become Sunday School celebrities though they were part of “Gen D”, as in “a generation that Did Not Know the LORD” (Jud. 2:10).

It was a time in Israel’s history marked by a predictable cycle of perpetual sin: the people do evil in the site of the LORD, abandoning the LORD and bowing down to the gods of the peoples around them; the anger of the LORD is kindled; the LORD gives His people over to the hands of their surrounding enemies; the people cry out to the LORD for mercy and deliverance; the LORD graciously raises up a judge over Israel who is used to deliver His people from their oppression; the people eventually stop listening to the judge and again do evil in the site of the LORD (Jud. 2:11-23). Repeat cycle. Simply, and sadly, it was a time, concludes Judges, when “there was no king in Israel” and “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 21:25).

So, you wonder how so many “good men” could rise from such a bad bunch . How we tend to want to find so many good apples in such a rotten lot. And yet, if you pause to consider the full bios behind these favored few — like Samson or Gideon, you find stories as sordid as the society in which they were raised. So what gives?

Well, the fact of the matter is that these guys were heroes. But not heroes because of who they were, deserving to be put on a pedestal. Not heroes because of what they did, and thus worthy of wearing an “S” on their chest while a cape flutters in the wind from their shoulders as they stand triumphantly with their hands on their hips. Instead, the Scriptures say they were heroes of faith.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets — who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions . .

(Hebrews 11:32-33 ESV)

This is what I’m chewing on this morning as I read of one of these heroes, Barak, in Judges 4.

Barak’s a commander in the army of Israel. A man with authority to pull together 10,000 men for battle, and yet refuses to go unless accompanied by one woman (Jud. 4:6-8). And though he’s towards the top of the military food chain, when it comes to the thought of going up against an enemy army with 900 chariots, he comes off as more fearful than fearsome. Not exactly superhero material, me thinks. And to be sure, in the Judges narrative, he is overtly over-shadowed by Deborah, Israel’s presiding judge, and Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, Israel’s ultimate executioner. So even with our hero-seeking sonar on, we’d tend to take a pass on Barak in light of these other “super-heroines.” (Though we don’t fully know their stories either, do we?)

And yet, there’s Barak in the Book of Hebrews with his portrait in Chapter 11’s “Hall of Faith.” Alongside shady Samson and Gideon. But also alongside not so shady David and Samuel (though each of them too has a dark side to their stories).

So, if we’re looking for heroes in Judges, where are they to be found? Well, look up. Look waaay up!

And Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Does not the LORD go out before you?” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him. And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army before Barak by the edge of the sword. . . .

So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the people of Israel.

(Judges 4:14-15, 23 ESV)

The LORD routed Sisera . . . God subdued Jabin . . .

There’s only one hero in the book of Judges. Only one who deserves the glory. One who manifests His power through His people’s weakness (2Cor. 12:9). One who purposes to raise up heroes of faith who are but “jars of clay” in order “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2Cor. 4:7).

We might admire men and women of faith — though faith too is the gracious gift of God (Eph. 2:8), but we exalt but One as Hero of the Faith. But One as worthy of our awe, our adoration, and our allegiance.

According to His abundance grace. Always for His everlasting glory.

Amen?

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Honey from the Rock

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Pete

A few months ago, one of my daughters sent me a link to a song that she’d been loving. It kind of grabbed me too. Kind of a country vibe (kind of my thing), but more importantly very much a promise land verity — there’s honey from the rock.

Honey. From its first introduction, that’s how God chose to describe the land He had promised to give His people, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

(Exodus 3:7-8a ESV)

Honey. Sweet to the taste. But when heaven-sent, satisfying to the soul. The taste of the goodness of God. The provision of a faithful God. The essence of God’s word (Ps. 119:103).

When we are in the place God has promised, there’s gonna be honey. And, as my daughter shared with me months ago, and, as my reading in Psalm 81 reminds me this morning, it’s honey from the rock.

But as I hover over the psalm, even in a land flowing with honey, honey is not a gimme, it needs to be appropriated. And that, through obedience.

“But My people did not listen to My voice;
Israel would not submit to Me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
that Israel would walk in My ways!
I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward Him,
and their fate would last forever.
But He would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

(Psalm 81:16 ESV)

They were in the promised land with the God of their deliverance in their midst. But they also welcomed among themselves “strange” gods. They worshiped the one true God, yes, but they also bowed down to “foreign” gods (Ps. 81:9). And so, God pleads with His people, “O Israel, if you would but listen to Me!” (Ps. 81:8)

“Listen to Me,” says the LORD. Yes, there’s honey in the land, but you’re feasting at strange and foreign tables. Quit gorging yourself from the world’s menu. Instead, says the LORD your God, He who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Ps. 81:10). Look to me for sweetness. Make me your exclusive provider of soul satisfying nourishment. Open wide your mouth. And I will fill it with honey from the rock.

Honey from the rock, says our Deliverer, though always present in the land of promise is only appropriated by those who listen to Me. By those who walk in My ways.

Not that it’s simply a quid pro quo — you do then I do. Not that it’s just submitting for the right to access the sweetness. Rather, it’s in listening and walking in God’s ways where we access the depths and abundance of all the sweetness life has to offer — independent of particular circumstances, situations, and seasons. It’s in hearing the voice of the Creator and walking in the ways laid out by our Designer, that we find a shalom and a satisfaction that transcends understanding. A sweet peace in the world that doesn’t come from the world. A sweetness found only in honey from the rock — the Living Rock of our salvation, the Cornerstone of our firm foundation.

There’s honey in the rock, water in the stone
Manna on the ground, no matter where I go
I don’t need to worry now that I know
Everything I need You got

There’s honey in the rock, purpose in Your plan
Power in the blood, healing in Your hands
Started flowing when You said it is done
Everything You did is enough

There’s honey from the rock

(Honey From the Rock
Brooke Ligertwood / Michael Brandon Lake / Mitchell Daniel Wong)

To quote another hymn writer, Louisa Stead, . . .

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus!

Amen?

By His grace. For His glory.

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Not One Word

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Pete

There they were, on the other side. The other side of the Jordan, the other side of the battles, the other side of the land distribution. They came, they conquered, they were settling in. That’s where they were.

Oh, it may have not happened quite like they expected. How crazy a military plan was just walking around Jericho? And who saw the defeat at Ai coming? That almost broke their spirit. But they persisted. Persisted through the central campaign which gave them a foothold and then through the long arduous southern campaign which essentially secured the takeover of the promised land.

That’s what it was, a takeover of the promised land. Their best efforts, but God’s eternal plan. Their blood, sweat, and tears required to appropriate it, His guaranteed blessings, engagement, and day-in-and-day-out presence to deliver it. As they looked back on the road well-travelled and asked, “What has failed of all the good things God promised us?” Their answer was clear and unequivocal, “Not one word.”

Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that He swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as He had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

(Joshua 21:43-45 ESV)

Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. . . . And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.

(Joshua 23:2, 14 ESV)

How many words had failed of the promise God had made to His people? Not one word.

How’s encouraging is that for the weary pilgrim on their own path towards taking hold of the promises of God? Pretty encouraging!

Battles to be fought? Yup, pretty much every day. Sometimes ya’ feel like you’re just marching in circles? Sometimes. Defeats along the way? Uh-huh, too many — and three steps forward one or two back gets wearying after a while. But how many words of what God has promised are gonna fail? None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Not one word.

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

(Philippians 1:6 ESV)

He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.

(1Thessalonians 5:24 ESV)

I am sure of this . . . He will surely do it . . . Not one word will fail.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Shiloh Remembered (2011 Rerun)

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Pete

I’ll take lesser-remembered dwelling places of God for 500, Alex. . . . What is Shiloh?

Found myself hovering over Joshua 19 this morning. In particular, the thrice repeated reminder that when they initially entered the land of promise, the tent of meeting was set up in Shiloh. That’s where the glory dwelt when they first moved in. That’s where the Lord pitched His tent initially. That’s where you went if wanted to be in the presence of God. That’s where you went if you wanted to know the mind of God. That’s where they cast lots to finish distributing the land. “Before the LORD in Shiloh” (18:8, 18:10, 19:51).

Found myself noodling on Shiloh because it was where the glory use to dwell. The place of presence mostly forgotten because the glory departed.

It caused me to go back in my archives to see if I’d written on it before. And I had. Thought I’d rerun those musings this morning.

Think about God’s dwelling place in Israel and you immediately think about Jerusalem. But that wasn’t His first “address.” That isn’t where God, literally, first pitched His tent. No, Joshua 18 reminds me this morning that, after “the land lay subdued before them, . . . the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there” (Joshua 18:1).

Shiloh . . . literally “place of rest” . . . that’s where God first took up residence within the freshly occupied promised land. Shiloh in Ephraim, not Jerusalem in Judah, was the initial resting place of the tent of meeting . . . the place where the ark first resided . . . the place where the glory first dwelt in the land . . . the place where Joshua could meet with the Lord (Joshua 18:8, 9). What a privileged place Shiloh was. What a blessed place. What a holy place. Oh, how tragic, that it became the “previous place” . . . the empty place . . . the place where the glory use to dwell.

I don’t know if the people who put my reading plan together did it on purpose or if it is just a “God thing”, but I also came across Shiloh in my reading in the Psalms this morning . . . the one and only reference to Shiloh in the Psalms.

Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places; they moved Him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, He was full of wrath, and He utterly rejected Israel. He forsook His dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among mankind and delivered His power to captivity, His glory to the hand of the foe.

(Psalm 78:56-61 ESV)

The Psalmist recounts the repeated gracious, mighty works of God on behalf of the descendants of Jacob, and the just as often repeated rebellion of “a generation whose heart was not steadfast, who spirit was not faithful to God” (78:8b) . . . who “tested God in their heart” (78:18) . . . who “did not believe in God and did not trust His saving power” (78:22) . . . who “tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies, but turned away . . . provoked Him to anger . . . moved Him to jealousy” (78:56-58) . . . so that God forsook His dwelling at Shiloh (see 1Samuel 1:3, 4:4-11 for more on Shiloh’s fall) . . . and moved out. (Deep sigh!)

Shiloh . . . the first home of God . . . the forgotten home of God . . . the place where the glory used to dwell. Kind of set me up for my reading in 1Corinthians this morning . . .

” ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything. . . . do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

(1Corinthians 6:12, 19-20 ESV)

Paul reminds me of another dwelling place of God . . . another place where, by His grace, He has taken up residence . . . another place where He desires His glory to dwell and to be known. Uh, that would be me. And while I don’t believe God would “move out” on a believer, I do know believers of whom it can be said, “The glory of God used to be on him . . . the presence of God used to be with her.” I can think of those who aren’t living up to the potential of God in them . . . of those who, though they were once on fire for the Lord, are, for now at least, not finishing well. Sad thought . . . to be the place where God’s glory use to be known.

Oh that, by His grace, I might not be such a place. That, by the power of the Spirit in me, I might check any spirit of pride or rebellion . . . that I would resist any pull toward a half-hearted, compromising faithfulness to the things of the kingdom . . . that I would just say “No” to joining myself to that which would draw me away from my “first love” (Rev. 2:4). I so don’t want to be a Shiloh . . .

By His grace. For His glory.

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Take Your Place at the Table

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Pete

Hovering over a few verses in Mark this morning (Mark 2:13-17). Pretty well known, it portrays a picture of a bunch of people around a dining table in a tax collector’ house — a tax collector, Levi, who has become a follower of Jesus.

At the table? More tax collectors along with a bunch of other sinners of various sorts. Oh yeah, and Jesus and His disciples are there too.

Watching over Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners? The scribes of the Pharisees. People of the word. Religious, upstanding people. Literally upstanding, as in standing up. The text seems to indicate they were observing rather than partaking. Looking down at the table rather than across it. And they’re bothered seeing this supposed rabbi breaking bread with these well-known reprobates. So, they ask a question, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

And, as I try to imagine the scene, I gotta ask my own question, “Am I in the room?”

Well, if I want to be where Jesus is, then I better be in the room? Okay. So, then who am I in that room?

Well, I’m certainly not Jesus. That narrows it down. So, I’m either eating at the table or I’m standing apart from the table judging the table. Don’t want to think of myself as a pharisaical, bible know-it-all, so that leaves only one place left. I must be at the table.

But am I?

And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

(Mark 2:17 ESV)

Those at the table are those who have need of a physician. Not those who once had a need. Not those who, at one point in their lives, had booked an appointment with the doctor, took the medicine of the gospel and said a sinner’s prayer, but never really saw the need to go back again. No, those at the table are those who are sick. Not the righteous, but sinners. Not ex-sinners, but sinning sinners.

Jerry Bridges, concluding his book on “The Blessing of Humility”, presses the point that “the gospel is only for sinners”, and so if we are going to continue to appropriate the gospel, we need to come to it “as still-practicing sinners” (Kindle p.93). Being at the table with Jesus, day in and day out, means being in desperate need for Jesus, day in and day out.

Though we have been declared righteous in standing, we shouldn’t think ourselves as standing above the table. Instead, we need to bear a readiness and willingness for repentance until our actual state “catches up” to our standing (even so, Lord Jesus come!).

Thank God for a place at the table! It’s available to tax collectors and sinners. It’s even available to self-righteous scribes. The great Physician invites all who are sick, “Come, take your place at the table.”

What amazing grace! To God be the glory.

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