Jesus redefines what true siblinghood means. First, he calls HIMSELF our brother (Mark 3:31-35), then he builds a church filled with strangers who are made family in him. People who are only children are given brothers and sisters through the church, and biological siblings are enabled to love each other beyond their familial ties. There's no savior like Jesus!
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Life can feel lonely and overwhelming. Still, your life is both seen and cherished. God is working fiercely behind the scenes of your life. He worked to bring astonishing triumphs to the lives of four historical characters who faced devastating, alienating, and even life-threatening situations. Friend, God is working!
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God is glorified in His mercy. He is also glorified in His judgement of sin. In Jerusalem’s captivity, God reveals Himself as a God who keeps His word (Deuteronomy 28:58-68) and displays justice, holiness, and infinite power.But how can God be both merciful and just? Doesn’t His justice nullify His mercy, and vice versa? When we look at Christmas, we have to say “no.”
Imagine the anxiety when Sennacherib of Assyra shows up in Judah, 8 years after the North's exile, with these words: “Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?... Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?” (2 Kings 18:33-34). It was true. Samaria had been crushed by Assyria...would that same hand now wreckJudah?
Israel sacrificed her children in fire and used divination and yet claimed to “know” the Lord (Hosea 8:2-3). In what ways does sin deceive our hearts into believing that we are “close to God” when, in reality, we are far from Him? Does God’s patience and willing forgiveness inspire obedient praise or does it expose a presumptuous heart? Let's examine ourselves this Advent season as we wait to greet the Savior with our full and humble submission, gratitude, and love. Amen.
Reading 2 Kings 14 brings to mind Jonah 4:2; there, Jonah calls God gracious and merciful, “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” The description captures God’s hesed or steadfast love. Jonah’s phrasing is seen throughout Scripture but first appears in Exodus 34:6 during God’s covenant renewal with Israel. The Northern Kingdom was called to belong to a patient God who relents from disaster. God’s far-reaching kindness elects to help a rebellious king and his people. In Jonah’s ministry, we can see God’s mercy extended to those who are far and near: wicked Nineveh and wayward Israel are helped. Who then is beyond His grace?
If I, being evil and having no righteousness of my own, know when and how to pray for my wife because I have stood in her place for 36 hours—how much more will the Perfect Man, Jesus of Nazareth intercede effectively on behalf of His Bride, the Church, knowing her struggle for 33 years (Matthew 7:9-11)! We would not have this confidence if it were not for Jesus’ coming to be born of a woman, born under the law “for us men and for our salvation” (Galatians 4:4-5).
The God who clothed a despairing Adam and Eve doesn’t change (Genesis 3:21)! That same God justified a filthy high priest named Joshua and He continues to exchange insufficient coverings for a garment of His own making (Zechariah 3:4-5). Those who trust in Him alone for salvation receive a robe made white by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). “Naked, I come to Thee for dress; helpless, I look to Thee for grace." I’m so thankful that Jesus, the Rock of Ages, is my all-sufficient covering!
If I had known that the little baby--whose sleeplessness often tested my patience--would grow up to pray for my rest, I would have maintained more joy on those weary nights. But I didn’t know; and there’s been many other moments of impatience and failure as a mom in my daughter’s young life. But love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
Whether a prostitute before her marriage to Hosea or after, Gomer left her marriage bed to chase her lovers (Hos. 2:5). She became estranged from her husband at some point and was sold into slavery. Here, God commanded Hosea: “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods.” (Hos. 3:1). Hosea obeyed, he found his wife on sale, he purchased her for fifteen shekels of silver and some bushels of barley. And he said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you” (Hos. 3:2-3). The book of Hosea ends with the hope of redemption.
On August 2, 2008, I stood before God and witnesses and made a vow of love, honor and fidelity to Eric J. Dolce. I was certain of the LORD’s hand in the union. My husband and I marveled as a rainbow appeared over our reception. Indeed, God's promises for us in Christ have been “Yes and Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20)!
Today marks seven years since that day. The years have passed quickly but my love for my husband has not. In truth, I adore him now more than ever…and here’s why:
Hannah addressed God as “the LORD of Hosts” (Yahweh Sabaoth) in her prayer. The name translates as “the LORD Almighty,” the one who rides before legions of armies. We might imagine this victorious title declared at the parting of the Red Sea or the conquest of Jericho, but Hannah’s narrative is the first time the name appears in the Old Testament. The woman who was thundered against by a persistent adversary, needed the LORD Almighty to remember and defend her.
I’ve often considered Naomi “the female Job” of the Bible. She and Job could have been understanding friends. They both knew pain and loss (Job 1:13-21). And they both attributed their suffering to God’s sovereign hand (Job 6:4). Like Job, Naomi’s narrative inspires an old question: can a loving and all-powerful God ordain human suffering and remain wholly consistent with his character? Our passage answers “yes” as we continue.
In the days of the judges when everyone did what was right in his own eyes, a Moabite woman does what is right in God’s eyes (Ruth 1:1; Judges 21:25). Ruth reflects God’s own covenant love for his people in choosing to leave her familial home for the saving of another. She turned from father, mother, and country for a people she didn’t know and found refuge under the wings of Israel’s God (Ruth 2:11-12).
Pharaoh’s fatal law must have arrived sometime after the birth of Aaron since he was alive and didn’t appear to be in danger of the edict. Unfortunately for Jochebed, her third pregnancy collided with the crisis of the decree. The king’s war against a nation found its target in her womb. But this mother would remember God’s former work of salvation.
Leah was a third wheel in her own household. Her husband slept with her but didn’t honor her with love. What tears those weak eyes must have shed! Jacob didn’t regard her—but God saw her. The giver of life enabled her to bear six sons and at least one daughter, Dinah (Gen. 30:19-21). The names of her sons are telling. They testify to her hope and her great suffering.
As I write, some 3,400 persons have died from the outbreak – leaving families in dismay and children orphaned and stigmatized. Worse still, the virus continues to spread uncontained. The CDC estimates 1.4 million Ebola cases by the end of January! They see no end to the outbreak at present.
Today, I remember the Good Shepherd in light of the persecuted church. As I write, thousands of Iraqi Christians are displaced; threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants to either abandon home, convert to Islam, or face death. Many roam today as refugees in Mosul without the promise of food or shelter.
In Northern Nigeria, the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, continues to bomb churches, murder Christians and abduct girls for forced marriages. Christians there are living under the constant threat of death – they are indeed sheep trailing through the valley of the shadow of death!
Within a year, Sarah conceived, Isaac. His name means “laughter.” God turned the source of Sarah’s laughter from cynicism to joy (Gen. 21:6-7). And her laughter reminds us that God’s gift of children is never given because of our works, but by his grace. Human reproduction, like spiritual regeneration, is ultimately the merciful work of the living God (Jn. 1:12-13).
