Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” – 2 Chronicles 35:23

Today's Scripture Reading (July 8, 2026): 2 Chronicles 35

You have probably heard of populism, but you might not really know what it means. In my part of the world, the most famous populist is President Donald Trump. The term “populism” or “populist” is often used as an insult, but some have made the most of it. Populists are not confined to one part of the political spectrum. You can find them on the Right, Left, and even toward the Center of the political spectrum.

A true populist believes that society is divided into two groups. One group, and the one that they agree with, are the pure people. In actuality, these are often the ones who support the populist leader. The other group consists of the evil elite and their supporters. These are the ones who are “crooked” and want to take advantage of the government and the nation. One common belief in populism is the existence of a deep state, run by an elite group that governs to improve its own position. Populism usually promises to “drain the swamp,” remove the elite, and hand the reins of power back to the people.

In my part of the world, Donald Trump is a populist. My native Canada is flirting with populism, though it hasn’t, as of yet, succumbed to the temptation. Here, populism sits on the Right of the political spectrum, leaving some conservatives without a place in the national political debate. I admit that populism must have a place in God’s plan for our world, but I often struggle to see what that place might be. However, I trust that God has a plan, even when I can’t see it.

Josiah was a good king. He followed in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Hezekiah. But between Hezekiah and Josiah were two kings who didn’t measure up as well: the long reign of Manasseh and the extremely short reign of Josiah’s father, Amon.

Josiah came to the throne of Judah at the age of eight after the assassination of his father, Amon. Josiah did well, but God remained angry with the people for their actions during Manasseh's reign. His anger never subsided, but he promised not to punish Judah until after Josiah’s reign was finished.  

Maybe that was a reason for Josiah to breathe a little easier, but the truth is that Josiah’s life was shortened as a random arrow cut him down. Josiah, the good king, died before his fortieth birthday. Three of his four sons would gain the throne of Judah, but none of them would walk in their father’s footsteps. During their reigns, the end of Judah began to come into focus. I am sure that many on that day wondered what God’s purpose was in ending the reign of Josiah early and allowing his sons to come to the throne.

Sometimes I don’t understand God's purposes, but I trust there is one. And in the end, I, with Josiah, will understand what that purpose is. And everything will one day make sense, even if I don’t understand at the current moment.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 36

The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The people of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it." – 2 Kings 23:17

Today's Scripture Reading (July 7, 2026): 2 Kings 23

It happened in the early days of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The northern tribes had rebelled against Rehoboam, Solomon's son. The rebellion eventually led to the Northern tribes' decision to separate from Judah, which was ruled by the House of David. But they had a problem. The Tabernacle had disappeared from the nation's religious experience, and the brick-and-mortar Temple that had become the nation's worship center had been built in Jerusalem, a city within the boundaries of the Tribe of Benjamin, which had decided to stand with Judah. As a result, the northern tribe had been left without a place to worship.

Jeroboam, the new King of the Northern Kingdom, felt he had to come up with an answer. The people couldn't continue to travel to Jerusalem, or he might risk losing them forever. His solution? Build two golden calves, and place them in the city of Dan in the north and Bethel in the south. Then, King Jeroboam would tell the people that these were the gods of Israel; come and worship in Dan and Bethel instead of Jerusalem.

And then a prophet from Judah appeared in Bethel.

By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: "Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you'" (1 Kings 13:1-2).

We don't know who the prophet was. Almost 350 years later, there is a King named Josiah who is on the throne of Judah. Israel, Jeroboam's Kingdom, had long ago been destroyed. Josiah has the bones of the priests that had been buried in the area, dug up and burned on the altar that Jeroboam had created three centuries earlier. But as Josiah comes to one tomb in the area, he asks, "To whom does this grave belong?" And the people proudly declare that it is the burial site of this unknown prophet, the one who had declared that Josiah would come. We don't remember his name, but the people of Bethel still remembered the prophet who had once journeyed there to confront Jeroboam. And they honored his presence in their city with a memorial and a story that was to be passed down through the generations. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 35

You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. – Jeremiah 12:2

Today's Scripture Reading (July 6, 2026): Jeremiah 12

In many ways, North America was built on the concept of religious freedom. It definitely wasn't the only reason, but many people were willing to move from Europe to the American frontier because there they could worship as they saw fit, which ran counter to European practice, where areas seemed dominated by a single religious practice. However, the reality is that we have never been good at true religious freedom. We always seem to feel threatened by the religious practices, or non-practice, of others. We want the laws of the land to reflect what we believe and to protect us from others' beliefs. But that runs counter to the idea of religious freedom in the new world.

Enter Ronald Reagan Jr. and his television commercials supporting Atheism. Reagan likes to remind his audience that the United States was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state. Would it surprise you to know that Reagan is wrong? In fact, the separation of church and state is not a government directive, but was developed by well-meaning Baptist believers. The idea was that the state or the nation shouldn't have direct oversight of the religious practice. The New World was not Britain, where the reigning monarch is also the head of the church. 

I am continuously amazed at the reaction of atheists against the core beliefs of Christianity. I get it; they don't like the first four commandments, and I wouldn't expect them to. But when Jesus was asked which commandments were the most important, he quoted the last six.

"Which ones [commandments]?" he inquired.

Jesus replied, " 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 19:18-19).

What is wrong with these commandments, even from Ronald Reagan Jr.'s atheistic position? I get that there is some pushback to the question of adultery, but keeping our promises, which is the essential problem with adultery, is something on which our societies are constructed.

The reality is that our society has been planted on an idea that has taken root and bloomed: the Freedom of Religion. We give support to this principle with our lips, but not with our actions. Our actions often declare that it is our way or the highway; only our beliefs should be protected by Law.

It is an extension of Jeremiah's words. In the case of Jeremiah, God had planted Israel, and the nation had taken root and bloomed. The people gave lip service to their God but did little to follow his principles, even if those principles were just the last six commandments. Israel said that they believed in God but gave very little thought to what that meant, just as we say we believe in the freedom of religion, but think very little about what that means in our society.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 23

Then the LORD said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem.” – Jeremiah 11:9

Today's Scripture Reading (July 5, 2026): Jeremiah 11

In the aftermath of World War II, some saw an opportunity to further scientific development in the United States. The idea was that there were scientists in Germany who were working on the same kind of things, especially in the area of rocketry, that scientists in the West were developing. If we could bring those two groups together, we might make significant advances in scientific knowledge. Those in power in the United States decided to launch a plan to bring German scientists to the United States. The original idea was that scientists who had not been involved in the Nazi war effort could be given research positions in the United States. Background checks were initiated, and the appropriate scientists were invited to come and work with the Americans on various projects, including rocketry and the space race to the moon.

It wasn't long before a conspiracy theory began to circulate that there were Germans who were being invited to come to the United States who weren't the innocent academics they were portrayed to be. Nazi officers were being given government positions in the United States. And these scientists were not men who had slipped through the cracks in the policy designed to keep them out; the government knew they were here; in fact, the American government knew who these men were when it extended the invitation for them to join the American scientific industry.

There is something nefarious about conspiracy theories, yet they seem to arise in almost every field of achievement. The moon landing didn't really happen; what we believe was a moon landing was staged on a top-secret Hollywood set. Or the concept that the various school shootings were faked by people who support gun control. The message is that you have been deceived, and what you think you see cannot be believed. Usually, the deception lies with those who preach that we have been deceived.

However, sometimes, the conspiracy theories are true. And in the case of Nazi scientists being given positions in the American government, it was true. Research in the 1970s uncovered "Operation Paperclip," a secret American Intelligence program that brought more than 1600 German scientists into the United States, including men who the government knew were members of the Nazi Party. Kurt Debus, the first director of the Kennedy Space Center, was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II. Wernher von Braun, sometimes called the "father of the American lunar program" and the "father of rocket science," was also a member of the SS during World War II and a member of the Nazi Party from 1937 until 1945, when the Nazi Party was disbanded. Some have argued that von Braun and some of his compatriots escaped justice for their knowledge of war crimes because they were able to help the United States beat the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

Jeremiah writes that God alluded to a conspiracy that was alive in Jerusalem and Judah. Some experts think this was a figure of speech, but I think some religious leaders led a conspiracy against belief in God. The problem was that these leaders found God inconvenient, so they led the people away from true worship of the God of Israel, deceiving them and allowing them to be molded by the political leadership. Many people who decided to follow the conspirators would suffer defeat for that decision. All because the conspiracy was actually true, and people like Jeremiah, who fought against the conspiracy, were few.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 12

You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. – Habakkuk 3:13

Today's Scripture Reading (July 4, 2026): Habakkuk 3

In the days when my wife and I were planning our wedding, I was a university student, and she was working in a nursing home. I probably don't have to tell you that money was tight. And so our "Honeymoon" would basically be our drive back from my wife's island childhood home, where we would be married, to the city where I was attending university and she was working in a nursing home, a journey of just over 700 km (450 miles). We had a tourist book of hotels and motels on the Island, and we started searching it for a nice place to stay on our wedding night. We came upon a place not far from the wedding site and close to the ferry we would need to take when we left the Island; it sounded perfect. It was a small place, only a dozen or so rooms, right on the ocean with a great view. And so, months before the proposed wedding date, we booked a room for a couple of nights after the wedding.

When we got to the Island, a few days before the wedding, we had a fairly rude awakening. The place was a dump, and that is probably being generous. The only thing that seemed to be true to the advertisement was that it was small and on the ocean. There was a much nicer place across the street, but it was totally booked. However, I left my name with the owner, who promised to phone us if he had any cancellations. Luckily, a couple of days later, he called to say they had a cancellation and that my bride and I had a new place to stay before we started our journey home.

Today, we would go online and look for reviews of the place, which might give us a more honest evaluation of the hotel. After all, we know that the internet never lies. (Can you hear my sarcasm?) Maybe an online review would have helped, but we might have still fallen for the scam.

This section of Habakkuk's prayer feels a bit like an online review. Habakkuk begins to recount all the ways God had acted in the past. These are the things that you have done. It was a reminder of God's history to the people. Unlike my book of hotel reviews, the hope was that, as people remember these stories passed down from generation to generation, they would know this is what God has done in the past. And, if the past is prologue, if everything that has happened up until now informs our present, then when we need God to move, the way he moved in the past reassures us that He can move again. If God was able to do this in the past, we know that you will do it again.

Nothing has changed. God is still the one we can trust. We, too, know the stories, both those found in the Bible and those we have experienced in our own lives. And because we know what God has done in the past, we know that He can meet our needs in the present. We have seen God move and know what he can do. As a result, we can put our trust in Him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 11

Happy Independence Day!

Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!' Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it." – Habakkuk 2:19

Today's Scripture Reading (July 3, 2026): Habakkuk 2

How are your retirement savings doing? The closer I get to my retirement, the more important that question seems. The truth is that none of us are probably doing as well as we should. I have friends who are angry because they believe that the government has purposely kept them poor and unable to afford to retire. Others recognize that it is our responsibility to save for the day when we let go of our paid work and retire to the retirement we all feel we deserve. The truth might live somewhere in between. Although I find that most of the time, we seem to live in a fantasy world where the government has unlimited funds to give us what we want, with no need to ask us to pay the bill through our taxes. However, our reality is that we all need to manage our money well so it lasts into our retirement years. If we can't make the most of our money now and save for retirement, we probably wouldn't do so even if the nation's financial conditions were different.

I am afraid that the day is coming when conditions will change, and not for the better. I am worried that the day is coming when we will be forced to pay back the national debt, and on that day, we will be surprised by the things our government will no longer be able to do for us. We have become comfortable with deficit spending, and that is always a dangerous place to be. What the government should be able to do for us has become an idol for us, but one on which we cannot rely.

Habakkuk is not talking about money, but he could be. He is speaking about idols made out of wood and stone. And his point is that these idols don't live. Regardless of how good we are at creating them or how realistic they look, they will never draw a breath or be able to help us lift a load. There is no guidance in their gaze, and they will not carry us into battle. In fact, these idols depend on us for life just as they depended on us for their creation.

Our government isn't all that different. We created them, and we continue their existence. But they cannot do everything we might want them to do. We have to rely on our own ability to lead our lives with confidence and an eye to the future. But the government will never be able to save us. Only God can do that.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Habakkuk 3

Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour. – Habakkuk 1:8

Today's Scripture Reading (July 2, 2026): Habakkuk 1

"Do humans have mothers and fathers?"

"Yes, but human mothers and fathers don't love their children as we do. They're not the same as we are" (Star Trek: The Next Generation; Chain of Command Part II).

The dialogue is between a Cardassian adult and his child. The Cardassians are one of the many enemies of Earth and her allies in the fictional Star Trek Universe. And one of the themes that Star Trek readily explores is the idea that our enemies are often a lot more like us than we might want to admit. It is often advantageous for us to portray the enemy as monsters. In this case, the enemy is projecting, and the particular human in question is Jon-Luc Picard, the esteemed fictional captain of the Starship Enterprise.

It makes sense to make the enemy into something that they are not. It is a lot harder to kill your next-door neighbor than someone from across the world, unless, of course, your neighbor is a bad person. And it is something that happens in real life, not just in a fictional science fiction universe. We often make our enemies into something quite different from us.

During World War I, this universal sameness was part of the problem of the "Christmas Truce." We still argue how widespread the truce really was, but in the places where the truce did happen, when the soldiers emerged from their trenches to sing carols, exchange gifts, and, in some tellings of the story, play soccer with the enemy, one of the discoveries was that the soldier in the trench across from you wasn't a monster, but just another person very much like you. And it proved very hard to share food with the enemy one day and shoot at them the next. Thus, the Christmas Truce occurred on the first Christmas of the war, but not on any subsequent Christmases. By then, the enemy had become something else; they were monsters who deserved to be killed, not people who shared the same hopes and fears as those who fought beside you.

Politics follows a similar storyline. The opposition is crazy; the people of a different political stripe are enemies of the nation and don't want the same things that you do. They don't love their children the way we do. It is us vs them, and they are different from who we are.

There is no evidence that Habakkuk has ever had any contact with the enemy. But he has a stereotypical idea of who they are. They are different from us. Even their horses are different. They are faster than the leopards, and they are fiercer than wolves. When you go up against them, you won't have a chance to win.

Was any of this true? No. Habakkuk's description of the enemy was likely propaganda straight from the enemy. After all, hadn't they rolled through the land up until now? Had anyone been able to stand up against their power? But the propaganda served the purposes of God, who had turned this stubborn people over to their enemies because of their disobedience. The battle was already over, because God had decided it, and he allowed the propaganda to take root among the people of Judah.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Habakkuk 2