The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them. ‘Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ – Ezekiel 7:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 30, 2014): Ezekiel 7

There is a “WKRP in Cincinnati” episode where Cincinnati is about to be hit by a tornado. The radio stations, including WKRP, are asked to get the word out about the coming storm and what to do in case a tornado strikes in your area, but Les Nessman, WKRP’s news anchor, does not have a script to follow concerning tornado’s. But the boss remembers that Les did pen a script with regard to the attack of the communists on the city of Cincinnati (I mean, in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is the more obvious danger – and attack by communists or the possibility of a tornado.) So on the bosses instructions, Les reads his warning bulletin on the attack of the communists and substitutes the word tornado every time he sees the word communist. Although the subject matter of the episode is deadly serious, the resulting news release is amusing – and at least once Les gets to say the phrase “godless red tornados.”

It is the beginning of storm season. I am hearing warnings of tornado clusters (and I am not sure that I have ever heard it phrased quite that way before. If Les was running the news release maybe we would get to hear the phrase “godless red tornado clusters.”) And there have already been damages and death caused by the early tornados of the season. Hurricanes are also beginning to brew over the warm waters of the world’s oceans. All of this is to be expected. But in recent years it seems that the storms have gotten worse.

One writer recently commented that we need to begin to think about removing the phrase “Act of God” to describe these storms. It might be that Les Nessman is actually right. The storms that are attacking are godless. While this planet has always suffered from severe storms, the magnitude of the storms we are facing today might have less to do with an unpredictable “Act of God” than it has to do with being the very predictable result of the things that we have done to our planet. We are the ones who have decimated the earth’s ability to handle the various storms of the earth, and the result has been that the storms have become more threatening, more dangerous, and have involved much greater loss of property and life than ever before. And the only ones that we have to blame are ourselves.

Ezekiel writes one of the scariest lines of the Bible in this passage. Writing with regard to the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, Ezekiel says that God will “deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards [he] will judge them.” Basically God has decided to leave them to their own devices. And the same comment might be applied to us. In the same way that God allowed the rulers of Judah to destroy their nation so that they would finally recognize that God is God over all, he maybe has allowed us to destroy the entire planet so that we will recognize the same thing. And there is a bit of a strange epitaph that could be added here. It is not in the beauty that we recognize God (a sunrise is never called an “Act of God,” although I believe that it is.) It is in the storms that we see God. And I think that is sad, but deep down I also know that it is also our choice.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 8

Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them … - Ezekiel 6:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 29, 2013): Ezekiel 6

In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe released his short story “The Mask of the Red Death” (currently the story is known better with a slightly different spelling in the title “The Masque of the Red Death”). The story follows the adventures of Prince Prospero as he tries to avoid a plague known as the “Red Death.” Prospero’s plan is to hide with his nobles inside of his abbey. While death reigns in the country side, the prince and his nobles hide safely behind the walls of the abbey. According to Poe’s story, one night Prospero decides to hold a masquerade party. But as the party progresses, a visitor appears in the room disguised as a victim of the Red Death. Prospero confronts the stranger, but there is no substance to him. As a result of the contact that Prospero has with this apparition, Prospero dies – and in short order so do all of the nobles that had gathered in the Abbey. The moral of the story is that in reality there is no way to avoid a plague - and it is the height of foolishness to believe that you can.

No one really knows what it is that the Red Death represents, but some interesting suggestions have been made. Maybe one of the most interesting ideas is that the Red Death was Poe’s representation of the disease of consumption or what we now know to be tuberculosis. The argument is that Poe had a lot of experience with the disease. Poe’s mother, step-mother and brother had all died of tuberculosis, and at the time of the writing of the Red Death, Poe’s wife was suffering from the disease. It is thought that Poe himself was in denial about the finality of the disease, but that deep down it seems that he might have known the truth – and that truth that Poe understood was revealed in his writing about the Red Death.

Ezekiel is commanded to set himself against the mountains of Israel. It was in these mountains that Israel found their security. It was there that they had sacrificed to the false gods. It was there that they had built their cities making them hard to attack. The mountains were the walls behind which Judah had tried to hide, secure in the thought that the mountains would protect them. Judah was in denial of what seemed to be so apparent to everyone else who was watching – that the nation was about to fall. They had placed their faith in the mountains, and in the end it would be the mountains that would reveal the stupidity of the nation’s plan.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 7

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. – Ezekiel 5:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 28, 2014): Ezekiel 5

As the Nazi Party began to take hold of Germany in the 1930’s, it quickly became apparent that the political structure of the nation was being set up for a conflict with the Christian Church. Adolph Hitler was willing to take steps to start off with a mediating position with regard to the church, but ultimately Hitler believed that Christianity, and all other religions, were incompatible with the National Socialism espoused by Hitler’s Nazi Party. The problem for Hitler was that Germany had strong Christian roots. So the only response for the Nazi’s was to change Christianity.

The plan started by restricting the teaching of the church. Nazi racism meant that Christianity had to make a clean break with its Jewish roots. The attack on the Jewish basis for Christianity appears to have two main focal points. First, the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) had to be removed from Christian teaching. So Hitler adopted a position similar to the position that the heretic Marcion had held in the second century - everything Jewish had to be removed from the Christian Bible. The second attack was found in the accusation that it was the fault of the Jews that Jesus was crucified. What more could be expected from what Hitler believed was an inferior people. But there was a third line of attack. Quietly Adolph Hitler became portrayed as the new Messiah – the new Jesus. And the specter of a “Positive Christianity” – one dominated by the policies of National Socialism - rose within the nation.

And the unfortunate truth was that many Christians seemed to be willing to make the shift from a historical Christianity to a Nazi dominated version of Christianity. But not all Christians made the switch. The confessing church remained active in the nation – and leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer kept the image of the Biblical Christ fresh in the minds of the people that they came into contact with. But for others it seems that Jesus’ message of love was all too easily exchanged for the Nazi dominated Messiah characterized by hate. Knowing what it was that Christ had demanded, they decided to go into a different direction. And the truth that the world discovered as the Second World War ended was that the Nazi’s had not only violated the teachings of Jesus, but they had not even lived up to the moral standards of the nations that had never accepted the teachings of Christ.

God warns the nation of Judah that their sins were greater than the other nations because although they knew what God had demanded of them, they had decided not to keep his decrees and follow his instructions. And not only did they fail to measure up to the instructions of God, they did not even live up to the morality of the pagan nations that surrounded them. For God, that was unacceptable. It was then, and it continues to be unacceptable in modern times. God demands more of us. But the disturbing truth is that the church still seems too willing to exchange the message of Jesus of love for one based on hate. And in doing so we continue to reject the demands of God – and we fail to live up to the moral standards of a secular world. And God is still unimpressed.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 6

Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel. After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. – Ezekiel 4:4-6

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 27, 2014): Ezekiel 4

The more I deal with broken relationships between people, the more I wonder that we have any relationships at all. I mean, we assume – maybe I should say that I assume – that we mean what it is that we say. We want to assume that words, in whatever medium we might find them, mean something. And often in broken relationships, words have been spoken don’t carry the meaning that we think that they should. Maybe the classic example is that when a woman says to a man that the relationship is over, what she often means is that she wants her partner to fight for the relationship. But too often the guy quits, thinking that that is the action that is required. The truth is that words carry a message, but often the message is veiled and hard to understand. The clearest statement about what we feel is spoken through what it is that we do.

Ezekiel seems to be the master of speaking though his actions. And this passage is no exception. Ezekiel does not speak a message with words, just with his actions. Unfortunately, separated as much as we are by time, we often miss the message. Ezekiel starts his message by lying on his left side for 390 days. For the ancient peoples, they would often orient themselves so that they face the rising sun or the east. Therefore the left would be the north. So spends 390 days on his left side would indicate time spent for the Northern tribe of Israel. The 390 days is also significant. Forty is the Hebrew number or symbol for punishment. Israel spent forty years in their desert wanderings because of their lack of trust and obedience in God. Lashings or beatings were often administered with the instruction that the one being punished was to receive forty stripes less one – or thirty-nine. Since Ezekiel is laying on his left side for Israel, the math is pretty simple. It is thirty-nine times the ten tribes of Israel. And it is an illustration that repeats something that has been spoken of a few times by the prophets – the northern ten tribes of Israel may be missing, but they are not forgotten, nor was God through with them. The Northern tribes would still have a role to play in the future that God was setting up.

Ezekiel lies on his right side for forty days. Following the same imagery as we did for the Northern tribes, we find the meaning of the action pertaining to the punishment of Southern Kingdom which had become dominated by one tribe – Judah. The southern kingdom even retained the name of that one tribe. But it is interesting that Judah was not to suffer the normal forty minus one – they were to suffer the full forty. The reason might be simply that their punishment was fully upon them. The destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the Temple would have been felt by Judah as being the full punishment of God. This time, it would seem, God was holding nothing back.

But often this seems to be where our analysis stops. Maybe the most significant aspect of the story is often left unmentioned - that it is Ezekiel that bears the punishment for both the northern Kingdom of Israel and their southern counterparts in Judah. And in this he becomes a type of Christ – and the image that he portrays becomes a forerunner of the sacrifice that Jesus will make on behalf of all of the people of the world. And Jesus would once again bear the full punishment for our sins – he would give his very life.      

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 5

You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange language, but to the people of Israel— Ezekiel 3:5.

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 26, 2014): Ezekiel 3

I recently read an article written by Brian McLaren with regard to our responsibility to creation. McLaren starts off the article by describing where he is. “RIGHT NOW, I'M thigh-deep in muck. Clad in hip waders, I'm slogging through a spring-fed bog in northern Maryland. I'm surrounded by tussock sedge, alder, jewelweed, skunk cabbage, and swamp rose. And I'm having a great time.” McLaren, for a couple of days every year for the past number of years has been part of a volunteer team that studies and tries to protect the North American Bog Turtle – the rarest of Turtles in our part of the world. But as he tells his story about his search for the turtle, he also begins to describe his own disappointment in a Christian Church which does not seem to care about the protection of the ecology of our world. In fact, he openly points to Christians as part of the problem. And, unfortunately, he is right. We have become enamored with an escapist theology that preaches that this world will one day be thrown on to the trash pile and we will simply escape to somewhere else. Yet, in Genesis 1 God looked at creation and called it good – and in the end he called it very good. Why would he want to throw all of it away when time has been completed?

Baby Bog Turtle

And it is not just our ecology that is taking the brunt of our negligence. Evangelically we have carried the same carelessness into our practices – often going all over the world to talk about the “love of Jesus” but ignoring the ones who are closest to us – the ones who live around the place where we live, Mission has become something that we do somewhere else. The idea of following your passions and searching for Bog Turtles close to home as part of our mission often seems to be considered to be absurd.

Yet, it might be the most important part of our mission. When I first became a Pastor, one of the earliest pieces of advice that I received (this came from a retired Pastor and Missionary) was that now I would dedicate my life to things that I did not want to do. My days were now to be spent on things that I was not gifted for rather than the things for which I possessed a talent. This was the life of a Pastor. It was like he was saying that God had gifted me, he had given me a set of talents and passions and had helped me to develop them; all so that one day I could become a pastor and throw all of the gifts that he had given to me away. My gifts become just a part of the disposable creation of God.

For me, this is the passion of this passage. God speaks to Ezekiel and says, I am not sending you to speak to a foreign people. I am not calling you to be a Jonah and to travel to speak to the foreigners at Ninevah, I am sending you to your own people – the ones who speak that same language that you do. And not only am I sending you to them, but I also know that you have a passion for them. I am the author of that passion and now I want you to use your passion for them as you give them the message I am giving to you.

To be honest, Ezekiel is a strange book filled with strange images. But part of that arises from the passions of Ezekiel – passions that God was able to use because Ezekiel was willing to submit them to him. We all have passions, but sometimes we refuse to see them as mission opportunities. McLaren as he searches for Bog Turtles in Maryland is every bit as much of a missionary as someone who chases all over Africa in search of the heathen (Maybe more, but I might be pushing it.) I am thankful for the passions that God has given to each one of us. Passions for people and things – even a passion for this world that God created. Because I have a sneaking suspicion that the earth is part of our mission, and when the end comes that earth will be restored and not destroyed. God’s message to each of us is that when we are chasing our passions (even our passion for turtles) we are chasing after him. And that is precisely where we want to be.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 4

You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. – Ezekiel 2:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 25, 2014): Ezekiel 2

Former astronaut Ed Lu, a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and an extended stay on the International space Station, has recently argued that the chances of a collision between the earth and a city destroying asteroid is much higher than was previously thought. And part of the problem is the small size of the asteroid that would be required to level a city. NASA currently monitors space for earth changing asteroids of 0.65 miles (or 3,432 feet) in diameter that could come into close contact with our planet. But it would only take an object with a diameter of 131 feet to level a city. The problem is that we have had no idea how to monitor space for such a small object – and space would seem to be well populated with this size of rock. Since we don’t know how to find these objects, much less what to do with them when we do find them, then why worry about them. We might as well ignore the possibility until such a time as we have found a solution to the problem.

So Ed Lu is now talking about these objects because he thinks he has a solution to the problem. So now he needs public opinion to swing in his direction concerning the detection of these smaller space rocks so that he can finance his solution. But it also reveals what seems to be a disturbing trend, at least to me, in the public statements we make. Politically, scientifically, and spiritually there appears to be a trend to speak messages that are expedient rather than true. It seems that in all areas of life we are ignoring the small rocks of life that we don’t know what to do with. In the area where I spend most of my time (the spiritual arena) it is revealed in a reluctance to talk about what is true because it is not truth that the people around us really want to hear. We have become the Pied Pipers of our society, just telling the people what it is that we think that they want to hear. After all, what could we do with the truth even if we did know it?

Yet, knowing the truth has consistently driven us toward imaginative solutions. Repeatedly throughout history, knowing the uncomfortable truth is what it has taken us to allow us to move in the right direction. But if we don’t know, we can’t fix.

So God tells Ezekiel to give God’s message to the people, even if they aren’t listening. If the truth is hidden from the exiles, it won’t be because they haven’t been told; it will be because they were unwilling to listen. And we stand in the same situation. The prophets of our society needs to be willing to speak the uncomfortable truth -  a truth that might surprise us from a God who loves us – all of us – dearly. But if we don’t understand that, it must not be because we have never been told. It has to be because we were unwilling to listen.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 3

In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. – Ezekiel 1:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 24, 2014): Ezekiel 1

In 525, a Christian monk by the name of Dionysius Exiguus came up with the idea of dating events by going back to a common place in time. For Dionysius, because of his commitment to the Christian faith, that moment in time was the birth of Jesus Christ. Dionysius made a few mistakes in the way that he counted the five centuries that had passed between the birth of Jesus and his own life, and because of those mistakes his dating is out by somewhere between four and seven years, yet the idea itself has stuck. Today we still date back to the same point in time. We call it the Common Era (or the Current Era or the Christian Era – what we formerly knew as A.D., Anno Domini or in the year of our Lord.) The system allows for us to be able to date historical events in such a way that we can compare events between cultures – something that was once impossible to do. The last Western European nation to make a switch to the common calendar was Portugal who made the change in 1422. 

But the idea of dating events back to a common point is an old one. In ancient times it was often dated from some significant event – or death. So Ezekiel starts his account with a dating system, a common point in time that his readers would have understood. The NIV translates the dating very personally – in my thirtieth year – but it is unlikely that Ezekiel was counting the years of his own life. For one thing, the idea of celebrating birthdays is more of a current practice. The dates of birth in ancient times was not something that was celebrated. So a better translation of the verse might be “in the thirtieth year,” dating back to some common event. The problem is that while his first readers understood the connection, over time that connection has been lost.

If that is true in this case, Ezekiel might have been dating back to the last year of Jubilee that had been celebrate in Judah. But the problem with that idea is that the Jubilee celebrations in Israel were sporadic, if they were ever really celebrated at all.  Another possibility is that Ezekiel is dating back to the finding of the law during the days of Josiah. And this is the solution that the Jewish Targum takes - it assumes that the dating of Ezekiel is focussed back on the finding of the law by the priest Hilkiah during the reign of King Josiah. That dates this writing to a period five years into the exile of Judah.

So Ezekiel places himself as one of the first to be taken from Judah into exile. And it is there that his prophetic career begins. What is significant about this is that God finds Ezekiel far from home and the temple dedicated to him by the Jews. Here, by a river in Babylon, Ezekiel hears the instructions of God and is compelled to follow them. The law found in the Temple thirty years earlier was still the instruction by which Ezekiel was going to structure his life – the God that ruled in Jerusalem was still the God that ruled over Ezekiel and the exiles – even though they now found themselves living in a foreign land

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 2

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. – Psalm 137:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 23, 2014): Psalm 137

We can pretend about a lot of things, but the real condition of our hearts are often revealed by how we mourn – and what drives us into mourning. On March 18, 2012, George Tupou V, the King of Tonga, died. His reign had actually been fairly short – only six years – and yet the news of his death sent the Island nation of Tonga into mourning. In the days following the king’s death, trees and buildings were draped with the colors of mourning – black and purple. The king was treated to a state funeral which featured a procession of 1,000 pall bearers. And the inhabitants of Tonga lined the streets just to have one final chance to say good-bye to their king.

For Tonga, the reality was that while Tupou V’s reign was short, it was extremely effective. In a short six year span the culture of a nation had been changed. Tupou V had started the process of limiting the powers of the monarchy and driving Tonga toward a constitutional democracy. The king had been a forward thinker who had wanted nothing more than to transfer power from the hands of the monarch into the hands of the people. The national identity of the nation was changing with an increase in power being given to those people outside of the Royal Family. For this reason, when the king died, the people responded by an outpouring of mourning and brief that gave honor to their dead king.

As the exiles settle in Babylon, they too are experiencing a change in their national identity, but it was in the reverse direction. Once they had been an independent nation that had been proud of their position in the world, but now they were defeated, their nation had been destroyed – and the people had been carried into exile. Now, it was a foreign king that ruled over the people of Judea – and the result was that the people were in a deep time of mourning.

And the mourning was not something that the people could hide. The psalmist says that they sat on the banks of a river that they did not know and wept over what it was that had been lost – and there was absolutely nothing that could bring back the comfort the people need to soothe their souls.

But the mystery that the psalmist did not understand was that even then, as the exiles sat far from the rivers of their youth, God was on the move preparing to empower them – to create a national identity that more closely reflected the idea that God had desired for Israel from the very beginning. All that God needed was a leader who would be willing to honor him – and as strange an idea as this would have been for the exiles to try to understand, that leader was not going to be found among the kings of Judah. That mouldable leader would actually end up being a series of mouldable leaders that would start with Nebuchadnezzar, the king that ruled by the rivers of Babylon. God was already at work as he began to restore a nation while it mourned what it was that they had lost. And in the future, the seeds of success for the nation would be planted by the rivers of Babylon.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 1

“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.” – Daniel 12:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 22, 2014): Daniel 12

There is a powerful superstition in hockey. The superstition concerns the touching of either the Prince of Wales Trophy or the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, the trophies that are presented to the teams that win the Eastern and Western conferences respectively. The origin of the superstition is unknown, but the argument is that it is not these trophies that the players are ultimately competing for. The trophy that every hockey player dreams of hoisting over their heads, from the very first moment that they laced up their skates as kids, is the Stanley Cup. The winning of either the Wales Trophy or the Campbell Bowl are just necessary signposts on the way to the Stanley Cup – but it is Lord Stanley’s Cup that they want. So when the team wins the lesser trophies, they still haven’t achieved anything yet. They need to keep their eyes on the prize and concentrate on lifting the cup of their dreams.

Daniel has received a lot of information. Some prophecies have been about things that will happen in the near future, others have been about things that still belonged to a time that was far in the distance. And it would have been easy for Daniel to have gotten lost in all of the images that he had received from God, but God reminds him that he still has a task to do. He can’t afford to get distracted. He needs to keep his “eye on prize” and accomplish what it is that he has been placed on earth to accomplish a purpose – a purpose that was Daniel’s – and Daniel’s alone. In the end, God assures Daniel that he will rest (die), but that after that he will also receive an inheritance, His salvation is assured – and so he can concentrate on the things that God still requires of him.

John speaks of a similar situation as he closes his gospel. Jesus reveals to Peter the manner of his death – and of the purpose that God has placed on the rest of his life. But Peter isn’t content with just knowing about himself. So he asks Jesus about John’s future. And essentially Jesus reply is that Peter is to mind his own business and simply concentrate on what it is that God has required of Peter. God seems to give the same advice to Daniel – keep your eyes on the things that you have to do. Don’t let yourself be distracted from your purpose – even by the prophecies of God.

The advice could be applied to many contemporary Christians. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the prophecies of the future that we forget that we are still here to live out our lives – and that we are to do so with a purpose. The future is coming, but we are not supposed to be a people that stand around dreaming of what is yet to come. We are to be a people that live in the present, and a people that makes such a difference in the present that we change what it is that will happen the future.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 137

Now then, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. – Daniel 11:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 21, 2014): Daniel 11

Xerxes I rise to power in the Persian Empire was a little unexpected. Xerxes was crowned the King of Kings in Persia during the month of October 486 B.C.E. The reason that the rise to power was unexpected was that Xerxes was not the oldest son of his father Darius, and in almost every other nation in the known world the crown was passed down from father to the oldest son.

Xerxes older brother (actually older half-brother) was named Artabazanes. And Artabazanes claimed the right to the throne of Persia following the traditions of the other nations. But Darius ruled against his oldest son. There are probably two reasons for the decision. First, it is thought that Darius divided his life into two sections. The first section was the part of his life that he lived as “Darius the Subject.” It was during this part of his life that it is thought that an imposter was ruling on the throne of the Persia. The throne belonged to Bardiya, the youngest son of Cyrus the Great. But traditional histories hold the Bardiya actually died during the spring of 522 B.C.E., although that fact was hidden from the people. Instead, an imposter ruled in Bardiya’s name. And it was this imposter that Darius had killed later that year – and the next day Darius was crowned king, ending the life of “Darius the Subject” and beginning the life of “Darius the King.” Artabazanes was the oldest son, but he was born to “Darius the Subject.” Xerxes was the oldest son of “Darius the King” and as a result it is Xerxes that ascends to the throne of Persia after his father’s death. But the second argument for Xerxes’ rise over that of his older brother was that Artabazanes mother was a commoner, while Xerxes mother was from the ruling class of Persia in her own right. And so Xerxes becomes King.

This section of Daniel is so precise that some critics have charged that it must have been written after the events had happened. But other than the precise nature of the prophecy, there is no reason to attribute a late date to this writing. And there is absolutely no doubt that the fourth king that Daniel writes about is Xerxes, the son of Darius the Great (and Darius the King). And he would be richer than those that came before him precisely because he was the son of Darius the Great. Darius presided over the Persian Empire at the height of the empire, and at the time that he died he was preparing to move against Greece – stockpiling resources and finances that would be needed. And all of these resources went to Xerxes when he took the throne.

But even though Xerxes had all of the advantages that the kings that went before him did not have, and even though he was able to martial support for his move against the Greeks, he would not be able to hold his Grecian gains. Trouble at home would require Xerxes to send part of his army home – and the portion of the army left in Greece would be defeated, ending the hope that would be able to complete the military dream that had started with his father.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 12

 

 

 

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. – Mark 16:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 20, 2014): Mark 16

How many times do we search for Jesus among the dead?  Current belief seems to be that he was a good man – a saint even.  One that we could never measure up to – but maybe deserves to be honored.  Or maybe he was just a great teacher – and we need to still study his words.  But the church knows him as the one who is not in the grave – he is alive.

 It is because he is alive that we can have optimism for the world in which we live.  His presence still ministers to this world.  The one you are looking for is not among the dead.  He is alive!

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 11

Originally Published on April 12, 2009

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. – Genesis 1:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 19, 2014): Genesis 1

The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God, it assumes it.  “In the beginning God …” is the opening phrase of the Bible and from there the books of the Bible simply explore the relationship between God and man.  There are so many things that we could get “hung up on” in the Bible.  But the real dividing point is summed up by the opening four words of the first sentence in the first book – In the beginning God.

Creation started on the first day and was completed on the sixth.  And on the seventh day, the Sabbath, God rested. 

After the first Easter, the early church started to talk about the eighth day.  The day after God rested he started the act of creation again.  This time it was us that he had recreated.  What had gone wrong in the original created had been paid for.  Once and for all a Perfect Lamb had been sacrificed.  Now God could recreate the love that he had intended for us all along – and the intimate relationship between God and his creation that he had designed for us from the very beginning.

Today, we stand at the end of creation.  Holy Saturday was the final moments of the seventh day. Tomorrow, the eighth day dawns – the day that God recreated his creation.  God moved one more time so that we could, once again, walk in the garden with him.  The time approaches.  Are you ready?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 16

Originally Published on April 11, 2009

 

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. - Mark 15:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 18, 2014): Mark 15

Today is a day of ritual.  It is probably a day that most of us would rather do without.  Who needs to be reminded again of an execution that happened 2000 years ago?  Not us.  A lot of innocent people have been executed over the years.  It’s not our fault – we weren’t the ones.  It’s not like we can bring them back. 

But that is the real question that is asked of us every Good Friday.  What would you have done – really?  What shall we do with him, the one they call the King of the Jews?  So we try to ignore it – pass by the question – not give it an answer.  In the end that was probably what most of the people in Jerusalem did as well.  Oh, some cried out for his crucifixion – but most probably just sat by and watched it happen.  Don’t make me answer Pilate’s question.  I don’t know what to do with him.

If we yell for him to be crucified – well that doesn’t seem fair.  But if we call him God, then he might expect something of us.  Something that we are just not willing to give.  And so we remain silent.

But our silence does not stop the question from being asked.  What shall we do with him, the one you call the King of the Jews?  What are we going to do?  At some point the question needs to be answered, at some point the silence needs to be broken.  Will we join the ones that cried for him to be crucified, or will we be the ones to call him Savior, Lord and friend?

I want you to know that I have made my choice.  Have you made yours?     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 1

This post was originally published on April 10, 2009

 

Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? - Mark 14:48

Today's Scripture Reading (April 17, 2014): Mark 14

Maundy Thursday

It always amazes me when violence is done in the world because of religion.  Now, I know that there is plenty of violence in the Bible – but the further you read the less the violence becomes. Until you get to the New Testament and Jesus stops it – he goes the other direction.  Turn your cheek, honor those that hate you – be different from the world that is around you.

At this point in history there were armed rebellions that were occurring in Palestine.  The Zealots were bent on taking Israel back for Israel.  To become an independent nation, one not under the rule of any other nation, was the dream.  There were armed rebellions – but that wasn’t the rebellion that Jesus was leading – then or now.

Jesus rebellion is the one that sees value in all people, and preaches love in all circumstances.  It was what the arrest and the cross was all about.  It wasn’t about giving a nation back to the Jews – but a people back to God.

So, we continue to love, we continue to lay down our swords, we continue to respond in love to those who may oppose us – because in the end we know that love wins.  Love wins!

This Post was Originally Published on April 9, 2009 

Today's Scripture Reading: Mark 15 



  

At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. – Daniel 10:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 16, 2014): Daniel 10

Laurence Olivier once described life as consisting of “strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms.” Daniel probably would have agreed with the esteemed actor’s words. His life seemed to include all of the elements. Daniel did not live a life of advantages. Life had started off with his forced removal from his home. And now, it ends with the knowledge that he will most likely never see home again.

We are not really told why Daniel was in mourning. But we do have a few educated guesses. The first would be that this time of mourning was an extension of his reaction to the things that God had shown him hiding in the distant future. But this is not our only candidate. Another reason for Daniel’s depression could have been that while the return to Judah had started, the children of the exiles, those who had been born and lived their entire lives in Babylon, were not making the most of their opportunity to return home. The reason for this was quite clear. Life in Babylon was a known commodity, it was established, and it was comfortable. For those that chose to return to Judah, life would be none of these things. Going home would mean putting up with hardships as the returning exiles began to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and surrounding area. But for Daniel, the hardships really didn’t matter – it was home.

But another reason for the mourning might have been that Daniel himself had been left off of the list of those returning home. By this time, Daniel would have been in his mid-eighties, and those in charge of the return probably wanted Daniel to stay in Babylon interceding with government on the behalf of the returning exiles. And deep down, Daniel knew that they were right. The best place for Daniel to be in service for his home was in Babylon. As much he wanted to go home, he couldn’t.

This is the way life sometimes work. There is a myth that when we are in the service of God somehow life is easy and we receive everything that our heart desires. But Daniel is proof that this is not always true. Sometimes we have to sacrifice what it is that we want for what is best as we move forward in God’s strength.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 14

Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” – Daniel 9:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 15, 2014): Daniel 9

There is a moment in the Movie “Jesus Christ, Superstar” when the cast of followers of Jesus begin to realize that things have gone in a direction that they were not expecting. In the movie, the image is of Jesus, beaten and walking alone in a valley while his supporters gather on the high ground that surrounds him. The image is wrong in so many ways. It is not the disciples that deserve the high ground; it is Jesus. But while the image is wrong, it is not a mistake. The scene reveals the very tangible emotions of the disciples in this moment. The cross that was coming was not Jesus’ cross – it was theirs.

It is in this moment the cast begins to sing “Could We Start Again, Please.” The song is a prayer and a hope, that everything that has happened can somehow be miraculously reversed – that it is not too late to stop the madness. Peter in this moment of the movie sings these words:

                        I think you’ve made your point now

                        You’ve even gone a bit too far to get the message home

                        Before it gets too frightening, we ought to call a halt

                        So could we start again, please.

                                                                        (Tim Rice, Could We Start Again, Please)

Of course the reality was that things were going to get much worse before they could get better. It was something that only Jesus seemed to understand, and something that the disciples were clueless about.

As I write these words, I am in the midst of Holy Week. As I prepare for the Good Friday Service, now only a few days away, my world seems to be filled with images and stories of the last week of Jesus life. The things that Jesus did and said, the stories that he chose to tell, the illustrations and pictures that he drew with his words during that final week of his life. What some people do not seem to understand is that most of what we have in the Gospels, the Christian Bible books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as they tell the story of the life of Jesus, happens in the last week. These are the stories that has molded a movement and a people. These are important stories.

This year, our Good Friday service is going to end with what I hope will be a poignant moment. As the service ends, Jesus is laid into the tomb and the stone is rolled in front of the cave – a place where historically he laid for the rest of Friday, all day Saturday and then into the early hours of Sunday morning, the cry that I hope is on our lips is similar to this cry of Daniel. Lord, listen, Lord forgive, Lord Come, but not for us. We get it; we have messed up – we do not deserve you. But come for yourself, because while we have wronged you, we bear your name.

Daniel wrote these words in another “Could we start again” moment. His understanding was that the exile would last seventy years. And it seems that according to his reckoning of time, the seventy years was almost up. There is a hint of surprise in Daniel, who now would be closing in on ninety years of age. The time is just about complete, and miraculously he has survived the entire period, and now he is waiting, hoping that the time has come to hit the reset button.

It is a moment that we all experience at some point in our lives, and a question that we all seem desperate to ask. Is it possible, could we start again? But the truth that we need to know is that God will hit the reset button, in his time. His promise to us has never been that we will get exactly what we want (Peter watched his friend and teacher be crucified, and history records that it was not Daniel, in spite of his great relationship with God, that was destined to lead Israel back home. That task would be left to  younger men like Nehemiah and Ezra and Zerubbabel.) The only promise that God has given to us is the promise that he will be with us in those moments when we wish we could hit the reset button. He will be with us on the high ground, and through the valley. And in the end, that is all that matters.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 10

I, Daniel, was worn out. I lay exhausted for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding. – Daniel 8:27

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 14, 2014): Daniel 8

A friend of mine once commented that he thought he needed to be paid overtime because he often went to bed at night and dreamed about his job. The comment itself was a bit of a joke, but the truth is that we have all spent nights where our dreams have physically worn us out. And that is exactly what seems to have happened to Daniel. The depth and the terror of the visions that God had given to him had left him exhausted. And for a few days he rested as he tried to simply deal with the things that he had seen.

But he could not let the exhaustion from the vision stop him for long. While God had shown his spirit a vision of the physical future, Daniel had always considered his physical tasks in the service of the king a spiritual duty. And while it is very likely that Daniel no longer held the position of prestige that had been his during the reign of the Babylonian Empire, he would not dishonor God by shirking his duty for long. And he also would have been severely wounded if it had been said about him that his visions and dreams had kept him from fulfilling his duty to the king.

But another part of the problem was that Daniel just could not understand everything that he had seen. He did not understand how God could ever abandon his people in the way that he had seen. Yet he could not doubt the truth of what he had seen. All of this left Daniel extremely confused.

It has been proposed in reference to biblical prophecy that the visions that the prophets saw can have up to three views. The first is the near view, it is the future that the prophet can see and understand in the immediate future. The second view was an intermediate vision. This is the vision that may have been at a point that is on the prophet’s horizon – it was a future that was at the edge of the future that the prophet could see. For many Hebrew prophets, this often seems to be prophecy that can be applied to the coming of the Messiah. But sometimes prophecies extended even beyond the Messianic expectation, to something that was beyond that. Sometimes this is under the heading of the “Day of the Lord,” but not always.

What seems to have frustrated and exhausted Daniel was that this prophecy did not seem to apply at all to either the near or the intermediate future – it simply applied to a time that was well beyond Daniel’s horizon. Daniel didn’t understand. But also didn’t need to understand. And that is a lesson that we all need to learn. There are some things we don’t understand, and that we don’t need to understand. And that is okay. Even Daniel struggled with some of the things that he had been shown, but that made him no less a man of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 9

He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it.’ – Daniel 7:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 13, 2104): Daniel 7

On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type fission bomb was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later a second bomb, this time a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Most people do not realize that there were subtle, but very real differences in the way that the two bombs were constructed. We simply think of the bombs under the general title of “Nuclear Weapons.” And the reason for this is that although the two bombs were different, they were both very different from any other weapons that had been ever used. This was a new kind of bomb, a new kind of power.

August 6 and 9, 1945, are the only times in the history of the world that weapons such as these have ever been used. At the time, the use of the weapons were seen as the only real way of defeating Japan and ending the war in the Pacific. The island nation was well guarded by nature, and the casualties that would be caused by a traditional military assault on the nation would have been too high to consider. And yet, with the fall of Germany and Italy in the war in Europe, only Japan was left to fight against the United States and her allies. The total destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought Japan to the negotiating table in an effort to sue for peace. While the official date of the surrender of Japan to the allied forces is September 2, 1945, the Japanese actually surrendered unconditionally on August 14, 2014 – only five days after the bombing of Nagasaki.

The moral questions with regard to the use of Nuclear weapons in Japan have been asked ever since the bombs were dropped, and we seem no closer to an answer. Hiroshima is regarded as a city of peace today, and its mayor serves on a council of mayors who are dedicated to seeing the Nuclear Weapon arsenal of the world totally eliminated by 2020.

Many theories have abounded as to the identity of the nation Daniel describes in this chapter. This strange description of a nation of with ten horns has caused many different interpretations. But the key is that this nation was to head an empire like none had ever seen before. This kingdom would be different – and much more powerful than any of the ones that had preceded it. This empire would be as different to the nations that went before as the bombs that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were when they were compared to the bombs that had been used in Japan in the weeks leading up to the August attack. This empire was different – and much more destructive.

Some of the nation empires that have been suggested as a fulfillment of this prophecy are the European Union, the Turkish Empire and even the Roman Empire. Of the possible fulfillments, I think I like the theory this fourth beast was Roman Empire, especially the Roman Empire after the fourth century, because after the fourth century Rome began to be controlled by the Christian Church – and the hates and fears of the Christian Church. Rome then began to crush not just physically, but spiritually and morally. Let me make this clear, this was not our finest hour – we (the Christian Church) did things that should never have done and we were involved in things that we should never have been involved in. We had forgotten that we needed to follow Christ, and in that we became like an anti-Christ.

But there is a warning here in Daniel’s prophecy. The warning is this – whenever we are involved in crushing others, we are not fulfilling with will of God. We are resembling the fourth beast in Daniel’s prophecy – and becoming not like Christ, but an anti-Christ.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 8

At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. – Daniel 6:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 12, 2014): Daniel 6

We are known by the things that we do. George III ascended to take his place on the throne of England on October 25, 1760. In his accession speech to the English Parliament, a speech that was actually written by lawyer and politician Phillip Yorke, the first Lord of Hardwicke, George inserted a phrase that had been written by himself, and it is unclear as to whether the phrase was ever approved by those who advised the king. The phrase was "born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Britain." The phrase was supposed to announce that unlike the other Hanover Kings before George; kings who were often accused of being more German than British, George was a product of Britain. In fact, George III was the first Hanover King to have lived his entire life in Britain, George had never even been to Hanover, an area on the European mainland that is currently part of Germany. George was also the first Hanover king that spoke English as his native language. This is how George wanted to be seen – he was a new kind of king, a real British King.

But we remember George not for what he said, but what he did. In North America, we remember George III as the king whose tyranny spawned the American War of Independence. He was a king that wanted to interfere with the colonies in order to raise more money for himself. And deep down, if we are honest, we know that it is terribly unfair to sum up a person’s life on the one sided perception of one event of that person’s life.

George III was also the king that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. What impressed the people at the time of the war that Britain had with Napoleon and France, was that he was a king who was personally involved with the defense of his nation. George personally went down to review the troops who were defending the Island. Newspapers reported that if the armies of France stepped onto British soil, George was ready to fight for his country at the head of the British forces. His supplies were packed and, according to the newspapers, George was never more than a half hour away from the fight. He was a king that was not going to send someone else to do something that he did not want to do. He would be there. In all of this, George is not seen as a real British King because of what he said, but rather because of what he did.

One of the subplots of the story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den is the role of King Darius. We know that throughout Daniel’s career in Babylon that he was an honored leader in Babylon. But Babylon fell. And now Daniel has risen again, this time with the Median Empire. And his role is so great that the king himself is personally interested in Daniel’s life. He is tricked into a decree that put’s Daniel’s life at risk, he spends a sleepless night worrying about Daniel, and now he runs to be with Daniel. We know that the king was an older man. And as king, it would have been quite proper for him to send someone else in his stead. But the king refuses. He leaves the comforts of his palace, and in what was probably both an undignified and humorous moment, the king hurries to the lion’s den to see what has happened during the night. This was an act that would have defined both the reign of the king, and the life of Daniel.

Words are nice, but it is often our actions that carries the real message. If we want to know who we are, whether we are King Darius of the Median-Persian empire, or King George of Britain, or the person down the street, the question that needs to be asked in never what did we say – it is always what did we do.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Daniel 7