Big Prophet, Little Prophet

I am still in the process of trying to recapture my many Bible-related thoughts during the craziness of wedding month (aka wedding/honeymoon/moving to Arizona/starting graduate school month). Life is still insane, but here is my attempt at getting caught up...

So during the many years of Israel and Judah's (divided kingdoms at the time) disobedience to the Lord after the reign of David, there were many, many prophets both warning the people of God's growing wrath toward the sin of His chosen nation and calling the people to repent to escape this wrath. Soon, Israel was exiled and taken off to foreign lands, and Judah still chose to live in disobedience despite the prophets' pleas: "Look what happened to Israel? Do you want that to happen to you too?"

The latter half of the Old Testament is filled with these prophets' stories, messages, and persecutions suffered as the warnings were not heeded by the indignant, sinful Israelite people. Not only has reading through the chronological Bible allowed me to put the scope of these years in perspective (who was preaching when? to whom? during which king's reign? what was the gist of each prophet's message?), but it has also taught me new things about God's character and His commands. Here are some of my thoughts:

Micah 6:8 - One of the most commonly quoted verses from Micah is from chapter 6, verse 8, "...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?", but my book commentator's gave me a new perspective. This verse describes the three primary froms of love that God requires: 1. justice (do justice) 2. mercy (love kindness) and 3. faithfulness (walk humbly). I should be just and merciful to others, and faithful to the Lord if I truly love God.

Habakkuk 2:4 - I love the reminder here to live by faith even in the darkest of hours - because "the righteous shall live by faith" even when the world seems to be collapsing all around them.

Zephaniah 1:12 - Relating to Habakkuk's message, Zephaniah reminds Judah, who was facing exile and felt abandoned by God - "The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill" - that God is constantly active in history, despite circumstances that indicate otherwise. What a timeless encouragement for us today as we face the variety of sufferings that we face as humans living in a fallen world.

Reflection #4 - Right Ritual

As I read through II Kings and II Chronicles and the correlating prophets who preached during the time of pre-exilic Judah, I am noticing a common theme. My Bible notes sum it up best: "ritual without faith-based  obedience is unnacceptable to God." The kings and people of Judah (before the consequential exile for their disobedience) were perfectly content to worship Yaweh AND other gods, even though Yaweh had warned the sin and possible conseqences for worshiping other gods. The people of Judah still went through Mosaic ritual, but without any true faith or obedience in the God they were acknowledging. They would offer a sacrifice to Yaweh, and then offer a sacrifice to a sun god the next day. They followed the customs of God, even though they were not willing to obey, love or trust Him in any other context.

How I want to guard against this in my own life. I don't want to read my Bible and then disregard everything it says after my twenty minutes of reading are up. If what I read doesn't change my selfish attitude, increase my love for God, and augment my desire to serve others, then what is the point of my reading ritual? Lord, help me not to blindly follow ritual as the people of pre-exilic Judah did, but help any ritual I follow to be for the purpose of loving You more, knowing You more deeply, and obeying You more willingly.

Tidbits on Psalms and Proverbs

So I am married! The past four weeks have been a whirlwind to say the least. So many best friends coming from out-of-town for the wedding. The wedding itself. Nine day honeymoon in Hawaii. Two chaotic days packing and saying goodbye in Washington. Road trip in a huge Budget truck down the Arizona. Starting school, renting an apartment... it's been crazy!

I was able to keep up on my first goal of maintaining my reading schedule throughout the wedding/moving weeks, but I failed miserably at my other goal of continuing to blog (at least one or twice) during those weeks as well. So here I am. I did, however, jot down blog notes as I read, so I think I am going to give a brief re-cap of my past few weeks of reading. I finished Psalms and Proverbs right before my wedding, and have now read the rest of II Kings, II Chronicles, all of Isaiah, and many of the minor prophets. My thoughts are below:

Psalm 112 - Redemption - There is a note in my Bible that describes the word redemption as the process of "renewing the image of God in man" - since we have clearly so skewed the image of God with our own sin. I love that. Psalm 112 talks about what life is like for the righteous man - one who has been redeemed by God and is able to reflect Him well. This man is not perfect, but "delights in (God's) commands) (v.1) and his "righteousness endures forever" (v.3), as he passes his ways on to future his offspring.

Psalm 135 - His name is beautiful - Psalm 135:3b says "...sing to his name, for it is pleasant." It can also be translated "...sing to his name, for he is beautiful." I love that. God is pleasant. His name is pleasant. We can dwell there. He is beautiful and there is power, joy, and peace in his beautiful name. We can sing to his name, call on his name, rest on his name, rely on his name. And it is good.

Proverbs - The Fool - As I was counting down the days to my wedding, I was also finishing up the book of Proverbs. While I definitely paid attention to Proverbs 31 and the example of the ideal Godly wife (and have already been convicted by this passage multiple times in my brief three and a half weeks of being married), I also found myself drawn to the theme of the fool in Proverbs - and found myself taking careful mental notes on how NOT to be a fool. I can't remember now the exact details I focused on, but I found myself analyzing my own life. Am I quick to anger? Impatient? Am I ever lazy? Do I ever refuse to heed wise counsel? Do I judge? Do I fail to do my work in a timely manner? These are the faults and traits of the fool. Instead I long to be wise and to receive the gift of wisdom from the Lord. I hope to gain wisdom, as the Proverbs advise: "Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge" (Proverbs 22:17).