Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

 Zechariah 3:1-10

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. Zechariah 3:1

I continue my study of the last four books of the OT (complete: Zephaniah, Haggai; to complete: Zechariah, Malachi) - using the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary volume for this book.  For this morning, my focus is an unassisted review of Zechariah 3:1, which the commentary outlines as the first of six divisions for the text 3:1-10 (3:1, 3:2, 3:3, 3:4-5, 3:6-7, 3:8-10).  Here, we pivot (see post yesterday) from a vision of restoration and blessing for God's people, to a vision where Satan appears to condemn Joshua the high priest based on His previous sin.  Satan knows God's people are human and as such are imperfect, broken and sinful.  God has provided a vision and a path, however, to restoration, forgiveness, and to fellowship with God.  If we stand with God, vs with Satan, God will protect us.  Standing and walking with God requires effort - spiritual disciplines: prayer and study of God's Word, corporate worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, etc.  God sees His elect who walk with Him as righteous in His eyes. See also Romans 8:1.

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of grace and compassion.  You see me as righteous in Your eyes and I am not condemned.  Thank You Jesus for giving grace and salvation.  I am not deserving...my sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others. Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.

Zephaniah 1:7

Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. Zephaniah 1:7

I continue my study of Zephaniah using the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary volume for this book.  For today, my study focus is a commentary-assisted review of the third division per my commentary: v7. Excerpts from the commentary:

• "The Day of the Lord is a reference to the coming judgment of God. While we find it mentioned a number of times throughout Scripture, Zephaniah is more uniquely focused on it than any other biblical book."
• "The Israelites were guilty of disobeying God, and because of their disobedience, God was clarifying through Zephaniah that a reckoning is coming. There is no one, regardless of class, status, or birth order, who can avoid God’s judgment. This would have been difficult for Zephaniah’s hearers to understand, as those who were part of God’s chosen people might have assumed some sense of protection from God’s wrath. Instead, God puts them on notice that no one can escape the coming judgment. The intent of the declaration, as we will see at the end of the book, is not to terrify them into cowering before God. It is not to punish them for what they have done. God is not lashing out in uncontrolled anger or sadistically dispensing judgment. This reminder of the coming day of judgment was intended to provoke them to remember their place as His chosen ones and to repent and return to faithful obedience. He compels them in this manner because He understands that life is lived most fully and completely when one is living in harmony with God."
• While it is inevitable that some will not, we are encouraged to be obedient to heed God's warning of a coming judgement and take refuge in the salvation that only Jesus provides.  This refuge not only provides life for eternity with Jesus in Heaven, but also life to the full now with the Holy Spirit in our hearts working to mold us into more of His image (sanctification) until we are fully glorified on that day when either Jesus returns or He calls us home.  

Comment and discuss this post.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God full of grace, mercy and compassion.  Your mercies are new every day and they never cease.  You also save and are saving a place for me in Heaven and I can rest in the promises that You make to me as a believer.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of the blessings You pour out for me.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Jude

 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”  Jude 12-13

I proceed with my study of Jude using the Christ-Centered Exposition commentary series volume for this book.  Today, my study consists of a review of Jude 11-16, with a focus on an unassisted review of the third division per the commentary - vv14-15. Here in these verses, we continue to see how harshly God will deal with the false teachers described by Jude.  Jude writes how Enoch prophesied about the judgement of the wicked; while we don't know who specifically Enoch is referring to here, we do know that Enoch's judgement of the wicked is inclusive of those judged by Jude given Jude refers to those judged by Enoch as "also about these," implying there was a larger category of wicked to be condemned.  The sins of the wicked condemned by Jude (through reference to Enoch's prophecy) are described as deeds of ungodliness, committed by ungodly people in an ungodly way.  The word ungodly or ungodliness is used four times in two verses making it clear that God is not pleased with the false teachers described by Jude throughout his letter.  On the other hand, we can trust the prophecy of judgement by Enoch because Enoch "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24) and "pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5).   

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My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who gives me Your Word to guide me so that I can walk with You as I know I exist to bring You glory.  I am grateful for how You provide Your Word, my salvation and so many more blessings - of course I am undeserving.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

Genesis 6-9

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” Genesis 9:12-16

I continue with my study of - Ten Men of the Bible: How God Used Imperfect People to Change the World - eBook by Max Lucado (for purchase). This morning, in preparation for leading my Friday morning men's Bible study peer group, I am going to summarize my key takeaways from a review of Genesis 6-9 and the story of "Noah: Hope When the Floodwaters Rise*".

*Title of lesson one from the Max Lucado study.

The overarching theme of the study is one of hope, and how God provides this hope.  Our story starts in Genesis 6 where we see that a relationship with God is a basis for supernatural and eternal hope.  God is very disappointed in what He created with humanity (and humanity's wickedness) and so He set in motion a plan to wipe out all of humanity through a flood - except for one man and his family: Noah.  The first question we must ask ourselves at this point is why did God choose Noah?  Well, scripture tells us that "Noah pleased the Lord" (Genesis 6:8).  It also tells us that "Noah did everything that God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22, 7:5, 7:16).  God chose Noah and his family to be the basis for humanity after the flood because Noah "was a good man, the most innocent man of his time" AND he "walked with God" (Genesis 6:9).  Yet at the same time, we know Noah did not lead a perfect life because at least on one occasion (Genesis 9:20-21) he became drunk and the Bible is clear that this is a sin. We don't know the extent of Noah's sin; for example, whether he was an alcoholic; and we also don't know what OTHER sins Noah had.  We only know that he was "the most innocent man of his time". But it is fair to say that Noah is a great example of how God uses broken and sinful people to accomplish His will.  This should serve to both humble and encourage us.  We can all be used by God in ways that our human minds cannot even begin to fathom - all starting with a relationship with God and a desire to glorify and please Him. 

As the story unfolds, we see that the flood is not just overwhelming in terms of destruction but one can sense that it was overwhelming emotionally.  Scripture tells us "[a]ll that was left was Noah and what was with him in the boat" (Genesis 6:23).  We get this detail so that we can place ourselves in Noah's shoes - so that we can feel his isolation and loneliness.  Noah was probably isolated and lonely as he built the ark - likely mocked by those around him during this time who saw his building activities as foolish and laughable. Even though Noah had his wife and family (and a veritable zoo!) during the flood and its aftermath, the flood itself lasted more than a year (see Genesis 7:11, 8:3-5, 8:6, 8:13-14 for more hints on the timeline)! During this time of a pandemic we can both sympathize and empathize with Noah - this must have been rough!  We know (and scripture tells us) that we are designed to live with others together - supporting and encouraging one another.  Now, how did Noah get through the flood emotionally?  God gave Him hope.  After 150 days of flooding, "God remembered Noah and all the wild and tame animals with him in the boat" (Genesis 8:1).  He made a wind, made the water go down, and rested the ark on top of a mountain so that Noah had perspective and could actually see MORE of the land as the water receded (Genesis 8:2-5) - by giving Noah perspective, this in and of itself is encouraging as often just taking a step back and having perspective provides hope.  Also, after initially releasing a raven that eventually returned because it found no place to land (Genesis 8:6-9), Noah sent out a dove and this time it returned with an olive leaf, and then he sent the dove again, and then it did not return as it likely found a place to land and live on its own (Genesis 8:12).  In between rounds of sending the dove out, we see that Noah gained encouragement by what God was doing as it says "[t]hen Noah knew that the ground was almost dry" (Genesis 8:11). We see God providing hope as well when Noah and his family leave the ark and step onto dry land after the flood waters receded. Noah builds an altar to the Lord (Genesis 8:20), offers sacrifices, and God is pleased (Genesis 8:21-22).  Yet even as Noah and his family left the ark, their future was far from certain and this must have been lurking in their minds.  So God once again offers encouragement and hope as He blesses them and makes a covenant with them (Genesis 9:1-17). 

 Questions for discussion:

1. For those of you who became a believer later in life (and did not grow up in the church), can you share where you placed your hope and how this did not provide supernatural and eternal hope?
   
2. Assuming you agree that obedience to God is key to pleasing Him, are their commands that you find burdensome or harder than others?  Read 1 John 5:3
   
3. Can you share times in your life when you were overwhelmed in your circumstances but God gave you hope?
4. What other stories in the Bible give you hope and why?
5. What verses give you hope and why?
6. How have you used the hope God gave You to give hope to others?
7. Anything else you would like to share about Noah's story or about what we have discussed?

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an amazing God who loves me and who both gives me hope and who has given me hope when I have been overwhelmed in my circumstances.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of the supernatural and eternal hope that only You provide.  I have sin...daily, including worry, etc.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your messages for me today and every day.