Max Lucado Daily: LET GOD DO HIS JOB - April 21, 2023
There’s power in revenge. Intoxicating power. Haven’t we tasted it? Haven’t we been tempted to get even?
As we escort the offender into the courtroom, we announce, “He hurt me!” And the jurors shake their heads in disgust. “He abandoned me!” we explain, and the chambers echo our accusation. “Guilty!” the judge snarls as he slams the gavel. “Guilty!” the jury agrees. We delight in this moment of justice.
I don’t mean to be cocky, buy why are you doing God’s work for him? “Vengeance is Mine,” God declared. “I will repay” (Hebrews 10:30). Proverbs 20:22 says, “Don’t say, ‘I’ll pay you back for the wrong you did.’ Wait for the Lord, and he will make things right.” Judgment is God’s job. To assume otherwise is to assume God can’t do it. God has not asked us to settle the score or get even. Ever.
2 Kings 19
When Hezekiah heard it all, he too ripped his robes apart and dressed himself in rough burlap. Then he went into The Temple of God. He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them dressed in rough burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They said to him, “A message from Hezekiah: ‘This is a black day, a terrible day—doomsday!
Babies poised to be born,
No strength to birth them.
4 “‘Maybe God, your God, has been listening to the blasphemous speech of the Rabshakeh who was sent by the king of Assyria, his master, to humiliate the living God; maybe God, your God, won’t let him get by with such talk; and you, maybe you will lift up prayers for what’s left of these people.’”
5 That’s the message King Hezekiah’s servants delivered to Isaiah.
6-7 Isaiah answered them, “Tell your master, ‘God’s word: Don’t be at all concerned about what you’ve heard from the king of Assyria’s bootlicking errand boys—these outrageous blasphemies. Here’s what I’m going to do: Afflict him with self-doubt. He’s going to hear a rumor and, frightened for his life, retreat to his own country. Once there, I’ll see to it that he gets killed.’”
8-13 The Rabshakeh left and found that the king of Assyria had pulled up stakes from Lachish and was now fighting against Libnah. Then Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to fight against him. So he sent another envoy with orders to deliver this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: “Don’t let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along with the line, ‘Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.’ That’s a barefaced lie. You know the track record of the kings of Assyria—country after country laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you’ll be an exception? Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. And what’s left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones.”
14-15 Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of God and spread it out before God. And Hezekiah prayed—oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated
in majesty on the cherubim-throne.
You are the one and only God,
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth,
Maker of heaven,
maker of earth.
16 Open your ears, God, and listen,
open your eyes and look.
Look at this letter Sennacherib has sent,
a brazen insult to the living God!
17 The facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria
have laid waste countries and kingdoms.
18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their
no-gods hand-made from wood and stone.
19 But now O God, our God,
save us from raw Assyrian power;
Make all the kingdoms on earth know
that you are God, the one and only God.
20-21 It wasn’t long before Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah:
God’s word: You’ve prayed to me regarding Sennacherib king of Assyria; I’ve heard your prayer. This is my response to him:
The Virgin Daughter of Zion
holds you in utter contempt;
Daughter Jerusalem
thinks you’re nothing but scum.
22 Who do you think it is you’ve insulted?
Who do you think you’ve been bad-mouthing?
Before whom do you suppose you’ve been strutting?
The Holy One of Israel, that’s who!
23 You dispatched your errand boys
to humiliate the Master.
You bragged, “With my army of chariots
I’ve climbed the highest mountains,
snow-peaked alpine Lebanon mountains!
I’ve cut down its giant cedars,
chopped down its prize pine trees.
I’ve traveled the world,
visited the finest forest retreats.
24 I’ve dug wells in faraway places
and drunk their exotic waters;
I’ve waded and splashed barefoot
in the rivers of Egypt.”
25 Did it never occur to you
that I’m behind all this?
Long, long ago I drew up the plans,
and now I’ve gone into action,
Using you as a doomsday weapon,
reducing proud cities to piles of rubble,
26 Leaving their people dispirited,
slumped shoulders, limp souls.
Useless as weeds, fragile as grass,
insubstantial as wind-blown chaff.
27 I know when you sit down, when you come
and when you go;
And, yes, I’ve marked every one
of your temper tantrums against me.
28 It’s because of your temper,
your blasphemous foul temper,
That I’m putting my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth
And turning you back
to where you came from.
29 And this, Hezekiah, will be for you the confirming sign:
This year you’ll eat the gleanings, next year
whatever you can beg, borrow, or steal;
But the third year you’ll sow and harvest,
plant vineyards and eat grapes.
30 A remnant of the family of Judah yet again
will sink down roots and raise up fruit.
31 The remnant will come from Jerusalem,
the survivors from Mount Zion.
The Zeal of God
will make it happen.
32 To sum up, this is what God says regarding the king of Assyria:
He won’t enter this city,
nor shoot so much as a single arrow there;
Won’t brandish a shield,
won’t even begin to set siege;
33 He’ll go home by the same road he came;
he won’t enter this city. God’s word!
34 I’ll shield this city, I’ll save this city,
for my sake and for David’s sake.
35 And it so happened that that very night an angel of God came and massacred 185,000 Assyrians. When the people of Jerusalem got up next morning, there it was—a whole camp of corpses!
36-37 Sennacherib king of Assyria got out of there fast, headed straight home for Nineveh, and stayed put. One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer murdered him and then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became the next king.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, April 21, 2023
Today's Scripture
Psalm 95:1–7
Come, let’s shout praises to God,
raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into his presence singing praises,
lifting the rafters with our hymns!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
“Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
never be able to sit down and rest.’”
Insight
Psalm 95 together with Psalms 47, 93, and 96–99 are known as “enthronement or royal psalms” because they use the image of a king to denote God’s sovereign reign over all creation and over all history. Psalm 95:3 proclaims, “the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.” This psalm is easily outlined into two parts: a call to worship God as Creator and King (vv. 1–7a) and a warning not to reject God as King (vv. 7b–11). The Israelites viewed their national leaders as shepherds (see Ezekiel 34:1–2; Zechariah 10:3). They also spoke of God as their national leader, calling Him the “Shepherd of Israel” (Psalm 80:1), who “brought his people out like a flock; [leading] them like sheep through the wilderness” (78:52). Here in Psalm 95, His people sing in reverent worship, “He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (v. 7). By: K. T. Sim
Discovering Creation
In his hand are the depths of the earth. Psalm 95:4
Krubera-Voronja, in the Eurasian country of Georgia, is one of the deepest caves yet explored on planet Earth. A team of explorers have probed the dark and scary depths of its mostly vertical caverns to 2,197 meters—that’s 7,208 feet into the earth! Similar caves, around four hundred of them, exist in other parts of the country and across the globe. More caverns are being discovered all the time and new depth records are being set.
The mysteries of creation continue to unfold, changing and adding to our understanding of the universe we live in and causing us to wonder at the matchless creativity of God’s handiwork. The psalmist invites us all to “sing for joy” and “shout aloud” to the Lord because of His greatness (v. 1). God’s work of creation—all that it contains, whether we’ve yet discovered it or not—is cause for us to bow down in worship (v. 6).
He doesn’t just know the vast, physical places of His creation; He also knows the intimate depths of our hearts. And not unlike in the caverns of Georgia, we’ll go through dark and perhaps scary seasons in life. Yet we know that God holds even those times in His powerful yet tender care. In the words of the psalmist, we’re His people, the “flock under his care” (v. 7). By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
How has God guided you through dark places? In what new place or way is He inviting you to trust Him now?
Creator God, help me to trust in Your care for me even in the darkest places!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, April 21, 2023
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us— astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be— it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask— “Lord, show us the Father…” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled…” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? Disciples Indeed, 389 L
Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 12-13; Luke 16
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, April 21, 2023
LOVE THAT WON'T LET YOU DOWN - #9465
On our list of holidays that we all celebrate each year, I have a sneaking suspicion there might be at least one of them that was invented by greeting card companies and florists. In America we call it Valentine's Day! Florists freak out and then they count their shekels the next day. And, of course, I even did my part by helping some struggling greeting card company. Yeah, I would do that. I had to of course. I wanted to get one for the woman I love.
And I get to celebrate on that day a lifetime love that God had given me in my amazing wife. But occasionally Valentine's Day would give me a flashback of a not-so-happy romantic memory; back in the day when I was 13 and I knew I was in love. Right!
Let's call this junior high heartthrob "Cindy." I remember combing the stores on our little town's main street for the perfect gift for Cindy - something to let her know I had feelings for her. Well, I bought the nicest necklace that a few weeks' allowance could afford. It was a heart-shaped necklace. I wrapped it in this mushy note I wrote, put it in an envelope and I left it on her desk in study hall.
The next day she passed by my desk and, as my heart beat loud enough to dance to, she silently left an envelope on my desk. There was a brief moment of excited anticipation, followed by one massive letdown. It was the envelope I'd given her with my note and my necklace inside. Uh-huh, I was crushed. She had rejected the love gift I'd spent everything on.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love That Won't Let You Down."
You know, God knows how that feels, because He's spent everything on His love gift for you and me. In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:32, it says, "He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all." And then in John 3:16 it says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."
You know, you can put your name in that verse. That's how deeply personal this love is. For example, for me it goes, "God so loved Ron (or put your name in there) that He gave His one and only Son that if (there's your name) will believe in Him, then (there's your name again) will not perish but have eternal life."
God knows the feeling of pouring out His love for us and having us just hand it back to Him. "Thanks, God, but no thanks. I'm not interested or I'm not ready." It's not a necklace we're rejecting. It's what the Bible calls "the gift of God (which) is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). In short, we are rejecting heaven. Because there's no way to get there except to have every wrong thing we've ever done forgiven. And there's no one who could do that but the man who died to pay for our sins. Jesus did the dying for the sinning we've done. Look what He spent on this gift!
Now, for too many, Valentine's Day and anniversaries are just reminders of how disappointing human love has been. Even a great love fails to fill that gaping hole in our heart. It's too big for any human to fill. The hole in our heart has Jesus' name on it. Here's what the Bible says, "we were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). And only He has the unloseable love that will anchor us and finally complete us.
It must hurt God a lot to have spent so much and then have us care so little. But He's a stubborn lover. He's back again today. He's offering His love to someone who's listening right now. Won't you respond to His love? Accept the gift He died to give you. Open your heart. Tell Him right where you are today, "Dear Jesus, thank you for the price you paid for me; for my sin. Today I give me to You."
Let me encourage you to go to our website if you're wanting to be sure you belong to Jesus. Because that's what that website's all about. That's ANewStory.com. This could be the day that you find the love that you've been looking for your whole life!