Max Lucado Daily: A BILLBOARD OF GOD’S GRACE - September 11, 2024
God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham’s heirs. Two words serve as subheads for this covenant: seed and soil. First, God promised to bless the seed of Abraham and bless the world through Abraham’s seed. The Lord had said to Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).
Why would God make such a covenant with Israel? Not because of anything Israel had to offer. God chose Israel for the same reason he chose you and me: grace. Sheer, sovereign grace. He simply chose them as his billboards of grace.
What Happens Next
Ezekiel 30
Egypt on Fire
1–5 30 God, the Master, spoke to me: “Son of man, preach. Give them the Message of God, the Master. Wail:
“ ‘Doomsday!’
Time’s up!
God’s big day of judgment is near.
Thick clouds are rolling in.
It’s doomsday for the nations.
Death will rain down on Egypt.
Terror will paralyze Ethiopia
When they see the Egyptians killed,
their wealth hauled off,
their foundations demolished,
And Ethiopia, Put, Lud, Arabia, Libya
—all of Egypt’s old allies—
killed right along with them.
6–8 “ ‘God says:
“ ‘Egypt’s allies will fall
and her proud strength will collapse—
From Migdol in the north to Syene in the south,
a great slaughter in Egypt!
Decree of God, the Master.
Egypt, most desolate of the desolate,
her cities wasted beyond wasting,
Will realize that I am God
when I burn her down
and her helpers are knocked flat.
9 “ ‘When that happens, I’ll send out messengers by ship to sound the alarm among the easygoing Ethiopians. They’ll be terrorized. Egypt’s doomed! Judgment’s coming!
10–12 “ ‘God, the Master, says:
“ ‘I’ll put a stop to Egypt’s arrogance.
I’ll use Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to do it.
He and his army, the most brutal of nations,
shall be used to destroy the country.
They’ll brandish their swords
and fill Egypt with corpses.
I’ll dry up the Nile
and sell off the land to a bunch of crooks.
I’ll hire outsiders to come in
and waste the country, strip it clean.
I, God, have said so.
13–19 “ ‘And now this is what God, the Master, says:
“ ‘I’ll smash all the no-god idols;
I’ll topple all those huge statues in Memphis.
The prince of Egypt will be gone for good,
and in his place I’ll put fear—fear throughout Egypt!
I’ll demolish Pathros,
burn Zoan to the ground, and punish Thebes,
Pour my wrath on Pelusium, Egypt’s fort,
and knock Thebes off its proud pedestal.
I’ll set Egypt on fire:
Pelusium will writhe in pain,
Thebes blown away,
Memphis raped.
The young warriors of On and Pi-beseth
will be killed and the cities exiled.
A dark day for Tahpanhes
when I shatter Egypt,
When I break Egyptian power
and put an end to her arrogant oppression!
She’ll disappear in a cloud of dust,
her cities hauled off as exiles.
That’s how I’ll punish Egypt,
and that’s how she’ll realize that I am God.’ ”
20 In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, God’s Message came to me:
21 “Son of man, I’ve broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And look! It hasn’t been set. No splint has been put on it so the bones can knit and heal, so he can use a sword again.
22–26 “Therefore, God, the Master, says, I am dead set against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will go ahead and break his other arm—both arms broken! There’s no way he’ll ever swing a sword again. I’ll scatter Egyptians all over the world. I’ll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong and put my sword in his hand, but I’ll break the arms of Pharaoh and he’ll groan like one who is mortally wounded. I’ll make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh shall go limp. The Egyptians will realize that I am God when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon. He’ll wield it against Egypt and I’ll scatter Egyptians all over the world. Then they’ll realize that I am God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Today's Scripture
Genesis 9:11-17
I’m setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth.”
12–16 God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.”
17 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I’ve set up between me and everything living on the Earth.”
Insight
In the Noahic covenant, God made an unconditional, eternal covenant—or promise—with all mankind and all living creatures to never again destroy the earth and all life by a flood (Genesis 9:9-11). To seal this covenant, God “set [his] rainbow in the clouds” (v. 13) as a visible symbol of His promise. The Hebrew word for rainbow, qesheth, is also translated “bow”—a weapon. One commentator notes: “In what is a radical reinterpretation of divine power, the bow ceases to function as a sign of God’s militancy and begins to function as a sign of God’s grace. A rainbow is a bow without an arrow.” While the rainbow gives us great encouragement today, assuring us of God’s mercy and grace, God actually set the rainbow as a reminder to Himself of His “everlasting covenant” with “all living creatures of every kind on the earth” (v. 16). By: K. T. Sim
Colors of Hope
I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Genesis 9:15
On September 11, 2023—the twenty-second anniversary of the attacks against the United States—a stunning double rainbow graced the skies above New York City. Home to the former Twin Towers, this city suffered the greatest losses in the attacks. More than two decades later, the double rainbow brought a sense of hope and healing to those who were there to see it. A video clip of the moment seemed to capture the rainbows emanating from the site of the World Trade Center itself.
Rainbows in the sky have brought an assurance of God’s faithfulness since the days of Noah. In the wake of God’s judgment of sin which resulted in unimaginable destruction, He set the colorful beacon as a visual reminder of “the everlasting covenant between [Himself] and all living creatures” (Genesis 9:16). After forty dark days of rain and months of flooding (7:17-24), one can only imagine how welcome the rainbow—“the sign of the covenant”—must have been to Noah and his family (9:12-13). It was a reminder of God’s faithfulness that “never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth” (v. 11).
When we face dark days and tragic losses—whether due to natural disaster, physical or emotional pain, or the plight of disease—let’s look to God for hope in the midst of it. Even if we don’t catch a glimpse of His rainbow in those moments, we can be assured of His faithfulness to His promises. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
How has God revealed His presence to you during difficult seasons of life? Who might need to hear your story today?
Father God, please help me to see You in the midst of my struggles today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Ministering as Opportunity Surrounds Us
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. — John 13:14
Ministering as opportunity surrounds us doesn’t mean choosing our surroundings; it means ministering wherever God places us. The characteristics we manifest now, in our immediate surroundings, show God what we’ll be like in other surroundings.
It takes all of God’s power in me to do commonplace things in the way God would do them. When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he was performing work of the most menial and commonplace kind, yet the way he performed it made it holy. Can I use a towel in the way Jesus used a towel? Towels and dishes and all the other ordinary stuff of life reveal what I’m made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty in me to do my chores in the way they ought to be done.
“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15). Watch the kind of people God brings around you. You will be humiliated to discover that this is his way of revealing to you the kind of person you’ve been to him. He is telling you to treat the people in your life as he has treated you. “Oh,” you say, “I’ll treat people as I should when I’m out ministering in the world.” That would be like trying to produce the munitions of war in the trenches; you’d be killed while you were doing it.
We have to go the second mile with God. Some of us get worn out in the first ten yards, because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way. “I’ll wait to obey until I get nearer the big crisis,” we say. We have to obey now. If we don’t practice walking steadily in the little things, we will do nothing in the crisis.
Proverbs 10-12; 2 Corinthians 4
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Awe is the condition of a man’s spirit realizing Who God is and what He has done for him personally. Our Lord emphasizes the attitude of a child; no attitude can express such solemn awe and familiarity as that of a child.
Not Knowing Whither, 882 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
It's Time to Stand - #9828
At first, they were frightened, even bruised faces appearing on Iraqi TV. Early in the Iraq War, there were seven American soldiers and pilots who had been captured by Saddam Hussein's forces and then they were paraded on television for all the world to see. After that, none of us could be sure whether they were hurt or healthy, or dead or alive. Since then, in many wars, there have been too many scenes like that. In this case, retreating enemy soldiers informed American troops of the place where these particular POWs were being held. As the heavily armed soldiers burst into the room, they first shouted for everyone to lie down on the floor. And then, they yelled out an unmistakable command: "If you're an American, stand up!" Seven prisoners stood up, and they were free.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It's Time to Stand."
I believe Jesus is issuing a command to you and me that sounds very much like what those POWs heard. Except it's not about being an American - oh no, it's something much higher, much more eternal. Jesus is saying to all those who claim that they belong to Him, "If you're a Christian, stand up!"
Why? Because so few really are. I mean some surveys show that 90% of those who know Christ never tell anyone else about Him. Something is really wrong in this picture. Listen to Paul's challenge in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Timothy 1:7-8. "God did not give us a spirit of timidity (or it says fear in other translations), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord..." Thank God, our Lord wasn't ashamed of us when He died publicly on a cross for us. He expects us to stand up. Why are so many of us lying low instead?
This willingness to identify ourselves openly with Jesus is so important to Him that He actually says in Mark 8:38, "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory..." For your relationship with Jesus to remain a secret is just not acceptable in light of the price He paid for you. To have information that can save a life and then keep that information to yourself, that's criminal negligence.
To know that Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead is a person's only eternal hope, and then fail to tell that to the people you know, that's quietly issuing them a spiritual death sentence. You could have rescued them. You left them to die without knowing how they could have lived.
Standing up for Jesus means more than just telling about Him. You've got to live for Him. Like they say in first grade, you've got to show and tell. And there may be compromises you're making or sins you won't relinquish that are discrediting Jesus, confusing some lost person who's watching you.
We've all been to enough funerals to know that the people around us aren't going to be there forever. And they can be gone so quickly - gone into an eternity that they're either ready for or fatally unready for. If you know Jesus, you know how to help them get ready. But just because you're a nice person doesn't mean they're ever going to figure out that Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sin. You have to tell them that.
Ask God to open up some natural opportunities to bring up your relationship with Jesus. He'll give them to you. Ask Him to open the heart of the one you're talking to. Ask Him to open your mouth; to give you the approach to use, and the words, and the courage to speak. This is life-or-death stuff, and God has placed you in the life of someone who desperately needs His Son. He's placed you there so you could show them Jesus so you can tell them about Jesus.
So, if you're a Christian, if you belong to Jesus, stand up!