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Joel 1:10

Capitalism Is Biblical

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 13, 2023

When a nation loses its moral foundations, it is doomed, as history has taught us over and over. The clearest lesson is found in the Bible itself. Israel, God’s chosen people, were redeemed from slavery and set free to establish their own nation in their own land with their own precepts. Those precepts were found in the Bible. I’ve often compared America’s foundation with that of Israel. Though many argue about it, it seems that our nation was founded by many different religious expressions; the key to it all was the Judeo-Christian ethic that held them all together. We had Catholics, Episcopalians, Baptists, Puritans, and other groups. But they all held the Ten Commandments and the idea of Freedom of Religion as their core values. Without them, we would not have gotten very far. America is under great pressure to forfeit those values today in exchange for humanism, secularism, or socialism. If we don’t stand up for our values in this country, the same will happen to us that happened to Israel. Joel 1:10 tells us what the invading army did to their country, “The fields are destroyed; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.”

 The equivalent of “fields” in today’s America might be the source from which our livelihood comes. There are no more jobs, and the populace can no longer be supported by the works of their hands. The means of “sowing” have been destroyed. The ground mourns is a reference to the people who live on the earth. It’s not speaking of literal dirt unless it is referring to the dust from which man is made. No, it speaks of the result of sowing, i.e., reaping! The rewards from hard work, and sowing, are removed, and it is meaningless to put forth effort to produce anything of value. Wine is the symbol of joy over and over in the Bible. Rogers says that wine, as well as oil, “In the Bible, is an emblem, a symbol, of joy. For example, you read in Psalms 104:15: And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shine and bread which strengthen man’s heart. (Psalms 104:15) So, God here speaks of oil and bread and wine as that which gives joy and strength.”[1] With the loss of the means of production, followed by the lack of resources, comes the end of joy in life.

Biblical values upon which our nation was founded involve a profound commitment to capitalism. Sowing and reaping is the principle which establishes what has been called the American dream. It is worthwhile to work hard and put forth effort in life because you get exactly what you put forth. In America, one can advance his status, increase his standing in the community, improve his lifestyle, and even enjoy conveniences if he follows the simple rules of capitalism: sowing and reaping. I know there is a religious movement that argues for a more socialistic state, whereas the government takes care of its children regardless of their work ethic. This is one value that all the founders of America had in common, regardless of denominational preferences. Like Israel in the days of Joel, America is deserting its roots and listening to the voices of the liberal media and politicians who want to make America a socialist country. It’s interesting that about 70 years ago, Christianity Today published an article regarding the trends toward socialism. It says, “And at this point, Christian criticism cannot keep silent. For, even if influential Protestant clergymen during the past generation tried to make collectivism out to be Christian and Capitalism Satanic, they were false prophets. By their proclamations, they revealed that they misunderstood Christianity and that their devotion to the writings of Marx ran deeper than their fidelity to the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures. For Capitalism is biblical.”[2]

[1] Rogers, Adrian. 2017. “Jesus Is God’s Answer to Man’s Disappointment.” In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive, Jn 2:1–20:31. Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust.

[2] Christianity Today. 1956. “Christian Criticism and Labor’s Big Stick,” 1956.

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Hosea 1:8-9, Romans 9:25-26

You Are My Child!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 12, 2023

Gomer’s first illegitimate son was named “Jezreel,” as directed by God. He was so named because God was going to bring judgment on the house of Jehu at the Valley of Jezreel. Jehu had the 70 sons of Ahab beheaded in the valley of Jezreel and stacked their skulls up outside the city gates. The name  The next child of “whoredom” was named “Lo-Rahumah.” God directed the naming of this child also. The name means “No Mercy.” God will withdraw His mercy on the house of Israel, and they will be conquered by their enemies. But God was not through with naming the children of Gomer conceived in adultery. Verses 8 and 9 of the first Chapter of Hosea tells us, “When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, ‘Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.’” In Hebrew and in many English Bibles, we see that the name is literally “Lo-Ammi.” As expected, it means “not my people.”

I read a recent headline that told of a father who discovered his wife had an affair. He insisted that DNA samples be taken of their children to be sure they were his. Hosea, God’s prophet, did not need a DNA sample. He knew very well that Gomer’s children were not his. I can’t imagine what devastation would bring to a child to have their father say, “You are not my child, and I am not your father.” In the case of Israel, it meant more than physical identity. It looked back at the entire history of the Jewish race. The nation of people descended from Abraham was always considered God’s people. They considered YHWH their God. They considered themselves God’s people. God tells them through Hosea that He is not their God and they are not His people.

This was more than a statement of fact. Hosea knew that this child was not his, but he was directed to use this experience to inform the nation that they no longer represented the family values of the children of Israel. There is no family resemblance between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the nation that God had directed from Egypt to the promised land. The nation that became one under King David and then became the greatest nation on earth under King Solomon was no longer recognizable as the children of God. Kidner says, “From one angle, this oracle was simply factual: just as accurate as would have been Hosea’s disclaimer of paternity for his children. Israel might be nominally the Lord’s, but in fact, she was the child of her times and of her pagan world. Likewise, Yahweh might be nominally her national God, but since He is not for sharing, the presence of other gods flatly denied the relationship.”[1]

The Apostle Paul tells the Roman Gentiles, as well as us, that although they were not of the chosen people of God, God adopted them into his family. He quotes from Hosea in Romans 9:25-26, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children’ of the living God.’” Children of God are not so because of a bloodline. We are children of God because of faith in the only begotten son of God. God looks at anyone of any race who has come to faith in Jesus and says, “you are my child.”

[1] Kidner, Derek. 1976. The Message of Hosea: Love to the Loveless. Edited by J. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. England: Inter-Varsity Press.

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Daniel 2:1-11

God Does What God Does

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 11, 2023

Joel 2:28 says that old men will dream dreams while young men will see visions. Peter quotes this passage in Acts chapter 2 when he preaches to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. I’m sure its fulfillment is more significant than this, but I can’t help to observe that I no longer have any visions of what I might accomplish in life and have lost all my delusions of grandeur. That stuff is for younger men. But I sure do have a lot more dreams at night than I used to have. I might remember them when I first wake up, and sometimes they actually wake me up in the middle of the night. I sure hope they don’t purport the future. Some of them are pretty scary. Others are just downright stupid! Some of them are delightful, and I wish I could make them last longer. Usually, they are gone by the time I get my first cup of coffee. When I try to tell my wife about them, I can’t remember them. I suspect that Nebuchadnezzar was an older man when he had the dreams that he tells us about in Daniel 2:1-11. I think he had trouble remembering them, also. The text says, “In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, ‘I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.’ Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, ‘O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.’ The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, ‘The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation.’” The King’s wise men knew that they could not tell him what he had dreamed, but Nebuchadnezzar was adamant and repeated his challenge to them. They tell him, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

 If someone in my church during my days as a pastor made such a demand on me, I’d probably reply with the same answer. That’s impossible! I’ve not had such demands, but people have asked questions that I cannot answer.  There are some things, even as the king’s wise men said, that is known only by God. They are similar to the question, “Why do we have only two arms and not three?” That’s just the way it is. Why did God choose to reveal himself to us in a “trinity?” That’s just the way it is. This approach in itself teaches us an important lesson about interpreting the Book of Daniel (or any biblical book, for that matter). As Ferguson says, “We are not required to have all the answers to all the questions people may ask about the Bible. The fact that we cannot yet answer all questions is no reason for ceasing to believe it is God’s word any more than our imperfect knowledge of the working of the human body is a reason for ceasing to breathe.” He goes on to add that the “Thrilling message of Daniel 2 is that in this context, the kingdom of God will be established, grow, and ultimately triumph throughout the whole earth.” It’s very much like God to “Reveal His glorious purpose through the forgotten dream of Nebuchadnezzar. All of our instincts would tend to insist that God should give such revelation only through the most holy of men. He demonstrates, however, His ability to establish His purposes in the world by whatever means He pleases. That was why Daniel was able to say with such joy that it is the Lord who “changes the times and the seasons … removes kings and raises up kings” (2:21).[1]

[1] Ferguson, Sinclair B., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1988. Daniel. Vol. 21. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

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Ezekiel 1:10-11

Holy, Holy, Holy!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 10, 2023

Ezekiel was a slave in Babylon with the other Israelites, and they wept over the loss of their temple and their nation. They grieved by the rivers and sang songs of lament to God. They felt forsaken by their God! Ezekiel was given a vision of four living creatures coming from the eternal realm to the earthly realm to accomplish God’s will with His chosen people. God had not forsaken them. These creatures were unlike the gods of Babylon, mobile and capable of acting on behalf of God’s people. They had wings, legs, feet, and hands. All of which could affect change in the world. Ezekiel also sees into the character of these creatures. He tells us in Chapter 1, verses 10-11, “As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.”

 There has been a wide range of ideas associated with these four faces. The Bible Knowledge Commentator says, “Some interpreters feel that these represent intelligence (man), power (lion), service (ox), and swiftness (eagle). However, it seems better to see the faces as representing the highest forms of life in God’s created realm. A man was mentioned first because he was the acme of God’s creative work. He was followed by the lion, “king” among wild beasts; the ox, one of the strongest of domestic animals; and the eagle, the “lord” of the birds.”[1] Many ancient commentators attempted to connect each of these faces with one of the Gospels. Some modern writers do so, also. Jerome, in the third century AD, suggested that Matthew represents the face of a man, Mark represents the face of a lion, Luke represents an ox, and John represents an eagle.[2] One Messianic Jew says, “Ezekiel was not describing “chariots of the gods” or spaceships from outer space, but cherubim.[3] One might also notice that when Israel, in their wanderings in the wilderness, would set up camp in a square with four sides. The group that led the eastern side was Judah. The emblem of Judah was a lion. To the south was Ephraim. The emblem of Ephraim was the face of a man. To the north was Dan, represented by an eagle. To the west was Ruben, represented by an ox.[4]

In whatever way you might understand the four faces, The Apostle John, in his gospel, uses the same images to describe what he sees. The remarkable thing about John’s vision is that these creatures, apparitions, illustrations, angels, or whatever they might be called, are all singing a song. It goes like this, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

[1] Dyer, Charles H. 1985. “Ezekiel.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1228. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[2] Stevenson, Kenneth, and Michael Gluerup, eds. 2008. Ezekiel, Daniel. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[3] Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. 1983. The Messianic Bible Study Collection. Vol. 152. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries.

[4] Courson, Jon. 2006. Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume Two: Psalms-Malachi. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

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Lamentations 1:6, Proverbs 29:25

The Fear Of Man Is A Snare!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 9, 2023

The failure of Israel to listen to her prophets and repent of her sins against God brought the destruction of the nation at the hands of her enemies. Israel’s relationship with their God brought glory to them and made them a respected nation in the world. Although Solomon had his own problems, the nation prospered in an environment that promoted the worship of the one true God at the new Temple in Jerusalem. They were esteemed by all the nations around them. Leaders from all over the world came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon, which was based on “The fear of the Lord.” But after his death, the leaders turned away from God to worship the useless gods of the people around them. They wanted to be part of the landscape like all the other nations. They wanted to be accepted by those around them. They traded the “fear of the Lord” for the “fear of man.” In Lamentations 1:6, Jeremiah tells us what happens to those who exchange the “fear of the Lord” for the “fear of man.” He says, “From the daughter of Zion, all her majesty has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.”

 David’s son Solomon said in Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” When we see great failure in the Bible, it often involves the fear of man. Abraham feared Pharoah and Abimelech and twice lied about his wife being his sister to save his own life and to win approval. Isaac followed in his footsteps and did the same thing. While Moses was getting the ten commandments on Mount Sinai, Aaron was succumbing to the pressures of the people to build golden calves for them to worship. Saul feared man, and it caused his downfall. Even Elijah, the prophet of God, found himself hiding in a cave in fear for his life when Jezebel swore to kill him. It was the fear of man that moved Peter to deny Christ. Fear of the Pharisees caused Nicodemus to come at night to find Jesus. Solomon was right about the fear of man being a trap.

 The majesty of the nation of Israel, Zion, left her. The fear of man affected all of Israel from their early days when they began to seek acceptance from the peoples of the land. Even King David feared man and found himself suffering these consequences. When David fled from Saul, he sought acceptance from the Philistines. We learn that he scratched on the door of the gate and let the spittle run down his beard. Courson observes, “Poor David. The same guy who killed Goliath, the same one noted for courage and valor, is now falling prey to the fear of man, acting like an idiot. It’s tragic. It’s amazing to watch teenagers, adults, and even older people act like fools. It’s amazing to see people try to fit in because they’re afraid of men. It’s amazing to see people who, like David, love God and have seen victories in the Lord in times past, fearing man, look like idiots with spit running down their beards as they try to fit in and be cool.”[1]

[1] Courson, Jon. 2003. Jon Courson’s Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

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Jeremiah 7:27-28

Truth Has Perished!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 8, 2023

God called Jeremiah to confront the nation concerning the loss of its moral compass. They had been miraculously delivered from slavery in Egypt, taken to a new land, and given a constitution by which they were to live together. The center of their constitution consists of 10 commands which were to rule their lives. The moral influence of the nations around them corrupted their values and led them astray. God then sent the prophets to point the way back. The people would not hear them but continued on the deadly downward slope leading to destruction. Jeremiah was called to be one of the last prophets to proclaim God’s truth and call the people to repentance. God knew what the outcome would be. Jeremiah 7:27-28 tells us, “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.’”

This is the shocking indictment that God gave Jeremiah concerning the leadership in Israel. It was specifically directed to the religious leaders of the day: “Truth has perished!” This indictment “would make a suitable epitaph for our own post-Christian culture. Truth has vanished from our homes and our preachers’ lips.” Ryken tells us, “One writer who has taken up the lament is Os Guinness: Contemporary evangelicals are no longer people of truth.… A solid sense of truth is foundering in America at large. Vaporized by critical theories, obscured by clouds of euphemism and jargon, outpaced by humor and hype, overlooked for style and image, and eroded by advertising, truth in America is anything but marching on. With magnificent exceptions, evangelicals reflect this truth decay and reinforce it for their own variety of reasons for discounting theology. Repelled by ‘seminary theology’ that is specialized, professionalized, and dry, evangelicals are attracted by movements that have replaced theology with emphases that are relational, therapeutic, charismatic, and managerial (as in church growth). Whatever their virtues, none of these emphases gives truth and theology the place they require in the life and thought of a true disciple.” Ryken goes on to say, “Guinness is right. We are not people of the truth, and we do not live among people of the truth (cf. Isaiah 6:5). We have truth decay in the same places Jeremiah could detect it.”[1]

I first came across the phrase “how we live is more important than what we believe” on a chalkboard outside of a coffee shop last year. I shook my head, thinking the baristas should stick to coffee making. Since then, however, I’ve seen the idea pop up in all kinds of places. The evangelical church of today lives by that creed. They hold all kinds of social outreach programs: feeding the hungry, housing the poor, caring for those who have lost loved ones, helping the addicted, and a number of other social causes. Whereas these things are all good, I don’t think they are as important as what a person believes. They might win favor with the community and give one a sense of “doing good.” They do nothing to secure one’s eternal destiny. Christians, atheists, and people with all kinds of other beliefs help the homeless, give money to charities, participate in environmental causes, fight child abuse, advocate for crime victims, and much more. From a Christian perspective, how you live cannot be more important than what you believe—what you believe determines where you will spend eternity. God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten Son. Whoever “believes” in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

[1] Ryken, Philip Graham. 2001. Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

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Isaiah 1:9

Israel Proves There Is A God!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 7, 2023

God brought the consequences for Israel’s failure to them through the Babylonian and the Assyrian armies. Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom around 721 BC. Babylonia destroyed the Southern Kingdom, including the Jerusalem temple, around 586 BC. The destruction was horrible, and the invading armies were vicious and unmerciful in their treatment of the Jews. But there are still Jews today! Although scattered throughout the world, the Jews managed to maintain their national identity. This is the only case in history where such a people kept their heritage intact after being so thoroughly conquered. Some have argued that this in and of itself is evidence that there is a God. The odds of them surviving were so against them that their survival was seen as a miracle. Isaiah seems to agree with that as he tells of Israel’s survival. In Isaiah 1:9, we read, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” They credit their survival to the “Lord of Hosts.”

In Genesis, during the days of Abraham, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were powerful cities that God wiped off the earth in a single evening. It’s reminiscent of God’s destruction using the flood waters in Noah’s day. But God has recently promised not to destroy the world with a flood again, so he chose a different method for dealing with Sodom and Gomorrah. He used fire and brimstone. One website says, “Careful study of the Bible reveals that these two cities devolved into debauchery and violence. There was nothing they would not do, no person they were not willing to violate.” Further, they rejected all of God’s offers to repent. “God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for their wickedness, their lack of repentance, and to stop their evil from spreading.”[1] Sodom and Gomorrah were totally wiped out, and there is no remnant of the inhabitants other than Lot and his incestuous offspring, the Ammonites and the Moabites. But even those who survived after their flee from Sodom no longer exist today. This was the hand of God at work. He left no survivors.

The hand of God was also at work in the preservation of His people Israel. He did leave survivors. Just as prophesied, Babylon was conquered by the Persians. The rise of a new power contrary to Babylon arose to decide the future of nations according to the plan of God. Just as Biden reversed the policies of the former president, so to did Cyrus reverse the policies of Nebuchadnezzar. He sent captives back to the land to rebuild the city, the walls, and the temple of God in Jerusalem.

The work of the “Lord of Hosts” is still seen today. Although they were in exile again from 70 AD until the end of World War II, they still exist. Israel’s return to its homeland after 2,000 years of exile is a unique story in world history. It is miraculous. They are alive and well and occupying their own land again. There is huge resistance to their existence, but they are alive, flourishing with the support of most of the Western world powers. Their revival as a nation was totally dependent on immigrants. We have a major problem with immigration today. The mistreated masses are seeking asylum or a better way of life in the USA as well as other countries. But the immigrants to Israel in 1948 had spiritual motives. They wanted to help rebuild the place for God’s people.

A deeper dive into some of the details of what happened in 1948 reveals just how true that is. There were over a million Jews who made that move. A third of them were penniless Holocaust survivors whose entire families had just been murdered. To protect themselves from the hatred of the Arab world around them, 23,000 of them were conscripted into Israel’s new army as they landed and were given two weeks of military training. The others who came were refugees from Muslim countries where they had lived for centuries under severe persecution. They arrived destitute and devastated. Israel airlifted fifty thousand Jews from Yemen and a hundred and twenty thousand from Iraq. We have a very difficult time absorbing immigrants to the US today. But Israel has absorbed more immigrants per capita than any other country in history. The rebirth of Israel as a Nation proves there is a God and that God is the God of the Bible.

[1] Why Did God Destroy Sodom and Gomorrah – The Real Reason (biblestudytools.com)

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Song of Solomon 1:6-7

The Lover Of My Soul

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
November 6, 2023

Solomon’s lover is not a resident of the Palace in Jerusalem. She seems to be a farm girl charged with the responsibility of looking after her brothers’ crops. Unlike the girls in the palace, she is an outdoor girl who has been darkened by the sun. You can tell her status just by looking at her. Yet, she has reached the age where men look at her differently. This may explain Chapter 1, verses 6-7, “My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept! Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?” Garrett says, “She does not explain why her brothers were angry at her. It is certainly possible that this is a determination by her brothers to keep her chaste.” He refers to the later mention of her having “small breasts” in chapter 8. Garrett also looks at verse 12 of chapter 8, which implies “her sexuality is the issue here.” He then concludes, “At the least, one can say that the brothers represent authority figures who intrude into the lives of young lovers and prevent them from coming together.”[1]

Solomon is not writing this song as the rich son of the King of Israel. He’s just another shepherd boy experiencing his first love. He speaks for the girl in this verse of his song. This young lady wants to work on her own life. While she is charged with contributing to the prosperity of her brothers, she longs to begin her own life and cultivate and care for her own interests. She wants to start her own life. She looks forward to having her own family and raising her own fruit. Yet, the family doesn’t seem to want to let her go yet, but her heart is set on this guy, and she isn’t interested in anyone else. It reminds me of Katie from Trisha Yearwood’s song, “She’s in Love with the Boy.” There is no mention of Katie’s brothers, but her father doesn’t like the boy. “Her daddy says, “He ain’t worth a lick. When it comes to brains, he got the short end of the stick. But Katie’s young and man, she just don’t care. She’d follow Tommy anywhere. She’s in love with the boy. And even if they have to run away, She’s gonna marry that boy someday.”

Doesn’t this all sound like another rendition of the “Romeo and Juliet” saga? Shakespeare got that story from Arthur Broke, who got it from Matteo Bandello. It comes from an ancient Greek tragedy. It seems that nearly every culture has its story of young lovers who cannot bear to be apart even though their love is anathema for one reason or another. Solomon captures this story in the Song of Solomon. Since Solomon is such a young man in this song, it must be long before he is named King David’s heir. He was just the youngest of many half-brothers and sisters of the king. It is a saga of star-crossed lovers who will defy all the social conventions to be with one another. Others disapprove of their love for one reason or another, but nothing will stop them from pursuing each other. Their unwavering devotion to one another is often used to picture God’s unwavering love for sinners. I think that Jesus may have had this kind of devotion in mind when he talks about the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in the field to go after the one who went astray. He doesn’t give up until he finds the lost sheep. The Shepherd theme that Solomon uses in his song is not lost in the New Testament. Ryken observes, “This is a reminder that Jesus is the kind of shepherd who goes out to look for lost sheep and bring them back home. This is the meaning of the ‘Parable of the Found Sheep’ (Luke 15:3–7). The Good Shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep out in the open country to go and find one lost sheep. Psalm 23 records the testimony of that sheep once he has been found: ‘He restoreth my soul.’”[2]

[1] Garrett, Duane. 2004. Song of Songs, Lamentations. Vol. 23B. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas, TX: Word, Incorporated.

[2] Ryken, Philip Graham. 1999. Discovering God in Stories from the Bible. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

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