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Micah 1:2-3, John 3:17-18

Here Comes the Judge!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 22, 2023

I remember Miss McNamara at Blessed Sacrament School in about 1955. She would come into the room and clap her hands real loud to make us 4th graders settle down. She had to get our attention, but it never worked. Then she would rap her desk with her pointer. We would all hear it but never took it seriously until Sister Emily walked into the room. We had all been pulled by the ear or had our hands slapped with rulers, or our arms nearly ripped out of their joints by sister Emily.  She had a powerful effect on us. Miss McNamara hadn’t earned that kind of respect yet. The boys making the trouble, me included, would all sit down and shut up then. When Sister Emily was around, we knew immediately that she meant business. Most of the Old Testament prophets are like Miss McNamara. They shouted out their warnings to the world but the bad boys didn’t listen. The interesting thing about the Prophet Micah is that they did listen to him. They repented of their sins which postponed God’s judgment on the people for over a hundred years.

Micah called for their attention and like Sister Emily, he got it. This is clear in Micah 1:2-3, “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.” Prior says, “The double command to hear and to listen, issued with such peremptory suddenness at the beginning of Micah’s prophecy, is directed to you peoples and addressed to the earth, and all that is in it (2). Everyone and everything in the entire world is required to pay attention to these words. They may be concerned with one small area at one specific point in time, but they contain crucial lessons for all people at any time.”[1]

We often view God as being way off in space and removed from the daily events of the world and our personal lives. Yes, God is transcendent in his glory and majesty, but He is not removed from the events in our world and has promised justice to all people. He will appear in history. Kaiser says, “Here is the great Old Testament theme of theophany, the appearance of God. It depicts our Lord suddenly coming in all His power and majesty to help His beleaguered people or to dispense justice regardless of the persons upon whom that judgment must come. So awesome is His presence that even nature itself threatens to come apart as it responds to Him.”[2] Those who listen and repent can be saved. Those who reject the message will meet Sister Emily. Of course, this is a minor illustration of the vast destruction God’s judgment will bring to the “bad boys.” God breaks into the events of history to either save people or to judge them for their sins. After affirming God’s love for the whole world, John 3:17-18 tells us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

[1] Prior, David. 1988. The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God. Edited by J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Kaiser, Walter C., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1992. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Vol. 23. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

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Jonah 1:3, Acts 10:28

The Wonderful Grace of Jesus

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 21, 2023

God called Jonah to go to a pagan nation and call them to repent. We’re seeing here God’s focus on the salvation of the gentile nations. God has love for “all” the people of the world, but Jonah does not share that affection for the sinners in Nineveh. Instead, we read in Jonah 1:3, “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian nation. That nation would be the one that would conquer the northern kingdom of Israel and scatter the ten tribes of Israel to the world. They then would settle the land with their own people as well as those taken from other parts of the world. We end up with the land of the northern kingdom being occupied by foreigners who would intermarry with the remnant of the Israelites that remained in the land. These are the ancestral roots of the Samaritans of Jesus’ day. Jonah represents the attitude of the religious Jew toward the gentile people around them. This attitude persisted throughout history. Jews, like Jonah, would go out of their way not to have any contact with their neighboring Gentiles.

How can a supposed “prophet” of God disregard God’s call on his life? But Jonah does just that. Richison writes, “This is the only occasion in the Old Testament where a prophet refused to do the will of God.  God told Jonah to ‘go’ and he went all right – in the opposite direction…Tarshish was 2500 miles to the West in the southern tip of Spain.  It was a merchant city.  Nineveh was 550 miles to the northeast while Spain was 2000 miles to the West.  Jonah was willing to go four times as far out of the will of God as he was in the will of God!”[1] I can’t help but compare Jonah with Peter as we read in Acts chapter 10.  Peter is called to go to Cornelius, a gentile living in Caesarea. Being a good Jew who would have nothing to do with gentiles, needed his own “great fish” to move him from this prejudice. God sent a vision of unclean foods and commanded Peter to eat. Peter professed his determination never to break the laws by participating in such feasts. God tells Peter never to call something unclean that God has cleansed. After visiting with Cornelius and his family, Peter finally gets God’s message. Peter says to them in Acts 10:28, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” Jesus made this clear also in the Gospel of John where he met the Samaritan woman at the well. She was stunned that a Jew would have anything to do with her. Jesus offered this gentile woman the water of life from which if she would drink, she would never thirst again.

It’s the same offer to all people in the world today. God so loved the world that he sent his Son, Jesus to die for their sins. Does God love gentiles? Yes. He loved the gentiles in Nineveh. He loves the gentiles in Caesarea. He loves the gentiles in Samaria. He loves the gentiles in the USA. He loves all people. He demonstrated the depth of that love on the cross where when we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What matters to you and me is that God’s love reaches us. God was reaching out to the gentiles in Nineveh with Jonah. He was reaching out to those in Caesarea through Peter. His love is still reaching out today. Right through the chaos of modern life and the confusion in our minds, Christ is reaching out to us. One of our favorite old hymns was written by Haldor Lillenas in 1918. You’ll still hear it sung occasionally today, “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin; how shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free, for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.”

[1] Richison, Grant. 2006. Verse by Verse through the Book of Jonah. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems.

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Obadiah 1:2-4, Proverbs 16:18-19

Pride Precedes a Fall!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 20, 2023

Edom, Ammon, and Moab were the permanent enemies of Israel. They exchanged control of the area as one rose in power and the other fell. When Israel and Judah had hard times, Edom would align themselves with Israel’s enemies and enjoy a season of victory. This seems to have been part of the story of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah especially. God would send prophets against them when they abused the two nations of God’s people. Obadiah is the prophet God sent to Edom. I always remember that because of the little saying, “Edom was bad, so God sent Obadiah.” There was something about Edom that caused them to be the more disliked nation in the area. It was probably because of Obadiah’s word from God about them. Obadiah 1:2, speaking for God, says, “Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.” They were boastful and arrogant, and God wanted them to know that He would humble them. They lived in a very safe environment and thought nothing and no one could reach them.

Edom was an ancient people group that inhabited the land south of Judah and the Dead Sea. The Edomites, also called Idumeans, descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. They were of great historical importance as descendants of both Isaac and Abraham. The word Edom in Hebrew means “red,” a reference to Esau’s reddish look at birth and possibly the “red” stew that he traded his blessing for. Yet, despite their shared ancestry, the Edomites and Israelites lived in almost perpetual conflict. In Genesis, we learn that while Israel was a slave in Egypt, Edom established a nation of its own and became a force in its own right. The prominent city in Edom was Petra. This city, accessible only through a narrow canyon within cavernous mountain walls, was featured in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. God’s prophecy against Edom came as a result of their constant hatred of Israel during the time Israel came back from Egypt. They had prospered while Israel was gone and had no intention of letting them come back from Egypt and take over the promised land. In the fifth century B.C., a people called the Nabateans defeated the Edomites and removed them from Petra. The Edomites were forced to move south of Israel to an area that would become known as Idumea. In the New Testament, Herod the Great, who commanded the murder of all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem was an Idumean. He is the last of the Edomites to be mentioned in history.

Proverbs 16:18-19 give us some great advice. The Edomites might have survived had they paid heed to it. It says, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Talking about this passage in Proverbs, a web blogger says, “The Edomites serve as a classic example of the adage, ‘pride goes before a fall.’ Because of the arrogance of heart, Edom fell never to rise again: ‘The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down declares the LORD” (See Obadiah 1:3–4). Many biblical prophets echo this theme: ‘The proud one shall stumble and fall, with none to raise him up’ (Jeremiah 50:32, ESV; see also Isaiah 28:3; Ezekiel 31:10–12; Zephaniah 3:11; Zechariah 10:11).”[1]

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/pride-goes-before-a-fall.html

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Amos 1:1-2, Psalm 18:13, Job 37:5

God Roars!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 19, 2023

In 1 Kings 19:12, we read that God speaks to Elijah in a “still small voice.” But Elijah was expecting to hear from God in the “great strong wind.” Then he listened for God to speak in an earthquake and then in a fire. We really can’t blame Elijah for expecting to hear from God in the wind, earthquake, and fire. The Psalmist tells us that God speaks that way when he needs to get our attention. Psalm 18:13, “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones, and coals of fire.” Job confirms this also. In Job 37:5, “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.” We have more biblical evidence of God speaking from fire, thunder, and other calamities than we have of His “still small voice.” C. S. Lewis said, “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[1] We hear God speak in the opening verses of Amos with his megaphone. Amos 1:1-2 says, “The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said: ‘The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”

Amos held no official title in Israel. He was just a Shepherd of Tekoa, and not a very significant one because the text points out that he was “just one of the many” among the shepherds of Tekoa. He was a common person, like you reading this, and me writing this. Yet, he saw something that others could, or would not see. Notice that the “words” of Amos, are described as being those that he “saw” during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The thing to notice about this timing is that it was the most prosperous time in both NNatio’’shistories. Amos was from Judah but prophesied against the northern Kingdom of Israel where Jeroboam II reigned. It was a prosperous time, but an evil time for Jeroboam II continued the pagan worship begun by his namesake, Jeroboam I.

It doesn’t take a college degree to recognize the similarities between Amos’ day and ours. We face very similar problems. Jesus himself addressed the dangers of prosperity on several occasions. He warns us much more about the dangers of pleasures than the dangers of pain. True, I’ve seen many who have turned from God because of pain in their lives, but I agree with John Piper who says, that more are lured away from God by their pleasures. Pleasures seldom awaken people to their need for God; pain often does.  The first danger of prosperity is complacency. I’ve seen many churches with huge endowments and debt-free buildings forget about their mission of making disciples. Another problem is arrogance. Prosperity often leads us to wrongly believe there is some kind of quality in us that makes us better than others. The third danger of Prosperity is self-sufficiency. Full barns often lead us to think we don’t need anyone, including God. All three of these dangers are addressed by Amos. But Amos was alert to the fact that God wanted to break through all the luxury and financial security and prosperity in the land. Thus Amos tells us that “God Roars.”  Of all the things in that agricultural economy that could not be ignored was a roaring lion. That’s the picture that Amos uses to describe God’s message to the healthy and the wealthy nations.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/422142-we-can-ignore-even-pleasure-but-pain-insists-upon-being

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Joel 1:3-4, John 3:38, 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11

Fear or Comfort

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 18, 2023

God brought Pharaoh to his knees with a locust plague. It was of such devastation that the Egyptians urged Pharoah to let the Israelites go. He eventually did. I don’t think that generation of Egyptians ever forgot talking about the great locust plague. I’m sure their descendants talked about it also. Wow, just think, thousands of years later, I’m still talking about it! Israel, however, had the story of their own locust plague to talk about. Joel 1:3-4 says, “Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children to another generation.  What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” Here I am again, over a thousand years later, talking about the locust plague that Joel speaks of.

Israel has had other locust plagues. Guzik described a more recent one of just a little over a hundred years ago in such a way as to help understand the different kinds of locusts involved in the plague. “In 1915 a devastating plague of locusts covered what is modern-day Israel and Syria. The first swarms came in March, in clouds so thick they blocked out the sun. The female locusts immediately began to lay eggs, 100 at a time. Witnesses say that in one square yard, there were as many as 65,000 to 75,000 eggs. In a few weeks, they hatched, and the young locusts resembled large ants. They couldn’t fly yet and got along by hopping. They marched along 400 to 600 feet a day, devouring every speck of vegetation along the way. After two more stages of molting, they became adults who could fly—and the devastation continued.”[1]

The locusts were used by Joel as a picture of a coming army to destroy the southern kingdom of Judah. The image presents one of total destruction. Nothing would be left. By most reckonings, his prophecy was around 835 BC. This would have been during the reign of the wicked daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Athaliah reigned in Judah for six or seven years and advanced Baal worship in the nation. It was the darkest time of Judah’s early history. Joel along with his contemporary, Elisha, was successful. With the advent of Joash and the next few Kings of Judah, Baal worship was suppressed, and Temple worship of God was restored. But the later kings backslid again, and eventually, Judah was destroyed by the locusts of the Babylonian army.

This warning is appropriate for every generation. All succeeding generations face the same dilemma. God takes note of all sinful behavior and offers along the way in life opportunities to repent. But one day, there will be no more opportunities. Fausett says, “The judgments of God are mutually united as the links of a chain, each link drawing on the other; and yet so arranged that at each successive stage time and space are allowed for the averting of the succeeding judgment by repentance.”[2] John the Baptist and Jesus came upon the scene preaching repentance.” Repentance for Judah meant turning back from the worship of foreign gods to the true God of Israel and the Temple sacrifices as prescribed in the Law. Jesus fulfilled the sacrifices for you and me and repentance for us means recognizing the truth of our sinful state and turning to Jesus for Salvation. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Those who have come to faith in Jesus need not fear God’s wrath. 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” The prophets that speak of God’s judgment bring either fear or comfort. The unbelieving should feel fear. The believing find comfort. John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

[1] Guzik, David. 2000. Joel. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

[2] Patterson, Richard D., and Andrew E. Hill. 2008. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 10: Minor Prophets, Hosea–Malachi. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

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Hosea 1:2, Romans 5:8

God’s Deep Love!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 17, 2023

Hosea is a story of a broken heart. God’s people, whom he loves with undying love, have abandoned him for other lovers. Verse two tells us that God relates the unfaithful wife of Hosea with the unfaithful children of Israel. Hosea 1:2 says, “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’” Israel did not appreciate the depth of God’s love for them. They did not return His love for them. They wanted the pleasure & excitement of playing the field instead of the blessings of a wholesome and honest monogamous relationship.  With Hosea’s life, God held up a mirror in which His people could see and appreciate what they’ve done to Him. Hosea 1:2 says, (My Paraphrase) God told Hosea, “Your wife will never be faithful to you. She will conceive and bear children from other men, but not for you. Her promiscuity will make you a laughingstock to the world.  But more importantly, because of your deep love for her, her affairs will break your heart. This will illustrate how my people have treated me.”

God’s deep love for His people is the central theme of Hosea! But our hard-heartedness blocks the flow of God’s love. We yearn for the “strange fire” of the gods of the people in the land. We see the idols of possessions, pleasure, and prestige and follow after them. We yearn for (maybe just secretly) the “strange flesh” of other lovers, just as Gomer (Hosea’s wife) did.  The only way to live like this is to block out God’s great love for us. The whole picture presented to us in the book of Hosea has one profound point. “It is obvious that God is using an analogy between the prophet’s experience of disloyalty and God’s experience of disloyalty with Israel! However, the real purpose is to reveal the broken heart and forgiving love of YHWH. Hosea’s great truth is the undeserved, faithful, lasting love of God!”[1]

Israel never got the point! They continued in their whoredoms until the destruction of both the Northern and then the Southern Kingdoms. The Temple was utterly destroyed and the children of Israel were taken off as prisoners and slaves. But God still didn’t desert them. He called them back into their land where they rebuilt the temple. Yet, God’s love was not understood. They focused on law and regulations and rituals thinking that would please God, but they missed the point of God’s love. This is why Jesus was the climax of God’s plan. As Romans 5:8 tells us, “God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus came to break through the hard-heartedness of man. God so loved us that He sent His only son to die for us. I remember holding my baby son and my baby grandson. It strikes me that God, in the very person of His son, took on the form of a baby for the very purpose of inspiring our love for Him rather than an obligation to Him.  As I think of the soft little hands of my son, I can’t imagine having nails driven through them. The chubby little feet being nailed to a cross repulses me. And his beautiful little head having a crown of thorns smashed down upon it is a nightmarish thought. His little body, in his “Gramma is out of this world” jumpsuit would be pierced by a ssoldier’sspear. Water and blood would flow from his side, the symbol of a broken heart. My sins broke God’s heart, may his death on the cross, soften mine!

[1] Utley, Bob. 2006. Eighth Century Minor Prophets: Amos, Hosea, Jonah, and Micah. Study Guide Commentary Series. Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.

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Daniel 1:3-4

The Seductions of Babylon

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 16, 2023

Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make Babylonians out of the Jews. He could have learned an important lesson from Moses. Pharoah’s daughter plucked him out of the Nile, adopted him as her own, gave him an Egyptian name, raised him in Pharoah’s household, educated him in the best courts and schools of Egypt, and gave him a place of great honor in the country. But he was not assimilated into the Egyptian culture. He chose instead to identify with the people of God. But notice that Moses was the exception. Most of the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt once hardships began. They couldn’t get over the “leeks and melons” of Egypt. All but two of Moses’ generation died in the wilderness longing for Egypt. I can’t help but wonder if Nebuchadnezzar knew Moses’ story. He tried to change the worldview of the Israelite youth also. Daniel 1:3-4 says, “Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.”

There are a lot of strange names to our ears in the Old Testament. The book of Daniel has more than its share. One of those names is “Ashpenaz.” He was the “Chief official over Nebuchadnezzar’s school for training the bureaucrats who administered the Babylonian Empire, who was responsible for the training and instruction of Daniel and his companions.”[1] He would change Daniel’s name as well as the names of others who went to his school. He was charged with teaching them the Babylonian culture and history. Smith says, “By putting them in another place, and filling their minds with another learning, and calling them by another name, he was attempting to erode the roots of their distinctive faith in God so that at the end of three years in the royal college, they would emerge with flying colors and a thoroughly Babylonian worldview. They would still be Jews, of course, but they would think, act, behave, and respond exactly like Babylonians.”[2]

Ashpenaz is in America today! The secular education system in America has followed that path and is using the tactics of Nebuchadnezzar. It took a while to get here, but here we are. Most education in early America was private. The exception to this was the public schools in New England. However, even these were run by the local community. They were founded by Christians, and teachers prayed in class and used the Bible for instruction. But today in our much larger public school system, prayer and religious instruction are not allowed. So what happened? Local schools came under increased state control in the mid-1800s and were proclaimed to be religiously “neutral.” But in reality, Christian education had been replaced with agnosticism, and the schools would be thoroughly secularized within 100 years. The Supreme Court put the final nail in the coffin in the 1960s by federally banning prayer and the Bible in schools.[3]  Many parents learned during the pandemic that the main curriculum at public schools was not reading, writing, and, arithmetic. It was the woke culture of the liberal left. It was the gender blender agenda of the gay community. It was the rewriting of American History to suit the demands of minority groups. It was the pervasive focus on sex education at the earliest possible point in children’s lives. “The strategy is very simple. Intoxicate the people of God with the sheer fascination and splendor of this world. Spread the assumption that what they believe could not be true. Gradually erode their distinctive practices and values, and it will not be long before they are so assimilated into the culture that their distinctive calling to live for the glory of God will simply be overwhelmed.” There may be some heroes like Daniel who can resist the draw of the world, but they will be the exception, not the rule.” Most will be unable to resist the seductions of Babylon.[4]

[1] Richards, Larry. 1999. Every Man in the Bible. Nashville: T. Nelson.

[2] Smith, Colin S. 2002. Unlocking the Bible Story. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

[3] https://teachdiligently.com/articles/the-secularization-of-american-public-schools

[4] Smith, Colin S. 2002. Unlocking the Bible Story. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

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Ezekiel 1:1-3, Hebrews 1

The Heavens have opened to us!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 15, 2023

 The “opening of heaven” is mentioned several times in the Bible. To bring about the flood, the windows of the heavens were opened (Gen. 7:11).  The heaven opened at Christ’s baptism, and God spoke. (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21; John 1:51). Heaven opened to Stephen at his death, and Jesus stood to welcome the first martyr home (Acts 7:56). Heaven opened before Peter. A blanket of unclean animals was lowered for Peter to eat from (Acts 10:11). In the Gospel of John, he saw the heavens open and was given a vision of God on his throne. He also saw the heavens open in Revelation 19:11. Malachi calls the people to give their full tithe to God. If they do that, God says, “See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven (Mal. 3:10).” Ezekiel recounts the heavens opening to him in the first three verses of the chapter. It says, “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”

It doesn’t tell us how we, too, can see the heavens open to give us a glimpse of God or a revelation of the future. Some ancient Jewish prophets, referring to an inter-testamental book, “The Testament of Levi,” argue that there is a process by which we can entice a vision from God. It might be the source of theurgy. Theurgy is the “Manipulation of the supernatural through certain rites, deeds, and incantations.”[1] Some Jews had formalized the process. “What begins in the Testament of Levi as a description of what Levi did that brought about the vision (meditate, pray, sleep) eventually becomes, in the Hekhalot, a set of prescriptions for the visionary ascent.”[2] There are even some Christian sects that practice certain routines thought to manipulate God’s behavior. Prayer is sometimes presented as the means by which God guarantees a specific action. The New Testament teaches that if we pray according to “God’s will,” it will happen. Since God wants none to perish, to pray for the salvation of someone guarantees that they will eventually come to faith. There is a thin line between the power of prayer and theurgy.

There are no rituals or routines we need today to see God.  The heavens have been opened to you and me. Duguid explains, “All this is possible because to us too, in our contemporary exile, God speaks and reveals himself. Whereas in the past, he spoke to the exiles through the prophet, now, in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus (Heb. 1:1–2). In the coming of Jesus, God has definitively drawn aside the curtain and revealed his heavenly purpose to all of his people—that in all things, God is working for the good of those who love him so that in Christ we may ultimately be more than conquerors (Rom. 8:28, 37). As we look around us, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Jesus (Heb. 2:8). That is part of the experience of living in exile. But by faith, we do see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of the Father, and believe that our present suffering is part of God’s perfect plan to mold us into the image of the one who suffered first for us (2:9–10).”[3]

[1] Kurian, George Thomas. 2001. In Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary: The Authoritative Resource on the Christian World. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] Manning, Gary T., Jr. 2004. Echoes of a Prophet: The Use of Ezekiel in the Gospel of John and in Literature of the Second Temple Period. London; New York: T&T Clark International.

[3] Duguid, Iain M. 1999. Ezekiel. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

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