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“Is God unjust?” asks Paul in Romans 9. A rhetorical question to be sure, but when we read the story of Jacob, Paul understood the conclusion we might be tempted to draw. Jacob, the beloved. How could God say, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Paul says this is not unjust. “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.” Could this not be the source of Jacob’s worship as he leaned over his staff while blessing Joseph’s sons? Jacob, the heal-grabbing cheater. He who had connived and contended from birth— into birthrights, into marriage, into wealth, who had striven with God Himself, this Jacob-turned-Israel, at the end of his life must have pondered in awe the mercies of the Lord. Until his dying day, we see Jacob summoning his own strength and will, and yet all along it was God who acted in mercy to fulfill His promises to Jacob and not to his twin. Every one of God’s promises to Jacob was fulfilled; the land, the offspring, God’s presence, His keeping, and His bringing back. Were not these fulfilled promises on Jacob’s mind as he leaned over his staff in worship when blessing Joseph’s sons? Jacob, the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac, the buyer of birthrights, the unworthy recipient of Isaac’s blessing and of God’s, the blesser of his own sons and Joseph’s— in the very act of blessing his descendants, leaned on his staff in worship. Was he perhaps reminded of the one promise he had received that had yet to be fulfilled? That in him and his offspring “shall all the families of the earth be blessed?” Jacob, the worshipper. Why did the writer of Hebrews introduce this new detail of Israel’s life story? The striving, contending, heal grabbing cheater, at the end of his life once more summons his strength, this time to bless his descendants. But Israel’s strength is spent. He leans on his staff in worship of the only One in whom he, and all we who contend with God, can find true rest. In the promised descendant of Jacob, through whom all families on earth would be blessed, Jesus Christ.

It’s one of the most disturbing accounts in scripture. A man is told by God to take his only son and sacrifice him on an alter. And the man does it. Well almost. Just as the knife is raised the man is stopped before the slaughter begins. What kind of God would tell a father to do that? What kind of God would let him almost carry it through? The image of a father sacrificing his son is too horrific to even understand. But the horror of our rebellion against our loving, holy Creator required exactly that kind of a sacrifice. We like to think of the cross as a thing of beauty, a means of bringing us the eternal life that we sometimes deep down inside think we deserve. But such a punishment could only be demanded for crimes of the worst magnitude. When Abraham, with knifed hand upraised, looked back and saw the ram caught in the thicket, he was looking back at a promise given generations earlier that an offspring of Eve would crush the head of the enemy. But that victory over sin and death would come at an unimaginable price. God Himself would have to provide the perfect sacrifice and the only one who could qualify would be His Only Son. In perfect obedience Jesus Christ, offspring of Abraham, would lay His life down on the alter. And in perfect holiness and love, God the Father would slay Him through the hands of the very sinners Christ was dying to save. That was the promise of that Moriah mount fulfilled on Calvary’s hill. “Abraham called the name of that place, ‘THE LORD WILL PROVIDE;’ as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” #advent #reformedtheology #adventactivities #adventmusic #messiah #adventdevotional #hymns

Does anyone else find it remarkable that all Abraham does is believe and the Lord declares him righteous? God appears to this virtual pagan and basically says 3 things: “Fear not,” “I am your shield,” and “Your reward shall be great.” Abraham then responds like this: “Keep your reward,” “I have no kids,” “My heir is a servant,” and “It’s your fault.” But God gives him this amazing promise anyway, that his offspring would be numbered like the stars in the heavens. Abraham actually believes him and BOOM! Just like that he’s counted as righteous. God then seals His promise with a covenantal ceremony, which Abraham sleeps through. The point I’m trying to make, and which Abraham continually proves through a series of moral foibles, is that Abraham’s righteousness, depends 100% on God’s declaring him such. God didn’t have to provide a way of redemption for Abraham or for us. When certain angels rebelled, He didn’t work up a plan of salvation for them. And according to James 2:19, even the demons believe that God is one! But James continues that Abraham believed God and it was credited it to him as righteousness, and not only that, he was called God’s friend! Obviously, there are 2 kinds of belief here. There’s a knowledge of God that according to Romans 1:19-21, everyone on earth possesses, and there is a saving faith that James makes clear is evidenced by the fruit it bears in the life of the believer. How does one kind of belief produce the fruit of good works and one kind only lead to the shuddering of the demons? Is it not because of the declaration of righteousness by God? I don’t know about you, but I just don’t feel all that comfortable resting on my own belief in God as the means to my salvation. God has to declare me righteous and the way He does that is through the perfect sacrifice of His own Son, the very Son that would be born through Abrahams family line. It’s through the righteousness of Jesus Christ that I can say with Abraham and the writer of today’s hymn, “He by Himself hath sworn, I on His oath depend.” (After singing The God of Abraham Praise, listen to Handel’s Messiah selection “For unto us a child is born…”) #advent #reformedtheology

After getting caught in a lightening storm while backpacking in the High Sierra, my brother started taking clouds very seriously. One glimpse of a distant puffy white apparition, and inevitably he would be packing up and heading down the mountain. His caution was certainly warranted and reminds me very much of how Noah’s family must have felt the first time they saw clouds gathering again after stepping forth onto a deluge devastated earth. Prior to the flood, Earth’s water canopy had maintained a rather greenhouse-like atmosphere, likely void of stormy weather. Imagine the trauma when the floodgates opened and all that water came crashing down. Not to mention the visual manifestation of God’s wrath when those 8 survivors saw the world as they had known it, utterly changed by the seismic activity of the fountains of the deep bursting forth. It must have been with fear and trembling that they first stepped forth on that ruined, yet remade earth. But God in His mercy, with great compassion, placed a bow in those ominous clouds; a bow not pointed at the earth in perpetual wrath, but hung up as it were, in a posture of peace. This was their reminder that when the fearful clouds came and the rain started falling again, that it would not be for the destruction of but for the nourishment of the earth. What a comfort the sight of that rainbow must have been for Noah’s family ever after. Perhaps stormy weather has you, like the weeping prophet of Lamentations 3:12, feeling that God had “bent His bow and set me as a target for His arrows.” But the rainbow helps us all call to mind verses 21-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And dear friend, the rainbow only tells half the story. Did you know that from a heavenly perspective a rainbow is actually a complete circle? ... Click on over to www.comelordjesus.wordpress.com to read the rest of this post. And after singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness, listen to Handel’s Messiah selections “There sound is gone out…”) #advent #reformedtheology #adventmusic #adventdevotional #adventactivities

“Noah’s Ark, Noah’s Flood, Lot’s of Water, Lot’s of Mud.” So reads the rather simplistic title of one of our favorite children’s books by John Morris of Institute for Creation Research. But the flood was so much more than that, wasn’t it? The flood wasn’t just a means of God’s judgement for the total depravity of mankind on earth, it was an instrument of His mercy. God used the flood not just to destroy the earth but to recreate it anew. And He promises to do the same again. When Christ returns, He will once more make all things new. Our hymn for today is taken from the following poem by Horatius Bonar and looks forward to that time. “Come, Lord, and tarry not, Bring the long-looked-for day; Oh, why these years of waiting here, These ages of delay? Come, for Thy saints still wait; Daily ascends their cry: ‘The Spirit and the Bride say, Come’; Dost Thou not hear their cry? Come, for creation groans, Impatient of Thy stay; Worn out with these long years of ill, These ages of delay. Come, for Thy foes are strong; With taunting lips they say, ‘Where is the promised advent now, And where the dreaded day?’ Come, in Thy glorious might; Come, with Thine iron rod; Disperse Thy foes before Thy face, Most mighty Son of God. Come, and make all things new, Build up this ruined earth; Restore our faded paradise, Creation’s second birth. Come, and begin Thy reign Of everlasting peace; Come, take the kingdom to Thyself, Great King of Righteousness.” (After singing All Things New, Listen to Handel’s Messiah selections “All they that see him…” “He trusted God…”) #reformedtheology #adventactivities #advent #adventdevotionals #adventmusic #hymns

Methuselah has the impressive distinction of being the oldest man on earth. He lived more days than any other person and in so doing proved the kindness and patience of our Lord. Methuselah’s name means “after me comes judgement.” Methuselah’s grandson was Noah. 1 Peter 3:20 says that “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” Indeed His patience waited 969 years before He judged the world with water during which time He worked a plan of salvation for mankind through the safe passage of 8 people on a boat. 1 Peter 3:18 speaks of God’s broader plan of salvation for mankind. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” Each day of our life is a testament to God’s kindness and patience. Each passing day can be THE day of salvation for those who trust in Him to provide safe passage from death unto life. “Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here; trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what He deems best— lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.” (After singing Day by Day listen to Handel’s Messiah on the following selections “Then shall be brought to pass…” “O death…” “But thanks be to God…”) #advent #adventdevotional #adventmusic #reformedtheology #adventactivities

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2018/19 Devos
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tolle lege book reviews
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“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” Robert Jastrow, founder/director of NASA’s Goddard Institute

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December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 · Posted in 2018/19 Devos · Tagged advent, advent activities, advent devotionals, advent music, handels messiah, hymns, reformed theology ·

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