Okay I am clearly ripping off John Piper with the title of this post. Piper has written things such as Don’t Waste Your Life and Don’t Waste Your Cancer. The reminder is a good one and very fitting for the passage I have in view:

Psalm 9:13-14

13 Be gracious to me, O Lord!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
14 that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation. (ESV)

Throughout the Psalms we find the Psalmist calling God to action for the sake of his glory or for his name’s sake. The same thing is in view here only the Psalmist is saying he will be the one to glorify God for his salvation.

In the Psalms one thing we learn is that the proper response to God’s work is always praise. Here David has very public praise in mind: “that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” This would be the gates of Jerusalem. He will stand in the gates of Jerusalem and tell the people coming and going about the good thing the Lord has done.

When God does something for us (and everything we have is a good gift from the Lord) our proper response should be praise. The greater the work, the greater the praise. For believers the greatest gift is the gift of everlasting salvation through the eternal Son. An everlasting gift merits everlasting praise. This doesn’t start when we get to Heaven, praising God for salvation begins here on earth.

But salvation is not the only work of God that merits praise. Praise him for your home, the food you eat, the family you have, your friends, your church, your workplace, all of these things. If something is lacking, go so far as to praise God for the trial, thanking him for the victory he has over the world so that you do not have to fear defeat and failure. Christ has overcome the world. Praise the Lord!

Don’t waste your salvation. Don’t keep it to yourself. God has blessed you so that you will bless him, so that you will tell of his name among the nations. That means friends, family, neighbors, and people all over the world. Tell them of the good thing the Lord has done for you.

Have you ever noticed that when you learn a new word you will suddenly start to hear that word used a lot more often than before you knew the word? Most likely the word was always used but when you did not know it you ignored it.

A similar sort of thing can happen with Bible reading. You can read Scripture over and over and yet many details will simply be overlooked or not given their full significance.

As I continue to wrestle with Calvinism and other related notions part of what I have come to see more and more is just how much God orchestrates the events of the world. When it comes to the Old Testament prophets, God spoke to them of many future events. But he did not just look ahead, see what would happen, then told the prophets about the future; he told the prophets what he was going to do with the future. See how this is revealed in Matthew 2:13-23:

Matthew 2:13-23

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (ESV)

Note all of the events that are orchestrated by God to bring about the end he desired:

• Vv 13-15: Herod sought to kill Jesus but Joseph was warned in a dream and fled to Egypt. The end of verse 15 says this is a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1. Note the wording: “This was to fulfill…” The reason it happened was because God said it would happen.
• Vv 16-18: Herod’s method of eliminating Jesus was to kill all male children in Bethlehem. The wording in v17 is a little different than what we find in v15, the writer is just putting it a little different. It already seems clear from 13-15 that God orchestrated Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus. The question is whether or not God orchestrated this specific way for Herod to attempt what God had planned.
• Vv 19-23: Even after Herod’s death Jesus and his earthly family could not safely return to Bethlehem. They left Egypt but went to Nazareth. In v23 we again find a purpose statement: “…that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled…” The brutal reign of Archelaus, which required Joseph to avoid Bethlehem, and Joseph’s choice of Nazareth were events orchestrated by God.

This is an unusual way of approaching Scripture and I am still wrestling with this a bit. To present the question from this passage bluntly: did God plan for Herod to massacre baby boys? Did God place a brutal tyrant in authority because the man was a brutal tyrant?

But let me turn the question another way. The people that suffered under these horrible circumstances, would it have comforted them to know that their suffering was being used by God to bring about the hope of salvation for the world? Would they have endured better if they realized that the events of their suffering were part of God’s redemptive plan for humanity?

And to make the question a little more personal. Am I willing for God do to with me whatever he wishes if it means accomplishing his will? Am I willing to suffer for the glory of God?

Matthew 1:1-17

1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. (ESV)

I will not likely keep this up every day, but from time to time I will post something on my gospel reading for the day. Today’s reading starts me off in the gospels and comes from Matthew 1:1-17. This is the first of two genealogies of Jesus found in the New Testament. The second is in Luke 3:23-37. These genealogies differ from each other. Some think Matthew presents Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph while Luke presents it through Mary. (Don’t miss Luke’s comment in Luke 3:23 that Jesus was the son “as was supposed” of Joseph, Luke saying that someone other than Joseph was the father of Jesus.)

In verse 1 Matthew gives three titles for Jesus. First, he is the Christ. Second, the son of David. Third, the son of Abraham. The last establishes him as a member of the Jewish race. He does not come to the Jews as an outsider. The second establishes him in the royal line of David. By itself that might not mean much – David had many descendants – but it becomes more significant with the first title. He is called the Christ, the anointed one. From the start Matthew is making clear that he believes Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. God promised through the prophets that a king would come from the line of David who would establish an eternal throne and would rule over the world. He would establish justice and righteousness and would forgive the sins of his people. The genealogy reinforces the ancestry claims, showing just how Jesus has descended from Abraham and David.

The genealogy is representative rather than comprehensive. Several generations are skipped, but in such genealogies the phrase “father of” could mean “ancestor of” so the reader would know, for example, that Josiah was the grandfather of Jechoniah, not his actual father.

The genealogies can be a bit difficult for modern readers to work through. I admit that I have skimmed through more than a few of them when I come across them. And yet if nothing else these records remind us of the faithfulness of God to his people and his power to accomplish his will. If you scan the names of a genealogy your eyes will take you through hundreds or thousands of years of Israelite history, through good times and bad. The record in Matthew begins with faithful Abraham and includes people like Boaz, the kinsman redeemer of Ruth; Rahab, the prostitute who protected the spies sent by Joshua; David, the king who inaugurated the golden age of Israelite history; Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings Israel had ever seen (2 Chron 33:9) who God nevertheless finally turned to himself (2 Chron 33:11-13, 2 Chron 33:23); Jechoniah, who ruled Judah for three months and was on the throne when Nebuchadnezzar captured and pillaged Jerusalem (the final destruction of Jerusalem would happen under King Zedakiah); and Joseph, a humble carpenter who is faithful to the Lord.

Through all of those events God was faithful to his people. Through the most famous of them to the most obscure God was working out his promises. Only a small handful of those people would have had even the slightest notion of what God was going to do through one of their descendants. A number of those names belong to tyrants who were not interested in serving God to begin with – God used them anyway. God is faithful and God will accomplish his plan, whether we cooperate or not.

I have just finished my six-month trek through the Bible and am about to set off through it again. Last time around my reading plan was somewhat haphazard. This time I have organized it a little better. I have not yet decided how long I will take to read through the Bible this time, but here is the order I will go. Each day I will have readings from: The Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the New Testament. This last time around I also read through Romans each month, following the advice of Martin Luther. At this time I don’t plan to do that with this plan, though I may change my mind and add either it or Hebrews later.

In the New Testament I am following the canonical order, but I am changing things up a little for the Old Testament. Below is the order I will follow:

Ecclesiastes
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy 31-34
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
Job
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
Song of Solomon
1 Kings
2 Kings
Deuteronomy 1-30
Jonah
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Proverbs
Ezekiel
Daniel
Esther
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

This is roughly chronological, with some exceptions. I begin with Ecclesiastes, it seems good to start my trip through the Bible with a reminder to fear God and keep his commandments. The other poetic and wisdom books (except Psalms which I will read each day) – Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Job, are interspersed throughout the plan. I have split up Deuteronomy. The last acts of Moses are kept at the end of the Pentateuch reading but I have moved the bulk of Deuteronomy to just before the period when the prophets start to foretell judgment on Israel. In Deuteronomy Moses recalls for the people all that the Lord has done for them and warns them that judgment will come if they stray. That judgment is fulfilled during the time of the prophets so Deuteronomy will be a good lead-in. I could have shuffled around 1 and 2 Chron but the books were written for the people of Judah that were returning from exile. It reminded them of God’s promise to his people and how the people had violated the requirements of God, resulting in exile. On the whole the focus is on the faithfulness of God. The people may have been crushed during exile, but God will keep his promises to them, primarily the Messianic prophecies through the descendants of David.

Once again I will use the Bible reading module of Logos Bible Software to keep track of my daily reading. I occasionally read the text straight from Logos but I usually prefer to read it in my print copy where I can underline and jot little notes. I always do my reading from the ESV simply as a matter of preference. On the whole it is a great translation that communicates the meaning of the Bible without doing too much fiddling with the text. Some fiddling is necessary at times to bring ancient notions into modern language and culture but too much fiddling runs the risk of distorting the original meaning of the text. The ESV translators have struck a good balance that keeps the translation “essentially literal”.

Consider the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 2:24-26:

2 Timothy 2:24-26

24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (ESV)

Amazing words from a man who faced as much opposition as a person could. There are a few things to draw from this passage.

First, know the truth of God. Implied in this passage is that we know God’s word. Paul is speaking to someone who is able to recognize wrong from right. Paul is instructing him about how he should act when responding to those who are recognized as doing and saying wrong things. Later in this letter, 2 Timothy 3:15-17, Paul reveals that it is the Bible which gives us this kind of knowledge. Know the Bible, know what it says, and be convicted about the truth of God’s word. Later in this post I will mention a sermon by John Piper on this same subject but drawing from Romans 14:1-9. In those sermons Piper says Paul expects Christians to get an opinion, to get a conviction. Do not be satisfied with uncertainty and ambiguity. Know the truth so when you see evil and falsehood, you will know it for what it is.

Second, respond to falsehood. Paul tells us how to respond to falsehood because he expects us to speak up when wrong is being said or done. Do not be silent when you see minorities oppressed. Do not be silent when widows and orphans are mistreated. Do not be silent when people are taught that God condones any behavior that makes a person happy. The list could go on. When you see something wrong taking place, be ready, willing, and able to respond! There needs to be wisdom involved here, that we respond as those who are wise as serpents and gentle as doves, but in some way we must give a response.

Third, respond to falsehood with peace. Do not be quarrelsome. Do not be unkind. But be kind and respond in love to all people. This is a message everyone on the web needs to hear. It is so easy to be unkind and some of the most unkind people on the web are Christians who have come across someone that disagrees with them. I don’t have to cite examples – you know what I am talking about. Paul does not want to see this behavior. He does not excuse this behavior. As Christians we often feel justified in our ire. After all, we are dealing with the word of God! Shouldn’t that lead to righteous indignation? Well, it should lead to a response demonstrating love and kindness.

Fourth, Paul does not limit this instruction to those who have minor disagreements. He does not say that we should be peaceful just with those who disagree about the music during the worship service, but that Calvinists are free to be rude to non-Calvinists, etc. Note the context, particularly the following passage. Paul goes on to talk about those who preach outright heresy and speak only to entertain the desires of the people. It is with these people in mind that Paul says that we are to be kind to everyone. With all people and all kinds of disagreements – regardless of the issue or how large the disagreement is – you are to be a peacemaker. If you are to be kind to blasphemers, certainly you are to be kind to your brother.

God is not honored by your anger. God is not honored by your rude words. God is not honored when your actions display hate and violence, not love and peace. It is true that proclaiming the truth will often lead to opposition and division, that the word of God will even split families. Even knowing the consequences, we are called to proclaim the truth. But we cannot ignore the teaching of Scripture that we are always to proclaim the truth in love, showing kindness to those with whom we disagree. Do not like the quarrelers of the world.

I mentioned Piper earlier. Every weekday Desiring God Ministries posts half of a sermon from their archives of messages preached by Piper. Lately they have been working through Piper’s series on the book of Romans. One of those sermons came from Romans 14:1-9. Rather than link to the two halves from the radio program, I commend to you Piper’s original sermon, titled Each One Should Be Fully Convinced in His Own Mind. In the sermon Piper calls for Christians to get a conviction, to be committed to the truth of Scripture, to defend their beliefs, and yet to live at peace with those who disagree.

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

- Numbers 6:24-27