Very Soon My Anger Will End

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A New Future

Isaiah 10:20-27 The Message

^20-23 And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the ragtag survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.

^24-27 Therefore the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says: “My dear, dear people who live in Zion, don’t be terrorized by the Assyrians when they beat you with clubs and threaten you with rods like the Egyptians once did. In just a short time my anger against you will be spent and I’ll turn my destroying anger on them. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will go after them with a cat-o’-nine-tails and finish them off decisively—as Gideon downed Midian at the rock Oreb, as Moses turned the tables on Egypt. On that day, Assyria will be pulled off your back, and the yoke of slavery lifted from your neck.”

For Reflection

To see God's promise embedded in God's anger is sometimes difficult.  Destruction, it seems, is the order of things when we turn from obedience to God's will and take matters into our own hands.  Though I don't like to think about it, God's anger has provoked harshly retributive action.  We are consoled in God's grace and never ending overture of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Pray

for a life obedient to the will of God.  Pray prayers of confession.  Pray for God's compassionate mercy.

Provoking God

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A New Future

Jeremiah 32:26-35  The Message

^26-30 Then God’s Message came again to Jeremiah: “Stay alert! I am God, the God of everything living. Is there anything I can’t do? So listen to God’s Message: No doubt about it, I’m handing this city over to the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He’ll take it. The attacking Chaldeans will break through and burn the city down: All those houses whose roofs were used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many other gods provoked me. It isn’t as if this were the first time they had provoked me. The people of Israel and Judah have been doing this for a long time—doing what I hate, making me angry by the way they live.” God’s Decree.

^31-35 “This city has made me angry from the day they built it, and now I’ve had my fill. I’m destroying it. I can’t stand to look any longer at the wicked lives of the people of Israel and Judah, deliberately making me angry, the whole lot of them—kings and leaders and priests and preachers, in the country and in the city. They’ve turned their backs on me—won’t even look me in the face!—even though I took great pains to teach them how to live. They refused to listen, refused to be taught. Why, they even set up obscene god and goddess statues in the Temple built in my honor—an outrageous desecration! And then they went out and built shrines to the god Baal in the valley of Hinnom, where they burned their children in sacrifice to the god Molech—I can hardly conceive of such evil!—turning the whole country into one huge act of sin.

 
For Reflection

Often in explanation of human affairs, God becomes the original born looser.  God gets all the blame and little of the praise.  The truth of the matter is that those whom God loves the most, disappoint God, refusing to be taught to live God-centered lives.  It is our turning away from God which condemns us.  Yet, God will stand with us to restore a right relationship.

 

Pray

Confess your sins to the God of your salvation.  Praise God for the gifts of righteous living. 

Hope for Israel's Neighbors

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A Vision of the Future

Jeremiah 12:14-17  The Message

^14-17 God’s Message: “Regarding all the bad neighbors who abused the land I gave to Israel as their inheritance: I’m going to pluck them out of their lands, and then pluck Judah out from among them. Once I’ve pulled the bad neighbors out, I will relent and take them tenderly to my heart and put them back where they belong, put each of them back in their home country, on their family farms. Then if they will get serious about living my way and pray to me as well as they taught my people to pray to that god Baal, everything will go well for them. But if they won’t listen, then I’ll pull them out of their land by the roots and cart them off to the dump. Total destruction!” God’s Decree.

 
For Reflection

The evil neighbors about which Jeremiah is speaking, were the Moabites, Ammonites Syrians, Edomites and Egyptians, that had been evil neighbors to Israel in helping to draw them from God.  Many of those neighbors, it is said, converted to Judism.  So, this is not so much a passage which declares, "they'll get what they deserve."  It is not so much about Devine retribution but rather,  restoration.  God will find a way to bring the non-believers, the evil doers, those who draw others away from God, back into the fold with total forgiveness and pardon.

 

Pray

for those whose mission is to draw others away from God.  Pray for those who fear God and must confront this challenge daily.  Pray for strength in the face of the seductive evil that surrounds you.  Pray for hope in the Lord.  Pray that God will place opportunities for service and hope in your path.  Pray for the courage and strength to face those opportunities with a God-centered purpose.

A Future with Hope

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A Vision of the Future

Jeremiah 29:10-14  The Message

^10-11 This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
¹² “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.
^13-14 “When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.
“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
“I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

 
For Reflection

The promise of God is often stated in many forms.  Here, God's promise is explicit. God will provide.  In that promise is hope of justice, peace, forgiveness and comfort.  Don't just believe it, act as though it is a done deal in your life.  Live creatively and confidently.

 

Pray

that you will have the confidence in God's promise that you will live your life without worry.  Pray that you will not compromise your belief in favor of immediate comfort.  Pray that you will have the patience to wait on the Lord.

Turn from Your Evil Way

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A Vision of the Future

Jeremiah 18:1-10  The Message

To Worship the Big Lie

18 ^1-2 God told Jeremiah, “Up on your feet! Go to the potter’s house. When you get there, I’ll tell you what I have to say.”

^3-4 So I went to the potter’s house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.
^5-10 Then God’s Message came to me: “Can’t I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?” God’s Decree! “Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, but if they don’t cooperate and won’t listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

 
For Reflection

The Potter and the Clay.  The potter never throws away the clay as God never abandons us.  As we err, doubt and, perhaps at times, defy, God remolds us.  "Do Overs" are a way of life in the Kingdom of God.  That alone should provide enough hope to sustain you. 

 

Pray

for the opportunity to serve God.  Pray, so that you will be able to see God's hand in this world.  Pray those with wicked lives.  Pray.

Only the Lord Will Be Exalted

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A Vision of the Future

Isaiah 2:10-19  The Message

Pretentious Egos Brought Down to Earth

¹⁰ Head for the hills,
    hide in the caves
From the terror of God,
    from his dazzling presence.

^11-17 People with a big head are headed for a fall,
    pretentious egos brought down a peg.
It’s God alone at front-and-center
    on the Day we’re talking about,
The Day that God-of-the-Angel-Armies
    is matched against all big-talking rivals,
    against all swaggering big names;
Against all giant sequoias
    hugely towering,
    and against the expansive chestnut;
Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna,
    against the ranges of Alps and Andes;
Against every soaring skyscraper,
    against all proud obelisks and statues;
Against ocean-going luxury liners,
    against elegant three-masted schooners.
The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders,
    the pretentious egos brought down to earth,
Leaving God alone at front-and-center
    on the Day we’re talking about.

¹⁸ And all those sticks and stones
    dressed up to look like gods
    will be gone for good.

¹⁹ Clamber into caves in the cliffs,
    duck into any hole you can find.
Hide from the terror of God,
    from his dazzling presence,
When he assumes his full stature on earth,
    towering and terrifying.

For Reflection

Many of us feel as though we have very little impact, if any, on the big issues of peace, justice and reconciliation.  But this is hardly the truth.  The truth is that we each have a choice to make.  Even under tremendous pressure we can be brave and say no to turmoil, injustice and Godlessness.

Jack Benny, who could pull off sight gags on the radio, responds to the threat from a mugger.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tVzdUczMT0  Funny, yes!   But, courageous.

Pray

for the courage to face down the injustices in your world.  Pray for the wisdom to observe that which is God's doing.  Pray for the peacemakers who seek justice and forgiveness.

Act with Justice and Righteousness

Sustaining Hope
The Days Are Surely Coming
A Vision of the Future

Jeremiah 22:1-9    The Message

22 ^1-3 God’s orders: “Go to the royal palace and deliver this Message. Say, ‘Listen to what God says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates. This is God’s Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don’t take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!

^4-5 “‘If you obey these commands, then kings who follow in the line of David will continue to go in and out of these palace gates mounted on horses and riding in chariots—they and their officials and the citizens of Judah. But if you don’t obey these commands, then I swear—God’s Decree!—this palace will end up a heap of rubble.’”

^6-7 This is God’s verdict on Judah’s royal palace:

“I number you among my favorite places—
    like the lovely hills of Gilead,
    like the soaring peaks of Lebanon.
Yet I swear I’ll turn you into a wasteland,
    as empty as a ghost town.
I’ll hire a demolition crew,
    well-equipped with sledgehammers and wrecking bars,
Pound the country to a pulp
    and burn it all up.

^8-9 “Travelers from all over will come through here and say to one another, ‘Why would God do such a thing to this wonderful city?’ They’ll be told, ‘Because they walked out on the covenant of their God, took up with other gods and worshiped them.’”

 
For Reflection

God expects more than belief.  God expects discipleship.  As God's disciples, we are asked to live righteous lives.  We are the stewards of God's kingdom, the angels in God's army, the advocates for justice, peace and forgiveness.

 

Pray

Kneel before God.  Pray prayers of confession, repentance, obedience, praise and thanksgiving.  Pray to serve God.