September 14, 2019 – From The Darkness Into The Light

Today’s reading is drawn from Deuteronomy 4:25-31.

Did you ever go to summer camp as a kid? And if you did, do you remember the first night when the Camp Director — I think those guys slept and showered with whistles around their necks and clipboards under their arms — stood up and announced the camp rules? On and on he would drone about not swimming alone, not leaving the camp grounds without permission, mess hall “etiquette” — something about how to scrape excess food off plates into coffee cans — and of course, the most important rule . . . no boys in the girls’ cabins. And it seemed like all the rules were for the boys and not for the girls. Remember?

The last thing the director said really sounded crazy. “If you follow these rules, you will have a great time here at camp.”

By the time the director was finished, you sat there thinking, “Hey, this doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. They’ve got way too many rules at this camp. Is this prison or summer camp? And what could he possibly mean about having a “good time by following the rules?”

Now, try to remember how you felt about the camp the day you were leaving. You were saying goodbye to guys you had met. You were telling each other that this was the best week of your life. You were remembering the great times you had had together. You were promising to stay in contact with each other . . . oh, sure you would!

Anyway, you had completely forgotten how you felt after the Camp Director’s rules on opening night. Only a few guys had actually disobeyed, and sure enough, they had experienced the pleasure of having their parents drive up to take them home a little earlier than planned. Following rules, you concluded, does make for good experiences. What a great lesson to learn as a youngster.

The Israelites were about to cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land. Before they did, Moses put on his whistle and tucked his clipboard under his arm for a little speech. He warned them what would happen to them if they disobeyed God’s laws — much worse than being sent home from camp. And then he gave them an incredible promise. If, in your new home, you decide to truly seek God, you’ll find Him (see verse 29).

Can there be a higher goal for our families than enjoying God’s presence? Can there be a greater reward for following God’s rules? I don’t think so.

Don’t let the laws bog you down. The rewards of obeying them — living in a home where God lives — are well worth it.

To hear Brian Hardin read today’s Scripture selection, click here and then click the audio button in the top right.

Isaiah 15-18

An Oracle Concerning Moab

15 An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
²He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
On every head is baldness;
every beard is shorn;
³in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
⁵My heart cries out for Moab;
her fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
⁶the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
the greenery is no more.
⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Brook of the Willows.
⁸For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
⁹For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;
for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.
16 Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
²Like fleeing birds,
like a scattered nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

³“Give counsel;
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
shelter the outcasts;
do not reveal the fugitive;
⁴let the outcasts of Moab
sojourn among you;
be a shelter to them
from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
⁵then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness
in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab—
how proud he is!—
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
in his idle boasting he is not right.
⁷Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
let everyone wail.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish,
and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
have struck down its branches,
which reached to Jazer
and strayed to the desert;
its shoots spread abroad
and passed over the sea.
⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer
for the vine of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
O Heshbon and Elealeh;
for over your summer fruit and your harvest
the shout has ceased.
¹⁰And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field,
and in the vineyards no songs are sung,
no cheers are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
I have put an end to the shouting.
¹¹Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,
and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.

¹²And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. ¹⁴But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”

An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17 An oracle concerning Damascus.

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
²The cities of Aroer are deserted;
they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.
³The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like the glory of the children of Israel,
declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.

⁷In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. ⁸He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

⁹In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
¹¹though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹²Ah, the thunder of many peoples;
they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations;
they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
¹³The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
and whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴At evening time, behold, terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
and the lot of those who plunder us.

An Oracle Concerning Cush

18 Ah, land of whirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of Cush,
²which sends ambassadors by the sea,
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.

³All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
⁶They shall all of them be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts

from a people tall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide,

to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.

English Standard Version (ESV)

Galatians 1

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— ²and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul Called by God

¹¹For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. ¹²For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, ¹⁶was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) ²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

English Standard Version (ESV)

Psalm 58

God Who Judges the Earth

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.

58 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
²No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
⁴They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
⁵so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.

⁶O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
⁷Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
⁸Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
⁹Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹¹Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

English Standard Version (ESV)