August 24 - Miriam

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Jeremiah 32-33; Ezekiel 26:1-14.

One thing I thought of as I was reading the promise of restoration was that it probably made the exile easier to bear, knowing that God had promised to restore them to their home.  But then I realized that while it should have made it easier, for many people it probably didn't.  We have the promise of heaven.  We have the promise of an eternity of joy, praise and worship, and togetherness with God.  And yet, how often does that make it easier to bear our trials and tribulations in our daily lives?  Sometimes it does, but often we're so focused on the here and now, we forget to keep that promise for the future as a beacon of hope during times of trouble.

There is a -- I'd probably call it a devotional more so than a commentary -- on bible.org called Our God: Awesome in Power and Glory-Always Battling for His People by Greg Herrick.  It hearkens back a bit to the YouTube videos Tammy put on the blog a few weeks ago regarding the infinity of the universe and God who created it.  Here is a portion of it:

One of the attributes of God's greatness is his infinite and awesome power, particularly displayed in creation and redemption. In a children's book entitled Is A Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? Robert Wells gives us a taste of God's power in creation; he takes us from a size we can grasp to one we can't.

The largest animal on earth is the blue whale. Just the flippers on its tail are bigger than most animals on earth.

But a blue whale isn't anywhere as big as a mountain. If you put hundreds of blue whales in a huge jar, you could put millions of "whale jars" in a hollowed out Mount Everest.

But Mount Everest isn't nearly as big as the earth. If you stacked a hundred Mount Everests on top of each other they would only be a whisker on the face of the earth.

And the earth isn't anywhere as big as the sun. You could fit over one million earths inside the sun.

But the sun, which scientists tell us is a medium size star, isn't anywhere as big as the red supergiant star called Antares. Fifty million-that's right, count them all-fifty million of our suns could fit inside Antares.

But Antares isn't anywhere as big as the Milky Way galaxy. Billions of stars, including supergiants like Antares, as well as countless comets and asteroids, actually make up the Milky Way galaxy.

But the Milky Way galaxy isn't near as big as the universe. There are literally, billions of other galaxies in the universe. And yet, filled with billions of galaxies, the universe is almost totally empty. The distances from one galaxy to another are beyond our fertile imaginations. It simply defies exhaustive comprehension. And so does the One who made it! To think that he did all this with just a spoken word! Incredible! "Righteous"...as certain young people are wont to say these days. But if the truth be known, it was only an infinitely limited expression of his power. He did it in his sleep!

So when you approach your God today, come with humility, a profound sense of wonder, and a sober fear of displeasing him. For He is awesome in power and a fierce and relentless warrior on behalf of his people. There is good reason the Hebrews referred to him as El Shaddai, "the Almighty," Ish Milchamah, "a man of war"!

God is omnipotent; there is no end to his power to accomplish his saving purposes. Jeremiah the prophet said, "Ah sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched hand. Nothing is too hard for you" (32:17)!

Whatever your needs are, you have not exhausted his strength and power. Whatever your concerns, you have not run his emotional well dry. Whatever your situation, his hand is not too short to save, provide, lead, and fight for you. Whatever the depth of your offenses against him, he is not prevented from forgiving, releasing, and drawing near the truly repentant person. Nothing is too hard for him!

I don't know about you, but I frequently neglect to remember God's holiness when I come before Him in prayer.  I know that He is awesome and all-powerful.  I know that He is omnipresent and that He sees into the heart.  But what I often forget is that even though he is a God of compassion and love, full of mercy and ready to forgive, He is still holy and just and to be approached, as it says above, with humility, wonder, and sobering fear of displeasing Him.  The only reason we can come before Him at all is because of the unfathomable sacrifice of His Son.  I don't want to revert back to the days where everyone believed that only priests, monks and the like could approach God, but at the same time I think we've lost - perhaps not our humility, but - probably our wonder and certainly our sobering fear of displeasing Him.  There are definitely times I can remember in prayer actually making excuses for sins I had committed.  I am mortified with myself for making excuses especially to God!  Excuses and justifications have no place in prayer.  When you get a speeding ticket or a parking ticket, you can plead "guilty, with reason".  If your reason is decent, you might get out of or reduce the amount of your ticket.  That doesn't apply to forgiveness of sin.  Forgiveness of sin is reliant on repentance.  That means no "reason".  No excuse.  No justification.

Many times in church and in Bible study when we talk about who God is, we focus on His compassion, mercy and love, forgetting about the other side of the coin - judgment, consequences, and wrath.  I am really thankful for everything we've been studying here and for everything I've learned about who God is.


Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 26:15-28:26; 2 Kings 25:3-7; Jeremiah 52:6-11; Jeremiah 39:2-10.