Category Archives: Morning Thoughts

Morning Thoughts (Jeremiah 23:7-8)

Morning Thoughts,

Jeremiah 23:7-8, "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land."

This morning, man likes to think and dwell upon things other than the present.  Oftentimes, man thinks longingly about the "good old days” of the past or thinks with heightened anticipation toward the future.  By falling into either of these two pits, he therefore misses the here and now of today and fails to use and redeem the time as Scripture commands us to do. (Ephesians 5:19) Quite often, the past is thought about because some aspect of former things seems better than today.  The future is thought about because some aspect of that is expected to surpass what goes on today.  While it is important to consider the past so that previous mistakes are not repeated, dwelling in the past can hinder our walk today.  Likewise, things are coming that are better than right now – heaven and immortal glory being the chief of those things – but constantly thinking about the future will similarly hinder our walk today.

How many times do well-meaning Christians pine for the events of yesteryear as recorded in Holy Writ?  How many times have people remarked how great it would be to see the Red Sea part, watch David kill Goliath, or talk with Christ and His apostles in the first century?  Truly, being able to enjoy such times and seasons would be a great blessing, but constantly thinking about them as somehow better than our present situation impedes our ability to appreciate the wonderful blessings of our Lord in our lives today.  Consider how the Lord is known throughout time.  While He never changes (Malachi 3:6), He is prominently known in different ways throughout human history.

When the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – arrived on the scene of history in Genesis, God was known as their God.  After Moses came, He was known as the God that delivered Israel out of Egypt.  For many centuries, that was the prominent moniker that people used for God.  However, as our study verses show, that particular identifier for God was soon to be replaced with a different statement as the most often used to describe Him.  This does not imply that God has changed but something much more significant would occur to supersede the general perception of Him.

In Jeremiah's day, God was dealing with His children in Judah rather severely in chastisement for their continually wayward behaviour from Him.  Jeremiah would prophesy and live to see the ruin of the nation at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.  While going through these things, it would be natural for people to think that God had forsaken the very people that He brought up out of Egypt centuries before.  While that was not the case – they had in fact forsaken Him and not the other way around – people would generally think so.  So, God gives Jeremiah a prophecy about this change of perception toward Him and how He was described.  Would this change the fact that God was the One who brought them out of Egypt?  No, but that would not be the first thing people thought about when considering this Almighty One.

A time was coming in which people would refer to God as the One that brought back His people from the north country and gathered them together from the places whence they had been scattered.  Just as surely as God had said they would go into captivity, He just as surely promised that they would return again after 70 years.  God's mercy would be seen and perceived by general description as having brought them back again.  Though Jeremiah and others would never live to see it, it was still true and sure by God's own word.  However, this gathering together unto Him was simply a natural occurrence that Biblical history records during the days and writings of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Even though that natural gathering would literally happen some 70 years later, it pointed in short term to something more powerful and far-reaching in the long term.  Oftentimes, some are prone to think that God will at some future time (yet still future for us today) gather together natural Israel here on the earth for some great purpose.  Generally, the purpose is promoted as an ingathering of natural Jews to the truth of the gospel shortly before the end of time.  While there are Scriptures that can be used to intimate such an idea, Scripture seems to record a greater tenor – particularly in the New Testament – that this present age is marked less by such natural parameters.  Rather, God interacts with people based on inward, spiritual factors and their obedience rather than some natural characteristic that they possess. (Ephesians 2:13-15, Romans 2:28-29, Colossians 3:10-11)

Scriptures like our study verses can sometimes be employed by people to teach some future Jewish revival and ingathering, but let us consider the immediate context and use the short term fulfillment to see what the intended meaning of the prophecy should be.  In verses 6-7, we see a direct and undeniable prophesy of Jesus Christ: God in the flesh.  As God's anointed and only begotten Son, He would come and do something no other could.  As our LORD and our RIGHTEOUSNESS, His kingdom would supersede and outshine any other monarch or dignitary.  His lasts forever, and He never fails in His governance over His subjects and domain.  While He trod this earth in human flesh, He showed forth with remarkable brilliance the legal execution of God's covenant and counsel, while also vividly marking the acceptable path of obedience to God.

What is the direct result of His work?  The direct result is that all of God's banished family was gathered from all the corners of the world in all ages of time by His reconciling us to God by the sacrifice of Himself. (II Corinthians 5:18-19) By His great work, all of God's family – spiritual Israel if you will – is brought from the north country and wherever they have been scattered upon the face of the earth.  Big and small, young and old, male and female, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, and whatever other group we could possibly comprehend has been brought legally into justification before God in heaven. (Revelation 5:9) No charge can be laid against them, and one sweet day all – without the loss of one – will be manifestly gathered in body, soul, and spirit in the resurrection of the dead unto God.

How was God known after the captivity of Judah in Babylon was over?  He was known as He who gathered His people home again.  How is He known today?  He is known as the Just One that put away the sin of His people by the offering of Himself unto His Father in heaven.  Is He still the God that delivered from the bonds of Egypt?  Truly.  Is that the first thing about Him we think about?  Surely not.  While the deliverance from Egypt continues to amaze as we read the wonderful account on the page, the brightest act of power, majesty, glory, and abounding grace and mercy was the event that gathered us legally to God some 2,000 years ago at Calvary and the subsequent resurrection three days and three nights later.  We call Him our God, and we describe Him as the God that loved us, gave Himself for us, and gathered us home to Him again. (II Samuel 14:14)

Should we pine for the days of old like the children of Israel were so prone to do?  Heavens no!  Should we anticipate the future to the neglect of today?  Paul cautioned the Thessalonians against just such a mindset and behaviour pattern. (II Thessalonians 2:1-2) Today should be viewed with the proper lens of thanksgiving to God, describing Him as the One that gathered us unto Himself.  Jeremiah could die knowing that God would surely bring His people back to their homeland again.  We today can die knowing that God has gathered us legally and will just as surely gather us manifestly when time shall be no more.

Jeremiah gave the prophecy that would change God's commonplace descriptor.  When Christ came, He changed God's commonplace descriptor that we should have for Him.  Even though the geography will change one day when we get to heaven, the description will not.  We will praise Him world without end in heaven as the Lamb that was slain to redeem us to God by His blood.  This people from all kindreds, nations, tongues, and tribes will unite as one harmonious family in a song that will make the arches of heaven ring.  Even though not in heaven currently, we can still unite in singing that song today and thank God through this wonderful description as One that gathered His banished home to Him.

In Hope,

Bro Philip

Morning Thoughts (Isaiah 49:16)

Morning Thoughts,

Isaiah 49:16, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

This morning, very few things occur in the world that fill the heart with peace or swell the soul with joy.  Because sin and its effects ravage the world in which we live, confusion and sorrow are more indicative of the events around us.  Therefore, for us to be filled with peace and swelled with joy, our hearts and minds must seek ground of a nobler sense and higher plane from day to day.  Considering that loss is another indicator of sin and its effects, what can we direct our minds to that is lossless?  Scripture consistently and faithfully affirms that God is a lossless Being that does not come short in any regard.  Just one chapter over from our study verse in Isaiah 50, God asks a rhetorical question about whether His arm is shortened that it cannot save.  The reason that the question is rhetorical is because spiritually sane thinking realizes that God's hand is never shortened that it cannot save.

Our study verse gives some wonderfully illustrative language to highlight God's work that He has just contrasted with man's work.  In the preceding verses, God asked whether a mother could forget her small, infant child.  Much is declared in the world today about a mother's love, and truly, it is not something to belittle or deny.  Yet, taking the highest order of love that the world could recognize or agree upon, God's love trumps even that in the grandest fashion.  How inconceivable is it that a mother would forget her child?  Yet, it happens.  Recent history shows the recurrence of this incomprehensible activity.

How does God's love compare with that?  Though we marvel at a mother's love for her child, the sacrifices that she makes for the child, and the seemingly unfathomable amount of energy that she can exert for the child, God shines supreme above it.  Mothers make mistakes, and mothers at times can neglect their children or fail to take care of them as they should.  None of these things will ever apply to God or hinder His care and keeping of His children.  He never forgets.  To illustrate that point, God utters the language we find above in our verse.

While we desire to mainly consider the second phrase of the verse, let us briefly consider the first phrase.  In years past, I made a common mistake in the way that I viewed and applied that phrase.  The reason that I call it common is that many others have made the same mistake in their speaking, preaching, or writing.  If memory serves, I wrote a piece on this verse many years ago, in which I misapplied the thought accidentally.  Quite often, the verse is analyzed as if a word is inserted into the language.  How often do we hear the phrase, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" applied as if the verse read "I have graven thy names upon the palms of my hands?"  Truly, our names are in His book, and He knows those names down to the very last one.

Yet, the phrase speaks of something more powerful than that.  This is not some illustrative analogy of our names being with Him and on Him.  Rather, it is representative language that shows our very persons are represented by our dear Lord on His hands.  We think of hands being not only a body part but also used to illustrate the exercise of labour.  Whether a man engages in physical labour or not, we call his vocation the "work of his hands."  It may be the mind that is exercised or literally the feet, but the term "hands" depicts the labour in a more generalized sense.  So, we are graven upon the hands (works) of our Lord.

In a more literal sense, His hands were pierced while suspended on Calvary's cross.  As our representative, we were graven (not figuratively in name but in actual representation) by Him through that work and sacrifice.  By Him undergoing that work for us, the end result is as if we had actually done the work ourselves.  In God's eyes, that work was imputed to our account, and the books were balanced for us.  We are graven on His hands.

However, we mainly desire to speak of the second phrase this morning.  The phrase "thy walls are continually before me" should bring up connotations of joy, peace, and comfort.  While things in the world change and come to ruin, here is something that never changes or passes away.  Notice the word "continually" in the phase.  The word denotes perpetuation.  Nothing in life is truly perpetual – or lasts forever.  Here is something God says lasts forever.  What is it that lasts forever?

Our walls last forever before Him.  In olden times, the word "walls" brought up the idea of defenses.  Many times, a city's defenses depended largely on the strength and security of the walls of that city.   Many battle scenes in the Old Testament show the conquest of one army over the other by the destruction of the walls of that city.  Nehemiah and others spent quite a bit of time restoring the city of Jerusalem, and the effort in restoring the walls with their assorted gates took up considerable space in the book of Nehemiah.  The walls were important for the city's success and durability in the face of danger.

Our defenses that God Himself raised are perpetually before Him.  As the Watcher over those defenses, none can pry us away from Him.  So, not only does He not forget us, He has hedged in a place that cannot be undone.  For someone or something to get to us in the place that has set us in, that person or thing would have to break through a defense that is continually before God.  Since He never sleeps nor slumbers nor shall fail or be discouraged (Isaiah 45:4-5), that work could not be undertaken at a time when one knew that He would not be paying attention, nor could the work meet with any success as He cannot fail or be overthrown.

Too many times, we hear the statement that Christ loves you and died for you, but that statement is followed up by some command to ensure that the ones that Christ loved and died for will end up with Him.  Should that statement be true, then we would have to divorce these two clauses in our study verse from each other.  Since we are represented by Christ in His work and in His hand, why should we expect our defenses and secure position to be undone?  Those that Christ represented and died for will all remain secure forever before His loving and tender eyes, and the position is completely unassailable by every enemy.

One final extended thought is another wall that is continually before the Lord's eyes: His church.  While we understand that local bodies do sometimes vanish away or disband for one reason or another, the Scripture fully supports the perpetuity of the church here on the earth till the Lord Himself returns to take us home. (Matthew 16:18) Therefore, those walls are continually before Him, and no matter what the enemy may do or think, the flame of truth shall never be extinguished from the earth.  Someone might then inquire, "If those walls are continually before Him, then how do local bodies die?"  The answer is simple, yet powerfully humbling.  Local church death occurs when saints leave the city of Zion, not when God forgets to watch over Zion's walls.  When people depart to the degree and time that God removes the candlestick from them, His action is simply a declaration that the group has completely absconded from the walls of the city.  Therefore, the light of the city no longer dwells with them.

Though life changes and sometimes our lives are marked by chaos, may we thank God perpetually for the continuous gift of keeping that He shows unto us.  Not only did He see fit to take our place and represent us, He continually sees fit to preserve us to that great land above.  He has further seen fit to bestow a portion of that blessing (earnest of our inheritance) perpetually in this earth.  Truly, no thought of comfort could equate or compare with this.  The highest order of love and care men know and have for each other pales in the light of the glory of God and His work for and to us.

In Hope,

Bro Philip