August 5
Ezra 1:1-2:70; 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5; Psalm 27:7-14; Proverbs 20:22-23
Our world is full of scary things that can make us feel as if it’s completely out of control. Contagious disease, political unrest, and war all swirl around us as we try to navigate this strange new world. Today’s passages show us that God is completely in control and that events are occurring exactly as God has intended they should.
The book of Ezra begins with the good news that after a 70-year exile, the Jewish people will at last be allowed to return to their homeland. The Persian empire had conquered the Babylonians, who 70 years earlier had destroyed God’s temple in Jerusalem and carried His people off to captivity. Now in a gesture of goodwill, Persia’s King Cyrus encourages the Jewish people to return and rebuild the temple. Both the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and Persia’s King Cyrus undoubtedly thought that their actions were of their own choice. But they were simply instruments in God’s hand to first carry out a prophecy predicting judgment for Israel’s sin of forgetting God, and then to fulfill the end of the prophecy that after 70 years they would be restored to the land.
In I Corinthians 1:18-25 Paul explains the paradox of God’s foolishness being wiser than any human wisdom. Who would ever think that a poor Jewish carpenter who taught only three years and then died a cruel death on a cross could be the Savior of the world? Yet that was exactly what Paul’s message was. He made it very clear that he would never have understood it or preached it unless Jesus Himself had shown him the truth. He completely humbles himself before the Corinthians (and us), knowing he brings his message not by his own wisdom, but by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit.
As we struggle to deal with our strange new world, let’s be sure that we see that the same God is still as much in control as He was for the Israelites and the early Christians. He is still using people who think they are wise, powerful, and in control exactly as He desires, to fulfill His Word. Not a single circumstance escapes His control, no matter how foolish and random they appear to us.
The words of Psalm 27:14 give us hope as we “wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” We don’t have to make sense of a senseless world. We just need to watch and wait, strong in the belief that the Lord is working out all things to glorify Himself and fulfill His plans for our sin-struck world.
Thank you, God, that we can rely on Your wisdom, not our own, to help us through these difficult times. Help us see You above it all, orchestrating events exactly as You have planned, even when we can’t make sense of it. Teach us to take heart and be strong and wait for you to act according to Your divine blueprints for our world. Amen
Question of the day: What benefit would come from focusing on God’s wise control of our world when we hear news that alarms and frightens us? Can we be strong and wait for the Lord, even if the final outcome never comes in our lifetimes?
Our world is full of scary things that can make us feel as if it’s completely out of control. Contagious disease, political unrest, and war all swirl around us as we try to navigate this strange new world. Today’s passages show us that God is completely in control and that events are occurring exactly as God has intended they should.
The book of Ezra begins with the good news that after a 70-year exile, the Jewish people will at last be allowed to return to their homeland. The Persian empire had conquered the Babylonians, who 70 years earlier had destroyed God’s temple in Jerusalem and carried His people off to captivity. Now in a gesture of goodwill, Persia’s King Cyrus encourages the Jewish people to return and rebuild the temple. Both the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and Persia’s King Cyrus undoubtedly thought that their actions were of their own choice. But they were simply instruments in God’s hand to first carry out a prophecy predicting judgment for Israel’s sin of forgetting God, and then to fulfill the end of the prophecy that after 70 years they would be restored to the land.
In I Corinthians 1:18-25 Paul explains the paradox of God’s foolishness being wiser than any human wisdom. Who would ever think that a poor Jewish carpenter who taught only three years and then died a cruel death on a cross could be the Savior of the world? Yet that was exactly what Paul’s message was. He made it very clear that he would never have understood it or preached it unless Jesus Himself had shown him the truth. He completely humbles himself before the Corinthians (and us), knowing he brings his message not by his own wisdom, but by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit.
As we struggle to deal with our strange new world, let’s be sure that we see that the same God is still as much in control as He was for the Israelites and the early Christians. He is still using people who think they are wise, powerful, and in control exactly as He desires, to fulfill His Word. Not a single circumstance escapes His control, no matter how foolish and random they appear to us.
The words of Psalm 27:14 give us hope as we “wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” We don’t have to make sense of a senseless world. We just need to watch and wait, strong in the belief that the Lord is working out all things to glorify Himself and fulfill His plans for our sin-struck world.
Thank you, God, that we can rely on Your wisdom, not our own, to help us through these difficult times. Help us see You above it all, orchestrating events exactly as You have planned, even when we can’t make sense of it. Teach us to take heart and be strong and wait for you to act according to Your divine blueprints for our world. Amen
Question of the day: What benefit would come from focusing on God’s wise control of our world when we hear news that alarms and frightens us? Can we be strong and wait for the Lord, even if the final outcome never comes in our lifetimes?
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