Week of 2/24-3/1: Scattered - God Prepares His People for Delieverance

Day One: Dan. 1:8-9 Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief official not to defile himself.

Read the rest of the story, Daniel 1:10-17, in your Bible.

RIOTING IS AN OLD, but common form of rebellion. During a riot, lawlessness abounds. Riots can be generated over public anger toward a political decision or some injustice. Riots can also start as celebrations where crowds of people are expressing excitement over their team’s winning a championship or their candidate being nominated to office. The celebrations turn south as the swarms of crowds begin acting out, leading mobs of people to abandon order.

At the heart of riots lies lawlessness, which is a disregard for the law. In riots people act on their impulses with no concern for whether the act is legal, safe, or moral. In riots, particularly where looting and other crimes begin happening, individuals are put into position to join the lawlessness or abide in the law. You do not have to turn cars over or set fire to anything to participate in riots. You may simply take advantage of the fact that a store is broken into and you have free reign to take free merchandise. There is no law, no order.

So what would you do?

Some people, even in the midst of rioting, continue to obey the law. They understand that the law is for their good and for order, even if circumstances arise which could give excuse to not follow the law.

For believers, God’s Word serves a governing law and authority over us, which should continue to be our guide, even if we find ourselves in difficult circumstances. Lawlessness often abounds in believers, whom when facing difficult circumstances, often think to themselves, “I am free to do whatever want, after all, God has left me in this terrible situation.”

This is not how Daniel responds in the midst of affliction. In Daniel 1, we see Daniel plucked from his homeland, exiled to Babylon, and thrown into a world abounding in lawlessness. However, Daniel preserved the law, even in his difficult situation. He did not let circumstances give birth to sin. Rather he chose to stay the course.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why should Christians avoid lawlessness?

▷▷How do we avoid lawlessness?

▷▷How should we respond to God when we get caught up in lawlessness?

Week of 2/24-3/1: Scattered - God Prepares His People for Deliverance

Day Two: Ezekiel 37:7-14 So I prophesied as I had been commanded. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. As I looked, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man. Say to it: This is what the Lord God says: Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live!” So I prophesied as He commanded me; the breath] entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army. Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look how they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them: This is what the Lord God says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, My people, and lead you into the land of Israel. You will know that I am the Lord, My people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do [it].” [This is] the declaration of the Lord.”

Read the beginning of the story, Ezekiel 37:1-6, in your Bible.

I HAVE WITNESSED multiple instances of parents leaving their child in difficult situations in hopes that the circumstances would lead to a greater good in the child. For instance, I have watched a parent refuse to give her son money to pay fines he owed, because he wanted to teach the kid to take responsibility and pay their debts. I have also seen a parent choose not to bail out a wayward child from jail, because he hoped the experience of jail would prevail as a lesson for the child to get their life together.

These are not bad things. However, they are difficult things. No parent wants to see their child suffer, struggle, or hurt. Yet many parents are willing to let their children suffer, struggle, or hurt, not because they are uncaring, but because they hope a greater good will prevail. They want to see a promising future, even if it means a darker present.

Does God do this? Absolutely!

God is willing to let us suffer, struggle, or hurt if it means that His greater good and promises will be fulfilled through the trials. God has promised good things for His people. Even in the bad circumstances of life, we can rest assured God is bringing about and working His plan.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷How do you react when you encounter struggles?

▷▷What are some of the reasons that God allows struggles in our lives?

▷▷How are we to respond to the struggles that we endure?

Week of 2/24-3/1: Scattered - God Prepares His People for Deliverance

Day Three: Dan. 1:11-17 So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief official had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Please test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” He agreed with them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days they looked better and healthier than all the young men who were eating the king’s food. So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind.”

JUMPING OUT OF AIRPLANES is a risky venture. Anytime you are thousands of feet above the earth’s surface and rushing toward it at high speeds, you are putting yourself in some measure of danger. Most skydivers, however, don’t think about the real possibility of plunging to their death. They usually get onto the plane knowing that once they jump, they’ll land safely back on earth and live to talk about the incredible experience. If they didn’t think this way, they probably wouldn’t be jumping!

What is the deciding factor of this entire experience? The parachute. The parachute is the deciding factor in all jumps from an airplane. If the parachute opens correctly, all is well. If the parachute does not deploy, all is very, very bad. The parachute is the life-source of skydiving adventure.

When it comes to our relationship with God, our faithfulness to the covenant He gives us through Christ is the key to life. If we are faithful to God, hold steadfast in Christ, the result will be life. To abandon faithfulness to God, to forsake Christ and turn away, is death. It is like jumping from an airplane with no parachute.

The people of God are called to a life of faithfulness. We see what the results of faithfulness look like here in Daniel. Fast forward to the new covenant established by God, which is drafted and formed through the blood of Jesus. The new covenant demonstrates further faithfulness by God to His people, and requires greater faithfulness from His people. We must remain faithful to Christ, for this is how we live. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing, and ultimately cease to live.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷How does God demonstrate His faithfulness to His people?

▷▷How do we demonstrate our faithfulness to God?

▷▷Why is remaining faithful to God so important?

Week of 2/17-2/23: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Southern Kingdom

Day One: Isaiah 6:8-13 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Who should I send? Who will go for Us? I said: Here I am. Send me. And He replied: Go! Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive. Dull the minds of these people; [a] deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed. Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And He replied: Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate, and the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land. Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again. Like the terebinth or the oak, which leaves a stump when felled, the holy seed is the stump.

PARENTS CONSTANTLY GIVE WARNINGS. As a child, you never really like the warning because it always seems tied up with the idea of punishment. If you do this, then that is going to happen. What children often fail to realize, and usually do not until they are parents, is that the warnings are for their good. The warnings are intended to spare their children of unnecessary trouble or pain. They are trying to protect their children from unfavorable consequences resulting from poor decisions. The warnings of a parent are driven by a love for their child, not simply to provoke fear and to force good behavior.

God is a loving Father. Greater than any parent is the love of God for His children. Yet God gives warnings. In this text, Isaiah is sent by God to give a warning about the consequences of idolatry. If the people persist in idolatry, they will be laid to waste. Why does God give this warning? To terrify them? To cause disheartened obedience? No, He warns them because He loves them and He wants the best for them.

Likewise, He wants the best for us. We find in Scripture strong warnings against idolatry. Nothing is to be above God in our lives or affections. So God warns us. There will be consequences to putting God second to anything. These warnings are meant to instruct. God wants us to understand the love He has for us. This love can only be understood in the context of a proper relationship with Him.

Isaiah was sent to warn the people and God is still sending us today. He sends us to warn the world of the danger they are in and also point them to the Rescuer.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷What is idolatry?

▷▷Why does God take idolatry so seriously?

▷▷What can we do to avoid idolatry in our lives?

Week of 2/17-2/23: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Southern Kingdom

Day Two: Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Look, the days are coming”—[this is] the Lord’s declaration—”when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. [This one will] not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them” —the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will place My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying: Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

IMAGINE GOING TO THE JUNK YARD and purchasing a vehicle that did not run. Now imagine taking that vehicle and putting some brand new, expensive tires on it. You shine the wheels so that they shine and look amazing. Then imagine that you painted that vehicle a beautiful candy red and tint the windows with a mirror tint.

Now imagine that in addition to the exterior of the car, the entire interior of the vehicle received a makeover. Brand new black leather seats, top-notch stereo and speakers, and a lot of neat accessories are added to it.

But let’s also imagine that nothing is done to the engine or mechanics of the car. The transmission does not work. The engine does not start. There is no battery in the vehicle. It is still a clunker beneath the hood and undercarriage.

Nobody, with any sanity, would purchase this vehicle from you, no matter how nice you have made it look. If you stopped short of fixing the vehicle so that it could run, you have done nothing but waste your money. The heart of the vehicle needs to be made new or the vehicle is worthless.

This is the case with the human heart. If we believe that we can be “cleaned up” and run properly, we are sorely mistaken. We need a complete overhaul of our internal function. We need a new heart. This is what God promised in Jeremiah 31 that He would do for His people. He would not settle for trying to clean up the outside, but He knew it was the heart that needed the overhaul. The new covenant promised and anticipated the day in which God would fix the engine of the human condition: the heart.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why can’t our lives merely be “cleaned up”?

▷▷How do our lives receive a “complete overhaul”?

▷▷Why does God freely give “complete overhauls”?

Week of 2/17-2/23: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Southern Kingdom

Day Three: Joel 2:12-13” Even now— [this is] the Lord’s declaration—turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster. “

LET’S PRETEND that through some way of manipulation or circumstance you happened to begin the habit of eating things that were not considered food. You begin eating chunks of tire, bark off of trees, plastic straws, sheets of notebook paper, and other uneatable items.

If I discovered this poor choice of eating habits that you had fallen into, I would begin to appeal to you to turn from it. Repent from these awful eating habits. One of the ways I could try to convince you to repent from these habits is by explaining the health effects associated with how you are eating. I could point out that your body is not getting the nourishment it needs.

You know how else I can appeal to you? Through your appetite. I can begin to describe for you the satisfaction, delight, and joy found in great tasting food. Real food. I could remind you of how tasteful a steak, a slice of pizza, or a plate of chicken fajitas are. And by appealing to your sense of taste, and the reality that you are not eating tasteful food, perhaps you would turn from the error of your ways.

In many ways, this is what God does through the prophet Joel as He communicates to the people. He commands them to repent of their wayward lives and rebellious ways, and to turn to Him. He then appeals to their need for something better to feast upon— Himself. He exalts His own attributes and character, such as His glory, mercy, patience, and love. He reminds us of how tasty, satisfying, and delightful He truly is.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why do people often turn away from God?

▷▷What is the danger of turning away from God?

▷▷How can we keep from turning away from God?

Week of 2/10-2/16: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Northern Kingdom

Day One: I Kings 18:20-24 So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word.Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only remaining prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us. They are to choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and place it on the wood but not light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the wood but not light the fire. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh. The God who answers with fire, He is God.” All the people answered, “That [sounds] good.”

Read the rest of the story, I Kings 18:25-39 in your Bible.

WHEN MY WIFE AND I WERE DATING, prior to marriage, we faced some big decisions about the future of our relationship. I was in the Army and was stationed nearly eight hours away from where she was going to college. She had the desire to finish college and become a counselor. She was working her way through school and had a game plan. I was fresh out of boot camp and airborne school and I too had plans. I wanted to be either career military or use the military as good experience to go into the U.S. Marshals or Secret Service. The longer we dated, the more I realized that one of us was probably going to have to abandon a portion or aspect of our plan.

In order to embrace a relationship with my girlfriend (now wife), I was going to have to abandon my predetermined plan in my mind. To embrace something is always a saying “no” to or an abandoning of something else.

The Bible teaches clearly that we are to embrace a relationship with God, through His Son Jesus. We do this by embracing His Word, trusting it, and abandoning every other thing that competes with our commitment to His Word, namely idols. In order to embrace the Word of God, we have to abandon the idols in our life. We cannot have both. Just like my wife and I could not embrace a relationship with one another without abandoning our treasured plans, we are called to embrace God’s Word and abandon our idols.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why is it important to embrace God’s word?

▷▷What does it look like to embrace God’s word?

▷▷What things do you need to abandon in your life in order to embrace God’s word?

Week of 2/10-2/16: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Northern Kingdom

Day Two: 2 Kings 17:6-11 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, Gozan’s river, and in the cities of the Medes.[This disaster] happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt and because they had worshiped [a] other gods. They had lived according to the customs of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites and the customs the kings of Israel had introduced. The Israelites secretly did what was not right against the LORD their God. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. They burned incense on all the high places just like those nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did evil things, provoking the LORD. They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You must not do this.”

WE ARE USUALLY REALLY GOOD at spotting other people’s flaws. In fact, we’re often a lot better spotting others’ flaws than our own. We can see so clearly the problems, quirks, and bad decisions of others, but in our own lives we are often blind. One of the things we can often see others doing, to our astonishment, is abandoning a good thing in order to embrace a lesser thing.

An example I have personally seen is a husband abandoning

his wife and family to embrace somebody else. Everyone around him can see the damage he is causing to his children, his wife, his friends, and himself, but he seems oblivious to it. The abandonment of his family is fueled by a desire to embrace another person.

Before we shake our heads in disappointment, we must recognize our propensity to do similar things in our own lives. Many of us, without realizing we are doing it, abandon God’s Word and embrace our idols. We abandon the clear commands of Scripture that should govern not only how we act or behave, but how we think and what we know is true. Anytime we choose to abandon Scripture’s clear teaching about something for the sake of our own way or our own wants, we are embracing our idols.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why is it easier to see the flaws in others than to see the flaws in ourselves?

▷▷What can we do to uncover our own flaws?

▷▷How do we go about correcting our flaws?

Week of 2/10-2/16: Scattered - The Rise and Fall of the Northern Kingdom

Day Three: 2 Kings 17:12-18 Still, the LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and statutes according to all the law I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through My servants the prophets.” But they would not listen. Instead, they became obstinate like their ancestors who did not believe the LORD their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant He had made with their ancestors and the warnings He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the LORD had commanded them not to imitate. They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God. They made for themselves molded images— even two calves—and an Asherah pole. They worshiped the whole heavenly host and served Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in the LORD’s sight and provoked Him. Therefore, the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained.”

MY DAUGHTER IS STUBBORN with a capital “S.” Recently, just before bedtime one evening, I told her to come with me to brush her teeth, as we do every night. For some reason, on this particular night, she responded with these words: “No daddy, mommy brush my teeth.” Since my wife was busy at the moment, I gave her a choice. I told her that she could either, A) go brush her teeth with daddy immediately, or B) wait for mommy, but also have her brand new Barbie swimming pool taken away for an entire day. Since the Barbie swimming pool was a new toy, and this 3-year-old thought it was about the coolest thing in the world, I was certain that this plan would result in a quick teeth-brushing. Boy was I wrong!

Instead of just doing as she was told, she voluntarily decided to just take her punishment. She knew what was expected. She knew the consequences of her actions. Yet she still chose that path.

The crazy thing is that we often do this exact same thing with God. 2 Kings 17 shows a great example of this truth. God gave clear expectations. And He told of the punishment to be expected if the expectations were not met. We must learn to take heed of God’s warnings and be obedient to His word!

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why do people often do things that they know are wrong?

▷▷How do we stop ourselves from doing things that we know are wrong?

▷▷How should we respond to sinful actions and thoughts in our lives?