Category: Year B

Daniel 9:1-14

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
          There is no evidence in Scripture that the prophet Daniel was anything but godly.  He was a wise man with a high level of integrity and spiritual acumen.  Yet, when he prayed he identified himself fully with his people and their sins.  Daniel was not one to exult in his own private faith while railing against the sins of others.  Instead, when sin abounded he practiced lament.  When Judah landed in exile Daniel did not complain about getting a bum rap from God because he himself was not like the others.  Daniel did not try and claim the moral high ground and distance himself from his fellow Jews.  Notice how Daniel’s prayer of confession is a very “we” thing:
“We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.  We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name….  To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you….  All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice.”
             At the beginning of this season of Lent, let us as God’s people realize our mortality, our dependence upon God, our sinfulness, and our desperation for the Lord.  Let us lay aside all pretensions to godliness and confess our sins together.  Grace can only really be received by being profoundly in touch with our private and corporate complicity in the sins and abuses of the world.
             Gracious God, hear our prayer.  We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed in those things we have done and the things we have left undone.  Yet, your mercy is eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Job 19:23-27

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
          There must be suffering before glory.  This is a truth that is difficult to swallow.  Jesus plainly taught his disciples that he must suffer and die before being raised from the dead and glorified.  We follow the same pattern:  suffering before glory.  There cannot be resurrection, new life, and glorious change without first dying to self, becoming a humble servant, and being last not first.
Job is one of the more familiar characters of the Bible.  He suffered like no person before him or since him.  Yet, his glory is like none other, as well.  In the middle of his agony, in the darkness of not understanding what was happening to him, and at the lowest point of his life there was the faintest but clearest glimmer of hope.  Job knew that his Redeemer lives.  Job had the confident expectation that his suffering meant something.  Job held out not a wishful thinking, but a settled hope that he would someday see God and that he would be redeemed from his torment.
As Christians, we may not understand everything about the Scriptures or theology.  Yet, we intuitively know in the shadowy recesses of our present sufferings that it will not always be this way.  We know that our Redeemer lives.  We know that there will be judgment.  We know whether our souls have genuine hope or whether they put up the pretense when asked, “How are you doing?”  “Fine” is the reply while we are dying inside. 
 
If the ancient response to suffering that Job expressed teaches us anything it is:  that we must be real about the raw emotional pain that is within us; and, that we must affirm the hope of redeeming deliverance and new life in order to remain patient and godly.
Suffering Savior, the One who took my place, thank you for dying on my behalf.  Help me through my present sufferings to see the hope of Easter.  Be gracious to me so that I might be gracious to others, even when I think so much of my own troubles.  Amen.

Luke 19:41-44

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
             Soon Ash Wednesday and the six weeks of Lent will be upon us.  It is a season of understanding our mortality, eschewing our pride, and repentance through fasting and spiritual disciplines.  If we care to walk in the way of Jesus, we will be attentive to how he responded to sin and degradation around him.  When he first entered Jerusalem after his “triumphal entry” Jesus did not exult in his kingly status, but broke down and wept.
             There is not any more peace today than there was in the days Christ walked the earth.  While we take triumphal stances and proclaim biblical authority against all the perceived evils of the world (and they seem to shift with whatever particular Christian group you are in) there remains a profound lack of lament in the tradition of Jesus.  Indeed, there is so little grieving over the fact that Christians do not grieve that perhaps our doom looms larger and closer than we think.
             Until we can weep with Jesus over the things in the church and the world that divide us and bring animosity, we can expect only the judgment to come.  Until grace becomes the word and the practice that truly characterizes our identity and permeates everything we do, there will be a Christ who stands and sheds tears, grieving over our lost condition.
             Grieving God, I stand with you in your concern for the church and the world.  Open my eyes and ears to my own pride and selfishness so that I might turn from sin and move toward grace.  Create revival among your people, and may it begin with me.  Amen.

Psalm 50:1-6

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Today’s psalm begins to anticipate the upcoming Transfiguration Sunday.  As Jesus was changed on the mountain with the on-looking disciples, we get a glimpse of Christ in all his glory.  We see that our Lord Jesus is worthy to be king of all creation.  Therefore we may throw all of our trust, commitment, and adoration onto the rightful ruler who is in control of everything.
             So, then, this psalm helps prepare us by not only seeing the sovereign God in a position of majesty but we can know that Jesus is the mighty Judge.  The implication of the psalm is that since God is high above the entire universe that we as his covenant people have the responsibility of remaining faithful to his stipulations.  
             Wherever there is an anemic or apathetic devotion to God, there you will find an inability to see God in his glory.  In other words, theology is the answer for people who either cannot or will not devote themselves fully to the God of the Bible.  We serve a big God, and even seeing a sliver of that hugeness is enough to propel us through life until King Jesus returns.  Perhaps we all need, like the disciples of old, a mountain top experience in which we have a vision of what God is really like.
             Mighty God, the One who does not keep silent but commands wind and waves, fire and storm, let me see a glimpse of your glory so that I might know you not only in my head but my heart, as well.  Amen.