Tag: god’s protection

Seen by God (Genesis 16:7-15)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward all his brothers.”

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. (New International Version)

I’m blind as a bat without my glasses. They’re the first thing I put on when waking in the morning, and the last thing I take off before retiring at night. Without them I can’t distinguish anything very well, at all. I cannot see others unless they are inches from my face.

As bad as it would be if I didn’t have my glasses, it would be even worse if you were not seen by anyone. I believe that one of the great tragedies of modern Western civilization is that we can live among so many other people, yet not be seen by so many of them. The loneliness of not being seen is a terrible situation.

Hagar certainly felt that way. Perhaps even worse, she felt that God didn’t see her. It was as if God lost his glasses somewhere. 

Because a slave, Hagar’s body was not her own. Through a bunch of decisions out her control, she became pregnant with Abraham’s son. It was messy and complicated. Dysfunction was all around. A very pregnant Hagar ran away.

Having been abused by her mistress, we can feel Hagar’s despair… but there was someone watching, someone seeing the desperation on the face of a pregnant slave: God. 

The Lord saw everything – all the craziness, all the mistreatment – and stepped-in and acted on behalf of Hagar and her unborn son.

As a result, Hagar began to call God, “The God Who Sees Me.” She never again had to wonder or doubt whether she was seen. 

You might feel today that God doesn’t see your pain, is aloof and distant from your hurt, and is blind to your deep wounds. But God sees… all of it. The Lord may not be working on the same timetable as you and me, but nevertheless, you are seen with divine eyes.

You “see,” there is someone watching who specializes in hard cases. The Lord came alongside Hagar and spoke a promise to her that she could hold onto in her time of trouble. It was a promise way beyond what she could have dreamed of, far above her station in life.

Hagar gave a name to God. “El Roi” means “the God who sees.” At a low point in Hagar’s life when it seemed she was an unseen nobody, God showed up and let her know different.

I’m sure there have been times in your life, just like there have been situations in my life, where you wonder if anybody sees you, including God. You feel that if you stepped off the earth today, nobody would even notice or care.

Conversely, to be seen brings wonder, joy, and awe into life. To know the God who sees you is to be transported into the garden of paradise, enjoying divine presence and fellowship.

You are not alone. The Lord knows your every move. God watches because God loves and adores you. The almighty Lord is not a god who is aloof and distant. The One true God looks upon you and me with the kind of affection that a new parent has standing over the crib of their infant child. It’s a look of care, protection, joy, pride, and compassion.

One of the most fundamental theological statements we could say about God is: The Lord sees each individual person, and the Lord of all creation cares for each one.

Yes, terrible tragedies and gut-wrenching evil exist in this twisted mixed-up world. And God has anger and wrath, and is not okay with all the injustice throughout the earth. Yet, God’s wrath exists because of God’s love. The Lord will do something about it, and will do it in the proper time.

God is working out good purposes and plans. God will judge the living and the dead. The Lord has not forgotten you. God sees you, created in the divine image and likeness, and will act on your behalf.

Blessed are you, Sovereign God of all, to you be praise and glory forever. In your tender compassion the dawn from on high is breaking upon us to dispel the lingering shadows of night. As we look for your coming among us, open our eyes to behold your presence. Strengthen our hands to do your will, so that the world may rejoice and give you praise. Blessed be you, God almighty. Amen.

Celebration and Lament (Matthew 2:13-18)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Coptic Church depiction of the holy family in Egypt

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi.Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
    wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
    she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Smack in the middle of the great celebration of Christ’s birth is a great lament. That’s because not everyone views the birth of Jesus with joy; there are others who see it as a threat and want to stamp it out.

We are humans, with two ears, two eyes, two hands, two feet, two lungs, and two kidneys. Our paired organs exist because we need the two of them in order to function properly. Joy and sadness, celebration and lament, are emotionally paired so that our soul may serve us as it is intended to. We hold them both together – at the same time, all the time – in order to have a well-rounded and healthy way of life.

In this time of year, it can be easy to gravitate towards either one or the other. We might become engrossed in all the shiny things of the season; or we may get lost by all the sorrows which the season stirs up for us.

I invite you to approach the mundane and simple manger. Although it might seem dull and unattractive – the last place you may find wholeness and peace – it is truly the place where we find God. It is here that both our joys and our sorrows meet, because among the stinky animals and the lower class life we shall actually discover the real longing of our hearts.

The gracious and almighty God preserved and protected the child Jesus. Christ’s early life retraced the life of ancient Israel. Like the Jewish patriarchs, Jesus went down to Egypt (and would eventually go down and face hell for us in his crucifixion); and, like the ancient Israelites, Jesus was brought up out of Egypt (and would rise from the dead bringing freedom from sin and death once for all) in a New Exodus.

It is as if the disciple Matthew means to connect the two Testaments as a unified whole by saying, “Look, here is the Messiah, the coming King, the promised One of Israel and of all the nations. Jesus is our salvation, the fulfillment of all that we have hoped for.”

Jesus is the New Exodus

In the second of three dreams, Joseph is told to take Jesus to Egypt. Joseph obeyed the Lord and took responsibility for the role of protecting Jesus, as contrasted with Herod’s role in attempting to murder Jesus.

Yet, there is more to this story than Christ’s protection; this is the fulfillment of a biblical pattern, an identification of Jesus with the people of God. Matthew pulled forward the prophet Hosea to say that just as God brought the Israelites out of Egypt through a great deliverance, God brought up Jesus, the Great Deliverer, out of Egypt as the unique Son of God.

Ethiopian Orthodox icon of the holy family fleeing to Egypt

When we hold the pair of Testaments together in both hands, we feel the weight of Jesus as God’s divine Son; so therefore, Christ is the rightful Ruler in God’s kingdom.

Just as God preserved Israel from Pharaoh’s wrath, the Lord protected Jesus from Herod’s wrath. God’s kindness and loyalty extends to us as covenant people and preserves us from the wrath of the devil who seeks to keep as many people as possible in the realm of darkness.

Our hope is in the Lord Jesus, who conquered the devil by establishing a beachhead on this earth through an incarnation as the Son of God.

Jesus Brought Us Out of Exile

The scoundrel King Herod massacred innocent toddlers to ensure the destruction of Jesus. Behind his atrocity was the devil himself, who knew Jesus was the coming king who would one day bring salvation. Reflecting on a vision of Christ’s birth, the Apostle John identified the sinister plan and the divine deliverance:

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was snatched up to God and his throne. (Revelation 12:4-5, CEB)

Satan wars against God’s Son and God’s people, whose roots go all the way back to the first prophecy of Christ after the Fall of humanity. God declared to Satan:

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NLT)

There has been continual enmity ever since, between the serpent and the seed of the woman. It manifests itself with the Israelites constantly being threatened with extermination and tempted to conform to pagan ways.

King Herod was just another in a long line of demonically animated persons trying to perpetuate the kingdom of darkness. We must take this threat seriously because the devil knows that his time is short. A second Advent is coming which will be the final judgment.

Satan’s most powerful weapon, death, has lost its sting because of Jesus. Christmas is a hard time of year for many people, filled with depression instead of joy, grieving over lost loved ones for whom we will not spend another Christmas with.

Yet there is a reunion coming, the hope of a bodily resurrection in which we will be with Jesus and God’s people forever. Be encouraged to understand that there is no time in heaven; it will be only a moment and the people who have gone before us will turn around and see us; we will one day join them.

Matthew also used the prophet Jeremiah to communicate hope. Jeremiah’s prophecy dealt with children who were lost in war to the invading Babylonians. The prophecy is a lament with the hope that captivity will not be forever.

The disciple Matthew wanted us to see that the exile is over for us; Jesus has arrived, and the tears which were shed will shortly dry up. There may be a time of suffering we must endure, but there will be glory. Jesus is the Great Deliverer who brings us out of sin’s captivity and into the promises of God. He is our hope.

Jesus is the promised One who will deliver us from the tyranny of the devil. Christ is the hope of the nations, the Savior of the world. So, let us come back to the first Christmas which was the beginning of the end for evil on the earth.

Believers in Jesus are part of God’s victory, and they overcome the evil one by the blood of the lamb, acknowledging that Christ’s incarnation was essential for us. 

Just as Jesus made a radical break with his former life in heaven through the incarnation, we, too, must break with our old way of life.

God will save the people through this child Jesus. The greatest gift we can give in this season and throughout the coming year is the gift of grace, the presentation of the Christ child.

Loving God, help us remember the birth of Jesus so that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the wisdom of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and open the door of love across the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil through the blessing of the Christ child.

Teach us to be happy with pure hearts.

Grant us grateful thoughts, devoted hearts, and gracious hands, through Jesus our Savior in the might of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Peace Be Upon Us (Psalm 125)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
    which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
    so the Lord surrounds his people
    from this time on and forevermore.
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
    on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might not stretch out
    their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good
    and to those who are upright in their hearts.
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways,
    the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
    Peace be upon Israel! (New Revised Standard Version)

I am profoundly grateful that God is a rock solid mountain who is strong. The Lord is never altered in the basic divine character of merciful grace, steadfast love, and abiding security. The main reason I so deeply appreciate this about God is that this old fallen world is awfully fickle, terribly unreliable, and forever changing.

So, to trust in God is to tether oneself to the ultimate anchor for life. Relationships come and go. People have their own agendas and listen to other people who, in turn, have their own agendas. But God’s plan is purely good, always right, and consistently just. The divine agenda has our best interests at mind.

Being linked to the Lord in faith establishes divine protection, provision, and presence. It’s as if the righteous believer has an invisible security blanket wrapped around them at all times. We are kept in the gracious arms of a loving God.

None of this, however, means that we shall never face grueling circumstances that might even feel like a hellish existence. If the Christian’s Lord Jesus had to undergo suffering before experiencing glory, then how much more do his followers need to expect the same?

Having injustice and wrongdoing in this world is one thing; but having it come from those close to you is quite another thing altogether. Again, the Lord Jesus endured wicked betrayal from Judas Iscariot, one who was within the inner circle of disciples. Yet, the heavenly Father was continually there, surrounding Jesus like the mountain chain, even though it may not have felt like it at many points, especially in the final week of Christ’s life on this earth.

God is good, all the time. Therefore, God knows who is truly good, and who is not. The Lord sees the heart, and clearly discerns the intents and motivations of each person and every group of people on this planet. And since God understands the real nature of a person’s life, the Lord is not fooled by pious sounding and slick talking persons with darkness in their hearts.

The wicked will not endure. God shall eventually lead them away. Like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats, the Divine Judge will divide the righteous from the wicked. Those who think they can have a secret agenda of crookedness will find out that it’s not so secret after all.

This world, with all it’s inhabitants and systems and societies, needs peace. Sometimes, it seems to me that everyone right now in our contemporary world is upset about something; and they have the rudeness to back it up.

Nations fight nations. People groups attack other people groups. One ethnicity accuses another, and vice versa. Family members are estranged. Lawsuits abound. The judicial courts are beyond full. Unethical practices masquerade within ethical systems and thrive in the shadows. And persons are harmed – lots of them. Lives are destroyed.

I once came home from a day of interacting with patients at the hospital and said to my wife, “You could never dream up the atrocities that one person can do to another.” The short of it is that there is no harmony, no mutual understanding, and thus, no peace, no fulfillment or wholesome way of life for so many.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul once cried out concerning the muck of sin, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” He then went on to answer his own question by saying a simple phrase, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24)

Yes, for me it’s Jesus. And, for me, that is what this very season of the year is all about. I anticipate the birth of the Christ Child, who came willingly to save us from this manure pile of a situation that is without peace. He became the Prince of Peace, so that we might have the light of life. It was the Apostle John who let us know:

The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish. (John 1:14, MSG)

Humility, meekness, righteousness, purity, mercy, love, and peace-making – yes, peacemaking – were the hallmarks of Christ’s ministry. These characteristics surrounded him like the divine mountains and shaped every word and each action of Jesus.

It is the time for peace. In fact, it’s high time for it! We have gone long enough provoking others and being provoked. There is a way – the way of peace. And for me, peace is achieved through the ultimate Peacemaker, Jesus Christ, my Lord.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:17-18, NIV)

May you find peace this season because you have discovered the Peacemaker. Peace be upon Israel, and peace to all.

Soli Deo Gloria

One Thing (Psalm 27)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
And We Shall Dwell in the House of the Lord, by Dale Terbush

The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.
Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord. (New International Version)

Just recently, I was reflecting on my vocational life with a friend. I realized that, for the majority of my adult life, I have worked at least two jobs at once. On top of that, for several years, I was also going to school. Even now that I have gotten older and (finally) pared my work life down to just one job, I still work in two different places, complete with different offices and staff.

For us Americans, this is like a badge of honor – that we can demonstrate what hard workers we are. Yet, there is also something quite unhealthy about all this work that leaves room for little else in life. Typically, our relationships suffer. And the relationship which suffers the most is with God.

The psalmist had a singular desire – one thing – that he wanted above all else.

It’s the same thing that the Apostle Paul wanted more than anything else in the world (Philippians 31-14); and the one thing Jesus said to the rich young ruler that he lacked (Mark 10:17-31). It’s the thing that Mary pursued, and the thing Martha neglected (Luke 10:38-42). The blind man discovered the one thing in his healing encounter with Jesus (John 9:1-34).

Perhaps we, especially in the United States, need a miraculous healing, not only from our compulsions toward work, but also from our collective spiritual attention-deficit-disorder. We need to be able to focus on the one thing that is needed above all other things – without any sort of multitasking.

Rather than adding another thing to our calendar, and just trying to work harder, let’s step back and reconnect with what is most important to us. What is your highest priority in life? That question isn’t only for me as an American; it’s for all of us everywhere.

It’s instructive that the one thing the psalmist doesn’t ask for is revenge, or judgment, or, at the least, some comeuppance and protection. Instead, he simply asks this: To dwell in the house of the Lord. That is, the psalmist, David, wants more than anything else to live fully in God’s presence – because when that happens, everything else falls into place.

The inherent nature of God is goodness and beauty. So, to be with God is to be surrounding by what is lovely and good. To be in God’s presence is to relax and know real security.

In this state, we are then able to get our bearings and remember the good deeds of deliverance the Lord has done in the past; the mighty acts of power God will show in the future; and are blanketed in the present with the reality that the world doesn’t cease spinning on it’s axis because I have only one job, or take a break, or turn off my cellphone for a day. I can do it without fear or anxiety because God is with me.

With renewed focus, I can center my schedule, my calendar, my plans, and all my decisions around the surety that God is with me; and that I can enjoy the Lord forever. After all, this is what the Christian season of Advent teaches us – that Jesus, our Immanuel, is God with us, come in the flesh for us and for our salvation. That is the one thing we need to know today.

Ever-present and ever-loving God, we plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We cannot do everything; and so help us have a sense of liberation in realizing this, so that we are enabled to do one thing very well; to take joy in being part of the process; to see that taking some steps, and then rest, is enough. We see in part, yet you, O Lord, see all things in their entirety. We are open to being, not just doing, no matter that circumstances, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.