GOD’S WORD FOR DECEMBER 24 ~ ~ Psalm 96:5 ~ ~ “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.”
Today’s section is “FROM GODLINESS TO GODLESSNESS”
The prophetic books consist of the last seventeen books of the Old Testament. They are divided between the five “major prophets” which are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel and the twelve “minor prophets” which are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephania, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The terms “major” and “minor” refer to the length of the books, not their importance. Every book of the Bible is vitally important to us and to God, regardless of length.
The prophetic books show us the tremendous importance of God’s Law and what it meant under the Old covenant. Again and again, throughout Israel’s history, the prophets denounced the nations sin, idolatry and injustice. They would not let God’s people “off the hook,” repeatedly calling them to repentance.
The Old covenant can be fulfilled only by faith in Christ –not by works, not by keeping the Law. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans in Romans 3:20-22:
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;”
And as he told the Christians in Galatia, in 2:16 of that book:
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
The prophetic books chronicle the decline and fall of Israel and Judah because they neglected God’s law, rejected the Old Covenant and descended into wickedness and idolatry.
This was no gentle slide into compromise. Human beings take on the character of the gods they serve – and Baal was as evil and depraved as a pagan deity could be. There is no comparing Yahweh to Baal. The God of Israel had called Israel to a life of obedience and faith. He had entered into a covenant with them and promised them a glorious destiny as His beloved people. Baal, by contrast, represented the very antithesis of covenant-keeping. Like Astarte, Asherah, Anat, and the other demonic deities of the surrounding tribes, he was unpredictable, untrustworthy, and represented forces and functions connected with storms, seasons and fertility. The Baal cult was closely linked to death and rebirth. The false prophets of Baal used rituals and sacrifices – including horrifying human sacrifices – in an attempt to control nature and increase fruitfulness in crops, herds and human populations.
The worship of Baal was completely opposed to the pure worship of Yahweh. As God said through the prophet Jeremiah: in 19:4-5:
“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind)”,
As Baalism exerted its corrosive influence in Israelite society, even those who did not sacrifice to Baal began referring to Yahweh by the blasphemous name of Baal.
Into this world of corruption and moral chaos, the prophets emerged.
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Psalm 5:4
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.
Psalm 10:13
Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account.”
Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
Psalm 8:6
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
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POEM BY HELEN STEINER RICE
“GIVE ME THE CONTENTMENT OF ACCEPTANCE”
In the deep, dark hours of my distress my unworthy life seems a “miserable mess”,
Handicapped, limited, with my strength decreasing, the demands on my time keep forever increasing.
And I pray for the flair and the force of youth, so I can keep spreading GOD’S LIGHT AND HIS TRUTH.
For my heart’s happy hope and my dearest desire is to continue to serve YOU with fervor and fire.
But I no longer have strength to dramatically do the spectacular things I loved doing for YOU.
Forgetting entirely that all YOU required was not a “servant” the world admired
But a humbled heart and a sanctified soul whose only mission and purpose and goal
Was to be content with whatever God sends and to know that to please You really depends…
Not on continued and mounting success but in learning how to become “LESS AND LESS”….
And to realize that we serve GOD best when our one desire and only request…….
Is not to succumb to worldly acclaim but honoring ourselves in YOUR HOLY NAME.
So let me say “NO” to all flattery and praise and quietly spend the rest of my days
Far from the greed and the speed of man who has distorted God’s simple life plan.
And let me be great in the eyes of THE LORD for that is the richest, most priceless reward.
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Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to His Purpose.
Psalm 38:9
Lord, all my desire is before You and my sighing is not hidden from You.
Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: