On being chosen

Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19 - The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

Have you ever hoped God would choose you for some special task? Has he given you gifts that you think could be used in a unique way to further the spread of his saving word to all nations? If so, "Get yourself ready!" Perhaps you too have been chosen before you were born for a specific purpose, much like Jeremiah.

Jeremiah didn't think he was so special though. Notice how much encouragement God had to give him right from the start. I wonder if Jeremiah thought, "What could possibly be headed my way (or what am I heading into) that is going to require so much help from God? It sounds like I'll be worse off if I try not to do what he says though. Well, I better get ready."

Stuff was going to happen that could terrify him. He had to be made tough as iron and bronze. He would need rescuing. I wonder how many of us today could handle such a message -- living in our cushy lifestyle as we do.

Peace

Isaiah 57:1 - The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.

I wonder how many attendees at a Christian's funeral realize they should only be sad or cry for themselves and others who are still alive. The dead "righteous" person, the Christian, is having a grand time in the afterlife. Survivors who can mange it ought to be shouting, "Yes! Woohoo! Way to go! Congratulations!" as if the deceased had just won the lottery.

Do you think that's insensitive? Stop reading this for a few moments and think about it. Stop reading! Close your eyes and think. Resume with the next paragraph after some thoughts of your own.

Then think again.

The dead Christian just got what he's been "working" for his whole life (possibly). He got what the rest of us can only look forward to. Should that make us sad? If it were any other good thing that he got, we wouldn't be. So we shouldn't be sad for his sake now that he's dead either.

I can still recall being sad, watery-eyed, at my 20-something cousin's funeral. She had had cancer for about 6 months. I was fine until I saw her little sister crying. See, I wasn't sad for my older cousin. She was fine now! I was sad for the family who would miss her. I don't think that family has been the same (with one exception) since.

Proper perspective = peace.

Free lunch

Isaiah 55:1 - "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost."

I wonder if there was a common saying like, "There's no such thing as a free lunch" in Isaiah's day. In this verse, God is offering a "free lunch" to everyone. It's free to us because the price was paid in full by someone else. Jesus paid the fare, the tab, the bill because there's no way we could. No amount of dish washing could ever have covered the cost. But since Jesus did step in, we can "delight in the richest of fare" -- heaven -- forever.

Twinkle, twinkle

Isaiah 40:25-26 - "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

That's a lot of names.

I wonder if we can infer from this that no stars or other major heavenly objects have ceased to exist since the beginning of creation. Even if the universe is 10,000 years old, maybe that's not long enough for a star that scientists would consider "old" to be completely burned out or dead.

A really bad boil

Isaiah 38:1 + 21 - In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover."

Isaiah had said, "Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover."

What kind of a boil leads to death? Or wasn't it the boil itself that would have killed Hezekiah? Was it only a symptom of something else? Or was this a cancerous boil?

What was in the poultice that healed him? (It goes without saying that the Lord actually did the healing. But he might have used the chemicals in the poultice to do so.)

Wha' happened?

Isaiah 37:36-37 - Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

I wonder if Sennacherib (among others) discovered all the dead soldiers on his own or if someone delivered the message to his tent -- possibly even waking him to do so.

I wonder how many soldiers were left in his army after the 185,000 were gone. There were obviously not enough left to fight with in his opinion.

I wonder what thoughts went through his mind when he first learned about his decimated troops. Did he consider that there was a connection between his boasting and the killing? Did he attribute the deaths to natural causes? What did he tell the families of the soldiers when he got back home? The truth? I doubt it. That they died gloriously in battle? Probably something like that. I wonder if he tried to silence those survivors who knew the rest of the story.

Countdown

Isaiah 21:16-17 - This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few." The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

How does "a servant bound by contract" count differently from anyone else? Or does he mean the attitude with which he counts -- eagerly awaiting the end of the contract? Then again, what if the servant had a good contract? Would he be full of despair or worry or trepidation that the contract was going to end and he might not get another as good -- if he got one at all?

Buck nekked

Isaiah 20 - In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it - at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame. Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. In that day the people who live on this coast will say, 'See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?' "

I wonder what people thought of Isaiah during and after this "stunt." Did they consider it a stunt? Did they think he was insane? Apparently no one tried to "put him away." Did they think he was crazy but mostly harmless?

I wonder if Isaiah was totally naked 24 hours a day for all 3 years. Did he have a family of his own -- wife and children -- at this time? What did his other relatives think of him? Did anyone try to make him get dressed?

I find it interesting that such a striking display was used "as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush." It wasn't even Israel that he was warning! He went through all this for 3 years for a bunch of foreigners -- Gentiles!

Isaiah and the prophetess

Isaiah 8:3-4 - Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Before the boy knows how to say 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."

I wonder if God told Isaiah to go to the prophetess in order to have a son. I have the feeling that he did because of the name he was told to give the boy and because of the symbol that the boy was to be.

I wonder if God had told the prophetess about his plan for her and Isaiah. I wonder if she would have been surprised if she hadn't been forewarned.

I wonder if Isaiah and the prophetess were considered husband and wife from this point on.

Bic or Parker

Isaiah 8:1 - The LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz."

So apparently they had different styles or qualities of writing instruments in Isaiah's day. I wonder what the "ordinary" Bic type looked like. And what did the fancy Parker type look like?

Why was Isaiah supposed to specifically use the ordinary type? Was it to be symbolic of something or did God just mean to say, "Quick grab whatever pen is handy. Don't go looking for something special to write with even though you know it's going to be word for word something coming directly from me."?

Byline

Isaiah 1:1 - The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

I wonder if Isaiah didn't write any of this down until Hezekiah's reign. Or did he write all throughout these king's reigns and then this introduction was inserted later? Or did he write it before anything that follows knowing who the next kings would be and that he would write during their reigns? Hey, he was a prophet!

The duty of man

Ecclesiastes 12:13 - Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

Six little words: Fear God and keep his commandments. So simple, yet so deep. I sometimes wonder why some people add more to this and make it harder and more complex than it really is.

Just a few sentences before this, Solomon said, "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them." Don't add your own ideas to what God has simply said. Do try to understand what he says though. And to understand it, you have to know it. And to know it, you have to read (or listen to) it. And most of that you can and should do on your own.

You'll never study the entire Bible only by hearing a sermon once a week. You won't even cover the whole book in a Bible class, unless it's a very special one. So just sit down and start reading (or listening to a recording) by yourself. It can be done. It'll probably take a year or more, depending on how much time you give it daily. Start at the very beginning. When you finish, start over. You will be blessed for doing so. Promise.

A little bird

Ecclesiastes 10:20 - Do not revile the king even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird of the air may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

I wonder if this is the origin of the phrase I've used often enough: "A little bird told me."

The wise man and the king

Ecclesiastes 9:13-15 - I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man.

I wonder which city and which king this was. Was it a city in Israel? Did this happen during Solomon's lifetime? Was the king Solomon himself?

I wonder what the wise man did to save the city. Did he trick the king? Did he talk him out of attacking? Did he convince him that the benefits of saving the city outweighed its destruction? Was there something valuable in the city that was surrendered? Did the people agree to be servants if their city was spared? Was the city really too small to bother capturing?

And why were huge siegeworks needed against a small city in the first place?

Agur

Proverbs 30:1 - The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh

I wonder who Agur was. He, along with King Lemuel, are right up there with Solomon amongst the proverbial elite. Most people probably think the whole book of Proverbs belongs to Solomon, but not so. Here is Agur with his own n+1 style of wisdom.

At least in the few proverbs recorded here, we see he likes numbers. 'There are 3 things -- no, wait -- 4 things....' He's not the only writer to use this technique, and I believe it was (is?) a fairly common style in that culture.

Agur is also the one to write the well-known passage about disobedient children and overzealous birds. There's a trivia question for you!

I wonder if Agur was one of Solomon's officials.

I wonder in general how many of these writers actually did their own writing. We know that Paul used a secretary to write much of the New Testament. I wonder if Solomon sometimes used one too. I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Agur, on the other hand, seems like a guy who'd do his own writing. I don't know why I think so; I just have that feeling.

Patience...now!

Proverbs 19:11 - A man's wisdom gives him patience;
it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Do you know any patient people? How many? How about impatient people? In general, which are there more of? I see more impatient folk.

Since it's wisdom that gives patience, is it fair to say there's a lot of foolishness going on? Wisdom isn't the only thing that can lead to patience, so that tempers the number of fools somewhat.

The type of patience spoken of here is what's needed when you've been wronged. What's your first reaction when you've been hurt, cheated, dis'd? Do you choose to patiently overlook the offense? You may be wise to do so sometimes; it could be to your glory, your benefit.

I wonder how often Solomon got to exercise this kind of patience? What were the offenses he chose to overlook? I'm guessing some were the same ones I might -- even though he was king, and I never will be.

The silent fool

Proverbs 17:28 - Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
and discerning if he holds his tongue.

There isn't much I wonder about in the Psalms or Proverbs, but here is one small item. I wonder how many silent fools the writer (Solomon) had met before he created this proverb. I suppose he determined that the quiet person was still a fool by his actions.

Moonstruck

Psalm 121:5-6 - The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

I know bad things can happen from being out in the sun too long, and I've heard of being moonstruck too. But I wonder if this is what the writer has in mind with the phrase "nor the moon by night" or if he was thinking more generally of bad things that are more likely to happen outside at night.

Midnight worship

Psalm 119:62 - At midnight I rise to give you thanks
for your righteous laws.

I wonder if the writer just got up in the middle of the night on random occasions, or if he did so on scheduled dates, or if there was one particular planned late night worship service that he attended. In any case, the point is that God should be praised and thanked at any and all hours of the day and night.

Been there, done that

Psalm 114:3-4 - The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;

the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.

Israel's crossing of the Red Sea is mentioned many times in the Bible. I wonder why their crossing of the Jordan -- also a miracle -- is not spoken of as much. Is it the "been there, done that" syndrome? True, there was no army drowned in the Jordan, but it was still quite a show.

I wonder if the skipping mountains and hills refers to the probable volcanic activity at Mt. Sinai. Are there two separate instances of skipping referred to here -- one for the rams and another for the lambs?