by Suellen | Uncategorized
Malachi
We come to the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi was written about a hundred years after Haggai and Zechariah. The temple had been rebuilt and the descendants of the returning Jews were back to their old habits: the habits of the flesh.
Do you remember when we read Obadiah and talked about Esau and Jacob? Esau was the child of the flesh, and represented that person. Jacob, however, represented the child of the spirit. The natural man is the first-born man; the spiritual man is the one we get when we get born again. The second man.
God makes it very clear in Malachi, as He did earlier, that the spirit man, Jacob, is the one He loves. Natural men can never please God, even though He loves them. There is too much sin and selfishness.
In this final book the Lord reminds the priests once again that He is not pleased with disobedience and rebellion. They are bringing their second-rate lambs to be sacrificed, instead of their best. They are being unfaithful to their wives. They are not bringing their tithes into the temple.
All of these issues are tell-tale signs of apathy toward the Lord. They were going through the motions of their religious rituals, but their hearts are not there.
God hates that attitude. Apathy is the worst attitude we can have, because it signifies indifference. There is no way someone can be apathetic and full of faith. Those two mindsets don’t go together.
So the Lord chastises His people, but finally He brings hope, as He always does. “The day is coming…for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” (4:3)
We always have a promise from our Father. If we will pursue Him, there are wonderful promises in store.
That’s all, folks, until Jesus appears on the scene. Nearly 400 years go by with no more prophetic Words from God. Now I’m quite sure that some men had words or dreams, but nothing that was to be included in the Bible.
This was a long wilderness time for His nation Israel, but think about what was coming. At the right time, God is going to bring His Son to the earth, and the fulfillment of His promises will be more than any could ever imagine. (We can never guess what great things our Father is going to do. His plans are much higher than we can think).
His ideas are always worth waiting for.
Revelation 22
Do you remember Ezekiel 47 and the river of God flowing from the temple? Well here we see the same river: the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And once again we see that trees line the banks of this river, bearing fruit in every season.
And there shall no longer be any curse. We shall see His face and His name shall be on our foreheads. The glory of the Lord shall be so bright that we will no longer need the sun. His light will be our sun. (V.3-4)
These events will take place for certain, because God’s Word is always true.
John goes on to tell us to “hold fast” the words of this prophecy. We are not to add to it nor take away from it. This Word is true. (V.18-19)
Our finite minds can’t imagine a day when the sun would no longer need to shine, or when we could just look at Jesus, or when there would be no more evil in the earth. Those things are hard to imagine.
This is why it’s important for us to pursue our God with all diligence. We want to have His best.
Right now His best involves us having joy in the world – with our family and friends. He loves for us to have a good time in this life. Yet always we should put Him first, keeping our minds on things above so that our faith grows along with our love.
I pray that you and I will be right in the middle of all that our God is doing in the earth. It’s forever upward for us as we journey on with Him.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this year of reading the Word along with you. The Bible is not a book which can be mastered by reading a passage a day. Each book could be studied in depth to derive all that the Lord wants us to know. However, by reading straight through, as we did, we get to see the common threads.
We get to see the nature of man, and we get to see the nature of God. We see God’s love as He has pursued man so diligently. We also see His faithfulness.
As we continue in our study, we will uncover more and more layers of understanding. So hope you will continue!
Many blessings.
Suellen Estes
by Suellen | Uncategorized
Zephaniah and Haggai
We come to the last of those who prophesy before Judah is taken into captivity. The Word is so similar: Judah has denied the Lord and served other gods. The people have been arrogant and self-serving. Therefore, since they refuse to turn back to the Lord and honor Him, He will allow them to go into captivity.
Yet the day will come when He will draw them back to Jerusalem and He will restore their fortunes which have been stripped. At that time, Zephaniah says that He will “exult over them with joy, be quiet in His love, and rejoice over them with shouts of joy.” Sounds to me like God really loves these people!
When we get to Haggai, the times are totally different, and the prophet’s purpose is also. Two hundred years have passed since the first prophetic words of warning and the warnings of all of the prophets have been ignored. So the dire warnings have come to pass.
Judah has been overtaken, Jerusalem has been burned, and most of the people have been taken into captivity by the Babylonians. They have stayed there for 70 years, as Jeremiah said they would, and then King Cyrus has allowed some of them to return. So Ezra and Nehemiah both have led expeditions back to Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the temple and rebuild the walls around the once-great city.
Now we ae in the rebuilding phase. At first, there was tremendous zeal in building, but soon the work stopped. Local officials, threatened by the Jews’ return, mocked and taunted the builders until they fearfully discontinued their work. Discouragement and fear took over.
Enter Haggai, the Prophet, and through him the Lord brings a message of wisdom and encouragement. First, He reminds the Jews that they have a work to do. They should be building the house of the Lord. Yet they are saying, “The time has not come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” (1:2) Obviously, they are procrastinating.
Haggai reminds the Jews that their blessing depends upon their obedience to the Lord. If they are not faithful, “the sky withholds its dew and the earth its produce”(1:10).
This time, the people repent. They recognize the Word of the Lord and they are willing to obey. Such a different outcome from the ones which have preceded this prophecy. Believing and acting have brought God’s people into a place of honor with Him.
Now there is a promise to them – and to us when we are obedient. “As for the promise which I made to you when you came out of Egypt, ‘My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear.'”(2:5)…Then He goes on to promise that He will shake the nations and bring the wealth to this nation.
The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. I believe that, just as in many of the promises, this one is on two levels. It’s a promise for the rebuilding the Jews were currently undertaking. However, it was also for the latter house we live in. (The house of Jesus, the Christian house, is often referred to as the latter house). The glory of what we have now is greater than the former.
God’s power and His provision are for us as well as them. He owns the silver ads the gold. All of the power and riches of the world will eventually be totally controlled by God and Him alone. There will come a time when He shakes the heavens and the earth and all of His riches in the spirit and the natural will be poured out on His people.
Do you believe it? I do!
Revelation 18-19
So Babylon the great has a great fall. We talked about this in the last post.
Let’s be certain about what God is saying. The very word ” Babylon” comes from the word “babel,” and it means “confused.” (Remember the Tower of Babel, where God confused the language of the people?) Well the great city of Babylon stands for the church which has become confused because of all of its mixing with the ways of the world. No longer do people know God or what His way; they look around them to obtain their wisdom.
Babylon is not a pure, faithful church; it is like a whore – impure and unfaithful.
As we have read the prophets in the Old Testament, we see how God’s message to the people was not to mix with other religions. Not to take on their customs. Not to follow their gods. There was a good reason for that. When God’s people succumb to the influence of other religions, they become confused, and the confusion destroys their faith.
The church of Jesus is referred to as His bride, and He deserves a holy bride. One which looks only to Him and not to other false gods. So when we see the marriage supper of the Lamb, “we see a bride who is clothing herself in fine linen, bright and clean.”(19:8). She is making herself ready for her groom.
Then we see the groom – Jesus. He is on a white horse, His eyes like flames of fire, His robe dipped in blood, and His name being the Word of God. The name written on Him is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is ready to rule the world and all of the heavens with authority we have never experienced.
Let that imagery sink in for a while. Our Lord, our Husband, is no wimp. He is mighty, full of power and strength. And He wins!!
So do we!
by Suellen | Uncategorized
Obadiah and Jonah
We’re rushing a little. Need to finish by end of year, and got behind a bit.
One of the most common stories in the Old Testament is Jonah, so I’m not going to talk about that much. I’ll just mention that Jesus saw Jonah’s trip to the fish belly to be a type for His going to hell and being resurrected. (Matthew 12:40)
Obadiah isn’t spoken of very much, but there is an important lesson here if we look at it. Throughout the prophetic books, we see contrast between Esau and Jacob. Remember, these were two sons of Isaac. Esau was the first-born, but Jacob was the one who inherited the blessing from his father.
Of course, these were two sons and this story actually happened. However, their story was also a type for something more important. It was a type for the natural flesh man and the spirit man.
Your natural birth comes first, of course, and that one is like Esau – the child of the flesh. Then as you have your “born again” experience, your spirit-man is born and this one is like Jacob.
So what is the difference between these two natures of man? The first is arrogant, self-serving, and can be very evil in its desires. This natural man, if gone unchecked, even thinks that it doesn’t need God . “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you.” (Obadiah 3)
The spirit man is much different. This man is born of God, and honors God in everything. This second man is humble and obedient – loving others as himself. In many ways the very opposite of the first man.
So the day is coming, says the Lord, when the house of Jacob will be a flame and the house of Esau will be stubble. Then the house of Jacob will possess their possessions. (V.17). But Esau will be no more. There will be no survivor of the house of Esau. Flesh will no longer prevail.
Now this speaks of a day when the Lord brings us to our final times. Yet in each of our lives, we can see this experience coming to pass as we walk with the Lord.
Our personal house of Esau – that self-centered individual we once were, can be burned up by the fire of God’s Spirit within us changing us into His likeness. (Our Jacob). As we die to self and live to Him, we see ourselves being changed from glory to glory day by day.
Let your mountain of Jacob burn up your mountain of Esau, and possess your possessions. The wonderful covenant you have with the Lord through the blood of Jesus comes into fruition as we do just that.
Revelation 12-14
Within these chapters we see lots of imagery. First there is a woman who gives birth to a Son. Who is that woman? Israel, the descendants of Abraham, who had been called as God’s people for that very purpose. The birth of God’s Son came just as it had been foretold.
Yet there was also a dragon. The dragon had been Lucifer, one of God’s greatest archangels, but because of his pride, he rebelled against God and tricked a third of the angels into following him. So Lucifer became Satan, seen here as the dragon, and when he fell he carried a third of the angels (stars) with him.
This dragon, however, went to war with God’s people. (Today in the world, the dragon is at war with Israel and with Christians. That’s why all of the persecution).
So how do we overcome? By the “blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.”(12:11) The blood of Jesus, which we have received, has given us authority, and the words we speak cause us to overcome the power of Satan. The words of our testimony agree with God and not with the devil. We speak the Word of God with lips which have been cleansed by His blood, and we in effect prophesy our own deliverance.
Chapter 13 gets into some interesting territory. Personally I think that people often miss it when they try to be so specific about the anti-christ who is revealed here. I believe that the anti-christ is a spirit, which is manifested in a religion which attacks and threatens Christians and Jews. It’s like a false Christ. (And I think that we can see him at work right now in the world).
There is a false religion which tries to force all people to worship this false god. The threat of death and persecution ensues. Violence and evil against Christians and Jews. (If you will notice, other religions are not threatened in the same way as Christians and Jews. That’s one way you can tell when the dragon is at work).
One interesting fact in all of this is that the number 666 comes into the forefront . It is the number which will be the “mark of the beast” and it is described as the “number of a man.” The number which stands for man in the Bible is 6.
God created man to be three parts: spirit, soul, and body. And His desire is for all three parts to be subject to Him by the power of His Holy Spirit. Yet often man tries to live his life without God, and he worships himself, and not God. His number is 666, signifying that all parts of his being belong to man – and not God.
There is a time – and I think we are seeing it now – when man wants to worship himself and not God. He yields to the flattery of the devil and the deception of false religions. All of the world is threatened with this type of allegiance.
Yet God wins, and so do we. The day will come when the Lamb and His cohorts will arise and the whole earth will see His glory. No longer will the false religions reign, but God Himself will reign forever.
There will be a great harvest and a great judgment.
It’s important for us to stay on the right side!
by Suellen | Uncategorized
Amos 5-9
God’s presence is glorious, and it will prevail.
But let’s back up. Both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were prosperous during Amos’s ministry. However, the prosperity was leading to more and more materialism, immorality, and injustice – especially in the north. In fact, the prosperity led many to believe that they just couldn’t be overthrown.
When everything is going well in the life of an individual or in a country, most can’t imagine that it would ever be different. An arrogance can set in to make some think that they are impervious to hard times. That’s where Jeroboam II and his northern kingdom were while Amos was bringing his message. They couldn’t imagine anything but prosperity.
Just three decades later, however, the Assyrians invaded and ended their false assumptions. They just wouldn’t listen to the prophets.
As with most of the prophets, however, Amos ends on a beautiful note. In fact, he has some insight which will help the new believers in Jesus centuries later. “In that day I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David and wall up its breaches…That they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name.”(9:11-12).
So what is he saying? The tabernacle of Moses had three parts to it: the outer court, the inner court, and the holy of holies with the ark of the covenant – which only the priest could go into once a year. And this is not the tabernacle which would be raised up again.
The tabernacle of David was a simple one. No outer or inner court. Only the holy of holies – the ark of the covenant under a tent. With continual incense and music, praisers were assigned to worship continually – 24/7. It represented the presence of God which would be available to all people on the earth, and not just the priests.
This presence of God would be what would make all nations of the earth come to know Jesus. No longer would there be this argument and that argument concerning the nature of God, but people would come to know Him by His presence in their midst.
In Acts 15, the elders of the church gathered for a major discussion concerning the gentiles. Paul and Barnabas had been preaching the gospel to the gentiles, and the gentiles has been coming to the Lord. But there were some Jews who wanted everyone to be circumcised according to the Jewish custom. So the council met to discuss what should be done.
As they met, James stood up and quoted from Amos. (Acts 15:16-17). The tabernacle of David (God’s presence) would be restored that all the gentiles who are called by His name should seek the Lord and find Him. Obviously, the Father was endorsing the gentiles seeking the Lord. (This is a case of the meaning of scripture being revealed to the spirit-filled believers by the Holy Spirit).
Jesus said that only those whom the Father would draw would be His. (John 6:44) That’s what we see here. The presence of God, as demonstrated by the holy of holies in David’s simple tabernacle, was a type for the drawing of God’s people from every nation and every tongue to worship Him. The curtain which separated the holy of holies in the temple would be ripped from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross (Matthew 27:51), and God’s presence would be for all to experience.
God’s presence and His love were not just for the priest. Not just for the Jews. His presence and His love were for all mankind who would believe in Him. The meaning of these scriptures written by Amos was revealed by the Holy Spirit to James and the elders.
For all of us who are not from Israeli heritage, these scriptures are really significant. God’s love is for me – and you!!
Revelation 9 – 11
Three more trumpets. The fifth and sixth trumpets blast and initiate more tribulation in the earth. Locusts, horses, and angels carrying out the judgment of God. Torment and death. But the people “did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” (9:21)
Many of the images from Revelation are seen also in the book Zechariah. The two “olive trees” or anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord, representing Him in the earth. They are also called the two witnesses. If you have seen the movie “Left Behind,” you have seen these as two very prophetic looking men who prophesy doom on the earth.
Personally, I am not sure that these are actual men. I think that they are the Bible and the Holy Spirit of God – the two witnesses of Him in the earth. You can already see the attempt to put to death these representatives. Many want to mock and discredit God’s Word in order to live their ungodly lives with zeal. And they mock those who have a relationship with God’s Holy Spirit.
In either case, when the two witnesses seem to be dead, many in the world will rejoice. Yet God’s plan will prevail.
There is resurrection and there is life! “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” (11: 15) Whew! I love it!
God Almighty has taken His great power and He has begun to reign. And the time came for the dead to be judged and for His reward to be given to those who “fear His name, from the small to the great.”(11:18)
God’s Word is true and it is powerful. Whether we believe it or not, His Word will eventually come to pass. His covenant will move forward and His “wrap up” will take place.
His kingdom is here now and He reigns in the hearts of those who believe. Eventually His kingdom will be all that remains.
My prayer is for a great awakening to take place in our world, so that many will come to know Him and choose to live forever with their God. I hope that you will join me in that prayer.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Hosea 9-14
Throughout the book of Hosea, God demonstrates His great love for us and His faithfulness to us. His unconditional love is apparent.
Yet this group of people never receive God’s wonderful love for them. The Lord speaks of a day when He will bring back His people to their own land and bless them. And that word will be carried out, but this group will never be in on it.
Hosea is writing to the northern kingdom, Israel, which contains 10 of the original tribes of Israel. These people will be captured and transported to Assyria, and there is no record of them ever returning. The southern kingdom, Judah, will eventually go into Babylon and will be brought back by God’s mighty hand. But not the ones who go into Assyria. Some have come to call these people the “Lost Tribes of Israel.”
There are several books which give us glimpses of God’s faithfulness to the children of Judah in Babylon. The books of Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra all show how God continues to work with His people even in captivity. But we never hear from these whom Hosea addresses again.
God’s love is there for us today – even in a greater measure because of the blood of Jesus. Yet not all will receive it.
Those of us who do receive His great love will bring forth much fruit for His kingdom. We will be empowered by Him to overcome the sin in our lives, and we will be empowered by Him to share the good news with others.
Hosea is a book which shows unequivocally how God is eager to bless those who are His. It also shows that we have a choice.
I pray that you and I will choose wisely. Living in His love is an awesome place to be!
Revelation 3-4
If you are a parent, you know the many sides of your responsibility toward your children. You are cultivating a life which will hopefully represent God and His kingdom, so your instruction is not always the same.
When your child is lacking in confidence – perhaps having been mistreated by a teacher or friend – your words to him or her are uplifting and encouraging. You remind him of God’s great love for him and that the Father= is there for him in whatever he pursues. You major on God’s grace.
However, if your child is off the path, and about to get himself into trouble – maybe because of his own stubbornness – your word to him is different. In this case, you bring correction and rebuke for the dangerous behavior.
In each case, your word is based on your love for your child. You are responding to the need of the moment.
Well our heavenly Father is the same way. There are times when we need much encouragement, and that is what He gives us. There are times, however, when we need to be corrected, and that is what He gives us.
In these chapters of Revelation, we see our God at work doing just that. Yesterday we took a look at some of the letters to the churches. Today, we cover the rest of them.
In chapter three, He addresses a dead church.(And we have seen some of those). He also addresses two others. The church of Philadelphia is the most on track of any we have seen. This church is producing fruit for the kingdom, and has a door open to it – a door which no one can shut, because Jesus Himself has opened the door. It’s their reward for “having a little strength, having kept His Word, and not having denied His name.”(3:8)
Then Jesus comes to the lukewarm church – the church which is the most prevalent “problem church” in our society. When we have grown up in a religious society, we forget some things along the way, and our sight becomes clouded. We start relying on our own righteousness, and not that of our Savior. We start living our lives from our own works, and we forget how much we need our Father’s empowerment to live for Him.
That’s where the Laodicean church found itself. And they had quite a rebuke! Jesus says to them – and those of us today who are in that quagmire – that He will vomit them up, if they don’t repent. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chastise.” (3:19)
Yet He is still knocking on the door of their hearts – and yours and mine when we become self-sufficient. If we have an ear to hear, we will overcome and sit with Him.
Over the years, there have been many times when I would feel God’s correction for me. Perhaps concerning an attitude; perhaps concerning incorrect thinking. One thing is certain: His correction is always sweet. The devil will condemn, but Jesus corrects in a way that doesn’t condemn. His correction will bring peace, because it will be obvious that it comes from His love.
I am so very thankful for the many facets of my God’s love for me. Always love, but many expressions of it. Awesome!
