In chapter 35 of Ezekiel, prophecies are issued against Mount Seir.  Each of the three paragraphs (in ESV translation) ends with the same phrase: “You (or they) will (or shall) know that I am the LORD.”   God says, “I will lay your cities waste,”  “I will make you a perpetual desolation,” “I will judge you,” and similar foreboding intentions.

The same phrase “know that I am the LORD” appears 96 times in the Bible; 72 instances are in the book of Ezekiel.  The promise is made when describing devastating destruction; similar havoc is to be visited on the nations that participated or gloated when Israel was taken away in exile.  But there are also bold promises of restoration and refreshment, especially Ezekiel 37.14: “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.  Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

Both the good and the bad.  It reminds one of another promise from Romans 14.11, quoting Isaiah 45.23: “As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  Romans goes on to say “each of us will give an account of himself before God”.

We all face judgment.  Those who know God and his Son Jesus will receive mercy and eternal refreshment; those who deny the Son will be looking at perpetual desolation.  Choose well.

2 Kings 6.8-23 contains a string of miraculous events ending with grace for many.

In verses 8-14, the King of Syria kept trying to ambush Israelite groups but was thwarted when the prophet Elisha would send warnings to stay away from the ambush areas.  The King was “greatly troubled” especially when told that Elisha knew his private instructions! So he sent a great army to capture the prophet who was disrupting his schemes.

The army shows up and surrounds Dothan, the city where Elisha and his servant were living. The servant is terrified, but Elisha knew things and calmly says, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And he prays that the servant’s eyes would be opened. BEHOLD! The army of the LORD – horses and chariots of fire – was on the mountains all around.  Indeed, the forces of God in the spiritual realm are more than we can imagine.

Just as he prayed sight for his servant, Elisha prays blindness upon the Syrian army.  It was like a Jedi mind trick when Elisha tells the commander, “this is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me.” The army is led to the Israelite city of Samaria where their eyes are opened when they have been surrounded by their enemies.  The King of Israel wants to kill them all, but Elisha convinces him to feed them well and send them on their way.  Many were spared that day by the Lord’s power – Elisha and his servant, the city of Dothan, the Syrian army – and many were spared in succeeding years as the Syrians stopped their raiding.

Some of the passages in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy lull you into plodding through, and then all of a sudden some major event happens.  This is the case in Leviticus 8 and 9, where Aaron and his sons are consecrated as the first High Priests of the nation.

In chapter 8 Moses is the main actor.  He washes the candidates off, dresses them with skillfully made everything – coat, sash, robe, ephod, band, breastpiece, turban, golden plate, and holy crown. This is like make-up for the orcs in a Lord of the Rings movie. 

Then Moses anoints and consecrates the work area – the whole tabernacle, the altar, the utensils, the basin and stand – seven times.  And he pours oil on Aaron’s head. I can’t imagine the cleaning bills for those outfits.

Then comes a description of Moses’ intricate arrangements of various burned and discarded body parts of the bull of the sin offering, the ram of the burnt offering, the ram of ordination, and various anointings and sprinklings, including blood on earlobes , thumbs, and big toes.

Eight days later, Aaron and his sons are in charge of repeat ceremonies. There is a re-do of the bull for a sin offering and ram for the burnt offering plus a goat, a calf, a lamb, an ox, another ram, and grain. The order of events, the presentations, and the placement of the parts are all described – this goes on for twenty-some verses.  The only reason given for all this is in verse 9.6: “This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

Once all the offerings are placed on the altar just so, Aaron blesses the people and comes down from the altar.  He and Moses enter the tent of meeting and upon coming out, the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.  These are all important steps for the nation as they move forward with God.  Moses had come down from the Mountain with a shiny face and the Lord’s thunder.  Aaron comes down from the altar and the glory of the Lord shows up, as promised.  The high priests are established as the LORD’s men.

And the seal of approval is in verse 24: “And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”  Amen.

If you ever wonder why Elijah was one of two Old Testament figures to appear during the Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9, Mark 9, Matthew 17), see how God used him mightily during the encounter with the prophets of Baal and Asherah in 1 Kings 18.

Quite a crowd gathered that day – all the people of Israel, all the prophets of Baal, plus Elijah and King Ahab, all on Mount Carmel, near the sea, in northwest Israel.  The event was the great Champion Burn Off.  Elijah for the LORD and the many prophets for Baal prepared a slaughtered bull on their altar and called upon their god to burn it up.

The event had sadness.   Elijah challenged the people of Israel to not “go limping between two different opinions.  If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”   The people’s wretched response was utter silence – they did not say a word. 

The event had humorous heckling.  When the Baal believers were having trouble getting a response, Elijah suggested louder chanting, since maybe your god is asleep or on holiday, or sitting on the potty. They “raved” on, but got no response.

The event had an awesome prayer.  After Elijah built his altar with twelve stones for the tribes of Israel, he dug a trench around it.  Then he had the people pour three massive loads of water on the altar, drenching the wood, meat, and stones, and overflowing the trench.  His prayer is bold, “let it be known this day that you are the God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word,  Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

The event had a fearful climax.  Fire indeed came down from the LORD, hot enough to evaporate all the water and burn up the offering and the wood, plus vaporize the stones and the dust all around!  The people fell on their faces and finally cried out, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”  And at Elijah’s direction, all the prophets of Baal were seized and slaughtered, not one of them escaped.

God certainly used Elijah in a powerfully miraculous way that day.

Jesus raised a widow’s son from the dead in Luke 7.11-17.  It is not as well-known as the raising of Lazarus, but the episode is filled with the glory of God. 

The funeral procession was headed to the gravesite just as Jesus arrived.   This is another case of Jesus’ perfect not-coincidental timing.  He had compassion on the woman, a widow who had lost her only son; the circumstances of her life would be very difficult.

Jesus touched the funeral bier, unafraid of the “uncleanness” attached to such an action.  He had already dealt with lepers and in the next chapter heals a demoniac and a bleeding woman.  His actions pointed out the relative importance of the law compared to himself; he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

This event early in his ministry helped people understand that something very out of the ordinary was happening.  “Fear seized them all.”  And, appropriately, “they glorified God,” calling Jesus a great prophet and thanking God for visiting them.  The news of this miracle traveled fast, partly because he had brought a large crowd along; they were all witnesses.

Luke the writer helps later generations of Jews to understand the significance of Jesus as prophet.  The phrase “Jesus gave him to his mother” in verse 14 is exactly the wording of 1 Kings 17.23, when Elijah raised a different widow’s son.

David’s general Joab was a ruthless sort of guy.  On the plus side, he was loyal to his king when many deserted him to follow Absalom (2 Samuel  15-18).  He also rebuked David twice when his decisions were questionable (2 Samuel 19.5-7 and 24.3).

But he was vengeful, murdering Israel’s general Abner, who had killed Joab’s brother during an earlier battle (2 Samuel 3.26-27).  He also murdered David’s son Absalom (2Samuel 18.9-15). He was deceitful, prompting an old woman with a fictitious story to manipulate the king (2 Samuel 14). 

So, the otherwise hugely heroic line from 2 Samuel 10.12 seems a bit tainted.  Joab and his men are outnumbered and caught between Syrian and Ammonite forces.  He deploys his men strategically, draws out a simple battle plan, then encourages his men and proclaims his trust in God with “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”  Because of Joab’s other actions, you wonder if he is being sincere or fatalistic.

God wins the battle for the Israelites.   And maybe that is the point – God does the winning.  Characters in the Bible are shown with all their flaws – vengeful, deceitful, adulterous, murdering offenders against God’s holiness.  But God has a wonderful plan for his creation, saving those who believe in Him and allowing men to be heroic at times even though they are sinners.

After King David and his men conquered Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 5, it seemed good to them to bring the Ark of the Covenant there.  This is not Noah’s great big boat, but the chest portrayed in the Indiana Jones movie as attracting lightning and melting Nazis.

As the oxen were transporting the ark, they stumbled.  Uzzah, one of the priests, put his hand on the chest to steady it.  God was angry at this touching and struck Uzzah dead on the spot. Other bible characters like Aaron’s sons (Leviticus 10) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) have been killed dead by God, but they seemed to deserve it more for playing loose with fire and money. The death of Uzzah was a huge warning to the whole kingdom about observing the holiness of God and the His things.

King David was angry and afraid at the same time, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?”

They left the ark in the nearby home of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months.  Once everyone saw that Obed and his household were exceedingly blessed during this time, David decided to move it the rest of the way to the new capital city.  This time, they went with dancing, singing, praising God, and presumably, more care with the transportation.

Psalm 41 is a lament, raising up to God the distress the psalmist is going through.  His enemies hope he dies (verse 5); his visitors “utter empty words” (vs 6); he has haters who gossip about his grieving (vs 7-8).

But verse 9 is the most crushing: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heal against me.” Such betrayal is an awful event.  Still, the writer can say at the end, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.”

The psalmist was recording more than he knew. Just after washing the disciples’ feet in John 13, Jesus quotes from Psalm 41:  “But the scripture will be fulfilled, ‘he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”  Jesus then handed bread to Judas Iscariot, who left the meal to do his betraying work.

The suffering psalmist wrote it and Jesus quoted it more than 500 years later.  Jesus adds to the list of scriptures he is fulfilling as the Messiah, the chosen one of God.  The betrayal by Judas was just one of many ignominies Jesus suffered through.  And like the psalmist, he looks past his pain to glorify the LORD, the one true God of Israel.

Just as there are cool numbers, there are cool phrases.  Here are four.  Look for more.

 

Job 13.15:  Job while stating his case for wanting to have a discussion with God:

“Though he slay me I will hope in him.”

 

Esther 4.13-16

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.  For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.  And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day.  I and my young women will also fast as you do.  Then I will go the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

 

Genesis 50.20 Joseph speaking to his brothers after the death of Jacob

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

 

Jeremiah 12.5  God’s reply to Jeremiah after the prophet  complains that the wicked and hypocrites fare well.

“If you have raced with men on foot , and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?”

 

Jeremiah the prophet was called to a grand mission in the first chapter of his book – he is to be God’s ambassador to His people.  Like Paul (Acts 9), God tells him the plan.  Like Moses (Exodus 3), he is hesitant to go.  Like Timothy (1 Timothy 4.12) he is a youngster.

The summons is multi-faceted and irresistible.  In Jeremiah 1.5, God says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 

When Jeremiah protests his young age, God says to him (verses 7-8),  “Do not say, ‘I am a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”

In verse 9, God touches Jeremiah’s mouth to insert His words.

And, God warns that the people will fight against Jeremiah and his messages (verse 19).  BUT, God will deliver him.  Verse 18 almost sounds like he is given super powers – “ I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls” against your enemies.

With this excellent start, Jeremiah served as ambassador / prophet for more than forty years.  He endured hardships and sufferings but continually feared his God more than men.