Category: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Zephaniah 3:5

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“The righteous Lord is in her; he does no wrong. He applies his justice morning by morning; he does not fail at dawn, yet the one who does wrong knows no shame.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

“Shame on you!” Have you ever heard that before? Have you ever said that before? The answer is probably yes on both counts. It is for me. Why? What is shame that it would be projected onto us by other people or by us onto them? And besides, isn’t shame a bad thing? We’re sure told as much by our culture. We should live lives that are free from shame, shouldn’t we? Well, yes, but maybe not for the reason you think. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Zephaniah 1:8-9

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“On the day of the Lord’s sacrifice I will punish the officials, the king’s sons, and all who are dressed in foreign clothing. On that day I will punish all who skip over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

All religion is just superstition given official sanction. Something along those lines is a common critique of religious people and their religions. And, to a certain extent, there is a small amount of truth to it. Religious people often do buy into any number of silly superstitions. Also, not a few religious rituals are little more than dressed up superstitions. But to paint with such a broad brush is to risk missing a key observation: The God of the Bible hates superstitions just as much as your scientific, secular neighbor professes to hate them.

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Digging in Deeper: Luke 23:33

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“When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

These are perhaps some of the most unlikely words ever written. God, the eternal creator of the universe, died. On a cross. That’s what it means when it says, “they crucified him.” All modern theories about His perhaps not really dying on the cross to explain away the resurrection aside, when someone was crucified, the end result was their death. Always. But why did it have to be a cross?

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Digging in Deeper: Luke 24:21

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“But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

If this virus outbreak hadn’t happened, tonight I would have been sleeping under the sharks with my son. This week, his class was set to go on a three-day, two-night trip to the coast. As a part of it, tonight would have been spent in an aquarium where they have you sleep in a room where the whole ceiling is a giant fish tank. I could have drifted off to sleep to the soothing images of sharks wishing they could bust through the glass and eat me. I, like my son, am disappointed. Have you ever been disappointed?

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Digging in Deeper: Habakkuk 3:17-18

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“Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

The news lately seems to be getting worse every day. I see the daily infection rates and the growing death count and my heart sinks just a bit each morning. It breaks for the tragedy these families are facing. It breaks for the hopelessness that has to be clawing at the hearts of the healthcare workers who are bearing the load of seeing patient after patient die in spite of their best efforts. It breaks for the children—including mine—who don’t understand social distancing and just long to play with and see their friends again. What do we do when chaos seems to reign just a little bit more each day? Here at the end of his collection of prophecy, Habakkuk offers us a way forward.

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