Daily Devotions

Introduction to Advent Advent is for adoring Jesus. Advent is an annual season of patient waiting, hopeful expectation, soul-searching, and calendar-watching. There’s no biblical mandate to observe Advent. It’s an optional thing—a tradition that developed over the course of the church’s history as a time of preparation for Christmas Day. Many of us find observing Advent to be personally enjoyable and spiritually profitable. The English word “Advent” is from the Latin adventus, which means “coming.” The advent primarily in view is getting ready for Jesus’ second coming and it begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends Christmas Eve. My prayer is that these little Advent Devotions might help you keep Jesus as the centre and greatest treasure of your Advent season. So what does Jesus want this Christmas? We can see the answer in his prayers. What does he ask God for? His longest prayer is John 17. The climax of his desire is in verse 24. “Father, I desire that they also, who...

Jonah and Jesus (part 2) Although some of our versions put a heading between Luke 11:29-32 and Luke 11:33-36, they can be considered as part of the same speech by Jesus. In the world of first century Palestine, the eyes were understood differently to how we think of the body. They didn’t so much function by allowing light to come in but by allowing the body’s own light to go out. In other words, the eye was considered to be a sort of channel or conduit for light, thereby making sight possible. As Jesus expressed it, “Your eye is the lamp of your body”. This ancient view of light and sight was sometimes used in an ethical sense as well. We can see something of this in Deuteronomy 15:9 which describes a person who has an unworthy thought in his heart and whose eye therefore looks grudgingly on his poor fellow Israelite. In other words, what he sees and does is a reflection of what he is like inside. An eye that sees the brother properly is an eye that is healthy and informed by a healt...

Jonah and Jesus (part 1) The book of Jonah has been a significant part of Jewish culture for many centuries. Even today, the reading of the book of Jonah is prescribed for the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar and a day of repentance and confession. The significance of Jonah is also clear in New Testament times. Jesus refers to it in a number of places, notably after being asked for “a sign” by the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus opposes the desire for a sign; he is not impressed by it. This negative emphasis comes out strongly in Luke’s Gospel. There we are told of how Zechariah became dumb for the period of his wife’s pregnancy, apparently because of his desire for some validation from God that his word from the angel was true (Luke 1:8-25). In Luke 4:1-13, we are similarly told of the devil’s attempt to force Jesus to validate who he was rather than simply live dependently on God and his word. In the face of sign seeking, Jesus responds by saying that he will r...

Jonah 4 - The Scandal of God's Grace (part 1) Joel 2 is strikingly similar in its language to Jonah 3 and 4. Both talk about people ‘turning’ or ‘returning’, and of repentance shown in people’s hearts and actions. Both passages talk about God ‘relenting’, and both are heavily dependent upon Exodus 34:6-7 and the surrounding story of God’s relenting over Israel’s sin. There is a difference however, between these Old Testament passages and Jonah 4. The other passages speak about God ‘relenting’ from sending disaster upon his own people. Jonah knew that mercy was at the very core of God’s being because God had done this so often with his own people. If it was at the core of God’s being, then Jonah’s great fear was that the walls God appeared to have erected around his people would not restrain it. Jonah feared that God would act according to his nature and forgive outsiders in the same way that he forgave his own people. To Jonah this was scandalous. The New Testament describes ...

Jonah 4:1-4 - Angry with God What does it feel like to be excluded from a group? What does it feel like to then be included? The Bible is full of walls—real ones, and metaphorical ones. A wall represents a division between two people or places, a barrier which prevents them being united. Walls keep people apart. And the removal of walls—like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—is a very powerful symbol for bringing people back together again. The Bible begins with God’s vision for a world without walls. His world will be a place where humans live in right relationship with God, with each other and with the environment in which he has placed them to live. God’s dream for humanity is about a place with no walls between God and humans, humans and each other, and humans and the world they live in. However, within fifty or so short verses in Genesis 3 this dream lies shattered. The ideal has gone and the first bricks have been laid in a series of walls between: i. God and p...

Jonah 3 - Repentance (part 2) Jonah 3 began by saying that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Daniel’s repentance in Daniel 9 similarly begins with his meditation upon Scripture. Did you notice how many of the acts of repentance in the passages above were connected with the reading of Scripture or the hearing of God’s word pronounced? This is where godly repentance begins, because in the word of God we hear who God is and what we are like. It is this that brings us to our knees. This is why repentance is a key element in becoming a Christian—it is when we hear what we are like, and how rich in mercy God has been toward us despite our sin. In 2 Corinthians 7:5-13, Paul describes the repentance of a group of Christians. He remarks that their repentance was marked by such things as grief, lack of regret at having to turn from sin, indignation, zeal, determination, eagerness and punishment. This latter sort of repentance is the sort that should characterise the people of God at all ...

Jonah 3 - Repentance (part 1) What are the indications of true repentance in a person’s life? As we have seen already, the book of Jonah is full of God’s gracious and steadfast love. This theme is apparent yet again in Jonah 3:1 when we are told that “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time”. Scripture often records that “the word of the Lord came to” someone. Here however, we are told it came to a particular prophet “a second time”. As one who had been given such a great responsibility and who had so clearly been an open rebel against God, he deserved nothing but God’s judgement. However, God does not act as Jonah deserves. God shows mercy and forgiveness in not discarding his disobedient prophet, and takes him up again for the most important task that God can give—to speak the word of God. Before we get down to having a look at the details of the passage, it will be helpful to clear the ground a bit. In this regard, verse 3 clearly holds a few statements that need clarific...

Jonah 2 - Steadfast love (part 3) The book of Jonah is markedly different in style from the other minor prophets of the Old Testament. Where they focus on the sayings of the prophet, the book of Jonah focuses on what happened to the prophet and on his reaction to these things. This, along with a number of other characteristics found within the book, has led some people in recent times to ask whether this book is really history. They have suggested that instead of history it may be a form of fiction (e.g. allegory, parable, prophetic parable, satire, short story). An inherent problem with this is that it comes with an assumption—that the miraculous and/or the supernatural can never happen and therefore the book must be fictional, greatly embellished or simply wrong. If however, you are a believer in the God who is presented in Jonah 1—the God of heaven who created the sea and the dry land—then you believe that God can do anything he chooses. You are then somewhat free to examine the b...

Jonah 2 - Steadfast love (part 2) Having been thrown overboard at the end of chapter 1, death by drowning was what Jonah expected. The words the LORD prepared a great fish indicate to us that Jonah would not die, but be rescued. Three days and three nights is a special phrase used in the ancient world with the meaning ‘long enough to be definitely dead’.  Jesus’ use of the same phrase for the duration of his death before his resurrection (Mt. 12:40) carries a similar force.  As he lands on the beach he utters the thanksgiving psalm that follows in vs 2-9. The form and structure of the psalm indicate that Jonah well understood that he had been given life instead of the death he deserved. Jonah had experienced the grace of God, and he knew it and said so eloquently and at length. God had not treated him as his sins deserved.  The New Testament is clear that the nature of God has not changed between the Testaments. He is still holy and he still punishes sin. Howev...

Jonah 2 - Steadfast love (part 1) Do you find it hard to believe that God is loving and kind? Throughout the Old Testament, there are a number of passages where God clearly declares his nature to his people. One of the grandest of these passages is Exodus 34:6-7 where God reveals himself to Moses and proclaims to him these words: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." Behind the two references to ‘steadfast love’ stands one Hebrew word: hesed. This word is translated in a variety of ways in our English translations of the Bible, such as, ‘mercy’, ‘loving kindness’, ‘goodness’, ‘favour’ and ‘love’. It is one of the favourite words used within the Old Tes...

Jonah 1 - Rebellion As we read Jonah Chapter 1 we need to note some important facts about each of the parties involved. First, Jonah is a Jew. He is therefore clearly one of God’s people. Like many Jews he probably viewed the sea with some trepidation. Apart from a few people who were sailors or fishermen, most Jews appear to have been landlubbers, who viewed the sea as a place of dark sea monsters, where chaotic forces were at work and where waves heaved and rolled (cf. Ps 107:23-32). Nevertheless, Jonah obviously considered travelling westward on the dark and dangerous sea with Gentile mariners to a land where God was unknown and not honoured a much better option than God’s proposed alternative—travelling toward Nineveh in the presence of God and bearing the word of God. Second, the mariners are apparently experienced sailors. However, they are not Jews and therefore outsiders. They know nothing of Jonah’s God, and they do not know that Jonah is fleeing him. When Jonah arrives ...

Jonah 1:1-3 - Running from God The modern city of Tel Aviv lies on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, some 70 kilometres from Jerusalem. Within this modern city are the ruins of a famous ancient city—the seaport of Joppa. In biblical history, Joppa was renowned as the port where Solomon landed his great cedars from Lebanon (2 Chr 2:16) and for its connection with two very famous reluctant missionaries to the Gentiles. In Acts 9-11, we are told that it was in Joppa that Peter was prepared by God through a vision to change his attitude to Gentile uncleanness. This preparation opened him to the otherwise incomprehensible possibility that he should go to the household of the Gentile Cornelius to preach the gospel. Cornelius became the first Gentile convert to Christianity. In the book of Jonah, Joppa is the location from which the prophet Jonah made his bid to escape from the command and presence of God in a ship bound for Tarshish (Jonah 1:1-3). The book of Jonah does not say when ...

Ecclesiastes 11-12 - The end of the matter We finally reach the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, and the “end of the matter” as far as the Preacher is concerned. He has conducted his extensive investigation. He has gone about seeing all that is done “under the sun”. And as he draws it all to a close, he considers the full span of our lives—from birth to death. With the refrain of “Meaningless” ringing in our ears, we come to the final concluding summary or epilogue in 12:9-14. Perhaps here we will find some answer that the Preacher has been holding back, some gem of insight that will leave us encouraged that everything is not so futile after all.  Not so. The Preacher gives us no relief. He says that the conclusion of all his investigation is simply this: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (v. 13). For modern readers, this is almost a letdown. We want an upbeat, feel-good ending that will dispel the clouds of gloom. And even if the Preacher w...

Ecclesiastes 9-10 - Life to the full Ecclesiastes deals with the God-given desire humans have to plumb the meaning of life—our quest to find out why things are the way they are in the universe, and what our place is in it. But after much research, the Preacher concludes that no matter how hard we try, no matter how much brainpower, technology or money we throw at the quest, we will always draw a blank and be denied a satisfying answer. As he puts it in 8:16-17:  "When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it." As we have seen, the ultimate reason for this is that God frustrates our attempts to find meaning so that in our sinfulness and pride we might be humbled before him, ...

Ecclesiastes 8 - The promise and disappointment of power Toil leads to wealth, and wealth provides opportunity to exercise power. So the Preacher’s inexorable logic leads him to a consideration of the promise and disappointment of power for finding the meaning of life. The great leveller of death removes what little satisfaction might come from seeing those who abuse power suffer in their lifetimes for the injustice they cause to others. It also results in some wickedness never being uncovered (8:9-10). The consideration of power leads the Preacher to return to a subject he noted at the beginning of this section of his book: the problem of injustice. There is a hint of the ultimate accountability of all to God, but the overwhelming sense we are left with is of our inability to comprehend the exercise (or lack of exercise) of God’s power in the face of blatant misuse of human power. It is this inability to understand that leads to the Preacher’s conclusion in 8:15. It is not a cop-ou...

Ecclesiastes 7 - Wisdom We were left yesterday with a devastating conclusion: meaning is inaccessible to us because God has barred us access to it; and because he is stronger than we are, there is no way we can overturn this situation. But surprisingly perhaps, there is comfort in this conclusion: the God who appears to be against us is also the God who can and does give us the ability to enjoy our meaningless lives, and even find a kind of satisfaction in the face of death. This comfort should prevent wise people from despairing—although it brings no guarantee. God can as easily withhold a sense of fulfilment from us as he can give it. We are totally dependent on his mercy. Chapter 7 spells out most clearly the reason why God has set things up this way. In it the Preacher takes us to the heart of the trio of ways used by humankind to seek meaning in life—ways that hold such promise and yet deliver such disappointment for the searcher. Now we turn to the quest for meaning through wis...