The One True God
1/17/2025
One of my favorite Bible stories is found in 1 Kings 18:17-40 when Elijah stood as the lone prophet against a staggering 450 pagan prophets (verse 22). The story begins when Elijah challenges king Ahab and his prophets to a test. This would determine whether Baal or the God of Elijah was the true and living God. The test involved taking two bulls, cutting them up, and laying each on their own altar. The prophets of Baal would pray to their god and Eljiah would pray to his. Whichever deity consumed the sacrificial bull would be declared the true God.
The prophets of Baal called to their god all morning and into the afternoon (verse 26). They were desperate for a response. Despite their pleading shouts and gruesome display of violence upon themselves, “there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29 ESV). The god of the pagans was powerless, for he was no god at all.
It was now Elijah’s turn. Before going to the Lord in prayer he has his bull doused with water three times. Elijah had certainty that God would act. Not even a sopping wet sacrifice could stop what was about to transpire. In contrast to the dramatic display just put forth by the prophets of Baal, Elijah offers up a humble prayer to the Lord. He trusts that God will hear him and respond.
O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are 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. (1 Kings 18:36–37)
How did God respond? Fire came down from heaven, consuming the bull along with the entire altar. Elijah trusted that God would respond, and He did with a miraculous display of fire from heaven. He alone was the true God!
I think many of us would confess that we don’t think about these biblical stories as often as we should, if at all. Let’s try to change that. This world is filled with paganism, secularism, atheism, and countless other false demonic religions and worldviews. As you encounter these, remember that it was our God who answered Elijah’s prayer and reigned down fire from heaven. Our God is living, active, and hears our prayers. He alone is the true God and worthy of our obedience and worship.
The Faithfulness of God
1/9/2025
We recently celebrated Christmas, a time when we give special consideration to the grand miracle of the incarnation. There are countless reasons to celebrate this great event, not only during Christmastime but every single moment. God graciously took on flesh and came to earth as a humble baby in the town of Bethlehem. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on a Roman cross as the self-sacrificial Lamb of God, and rose again on the third day. This was all part of God’s merciful plan to save unworthy sinners.
In the incarnation, we also have a display of God’s flawless record of covenantal faithfulness. Let’s take a journey from the Gospels all the way back to 2 Samuel where we read about God’s covenant with David. In 2 Samuel 7:16, God speaks to David through Nathan the prophet. “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever’”” (ESV). God promises David that his kingdom would last into eternity. This kingdom wouldn’t look like other earthly kingdoms that eventually fade away with the passing of time. This kingdom would last into eternity through King Jesus, the Davidic King par excellence.
Let’s remember the covenant faithfulness of our God in the sending of an eternal and perfect Davidic King. God was faithful in the past and will continue to be so today and into eternity. The Christian can trust with unwavering confidence in the perfect, unchanging, and faithful Word of God.
Give Us a King!
12/19/2024
The book of 1 Samuel begins the story of the kings of Israel, starting with a man named Saul. Saul’s ascendancy to the throne began with the people of Israel’s misplaced desire for a king. We read about their sinful motives in 1 Samuel 8:4-5, which tells us that “all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations”” (ESV). Up until this point, the people had been ruled by the Judges, who served as protectorates of the people from invading enemies. Despite being warned by Samuel of the burdens a king would place on them, they were persistent in their desire to have a king so that they could be like the surrounding nations.
A few chapters later, Samuel tells us that because of their desire for a king, Israel was rejecting their God as King. “But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your thousands” (1 Samuel 10:19). Lots were then cast and Saul was chosen from the tribe of Benjamin to be king over Israel. As we continue reading we see that Saul would eventually be rejected by God and replaced by David, the one from whom an eternal Davidic King would come.
When we consider this narrative, what exactly was the sin of the people in demanding a king? I don’t think it was merely the desire for a king in and of itself that was misplaced, since God Himself desired to give the people a Davidic king from whom Jesus Christ would come. Rather, I think it was the motive behind the desire for a king that made the people’s demand particularly misplaced and sinful. Notice how Israel didn’t ask for a king in order to better serve God and obey His law, but they asked for a king in order to be like the nations they saw around them. Rather than being a holy and set apart people of God, they wanted to look like everyone else. As a result, they rejected God as their king because of their desire to fit in with the unbelieving world.
It’s unfortunate that we often see something similar taking place within Christian circles today. Many people claim the name of Christ and even attend Sunday morning worship, but when their lives are examined they look no different than the world around them. Outside of the church building they live like, sound like, and think like everyone else. We even see this in many evangelical churches themselves as the priority shifts from glorifying God with true worship to catering to the desires of the world. Biblical preaching is replaced with motivational speeches and stand up comedy, and sincere worship is replaced with high-budget concerts designed to elicit emotional responses from the “audience.” It seems like many churches care more about what’s culturally cool than what a biblical church ought to look like. In an attempt to look like the world around them they throw away those things that are truly pleasing to God.
As Christians, let’s remember that we are citizens of the kingdom of Christ, not the kingdom of this world. Let’s live consistently with who we are as blood-bought children of God and as Saints who are set apart for the purpose of serving and worshiping Him.
Waiting on the Lord
12/11/2024
The Bible is filled with examples of faithful and courageous women. One such woman went by the name of Ruth. She was a Moabite who married a man named Mahlon who had traveled with his family from Bethlehem into Moab. Eventually, Mahlon along with his father and brother died, leaving Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah alone with their mother-in-law Naomi. After Orpah leaves to return home to her people, Ruth is likewise encouraged to return back home. But Ruth has other plans as we read about in Ruth 1:16–17.
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” (ESV)
What a beautiful picture of Ruth’s commitment to Naomi even though it would mean traveling to a foreign land to a people she’d never met all while being husbandless and childless. But her commitment to her mother-in-law didn’t go unnoticed by God. He providentially gave Ruth a husband named Boaz and a son named Obed, who would be king David’s grandfather. What a blessing this was which up until that point had been one of the darkest moments in these women’s lives.
I think this story has a lot to teach us about patiently waiting on the Lord and trusting in God’s plan rather than our own. This can be hard to do. Rather than patiently seeking guidance from God through His Word, prayer, and the counsel of fellow believers, we often spring into action without even considering whether it’s what God wants for us. When we act this way, it’s often out of discontentment as we try to increase the things that supposedly make us happy and decrease those things that don’t as fast as and in any way we can.
But let’s take a different approach to life. Let’s ground our joy in the unchanging source of all joy, God Himself, instead of the changing circumstances and fleeting things of this world. As we do so, let’s be faithful in whatever situation and season of life we find ourselves in, knowing that God has placed us there for a purpose and will bless our faithfulness to His calling just as He blessed Ruth for her faithfulness to Naomi. Ruth could have attempted to chart her own destiny by returning to Moab to find a husband. But she didn’t. She waited patiently, committed herself to serving Naomi’s God, and found herself richly blessed because of it, all in ways she never could have expected.
Jesus is King
12/6/2024
The book of Judges is a tragic story of Israel’s continued rebellion against God despite His faithful restoration of them time and time again. The story goes something like this. The people would fall away from the Lord and worship the gods of the surrounding nations. Judges 2:11 says that “the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals” (ESV). This happens over and over (see 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 10:6, 13:1). God punished them by giving them over to the pagan nations. But then the people would ask the Lord for help, and God would give them a judge to deliver them from their oppressors.
The last verse of the book summarizes the entire book well. Judges 21:25 says that “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This highlighted the people’s desperate need for a king, which would first be in the person of king David and ultimately in Jesus Christ.
I can’t think of a better verse to describe the culture of our unbelieving world today. As was the case in the time of the judges, the world today rejects their King and the Word of God while relying on its own depraved and self-serving form of morality. Many say “love is love” and “my body my choice” while claiming to hold the moral high ground. You may hear the claim that all religions are a path to heaven so long as one pursues them with sincerity and fervency. Others might say that even if there was a God, He would only send the really bad people to Hell, conveniently leaving themselves outside of that group. The list could go on.
The world needs a king. But not just any king. It needs King Jesus who is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6) and only means of salvation. This Christmas season, let’s make it our goal to share the message of our King who entered this world as a baby in Bethlehem, went to the cross for our salvation, and promises to come again at the end of world history.