Job 26-30: Verse of the Day

"And to man [God] said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding'" (Job 28:28).

Job sets up a lengthy image of man searching endlessly for wisdom, and the God who has it declared to man it's location.

Job 21-25: Verse of the Day

"Dominion and awe belong to Him who establishes peace in His heights. Is there any number to His troops? And upon whom does His light not rise? How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, that maggot, and the son of man, that worm!" (Job 25:1-6).

Bildad finds it hard to hear about Job's "righteousness" before God. Consider who God is and how can man even stand in His presence. However, Job acted faithfully toward God, and we know that it is accounted as righteousness (Gen 15:6).

Job 16-20: Verse of the Day

"As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:25-26).

Despite His suffering and knowing that God was in control of the things he was undergoing, his confidence was in the Lord. He knew that God would redeem him and that he would resurrect to see God.

Job 11-15: Verse of the Day

"If you would direct your heart right and spread out your hand to Him, ...you would lie down and none would disturb you, and many would entreat your favor" (Job 11:13,19).

It was hard to resist using Job 13:15 for the votd (verse of the day), but I trust you've heard that one. These words of Zophar just go to show that misunderstandings about God's dealings with man are not limited to one generation. He basically says, "You're suffering because you've sinned. If you'd act righteously, then everything will be great". Sound familiar? This is the same health and wealth preaching that you hear from tele-evangelists today.

Job 6-10: Verse of the Day

"But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One" (Job 6:10).

How can this man rejoice in unsparing pain? It's the peace that passes understanding and the comfort that rises above all happenings. It's knowing that we are acting righteously before our Lord. Nothing else matters!

Job 1-5: Verse of the Day

"Then Satan answered the Lord, 'Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land." (Job 1:9-10).

This is Satan, our accuser before the Lord. He attributes weakness to God's blessings. He desires nothing more than to allow us to suffer, hopefully to our destruction. God will allow it for the positive benefit of our testing. Praise be to God who protects us and has reserved a place for Satan, our temptor.

Esther 6-10: Verse of the Day

"In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them" (Esther 8:17).

What's entertaining about this verse is that Ahasuerus' verdict was simply to allow the Jews to fight for themselves if any tried to kill them. To the Jews, that meant victory because God was fighting with them. And apparently, God's fame was still abundantly known.

Esther 1-5: Verse of the Day

"Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esher, 'Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?'" (Esther 4:13-14).

Seriously, could there have been another Verse of the Day from Esther? The providence of God has been focused on almost exclusively from these verses. Notice Mordecai's first statement concerning Esther suffering the same fate. Sometimes we get caught up in being "respectors of persons" and even consider ourselves more highly than we should. We are all sinners and are thus playing on the same level.

Second, notice Mordecai's confidence in God's salvation. He doesn't presume that Esther is the only way. He just encourages her to play a part in God's salvation. He knows that God will take care of it either way.

Nehemiah 11-13: Verse of the Day

"Also men of Tyre were living there who imported fish and all kinds of merchandise, and sold them to the sons of Judah on the sabbath, even in Jerusalem. Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, 'What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day? Did not your fathers do the same, so that our God brought on us and on this city all theis trouble?'" (Neh 13:15).

We are intended to learn from the mistakes of former generations. I forget how long these people have not been allowed to worship their God, but they had complete disregard for the Sabbath. Do you see what happens when we fail to study, fail to see what God finds important? We begin to attribute to God what we deem important. God starts to devalue that which is not all that crucial to us. God does not change and He IS the standard. Let us rise to meet it.

Nehemiah 6-10: Verse of the Day

"They refused to listen, and did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; so they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compasionte, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness; and you did not forsake them" (Neh 9:17).

Despite Israel's unfaithfulness to God, the Lord remained faithful to His promises. When we return to our slavery, let us remember the God who is willing to forgive if we repent.

Nehemiah 1-5: Verse of the Day

"Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders" (Neh 4:4-5).

When we are reproached for our faith in the Lord by those who fail to obey Him, allow God to be the avenger so that you can keep doing the work He has called you to do.

Ezra 6-10: Verse of the Day

“After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this... O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this" (Ezra 9:13, 15).

America says, "God is gracious, so I don't have to obey too closely". The appropriate response to God's grace is to obey Him rather than to test His grace further.

Ezra 1-5: Verse of the Day

"Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people..." (Ezra 3:12-13a).

This is just a disturbing picture. It makes you wonder how our efforts to serve the Lord in this generation would be viewed by those in the first century.

2 Chronicles 36: Verse of the Day

"'Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!"'" (2 Chr 36:23).

The Lord gave the land its Sabbath rest (70 years) while Judah was in Babylonian captivity. But the Lord was faithful to His promises and even used foreign nations to fulfill them.

2 Chronicles 31-35: Verse of the Day

"[The King of Assyria] also wrote letters to insult the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, 'As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.'... And the Lord sent an angel who destroyed every mighty warrior, commander and officer in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And when he had entered the temple of his god, some of his own children killed him there with the sword." (2 Chron 32:17, 21).

There is a reason why the God of the Jews was known far and wide.

2 Chronicles 26-30: Verse of the Day

"The couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the hand of the king and his princes, even according to the command of the king, saying, 'O sons of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their fathers, so that He made them a horror, as you see'." (2 Chron 30:6-7).

Hezekiah led a great reform turning the hearts of Judah back to their God. There were a lot of horrible kings in the history of Israel and Judah and this history was preserved that we might learn from their negative example. Unfortunately, those who heed such warnings may still stand alone as it records of Ephraim and Manasseh, "but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them" (10). In every age, those who obey God and take His commands seriously will be mocked, but God will reign victorious and I want to be with Him.

2 Chronicles 21-25: Verse of the Day

"Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever"
(2 Chron 21:7).

In the context of a host of ungodly kings, God is faithful to His covenant with David.

2 Chronicles 16-20: Verse of the Day

"Now behod, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt..., see how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from Your possession which You have given us as an inheritance" (2 Chron 20:10-11).

When Israel began to enter their promised land, conquering the nations, the Lord prevented them from taking away the possession of their brothers, Edom, Moab, and Ammon. Here we see these very nations attempting to do that very thing to their brother. We must do what is right in the eyes of God despite the way we're treated and we must rely on the Lord to avenge those who sin against Him. We are neither His judges nor His destroyers, but we are His servants who have been graciously granted His land for our inheritance!

2 Chronicles 11-15: Verse of the Day

Abijah, king of Judah, proclaimed to Israel, "Have you not driven out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, even he may become a priest of what are no gods" (2 Chron 13:9).

I was reading a letter from a man who married a woman who was an "ordained minister". She came to my mind as I read this verse. Men have made their own religion separate and apart from God. They have ordained leaders over themselves in a manner that God has never specified and continue in serving something other than God. All the while, what God has told us to do is being ignored and disdained!

2 Chronicles 6-10: Verse of the Day

"Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; hear and forgive" (2 Chron 6:21).

After the temple was finished, Solomon prayed that God would hear their supplications at that place. In the following verses, each of the examples of supplications to God was because man sinned against Him. The modern world considers that we have something important to contribute to God. We go to Him so that He'll do something for us. The temple was not a place to have one's divine commands met, but to seek forgiveness from the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Let us in this day recognize God's great power and His grace to hear our pleas for forgiveness.

2 Chronicles 1-5: Verse of the Day

"The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?" (2 Chron 2:5-6).

No earthly dwelling place ever constructed was or will be sufficient to "contain" Him. For me, this points to God's grace to dwell with us. He desires a relationship with us and has made every opportunity for us to have one with Him. Because of His grace, our relationship with God must be on His terms.

1 Chronicles 26-29: Verse of the Day

"As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever" (1 Chron 28:9).

This reminds me of Jesus' parables in the New Testament. Is it not amazing to you that the very ones who should have been able to decipher the meaning of those spiritual thoughts were blinded to them (Pharisees). God reveals Himself to those who seek Him and leaves just enough room for doubt for those who would reject Him.

1 Chronicles 21-25: Verse of the Day

"David said, 'My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord shall be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all lands. Therefore now I will make preparation for it.' So David made ample preparations before his death" (1 Chron 22:5).

What an overwhelming responsibility! Consider the task that we with children have been given. We must prepare them for the service of the Lord. May the throne of their hearts (and ours) be built as gloriously as the temple was. Let us make preparation that they may be glorious.

1 Chronicles 16-20: Verse of the Day

"[God] permitted no man to oppress them, and he reporved kings for their sakes, saying, 'Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm" (1 Chron 16:21-22).

To Israel, God provided physical protection. As Christians, we know with certainty from those of the first century that physical protection is not our guarantee. In fact, our call is to suffer with Christ as we are His body. However, we have this same promise of protection spiritually. We're told that nothing can take away our salvation apart from our own unfaithfulness to God. Satan is unable to rip it out of my grasp. None can invalidate my home with God. Praise the Lord for our protection.