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Tag: OT

No weapon formed against you shall prosper

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Isaiah, Spiritual Warfare, What’s new?.

What does it mean that “no weapon formed against you shall prosper” (Isaiah 54:17)?

In Isaiah 54:11–17, the prophet Isaiah delivers a message from God about the restoration of Jerusalem after its destruction by the Babylonians. The people would be in chaos and confusion, but the Lord promises a future day when the city will be more glorious than ever. God’s people will return to their land and live there without fear of further devastation: “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,’ Says the LORD” (verse 17, NKJV).

In saying that “no weapon formed against you shall prosper,” God promises the people of Jerusalem that no enemy will be able to produce successful weapons against them. The word prosper here means “succeed.” The previous verse gives context: “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc” (Isaiah 54:16). In other words, God is in charge. He created the one who creates the weapons, and He will see to it that whatever weapons are wielded by Israel’s enemies would be ineffective against them. This promise will see its ultimate fulfillment in the millennial kingdom of Christ (see Isaiah 51).

The promise to Israel is often applied to God’s children today, as we deal with spiritual enemies. No matter what the devil devises to throw at us, in the end it will fail because God is the sovereign ruler of our destiny. He gives us the shield of faith, “with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). The Good News Translation phrases Isaiah 54:17 like this: “‘But no weapon will be able to hurt you; you will have an answer for all who accuse you. I will defend my servants and give them victory.’ The LORD has spoken.”

The primary theme the Lord wants to communicate in this passage is that God is our salvation. Even when bad things happen to us—when we feel defeated and crushed by our enemies—we can trust and not be afraid: “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and mountains fall into the ocean depths; even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence” (Psalm 46:1–3, GNB). Even if our cities lie in ruins, a deadly disease wreaks havoc in the world, the economy fails, and we lose our job, the Lord Almighty is with us, and He will save us: “God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid. Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken; God thunders, and the earth dissolves. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46:5–7, GNB).

A weapon is anything designed to inflict harm. In 2 Corinthians 10:4, the apostle Paul tells us that we have been given tools to fight against our enemy, but our weapons are not ordinary armaments: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Often, the enemy hits us with spiritual strongholds of confusion, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, temptation, and loneliness. But the Lord has given us His Word as our sword and faith as our shield (Proverbs 30:5; Hebrews 4:12), and we have His spiritual armor to protect us (Ephesians 6:10–18).

God is in command. He controls both those who make weapons and those who use them. The battle is not ours, but the Lord’s (2 Chronicles 20:15; 1 Samuel 17:47). He has already won the contest. Through Jesus Christ, He has defeated the final enemy, who is death, and purchased for us eternal life (2 Timothy 1:10; see also Isaiah 25:8; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 1:18). The Lord will protect and uphold His children, no matter what we face, and help us through to the final victory (Isaiah 41:10). As God’s people, we can be confident in the Lord’s ultimate triumph over every enemy. In Isaiah’s time, as in all of history, and in the future in its fullest sense, every child of God can say, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper!”

Plead my cause before the Lord

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Jeremiah, What’s new?.

How do I plead my cause before the Lord (Jeremiah 20:12)?

Jeremiah had a difficult ministry and was persecuted severely for doing what God had sent him to do. In Jeremiah 20 we discover an episode in which Jeremiah is beaten and arrested. In that context Jeremiah pleads his cause before the Lord (Jeremiah 20:12).

As Jeremiah was presenting God’s message of impending judgment on the people of Judah (Jeremiah 19), a chief priest named Passhur had Jeremiah beaten and placed in stocks not far from the temple (Jeremiah 20:1–2). After being released, Jeremiah prophesied that God would judge Passhur for rejecting God’s Word and for Passhur’s own false prophecies (Jeremiah 20:3–6). After that, we read of Jeremiah’s frustration with God and how he goes on to say, “I have pleaded my cause before You” (Jeremiah 20:12, NKJV).

After experiencing mistreatment at the hands of the temple official, Jeremiah cries out that he feels deceived by God (Jeremiah 20:7). Jeremiah presented God’s Word to the people, but, rather than respond in submission and respect, the people treated Jeremiah poorly. He is a laughingstock who is mocked constantly by seemingly everyone (Jeremiah 20:7–8). Jeremiah also seems deeply frustrated that he has to constantly bring the people bad news about coming judgment—violence and destruction—and the people receive those messages with reproach and derision for Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:8). But, despite the difficulty of being God’s messenger, Jeremiah can’t bring himself to turn away, as God’s Word (Jeremiah’s message spoken in God’s name) was like a fire within him, and he could not be silent (Jeremiah 20:9).

Because Jeremiah was constantly proclaiming God’s judgment (“terror on every side,” Jeremiah 20:10), the people denounced Jeremiah. Even his friends were waiting for him to fall, hoping he was simply being deceived so they could reject him as a false prophet (Jeremiah 20:10). Rather than receive Jeremiah’s words as a message from God, they wanted to do violence to Jeremiah. The prophet takes the matter to God, to plead his cause before the Lord, and he waits for vindication from heaven: “Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you” (Jeremiah 20:12, NLT).

Despite the constant rejection that Jeremiah felt, he refused to quit. He recognized that God was with him like a dread champion or a terrifying mighty one (Jeremiah 20:11a). Jeremiah knew that, because God was with him, his enemies would not prevail over him and would one day be ashamed and disgraced (Jeremiah 20:11b). Jeremiah knew that God determined whether someone was righteous, and it was God who could see what was in the mind and the heart (Jeremiah 20:12a). Jeremiah had confidence that God knew what was in Jeremiah’s mind and heart, that he was indeed being faithful to the task God had given him. While everyone resisted Jeremiah for the message he presented, Jeremiah asks God for His vengeance on them, for they had rejected God and persecuted Jeremiah. Jeremiah adds that he has pled his case before the Lord (Jeremiah 20:12). Jeremiah then reminds his readers that God is worthy of praise. Jeremiah breaks into song, praising the One who delivers the soul of the needy from the hands of those who do evil (Jeremiah 20:13). As he awaits God to show Himself faithful, Jeremiah laments the day of his birth, that he should see such sorrow in his life (Jeremiah 20:14–18).

Jeremiah provides an important example to all of us that serving God is not always easy. Sometimes, obedience can be most difficult and painful. But even in the midst of life-threatening difficulty, Jeremiah recognizes that he can plead his cause before the Lord (Jeremiah 20:12). Jeremiah shows us that, even though we might face great difficulty, we can bring our concern to the Lord, standing on His promises and trusting Him to bring about justice in His own time.

Later, even after seeing the destruction that he had prophesied take place, Jeremiah wrote that he had hope because God’s lovingkindness is everlasting. God’s compassions never fail, and His faithfulness is great (Lamentations 3:21–23). Jeremiah understood that, even though people may reject him, his value and his very life are found in God (Lamentations 3:24). When we plead our cause before God like Jeremiah did—if we draw the same conclusions that Jeremiah did—we will have the same hope, because His lovingkindness and compassions are still everlasting. God’s mercies never fail.

Bridegroom of blood

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Exodus, What’s new?.

What is a bridegroom of blood in Exodus 4:25?

Moses’ wife, Zipporah, calls Moses a “bridegroom of blood” in Exodus 4:25. To understand the appellation and the circumstance leading up to Zipporah’s use of it, we will look back about 400 years:

Genesis ends with Joseph as the prime minister of Egypt who, by God’s providence, saved Egypt from the famine and welcomed all his father’s household to live in the land of Goshen.

Exodus begins, centuries later, with the Israelites having become a great nation. They were persecuted by a Pharaoh who did not care what Joseph may have done and was afraid that so many foreigners in the land presented a security risk (Exodus 1:8–11). He ordered that all the male Israelite babies be killed, but the infant Moses was saved by his mother and eventually adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:1–10). He grew up as Egyptian royalty but never forgot that he was an Israelite. One day he defended an Israelite slave but killed an Egyptian in the process. Pharaoh wanted Moses killed, so Moses fled the country (Exodus 2:11–17). He became a shepherd in the land of Midian.

Moses lived in Midian for 40 years and married and had children. We don’t know what he may have told his wife and her family about his past, but, by all indications, he planned to be a shepherd the rest of his life and simply put Egypt and the captive Israelites out of his mind.

Then God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told him to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery. Moses objected but eventually resigned himself to the task (Exodus 3:1—4:17). We can imagine that this would represent a major disruption in his family life, and his wife may not have been happy about the new direction he was taking.

On Moses’ trip back to Egypt, God intercepted him and “was about to kill him” (Exodus 4:24). Moses’ wife, Zipporah, “took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it” (verse 25). At that time, she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me” (verse 25)—“‘bridegroom of blood’ referring to circumcision” (verse 26). After that, God relented (verse 26). In this way, Zipporah saved her husband’s life.

The “bridegroom of blood” incident sounds strange to most readers. Why would God send Moses on a mission and then try to kill him? Why did circumcising the son satisfy God? First, we must recognize that there is perhaps some anthropomorphic language here because, if God really tried to kill Moses, He would have succeeded. It appears that God opposed or threatened Moses in some way (perhaps by severe illness), and this was apparently because Moses had not circumcised his son. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 17:9–14). Any uncircumcised male must be “cut off from his people” (verse 14). This could mean banishment or even death.

Moses, as a shepherd in Midian, had apparently completely given up being an Israelite, as shown in the fact that he had not circumcised his son. Perhaps Moses assumed he was already “cut off” from his people, so why should he bother to maintain the sign of the covenant? For whatever reason, and possibly even because of his Gentile wife’s objections, he had not circumcised his own son.

God did not press the issue until it was time for Moses to go back to Egypt and become the leader of God’s covenant people. Before he could assume leadership, Moses would have to get his own house in order. We are not told the backstory, but we assume there had been some discussion about circumcision between Moses and his wife because Zipporah knew exactly what to do. After circumcising her son, she touched Moses’ feet with the foreskin—which would make sense if Moses were extremely ill and near death and therefore unable to perform the circumcision himself. Touching his feet with the foreskin was the act that “healed” Moses because it was tangible evidence that the sinful situation had been corrected.

Zipporah’s exclamation, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me,” is a complaint or a lament. She had to do something to her young son that was very painful and also very bloody. It was something that no mother would necessarily want to do, and she expressed her frustration with the way things had developed. Perhaps she, even more so than Moses, had planned to live out her days on the plains of Midian as a shepherdess and mother. Instead, her family had been completely uprooted to go on a journey she never expected to take. Additionally, she found herself doing something that she objected to. She is angry at Moses about it and calls him “a bridegroom of blood.” In English it might be paraphrased as “a husband of horrors,” “a mate of misery” or “a groom of gore.” The sentiment is, “If I had not married you, I would not have had to do this awful thing to my son.”

Zipporah is hardly mentioned again after the “bridegroom of blood” incident. We do not know what her relationship with Moses was like or if she ever truly accepted his God. Likewise, Moses’ children are not mentioned after this, and it is clear that they did not rise to leadership in Israel. It is not even clear that Moses’ family lived with him during the time he led Israel. This was not God’s ideal, but God used Moses in spite of his family dynamic. In the New Testament, church leaders are supposed to have their own houses in order, including having faithful wives and children (1 Timothy 3:1–12; Titus 1:5–9).