Revelation 21: Don’t be a Coward

Today’s reading is Revelation 21.

A Surprising Sin

In Revelation 21:8, John provides a list of sins for those whose portion is in the lake of fire instead of in the New Jerusalem:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death (ESV).

Does anything on that list surprise you?

I’m not surprised at all that murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars, all of whom are faithless to the Lord, are on that list. Detestable is a bit odd to me, but I can see it when I recognize the detestable or abominable are those who do abominable or detestable things like follow idolatry and its practices (see Leviticus 18:30; 20:23; 1 Kings 21:26; Hosea 9:10).

“Cowardly,” however, stands out to me. It surprises me. Being afraid is a sin subject to the wrath and punishment of God? Or is it only extreme fear which could be called cowardice? Why is this on the list?

Ancient Cowards

The verb form of this uncommon word is found in a handful of poignant passages in the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, helping us grasp why it gets put on this list.

In Deuteronomy 1:21, Moses said:

See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or *be dismayed* (ESV).

Do not be dismayed. That’s our term.

Then in Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Moses said again, encouraging Israel to fight against kingdoms of the Promised Land:

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or *be in dread* of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you…Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or *be dismayed* (ESV).

Go take the land. Do not be in dread or be dismayed. We see these same sentiments in Joshua 1:9; 8:1; 10:25.

While these passages speak to the second generation of Israelites who took the land, it reminds us of the first generation that didn’t. When they heard the report of the 10 spies about the giants in the land and how hard it would be to take the land, they were afraid. Rather than acting in faith, they acted without faith in cowardice. And they missed out on the Promised Land.

Natural Consequences

Think about this for a minute. God had promised Israel a land flowing with milk and honey. All they had to do was go in, stand up against the cities of men, take on the giants, and God would win the victory for them. However, they were faithless and cowardly.

They refused to go take the land. Is it shocking that those who refused to go take the land, didn’t get to live in the land? The people didn’t miss out on the land because they committed the sin of faithless cowardice and therefore God punished them not to be in the land. Rather, in faithless cowardice, they refused to enter the land and received the natural consequence of not dwelling in the land.

Granted, in that ancient case, after being rebuked and the natural consequence of their choice being explained to them, they did then try to take the land. However, they tried to do so without God (Numbers 14:39-45). While that may have seemed to involve bravery, they were still acting faithlessly. They were putting their faith in the wrong thing. Without God, they didn’t have the strength, power, or military prowess to win that battle.

The point of all this, I hope, becomes clear. The issue with cowardice, as well as faithlessness is not that we commit the sin of cowardice and God decides to punish us for it. The point is when we act in faithless cowardice, we refuse to take hold of the city of God promised for our possession. If we, in cowardice, refuse to stand up in the city of God, by definition we can’t dwell in that city. There is only one other option, wandering in the wilderness on the outside into the lake of fire.

We Get what We Ask For

We often say, and rightly so, those who are punished in eternity get what they deserve. Certainly, those who live impenitently in sin, rebelling against God, deserve punishment. However, this demonstrates another aspect to us. Those who are punished in eternity actually get what they ask for.

Oh, sure, no one given the stark choice of “Would you rather go into New Jerusalem or into the lake of fire?” will say, “Sign me up for the lake of fire.” However, when we choose the faithless cowardice of compromising with Babylon in order to protect our income, our prosperity, or our present peace, we are choosing Babylon. When we take on the mark of the Beast and the False Prophet so we can have ease in the present time, we are refusing to be New Jerusalem. We are refusing to be the pure Bride of Christ.

If we are refusing to go up and take possession of the city God has promised us, we must not be surprised when we don’t actually get to live there. Further, we must not be surprised to discover the wilderness outside the city is as bad as God warned us. Perhaps we didn’t believe God when He told us we were instead choosing a lake of fire, but He did warn us. If the lake of fire is our portion, it will only be because we asked for it.

Don’t Be Cowardly

This does not mean we are to be brazenly in the faces of the world, rebuking them right and left, arguing with them about every detail. It does however mean, we must make our own stands. We must lead our peaceful, quiet lives in humble submission to God no matter the outcome. We must share the gospel in the face of opposition and disbelief. We must live that gospel, living with God as our king, though the world refuses to honor Him as such. We must do this in faith that God will conquer the giants for us.

He will. Be strong and courageous. Don’t fear or be dismayed. Do not be in dread of Babylon and the Babylonians. Trust God. He will bring you into His New Jerusalem. He will make you His Bride.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 21.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 21 admonish you?

Psalm 104: A Hint of the Promised Land

Today’s reading is Psalm 104.

We’ve seen consistently throughout Book IV of the Psalms the notion of deliverance from the captivity and judgment lamented in Book III. Possibly, Psalm 104 is just a blessed respite of praise in the middle those meditations. No doubt, the worshipers could use a break from all that focus on seriously heady topics like judgment, then struggle, then deliverance.

On the other hand, this psalm may fit right in. The psalmist is, no doubt, praising God for creating an inhabitable world. That applies to the entire world. But for the Israelites, what was their inhabitable world? Israel. Jerusalem. And what had happened to it? It had been made uninhabitable for them. They had been driven away. Now, in the middle of a book of psalms consistently seeking from God and honoring God for a restored land, we have a praise about God’s hand in the inhabitable world.

Notice specifically Psalm 104:10-13:

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work (ESV).

In Deuteronomy 8:7-10, God informed Israel of the land He was preparing for them to inhabit: “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, or fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, and land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you” (ESV). Sound familiar?

Israel blessed God for creating an inhabitable earth. They also blessed God for giving them an inhabitable land. What better way to praise God for restoration to that land than a poem blessing God for a world in which He provided man and beast with water to drink and food to eat?

God provides. He has always provided a dwelling place for His people. He will provide a dwelling place for us for all eternity. Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 104.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 104 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Psalm 79: Learn from Ancient Prayers

Today’s reading is Psalm 79.

Sometimes we have to say the obvious. On the surface, it may seem tedious. However, I’ve discovered if we don’t say the obvious things out loud every so often, we actually forget how obvious they are. In fact, we can lose sight of them entirely. And today’s lesson may seem obvious as we are now in our second year going through the Psalms. After all, most of these poems are ancient prayers. This week’s certainly is.

However, this week’s psalm/prayer actually gives a second level of insight into learning from ancient prayers. In Psalm 79:10, the psalmist prays:

Why should the nations say,
‘Where is their God?’
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes! (ESV)

Where do you think the psalmist got the idea to bring this up in prayer? I don’t think the psalmist just pulled this out of thin air. Rather, it’s a simplified version of what Moses prayed twice. In Exodus 32:11-13, when he interceded for Israel regarding the golden calf, and in Numbers 14:13-19, when he interceded for Israel regarding their failure to go into the Promised Land, he essentially prayed these prayers. His expression was a little more elaborate. But in essence, he asked God to avoid destroying Israel because of how Egypt and the Canaanite nations would revile Yahweh.

Our psalmist has learned from ancient prayers how to pray. There is no better way for us to learn how to pray than to get in Scripture and immerse ourselves in Bible prayers. Use their phrases, their images, their motivations, their praises, their petitions, their concerns, their approaches, their attitudes.

I know why we tell people prayer is easy. I know why we tell them things like, “Just say whatever comes to mind” or “whatever is in your heart.” We don’t want to scare them off from prayer. I don’t want to do that either. But, friends, prayer is work. And we should work at prayer. Let’s not shy away from this. After all, are the most worthwhile things in life easy or do they take effort and work? The best way to work at prayer is to learn from these ancient, biblical prayers.

Of course, that means you need to keep coming back as we keep going through the Psalms, learning from these ancient prayers. Thanks for sticking with us this far.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 79.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 79 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Psalm 71: Who is Like God?

Today’s reading is Psalm 71.

What a question. “O God, who is like you?”

The psalmist asked the question back in Psalm 35:10, “All my bones shall say, ‘O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?'” (ESV). But perhaps more to the point, Moses and the Israelites asked this question after crossing the Red Sea: “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11, ESV).

The psalmist repeatedly expresses in Psalm 71:14-19 God has done amazing things. Though he doesn’t list them here in the psalm, he explains he could praise for his whole life because he doesn’t even know the number of God’s great and righteous acts. However, we’ve already hinted at one act he may have in mind.

When Moses was an old man (apologies to all my 80-year-old friends), he led Israel through the Red Sea. After the victory, they sang the song mentioned above. But notice some verbal connections between that song and this one. In Exodus 15:5, Moses’s song declared while Israel was delivered and passed through the Sea, Pharaoh’s army was not so blessed. Rather, “The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone” (ESV). I find it frustrating that the verbal connection is between “floods” in the ESV of Exodus 15:5 and “depths” of Psalm 71:20. But there it is. Further, in Exodus 15:12, the song went on to say, “You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them” (ESV). The psalmist claimed God would revive him and raise him up “from the depths of the earth” (Psalm 71:20). When Moses asked who is like God, the contrast was obvious. Israel had walked through the depths of the earth and come out on the other side. Pharaoh’s army, however, went into the depths of the earth and did not revive, nor was brought up again.

Our psalmist anchors his hope in the Exodus and the Red Sea crossing. Just like Moses and Israel did after they were brought up again, the psalmist declares he will sing praises to the Holy One of Israel (see Psalm 71:22-24). How shameful for Israel as an entire family and nation to be enslaved to Egypt. How far they had fallen into shame from the time of Joseph’s glory and honor. Yet, though they had seen troubles and calamities, God brought them through the Red Sea and set them in His promised land on the other side of that victory with glory and honor again. The psalmist in his old age remembers God’s great works and knows he too will be brought out on the other side victorious. May we hang on to the same hope no matter what calamities and troubles we face.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 71.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 71 prompt or improve your trust in God?

Psalm 60: Standing on the Promises

Today’s reading is Psalm 60.

David’s psalm begins with great lament over an awful defeat. However, the final lines envision a coming terrific victory by the power of God. David moves from claiming God has not gone out with his armies to believing his armies will do valiantly by the strength of God. What prompted the shift?

The hinge, I think, comes in vss. 6-8. The geographical markers mean more than David knew his maps. Shechem and Succoth in vs. 6 are particularly important. In Genesis 33, Jacob traveled back to the Promised Land from his time serving Laban. However, he feared his brother Esau (the father of the Edomites) might still want vengeance over the stolen blessing from years earlier. Instead of attacking and destroying Jacob and family, Esau welcomed Jacob into the land and actually moved out of his way. In Genesis 33:17-18, the two places mentioned to which Jacob traveled were Shechem and Succoth. In other words, David recalls an ancient time when Israel faced defeat from Edom (Esau). God made room for them because God keeps His covenants and promises. David is standing on the promise of God in this prayer.

The statement that God would divide and portion the land also calls God’s promises to mind. In Joshua, God promised the land to Israel and claimed He would divide and apportion it to the various tribes. All that land was His and He was giving it to Abraham’s offspring. Gilead, on the east of the Jordan, was God’s. However, He had promised it to Israel. Manasseh’s land, found on both sides of the river, was God’s. However, He had promised it to Israel. Ephraim and Judah, the two main tribes on the west of the Jordan, were God’s. However, He had promised it to Israel. These lands belonged to tribes of Israel because God had promised that land to Abraham’s descendants. David knew God would not simply give Abraham’s land to other nations. In fact, he knew Moab, Philistia, and Edom actually belonged to Israel’s God as well. David is standing on God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when he asks God to go with his armies.

We today should stand on God’s promises in our prayers. Learn what God has promised. Even when it seems those promises are not being fulfilled, stand on them, pray for them. Then watch them come to pass.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 60.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 60 provide or increase your trust in God?

A Picture of Grace

Today’s reading is Psalm 44.

One of the most popular verses in the Bible today is Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We see a beautiful picture and illustration of similar grace in the first segment of Psalm 44.

The son of Korah remembers how God saved and delivered his ancestors by His own grace. He looks back on the conquest of the Promised Land and declares, “You with your own hand drove out the nations…for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their arm save them, but your right hand and your arm…For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me…In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever.”

In other words, as Joshua had declared in Joshua 24:12-13, Israel conquered the land because of God’s work, not because of their sword and their bow. Therefore, they boasted in the Lord, not in their sword and their bow.

However, didn’t they actually use their sword and their bow? And wasn’t their a previous generation that initially was too scared to use their sword and bow, so they didn’t get to enter the Promised Land? YUP!

What a beautiful picture of saving grace. We cannot trust in our own work to accomplish salvation, deliverance, redemption, adoption, sanctification, justification any more than the Israelites could trust in their sword and bow for their saving victory. However, if we refuse to work, we cannot expect to be saved, delivered, redeemed, adopted, sanctified, justified any more than the Israelites could have expected to win the land if they didn’t take up their sword and bow.

Grace means we can’t do it. Grace doesn’t mean we do nothing. Grace means when we are done with our part, God is the one we boast in, knowing we couldn’t have done it without Him.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 44.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the psalm and the written devo above?
2. What do you think of when you think of God’s grace?
3. Why are you thankful for the grace of God?
4. What accomplishments in your life are you fully aware have only happened because of God’s grace?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this psalm and our discussion today?