God's sovereign will is done

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog.

Wednesday and Thursday, October 21 & 22
Devotions: Ps 37, 38, 119:25-48; Lam 2:8-15; Ezra 1:1-11; 1 Cor 15:51-16:9; Mt 12:1-21

Don’t fret about the wicked—leave them to God! Trust in YHWH and do good; delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart! Trust in Him and He will vindicate you and highlight your virtue. Be still before YHWH and wait for Him to act. Forsake wrath; leave judgment to the righteous Judge. Soon, the wicked will disappear and the meek will possess the land. Better the little that the righteous have than the ill-gotten wealth of many wicked. God watches and requites. Our ways are in His hands; He protects those who honor Him; He will not forsake His saints. He will exalt you to possess the land, and you will see the destruction of the wicked. There is a future for the one who trusts YHWH, our Savior, because we take our refuge in Him. Lord, all my longings are known to You; You know how the wicked persecute me. I wait upon You, my God. I confess my own iniquity; I forgive my enemies. Make haste to help me, O God of my salvation. Teach me Your statutes and help me understand Your precepts. Strengthen me with Your word. I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I cling to Your testimonies, my God. Give me understanding, that I may obey Your law and observe it with my whole heart. Turn my heart to holiness, not wicked profit. Turn my attention from vanities to Your holy path. Confirm Your covenant in me, my God. Pour out Your steadfast love upon me; fulfill Your promise of salvation. Then I can answer my accusers and those who taunt me. I will walk in Your liberty all my days. I revere You and Your commands; I meditate on You and Your ways and words, YHWH my Lord.

God wasted Zion because of her sins; she is utterly destitute. Her elders sit silenced in mourning. I spend my energy in weeping and in tumultuous grieving. The babies are hungry, but there is nothing to feed them. Vast as the sea is the ruin of those who abandon God; the castaways from God’s kingdom are a byword to the pagans, who rejoice at the desolation of God’s people.

In the first year that Cyrus reigned over Persia, God stirred him to proclaim: ‘YHWH, the God of heaven, has given me all earth’s kingdoms and has charged me to build for Him a temple in Jerusalem of Judah. Let all His people, then, proceed to Jerusalem and rebuild YHWH’s temple; and let my subjects everywhere assist them with silver and gold, with goods and beasts of burden, and with freewill offerings for God’s house in Jerusalem.’ The elders of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and Levites, and everyone stirred by God’s Spirit, arose to respond to this proclamation. And they were aided by the contributions of gold, silver, goods, domestic animals and costly goods. Cyrus brought forth the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged from the Jerusalem temple of YHWH. Cyrus had his treasurer put these into the hands of Sheshbazzar, a Judean prince among the exiles, and Sheshbazzar brought them treasures up to Jerusalem from Babylonia.

Paul continues his teaching for the church at Corinth: ‘Look, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. God’s trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and the living will be transformed. This perishable nature must put on the imperishable; mortality must put on immortality—and then shall come the reality of the writing, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory—no victory, no sting in death!’ Death’s sting is sin; sin’s power is the law. However, let us give thanks to God, Who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah! Therefore, dear family, be steadfast, immovable. Always abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is never in vain. Let me direct you concerning the contribution for support of the saints in Jerusalem: every Sunday, each of you is to put aside a contribution, as God provides; save up these contributions so that they’ll be ready when I come to you. And I will dispatch anyone you may choose to conduct your gift to Jerusalem; I may go with them, if that seems advisable at the time. I will visit you after I pass through Macedonia—maybe I’ll stay with you for the winter—so you can speed me on my way. I don’t want a rushed visit with you; I’d like unhurried fellowship, if the Lord permits. I’ll stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, because God has opened a wide door for effective work for me here, and there are many adversaries to contend with.’

On a Sabbath., Jesus and His disciples were afoot, passing through a grainfield. The hungry disciples began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. The Pharisees, ever vigilant for offenses, said to Jesus: ‘Look! Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law!’ Jesus answered, ‘Have you not read what David did, when he and his party were hungry on a Sabbath—how he entered God’s house and ate the bread of the Presence. That was not strictly lawful, either. And haven’t you read in Torah that the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, yet are guiltless? Listen: something greater than the temple is here now. You wouldn’t condemn the guiltless if you really knew what this means: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.’

Jesus went on from there and entered their synagogue. Before Him was a man with a withered hand. So they Pharisees asked Jesus, ‘It isn’t lawful to heal on the Sabbath, is it?’ Jesus replied, ‘Which one of you, if his sheep falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold and lift it out? And how much more valuable is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath!’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and the hand was restored, whole, like his good hand. But the Pharisees went out and talked together about how to destroy Jesus. Knowing all this, Jesus withdrew from that place; many followed Him, and He healed them all; He ordered them not to make Him known. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, ‘Behold, My Servant Whom I have chosen; My Beloved, with Whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not wrangle or shout aloud; no one will hear His voice in the streets; He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick, till He brings justice to victory; and in His name the Gentiles will hope.’