Monthly Archives: May 2018

Devotional

God’s People, part 92: Amos

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Read Amos 5:1-25

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.” (Amos‬ ‭5:24‬ ‭NLT‬‬)‬‬

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

img_1061Part 92: Amos. Again, with the prophets, little is known about their lives. With the exceptions of Elijah and Elisha, of which narratives were written, all that we have left of the prophets are their prophecies. This is certainly true of Amos. We have the book of prophecy that is attributed to him and little else.

With that said we know, by his own account, that Amos was from the Kingdom of Judah, although his ministry was spent in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. What’s more, he was not always a prophet. Prior to his call, he was a shepherd and a sycamore fig farmer (Amos 7:14).

This is important to note. All of the prophets whose books are in the Bible, found the need to mention how they were called to their prophetic ministry. None of them were trained, professional prophets. What this tells us is that there was suspicion among the common people for the prophets of their day and age. Why, one might ask? Because the professional prophets who were hired by the leaders were giving flowery words and accolades to their leaders rather than being honest, holding them accountable, and steering them back toward the LORD.

Thus, Amos defended his prophetic ministry by pointing out that he wasn’t such a “hired prophet”, but a true prophet hand picked by the LORD. “But Amos replied, ‘I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, “Go and prophesy to my people in Israel.”’” (Amos‬ ‭7:14-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬)‬‬‬‬

Out of all the prophets, Amos spoke up the most about social justice. Actually, he wrote at a time of relative peace; yet, he wrote of the growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. He was the first to push people “beyond thoughts and prayers”, and taught that prayers and empty rituals do not make up for bad deeds. He also taught about “privilege” and how it leads to apathy and escapism (Amos 4:4-5). He proclaimed God’s disgust at the empty rituals and he called out the 1% of society for making their profits off of the backs of the poor.

Ultimately, Amos believed that by oppressing the poor and failing to practice justice, Israel was not living righteously. And he gave voice to the proclamation of God, “Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living” (Amos‬ ‭5:23-24‬ ‭NLT‬‬)‬‬

Clearly, Amos’ message made people of privilege and wealth feel uncomfortable. In fact, I am sure Amos’ message was a threat to them, much like it is to those of us who have it better than others in our own society. This is so true that the word “privilege” has become a trigger word for people who do not see themselves as privileged. People get incensed when they even hear the word; yet, the reality is that such people, myself included, have been afforded benefits that others have not been afforded.

The challenge for us is to try and understand the message without taking offense to it. It is God who is taking offense at those of us who are calling ourselves by Christ’s name, but opposing the justice and compassionate love that Christ embodies. Let us be a people that stand up for God’s justice and allow our prayers, which are important, to move us into action. Let us open up the floodgates to God’s river of righteousness, so that the waters of justice may roll on down. Let God’s Kingdom come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked “let justice roll down like water” (Amos 5:24) in his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to stand up for your justice and not stand int he way of it. Amen.

Devotional

Episode 18 | Graceful Justice: Paul in Action

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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-i6ha7-91fd3c

In part 1 of this six part series on Graceful Justice, Rev. Todd R. Lattig introduces the difference between the world’s justice and God’s justice. In this episode, he discusses the fundamental theological understanding Paul had of his fellow Christians, which informed his understnading of how to promote justice in his communities.

EPISODE REFERENCES:

Devotional

God’s People, part 91: Jonah

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Read Jonah 4

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah.” (Luke‬ ‭11:29‬ ‭NLT‬‬)‬‬

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

  Part 91: Jonah. Thus far, we have covered the major prophets prior in the Hebrew Scriptures; however, before we follow the people of Judah into the Babylonian exile, there are several more prophets and/or figures we should pause to look at. One of them is a prophet who is very well-known because of the grandiosity of his story; however, with that said, very little is known about this prophet as a whole.

The prophet I am referring to, of course, is Jonah. In fact, scholars debate whether Jonah was a real prophet or not. There is, of course, an obscure reference to a prophet named Jonah in 2 Kings: “Jeroboam II recovered the territories of Israel between Lebo-hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had promised through Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher” (2 Kings‬ ‭14:25‬ ‭NLT‬‬).‬‬

This leads me, and others, to believe that the book of Jonah was based the historical prophet mentioned in that book. Of course, the fact that there might have been a prophet named Jonah does not mean that the accounts in the book of Jonah were word-for-word historical. Jonah lived in the 8th century BCE, while the book was written somewhere between the 5th and the early 4th centuries BCE. The book itself is written in the style of a satire or a parody, and it may have been poking fun at a faction within Jewish society who were pushing for separationism. This faction believed that the wrath of God befell people who disobeyed them, destroyed wicked cities, and that God’s mercy was not given to people outside the Abrahamic covenant.

If this viewpoint sounds familiar, it should because it was the viewpoint of a faction that was on the rise around the post-exilic time period the book of Jonah was written. That faction became known as the Pharisees and they were pushing for strict observance of Jewish Law (Torah) and separation from Gentile culture. There very name means “set apart”, or “separated”. Jesus of Nazareth, like the author of Jonah, would go on to challenge this group and so would the earliest Christians who ended up seeing Jesus’ death and resurrection as being the opening of the Abrahamic covenant to all of the people of the world.

But as for the prophet Jonah, as detailed in the book, most are familiar with his story. He was commanded by God to go to Ninevah and proclaim God’ wrath upon the city. At first he refuses and heads in the opposite direction, running away from God’s call. After being swallowed by a giant fish (not necessarily a whale), and after having stayed in its belly for three days, Jonah is spit up on land and reluctantly goes to Ninevah.

Having proclaimed the destruction of the city to its people, Jonah witnessed the Ninevites repent en masse. He then realizes that God had heard their repentance and, in an act of mercy, chose not to destroy the city. This angered Jonah, who believed that the city ought to be destroyed for he does not believe that the repentance was enough. In protest, Jonah stormed out into the wilderness and refused to eat or drink anything. He sat there and waited for God to destory Ninevah. When that failed to happen, he hoped to die in the wilderness since the LORD was showing mercy, rather than venegful wrath, toward the Ninevites. God did not allow Jonah to die, which further frustrated and angered him.

Jonah’s attitude counters the attitude Christ taught us to have toward our enemies and toward our culture as a whole. Yet, with that said, we see many “separatists” in the Christian today. These people would have Christians separate themselves from the “secular” culture in order to remain “set apart” and holy. Such people push people to buy exclusively from Christians, to listen exclusively to Christian music, to burn their secular CDs and to disengage from secular culture. Such people, sadly, are not learning from Jonah or from Jesus.

While we should not be joining in with the “wickedness” of the secular culture, we should also not be disengaging it. The challenge for us is to enter back into the model practiced by the earliest Christians. This model of evangelism engaged the culture and utilized it in a way that pointed to Christ and brought glory to God. Those who read Life-Giving Water’s devotions know that I often use secular culture as a springboard to Jesus Christ and the divine call placed upon all of us. Let us learn from Jonah and, instead of separating ourselves, let us engage the secular culture for the glory of Christ.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

The sign of Jonah, prophesied by Jesus of Nazareth, was both a prophesy of Jesus death (in the belly of Sheol) and resurrection, as well as a prophesy that God was going to show great mercy through Christ to all the world, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. That was the sign God was going to give the self-righteous Pharisees and others who thought that only they were deserving of God’s grace.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to not only acknowledge you are merciful toward me, but help me to model your compassionate mercy to others. All who repent are forgiven. I praise you Lord! Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 90: Baruch

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Read Jeremiah 36

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Baruch, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these people; but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken!’” (Jeremiah‬ ‭45:4-5‬ ‭NLT)‬‬

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

img_1054Part 90: Baruch. According to the first century, Roman-employed Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, Baruch ben Neriah (which translates to Barcuh, son of Neriah) was a Jewish aristocrat. An aristocrat is a person who is in the upper class of society. Baruch’s brother, Sereiah ben Neriah, was chamberlain (or household manager) of King Zedekiah.

With that said, Baruch is not known for those things; rather, he is known for his role as a scribe and, specifically, as an assistant of Jeremiah’s. He is known for writing down the first and second editions of the prophecies of the great prophet. He was also known to be an unwavering disciple and supporter of Jeremiah’s. In fact, while Jeremiah was in hiding for his life, he commanded Baruch to read his prophecies against King Jehoakim to the people who were assembled in the Temple in Jerusalem. Baruch carried that order out unflinchingly, despite the great difficulty and danger it presented him.

We don’t garner too much about the life of Baruch from the Bible, other than his being a protégé, a scribe, and a close friend of Jeremiah’s. We don’t know how he experienced his call, how he struggled with it, or how he came to accept. All we know is that he did, with little to know information of what happened leading up to his acceptance. 

With that said, we can certainly use our imagination and piece the puzzle together from what we have learned of him. Coming from an aristocratic Jewish family we know that Baruch and his family were privileged. They enjoyed high societal status and all of the privileges/benefits that went along with that. Baruch was clearly well-educated, which can be ascertained by his role as as scribe (some one who can read, write, and interpret the Scripture).

Yet, Baruch did something that must not have sat well with at least some in his family. He became a student of a prophet who was speaking out against the aristocracy and nobility of Jerusalem. He joined forces with a prophet who was calling out King Zedekiah, whom his brother was serving as the household manager. How did his role as scribe sit with his brother or his father? Was he an embarrassment to them, did he bring shame to the family name?

While we’ll never be able to know the answer to those questions, we can safely presume that answering the call to prophetic ministry cost Baruch something and that he must have wrestled with it before making the decision. The reality is that, like Baruch, we are all called by God to stand up against societal, governmental, and systemic injustices. We are all called to push back against the status quo.

It is also true that we either ignore the call altogether, or we acknowledge it we find ourselves wrestling with the it. How can we not? To answer God’s call is costly. It can cost us our status, our privilege, our reputations, our friends, our family, and even our lives. Yet, God is calling…ever calling. The challenge for us is to acknowledge our call, to wrestle with it, and to accept it “unflinchingly” just like Baruch did. It is then that we will see God work through us in ways we never knew possible.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

The willingness to wrestle with and accept God’s call leads to the transformtion of self and of community.

PRAYER

Lord, what is it that you are calling me to do. Illumine me, give me clarity, so that I may answer that call. Amen.

Devotional

God’s People, part 89: Jeremiah

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Read Jeremiah 1

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’ For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.'” (Jeremiah 32:14-15 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

JeremiahPart 89: Jeremiah. Jeremiah is one of my favorite prophets. In our last devotion we talked about how he was prophet during the time of King Zedekiah, who refused to listen to Jeremiah’s counsel on how to deal with King Nebuchadnezzar II. Jeremiah, speaking on behalf of God, told the king that he ought to submit himself, and all of Jerusalem with him, to the will of Babylonian King. This would have meant that Zedekiah would merely have been a vassal, or puppet king, of Nebuchadnezzar.

Zedekiah had other ideas and, not only did he not listen to Jeremiah, he detested his advice. How dare this prophet tell him how to handle the Babylonian King! How dare this loud-mouthed, whiny prophet tell him to submit to the will of a foreign empire. Zedekiah was not going to let that happen if he could hep it.

Well, we all know now that Zedekiah really couldn’t help it. Jerusalem didn’t have the forces to stand up to the great Babylonian army; therefore, they had to rely on the enemy of their enemy for military support. We all know how such alliances end up, or at least many of them. They ended up allying themselves with Egypt (a former enemy themselves) who never, in the end, came through for them because it really wasn’t in their interest to. In the end, all that alliance did was anger the Babylonian King and cause him to set off for Jerusalem to beseige, conquer and exile them. We all know how that ended: it was utterly catastrophic for Jerusalem, its king, his family and the people of Jerusalem as a whole.

In the process of standing up to the king and warning him of the destruction that laid ahead, Jeremiah endured all sorts of abuse. He was mocked, beaten up, thrown into cistern where he sat for days, and imprisoned. The king and many of his other advisers did not take him seriously; however, Jeremiah’s prophecy did end up getting fulfilled in the end. Sadly, that meant the destruction of everything that was dear to the Jews, as well as the exile of countless people to Babylon. Jerusalem and Judah would never, ever be the same again.

But Jeremiah was not always so bold. When God first called him into the role of prophet, he could not believe that God would actually choose him. “But Lord,” Jeremiah protested, “I cannot speak for you, for I am too young” God would not have any of those excuses.

“The LORD replied, ‘Don’t say, “I’m too young,” for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the LORD, have spoken!’ Then the LORD reached out and touched my mouth and said, ‘Look, I have put My words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.’” (Jeremiah 1:7-10 NLT)

God’s appointment of him as a prophet, I am sure, was not comforting to him; however, he did, inevitably, say yes to God. The rest is history, as the phrase goes, and the prophet does end up witnessing the end of one kingdom all the while ensuring the future of another kingdom, yet to come. The question for us is this, do we automatically reject God’s call on our lives? Do we fail to see the potential God sees in us? Perhaps, like Jeremiah, it is time to trust that God knows what God is doing and say “yes” to God’s call.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
God knows us better than we even know ourselves. Trust in God’s call.

PRAYER
Lord, while I do not see in me what you see in me, I put my trust in you. Amen.

Podcast

Episode 16a | Special Episode: Jesus for Atheists

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https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-9ug7z-914236

This is a Special Episode of Life-Giving Water Messages, where Rev. Todd R. Lattig engages in a discussion with Rev. Salvatore Seirmarco on Dr. Richard Dawkins’ column, “Atheists for Jesus” found in his anthology book entitled, Science in the Soul.

EPISODE REFERENCES:

  • Click here to read Rev. Todd R. Lattig’s essay, “A Response to ‘Atheists for Jesus'”.
    • This has also been published as an Episode 16b | Supplement: A Response to Atheists for Jesus” for those who would prefer to listen to the essay as opposed to read it.
  • Click here for an excellent, indepth podcast by The Sinnergists on the historical context of 1st Century Judaea.
    • This includes a discussion of the Roman Empire, Roman Occupation of Judaea/Palestine, and why the earliest Christian community utilized the language that it did (e.g. “gospel”, Son of God, Savior, etc.). DISCLAIMER: The Sinnergists are NOT affiliated with Life-Giving Water Messages or with Rev. Todd Lattig; however, this is one of the best historical contextualizations of Jesus’ and the earliest Christians’ time-period. The discussion starts following the introductions at around 10 minute in.
Devotional

God’s People, part 88: Zedekiah

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Read 2 Kings 25:1-26

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“But Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.” (Jeremiah 52:2 NLT)

When we think of God’s people, we tend to think one of two things. We might think of the Israelites who were God’s “chosen people”, or we might think of specific characters in the Bible. Either way, we tend to idealize the people we are thinking about. For instance, we may think that God’s people are super faithful, holy, perform miracles and live wholly devout and righteous lives. Unfortunately, this idealism enables us to distance ourselves from being God’s people, because we feel that we fall short of those ideals. As such, I have decided to write a devotion series on specific characters in the Bible in order to show you how much these Biblical people are truly like us, and how much we are truly called to be God’s people.

ZedekiahPart 88: Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the great-grandson of Josiah; however, he wasn’t even half of the king that his great-grandfather was. Following the death of Josiah, the third eldest son of the great king succeeded him. This certainly attests to the fact that Josiah must have seen him as being in line with his agenda and policies; however, Johoahaz reigned for only three short months before being deposed by the Eyptian Pharaoh Necho II, and was exiled to Egypt.

The Kingdom of Judah was given over to Jehoiakim, Josiah’s second eldest son. At first, he was a vassal of the Egyptian Pharaoh until Egypt was beseiged and conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. At that point Jehoiakim switched allegiance to avert the destruction of Jerusalem. As a part of the agreement, Jehoiakim paid a tribute from the national treasury, handed over Temple artifacts, and handed over some of the royal family and nobility as hostages to the ruthless Babylonian king.

Eventually, however, Jehoiakim switched his allegiance back to Egypt and sealed his own fate and the fate of Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died during the first Babylonian seige of Jerusalem and was succeeded by Jechoniah (aka Jehoiachin), Josiah’s grandson and Jehoiakim’s son. Three months later, fearing retribution from a possibly vengeful king, Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jechoniah and replaced him with his son, Josiah’s great-grandson, Zedekiah. It wasinto this treacherous and precarious situation that his reign began.

Zedekiah proved to be a head-strong young king who was determined on revolting against the great Babylonian king, which sealed his fate. It was during his rule that Jeremiah was prophesying. The great prophet’s counsel, and the counsel of the Zedekiah’s other advisers and family member, was to acquiesce to Babylon’s rule and spare Jerusalem and it’s people from certain disaster. Jeremiah’s message was that it was because of Judah’s sin and pride that they were in this predicament to begin with. The prophet counseled Zedekiah to humble himself and remain a vassal king of Nebuchadnezzar.

Zedekiah, on the other hand, had other ideas and he, following the example of his grandfather, allied himself with Egypt and revolted against the Babylonians. This, sadly, ended in Jerusalem being beseiged for two long years. The author of 2 Kings wrote: “By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone. Then a section of the city wall was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, the soldiers waited for nightfall and escaped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden. Then they headed toward the Jordan Valley” (2 Kings 25:3-4 NLT).

The results were catastrophic. Babylon beseiged the city, meaning that they blocked anything and/or anyone from getting into the city, and they blocked anything and/or anyone from getting out of the city. That resulted in famine within the walls of Jerusalem, and people starving to death. Some resorted to cannibalism and, eventually, Jerusalem was so weak that Nebuchadnezzar could just waltz into the city and take it with very little resistance. Once he did, he slaughtered tons of people, took treasures out of the Temple, and leveled the Temple to the ground.

The priests, scribes, nobles and other prominent people were taken alive from Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon. Zedekiah took a secret escape route out of the city, but was caught by Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers. They slaughtered his sons as he watched and then gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes. The deaths of his sons was the last thing, literally, that Zedekiah would see.

The challenge for us here is humility? Are we like Zedekiah, too proud to listen to painfully true advice, or are we the type of people who swallow our pride, listen to good advice, and make the necessary changes in order to avoid catastrophe? If we are the former, we can expect that we will, at some point, find ourselves humbled by the catastrophic unintended consequences of our pride; however, if we are the latter, then will be honoring God and following in the footsteps of Christ, who embodied humility. Let us all, by the power of the Holy Spirit, find ourselves walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” – Jesus of Nazareth in the New Living Translation of Matthew 23:12

PRAYER
Lord, keep us humble so that we may not stumble on our pride. Amen.