Month: March 2025

On Being Instrumental

2 Kings 7:3-7 NIV Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

2 Kings 7:3-7 MSG. It happened that four lepers were sitting just outside the city gate. They said to one another, “What are we doing sitting here at death’s door? If we enter the famine-struck city we’ll die; if we stay here we’ll die. So let’s take our chances in the camp of Aram and throw ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose. 

So after the sun went down they got up and went to the camp of Aram. When they got to the edge of the camp, surprise! Not a man in the camp! The Master had made the army of Aram hear the sound of horses and a mighty army on the march. They told one another, “The king of Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!” Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning tents, horses, donkeys—the whole camp just as it was—running for dear life.

Observation

This is one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible!  It ranks right up there with other miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, David and Goliath and Balaam’s talking donkey, but, additionally, this one speaks to me personally. We enter into this story as Ben-Hadad, king of Aram (Syria), has surrounded and besieged the city of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, for an extended length of time. The situation inside the city is desperate and the food shortage so great that the people have resorted to cannibalism.  The king of Israel (Joram, son of Ahab and Jezebel) bemoans his fate and blames God and His prophet Elisha. He sends men to murder Elisha, saying, “This trouble is directly from God! And what’s next? I’m fed up with God!” (2 Kings 6:33 MSG). Elisha makes the “impossible” prediction that by tomorrow, at the same time of day, the siege will be ended, the city will be saved and food will be plentiful.  Needless to say, they don’t believe him!

Enter our four starving lepers. Leprosy is a progressive, degenerative disease that presents with white patches on the skin but also impacts the nervous system and, untreated, results in the loss of body parts (fingers, toes, skin, feet and so on). While “leprosy” is used to cover a multitude of skin diseases in the Bible, these four are isolated from the general population and probably ranked among the incurable, soon-to-be-dead.  At the best of time, lepers were outcasts and valueless to this society, the lowest of the low.  When they say, “Why stay here until we die?”, they recognize that they face death no matter what choice they make – stay put, go into the city, or surrender to the enemy. 

So, here is the picture I see. These four sick, starving, scrawny, ragged men struggle to their feet, take up their crutches, and painstakingly hobble and stumble as they make their way in the gathering dusk toward the enemy camp in the hope of getting one last meal before they die (“If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.”).   Now, the miracle!  While I am sure their stumbling, staggering, shuffling progress was noisy, God struck fear in the hearts of the Aramean army by multiplying and magnifying these small noises into the sound of two fierce armies (Hittite and Egyptian) coming to attack them!  In a panic, the entire Aramean army “fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.”  Only God could do such a thing!

Impact on Me

So, why is this story so special to me?  Why does it impact me every time I return to 2 Kings 7 as powerfully as it does?  Here are four people with no qualifications, skills, authority, influence, training, strength – really nothing to offer, considered valueless and discarded – who, in God’s hands were used to save an entire city.  Their vision was very small, very limited, but hope got them up and moving to accomplish it.  Whenever I am tempted to give up or pass on an opportunity for God to use me, I am reminded of these four. It is not my qualifications, skills, authority, influence, training or strength that God needs to accomplish His will and purpose. If He can save a city with these four, He can take my hope, my obedience birthed in my experience of faith, knowing I can trust Him to go with me.  This give me confidence that He can magnify my small effort to make the enemy flee in terror.  I need to step out of my possibility box and into His infinite possibilities.

Devotion

Lord, You are the Almighty, Holy, All-Powerful, only True God. I ask that You make me an instrument in the Redeemer’s hand, so that my small hope, faith, and obedience can be magnified by You into salvation, redemption, restoration for many and glory for You. Remind me that You will effectively use whatever I bring to the table, but You need nothing more than my conscious decision to be willing and obedient in order for You to accomplish Your will and purpose. I pray this all in the name of Jesus.

On Choosing the Right Altars

Judges 6:7-13 (NLT)  When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. 9 I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

Observation

Well, things have gotten desperate again, so the people are crying out to the only God Who ever replies or demonstrates His power or proves Himself faithful. The other gods in the land remain silent, despite the number and cost of the sacrifices offered. This God Who Replies has rules set in stone, holds higher standards for behavior, requires honest and fair dealings with strangers and friends alike, expects care. mercy and grace to be extended to less fortunate others and is inordinately strict about obedience.  Much easier on a daily basis to worship a god or goddess who sanctions easy and flexible rules that suit culture and the feelings and desires of the moment.    Even Gideon’s father had an altar of expedience. BUT still, when things get tough, out-of-control, desperate, there is only One God Who will do – the God Who Replies.  So, the people presume upon His mercy, His grace, His love, and cry out for rescue again – “We are Your people!  Why have you abandoned us?” – accusing Him of leaving them unprotected even though they are the ones who abandoned Him.

Impact on Me

It is easy for me to read this story and say that I would never do such a thing! I have not erected altars of expedience to my culture!! But is this so?  Am I so different than this hard of hearing, forgetful people who turn wholly to God only when they desperately need the God Who Replies?  Do I go on a daily and consistent basis to worship at the altar of the One True God, or have I allowed myself to construct altars of expedience to worship culture, relaxed rules, my feelings and desires?  Have I become so comfortable with any internal pagan altars that I don’t even recognize them as such anymore?  Do I worship at the altar of the One True God when all is well and at the pagan altar of my fears when all is not?  Do I examine myself for how I have been faithless and abandoned God rather than accusing Him of faithlessness and abandonment when things get tough?  Do I invite the Holy Spirit to search me and find my hidden altars of expedience so that I can choose to tear them down?   I need to stop and consider all these questions.

Devotion

Lord God, the One Who is True, the One Who Replies, I reserve all my worship for You.  Examine me and expose any altar of expedience I have allowed to be constructed by me so I may destroy it utterly.   Tune my ears to hear, my heart to understand so I might obey Your Words, Your instructions, Your guidance. May I have but one altar of worship that is wholly dedicated to You.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.

On Bowing Low

Mark 10:43-45 ESV But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

John 13:1-5; 12-17 PHILLIPS 1-5 Before the festival of the Passover began, Jesus realised that the time had come for Him to leave this world and return to the Father. He had loved those who were His own in this world and He loved them to the end. By supper-time, the devil had already put the thought of betraying Jesus in the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son. Jesus, with the full knowledge that the Father had put everything into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from the supper-table, took off His outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round His waist. Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel around His waist….

12-17 When Jesus had washed their feet and put on His clothes, He sat down and spoke to them, “Do you realise what I have just done to you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and you are quite right, for I am your teacher and your Lord. But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done. Believe me, the servant is not greater than his master and the messenger is not greater than the man who sent him. Once you have realised these things, you will find your happiness in doing them.

Observation

The point of the Bible is to tell us Who God is and how He wants us to fit into His story and His plan for our redemption.  All of the passages are there to reveal Who He is, what He desires of us and for us, and how He responds to our choices.  Jesus the Christ, the manifestation of God in human form, called Himself “gentle (meek) and humble” (Matthew 11:28-30), defined servanthood as the path to pleasing God, and spoke of Himself as serving all of us by giving His life as a ransom for us all (God’s redemptive plan to restore the intimate relationship He desired with us and intended from the beginning).  In the passages above, Jesus demonstrates for His disciples the depth of humility to which they must stoop if they want to be like Him and considered great and first in God’s Kingdom.  Jesus had come to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the servanthood of Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-4, Matthew 12:16-21), the bowing low of God to redeem His creation, His people, so that He might restore the intimate relationship with us disrupted in the Garden of Eden.

Foot-washing was an important element of hospitality for the culture of the time as feet became dirty walking on dusty roads.  As important to hospitality as it was, the lowest, almost always Gentile, servants were the ones to do it.   When Jesus “took off his outer clothes, picked up a towel and fastened it round his waist,” He took on the persona of a menial foreign slave.  Disciples were supposed to serve their Master/Rabbi, not the other way around.  Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Man, God, was demonstrating the kind of humility and servanthood He required of them to truly be one of His disciples.  “But if I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you must be ready to wash one another’s feet. I have given you this as an example so that you may do as I have done.”  

Did you catch that He washed ALL of the disciples’ feet – including the feet of Judas who was about to betray Him?  This level of humility requires more than setting pride aside temporarily.  This level of humility requires complete surrender, total submission to the will and purpose of God Who does not want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).   This was a powerful discipleship lesson which was apparently caught and embraced as His disciples later identified themselves as servants (or slaves) of God and committed even to die in His service – John (Rev. 1:1), Paul (1 Cor 3:5-6), Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1), Jude (Jude 1:1). 

Impact on Me

Merriam Webster defines “humble” as “not proud: not thinking of yourself as better than other people.”   A servant is simply one who serves others.  Servant in the New Testament is often translated as slave.  We don’t like that word as it has a bad taste in our historical context.  The position Jesus took above was as low as He could go in His culture.  What is the lowest I can go in service today – an unpaid volunteer in homeless ministry, serving orphans in a foreign land, working to change the lives of the poorest so they can have a better future?  I know people who do all these and will never have any recognition on earth but much treasure in heaven.

I have participated in foot-washing services and it is a very humbling experience.  However, this passage is not meant to tell me how important foot-washing services are, but, rather, that I need to be willing to set aside my pride and any status provided by my position to gladly and humbly serve those who have nothing to give me in return.  Jesus is demonstrating to me (and us all) the kind of humility and service I am to emulate if I want to be like Him in this day and age. Jesus is showing me that it’s not a sign of weakness to serve someone — it’s a sign of love, strength and humility – all treasures in His kingdom.  Jesus is saying to me, “Don’t view yourself as better than other people – even your enemy – for I died for him/her, too.”   This is a hard lesson to embrace and live.

Devotion

Father God, You are Love and created us in Your image.  You rule over the universe and yet still bowed so low to redeem me. You gave Jesus to walk this earth as a human to show us how to live in and for You.  I am humbled by how lowly Jesus bowed, how much He sacrificed, to restore intimacy between us.  I am woefully inconsistent in my attempts to emulate Jesus’ example.  However, I pray that as I find each new pocket of pride, You will, by Your Holy Spirit, help me to place that pride on Your altar to be burnt up.  I truly want to be more like Jesus day by day as I journey through this life.  Make it so, Lord, in Jesus’ name. 

On Where to Fix Our Eyes


Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

Observation

There was a farmer who had a beautiful, strong horse.  His friends came and said, “How fortunate that you have such a horse.”  “We’ll see,” said the farmer.  One day the horse ran away.  His friends came and said, “How unfortunate.”  “We’ll see,” said the farmer.  The next day the horse returned with two more horses.  His friends said, “How wonderful.  You now have three horses.”  “We’ll see,” said the farmer.  The farmer’s son tried to ride one of the new horses, fell off and broke his leg.  His friends said, “How unfortunate.”   “We’ll see,” said the farmer.  The army came and took all the young men of the village except the farmer’s son with the broken leg.  His friends said, “How fortunate.  Your son was not taken.”  “We’ll see,” said the farmer.

For me, this story reminds me not to judge what God is doing to achieve His ultimate plan by the current circumstances.  When Jesus was on the Cross, I am confident that His disciples were confused and feeling defeated.  “How could Messiah die, much less die such a shameful death on a Cross?  Were we wrong about Him?  How could He do such miraculous works and let Himself be humiliated and defeated by the Sanhedrin and Rome?  What do we do now?  We gave up everything to follow Him?”  The event that seemed the worst possible outcome to them was actually the pivot point of all history, exactly in the plan of Father God.  Regardless of how it appeared and what it cost, Jesus “never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.”

Impact on Me

The thing I love about the farmer story is that it reminds me that – whatever the circumstance I face – I need to: keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, know that the Holy Spirit is with me, keep my heart established in the fact that God is still on Plan A, and my feet stepping in the footsteps of Jesus before me.  The world, its politics, its plans and all the temporary powers that rule over us are still under His control.  I don’t understand why the violent, pagan tyrants of history rose to power – the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and all the others.  I do know that they have only earthly power which pales in the shadow of the power of God.  They can take my physical freedom away, but they can never steal the freedom I have because of my position in Christ.

So, in these turbulent times where there is so much anger, angst and social upheaval, I can feel a shaking in the Spirit, a deep and constant rumbling underlying it all.  Like the farmer, I am watching, praying and trusting in God to accomplish His will and purpose through it all.  “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Romans 8:26-28 MSG

Devotion

God of infinite wisdom, All-Powerful, Perfect in Love, I am looking for the footsteps You have placed before me so I can walk in them.  The times are unstable, full of anger and violence, confusing and difficult to understand how You can work all this into something good.  BUT, just as Jesus on the Cross seemed utter defeat and instead was the ultimate victory, I watch, pray and trust in You.  Lead me in pathways of righteousness.  Help me to be a peacemaker regardless of the cost to me.  I pray that You will keep my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.