Natural Selection: a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment (www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn)

We know that Darwin’s theory is garbage – it has been repeatedly debunked and the majority of the “evidence” has been proven to be faked. However, it is held to with a religious conviction by those who reject God’s sovereignty. I think they do so because it seems more “fair” than the idea of an omnipotent Creator who makes decisions without benefit of the input and opinions of the creation.

The Bible is loaded with examples of what I think of as “unnatural selection” where God makes the sovereign choice of certain people or groups of people and does not choose others. This is not necessarily because of some good quality those people have, although it could be in some cases. He just chooses, and sometimes it makes sense to me and other times I just have to accept that He knows what He’s doing. Since I’m in Isaiah now, this example of unnatural selection jumped out at me.

Yes, Jerusalem is doomed! Judah is collapsing! Everything they say and do is against the LORD; they openly insult God himself. Their prejudices will be held against them. They sin as openly as the people of Sodom did. They are doomed, and they have brought it on themselves. (Isaiah 3:8-9)

Then I heard the Lord say, “Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?” I answered, “I will go! Send me!” So he told me to go and give the people this message: “No matter how much you listen, you will not understand. No matter how much you look, you will not know what is happening.” Then he said to me, “Make the minds of these people dull, their ears deaf, and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand. If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.” I asked, “How long will it be like this, Lord?” He answered, “Until the cities are ruined and empty—until the houses are uninhabited—until the land itself is a desolate wasteland. I will send the people far away and make the whole land desolate. Even if one person out of ten remains in the land, he too will be destroyed; he will be like the stump of an oak tree that has been cut down.” (The stump represents a new beginning for God’s people.) (Isaiah 6:8-13)

The expressions which follow are those which denote hardness of heart and blindness of mind. They would hear the words of the prophet, but they would not understand him. They were so obstinately bent on iniquity that they would neither believe nor regard him. This shows the spirit with which ministers must deliver the message of God. It is their business to deliver the message, though they should know that it will neither be understood nor believed. (Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible, on Isaiah 6:9, “No matter how much you listen, you will not understand…”)

A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the LORD, Israel’s holy God. A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God. (Isaiah 10:20-21)

God has decided to wipe these people out, but He will still leave a remnant, a select few who will survive and return to Him.

In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. (Isaiah 4:2-6)

(MHCC) Not only the setting forth Christ’s kingdom in the times of the apostles, but its enlargement by gathering the dispersed Jews into the church, is foretold. Christ is called the Branch of the Lord, being planted by his power, and flourishing to his praise. The gospel is the fruit of the Branch of the Lord; all the graces and comforts of the gospel spring from Christ. It is called the fruit of the earth, because it sprang up in this world, and was suited for the present state. It will be good evidence that we are distinguished from those merely called Israel, if we are brought to see all beauty in Christ, and holiness. As a type of this blessed day, Jerusalem should again flourish as a branch, and be blessed with the fruits of the earth. God will keep for himself a holy seed. When most of those that have a place and a name in Zion, and in Jerusalem, shall be cut off by their unbelief, some shall be left. Those only that are holy shall be left, when the Son of man shall gather out of his kingdom every thing which offends. By the judgment of God’s providence, sinners were destroyed and consumed; but by the Spirit of grace they are reformed and converted. The Spirit herein acts as a Spirit of judgment, enlightening the mind, convincing the conscience; also as a Spirit of burning, quickening and strengthening the affections, and making men zealously affected in a good work. An ardent love to Christ and souls, and zeal against sin, will carry men on with resolution in endeavours to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Every affliction serves believers as a furnace, to purify them from dross; and the convincing, enlightening, and powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, gradually root out their lusts, and render them holy as He is holy. God will protect his church, and all that belong to it. Gospel truths and ordinances are the glory of the church. Grace in the soul is the glory of it; and those that have it are kept by the power of God. But only those who are weary will seek rest; only those who are convinced that a storm is approaching, will look for shelter. Affected with a deep sense of the Divine displeasure, to which we are exposed by sin, let us at once have recourse to Jesus Christ, and thankfully accept the refuge he affords.

I truly don’t think it will be that long before the Lord returns and this will literally be fulfilled; that we will enjoy the visible daily presence of God much like the Israelites did. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

I was just about to get started with Isaiah – and I admit, I skimmed over Song of Songs because I was eager to get to the more historical and prophetic stuff. I also skipped Psalms and Proverbs as a straight read-through in favor of reading them one chapter a day alongside whatever else I’m reading. It seemed to me that a slower read for those books was in order, since they are not narratives. So Isaiah 1:1 just arrested me.

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. (Isaiah 1:1)

I did a quick refresher on those four guys and Hezekiah’s son Manasseh.

• Uzziah – His father “did what was pleasing to the Lord” but did not tear down the pagan altars. He followed in his father’s footsteps.
• Jotham – followed his grandfather and father; he did what was pleasing to the Lord but permitted pagan worship.
• Ahaz – actually practiced pagan worship, even sacrificing his own son.
• Hezekiah – was faithful, destroyed the pagan worship, and “carefully kept all the commands the Lord had given Moses.” In fact, Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; Judah never had another king like him, either before or after his time. (2 Kings 18:5) BUT… after a lifetime of obeying and walking with the Lord, when the time came for him to die, he “cried bitterly” because he valued and trusted the world more than the Lord’s will. He begged for more time. So God permitted him another 15 years. After 3 of the fifteen years, he had a son, Manasseh.
• Menasseh – When Manasseh was 12, Hezekiah died. Now thinking of Manasseh, he was the son of an elderly father, whose judgement was obviously failing – he showed the enemy too much about his resources. The likelihood is that he was not a good father. In any event, Manasseh killed so many innocent people that the streets of Jerusalem ran with blood. The Lord said, “So I, the LORD God of Israel, will bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be stunned. I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a plate that has been wiped and turned upside down. I will abandon the people who survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and plunder their land. I will do this to my people because they have sinned against me and have stirred up my anger from the time their ancestors came out of Egypt to this day.” (2 Kings 21:12-15) He did repent in 2 Chronicles, but not before he caused a great deal of misery to many.

Had Hezekiah trusted the Lord enough to submit to His will and die when the Lord wanted to, Manasseh would not have been born. Interesting. In any event, Isaiah’s time spanned four kings, two “lukewarm,” one truly awful, and one who had a good start, but didn’t end well. You can see God’s sovereign hand over all this history, especially considering how He is glorified by the Babylonian captives whose status was largely due to Hezekiah’s foolishness and Manasseh’s evil behavior.

Ecclesiastes – written by the wisest man EVER, and in some ways, the most foolish.

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. (1 Kings 3:5-15)

The wisest man in the history of the world STILL rebelled. What hope is there for me? Jesus. From a worldly standpoint, Ecclesiastes is really depressing. Life is all vanity and striving after the wind. What’s the solution?

So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? (Ecclesiastes 3:22)

This idea is stated several times; we are here to work at whatever tasks God gives us. And what task does He give us?

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

Rejoice in it!

I recently finished reading Esther – an awesome tale of stepping out in faith and of obedience being rewarded. She really did not know if she would live when she went to stand in the Kings inner court. She did everything she could to prepare; fasted, prayed, got others to do the same on her behalf. And then she literally stepped out in faith. It’s a great reminder that obedience is always rewarded. I was rewarded for obedience yesterday in a big way, although my challenge was very small. My fibromyalgia symptoms have recently flared up. I have not been sleeping much and have generally felt pretty bad. Yesterday I made it to church for my parenting bible study, and then contemplated going home. Worship had started, and I decided to stick it out. Within a minute, literally, of my starting to worship, the pain stopped. God is so merciful and so gracious. Aside from the pain being gone – and staying gone, and the best night of sleep I have had in at least a month! – I got to hear a really fabulous sermon about God’s sovereignty. You can hear it on this website. Enjoy!

They couldn’t prove their heritage; they (and their fathers) had not valued it enough to preserved any records or proof. We’re talking only 70 years here – if this was important to them, they would have had proof. But now that it’s time to rebuild, they want to be priests.

The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, though they could not prove their fathers’ houses or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel: the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, and the sons of Nekoda, 652. Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. (Ezra 2:59-62)

You may have heard the saying, “If they were rounding up Christians, would you be taken?” Would they find a dust-free Bible in your house, sermon notes tucked inside? Would anybody testify against you? (I’m batting 500 here – I doubt anyone would testify against me but I have the rest covered. Still working on it…) I think it’s interesting that this was not true for these guys, and it’s obvious they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the priesthood really meant or they wouldn’t have applied for the job. Today, they would be televangelists, with the “glory” of public speaking, money, and a perceived position of authority, without the responsibility of shepherding a flock. Was it Solomon who said there was no new thing under the sun?

Ezra was “a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given.”

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do
it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7:10)

Ask, and you shall recieve. Ezra was commissioned by King Artaxerxes to do that very thing. Ezra aspired to a position of leadership (to teach) and consequently chose his companions with care:

I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me. These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, (Ezra 7:28 – 8:1)

Having arrived, Ezra found that the people he had so wanted to teach, were sorely in need of it. They – especially the officials – had intermarried with the local population. This was not a problem of snobbery or marrying beneath themselves, after all, plenty of people in the Bible married foreigners including Moses. The problem was that the women they married were worshippers of other gods. The problem was that they were again committing the very sin that caused them to be ejected from the promised land in the first place! Because he knew the Word, Ezra immediately understood the problem, and was grieved:

As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God, saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem. “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? O LORD the God of Israel, you are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.” (Ezra 9:3-15)

Ezra may not have personally committed the sin, but as a man in a position of leadership, began to repent of it – he took responsibility for those under his care. God blessed this, because the people repented also, divorced the women and sent them away, returning to God’s ruling authority.

As Christians and God’s elect, aren’t we called to the same thing? Shouldn’t our hearts be breaking, and shouldn’t we be repenting the sins of our nation? I think the reason we are not, is that we aren’t Ezra – we’re the officials who have intermarried. What would it take to be another Ezra? Being steeped in the Word so we can clearly identify sin, and fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Choosing our companions with care, that they support and build us up, not drag us down. Courage to confront sin when we see it. Loving the sinner so much that we pray for them and grieve for their sins as if they were ours.

When the builders started to lay the foundation of the Temple, the priests
in their robes took their places with trumpets in their hands, and the Levites
of the clan of Asaph stood there with cymbals. They praised the LORD according
to the instructions handed down from the time of King David. They sang the
LORD’s praises, repeating the refrain: “The LORD is good, and his love for
Israel is eternal.” Everyone shouted with all their might, praising the LORD,
because the work on the foundation of the Temple had been started. Many of the
older priests, Levites, and heads of clans had seen the first Temple, and as
they watched the foundation of this Temple being laid, they cried and wailed.
But the others who were there shouted for joy. No one could distinguish between
the joyful shouts and the crying, because the noise they made was so loud that
it could be heard for miles. (Ezra 3:10-13)

After all the cycles of rebellion, repentance, and restoration in previous books, the eviction notice served in 2 Kings 21: 11-15 was finally executed. But when Cyrus became emperor, the Lord told him to let His people go – and unlike Pharoah, Cyrus complied. But this exodus was not to complete freedom, as it had been the first time. Even when the Israelites got back home, they were still subject to Cyrus’ rule. On the whole, they were happy about their current circumstances – but the above passage makes me wonder if they ever “got it” that they had brought this on themselves. They are finally rebuilding the temple, and they younger generation, who had been without one for their whole lives, could not have been happier. But the older folks couldn’t find it in themselves to rejoice that God was being merciful to them. Oh, no. They cried and wailed because the new temple would not equal the old in terms of beauty and glory. If in a rage you throw a vase on the floor and shatter it, then later regret your outburst and glue the pieces together, you shouldn’t be surprised that it is not in brand-new condition. Matthew Henry’s take on all this:

Yet it was their infirmity to mingle those tears with the common joys and so to
cast a damp upon them. They despised the day of small things, and were
unthankful for the good they enjoyed, because it was not so much as their
ancestors had, though it was much more than they deserved. In the harmony of
public joys, let not us be jarring strings. It was an aggravation of the
discouragement they hereby gave to the people that they were priests and
Levites, who should have known and taught others how to be duly affected under
various providences, and not to let the remembrance of former afflictions drown
the sense of present mercies. This mixture of sorrow and joy here is a
representation of this world.

I think it comes down to learning to be grateful for God’s dicipline. We are not required to enjoy it, but if we’re wise we’ll be grateful and thankful.