November 14

1 CHRONICLES 3-4
Ditto to yesterday. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

PSALM 134
We would walk through the hallways in the dark feeling our way to the sanctuary. All the fears of the dark would come to my mind. During my high school years, we fairly regularly made the trip to pray together. My college-aged brother was somehow able to gain a key to the church building, but it was to the educational building, not the sanctuary. Hence, the long trip through the darkened hallways. The mental practice of walking through the dark hallways was somehow a good preparation of time of prayer in the sanctuary. The sanctuary had an all wood roof and ceiling construction, so the cooling off of the wood at night time brought on a lot of creaking and cracking noises that increased the hallowed atmosphere of the building. We left the lights off for several reasons: 1) We did not want our presence to be an added expense to the church. 2) We really did not want to be interrupted by members of the church who were driving by wondering why the lights were still on. 3) We just liked the atmosphere of praying in the dark. On occasion the presence of the Lord was such that it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
Currently, we don’t have a night guard at our church building. Of course, we lock our building up at night. There isn’t any interest in people coming to the building after midnight. The Law made provision for the Levites to stand guard at the tabernacle/temple 24 hours per day. One might suppose that the reason would be to provide protection against vandalism or theft. However, with the presence of the glory of God dwelling in the holy of holies, I am not sure that would have been necessary. It was definitely to ensure that no outsider entered the courts of the Lord. It might have been to provide protection for people who might ignorantly wander into the sanctuary and be struck dead by a holy God who does not allow the unholy in His presence. The law also gives an answer. The Levites were to ensure that the fire of worship never went out. The Levites cared for the ‘things’ of worship. Our Lord is worthy of 24/7 worship. See 1 Chronicles 23:25–32 for David’s job description for the Levites.
Interesting, other places in scripture indicate that the Lord is worshipped non-stop in heaven. Consider:

Revelation 4:8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Revelation 7:15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
Revelation 21:24–26 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

What would these who stand all night in the house of the Lord do? For starters, they made sure everything was ready for the early morning sacrifice. Second, they sang praise to our God. Third, they made known that the Lord was the maker of heaven and earth. Fourth, they lifted up holy hands in prayer. Wouldn’t it be awesome if every congregation had 24/7 praise ascending to our Lord? I know that with a congregation the size of mine, it would be a physical impossibility. There are not enough people to sustain it. However, in a small city of 50,000, (about the population of Jerusalem when this Psalm was written) we have enough professing Christians to sustain it. No one congregation could do it, but together we could. What a demonstration of unity behind our Great and Glorious King that would be. Hmmmm. . . There is at least one thing we could all agree on—the greatness of His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ZEPHANIAH 1
Grandma was a godly woman. She had 20 grandchildren. We occasionally would all be out at grandma & grandpa’s farm for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or 4th of July. It was a great time together playing spoons or football or hunting or simply walking in the woods. I have two cousins that have both served the Lord as ministers of music, one also as a pastor. It is nice to have that common bond with them. I also have cousins that do not embrace the glory of our Lord. While I still love them dearly, it hurts not to be able to have that same bond in Christ that I have with other cousins. Just because we share the same godly heritage, does not mean that we share the same god.
Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah. Josiah was the great-grandson of Hezekiah. I think that would make them 2nd cousins once removed. As part of the royal lineage, Zephaniah was also chosen by God to be a prophet. That could be either a good thing or a bad thing. Were Josiah evil as were his father and grandfather, then Zephaniah’s message would be ill received by Josiah. Jewish tradition informs us that Josiah’s grandfather had the prophet Isaiah sawn in half. Manasseh and Amon had left the nation in a religious mess. They had mixed the worship of Yahweh with the idolatrous practices of the Canaanite gods. The result was that the people were left with gods who did nothing, who were impotent, and the people knew it. The problem is that because the people had mixed the worship of Yahweh with their impotent gods, they could not distinguish the impotence of their false gods from the omnipotence of Yahweh, the true God (v.12). It was a crisis point for a vision of the glory of the Lord.
Into this context Zephaniah is called to speak God’s message of judgment upon Judah’s idolatrous defamation of God’s glory. Would the new king Josiah be open to the rebuke, or would he be like his father and grandfather? Did Zephaniah even know Josiah well enough to know how he would receive the message of the Lord? Zephaniah had a message of the glory of God and judgment that burned within him. Whether or not he was aware of how he would be received, it had to come forth! It was a message of judgment:

4”I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests— 5Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the LORD, But who also swear by Milcom;

Zephaniah’s message of judgment was delivered to his cousin and to the nation. How was it received? 2 Kings 23:5 informs us of how Josiah responded to the message:

Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

Today we live in a nation which has mixed the glory of the Lord with our idolatrous gods. The result is an impotent church. We are satisfied with it. As long as our programs continue along to produce what they have always produced-lukewarm Christians, we are satisfied. It matters not to us that the programs produce nothing of eternal value. We are satisfied with a God who does neither good nor evil. I need cousins who will settle for nothing less than the glory of an omnipotent God who judges evil and rewards those who seek Him with mercy and His presence. Will you be that cousin? Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

HEBREWS 10:19-39
Because of the provision of His body, His law is written in our hearts. It is not a standard outside of us. But it is in us. That is part of the reason a carnal Christian is often more miserable than the non-Christian. The Christian has the law on their hearts. They know they are disobedient. They know the Spirit is not in control. It makes them miserable. That is a mercy of the Lord so that we will be driven back to Him. His body was prepared to take care of our sin. He dwells now in the heavenlies before God the Father so that when we have had enough of our misery, we can enter the holy place through Him. When we have dealt with the sin (repent), we can once again draw near. His blood sprinkles us clean. His water washes our evil conscience.
However, if we refuse to deal with our sin (repent), it is an indication that we really do not think that sin is so evil so as to bring death. If we do not think that sin is so evil so as to bring death, then we are implying that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is of little value. After all if our sin is not so evil as to bring death then we could have saved ourselves--who needs a specially prepared body? That is a dangerous accusation to make of the living God who gave His life for us. If we have that attitude toward sin, He will indeed be terrifying to us. He hates sin and won't let us dwell in it. Our dwelling in sin is tantamount to saying that His blood is useless.
That is why we must speak the glory of the Lord Jesus to one another. That is why we must exhort one another to love and good deeds. That is why we cannot forsake the assembling of ourselves together. That is why we must be open to others speaking the glory of the Lord to us. When we stand in His glory, we sin our sin, then we can repent. He is indeed holy and effective! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john