Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – 1 Kings 18:30-39 (day four)

In this showdown between God and Baal, the Israelites worked with all their might to get a showing from their idol. They called, but no one answered. They leapt and danced before the altar, but nothing stirred. They even sacrificed their bodies, pouring their own blood on the altar. Verse 29 gives us a haunting image: “…but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.”

We may not be as familiar with Baal, but we are all guilty of flailing before an idol in an attempt to get what we need, to find satisfaction, or to find meaning. We call out for the approval of others to boost our confidence, but their response gets lost to the wind. We leap and dance before the altar of money, but nothing ever comes to satisfy us. We pour ourselves out for status and prestige, but we’re only left bleeding. When we sacrifice to the idols of the world, there is no voice, no one to answer, no one paying attention.

But when we remember the Lord and draw in close to him, as Elijah encouraged the people to do, we’ll find that God will make himself known to us every time, and we will lack nothing. The Lord shows up in a way that nothing and no one else can do. As it says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Re:Verse passage – 2 Samuel 18:6-11 (day four)

If there was ever a perfect snapshot of the human condition, it’s this one. This story doesn’t have a clear hero or villain, but rather a host of imperfect people working out the results of their sin in a high-stakes arena. David is a poor example of a parent and lets his personal affairs nearly destroy the nation of Israel, but he loves his son regardless of his actions. Many of us have had the experience of caring for someone to a fault. Absolam is vain and conspiratorial against his own father, but he is fueled by righteous anger over things in his past. Trauma can put a dark lens over our worldview. Joab is disloyal to the king and seems to have a thirst for revenge, but he makes a decision to end a war that could have taken more Israelite lives. We’ve all experienced the burden of a conflict of values.

Life is a like this much of the time – right and wrong are made blurry by sin and trying to find the path forward is like trying to see through mud. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” The path forward looks murky now, but have hope. There is no amount of sinful mud that will stop our God from making all things new.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 17:38-51 (day four)

When the Lord calls us to face something big or start something new, we often convince ourselves that our current condition is not enough. We think we need to somehow add to ourselves in order to be up for the task, so we feign a confident persona, or look to worldly ideas for self-improvement, or try anything to appear as the person we think we should be, rather than who we are. We convince ourselves that we don’t have what it takes, and we try to fill in the gaps, often in vain.

David didn’t fall for this lie, though. He knew that winning this battle had nothing to do with his ability, and everything to do with God’s presence. When Saul told him that he was inadequate, he tried on the clunky armor and realized it would hinder him, not help him. David walked confidently in the knowledge that he had all he needed – the Lord was with him, and the Lord had already gifted David with all the abilities he needed to take down Goliath.

When you’re staring down your next giant, don’t turn to those clunky strategies of the world. Turn to the Lord, he has already given you all that you need.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Samuel 16:5-13 (day four)

At first, David wasn’t even brought into the room when Samuel came to his family’s house. He wasn’t just last on the list for who might be anointed as king, he wasn’t on the list at all. Over and over again throughout Scripture, we see God choosing the person that the world would never even consider. That concept is woven into our Savior’s DNA. God intentionally made his Son’s family tree full of people that the world had counted out.

But when this occurs in our own life, we still get surprised by it, don’t we? We might even become angry when we see God moving through someone that we hadn’t considered worthy. It gives us some cognitive dissonance when God works through someone with opposite political opinions, someone who’s culture we don’t understand, or someone who rubs us the wrong way. Our human nature wants to count people out, but God wants to count people in.

Who have you counted out lately? The Lord is most likely doing a work to count them in.

Re:Verse passage – Judges 16:15-21 (day four)

Samson is a truly unique character. We know that the Lord is with him, but he seems to have an ego and a careless attitude. You almost don’t want to root for him. If nothing else, though, he’s relatable. I’ve always gotten a chuckle out of v. 16, “his soul was annoyed to death.” We’ve all been there!

But his biggest mistake is even more relatable: he didn’t take the holiness of God seriously. Samson made a vow with the God, but he broke that vow over and over again. Here in his exchange with Delilah, he put his trust in his own wit and his own strength, forgetting that God was the source of his strength all along. It didn’t go well for him. How often do we do the same? When we rely on our own strength, we always come up short.

Contrast this with the apostle Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Let us commit to this way of living: “Yet not I, but through Christ in me.”

 

Re:Verse passage – Joshua 7:6-12, 20-21 (day four)

We live in a very individualistic culture here in the West. It’s easy for us to think of sin as mainly personal. “No one knows the sinful thought I had this morning,” we think, “it’s not impacting anyone else.” “Surely no one will be hurt if I take a few things for myself when no one is looking,” Achan probably thought.

But I don’t think the Kingdom of God shares this individualistic culture. Passages like this remind us that even private sins have corporate consequences. Living in genuine, Christian community with one another means that the sin of one person impacts the whole, just as the faith of one person impacts the whole. There are real people on the other side of our obedience.

As we look towards Good Friday, we can be grateful that the passion of Christ was big enough to cover us, both personally and collectively.

Re:Verse passage – Joshua 5:13-15; 6:1-5 (day four)

Heaven and earth can seem like they are infinitely far apart. This world can be so cruel that heaven sounds like a fairytale, totally separate from our reality. But passages like this remind us that there is only a thin, permeable veil that separates our world from heaven.

The “captain of the host of the Lord” appears, just like a man, in front of Joshua, and instructs him in how to overtake Jericho. The instructions he gave didn’t have normal military strategy, or even normal logic, yet they accomplished exactly what the Lord had promised.

These kinds of moments happen frequently throughout Scripture, where heaven suddenly feels very near. But that kind of thing doesn’t only exist in the past. When we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have heaven nearer to us than this mysterious man was to Joshua. What might be different if we lived like heaven was near? If we traded earthly strategy for heavenly logic? If history is any indication, walls will fall.

Re:Verse passage – Joshua 2:1-21 (day four)

It is strange enough that women are listed at all in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. But these five women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary) have something else in common – they all have some form of sexual scandal in their history. Rahab herself was an outsider to the people of Israel. That in addition to her profession gave her two reasons to be killed by these men. Yet God found her faithful, and used her to bring about triumph for Israel, and eventually the Messiah himself. Rahab’s story, and Jesus’ family tree, make it clear – God’s plan includes all people.

Rahab saw the majesty and power of God, even with limited knowledge of him, and her faith caused her to act. Later, in the epistle from James, he uses Rahab as an example of faith lived out, “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:25-26). 

May our faith always lead us to action, following the example of God’s unexpected servant Rahab.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 50:15-20 (day four)

I’ve always thought of Joseph as one of the most earnest characters in the Bible. He is sincere in his walk with the Lord, and you can count on him to say exactly what he means (with varying degrees of tact). He is serious and purposeful as he goes about the Lord’s business.

His brothers, on the other hand, are manipulative and jealous. They’ll lie and cheat to get what they want. Because of them, Joseph’s life was riddled with bitter trials. But for every trial, God turned that situation around into a blessing for Joseph. Because Joseph remained faithful to God and walked in obedience, he saw the restorative power of God’s hand. When Joseph looked back on his life, he saw the blessings and faithfulness of God, rather than the trials and unfairness of his family.

When the time came, Joseph was able to forgive his family. God had shown him his restorative power his entire life, so how could he not choose restoration now? This kind of grace is only possible when we walk closely with the Lord, the One who promises to restore the years the locusts have eaten.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 22:1-18 (day four)

Can you imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind when God asks this of him? We don’t know all of Abraham’s thoughts here, or how he came to terms with this command from God, but we do know that he came to a place of faithful resolve. Look at the language he uses –

In verse 5, Abraham states in faith that Isaac will return, “Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Again in verse 8, Abraham has faith that God will provide, “Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Abraham was fully prepared to obey the Lord, and equally full of assurance that God would provide. Abraham had walked with God and knew these things to be true: God is faithful, trustworthy, and good. He had faith that somehow, this command from God would further testify to these truths.

How is God calling you to obey? You can do it in faith knowing that he is faithful, trustworthy, and good.