(The Lord said) "I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not pay attention.' Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon the people, the fruit of their devices ...."[Jeremiah 6:17-19a]
As a parish pastor, I did weddings.
There were many weddings which were a privilege to do. There were a few that would have tested the patience of Job. Those weddings, and I remember them all, were the ones where the bride wanted to control every aspect of every detail. Unfortunately, the bride's mother and the groom's mother also wanted to do the same. I've often wondered how those grooms are doing.
The only reason I bring that up is because there is a British company called Oliver's Travels, which tells a bride she can control the weather on her wedding day. Their ad says, "We're proud and just a little bit excited to be able to offer an exclusive 'cloud-bursting' service to our customers, 100 percent guaranteeing fair weather and clear skies for when you tie the knot!"
What the company does is send up small planes to seed the clouds with silver iodide. The chemical causes the clouds to release whatever water they contain, and if the timing and the wind is right, the service will go off high and dry. And the cost for having a dry wedding? Oliver's Travels will guarantee your day for a mere $150,000.
I have no idea how many dry wedding packages they have sold.
You know, if you read through the Bible, you will, very quickly, be given insight into what makes humans tick. Quite frankly, it's not always the most flattering of pictures. Greed, selfishness, hatred, lust, envy are all there, along with a gaggle of others.
Still, if I was looking for one human characteristic that seems to flow through almost every story of Scripture, it would have to be the overwhelming desire of humans to be in control of their future and fate. Almost every patriarch has a time when he thinks he could improve on God's wishes; almost every prophet deals with a nation that is convinced God doesn't have a clue.
The above passage from Jeremiah is a good, condensed version of humankind's history -- that is our disobedience and God's displeasure. Now it's true the Lord does allow disaster to come upon those who are disobedient.
But disaster is not what God wants to give us. What the Lord wishes to bestow is forgiveness, salvation, hope and harmony. To that end He sent His Son to offer Himself as the reconciliation between earth and heaven. Because of Jesus' incredible sacrifice all who believe are changed; they are forgiven, and they are saved.
And, by God's grace, they all ought to pray, "Thy will, not mine, be done" (see Luke 22:42).
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, Your thoughts and ways are better than mine. Grant that I may rejoice in the changes brought about in my life through Jesus, and grant that I may always be able to pray, "Thy will be done." In the Savior's Name. Amen.
As a parish pastor, I did weddings.
There were many weddings which were a privilege to do. There were a few that would have tested the patience of Job. Those weddings, and I remember them all, were the ones where the bride wanted to control every aspect of every detail. Unfortunately, the bride's mother and the groom's mother also wanted to do the same. I've often wondered how those grooms are doing.
The only reason I bring that up is because there is a British company called Oliver's Travels, which tells a bride she can control the weather on her wedding day. Their ad says, "We're proud and just a little bit excited to be able to offer an exclusive 'cloud-bursting' service to our customers, 100 percent guaranteeing fair weather and clear skies for when you tie the knot!"
What the company does is send up small planes to seed the clouds with silver iodide. The chemical causes the clouds to release whatever water they contain, and if the timing and the wind is right, the service will go off high and dry. And the cost for having a dry wedding? Oliver's Travels will guarantee your day for a mere $150,000.
I have no idea how many dry wedding packages they have sold.
You know, if you read through the Bible, you will, very quickly, be given insight into what makes humans tick. Quite frankly, it's not always the most flattering of pictures. Greed, selfishness, hatred, lust, envy are all there, along with a gaggle of others.
Still, if I was looking for one human characteristic that seems to flow through almost every story of Scripture, it would have to be the overwhelming desire of humans to be in control of their future and fate. Almost every patriarch has a time when he thinks he could improve on God's wishes; almost every prophet deals with a nation that is convinced God doesn't have a clue.
The above passage from Jeremiah is a good, condensed version of humankind's history -- that is our disobedience and God's displeasure. Now it's true the Lord does allow disaster to come upon those who are disobedient.
But disaster is not what God wants to give us. What the Lord wishes to bestow is forgiveness, salvation, hope and harmony. To that end He sent His Son to offer Himself as the reconciliation between earth and heaven. Because of Jesus' incredible sacrifice all who believe are changed; they are forgiven, and they are saved.
And, by God's grace, they all ought to pray, "Thy will, not mine, be done" (see Luke 22:42).
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, Your thoughts and ways are better than mine. Grant that I may rejoice in the changes brought about in my life through Jesus, and grant that I may always be able to pray, "Thy will be done." In the Savior's Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Exodus 9: Animals sick and dying
660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Exodus 9: Animals sick and dying
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord, the Hebrews’ God, says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. 2 If you refuse to let them go and you continue to hold them back, 3 the Lord will send a very deadly disease on your livestock in the field: on horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, and flocks. 4 But the Lord will distinguish Israel’s livestock from Egypt’s livestock so that not one that belongs to the Israelites will die.” 5 The Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” 6 And the next day the Lord did it. All of the Egyptian livestock died, but not one animal that belonged to the Israelites died. 7 Pharaoh asked around and found out that not one of Israel’s livestock had died. But Pharaoh was stubborn, and he wouldn’t let the people go.
Skin sores and blisters
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of ashes from a furnace and have Moses throw it up in the air in front of Pharaoh. 9 The ashes will turn to soot over the whole land of Egypt. It will cause skin sores that will break out in blisters on people and animals in the whole land of Egypt.” 10 So they took ashes from the furnace, and they stood in front of Pharaoh. Moses threw the ash up in the air, and it caused skin sores and blisters to break out on people and animals. 11 The religious experts[a] couldn’t stand up to Moses because of the skin sores, because there were skin sores on the religious experts as well as on all the Egyptians. 12 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn, and Pharaoh wouldn’t listen to them, just as the Lord had said to Moses.
Hail and thunder
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they can worship me. 14 This time I’m going to send all my plagues on you, your officials, and your people so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world. 15 By now I could have used my power to strike you and your people with a deadly disease so that you would have disappeared from the earth. 16 But I’ve left you standing for this reason: in order to show you my power and in order to make my name known in the whole world. 17 You are still abusing your power against my people, and you refuse to let them go. 18 Tomorrow at this time I’ll cause the heaviest hail to fall on Egypt that has ever fallen from the day Egypt was founded until now. 19 So bring under shelter your livestock and all that belongs to you that is out in the open. Every person or animal that is out in the open field and isn’t brought inside will die when the hail rains down on them.” 20 Some of Pharaoh’s officials who took the Lord’s word seriously rushed to bring their servants and livestock inside for shelter. 21 Others who didn’t take the Lord’s word to heart left their servants and livestock out in the open field.
22 The Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall on the whole land of Egypt, on people and animals and all the grain in the fields in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses raised his shepherd’s rod toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. The Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 The hail and the lightning flashing in the middle of the hail were so severe that there had been nothing like it in the entire land of Egypt since it first became a nation. 25 The hail beat down everything that was in the open field throughout the entire land of Egypt, both people and animals. The hail also beat down all the grain in the fields, and it shattered every tree out in the field. 26 The only place where hail didn’t fall was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived.
27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I’ve sinned. The Lord is right, and I and my people are wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord! Enough of God’s thunder and hail! I’m going to let you go. You don’t need to stay here any longer.”
29 Moses said to him, “As soon as I’ve left the city, I’ll spread out my hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and the hail will stop and won’t return so that you will know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30 But I know that you and your officials still don’t take the Lord God seriously.” (31 Now the flax and the barley were destroyed, because the barley had ears of grain and the flax had buds. 32 But both durum and spelt wheat weren’t ruined, because they hadn’t come up.) 33 Moses left Pharaoh and the city, and spread out his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and the hail stopped, and the rain stopped pouring down on the earth. 34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned again. Pharaoh and his officials became stubborn. 35 Because of his stubbornness, Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had told Moses.
Invasion of locusts
10:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. I’ve made him and his officials stubborn so that I can show them my signs 2 and so that you can tell your children and grandchildren how I overpowered the Egyptians with the signs I did among them. You will know that I am the Lord.”
3 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the Lord, the Hebrews’ God, says: How long will you refuse to respect me? Let my people go so that they can worship me. 4 Otherwise, if you refuse to let my people go, I’m going to bring locusts into your country tomorrow. 5 They will cover the landscape so that you won’t be able to see the ground. They will eat the last bit of vegetation that was left after the hail. They will eat all your trees growing in the fields. 6 The locusts will fill your houses and all your officials’ houses and all the Egyptians’ houses. Your parents and even your grandparents have never seen anything like it during their entire lifetimes in this fertile land.” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.
7 Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man trap us in a corner like this? Let the people go so that they can worship the Lord their God. Don’t you get it? Egypt is being destroyed!”
8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go! Worship the Lord your God! But who exactly is going with you?”
9 Moses said, “We’ll go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we all must observe the Lord’s festival.”
10 Pharaoh said to them, “Yes, the Lord will be with you, all right, especially if I let your children go with you! Obviously, you are plotting some evil scheme. 11 No way! Only your men can go and worship the Lord, because that’s what you asked for.” Then Pharaoh had them chased out of his presence.
12 Then the Lord said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt so that the locusts will swarm over the land of Egypt and eat all of the land’s grain and everything that the hail left.” 13 So Moses stretched out his shepherd’s rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow over the land all that day and all that night. When morning came, the east wind had carried in the locusts. 14 The locusts swarmed over the whole land of Egypt and settled on the whole country. Such a huge swarming of locusts had never happened before and would never happen ever again. 15 They covered the whole landscape so that the land turned black with them. They ate all of the land’s grain and all of the orchards’ fruit that the hail had left. Nothing green was left in any orchard or in any grain field in the whole land of Egypt.
16 Pharaoh called urgently for Moses and Aaron and said, “I’ve sinned against the Lord your God and against you. 17 Please forgive my sin this time. Pray to the Lord your God just to take this deathly disaster away from me.”
18 So Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord. 19 The Lord turned the wind into a very strong west wind that lifted the locusts and drove them into the Reed Sea.[b] Not a single locust was left in the whole country of Egypt. 20 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wouldn’t let the Israelites go.
Darkness covers Egypt
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over the land of Egypt, a darkness that you can feel.” 22 So Moses raised his hand toward the sky, and an intense darkness fell on the whole land of Egypt for three days. 23 People couldn’t see each other, and they couldn’t go anywhere for three days. But the Israelites all had light where they lived.
24 Then Pharaoh called Moses and said, “Go! Worship the Lord! Only your flocks and herds need to stay behind. Even your children can go with you.”
25 But Moses said, “You need to let us have sacrifices and entirely burned offerings to present to the Lord our God. 26 So our livestock must go with us. Not one animal can be left behind. We’ll need some of them for worshipping the Lord our God. We won’t know which to use to worship the Lord until we get there.”
27 But the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he wasn’t willing to let them go. 28 Pharaoh said to him, “Get out of here! Make sure you never see my face again, because the next time you see my face you will die.”
29 Moses said, “You’ve said it! I’ll never see your face again!”
God announces the final disaster
11:1 The Lord said to Moses, “I’ll bring one more disaster on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he’ll let you go from here. In fact, when he lets you go, he’ll eagerly chase you out of here. 2 Tell every man to ask his neighbor and every woman to ask her neighbor for all their silver and gold jewelry.” 3 The Lord made sure that the Egyptians were kind to the Hebrew people. In addition, Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people even came to honor Moses as a great and important man in the land.
4 Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: At midnight I’ll go throughout Egypt. 5 Every oldest child in the land of Egypt will die, from the oldest child of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the oldest child of the servant woman by the millstones, and all the first offspring of the animals. 6 Then a terrible cry of agony will echo through the whole land of Egypt unlike any heard before or that ever will be again. 7 But as for the Israelites, not even a dog will growl at them, at the people, or at their animals. By this, you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 Then all your officials will come down to me, bow to me, and say, ‘Get out, you and all your followers!’ After that I’ll leave.” Then Moses, furious, left Pharaoh.
9 The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh won’t listen to you so that I can perform even more amazing acts in the land of Egypt.” 10 Now Moses and Aaron did all these amazing acts in front of Pharaoh, but the Lord made Pharaoh stubborn so that he didn’t let the Israelites go from his land.[Footnotes:
Exodus 9:11 Or magicians
Exodus 10:19 Or Red Sea]
Matthew 25: Judgment of the nations
31 “Now when the Human One[a] comes in his majesty and all his angels are with him, he will sit on his majestic throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them from each other, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right side. But the goats he will put on his left.
34 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began. 35 I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. 36 I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 “Then those who are righteous will reply to him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me, you who will receive terrible things. Go into the unending fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 I was hungry and you didn’t give me food to eat. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink. 43 I was a stranger and you didn’t welcome me. I was naked and you didn’t give me clothes to wear. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?’ 45 Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.”[Footnotes:
Matthew 25:31 Or Son of Man]
The Lutheran Hour660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
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1-800-876-9880
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