READINGS FOR JUNE 12-JUNE 18

JUNE 12

In Judah, we see the generational demons at work as recorded in 2 Chronicles 22.  Jezebel certainly would have been pleased with her daughter Athaliah.  Athaliah usurped the throne after the death of her son Ahaziah by destroying the remaining family members, except for little Joash, who was hidden by his aunt in a room in the temple for six years.

Meanwhile, back in Israel:
"But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the ministers of Baal.”

He destroyed Baal worship, which was a good thing. “Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel with all his heart.”

In reality, Jehu just traded Baal worship for the worship of golden calves (like trading the worship of Buddah for the worship of Allah). He obeyed a “little bit”. Incomplete obedience is still disobedience. How often do we do that? We only keep the commandments we like or read the Scriptures that say what we want to hear, or simply ignore parts of the Bible. Ouch!

Jehoiada, the priest, put the Levites in the proper places in the temple to protect the boy king Joash. “Joash was seven years old when he began to reign”. 

Once Joash was in place, Jehoiada placed the priests, the Levites, in the temple to do what God had ordained them to do. Notice “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada, the priest instructed him”.

We need Godly spiritual advisers to counsel our leaders in the governments of both church and nation.  

The people then got rid of Baal worship. However, like Jehu in Israel, their obedience was only partial. They still continued to offer sacrifices in the high places. There was a remnant of pagan worship.  Not too different from many churches today that still cling to celebrations that are not God-ordained, in effect “burning incense” to pagan rituals.  In today's culture Hallween is an example of a high place.  When this satanic holiday is honored by the church, the church is in effect "burning incense" to evil, the occult and necromancy.  This is an abomination to God and expressly forbidden in Scripture. (See Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:9-15, Isaiah 8:19, 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Corinthians 11:14, among numerous others.) There are other examples as well.

So what’s the application from today’s reading for us as individuals? It’s pretty simple. Is the church doing what God’s Word says or is the church doing what the world says?

Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?

Ultimately it comes down to the individual. What will we do in the end? Will we worship God in their way or in God’s way? (Deuteronomy 12:4 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.)

JUNE 13

The prophecy of Joel. Nearly 2,000 years ago the disciple Peter quoted from the book of Joel on the day of Pentecost referred to by many as the "birthday of the church".  The sermon that Peter preached was heard by thousands of people who had come from many foreign countries.  Since this book was obviously chosen by the Holy Spirit to be heard by so many people on such an important day in the history of mankind, then the book of Joel must be extremely important and deserves our undivided attention.

The prophet Joel uses the physical and literal to illustrate the figurative and the spiritual.  He uses locusts as a foretaste of God’s judgment to come. Joel looks back on what the locusts have done and looks forward to what the consuming fire will do during the wrath of God on the Day of the Lord. The book of Joel is a perfect example of foreshadowing and also a perfect example of the use of both figurative and literal…literal – the actual locust infestation and figurative – the fire and the wrath of God that will come and consume as the locusts had done. The analogy of the locusts and the wrath of God is spelled out in Joel 2:25. See also the book

Joel says that the locusts "have laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees".  Most certainly, locusts did destroy the crops but spiritually speaking, locusts can be symbolic of anything that devours and destroys.  As an example, false teaching, satanic leadership, pagan influences will destroy the fruitfulness of God's people.  This passage could be used as a "wake-up call" for the churches today.

Joel says to "Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth."  In the literal, the virgin is betrothed to her husband, the marriage has not yet been consummated.  (that's why she's still a virgin)  In the spiritual, a virgin would be an innocent Believer, whose marriage has not yet been consummated (that will take place when Believers are united with Jesus in the new heaven).  A Believer (the church) has a marriage relationship with Jesus (we are the bride of Christ). We are living in our betrothal time and should be grieving for what is happening during this time of false teaching and doctrine, satanic leadership, and pagan influences.  Believers should be mourning for the abuse being perpetrated on the true faith and the defaming of Jesus.
Joel 1:12
Surely the joy of mankind is withered away.
During this time of Joel, the locusts had literally destroyed the crops that the people took to the temple for offerings.  Because they had no offerings to present to the temple, their joy was withered away.  This is an example of the physical affecting the spiritual.  Application for today - joy is diminished because the truth is not preached.  False teaching destroys the joy and fruitfulness of God's people.

Joel calls for the elders in the land to declare a holy fast and cry out to the Lord.  These are God's people he's speaking to, not government officials.  Joel is saying to return to the truth, to true worship, and true repentance.  There was literally a famine in the land to which Joel refers, but there is also a famine in the land of hearing the Word of the Lord.

Joel makes mention of two kinds of fire, a wild fire of false doctrine. This would be a destructive, devouring fire.  He also mentions a refiner's fire, a God-controlled cleansing fire.  Both applied then.  Both apply now. 

Joel 2:13
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

The word "rend" means "to revile" or "enlarge the eyes".  Joel reports that the Lord says not to pretend repentance (rend your garments) but to actually repent (rend your heart).  In other words, He is telling the people to open their eyes to all the evil and actually repent from that evil - and not just give it lip-service.

The next few verses of Joel 2 show a progression they must do in order to receive God's blessings.

1. Repent (rend your heart)

2. Return (to the Lord and His ways, commandments, etc.)

3. Plead (beg His forgiveness)

The great message for us is that no matter what we have done in the past, if we repent, return, and plead, He will relent.

God promises to repay them for the years the locusts have eaten. Nothing is more important than repentance for ushering in God's blessings. Again, the same thing applies to all of us today.  He has promised to restore us to a right relationship with Him.  The choice is ours.

"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

This is not a contradiction to the verses in Matthew 7:21-23 when Jesus speaks these words, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of heaven..." This verse refers to those who rend their garments, giving lip service, professing the faith just for show. The verse in Joel refers to those who rend their hearts and not just their garments.  Joel's verse is a message of hope from the beginning to the end of time for those who truly repent and turn to Him.  Those who acknowledge Him as Lord of their lives will have salvation and eternal life with Him.  Again, the choice is ours.

Note the similarities in the following passage in Joel and the passage in Revelation. They both speak of the wrath of God on the Day of the Lord.

Joel 3:13
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow-- so great is their wickedness!'

Revelation 14:19
The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath.

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision."
We live in the valley of decision.  We must make decisions every day.

Joel also tells us that the day of the Lord is near, as do so many of the prophecies concerning the last days. 

Joel also tells of Armageddon, the gathering of the nations, their restoration and the beginning of the millennium.  

Read the section labeled Day of the Lord (Chapter 2) as if it were the army of the Lord.

Joel 2:32a
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved;

Our ever loving God offers chance after chance after chance for salvation, even on the Day of the Lord He still holds out His hand, waiting for people to acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord. What patience! What grace! What love!

JUNE 14

Jehoiada the priest chose two wives for King Joash. Why two? Isn’t God’s plan to have one wife?

2 Kings 10:32a In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel.

The Lord reduced the size of Israel by letting them suffer the consequences of their sin. How does that relate to us individually as Believers? Does it mean that our blessings are reduced, our rewards are lessened, our testimony is compromised as a result of our sins?

2 Chronicles 24:20
Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’”

This verse in 2 Chronicles is a witness verse to the previous one in 2 Kings. When we disobey His commands we will not prosper (in blessings, rewards, and testimony). When we forsake Him, He will forsake us. How do we reconcile that verse with the ones that say He will never leave us or forsake us???  Could it have anything to do with the famous "if - then" statements? Such as 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Joash decided to restore the temple and told the priests to go into the land and collect money. The Levites didn’t act at once. Why? Was it that the priests were supposed to use a portion of the money for repairs on the temple but instead kept the money for themselves?  They were supposed to give their tithe back into the temple for its upkeep. Is that why the temple was in such bad shape and had to be restored?

When the proclamation was issued for the Levites to collect money for the temple, the people brought their contributions gladly and there was no need for an accounting of the money because the workers restoring the temple acted with complete honesty. Seems as if there is a sharp contrast here between the honest workers and the dishonest priests.

As long as Joash was under the influence of the priest Jehoiada he did well. After Jehoiada died, Joash accepted paganism. Then when Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son, spoke up, Joash had him stoned. Guess he was saying things Joash didn’t want to hear.  Interestingly, as he lay dying, Zechariah spoke these words, "May the Lord see this and call you to account."

Contrast this statement to the statement of Stephen as he was being stoned in Jerusalem.

Acts 7:60
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Quite a contrast.  Zechariah was pre-Jesus. Stephen was post-Jesus.  Forgiveness is directly related to the blood sacrifice. Zechariah's forgiveness required an animal blood sacrifice.  Stephen had the power to forgive sins committed against him. Jesus had already taken care of the required blood sacrifice. 

With no spiritual leadership the people "snapped like a rubber band" back into their sinful ways.

After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah convinced Joash to abandon the Lord and worship Asherah, goddess of sex and fertility.

Concerning the temple, those in charge didn't repair little things. Then when those little things become big things, there was a need to restore and rebuild and not just repair.

What lesson can we learn from the temple repair? Maybe that we should constantly check our lives for little sins (in order to repair) before they become disastrous sins (and we have to restore and rebuild).

On his deathbed Elisha gives King Jehoash a stinging prophecy. Jehoash struck the ground three times. He stopped before Elisha told him to stop and because of that, the defeat of the enemy would not be complete. Lesson for us? When God tells us to do something, we should continue until He tells us to stop. Otherwise we miss all the blessings He wants to give.  Our blessings are not reduced, our rewards are not lessened, our testimony is not compromised.

JUNE 15

Amaziah hired fighting men from Israel to help him in battle. But…”Even if you go out and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.” (This reminds us of yesterday's notes concerning the "If-then" statements.)

Leviticus 26:3, 7
If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them,  And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 

Leviticus 26:14, 17  

But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments, And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you. And you shall flee when none pursues you. 

When Amaziah sent the mercenaries home, they were furious, even though they went home with the promised money.  Why?  Could it be because they wanted the plunder as well as the money? Later on they raided many Judean towns, killed three thousand people and carried off great quantities of plunder.

Amaziah tried to fight his battles on his own or by enlisting the help of others when it was promised…“The Lord can give you much more than that.”

How often do God’s people turn to something or someone other than God for help to fight their battles?  Many people, including the people of God, are near collapse carrying an oppressive burden of emotional problems and addictions. We often seek psychological and medicinal “band aid” treatments for these problems and addictions when a Biblical cure is what is needed. Instead of seeking temporary worldly solutions we should allow Scripture to surgically and permanently remove them.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Ezekiel 11:19-20
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

It means facing our emotional problems and addictions and allowing the removal of our heart of stone that frees us to follow in obedience to Him. 

Amaziah discovered he would not be successful on his own or even if he enlisted the help of others. We need to learn that lesson as well …“The Lord can give you much more than that.” The Lord offers us so much more than the world can offer. In fact He offers us "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine".

Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

JUNE 16

The book of Jonah. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, modern-day Iraq.  Nineveh was "sin city" if there ever was one.   No one deserved God's favor less than Nineveh.  They were cruel people, the equivalent of the people of ISIS today.  Yet Jonah was told to go to this sinful city and preach repentance to them.  This request was comparable to God asking someone today to preach Jesus in the headquarters of ISIS.   In Jonah's mind God was giving him a death sentence.  That's why he ran away. 

Applications for us as believers? When God gives clear direction, do we obey or run like Jonah ran?

Jonah didn’t seem very concerned about his disobedience. He went below deck on the ship and fell into a deep sleep.

Another application to make as we continue with the story of Jonah- no one is beyond God's redemption.

While Jonah was in the belly of the fish, as he was dying, he cried out to the Lord.  Some of the words Jonah spoke were these: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Oh, how very true today!  Why would anyone want to cling to idols?  Grace is there for the asking. "What I have vowed I will make good."

Obviously Jonah made a vow while his life was ebbing away.  Did he vow that he would go to Nineveh and preach if only God would save him?

Extremely significant piece of Scripture found in Jonah. So significant that Jesus uses the sign of Jonah to prove that He was the Messiah.

Matthew 12:39-40
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,(not necessarily a whale) so the Son of Man (Jesus' physical body) will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jonah 1:17
But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. 

A couple of other significant things to consider. Since Jesus made the connection between Himself and Jonah, "as Jonah was..." what other connections can we make?

Jonah was wrapped in seaweed and fell to the bottom of the water.  (Jonah 2:5) Jonah's dead body was in the fish for three days and three nights.  Jesus' dead body was in the tomb for three days and three nights.  Jonah's spirit communicated with God while his body was in the belly of the fish.  Jesus' spirit preached to the evil spirits in the abyss while His body was in the tomb.  Look specifically at the prayer Jonah's spirit prayed while his body was in the belly of the fish.

Jonah knew that God could save the people of Nineveh, but Jonah wanted vengeance from God for them, not mercy. In fact, he was angry with God for saving them. But the Lord replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"God is speaking to us as well as Jonah. Even though we may want vengeance for our enemies, we have no right to be angry with God when He saves them on the basis of a "deathbed confession".  God saved the evil people of Nineveh because they repented.
Jonah only understood forgiveness through blood sacrifice.  The people of Nineveh didn't offer any sacrifices and yet God had mercy on them.  Jonah didn't understand that.  All this is a foreshadow of post-Jesus forgiveness.

It is easy for us to make comparisons to Nineveh and our world today. The good news is, if we repent and give up our evil ways, God may have compassion on us and save us just as He did Nineveh. Remember the verse, "if my people..." (That's God's people)

JUNE 17

God has asked His prophets to do some really strange things in order to get the peoples' attention. Hosea is no exception. The people of Hosea’s day had sinned against God as an adulterous woman sins against her husband. How many husbands or wives would be consistently willing to forgive their spouse's unfaithfulness?  Any yet, our ever faithful God does that for each of us!

Hosea’s experience is a great object lesson illustrating God’s covenant relationship with His people. Once we become a Believer we enter into the betrothal commitment with Him. Temptations of the world can be very seductive. When we compromise our faith by being lured into the seductive temptations of the world, we are unfaithful to God. 

The book of Hosea portrays God's constant and persistent love to His people, then and now.

The first child born to Gomer was Hosea's son.  For the other two children, it is uncertain, since Scripture says Gomer conceived and gave birth, with no mention of Hosea as being the father.

Read Hosea chapter 2 and substitute the word, "believer" when there is reference to wife and make it personal, put your name.

Throughout the first three chapters of Hosea is kind of a bleak commentary, but yet there is this hope in the last verse.

“They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessing in the last days.” Why wait? Why not 

come trembling to the Lord now? Why not claim His blessings today???

JUNE 18

Hosea certainly delivered a stinging message from God to the priests of the day. Spiritual leadership is a serious responsibility. No wonder the priests relished the sins of the people. The more the people sinned, the more sin offerings were brought to the priests. The priests were getting “fat” off the sins of the people.

“…my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” “…a people without understanding will come to ruin!”

If spiritual leaders don’t speak against a sin, the people think it's okay. And then what happens? “A spirit of prostitution…” – selling out to the ways of the world.  Also a spirit of defiance - taking the selfish way and not listening to God.

"They are unfaithful to the Lord; they give birth to illegitimate children."  The illegitimate children can be likened to false doctrine and perverted religion.  

"Ephraim turned to Assyria"  The Assyrians were their enemies.  When we, as a church and nation, turn to our enemies for help we are turning to the secular (and often the satanic) instead of the spiritual.

"Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt."  How prophetic is that for us today?  God will remove His hand of protection unless we repent as a nation, as a church, and as individuals. 

And we have yet another example of His mercy, grace and love. “I long to redeem them…”

How He longs to redeem us! He longs so much that He sent His Son. In these last days, are there people to whom we should witness? Do we feel an evangelistic urgency to “snatch others from the fire” (Jude 1:23a). 

Hosea 9:5  What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the LORD? 

Indeed, what will we do on God's Holy Days?  Will we honor and remember Jesus' fulfillment of them?  Or will we continue in the pagan practices that have infiltrated our churches and replaced the God-ordained Holy Days?

Hosea was warning the people concerning their captivity.  If they were held captive they would not be able to celebrate the appointed feasts and festival days.  There would be no sacrifices for atonement for sins. 

Hosea 4 mentions the Israelites being stubborn like a stubborn heifer. And then we have this contrast with lambs in a meadow. Are we any different now? Don't we want to go our own way like a stubborn heifer? Shouldn't we be more like the lambs in a meadow and follow THE Shepherd?