Honestly Questioning God

Habakkuk 1:1–2:5; Acts 17:1–34; Job 25:1–6

Many people are afraid to be honest with God—which is odd, considering that He already knows what we’re thinking. The biblical authors certainly told God how they felt, and they did so eloquently and often.

The prophet Habakkuk remarked, “O Yahweh, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? How long will I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Hab 1:1–2).
Habakkuk felt that God was not answering his prayers—that God was ignoring his petitions.

He reminded God of the desperate need for His intercession. In doing so, Habakkuk reminds us that wrestling with God is a healthy and necessary component of following Him.
Habakkuk went on to make more desperate, even angry, pleas: “Why do you cause me to see evil while you look at trouble? Destruction and violence happen before me; contention and strife arise. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice does not go forth perpetually. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted” (Hab 1:3–4).

Habakkuk’s honest questions reveal the state of his heart. He was not afraid to tell God what he felt because he understood that God already knew. He also believed that God could be persuaded to intercede.

Yet it’s not language or skillful rhetoric that causes God to intercede—after all, He is a free being who can do what He wills, and He will not be manipulated. God wants to use us for His work, and He longs for us to acknowledge what He is doing. When we pray, God listens; when God acts in response to our prayers, we know that it is His work. We must pray honestly, and we must acknowledge God’s rightful place and acts.

What are you praying about? What are you honestly confessing to God?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Freedom and Response

Micah 4:1–6:16; Acts 14:8–15:21; Job 23:1–17

Freedom from sin gives us the power to love. But freedom from poverty or oppression or guilt sometimes makes us complacent. We forget our inclination to wander away from God’s will and pursue our own, and we overlook that God will eventually call us to account. Although Micah prophesied during a time of prosperity in Israel, it was also a time of spiritual deficiency. The powerful were oppressing the weak (Mic 2:1–2; 3:2–3) politically and economically.

Micah holds Israel to account in this passage. The prophet paints a courtroom scene with God judging His people for their unfaithfulness: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does Yahweh ask from you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic 6:8).

The mountains and the hills listen as Yahweh accuses Israel, and the evidence He presents is startling. God has been active and present in His people’s lives, turning what was meant for evil into good. He brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. When Balaam tried to curse Israel on behalf of Balak, the Moabite king, God turned that curse into blessing.

We know where we stand in the courtroom drama. Our sins condemn us, but God has provided new evidence that changes our fates. What prosecuting attorney becomes a defender of the accused—a mediator claiming their cause? Through His Son, God frees us from our sin. Indeed, we should say with awe and humility, “Who is a God like you?”

Our story should be a response of humility and love for God. What story will your life tell?

REBECCA VAN NOORD

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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The Pain of Idolatry

Micah 1:1–3:12; Acts 13:13–14:7; Job 22:14–30

Idolatry causes pain. If this truth were present in our minds each time we placed something before God, we would make different decisions. Micah’s account of the sins of Samaria makes this fact painfully and dramatically clear:

“So I [Yahweh] will make Samaria as a heap of rubble in the field, a place for planting a vineyard. And I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. Then all her idols will be broken in pieces, and all her prostitution wages will be burned in the fire, and all her idols I will make a desolation. For from the wage of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the wage of a prostitute they will return. On account of this I will lament and wail. I will go about barefoot and naked. I will make a lamentation like the jackals, and a mourning ceremony like the ostriches” (Mic 1:6–8).

Throughout this section, God and the prophet’s voices intermingle, a common occurrence in prophetic literature. This device creates a sense of empathy, both for God’s perspective on idolatry and for the people’s pain as the consequences of their idolatry bear down on them. Micah’s position is one we should emulate. When we understand what God feels, we begin to see the world from His perspective. When we feel what others feel, we’re able to meet their needs and learn to love them as fully and radically as God loves us.

Micah’s depiction of idolatry—how God views it and what it does to us—should be a wake-up call. When God takes second place in our lives, we inflict pain on Him, ourselves, and others. We shove Him out of His rightful place and thus move ourselves out of relationship with Him. But when He is the focus of our lives, we have an opportunity to empathize with others and to love them—and our idols dissipate like smoke.

How are you combating idolatry in your life? How are you showing love to people who love idols?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Going Your Own Way

Jonah 1:1–4:11; Acts 13:1–12; Job 22:1–13

I work hard to make my disobedience socially acceptable: “I have a stubborn streak,” I explain, or “I’m just like my dad.” But the truth is that my weaknesses aren’t cute or transitory—and they’re not anyone else’s fault. Instead, my disobedience is a deep-rooted, rebellious tendency to follow my own path when I should be humbling myself, seeking wisdom, or obeying leaders who know better.

The book of Jonah illustrates these opposing responses to God’s will. We can easily identify with Jonah’s stubborn character. When God tells Jonah to warn Nineveh of its coming judgment, Jonah not only disobeys, but he sets off in the opposite direction. As Jonah’s story progresses, however, we see God orchestrate a reversal. In His incredible mercy, He breaks Jonah’s stubborn streak and replaces it with humility. God also has mercy on the Ninevites—a “people who do not know right from left”—and they repent in sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 4:11).

It’s easy to diminish or rationalize our persistent faults. Yet when we’re faced with circumstances or people who hold up a mirror and show us who we truly are, we have the opportunity to change. God is molding us into people who want to follow His will, and He’ll provide opportunities to shape us to that end. We just have to respond to His calling.

How are you stubbornly insisting on your own way? How can you respond in a way that honors God?

REBECCA VAN NOORD

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Diversity in The Church

Amos 8:1–9:15; Acts 10:34–11:18; Job 21:1–16

In our comfortable and familiar church homes, we sometimes fail to see the Church as a community of ethnic and cultural diversity. When I returned from a year in South Korea, I was surprised when my family and friends made thoughtless generalizations about people I had come to know and love—some of them fellow believers in Christ. Most of these comments contradicted the multicultural picture of Christianity presented in the book of Acts.

Peter and the Jewish Christians in the early church underwent a shift in cultural perspective. When Peter came to Jerusalem after meeting with Gentiles, the Jews were shocked that he would eat with “men who were uncircumcised” (Acts 11:3). For so long, they had associated their religion with their identity as a nation and as a people group. Although they knew that God was extending this hope to the Gentiles, they needed to be reminded that Jesus was the Lord of all. Peter tells them, “if God gave them the same gift as also to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” (Acts 11:17).

The hope they expected had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Now Gentiles were being added to their number. Peter testifies, “In truth I understand that God is not one who shows partiality, but in every nation the one who fears him and who does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34).

Strangely, Peter’s speech still needs to be heard today. We tend to confine our faith within comfortable borders—cultural, regional, or racial. We need to be challenged to see people from other ethnicities and cultural backgrounds as fellow followers of Christ. If God does not show partiality, then neither should we. The reign of Jesus extends over all people; God will draw His children from all corners of the earth, and there will be no “foreigners” in His kingdom.

How does your view of the Church need to be challenged?

REBECCA VAN NOORD

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Bad Things, Good People, and Grace

Amos 6:1–7:17; Acts 10:1–33; Job 20:12–29

We often wonder why God allows bad things to happen. We’re not unique in this; people have asked this same question since the beginning of time. Job struggled with this question after he lost everything. Job’s friends strove to answer it as they sought to prove that Job had somehow sinned against God and brought his terrible fate upon himself.

At one point, Job’s friend Zophar offers up the common wisdom of the time: “Did you know this from of old, since the setting of the human being on earth, that the rejoicing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment?… [The wicked man] will suck the poison of horned vipers; the viper’s tongue will kill [the wicked man]” (Job 20:4–5, 16). Zophar is right about one thing: Eventually the wicked will be punished.

The rest of Zophar’s words prove his short-sightedness. The wicked are not always punished immediately. And God does not allow evil to continue without end. Instead, He chooses to intercede at certain times to ensure that His plan stays on course. Furthermore, bad things happen because people are bad—not because God allows or causes evil to happen, and not necessarily because the afflicted people are somehow evil. Evil powers are at work in the world, seeking to thwart God’s plan. We, as humanity, chose our fate when we went against God’s will that first time and every time since.

God has good news for us. As Peter tells his Gentile audience in Acts, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.… They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day … [and] everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:38–40, 42 ESV). There is redemption to be found in His Son, who will return to earth to make all things right. Every moment between now and then is a moment of grace.

How are your beliefs about evil closer to Zophar’s than to the truth? How can you find a new perspective?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

Devotions The Importance of Quiet Time



As The Lion Roars

Amos 1:1–4:5; Acts 8:26–9:19; Job 19:13–29

“Surely my Lord does not do anything unless he has revealed his secret to his servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who is not afraid? My Lord Yahweh has spoken, who will not prophesy? Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: ‘Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!’ ” (Amos 3:7–9).

It’s easy to make excuses when we don’t know or understand something, and it’s equally hard to admit why. Amos declares that God’s plan and His work in the world are known to us—if we wish to learn. If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’re not trying hard enough to learn about Him and His work. God speaks through His prophets and through His Word in the Bible, so there is no reason for us to be unaware of how He is working and how He wants to use us in the process.

What was true for the OT prophets was also true for the apostles. Through Philip, we see how God intimately involves people in His work. An angel tells Philip, “Get up and go toward the south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26). It took great faith for Philip to do as the angel instructed. The last part of verse 26 adds, “This is a desert place.” Few people have encountered an angel, as Philip did, but each of us has the opportunity to experience direction from our Lord.

If we ask, God will answer. If we seek to learn how God is speaking, our path will become clear. Often we make this idea more complicated than it should be, but the work of the prophets and the early church demonstrate otherwise: Amos continued to tell of a fate that indeed came to pass, much of it in his lifetime. Philip took that desert road and led an Ethiopian man to Jesus. There is great, enduring hope for us to be part of God’s work if we’re willing to seek His will, listen, and act in faith.

What does God wish for you to know today?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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God Rides to Battle

Joel 1:1–2:21; Acts 7:1–53; Job 18:1–21

God is good, but in the words of C.S. Lewis, “He is not tame.” When it comes time for evil to be purged from the world, He is not timid, and when He acts, He rarely holds back. We see such a scene prophesied concerning the Day of Yahweh—the day He will return to the earth as Christ—in Joel 2:1–11.

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh is coming—it is indeed near. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness, like the dawn spreads on the mountains, a great and strong army! There has been nothing like it from old, and after it nothing will be again for generations to come” (Joel 2:1–2).

When God charges into battle, He seizes control of all that must be yielded so His purpose is not hindered. He then performs great and mighty deeds on behalf of His people. As Joel says, “There has been nothing like it.” So why, then, has God not done this already? What is He waiting for? Why is evil allowed to continue if God can end it?

We find our answers in Joel 2:12–17. God, in His mercy, is allowing a time of repentance: “ ‘And even now,’ declares Yahweh, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and weeping, and wailing. Rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to Yahweh your God, because he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in loyal love, and relenting from harm’ ” (Joel 2:12–13).

Indeed, God’s trumpet will sound, but even with that time approaching, He is a compassionate God, and His call is simple: “Come back to me.”

What do you need to turn from today? What makes you hopeful about God’s coming?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Dawning of a New Era

Isaiah 63:1–64:12; Luke 23:26–24:12; Job 14:1–10

Jesus’ resurrection brings a new era. Although Jesus told His disciples and loved ones that He would suffer, die, and be raised on the third day (Luke 9:22), they didn’t fully comprehend His promise. The women preparing fragrant spices and perfumes for a burial ritual fully expected to find Jesus’ body in the tomb.

Instead, at the dawn of the first day of the week, they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. The women were perplexed by their discovery, but the angels challenged them, reminding them of Jesus’ promise: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of men who are sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise?” (Luke 24:5–7).

Jesus’ resurrection presents new hope for the disciples and those who believe in Him. It also shows that He prophesied correctly about God’s saving plan—presenting new hope for us. Jesus has the victory; death has no power over Him. By believing in Him, we share in His death and resurrection, giving us incredible hope as we face life, and death. Not only this, but we live knowing that our Savior is alive and acting on our behalf. We live in a new era.

How are you living in the hope of Jesus’ resurrection?

REBECCA VAN NOORD

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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Becoming A Saved People

Isaiah 60:1–62:12; Luke 22:63–23:25; Job 13:13–28

For Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s message. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, according to Luke, Jesus opened the Isaiah scroll in a synagogue and proclaimed that the words in Isa 61 are about Him (Luke 4:17–19): “The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives and liberation to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and our God’s day of vengeance, to comfort all those in mourning” (Isa 61:1–2). This moment defines what Jesus’ life would mean—and He was immediately persecuted for claiming the authority rightfully given to Him by God (Luke 4:20–30).

Luke’s message—an extension of Isaiah’s—is played out further near the end of Jesus’ life. Jesus’ claim to authority resulted in His being sentenced to death (Luke 23). It is easy to view the events of Jesus’ life as proof that He was the figure that Isaiah prophesied—that He was exactly who He said He was. But if we stop there, we miss the larger picture. Luke has an agenda: He draws on Isaiah and uses the story of Jesus reading in the synagogue because he intends for our lives to be changed by Jesus. We are the oppressed receiving the good news. We are the captives being liberated. We are meant to be a people called out to follow Him (Isa 40:1–2; 53:10–12).

When we look upon Jesus—the Suffering Servant, Messiah, prophet, and savior—we should be confronted with the reality that we’re still so far from what He has called us to be. We should be prompted to put Him at the center of our lives. We should be prompted to change. We must realize our place as the people He has saved and respond with gratitude.

How is Jesus’ sacrifice changing your life?

JOHN D. BARRY

John D. Barry and Rebecca Kruyswijk, Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

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