First Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Devotional: Zephaniah 1

Today’s passage: Zephaniah 1

Helpful thoughts:

  • Zephaniah’s prophecy concerning the “Day of the Lord” took place during the reign of Josiah in Jerusalem.
    • It looks like Zephaniah was also part of the royal family, having descended from Hezekiah.
  • Baal was the Canaanite storm god.  Milcom was the god of the Ammonites.  The “hosts of the heavens” refers to the worship of the stars.  The people of Judah had rejected God and were worshiping the gods of their surrounding pagan neighbors.
  • God will judge the entire world when it is the right time.  The right time is determined by Him and not by His creation (Verse 12).

Questions to consider:

  1. Why do you think people can become complacent?  How do we often view time and the latest news or personal crises?  How does God view these things?  Why might we question His ability to act in the right time?
  2. What is the stark warning of verse 18?  What are the true riches of life?
  3. What is the right response to God’s warning of coming judgment?  What must we do to be saved (Acts 16:25-34)?

Devotional: Habakkuk 3

Today’s passage: Habakkuk 3

Helpful thoughts:

  • Today we read Habakkuk’s prayerful response to the Lord’s answer, written as a psalm.
  • In verses 3-15, Habakkuk recounts the works of the Lord during the time of the Exodus.
  • Knowing that Babylon would be coming to destroy Jerusalem, Habakkuk committed to put his trust in the Lord and His sovereign plan.
    • Jerusalem was never Habakkuk’s strength.  God was (is) his strength.

Questions to consider:

  1. What parts of the exodus journey (From the departure from Egypt to entering the Promised Land) can you find in verses 3-15?  Why would these acts of God bring hope and consolation to Habakkuk?
  2. What was Habakkuk’s posture toward God in the beginning of this book?  What is it at the end?
  3. Why is it so important to see that Habakkuk’s perspective shifted and not his circumstances?  Jerusalem was still about to be destroyed and Habakkuk’s body trembled at the thought of it.  Yet, he was able to rejoice, why?  What can we learn from this short book that can be applied to our lives today?

Devotional: Habakkuk 2:6-20

Today’s passage: Habakkuk 2:6-20

Helpful thoughts:

  • Today, we read the rest of God’s response to Habakkuk’s appeal.
  • The sins of Babylon against the nations (Not just Israel, but all of the peoples who were subjugated), would come back around on their own head.
  • When mankind bows down to idols, they become just like them (Spiritually blind, deaf, dead).  (Psalm 115:2-8)

Questions to consider:

  1. Was God only concerned with what Babylon would do against Judah or are all the nations under His watch?  What does this remind us of concerning God’s heart for the nations (Revelation 7:9)?
  2. What is true of every other god in the world (Verses 18-20)?  What is true of every human being before God?  Is there anyone who will not answer to Him (Whether they believe in Him or not)?
  3. What then is the right response and action for citizens of the Kingdom of God in the midst of this earth (Habakkuk 2:1-2, Matthew 28:18-20)?

Devotional: Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

Today’s passage: Habakkuk 1:12-2:5

Helpful thoughts:

  • Habakkuk files his complaint against God’s plan.  He makes his appeal based on the fact that God is eternally all-knowing and just.  He cannot understand why/how God could use a sinful people like Babylon to judge a sinful Judah.
  • The prophet asks God for an answer and commits to be ready to take it to the people when it comes (Verses 1-2).
  • God’s answer stretches from verse 2 through verse 20.
    • The beginning of the response in verses 2-5 emphasizes the pride of the Babylonians king(s).
    • God will not turn a blind eye to those who are puffed up with pride.  Babylon will have their day of judgment as well.  And the righteous shall live by faith.

Questions to consider:

  1. How can our understanding of the providence and sovereignty of God expand after reading a passage like this?  Can God use people who are not submitted to Him to bring about His ends?  Can God judge people who go about sinning while they are accomplishing God’s greater purpose?  Could any person keep all of that straight in their mind?
  2. What is the main contrast in verse 4?  What does the Babylonian king live by (Who was he counting on)?  What does the righteous live by (Whom do the righteous count on)?
  3. How does the use of Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17 shed light on the meaning of both passages?  If a person is puffed up by his ability to earn his own righteousness, what is he failing to understand?  Whom do we count on for our righteousness?

Devotional: Habakkuk 1:1-11

Today’s passage: Habakkuk 1:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

  • This book was written by the prophet Habakkuk, most likely no later than 640-609 B.C.
    • In the book, the prophet laments the decline of Judah’s commitment to the Lord and God’s responses.  It is more of a “conversation” between the Lord and Habakkuk than a “Thus says the Lord” kind of prophecy.
  • The sad things asked about in verses 2-4 are not about any other nation.  This was the condition of Judah.
  • God’s answer to Judah’s sin is to raise up Babylon against them.  Babylon is not more righteous than Judah, and Habakkuk will protest, asking about the justice of this decision in the next passage.

Questions to consider:

  1. How is Babylon described in verses 5-11.  Why would it seem to make sense for Habakkuk to dislike the idea of Babylon being used by God to judge Judah?
  2. Who was the god of the Babylonians according to verse 11?  Even though the Babylonians had false gods they worshiped, what is God acknowledging about the people?  Whom were they truly trusting in?  What would we expect God to do if man trusts in himself? (Would Babylon last forever? – Daniel 5:13-31)
  3. What do you think Habakkuk would have wanted God to say in response to His lament?  When we do wrong, why do we struggle with not being able to choose the consequences?  How can this struggle even relate to the necessity of believing in Christ’s sacrificial/substitutionary death on the cross?

Devotional: Nahum 3

Today’s passage: Nahum 3

Helpful thoughts:

  • The coming fall of Nineveh was portrayed poetically, as if from an eyewitness.
  • The sins of Nineveh were compared to that of a prostitute who caused many (“Nations”) to fall.  The “prostitute” would suffer her own humiliation (Which it should be counted, as humiliation, whenever anyone commits adultery) as the enemies come and expose the weakness of Nineveh in it’s destruction.  This is figurative language, the exposer will be exposed.  The humiliator will be humiliated.
  • No matter what Nineveh might have tried to do to strengthen it’s defenses, they were going to be defeated.  God’s will would not be thwarted.

Questions to consider:

  1. Why wouldn’t anyone grieve for Nineveh (Verse 7)?  How had Nineveh treated the other nations in such a way that everyone else would celebrated her demise?  What does selfishness and using others for personal gain result in?
  2. How did Christ do the opposite?  What did the humiliation and crucifixion of Christ result in?
  3. How does the sacrificial love of Christ inform and equip us to live sacrificially loving lives?

Devotional: Nahum 2

Today’s passage: Nahum 2

Helpful thoughts:

  • The defeat and destruction of Nineveh is depicted in chapter 2.
  • God reminds the people of Assyria, no matter who the nation is who brings about this destruction (The Medes and Babylonians), they were to know that it happened according to His sovereign will.
    • And in the end, the fall of Assyria would eventually lead to the restoration of Israel (Verse 2).
  • The Khoser river ran through the city of Nineveh.  It is thought that the enemy armies could have closed up the dam which controlled the flow of water into the city prior to their invasion.  This would have cut off the cities water supply.  But after the water had built up over time, if the dam was opened up or destroyed, the water would have raced toward the city and done a great deal of damage.  This is depicted in verses 6 and 8, and possibly as a metaphor in verse 7 as well.
  • The imagery of lions refers to the kings.  The “young lions” would then be the princes (Those next in line to the throne).

Questions to consider:

  1. How might the last phrase in verse 13 have sounded in the ears of the Assyrians and the Jews after what had occurred years prior in 2 King 18:28-35?
  2. When the world (People, governments, etc.) thinks they are stronger than the Lord, are they?  When it looks like they are “winning,” are they?  Who can defeat the LORD of hosts?
  3. To what day is all history moving toward?  What will be true of all who have put their faith and trust in the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ, when he comes to rule and reign?

Devotional: Nahum 1

Today’s passage: Nahum 1

Helpful thoughts:

  • Nahum was given the job that Jonah had wished for, to prophecy against Nineveh.  This prophetic book was likely written in the mid-600’s B.C.  This was over one hundred years after the events of the book of Jonah took place.
    • By the time of Nahum’s writing, the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrian Empire.  Nineveh was their capitol.
  • The Lord is over all the world.  The gods of the Assyrian people (Carved and metal images) could never stand against Him!
  • Those who are safe are those who take refuge in Him (Verse 7).

Questions to consider:

  1. Where have you read the words in verse 3 before (Exodus 34:6-7)?  How does God forgive sin and also by no means clear the guilty?  How does this point us to Christ (Romans 3:21-26)?
  2. When others plot against God’s people, who are they really plotting against? (Verse 9, and also Acts 9:1-4)
  3. The content of this prophecy had not yet been fulfilled, and yet Nahum encourages the people to live as though it was as good as done (Verse 15).  How can this encourage our faith?  What has God declared that He will not do?