Introduction: My introduction for the very first episode of my devotionals more than 5 years ago read, ‘According to the English proverb a rider can take a horse to water, but cannot make it drink. According to the Ethiopian proverb a horse can take a soldier to war but cannot make him fight. Thinking of myself, I sometimes see myself as the horse, sometimes as the rider, sometimes as the soldier. At any rate my purpose is to help us to think. When I read this chapter this morning it seemed just a ‘hotch-potch’ of almost unrelated ideas. I eventually saw real meaning in it by considering it as a series of chapters giving a brief summary of the contents of each ‘chapter’ rather than a simple title.
Chapter 1 – God will deal with the enemies of Israel including Satan! –1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Chapter 2 – What a day that will be! 2 In that day,
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3 I, the LORD, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
Chapter 3 – If people want to fight with me! 4 I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
5 Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”
Chapter 4 – Jacob as a tribe flourishes! 6 In days to come Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
and fill the whole world with fruit.
Chapter 5 – What did God do? 7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?
Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them;
he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
Chapter 5 – The fruit of repentance. 9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
Chapter 6 – What has to be rebuilt. 10 For the fortified city is solitary,
a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
there the calf grazes;
there it lies down and strips its branches.
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
women come and make a fire of them.
Chapter 7 – Ignorance is no excuse! For this is a people without discernment;
therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
he who formed them will show them no favour.
Chapter 8 – God’s ultimate plan. 12 In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Proverbs 16: 5&6 – Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished. By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.
Prayer: When I wrestle with understanding Your word, please help me to learn Your intended lessons well.
As I read it! 