Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?  Panic?  Call for help?  Give up?  Hide?  Pretend you know what to do?  Just plow ahead anyway?  For many of us, it’s hard to admit it when we don’t know what to do.  On top of that, we often respond to that which we don’t know with the same management strategies that we’ve relied on in other situations.  What would you do if a great army was coming against your nation? The kingdom of Judah faced such a situation.  They didn’t do any of those things described above.  In fact, their response is very much worth our consideration:  “O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”  (2 Chr 20:12)  You might wonder, what good does it do to simply have our eyes on God? Where our eyes go to or turn to is very important.  The psalmist wrote...

In my last post, I wrote that I was quite intrigued by Isaiah 30:18, specifically one particular phrase:  “he exalts himself to show mercy to you.”  (ESV) I read another verse in Isaiah that is also so very intriguing:  “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isa 43:25) The big question that comes to mind is that why would He blot out my transgressions for His sake?  I would have thought that He does that for my sake! So, I turned to other versions of the Bible to see if they could shed some light: “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.  (NASB) “I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake; your sins I do not remember.”  (NET) ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”  (KJV) “But I, yes I, am the one who takes car...

I recently read a very interesting verse in the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.  While I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, I am very intrigued by it.  The verse is:  “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you .  For the Lord is a God of justice;   blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isa 30:18 – emphasis mine)   If God exalts himself to show mercy, what could that possibly mean?   I looked at some other versions of the Bible in an effort to answer that question:   “He waits on high to have compassion on you” (NASB)   “therefore he will rise up to show you compassion”  (NIV)   “he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you”  (NET)   Comparing versions didn’t really seem to help so I looked at some online dictionary definitions of the word exalt.  Exalt is to:   1.  Raise in rank, power, or character; ...

After reading in the Psalms recently, I was struck by the concept of worth, well, actually worthlessness.   For example, in Psalm 101 we find this:   “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless (v.3).”   And, in Psalm 119:   “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways (v. 37).” In order to consider what is worthless, we should consider what has worth.  To that, the Bible speaks clearly:  “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12)   If worth is measured by power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory and blessing, which are all pretty good measurements, then the One who has infinite worth is Jesus, the Lamb that was slain.  And if we want to consider what it worthless, it is probably the opposite of all those things.  But perhaps it would still be good to define some words: Worth :   the value of som...

In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the things I’ve enjoyed over the years are no longer available to me or they have been severely curtailed.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes it just makes me feel empty.  Feelings of emptiness are not necessarily indicative of actually being empty.  Thus it’s hard sometimes to figure out what is really going on.  In First Samuel 12:21 we find some help in defining what is empty:  “ You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty.”   Maybe it’s not a complete definition but it sure sheds some light.  Empty things just can’t profit or deliver – simple yet profound!   Here’s another thing that’s simple, profound and flat out a reality for us - emptiness was handed down to us.  It came in the form of an “empty way of life”.  This empty way of life cannot profit or deliver.  In fact, it is so empty that we can’t ...

The account is both amazing and more than a bit disconcerting… During the battle, someone drew his bow and shot his arrow at random and hit the king between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”   But before this random act, the story had more intrigue… The king said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king disguised himself and went into battle. But before the king decided to disguise himself, the story had even more intrigue… Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”   This prophet, Micaiah, was used by God to foretell the king’s death.   In a fruitless effort to circumvent a possible demise in battle, the king decided to go into battle disguised.   It was common at ...

Where do we go for help in these very difficult days? In dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we tend to look to our leaders for solutions and we want to trust that they are receiving and paying attention to good advice from the medical and scientific communities. In dealing with the protests rocking our world, we tend to look to our leaders for solutions and we want to trust that they are sorting through all the issues and are working for the best interests of all who are involved. But are these trusts well placed?   Well… In the book of Isaiah, we find this description about leaders:   “your princes are rebels and companions of thieves.   Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.   They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.”   (Isa 1:23) And in the book of Ecclesiastes we find this:   “ If you see the extortion of the poor, or the perversion of justice and fairness in the government, d...