Even if you’ve not read the Bible, you have likely heard about Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities God destroyed for their extreme wickedness.
The account of this is found in Genesis, chapters 18 and 19. In this text, the sexual depravity of the men of Sodom is portrayed.
Despite that, it does not explicitly say that their sexual predilections were the reason for the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even so, most readers make that assumption.
However, the prophet Ezekiel does explain the reason that the people of Sodom were punished so severely. It’s not what you think. Are you ready for the real reason? Sodom was destroyed because they “they did not help the poor and needy.”
That puts the idea of “wickedness” in a completely different perspective—God’s.
While sexual sin is a temptation we must avoid, it may be even more important that we don’t turn our back on the poor and needy.
Many verses in both the Old and New Testaments command us to assist the poor and those in need. But it’s easy to breeze past those verses and focus on others.
Yet God’s heart is that we help those in need. Consider what we may do to assist them and in doing so, obey God’s commands in the process.
Though Jesus said there will always be poor people, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to help them (Mark 14:7). We do. The Bible says so.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
In the post about the effects of priority we saw that wrong priorities produces wrong outcomes, whereas right priorities results in God’s blessings. It is, however, worth it to consider the timing of these two events.
The prophecy is given on the first day of the sixth month. The people respond to it about three weeks later, on the 24th day of the sixth month, by starting to rebuild God’s house.
Some might say that a delayed response is disobedience. However, a delayed response is better than no response.
Then three months after reconstruction starts, on the 24th day of the ninth month, God promises to bless the people because of their obedience. Note that there is a three-month delay.
The people did not receive an immediate blessing. Instead they received a delayed one.
It might be that God wanted to make sure they would follow through and take his work seriously. Or perhaps he was testing them. Would they continue to serve him and make him a priority even if he didn’t bless them?
What if they got discouraged and gave up after a week or a month? What if they stopped obeying him on the 23rd day of the ninth month? If so they might have missed his blessing by one day.
I wonder if sometimes we give up too soon in obeying God. Do we do the right thing for a while, but not seeing any change, we revert to our old ways? If so, we may miss God’s blessings.
An important point, however, is that receiving God’s blessings is a bonus for doing what he says, not a given. Our motivation to obey God shouldn’t be to earn a reward.
Instead our obedience should be an act of love and worship. May we never lose sight of that.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
In the short book of Haggai, the central theme is that God’s house (the temple) needs to be rebuilt. It lay in ruins. But the people have not done so because they are focused on their own houses and comfort.
As far as God is concerned, their priorities are wrong. They’re putting themselves first and not concerned about him.
Three times God points this out, asking them to consider the quality of their lives. Things aren’t going well for them.
Their efforts fail to produce the results they want, their plans don’t work out the way they expect, and they lack what they need.
After Haggai delivers God’s message to the leaders and the people, their response is to rebuild the temple. Then God promises to bless them.
When their priorities were wrong, things went wrong. When their priorities became right, God’s blessings resulted.
Although the conclusion isn’t absolute, it’s worth considering that when things are going wrong, it might be because our priorities are misaligned with God’s will for our lives and his desire for how we act.
Instead of blaming God when our lives are dissappointing, we might do better to blame ourselves, and then work to fix our priorities. It starts by putting God first.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
A quick read of the beginning of the book of Zephaniah sounds a lot like Noah and the flood:
“I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.
The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord (Zephaniah 1:2-3).
Aside from the minor issue that fish won’t likely be destroyed by a flood, the main problem is that this passage foretells a future event, but Noah and flood happened centuries before.
This means that Zephaniah isn’t talking about Noah and the great flood, but another judgement, a future sweeping away of everything.
The flood in Noah’s time was God’s judgment over rampant evil in the world. The righteous were saved, the wicked die.
According to Zephaniah there will be another time of judgment. Though his description sounds like a flood, he doesn’t mention a deluge.
Jesus talks about this judgement too (Luke 17:20-27). Although God promises he will never again destroy the world with a flood (Genesis 9:11), he doesn’t preclude using other means. This is what Zephaniah foresees.
We don’t know when this will occur, but there is no need to worry for those who follow Jesus.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
The short Old Testament book of Zephaniah opens with an apocalyptic prophecy. Amid the forth telling of doom and gloom is the reminder that “neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them.”
The Message Bible, puts it more directly: “Don’t plan on buying your way out. Your money is worthless for this.” Do we put our trust in our money today? Do we view money as the solution?
What do we really depend on to save us from disaster? For most people, there is the real answer and the right answer—and they’re not always the same.
When things go bad, really bad, the end-of-time-bad, money’s not the solution, neither are things, nor power, nor influence, not even family and friends. Zephaniah knows this. So do we.
We inherently know that ultimately only a higher power can save us, only God is the answer for life’s final question.
We know that, but do we actually believe it? Do we actually live it?
Do we trust God with our future or place our hope in money—or ourselves. Jesus confirms that we can’t serve them both.
There are eternal consequences at stake. Don’t make the wrong choice.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Another familiar character in the book of Judges is Gideon. There are three whole chapters devoted to him. He is a fearful man who is at first cautious of God’s call. But eventually he does fully obey what God says to do.
There are three initial things that God tells him, through his angel messenger:
“The Lord is with you mighty warrior!” Gideon’s response is to change the subject.
“Go in the strength that you have and save Israel.” To this, Gideon in effect says, “How? I am nobody!”
“I will be with you.” At this point, Gideon asks for proof that the words are really from God. And when Gideon doubts the first confirmation that God provides, the doubting man asks for a second one.
We can learn two key lessons from this exchange.
God’s Perspective is the Right Perspective
First, God may see us differently then we see ourselves, and it’s unwise to question God’s perspective. He knows all things. We don’t.
We Must Do What We Can and Trust God with the Rest
The second insight is that we need to move forward to the extent that our abilities allow. That is, we must do our part and not expect God to do something for us that we can do ourselves.
Then God will be with us. He will make up for what we lack.
This is an important balance to maintain. One error is to not do anything, even what we can do, because of the enormity of the task, while the other extreme is to try to do it all ourselves without God’s help.
Be Like Gideon
Instead, we need to do what we can and trust God to do the rest—just like Gideon.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Resurrections Occur in Both the Old and New Testaments
In the Bible, dead people return to life. This happens on ten occasions, with three resurrections occurring in the Old Testament and seven times in the New.
Check out these stories of people supernaturally raised from the dead.
1. Son of a Widow in Zarephath
The first person the Bible records as raised from the dead is the son of a widow in Zarephath. Her boy gets sick, his illness gets worse, and he dies. The woman lashes out at Elijah, blaming him and God.
Elijah shoves aside her hurtful words. He goes to where the boy’s body lays, and he cries out to God. Three times he stretches himself over the dead body and asks God to return the child’s life.
God does, and the boy’s mother affirms Elijah (1 King 17:17-24).
2. Shunammite Woman’s Son
Elijah’s successor, Elisha, also raises a boy from the dead. The boy labors in the field with his father and gets a headache. The pain intensifies, and at noon the boy dies.
His mother, a Shunammite woman, searches for Elisha and tells him what happened.
He sends his servant Gehazi to go to lay Elisha’s staff on the boy to bring him back to life. Gehazi tries but is unsuccessful. When Elisha arrives, he prays to God and lays on top of the boy.
The boy’s dead body begins to warm. Elisha paces the room a bit and tries again.
The boy sneezes seven times, and his eyes open. He’s alive (2 Kings 4:18–37).
3. An Unnamed Man
In one of the more bizarre resurrections, a dead man’s body is hastily thrown into Elisha’s tomb. When the dead body touches Elisha’s bones, it comes to life and stands up, very much alive (2 Kings 13:20–21).
These are the three resurrections that occur in the Old Testament, one from Elijah and two from Elisha, albeit the second one after Elisha’s death.
Interestingly, when Elisha gets ready to succeed Elijah, Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
God grants it, and we see it come to pass, with Elijah raising one person to life and Elisha resurrecting two (2 Kings 2:9–12).
4. Son of a Widow from Nain
In the New Testament, Jesus goes to the town of Nain. He sees a funeral possession and stops it. He tells the grieving mother, who is also a widow, to not cry.
He commands the dead boy’s body to get up. The corpse sits up and talks (Luke 7:11–17).
5. Jairus’s Daughter
Another time, a synagogue leader, Jairus, begs Jesus to come to his house to heal his sick girl. Jesus agrees but another hurting person delays him along the way.
Before he can get to Jairus’s house, the girl dies. Jesus tells Jairus to not worry and believe.
When Jesus arrives, he proclaims to the mourners gathered that she isn’t dead but merely sleeping. They mock him, knowing that she’s dead. Jesus takes her hand and tells her to get up.
Life flows back into her body and she stands (Luke 8:40–56).
6. Lazarus
Lazarus is sick. His sisters, Mary and Martha, send for Jesus to come heal their ailing brother. Jesus doesn’t leave right away, and Lazarus dies.
By the time Jesus shows up, Lazarus has been dead and buried for four days. After interacting with the two mourning sisters, Jesus goes to the tomb were Lazarus’s body lays.
Jesus tells them to unseal the tomb, but the people object. They worry about the stench from Lazarus’s decaying body. But eventually they roll away the stone, unblocking the entrance to the tomb.
Jesus commands Lazarus to come out. Lazarus does (John 11:1–44).
7. Many Holy People in Jerusalem
When Jesus dies, the curtain in the temple rips in half, the earth quakes, and tombs crack open. The bodies of many holy people buried in the cemetery come to life. They experience resurrection.
We don’t know their names or how many there are, but their reappearance would surely have astounded everyone (Matthew 27:50–53).
This mass resurrection symbolically shows Jesus’s victory over death, confirmed by many people rising from the dead. We see Jesus raising three specific people from the dead, along with many more who had lived holy lives.
8. Tabitha/Dorcas
In the early church, Peter also raises someone from the dead. Her name is Tabatha, also called Dorcas, and she lives in Joppa. When she dies the people in her hometown send for Peter.
When he arrives, he kneels and prays. Then he turns to the dead woman and tells her to get up. She opens her eyes, sees Peter, and sits up. Everyone is amazed (Acts 9:36–42).
9. Eutychus
Paul raises someone from the dead too, Eutychus. As Paul speaks to the people gathered, Eutychus, who sits in a window, falls asleep, and tumbles three stories to his death.
Paul rushes down and throws his arms around the young man. He proclaims him alive. Then they celebrate (Acts 20:7–12).
Jesus’s victory over death changes everything forever. By rising from the dead, he takes that power away from the devil and frees us from the grip of death (Hebrews 2:14–17).
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Time Is Different in the Spiritual Realm Than in the Physical
Though King David wrote many psalms, the book of Psalms also includes the work of others. One of these writers is Moses. Yes, Moses wrote a psalm, Psalm 90.
It may be the oldest of them all, the first Psalm ever written in the Bible. Also consider Moses’s song in Deuteronomy 32:1-43 and his blessing in Deuteronomy 33:2-29.
What Moses Says about Time
One of Moses’s themes is time. He tells us to number our days so that we might gain wisdom. He also says that people tend to live seventy years, perhaps eighty.
This is interesting since Moses lived 120. He lived forty years in Egypt, forty years in preparation, and forty years leading God’s people. I wonder how old he was when he wrote this Psalm.
However, Moses also writes that to God a thousand years flashes by like a day would seem to us. So it is with our God who is eternal, who lives forever.
Think about it. Time takes on a different meaning to someone who has a never-ending supply of it. But to us time places limits on our physical existence and on our future.
That’s probably why Moses wants us to count our days to remind us of our typical lifespan. We need to use that time wisely and make it count. We only have so much of it., so we don’t want to squander it.
This doesn’t mean to pack every moment with busy activity, but to use our time wisely, investing in pursuits that matter, on what will have the greatest impact.
Peter Writes about a Thousand Years
The disciple Peter has this passage in mind when he pens his second letter. He builds upon Moses’s thought and says that to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. This is a perplexing contrast.
It reminds us that God doesn’t reckon time as we do. In fact, God exists outside of time because he created time when he made space and the world we live in.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
To be self-sufficient is to not require outside aid, support, or interaction for survival. It is a primary intent of much of today’s Western culture. A internet search for “self-sufficient” produced 13.7 million matches.
Self-sufficiency is truly a big deal. And unfortunately it’s a prideful goal that produces a false sense of security.
Consider what the prophet Habakkuk said in referencing the Babylonians. He said that their “own strength is their god.”
Although we are far removed from the Babylonians in both time and culture, I suspect that our desire to be self-sufficient is not much different from this ancient empire’s self-reliance.
As we become more self-sufficient, we rely more and more on ourselves and less and less on others—including God. We begin to take pride in our own skills, abilities, and independence.
These become our strengths…and effectively, our god.
As for the Babylonians, their “god” of strength was insufficient to save them. Habakkuk later prophesizes Babylonia’s destruction, which history confirms.
Learn more about all twelve of the Bible’s Minor Prophets in Peter’s book, Return to Me: 40 Prophetic Teachings about Unfaithfulness, Punishment, and Hope from the Minor Prophets
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
