From Job 8: The Previous Generation

“For ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their ancestors discovered, since we were born only yesterday and know nothing.” (vv. 8-9)

Pretty much everybody knows that I am a nostalgic guy.

I like the stuff of yesteryear. And, though my yesteryear may not be as far back as yours, it all remains endlessly interesting to me. There is a charm and a simplicity and a purity that seems to speak from days gone by—and, generally, it speaks peace.

In our modern culture, we have become a people obsessed with new and next, with something like progress. But are we actually any wiser, any purer, or any more secure because of it? I think we could learn from the words of Job’s friend when he says, “Ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered”—because what they discovered was a real reliance upon the God of the Bible. Not everything back there is good, but there remains a ground in history that we have largely given away.

Maybe the stuff of yesteryear—their faith, their morality, their patterned worship—is worth bringing back.

— Tyler

From Job 6: The Immense Weight of Going Through It

“If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation placed with it on the scales. For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas!” (vv. 2-3)

Don’t underestimate it.

When you are in pain—when you have experienced illness and exhaustion and loss—the weight of it is real. It can bury you, emotionally. You start to do the math on all the things on your shoulders and in your heart and on your mind and in your flesh…and you are forced to conclude that it is immense.

Job and his friends will have trouble seeing this the same way. And, honestly, those around you might not really get it, either. You, then, need to remember two things:

If people don’t get what you’re going through, show them grace.

And, if what you’re going through reminds you of your utter powerlessness, let it drive you into the presence of the One who saves.

— Tyler

From Micah 5: Who are You Waiting For?

“Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” (v. 2)

I don’t know how many saviors you have looked for.

I don’t know all the would-be fix-all heroes you have tried to elect. I don’t know which gurus and talking heads you have trusted. I don’t know who it is you thought might heal your hurts and right your wrongs and renew your hopes.

I don’t know who you’re waiting for.

But One has come. One has been given. The One who was promised—not as a prominent prince with a platform from someplace, but as a Shepherd—has already arrived.

Whoever you’ve been waiting, and whatever you’ve trusted, look to Him instead…

…and live.

— Tyler

From Job 3: Pain, and the Path

“Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” (v. 3)

We’re not really surprised that Job’s pain causes him to question the goodness of life. We hurt, too, so we wonder right along with him:

Why do we live if living leaves us wounded?

Of course, we ought to run to our God with a confession of His goodness, and we ought to trust Him. His ways are higher than ours. Even through our not-good things, He is working out good. We are valuable to Him, loved by Him, and never once abandoned by him.

It will take Job, like, thirty-five chapters to even start to figure that out.

Want to know why?

It’s because, in our pain, it is hard to see the path. We feel boxed in. Our world gets smaller, and our faith narrows. We go to God with that classic prayer—Why me?—forgetting that there is more than your moment in the picture.

Be reassured: Feeling that way is not unbiblical. But staying there is.

— Tyler

From Job 1: Accounting

“There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.” (v. 1)

It’s one of the oldest and most famous records we have.

The ancient biography of Job, a man tried, whose life of faithfulness faced the challenge of Satan head on.

It remains a compelling narrative—and a helpful comparative.

And it starts with a remarkable accounting: Job has a full complement of children, huge flocks, and vast wealth. He, we are told, was the greatest man of his generation. (It makes everything that happens next so striking.)

But look at what is said first:

Before we are given an account of Job’s wealth, we are given an account of his integrity. The blessings follow his faith. Job’s life of worship and moral purity are the actual headline. Those things bear fruit, by grace, but the fruit isn’t the point.

We can learn more than one thing from Job, it seems.

— Tyler

From Isaiah 53: Healed

“But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.” (v. 5)

No need for a pithy, detail-oriented reflection here. No additional commentary or point to ponder. No “think of it this way.”

Just the one truth, which is the Gospel.

By His wounds we are healed.

The Lord Jesus Christ paid our sin’s penalty on the cross. He was pierced because of us, for us. He carried our burden and our guilt and our death away.

And, by His grace and because of His mercy, He healed us—whole and holy.

Meditate on Isaiah 53 today.

— Tyler

From Isaiah 52: “Don’t touch anything!”

“Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean; go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.” (v. 11)

Here’s something for the redeemed—those who are in the world but not of the world—to remember:

When God made the way for you, in Christ, to be called out of the death and darkness and sin-slavery you once knew…He didn’t immediately transport you out of this life and into the next. He called you to worship here, in this broken place, until He comes again at the end. Like Israel, you have been freed from captivity, though your world is still a sin-cursed mess.

And, like Israel, He has urged you on your way:

Don’t touch anything! Don’t pick up their idols, don’t grasp at their treasure, and don’t add their stuff to your worship lives!

You and I are called to walk out of, yet still in, a wayward place. Keep your hands and your heads and your hearts clean, then, so that we can worship our Redeemer rightly.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 29: Running Wild

“Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.” (v. 18)

Maybe you’ve tried every other thing.

You’ve tried politics. You’ve tried self-help. You’ve tried essential oils and organic vegetables. You’ve even tried reimagined identities.

You’ve been out here, running wild.

Would you like to know where real happiness is, where home is?

It’s not in all the other things you’ve tried in all the other places.

It’s here, in God’s Word, which is light for your path.

When you are rooted in truth—when you know why things are and where things are going, when you see it all through the lens of Christ the Victor—you are also rooted in peace. When you discover (and keep rediscovering) the way to every good outcome—and when you walk it, in obedience—you also discover happiness.

Chasing after the other stuff will leave you tired, broke, and in the dark. Running wild. But the revelation of God? It leads you rightly.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 27: Refined

“As a crucible refines silver, and a smelter refines gold, so a person should refine his praise.” (v. 21)

Let’s presume you’ve been believing for awhile now. Let’s presume you have been called, by grace, out of sin’s darkness and into the light of Christ. Let’s presume you are a worshiper.

Can I ask you a question?

How much effort are you putting into your praise?

The picture in Proverbs 27:21 is hugely helpful. It says (I’ll paraphrase) that, in the same way a smith would refine precious metals, a worshiper should refine his or her praise.

That means vigilantly looking for impurities—and burning them out.

That means turning the temperature up.

That means making it better.

If Sunday becomes a rut or a routine or an afterthought—and if daily devotion becomes an occasional practice—you’ll end up looking like gold and dirt, silver and other stuff. Refine your praise, then, and seek a purer worship.

— Tyler

From Isaiah 6: “And then…?”

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: ‘Who will I send? Who will go for us?’ I said: ‘Here I am. Send me.’” (v. 8)

Isaiah 6 features one of the most stirring moments in all of Scripture.

The prophet, by sheer grace, is welcomed into the Lord’s presence. He gets to glimpse God in His heaven! And it’s an overwhelming experience: angelic beings, thunderous praise, utter holiness.

Isaiah’s response seems pretty sensible:

I’m done for! I, in my sin, can’t be here! Even the fact that I live close to other sinners disqualifies me! Woe is me!

Yet—still more grace—God sends someone to the man to atone for his sin. (Tell me you’re seeing the Gospel in this!)

All of that right there is enough—good and clarifying and worth talking about.

And then….

When Isaiah is welcomed—redeemed, restored—the next step is revealed: There is a world full of people, further removed from God’s presence where Isaiah now stands, and they need to hear. Yes, the message is a warning, but it’s a worthy warning.

So God asks, “Who will go?”

And Isaiah says, “I will.”

May this be an illuminating passage for your own life. You, who have been redeemed by the grace of Holy God, now stand at the “and then” crossroads.

When He calls—for Gospel goers, for messengers, for truth-givers—will you answer?

— Tyler

From Joel 3: Contradictions

“Beat your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.’” (v. 10)

Read that again.

Because that is not what you heard in Sunday School.

You were probably taught a very similar verse, from Isaiah: “They will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isa. 2:4).

But Joel 3:10 says the exact opposite thing.

Sure looks like a contradiction in the Bible, doesn’t it?

And yet….

When Isaiah prophesied, the word he was given in the Spirit pointed to the eventual settled peace, which comes in Christ. He is the One who affords an everlasting unity, even among peoples from all the nations, and He does so with grace for all who would turn to Him.

But Joel’s day is not that day. It’s related, close. But Joel is given a word about a day that comes before the settled end. Joel tells of a time when judgment comes and must come, a time when the people of God should expect conflict, and a time when they will have to stand with their Christ and for their Christ amidst the raging of the nations.

Have you thought about the fact that you will need to arm yourself—with truth, with conviction, with the Word—for the day before the Day?

This isn’t a contradiction. It’s just another point on the timeline—and one we ought not overlook.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 24: The Ethic

“Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we didn’t know about this,’ won’t he who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t he who protects your life know? Won’t he repay a person according to his work?” (v. 10-12)

This is it.

This is the ethic that utterly rejects both willful ignorance and willing apathy.

You and I have been placed in “a difficult time,” by grace. Will we do nothing in the face of pain, poverty, and injustice? Will we do nothing in an age of deceit? Will we do nothing, though our neighbors and the nations are lost—and stumbling toward death?

No.

This is our ethic, fully illuminated by the Gospel, and it compels us to do something. Give for them. Go to them. Get in their lives and into their paths to that they might know grace, and the better way.

The One who made them loves them. And He watches as we, His people, do (or don’t) for their sakes.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 22: Will Not Depart

“Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (v. 6)

This is, perhaps, the most frequently cited parental proverb.

What we miss, however, is that there are really two trajectories to “the way.”

You can—and I pray you will—start your kids on a path of worship, of prayer, of togetherness as family and in community. You can start them on a path of responsibility, morality, and integrity. And, if you do (while keeping such a path yourself), they will grow to walk differently in the world.

But if you start them with indulgence, with coddling, and with fear—or if you start them with optional religious participation and no evidence of faithful living—they’ll walk that way, too.

It’s not a matter of which way you might prefer. It’s a matter of which way you will live and lead yourself. You start them on the way—either way—when you walk with them in their earliest years.

So…start them on the better trajectory.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 21: The Big “Why” for Proverbs

“No wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel will prevail against the Lord.” (v. 30)

The Book of Proverbs is rich.

It teems with verses of practical value. It teaches us, in tidy phrases, how to live in the light of God’s revelation. It tells us the truth.

It’s a little bit like drinking from a firehose, though. Every time I turn here, I feel like there’s never enough time to really reflect on each insight.

So why do I keep coming back?

Because of this: “No wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel will prevail against the Lord” (Prov. 21:30).

There is nothing else nowhere else that can teach, equip, or help me like the Word of God. The big “why” for the Book is its unfailing revelation of an indomitable wisdom.

So keep turning here, and keep drinking it in—because every other wisdom falls impossibly short.

— Tyler

From Hosea 1-2: The Adulteress

“Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” (v. 14)

In one the Bible’s most striking prophetic pictures, Hosea illustrates God’s love for His people…

…in the face of our adultery.

It’s probably pretty familiar to us, spiritually speaking: We, though we are made by and made for God, have given our hearts to so many lesser things. We have spent our love and our lives on the stuff of earth. We have worshiped the worldly. We have neglected His sovereign and good faithfulness, and have returned unfaithfulness to Him.

We are the adulteress Hosea reveals.

And, in the text, it is made plain: We reap what we sow. The good things God provided evaporate. Security vanishes. The peace that comes with mutual, convenanted love vanishes. It’s a right and righteous judgment for a people who turn their backs to God.

But! Hosea is given the Good News! God, because of His fierce love, will still speak to His wandering beloved. And He will welcome us home, if only we would turn in repentance. Our return to faithfulness is a homecoming afforded by His grace.

We, the adulteress, have a lot to learn in Hosea—and it’s a gracious lesson.

— Tyler

From Proverbs 19: The Loan

“Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and he will give a reward to the lender.” (v. 17)

Two things I’ve noticed about church people:

We are generous. There’s a lot of giving going on, whether through tithes or offerings or special emphases. Church people are generous.

And we are calculating. We weigh the worthiness of ones we might give to. We aim for good stewardship—good management—so we think before we give. Specifically, we think about whether a gift will have its intended effect, whether the recipient will use it rightly, and whether we’d be better off giving somewhere else to someone else. We are calculating.

Have you ever thought about the fact that none of what happens after you give is really your concern?

Your life of giving comes down to just one relationship: you, and the Lord. You are called to give because of Him, who has given you everything. The final tabulation isn’t about what they will do with it. He is the One working in their lives. You and I are merely called to operate with the confidence that God makes good on all our investments in His name.

So “loan” what is in your hands to Him, through them. And trust that He will repay as He sees fit.

— Tyler

From Jonah 4: Is it right?

“The Lord asked, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’” (v. 4)

Let’s take this one out of context, shall we?

(Because my every confidence is that you, unlike Jonah, would not in fact be angry about the remarkable grace God affords to even the worst sinner, when he or she repents in faith.)

I think this question is valid.

Every time we plant our flags in politics.

Every time we wander into the comments section.

Every time we shout at the news.

Every time we see snoop on someone’s blessings on social.

Every time we let a bad five minutes turn into an entire day of calloused unforgiveness.

Every time responsibility forces is back from recreation.

Every time God has been good to some other (and only given to you what you already have).

Every time you are angry.

God’s question for Jonah could very well be His question for us: “Is it right for you to be angry?” Or would what is actually right look more like gratitude for what He has given you, worship because of His great grace, and submission to His utter authority?

Try to hear His voice for Jonah for you.

— Tyler

From Jonah 3: Second Chances

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time….” (v. 1)

I don’t know about you…

…but I’ve messed some stuff up in my life.

In my rebellion, I have missed opportunities, squandered callings, and ignored responsibilities. God has for my obedience. He’s even equipped me for His purposes. And I’ve run away.

What would life be like without His grace? Without His second chances?

Jonah, by grace, gets to go again. The man learned—or at least, has begun to learn—a hard lesson about obedience. And God sends him a second time—a second chance.

I believe He still graciously gives us these second chances, too.

Will you respond with obedience this go ‘round?

— Tyler

From Jonah 2: The Cry

“I called to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice.” (v. 2)

It doesn’t matter how far you run.

It doesn’t matter how deep you sink.

It doesn’t matter how low you’ve laid yourself.

From whatever depth at whatever distance…

…God hears your cry.

Jonah, in the middle of the rebellious mess he’d made, prayed. He cried out, knowing that all he had left was the pure grace of God. He was reaping what he had sown in disobedience. Yet he also knew—because he was sitting in the middle of a miracle!—that God could still raise him to life, and to a second chance.

So it is for you and for me. We can pray this prayer, too, and we can remain confident in God’s faithful love.

If you find yourself in the depths—even depths of your own making—cry out to Him. He hears and answers.

— Tyler

From Jonah 1: Good News

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.’” (vv. 1-2)

The Book of Jonah gets a lot of attention for a lot of reasons.

Here we find a rebellious prophet. Some bizarre, God-ordained occurrences. One surprisingly capacious fish.

It’s an odd bit of history.

But don’t let all of that obscure the book’s scandalous point:

God sends His Word to wayward people.

This ought to matter to us—we, who have been every kind of sinful, who have walked every wayward way. The evil of Jonah’s Ninevites could only be matched by the deep-seated wickedness in our own hearts. Yet, by grace, God’s good news goes to sinners, by His Word!

So, yes, enjoy the bizarre account of one rebellious prophet—but be grateful for the Gospel, as it has come to your rebellious heart.

— Tyler