Haggai 2

The restoration of a small group from the people of Israel and Judah out of the land of captivity in the days of Zerubbabel was a wonderful gift, but could it really be the fullness of the kingdom that Isaiah spoke of at the end of his book of prophecy? It is not even yet the New Covenant of which Jeremiah spoke. It certainly cannot be the marvelous temple with a stream of living water flowing from it that we learn about at the end of Ezekiel. It is always challenging for those who are trying to follow the Lord's will in their day to see the small blessings around them and to keep these in perspective. It was a marvelous new time of life for God's people to have this opportunity to rebuild the temple building in Jerusalem, but surely this was not yet the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord had spoken of. It would not even match the glory of Solomon's day. When would the age of the lion lying down with the Lamb come?

The temple was the place of God's presence with His people since the days of Solomon. Prior to that, the Israelites had a tent called the tabernacle that the Lord had instructed them to build and to move according to His command. Toward the close of Christ's earthly days as He was preparing to go to the cross, He spoke to His disciples about the coming destruction of the building temple in Jerusalem and the building of a temple of people in the gospel age. Through the preaching of Christ, His cross-death, His resurrection from the dead, and His promise of a general resurrection age at His return, this temple is being gathered now. God is dwelling in His temple still today, but it is no longer a building temple where He dwells. Christ Himself came as the temple of the Holy Spirit. All who are united with Him have a communion in this Temple. The Lord is with us. But there is something still more glorious that is coming. We are yet mortal. When Christ returns there will be a great resurrection to immortality. It is then that we will experience the fullness of the glory that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others wrote about. This is our hope. We have this hope in Christ. He is the glorious Temple of God. When Haggai writes about the treasures of the nations and the glory of the temple, these promises find their final fulfillment at the return of Christ and the resurrection age. Any sense of fulfillment that we have now in the gospel age, while very real, is still quite small compared with what will be. Then God will grant to us perfect peace, not just a personal internal sense of composure, but also an external environment completely without the warfare that characterizes this age.

The temple has always been about the presence of God with His people. In every era we are to work on the building up of the temple of the Lord with the fullness of His presence in and among us. The Lord has made big promises to us. We are to seek Him that He might fulfill them in some way through our lives. He is with us now, and we should love to see Him do whatever He wishes to do in our day, however large or small, as long as He is still with us, and His Spirit is in our midst. We need not fear the attacks of others. There is no point in being depressed about this era of the church as opposed to some earlier day of blessing. It should be enough for us that the Lord God Almighty is with us, and that He bids us to build up His temple.

In the final age that is coming, nothing in the living temple of the Lord will be unclean. In the Old Covenant era, the people were to live with a constant consideration of the difference between that which was ceremonially unclean and that which was clean. When someone was clean, they became unclean through contact with someone or something that was unclean. When Christ the Messiah came, He touched the unclean and made them clean. This is the power of the presence of God. What matters to the church now is the new creation that begins in us in this age, and that finds perfect fulfillment in the life to come when God says, "Behold, I make all things new." In our sin, we are defiled, just as the people of the restoration had sin and were defiled. But Christ, our sinless Substitute, makes all things new. We have been touched by Him, washed by the blood of the Lamb, and we are being prepared for the life of the fullness of His presence as we seek Him eagerly now and work according to His kingdom designs.

The Lord is able to bless us now in this work, and we should not think that He will bless us now if we ignore Him and His people or if we are not diligent to seek His presence. Before the people of the restoration heard the call of God through Haggai things were not going well for them. After they heard the call for the building of His temple, things did go well for them. This is presented to us as a plain fact. There is no reason for us to resist the application of this to our day. We are not seeking worldly prosperity, but we do need godliness with contentment. We certainly are hoping for fruitfulness in our labor in the Lord, and there is an abiding principle in our relationship with God that we will reap what we sow. There is no virtue that comes to us by ignoring our need for God's presence or resisting His commandment to build His temple.

The central figure in the building of the eternal resurrection temple is Jesus Christ Himself, the descendant of the Davidic leader Zerubbabel who received these messages in the day of the restoration. Just as the building that they would build in that day would be nothing compared with the resurrection temple that Jesus brings, the man Zerubbabel was a divinely appointed place-holder for the glorious Messiah. If this son of Shealtiel was made to be a signet ring chosen by God in His day, what will be the chorus of men and angels in the Day of resurrection when we see the greatest Son of David, Jesus Christ, in all His resurrection glory? He is the one who will destroy kings and kingdoms at His coming. It is this Jesus who calls now to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. We cannot do that without Him.

Haggai 1

God's people had received the curse of His covenant. As promised long ago, if they would not obey His voice He would send them far off into exile. This happened first to the northern kingdom of Israel by the hand of the Assyrians. Some years later the Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and many in Judah were sent into exile. Yet according to the plan of God the people were given something of a new beginning in the days of Zerubbabel, a descendant of David whose name is included in the genealogies of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. This time of restoration, though in some ways difficult and disappointing to those who lived through it, was used as a metaphor for a much greater renewal that will come for all the people of God when the greatest Son of David returns. It was during this earlier time of restoration in the sixth century before Christ that the prophet Haggai was given a special message from God for Zerubbabel and for the high priest Joshua.

This message from the prophet Haggai was instrumental in calling the people of the restoration back to the task that God gave them. It was time for them to rebuild the temple that was destroyed in the attack of the Babylonians against the city. Somehow they had convinced themselves that this was not the time to focus on that great task. They certainly had faced opposition from others in the land when they were doing what God sent them back home to do. We can understand how they might have been attracted to the idea that they should wait for a safer time or for some other period in their lives when they might have decided that they had everything they thought necessary for this great endeavor. Yet in all their hesitancy, they had managed to move ahead with their own home building projects. Were they really so destitute? Then why were some of them living in such nice houses when the temple was still in ruins?

God called them to consider their ways. It is a very challenging thing for us to understand the Lord's providence in our lives. Some of this difficulty has to do with the fact that a single action on God's part may admit to more than one meaning. This is the interpretive challenge. The more formidable problem is the sin challenge. Are we willing to see the obvious? Are we willing to see that our efforts are not being blessed as they might be? Is it that we have been lacking in diligence? Not always. In this case, they planted much, but they harvested little. They worked and earned wages but they could not keep their coins in their pockets. What little they brought home, God blew away. They seemed unwilling to see the reason for their troubles. They were not seeking first the Lord and the place of His presence. It was His love that would not let them prosper in their current pursuits. He was calling them back to Himself because of His love for them. He knew that they needed to rebuild the temple as a matter of first importance, because they needed His presence with them for this new beginning.

This message was appropriately received. Zerubbabel heard it, Joshua agreed with it, the people believed it, and they all obeyed the voice of God that had come to them through the prophet Haggai. They saw God's point. They respected His message, and they respected Him. God's Word came back to them through the same prophet. God said, "I am with you." These were good words. With that encouragement and with the power of the Lord stirring up the spirits of their leaders and the spirits of all the people, they set about their work on the house of the Lord.

We are so senseless about the Lord's presence that we hardly notice when He is not there with us. It should have been an obvious thing that being slow to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem during the age of the Old Covenant would be detrimental to the congregation's experience of the presence of Almighty God. Somehow they did not seem to realize what a great need this was. Perhaps we are not so very different from them. Our issue is not necessarily buildings. Our great need is for the Spirit of the Lord to fill His people and for the Lord Jesus Christ to be present in and among His church.

Could it be that God might still refuse to allow us prosperity in His service if we want to do our version of the Christian life without Him? God has chosen us for relationship with Him. When Christ came, He came in person. He chose disciples, and served and taught them personally for three years. He calls us to life through the ministry of people, and He brings us into the church, but He brings us real spiritual growth only by the work of His Spirit. Our Lord wants us to attend to all those things that He tells us are necessary in order for Him to be present with us. More than that, the One who gave His life for us wants us to desire communion with Him.

The resurrection world that Jesus Christ has won for us is not loaded with prosperity while being devoid of the presence of God. It is the place where we will fully know the glory of God's presence with us and experience all the bounty that comes from Him. We are stretching toward that resurrection world now, and we should long for the presence of God in our lives more than any other thing. Let us build up the temple of the Lord in His worshiping people. Let us seek the Lord while He may be found that God might be magnified in the hearts and lives of all His children.

Zephaniah 3

God has loved His people with an everlasting love. When He looks at us now, He sees us as His dearly loved children through Jesus Christ our Lord. The righteousness of Christ has been credited to us, and the death of Christ has taken away the tremendous debt that we owed to the Lord because of our sin. This does not change the fact that the Lord has always known the truth about His people. Here in this final chapter of Zephaniah we begin with God's forthright assessment of Jerusalem. They are called a rebellious, defiled, and oppressing city. They should have closely attended to the prophetic Word and to the Law of Moses, but amazingly, during the early years of good King Josiah, the written Word of God seemed to be completely unknown. It was actually discovered inside a wall by workers doing repairs in the temple. It had probably been hidden there for safe-keeping in an age when this precious Word was so deeply despised. The people did not trust God. They would not draw near to Him with the sincerity of true worship. Those in certain positions of judicial authority abused the people they should have been helping. Those who represented God in speech, and who represented the people in prayer and in sacrifice were treacherous and ungodly men.

That was the Lord's honest assessment of the nation. It was an amazing fact that God had at this late date provided such an excellent king as the young Josiah. Though the Lord's people were plainly very wicked, God was still said to be within the holy city of Jerusalem. Though the greatest reformers in history would have been supremely frustrated with the sad condition of God's stubborn people and with many of their leaders, the Lord Himself continued to be there with them, dispensing His justice in all kinds of situations. When the sun came up every morning He was still their righteous and holy God, though the people had become shameless in their strange acts of disobedience.

Through Zephaniah the Lord presents Himself as eagerly anticipating that His people will do the right thing, though God certainly knows what will happen. He speaks this way to make it clear to us that He did not want to see the day of disaster come against this city. If He disciplined them strongly it was to correct them and to lead them to true repentance. Instead of moving in the right direction, at the end of this book they seemed to be eagerly increasing in their evil ways.

Yes, the Lord would now have to discipline His people even more severely. This we know from many other prophetic books and from the events of history that are described in other biblical writings. But this is not the subject that fills the closing verses of Zephaniah. Instead the Lord speaks of a greater judgment as He did earlier in this book. His people are worthy of His righteous wrath, but He will one day judge all the nations, and the earth shall be consumed in the fire of His righteous jealousy. Nonetheless, the conclusion of this current age will not be the end of the story of God, of His people, or even of the earth. The current age will end with the renewal of the earth and the beginning of a great age of resurrection glory.

One of the features of our current age is the challenge of unrighteous speech. In the coming time of resurrection, the Lord will give all of His people pure speech and pure hearts, and they will serve Him in perfect harmony and joy. God speaks here of those who would have reason to be ashamed of their deeds, those who rebelled against Him. While proud enemies of the Lord will have been removed far from this place of blessing, other humble sinners will find refuge in the name of the Lord. This place of unity in the Lord Jesus Christ described here must ultimately be more that some period of relative gospel success or eminent holiness in this age. In that day there will be no injustice and no lies. There will be perfect provision and no fear. This is something wonderfully new.

In that day we will know the presence of Christ among us in a perfectly renewed and unified heaven and earth. There we will sing for joy. It will not seem extreme to anyone in that place to sing with the fullest heart of rejoicing, for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will rejoice over us with singing. He will be with us in such a way that we could never fear any evil again. This future life of blessing for sinners could only have been accomplished through the grace of the cross. His atoning death has quieted the righteous wrath of the Almighty, and has also quieted our consciences which were overwhelmed with any honest consideration of our present sin and our coming death. This cross love of Christ, the greatest love ever known, will give us the most wonderful peace and quiet and the loudest and purest expressions of joy.

Until that new day dawns, we are being gathered through the proclamation of these extravagant promises. Our God knows how to restrain those who would oppress and destroy His people. He knows how to bring back His elect who are too weak to walk, and too ashamed to feel included. Our fortunes were reduced to nothing because of the sentence of doom that stood against us. Because of our Savior's death, our future hope has been more than fully restored, a fact made obvious in the resurrection of the One who has accomplished our salvation.

Zephaniah 2

Zephaniah 1

The prophet Zephaniah ministered in the days of the remarkable king Josiah. Josiah was the son of Amon and the grandson of Manasseh, both of whom did much evil in the sight of the Lord, and brought much trouble upon Jerusalem. Josiah's grandfather Manasseh apparently repented later in life. His father Amon was only 22 years old when he began to reign, and there is nothing particularly good said about him in the Scriptures. He reigned for only two years, and his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house. 2 Kings 21:22 plainly says of Amon, "He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD." 2 Chronicles 33:23 adds this regarding Amon, "He did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more."

Josiah was only eight years old when his father was murdered and he became King of Judah. The Bible tells us that it was the people of the land who made young Josiah king after they put to death the conspirators who had killed his father. Josiah reigned for 31 years, and he instituted great reforms in Judah, reforms which seem to coincide with the indictments of the prophet Zephaniah against the people of Judah. His reign was the final positive moment in the history of the Davidic kings prior to the birth of Jesus, the final promised king in the line of David born some 600 years after the death of Josiah. With the sons and grandsons of Josiah we have the sad conclusion to the recognized monarchy in the Promised Land as the nation is brought into exile, a conclusion that demands yet another future chapter in order for the Lord's promises to David to be fulfilled.

Despite the ways in which this small book of prophesy fits so tightly into the history of Judah, the message of the prophet goes far beyond the time and place in which he lived. God has a Day of Judgment that is coming upon the entire earth. Even the birds of the earth and the fish of the sea will be swept away, and all mankind will be cut off from the face of the earth. It seems plain that nothing but the final judgment that is coming upon the entire earth at the return of Christ will have a sufficient scope so as to capture the plain meaning of the words given to us in the opening and closing sections of this chapter.

It is within this context of final judgment that the particular wrath of the Lord against Judah is to be understood. The description of the Lord's devastating discipline of His covenant people and their rulers borrows language and imagery from the Lord's final judgment of the entire earth. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and the larger region of Judah are plainly guilty before the Lord. Though they are the covenant people of God, they are guilty. They even have idolatrous priests who lead people in the worship of Baal. There are others who swear by the Lord and by Milcom, an Ammonite god who was supposedly honored through the death of small children. Others within their number have entirely turned away from seeking the Lord. Many were simply complacent about the most significant questions of the Lord's engagement in their lives, concluding that God would not do anything to them one way or another. The situation was one that apparently demanded divine action.

We are all capable of much talk. We have many opinions, and we can move quickly in various directions that are mutually inconsistent. We claim to be part of the people who have been chosen by God, and we may even have truly called upon His Name. Yet somehow we have become ensnared in deadly thinking, foolish ritual, and immoral murder and thievery. There is a day coming when we will stop all our talk, for we will see the imminence of the Lord's judgment in our own lives or in the lives of those near to us. Divine judgment, as it is specifically expressed in this place of mortal life that we call earth, has its limit in the loss of our lives. This is the place and age of mortality, and the ultimate sanction here is death. This is no small sanction, for the lives that we live now in the covenant community have been given to us on this earth, and they are given with God's commandments and God's purpose. As those who confess that our hope is in the Lord, our lives here are His. Of what use are they when we deny Him by our words, our worship, and our lives? It is serious thing for our lives here to be brought to an end.

Yet there is something more dangerous still that we must consider. Where do we stand concerning the eternal purposes of Almighty God beyond this present earth? Has the atoning blood of the Lamb of God been shed for us? In what company shall we spend the ages and ages of eternity to come? Jesus took the fullness of the Day of Judgment upon Himself in His death on the cross. That bitter day came swiftly upon the greatest King of the covenant people of God. His life was very short and very difficult. The horror of His death is beyond our ability to fully understand. It was a day of the greatest distress and anguish when He poured out His blood on the dust of this earth for His elect who were formed from that dust. He faced the fire of His Father's jealous wrath and justice, so that we could know the blessings of God's jealous love for His children. The wrath of Almighty God against us was consumed. Let us consider well what Jesus Christ has done with His brief life, and let us use our few moments here in this important place of testing with a more earnest and sincere recognition that we must use these days well, for it is in the power of our God to determine when the time of our service here has no further purpose.

Prayer Based on Exodus 30

O God of Our Fathers, we come to You through the merit and mediation of Your Son Jesus Christ. May our prayers be offered to You in heaven as a sweet incense. You are our God. We want to worship You in accord with Your will. May the blood of Christ speak a good word for us in Your dwelling place. Our lives belong to You. We have been bought with a price. Whether rich or poor, our atonement could only come from that precious blood. We have been washed and cleansed by this same blood, for the death of Your Son has tremendous power for good. You have sent Your Spirit upon Your church, and anointed Your children for Your service. Draw us near to You, that we might come to Your Son as servants of Him and of Your church. We would be Your holy people by Your merciful election and by Your kind providential care. We are so thankful that we are able to meet with You, together with all Your people.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 23

Sovereign Lord, Your shepherds should have cared for Your people. They all fell short of Your holy command. Then One came whose name was “The Lord is our Righteousness.” He became the only Shepherd of the sheep. We hear His voice in the Scriptures and follow Him. He leads us now in pathways of righteousness for Your Name’s sake. How different He is from the adulterous kings and prophets of ancient days. So many were false men. They spoke deceptive words of peace upon Your people, words that minimized the evil of their deeds. Christ has given to us true words of secure hope. He has exposed the deceits of our hearts, but has given us a sure hope through the gospel of the kingdom. He gave forth Your Word like a fire, but then took the flames of Your wrath upon Himself for our sake. Your Son has delivered us from a burden that we could never bear. You have answered us in our great need through this one Prophet, Priest, and King, our Lord Jesus Christ. He has taken away our everlasting shame.

Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk 2

As we see Jesus in the Word and consider that He came to us not with proud boasts, but with amazing humility, we should be able to accept the fact that the way to lasting glory is not through the oppression of the weak or through the applause of the many. To all appearances Christ died on the cross as a weak man who had been abandoned by everyone. Never before has there been such an unlikely source of power for mankind as this one son of David facing an unjust sentence of death. Yet our assessment of Him with the eyes of flesh would be so very wrong. That man on the cross was there for us. He was and is both the wisdom and the power of God for us. We must not be surprised that there are many things about this life that we do not understand. If we want to really live, we should trust in God, and believe His promises. His Son died to bring us a life that no earthly power could ever take away from us, and all earthly powers will one day be judged by Him.

Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk wrote this brief book prior to the most important battle in the Lord’s great plan of victory. Many people would be very surprised by the way that God would use the brutal force of the Babylonians against His people. Yet they would be utterly shocked if they could have seen that greatest of all battles that we now know as a fact of history. In the cross of Christ, God has taken upon himself the full force of the wrath due against us for our pervasive evil. To send a strong foe against His people in every generation would only have had a temporary impact upon the deep problem of our sin. When Christ gave His righteous blood for our salvation, God permanently addressed the problem of our evil. If we need more proof than the Lord’s words “It is finished,” we need only to look at His resurrection. There are still many questions for which we do not have answers, but the cross and resurrection of Christ are the overwhelming facts that assure us that our God is very serious about punishing sin, and that our failures and disappointments will not be the end of the Lord’s story for His people.

Prayer based on First Timothy 5

Glorious God, we thank You for the family that we enjoy within Your church. Help us to understand our right obligation to our households and to the community of worshippers. Help us to have an eye for the weak. Grant that our deacons will be wise in their care for the poor among us, that we might rightly encourage the needy in the direction of diligence and responsibility. Supply everything necessary for those who would devote their lives to preaching and teaching. Protect us from foolish haste in ordaining men for service and responsibility in Your church. Guide us all in the way of Christ.

Prayer based on First Timothy 4

Merciful God, keep us in the faith. We have no interest in deceitful Spirits, and ceremonial actions with only the appearance of humility. We need real faith, and true humble service. Grant to us the self-discipline of holiness. May we toil and strive in hope, for our Savior has provided us with the most perfect example. Grant that we will always follow Him. Provide us with those preachers and teachers who will persist in teaching us Your Word day by day, and who will live in accord with the way of true godliness.

Prayer based on Exodus 30

O God of Our Fathers, we come to You through the merit and mediation of Your Son Jesus Christ. May our prayers be offered to You in heaven as a sweet incense. You are our God. We want to worship You in accord with Your will. May the blood of Christ speak a good word for us in Your dwelling place. Our lives belong to You. We have been bought with a price. Whether rich or poor, our atonement could only come from that precious blood. We have been washed and cleansed by this same blood, for the death of Your Son has tremendous power for good. You have sent Your Spirit upon Your church, and anointed Your children for Your service. Draw us near to You, that we might come to Your Son as servants of Him and of Your church. We would be Your holy people by Your merciful election and by Your kind providential care. We are so thankful that we are able to meet with You, together with all Your people.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 22

Lord God, we should use whatever power that we have to do justice and to care for the weak in accord with Your Word. One King of the Jews who has done this perfectly. We have a Savior who has seen us in our great need and who has accomplished both justice and mercy through His death for us. The justice that we owed, He paid. The mercy that we longed for, He has granted. This Jesus is so different than other men of power. He looked upon our poverty and helped us. He had no oppression or violence in Him. Though He endured the unjust hatred of those who should have been His subjects, by His death He has redeemed many. We now hear His voice in every word of the Scriptures, for all of the Law and the prophets testify of Him. Even wicked kings who are cursed by You speak a Word of Christ, for our King shines in holiness by contrast with evil rulers. He has become the source of fruitful blessing, though He was an object of Your wrath for our sake, taking upon Himself the curse that we deserved.

Prayer based on First Timothy 3

Father, we thank You for the elders that You have provided for Your church. Lead the right men into these positions of responsibility and service. May the ones that You provide be filled with the Holy Spirit, with grace, and all obedience. Thank You also for the deacons that You have kindly supplied. These men and their wives are so helpful for the work of Your kingdom. Your Son is worthy of all our works of worship and mercy. He has served us in lowliness, and now He is exalted on high, where we shall be with Him in glory.

Prayer based on First Timothy 2

Father, we find the work of prayer to be very difficult. Is there opposition all around us? Protect us, O Lord. Thank You for our great Mediator Jesus Christ. Through Him we lift up to You our prayers with modesty and simplicity, but also with earnestness and boldness. Help us to learn the truth and to serve You and others with joy and self-control.

Prayer based on First Timothy 1

Lord God, Your church is plagued by false teachers. Have we ourselves been a part of the problem? So many do not seem to know the truth, and are not living out their faith in love. Will we be no better than the Pharisees, considering ourselves such experts in the Law, but ignoring the weightiest matters of Your commandments? We thank You for the good news of Christ. Your Son came into the world to save sinners, and we are the recipients of His great grace. We worship You and give You all glory and honor. We humbly request Your protection, that we might avoid dangerous heresies and ugly arrogance. Make us more like Christ as we seek You in Word and prayer. Help us to remember Your Son’s death until He comes.

Nahum 3

Nahum 2

The Lord Christ is on the move throughout this gospel age with the strange power of the message of a crucified and risen King. Through Him a most unusual kingdom is being built up throughout the world. Though there is much evidence of our worldliness, guilt, and shame within that ironic kingdom, because of the righteousness of Christ and because of His electing love and power, one day we will hear these words of commendation, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.” Our risen Lord will gather His people into the eternal kingdom of resurrection love, and we will never be scattered again.

Prayer based on Exodus 29

Father God, You have set apart Your Son to be a priest forever. He does not require a ceremonial cleansing or anointing. He has the power of an indestructible life. He has the full anointing of Your Holy Spirit. He is God over all, to be blessed and praised forever. To think that this Jesus intercedes for us! He offered Himself as a sacrifice to You through His death on the cross. We have been sprinkled with that precious blood. Now we are counted as holy. Blessed be Your Name, O God! Through Him we offer You our worship. We give our lives as a living sacrifice. We thank You for the great blessing of participation in Your church, for You have gathered Your people in Christ, and we are counted as holy. We are no longer outsiders, but members of Your household, and fellow-citizens in a heavenly land. We rejoice together with angels for the good things that You have accomplished for the glory of Your name. May we be a pleasing aroma of life before You this day. Sanctify us and consecrate us for Your service. Please dwell among us and be our God, for You are the Lord.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 21

O Lord of Hosts, what shall we do when Your enemies persecute and kill the righteous. Many think of themselves as vastly superior to the humble. Yet who will help them with the pride that destroys their lives? Pity us. Spare us. Have compassion upon us. We will follow Your Son throughout our days among the city of men unto everlasting life. We will execute justice and mercy for the weak, as much as it is in our power to do what is good. Look beyond our sin, and gaze at the perfect righteousness of Your holy Son, Jesus, for He has destroyed death for us on the cross, and won eternal life for all who call upon Your Name.

Prayers based on Nahum

Nahum 1
Lord God Almighty, the day of Your Judgment will come upon Your enemies. You are slow to anger, but when You come in vengeance, who can stand? When Your wrath is poured out like fire, You will make an end to Your adversaries. You love those who take refuge in You. This is our greatest desire, to rejoice evermore in Your protective love. We do not want to stand before You in our own righteousness, for we could not last for a moment. Bring us good news of the perfect righteousness of Your Son. Publish peace to Your people, for You will keep every invading foe far away from us. Your kingdom will be utterly secure.

Nahum 2
Father God, if men and nations had their way with Your church we would have been overcome long ago. Violent men want to kill and destroy the weak. They would carry away people and possessions as though they were in the right. What will happen to the world in the day of Your justice? You know the desires of every heart and the actions of every life. Powerful men and empires have set up for themselves decades of privilege, but there is a day of reckoning coming for every man. Even the strongest nations that once seemed perfectly secure can be swept aside in a moment. Keep us in Your kingdom, for in You alone we have safety.

Nahum 3
Glorious God, the age of the bloody city will soon be over. We do not know the day or the hour, but we do know that our lives will not last forever. When our bodies fail, our souls will rejoice in You. No longer will we fear enemies from without or within. Today we do not know the one who knocks at the door with an evil heart. But we can trust You, even in this present evil age. Give us a mind for the life to come. Help us to meditate on the reality of heavenly habitations. Did not Jesus have a resurrection body? Did He not ascend in clouds of glory? Can any evil empire hurt Him today? Have not Your beloved children found their safety in Him? The day of the evil man will soon be gone, but we will serve You with rejoicing forever.