Year: 2024

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The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist

Scripture Focus: Psalm 80.8-11, 14-18
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt; 
you drove out the nations and planted it. 
9 You cleared the ground for it, 
and it took root and filled the land. 
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, 
the mighty cedars with its branches. 
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, 
its shoots as far as the River.
14 Return to us, God Almighty! 
Look down from heaven and see! 
Watch over this vine, 
15 the root your right hand has planted, 
the son you have raised up for yourself. 
16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; 
at your rebuke your people perish. 
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, 
the son of man you have raised up for yourself. 
18 Then we will not turn away from you; 
revive us, and we will call on your name. 

Reflection: The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist
By John Tillman

The psalmist compares Israel to a transplanted vine that is intended to bring the wine of God’s blessing to the world. Throughout the Bible, God is often pictured as an ever-patient agriculturalist.

God begins by planting a garden in which to place humanity. When tares are sown among his wheat, he delays judgment for the sake of his crop. He is a shepherd who seeks the lost sheep and gives his life for them. As the sower, he scatters seed even to soil others abandon. He is the oxen-driver who prepares a well-fitted and “easy” yoke for us. He is the orchard owner, giving his fruitless trees another year and every opportunity to flourish. He is a vinedresser, tenderly transplanting his vines from bad soil to good. He grafts in wild vines to join his true vine from which the blessings of wine will flow.

Israel was to become God’s representatives upon the Earth. They were to be set apart from the nations yet welcoming to all nations. Their holiness was not intended to condemn other nations but to call them out of the darkness. God uprooted and transplanted Israel out of Egypt. He saved them from the darkness of idolatry and from under the thumb of empire. But a little bit of Egypt stuck to their roots. Eventually, they would become as evil as the empire they were extracted from.

Like his vineyard and like the fruit tree, God wants to give us every opportunity to flourish. God desires that we be placed, planted, protected, preserved, and made productive by him. We, however, can put a halt to his husbandry.  Our soil can resist his seed. Our roots can refuse his tending. Our branches can frustrate him with our fruitlessness. We can uproot in our hearts what he plants, replanting our own idolatrous crop of greed, lust, and anger.

Eventually, God will till under fruitless vineyards. Eventually, fruitless trees will be cursed and cut down. Eventually, our tares will be separated from our wheat and burned. We will experience both God’s justice and his grace.

We can participate in this process of sanctification now, becoming a partner to our own cleansing, tilling under our own sinful crops, and enabling a rebirth of fruitfulness.

The purpose of deconstruction is reconstruction.
The purpose of uprooting is to replant.
May we rejoice in being pruned and replanted.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name. — Psalm 86.11

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Micah 2 (Listen 2:11)
Psalm 80 (Listen 1:58)

Read more about The Cultivating Life
We have written before “cultivation is supernatural,” but the simple actions of cultivating faith are not ethereal or fanciful. They are the practical, steady doings of the farmer.

The Cultivating Life

Read more about Cultivation Is Supernatural
Cultivation is not natural. It is supernatural. We give plants a safer, healthier place to grow than exists naturally, and they give us better food in greater quantities.

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/cultivating-is-supernatural/
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Wail-Patterned Baldness

Scripture Focus: Micah 1.16
16 Shave your head in mourning
     for the children in whom you delight;
 make yourself as bald as the vulture,
     for they will go from you into exile.

Reflection: Wail-Patterned Baldness
By Erin Newton

The ancient world viewed hair as an outward expression of inward devotion—for good or for evil. Nazarites made vows to God and would never cut their hair. This is part of the epic of Samson, whose hair was cut, and his strength failed.

Deuteronomy 14.1 strictly prohibited shaving one’s head for the dead. Likely due to similar practices by the Canaanite cult of the dead. Shaved heads, in this case, would suggest infidelity to God and the embrace of idolatry.  

Sometimes hair needed to go. Leviticus 14.8 prescribed head shaving after cleansing for a skin disease. I can see the practicality of this command. The skin disease had been defiling, and removing all hair would provide a clear picture of any spots hidden on one’s scalp. It would be like a clean slate for the person, yet shamefully everyone would have known.

Joseph’s head was shaved when he was brought up from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. When his interpretation proved valid, he was rewarded with honor and authority in Egypt.

In Micah 1, the prophet described God descending to the earth in judgment. It is the epic Divine Warrior scene. The mountains melt underfoot. The valleys split apart. The mere presence of God undoes the creation.

God was coming to judge the nation because of Judah’s high place in Jerusalem. High places were where sacrifices occurred. Archaeological discoveries show massive standing stones (some over 10 feet tall). During periods of reform, Hezekiah removed high places and destroyed the Asherah poles. Sadly, these high places were rebuilt by Manasseh, including altars to Baal and Asherah.

God tells the people that judgment is coming—exile. Their children would grow up and lose their homes, their livelihood, their community, and their sense of identity. They were called to grieve the loss they were about to incur.

Shockingly, God told them to do the unthinkable—shave their heads in mourning—an act specifically prohibited.

Their baldness was a sign: Was it idolatry and worshiping the gods of the Canaanites? Was it a disease and uncleanliness? Were they, like Joseph, just released from prison? In a way, the answer to all these questions is yes.

They had sinned through idolatry, their hearts were sick and unclean, and they were headed to captivity.

Our hair care is not threatened by judgment anymore, but our hearts should be equally exposed as we mourn our sin.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. — Isaiah 9.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Micah 1 (Listen 2:46)
Psalm 79 (Listen 1:50)

Read more about Cost of Immature Leadership
Wartime captives would be shaved and marched naked. Shaving half the envoy’s beards…implied they were on their way to being prisoners.

Cost of Immature Leadership

Read The Bible With Us
Reading the Bible systematically and with time for reflection helps build deep knowledge and vibrant faith. Join our Bible reading plan.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

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Rooting for the Anti-hero (Jonah)

Scripture Focus: Jonah 4.1-4
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” 

Reflection: Rooting for the Anti-hero (Jonah)
By John Tillman

Most lessons I heard about Jonah in my youth over-emphasized the positives of the story to make Jonah into a reluctant anti-hero who started out in the wrong direction but did the job in the end. (This usually meant stopping before chapter four.) 

In this version, we sympathize when anti-hero Jonah flees to Tarshish because he fears the Ninevites killing him. Then we cheer for his willingness to die to save the sailors. However, this version of the story conceals the truth. Jonah made no heroic sacrifice. He was willing to die to ensure his enemies, the Ninevites, died. Saving the sailors was a side-effect.

Jonah spent three days praying in the fish, a monster of the deep. Hopeless, Jonah had nothing other than the ability to call on God. He imagined sacrificing to God in the temple and proclaiming, “Salvation comes from the Lord.” Then, salvation came. God commanded the fish to return him to dry land.

Jonah preached God’s message for three days traveling through the belly of Nineveh, a monster of a city, not just in size but in nature. Scripture doesn’t give us Jonah’s entire message, but the summary isn’t exactly inspiring: “40 days and it’s over!”

In seminary, our performance group created a short play about Jonah. The piece was geared for comedy, but we portrayed Jonah as distinctly unheroic. The actor portraying Jonah “preached” to Nineveh in an annoyed, angry, and unsympathetic monotone. But the message took hold anyway. “Salvation comes from the Lord.”

Jonah was angry when God relented but not surprised. He tells God, “I knew you were too soft and forgiving. That’s why I didn’t want to come.” Jonah’s hatred of the Ninevites was intense and based on his bitter life experience. He’d seen God judge them before and wanted to see it again.

God will have mercy on whom he has mercy. If we are honest, there are times we find ourselves, like Jonah, disagreeing with God about the “whom.” We all have a Nineveh—a person or group we have a hard time loving, evangelizing, and accepting. Jonah wasn’t wrong in his assessment of Nineveh’s blameworthiness, but he miscalculated the measure of God’s mercy.

When God has mercy, is it right for us to be angry? Who do we root for in this story?

It’s not Jonah. And it’s not us. Don’t underestimate God’s mercy. “Salvation comes from the Lord.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations. — Psalm 67.1-2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Jonah 4 (Listen 1:56)
Psalm 78.38-72 (Listen 7:12)

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Supporting our Work

Read more about When Ninevites Believe
God holds out hope for Nineveh and, in some cases, may entrust us to take the gospel to them. May we be faithful.

https://theparkforum.org/843-acres/rooting-for-the-anti-hero-jonah

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When Ninevites Believe

Scripture Focus: Jonah 3.3-5a
3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God…

Reflection: When Ninevites Believe
By John Tillman

Jonah didn’t want Nineveh to turn. He wanted them to burn. After preaching through the city for three days, Jonah climbed a hill and watched, hoping to glory in destruction, not mercy.

Jonah had practical reasons for fear, hatred, and despair. He feared their reaction. He hated them for their evil deeds. He despaired that they would ever change or repent.

But the Ninevites believed, and Jonah couldn’t believe it.

Unexpectedly, the people he feared violence from turned from violence to fear God. The people he had given up to wickedness gave up their wickedness and called on the Lord. The people he hoped would suffer for the suffering they caused experienced repentance and mercy.

I have Ninevites in my life and probably you do too. They are the people I’ve given up on. People whose reactions I fear. People who’ve harmed me. People I long to see fall under God’s justice.

Don’t forget that our enemies are loved by God. Jonah was sent to minister to those who had traumatized his country. Nineveh wasn’t just a random evil city. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire that had been raiding Israel’s borders for decades. Jonah was unable to see them as God saw them, with compassion and sympathy.

Don’t expect God to deal with evil in the way we want him to. Jonah had prophesied against Assyria before. On that occasion, God used a wicked king of Israel to deliver his suffering people from the wicked Assyrians. (2 Kings 14.23-27) Jonah’s experience with Ninevites was as enemies on the battlefield, and he wanted God to treat them as such.

Jonah’s story tells us that it is a long, difficult journey to see those who’ve caused harm repent. There are storms. There are monsters. There are prayers from the depths. There is anger. There is suffering. There is questioning.

God goes with us through every bit of that journey. He lets us feel our feelings and rage our anger. He treats us with mercy we don’t deserve and then turns around and treats our enemies the same.

We don’t have to deny or hide our feelings about Ninevites. However, God holds out hope for Nineveh and, in some cases, may entrust us to take the gospel to them. May we be faithful.

God’s glory is best seen in his mercy. May we be able to celebrate when Ninevites believe.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
God looks down from heaven upon us all, to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God. — Psalm 53.2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Jonah 3 (Listen 1:31)
Psalm 78.1-37 (Listen 7:12)

Read more about The Maddest Prophet, The Saddest Prophet

Imagine a Ukrainian prophet commanded to take a message of mercy to Moscow and you might have an inkling of what Jonah felt like…

The Maddest Prophet, The Saddest Prophet

Read more about When God Has Mercy…Will We?
Jonah held his bitterness so deeply that the depths of the sea couldn’t wash it away and the sun couldn’t burn it away. How deeply will we hold on to ours?

When God Has Mercy…Will We?
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Lesson of Edom

Scripture Focus: Obadiah 12, 15-17
12 You should not gloat over your brother 
in the day of his misfortune, 
nor rejoice over the people of Judah 
in the day of their destruction, 
nor boast so much 
in the day of their trouble.

15 “The day of the Lord is near 
for all nations. 
As you have done, it will be done to you; 
your deeds will return upon your own head. 
16 Just as you drank on my holy hill, 
so all the nations will drink continually; 
they will drink and drink 
and be as if they had never been. 
17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; 
it will be holy, 
and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

From John: Last week, another leader I looked up to left ministry due to a moral failure. The organization, I think, will eventually be fine. But it is a shaking blow. Many leaders or heroes of mine have fallen in one way or another. Pride, politics, or sexual scandals have taken them down. Sometimes I’ve been glad to see them humbled or stopped after what they became. I’ve also seen God’s grace in rebuilding after a blow. A friend is now working at a church where a former hero of mine fell in 2019. Years after crisis and failure at the highest level, healing and repair are happening. As we witness these things, we return to this post from 2022 about the fall of Edom. Whether moral failure or abuse, whether regarding our enemies or our friends, we must not gloat or despair over truth being revealed or justice coming. Instead, let us turn inward to our own hearts and to the hearts of our own organizations. Let us examine our own foundations.

Reflection: Lesson of Edom
By John Tillman

Obadiah has a tightly focused vision. Don’t gloat or take pleasure at the downfall of others, especially your brothers and sisters.

We’ve often written about leaders, churches, and organizations that have been destroyed by revelations of misconduct and sin. We have said, “When sin is revealed and an organization crumbles, it was God who struck the blow, not an enemy.” 

Even though churches may be damaged, this destruction is not caused by “enemies of the church.” Those who reveal wrongdoing are cooperating with God. However, when we witness this, we should be humbled, not prideful. We should be mournful and mindful of our own vulnerabilities, not smug and boastful of our infallibility.

I have seen examples of this in my faith tradition. When the Catholic Church was rocked with sex abuse scandals in the early 2000s, many prominent Southern Baptists took it as an opportunity to put Catholicism on blast. They blamed celibacy, episcopal polity, and Catholic theology. They took victory laps on Twitter and in think pieces that pridefully postured their “superior” polity and ecclesiology as bulwarks against abuse.

As the revelations continue to roll in about sexual abuse in the SBC, it is clear that SBC polity, theology, and leadership were unable or unwilling to prevent abuse or protect the organization or the victims of abuse. The same practices and worse were occurring in our own house, even while we threw stones at our Catholic brethren. We didn’t learn from the Edomites.

What is the purpose of this comparison to Edom? 

We must look inward to examine the hearts of ourselves, our leaders, and our organizations. Just as there are some who wrongly label those who expose the truth about corruption as enemies, there are some who seem to take pleasure in the carnage of organizations stricken by scandal.

It is not that we shouldn’t celebrate justice, but we must temper our jubilance with the knowledge that we are equally vulnerable and prone to sin.

The point of Obidiah’s vision is that there is no corner of creation, no kingdom, no people over whom God does not hold authority. God intends to purify individuals, churches, and kingdoms through whatever means required. Where there is sin, he will expose it. Where there are victims he will be on the side of justice. May we stand with him.

Further Reading: Dr. Russell Moore, writing in 2019, “Southern Baptists Face Their #MeToo Moment”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
I call with my whole heart; answer me, O Lord, that I may keep your statutes. — Psalm 119.145

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Obadiah 1 (Listen 3:28)
Psalm 74 (Listen 2:34)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Jonah 1 (Listen 2:29), Psalm 75-76 (Listen 2:33)
Jonah 2 (Listen 1:20), Psalm 77 (Listen 2:12)

Read more about When God Shakes Our Foundation
God is doing this, not an enemy. God is striking our pillars. God’s church is renewed by the removal of corrupt leaders.

When God Shakes Our Foundation—Readers’ Choice

Read more about No Princes
Unable to separate their faith from the identity of the leader, they abandon faith.

No Princes :: A Guided Prayer