“Instead of…” "Instead of the thorn, a cypress tree will spring out of the ground; instead of a thistle, the myrtle bush—a living and lasting monument to God” (Isaiah 55:13).      It's one thing to eradicate thorns and thistles—barbed vines that encumber and impair those that pass by. It's another to see these plants turned into objects of towering strength and beauty.                    Ask God to do this for you: Ask Him to search you and show you the thorns and thistles in your speech and manner, the prickly ways that cause pain in others (Psalm 139:23,24). Ask Him to turn them into thoughts, words and acts that bless and beautify. God will do this in His own time and way, for Himself, for you and for others. It will be “a living and lasting monument” to God’s eternal goodness and grace. Wait for this. Expect it. God is able to do immeasurably more than you can imagine (Ephesians 3:20). David Roper 6.26.22

The Mountain of God

 

Let snow fall on Zalmon,

O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan;

O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!

Why do you look with envy, O many-peaked mountain,

at the mount that God desired for his abode,

yes, where the LORD will dwell forever? 

—Psalm 68:14-16

 

Mount Zalmon is located in a chain of perennially snow-capped mountains between Lebanon and Syria with peaks that rise over 9,000 feet. In Canaanite mythology it was Baal's abode. 

 

Yet mighty Zalmon, a massive eminence, looks at little Mount Zion (2,300 feet) with "envy" for God has chosen it, as his dwelling place forever. And…

 

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the LORD

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it… (Isaiah 2:2). 

 

I’m reminded here of Peter’s words: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:5). 

 

So then, I say: I don’t have to be an mighty, “many-peaked” mountain to matter. I can be a little hill. 

 

David Roper

6.22.22