The Israelites are frustrated with their lives. They thought returning to Jerusalem would resolve their problems, but they don’t feel like God loves them.

God responds by reminding them that he chose them—not because they are worthy, but because he chooses the weak things in this world to work his will.

God’s choice seems counterintuitive to us because he’s overthrowing the conventional wisdom of the world.

When we seek power, control, comfort, or security on our terms to bless ourselves, we become God’s enemy.

If we want a firm grip on God’s love for us, we must understand he came to deal with the enemy within us at great cost to himself.

The Israelites have been offering corrupt sacrifices to God, which reveals their entitlement and contempt for him.

Our sacrifices don’t in any way pay God back for what he has done, but they should be meaningful, substantial gestures of love and worship.

Withholding sacrifice is an attempt to bless or protect ourselves. Sacrifice requires vulnerability.

God abhors deception. He would rather have no sacrifices than half-hearted ones.

Our glorification of busyness and self-importance works against God’s plan to bless us through the gospel.

The Israelite priests are called to be the embodiment of God’s character and pass down his truth, yet they have willfully compromised his message.

Because they have not revered or regarded God, he rebukes them harshly. They are accountable not only for themselves, but for those under their care.

Our culture does not view fear and constraint as life-giving. Yet God is clear that reverence of his covenant is our connection to life and peace.

Leaders who fear God do what he says. Those who don’t, act independently.

A priest is a declared public embodiment of what everyone is supposed to be.

Even at its best, the human priesthood is merely a shadow of our perfect and eternal priest—Jesus, who lives to intercede on our behalf.

We are all God’s children, so an offense on the horizontal level is also an offense on the vertical level. He cares about how we treat one another.

God is frustrated by the divorced men’s hypocrisy—they have been unfaithful to their wives, yet they continue to act like they are loyal to God.

While our culture has romanticized marriage, as believers, our marriages are not for us—they are for God. The benefits of marriage are funded by faithfulness.

God desires marriage to produce godly children. We should introduce and model the life of sacrifice to our children when they are young.

We are all called to faithfully protect and champion one another, and this involves intentional sacrifice and self-denial.

Steady interaction with Scripture continuously reframes our perspective, such that others wonder about the changes they see.

When we feel entitled to sin because things don’t go our way, we become comfortable and mistake God’s silence as affirmation to continue in sin.

In this prophecy, God’s point isn’t to provide answers so the Israelites can feel in control, but assurance that he is paying attention, and they can rest in his justice.

While the image of God pouring out his wrath is frightening, it also provides hope that in a world filled with oppression and injustice, God is coming to make things right.

Ultimately God pursues fellowship with us to restore us to faithful worship. Jesus passed through the fire of suffering for us.

The Israelites are confident in their disobedience and confused by the chaos it is causing. We are also often blinded by our pride and self-reliance.

God’s greatest competitor in the world is us. We naturally have confidence in our ability to acquire possessions and create stability.

God doesn’t need our sacrifices. They are a symbol of how we relate to him—what we do or don’t do shows how we view God.

Giving is an act of honoring God, showing trust in him, and participating in his Kingdom. Withholding our resources is a form of robbing God.

The Israelites are frustrated with their circumstances, and in their words to one another, they take no account of God. Ironically, he is taking careful account of them.

Jesus suffered acutely on our behalf, and we turned our faces from him. Yet he had to be treated this way for our redemption.

The solution to entitlement is to go to God’s sanctuary, his throne room, and remind ourselves that he is in control even when we do not understand.

The Israelites who fear God take him into account, speaking to each other about his honor. God takes note of this by commemorating their names.

We are God’s treasure, his pearl of great price. No matter what we experience in life, we look forward to the day he claims us as his own in all fullness and glory.

When God comes to judge the world, it will be a day of great reversal—the wicked rulers will be brought low, and the oppressed will be free and joyful.

We should caution ourselves against evaluating God’s ability to judge. Such evaluation exposes our entitlement.

No matter what the political or cultural voices in the world tell us, we will never get a man-made form of justice that accomplishes what our souls want.

God calls the Israelites to obedience. This is not transactional, but rooted in his love and their allegiance to him.

At the end of time, those who trust in Jesus will be judged not by their own works, but by his perfect life. This is the hope of the gospel.