Today, June 20, in the year 1632, King Charles of England granted a charter for the Colony of Maryland, named for Queen Henrietta Maria. Lord Baltimore sent two ships, the Ark and the Dove, to settle the colony. Buying land from the Indians, they founded the city of St. Mary’s, as a refuge for persecuted Catholics, but soon extended religious toleration to all faiths. The Charter reads: “Whereas our… right trusty subject… Baron of Baltimore… being animated with a… pious Zeal for extending the Christian Religion, and also the Territories of our Empire, hath humbly besought Leave.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

I had a thousand questions to ask God;
but when I met him
they all fled and didn't seem to matter.
--- Christopher Morley, Inward Ho!, 1923

... from here, there and everywhere

23 The fear of ADONAI leads to life;
one who has it is satisfied and rests untouched by evil.

24 The lazy person buries his hand in the dish
but doesn’t even bother to bring it to his mouth.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                         Have you come to “when” yet?

     And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. --- Job 42:10.

     The plaintive, self-centred, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. ‘Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.’ I cannot make myself right with God, I cannot make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession. There is much prayer that arises from real disbelief in the Atonement. Jesus is not beginning to save us, He has saved us, the thing is done, and it is an insult to ask Him to do it.

     If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God’s word, then start praying for your friends, enter into the ministry of the interior. “The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His Atonement may be realized in other lives as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

It was March.
A wind
Blew. Sudden flowers
Opened in the sea's
Garden; a white bird
Stooped to them. From the town
At the sea's edge
Voices,
Frightening the bird,
Smirching the flowers.
The town
Was a thousand years old,
But the sea
Had refused to live with it.

R.S. Thomas

          a market filled with the blind, they call the one-eyed person “Bright eyes.”

     Genesis 6:9–13 / This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.—Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
     The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth, God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them; I am about to destroy them with the earth.”

     MIDRASH TEXT / Genesis Rabbah 30, 9 / In this age. Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Neḥemiah: Rabbi Yehudal said, “In his age he was a righteous man, but if he had lived in the age of Moses or in the age of Samuel, he would not have been [considered] righteous. In a market filled with the blind, they call the one-eyed person ‘Bright eyes.’ A parable: A person had a wine cellar. He opened one barrel and found it had turned to vinegar; a second—also [vinegar]; a third—and found it sour. He said to them, ‘Is there anything better here?’ They said to him, ‘No.’ So too, [Noah] in his age was a righteous man. But if he were in the age of Moses, or of Samuel, he would not have been [considered] righteous.”

     Rabbi Neḥemiah said, “If in his own age he was righteous, how much more so would he have been [righteous] in the age of Moses or of Samuel. A parable: A vial of balsam with a tightly sealed cap is placed among graves; yet, its fragrance still disseminates. If it were away from the graves, how much more so [would its fragrance disseminate]. A parable: A virgin is surrounded in a market by whores; yet she does not get a bad reputation. If she were in a market of good women, how much more so [would her reputation be positive]. So too: In his own age he [Noah] was a righteous man; if he had been in the age of Moses or of Samuel, how much more so [would he have been considered righteous].”

     CONTEXT / When the Rabbis read the Torah, they expected an economy of language: there should be no superfluous phrases, words, or even letters. This is because they believed the Torah to be of divine origin. While humans might repeat themselves or be excessive in their statements, God would not. When the Rabbis found extra words that did not seem to be absolutely necessary, it was a sign to them that God was using the superfluity to send a message.

     In our biblical passage, the Rabbis saw בְּדֹרֹתָיו/b’dorotav, “in his age,” as an extra word. We are told that Noah was a righteous man. It was for this reason that he was chosen to be saved from the flood. But why was it necessary for the Torah to qualify his righteousness by the phrase “in his age.” What message is intended?

     Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Neḥemiah disagree on the nature of the message. Rabbi Yehudah sees the phrase “in his age” as a limiting one. It tells us that Noah was not a great man. Only when compared to everyone else in his time could we call him righteous. “In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” is a modern version of the ancient proverb quoted in our Midrash. The term “bright eyes” or “rich of light”—סַגִּי נְהו̇ר/sagi nehor in Aramaic—signifies, through typical Rabbinic euphemism, a blind person.

     Rabbi Neḥemiah takes the opposite point of view. It is much more difficult to be and to do good when surrounded by evil. It is easy to be righteous when a Moses or a Samuel shows the way. Therefore, Noah deserves even more credit for maintaining his goodness in the midst of an evil world.

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     In all these things we are more than conquerors. --- Romans 8:37

     Why should a Roman gallows, and the strange Man who hung there, haunt the imagination and the conscience of our race? Classic Sermons on Suffering (Kregel Classic Sermons Series)

     It is because humankind, in the depths of the spirit, has always been conscious that in that Cross, God has spoken, and eternity has intersected history. We know that, past all our attempts to answer the problem of evil and suffering, here is God’s answer. Here, if anywhere, is the clue to solve the riddle [of life and the mystery of sorrow].

     It is not the fact of suffering that baffles us, for we can see that we need it; it is the frightful excess of the thing that seems so cruel and senseless. If God intends human sanctification, why couldn’t he have thought out some kindlier way?

     There is still another difficulty. We talk about suffering producing character. But it does not always have that effect. The beneficent influence of pain does not work automatically! In different lives, suffering produces different effects. One man loses his wife, and the loss makes him more tender and gentle. Another faces the same loss, and it makes him hard and sullen. One woman has a great sorrow, and it turns her to God. Another [has] a similar experience, and she is never seen inside a church again.

     Trouble, in itself, is neither positive nor negative. It is neutral; whether it is going to become positive or negative depends on the human reaction. Some have the grace to use it creatively, forcing trouble to yield up its hidden blessing. But we do not always rise to that. How often our negative reaction balks even his will to bless!

     This fact emerges—that our main concern with suffering is not to find an explanation; it is to find a victory. It is to lay hold on a power. Even if you possessed the answer to the riddle, had it written down to the last detail and could say, “There is the full and final explanation of the problem of pain,” that would not be enough, would it? For the pain itself would still have to be borne. That is the real demand of the human spirit—not the explaining of this thing, but grace and help to bear it. And that is why God gave us Christ.

     On every page of your New Testament the living God comes toward you, and he holds in his hands not the answer to the questions of the mind but something better and diviner: a liberating, reinforcing power for the soul!
--- James S. Stewart

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     3. After that Day: Blessing Poured Out

     Everything will change when the King comes back and begins His reign! Joel promises a holy city, a restored land, a cleansed people, and a glorious King.

     A holy city (Joel 3:17). When Solomon dedicated the temple, the glory of the Lord came down and filled the building (1 Kings 8:10–11; 2 Chron. 5:11–14). Mount Zion, on which Jerusalem was built and the temple stood, was a very special place to the Jews because it was the place God chose for His own dwelling (Pss. 48; 87; 132:13). When the Babylonians destroyed the temple, the Jews prayed for the time when their temple would be restored and God’s glory would return. “For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession” (69:35).

     Today, the Jewish people have no temple on Mount Zion; instead, a mosque stands there. But God promises that He will restore Zion and dwell there in all His glory. “For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (Isa. 51:3). The prophets anticipate that great day when “sorrow and mourning shall flee away” (v. 11) and God will once again dwell with His people (see Isa. 12; 33:20–24; 35; 52; Jer. 31; Micah 4; Zech. 1).

     Jerusalem is called “the Holy City” at least eight times in Scripture (Neh. 11:1, 18; Isa. 48:2 and 52:1; Dan. 9:24; Matt. 4:5 and 27:53; Rev. 11:2), and we will call it “the Holy City” today. Like every other city in this world, Jerusalem is inhabited by sinners who do sinful things. But the day will come when Jerusalem shall be cleansed (Zech. 13:1) and truly become a holy city dedicated to the Lord. (Isa. 4:1–6).

     A restored land (Joel 3:18–19). Over the centuries, the land of Israel had been ravaged by war, famines, droughts, and the invasions of marauding insects such as Joel wrote about in the first chapter of his book, but there is coming a day when the land will be like the Garden of Eden for beauty and fruitfulness. “He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord” (Isa. 51:3, NIV).

     In the first chapter of Joel’s prophecy, the people were wailing because they had no food, but that will not happen when God restores His people and their land. It will not only be a “land of milk and honey,” but it will have plenty of wine and water as well. The land of Israel has always depended on the early and latter rains for water, but God will give them fountains and a river to water the land.

     Jerusalem is the only city of antiquity that wasn’t built near a great river. Rome had the Tiber; Nineveh was built near the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates; and the great Egyptian cities were built near the Nile. But in the kingdom, Jerusalem will have a river that proceeds from the temple of God. “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea [the Dead Sea] and half to the western sea [the Mediterranean], in summer and in winter” (Zech. 14:8, NIV). You find this river and its special blessings described in Ezekiel 47.

     In contrast to the land of Israel, the lands of their enemies, Egypt and Edom, will be desolate as a punishment for the way they treated the Jewish people. This means that Egypt and Edom will have to depend on Israel for the basic things of life, such as food and water.

     A cleansed people (Joel 3:20–21a). What good would it be to have a restored land if it were populated with a sinful people? God’s people must be cleansed before they can enter into the promised kingdom. God promises to cleanse His people of their sins, forgive them, and restore them to Himself. “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1).

     The Prophet Ezekiel describes this cleansing: “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezek. 36:24–27, NKJV).

     Under Old Testament Law, the Jews could cleanse that which was defiled by using water, fire, or blood. The priests were washed with water and sprinkled with blood when they were installed in office (Lev. 8–9), and the healed lepers were likewise washed with water and sprinkled with blood (Lev. 14). The priests had to wash their hands and feet and keep ceremonially clean as they served in the tabernacle (Ex. 30:17–21). If anything became defiled, it had to be purified with “the water of sprinkling” (Num. 19). Zechariah used this Old Testament truth to teach about the permanent internal cleansing that would come when the people saw their Messiah and trusted Him (Zech. 12:10). They would experience a new birth and become a new people for the Lord.

     A glorious King (Joel 3:21b). What a wonderful way to close a book: “The Lord dwells in Zion!” (NIV) The Prophet Ezekiel watched as the glory of God departed from the temple that was about to be destroyed (Ezek. 8:4; 9:3; 10:4, 18; 11:23), and then he saw that glory return to the new temple in the restored nation (43:1–5). He saw a new Jerusalem that had been given a new name: “Jehovah Shammah—the Lord is there” (48:30–35).

     The prophecy of Joel begins with tragedy, the invasion of the locusts, but it closes with triumph, the reign of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration [the future kingdom], when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging [ruling over] the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28, NKJV).

     May we never lose the wonder of His glorious kingdom!

     “The kingdom of this word has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15, NIV).

     “Thy kingdom come!” (Matt. 6:10)

     “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)

W. W. Wiersbe, (1996) Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship (The BE Series Commentary)