Numbers 13-14 “The Journey Pt.2 ”

S = Numbers 13:30-31 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

Numbers 14:1-4 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Numbers 14:20-23 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.

O = Caleb and Joshua saw that they were able to go up and occupy the land precisely because God was giving it to them. The others only saw the strength of their enemies and complained against God. They blamed God for bringing them out there in the first place and wailed that their little ones would become “prey” for the Canaanites. Don’t miss the irony of  14:31 "But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected.” God was nothing like how the people portrayed him. They consistently rebelled against God and challenged him as to his character.

     What was their problem? How could they fail to recognize the amazing works of a loving God in their midst each day? After being delivered from Egyptian slavery, from the army pursuing them, through the barrier of the Red Sea, the Lord provided manna and water so that they didn’t starve or die of thirst. Their shoes and clothes didn’t wear out, they had shade from the sun and light and warmth at night, as well as protection from their enemies and neighbors alike. Yet they refused to believe. Were they stupid or uninformed? No, the problem was in their desires. They desired evil instead of the Lord (1 Cor. 10:6). As a result, they could not see the loving care of Yahweh on their behalf and doubted his character.

A = I wonder if we do the same thing today. I know that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 10:1-10) and specifically called them out using the sin of Israel in the wilderness as an example. They, too, were beginning to desire evil, of which he gives four examples (idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, and grumbling). So I should probably “go to school on them” and examine my own heart for these thorns, these invasive desires that seek to choke out my love for the Lord…

• Idolatry—is there something I value more than Jesus?
• Immorality—do my relationships reflect the love of God or the lust of the world?
• Testing—is there some area where I repeatedly doubt the goodness of God?
• Grumbling—are there areas in my life where I am neither thankful to, nor trusting of, the Lord and his promises?

      How could I be fed, led, protected, delivered, shaded, illuminated, and instructed on a daily basis and not learn to see and trust the loving hand of Jesus in my life? I need to pause today to actively trust and thank God for his goodness towards me. So I sit and look out my window at the sun hitting the south side of the Columnar Maples in the parking lot—causing them to glow like pillars of fire that hint of the Creator’s glory present amidst the mundane.

      All I deserved was hell and death, and what I have received is so much better than that! He is always at work around me; I just need eyes to see.

P = O Lord, help me to trust you completely and then open my eyes to see what you are up to…and thank you for it all. Jesus, please keep me from desiring anything less than you and your loving plan for my life. May many others be blessed by the light of that love this week. Amen.

Hebrews 3 & 1 Corinthians 10 “Lessons from the Journey (Part 1)”

S = Hebrews 3:7-8, 12-13 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness…”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 

O = This passage quotes from Psalm 95:7-11 words that every Jew at the time of Christ knew by heart “because its opening line served as a call to worship every Sabbath evening in the synagogue with these words. Hebrew ears perked up at their sound.” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, 99). I have long meditated on the first phrase of this passage, “Today, if you hear (NIV) / if you will hear (NKJV).” It doesn't imply that we might hear His voice if the Spirit chooses to speak, but rather we will hear if we desire to listen. The issue here is not about His will, but about our heart, i.e., He is speaking today and we can hear Him if we want to listen. I am instructed by the original context in the wilderness that God did not create them to die in the wilderness, and that they had to choose it by hardening their hearts.

A = If “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11) then I need to ask myself some tough questions today, such as:

·         What might keep me from passing the trust test?

·         What might cause God to be angry with my generation?

·         So what have I seen God do, but remain unmoved? (Israel had seen 10 plagues, Red Sea parted, pillar of cloud/fire, manna, water, etc. The readers of Hebrews had heard or seen Jesus feed 5000 & 4000, heal the sick, deliver the possessed, calm the storm, rise from the dead, fill believers with the Holy Spirit, and fulfill all the prophesies—would they remain unmoved or respond in faith? Will I?

I know I miss the message all too often, but today I want to listen and encourage others to do the same… as long as it is still “Today”!

P = O Lord, open my ears to hear and my heart to trust. Let me not harden my heart in the desert of my circumstances and unmet desires but may trust spring up, and let me respond to your amazing love with a desire to follow you wherever you lead. I need to rest in the confidence that you are with me and that is always enough for my situation today. Amen.

Exodus 33 “Presence”

S = Exodus 33:3 “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

v.15-16 “And he [Moses] said to him [God], “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

O = God blesses the people, promises to give them the land, led by an angel, a land of great blessing…the best of everything but without God among them. The presence of God with his people is a major theme through the whole Bible from the Eden of Genesis 2 to the New Heaven/Earth/Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22. Here God addresses the elephant in the room. Their stubborn, rebellious sin will be the death of them if God is in their midst. So what would they do? They respectfully tell God that is he doesn’t go with them they don’t want to go. The presence of YHWH is what makes them different. They don’t want to lose that distinction.

A = I wonder if I would respond like Moses did if God gave me the same offer today? It frightens me to think that I could settle for less than God’s presence in order to facilitate my stubborn attitudes and actions. I want to follow Moses’ example here and see my value and really my identity as tied to the presence of God in my life today. God did work out a solution for Israel that looked forward to the death and resurrection of Christ and the sending of the indwelling Holy Spirit. I don’t want to try to find my identity in any lesser “thing” or “practice” I want to cling to Christ in my need. I am reminded of that verse in Matt Maher’s hymn,

“Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are, Lord, I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You

Every hour I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You”

P = O Lord, I do need you as the song declares. And in my need I give you thanks for not only delivering me from the Egypt of bondage to sin, and giving me a hope for the future in heaven, but for your abiding presence with me every hour of my day. Help me to remember you are with me and let me live like it today. Amen.

Exodus 19 & 20 “Love Before Law”

S = Exodus 19:4-6, 8

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...” ⁸“…All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do…”

Exodus 20:1-2, 24

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.”

O = It has been noted that in God’s plan love came before the law, faith came before obedience. In these chapters, best known for containing the Ten Commandments (Ch. 20) as given on Mt. Sinai, God’s care for Israel is the context. The metaphor of being born up on eagles wings (19:4) is a deeply affective revelation of God’s sovereign care for his people. He loves them and has brought them to this place where they can freely respond to his deliverance by entering into a binding covenant with Yahweh or not. They chose to do all that God had said. We should all know the Ten Commandments by memory. [Many years ago, Dick Scott taught the church how to memorize them (in order) on our ten fingers about and I still remember…as do my former IML students.] I observe that the first four commands focus on our vertical relationship with God and the last six commands bring order to our horizontal relationships with others. This was the foundation of the law code for the nation of Israel. But even more, it was to be a path for God’s coming to bless his people (20:24).

A = Too often I slip into thinking and living like the plan of God is designed for me to somehow work my way into God’s holy presence instead of remembering that His plan was to come down to us. He is the Good Shepherd, the Lover and Pursuer of my soul! From Eden onward he has sought to come to his people and bless them. This week I rest in his care, putting my trust in his saving grace on my behalf. If I respond to the love he has poured out by his Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) in kind, these commandments will be evident in my life. I will love God and love my neighbor, not because it is commanded but because I am loved first by God that changes everything. I will not have to grasp lesser loves for myself in wrong and harmful ways. I will review the Ten Commandments (on my fingers) again this week with an open heart ready to repent of any way that I am resisting his desire to come to me and bless me.

P = O Lord, open my eyes to see my own weaknesses so that I can bring them to you in humility. Open my ears to hear your loving encouragement and direction. Open my mouth to speak with you honestly. Breathe into my nostrils afresh your living Spirit that I might be more like you for my own works are dead in comparison. May others sense your presence in my life and may they be blessed by your love through me this week. Thank you for working these miracles! Amen.

 

Exodus 1-12 "The Deliverance"

S = Exodus 3:7-12 “Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and  I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and  to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land,  a land flowing with milk and honey… And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

   But Moses said to God,  “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 

   He said, “But I will be with you…”

O = God was not impervious to the sufferings of his people. I notice the poetic layers of connection with which God speaks to Moses. “I have surely seen the affliction of my people…I have heard their cry…I know their sufferings…” If God had seen, heard and known them then is it a stretch to trust that he knows what we are going through today? Not at all! But what I love about this passage is that God doesn’t just see, hear, and know their suffering, He is resolved to do something about it, “I have come down to deliver them.” I also note that part of his doing something is to send a man, Moses, as an instrument of deliverance. Moses didn’t want to go. His, “Who am I that I should go?” is a question that many Christians ask when God calls us to do something about injustice in the world today. If I had to paraphrase God’s answer to Moses it would be, “It’s not about who you are…but about who is with you. I AM with you.” Remember last week’s passage from Genesis 12:1-3? In these chapter of Exodus God brings tremendous power to bear on Pharaoh and Egypt because of their persecution of Abraham’s descendants.

A = Do I need to have eyes to see what God sees and an ear to hear what he hears, or do I just need to have an available heart to respond when he sends me? I love the imagery in song about seeing the way God sees…but I think it would simply overwhelm me…blowing my heart and mind away with the sheer volume and intensity of the need that exists. I think that I would do better to aspire to simply listen to God’s call and commission on my life today, remembering that God is not asking because I am awesome, but because he wants to give me the privilege of participating in his awesome plan…to set people free.

P = O Lord, what are you asking me to do today that I have been resisting? I know that I am inadequate to the task…but perhaps that is what you have been doing in my life; showing me that it is not about my strength. So what is it that you have been preparing me to trust you for? How do you desire to involve me in your work this week? Let me hear your voice by the Word and the Spirit, and let me not turn away in fear, lag behind in laziness, dictate the terms in arrogance, or walk away in weariness. May I be enlightened by your wisdom, empowered by your Spirit, and emboldened by your love. May your name be glorified in my responses this week. Amen.

Genesis 12 & 15 "A Promise, A Clarification, & A Covenant"

SOAP Journal Based on Genesis 12 & 15

S = Excerpts of three sections for this devotional

• Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Promise)
• Genesis 15:4-6 “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”…And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”  (Clarification)
• Genesis 15:17-18 “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land…”  (Covenant)

O = It really is too large of an assignment to pick one facet from God’s activity in the life of Abraham to journal about, hence my picking three. The Promise of God is the basis of our relationship with God. The law cannot make us perfect, but by faith we can enter into the gracious promise that God extended to Abram/Abraham (Romans 4:13). Sometimes we need God to clarify things for us and Abram was no exception. God spoke to him the clarification “your very own son” and Abram believed God. Later, God would further clarify that the promise was to come through Sarah’s son Isaac (Ch. 17) as the great plan was progressively revealed. It was Abraham’s simple belief or trust in what God had said that was credited to him as righteousness. The Apostle Paul argues that it is the same for us today (Romans 4). We trust that Jesus’ death and resurrection that it was enough to cover our sins and raise us up to everlasting life (Rom. 10:9-10). God even uses the graphic imagery of covenant to seal the deal in Abraham’s life. Since there is no one greater to swear the covenant by, the imagery suggests that God is swearing by himself as the pot and torch pass between the pieces (15:17; Hebrews 6:13-14). Will we respond today, as Abraham did long ago, to God’s love for us?

A = I know that I need to approach God by simply trusting in his faithful love for me, not by trusting in the excellence of my own works or character. It is a good thing, for like Abraham, I have been chosen by God’s grace, not because I am worthy, yet it is in trusting him  that he makes me worthy. This week I need to intentionally pause to remember what God has said about me (in the Bible), and live in light of that revelation. I realize that Abram didn’t know all the details at first, but only over many years did the specific details of the plan of God for his life become known (including a new name) …yet he walked in faith to what he knew. This week I will seek to walk in humble trust before the Lord, and quiet my heart to the unfolding of his plan for me personally.

P = O Lord, I am in awe to read of your commitment to bring salvation to your people, from Abraham and Sarah, to Moses and the Israelites, to David and the prophets, to Peter, Matthew and the other apostles, and down through history to me! Let me remember your faithfulness that is on display for me to see and live today with a heart filled with gratitude and praise for you. Amen

Genesis 3 "Adam, where are you?"

S = Genesis 3:8-11 ^“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

O = There are so many things to be noticed in this chapter, but there are a few things that capture my attention today in regards to this chapter on the “fall of man” into sin. It changed all of creation, but it didn’t change God. Having our eyes “opened” actually brought about a distorted view that actually blinded us to many obvious things. It is not hard to see as we read that both human reasoning and relationships were both tragically twisted that day in the garden.

1. Sin can never be explained away. Our excuses, denials, and minimization never work with God. There is always a penalty (v.14-19), and there is always a need for a redeemer (promised in 3:15). That we cannot save ourselves is clear even from the beginning. All our best efforts are no more effective than fig leaves sown together.
2. Redemption (or reclamation) comes through sacrifice (v.21). God sacrificed animals to clothe them, but animals just cover guilt and that only temporarily. The whole of the Old Testament narrates God’s commitment to restore his people, speaking of the Redeemer that would one day come. The prophet Isaiah wrote of God’s rescue plan, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)  And the apostle Paul, in the New Testament echoes this idea, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  (Romans 5:8) Christ removes our sin and guilt completely and brings us his robe of righteousness. 
3. The consequences God imposed were loving rather than vindictive (v. 22-24). We don't often think about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as an act of mercy but it was. It would have been a terrible curse for them to eat of the tree of life and live forever in their fallen, sinful state. Our loving God desires that we live forever in righteousness—which we receive only through Christ. We are not cursed to live forever in our fallen, sinful, shameful, fearful condition. There are loving consequences we experience when we sin. Scripture says that they are never pleasant at the time but that their end, our coming to repentance, is the result of God's love. The grace that God showed to mankind in the Garden of Eden is still available today (Romans 6:23)

A = In God’s question, "Adam, where are you?" (3:9), do I hear him speaking to me? I need to ask myself this question. Am I in a place of denial, minimization, or have I come to the point of confession and surrender?  If I picture myself at the scene at the cross, which thief do I want to be? As it is written in Luke 23:39-43,

"One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." 

Do I choose denial or confession, self-deception or the truth? (1 John 1:5-2:2)

In responding to the love of God in Jesus Christ we no longer seek to flee or hide from God. "For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."  (1 Peter 2:25) This week I want to be quick to confess and agree with God that he is God and I am not.

P = O Lord, thank you for showing yourself to be the faithful and relentless lover of my soul. I am amazed to see how you have planned to restore us since the beginning. Let me not forget who you are—that you are not some angry God that loves us when you can, but a loving God that disciplines us when you have to. I know that your loving discipline always works for good in me and in others, even when it is painful. May you have free reign to work in me today. Thank you for seeking me out on my wandering path, rescuing me from the pit of my sin, and giving me everlasting life!