(Numbers 33) Unnecessary Detours

Leave a reply

If I counted correctly, the Israelites moved 44 times during their forty year romp through the wilderness. God had brought them right to the door of the Promised Land, but because of their unbelief, they were forced to turn away and roam the countryside.

I taught school for almost forty years. During that time I made eight moves. One was during the worst snow storm Ohio had ever seen. None of the moves I made were fun. I can’t imagine picking up and moving 44 times. That’s more than one a year! No thanks!!

What makes this a tragic tale is the fact they didn’t have to have moved at all. If they had only trusted God, He would have given them the land He’d brought them to. It was right there. It was so close. It’s what God wanted for them. But they just couldn’t trust Him, and God closed the door. Such an unnecessary detour.

As you look back on your life, do you recognize the unnecessary detours you’ve taken because you hadn’t trusted God? It happens. God brings us right to the door of blessing, but we hold back. We try another route. We question, and doubt. And God closes the door.

We find ourselves taking that detour that includes hardships and heartache. Yes, there are blessings in the detours. Yes God can and does use us during those times. But we miss what was beyond our doubt at the time God wanted us to accept it.

God is speaking to me about trust today. Are there areas of my life I keep to myself, things I think I need to handle on my own, ministry opportunities I decline because I think the hurdles are too high? What am I missing if I don’t trust God with it all?

I want God’s perfect will in my life. Not just because there are blessings there, but because it’s God’s perfect will for me. I would rather not take unnecessary detours to get there.

(Numbers 26-30) Priorities

Leave a reply

There seems to have been a lot of livestock and wheat among the nomadic Jews there in the wilderness. If you count up the things required for daily sacrifices, not to mention the special occasion sacrifices, there’re a lot of cattle, lambs, goats, as well as bushels and bushels of grain.

So why was it necessary for God to provide manna? Why would the people complain about being hungry? I mean, surely not all of the livestock was unblemished. Couldn’t they have eaten the less-than-perfect animals?

As I was thinking about that this morning, I remembered when Moses told God there wasn’t enough cattle in the world to feed all the people for even a month. At that time God sent quail to satisfy their desire for meat.

This is what I feel God wanted me to see in these chapters today: priorities.

God had given specific instructions concerning the sacrificial system. They weren’t suggestions, they were demands. Their sin required those sacrifices be made… and often.

If the people had exhausted their supply of livestock and grain for food, there would have been no animals to sacrifice, no hope of being forgiven of sin. So what do you do? Do you eat like a king for a month? Or do you protect your relationship with God?

The Jews had their priorities straight. As tempting as it must have been to grill a steak or bake a cake, they ate what God provided in the form of manna. It was more important for them to be able to give to God what He demanded.

And here’s the lesson: when we get our priorities straight, when we put God first, when we deal with sin in our lives first, He will supply our needs. Nothing is more important than having a right relationship with God. That which comes after is icing on a manna-baked cake.

That’s how to get our priorities straight.

(Numbers 21-25) Are You Listening?

Leave a reply

Two things from the Balak/Balaam account struck me this morning.

The first is the importance of knowing God’s Word. Balaam was adamant when he said he would only speak God’s words and nothing else. He spoke only God’s words to Balak, even though it was not at all what Balak wanted to hear, and in fact, had the potential to cause Balaam a great deal of trouble, maybe even death.

The thing is, many of us can quote a verse here and there to support a belief:

God is love.

Judge not.

I will never leave or forsake you.

He will give you the desires of your heart.

All scriptural. All truth. But what I noticed about Balaam is that he didn’t pick and choose the parts of the words God gave him that would make him look good, or would make Balak happy. God gave Balaam the words, and Balaam quoted them to Balak exactly as God had spoken them.

We can’t quote, “God is love” without also declaring His holiness, His Lordship, and the fact He punishes sin without mercy. We can tell each other “judge not” but we must also tell each other to address sin in lives so those sins can be forgiven by God. We can rest assured God will never leave us, but that promise is for His children only. He does leave those who reject Him by holding onto sin. God gives us the desires of our hearts when we trust Him, when His desires become ours. Do you know where to find the verses that complete the verses I quoted above? You should. They are God’s words.

God not only speaks to us through His written word, He uses Scripture to speak through us to hearts that are in need of His saving grace. When we witness to someone we shouldn’t be sharing our opinions about Scripture. We should be using Scripture honestly, pointing out the very verses that speak to their need of Jesus, and allowing God’s own words to move in hearts.

We have got to put down the commentaries and shut down the internet, and open the precious pages of the Bible to hear God’s voice. We need to study God’s words to show ourselves approved by Him so that we are fully equipped to share God’s Word with others. God’s words. Not ours.

The second thing that struck me today is how Balak tried to finagle God into giving him what he wanted. Three times he tried to manipulate God into putting a curse on the Jews.

Maybe if I sacrifice here I’ll get what I want.

Maybe over there God will give me the desire of my heart.

Maybe there on that mountain. Maybe there God will do what I say.

Have you ever tried to manipulate God? You go to church thinking God will reward you with what you want. You’ve heard that if you claim it, you can have it… so you claim it loud and clear, believing that is the key to getting God to move. You convince yourself that if you quit swearing, or drinking, or if you sing in the choir, lift your hands and pray out loud God will do whatever you ask.

Is that how you see God working in Scripture? Can God be manipulated into being your magic genie?

Goes back to my first point. Read the Bible. Read it again. Pray for understanding. Then live it, use it, love it. The answers to your questions are there. God’s plan of salvation is there. God’s hope for the future is there. God’s instructions about how we should treat others, what He thinks of sin, what Jesus did on the cross, and what He wants you to do because of it is there.

You can’t manipulate God. But you can get to know His heart, and transform into the man or woman He wants you to be by listening to His voice through His own words. You can’t hear Him if you aren’t reading those words for yourself. Read the Bible.

And listen.

(Numbers 20) Get Out Of The Way

Leave a reply

Moses, a man of great faith, a man who spoke with God as easily as I speak with my sister, got in the way of the Israelites recognizing God’s greatness. Read this chapter and see if you can discern how God was hidden when Moses tapped that rock. And then pay attention to what God thought about that.

I had a conversation recently with a dear follower of Jesus, a woman whose life shines a light on her Savior. She’s going through a difficult time right now. During our conversation she said, “God won’t give us more than we can handle.” She sited I Corinthians 10:13 as the basis for her belief:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear…

Maybe you’ve heard others claim the same promise in times of trouble. Maybe you’ve claimed it for yourself, or tried to assure another who is facing difficulties. And if you have, you are getting in the way of people seeing God’s greatness.

Is I Corinthians 10:13 about temptation? Difficult situations? Is it about your strength? Or is it about God? Your answer is vitally important in the way you represent God.

You have to quote the whole verse to understand what God wants you to know:

…But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it. (emphasis mine)

God isn’t saying you can handle it. He’s saying He can!

I don’t believe a Christian should ever say, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” That’s Satan’s lie. And if you say that to anyone, you will prevent God from revealing Himself in that situation. People who tell themselves they are capable, strong, powerful, and can handle things on their own replace God with themselves. Isn’t that what Satan wants?

The truth is God does allow things in our life that are beyond our capability. But He promises we won’t face any situation HE can’t handle if we let Him.

Whether it’s a difficult situation in your life, or if you are standing with another who is facing trials don’t even think about telling them God won’t give them more than they can handle. Assure them that they can trust God to provide a way so they can endure what is going on at the moment. That’s what God wants us all to understand. Let God have the situation and the glory so that people around you can recognize His greatness, not yours.

Get out of the way.

(Numbers 11-15) It Will Kill You

Leave a reply

God wants us to take a good look at sin from His vantage point. Whether it’s the coveting of what non-believers seem to enjoy as in the case of the Jews wishing they were back in Egypt where they were well fed; not trusting God like the Jews who campaigned against going into the Promised Land; or open defiance of God’s Law like the Jewish man who gathered firewood on the Sabbath, God wants us to know He will not tolerate sin in any shape or form.

You want meat like the Egyptians? You’ll get meat. And it will kill you.

You can’t trust God to give you what He’s promised? Don’t go into Canaan. And it will kill you.

You think an act of disobedience is no big deal because you think collecting wood is more important? Go get your wood. And it will kill you.

How much more clear can God be? You can defy Him, reject Him, rationalize your sin…

and it will kill you.

That is a death, my friend, worse than anything you can imagine. That death, eternal agony, void of any hope, endless pain and suffering is the death God wants you to understand.

Your only hope is to confess and repent of your sin, accept the fact that Jesus paid your death sentence, and allow Him to cleanse you and give you the power to be obedient.

You can live in your sin… but God wants you to know it will kill you.

(Leviticus 15-27) What Does This Have To Do With Me?

2 Replies

Sometimes we might be tempted to gloss over chapters like the ones here in Leviticus because we live after the cross, right? Didn’t Jesus come to fulfill the Law? I’m certainly not going to go out and stone someone for saying something bad about his dad, or for sleeping with his mother’s brother’s wife’s daughter, am I? Of course not.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t important things for me to learn from all of Scripture. Here’s what I believe God is saying these verses have to do with me:

Following God’s Law involves honesty, integrity, compassion, justice, honor, and hard work. The blessings for obediences are many. The consequences for disobedience are severe. What are some of the areas covered in these chapters in Leviticus?

  1. Respect for one another. That includes protecting each other from diseases, physical diseases as spelled out here, but also from the disease of sin. Just like an unclean person needed to wash themselves so as not to expose others to their uncleanness, we must wash ourselves in the blood of Jesus, so sin in us doesn’t touch others and cause them to sin. Sin is a communicable disease. We need to respect each other by taking care of the sin in our lives so that it doesn’t spread.
  2. Fair treatment of each other. This includes employers’ treatment of workers as well as the workers’ treatment of employers. These chapters speak against our current welfare system and socialism in that help did not come from government, but from individuals looking out for individuals facing hard times – and only for a period of time until the needy individual is able to go back to work. Our perpetual governmental support of non-workers in this nation today is not only against God’s Law and extremely unfair – it is fiscally irresponsible. The chapters here in Leviticus point out that we are to be working, respecting those in authority as well as those who work for us, and always do our jobs in obedience to God.
  3. Honoring God. It addresses idolatry, worship of God, and honoring God with our bodies. But one thing my Apologetics Bible pointed out from chapter 24 was that blasphemy brings guilt on those who hear it as well as on the blasphemer. Recently I have been convicted by some of the TV shows I watch, and the books I read. The common use of God’s name as an exclamation mark, the vulgar word used for the sex act, and the two combined in a shockingly blasphemous manner have become as commonplace as the casual use of the words “hell,” “damn,” and “OMG.” Now, I can tell myself I can handle listening to those things without them effecting me, that the show or book is harmless. But I have to understand that what I have heard cannot be unheard. The blasphemy (which God takes very seriously) has entered my mind. I am guilty.
  4. Sin. We cannot ignore sin. We can’t condone it, rename it, or participate in it. And if we commit a sin, either intentionally or at the hands of another, we are guilty, we have to confess it and repent. “Be holy” is God’s command. And you can’t be holy if sin exists in your life.

There, of course, is much more in these chapters. If you read them, and I hope you do, God may point out other truths He wants you to hear. These chapters are included in God’s Word for a reason. Don’t miss what He has to say.

These things definitely have everything to do with you.

(Leviticus 6-14) Speading Disease

Leave a reply

If you think this is about COVID, you would be wrong.

God, through Moses, refers often to a place “outside the camp.” It was where the unclean parts of a sacrificed animal were burned, where unclean stones and plaster were thrown, and to where unclean people were banished.

We who live after the cross see thy symbolism as Jesus was crucified outside the city when our sins rendered Him who knew no sin, unclean.

But something else spoke to me today about these chapters. I, as a Christian, am commanded to be holy because God, whom I represent, is holy. That means I need to remove everything from my life that isn’t holy, and throw it away, burn it up, and never revisit it – ever.

My problem is I try to hold on to a bit of sin. Or I confess it, but don’t really repent of it. It might be an impure thought, a feeling of unforgiveness or resentment or hate, a habit, laziness, and sometimes flat-out disobedience. The list goes on. All of which prevents me from holiness and purity. Yet holiness and purity are God’s requirements.

I see, through the picture Moses paints here in Leviticus concerning disease and mold, the result of my disobedience. Even if I put on a hat to disguise my disease, or a coat of paint on a wall to cover up mold, it doesn’t render me clean. If I put a smile on my face and carry my Bible, it doesn’t cover up the fact my heart is diseased, unclean. And my infection can and does spread to others. I can call my sin a mistake, a choice, an accident, or convince myself it’s no big deal, but my unclean life touches the lives of others in my home, my church, my community, and I become responsible for my sin disease spreading to them.

It also reminds me of what is happening in God’s Church. We’ve convinced ourselves that sinners in our midst is a good thing. We should welcome them, embrace them, make them a part of our fellowships. But God, here in Leviticus, tells us to banish the diseased person to outside the camp until – not before -they are clean.

Sounds cruel. Sounds un-Christian. But the fact of the matter is, their disease can and does spread within the church. Their disease of sin can and does spread to holy people, who then themselves become unholy. It has nothing to do with loving or not loving our neighbor. It has everything to do with keeping the Church holy, protecting the holiness and purity God demands of us.

The Church is not pure, we are not holy as long as we tolerate unrepentant sinners in our midst. Should we be inviting our unsaved friends to church? Not if we want to keep God’s Church holy.

Jesus said, “Come to me…” He didn’t say come to the synagogue. He didn’t say come to church. Jesus told us to GO, make disciples. He didn’t say sit back and invite them into His House, hoping our holiness will rub off on them and make them clean. It doesn’t work that way.

We need to get off our couches and get out into our neighborhoods and introduce unsaved, unclean people to their Savior. Then, and not before, we should welcome them into our midst to worship God with clean hearts. God does not accept worship any other way.

Unrepentant hearts cannot worship God. And that bit of disease in our churches can and does spread. Don’t think it doesn’t.

(Genesis 32-40) Submission

2 Replies

Here’s where I think we have failed God.

As I was reading every detail of Bezalel’s work in the making of the tabernacle, once again I was frustrated. Didn’t we just get done reading those same details in the previous chapters? Why put us through that torture again? Why not simply report, “Bezalel obeyed?”

As I was forming that question in my mind somewhere around chapter 37, God seemed to challenge me to pay attention. There is a lesson to be learned from Bezalel’s obedience. I slowed down my reading and looked carefully at the level of Bezalel’s obedience and it dawned on me. The lesson here is…

submission.

We don’t see Bezalel going rogue. We don’t see him adding to or skipping over even the tiniest detail. He was an artist. I’m sure he was creative and imaginative in his own right. But he submitted to God. He laid aside his own desires and fulfilled the plan God designed exactly as it was told him.

Scripture tells us repeatedly that the tabernacle was made “just as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

Oh, that we would be as diligent, as careful to build the Church in 2021, just as the Lord commanded in His Word. I’m not sure we have submitted our wills as completely as Bezalel submitted his.

If we’re honest we have overlooked some important details. We’ve tweaked some details to be less offensive, more politically correct. Haven’t we turned our worship into entertaining productions? We are more concerned with what our worship looks like than in the condition of our hearts. We rationalize sin in our church and in our individual lives, and it’s getting harder and harder to recognize a follower of Jesus because we look very much like unbelievers.

The result of Bezalel’s level of obedience was blessing. Read chapter 40. It must have been an amazing spectacle as God revealed His Presence. There could be no question. God was in this. There is reward for carefully following what God says: HIS PRESENCE!

So today God is asking me to submit, to lay aside what I think, and look into His Word to find out what He commands. He is asking me to stop listening to christian-sounding ideas and plans, and to obey what He has made so clear in the pages of my Bible.

I realize my level of submission isn’t where it needs to be. Submitting to God isn’t merely a prayer, or an intention. If I truly submit to God it is going to be evident in my talk, my walk, my thoughts, and ultimately in my choices today. It’s going to be driven by God’s plan, not mine.

Have we as the Church failed to submit to God? If so, maybe it’s time we do.

(Exodus 26-31) Plans and Blueprints and Details

Leave a reply

Why did God think it was important to have every tiny detail of the tabernacle spelled out? My brain doesn’t work like this. I honestly don’t care how many rings held a pole or if the covering hung over six inches or six feet or not at all.

I’ve shared my church is in the middle of a building project. There are plans and blueprints and details I don’t understand – or care to understand. But before I walk through those doors and sit in a chair under that roof, I’m going to be very glad someone thought about the feet and inches and materials and placement, and cared enough to not only understand those details, but made sure they were carried out to the letter so the building doesn’t come crashing down on my head.

Now, I know every detail God recorded here in these chapters in Exodus have symbolic meaning and draw a beautiful picture of God’s Sovereign plan of salvation. But when I read this I can’t help but think, not so much of the plan, but the Planner, not so much of the building but the Architect, the Master Designer who not only drew up those plans, but oversaw the process of turning His plans into an amazing place of worship there in the desert. That tabernacle would not come crashing down on the Israelites because it was designed by God Himself and built by people who followed His blueprints to the letter.

That gives me peace and joy today as God’s tabernacle in 2021. Because as interested as God was in every detail of that Old Testament tabernacle, He is infinitely more interested the details of my life. And if I follow the blueprint, if I build according to the plans He has laid out in His Word, I won’t come crashing down even in the middle of a virus scare, or a job loss, or a medical setback, or a change in government.

So I am thankful God included these details I read today here in the book of Exodus. It reminds me how invested He is in the details of my life. The Master Designer is my peace and joy and hope.

(Exodus 20) The 10 Suggestions

Leave a reply

I have seen in my lifetime the gradual, and not so gradual, rejection of God’s Laws. The inevitable result can be seen on the news every day. We can remove the Ten Commandments from our walls, re-write them to be politically correct, but the end will be lawlessness, immortality, violence, disrespect, and a Me First society that is more about the perceived rights of individuals than what is right.

Are we to take these Ten Commandments literally, and obey them to the letter? Absolutely. Why would anyone think life wouldn’t be better if we did?

I am reminded God gave these instructions to Israel AFTER He saved them from slavery in Egypt. They are not conditions for salvation, but rather behaviors that honor our Savior.

I believe if Christians were the only ones taking these commandments seriously, our nation and our world would not look like it does today. Sadly, many Christians make choices to disobey every day. No wonder we are witnessing such a decline.

Common sense tells me if these commandments were followed by all, believers and non-believers, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in. I challenge you to point out one of the ten that would make matters worse if it was obeyed.

You are not responsible for how your neighbor obey’s God. You are responsible for how you obey, however. Read them. Memorize them. Live by them to the letter and in the spirit of them.

They are not The Ten Suggestions.