OUR LORD'S PLACE OF REST

Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 2 - 3 are the words of the Lord and they read this way;

Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the Lord.

This passage gives a window into the frustration that the Lord our God had with His people the children of Israel. 

The Lord, though He dwelled in Israel, longed for a traveller's  resort in the desert where he could get away from his people because they were adulterous people and malicious liars who acted lawlessly and did not acknowledge their God.

This passage was referring to the children of Israel among whom the Lord God dwelled in His  Temple but this dynamic also includes us who believe in Jesus and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

As believers, we must consider if the Lord would rather to be somewhere else when He experiences the life we subject him to. 

Do our lives reflect His holiness and kindness and temperance and mercy and patience and chastity? 

When the Lord's own righteous nature is expressed in us, we ourselves become like an expensive and exclusive resort for Him to dwell in and find rest.

If, however, our lives are cluttered with anger, lies, indiscipline, malice, hatred, lust and selfishness, we are like a cheap motel in a seedy part of town with filthy rooms, discolored water from the taps, noisy drunken fights next door and background gunfire. In such a jarring place where situations careen from one calamity to the next all night long, rest is difficult to find.

Let us build ourselves up to be like a high-end resort where the Lord is served cheerfully and attentively. He finds everything He wants in order and ready for His purposes.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO BLESSES US TILL OUR CUP RUNNETH OVER

Joshua 17 verse 9 contains a detail in the allotments of the promised land issued to the descendants of the children of Israel. In particular, the apportionment is for the people who descended from one of the two sons of Joseph called Mannaseh. The other son's name was Ephraim.

The passage goes like this;

Then the boundary continued south to the Kanah Ravine. There were towns belonging to Ephraim lying among the towns of Manasseh, but the boundary of Manasseh was the northern side of the ravine and ended at the Mediterranean Sea. 

As Israel's hold of the promised land expanded, the allocation of land to the tribes of Israel used  geographical features and towns as boundary markers. In this case, the tribe of Mannaseh  was given the land north of the Kanah Ravine bordering the Mediteranian sea on the west side and the Jordan River on the east side. The northern border was just north of the towns of Taanach and Megiddo.

Even though this was a relatively large portion of land, the people of Mannaseh went to the leaders of Israel and said that they had not been given enough land because they were very numerous and had been blessed by the Lord so much that they could not fit into the space that had been allocated to them. Joshua recommended that they commandeer more land for themselves from the forested hill country to the south and the lands in the areas east of the sea of Galilee.

This rendering of the history of Israel brings to mind the prophecies written far into the future by the prophet Isaiah in the book of Isaiah chapter 49 that describes the bride of Christ marveling at the fullness of her household who were so numerous that they declared that they needed more room for them to fit. The passage goes like this;

“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’

Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these?

I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’”

Because Joseph had been sold as a slave and exiled yet was faithful, the Lord blessed Joseph mightily with numerous descendants such that his children  multiplied and filled the land beyond capacity and they demanded more land. In the same way, the  bride of  Christ, having been exiled and rejected by the world yet remained faithful, will have children emerge that fill their allotted space beyond capacity and will need to request more space to accommodate everybody.

Bless our Lord who blesses us to overflowing with people who turn to Him because we share the word of His salvation.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ACTS IN JUDGEMENT OF WICKEDNESS 

Malachi chapter 4 verse 3 says this;

 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.

In this passage, a time is foretold when those who revere the Lord's name will be imbued with extraordinary attributes that will give them the authority to bring down the scaffolds of  wickedness and cause the wicked to be humiliated underfoot. The use of the word 'trample' and 'ashes' in the text  invoke the idea of humiliation of the wicked. 

This time will be predicated by the direct action that the Lord takes in judgement against the arrogant evildoers.

Let us bless our Lord who, having saved us from our own wicked ways, enjoins us to His victorious battle against evil.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PROTOCOLS MUST BE FOLLOWED

1 Samuel chapter 13 verse 4 says this;

So all Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.” And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

The setting described here is where the Philistine army and the Israelite army were squaring off and taking positions when Jonathan, Saul's son, led an attack on a Philistine outpost which ratcheted up the tensions between the two armies.

Saul, king of the Israelites, relayed messages back to the people of Israel alerting them to the fact that the war with the Philistines had escalated and that they were now going to be targets of the Philistine military.

Saul summoned the people of Israel to come to Gilgal which further escalated  tensions and the Philistines bolstered their numbers of men and chariots to counter Israel. 

Now, Israel were waiting for their prophet Samuel to arrive to bring the blessing of God to the army of Israel before the battle began but Samuel did not arrive on the allotted day and Saul's discouraged army began to scatter.

Saul had accelerated the pace of the military buildup by having a Philistine outpost attacked and then sending out inflammatory news back to Israel to raise his profile and also to cause panic.

This deliberate acceration of war by Saul  may have caused Samuel to be delayed in arriving at Gilgal but the result was that Saul himself, flustered, carried out the sacrifice that Samuel should have performed. As a result of this blunder, Saul lost his anointing of the kingship over Israel which was handed to David son of Jesse.

Saul's plan of forcing the hand of Israel by triggering a skirmish and then sending back exagerated news of the Philistine's pending reaction was a tactical error that we should take heed of. 

We should always undertake and correctly conclude spiritual requirements prior to triggering events that will cascade unpredictably forcing decisions that will have eternal ramifications.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO WARNS OF FALSE PROPHETS

The book of Micah chapter 3 verse 5 speaks of a type of prophet whose demeanor towards people was determined by whether they were offered food or not. The scripture reads this way;

This is what the Lord says: “As for the prophets  who lead my people astray, they proclaim ‘peace’ if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them.

These types of prophets, who sully the name of the Lord by being partial and vengeful, are in fact heralds of the fall of the prophetic in the land  and that the night is closing in where visions will cease and darkness  swallows up the day.

Diametrically opposite to this, the Apostle Paul proclaimed the high standard of serving the people of God. He, serving as a minister to the people of Corinth, refused to take a wage from them and instead preferred to make his own arrangements so as not to burden them as it says in 2 Corinthians verses 7 - 9;

And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

The evil prophets whom Micah spoke about went even beyond burdening the people to imposing the terror of extortion and blackmail to get the food they wanted  from  those they were ministering to.

Let us follow the example of the saints who served the Lord and forfeited gain for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SERVES OTHERS AS AN EXAMPLE TO US

The book of James chapter 1 verse 9 says this;

But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;

This paradoxical maxim charges those who are poor to revel in the high position that the Lord has placed them. This sounds contradictory but a survey of the new covenant reveals that similar inversions occur in many aspects of the kingdom of God.

For example, when Jesus was teaching the sermon on the mount, He  laid out four scenarios in Mathew 5 verses 3 - 6 where the lowly are shown to be highly placed in the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Here, those who are weak or deficient are strong in the spirit and have riches in the kingdom of Christ.

An exhortation to deliberately humble ourselves if we are to gain any stature in the kingdom of God is found in Mathew 23 verse 12 which goes like this;

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Similarly, in John 23 verse 11, it says;

The greatest among you will be your servant. 

To rise in the kingdom of God, we must serve others rather than aim to lead others for the kingdom of God is a kingdom of love and righteousness and responsibility where serving one another is the coin of the realm.

Jesus our Lord, the high and exalted King of kings and Lord of Lords knelt on the floor to wash  his disciples' feet as an example to them of His inverted kingdom of servanthood.

Let us follow our Lord's example and be humble servants of all people.

Amen.

OUR LORD FOR WHOM WE CAN FORFEIT OUR RIGHT

1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 3 says this;

This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 

In this scripture,  the Apostle Paul is reacting to criticism of his credentials and his methods. 

There were people in Corinth who were grumbling that Paul did not have the stature of the other apostles to assert the things that he was asserting.

Paul defended himself against the challenges by indicating that He certainly did have the stature to assert apostolic leadership over the church at Corinth because he was the one who brought the message and the creed of Christ to them.  

He also defended himself by saying that he met and exceeded any standard of apostleship by assiduously avoiding the burdening of the church with his financial support even though, as he showed from scripture, he had the right to be supported by the people of the church.

Paul has served  the church of Corinth and invested in them but had forfeited his right to gain from his service. The people had twice benefitted from Paul; First by his ministry and then by having no burden to bear for that ministry.

An interesting juxtaposition can be found in Joshua chapter 9 where the Hivites deceived the Israelites and got a treaty signed that protected them from conflict with Israel. The scripture goes like this;

The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, but all the leaders answered, “We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that God’s wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.” They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers in the service of the whole assembly.” So the leaders’ promise to them was kept.

The Hivites, by their deceptive action, were obligated to the Israelites in the same way that the people of Corinth were obligated to Paul but whereas the Israelites did not absolve the Hivites of their obligation and the Hivites served as water carriers and woodcutters for the Israelites indefinitely, Paul, in His confidence in Christ, forfeited his right for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Bless the Lord our God whose richness in Christ  let's us choose to forfeit our own right if it might strengthen others in Christ.

Amen