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

OUR LORD WHO CONFOUNDS THE WISDOM OF THE WISE

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 19, the scripture pointedly indicates that the Lord destroys the wisdom of the wise and He frustrates the intelligence of the intelligent. Placed in its context, the verses 18 - 20 read like this;

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

This incredible passage reinforces a very notable aspect of the nature of our God: He is very contrarian toward the  pretensions of the wisdom of men. This is why our infinitely precious salvation is entrusted to the simplicity of the unadorned message of the cross. 

To those who are not being saved, this message is seen as foolishness even though it is the very power of God unto salvation. 

The Lord our God, so as not to imbue the wisdom and philosophy of men with any credit of salvation of mankind, provided, as the only means by which men may be saved, the stark and unembelished message of the death that was suffered by the Son of God to pay for our sins.

Because the wisdom and intelligence of men is of no ultimate value when it is the salvation of our souls that we desperately need, God has rendered the wisdom of men worthless and the intelligence of the intelligent pointless.

Bless our Lord who has made salvation available to all without regard to their wisdom or intelligence.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOM WE MUST ALWAYS CONSULT

In Joshua chapter 9 verses 12 - 14, a scene unfolds where the leaders of Israel are being tricked by the neighbouring people of Gibeon (called Hivites) into signing a treaty not to do harm to them.

The Hivites concocted a fictitious tale saying that they had come from a distant land and wanted a peace  treaty between themselves and Israel.

To carry out the deception, they equipped themselves with elaborate costumes and props to provide the Israelites with evidence that they were from a distant land and had travelled a long distance to reach them. 

The passage goes like this:

This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

The Israelites were suspicious at first so the Hivites presented cracked winskins and worn cloths as proof that they had traveled a long distance and thus the Israelites, after examining the evidence, took their claims to be true and signed an oath-bound treaty with them.

The scripture mentions that the Israelites did not inquire of the Lord. It was only later that the Iaraelite's realized that they had been duped but by then, they had already bound themselves by oath to a treaty with the Hivites.

The lesson in this story is that no matter what the evidence that we have around us is, we must always seek the counsel of the Lord our God. He sees all things and His guidance  would include perspectives that would save us from deception and trickery.

Let us inquire of the Lord when faced with conundrums and propositions especially when we do not know all the facts.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO FORGIVES AND CLEANSES US

In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, we find a well known scripture that reads this way;

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The scripture before this one and the one after it assert that there is no one without sin and thus this activity of confessing our sin is something that all human beings who belong to God  will be participating in.

Confessing our sins to the Lord our God imposes on His faithfulness and His justness. When we do this,  two things occur: The Lord forgives our sin and second, the Lord cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

When the Lord forgives us, it means that all remembrance of our sin is cancelled and He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west as Psalm 103 verse 12 says.

The Lord then sets up conditions to purify us from unrighteousness. This is a process that works to purge from us our tendency to commit that sin with the aim of yielding a harvest of righteousness in us.

Let us always yield ourselves to the Lord's forgiveness and cleansing by readily and sincerely confessing our transgressions to the One who gave His life for us and shed His blood to pay for our sins.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PRESENCE WAS CAPTURED AWAY FROM HIS PEOPLE ( part 2 )

Continuing from yesterday where we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 and followed through to the end of the chapter at verse 22, we  now look at 1 Samuel chapter 5. 

In this part of the narrative, a significant change has occurred. Whereas up to this point, Israel's army was the focus of the nation's ability to contend with their enemies, we now see that after their defeat and humiliation, the nation had  lost faith in their strength. 

With Israel in despair, it is now the Lord God Himself who takes issue with the Philistines and begins an intensifying campaign of psychological warfare against them.

1 Samuel chapter 5 begins this way;

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.  Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon.  When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 

The Philistines had carried the ark of God into the temple of their deity called Dagon but the next morning, they found Dagon face down in front of the ark of the God of Israel.

They had to have believed that this event was mere happenstance and thus put Dagon back in his place but the passage continues to describe how the next morning, they found Dagon's torso face down again but this time with his hands and feet broken off and laying on the threshold of their temple.

Shortly thereafter, a plague of tumors started afflicting the Philistines causing them to realise that keeping the ark of the God of Israel in their midst was causing a dangerous state of affairs. The Philistines tried moving the ark from city to city but everywhere it went, it brought mayhem, disease and death to the people there. 

The Philistines, seeing the pattern, called a meeting of their leaders and demanded that the ark be sent back to where it came from. The text reads this way;

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.” For death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy on it. 

The God of Israel was with the ark when it was taken and He, by His own power, escalated a war  on the Philistines that  compelled them to reach their own conclusion to return the ark of God to Israel.

Our Lord is not dependent on the strength of the armies of men to win battles. When the strength of men is exhausted and broken down and defeated, the Lord then arises quietly and creates conditions of panic among the enemies of His people.

What God's children have lost is then restored to them by the might of God.  Bless the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PRESENCE WAS CAPTURED AWAY FROM HIS PEOPLE

1 Samuel chapter 4 verses 11 - 12 tells of a change in fortune against the armies of Israel as they fought the Philistines.

During a battle, the ark of God  fell into the hands of the Philistine army  and the two sons of Eli, the priest who was the leader of Israel, were killed. 

A messenger left the battlefield to bring the bad news to the people. The passage reads this way;

The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

 That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh with his clothes torn and dust on his head.

The torn clothes and dust-covered head of the messenger represented the terrible defeat and humiliation suffered by Israel's army.

The worst possible scenario had occurred; Israel had lost the ark which was the seat of the Lord's presence into the hands of their sworn enemy. 

Further to that, the two sons of Eli died and Eli himself died shortly after when he learned what happened. 

Eli's daughter-in-law, who was pregnant with his grandson, also died after going into labour  when she heard of her husband's death, the death of her father-in-law and the loss of the ark of God. 

As she died, she said these words found in 1 Samuel 4 verse 22 , “The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” 

Israel was now truly vulnerable and leaderless and faced a dark future.

At this bleak juncture, a change in the landscape brought a new factor into the story which we shall look at in tomorrow's study.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESPONDS TO INJUSTICE (PART 2)

Continuing with the first chapter of Habakkuk, we looked at the corruption that plagued the people of God and now, in verses 6 - 10, we find the response that the Lord prepared in order to de-fang the powers of wickedness that polluted the land. The passage reads like this;

I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.

Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar.

They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. They mock kings and scoff at rulers.

They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them.

Here, we see that the Lord raises a horde of ruthless and dreaded people who abruptly appear at the doorstep of the wicked forces and defiantly scoff at the authorities of the nations. 

There is no defence or fortification that can withstand their headlong and unrelenting assault. 

These are the conditions that are prepared long before the day of reckoning. The Lord builds up an army unbeknownst to the wicked enemies of His people and on the day of His choosing, He  summons them suddenly and they appear like roving wolves at dusk, inexorably advancing against the entrenched power and savagely overwhelming it.

Such are the resources of the Lord God where a mighty and fearsome army is mustered completely out of sight and when the day of justice comes, no one can escape the fierce intent of their conquest.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO RESPONDS TO INJUSTICE

In the first chapter of Habakkuk verse 2 - 4, the prophet asked the Lord these questions;

Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

As an observer of the society around Him, Habakkuk agonized over the explicit corruption that was gaining prevalence while strife and conflict propagated unchecked. 

The prophet wanted to understand why the wicked could prosper and gain dominance over the righteous.

The Lord God began His answer to the prophet's questions in Habakkuk 1 verse 5 like this;

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,  even if you were told.

This response by God tells us that all the things that Habakkuk was concerned about had not gone unnoticed by the Lord.

In fact, the response points to the preparation that has already been done to address the situation and the Lord declares that His remediation will be a spectacle to marvel at. The Lord declares that when He takes action, it will be so miraculous, it will defy belief. 

We are living in a day when we are as perplexed as Habakkuk was but the Lord is poised with His spectacular intervention that will be so astonishing that, as described in Psalm 126 verse 1,  "When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream."

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ALERTS US

The first two verses in the 3 third chapter of the book of Revelation say this;

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. 

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 

Our Lord Jesus, who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, sends a stern caution to the church in Sardis.

He tells them that even though they are known for being a living church, He who sees the heart, knows they are dead. He charges them to wake up and to strengthen what is left for they have not completed the tasks they were destined to do.

Here, the Lord bluntly tells the church at Sardis what their secret condition is and He gives them the steps to take in order to reverse their ailment so that they can rise to fulfill their callings.

Bless our Lord who stirs us from sleep and charges us to press on toward the prize.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO FAVOURS THOSE AFTER HIS OWN HEART

Continuing with the study of Samuel chapter 2, we get to the part of the narrative where Samuel reached Gilgal and found that Saul had just completed the offering that should have been left for Samuel to do. This is how the passage proceeds;

Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

“What have you done?” asked Samuel.

Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 

But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

Samuel, finding out what Saul had done, reprimanded Saul for doing something gravely wrong and because of it, God had chosen another man to be ruler of the people of Israel.

Saul had lost his favored destiny because he had not kept the command of God and had proven to be a man who was not after God's own heart. 

If we were to be people after God's own heart, we would first have follow God's directives and second, we would have to trust God in all circumstances even when following God's directives seem to result is situations going awry.

In Saul's case,  he felt compelled to override the command of God with His own plan because he lost trust in God's plan when he saw that His army was scattering in the face of the Philistines.

Being a person after God's own heart should compel  us to stick to God's directives and trust that God can and will make all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Trust and obey; there is no other way.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SETS UP MEMORIALS TO THE SALVATION OF HIS PEOPLE

In Joshua 4 verses 3 - 7, we continue with the study of Israel's crossing of the Jordan river. The passage reads like this;

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan.

Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 

When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

The instruction was given for twelve chosen men to go to the middle of the Jordan river and for each man to pick up a stone on his shoulder.

These stones would serve as signs to future Israelites who would see them and ask what their significance was.

Each stone would be a marker of a time when the Lord intervened on behalf of Israel to make a way out of slavery in Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and after 40 years, into the promised land across the Jordan river.

The twelve stones are reminiscent of the twelve apostles who were first of the living stones among those who gained the promise of God through faith in Jesus.

The ceremony Jesus instituted to commemorate the access given to the promised land was the last supper during which He called on His disciples to reenact the breaking of bread and the sharing of wine as a memorial to the Lord's death which was the price paid to buy us out of slavery and admit us into the land  promised by God.

Bless the One who we remember for saving us and who availed to us so rich a promise.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE PROTOCOLS WE MUST KEEP

1 Samuel 13 verses 2 - 9 tells of the scene when Saul, the king of Israel, provoked the Philistines and the Philistines responded by mustering a huge army of charioteers and soldiers.

The Israelites became afraid when they saw how numerous and organized the Philistines were so they hid in caves and bushes to stay out of sight.

Saul was waiting for Samuel the priest to arrive to enact the sacrifices before the Lord but the time of his arrival passed and in a panic, Saul decided to carry out the burnt offerings himself. The passage reads this way;

Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Mikmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes.

Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, “Let the Hebrews hear!” 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 Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash, east of Beth Aven.

When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter.  So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering.

Saul, under pressure, had needed to hold fast until Samuel arrived but he succumbed to the circumstances he could see happening around him such as when His army began to scatter in fear.

Saul decided to take matters into his own hands and offered up the burnt offerings instead of waiting for Samuel.

By responding to the situation in the flesh, Saul violated a number of rules including the primary rule that only a priest like Samuel could offer sacrifices before the Lord.

In violating these requirements, Saul negated the blessings of the Lord and lost the favour of the Lord over his life.

The item to heed here is that we must operate only on the Lord's cues and never circumvent His procedures and schedules no matter what we see happening around us.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO HELD BACK THE JORDAN RIVER

Continuing with yesterday's study from Joshua 3 verses 9 - 14, let's look at  Joshua 3 verse 15 - 17 and Joshua 4 verses 1 - 2.  The section of text reads like this;

Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan,  while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. 

So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Onto Joshua 4 ;

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,  “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,

The previous study looked at the step of faith that was needed to cross the river and we continue with this passage that describes the actual crossing as the flooded river dried up and all the people of Israel were able to cross to the Canaan side.

The water upstream is described as "piling up" in a heap some distance away as its flow was held back and downstream to the Dead Sea, the river dried up and so Israel was able to cross on dry land while those carrying the ark of the covenant stood in the dried river bed.

This presence and covenant of the Lord with His people was a shield and protector of Israel that restrained the destruction of the flood from harming them as they crossed over.

When they had crossed, another set of twelve were chosen with one from each tribe to mark the spot of crossing with stones.

A representative from each tribe participated in the carrying of the ark into Canaan and a representative from each tribe again participated in the placement of commemorative markers.

Bless the Lord who makes provision for us to cross over to Canaan and who commemorates our successes as we makes steps in obedience in Him.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ASSURES US OF HIS PROVISION

In Joshua  3 verses 9 - 14, the story is told of the Israelites approaching the promised land and they were called by Joshua to listen to the word of the Lord.

Joshua explained the events that were going to  happen and declared that these events would confirm to the Isarelites that the living God was in their midst. The passage reads like this;

Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.  This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.

Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them.

The first assurance that the Lord gave to His people was that the ark of the covenant would go ahead of them into the hostile territory of Caanan.

The Lord promised that He would drive out all the hostile inhabitants of the land so that they could settle in the place where the Lord had promised them.

In order for the children of Israel to gain the promises of God, the Lord gave them instructions to follow that would unfurl the promises that were made to them.

The instructions given to them were that they had to pick twelve men, one from each tribe, to carry the ark of the covenant and step into the Jordan river.

This act of faith, planted as a seed on the banks of the Jordan river, would initiate the fulfillment of God's promises which were to hold back the Jordan river so they could cross and then to drive out their enemies so that they could possess the land.

This type and shadow of faith is the model we must follow in our age. If the Lord promises us something, the fulfillment of that promise will often be predicated on obeying directives that represent a hidden wisdom that the Lord has laid up for us.

The people of Israel obeyed God and stepped into the river with no evidence that the river would dry up other than that the Lord made a promise.

God's promises cannot be broken and so reacting to them like they are already fulfilled without a pause for doubt, enables their fulfillment.

Amen

OUR LORD WHO DEFEATS THE OPPRESSOR

In Isaiah 19 verses 4 - 5, the prophet foretells of a time when the oppression of Egypt will be resisted by the Lord.

Is this passage, the Lord uses the tactic of placing the Egyptians (the oppressors) themselves under a cruel master and fierce ruler.

The ruthlessness of the leader over the oppressing nation does two things; first, it makes the oppressing nature get a taste of their own oppression of other people and second, it discourages the oppressing people so that their willingness to support their regime dwindles and the streams of vital resources dry up. The passage reads this way.

I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry..

Those who presume to oppressive power over God's inheritance with find that an exceptionally cruel ruler has gained power over them and that the resources they thought were inexhaustible, suddenly dry up.

Bless our Lord who saves His people from oppression.

Amen.

OUR LORD REMOVES OUR FEAR AND SHAME

The psalmist, in Psalm 34 verses 3 - 5, encourages us to join him in glorifying and exalting the Lord. The passage reads like this;

Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together. 

I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

The psalmist expounds on his own experience where he searched for God and God answered him and took away his fears. 

A description is given of those who turn to God in trust; they radiate light and their faces beam because they are never covered in shame.

This thought is mirrored in Philippians 2 verse 15 where the children of God who trust in Him, have the appearance of lights in a dark world . The text reads this way.

so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Let us bless the Lord whose light shines in us to make us into lights for the people of the world.

Amen.

Reference Resource: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com

OUR LORD WHO IS JOYFULL OVER HIS PEOPLE

Isaiah 61 verses 9 - 10 describes a jubilant scene where the Lord Jesus is narrating the emergence of His people in the earth in righteousness and honor. The passage reads this way;

And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

The Lord Jesus declares that He will be exceedingly glad in God the Father because His Father will bless Him with the garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness.

The grand spectacle is like a wedding with pageantry and joyous celebration over what the Lord our God has accomplished in the earth to save and then to exalt His people.

Bless the Lord our God who will be joyful on the day of the unveiling of His people for whom He died to pay a ransom for and save.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO MAKES THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE

In Isaiah 64 verses 1 - 2,  the Lord is implored to visit the earth in power so that the mountains tremble at His presence and nations quake as they encounter Him. The passage reads this way;

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 

As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!

The unveiling of the presence of the Lord is a fearsome and dreadful event to behold. 

Physical matter of the earth convulses before Him and those who see the effects that God's proximity has on nature, quake in fear and dread.

As much as the prophet yearns for God to make Himself known, he understands that,  to us humans,  it would be absolutely terrifying.

Along with the earth, we would be undone  and fall apart at the constitutional level. This is why the Lord Jesus counseled us ( in Mathew 10 verse  28 ) not to fear man who can only destroy the body but rather to fear God who can destroy both the body and the  soul.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ROLLS AWAY OUR REPROACH

In the book of Joshua chapter 5 verse 3 - 9, the passage below describes when the descendants of Israel had wandered the wilderness for 40 years and now were being prepared to go into the promised land. It reads like this;

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.

Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. 

The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day.

The act of circumcision was a sign of being separated from Egypt, from slavery, from idolatry and from all the vestiges of Egyptian culture. 

Let us give thanks to the Lord for leading us through our own wildernesses so that we can shed the vestiges of this world and separate from the things of the flesh and transition into the promised land of living in the spirit and by the Spirit of God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO DECLARES HIS LOVE FOR US

The book of Malachi starts with the first 3 verse as follows;

A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

The Lord straightforwardly says to Jacob, " I have loved you". 

Anticipating the question of how God loved them, the Lord contrasts His love for Jacob with His disaffection for Essau. The point being made is that God's love for Jacob is not an amorphous love that is ubiquitous but rather that it is particular and that it is centered on a person.

The object of God love is blessed while the one not loved is left to the fortunes of chance and chaos as Esau's life ended up.

This is the Lord's favour that He shows to His loved ones; They are under his watch and protection where all the conditions of their lives are measured and  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." - Roman 8 verse 2

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CALLS US TO HEAR HIM

In the book of Job chapter 13 verse 4, Job, having suffered the loss of all that he had and all his children, is trying to get an explanation for what was happening to him. His friends were there to comfort him but he accuses them of giving him false prescriptions. The passage with the surrounding context goes like this;

But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.

You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you!

If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.

Here, Job's visitors are questioning him about his conduct and motives but Job becomes frustrated with them. He says that he wants to get an audience with God so he can bring his case directly  before Him but instead of having a moment of silence to do so,  he has to listen to his companions' false accusations against him.

In the book of Revelation chapter 13 verse 9, is parallel passage that goes like this;

 'If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes;if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

The desire of Job to hear God's voice in the face of his calamities is mirrored in this passage in Revelation where those with faith in God are instructed to listen for God's voice for there are calamities that are aimed at them through which they will have to persevere.

In faith, stand with the Lord and do not faint and don't grow weary.

Bless the Lord our God who cares for usl

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CALLS THE NATIONS

In Joel chapter 3 verse 9, the prophet describes a period of time when the society was so corrupted that human trafficking was part of regular business and the whole-scale displacement and oppression of peoples  was aggressively pursued.

In response,  a call is sent forth to the nations to get ready to combat the atrocities and oppressions that were ongoing. The passage reads this way:

Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.  

The Lord is implored to bring down His angelic warriors who can join the preparations for the battle. 

The ranks are called and they answer the Lord who is their refuge and their stronghold.

Let us bless the Lord who protects His people.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SHOWCASES US TO THE WORLD

In Roman times, when an emperor defeated a foreign territory, he would return with His army to Rome leading a contingent of captives from that conquered territory parading them through the city to display to the whole world his prowess at expanding the boundaries of his empire.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14 - 16, a striking image is painted of the Lord Jesus heading up a triumphal procession through the whole world where we, who are His, are displayed as captives of Him who conquered sin and death.

We who believe in Christ, are emblems of the exaltation of the Lord whose sacrifice of His own  life for us,  conquered our hearts and thus our testimonies, presented to the world,  convey the perfect qualities of Him who saved us. The passage goes like this;

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

We who have trusted in God and are surrendered to Him, are showcased to the ones being saved and to the perishing in Jesus' triumphal procession.

The story of Jesus' friend Lazarus being raised from the dead ( found in John Chapter 11 ) is a metaphor for this dichotomy between the responses of those being saved and those who are perishing.

While Lazarus was dead in the sealed grave, he was the aroma of death unto those who were denizens of the grave but when Jesus called Lazarus forth, the stone was rolled away and Lazarus was presented to the world alive. 

He no longer carried  the aroma of death but the aroma of life that brought honour unto God and belief in Jesus among the living who were witnesses.

Bless the Lord who displays us who believe as an aroma of life to those who are being saved.

Amen.

OUR LORD PROPHECIES HIS MISSION TO REDEEM US

Isaiah 50 verses 1 - 5  records a monologue delivered by the eternal Son of God, Jesus.

In this chapter, Jesus summarizes His mission to the earth.

He first says that He did not reject us but rather that our own sin drove us away from God.

To then redeem us who were separated from Him by sin, the Lord orchestrates His arrival at the temple but there was no one to meet him and none to answer when He called. He asks why we did  not look to Him to save us. Jesus asks if we did not believe that He had the capacity to do so.

He informs us that by a mere word, He could dry up the sea and parch a river. He tells us that it was He who cloaked the heavens in darkness. The passage reads this way;

This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?

Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer?

Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?

By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”

The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

Here, the Son of God says that on His mission to save us, He will arrive with a well-instructed tongue that speaks words that uplift the weary.

He says His Father in heaven will awaken Him every morning and awaken His ears to listen to instruction.

 He tells us that He is obedient to His Father and does not turn away from His directives even when the cost of obedience to His Father is the loss of His own life.

When our wonderful Lord Jesus was with us on earth, He demonstrated His comforting words that give solace even to this day and demonstrated His power by healing people and quieting storms. He also demonstrated His obedience to God His Father by heeding His instructions right up to His death on the cross for us all.

Bless our Lord Jesus who prophecied His mission in this chapter of Isaiah  and then fulfilled it.

Amen.