Rejecting The Pleasures Of God

Remember how good the pleasures of the world are? Don't kid yourself.

Numbers 10:33-34 They marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the LORD, with the Ark of the LORD's Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest. 34 As they moved on each day, the cloud of the LORD hovered over them.

Numbers 11:1-4 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the LORD heard everything they said. Then the LORD's anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp. 

2 Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the LORD, the fire stopped. 3 After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means "the place of burning"), because fire from the LORD had burned among them there. 

4 Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. "Oh, for some meat!" they exclaimed.

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Nobody likes to move so it is no surprise that along the way some people start longing for home back where life was so good. Life was pretty good for God's people when they first arrived in Egypt but that's not the situation that these people experienced in their lifetime.

God took them to Egypt hundreds of years before to bless them but then he also took them out of Egypt to bless them. When he took them to Egypt it was to rescue them from a famine and when he took them out of there it was also a huge relief. 

But God's goodness to his people wasn't appreciated for very long, it only took three days for the nation of Israel to start complaining after they left the shores of the Red Sea, and then a year later after leaving Mount Sinai God's people repeat history and begin complaining three days into the journey. 

They didn't know it at the time but it was only an eleven day trip to their destination. (Deuteronomy 1:2) Somewhere on this move towards the promise the people start counting the cost and they compare the current situation with their life back in the good old days. Even with a promised, glorious future ahead of them they begin to long to go back to the life of slavery in the kingdom of darkness.

Deuteronomy 1:32-33 "But even after all he did, you refused to trust the LORD your God, 33 who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

God has worked in amazing ways in their lives, rescued them and made them his own and gave them visible signs of his presence but when God asked his people to trust his plan and his process they couldn't keep the faith for eleven days.

Yes, food and water was scarce, yes the menu was the same everyday and yes, Moses is still the leader. Everything that they needed from a human perspective was provided graciously by God but none of those provisions were good enough. (Exodus 17:1–7; Numbers 12)

Numbers 11:20b For you have rejected the LORD, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'"

The hardship is the wilderness, even for such a short time, made the pleasures of the world look way better than they really are. Don't kid yourself! Today might be tough but God's people have a glorious future ahead!

The pleasures of the world have always been an enticement for God's people. It started back in the Garden of Eden and hundreds of years later God's people are still struggling with the pleasures of the world versus the pleasures of God.

Numbers 11:23 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!"

After all of the time that God that showed his power and his love for his people they still arrive at the border to the Promised Land and make the wrong choice. They doubted God's word and trusted the word of the scouts. 

They reported that God was telling them the truth when he said that the land was awesome BUT they didn't believe God was telling the truth when he said he would go before them and fight their battles. (Numbers 13:1-33)

Numbers 14:1 Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night.

What an extreme reaction! Where is the faith that God had been cultivating in his people for the past few years? The way God moved to defeat Egypt and bring his people to this moment in time and they still don't trust God's promise to give them the land.

God has a bright and glorious pleasure filled future for me in the Promised Land. I need to:

• Invite others to come along to experience God's blessings. (Numbers 10:29-32) 
• Remember the worlds pleasures cannot compare to the pleasures that God has in store for me. 
• Keep the faith when life gets hard by keeping my eyes on the goodness of God.

Experience The Direction Of God

The only navigation equipment Israel needed was the Lord's presence.

Numbers 9:23 So they camped or traveled at the LORD's command, and they did whatever the LORD told them through Moses.

Numbers 10:11-12 In the second year after Israel's departure from Egypt-on the twentieth day of the second month-the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Covenant.

12 So the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran.

13 When the people set out for the first time, following the instructions the LORD had given through Moses,

Numbers 10:33-36 They marched for three days after leaving the mountain of the LORD, with the Ark of the LORD's Covenant moving ahead of them to show them where to stop and rest. 34 As they moved on each day, the cloud of the LORD hovered over them.

35 And whenever the Ark set out, Moses would shout, "Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered! Let them flee before you!" 36 And when the Ark was set down, he would say, "Return, O LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel!"

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It has been a busy year since God redeemed his people from Egypt and took them to Mount Sinai to meet with them. Sinai would be the place where God would help his new people adjust to their new life. As we will see, getting his people out of Egypt was easier than getting Egypt out of his people.

God's people had a lot to learn about him and about the kind of people that he wanted them to be. God wanted his people to became a nation that looked very different, they would worship different, they would eat different and they would be governed different. The only way they could enjoy this special relationship between a governor and his people is for them to know the rules. 

The big bonus that should have motivated them was that knowing and obeying God's rules was the only way that they were going to be able to make it to the Promised Land. They are going to need God's presence to guide and protect on the way and the only way to have that is to live his way.

God's Itinerary 

God's people had to do what their forefather Abraham had done hundreds of years before when he left home. Once again God is asking for blind faith as he tells his people to take the next step without the details.

God didn't give Moses a brochure with an itinerary about the trip and he didn't share an online calendar or GPS coordinates to help them know the way. The way to the Promised Land is God's way and the only way to know his way is to have a relationship with him.

God's people obeyed his orders that he gave in the beginning of the book of Numbers, as a result they moved out in the formation that God demanded and they walked for three days following God.

Watching The Cloud

They didn't have any doubt about what the cloud looked like, this is the same cloud that led them away from Egypt, from the very beginning of this trip God's presence was manifest in the cloud to show them the way.

Even in darkness the presence of God could be seen and enjoyed. The light of God in the cloud overcame the darkness, it revealed the next step of the path when they traveled and it gave them protection when they camped.

Watching a cloud and paying attention to the details about where it is going is something that you probably would not do for very long. We don't pay much attention to clouds before we lose our focus and get distracted.

Listen For Trumpets

To ensure that everyone was ready to break camp and move, God's people also had an audible warning, the trumpets got the attention of anyone that didn't know that the cloud moved. I have to wonder about the size of the cloud, maybe the entire nation could not see the cloud so maybe that is the reason that God told them to use the trumpets. 

It seems that God loves trumpets, after the nation moved into Canaan the trumpet was used as the signal for special days on God's calendar. Don't forget that God has promised us that another very special day is on the way that will include the blast of a trumpet.

Matthew 24:31 And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world-from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

The most anticipated trumpet blast is the one that will lead us to the Promised Land that Jesus said that he is preparing.  The trumpet sound we are waiting for will not be a signal for war, when this trumpet sounds the Promised Land will be ours, the only war that will be started is the final battle between God and Satan. 

VIDEO: Promised Land by TobyMac

Just like God's pilgrim children in the wilderness, we are also pilgrims, just passing through as we wait for God's signal to move to our heavenly home. Until that day we have the Holy Spirit in us as our guide, the Word of God before us to light the way and our Savior above us interceding before God's throne on our behalf. 

The entire trinity is at work to keep me safe and guide me as I travel this wilderness waiting for my Promised Land.

When Santa Learned The Gospel

Everyone is on the naughty list until they receive God's perfect gift.

Video: When Santa Learned The Gospel

Follow Santa's journey in this unique Christmas fable as he learns about Jesus' message of grace and discovers what it means for both the naughty and the nice.

This video sits alongside the book, written by Simon Camilleri and published by 10Publishing.

(No compensation for any links.)

From Naughty

Romans 3:10-12 As the Scriptures say, "No one is righteous- not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one."

Ephesians 2:12 NLT In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.

All around the world the message has been told that trying to be good enough is good enough. That's the message that we are told in the story of Santa, it's the best that Santa could hope for, if people were good enough then he would get to keep his job.

According to God's standards, no matter how well you do at being nice and keeping the rules, you are still on the naughty list. God's requirement for us is to be righteous, a word that we over use in our culture, so we fail to realize that the standard of righteousness is defined by God's holiness.

Holiness sounds like a crazy goal for anyone to be required to obtain, even God's people in the church neglect this principle so that we can be more acceptable to the world and not be seen as strange. But when you dig into God's word you will find out that the Bible has over 900 references to the holiness of God and it also tells us that we are required to be holy.

To Nice

2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

1 Peter 1:21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

We need a rescue from our sin nature but we had no way to get away from the consequences that we deserved. Our situation was just like God's chosen people in Egypt, enslaved to the kingdom of darkness, we didn't have any hope of getting out unless God sent a rescuer.

The good news of the gospel is the only way that we can get on God's list that he will check. When he opens the Book of Life my name will be on his list because of his forgiveness that I could have only received from him by accepting Jesus work on the cross.

RELATED ARTICLES

Why Do I Need A Savior? (thebonhoefferproject.com)

Jesus Didn't Call Us To Be Nice (relevantmagazine.com)

Why Do We Need A Savior? (gotquestions.org)

Perfect Gifts: Mercy

Our mistakes do not have to haunt us.

John 8:7-11 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

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Do you think that your life has been full of mistakes and poor choices and you think that God couldn't want to have a relationship with you? It's pretty easy to see that we all deserve some pretty severe consequences for the things that we have done against God but God does not want our relationship with him to be full of fear and despair.

As good and perfect as God is, we can easily see that we fall way short of his standard but we don't have to live with this hopeless situation hanging over our heads, in an incredible display of mercy, God has given us the opportunity to receive eternal life if we believe on his son.

We are as bad off as the adulteress with a group of Pharisees hanging around with rocks in their hands. Even the most popular person needs to realize that it is short lived, we will never measure up to the world's standards for very long, even the best of us will have someone that is ready to throw rocks at us.

Beyond our inability to measure up to the world's standards is the God's standards. God is the only one that has the right to throw rocks at us and we deserve it just as much as she did but thankfully he has given us a way out of judgement. 

God's love is merciful

Titus 3:3-5 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But "When God our Savior revealed His kindness and love, 5 He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.

The only way out of our desperate situation is his perfect mercy that is beyond comprehension.  Sin takes us places that we really don't want to go and it cost us more than we think that it will but as Christ followers we have received the wonderful gift of mercy which completely eliminates the judgment that we deserve. 

Without Jesus we are foolish and disobedient rebels making choices that are rooted in our rebellious thoughts. But God, the judge of the universe, is so full of kindness and love to us that he gave us mercy!

John 3:16,36 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 36 And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment."

It's hard to imagine a God of perfect justice would also have perfect love for us to the point that he would give us the opportunity to receive his perfect mercy. The perfect wrath of God is upon us before we accept his son as our substitute, the death and punishment we deserve is no longer in our future!

"Mercy Came Running" by Phillips, Craig and Dean

I was bound by the chains, from the wages of my sin
Just when I felt like giving in, mercy came running
Like a prisoner set free, past all my failures to the point of my need
When the sin that I carried, was all I could see
And when I could not reach mercy, mercy came running to me. 

The woman that was surrounded by judges that found her deserving of death but mercy came running to her at her greatest need. What an incredible picture of my life, I was sought out by God to receive the gift of mercy without doing anything to deserve it. 

I need to remember to regift this extravagant gift to the people around me. God, help me follow your example and be just as passionate about giving mercy to help those that don't deserve it.

Perfect Gifts: Heaven

I have a priceless inheritance because of Jesus.

Ephesians 1:5, 11, 14 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.

11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

14 The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

1 Peter 1:4 and we have a priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

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God was very pleased to adopt me into his family and he would love for you to be a part of his family as well. Did you know that God loves adoptions? All of his family has been adopted even though none of us deserved the honor, it is just part of his perfect kindness and love for mankind.

I am not talking about an adoption that is tainted with favoritism, to God an adopted child has the same rights as a natural born child, we all have the same rights that his own Son has. Because of Jesus we have an inheritance that is beyond equal anywhere else. 

Jesus has been preparing my inheritance for a long time now and he is using building materials that make our construction supplies look like junk. What we have in store when we leave this earth is beyond our imagination.

This world and it's pleasures that we strive to obtain and love to hold onto are going away. As good as we may have it here, all of the goodness of this life is just a peek at the ultimate goodness that we will enjoy in our eternal home.

What's in your future?

Revelation 21:1-4,7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be My children.

We usually keep God and man separate, we think of God living in heaven and our place to live is here on earth, but there is a day coming when we will be together again similar to the relationship that mankind had before sin.

We will all have eternal life BUT to spend eternity in heaven with God you must make the decision to accept Jesus and his perfect gift of salvation now!

Experience The Goodness Of God

Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 23:6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.

Romans 2:4  Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

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Every one of us has experienced God's goodness in their life to some degree and most of us have experienced a very high level of God's goodness in comparison to thousands of other people that have lived. But despite how good he is God's people always need to be reminded of this fact.

We have a difficult time appreciating the goodness of God, it goes all the way back to the garden of Eden, no matter how good we have it we always think there is more that we should have. Living in the garden was the greatest experience of God's goodness that mankind has ever known but that didn't guarantee the best outcome. 

If Adam and Eve can feel that there is something that they were missing then we are surely guaranteed to doubt the vast amount of God's goodness as well. In our social media world we have the ability to compare ourselves and the stuff that we have with a multitude of other people. We need a way to stay focused when we have the fear of missing out that causes us to doubt God's goodness.

Taste

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

To focus on God's goodness you need to taste it and taste it again just like you would taste again and again a delicious food. Don't be satisfied with just the aroma, don't walk by the kitchen and catch a whiff, step in and grab a plate and have a taste!

The joy of tasting is a personal experience, somebody else can help you know a little bit about the taste but you must have your own taste. The flavor is something that you can know only through your own experience. A taste this good should motivate you to taste it again and again.

Trust

Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.

Thankfully the most powerful being is also the most good! Very few people with power are very kind, if you or I were powerful we would probably do like everybody else and use it for our own advantage, but thankfully the most powerful is perfectly good. 

If the most powerful was any less good we couldn't trust him enough to draw near, we wouldn't have a strong refuge that we can trust and draw close to.

We need to remember that we cannot measure the goodness of God with problem free living. The person with the most trouble in this life may be living the most in God's will. Just like the religious leaders that Jesus rebuked, we cannot accurately discern why they have the trouble so we should not blame them for their situation. Nobody in the Bible was rewarded with an easy life as a reward for obedience.

Isaiah 48:10  I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.

The goodness of God is always there, even in suffering, our holiness is usually becoming more perfect in difficulty. This is a reality that will change your perspective of "good" and "bad" circemstances. 

How can anything be bad if God is using all things for my good? (Romans 8:28, Hebrews 12:10) We all want the easy life but the most important thing to God is for us to be like him. 

A more difficult truth to accept is maybe the hard time you are going through has nothing to do with you?  Just maybe your country, your church or your family is being disciplined and you are affected by what God is doing in others. How much did good people suffer in the Old Testament because the rest of the group was being punished by God? 

A great example of this is Joseph in an Egyptian prison or Daniel and his friends in Babylon. We focus everything on ourselves but God's story is not all about us.

Treasure

Ephesians 1:7-8  He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.  8  He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

To remember God's goodness we need to treasure the most important gift ever! God made the most extravagant purchase ever, what an incredibly high price for such lowly, undeserving creatures.

You may be so kind that you would die for your family or a small group of friends but God showed us perfect kindness by taking his perfect wrath upon himself, through his perfect son. God's awesome goodness could stop there and we should be eternally grateful but there is more goodness coming our way eternally if we accept Jesus sacrifice. (Romans 8:32)

1 John 4:9-10  God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.  10  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

The greatest gift, the one that I really needed the most, is the reason we celebrate Christmas but his arrival was just the beginning of the story of God's plan to destroy the work of Satan so that everything bad can be made good. Don't take his kindness for granted.

RELATED ARTICLES

Perfect Gifts Series (diggingtheword.blogspot.com)

Thank God! - Psalm 116

Worship God for who he is and what he has done.

I Love the Lord, Who Has Heard My Prayer.

Psalm 116:1-4 I love the LORD because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. 2 Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! 3 Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "Please, LORD, save me!"

The Lord Deals Bountifully with His Own.

Psalm 116:5-7 How kind the LORD is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! 6 The LORD protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me. 7 Let my soul be at rest again, for the LORD has been good to me.

You Delivered My Soul from Death.

Psalm 116:8-11 He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9 And so I walk in the LORD's presence as I live here on earth! 10 I believed in you, so I said, "I am deeply troubled, LORD." 11 In my anxiety I cried out to you, "These people are all liars!"

How Shall I Show My Thanks to Him?

Psalm 116:12-19 What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me? 

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD's name for saving me. 

14 I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people. 15 The LORD cares deeply when his loved ones die. 16 O LORD, I am your servant; yes, I am your servant, born into your household; you have freed me from my chains. 

17 I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. 

18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people- 19 in the house of the LORD in the heart of Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!

Thank God For Who He Is
Faithful (Lamentations 3:23) Constant (James 1:17) True (John 14:6) Good (Matthew 7:11) Gracious (Romans 3:20–24) Longsuffering (2 Peter 3:9) Merciful (Hebrews 4:16) Powerful (1 Chronicles 29:11) Loving (John 3:16) Saving (Acts 4:12)

RELATED ARTICLES

Ten Reasons To Thank God (answersingenesis.org)

Knowing God

The world has many ideas about him but are they true?

Exodus 33:11,13,17 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.

13 If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people."

17 The LORD replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name."

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In the book of Exodus we have seen that God's people have had amazing experiences with him that should have led to a close friendship. In the previous post we saw some of the miraculous ways that God displayed his power and protection on their behalf, but we also saw almost everyone turned from God as if his amazing care for them meant nothing.

Despite the equal opportunity to know God, it did not lead to equal outcomes, it seems that Moses was alone in his desire for spiritual growth. The crowd knew God and knew that he was incredible in his kindness and protection but that was enough for them.

Most of God's people are just like that, we know just enough about God and his plan to redeem us and make us his own children so that we can escape hell but few of us have the desire to know our Heavenly father beyond that. 

We are content to believe in him from a distance or we settle for knowing inaccurate information about him. Both of these conditions are very dangerous.

What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God.

-J. I. Packer "Knowing God"

We don't have the privilege of seeing God work like his people did in the Old Testament, we have to rely on the Bible to really know him. That's the reason that God preserved his word, the book may be very old but because he never changes we can truly know him by what he has revealed in the Bible.

The outline below is from Going Deeper with God with my thoughts added.

God's Word Shows Us:

God's Holiness

Leviticus 19:1-2 The LORD also said to Moses, 2 "Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

We like to think that this requirement was for the people of the Old Testament but the command for holiness is in the New Testament and it is still in effect today. (1 Peter 1:15)

It's interesting that the Bible doesn't give us the command to be holy until after God's people have been redeemed from Egypt. 

God's Wrath and Justice

John 3:36 And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment."

We really don't like this topic, we like to dwell on God's goodness, love and grace, who doesn't like that? But you don't really know God and you have created your own "god" if you stop there.

The cross shows us a small portion of the wrath of God that will be experienced by those that are left behind when Jesus takes his church out of here. The cross was horrible but it isn't the full extent of God's wrath that is shown to us in the book of Revelation.

God's Grace

Psalms 84:11  For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.

Thankfully God's grace is equally as huge as his wrath but it is only available to those that believe in God's rescue plan. We can only appreciate God's grace and be amazed by it when we have an accurate understanding of God's holy wrath. 

We must go beyond the common grace that everyone on earth experiences. Common grace is a taste of what God offers that will help you draw closer to him but it isn't saving grace and it has no redemptive effect. (Romans 8:29-39, Ephesians 1:3-14)

 

God's Goodness

Exodus 33:19 The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

It sounds odd that God told Moses that his goodness is something that can be seen, it seems more logical to us that God's works can be seen as his goodness, but scripture teaches that God is more beautiful than anything he has ever done.

God is not a cosmic grandpa handing out treats to his children. God isn't going to give us everything we want, sometimes he will give us what we don't want but he is still perfectly good and righteous, and there is no evil or sin in him. (Psalm 92:15; 1 John 3:2–6)

So much has been done for us but instead of a stronger desire to know God more and know God accurately we settle for a surface relationship or we believe about God without knowing the whole truth. I think we have to be careful if we distort God into something he is not then we have made a "god" that pleases ourselves.

Knowing God Takes Effort

Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.

Jeremiah 9:24 NLT But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Developing a deep relationship with God is not a passive experience, it requires a commitment to time spent in God's word, prayer, and actively seeking to understand and apply what God is showing you.

Too many people think that knowing God is a one time event but the Bible shows us that it is actually a lifelong pursuit. Just take a look at the apostle Paul, he is probably the best example of someone that knew God like Moses did, but after approximately 25 years as a believer he still yearned for more. (Philippians 2:12-13 and  2 Corinthians 12:1-7)

Satan doesn't want you to know God accurately or with any degree of intimacy that's why he has so many ways to keep you distracted. He is okay with you knowing God the way that the Pharisees knew him but remember that this group of people received the harshest criticism from Jesus.

Help me Lord to increase in my love and desire to know you more! It is too easy to neglect our relationship and believe incorrect information about you. I want to really know you.

RELATED ARTICLES

What is the biblical account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth? (gotquestions.org)

Knowing God Personally (cslewisinstitute.org)

Knowing God (desiringgod.org)

Going With God

In the wilderness with God is better than going somewhere without him.

Exodus 32:34-35 Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look! My angel will lead the way before you. And when I come to call the people to account, I will certainly hold them responsible for their sins." 35 Then the LORD sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped the calf Aaron had made.

Exodus 33:1-4 The LORD said to Moses, "Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them, 'I will give this land to your descendants.' 2 And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites."

3 "Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey. But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people. If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way." 4 When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.

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God's people are on the way to the Promised Land after hundreds of years in Egypt, that's where God sent his people to save them from famine and then after the government turned on them, God took them out of the kingdom of darkness to lead them to their new homeland.

We don't always see God at work, they didn't realize it, but God was probably using all of the events in Egypt to prepare them for this trip. All of the difficulty they endured, all of the miracles they witnessed, should have produced a people that were strong in faith and ready to bless the nations because of the blessing they has received.

It is amazing that this is the same people that just saw God's mighty power through the ten plagues in Egypt, they saw proof that their God is the only one that can control the weather, the animal kingdom and he even has the power of life and death.

After leaving Egypt they have seen the signs of his presence as he led them to cross the Red Sea on dry ground in an area of the sea that was deep enough to drown their enemies. God continued to lead them through a cloud by day and a fire at night. (Exodus 13:18, 21)

God's people were sustained by supernatural food and water from Heaven, this too was a test for them that they would fail. (Exodus 15:25, 16:4, Deuteronomy 8:2, 16 Psalm 78:24 ) Later on they would fail the test by storing up more than their daily bread and after that they would grumble about the menu and fail the test. 

God took them to Mount Sinai where he would display his glory so they could learn even more about him. While they were at the mountain they received God's commandments, which they were thrilled to get and they agreed to God's terms wholeheartedly. To ratify the covenant, over seventy of their leaders ate a covenant meal where they could see that they were up close to God.

It really looks like God's people have learned enough about trusting him to keep them from looking for a better god, but right after the meal, God called Moses further up the mountain to continue receiving instructions on how to be God's people they immediately they act like they never knew anything about God. (Exodus 24:1-18)

Exodus 32:1 When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. "Come on," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt."

After all of that! Within the forty days while Moses was up the mountain the people break their covenant by asking Aaron for a god that can lead them. The only god that Aaron could possibly create would be a powerless man made god just like the gods that was proved to be worthless back in Egypt. (Exodus 32:1-35)

We are told that God's people were very upset when God told his people to continue the journey to the Promised Land without his presence to guide them there. Out of mercy God wasn't going to be intimate with these "stiff necked" people. Their reaction is a good sign that they are not too far gone but they still need to learn more about God. (Exodus 33:1-4)

God's people need to learn:

1. The peril of God’s presence 

This is probably more difficult for God's people today to understand, the idea that God is not safe isn't a popular concept in a world full of teaching that God is love. We tend to think of God in the New Testament as a different God or a new version of God that Jesus was able to pacify but the book of Revelation proves that the wrath of God still exist.

2. The privilege of God’s presence 

Somehow Moses knew more than anyone else that being with God was a privilege and he knew that he needed a special place reserved to meet with God. Even before the Tabernacle or the Temple was ever built Moses had a tent where he could maintain his relationship with God and intercede for the nation.

3. The priority of God’s presence 

If we truly love God and have an awareness of his glory then we will desire to have his presence more and more. We will prioritize our time and energy to be in God's presence and we will be hesitant to make a move without him going along. Having a guardian angel may be good but how much more incredibly better is it to have God going in fellowship with you?

4. The promise of God’s presence 

It is a shame that out of the thousands that left Egypt to go to the Promised Land, no one else enjoyed God's presence like Moses did. God didn't grant everybody the same level of access, that was reserved for those who find favor in His sight. God's people had so much experience with him in the past that they were without excuse.

The outline above is from "God’s Presence: Dangerous, But Essential" with some of my own thoughts mixed in.

God's Man Wants More 

Exodus 33:11 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.

Exodus 33:15-16 Then Moses said, "If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that you look favorably on me-on me and on your people-if you don't go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth."

With all of the experiences that God's people had with him you would think that more of them would desire to know, at a deeper level, the only God that has done so much for them. Why would you not want to maintain your relationship with someone who has treated you so well?

The only person that developed a chose relationship with him as a result of these supernatural experiences was Moses. Everyone else was upset that God wasn't going to personally lead them to the Promised Land, but they only wanted to know God the way they already knew him, but Moses desired to know more. (Exodus 13:18, 21, Exodus 33:18-20)

The same man that began to know God deeper at the burning bush kept on pushing their relationship to the next level. Moses knowledge and his faith in God continued to grow so that he would become the bold, mighty and faithful leader for God's people.

This is both the longing of the redeemed and the goal of their redemption—to behold the glory of God!

-A. W. Pink, Gleanings in Exodus

It is amazing that God treats his people so abundantly gracious and kind and very few of his people really get it.

1 Corinthians 10:3-6 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,

We are just like the pilgrims in the wilderness, this is not our home, we need to travel with God and nurture the desire to know him more before we reach the Promised Land.

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God Gave Us His Word - New Testament

Believing the New Testament is very logical and reasonable.

1 John 1:1-2 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 

2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

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In the previous post we saw that God gave us his word through the Old Testament so that when Jesus came into our world to be "God with us," we would be sure that he is really the promised Messiah. When someone makes a promise and then they come through, it helps you believe them even more when they make another promise to you, that's the main reason we can trust the Old Testament.

When you analyze the incredible amount of detail in the prophecies about who Jesus is, how he would come to be with us and what he came to do for us, it is easy to see that the Old Testament was telling us the truth.

Today we will see that God gave us his word in the writing of the books that would become the New Testament. The writers were so excited about Jesus life, death and resurrection that they wanted to share their experiences with everyone. But how could they possibly remember the events and the teaching of Jesus?

God's Word Inspired

John 14:25-26 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative-that is, the Holy Spirit-he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

John 16:13-14 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

Jesus told his disciples that when his ministry is finished and he returns to Heaven, the Father would send the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, to represent him. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that the Holy Spirit was going to come to be their helper for a task that they wouldn't be able to do. 

The Holy Spirit would help the disciples:

• Remember vividly the events that happened over the past 3 years
• Recall and quote relevant Old Testament scripture to explain their teaching
• Reveal the truth found in Jesus teaching that they didn't understand before

So much of what Jesus taught these guys didn't make any sense until after Jesus left them and God sent the Holy Spirit. Suddenly their wisdom and insight increased greatly as they seemed to have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)

God's Word Verified

John 19:35 This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe. 

John 20:30-31 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

We need truth to make informed choices about God, eyewitness accounts and John’s experiences support belief in God's word, making disbelief even harder. Since it was written while the eyewitnesses were still living to verify the content, we can be sure that the information is accurate and can be trusted.

Trusting God requires faith but God also provides reasoning to support belief in Jesus for eternal life. Thankfully God protected his written word so it can be analyzed and studied as part of verifying it. Imagine how devastating it would be if we only had a verbal record of what God wants us to know.

2 Peter 1:16-17 For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes 17 when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy."

Peter agrees with John and firmly supports the compelling case for Christ. He brings up his profound experience with Jesus during the remarkable event of the transfiguration, a significant moment when he, along with John and James, had the unique opportunity to witness this extraordinary occurrence in which Jesus' divine glory was momentarily revealed to them.

It is likely that Jesus selected these three witnesses to fulfill the legal requirement for credible testimony. In the future, they would come to fully comprehend and appreciate this revelation of Jesus' glory only after Jesus' departure and only after the arrival of the Holy Spirit to guide and enlighten them.

2 Peter 3:15 And remember, our Lord's patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him.

Peter confirmed Paul’s writings by saying Paul received wisdom from God. Their agreement in theology supported their message as well as the message of at least seven men that wrote the New Testament.

The original Bible manuscript is lost, but many copies exist that show the scribes copied it accurately. Thousands of copies in various languages keep being discovered, and they are nearly identical. This should help us take the Bible seriously as God's word. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Thank you God for revealing yourself to your people, allowing us to know where we came from, why we need a Savior and what you did to save us. Help me to see your glory through your written word just as vividly as it is seen in Jesus. (John 1:14)

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