Broken Promises

Experiencing God's miracles won't guarantee your faithfulness to him.

Exodus 24:1-3 Then the LORD instructed Moses: “Come up here to me, and bring along Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders. All of you must worship from a distance. 2 Only Moses is allowed to come near to the LORD. The others must not come near, and none of the other people are allowed to climb up the mountain with him.” 3 Then Moses went down to the people and repeated all the instructions and regulations the LORD had given him. All the people answered with one voice, “We will do everything the LORD has commanded.”

Exodus 24:9-11 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climbed up the mountain. 10 There they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there seemed to be a surface of brilliant blue lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. 11 And though these nobles of Israel gazed upon God, he did not destroy them. In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in his presence!

Exodus 32:1-6 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.” 

2 So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 

5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!” 6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.

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In my study of the book of Genesis and Exodus it has been so clear that God loves us and wants to restore our relationship with him to the intimate relationship that we had before sin came between us and him. God gave us a choice in the garden to let him define good and evil or eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that we can make our own rules. 

From the beginning of time we have proof that it is difficult for man to trust God's wisdom and consistently make good choices on our own. The Bible shows us that our problem is the same as it was back then. When we take control and decide good and evil the results are always more evil. (Genesis 6:5, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 12:2)

Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even Moses all made poor choices despite the close, intimate relationship with God.  You may think that you would be more consistent and behave so much better than they did in the Bible but history has proven that no matter how much we learn about God we will still have a problem trusting him and treating him as well as he deserves.

God's people in Exodus have experienced him:

• Bring disaster on Egypt by the plagues and they saw him save his people by the Passover lamb. (Exodus 12)
• The Egyptians demand that they leave and they give them their wealth to take with them. (Exodus 12:31-42)
• Manifestation of God that went before them to lead the way. (Exodus 13:21-22)
• The crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of their enemies. (Exodus 14)
• Work miracles in the wilderness to teach them to trust him for their necessities. (Exodus 15-17) 
• Defeat the army of Amalek (Exodus 17:8-16)
• Moses father in law declares that God alone saved his people from Egypt. (Exodus 18:9-11)
• God has taught them that he is holy, he is the only God and he must be worshiped properly. (Exodus 19-20)
• God's chosen people have been redeemed to live a new way. (Exodus 20-23)
• A new covenant with God is established. (Exodus 24-31)

Such amazing experiences with God made them so sure that they could be committed to him and fully trust him. They agree to God's terms and Israel's leaders meet with God and even eat a meal in his presence to ratify the new covenant before Moses is called to climb the mountain higher to meet with God for 40 days. (Exodus 24:7-18)

God's people needed less than 40 days to go back to the way of worship they learned from the Egyptians. They didn't forget about God but they wanted to remember the gods of Egypt and worship the way their evil neighbors did despite how God had just finished judging them. The blessings of God became a curse to the people, they took the gold from Egypt and created an idol, they seem to want God but they also want to have their idols too. (Exodus 14:1-4, 15:1-21)

God's purpose to make his people a priestly kingdom and a holy nation that would be a witness for him to our dark world is difficult to imagine. So far in the first two books of the Bible, God has been true to his word despite the broken promises of his people. 

At this point they are still at Sinai, God's glory has been obvious for all to see, if they can't be true to him here just imagine what happens when they start moving forward to the promised land. (Numbers 11:1,10, 12:1-9, 14:1-2, 16:1-3, 20:1-3, 21:4-5)

Deuteronomy 8:2,10-11 Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.

The new generation of God's people will be reminded of the reason why their parents did not receive the Promised Land. This new generation of God's people will need to guard their hearts even after the amazing miracles they will experience.

Everyone throughout the ages must decide for themselves. We are not forced to do what God wants, you cannot force love, there must be the freedom to chose God in order to truly love him. Man had to be a creature with a genuine will of his own. Otherwise, there could be no such thing as relationship or love. The possibility of love between man and God springs directly out of man’s freedom to choose.

We must guard our hearts so that we will make the right decision. Humbly digging into God's word everyday is the best way to guard your heart so that you will become more faithful to your promises to love and obey him. (Deuteronomy 11:26, 30:15 Psalms 119:30, 111, 173)

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Perfect Gifts: Wisdom

The wisdom that God wants to give us is so much better than the world has to offer.

Proverbs 16:16 How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!

James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

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It is easy to get caught up in the thinking of this world, to value what they say is important and pursue the things that they think are worthwhile. All of us have fallen into that trap because that is a natural part of our human wisdom but God's infinite wisdom tells us that there is a better way to live and better things to pursue.

The pursuit of temporary riches and the pursuit of knowledge can consume all of us but these treasures are not the most valuable. If you are honest with yourself you will conclude just like King Solomon did that none of these things satisfy for very long, it is is all a chasing after the wind.

We pile up all the toys that we can get our hands on (Proverbs 3:14-15), we spend our time seeking pleasure and higher education (Proverbs 3:5), but we forget that God has a gift that he is ready to give us that is far better and longer lasting.

Knowing Jesus, Priceless

Philippians 3:8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded  everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.

The person who is truly rich is not the one who has money, power or the most toys but the one who is wise discards all of that to gain Jesus. The person who is really wise is the one that seeks to know God and his son Jesus. 

What is God's wisdom? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave us some of God's wisdom and showed us how different it is from man's wisdom. Jesus tells us that the people that live for him, seek to have the same attitudes as him and act like him are the richest people that you will ever meet. (Matthew 5:3-12)

Wise men still seek him and when they seek him they become wiser still. Digging into God’s word everyday is the only way to receive wisdom from God that will help you get to know him better and help you gain his wisdom and understanding for the difficulties that will come your way.

Thank you for giving us wisdom Lord, since your wisdom is so different from mine I need your help to discern your wisdom each day for the situations that come my way.

The Blessing Of Believing

Jesus came from heaven so we could go there too.

John 3:10-16  Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things?

11  I assure you, We tell you what We know and have seen, and yet you won't believe Our testimony.  12  But if you don't believe Me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

13  No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man [who lives in heaven] has come down from heaven.  14  And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  15  so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.

16  For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that

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There is a new Rabbi in town and he is stirring things up, his teaching is different from every other Rabbi in Jerusalem, yet he speaks with so much authority. (Matthew 7:28-29) And he already has some disciples but since they are just fisherman, they have never sat under the teaching of a real Rabbi, what could they really know?

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was deep into the teaching that the law was the way to make God happy with you and therefore gain access to Heaven. Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking answers to his questions but this Rabbi was saying some things that were difficult to understand.

Jesus doesn't mind skeptics, he doesn't mind our questions but there comes a time when we have to have faith to believe God for the things that we cannot comprehend. We cannot understand everything there is to know about the world around us so we certainly cannot understand heavenly things and so we need to believe the testimony of the only person who has ever been there and came to earth to tell us about it.

Nicodemus is a teacher of heavenly things but he doesn't really believe it, surely he must have taught the people about the bronze snake that Moses lifted up in the wilderness but he didn't understand the symbolism.

Admit Your Sin
Numbers 21:7-8  Then the people came to Moses and cried out, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes." So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD told him, "Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!"

The people confessed their sin to Moses and God made a way for salvation. They had a choice, they could die from the snake bite or they could crawl to the pole and look up at the snake. By coming to the pole they were acknowledging that there was sin that needed to be confessed and they had to have faith in God that he would forgive them.

Jesus predicted his death in this conversation with Nicodemus. I wonder if Nicodemus looked back at this prediction three years later when the rest of the religious leaders were plotting Jesus death. Did the light bulb suddenly turn on? Did he have an "aha" moment?

Awakening to the reality of our true spiritual condition, we see ourselves and our need for a Savior with renewed honesty. This realization leads to action, obeying God’s commands and following the example set by Christ.

-Kyle Idleman "AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything."

I have to wonder if Nicodemus heard the conversations about having Jesus crucified and all of a sudden he had an awakening. He remembered Jesus words and he realized that they were true, Jesus was going to die and there wasn't any way to change that fact. Maybe Jesus prediction about being crucified was the "aha" moment that made him realize that Jesus is the Son of God and that he was dying to save him from his hopeless condition.

Ephesians 1:7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.

The Bible is full of blessings that are for God's children. Are you his child? A summary of John 3:16 makes it so simple: God loves, God gave, I believe, I receive. Jesus told us that we can avoid death by believing in him. We need to believe that God is our loving Father and that Jesus is who he said he is, we need to believe in him alone for our righteousness.

Thank you Lord for so many undeserved blessings that come with believing in you and your purpose for coming to earth.

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Love Is the Greatest

The greatest is love.

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.