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.

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.

The Most Important Thing

God is holy and he requires that his people be holy.

Leviticus 11:44-45 For I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. 45 For I, the LORD, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

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.

Psalms 33:8  Let the whole world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of him.

Psalm 96:8-9 Give to the LORD the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come into his courts. 9 Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him.

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Something in mankind has always made him aware that there is a higher power and they knew that they should be concerned about making sure that higher power is pleased. The most ancient cultures all over the world have sought to appease the gods so that they could live and be prosperous. 

But we aren't worried about their "gods." We know there is only one higher power to be concerned with. Our fear about how God will treat us became obvious as soon as we sinned, Adam and Eve didn't have any way of knowing how God would react, we read in Genesis that they were afraid but I think that is an understatement.  

The first worshippers that the Bible tells us about are Cain and Abel, after that is was Noah and then all of the forefathers of Israel. They all used a sacrifice as a gift to God even before the laws about sacrifices was given. 

The book of Leviticus is God's gift to his people to let us know what he expects from them when they have made him unhappy with them. None of the "gods" ever went out of their way to help their believers know what is expected.

Nothing else could be more important than knowing God and his demands but most of us like to stay out of the Old Testament so we don't get the full story. We don't realize that our view of God is inaccurate because we are only reading half of God's book.

The fact that God devoted an entire book of the Bible to the subject of holiness would indicate that it’s an important subject, one that we dare not ignore. Whenever we minimize the holiness of God, we’re in danger of minimizing human sinfulness, and the combination of these two errors results in the minimizing of the cross of Jesus Christ.

-Warren Wiersbe Commentary

The most popular way of referring to God in scripture is simply "the holy one," it is so important that it is the one characteristic that is most celebrated before his throne in Heaven. "Holy, holy, holy" is the song of the saints before God's throne. (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8-9, 15:2–4)

God wants a relationship with us but his holiness is dangerous to unclean people if we do not adhere to his rules about approaching's him. By ignoring the Old Testament we find it easier to avoid the fact that God is holy, Moses described him as being "glorious in holiness" (Exodus 15:11) and we have been commanded in both the Old and the New Testament to be holy just as he is.

God’s holiness can be understood as the momentum behind all the other attributes of God.  Holiness is the essence of God.  It is the driving force behind the righteousness, justice, mercy, wrath, compassion, will, truth, and all other attributes of God.

A Brief Analysis Of The Holiness Of God by John Wilsey

We don't like to think about God's holiness or his demand that his people be holy. The most popular way of referring to God today is to say that God is love, everybody likes that God, we want a God that helps us get along with each other, solves our problems and carries our burdens. We want a God that affirms us and tells us to follow our heart or trust our feelings.

We are too much like the crowds that followed Jesus around looking for a cure, looking for a meal or looking for a leader to save them from the Roman oppression. But as soon as Jesus fails to make our life better we turn on him.

We want a Jesus that makes us happy, so don't even mention a Jesus that wants to control our lives and change our character. The idea of God or Jesus wanting us to be happy is a concept that isn't found in the Bible.

1 Peter 1:15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

1 Peter 2:5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

We have been commanded to be holy, that is our greatest goal, we must be unique and separate from the world. We belong to a holy God who has given us a job to do. As his nation of priest we have work to do that requires us to be holy. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and 2 Corinthians 7:1)

10 Things You Should Know about the Priesthood of Believers

Jesus came to be our High Priest so that we can be priest that do God's work, interceding for others and representing God to them. How can we draw near to God as a priest if we are unholy? How can we accurately show God to others if we are a terrible example?

God's attributes must be seen as equal, we shouldn't stress his love and neglect wrath and justice, too much emphasis on any of them is a distortion of who God is. Without a proper view of God's holiness there is a lack of fear or reverence for him and we won't see a need to change.

Pleasing God is the most important thing in the world and the only way to please him is to become like him and that means being holy. Instead of pursuing our happiness in this world we should seek to prepare ourselves for the next world where we will experience joy eternally.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Problem Solving Jesus (mereorthodoxy.com)

God's Holiness And Your Worship (gty.org)

What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? (olivetree.org)