MILK AND HONEY – Part 2

 

Deuteronomy Chapter 8 (shortened) (New Living Translation)

God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character… to teach you that people do not live by bread alone – we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD… [He] is bringing you into a good land… 

…when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes… do not become proud… never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful…

If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed.

 

Last week in MILK AND HONEY – Part 1 we saw from Exodus Chapter 3 that the Lord promised Israel that he is rescuing them from Egypt and taking them to a land flowing with milk and honey; we also saw that this gospel of milk and honey is very popular, with many Christians seeking God because they want to get out of poverty.

The narrative from Deuteronomy 8 shows how the Israelites left Egypt; were in the wilderness for 40 years; survived on manna; and passed through God’s school of character building, in preparation for entering the land of milk and honey.

Lesson: before providing milk and honey, God will first build godly character in us.

Why is this important? If God does not build godly character in us, when he answers our prayers for milk and honey, we might become proud, lose interests in serving him, and become much more committed to other activities like politics, sports, pleasure travel, shopping, sexual diversions, excessive eating and drinking.

We have thus moved from the Lord just promising Israel milk and honey in the book of Exodus as a motivation for them to leave Egypt and worship him, to the Lord teaching them 40 years later in the book of Deuteronomy, that worshiping him as the source of their milk and honey is the more important thing he wants them to do.

Lesson – Yahweh will provide us bread as we pray for bread; but an abundance of bread should not turn us away from worshiping him to worshiping our own idols. He will build godly character in us so that success does not make us go astray; but if we still choose to turn our back on him, he won’t save us from eternal death. 

May the goodness of God, not be a stumbling block to us, Amen!

Read – Pray – Share! 

 

Image: By jules – Goats Cheese & Honey, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45846370

 

A NEW VISION FOR OVERCOMING GREAT LOSS

 

When Babylon horribly destroyed Judah and took all the people into painful bondage, the Prophet Jeremiah mourned this great loss of country, freedom, and prosperity. While Jeremiah mourned, a young priest named Ezekiel received new visions of God.

Ezekiel 1:1 (NLT Bible) 

On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel saw six visions of God. In the first vision, Ezekiel saw God on a throne, which was carried by four very powerful Angels, moving speedily up and down between heaven and earth; Ezekiel describes the person on the throne this way:

Ezekiel 1, multiple verses, (WEB Translation)

…a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of its midst as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire. Out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. (Verses 4-5)

Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth over their heads above. (Verse 22)

Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. (Verses 26-28)

Judah was experiencing a catastrophe; the people had lost loved ones and all their property, all hope seemed lost. Under such torment, Ezekiel received this lightning and stunning vision of God. This was the perfect medicine for the hour.

The vision renewed Ezekiel’s faith. He saw that in spite of what Israel was passing through, the Almighty God was still ruler of heaven and earth. The vision turned Ezekiel from seeing the problem, to seeing God’s provisions and solutions for a fresh start.

How are you dealing with loss and grief? I encourage you to share your feelings of loss, pain and anguish, with God in prayer. I encourage you to pray for a new vision, a new light, to guide you out of the dark, into renewed joy and hope.

May the Lord, in his amazing grace, answer your prayer for a new vision, Amen!

 

Image: Delhi gate early morning, By DarNadeem – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42992045   

THE BOOK OF PAIN

 

When the Grenfell Tower fire happened in June in London, I am certain many asked the question, why did God allow this to happen to me? Why did he allow my apartment, my home, and all I possess to be lost in the fire? Like the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, we have all asked the ‘why did God allow this’ question.

There was a man who experienced great pain, loss, and sorrow; his name was Job, and the Bible has a book with 42 Chapters about him. It’s a terribly uncomfortable book, with sad description of how Job lost his many properties, all his adult children, his health, the comfort of his wife, and became an outcast in society.

In his own words he states in Job 6:2-3 (NLT) – “If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.”

I weep reading of Job’s experience. I call the book of Job, the Book of Pain. Nonetheless, there is a great light in the Book of Pain about pain.

Job 1:6-12 (NLT) (shortened) has this to say:

One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them… the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth… fears God and stays away from evil.”

 Satan replied…“Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper… take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

“All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan.

The passage shows that Job feared God and prospered; but Satan who has established himself as God’s adversary, was unhappy. Rather than celebrate God’s goodness to humanity, Satan wants to replace it with pain. Why? So that we can curse God to his face! Unfortunately, pain has made many to even reject that God exist.

Job refused to curse God, what incredible love of God! His pain was for a season; it passed away, and the Book of Pain closes with this testimony in Job 42:12-16 (NLT) – ‘the LORD blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning… [with] 7 more sons and 3 more daughters… no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job… [he] put them into his will along with their brothers. Job lived 140 years… to see four generations of his children and grandchildren.’

May the LORD by his grace and love, deliver us from pain, and empower us to live long healthy prosperous lives, Amen!

 

Image: Tributes for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in London,  By ChiralJon – Grenfell Hearts, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60219506