Daily Archives: April 11, 2015

Three Huge Events

Bible Study, , , ,

THREE HUGE EVENTS

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient (Heb. 11: 29-31).

Three huge events! Whoever heard of people crossing a sea on dry land or a city falling without a shot being fired? What about a pagan prostitute helping the enemy because she believed in the enemy’s God? But it happened.

The Israelites were in a bit of a spot. A few million of them and they were cornered on a stretch of beach on the shore of a 5,000-feet-deep sea. On both sides were mountains, and behind them the advancing army of Egyptians, determined to force them back to slavery in Egypt.

But they had a God who was watching. He stepped in with some pretty miraculous interventions! He put Himself between the Egyptians and the people all night in the form of a fiery pillar. That should have been enough to scare off the Egyptian army after everything they had gone through in Egypt. Funny how people never learn!

Then, without warning, the wind began to blow – nothing unusual in the desert except that this wind blew in the right direction, cutting a path through the sea and drying up the sea bed. It blew all night. When the sun rose the next morning the Israelites were astonished to see dry ground in front of them. Not only was that, but the path through the sea level, not 5,000 feet down. At Moses’ command they began to walk – right through to the other shore.

The Egyptian soldiers thought they could do the same, but they were on the wrong side of God. They didn’t reckon with the need for faith. The only faith they had was determination to get the Israelites back but their kind of faith didn’t work. The same water that protected God’s people, wiped them out and left the people free of their enemies – for good.

And what about Jericho? This was no ordinary city in those times. The first city God’s people encountered inside the border of Canaan was Jericho. It had to be heavily fortified because it guarded the entrance to Canaan from the eastern border – the Jordan River. It was impenetrable from below, with a vigilant people inside to boot. The Israelites had no chance of breaching the walls. They had no military equipment, an untrained and untested mob.

From a human point of view their case was hopeless – and the Jericho-ites knew it.  The first day it was a joke. They poked fun and shouted insults at the motley crowd of ex-slaves marching silently around the city walls. The second day they crowded onto the city wall to watch the spectacle and to throw rubble at them. The third, fourth and fifth days drew fewer and fewer spectators. On the sixth day, hardly anyone bothered to watch.

On the seventh day something changed. Instead of dead silence, the priests began to blow their shofars. The eerie sound echoed across the hills and bounced off the city walls, sending shivers of fear down the backs of the people barricaded inside the city. What were these strange people up to? They soon found out when the silly army ended their seventh lap around the city with a mighty shout. With an ominous rumble increasing to a roar, the city walls disintegrated right in front of their eyes. The walls they thought were protection melted like butter in the sun.

They fled in every direction but it was of no use. The same people they mocked turned into merciless killers, destroying everything until the city lay in ruins and the inhabitants lay in silent heaps, a bustling city turned into a historical relic in one short day. Impossible in the natural but terribly possible with God.

What about Rahab? She heard about the goings-on in Egypt – news travelled fast, even in those days – and she knew in her heart that the God of these Israelites was not like the gods of the Canaanites. She didn’t know much about the people or about Him, but she knew enough to be afraid. She wanted to be on His side rather than against Him. She put her confidence in the promise of the spies and waited.

When the walls of the city collapsed, the piece where her house stood remained intact. Imagine that! It stood like a defiant pillar in the middle of the ruins. No one bothered to watch as the “traitor” escaped with her entire family – unharmed while everyone else perished.

None of these miracles were possible except for God! History? Yes, but it’s worth trusting Him, don’t you think? He’s still the same God today.

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8: 31b).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublshing.com.

 

The Pinnacle Of Faith

Bible Study, , , ,

THE PINNACLE OF FAITH

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead for his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel (Heb.11: 23-28).

Moses got the longest slot in this faith hall of fame. He deserved it, of course, because he epitomised the qualities and characteristics of faith in the era of the Old Covenant – and that before the covenant prescriptions were even given. Let’s look at this man’s track record and the reasons for his endurance.

It started with his parents, Amram and Jochebed. Few of the others’ parents were mentioned. Moses had a remarkable mother. She recognised something special in her new-born son, not just because he was an unusually beautiful child but because he had an aura about him that she could not escape. Save him, she must. She obeyed the king’s edict, but not to the letter. “Throw the boy babies into the river,” was his heartless instruction. Instead, she put him in the river – in a little waterproof boat, and sent big sister Miriam to watch.

Sure enough, the Pharaoh’s daughter was captivated by the adorable Hebrew baby. She fell in love with him and claimed him as her son with his own mother as the wet nurse. For Jochebed, everything was going to plan. While she suckled her son, she fed God’s promises into his mind, singing the songs of her homeland and her faith for as long as she could while he was under her care.

Moses absorbed his heritage along with his mother’s milk. When he left home to live in the palace as an Egyptian, he was thoroughly a Hebrew at heart. Perhaps Jochebed even instilled into his mind the seeds of a deliverer which he never forgot. When the time came, he took his opportunity but it was not yet God’s time. Having completed his training as an Egyptian prince for forty years, he had to undergo training in survival in the desert for another forty years. Eighty years under God’s tutorship; his task must have been of utmost significance for such a long apprenticeship.

Jochebed defied the king’s edict because she recognised something others had not seen – a calling on Moses’ life. When Moses was ready for the next phase, he defied the king’s anger because he saw what no one else was able to see – the God who had called him to be a deliverer. Once he had received his call in the desert through an encounter with his unseen God, he kept his eyes steadfastly on Him, and not on the circumstances which were bad enough to put a lesser man off.

Moses not only saw God, he also saw the future and, because of what he saw, he was not tempted to lay hold of the trinkets life in Egypt offered him. Even the richest of treasures were transient – part of this life which would come to an end and all the earthly comforts, riches and pleasure with it. O yes, he would not forfeit his reward by identifying with his own people, a rabble of slaves though they were, but the reward he saw ahead was a lasting one – beyond this life and forever.

Moses realised something else – God had a lamb for their protection. He observed the Passover by faith in the blood of a lamb which would save them from judgment. Did he see by faith another Lamb – slain from the foundation of the world for the sin of the world?

We would do well to embrace what Moses valued more than anything the vast wealth and ease Egypt had to offer:

  1. He embraced his Hebrew heritage because his ancestors had received God’s promise. They would inherit a fruitful land and become a great nation. He chose to be part of them even though getting there would be uncomfortable and costly.
  1. He chose to ignore the king’s anger. He confronted the king under a greater authority than the ruler of the most powerful nation on earth. He was no longer under his jurisdiction but under God Himself. He would crush Egypt’s gods, challenge the king’s power, force the king’s hand and lead his people out with the king’s permission. When the Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued his people, he used his delegated authority to do a mighty miracle and destroy Egypt’s army once and for all.
  1. Moses did all this because he saw and believed in the reality of the unseen realm and the invisible God who reigned over all the kingdoms of the earth. This was the secret of Moses’ faith. He kept his focus on the God with whom he had spoken. He trusted Him; he obeyed His instructions to the letter; he relied on Him for leadership, for wisdom, and for mercy when His people defied him. He clung to God in times of crisis. He pleaded for his people when God’s anger threatened to exterminate them. He was so intimate with God that he became known as a friend of God.

All the way it was just Moses and God. It’s no wonder he had the longest slot in this resume’ of God’s greats. He deserved it, don’t you think?

Where do you and I fit in? Would we even get a mention in a historical record like this? For what would you like to be remembered?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublshing.com.

 

Patriarchal Faith

Bible Study, , , ,

PATRIARCHAL FAITH

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instruction concerning the burial of his bones (Heb. 11: 17-22).

As little as the patriarchs knew of God, they were men of faith. Oops! What did I say? They probably knew God far more intimately than many of us do. Who was this God whom they worshipped? He introduced Himself to Abraham as el, the one who, to the Hebrew person, was not some unique being who was holy, eternal and unknowable except through revelation, although these facts are true.  God was, to them, the one who had power and authority. When He spoke, they obeyed and when He promised, He acted.

Later on, He added another dimension to Abraham’s understanding of Him – El Shaddai – the Mighty One who nourishes. He is the one who has strength and authority and who provides for those who trust Him. These were the simple, everyday experiences of the early fathers because they trusted God and did what He told them to do, even to the near-killing of Abraham’s only son-of-his-old-age who brought him joy and laughter.

God said, ‘Go, sacrifice Isaac,’ so Abraham went without hesitating or questioning. How about that for trust! He no Bible to check up on God. He had no history of a people who knew and followed El. He was a pioneer who had left home and kindred to go where this God had told him to go and he went. In his going, he discovered that his God was able to exactly as He had promised. Wasn’t Isaac proof of that? Whoever heard of a ninety-year-old woman having a child, and that after she had gone through menopause?

So confident he was in God that he was willing to put Isaac’s life on the line, as much as he loved him, for the sake of obeying God, and leave the outcome to Him. The writer commented that Abraham even credited God with the power to raise Isaac back to life after he had plunged in the knife and taken his life. Why did he believe that? He knew Him. His past was spread out in front of him like a panorama of everything he had experienced, and God was in it from the moment he first heard His voice.

Abraham lived up to God’s expectation.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about what He has promised Him (Gen. 18: 18-19).

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Abraham’s descendants, all eventually followed the way of Yahweh because Abraham obeyed God and taught his offspring to do the same. Although the Bible does not mention his influence on his grandchildren, he was still alive long after they were born. He lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and seventy five years.

Abraham’s son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob received the same promise that God gave to Abraham (Gen 26: 3-5; Gen 28: 13-15). Joseph, although he died in Egypt, was so sure of the fulfilment of God’s promise that he left instructions for his bones to be take back to Canaan when the people eventually left Egypt to take possession of the land of Canaan (Gen 50: 24-25; Ex 13: 19).

These were momentous days. Think of what this meant to these families. Abraham was uprooted from a stable life in Ur to spend the rest of his life as a nomad, with no land of his own, living in tents and moving from place to place, always at the mercy and goodwill of the local inhabitants.

Isaac and Jacob never knew what it was like to live in a house and have land of their own. Jacob twice had to relocate hundreds of miles from where he was born, ending up in a land where the ruler eventually turned hostile and enslaved his descendants.

Joseph was sold into slavery by jealous brothers, ripped from his beloved father’s side and carried off to a heathen land where he served for thirteen years before God promoted him to a position of power and authority. Even there, in spite of the honour he had received, he was still alone, without family and heritage until his brothers came and he was reunited with them.

What a story! And yet, God was in it and behind it all, working out His will to bless and provide for His people. How did they know that? He had promised and they trusted Him and did what He instructed. What about us? Would we have done what they did at the command of someone they could not see? That’s real faith!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublshing.com.