Thursday
Evening Bible Study
October
20, 2016
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Target 3300 words
Video = 75 wpm
The English word psalm comes from a Greek word that means “a poem
sung to musical accompaniment”, or in particular, “stringed instruments”.
The Hebrew name is tehillim, which means “praises.”
The book of Psalms is the hymnbook of God’s people.
It’s also the “Him” book as well. It’s all about Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews quotes from
Psalm 40:8 when he writes,
(Hebrews 10:7 NKJV) Then I
said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the
volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ ”
The author was talking about Jesus.
We’re going to see a lot of Jesus
in the Psalms.
Soul Music
Music touches the soul. It’s
“soulish” in nature. It touches the emotions.
We’re going to find every kind of
emotion possible expressed in the Psalms.
For every sigh there is a Psalm.
For most of us, this is what makes
the Psalms so wonderful. We can identify. We can relate.
If we were honest, even darkest
most depressing Psalms describe the very things we go through day by day.
It is my prayer that as we continue
on this journey through the Psalms, we won’t just look at these songs
academically, with our mind, but that we may also grow as worshippers.
Psalm 79 – A Destroyed Nation
: A Psalm of Asaph.
A Psalm of Asaph
It’s likely that this Psalm was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
With the upcoming elections, more than a few people are distressed about
what the outcome will bring to our nation.
Those on the Democratic side fear that Donald Trump will blow up the world
with an itchy trigger finger sitting on the nuclear codes.
Those on the Republican side fear that Hillary Clinton will deceive and
manipulate the nation with her lies, and continue the liberal agenda that has
gotten our nation into such a mess morally.
What if the absolute worst should come, our nation should be destroyed, and
Jesus has not yet come back?
The nation of Israel has already been there and done that.
We can learn from the ancients who watched their nation decline morally and
eventually be torn to pieces by the Babylonians.
I’m not saying that the United States
is in the same relationship with God as the nation of Israel was and is. But our nation was founded to be a nation
“under God”, and dedicated to the truth of Scripture.
We can certainly learn from what Israel went through.
:1 O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple
they have defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
As dire as each political party wants to make the outcome of this election
seem, I’m not sure it’s going to come to what happened to Jerusalem, at least
not overnight.
:2 The dead bodies of Your servants— They have given as food for the
birds of the heavens, The flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.
:3 Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem, And there
was no one to bury them.
:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and derision to
those who are around us.
:4 a reproach to our neighbors
The neighboring nations around Judah were laughing at the
destruction of Jerusalem.
Among those laughing were the Edomites. God would rebuke the Edomites in the
book of Obadiah:
(Obadiah 12 NKJV) “But you
should not have gazed on the day of your brother In the day of his captivity; Nor should
you have rejoiced over the children of Judah In the day of their destruction; Nor should you
have spoken proudly In the day of distress.
I
was reading the other day how the nation of Iran is now demanding “many
billions of dollars” in exchange for two American citizens that they have recently
imprisoned.
They seem to figure that since we paid them $1.7 billion for the last
hostages that we’ll do it again. I
wonder if they’re just laughing at us.
:5 How long, Lord? Will You
be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
:5 How long, Lord?
The Psalmist is hoping that God would bring deliverance immediately.
It would not come for seventy years.
:6 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, And on the
kingdoms that do not call on Your name.
:7 For they have devoured Jacob, And laid waste his dwelling place.
:8 Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender
mercies come speedily to meet us, For we have been brought very low.
:8 Let Your tender mercies come speedily
The Psalmist realizes that their current condition is a result of their
sin.
Sin has consequences
Lesson
Mercy and Consequences
When we’ve gotten ourselves into trouble through doing something stupid,
our cries for help aren’t necessarily going to remove the trouble.
When we ask God for forgiveness, when we ask Him for a new life, He will
indeed to that.
But He may not change some of our circumstances.
Examples: An inmate on death-row
for murdering someone may find forgiveness and still be put to death.
A drug user may still have to go
through withdrawals.
A person engaging in sexual sin may
still have a disease.
:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name; And deliver
us, and provide atonement for our sins, For Your name’s sake!
:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let there be
known among the nations in our sight The avenging of the blood of Your servants
which has been shed.
:10 Where is their God?
I wonder who the nations think our
God is.
:11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; According to the
greatness of Your power Preserve those who are appointed to die;
:12 And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach
with which they have reproached You, O Lord.
:13 So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, Will give You thanks
forever; We will show forth Your praise to all generations.
:13 we … Will give You thanks forever
Lesson
Our Hope
I think it’s important to look a little bit past the dire predictions that
each political party is making.
Jeremiah was the prophet that lived through the Babylonian invasion, the
hauling of people off to Babylon, and the destruction of Jerusalem.
He was the one sounding the alarm for dozens of years before it happened.
And then it happened.
In the middle of all this tragedy, destruction, and sorrow, God had more
things to speak to Jeremiah about, and they weren’t about destruction. He gave him a prophecy while he slept.
Here’s what we were reading in our “Through the Bible in a year” reading
program today, a picture of the future – hope –
(Jeremiah 31:12
NKJV) Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to
the goodness of the Lord For wheat
and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls
shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all.
(Jeremiah 31:16–17 NKJV) —16 Thus says
the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your
work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 17
There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.
After this prophecy, Jeremiah woke up (Jer. 31:26), and said it was a
“sweet” dream.
(Jeremiah 31:26 NKJV) After
this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.
For Jeremiah, there was hope for the nation of Israel. God was not finished with them.
For us, we too have hope, not in the restoration of our nation, but in the
coming of Jesus.
He will one day come back and rule and reign on this
earth, and all the wrong things in this world will get fixed.
Fix your hope on Jesus, not on our political mess.
Song
Psalm 80 – Turn Us Around
: To the Chief Musician. Set to Testimony of Asaph. A Psalm.
of Asaph. A Psalm
Some suggest that this Psalm was also written after the destruction of
Jerusalem.
It’s also possible it was written earlier, when the northern kingdom had
been wiped out by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and the people of Judah, including
the singers of Asaph saw the destruction.
Keep in mind, Asaph was the family
of singers that served in the Temple.
They were in the southern kingdom.
:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You
who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!
:1 You who lead Joseph like a flock
Joseph was one of the sons of Jacob/Israel, but wasn’t usually thought of
as a tribe since his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh were both given status as
equal tribes among the other tribes. Joseph was the dominant tribe of the
north, Ephraim the most dominant of Joseph.
The focus seems to be on the northern, on the northern kingdom of Israel
:1 You who dwell between the cherubim
This is a reference to God on His throne, both at the model of the throne
on the Ark, as well as in heaven.
The Ark of the Covenant was a
golden box that held the “covenant”, the stone tablets that contained the Ten
Commandments.
The solid gold lid on top of the
Ark was called the “mercy seat”, and was designed as a throne, where God
Himself would sit. Molded onto the lid
were two angelic beings, cherubim.
(Exodus 25:22 NKJV) And there
I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about
everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
The Ark of the Covenant, as well as
the entire Tabernacle, were designed to be a model of heaven.
:2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, Stir up Your strength, And come and
save us!
:3 Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
:3 Restore us, O God
Restore – shuwb – to
return, turn back; (Hiphil) to cause to return
This is the Hebrew root idea of “repentance”, turning around.
He’s asking God to “cause” (Hiphil) them to turn around.
This is the “chorus” or “refrain”.
It will be repeated several times (vss 7,19)
Each time the name of God will be
expanded.
(Psalm 80:7 NKJV) Restore
us, O God of hosts; Cause Your
face to shine, And we shall be saved!
(Psalm 80:19 NKJV) Restore
us, O Lord God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we
shall be saved!
It’s as if the intensity is being
turned up each time the Psalmist repeats it.
This is the main prayer of the Psalm, asking God to “restore” His people, to
turn them around, perhaps speaking specifically of the northern kingdom which
was carried away by the Assyrians in 722 BC.
:3 Cause Your face to shine
The idea is for God to look on us with favor, to “smile” on us.
I hope this sounds familiar to you.
This is a line from the priestly blessing:
(Numbers 6:23–27
NKJV) —23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall
bless the children of Israel. Say to them: 24 “The Lord bless you
and keep you; 25
The
Lord make His face shine upon
you, And be
gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His
countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’ 27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will
bless them.”
The Psalmist hopes that if God would just once more “smile” on His people,
they would be saved from their enemies.
:4 O Lord God of hosts, How
long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people?
:4 O Lord God of hosts
Yahweh Elohim Tsabaoth
The “hosts” are the “armies” of
God.
(Psalm 80:4 NLT) O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, how long
will you be angry with our prayers?
:5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink
in great measure.
:6 You have made us a strife to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among
themselves.
:7 Restore us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
The chorus again.
:8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and
planted it.
:8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt
Israel is going to be compared to a vine in vs. 7-13.
God brought them out of Egypt under Moses in the Exodus.
God planted Israel in the land of Canaan after getting rid of the
inhabitants.
:9 You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it
filled the land.
:10 The hills were covered with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its
boughs.
:11 She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River.
:11 the Sea … the River
For a time, the nation of Israel spread out between the Mediterranean Sea
and the Euphrates River.
:12 Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way
pluck her fruit?
:13 The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field
devours it.
:12 Why have You broken down her hedges
Hedges were planted or walls were built around vineyards to keep
trespassers out the vineyard.
Lesson
Protection
Isaiah used the same picture of Israel as a vineyard.
(Isaiah 5:1–7 NKJV)
—1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding
His vineyard: My
Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted
it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring
forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
Judge,
please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have
not done in it? Why then,
when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring
forth wild grapes? 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take
away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will lay
it waste; It shall not
be pruned or dug,
But
there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.” 7 For the vineyard of the Lord
of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked
for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
God broke down the hedges because of their sin.
The safest place to be is behind the wall of righteousness.
Paul called it a “breastplate of righteousness”.
Walls around a city were the greatest protection against invading armies.
When we sin and go against God’s ways, it’s as if a little bit of the wall
is torn down.
Learn to keep your walls secure.
There is great value in obeying the Lord.
:14 Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see,
And visit this vine
:14 Return – shuwb
– to return, turn back
This is a form of the word used in
vs. 3, but instead of asking God to “cause” them to turn around, the Psalmist
is asking God Himself to turn around towards them.
He’s asking God to visit the
“vine”.
:15 And the vineyard which Your right hand has planted, And the branch that
You made strong for Yourself.
branch – ben –
son
(Psalm 80:15 ESV) the stock
that your right hand planted, and for the son whom you made strong for
yourself.
:16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at
the rebuke of Your countenance.
The current state of the vineyard is that it had been burnt with fire.
:17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom
You made strong for Yourself.
:17 the man of Your right hand
Some have suggested that the writer is talking about Israel as the
“man of thy right hand”.
I think it sounds as if the writer is talking about the king.
More specifically, I think he’s talking about the “deliverer”, the
“Messiah”. Jesus.
:18 Then we will not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon
Your name.
Revive – chayah
– to live, sustain life, live forever, be restored to life or health
:19 Restore us, O Lord God of
hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved!
:19 Restore us, O Lord God
of hosts
The chorus one last time.
Lesson
Learning from others
If this was indeed written during the Assyrian invasion, then this Psalm is
about watching the judgment that fell on the north, and the stirring up of
revival in the south.
Illustration
Winter House
A new home owner wrote,
“We purchased an old home in Northern New York State from two
elderly sisters. Winter was fast approaching and I was concerned about the
house’s lack of insulation. “If they could live here all those years, so can
we!” my husband confidently declared. One November night the temperature
plunged to below zero, and we woke up to find interior walls covered with
frost. My husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm. After
a rather brief conversation, he hung up. “For the past 30 years,” he muttered, “they’ve
gone to Florida
for the winter.””
This family needed to learn from those before them.
How do we respond when we see others experience a type of judgment because
of their sin?
It ought to “quicken” us (vs. 18 – “revive”), wake us up.
When I hear stories of pastors who fall into immorality, it scares me to death.
I just heard the other day of a younger Calvary Pastor in Miami – who was
one of the up and coming rising stars – who used to speak at the Sr. Pastor
conferences – being removed from his church for alcohol abuse and doing drugs.
Do you know of people who have stumbled?
Instead of condemning them, learn from their mistakes.
Psalm 81 – Pay Attention to God
: To the Chief Musician. On An Instrument of Gath. A Psalm of Asaph.
On An Instrument of Gath
Gittith – Gittiyth
– “a wine-press”
This could refer to the name of a
musical instrument.
It could be an instrument from
Gath, one of the Philistine cities.
This is found in the titles of
three Psalms:
Ps 8:1; 81:1; 84:1; a song title
used for the Feast of Booths
:1 Sing aloud to God our strength; Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob.
:2 Raise a song and strike the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the lute.
:3 Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, At the full moon, on our
solemn feast day.
:1 Sing aloud to God
Look at all the various instruments being mentioned in the worship of God.
Voices – “sing aloud”.
Timbrel – (vs. 2) or, tambourines
Harp (vs. 2) – the Hebrew is kinnowr,
was an instrument with strings and a wooden frame. The word is also another name for the sea of
Galilee, giving us possibly an idea of it’s shape.
Lute (vs. 2) – the Hebrew word is nebel, and is possibly a wooden sounding box with 10-20 strings,
and was larger and lower pitched than the kinnowr.
Perhaps we’d see this as the “bass”.
Trumpet (vs. 3) – the Hebrew word is shofar, the horn made from a ram’s horn.
:3 at the time of the New Moon
Ancient cultures paid much more attention to the moon than we do today.
Their calendars were typically lunar calendars, built on the phases of the
moon.
The “New Moon” would be the first day of the month in a lunar calendar, and
the New Moon was the first day when the slightest sliver of the moon began to
show after having disappeared.
It was typically a time of celebration, as it was in Judaism (Num. 28:11).
(Numbers 28:11 NKJV) ‘At the
beginnings of your months you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and
seven lambs in their first year, without blemish;
Though there were 11 “New Moons” in the Jewish calendar, this is going to
refer to one specific one, in the seventh month.
:3 At the full moon, on our solemn feast day
The full moon was in the middle of the month, when the moon was at its
fullest, brightest.
This is referring to one specific feast day, the beginning of the Feast of
Tabernacles.
Tabernacles took place in the seventh Jewish month. That month started with a special “New Moon”
festival called the “Feast of Trumpets” (Lev. 23:23-24)
(Leviticus 23:23–24 NKJV) —23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month,
on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a
memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
On the tenth of that same month was the “Day of Atonement”, Yom Kippur.
The Jews just celebrated Yom Kippur on October 11.
On the fifteenth of that same month, at the “Full Moon”, the Feast of
Tabernacles started and would run for seven days. It is also known as “Sukkot” (tabernacles).
This year, Sukkot began last Sunday (October 16), and is still running
until next Sunday (October 23).
Kind of cool that we’re reading about this tonight, huh?
To celebrate Sukkot, Jews were required to gather in Jerusalem, build
“booths”, and live in them for seven days.
The purpose was to remember how God took them through the forty years that
they wandered in the wilderness when they came out of Egypt. During those forty
years, the people lived in tents (sukkot).
They were to remember how God dwelled with them in the wilderness.
This Psalm was supposed to be sung at the time of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.
:4 For this is a statute for Israel, A law of the God of Jacob.
:4 this is a statute for Israel
The law concerning the Feast of Tabernacles is in Lev. 23:39-43.
(Leviticus 23:39–43 NKJV) —39 ‘Also on
the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of
the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord
for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest,
and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of
beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows
of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute
forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native
Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your
generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I
brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ ”
:5 This He established in Joseph as a testimony, When He went
throughout the land of Egypt, Where I heard a language I did not
understand.
:5 He established in Joseph as
a testimony
The northern kingdom, though it
might refer to Israel as a whole.
:5 He went throughout the land of Egypt
The Psalmist is going to recall how God brought Israel out of the land of
Egypt.
:5 Where I heard a language I did not understand
It’s not that God didn’t understand the language, but that it was a foreign
language, not the language of His people.
Isaiah spoke of the coming Assyrian
captivity when the people would be hearing a foreign language.
(Isaiah 28:11–12 NKJV) —11 For with
stammering lips and another tongue He will
speak to this people, 12 To whom He
said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear.
Paul quoted this to talk about the
gift of tongues:
(1 Corinthians 14:21–22 NKJV) —21 In
the law it is written: “With men
of other tongues and other lips I will
speak to this people; And yet, for
all that, they will not hear Me,” says the
Lord. 22 Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to
those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers
but for those who believe.
:6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden; His hands were freed from the
baskets.
God delivered the Israelites from slavery.
:7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret
place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
:7 You called in trouble, and I
delivered you
When they asked God to deliver
them, God answered and brought them out of Egypt.
:7 I tested you at the waters of Meribah
Lesson
Who is testing who?
(Exodus 17:1–7 NLT)
—1 At the Lord’s
command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin and moved
from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water
there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to
drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against
me? And why are you testing the Lord?”
3 But
tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us
out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with
thirst?” 4 Then Moses
cried out to the Lord, “What
should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” 5 The Lord said to Moses, “Walk out in front
of the people. Take your staff, the one you used when you struck the water of
the Nile, and call some of the elders of Israel to join you. 6 I will stand
before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come
gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock
as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on. 7 Moses named
the place Massah (which means “test”) and Meribah (which means “arguing”)
because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord here with us or not?”
Moses felt that the people were “testing” God, but God was actually testing
them.
The test is about how we’ll react when things in life
don’t seem to be working out the way we want.
Will we trust God or will just complain?
Illustration
The Job Applicant
Back when the telegraph was the was the fastest method of long-distance
communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator.
Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was
listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and
clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the
receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait
until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man filled out
his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area.
After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of
the inner office, and walked right in.
Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They
muttered among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed
that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be
disqualified.
Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of
the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much
for coming, but the job has just been filled.”
The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up
saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we
never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not
fair!” The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting
here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code:
‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of
you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.”
Sometimes we the challenges face in life are actually tests from God.
We are so busy trying to get ahead in life that we ignore the ticking of
the message.
James wrote,
(James 1:2–4 NKJV)
—2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that
the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its
perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
God would prefer that we respond to our difficulties by
trusting Him, by “counting it all joy”, instead of complaining.
:8 “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will
listen to Me!
:8 Hear, O My people
The Psalmist is going to encourage his listeners to pay attention to what
he’s about to say.
They need to pay attention to their own history.
:9 There shall be no foreign god among you; Nor shall you worship any
foreign god.
:9 There shall be no foreign god among you
As Israel began their 40 year journey in the wilderness, one of the things
that happened early on was Moses going up to Mt. Sinai and receiving
instructions from God.
We call those instructions the Ten Commandments.
The instructions that Moses received on the mountain began with this:
(Exodus 20:1–3 NKJV)
—1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 “I am
the Lord your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 “You shall
have no other gods before Me.
From the very beginning, God made it clear that Israel was to worship Him
and Him alone.
:10 I am the Lord your
God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will
fill it.
:10 Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it
Perhaps this is talking about any kind of hunger, whether it’s spiritual or
physical.
If we will open our mouth, acknowledge our hunger, God will satisfy our
needs.
(John 6:35 NKJV) And Jesus
said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
:11 “But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have
none of Me.
(Psalm 81:11 ESV) “But my
people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
They did not want to do things God’s way.
:12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own
counsels.
:12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart
God let them do what they wanted to do, and they learned the hard way.
We talked about one example of this last week when the people were
complaining about the manna that God had supplied them. They didn’t want manna, they wanted meat.
So God gave them meat.
(Numbers 11:33–34
NKJV) —33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it
was chewed, the wrath of the Lord
was aroused against the people, and the Lord
struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth
Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.
Kibroth Hattaavah – “graves of lust”.
Sometimes the things you keep demanding of God are not all that healthy for
you.
If you keep demanding, there may be a day God will actually give it to you,
and that wouldn’t be good.
:13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My
ways!
Again, wishing that God’s people would pay attention to God.
:14 I would soon subdue their enemies, And turn My hand against their
adversaries.
God promised to give His people victory over their enemies if they would
obey His commands.
:15 The haters of the Lord
would pretend submission to Him, But their fate would endure forever.
:16 He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; And with honey
from the rock I would have satisfied you.”
:16 with honey from the rock
Lesson
The Blessings of Obedience
When you act out of rebellion against God, you are missing out on some
pretty good stuff.
Don’t get your head turned by the pleasures of “sin for a season”. Is will
lead to death.
(Hebrews 11:24–26
NKJV) —24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Illustration
Sad Stories
Trying to get ahead in life without obeying
God is a little like forgetting the room key.
You will find yourself having to start over and over and over.
Obeying God doesn’t make us instantly
wealthy.
But over the long haul in life, we end up
MUCH farther ahead when we learn to do what God asks of us.