GOD CHASTENS US
Deuteronomy 8:2-5
Now you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God led you in the desert, to deal harshly with you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He dealt harshly with you and weakened you with hunger, and fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God man shall live. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your feet become callused these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
Personal Challenge
Why does God chasten those He loves? If you have ever been a parent, you will have a better understanding of this question. As parents, we love our children. We love them more than life itself. And when it becomes necessary to teach them valuable life lessons, it sometimes takes hard lessons. Lessons that often require chastening and discipline. I never did understand it as a child when my parents would tell me that this discipline hurt them more than it hurt me until I had to discipline one of my own children. When we love someone so much that we allow them to learn a hard lesson the hard way, it hurts. We do chasten, or discipline, those whom we love. And if we choose not to make these tough choices we end up harming our children more than the discipline itself. If we do this as human parents, then it is understandable that God does it to those whom He loves as well. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
A FAITHFUL GOD
Deuteronomy 7:9-10
Therefore know, the Lord your God, this God, is a faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with those who hate Him; He will repay them to their face.
Encouraging Words
God is faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to Him. He always keeps His promises and covenants, no matter what we do, or don't do. He is our righteous redeemer and loves us to the very end. Glory be to God!
FEARING GOD
Deuteronomy 5:29
Would they had such a heart in them so as to fear Me and guard My commandments all the time, that it might be well with them and their sons forever.
Personal Challenge
Fear can be such an emotional and temporary thing. When God desires that we fear Him, it is not that He wants us to be afraid of Him. He is not some mean and vindictive overlord that angrily punishes us for our mistakes. The fear that is being called for is respect, a desire to please our benefactor, awe in that one who is so much greater than us and even cares about us, let along loves us. This is how God wants us to fear Him. And what will God do when we get to that place? He will make it well with us and the generations that come behind us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!
Saint of the Week
St. Theophan the Recluse
MERCIFUL GOD
Deuteronomy 4:31
for the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you nor annihilate you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.
Encouraging Words
Our God is a merciful God. He is pure love and that love is directed toward us, the peak of His creation. He promises to never forsake us or eliminate us. He made a covenant with our forefathers and will never renege on that promise. He treats us as His children. Glory be to God.
BEARING OUR SINS
Numbers 18:1-3
Now the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the sins of the holy things, and you and your sons with you shall bear the sins of your priesthood. You shall also bring your brethren, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, to yourself, and they shall be joined and added to you, and minister liturgically with you and your sons with you before the tabernacle of testimony. They shall perform your guard duties and the duties of the tabernacle, but they shall not come near the holy vessels and the altar, lest they die—they and you also.
Encouraging Words
In the Old Testament covenant, God set up a system of forgiveness of sins that continually pointed to the coming of His son and the establishment of the New Testament covenant. The sons of Aaron were designated to be the priests of the nation and they would bear the sins of the people as they would perform their priestly duty. However, even though they were set apart and doing the priestly duties bestowed upon them by God, they still could not enter into the holy of holies, God's dwelling place. When Jesus became the ultimate bearer of the sins of the people, He was now able to take our sins into the holy of holies for permanent forgiveness and cleansing. Glory be to God!
MERCIFUL GOD
Numbers 14:18
‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth, taking away lawlessness, wrongdoings, and sins; but He would not cleanse the guilty by repaying the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
Encouraging Word
Moses shows us that it is okay for us to remind God of His mercy towards us. It is not that God forgets, but it is really to remind ourselves of just how much mercy God pours out on us every moment of our lives. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!
MEEK / HUMBLE
Numbers 12:3
(Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men on the face of the earth.)
Personal challenge
This verse comes from a very interesting story in the Bible. Aaron, Moses' brother and his wife Miriam were giving Moses a bad time because he had married an Ethiopian woman. We are told that God heard their grumbling and then this parenthetical verse shows up. By itself, it is innocuous, even a little out of place, until you read on to hear God explain to Aaron and Miriam that because of Moses' meekness, his humility, He talks to Moses face-to-face, as He does not do with any other prophet. Do we want to hear Gods' voice in our lives? Then we too must be humble before Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
BLESSED
Numbers 6:24-26
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be merciful to you;
the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Encouraging Words
We are blessed! God has blessed us with life. God has blessed us with His son. God has blessed us with the Holy Spirit. We have been blessed becoming His children, adopted into His royal family. This blessing from the priests of the early Jewish synagogue guides us through our day. Glory be to God!
Saint of the Week
St. Athanasius
WALKING WITH GOD
Leviticus 26:12
I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
Encouraging Words
In the beginning of mankind, God walked in the garden with His creation. He talked to them, fellowshipped with them, and they knew Him face to face. Then they rejected God by choosing to sin and that fellowship ended. In this verse, God promised the Israelites that if they would be obedient to Him again that He would walk among them again and call them His people. Unfortunately, they continued to reject Him until finally 2,000 years ago, He walked amongst us one more time. Jesus returned in His incarnate body and became God amongst us ushering in an entirely new covenant. Those of us who claim Him as our Lord and strive to be like Him and obey Him, are numbered amongst His people. Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
SYNERGY OF WILLS
Exodus 36:3-5
They received from Moses all the offerings the children of Israel brought for all the works for making the holy place, and they continued bringing him freewill offerings every morning. Then all the wise men who were doing all the work of the holy place came, each according to the work he was doing, and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the work the Lord commanded us to do.”
Encouraging Words
Since God holds everything in creation in the palm of His hand and is the owner of all of it, He can distribute it as He sees fit. The people of Israel were asked to contribute to the building of the tabernacle. It was God's will for this to be done. The Israelites submitted their wills to God and freely gave according to the request. Their will was in synergy with God's will and great miracles abounded. So much was brought forth that the workers doing the building had to tell Moses to ask the people to stop giving. When we align our wills with God's will, great things happen because He can use us fully to His Glory. Glory be to God in all things.
OUR JEALOUS GOD
Exodus 34:14
(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord God, a jealous name, is a jealous God),
Encouraging Words
How can our God who is sinless and passionless be given a characteristic such as being a jealous God? It is because human language is too constrained to be able to fully describe God. We are finite and limited in our ability to describe things and He is infinite and unlimited. So this is an attempt by the writer to describe God metaphorically so that we get the picture. This parenthetical verse falls in the middle of a passage where the second set of commandments written on stone tablets is given to the Israelites. These are to replace the ones destroyed by Moses when he found the people worshiping idols. The metaphor is that of a father who is jealous, or zealously protective, of his child who is making a wrong decision because he knows the consequences that they will suffer for their choices. This father wants his child to make the right choices so that they will be blessed in their consequences. This is how God is jealous for us so that we will remain close to Him and flee from idolatry. Glory be to God.
