Settling

TODAY'S READING: Judges 1, 2, 3; 1 Cor. 12

SCRIPTURE: Judges 2:1-3
¹ The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? ³ Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.”

OBSERVATIONS: I think Judges is the saddest book in the Bible. I never really look forward to reading it. It is full of darkness and perversion. But it serves as a reminder of the consequences of disregarding the Lord and going one's own way. This book starts out recapping what happened after Joshua divided up the land into portions for the tribes. They had already defeated many of the inhabitants but there were still towns and villages that needed to be conquered. It didn't take long after they began to settle in their permanent residences for them to lose the will to fight for their whole inheritance. When they grew to the place where they needed more room, they compromised and did not completely destroy the people of the land as God had instructed them to. Settling down had made them willing to settle for less. The Lord sends an angel to tell them that their disobedience has cost them the advantage of the Lord working on their behalf.

APPLICATION: I see a parallel between the Israelites and me. I can look back at my own life and see that when I have been blessed by God, I want to stay in that comfortable place and not take on any more "battles". Instead of contending for all the promises he has made to me, I am perfectly content to "settle" for the blessings I have already received and to avoid the work of contending for my full inheritance as a child of God. Like the Israelites, God often allows testing and problems to come my way to spur me to the action of seeking him with a fervent heart. I must not allow his blessing and promise of rest to make me spiritually indolent but must maintain my spiritual fervor.

PRAYER: Father, I am truly grateful for all the many blessings you have given me in my life. Forgive me for the times I have taken those as my "right" by refusing to also engage in working with you to overcome the enemy that is at work to destroy the kingdom of God on earth. I never want to become lazy in seeking your will and advancing the kingdom by taking back territory that Satan has claimed for his own. Strengthen my hands and heart for the battles as I work with you to see victory in obtaining the full rights of the inheritance of the saints. Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May I settle for nothing less. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

There's a Time to Shut Up

TODAY'S READING: Deut. 3, 4; Ps. 36; Mark 13

SCRIPTURE: Deut. 3; 23-28

²³ At that time I pleaded with the LORD: ²⁴ “O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? ²⁵ Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

²⁶ But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan. ²⁸ But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.”

OBSERVATION: Moses is near the end of his life and giving his last speech to the people he has led from Egypt to the promised land. He has already made the point to the Israelites that it is their fault that he does not get to go into the promised land. In fact, he has reminded them of this 3 or 4 times. The case could be made that he is harping on the point. It's not that Moses bears no personal responsibility for his plight; he does. But he makes a valid point in this speech that his people wronged him. Moses sacrificed and prayed for his people a lot. In fact, it was his intercession for them that kept God from wiping them out completely on two different occasions. What was their response? Too many of them made his life rather miserable with complaining, slander, rebellion, anger, and disdain. They showed no appreciation of the work he did for them and the burdens of leadership that he willingly carried for them. But, as true as all that was, did it help that he kept bringing it up that they had wronged him? What was the point of bringing it up over and over again? I think I can guess from my own personal experiences. He loved his people and was even willing to sacrifice his own life to preserve them (as illustrated by the time he told God to take his life instead of killing all of the people as a result of their disobedient and stubborn hearts). But Moses never heard them acknowledge their terrible behavior toward him or the hurt he had suffered because of what they did. I think his repetition of their sins toward him and toward God was because he wanted them to understand the seriousness of what they had done. He wanted them to truly repent and to never do that again! But did this approach work? Hmm....

APPLICATION: I am like many parents who have seen their children suffer because they refused the guidance and correction of God's Word which we tried our best to give them. It has been painful to see them suffer, but it has also been personally painful to me that they did not love or respect their father and me enough to embrace the values that we taught them. I have reacted as Moses did. I have rehearsed their faults and failures to them and how those faults have affected others in the family (and me too, of course) on several occasions. The desire has been to hear them repent and come back to living rightly as well as to restore the relationship between us. But what has happened is the opposite of what I have wanted. They has reacted negatively to hearing about how they have blown it. I have come to the conclusion that unless God works in a person's heart to convict a person of his sin, bringing it up and trying to get them to see it is not only a waste of time, it usually causes more resentment toward you on their part. God instructs us to try to do it, so Moses was not wrong to express his feelings about it to them. But going on and on when the desired response is not forthcoming can have the opposite effect. I think it hit me full force in a new way as I read this in today's reading (and yesterday's as well). Seeing in print how often Moses brought up the sin of the Israelites and its effect on him personally I found myself reacting to Moses with a "get over it" type response. I then was banged over the head by the Spirit with the thought that I need to do the same thing. Ouch!!

PRAYER: Ok, Lord. I get the point! Help me to give up trying to by You and bring my sons to repentance. That's your job. Forgive me for interfering. I lift them before you and ask that you speak to their hearts. Restore our relationship with them. More importantly, restore their relationship with you, so that they become willingly obedient to you and your Word. I thank you for all my kids; they are a gift from you and precious to me. I will wait for you to work in them and not take things into my own hands. Help me to be patient. And thank you for correcting me and changing me more and more into your image. In Jesus' Name, Amen.