Finding Focus Ministries

JUDGES—BUSTED!

To think we will get by with judging others carelessly is a huge mistake. To seek unjust ways with hidden personal agendas will not go well for us. To seek notoriety and fame as a judge will not please God who is the One and Only fit to judge is misguided thinking that comes from evil. To judge while seeking what we can get in return for the verdict while looking down on those who need justice with mercy the most is sin and will boomerang back on the one who administered unwise judgements. God spoke through Micah, one of His prophets of old, and told us His requirements for living a just life. A just life is a life in relationship with God not a ritual to perform. God sees the heart. There is nothing we can or should do to change God but we can certainly surrender to God and allow Him to change us!

To be more like God in every way it begins with a “heart transplant”, exchanging our weak, sick evil hearts for God’s perfect loving heart of mercy and grace. Great relationships are built to last with God and others when we surrender to this heart transplant! Micah teaches a sinful Israel;

“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:6-8

“To walk humbly with God” is the definition of a beautiful, intimate, growing relationship with God!

Micah knew that sacrifices were outward expressions of inner faith and trust. What God desired most of all was for Israel to relate to him in a heartfelt, personal way—not just in some superficial, ritualistic fashion. So, he warned God’s people with definitions of justice, mercy, delivered with the grace of God. The Psalmist today is singing of unjust, cruel judges who need God’s hand of righteousness and judgement placed upon them as only He can do.

Psalm 82, The Message
God calls the judges into his courtroom,
he puts all the judges in the dock.
2-4 “Enough! You’ve corrupted justice long enough,
you’ve let the wicked get away with murder.
You’re here to defend the defenseless,
to make sure that underdogs get a fair break;
Your job is to stand up for the powerless,
and prosecute all those who exploit them.”
5 Ignorant judges! Head-in-the-sand judges!
They haven’t a clue to what’s going on.
And now everything’s falling apart,
the world’s coming unglued.
6-7 “I appointed you judges, each one of you,
deputies of the High God,
But you’ve betrayed your commission
and now you’re stripped of your rank, busted.”
8 O God, give them what they’ve got coming!
You’ve got the whole world in your hands!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, writes Paul. (Romans 3:23)

We judge. We like to judge. It’s a human habit. Admit it. When a new person walks into the room, our minds automatically begin to “size them up” by how they carry themselves, what they wear, the words they say, where they are from because of their accent, all while judging their facial expressions when we talk with them! Yes, we are judges who daily and easily presume and assume how we feel about a person in the first few minutes of meeting.
Every person as a story and we don’t know that story. We have a story. They don’t know our story. All our stories have molded and shaped us to be who we are today.

As His created, God knows us by name, knows our stories, and guided our stories with a such a great, unchanging, relentless, unchanging love that it is hard to wrap our minds around it. And get this; God knew you and I as sinners but saw us a redeemable! While we were sinners; God sent His Son to remove our sins by dying in our place of punishment for our sins. (John 3:16-17) While the world jeers at us and calls us by what we have done; God calls us His beloved Child who bears His Name forever in relationship to Him! When we repent of all that is not of God such as hate, bitterness, judging, condemning, envy, jealousy, arrogant pride, sexual misconduct, and everything else not of God in the Name of Jesus; we become joint heirs with Jesus! Crazy, right!?

Jesus was sent by God to do what we could not do—be the perfect without sin sacrifice to pay our debt and set us free which removed our sin as far as the east is from the west! When God looks at us; His first thought is Love! He sees redemption not condemnation. Evil calls us by our sin; God calls by our name—redeemed child of God.
God will never look into the eyes of a person He does not love! So, who are we to judge?

Even as the psalmist pleads with God to rid society of evil judges; it is not God’s desire that anyone perish but all might be saved. (2 Peter 3:9) But God will do what needs to be done to protect those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

These judges did not act justly or love mercy and they walked in defiance of God’s will (Micah 6:8). The pronoun “you” in verse 2 is plural, for the Lord is addressing all the guilty judges. They championed the causes of the guilty because they were bribed, and they failed to care for the orphans and widows. The judges chosen by God were disobedient to God and as a result would be judge by God.

Warren Wiersbe comments;
“The priests and Levites (God’s judges) did not always do their jobs well, and the common people did not know the law well enough to defend themselves. ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6). When the law of God is ignored or disobeyed, this shakes and threatens the very foundations of society, for God’s moral law is the standard by which man’s laws must be judged.” –Wiersbe Study Bible

God’s Word—still relevant and applicable today! When the Lord comes to judge the earth, no one will escape, and His sentence will be just. (Skip to the end of the Book for this truth!) Asaph’s prayer echoes the church’s prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” taught by Jesus when His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. (Matthew 6:10).

Pray for all those in authority over us that they would submit to God and His Ways. Ask God to protect those in positions of government as they are tempted daily.

Lord,
Thank you for leading, teaching, convicting, correcting us with care, while compelling us to be more like you in every way. But as you know, we need your help every hour of every day. Thank you for cleansing our hearts, renewing and transforming our thinking, refreshing our souls with YOUR tender new mercies to extend to others while restoring the joy of your salvation at work continually within us. This is my story, this is my song. It’s all about you in us and us in you.
In Jesus Name, Amen

TROUBLES CAUSED BY REBELLION

As humans, we are prone to look first and consistently for cause and effect reasons for our troubles and challenging circumstances. We are obsessed with explaining all the occurrences of life from sickness to accidents, to even death. We look from side to side and wonder, “Wait, how did this crash happen?” We endlessly wonder, “Why is this sickness not going away?” “I’ve done everything I can do!”

We easily look outward to blame others to help us with explanations of why we are living in the mess we are in. We rationalize and rank our sins as easily as we breathe, eat, and drink. “My sins are not as bad as that person over there, so I will make it.” We become so enthralled and obsessed with explaining life that we miss the point of life altogether.

We realize that some circumstances are not of our own making. Some of the messes we fall into are because of the messy lives of others. However, if we are honest, much of messy troubles and setbacks are a result of our own rebellion of ignoring and neglecting God, doing life on our own terms, relying on our own understandings, arrogantly assuming what others are thinking and therefore act accordingly with presumptive thoughts about all people, places, and things of this life.
Fools rush in when we are foolish because fools like the company of each other—until the fall.

Psalm 81, The Message
For the director of music. According to gittith.[b] Of Asaph.

1-5 A song to our strong God!
a shout to the God of Jacob!
Anthems from the choir, music from the band,
sweet sounds from lute and harp,
Trumpets and trombones and horns:
it’s festival day, a feast to God!
A day decreed by God,
solemnly ordered by the God of Jacob.
He commanded Joseph to keep this day
so we’d never forget what he did in Egypt.
I hear this most gentle whisper from One
I never guessed would speak to me:
6-7 “I took the world off your shoulders,
freed you from a life of hard labor.
You called to me in your pain;
I got you out of a bad place.
I answered you from where the thunder hides,
I proved you at Meribah Fountain.
8-10 “Listen, dear ones—get this straight;
O Israel, don’t take this lightly.
Don’t take up with strange gods,
don’t worship the popular gods.
I’m God, your God, the very God
who rescued you from doom in Egypt,
Then fed you all you could eat,
filled your hungry stomachs.
11-12 “But my people didn’t listen,
Israel paid no attention;
So I let go of the reins and told them, ‘Run!
Do it your own way!’
13-16 “Oh, dear people, will you listen to me now?
Israel, will you follow my map?
I’ll make short work of your enemies,
give your foes the back of my hand.
I’ll send the God-haters cringing like dogs,
never to be heard from again.
You’ll feast on my fresh-baked bread
spread with butter and rock-pure honey.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

The celebration worship began with a flourish of trumpets and shouting praise to God! This was a day set aside by God for His people to remember all that He has done for them. The people were gladly reveling in the party, because who doesn’t enjoy a good party with good food? However, but they were obedient to God in their daily lives. Worship and service go together like honey and biscuits! The congregation truly enjoyed the music and sang along with gusto—then God spoke.

Imagine the scene: God’s voice was heard and the crowd grew silent as He whispered convicting words of their rebellious behaviors. God reminded His people; “You called to me in your pain; I got you out of a bad place.” “You worshiped other gods.” “You didn’t listen.”

God comes into our messy lives, not to condemn us to death; but to demonstrate to us how His Ways lead to Life. Jesus, God’s Son, was the perfect example of showing us how to live in harmony with God. Jesus’ willing obedience to God with sacrificing His live to save us was a demonstration of God’s love for us. So, why worship any other god on earth but God, the Father who loves us enough to die for us? But we do.

We soon realize we are becoming who we worship and we just can’t hide it for our behaviors reflect who (or what) we really believe, talk about most, give our time to, trust, and obey. Our love for God is divided and God will not allow it. He will step aside until we decide to come back to Him with full attention and allegiance.

We are given free will to choose our way or His Way. We are responsible for the choice we make, however. Free will comes with responsibility. If we choose God’s Way; we have the resources beyond our wildest dreams and imaginations along with the holy guidance to all Truth. Yes, God was, is and always will be more than enough.

If we choose going our own way, we are in rebellion against His ways. We soon learn our resources are very limited. We fall for temptations that distract us from God, deceiving us by offering what we think will satisfy all our desires. As we struggle on this destructive path, Jesus offers His Hand of rescue. We can choose to get a grip and be pulled out our current lifestyle of rebellion—or not.

One thing is for certain: We will never be enough on our own to fill the emptiness we have without God.

“Please listen to me!” God pleaded with Israel to listen, but Israel ignored him.

As you read this, prayerfully and humbly consider;
Am I taking time to be still, let go, and truly listen to God?
Am I seeking God’s whisper of wisdom for me?
Am I willing to do what God says to me?
If God asks me to change my ways so I can walk more humbly with Him, am I ready and willing to transform, even if it stings a little?

The Israelites missed God’s best for them when they failed to listen.
God told Micah, His prophet, to tell His people to “seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him as they found their way back to God from perilous times of captivity due to their rebellion against God. Other prophets spoke similar commands from God. But still, they did not listen.

God still speaks. We learn today that when God speaks; we must listen, trust, and obey. Choosing anything or anyone else but God leads to a slow cooking rebellion that can only lead to misery and death. The steps to take to walk with God are found in Romans 12. Check it out. Choose Life. Choose Jesus. No excuses, just surrender.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”—Jesus, John 14:6

Lord,
A song sung in worship to You in celebration of remembering what You have done for us is not enough. We must daily humble ourselves before you, listen to you, then trust and obey for there’s no other way to peace, joy, faith, hope, and your perfect love. I choose You. I love you because you first loved me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
In Jesus Name, Amen

THAT WILL BE OUR SALVATION

What is that? The ending of self. Salvation comes through surrender of self.
Max Lucado writes; “When you recognize God as Creator, you will admire him. When you recognize his wisdom, you will learn from him. When you discover his strength, you will rely on him. But only when he saves you will you worship him.” --Encouraging Word Bible
Let these words simmer in our thoughts as we read the psalm of Asaph for this day.

Psalm 80, The Message
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” Of Asaph. A psalm.
1-2 Listen, Shepherd, Israel’s Shepherd—
get all your Joseph sheep together.
Throw beams of light
from your dazzling throne
So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh
can see where they’re going.
Get out of bed—you’ve slept long enough!
Come on the run before it’s too late.
3 God, come back!
Smile your blessing smile:
That will be our salvation.
4-6 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano
while your people call for fire and brimstone?
You put us on a diet of tears,
bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.
You make us look ridiculous to our friends;
our enemies poke fun day after day.
7 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!
Smile your blessing smile:
That will be our salvation.
8-18 Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt,
cleared out the brambles and briers
and planted your very own vineyard?
You prepared the good earth,
you planted her roots deep;
the vineyard filled the land.
Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains,
even dwarfing the giant cedars.
Your vine ranged west to the Sea,
east to the River.
So why do you no longer protect your vine?
Trespassers pick its grapes at will;
Wild pigs crash through and crush it,
and the mice nibble away at what’s left.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, turn our way!
Take a good look at what’s happened
and attend to this vine.
Care for what you once tenderly planted—
the vine you raised from a shoot.
And those who dared to set it on fire—
give them a look that will kill!
Then take the hand of your once-favorite child,
the child you raised to adulthood.
We will never turn our back on you;
breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!
19 God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!
Smile your blessing smile:
That will be our salvation.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We love it when our plans come together. We revel and celebrate when life is smooth sailing on calm seas. If we think about; we might even give God all the glory. But when the storms come with fury and destruction and the waters rise up to our necks and overwhelm us with fear; how do we respond?

Even for those of us who say we believe in God and believe all He says to be really real; we worry when life is challenging in every aspect and in every way! We become weary, stressed and perplexed. Most times our first response is to complain first to God, family, and friends; and not necessarily in that order. If the storm does not cease immediately in our timing we begin to make judgements and search for who to blame.

We think it is right for us to make strong suggestive prayers to God, outlining the problem to Him with our ways He can remedy the circumstance for us—kind of like calling a landlord, demanding him to fix a leaky faucet that is driving us crazy. We must admit, that our primal response in life is for God to “fix it”—with speed and accuracy so we can get back to “normal” living. After all, we are important in life and must carry on the work God gave us to do. So, since we read that nothing with God is impossible; we call on God to fix what we cannot. (Yikes)

Are we beginning to see how much we take God’s Holy Word out of context to fit our longing for control of life? Are we ready to repent, be still before Him and let Him have He way in our lives? What is surrender? Is it only for the bad times or is surrender a daily discipline as worship to God: ALL of Him in ALL we think, say, and do as directed by Him to be ALL He created us to be.

Yes, this is personal and requires some thoughtful consideration through communicating with our Lord. I’ll leave salvation of our souls where it belongs; in His Hands.

Jesus is our Salvation. Jesus is the Only Way to God’s throne of redemption and relationship with God. There is Power in the very Name of Jesus!

Lucado continues with this explanation:
“It’s a “before and after” scenario. Before your rescue, you could easily keep God at a distance. Comfortably dismissed. Neatly shelved. Sure, he was important, but so was your career. Your status. Your salary. He was high on your priority list, but he shared the spot with others.
Then came the storm . . . the rage . . . the fight . . . the ripped moorings . . . the starless night. Despair fell like a fog; your bearings were gone. In your heart, you knew there was no exit.
Turn to your career for help? Only if you want to hide from the storm but not escape it. Lean on your status for strength? A storm isn’t impressed with your title. Rely on your salary for rescue? Many try. Genuinely ask him. He will come.
And from that moment on, he is not just a deity to admire, a teacher to observe, or a master to obey. He is the Savior. The Savior to be worshiped.” –Max Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible

May our first and best response be humbled prayers that first give glory, honor, and praise to God. Acknowledge our God as the One and Only who knows what we need when we need it most. This puts God first and us as His children in the right order.
Be honest with reverent awe for God. Ask Him what He wants to teach us through our suffering. Thank God for being with us always—in good times and in challenging times! Thank Him, as James writes, for our sufferings that mature of faith in God! (James 1) Refrain from telling God what with how to do what you want; instead ask what He wants us to do.
Remember that God loved us so much He planned the greatest solution for all of life from the beginning of Creation—His Son, Jesus. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches just as Asaph described in his lament to God. Asaph, however, was speaking of God’s people being the vines planted by God throughout the known region to give God glory by telling the world of His greatness as God. God was their salvation!

Lord,
Thank you for cleansing our hearts, renewing our minds, refreshing our souls and restoring the joy of YOUR salvation at work within us. May your will be done in every detail of our lives lived today. Lead us, Lord. YOU are our salvation. “Let the morning bring word of you unfailing love and care for all our trust is in you.” (Psalm 143) I yours and I’m listening.
In Jesus Name, Amen

ARE YOU AT MAXIMUM COMFORT?

When do we seriously forget the flowery, repeating, holy prayer words to look up and call on God with all that is in us? Think about it—how bad does our circumstance have to be to fall on our knees in humbled surrender to Him, willing to wait for an answer from Him?

Asaph cries out to God, to remind God of the situation, (as if God does not know). Even though he extols God as the One who can take care of the situation, with a touch of revenge and a heaping dose of bitterness seeping into in his heart, he continues to tell God all the details of Jerusalem’s fall to a pile of rubble with loved ones killed in the because of the marauding barbaric nations. Blame comes next. “Don’t blame us, Lord, for the sins of our parents.” At this point, Asaph is unhinged with stress, broken in mourning the losses, and disgusted at how the barbarians demolished and desecrated God’s Holy Temple. But he still has the faith to call on God!

“How long do we have to put up with this, God?” Asap pleads. Let’s stop there, pause and consider how many times we have asked this same question of God through our own tears, brokenness, and pain. We cannot judge Asaph’s prayer song because we have felt the hurt, suffered the losses, with strong desires for God to “fix it” and make it right for us!

Psalm 79, The Message
A psalm of Asaph.
1-4 God! Barbarians have broken into your home,
violated your holy temple,
left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!
They’ve served up the corpses of your servants
as carrion food for birds of prey,
Threw the bones of your holy people
out to the wild animals to gnaw on.
They dumped out their blood
like buckets of water.
All around Jerusalem, their bodies
were left to rot, unburied.
We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors,
graffiti scrawled on the city walls.
5-7 How long do we have to put up with this, God?
Do you have it in for us for good?
Will your smoldering rage never cool down?
If you’re going to be angry, be angry
with the pagans who care nothing about you,
or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.
They’re the ones who ruined Jacob,
who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.
8-10 Don’t blame us for the sins of our parents.
Hurry up and help us; we’re at the end of our rope.
You’re famous for helping; God, give us a break.
Your reputation is on the line.
Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins—
do what you’re famous for doing!
Don’t let the heathen get by with their sneers:
“Where’s your God? Is he out to lunch?”
Go public and show the godless world
that they can’t kill your servants and get by with it.
11-13 Give groaning prisoners a hearing;
pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!
Give our jeering neighbors what they’ve got coming to them;
let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.
Then we, your people, the ones you love and care for,
will thank you over and over and over.
We’ll tell everyone we meet
how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

As a child, our older daughter would dutifully get in the car on a hot summer day with the family and immediately say loudly; “I’m not at maximum comfort”. This came from a new reader who could now read the A/C levels in front of her. It was cute at first, then this complaint before the engine even revved up, became annoying for all of us—especially in the teen years when she imagined cute might get her way.
We explained, it takes time for the A/C unit to cool the car—just wait for a bit. But when you are not at maximum comfort, waiting is excruciating!
Then we read of Paul, sitting chained to a wall in a dark underground jail, who leads songs of praise with his jail mates and then pens encouraging words from God to the churches God sent him to plant in strategic towns of commerce;
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:1-9

With reasons to give thanks in all circumstances!
“I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. —Paul, Philippians 4:10-13

Come to Jesus. Surrender to His power, wisdom, and strength. Jesus changes everything about the way we think and behave. His Holy Spirit guides us to all that is truth. Think Jesus. Think Truth. God gives us the perspective we need in all the trials we face with power that sustains us in pain and suffering. Our God is truly an awesome God who cares about us. We will not always be a “maximum comfort” for that is only a measure of man; but we will always be held close by God who knows exactly what we need when we need Him most. Trust Him!

Lord,
No complaints—only praise! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
In Jesus Name, Amen

WARNINGS OF TRUTH

“Watch out, don’t touch, that will burn you!”
“Look both ways before crossing the street!”
“Be nice to your friends, don’t fight.”
“Love everyone like God loves you.”
“Be and do what for others what you would like done for you” with kindness, not expecting anything in return.
“Clean up the area better than the way you found it.”
“Stop complaining and be a helper.”
“When you see trouble; look for the Helpers you can trust.”
“Pray, seek God first, then listen to what He says and then do it.”

These are mere examples of some of the teachings of warnings and truth telling said often by my parents. I was fortunate and blessed by God to grow up in a home with parents who loved me so much they taught me with disciplined words of faith. I did not grow up in a legalistic world of teaching either as relationship with God was our reason for living and walking with God each day. Their unconditional love saturated their teachings about God who is Love. Their words, and the words of my grandparents who also had a solid faith in God through Jesus, were ingrained without my whole being. I am not resentful but grateful that I was cared for enough to be corrected when I needed God most.

When Asaph writes warning to God’s people; he is correcting their often paganistic thinking with words of remembering who God is, what He has done, is doing and will do. “LISTEN to God’s truth!” is the cry of his heart. Inspired by God, Asaph loves and cares enough for people to tell them the truth…

Psalm 78, The Message
Composer--Asaph
1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,
bend your ears to what I tell you.
I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.
We’re not keeping this to ourselves,
we’re passing it along to the next generation—
God’s fame and fortune,
the marvelous things he has done.
5-8 He planted a witness in Jacob,
set his Word firmly in Israel,
Then commanded our parents
to teach it to their children
So the next generation would know,
and all the generations to come—
Know the truth and tell the stories
so their children can trust in God,
Never forget the works of God
but keep his commands to the letter.
Heaven forbid they should be like their parents,
bullheaded and bad,
A fickle and faithless bunch
who never stayed true to God.
9-16 The Ephraimites, armed to the teeth,
ran off when the battle began.
They were cowards to God’s Covenant,
refused to walk by his Word.
They forgot what he had done—
marvels he’d done right before their eyes.
He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents
in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan.
He split the Sea and they walked right through it;
he piled the waters to the right and the left.
He led them by day with a cloud,
led them all the night long with a fiery torch.
He split rocks in the wilderness,
gave them all they could drink from underground springs;
He made creeks flow out from sheer rock,
and water pour out like a river.
17-20 All they did was sin even more,
rebel in the desert against the High God.
They tried to get their own way with God,
clamored for favors, for special attention.
They whined like spoiled children,
“Why can’t God give us a decent meal in this desert?
Sure, he struck the rock and the water flowed,
creeks cascaded from the rock.
But how about some fresh-baked bread?
How about a nice cut of meat?”
21-31 When God heard that, he was furious—
his anger flared against Jacob,
he lost his temper with Israel.
It was clear they didn’t believe God,
had no intention of trusting in his help.
But God helped them anyway, commanded the clouds
and gave orders that opened the gates of heaven.
He rained down showers of manna to eat,
he gave them the Bread of Heaven.
They ate the bread of the mighty angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
He let East Wind break loose from the skies,
gave a strong push to South Wind.
This time it was birds that rained down—
succulent birds, an abundance of birds.
He aimed them right for the center of their camp;
all round their tents there were birds.
They ate and had their fill;
he handed them everything they craved on a platter.
But their greed knew no bounds;
they stuffed their mouths with more and more.
Finally, God was fed up, his anger erupted—
he cut down their brightest and best,
he laid low Israel’s finest young men.
32-37 And—can you believe it?—they kept right on sinning;
all those wonders and they still wouldn’t believe!
So their lives wasted away to nothing—
nothing to show for their lives but a ghost town.
When he cut them down, they came running for help;
they turned and pled for mercy.
They gave witness that God was their rock,
that High God was their redeemer,
But they didn’t mean a word of it;
they lied through their teeth the whole time.
They could not have cared less about him,
wanted nothing to do with his Covenant.
38-55 And God? Compassionate!
Forgave the sin! Didn’t destroy!
Over and over he reined in his anger,
restrained his considerable wrath.
He knew what they were made of;
he knew there wasn’t much to them,
How often in the desert they had spurned him,
tried his patience in those wilderness years.
Time and again they pushed him to the limit,
provoked Israel’s Holy God.
How quickly they forgot what he’d done,
forgot their day of rescue from the enemy,
When he did miracles in Egypt,
wonders on the plain of Zoan.
He turned the River and its streams to blood—
not a drop of water fit to drink.
He sent flies, which ate them alive,
and frogs, which drove them crazy.
He turned their harvest over to caterpillars,
everything they had worked for to the locusts.
He flattened their grapevines with hail;
a killing frost ruined their orchards.
He pounded their cattle with hail,
let thunderbolts loose on their herds.
His anger flared,
a wild firestorm of havoc,
An advance guard of disease-carrying angels
to clear the ground, preparing the way before him.
He didn’t spare those people,
he let the plague rage through their lives.
He killed all the Egyptian firstborns,
l***y infants, offspring of Ham’s virility.
Then he led his people out like sheep,
took his flock safely through the wilderness.
He took good care of them; they had nothing to fear.
The Sea took care of their enemies for good.
He brought them into his holy land,
this mountain he claimed for his own.
He scattered everyone who got in their way;
he staked out an inheritance for them—
the tribes of Israel all had their own places.
56-64 But they kept on giving him a hard time,
rebelled against God, the High God,
refused to do anything he told them.
They were worse, if that’s possible, than their parents:
traitors—crooked as a corkscrew.
Their pagan or**es provoked God’s anger,
their obscene idolatries broke his heart.
When God heard their carryings-on, he was furious;
he posted a huge No over Israel.
He walked off and left Shiloh empty,
abandoned the shrine where he had met with Israel.
He let his pride and joy go to the dogs,
turned his back on the pride of his life.
He turned them loose on fields of battle;
angry, he let them fend for themselves.
Their young men went to war and never came back;
their young women waited in vain.
Their priests were massacred,
and their widows never shed a tear.
65-72 Suddenly the Lord was up on his feet
like someone roused from deep sleep,
shouting like a drunken warrior.
He hit his enemies hard, sent them running,
yelping, not daring to look back.
He disqualified Joseph as leader,
told Ephraim he didn’t have what it takes,
And chose the Tribe of Judah instead,
Mount Zion, which he loves so much.
He built his sanctuary there, resplendent,
solid and lasting as the earth itself.
Then he chose David, his servant,
handpicked him from his work in the sheep pens.
One day he was caring for the ewes and their lambs,
the next day God had him shepherding Jacob,
his people Israel, his prize possession.
His good heart made him a good shepherd;
he guided the people wisely and well.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

One thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. We read the history of God’s chosen people and wonder why the people in the stories were so foolish and whiny; then we behave in some of the same ways, maybe even worse, then invent rationalizations for our own behaviors! Bottomline: History of sin repeats itself because evil still present various ways to sin. And we fall for it.

If you study the Bible and church history, you discover that Israel made that same mistake over and over again. Fortunately, our God’s heartache over His people, the center of his anger, because He wanted the best for them not their worst, didn’t last long. Our Faithful, loving Father God gave them plenty of opportunities to come back to Him, trust and obey Him, because of their love for Him.

As Asaph reviewed the history of his people, he saw a sad record of forgetfulness, faithlessness, foolishness, and failure, and he sought to understand what it all meant. These things were written for the profit of believers today. Paul, a learned scholar of The Law who because a disciple of Jesus Christ, writes to the church in Corinth. This was church full of idolatry, or**es, division, selfishness, pride, sexual misconduct and other behaviors not of God. New Christians wanted to believe in Jesus but clung to their former sin filled lifestyle. God and sin do not mix. Here’s what Paul wrote with warnings from Israel’s history;
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. –Paul,1 Corinthians: 1-13, NIV

Paul warned that privileges were no guarantee of success. Israel had been delivered from Egypt by the power of God, just as the Christian believer has been redeemed from sin. Israel ate the manna from heaven and drank the water God provided, just as Christians nourish themselves on the spiritual sustenance God supplies (See John 6-7). However, these spiritual privileges did not prevent the Jews from falling into sin.

Knowledge of God does not keep us from sinning; therefore warnings are necessary when we are led to sin. God knows our hearts. Jesus, Son of God, knew hearts while He walked the earth to convict; not condemn but convict people of their sins who have to turn from sin to God’s saving grace! God followed up by sending new believers the third part of Himself to come live in our hearts to guide us to all that is Truth—His Holy Spirit who comes with power to help us trust and obey and run from temptations meant to distract us from God, deceive our thinking about God with the goal to destroy of faith.

Jesus came to warn us, cared enough to show us how to avoid evil, and loved us enough to die for us, paying the debt for our sins that hold us in bo***ge. Jesus is truth and was God’s once and for all Way back to Him.
• “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”—Jesus, John 14:6 ESV
• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.—Jesus, John 14:15-17, ESV
• “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”—Jesus, John 14:25-26, ESV

Lord,
May we remember. As I remember, I repent. Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my souls with your new tender mercies fresh each day, and continually restore the joy of your salvation at work within me. You living in me is the only way to peace with God. Help us to tell our children to tell their children and all the generations to come of your saving grace and unending love for us—demonstrated by you, Lord Jesus!
In Jesus Name, Amen