Hi Sweet Friends,
I wanted to catch you up on what the girls have been studying in our weekly Seamless Bible study. We actually finished the seven week study and are looking forward to starting a new one in the near future. I had no idea what a blessing the structure and accountability of the study would be to me. After the study, I find myself being choppy and sloppy in my time with the Lord again. I talk with Him all day in sometimes concentrated and sometimes broken conversation. Talking is natural for me. (No “Amen’s” please.) Listening is a different matter. The stillness of the mind and spirit that seeks God’s heart in His Word that He has so graciously given us takes effort, sacrifice, and purpose. None of those are my favorite. And yet, I am routinely so overwhelmed and overjoyed when He reveals his love and character to me through His Word that I wonder why I would ever not seek Him with great thirst and fervor. There may be many reasons why we don’t pant after God’s heart, but the main one is that we are at war. We battle. We have an enemy who is constantly lying to us, trying to distract us and make us forget the goodness of God. We were born into a big story, a world in great conflict with its Creator. What’s my part in the story? Aren’t I just a victim of other people’s sin, disobedience, and misbehavior? Sure. So are you. I’m also a perpetuator of sin, disobedience, and misbehavior. So are you. We spoke of original sin and believing the lies of the enemy in my last letter. The Seamless study so blessed me in helping my understanding of an overall picture of the Bible and the one great story.
Let’s pick up with God choosing a man to start a nation that would show the world God’s great love and mercy and provision, a people that would reveal the very character and heart of God to the world, a race that would produce the Savior of the world. Let’s remember what condition His creation was in at the time God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a nation God would love and bless and shepherd forever. After God’s redirections of His creation to stop the terrible consequences of sin, we find that mankind has continued to buy into the lie of the enemy and seek life apart from God. God chose to create a race of people that He would call His. They were to live differently and distinguish themselves from the rest of the world. God would show Himself strong on their behalf and provide for them in glorious ways. There was some prep work to take place with suffering for His people so that His provision and glory would be demonstrated all the better at their rescue. Why Abraham? I have no idea. I only know that he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We can “why” ourselves to death. If we hold our faith hostage until all of our “why’s” are satisfied, we will miss God completely. For one, it presupposes that we have the mind of God and will understand and accept His reasoning if it were only given to us. Second, it leaves us in judgement of God’s reasoning and purposes. Do not remove God from His throne and set yourself in judgement of Him. This is the great lie, the great battle plan of the enemy. God is God. End of story. He need not explain Himself to us. But, in His extreme love and mercy, compassion and kindness, He has made Himself known to us and asks to trust Him in what we can’t see and don’t understand. Not doing so was the downfall of the children of Israel. It is ours as well.
Every Saturday before Easter, “The Ten Commandments” is shown on network television. My daughters associate it with painting their nails and getting ready for church the next day. Every year we watch about the same twenty minutes of the movie. We never find out if they actually make it out of Egypt. We laugh at the ridiculous script, the overacting, and the Americans trying to pass as Egyptians. I always say that if Charlton Heston had just walked a little faster, it could have been a forty-five minute movie. Why do Bible people always walk and talk in slow motion in movies? And yet, we’re drawn to it like mosquitoes to a fat baby. Part of it is the emotional attachment, and part of it is because it is an amazing story. The most amazing part is that it’s true. God rescued Abraham’s descendants from famine only to let them become slaves in Egypt. Wasted time? God was building a nation. He wastes nothing. Psalms 105-106 is a wonderful summary of God’s heart and dealings with His people. Israel suffered over 400 years until their miraculous rescue through the leadership of a reluctant, but obedient, man. Leadership is a terrible responsibility. More than once did Moses question God’s calling on him. More than once did others try to overthrow God’s leadership through Moses. People are a messy business. And yet, God in His love orchestrated a tremendous rescue of His people and promised them His care and provision and the most wonderful land for their inheritance. Their part? Obey. Believe. Worship the only one, true God. Be His people.
The bellyaching started immediately. After such a wondrous show of God’s provision and deliverance, they questioned God’s ability to continue to deliver them. They said it would have been better to remain slaves, God should have left them alone. Really?! Is that what we want, for God to leave us alone? There is not a hell or hole so black that we would find ourselves without the power and presence of God holding back the powers of darkness and evil among us. I promise, you never want God to leave you alone. He’s not the enemy. The enemy is the enemy. Even after walking through the sea on dry land, after being fed bread from heaven, after eating so much meat that it made them sick, and after witnessing defeat after defeat of enemies that were stronger and more numerous then they, they didn’t want God to be their God. Miracle after miracle of God working on their behalf still left them saying, “We want to be like the other nations. We want a king to follow, a man to lead us, someone we can touch and see like the idols we worship.” The words, “We want a king,” always break my heart. Caleb told me that God didn’t need me feeling sorry for Him, but don’t you? I’ve known rejection. I’ve felt the pain of having my heart and motives misjudged. I’ve known what it is to not have love returned. Israel’s rejection of their God, of their true king, hurts my heart for God. How could they?! After all the ways He rescued them and provided for them and loved and kept them, how could they tell Him He’s not enough? Dear, sweet friend, please humble yourself with me in the recognition that those very words have so often fallen from our hearts if not our lips. It is the great lie from the enemy of our souls, the great deceit. Israel decided that God wasn’t enough for them. What is your evaluation? In what ways have you shown God that His provision for you isn’t enough; He’s not enough. Well, sadly, I can think of several for me. I have often struggled with looking at the other “nations” and wanting to be like them. Satan would have me believe that everyone else’s life is better, easier, happier, more prosperous than mine. If our enemy can keep our focus on comparing and coming up short, we will completely miss the blessing of God’s provision for us. Or what about comparing and coming out ahead? Ever heard of arrogance? Been there. Still there sometimes. His physical provision is different for everyone. Instead of the humble gratitude for way more than enough, I look around me and declare, “Not enough!” I want to be like the other nations. Caleb has Type 1 diabetes. We can either shake our fists in God’s face for allowing Caleb to suffer the consequences of living in a cursed and fallen world, or we can humbly thank God for His provision for his physical life through insulin and his eternal provision for his salvation in Christ. Which rings true to you? Truth? I’ve struggled. Not in anger but in fear, not trusting God’s provision for Caleb. Do you want to know the biggest heartache in Israel’s desire to be like their neighbors? The other nations didn’t even worship God. They followed a king. They worshiped idols. Their statement to God wasn’t only, “You’re not enough,” but also, “We don’t need You.” How foolish! Where I feel like God has let me down, may I humbly ask to see clearly God’s provision for me. Let’s beg God to show us what we can’t see. How was He coming after us and offering His grace and care all along? What about those who have died? How did God provide for them? Our life here is merely a dot in our existence. I Corinthians 15:19 tells us that if our hope in Christ is for this life alone than we should be most pitied. God provided eternity with Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s eternal provision for us. He is our rescue, our only hope. II Corinthians 5:8 tells us that when we are absent from this body we are present with the Lord if we are in Christ. Hallelujah!!!
What about those of you who have been so walloped, abused, mistreated, rejected? So was Jesus for your sake. God has provided healing for you in Jesus. All of us have had life beat the snot out of us at some time and been left bloody and naked. I don’t mean to diminish your suffering. Sin is so cruel. We have precious friends with stories worse than the worst movie you’ve ever seen. And yet, God in His lovingkindness has rescued and redeemed and healed. Gory to God! Let your suffering drive you to Him. We all thought life would be different than what it is. We’re all disappointed and hurting, some of us more than others. God has provided for us. I think the Israelites had a hard awakening after their deliverance. Life was still hard. There was still suffering. There was still war, still battles to fight. They had to be in complete dependence on God for their survival. Let’s be honest, don’t we knock ourselves out to make sure we’re never in that position? Don’t we want to be able to handle it? We don’t want to be desperate enough for God to be our only hope. Freedom wasn’t exactly like the Israelites thought it would be. Freedom means freedom from bondage, not freedom from dependence on God. God being their God wasn’t enough for them. They must look elsewhere. Haven’t we all thought that after a fulfillment of a longing that life would finally get good? When I get a friend, a job, an education, a spouse, a child, a healing, a church home, a house, acceptance, more money, approval,…then I can enjoy life. Life will finally be good when God finally provides. Can we see the lie? God has already provided. He is the fulfillment of your heart’s greatest desire. We were made by Him for Him, only He can fulfill us. Ephesians 1:10 tells us that all things are summed up in Christ. He is the answer to all things.
So, while I’m wagging my fingers at the children of Israel and saying, “How could you?”, may my heart be so sensitive to the areas of my life where I have told God that His provision for me is not enough and that I know better for myself than He could possibly know. We have no idea what He is sparing us and protecting us from. He can be trusted.
God, show us where we have tried to knock You off of Your throne and claim kingship for ourselves and independence from You. Thank You for Your provision for us in Jesus Christ and for the gifts that you shower on us. Thank You for Your provisions that were meant to drive us to You. Please give us eyes to see them and to see You as our one true God and only fulfiller of our greatest longing. You made us for You. Thank You for loving us that much.
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