Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Compared to Jesus Christ

 Psalm 31    Deuteronomy 29-30     Hebrews 3

David sings the ongoing struggle between trusting God and fearing the enemies both those he knows and those he called friends. The song starts out declaring his trust in God. While we all struggle to follow God’s ways David reminds us that when we face adversity God is our fortress and our rock. Even those that would set traps for us will be held accountable before God. God see the truth of what is happening and will be the judge.

Like David we can cry out to God do deliver us from those that oppose us when we seek to live the way God calls us to. This is a cry for God to make his face to shine on us and to show his lovingkindness thereby not allowing us to be put to shame. God has stored up goodness for those who fear him. We can therefor take refuge in God before anyone else.

When we are cut off from being seen like God sees us by others but when our trust is in the Lord, we join all those that put their hope in God and have great reason to celebrate.

As Moses wraps up his final instructions to the people of Israel before they enter the promised land, he reminds them once again that God has been with them and they are witnesses to the power of God since they left Egypt. He tells them that today they stand before God and that God has made a covenant with them and his goal is to establish them as his people in the land of promise. Moses wants with all his heart for no one to turn their back on God and to serve other gods because if they do, they will become like a poison the spreads throughout. Those that make that choice will be blotted out of the future of Israel. The anger of the Lord will burn against them and every curse that has been outlined will become a part of their life. They will be uprooted and scattered once again.

But even then, if they are willing to turn back to the Lord and obey Him with all their heart, mind and soul he will restore them because he is a God of compassion. God will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of those that come after them so that they once again can live with a heart, mind and soul right with God. When that happens God will inflict the punishment on those that led them from the Lord. The need to follow the commandments of the Lord will be restored as well. None of what God demands is hard or out of reach for the people to do. God has set the choice before them, life and prosperity or death and adversity. Choose life and God will multiply and bless you.

If they turn away from God again and serve other gods, the Lord will take all that he has given them and take it away once again. Moses then calls on heaven and earth to witness against the people he has led and taught for more than 40 years and reminds them he has set before them the way of life or death. If they choose life and obey the commands of the Lord, they will live a long and prosperous life in the promised land.

In Hebrews the writer reminds us that Jesus has been faithful to all of his followers as God was to Moses in the journey through the wilderness. As Moses trusted in the Lord so we are called to trust in Jesus and be confident that he will fulfill his word. The caution is that we do not fall into the path of and unbelieving heart and fall away from the living God. We are to encourage one another each day so that our hearts will not be hardened to the ways of God. When we hold fast, we become partakers of the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ.

God was not angry with those that sought to follow him from the land of Egypt, in the wilderness and then into the promised land but with those that disobeyed his commands and his ways. The cost was death in the wilderness.

As we move towards the end of Lent and reflecting on our relationship with God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we really must honestly compare ourselves with Jesus and ask how we measure up compared to him. The time to judge ourselves according to the way of the people around us in past and now we must answer to our obedience to the Lord our God.

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