God is Still There

 Psalm 64, 74       Numbers 15-18                 2 Peter 3              James 1

David is one of those great men of God that the Bible shows his human tendencies and failures and the cost of those failures. The other side of the situation is that as the Lord’s anointed and king, the leader of the people, he is the target of those that believe he is the wrong person for the job, they could do it better or don’t want to go where he leads them. Anyone that struggles to lead God’s people will find themselves in this same position and there is in this song a reminder that faith is trusting that God will care for us when we are obedient to his Word.

The last two verses maybe we should look at first, so we know where we are headed. There is a lesson to be learned here in that before we go to God our goal in the end is to be able to praise him for the trust we will put in him while we struggle through the journey, that often feels lonely, on the way. When David asks God to preserve his life it is not just to give him the gift of a beating heart and breath but that his life will be protected in this lifetime. Often our enemies, who are so much stronger than we are, do things to destroy us and do it with cunning and deception. They take their shots from a hiding place and lift each other up in plotting injustices believing their plotting will never be seen.

David’s cry to God is for God to use their own methods against the enemies and that God’s arrows will shoot them and their plotting will be exposed, and they will fall in disgrace and be struck down. Notice that David’s desire is that God will be glorified and not himself. Those that seek to do things God’s way will be glad in the Lord and find their refuge in him. Those that remain honorable and upright will in their heart find glory. Our refuge is in God!

As Moses begins laying out God’s requirements to receive forgiveness and the chance to begin again, he tells them that they and the alien among them are to be treated the same. There is one law for both. He also lays out the required offering for unintentional or unwitting sin. When the offering is brought to the priest, they bring the offering before the Lord as an atonement offering. He also makes it clear the those who defy the Lord, alien or native, will be cut off from the people of God.

There is a group of two hundred fifty that three leaders have stirred up against Moses and Aaron because they stand out as leaders. They brought them to the edge of the promised land and now that it has been denied them because of their sin they blame Moses and Aaron. Moses falls on his face, a position of submission, before the Lord and then tells the leader to bring the people before God and God will decide between them. Once again, the look back to the land of Egypt and look at it as a land flowing with milk and honey and believe that they would have been better back there.

Moses doesn’t demand they submit to him but instead, gathers them together and tells them and the people that God will choose who the leader is supposed to be. After a ritual that Moses offers the disobedient are held accountable and death is the result. Not at the hands of Moses but of God. Probably the most interesting thing for me is that after the 250 disobedient people had offered up an offering, one they shouldn’t have, God destroyed the givers but sanctified the gifts for service.

 God also instructed Moses to place before him a way to determine who was to be the priestly spiritual leader. Aaron is clearly chosen, and his rod is placed before the Lord as a reminder that he is God’s chosen one.

God then continues on with the instructions to Aaron, his sons and the tribe of Levi how to properly worship the Lord and give an offering before Him as well as the distribution of that offering.

In the last chapter of 2 Peter we are told the day of judgement is coming for those that mock the followers of Jesus and God because they want to only follow after their own lusts. While that is true we are also reminded that God awaits judging those on the earth because time doesn’t mean anything to him, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.

Yet that day will come when the Lord comes like a thief in the night and the heavens and earth as we know them will be gone. As we look for a new heaven and earth that will glorify God in all that it does. Our desire should be to be found on that day at peace, our lives spotless and blameless before God. We are warned to be on guard that we are not swept away by the leading of unprincipled men. We should continue to grow in grace and knowledge of the God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Starting a read through James today and it opens allowing us to see that challenges we face should be considered a joy, knowing that the testing of our faith produces the endurance to get through the tough times. When we approach it that way the endurance, we experience produces great results.

No one should expect God’s blessing when he lacks the faith to face the challenges of life. Being one way at one time and another at other times is unstable and should not be followed.

Those trials of life result in the approval of God and there will one day be given us the crown of life. Others will allow themselves to be carried away by their lusts and that will give way to the birth of sin and death.

We must remember that every good and perfect gift comes from God and there is no variation in God even when it is hard to see him in the shadows. We are to spend more time listening, less time speaking and always be slow to anger for God’s ways are never accomplished with anger. The Word of God should be such an integrated part of our life that we desire to put aside sin and become those that do what God teaches us in His Word. The ability to control our tongue is vital or we are deceived and our religion is worthless.

Our faith will always be expressed in the sight of God as caring for the poor, the weak and abandoned and keeping ourselves untarnished by the world around us.

In Psalm 74 the song writer longs to feel God’s presence and feels the lost of abandonment. Sometimes we feel like God is so far away and we have lost touch with him and there is not even the energy to reach out to Him. We see no signs of God’s presence and God’s work. It feels like no one is speaking for God and no one knows how long this period will go on. We cry out like is done here with all the ways we would like to see God at work and present. We want to remind God that our enemies are uplifted by our lack of relationship with him. This is one of those songs that remind us sometime we just have to trust God even when nothing feels like we should.