Living In Obedience
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It is interesting to note that today’s world is very similar to the world in the time of the Judges:
There is no king in Israel
People are doing what is right in their own eyes
God’s people can’t seem to work together
People are in bondage to various enemies
During the period of the Judges God sent oppressors against Israel to punish the people’s sin and correct their behavior. Interestingly enough, we aren’t too different. The biggest problem in the Christian church of today is that no one wants to submit fully to God and His Word. We all want to do what is right in our own eyes.
In doing so, we make God in our own image, which is idolatry. We assign characteristics to God that agree with our own worldview. I’ve heard our society described as a society of many Kings and Queens. Some might call it individualism, we all have our own little kingdoms in which we try to rule, and we try to rule over God in the process.
I've been reading Numbers for the last week, and I think what we find with the Israelite's mirrors our attitude today. It all starts in Chapter 14 after the spies went into the land of Canaan. They came back and complained that they would never be able to conquer the land, because the inhabitants were too big and too strong to overcome. Their walls were too big. In fact they wanted to overthrow Moses and Aaron and return to Egypt.
Two men stood up for the truth and for God’s Word; Joshua and Caleb, who basically said, if God said He would give us the land, then he will. Do not rebel. God was going to kill them, but Moses interceded, as Christ would intercede for us on the Cross. God punished the people severely.
Then Korah, Dathan and Abiram tried to overthrow Moses and Aaron, particularly the priesthood, and decided to worship God on their own terms, against God’s command. Again God was going to kill all of Israel, but Moses interceded, and God only killed those three by opening the ground & wallowing them up, their tents and their entire household.
The very next day, the congregation complained again, and once again Moses had to intercede for them. Then the incident with the bronze serpent happened because again they rebelled against God. Then again in Chapter 25, Israel committed harlotry with the gods of the Moabites, the Baal of Peor. Phineas the priest had make intercession for the people. This is a continuing pattern, a call to righteousness, but the people rebel. Do you know how fortunate we are that Christ loved us? He is the Great High Priest, who makes intercession for us, continually. Hebrews 7:20-8:6
20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him:
“The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
‘You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek’ ”),
22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
23 Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. 24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
In Judges, the people of Israel continually disobeyed God, and after each Judge, Israel turned toward their own ways and were unfaithful to God. In Judges 2:19, at the end of the verse, it says “They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.” Do you know that the book of Judges mentions that Israel has no king, and that the people of Israel do what right in their own eyes around 4 times? (Judges 17:6;18:1;19:1; 21:25). Moses had made clear that God was meant to be King, as He is meant to be King in our lives.
19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.
1 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
In 1 Samuel 8:7-9
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. 9 Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”
As Paul had said in Romans 2:24-25
24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
Like the Children of Israel, they desired a King, just as we desire to be King and Queen over our own lives, we must likewise accept the consequences. There are so many blessings, and a full life we could have if Christ was the King of our lives, if we would just submit to Him.
We often think we submit to Him, but:
Do you Pray persistent and effective prayer? Did you know Moses prayed 40 days in a row when Israel made the golden calf in Deuteronomy 9:25-26? Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, we are not heard for our many words as the Pharisees, but for the cry of our hearts. Charles Spurgeon said it like this, “But, brethren, how many times we ask of God, and have not because we do not wait long enough at the door! We knock a time or two at the gate of mercy, and as no friendly messenger opens the door, we go our ways. Too many prayers are like boys’ runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.
Do we read our Bible? Do you have a plan to read only the Bible, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you, without a commentary or other book? You can go to those later, but do you meditate on the words, and pray those words to form a deeper bond?
Are you willing to put your notions of who God is at the foot of the cross, and let God deal with you. Are you willing to be wrong, so that truth can take hold in your life? Are you a lover of truth or a lover of convenience? Do you know what the Bible actually says, or do you rely on on what others have said it says? At the end of the day, when all is said and done, when we come before God, it is you who will have to give an account. You cannot say someone else told me this and that, because that is not going to fly. This life is one big opportunity to serve God with every breath. The Bible has always been there, and it is our duty to read, study and meditate on those words.
When we worship this morning, let us shed all that is us, put on Christ, and worship our Lord and Saviour the way he deserves to be. Let us give Him our all.