Controlling Destiny And Failing…

Leviticus 20:1-3,6-7,22-24,26 (ESV) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name… “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God… “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples… You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

When I read this chapter, I thought I had already finished it because chapter 19 is very similar to this chapter in structure and content.

What is God speaking to us through this harsh message and what is the purpose of being so repetitive?

Three Strikes And Victory

Exodus 17:3-6,11-13,15-16 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel… As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword… Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said, “For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. Thec LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”

The traveling Israelites under the leadership of Moses were more than two million in number and this was no small task God undertook. Mob mentality reigned among these people and is today explained well as herd behavior which has been the cause of many problems worldwide.

Steering a few people is a task but taking an entire nation through the wilderness seems like a futile exercise and we can see more evidence of it. The Israelites were getting more hostile towards Moses and God and only God could intervene to change their embittered hearts. What is God speaking to us through this?

Jesus Christ – The Ladder between Heaven and Earth

Genesis 28:1-4,18-22 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. “Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. “May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham”… So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. “This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

What a volte-face for Jacob in terms of Isaac’s response to him and what a dramatic change in destinies! As we continue to journey with Jacob now, we see a new man.

Isaac blesses Jacob fully with the covenant blessing that was given to Abraham, his father and himself too.

Obviously the previous blessing Isaac had given to him thinking he was Esau was not as wholesome because both he and Rebekah were concerned for how Esau chose to live his life, forgoing his birthright, marrying Canaanites and living a carnal and sinful life.

The condition to the blessing however was the new life Jacob had to pursue by going away to Rebekah’s brother’s home in Paddan-aram and finding his own bride. That’s a contrast from what occurred in Isaac’s betrothal where Abraham’s trusted servant brought Rebekah from Laban’s home to Beersheba.

How could Jacob make a conditional covenant with God based on God’s provision to him?

The Final Call

Revelation 9: 5-6, 19-21 They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them… The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Do you picture in your mind these horrid times when ugly locusts will swarm the earth to strike humans with painful bites that take 5 months to heal and then horses with fire in their mouth and snakes in their tails will also join the attack of mankind who fail to call on Jesus as their Lord and Savior?

All of this sounds more like a mystical movie than reality and I’m wondering if John did not simply make these wild visions up while he was imprisoned in the dreary prison island of Patmos? What is God speaking to us through this chapter today?

In complete contrast to the Jesus depicted here in the book of revelation is the Jesus who came into this world as a nobody, lived a wretched life that seemed meaningless to the Jews, poured out His love towards to lost, needy, sick and suffering and finally died a death that was both most painful and shameful for no fault of His.

Both are the same person who was fully human and fully divine while He lived among us and is now fully God living in the presence of His father in heaven. To Him who is the epitome of Love is given the right to judge the living and the dead. Being God in human flesh, Jesus showed that He had power over sin and sickness and life and death and it is before Him that all mankind will bow down one day.

These end time trials are to wake up those in slumber who live in the ‘Matrix’ of Satan’s world and who are lost in the sickness of their worship of themselves. We as humans are brought up to love ourselves before the world and to seek our own benefit. To find real life, we need to die to sin and live in Christ and that is not humanly possible.

It is only possible through Christ who calls us to invite Him into our hearts. He will come in through His Holy Spirit, cleanse us of our sins forever, robe us in the heavenly white robe and put His seal upon us calling us His own. We will then be spared of these end times tribulations and will live in hope and joy that only He can give.

Are you marked by Jesus’ love and living in the fullness of His love for you? If not, call on Jesus right now and ask Him into your life. If you are saved but forgotten your first love, call on Him today and live in the fullness of Christ that He might reign supreme!

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

Romans 6:10-12 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.