Tag: host of heaven

51.i. Wilderness – 15.o. “So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

 

 

Deu 17:2  “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Judges are also commanded to make sure that any who have gone after idolatry are to be investigated, and if found to be guilty, are to be executed. There was never to be capital punishment unless there was evidence from at least two independent, unimpeachable sources. We may comfort ourselves that we would never judge someone guilty of murder so quickly, without proper evidence. Yet many will murder someone’s reputation in their own mind or in the minds of others with no witnesses, much less one. Remember 1 Timothy 5:19 does not say “except from two or three gossips”; it says except from two or three witnesses. If a matter is false, it does not become true because many people hear it or many people repeat it.  Additionally, the witnesses had to be so certain of what they saw, that they were willing to initiate the actual execution. The execution was a community event, in the sense that it was supported by the community. The whole village would know the justice of what was being done. (Guzik)

No creature that had any blemish was to be offered in sacrifice to God. We are thus called to remember the perfect, pure, and spotless sacrifice of Christ, and reminded to serve God with the best of our abilities, time, and possession, or our pretended obedience will be hateful to him. So great a punishment as death, so remarkable a death as stoning, must be inflicted on the Jewish idolater. Let all who in our day set up idols in their hearts, remember how God punished this crime in Israel.(Henry)

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee,…. In any of their cities in the land of Canaan: man or woman that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God: as all that is wrought is in the sight of the omniscient God; here it means not any kind of wickedness, for there is none lives without committing sin of one sort or another, all which is known to God the searcher of hearts. (Gill)

Sometimes I wonder if we fully understand the gravity of sin. Do we understand that just because someone does not see us sin does not mean that God has not seen it? He is aware not only of the sin but the thoughts and intentions of why you are doing it. We may easily discount our sin and sinfulness but every last word spoken, every thought we have allowed time in our minds, and every action we have taken will be judged by God – For all will come before the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. 

How much sin do we tolerate because we either give it no thought or it is unknown by others? How much sin is in our pathetic lives because we choose to neglect God’s Word and thereby are never growing or finding the need to repent? How much sin is in our lives because we intentionally choose to deafen our ears to the Holy Spirit’s conviction? How many days go by without the thought of the sinfulness of sin and the Holiness of God?  We are not without blemish but are we offering the absolute best of ourselves? Are we giving our whole self as a sacrifice to God for the purpose of honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ? Do we worship something else in our lives over God?

If worshiping God for you is on Sundays at Church, there is a high probability that you are worshiping something else the rest of the time. If you are neglectful and complacent with the word of God and things of God, there is a high probability you are worshiping something else above God. If you are deaf to the Holy Spirit’s leading throughout the day the is a high probability you are worshiping something else. If you are critical of what others are doing but fail to see your judgmental spirit there is a high probability you are….. certainly not worshiping God.

Oh that we would seek to purge the evil from our own hearts as much as we seek to purge it from others.

22.g. “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory”

 

 

1 Corinthians 3:5  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field

 John 4:36-38    Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.  For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 Psalms 115:1   Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

 Daniel 4:35    all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

There was conflict in the Corinthian church.  Jealousy and strife and division were causing this conflict.  Thinking they were spiritual is often applied to whatever is causing the conflict.  They were applying human thinking and fleshly ways to things of God.  You can hear them saying “I was saved under Paul” and another saying, “yes, but I was taught and instructed by Apollo”  and so the conflict began with the thought of who was greater? and who was better?  Paul said, “if you are having envy, strife, and division then you are of a carnal mind, thinking like the world around you and not like that which honors and glorifies Jesus Christ. There is a place for envy, envy a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. There is a place for strife, stand firm against that which dishonors God and so easily temps you.  There is a place for division, set yourself apart from worldly pleasures and desires and cling to, rely on, and trust in Jesus Christ alone.

2.g. “Therefore hear the word of the Lord

2 Chronicles 18:14  And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” And he answered, “Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand.” But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?” And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The Lord has declared disaster concerning you.”

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?” And Micaiah said, “Behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.” And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, Put this fellow in prison and feed him with meager rations of bread and water until I return in peace.’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

Numbers 16:29     If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the LORD has not sent me.

Amos 9:10     All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

Jeremiah 23:36    But ‘the burden of the LORD’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

Acts 20:30    and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things,

Hosea 14:9    Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

We see Ahab, King of Israel wanting to hear from God but only wanting to hear what he had determined already in his own heart and mind.  He surrounded himself and more than likely previously punished those who did not speak what he wanted to hear.  They were trained to speak in line with his wants and not what God would have him do.

When our heart, soul, and mind are not wholly for following and trusting in God there is an inner self that rules in His place.  This inner self will convince us we are following after God even though we are lukewarm, neglectful, and complacent. We can not serve both self and God.  We will serve the one we yield to.  We will serve the one that occupies our desires and wants.  We will serve the one we think will give us satisfaction and purpose.  Sad to say but many times this is self.

You have to imagine that at some point, at the beginning of our deception, where we began to listen to self over following God, we were aware of this and we chose to push this awareness away.  We were able to drown out the voice of God.  Our heart became hard, our ears deaf, and our choice to turn away was blinded from our mind.  Soon self became the only voice we listen to, the only thing we trusted in, and the only thing we found satisfaction in.

Remember the devil is a roaring lion seeking to deceive and draw us away from following God.  He will send many false hopes of satisfaction into our lives.  He will try to confuse us, entice us, and fill us with things of this world that will never satisfy but will always lead us away from seeking, trusting, relying on, following, honoring, glorifying, and obeying God.

The word of God is our stronghold, our hope, and our strength, for in it we find wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of God.  We see a glimpse of eternity and the love of God poured out to us through Jesus Christ.  Fill all your heart, mind and soul with the want and desire of and through Jesus Christ.  Stay in His word to find peace, joy, love, rest, strength, and hope for today and forever.  Do not allow self a second in your heart and mind for it will take this single second and turn it into a lifetime of deception.