mount sinai – Praying Pint

45.t. “Wilderness” – 9.z. “Unauthorized fire before the LORD”

Numbers 3:1-4 These are the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests. But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of Aaron their father.

Lev 10:1-7 – 1 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 3 And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’ ” So Aaron held his peace. 4 Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 5 So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled. 7 “You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD [is] upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.

What was their sin in thus offering it? Plainly, the narrative points to the essence of the crime in calling it ‘fire which He had not commanded.’ So this was their crime, that they were tampering with the appointed order which but a week before they had been consecrated to conserve and administer; that they were thus thrusting in self-will and personal caprice, as of equal authority with the divine commandment; that they were arrogating the right to cut and carve God’s appointments, as the whim or excitement of the moment dictated; and that they were doing their best to obliterate the distinction on the preservation of which religion, morality, and the national existence depended; namely, the distinction between holy and common, clean and unclean. To plough that distinction deep into the national consciousness was no small part of the purpose of the law; and here were two of its appointed witnesses disregarding it, and flying in its face. They have had many successors, not only in Israel, while a ritual demanding punctilious conformity lasted, but in Christendom since. Alas! our censers are often flaming with ‘strange fire.’ How much so-called Christian worship glows with self-will or with partisan zeal! When we seek to worship God for what we can get, when we rush into His presence with hot, eager desires which we have not subordinated to His will, we are burning ‘strange fire which He has not commanded.’ The only fire which should kindle the incense in our censers, and send it up to heaven in fragrant wreaths, is fire caught from the altar of sacrifice. God must kindle the flame in our hearts if we are to render these else cold hearts to Him. (MacLaren)

This may be an emblem of dissembled love, when a man performs religious duties, prays to God, or praises him without any cordial affection to him, or obeys commands not from love, but selfish views; or of an ignorant, false, and misguided zeal, a zeal not according to knowledge, superstitious and hypocritical; or of false and strange doctrines, such as are not of God, nor agree with the voice of Christ, and are foreign to the Scriptures; or of human ordinances, and the inventions of men, and of everything that man brings of his own, in order to obtain eternal life and salvation. (Gill)

Hearing and reading God’s Word must come into willing, obedient, and reliant hearts. If not we will have worldly desires of what is right and wrong and try to mix the Word of God with that which is not ordained by God, nor does it give Honor and Glory to Him. The Word of God has little benefit in a disobedient heart that is set on its own desires and paths in life. Without a desire to be led by God for the single purpose of honoring and glorifying Him our hearts and minds become dull and our ears deaf and our hearts like stone. It is easy to spot and identify the first steps away from God that lead to such lukewarm commitment – Neglect and Complacency. The loss of desire to honor and glorify God is always preceded by a lacking desire to honor and glorify Him in all thoughts, words, and actions, which is closely followed by neglect of His Word. We might live content with our place in life but we should never be content with our growth, maturity, and service to God.

45.i. “Wilderness” – 9.o. “But be doers of the word”

Exodus 35:1  Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

Exodus 34:32    Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.

Romans 2:13   For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

James 1:22     But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

This was a strict call to obedience. Before they did the work of building the tabernacle, God first called Israel to the work of simple obedience. Basic obedience is a pre-requisite for doing work for the LORD. (Guzik)

The mild and easy yoke of Christ has made our sabbath duties more delightful, and our sabbath restraints less irksome, than those of the Jews; but we are the more guilty by neglecting them. Surely God’s wisdom in giving us the sabbath, with all the mercy of its purposes, are sinfully disregarded. Is it nothing to pour contempt upon the blessed day, which a bounteous God has given to us for our growth in grace with the church below, and to prepare us for happiness with the church above?

If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven. Mere hearers are self-deceivers; and self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last. If we flatter ourselves, it is our own fault; the truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no man. Let the word of truth be carefully attended to, and it will set before us the corruption of our nature, the disorders of our hearts and lives; and it will tell us plainly what we are. Our sins are the spots the law discovers: Christ’s blood is the laver the gospel shows. But in vain do we hear God’s word, and look into the gospel glass, if we go away, and forget our spots, instead of washing them off; and forget our remedy, instead of applying to it. This is the case with those who do not hear the word as they ought. In hearing the word, we look into it for counsel and direction, and when we study it, it turns to our spiritual life. Those who keep in the law and word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in all their ways. His gracious recompence hereafter, would be connected with his present peace and comfort. Every part of Divine revelation has its use, in bringing the sinner to Christ for salvation, and in directing and encouraging him to walk at liberty, by the Spirit of adoption, according to the holy commands of God. (Henry)

We are then doers of the word, when, being enlightened by its doctrines, awed by its threatenings, and encouraged by its promises, we, through the aid of divine grace, love and obey its precepts, both those which enjoin repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as terms necessary to be complied with in order to our justification and regeneration, and those subsequent commands which show how those, who are already justified and born from above, ought to walk that they may please God. (Benson)

But be ye doers of the word,…. And they are such, who spiritually understand it; gladly receive it; and from the heart obey it, and make a sincere and ingenuous profession of it; and who submit to the ordinances it directs to, and keep them as they have been delivered; and live, and walk, becoming their profession of it. Be not hearers only; though the word should be heard swiftly and readily, and received with meekness; yet it should not be barely heard, and assented to; but what is heard should be put in practice; and especially men should not depend upon their hearing, as if that would save them; this is deceiving your own selves; such as rest upon the outward hearing of the word will be sadly deceived, and will find themselves miserably mistaken. (Gill)

We had a discussion in a men’s bible study the other morning about, what keeps us from being pierced in the heart by the Word of God when we read it or hear it spoken. Neglect, being comfortable in our sin, thinking our sin is not that bad, giving room in our lives to willingly sin, thinking we are doing “enough”, or “being good enough”, or “giving no thought to how our sin might dishonor or not glorify Jesus Christ”. There is a big difference between wanting to hear/read God’s Word and wanting to be changed by it for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. Are our ears deaf and our hearts hardened to the point of not being able to be led by the Holy Spirit? Oh that our hearts and minds would desire to be led by the leading of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ.

45.h. “Wilderness” – 9.n. “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God”

Exodus 34:29-35 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

2 Corinthians 3:7-9 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

Close communion with God physically affected Moses. His face had a shining appearance that was so noticeable that both the leaders and the people of Israel were afraid to come near him. It is true that a life lived with God affects physical appearance, especially the face. The peace, joy, love, and goodness of God should be evident on the face of the one who follows Jesus. Yet what Moses experienced seems beyond that general principle, and a direct result from his remarkable communication with God. The radiance of Moses’ shining face was a reflected radiance, a received glory. The source was the face of God, and as Moses communicated so directly with God his face received some of this shining glory.

“Directly people become conscious of their superiority to others, and boast of it, it is certain that they have never really seen the beauty of God’s holiness, and have no clear knowledge of the condition of their own hearts.” We read of only two men in the Bible whose faces shone like this: Moses and Stephen (Acts 6:15). Both were humble men. “I am afraid, brethren, that God could not afford to make our faces shine: we should grow too proud. It needs a very meek and lowly spirit to bear the shinings of God.” “We are always praying, ‘Lord, make my face to shine’; but Moses never had such a wish; and, therefore, when it did shine, he did not know it. He had not laid his plans for such an honor. Let us not set traps for personal reputation, or even glance a thought that way.” (Guzik)

Moses, fresh from the mountain of vision, where he had gazed on as much of the glory of God as was accessible to man, caught some gleam of the light which he adoringly beheld; and a strange radiance sat on his face, unseen by himself, but visible to all others. So, supreme beauty of character comes from beholding God and talking with Him; and the bearer of it is unconscious of it. Thus, brethren, the practical, plain lesson that comes from this thought is simply this: If you want to be pure and good, noble and gentle, sweet and tender; if you desire to be delivered from your own weaknesses and selfish, sinful idiosyncrasies, the way to secure your desire is, ‘Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ Contemplation, which is love and longing, is the parent of all effort that succeeds. Contemplation of God in Christ is the master-key that opens this door, and makes it possible for the lowliest and the foulest amongst us to cherish unpresumptuous hopes of being like Him’ if we see Him as He is revealed here, and perfectly like Him when yonder we see Him ‘as He is.’ Cultivate a clear sense of your own imperfections. We do not need to try to learn our goodness. That will suggest itself to us only too clearly; but what we do need is to have a very clear sense of our shortcomings and failures, our faults of temper, our faults of desire, our faults in our relations to our fellows, and all the other evils that still buzz and sting and poison our blood. Has not the best of us enough of these to knock all the conceit out of us? A true man will never be so much ashamed of himself as when he is praised, for it will always send him to look into the deep places of his heart, and there will be a swarm of ugly, creeping things under the stones there, if he will only turn them up and look beneath. So let us lose ourselves in Christ, let us set our faces to the unattained future, let us clearly understand our own faults and sins. I do not mean here to touch at all upon the general thought that, by its very nature, all evil tends to make us insensitive to its presence. Conscience becomes dull by practice of sin and by neglect of conscience, until that which at first was as sensitive as the palm of a little child’s hand becomes as if it were ‘seared with a hot iron.’ The foulness of the atmosphere of a crowded hall is not perceived by the people in it. It needs a man to come in from the outer air to detect it. We can accustom ourselves to any mephitic and poisonous atmosphere, and many of us live in one all our days, and do not know that there is any need of ventilation or that the air is not perfectly sweet. The ‘deceitfulness’ of sin is its great weapon. But what I desire to point out is an even sadder thing than that-namely, that Christian people may lose their strength because they let go their hold upon God, and know nothing about it. Spiritual declension, all unconscious of its own existence, is the very history of hundreds of nominal Christians amongst us, and, I dare say, of some of us. The very fact that you do not suppose the statement to have the least application to yourself is perhaps the very sign that it does apply. Beauty and strength come from communion with God. (Mac Laren)

44.l. “Wilderness” – 8.r. “You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you.”

Exodus 31:12-18 And the LORD said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Orders were now given that a tabernacle should be set up for the service of God. But they must not think that the nature of the work, and the haste that was required, would justify them in working at it on sabbath days. The Hebrew word /shabath/ signifies rest, or ceasing from labour. The thing signified by the sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God; therefore the moral obligation of the sabbath must continue, till time is swallowed up in eternity. (Henry)

Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep—The reason for the fresh inculcation of the fourth commandment at this particular period was, that the great ardor and eagerness, with which all classes betook themselves to the construction of the tabernacle, exposed them to the temptation of encroaching on the sanctity of the appointed day of rest. They might suppose that the erection of the tabernacle was a sacred work, and that it would be a high merit, an acceptable tribute, to prosecute the undertaking without the interruption of a day’s repose; and therefore the caution here given, at the commencement of the undertaking, was a seasonable admonition. (Jamieson)

This command was strategically placed – at the very end of all the commands to build the tabernacle. Though God gave Israel a work to do in building the tabernacle He did not want them to do that work on the Sabbath. The rest of God still had to be respected. Our rest in the finished work of Jesus is never to be eclipsed by our work for God. When workers for God are burnt-out, they have almost always allowed their work for God to be bigger in their minds than His work for them. The difference between what Jesus has done for us and what we do for Him is like the difference between the sun and the moon, and the sun is almost unbelievably larger than the moon. Yet if the moon is in the exactly right (or wrong) place, it is possible for the moon to eclipse the sun. Some Christians live in a constant state of total eclipse, allowing what they do for Jesus to seem more important than what Jesus did for them. (Guzik)

44.c. “Wilderness” – 8.j. “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there”

Exo 24:12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.” Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

“Joshua accompanied Moses for a distance and there waited six days (a solemn reminder of God’s unapproachableness), when Moses was called higher to a personal and private time with God. (Thomas)

Moses was directed to ascend into the mount, and hold prolonged communion with God, in order that he might learn from the mind of God with respect to all these things. (Ellicott)

A cloud covered the mount six days; a token of God’s special presence there. Moses was sure that he who called him up would protect him. Even those glorious attributes of God which are most terrible to the wicked, the saints with humble reverence rejoice in. (Henry)

We have previously read of the Commandments given by God, read to the Israelites, a covenant entered into with the Israelites, and the 70 elders along with Aaron and two of his sons ate and drank with God. Now Moses is called to come to the mountain and wait for God. He waited 6 days and then on the 7 day God called out to Moses. The call of God to Moses to come to the mountain and wait, the waiting by Moses, and the call of God to Moses to come further should remind us all that it is God that calls and draws us toward Himself. “Behold I stand at the door and knock”, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son”, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them”, “Therefore you have no excuse”. God calls out to all mankind. God draws all mankind to a place in their minds where they will intentionally choose to either answer His call to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ or deny and reject it. When called, there will be some who will try to respond in a way that seems right to them. They shallowly commit and settle on a path that seems right and will allow themselves to be good enough (in their own eyes) to receive the promises of eternal life, and allows them to live in this world giving little to no thought of the Holiness of God and the sinfulness of their sin. Their lives are lived in this world and for the pleasures this world has to offer. Though there have been words of commitment and obedience coming out of their mouths there has been none of this commitment and obedience in their hearts, minds, and souls. Is this the expectation of God? Do we not understand that it cost the suffering and ultimately the life of His only Son? Should it be right to answer the call of God to repentance and belief in His Son so shallowly?

43.h. “Wilderness” – 7.o. Sinai – ‘You have seen for yourselves”

Exodus 20:22  And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

Deuteronomy 4:36   Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

Nehemiah 9:13   You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

Hebrews 12:25-26   See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.  At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

“You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven” – It was unmistakable and assured that the voice was of God when He spoke the 10 commandments to them. No one would deny it or say that it was untrue. As Christians, we often long for hearing the voice of God tell us what to do. We seek and desire a clear and direct voice telling us how to move forward or how to stop. Somehow we think it would be much better for us to hear it rather than walking in and by faith. Sometimes God just seems to be silent in our desire to hear Him speak us forward or out of a situation.

I am not saying God does not speak audibly because He has in the past. However, it would be a good refresher to know how God speaks to His creation.

“1. GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH SCRIPTURE

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

2. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH GIFTED TEACHERS WHOSE SOURCE IS THE BIBLE

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully” (Romans 12:6-8).

3. GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH DIFFICULTIES

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:67-68).

4. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).

5. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH HIS CREATION

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2).

6. GOD SPEAKS THROUGH WHATEVER OR WHOMEVER HE CHOOSES, BUT NEVER IN DISAGREEMENT WITH THE BIBLE

“For God does speak — now one way, now another — though no one perceives it” (Job 33:14).

CAN ANYTHING KEEP US FROM HEARING GOD?

Wrong attitudes, resentment, or unconfessed sins can create distance in our relationship with God. When this happens, confession and repentance will bring us back into a close relationship where we can hear from God again.“

(thelife.com)

42.t. “Wilderness” – 7.b. Sinai – “The LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people”

Exodus 19:10 the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments.

Not that God regards our clothes, but while they were washing their clothes, he would have them think of washing their souls, by repentance. It becomes us to appear in clean clothes when we wait upon great men; so clean hearts are required in our attendance on the great God. (Benson)

The solemn manner in which the law was delivered, was to impress the people with a right sense of the Divine majesty. Also to convince them of their own guilt, and to show that they could not stand in judgment before God by their own obedience. In the law, the sinner discovers what he ought to be, what he is, and what he wants. There he learns the nature, necessity, and glory of redemption, and of being made holy. Having been taught to flee to Christ, and to love him, the law is the rule of his obedience and faith. (Henry)

It would be generally understood that this external purity was symbolical only, and needed to be accompanied by internal cleanliness. Further, since even the purest of men is impure in God’s sight, and since there would be many in the congregation who had attempted no internal cleansing, it was necessary to provide that they should not draw too near, so as to intrude on the holy ground or on God’s presence. (Unknown)

There had to be people who took this preparation seriously and looked forward to this coming event, they washed and washed and washed their clothes spotless, wanting to be not only obedient but clean as possible for the visitation of God. Likewise, there had to be those who went through the motions of washing and not really caring if their garments were absolutely clean. Such it is in the hearts of men. Some will commit and do everything with a heart of reverent obedience and others will go through the motions being satisfied with minimal effort. Paul talked of these as people on infants’ milk and that they should be on solid food, growing and maturing in their knowledge and understanding of God’s grace and mercy.

How many weeks, months, and years go by when there is no spiritual growth in your life? How many times have you sought after what this world has to offer to neglect the spiritual food and living water from God? How many days are spent in worry, anger, fear, pride, greed, and restlessness due to complacency? When you go to bed at night can you actually say all of your thoughts, words, and actions were for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ? Cleansing will only occur when you see there is a need for it. Grow and maturing will only occur when there is a hunger and thirst for it.

Don’t let the busyness of life rob you of this growth and maturing and the discernment of the sinfulness of sin and the grace and mercy of God

4.f. “They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed”

Nehemiah 9:6 “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. By a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Nehemiah gives an account of Creation and the hand of God choosing Abraham because of his faith and making a covenant with him and his descendants to give them the possession of land from people who were evil and vile. He speaks of their rescue from Egypt and the wondrous works God performed then and in the wilderness. In all of this, Nehemiah recounts their father’s sin in refusing to be mindful of God’s wonders and obey. He also called out the fact that they themselves were no different and had stiffened their neck – they proudly denied serving God and did what was right in their own eyes.

We too must be mindful of our heart and know what is residing in it through the light of God’s word. When our necks stiffen it is not as though we have taken a firm, knowing stand against God, but rather we have chosen to neglect His word, what He has done, what He has promised, and what He will do. In this neglect, our eyes to our heart come to the point of being blind and our ears to our soul become deaf to His leading. We are left with a stiff neck toward the things of God and since He is not the light and the bread of life to our soul we end up doing what is right in our own eyes for the door to our heart, mind, and soul is closed tight through this neglect.

Read God’s word with the intent of gaining godly wisdom and understanding. Read it with eyes expecting to see something new revealed to your heart. Read it with ears desiring to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit’s leading. Read it with the door to your heart, mind, and soul wide open. When we start to read it with this commitment we will start to understand what it means to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, praise, follow, trust, and obey Jesus Christ.

Refused to obey Him and thrust Him aside

Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalms 95:8     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Hebrews 3:8-9     do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,  where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

Exodus 34:9    And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Deuteronomy 31:17    Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

Acts 7:37-39    This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’  This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.  Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

“Is the Lord among us or not?” “Our fathers refused to obey Him, but thrust Him aside, and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt.” The grumbling and doubting seem to be a pattern. I don’t think it is any different now than it was back then. Desiring, seeking, relying on, clinging to, and trusting in God is rejected at the heart, mind, and soul level. We are not immune to this type of thinking, however, we can take these thoughts captive and cast them out as soon as they pop into our head. We can choose not to thrust Him aside. We can choose not to live like He does not exist.

How are we to do this? We need to keep God’s word in our heart and mind. We need to intentionally change our ways according to His word and how the Holy Spirit leads us. We need to change our way of thinking about self first and desire to do whatever it is He has planned for us. We need to change from the way we live for self and change to living for God, seeking Him, wanting to honor and obey Him.

Commit to reading His word each day. Listen to what His word says to your heart and mind. Talk to God often. Walk in faith, trusting Him and His precious promises.