Tag: plague

3.t. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great

Ezra 8:24   Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. I weighed out into their hand 650 talents of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents, and 100 talents of gold, 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics, and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui. The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

Job 5:19-24    He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you.  In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.  You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes.  At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.  For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.  You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

Acts 26:22   To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great,

Isaiah 41:10-14    fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.  You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.  For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”  Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Psalms 91:9-14    Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—  no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.  On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.  You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.  “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

Do you ever think about the hand of God being on you?  Do you know when you have been delivered from a potential attack of sickness, financial, physical, or relational harm?  Do you know it was by the hand of God?  How can you know?  Being aware of obvious, in your face, confrontation is one thing but how about those times when there are no attacks, physical or emotional, in your life?  Do you immediately think about God’s hand being on and over you?  Do you realize this at all?

Being aware of God’s hand should be the first thing on our mind but all too often the busyness of life and our lack of commitment result in our thinking that either we are very lucky or that of pride in thinking that in our own great wisdom and knowledge we were able to affect the outcomes in our lives in ways only the hand of God could produce.  You see when our time in His word is limited so is our thoughts on it and on Him.  When our time in His word is neglected so is our mind’s eye being able to see and reflect on the awesome steadfast love, power, and blessings from God.  When our time in His word is more of a burden than living water then our eyes become blind to see the hand of God at work in our lives.

The lukewarm, neglectful, complacent, and self-satisfied will never see the hand of God at work in their lives.  They will not know how to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, praise, follow, trust, and obey Him.  This can only happen when our whole heart, mind, and soul are turned to and committed to and rely on, cling to, and trust in Him.  This is not a part-time commitment.  It is every day, every moment intentional choice.  Make this commitment, be in His word continually and meditate on it and have it open the eyes to your heart and mind to see the awesome steadfast love and mighty hand of God in your life.

33. And the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

Numbers 25:1   While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Exodus 34:14  (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),  lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,  and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

Numbers 15:39     And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.

Deuteronomy 31:16    And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

Judges 2:17    Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.

Jeremiah 3:9    Because she took her whoredom lightly

Deuteronomy 29:19-21     one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.  The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

The path away from God’s love, grace, and mercy – and straight into His anger and wrath is one of choice.  Choosing to not only to do what seems right in their own heart and their own eyes and pleasing to them, but they do so thinking they are ok enough to be outside the disciplining hand of God.  It does not take long for the weeds of deception to overtake the mind and soul of man.  Neglect and complacent attitude with God’s word will give fertile soil for weeds of lies, deception, and false belief.

Matthew Henry commentary: The national covenant made with Israel, not only typified the covenant of grace made with true believers but also represented the outward dispensation of the gospel. Those who have been enabled to consent to the Lord’s new covenant of mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, and to give up themselves to be his people, should embrace every opportunity of renewing their open profession of relation to him, and their obligation to him, as the God of salvation, walking accordingly. The sinner is described as one whose heart turns away from his God; there the mischief begins, in the evil heart of unbelief, which inclines men to depart from the living God to dead idols. Even to this sin men are now tempted, when drawn aside by their own lusts and fancies. Such men are roots that bear gall and wormwood. They are weeds which, if let alone, overspread the whole field. Satan may for a time disguise this bitter morsel, so that thou shalt not have the natural taste of it, but at the last day, if not before, the true taste shall be discerned. Notice the sinner’s security in sin. Though he hears the words of the curse, yet even then he thinks himself safe from the wrath of God. There is scarcely a threatening in all the book of God more dreadful than this. Oh that presumptuous sinners would read it, and tremble! for it is a real declaration of the wrath of God, against ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.

12.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Exodus 32:30   The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Ezekiel 18:4    Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Psalms 109:13-14     May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!  May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!

Revelation 13:8     and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 20:12     And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Psalms 69:28    Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

These are some serious words of judgment for those who disregard God.  I was speaking with a seminary student recently and they made a comment that got me to thinking.  They said “Christianity today spells out our walk with God in the big moment choices, being born again and baptism, but our walk is more than a big moment choice.  It is a life of sacrifice of self for unity, for showing love, for being generous, for being kind, to allow ourselves to be wronged and forgive the act against us.

I wonder if preaching today speaks to the big moments and does not talk of the daily walk that humbly serves, honors, glorifies, follows, and obeys God over self and society pressures. You don’t have to look far to see the lives of those who claim the big moment choices but you see no fruit in their lives.  In fact, there is very little difference in their life from those who do not believe in God.  Fruit of the Spirit is cultivated over a lifetime of daily walking with God, daily spending time in His word, daily seeking to hear Him, daily desiring to be led by Him, daily wanting to honor and glorify Him, daily wanting sin in their life exposed so they can confess it and be forgiven, daily wanting to be used by Him, daily surrendering self-wants and desires, daily seeking to show the light of Jesus Christ into a dark world, daily looking for God moments with the lost, daily seeking to make disciples.

Every day is a choice of self or God. One leads to being blotted out and the other to eternal life.

Your Dwelling Place

Psalms 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most Highwill abide in the shadow of the Almighty.I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,my God, in whom I trust.”For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowlerand from the deadly pestilence.He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

It is always good to be  reminded of peace and rest found in God.  This Psalm encourages me to stay on course and cling to, rely on and trust in God.  Spurgeon has great thoughts on this Psalm.

“Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence.”

We must walk very close to a companion, if we would have his shadow fall on us.

Men proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them, who glory in casting suspicion upon everything;  it becomes the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage to their own well-grounded reliance upon their God.”

“We are foolish and weak as poor little birds, and are very apt to be lured to our destruction by cunning foes, but if we dwell near to God, he will see to it that the most skilfull deceiver shall not entrap us.”

“It is impossible that any ill should happen to the man who is beloved of the Lord; the most crushing calamities can only shorten his journey and hasten him to his reward. Ill to him is no ill, but only good in a mysterious form. Losses enrich him, sickness is his medicine, reproach is his honour, death is his gain. No evil in the strict sense of the word can happen to him, for everything is overruled for good.”

“How angels thus keep us we cannot tell. Whether they repel demons, counteract spiritual plots, or even ward off the subtler physical forces of disease, we do not know. Perhaps we shall one day stand amazed at the multiplied services which the unseen bands have rendered to us.”

“They are blessings that some believers miss out on, simply because they are always fretting and do not trust God as they should. Here the psalmist quotes God as saying that the blessings are for those who love God and acknowledge his name (v. 14), call upon him (v. 15), and seek satisfaction in what he alone can provide.” (Boice)

When God speaks through trials

“Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.”

Psalms 106:7  Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 

 Psalms 106:12  Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.

 Psalms 106:20  They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,  wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. 

  Psalms 106:24  Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD. 

 Psalms 106:28  Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them

Psalms 106:32  They angered him at the waters of Meribah,

 Psalms 106:34  They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.  They served their idols, which became a snare to them.   They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;

 Psalms 106:39  Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.

 Psalms 106:43  Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity.

I don’t have to look back very far to see that I, too, have done many of these same things.  I have not waited, had little faith, forgot His past works in my life, and did not remember He is the all powerful, every loving, and always in control, God.  In the heat of issues, problems, troubles, and when despair and doubt overwhelms, I seem to forget God loves me, He is in control, and I don’t have to be anxious or worried about what lies ahead.   It seems so easy to fall into this trap.  Is it a test?  Is it to teach and grow my faith?  Is it to show me my sinfulness?  I think the answer to all is yes. Daily, I spend time in His word to proclaim the very things I am neglect in believing.  I am not sure if this is common to all but God seems to be laying this heavily upon me.  Fatih is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Forgive me Father for my lack of trust, reliance, and faith  and for not placing them fully in your every capable and loving arms.

My shelter

Psalms 91:1  He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,  nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.  You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.  Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—  no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.  On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.  You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.  “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.  When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.  With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

 

Thoughts by Charles H. Spurgeon:

The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercyseat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence. Those who through rich grace obtain unusual and continuous communion with God, so as to abide in Christ and Christ in them, become possessors of rare and special benefits, which are missed by those who follow afar off, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Into the secret place those only come who know the love of God in Christ Jesus, and those only dwell there to whom to live is Christ. To them the veil is rent, the mercyseat is revealed, the covering cherubs are manifest, and the awful glory of the Most High is apparent.  Those who are the Lord’s constant guests shall find that he will never suffer any to be injured within his gates. The Omnipotent Lord will shield all those who dwell with him, they shall remain under his care as guests under the protection of their host.  his protection is constant–they abide under it, and it is all sufficient, for it is the shadow of the Almighty, whose omnipotence will surely screen them from all attack. No shelter can be imagined at all comparable to the protection of Jehovah’s own shadow. The Almighty himself is where his shadow is, and hence those who dwell in his secret place are shielded by himself. What a shade in the day of noxious heat! What a refuge in the hour of deadly storm! Communion with God is safety. The more closely we cling to our Almighty Father the more confident may we be.

History of turning away

Psalms 78:38  Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.  He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.   How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!  They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.   They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,   when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.  He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.   He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.   He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust.   He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.  He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts.  He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.   He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.   He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.  Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.   He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.   And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won.   He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.   Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow.

How many times in scripture does it speak of the great signs God performed in Egypt before all of the peoples of both Egyptians and Israelites.  Many of these references speak not only of God’s power and might in this provision but of the lack of faith and trust of the Israelites in God after just witnessing His mighty hand at work.  How hard must it have been for those who did not think this way. Their heart, mind, and soul was truly amazed,thankful, and fully anchored in and on God, yet most of the people around them were grumbling, ungrateful, and so soon forgetting the greatness God performed before their very eyes.  How hard must it have been to stand firm and not fall into the same thinking being bombarded day after day by those around them.  God is our rock, refuge, power, strength, and protector.  He is ever present and steadfast in love.  He is the creator, author, and finisher of all there is.  Do not neglect Him and an opportunity in this life to be fully dedicated to humbly serving, following and obeying Him.

So many signs

“because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.”

Psalms 78:31  But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,  But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.  In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe.   So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.   When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe.   So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.   When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly.

Numbers 11:33    While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague.

John 12:37    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

Proverbs 1:32    For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;

Numbers 14:35   I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

Judges 3:9     But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel

Judges 10:10   And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.”

Hosea 5:15    I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 7:14    They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.

It is our tendency to live for self and deny God access to leading our daily lives.  History is full of examples where man, in the midst of God’s hand at work, turns away from God and doing what seems right in their own eyes.  We so easily follow that which is not of God.  Do we think God has somehow changed and no longer requires our whole heart, mind and soul?  Do we think we are different and God’s commands to humbly serve, trust in, rely on, cling to, honor, follow and obey Him do not apply?  Do we think He has watered down what a dedicated life to Him should look like?  I can remember when you were thought to be a Jesus follower if you went to Sunday School, Sunday morning church, Sunday evening church, Wednesday evening bible study, another bible study during the week, and spoke frequently about God in your life.  Now it seems you are considered a Jesus follower if you attend Sunday morning church once per week.  It seems as though the church has adopted this lower expectation and I fear it is at the cost of many souls forever lost.  Now is the time to repent, return and follow God with an earnest desire to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey Him.