Tag: Rebellious

Open Ear Warnings

“then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,”

Psalms 40:6  In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

Psalms 51:16   For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

1 Samuel 15:22    And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Isaiah 1:11   “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Jeremiah 7:21  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.  For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

Hosea 6:6    For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:13   Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7   And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Hebrews 10:5  Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;  in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”  When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),  then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

John 7:15  The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”  So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.  If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Isaiah 50:4  The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.

Proverbs 15:23    To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!

God opens the ear of man and terrifies them with warnings!  He does this so that we freely choose to listen, follow, and obey Him.  How many times are we trying to make ourself right before God but in the end it is only right in our own eyes.  God wants willful obedience from us, not our attempts to cover up or atone for the things we are doing in disregard of Him.  Why is it so hard to deny self and live for Him?  We choose to open His word and read it.  We choose to stay close to Him.  We choose to listen to His leading.  We choose to follow His path and purpose for our life.  We choose to serve Him.  We choose to obey Him.  We choose to honor and glorify Him.  What choice are you making today?

Same thing over again

“Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.”

Judges 3:30
So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years

Judges 4:3
Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years

Judges 5:31
And the land had rest for forty years

Judges 6:1
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Judges 6:7
When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. ’ But you have not obeyed my voice.

Psalms 106:42
Their enemies oppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

 

With the right godly leadership Israelites had rest from battles for 80 years, and then again they fell away and did not obey him and were treated cruelly for 20 years.  Once again they called out to God in their distress and God delivered them.   They had rest for 40 years and they fell away from God and were in bondage for 7 years.  Drifting away from God will never give us rest or peace.  What is it that this world offers us that has appearance of rest and peace?  Money, material gains, with out need of much of anything.  Do we really think this will give us rest, peace and happiness?  What does God have to do to get our attention away from this false sense of peace?  Does He need to put us in bondage.  Does He give us government officials who do not follow after Him?  Does He allow us to follow our heart away from Him?  What will it take for us to understand that all we have has come from Him.  It is not ours but rather we are stewards of it.  All abilities and gifts we have, have been given to us from Him.  We are blessed beyond measure with the eternal gift of life through Jesus Christ.  For this alone we should humbly serve Him for His honor and glory.

450 Years

And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges.

Judges 2:16
Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 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. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not

Psalms 106:43
Many times he delivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their cry.
For their sake he remembered his covenant,
and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love

Did you take note that the time from when the Israelites took possession of the land until the time of Judges was ~450 years.  During this 450 years many times the Israelites were under God’s punishment for not following Him.  We can look back at this and see the first place of not obeying God was when they took over the land God had given them.  They did not put away all of the people as God said to.  They did right by what was in their own eyes and this lead to a continuous falling away from God.  I remember shortly after I was saved,  my pastor who was discipling me, said “one thing he saw and it troubled him greatly was the fact that the church seemed to always be 10 to 15 years away from whatever the current culture accepted.”  What was deemed not in alignment with God’s word by the church now seemed to be ok or severely watered down within 10 to 15 years.  Spend some time to think about this and see if it is not true.  We ask for revival but are we willing to put away all that causes us to stumble?  Have we lost sight of what God would have us do and replaced it with what the culture says God would have us do?  The only way we will ever get on top of this is to personally spend time in God’s word with the intent of allowing Him to speak the truth of it into our mind and lives.  If we think for a moment we will get this type of understanding from a sermon once per week we fool ourselves and will only continue to drift away from God while running full speed ahead to that which is neither God honoring or beneficial for our lives.  Purpose to read daily and desire/expect God to breath life into these words in your heart, mind and soul.