Posts Tagged ‘death’

Scripture reading for March 31st: 2nd Samuel 15-18

“Honor your father and your mother,  as the Lord your god has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 5:16

“This is what the Lord says; ‘out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you.  Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.  You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel’”.( 2nd Samuel 12:11-12)

God’s Word never returns void!  It is always true and the one who chooses to go against it does so to their peril.  King David disobeyed God’s command against adultery and although he was forgiven, he reaped what he had sown in his own household.  Absalom, a son of King David, chose to rebel against his own father and try to take the throne of Israel.  His story is recorded in today’s reading.  It has a boastful beginning and a sad ending.

Absalom was a master politician.  He made all kinds of promises to win the hearts of the people.  His heart was plotting a take-over of his own father’s throne and he did it by flattery and empty promises.  (2nd Samuel 15:4-6) He secretly set himself up as king and secretly won over David’s trusted counselor, Ahithophel, who joined in the conspiracy.  He was a man full of pride and self-promotion who would do anything to gain power.

Ahithophel advised Absalom to take his father’s concubines and sleep with them in front of all Israel.  This appealed to this rebel son and he willingly broke God’s commands and dishonored himself and his father, not to mention God!  In doing so, he fulfilled Nathan’s word to King David as his own father was confronted with his own sin of adultery!  God’s Word is always true and comes to pass!  (2nd Samuel 16:20-22)

Absalom’s brief rebellion ends in a tragic way.  He was always proud of his long, thick hair.  As he was riding his mule  through the forest of Ephraim in battle with his father’s men, he caught his hair on a branch and was left hanging in mid-air by his beautiful hair.  He was struck down by Joab, David’s army commander, and Joab’s armor-bearers.  His life cut short by dishonoring his own father!

When told of his son’s death, King David laments his death and wishes it had been him!  What anguish is caused by sin!  These sexual sins seem to offer such pleasure, but in reality cause death and agony!  We reap what we sow! David’s lament is very touching!  In it we hear the heart of God for all his lost children!  He wants none to perish, but all to come to repentance.  He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but wishes for their salvation and restoration!  In fact, He sent His own Son to die in our place!  Wow!  What amazing love!  Our Father identified with our sins and weaknesses and and offers pardon and restoration!

Scripture reading for March 18: 1st Samuel 4-8

I love the presence of the Lord.  I almost always have tears or sometimes feel all my senses are alive and awake and a sense of His Peace makes me want to wait quietly or kneel before Him.  God’s Presence is something that men and women of God have sought.  Moses would not move without God’s Presence going with him.  He knew how much he needed it.  We certainly need it ourselves!

In today’s reading, the Israelites presumptuously took the Ark of God into battle with them.  The Ark of God was the place where God’s Presence rested with the Israelites.  (1st Samuel 4:3-5)   They had just lost four thousand men in battle and were aware of a need for God’s presence and power.  When the Ark was brought into the camp by Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s two wicked sons, the camp erupted in shouting!  They had a “pentecostal” service right there!  The enemy heard the commotion, and it ignited a desire to fight extra hard!  The Philistines whipped the Israelites and 30,000 more Israelites died in the ensuing battle!  Hophni and Phinehas were killed and the Ark of God was captured!  Eli died at this news and his daughter-in-law died in childbirth!  What a chain of events!  Where was God, anyway?  I thought that they had shouted because God was in the camp!  How could God let such a thing happen to His people?

First, God had warned Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas about their wickedness and about His coming judgment! (1st Samuel 2:16-22) Sin has consequences!  Treating God’s Presence as something to be used or manipulated for advantage is not allowed.  Hophni and Phinehas had been dishonoring God, their own father, and the nation by setting a bad example.  They had been eating the portion belonging to God–the fat!  They had been having sex with the women who served at the temple.  God will not be mocked!  (Galatians 6:7)

Using the symbol of God’s Holy Presence as a “good luck” charm is not wise!  Even all the noise and enthusiasm was not an indication of God’s presence with them!  We who are Pentecostal need to take note!  The loudest and wildest worship is not always a sign of God’s Presence or approval!  We can turn things that represent God’s Presence into an idol very easily!  We can also try to manipulate God!  Styles of worship, being slain in the Spirit, dancing before the Lord, and other manifestations are fine if genuine and a response to God’s Presence.  They are a curse if they are not in “Spirit and Truth”.  (John 4:24)

God’s Presence was not a blessing to the Philistines either!  Everywhere they took the Ark of God, panic, fear, tumors, death and confusion broke out!  God’s Presence is Holy and special.  He must be treated with honor and respect by those who know Him!  He brings death to those in sin and rebellion!

Take time today to thank Him for His Presence with you in the Holy Spirit!   His Spirit is a gift of the Father sent to bless His children!

Scripture Reading for February 18: Numbers 21-15

I hate snakes!  When I was little, Mom often asked me to take lunch and a drink to my Dad who was working out in the field.  This particular day in late June, he was cultivating corn about a half-mile from the house.  I was walking along the path, minding my own business, when I almost stepped on a large bull snake!  In my fear, I threw the water jar and Dad’s lunch at the snake and took off running for the house.  Mom consoled me and then sent me back to retrieve the bottle and lunch.  I complained and grumbled. Thankfully, the snake was long gone!

In our reading today, the Israelites were doing what they did best–grumbling!  As they grumbled against Moses and God, God sent poisonous snakes which bit the complainers and caused death.   (Numbers 21:5) The Israelites then asked Moses to pray for them and confessed their sin. (Numbers 21:7)  God answered Moses as he prayed with some strange instructions. He was to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole in the camp.  Anyone who was bitten could look at the bronze snake on the pole and he would be healed!  (Numbers 21:8-9)

What can we learn from this ancient story?  The first lesson is that sin causes death!  God has repeated this over and over but His people seem to forget!  Another lesson is that grumbling against leadership isn’t pleasing to God.  When we do, we are actually grumbling against God.  A third lesson is that when sin’s consequences come, we run to our leaders for help and prayer–and God does answer.  We then must have faith to do what God asks in order to be saved or healed!  True faith is obedience to God’s revealed truth.

This story is actually a picture of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus used this story right before the most famous verse in all of Scripture.  The snake that was lifted on the pole is a picture of Jesus Christ crucified.  He was made sin, who knew no sin, that we might be healed from the serpent’s poisonous bite.  If we will look with faith to His finished work on the cross, we will be saved and healed!  God loves His people and wants to save them from the poison of sin’s bite and the consequence of sin–death! (John 3:14-18)  If we refuse the remedy provided by God, then we will die and perish because of our refusal!  This ancient snake-bite remedy turns out to be the current remedy for all mankind!  I am sure grateful that I have looked at Jesus Christ with faith and received the healing from my own sin of grumbling, complaining and rebellion! Have you done the same? (Romans 10:9-10)

Scripture reading for February 4th: Leviticus 8-10

Preacher’s kids are sometimes a mess! (Not mine of course!)  In today’s reading the sons of Aaron and nephews of Moses committed a “deadly” sin!  They had experienced the miraculous deliverance of the plagues and seen God act in power at the Red Sea when the Egyptian army was drowned.  They had witnessed the miraculous events of the journey, eaten the “manna” and heard God’s voice on the mountain.  They were dressed, instructed, and anointed for ministry along with their father and other brothers.  They were sprinkled with the blood of sacrifice.  (Leviticus 8)  You would think that they knew enough to take seriously God’s power and presence!  But sometimes, those in ministry or close to it, become complacent.  Worse yet, they behaved disrespectfully towards God in front of others who were looking to them for spiritual leadership!

Nadab and Abihu had witnessed Moses and Aaron going into the Tent of Meeting and the visible Glory of the Lord appearing to the people. (Leviticus 9:23-24.)  Fire came from the Lord and consumed the sacrifice.  All the people shouted for joy and fell face down.  Evidently, Nadab and Abihu were fascinated with the Tent of Meeting.  They decided to go in there themselves and experience God.  They took “strange” fire with them and God took their lives right on the spot.  Why, you ask?  Wasn’t this a sin of “unintentional” ignorance? What was this “strange” fire?

It appears that these boys might have been drunk.  In Leviticus 10:8-11, Aaron warns his other sons not to drink wine or any other fermented drink when they went into the Tent of Meeting!  Paul the Apostle also gives the same warning to believers: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery, instead be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) God is not mocked and holds those with more responsibility accountable for their conduct!  We must be wise and respectful in our handling of the “holy things” and when approaching God in worship!  We can bring judgment on ourselves! (1st Corinthians 11:27-34) In Corinth, some were sick and others died because of improper conduct during the Lord’s supper!

Alcohol is not for those in the church!   Alcohol has caused many to stumble and has destroyed many families and believer’s testimonies.  We have the Holy Spirit and He lives in us!  We are responsible to God for our witness and behavior before our family, believers and a lost world!  Please meditate on these Scriptures today and allow the Lord to lead you in your conduct and worship!  Confess and repent quickly!  God doesn’t want you to die! (2nd Peter 3:9)

Scripture reading for January27: Exodus 21-24

Is there any such thing as a “harmless sin”?  We sometimes laugh when our young children defiantly disobey.  When our adopted daughters were first released from the orphanage to come with us, they were so cute!  Both my wife and I and the girls had a short time of mutual admiration.  But on one of our first outings, we were waiting to cross the street and cars were speeding by.  One of them (name withheld to protect the innocent!) stuck her foot out towards the street and looked up mischievously  to see what we might do!  Mary and I had a good laugh but realized that we had a job ahead of us and had a late start!

Sin entered mankind through Eve’s deception by the serpent and through the disobedience of Adam.  God’s commands aren’t suggestions.  What He says will happen and He has the authority and power to bring it to pass.  Sin has consequences.  We can choose to sin, but we get the consequences for free!  The law that God gave Moses on the mountain included Exodus 21-24.  These were practical explanations of the ten commands that helped work out how these laws would play out in the community of Israel.  A holy God lived in their midst.  He demanded that the people He lived with would be holy too! (1st Peter 1:15-16)

Some of the laws and their that struck me as I read this passage remind me of the “deadliness” of sin!  In Exodus 21:15 and 17, the penalty for attacking father or mother or even cursing them was death.  If a man owned a bull that was known to gore others and he did not restrain this animal and a person was killed, the bull and the owner would die! (Exodus 21:28-29)  A sorceress must be put to death!  (Exodus 22:18)  Anyone having sexual relations with an animal must die!  (Exodus 22:19)  Another law in Exodus 22:22-23 was shocking to me;  I had never remembered reading that one who takes advantage of an orphan or a widow would die if that orphan or widow cried out to the Lord!  God gets angry when we mess with those who are hurting!  He is compassionate and protective! (Exodus 22:26-27)

God is compassionate and loves us enough to confront sin.  He knows it’s deadly–it cost Him the life of His Firstborn Son!  We need to be serious when it comes to sin.  In our children, it is not just funny.  It will be deadly if not properly addressed.  As parents, we need to love our children enough to discipline them and teach them that sin is nothing to mess with.  May the Lord continue to love us enough to discipline us so that sin is not our downfall!

“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good that we might share in His holiness.” Hebrews 12:10

January 2nd reading:  Genesis 3-5

I remember in my early childhood taking my dad’s pocketknife from the stand by his favorite chair and carving pictures on the bedroom door.  It was great fun and my sister liked the pictures too.  Dad and Mom were out doing chores on the farm and it was still dark outside.  After a while, I knew they would come in soon and slid Dad’s chair in front of the door to try and hide the “sin”.  I didn’t understand it but they caught on right away when they came in the house!  I initially tried to blame my younger sister for being the instigator, but was found out!  I was rightfully afraid of punishment and soon reaped what I had so unwisely sown.  (That was before the days when spanking was termed abuse!) Genesis 3 came alive personally to me and I would bet every one of us has learned this lesson the hard way!

As I read this section of scripture, I am introduced to the “serpent” who was “more crafty” than any of the other animals that God had made.  This “serpent” talks to the woman Eve.  His words contradict or twist what God had told Adam and Eve.  They are words designed to appeal to desire for that which is forbidden by God.  The words appeal to pride and a desire to know what God knows from a source that God warns them would cause them to die.  Crafty is the ability to “craft” a plan that gets around truth.  It is a lie with some chocolate covering it.  Eve is taken in by this “craft” and takes the forbidden fruit.  She gives it to her husband who eats as well.  She is deceived and he deliberately eats. They suddenly are aware of their nakedness and hide, covering themselves.  Fear has entered with death and, rather than being clothed with God’s Glory,  shame now clothes them with a fig leaf!

God is walking in the garden.  He is reaching out to those made in His image.  He is calling to them and seeking those who are now lost!  He knows what they have done but is trying to help them get free.  When they emerge shaking in fear, God asks them who told them they were naked and if they had eaten from the forbidden tree.  Each answer is an attempt to blame someone else or God himself!  No one wants to confess or admit guilt.  Sin not only brings guilt and shame, but it causes fear of punishment.

Today, do a quick survey of your life.  Ask the Holy Spirit if there are things you are doing that you need to take responsibility for.  Confess them to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and cleansing.  It’s the only way I know to get rid of sin and its consequence, death!  “I ate it.”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Genesis 3:12; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1st John 1:9