Deut. 3:23 “Then I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying:
Deut. 3:24 “O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?
Deut. 3:25 I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’
Deut. 3:26 “But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter.
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please... If you have kids around 3-4 (or older) you have probably heard this kind of pleading. Can I please! But I want it! But I really do! I really want it! Oh please! Please! And for one reason or another perhaps you were unwilling to grant their request. Perhaps it would have been inappropriate to grant the request because of their just prior actions. After all you shouldn’t reward bad behavior. Perhaps it was just the wrong time. No you can’t have ice cream right before supper! Perhaps it was just bad timing. “I just don’t think that at 3 years old you are ready to care for an elephant!” After all, (as they say in Russian) “if you love to sled, love to pull it up the hill!” There are any number of reasons that we might not grant the request of our children even if it is within our power and their responsibility. We are not being mean. We just know or believe that it is for the best.
Now imagine Moses. He is, the man of God, the prophet and a well know intercessor. In fact, we just saw how on many occasions he has prayed for the nation of Israel to turn away God’s wrath and judgement. He prayed and obtained a stay of execution for the whole nation at Sinai. He prayed and God told him to strike the rock or lift up the bronze serpent. He prayed and the fire of the Lord’s judgement that struck the edge of the camp was quenched. He prayed for Aaron when God was angry over the Golden calf and for Miriam when she was struck with leprosy as she spoke against he own brother. He has cried out for the people on many occasions and obtained favor from the Lord.
Now Moses pleads with the Lord and makes one of the few requests that is truly for himself. It is to this request that God says “no”!
It was one of the many times that the people had lacked something and failed to rely on God for provision. They disparaged the Name of God and His goodness. Instead of faith, they had once again come to Moses complaining and threatening. And as usual, Moses had prayed and consulted God. God told him to go ahead and speak to the rock. This has kind of happened before. The lack of water, the complaints and God telling Moses to go to a rock. The first time God told him to strike it with his staff, but this time Moses is only to speak to the rock. But Moses is angry with the people. He is angry because of their unbelief. He is angry because they have been in this very situation before and seen God’s provision and yet, he sees no increase in their faith. It is the same old story and Moses is tired of it. His frustration and anger get the best of him and he strikes the rock. When water fails to flow he strikes the rock again and then water flows. God answers Moses prayer for provision, yet tells Moses you have not glorified me with your actions and before the people. You will not go into the land with the people when they go in.
Moses’ unchecked anger and failure to obey cost him being able to go into the promised land. However, now the people are approaching the land. They have just won great battles against kings and lands on the far side of the Jordan. The land has been divided among the Rubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh. God has begun to fulfill to Israel all His promises to bring them into the land. It is an exciting time. Much is happening. The culmination of all these years of wandering is beginning. It is understandable that Moses would want to see more. So Moses prays...
His praise for God is great. He admits that he has only just begun to see the greatness of God. Yet, Moses has seen much more than the average “hero” of the Bible. He has stood on the mountain of fire at Sinai. He has received the oracles of God. He has witnessed miracle after miracle and provision after provision. God has made the backside of His glory to pass before Moses. Moses’ face has shone with the glory of God’s presence. Yet, Moses admits that he has only begun to know God’s greatness and he wants to know God more. He wants to see His continued work and the fulfillment of the promises. It is understandable. The more we know of God and see of His greatness the more amazing He is to us and the more we would like to see. So now he pleads with God to let him even deeper into this relationship. It is a good and noble request. But God says “no”. He has to say “no”. Moses who has interceded so successfully for others is rebuffed himself. So much so that God says “Enough ... speak to Me no more of this matter”.
It seems to harsh. Why and how could God say no to such a request. Just as parents have their good reasons, God also has His (much more perfect) reasons as well. However, it is not conjecture as to the reasons that is important. It is the understanding that sometimes God says “no” and that even in that no there can be a lot of grace.
There is nothing wrong with Moses’ request. There were others on other occasions within God’s Word that sought mercy from God. Some obtained it and others didn’t. It is good to have an attitude of “who knows, perhaps God will be merciful” and the person that doesn’t have often doesn’t have because they don’t ask. But in this case God answers and He makes it clear that this answer is final. Moses needs to concentrate on something else. It is time for him to put his “house in order”. God answers with 2 final opportunities for Moses to see God’s glory. Rather than bitterness toward the people, endless, useless whining or withdrawn, offended sulking Moses pours himself faithfully and fully into these opportunities.
The first opportunity is that he is to encourage and strengthen Joshua for the sake of the people. So that he may lead them into the promise land. Moses could rejoice that a man that he has spent years training, encouraging and spiritually leading will now continue to lead the people even as he, Moses, can not. God provides a good and holy leader to take Moses’ place, and he can rest in the fact that the people are in good hands. He can rejoice not just in his own victories but in the victories of another and God’s continued faithfulness to His people.
The second opportunity is a more personal one. He will see with his own eyes (at 120 years old) the land that God has promised. He will see it from the top of Mt. Pisgah. Even though he doesn’t have the privilege of leading the people in he still receives much grace from God to be able to see, better than most, the good land before he dies. Even in this he begins to tastes of the fulfillment of the promise of God and enjoys much favor from Him.
Even when God says “no” and His purposes don’t seem clear, yet we can still find grace and mercy from the Father with much opportunity. We must refuse to sulk and question, but stand joyful in all the good things God still provides.
Prayer Request
*For Phil and Yvonne Brewer. Our team members leave to return to the US in less than 2 months after almost 2 years short-term assignment here in Slovenia. Pray for them to be able to finish up well and that God would give success in seeing the Crisis Pregnancy Center opened, that funding for the center would come in, that the upcoming training at the end of September would be well attended and go well and that all the details that still need to come together before they leave and for their return to the US would be provided by God.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
30 More Days... Day 5
Num. 6:23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
Num. 6:24 “The LORD bless you and keep you;
Num. 6:25 The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
Num. 6:26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’
Num. 6:27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Just recently we were reminded of the prayer of priestly blessing recorded for us in Numbers in a message given at the mission conference we attended. It is a blessing or benediction that many of us are familiar with and not a few of us rush through at top speed at the closing of a service. There can be a tendency, in our familiarity, to speed through the words and miss the meaning as we often do with other well known verses like The Lord’s Pray and Psalm 23.
Last year when I was participating in the grape harvest (also see the blog post for Nov 14, 2007) we worked until lunch time and then sat down to a large meal. Before the meal the catholic family members recited “grace” for the food. The speed was incredible. It was obviously something they had said many times. Said normally it would have taken perhaps 45 seconds to a minute, but for them they got through it in 15-30 seconds. It was almost like a competition to see who could get through it first. I can’t say that I have never been guilty of such things though. Prayer at meal time (or on many other occasions) can become a “God’s neat, let’s eat” type event. There is a danger in familiar things. We can miss the meaning and the intent.
For the Jew, this blessing was a familiar thing. It was repeated often over the people. It was meant to be said daily, and was also said at many special events. It is a prayer commanded by God of the priest over the people. It is always possible that the people as well as the priest became too familiar with the words, so that at times the meaning was lost to the performance of tradition. Yet, there are great truth and meaning in these words.
As we look through the prayer we see Jehovah mentioned 3 times.
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace
The fact that Lord is used 3 times is significant from the standpoint that many commentators point to the 3 persons of the Trinity being involved in the blessing of the people. In fact, the various blessings associated fit well with what we know of the character and personality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Father is the keeper and protector. He takes care, provides, oversees and rules over all. The Son has made the Father’s face to shine on us. He has, by His graciousness on the cross, brought us back into right relationship with the Father. Grace being only available to us because justice was satisfied on Him on the cross. The Spirit is our comforter. He is the one that comes to us and reminds us of all that Jesus said and did. He is the seal that is the “earnest” of our salvation and the one that guides us into all truth.
However, beyond that we have some wonderful pictures and reminders of who God was to the Jew and who He is to us.
Often as we look at the Old Testament we get a picture of God as severe and almost mean. God’s punishment seems swift and harsh. He seems like the hardened old school master ready to whip out the “rod of correction” at every opportunity. Yet, here repeated each and every day, to remind them of God’s desire toward them, were the words bless and keep. God is a God of blessing and that is His desire toward us. His great love is there proclaimed to us as it was to the people each day. There is nothing that God wants to do more than to bless us in our way.
Not only that but He is also a keeper. He is a protector and He upholds us. He is not looking to hurt us but rather to guard us. Every parent knows that, sometimes, in an effort to protect a children that they must be in some ways restrained and limited. Boundaries are needed and appropriate. This can seem quite severe to the child and yet, all the while, God is simply blessing and keeping.
In fact, the next phrase takes this idea a step farther. In the message we recently heard, Pastor Damian evoked the image of “Make His face shine upon you...” using the example of a grandfather to his grandchildren. A grandfather’s face shines at the sight of grandchildren. He loves to see them and know them. He is warm and loving, and his face just shines toward them. It is a beautiful picture of how God also feels about us and just wants to shine His face toward us as well.
But God also is gracious to us. Each day we have evidence of His graciousness to us in the simply change of the seasons and the coming of the rain and sun. But that isn’t all. We also have the daily provision for our bodies and souls. If all that were not enough, He is also gracious towards us to salvation through faith for the forgiving of sin. His intent then is also to be gracious and good toward us.
Finally, the blessing is that God would “lift up His countenance” or turn His face toward us. Often we can feel forgotten. We might feel that God doesn’t see or we are not important enough for His attention to fall upon us. Yet, here the blessing is just that. God looking at us. He sees us even when we feel alone or abandoned. As Hagar who was mistreated and ran from Sarah realized, He is the “God who sees me”. Having received such understanding she was able to return and submit herself to Sarah even as God has told her. Knowing that He is a God who “lifts up His countenance upon us” allows us to live at peace. Just knowing that He is there can give us peace and let us rest because we are in His view. He give us peace.
The priests were to pray this daily over the people. They were to bless them and put God’s name upon them. God has made us a royal priesthood. Such blessing and proclamation should then also be made by us daily to bless the people around us. The priest would lift up his hands and proclaim the blessing that the Lord commanded, over the people. He proclaimed the Name and good intent of God over the people reminding them of God’s care for each of them. As people see our lives and hear our words, may we also bless them and teach them about God’s blessing for them that gives protection, love, grace, remembrance and peace.
God “put” His name on the people. His name proclaims who He is and His intent toward us. Ultimately, it is to bless. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Prayer Request
* That our lives and prayers would bless the lives of those around us. That they would see God’s mercy and love in us. That our lives would be full of worship and proclamation of God with boldness. That God would protect us and keep us from the attacks of the enemy that our lives would proclaim His blessing, love, protection, peace and provision. That people would see the goodness and greatness of God and come to Him through that blessing and truly know Him.
Num. 6:24 “The LORD bless you and keep you;
Num. 6:25 The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
Num. 6:26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’
Num. 6:27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Just recently we were reminded of the prayer of priestly blessing recorded for us in Numbers in a message given at the mission conference we attended. It is a blessing or benediction that many of us are familiar with and not a few of us rush through at top speed at the closing of a service. There can be a tendency, in our familiarity, to speed through the words and miss the meaning as we often do with other well known verses like The Lord’s Pray and Psalm 23.
Last year when I was participating in the grape harvest (also see the blog post for Nov 14, 2007) we worked until lunch time and then sat down to a large meal. Before the meal the catholic family members recited “grace” for the food. The speed was incredible. It was obviously something they had said many times. Said normally it would have taken perhaps 45 seconds to a minute, but for them they got through it in 15-30 seconds. It was almost like a competition to see who could get through it first. I can’t say that I have never been guilty of such things though. Prayer at meal time (or on many other occasions) can become a “God’s neat, let’s eat” type event. There is a danger in familiar things. We can miss the meaning and the intent.
For the Jew, this blessing was a familiar thing. It was repeated often over the people. It was meant to be said daily, and was also said at many special events. It is a prayer commanded by God of the priest over the people. It is always possible that the people as well as the priest became too familiar with the words, so that at times the meaning was lost to the performance of tradition. Yet, there are great truth and meaning in these words.
As we look through the prayer we see Jehovah mentioned 3 times.
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace
The fact that Lord is used 3 times is significant from the standpoint that many commentators point to the 3 persons of the Trinity being involved in the blessing of the people. In fact, the various blessings associated fit well with what we know of the character and personality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Father is the keeper and protector. He takes care, provides, oversees and rules over all. The Son has made the Father’s face to shine on us. He has, by His graciousness on the cross, brought us back into right relationship with the Father. Grace being only available to us because justice was satisfied on Him on the cross. The Spirit is our comforter. He is the one that comes to us and reminds us of all that Jesus said and did. He is the seal that is the “earnest” of our salvation and the one that guides us into all truth.
However, beyond that we have some wonderful pictures and reminders of who God was to the Jew and who He is to us.
Often as we look at the Old Testament we get a picture of God as severe and almost mean. God’s punishment seems swift and harsh. He seems like the hardened old school master ready to whip out the “rod of correction” at every opportunity. Yet, here repeated each and every day, to remind them of God’s desire toward them, were the words bless and keep. God is a God of blessing and that is His desire toward us. His great love is there proclaimed to us as it was to the people each day. There is nothing that God wants to do more than to bless us in our way.
Not only that but He is also a keeper. He is a protector and He upholds us. He is not looking to hurt us but rather to guard us. Every parent knows that, sometimes, in an effort to protect a children that they must be in some ways restrained and limited. Boundaries are needed and appropriate. This can seem quite severe to the child and yet, all the while, God is simply blessing and keeping.
In fact, the next phrase takes this idea a step farther. In the message we recently heard, Pastor Damian evoked the image of “Make His face shine upon you...” using the example of a grandfather to his grandchildren. A grandfather’s face shines at the sight of grandchildren. He loves to see them and know them. He is warm and loving, and his face just shines toward them. It is a beautiful picture of how God also feels about us and just wants to shine His face toward us as well.
But God also is gracious to us. Each day we have evidence of His graciousness to us in the simply change of the seasons and the coming of the rain and sun. But that isn’t all. We also have the daily provision for our bodies and souls. If all that were not enough, He is also gracious towards us to salvation through faith for the forgiving of sin. His intent then is also to be gracious and good toward us.
Finally, the blessing is that God would “lift up His countenance” or turn His face toward us. Often we can feel forgotten. We might feel that God doesn’t see or we are not important enough for His attention to fall upon us. Yet, here the blessing is just that. God looking at us. He sees us even when we feel alone or abandoned. As Hagar who was mistreated and ran from Sarah realized, He is the “God who sees me”. Having received such understanding she was able to return and submit herself to Sarah even as God has told her. Knowing that He is a God who “lifts up His countenance upon us” allows us to live at peace. Just knowing that He is there can give us peace and let us rest because we are in His view. He give us peace.
The priests were to pray this daily over the people. They were to bless them and put God’s name upon them. God has made us a royal priesthood. Such blessing and proclamation should then also be made by us daily to bless the people around us. The priest would lift up his hands and proclaim the blessing that the Lord commanded, over the people. He proclaimed the Name and good intent of God over the people reminding them of God’s care for each of them. As people see our lives and hear our words, may we also bless them and teach them about God’s blessing for them that gives protection, love, grace, remembrance and peace.
God “put” His name on the people. His name proclaims who He is and His intent toward us. Ultimately, it is to bless. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Prayer Request
* That our lives and prayers would bless the lives of those around us. That they would see God’s mercy and love in us. That our lives would be full of worship and proclamation of God with boldness. That God would protect us and keep us from the attacks of the enemy that our lives would proclaim His blessing, love, protection, peace and provision. That people would see the goodness and greatness of God and come to Him through that blessing and truly know Him.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
30 More Days... Day 4
Ex. 17:4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with this people?
Deut. 9:25 “Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
Deut. 9:26 Therefore I prayed to the LORD, and said: “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Deut. 9:27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,
Deut. 9:28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
Deut. 9:29 Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’
What can we say? However hard you might think your job is Moses had it tough. Leader of a people ... sure ,but often as I look at all his experiences I wonder who would want the job. And, I guess, the fact of the matter is that Moses really hadn’t wanted the job either. But it was what God called him to do. God told him, go to Egypt, speak to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go, bring my people out of Egypt. Moses said, I don’t speak well, why would anyone listen to me and you must know someone else to send instead. In the end God sent, Moses went and the struggles with Pharaoh were only the beginning of what Moses would experience in service to God and this people.
There was more than once that Moses was at a loss to know what to do with this people. Exodus 17 is only one example. If you remember, the people were without water and they came to Moses to complain to him about this.
Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?
It doesn’t seem to matter that they are free. They seem to have forgotten God’s miraculous plagues and protection in Egypt. The Red Sea seems to have escaped their recollection (where they had more water than they wanted). It hasn’t been the first time that “no good deed has gone unpunished”. Now, here they are again. We have no water! Moses this is your fault. Moses is in fear for his life... “the people are ready to stone me”. In the middle of all this we still see Moses’ heart as he cries out to God for this people. “What shall I do with this people?” It is not just concern for himself. He is concerned for their well-being and that they “know the Lord”.
We also see God’s heart in His answer. Go stand on the rock in Horeb. God says that He will stand there before him. Strike the rock! Hence, we have one of the many pictures of Christ being struck for the salvation of the people. God takes their sin upon Himself and the rock is struck. The life giving water flows.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink...” Jesus says.
God provides, the people see that God truly is “among them” and Moses glorifies God with his cry for the people and his obedience.
It is not just here but there are many times throughout Moses’ “career” that he intercedes for a “stiff-necked” and backward people. We see this time after time. In the passage in Deuteronomy Moses recalls several occasions that God was ready to destroy the people or broke out against them. God even once tells Moses that He will make a better and stronger nation out of him and his descendants. But Moses’ response is to fall before the Lord in prayer and intercession so that God’s anger will be turned away. We see that at one time he even spends 40 days without food or water in intercession for the people and for the glory of God to be made known. Not just for the people but also to the surrounding nations that they wouldn’t malign the Name of God.
We see here God’s heart in prayer. That we should cry out and intercede for people that they may realize God’s presence, that He would be glorified and that they should be forgiven and turned away from sin.
In human terms, Moses had every reason to say enough. Forget this people. They don’t deserve grace or any of the good things of God. They are stiff-necked and stubborn and hopeless. Yet, Moses cried out instead asking God to show him what to do and for the salvation of the people. So often we want to give up on those who most need and least deserve God’s grace. But, really, doesn’t that describe all of us? And often God puts us in a position where we could throw up our hands and give up without hope, or we could come to Him with all that we really can do ... pray.
Prayer Request
*That God would establish His Church here in Slovenia and especially in Maribor. That we would be able to see people come to worship God in Spirit and truth. That God would raise up a strong, vibrant Church that loves God’s Word, that is focused on Him, that worships and obeys God, that reaches out, that prays and that is a light to the world around it.
Deut. 9:25 “Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
Deut. 9:26 Therefore I prayed to the LORD, and said: “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Deut. 9:27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,
Deut. 9:28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
Deut. 9:29 Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’
What can we say? However hard you might think your job is Moses had it tough. Leader of a people ... sure ,but often as I look at all his experiences I wonder who would want the job. And, I guess, the fact of the matter is that Moses really hadn’t wanted the job either. But it was what God called him to do. God told him, go to Egypt, speak to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go, bring my people out of Egypt. Moses said, I don’t speak well, why would anyone listen to me and you must know someone else to send instead. In the end God sent, Moses went and the struggles with Pharaoh were only the beginning of what Moses would experience in service to God and this people.
There was more than once that Moses was at a loss to know what to do with this people. Exodus 17 is only one example. If you remember, the people were without water and they came to Moses to complain to him about this.
Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?
It doesn’t seem to matter that they are free. They seem to have forgotten God’s miraculous plagues and protection in Egypt. The Red Sea seems to have escaped their recollection (where they had more water than they wanted). It hasn’t been the first time that “no good deed has gone unpunished”. Now, here they are again. We have no water! Moses this is your fault. Moses is in fear for his life... “the people are ready to stone me”. In the middle of all this we still see Moses’ heart as he cries out to God for this people. “What shall I do with this people?” It is not just concern for himself. He is concerned for their well-being and that they “know the Lord”.
We also see God’s heart in His answer. Go stand on the rock in Horeb. God says that He will stand there before him. Strike the rock! Hence, we have one of the many pictures of Christ being struck for the salvation of the people. God takes their sin upon Himself and the rock is struck. The life giving water flows.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink...” Jesus says.
God provides, the people see that God truly is “among them” and Moses glorifies God with his cry for the people and his obedience.
It is not just here but there are many times throughout Moses’ “career” that he intercedes for a “stiff-necked” and backward people. We see this time after time. In the passage in Deuteronomy Moses recalls several occasions that God was ready to destroy the people or broke out against them. God even once tells Moses that He will make a better and stronger nation out of him and his descendants. But Moses’ response is to fall before the Lord in prayer and intercession so that God’s anger will be turned away. We see that at one time he even spends 40 days without food or water in intercession for the people and for the glory of God to be made known. Not just for the people but also to the surrounding nations that they wouldn’t malign the Name of God.
We see here God’s heart in prayer. That we should cry out and intercede for people that they may realize God’s presence, that He would be glorified and that they should be forgiven and turned away from sin.
In human terms, Moses had every reason to say enough. Forget this people. They don’t deserve grace or any of the good things of God. They are stiff-necked and stubborn and hopeless. Yet, Moses cried out instead asking God to show him what to do and for the salvation of the people. So often we want to give up on those who most need and least deserve God’s grace. But, really, doesn’t that describe all of us? And often God puts us in a position where we could throw up our hands and give up without hope, or we could come to Him with all that we really can do ... pray.
Prayer Request
*That God would establish His Church here in Slovenia and especially in Maribor. That we would be able to see people come to worship God in Spirit and truth. That God would raise up a strong, vibrant Church that loves God’s Word, that is focused on Him, that worships and obeys God, that reaches out, that prays and that is a light to the world around it.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
30 More Days... Day 3
Gen. 32:9 ¶ Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’:
Gen. 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
Gen. 32:11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
Gen. 32:12 For You said, “I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
Every once in a while we face situations that cause us to be afraid. There are many things in life that can cause us anxiety, and nothing, perhaps, quite so much as when our life or the lives of our loved ones might be in physical or mortal danger. In fact, it often doesn’t have to be anything nearly so dramatic. It might be a change of job or moving to another place that raises our level of anxiety. It might be an “unknown” that stresses us out. In fact, there is a list of things that have been identified as causing life stress and anxiety. It is called the Life Stress Scale and it was developed by Holmes and Rahe, and it rates the stress related to both negative and positive events going on in a persons life. A person that scores high in this test might be a good candidate for developing a stress related illness. A lot of the items on the list we would probably agree with as being true stressors. They are things like, the death of a spouse, divorce, moving, changing work, change in financial status, etc, and can include things like vacation and Christmas (which may carry almost no stress for a child but great stress for the parents). However, I think that most of us would not necessarily place “following God’s will” in that list of life stress units. To many of us the idea of knowing God’s will and following it would mean lack of stress, yet this is not necessarily the case.
This is where we find Jacob. God has come to him and told him to leave his uncle’s land and return to the land of his fathers. He is to take his family, his flocks, his servants and all he has with him, and go back to Canaan. As he leaves Laban, he is pursued by him for several days, and had God not intervened, there would have been conflict. Then they travel on and as they approach the land of Canaan, Jacob sends messengers to his brother Esau to tell him of Jacob’s return. When the messengers come back they have news for Jacob. Esau is coming and with him are 400 men! If anything is likely to cause stress and anxiety I guess this time in Jacob’s life would rate high on the life stress scale. He is moving. He is leaving the security of all he has known for the past 20 years. He has trouble with his Uncle. His living conditions are changing (at least to a degree). He doesn’t know where he will live or how he will be received in Canaan. And now his brother (whose last attitude toward Jacob was to console himself with thinking about murdering him) is coming with 400 men. However, he is also in the center of God’s will because this is where God told him to go ... what God told him to do. Yet, facing this situation, he is not much comforted.
How often is it that God call us to something but the circumstances surrounding it carry a lot of opportunity for ... stress. Well stress, sure, but also faith. As we look at Jacob in this situation we see a man that has started out in faith, but when the going gets tough he starts to doubt. He begins to wonder. He begins to draw back. He begins to design his own schemes and escape plans. The problem is that Jacob doesn’t have many options and perhaps he did not like what he saw. Perhaps he began to see that this time he was not likely to be able to deceive his way or run his way out of this one. He has left a land that he can’t return to and he is entering a land in which he is afraid that death might await. If fact, it may be coming to meet him with 400 men.
It is a shame that we often wait until such times to call out to God and rely on Him, but we can also be thankful that at such times we still can call out to Him and know that He will hear. And so we see the prayer of Jacob
He is going where God has called. Jacob can have the peace of knowing that He is in the center of God’s will. God has told him to go and Jacob has followed. It was not exactly what he perhaps had pictured (in fact, nothing like it probably), but still at least he can know that he isn’t here from his own bad choices. Even if he were he could still call out to God, but that he is in the center of God’s will is at least some consolation.
He knows that all he has and all he has experienced in the past 20 years has been a matter of God’s grace. He recognizes God’s provision in all he has and all that he is. God has built his family and fortune out of nothing and if God can give it then God can also sustain it. He knows he doesn’t deserve it.
He asks God’s protection (somehow) and lays his greatest fears before God. He is open and honest and he pours out his heart to God.
He remembers and comforts himself with the promises of God, who has already told him that He will bless Jacob and make him into a great multitude. Even though Jacob is now wondering how that might look.
Unfortunately, and despite his beautiful and theologically correct prayer, Jacob continues to wrestle with God and man rather than resting in God. Despite his prayer he continues to fear, scheme and plan until God comes and takes away the last of Jacob’s options except for faith. Only then does Jacob finally go forward responsibly as appropriate to the leader of a family and a nation of promise. Yet, even then with fear.
We all find ourselves in these situations at times to one degree or another. We find our faith is small and our prayers are lacking. Yet, God is ready, as we cry out to Him, to answer, teach, bless and lead us through the situation, and our anxiety by His grace and mercy. We find that, in reality, we had no reason to be frightened. God is gracious to us and He hears our prayer. He remembers His promises. The question is will we pray and walk in faith or will God have to humble and hobble us as we wrestle with Him. Will we grow in our faith and learn to lean on God’s promises and faithfulness or continue to struggle with fear and anxiety.
Gen. 32:10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies.
Gen. 32:11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.
Gen. 32:12 For You said, “I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”
Every once in a while we face situations that cause us to be afraid. There are many things in life that can cause us anxiety, and nothing, perhaps, quite so much as when our life or the lives of our loved ones might be in physical or mortal danger. In fact, it often doesn’t have to be anything nearly so dramatic. It might be a change of job or moving to another place that raises our level of anxiety. It might be an “unknown” that stresses us out. In fact, there is a list of things that have been identified as causing life stress and anxiety. It is called the Life Stress Scale and it was developed by Holmes and Rahe, and it rates the stress related to both negative and positive events going on in a persons life. A person that scores high in this test might be a good candidate for developing a stress related illness. A lot of the items on the list we would probably agree with as being true stressors. They are things like, the death of a spouse, divorce, moving, changing work, change in financial status, etc, and can include things like vacation and Christmas (which may carry almost no stress for a child but great stress for the parents). However, I think that most of us would not necessarily place “following God’s will” in that list of life stress units. To many of us the idea of knowing God’s will and following it would mean lack of stress, yet this is not necessarily the case.
This is where we find Jacob. God has come to him and told him to leave his uncle’s land and return to the land of his fathers. He is to take his family, his flocks, his servants and all he has with him, and go back to Canaan. As he leaves Laban, he is pursued by him for several days, and had God not intervened, there would have been conflict. Then they travel on and as they approach the land of Canaan, Jacob sends messengers to his brother Esau to tell him of Jacob’s return. When the messengers come back they have news for Jacob. Esau is coming and with him are 400 men! If anything is likely to cause stress and anxiety I guess this time in Jacob’s life would rate high on the life stress scale. He is moving. He is leaving the security of all he has known for the past 20 years. He has trouble with his Uncle. His living conditions are changing (at least to a degree). He doesn’t know where he will live or how he will be received in Canaan. And now his brother (whose last attitude toward Jacob was to console himself with thinking about murdering him) is coming with 400 men. However, he is also in the center of God’s will because this is where God told him to go ... what God told him to do. Yet, facing this situation, he is not much comforted.
How often is it that God call us to something but the circumstances surrounding it carry a lot of opportunity for ... stress. Well stress, sure, but also faith. As we look at Jacob in this situation we see a man that has started out in faith, but when the going gets tough he starts to doubt. He begins to wonder. He begins to draw back. He begins to design his own schemes and escape plans. The problem is that Jacob doesn’t have many options and perhaps he did not like what he saw. Perhaps he began to see that this time he was not likely to be able to deceive his way or run his way out of this one. He has left a land that he can’t return to and he is entering a land in which he is afraid that death might await. If fact, it may be coming to meet him with 400 men.
It is a shame that we often wait until such times to call out to God and rely on Him, but we can also be thankful that at such times we still can call out to Him and know that He will hear. And so we see the prayer of Jacob
He is going where God has called. Jacob can have the peace of knowing that He is in the center of God’s will. God has told him to go and Jacob has followed. It was not exactly what he perhaps had pictured (in fact, nothing like it probably), but still at least he can know that he isn’t here from his own bad choices. Even if he were he could still call out to God, but that he is in the center of God’s will is at least some consolation.
He knows that all he has and all he has experienced in the past 20 years has been a matter of God’s grace. He recognizes God’s provision in all he has and all that he is. God has built his family and fortune out of nothing and if God can give it then God can also sustain it. He knows he doesn’t deserve it.
He asks God’s protection (somehow) and lays his greatest fears before God. He is open and honest and he pours out his heart to God.
He remembers and comforts himself with the promises of God, who has already told him that He will bless Jacob and make him into a great multitude. Even though Jacob is now wondering how that might look.
Unfortunately, and despite his beautiful and theologically correct prayer, Jacob continues to wrestle with God and man rather than resting in God. Despite his prayer he continues to fear, scheme and plan until God comes and takes away the last of Jacob’s options except for faith. Only then does Jacob finally go forward responsibly as appropriate to the leader of a family and a nation of promise. Yet, even then with fear.
We all find ourselves in these situations at times to one degree or another. We find our faith is small and our prayers are lacking. Yet, God is ready, as we cry out to Him, to answer, teach, bless and lead us through the situation, and our anxiety by His grace and mercy. We find that, in reality, we had no reason to be frightened. God is gracious to us and He hears our prayer. He remembers His promises. The question is will we pray and walk in faith or will God have to humble and hobble us as we wrestle with Him. Will we grow in our faith and learn to lean on God’s promises and faithfulness or continue to struggle with fear and anxiety.
Prayer Request
*That God would supply our needs ... the prayers, opportunities, resources, finances, strength, health & safety (especially for Julia and Christian), guidance and wisdom. That we would not be dependent on our own plans, but that we would walk in God's way. That the work would be done in the Spirit and not in the strength of the flesh.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
30 More Days... Day 2
Gen. 24:12 Then he said, “O LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
Gen. 24:13 Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Gen. 24:14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, “Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”
Gen. 24:15 And it happened, before he had finished speaking...
It is likely that at some point in your life you have needed guidance in some decision you must make or job you must do. It is likely that at some point in time you have agonized over some dilemma when you have not been sure just what to do. There has likely been some important life event that has required wisdom. This is something we experience in the course of life and perhaps one of the more dreaded. What job do I take? Where should I live? Who should I marry? What career path do I choose? That is why it is so good to know that God gives guidance to those who ask!
Again it is probably a story that we know well. Isaac needs a wife and Abraham sends his servant to arrange the marriage with specific instructions concerning what to and not to do. However, this is also something that, truth be told, is just a bit foreign to us. After all, arranged marriages and household servants are not areas with which we have a lot of experience.
Put yourself in the sandals of the servant for a moment. Promise me, by God, that you will go and get a wife for my son (my only son, who I love!) What a huge responsibility. Do you feel the weight? It is bad enough when we have to make wise choices for ourselves but what about when we have to make them for others? This choice will affect no only Isaac, but the posterity of his masters house (the master that he loves) for ages to come. It is a difficult position to be put in and the man feels deeply the responsibility.
Having lived in his masters house for so many years and seeing the things he has seen, only one solution presents itself. Prayer!
His prayer. The servant prays to God because he knows that all good direction comes from the Lord. He knows that the task is beyond him. He knows what he must do. He knows what he is looking for, yet he knows that he will never find it without God’s providence. So this is very much a prayer of providence.
First he recognizes God. He acknowledges that God has made certain promises to Abraham and that God is a faithful God. He is sure that the God that Abraham has sought after in circumstance after circumstance is the same God that he must seek after. He has seen that God is faithful. He is also convinced that this same God must be the one to answer his prayer. As we come to God often we come to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, yet, I think, we doubt whether this God will truly direct us too. We want it to be Him but we are afraid that He will not hear us as He heard Abraham. Here we see that it wasn’t just Abraham that God answered and revealed Himself to, but to his servant as well. We have the privilege of approaching the same powerful, promising and personal God that the “great” Abraham did.
Second, his prayer is for himself and for others. He is not seeking God’s providence simply that he would “have success” but so as to be a blessing to others and that others truly may be blessed. Often we want God’s leading in our lives but we only have ourselves in view. Our personal comfort, our mission, our purposes. There is nothing wrong with asking for success, but that should not be the end of our prayer. We need to consider our role in the lives of others. How our actions affect them. How our decisions can bless them.
Third, there is “the sign”. Really it is an interesting “sign”. I think many of the signs that we ask for we want to be passive in them. We want them to just “happen”. But we see in the servant a willingness to move and be involved. He wasn’t just sitting back and waiting. He was out searching! Another thing about this sign is that it was far from supernatural. It was a natural thing. He wasn’t looking for God to prove Himself. He was honestly and realistically seeking God’s will. There was a well. There were girls coming to draw water. In other words, the servant had an idea of what he was looking for. In his mind he already had a way to test the “suitability” of the young woman that would come. He had thought about what would be good characteristics in a wife for Isaac. Perhaps he had a mental checklist 1. Lovely 2. Submissive 3. Hard working 4. wisely industrious 5. Hospitable 6. Chaste 7. Appropriate etc. But even with all those things in mind he still knew that he could only see the surface, but God would see the heart. No matter how well he looked to choose, still God would choose better. It is good for us to have an idea of what we are looking for and hold those ideals dear, yet at the same time give room for God to work, His hand to move. Then as God did this he would have assurance that had showed him the way ahead. Even later when the situation would get a little intense he could point back to the fact that God had led him and given him success so that he could finish his task and fulfill his promise. So that he could bless the hearts of his masters.
Fourth, we notice that even while he was still speaking God started to answer. God has His timing and He knows what we need and the exact moment that we need it.
Fifth, we see the man is patient and waits to see all of the answer before he moves forward. He is not willing to settle for anything less than God’s choice even if he must wait some time to confirm it to the end. Often we are impatient to wait and see God’s answers and be assured of His will. Then we rush ahead of God and wonder at the mess that we find ourselves in sometimes.
Gen. 24:26 Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD.
Gen. 24:27 And he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me...
The man who asked and received from the Lord also remembers to worship. He cannot do anything else. All the glory goes to God and to Him alone. The man revels in the goodness of God, first to others and then to himself. God has led the great man Abraham, but God has now led him as well. God will also lead us.
Gen. 24:13 Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Gen. 24:14 Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, “Please let down your pitcher that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”
Gen. 24:15 And it happened, before he had finished speaking...
It is likely that at some point in your life you have needed guidance in some decision you must make or job you must do. It is likely that at some point in time you have agonized over some dilemma when you have not been sure just what to do. There has likely been some important life event that has required wisdom. This is something we experience in the course of life and perhaps one of the more dreaded. What job do I take? Where should I live? Who should I marry? What career path do I choose? That is why it is so good to know that God gives guidance to those who ask!
Again it is probably a story that we know well. Isaac needs a wife and Abraham sends his servant to arrange the marriage with specific instructions concerning what to and not to do. However, this is also something that, truth be told, is just a bit foreign to us. After all, arranged marriages and household servants are not areas with which we have a lot of experience.
Put yourself in the sandals of the servant for a moment. Promise me, by God, that you will go and get a wife for my son (my only son, who I love!) What a huge responsibility. Do you feel the weight? It is bad enough when we have to make wise choices for ourselves but what about when we have to make them for others? This choice will affect no only Isaac, but the posterity of his masters house (the master that he loves) for ages to come. It is a difficult position to be put in and the man feels deeply the responsibility.
Having lived in his masters house for so many years and seeing the things he has seen, only one solution presents itself. Prayer!
His prayer. The servant prays to God because he knows that all good direction comes from the Lord. He knows that the task is beyond him. He knows what he must do. He knows what he is looking for, yet he knows that he will never find it without God’s providence. So this is very much a prayer of providence.
First he recognizes God. He acknowledges that God has made certain promises to Abraham and that God is a faithful God. He is sure that the God that Abraham has sought after in circumstance after circumstance is the same God that he must seek after. He has seen that God is faithful. He is also convinced that this same God must be the one to answer his prayer. As we come to God often we come to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, yet, I think, we doubt whether this God will truly direct us too. We want it to be Him but we are afraid that He will not hear us as He heard Abraham. Here we see that it wasn’t just Abraham that God answered and revealed Himself to, but to his servant as well. We have the privilege of approaching the same powerful, promising and personal God that the “great” Abraham did.
Second, his prayer is for himself and for others. He is not seeking God’s providence simply that he would “have success” but so as to be a blessing to others and that others truly may be blessed. Often we want God’s leading in our lives but we only have ourselves in view. Our personal comfort, our mission, our purposes. There is nothing wrong with asking for success, but that should not be the end of our prayer. We need to consider our role in the lives of others. How our actions affect them. How our decisions can bless them.
Third, there is “the sign”. Really it is an interesting “sign”. I think many of the signs that we ask for we want to be passive in them. We want them to just “happen”. But we see in the servant a willingness to move and be involved. He wasn’t just sitting back and waiting. He was out searching! Another thing about this sign is that it was far from supernatural. It was a natural thing. He wasn’t looking for God to prove Himself. He was honestly and realistically seeking God’s will. There was a well. There were girls coming to draw water. In other words, the servant had an idea of what he was looking for. In his mind he already had a way to test the “suitability” of the young woman that would come. He had thought about what would be good characteristics in a wife for Isaac. Perhaps he had a mental checklist 1. Lovely 2. Submissive 3. Hard working 4. wisely industrious 5. Hospitable 6. Chaste 7. Appropriate etc. But even with all those things in mind he still knew that he could only see the surface, but God would see the heart. No matter how well he looked to choose, still God would choose better. It is good for us to have an idea of what we are looking for and hold those ideals dear, yet at the same time give room for God to work, His hand to move. Then as God did this he would have assurance that had showed him the way ahead. Even later when the situation would get a little intense he could point back to the fact that God had led him and given him success so that he could finish his task and fulfill his promise. So that he could bless the hearts of his masters.
Fourth, we notice that even while he was still speaking God started to answer. God has His timing and He knows what we need and the exact moment that we need it.
Fifth, we see the man is patient and waits to see all of the answer before he moves forward. He is not willing to settle for anything less than God’s choice even if he must wait some time to confirm it to the end. Often we are impatient to wait and see God’s answers and be assured of His will. Then we rush ahead of God and wonder at the mess that we find ourselves in sometimes.
Gen. 24:26 Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the LORD.
Gen. 24:27 And he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me...
The man who asked and received from the Lord also remembers to worship. He cannot do anything else. All the glory goes to God and to Him alone. The man revels in the goodness of God, first to others and then to himself. God has led the great man Abraham, but God has now led him as well. God will also lead us.
Prayer Request
* That we would seek God's will and desire that we would be a blessing to others, especially in being able to share the Gospel and God's glory with them. That we would wait on Him for direction and be praising Him as He leads. That God would open the doors He wants for the things He wants done.
Monday, September 1, 2008
30 More Days... Day 1
Gen. 4:26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enoch. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.
Gen. 18:22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD.
Gen. 18:23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Then men began to call on the name of the LORD! I can’t really think of any better place to start these 30 Days. People calling out to God! We know the history of the first 4 chapters of Genesis. God created man for Himself. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Man’s sin separated him from God. Things were going downhill fast! And then men again began to call on the name of the LORD. Exactly how this looked or what they said we don’t know. We are not given really any model prayers from chapter 4 through chapter 18. However, we do see that people called out to God. They came to Him with sacrifices. Those who did, sought Him and followed him. We don’t know what they prayed. What is important is that they did. God records this for us as a reminder that it is important and that He desires that we call upon His Name. It is important hat we seek His guidance. It is important that we have a relationship with Him. As we open these 30 Days it is important to remember, that is why we are here. We call up on the name of the LORD and seek Him in the best way that we know how. As we do we trust that our relationship with Him will grow.
Because of the nature of these 30 Days of Pray I think it is interesting that the first prayer that we will look at is Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah. Up until this time Abraham has set up a number of altars. He has called in those places on God’s Name. God has come to Abraham and revealed His promises to him, but now, in chapter 18, God is revealing something else to Abraham. In fact, we see God having a mini-counsel with Himself about sharing His next steps with Abraham concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. He does this not to reveal any question on whether what He is about to show Abraham is right but to reveal the nature of who Abraham is and Abraham’s reaction in prayer.
God is going to judge and bring judgement upon these cities. But within His counsel in the preceding verses God states ...
The reason that God is now bringing this revelation to Abraham has to do with what those that come after Abraham will know and understand of God. It has to do with their reactions in relation to that knowledge. What was Abraham’s reaction? It was prayer, intercession!
When we look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah we know that they were truly wicked. We also know that Abraham had little doubt of this fact. In his previous encounter with the king of Sodom, at the rescue of Lot, Abraham refuses to take anything from this king. He is actually rather abrupt and cold toward him. Yet now he comes near to God and intercedes.
At first glance we might think that he is only pleading for the righteous, yet instead of just asking that God would protect the righteous he asks God to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. Is Abraham aware of the sin. It seems that he is. Does he condone it or claim that it shouldn’t be punished? No, he doesn’t. Yet, he calls for mercy for them all, the righteous and the wicked. It seems strange until we realize God’s heart.
God is concerned with both justice and mercy. I believe that He comes to Abraham with this revelation because He knows what Abraham will do and He knows what He will do because He has already revealed His heart to Abraham for the wicked and sinful. He came to Abraham because through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. It was through Abraham that the seed ... the Messiah ... would come. Through Him all the nations of the world would be blessed. They would be blessed with a divine mercy. Unlike the Jews later on, it seems Abraham had some deeper understanding of what that meant. So here we see him interceding for Sodom.
We also need to be concerned with the wicked ... the lost. Abraham’s cry for them is an example to us of how we need not agree, condone or pardon the sin, to cry out for mercy for the sinner. Abraham prays not just for the righteous, but also for the wicked. As long as there were righteous among the wicked, there was also an opportunity for a testimony to be given for the truth and for righteousness. Yet even Abraham knew that God’s mercy had its limits.
So what else can we learn from his prayer...
He came near - He boldly came before God and spoke on the behalf of the inhabitants of these wicked cities. Having stood with God and hearing from Him, he now draws even nearer and speaks with Him intimately and personally. God tell us to draw near and He will draw near to us (James 4:8). He waits for us to come. He loves it.
He proclaims God’s name and prays His character - He comes to Him in accordance with the righteousness of God. He rightly recognizes Him as the Just Judge of all the earth who will do right. He recognizes God’s heart, he intercedes yet he cedes to God’s righteous judgement. We must realize who God is and pray accordingly for God will do nothing outside of His character and promises.
He humbles Himself before God - he recognizes who and what he is and respects God’s greatness. He demands nothing yet asks boldly. We have the honor of calling God friend and Daddy, yet He is also King of kings. We are but dust.
He continues in prayer until he achieves his request or completely intercedes - He doesn’t just pray and forget it but continues to seek God until either he felt sure that there must be at least 10 righteous or he felt that he had done all he could to affect God’s heart and pray that God’s will be done. Many times we stop before we have exhausted ourselves in prayer. We stop crying out when God is still gracious to listen. We must continue in faith.
That God is willing to listen and wait until we finish interceding - we don’t see God grow tired, impatient or simply just leave in the middle of Abraham’s pleading but waits and listens to all that Abraham has to say to Him. He loves when His children draw near to Him and seek Him when He can be found.
Gen. 18:22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD.
Gen. 18:23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Then men began to call on the name of the LORD! I can’t really think of any better place to start these 30 Days. People calling out to God! We know the history of the first 4 chapters of Genesis. God created man for Himself. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Man’s sin separated him from God. Things were going downhill fast! And then men again began to call on the name of the LORD. Exactly how this looked or what they said we don’t know. We are not given really any model prayers from chapter 4 through chapter 18. However, we do see that people called out to God. They came to Him with sacrifices. Those who did, sought Him and followed him. We don’t know what they prayed. What is important is that they did. God records this for us as a reminder that it is important and that He desires that we call upon His Name. It is important hat we seek His guidance. It is important that we have a relationship with Him. As we open these 30 Days it is important to remember, that is why we are here. We call up on the name of the LORD and seek Him in the best way that we know how. As we do we trust that our relationship with Him will grow.
Because of the nature of these 30 Days of Pray I think it is interesting that the first prayer that we will look at is Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah. Up until this time Abraham has set up a number of altars. He has called in those places on God’s Name. God has come to Abraham and revealed His promises to him, but now, in chapter 18, God is revealing something else to Abraham. In fact, we see God having a mini-counsel with Himself about sharing His next steps with Abraham concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. He does this not to reveal any question on whether what He is about to show Abraham is right but to reveal the nature of who Abraham is and Abraham’s reaction in prayer.
God is going to judge and bring judgement upon these cities. But within His counsel in the preceding verses God states ...
For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him...
When we look at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah we know that they were truly wicked. We also know that Abraham had little doubt of this fact. In his previous encounter with the king of Sodom, at the rescue of Lot, Abraham refuses to take anything from this king. He is actually rather abrupt and cold toward him. Yet now he comes near to God and intercedes.
At first glance we might think that he is only pleading for the righteous, yet instead of just asking that God would protect the righteous he asks God to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. Is Abraham aware of the sin. It seems that he is. Does he condone it or claim that it shouldn’t be punished? No, he doesn’t. Yet, he calls for mercy for them all, the righteous and the wicked. It seems strange until we realize God’s heart.
God is concerned with both justice and mercy. I believe that He comes to Abraham with this revelation because He knows what Abraham will do and He knows what He will do because He has already revealed His heart to Abraham for the wicked and sinful. He came to Abraham because through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. It was through Abraham that the seed ... the Messiah ... would come. Through Him all the nations of the world would be blessed. They would be blessed with a divine mercy. Unlike the Jews later on, it seems Abraham had some deeper understanding of what that meant. So here we see him interceding for Sodom.
We also need to be concerned with the wicked ... the lost. Abraham’s cry for them is an example to us of how we need not agree, condone or pardon the sin, to cry out for mercy for the sinner. Abraham prays not just for the righteous, but also for the wicked. As long as there were righteous among the wicked, there was also an opportunity for a testimony to be given for the truth and for righteousness. Yet even Abraham knew that God’s mercy had its limits.
So what else can we learn from his prayer...
He came near - He boldly came before God and spoke on the behalf of the inhabitants of these wicked cities. Having stood with God and hearing from Him, he now draws even nearer and speaks with Him intimately and personally. God tell us to draw near and He will draw near to us (James 4:8). He waits for us to come. He loves it.
He proclaims God’s name and prays His character - He comes to Him in accordance with the righteousness of God. He rightly recognizes Him as the Just Judge of all the earth who will do right. He recognizes God’s heart, he intercedes yet he cedes to God’s righteous judgement. We must realize who God is and pray accordingly for God will do nothing outside of His character and promises.
He humbles Himself before God - he recognizes who and what he is and respects God’s greatness. He demands nothing yet asks boldly. We have the honor of calling God friend and Daddy, yet He is also King of kings. We are but dust.
He continues in prayer until he achieves his request or completely intercedes - He doesn’t just pray and forget it but continues to seek God until either he felt sure that there must be at least 10 righteous or he felt that he had done all he could to affect God’s heart and pray that God’s will be done. Many times we stop before we have exhausted ourselves in prayer. We stop crying out when God is still gracious to listen. We must continue in faith.
That God is willing to listen and wait until we finish interceding - we don’t see God grow tired, impatient or simply just leave in the middle of Abraham’s pleading but waits and listens to all that Abraham has to say to Him. He loves when His children draw near to Him and seek Him when He can be found.
Prayer Request
*That we would faithful intercede for Maribor & Slovenia and see God work in the lives to save many and to build His Church. That God would break down walls and spiritual strongholds to bring His light and life to this people.
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