Let My People Go

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh.  They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”  “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh.  “And who is the Lord?  Why should I listen to him and let Israel go?  I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”  Exodus 5:1-2

If you’ve hung around God’s people for a minute or two you’ve heard how Israel was in bondage to the Egyptians, and God sent Moses to lead them away from slavery to the Promised Land.  If you’re a believer, you’ve also probably shaken your head over the way Pharaoh was so hard-hearted (and hard-headed). 

These two verses give us God’s Heavenly understanding about why Pharaoh was so cruel…and why people of all generations do such mean stuff.  The bottom line of it all is when God said (through Moses) let my people go.  Pharaoh answered with a defiant scowl:  Is that so….why should I listen…I don’t know the Lord…and I won’t let Israel go.  Pharaoh wouldn’t listen or obey, because he had no clue Who he was dealing with, or the consequences. 

The Psalmist understood this well:

Why are the nations so angry?  Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one.  “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.”  But the one who rules in heaven laughs.  The Lord scoffs at them.  Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury.  Psalm 2:1-5

I’ve known some angry and violent people, a few who directed that hostility towards me.  I’ve looked into the defiant eyes of those who would have taken my head off with little (or no) remorse.  I have seen hatred which I could only describe as demonic.  I’m not an exorcist…I don’t even like movies that deal with that stuff…but I’ve seen too much to deny that spiritual evil is real.  One such violent man was part of my life during early ministry days.  After wreaking havoc on our church for a few months, his alcoholic stupor and violence ended with him committing suicide in a police standoff.  I’m no psychiatrist, but this was more than booze, and much more than angst over life’s smaller questions.  This was a man who had shaken his fist at God for so long…so angry…that anger led him to the brink of despair, and, finally over that brink into the abyss.  His last act of pulling the trigger was desperation, the mark of one who had lost all hope.  Why do the heathen rage?  Why are the nations angry?  Why is life filled with such an absence?  A void?  A tasteless treadmill of nothing? 

Let’s do the math…it is entirely the lack of knowing the Lord.  Pharaoh wasn’t the only one…name any serial-killer in history…start with Cain, make your way through Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and all the conquerors of history, Alexander the Great, Atilla the Hun, Stalin, Hitler, Tojo, et al.  What is the thread that binds all that violent behavior?  They didn’t know the Lord of Heaven.  They would not bow before anyone but their own thrones.

Knowing the Lord is more than knowing about God; rather it is a personal relationship of friendship, based on understanding God’s love, and responding appropriately.  Cain is the chief poor example.  When he killed his brother out of envy, God’s love for Abel was assaulted.  God’s love for Cain held him responsible:

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out!  Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. Genesis 4:7a

For You Today 

Let’s finish Moses’ words:  Let my people go….to worship God.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

The Flaw of Human Unity

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Don’t be so surprised!  Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again.  Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.  John 5:28-29

In this Gospel account, Jesus has just healed a man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years.  For nearly four decades people walking through this busy intersection had seen him lying there, powerless, fading into oblivion.  Now he could pick up the mat that had been his home, and walk like God created him.  Good story!  But, what does it have to do with human unity?  Well, it serves as the perfect illustration of the illusion of human unity.  We all want what the man got.  He was sick, disabled, and weak; Jesus made him strong and able.  Yup…you keep doing that, Jesus – that’s what we all want.  And it seems so.  And many preachers teach so.  But it isn’t necessarily so!

The strength all humans crave…to be more fit, more healthy, more wealthy and wise, comes at a price.  Often that price is the strength of others.  If there is one at the top of the heap, that means all the rest are below…and at least one at the bottom.  If you have a dollar more than I do in the bank, you have more, I less.

Today there is a huge push towards unity and equality in the human family, and that is not a bad idea, in fact it’s a grand, ethereal, Godly ideal.  But the humanistic view of unity has a crack that will eventually reveal how much crumbling is in the future for the house of cards upon which it stands.  That crack is the void of faith that still separates.  At some point (to be determined by the Father in Heaven) judgment will divide that crack, and all human activity and plans will cease.

Scripture tells us that if there is no faith, you cannot please the God who made you.[1]  Those who fling-about catchy slogans, like Together we’re stronger, or pump their fist in the air as a show of human strength and unity, yet leave God back in the closet of antiquities to be ignored, are living in the crack of the foundation; even worse, they’re hiding the crack, providing a false hope of some utopian myth, that, if we will all just agree, or be unified (on all my ideas, of course, not yours, thank you), well, in that case, everything will be just fine.

Decisions are a definite turning-point, where you go left, instead of right…north, instead of south.  And when it comes to eternity, and the God who is truly Lord of all, the Supreme author and sustainer of life and existance, that decision is vital to the most important question you can get answered:  What’s to become of me?  Jesus minced no words when he stated that in four short sentences:

“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.  “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth!  I came not to bring peace, but a sword.  Matthew 10:32-34

For You Today  

Whenever you hear a plea for unity drop from someone’s mouth, it would be a good thing to remember that true unity can only be found where Christ is honored and obeyed.  Human strength builds a tower of Babel kind of monument to human strength.  Godly unity has the dew of Aaron’s beard[2] all over it, bringing a harmonious healing to the crack in human-shaped unity.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

       Leaving God Behind   and   Circle of Life

Images: Title image Pixabay.com Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Hebrews 11:6

[2] Psalm 133:2

A Tale of Two Pities

 

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies.  Look down from heaven and see our plight.  Take care of this grapevine that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.  For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies.  May they perish at the sight of your frown.  Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.  Then we will never abandon you again.  Revive us so we can call on your name once more.  Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  Make your face shine down upon us.  Only then will we be saved.  Psalm 80:14-19

Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!  For the Lord has rejected his people, the descendants of Jacob, because they have filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers, as the Philistines do.  They have made alliances with pagans.  Israel is full of silver and gold; there is no end to its treasures.  Their land is full of warhorses; there is no end to its chariots.  Their land is full of idols; the people worship things they have made with their own hands.  So now they will be humbled, and all will be brought low—do not forgive them.  Crawl into caves in the rocks.  Hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.  Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled.  Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment.  Isaiah 2:5-11

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  Hebrews 10:31

The Psalmist and the Prophet both tell the tale of Israel’s political prowess and her inclusive diversity of religious tolerance; they also pity both, because all that power and prayer will come to nothing…they are to be pitied on the day they fall into the hands of an angry God.

Shows of religious piety are despicable in Heaven.  The Psalmist, praying for God’s strong arm to come defeat their enemies is hardly more than a show.  You cannot hide motive from God.  Times used to be good when Israel was the strong new kid on the block, fresh from the concert of Jericho’s walls crumbling, and Philistine heads rolling.  Now the worm has turned, and Israel is falling apart on every front.

The prophet points to warhorse military solutions, and idols made of stone and wood Israel counted-on in any crisis.  Isaiah warns the time was at hands to dump the idols, and ride the horses to a caves to hide from their real enemy…God! 

And the New Testament preacher to God’s beloved Hebrew nation reminds them it’s a bitter pill, being on the wrong side of God’s history.  Once they were the humble slaves released from Egyptian bondage, blessed with the might of God’s covenant in a land flowing with milk and honey; now they are back in bondage, supposedly God’s chosen, chosing pagan ways and means to chart their lives, proud, arrogant, and a stench in God’s holy nostrils.  It only takes a brief look at the history of Abraham’s descendants to see how judgment falls over and again, when people forget God to go their own way. 

In this country we have a 246-year history.  Compared to Israel’s 4,000 years since Abraham, we are merely toddlers.  But there is a parallel between the two nations that is obvious.  We have our warhorses (nuclear armed drones) and flag waving parades to sing God Bless America (in place of shrines and carved idols), but our motive is identical – invoke the name of God, and, like a magician’s spell, all will be well again.

In the words of all the other fools of history….yeah, sure…that’ll work!

For You Today

It seems our prayers for God to bless us for our righteousness haven’t worked all that well.  All that’s left is the plea of sinners for mercy.  Time to bend the knee, Amercia.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  Falling Into the Hands of the Living God and A Dangerous Freedom      

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Stubborn As a...Well, You Know

 

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages.  I am not sending you to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand.  No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech.  If I did, they would listen!  But the people of Israel won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me!  For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn.  But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are.  I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock!  So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels.”  Ezekiel 3:4-9

A dear friend of mine recently said to me right after Sunday’s sermon:  I’d like to say I enjoyed the sermon, but my toes are really sore.  My response was:  When I was preparing that sermon, God’s Word broke MY toes to pieces before it got here to you today.  I’ve had to say that quite a few times over the years.

God gave Ezekiel a message, and, as a throwaway line, the Lord told him He had made the prophet as obstinate and hard-hearted as the people to whom he would preach.  Hmmmm. 

There are two thoughts that always come to my mind when the topic of a congregation’s sore toes comes up:

1.    I’m not sure many in the congregation understand how much it costs a preacher to deliver such a sermon.

2.    I’m not sure many in the pulpit understand how much the thought of how the sermon will alienate them to the congregation causes them to soften the blow, to the point of God’s Word being unrecognizable in Heaven.

These are human factors, indicators of our fallen nature, unwilling and stubborn to hear the corrective of God’s will.  It is the evidence of our pride of life which keeps us alienated from God, instead of that hoped-for intimate communion.

One of the harshest messages I’ve ever read was Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.  Here is an excerpt of what he preached in 1741 to the congregation filled with people he loved:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.[1]

For You Today

You may never have pictured your “just deserts” including being held over the flames of hell, roasted like a spider, dangling by a thread.  I’m certain there were those in the congregation that day who rather objected to the very idea.  Yet, historians hold that sermon was the kick-off incident that started the Great Awakening in America, a moral revival and turning to God we could certainly use today.  Words for a people as stubborn as a….well, you know.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] BlueLetterBible.org (Edwards’ sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Enfield, July 8, 1741)

What Have You Done?

 

Friday, February 25, 2022

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.  One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.  “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.  God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”  “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.  “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”  The woman was convinced.  She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.  Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.  At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.  So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.  When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.  I was afraid because I was naked.”  “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked.  “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”  The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”  “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”  Genesis 3:1-13

The typical default of humankind is to deny responsibility.  It started with Adam, and ended…nowhere.  Bill Watterston’s Calvin and Hobbes took me back to Eden, and the epic struggle of the human family to escape responsibility for what we do, and, therefore, what we are…sinners.

Calvin is six, and has a thought-world that Stephen King would die-for.  He comes to his Dad and announces:  “Ive concluded that nothing bad I do is my fault”.  In the conversation Calvin blames his youth, bad influences (just like Adam blamed his wife), and today’s cultural false values. 

 In the end Calvin takes no responsibility at all for his behavior…it’s society’s fault! 

Calvin’s Dad (representing the typical answer from God for such nonsense) turns the table and replies:  Then you need to build more character.  Go shovel the walk.  Calvin, shovel in hand, trudging through the snow, summarizes with a sigh:  These discussions never go where they’re suppposed to.

In the end, Calvin, my friend, these attempts to shed responsibility reveal that which IS our character; the discussion ALWAYS goes where God wants to take us…back to truth

For You Today

The Psalmist gives us right perspective on our Adam and Eve tendency.  Today’s final word is the antidote to any temptation to be Calvin:

Exalt the Lord our God!  Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!  Psalm 99:5

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

 

Avoiding the Crazy Label

 

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

So anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said.  For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying.  Well then, what shall I do?  I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand.  I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand.  For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don’t understand you praise God along with you?  How can they join you in giving thanks when they don’t understand what you are saying?  You will be giving thanks very well, but it won’t strengthen the people who hear you.  I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you.  But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.  Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things.  Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.  It is written in the Scriptures:  “I will speak to my own people through strange languages and through the lips of foreigners.  But even then, they will not listen to me,” says the Lord.  So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers.  Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers.  Even so, if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your church meeting and hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy.  But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say.  As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.”   1 Corinthians 14:13-25

I’m not sure I’ve ever known anyone who claimed to be super-spiritual.  I have known several gossips who criticized others (behind their back, of course) that they were such.  The point about being super-spiritual or holier-than-thou (a phrase from another era), is that one who is truly so close to God that one gains the reputation of being something of a spiritual giant, well, that kind of person would never claim that status; humility would forbid it.  They would be denying attaining spiritual heights with pride.  Consider God’s Word on the matter:

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.  James 4:10

But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Matthew 23:12

And he gives grace generously.  As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  James 4:6

Avoiding the “crazy label” is a matter of humility and truthfulness.  People who show-off with their so-called super-spirituality, or over-the-top-humility, are those who put-off others enough to derail a church’s entire ministry.  The apostle, Paul spoke of prophesying, or speaking the truth about God and humans in a way that exalts the LORD, and encourages people.  We can shirk that responsibility in more than one way:

1.    We can favor the appearance of super-spirituality, gaining the applause of men…a rather empty sense of accomplishment

2.    We can fade into the woodwork in feigned humility, a lie (at best) of the greatness of the Holy Spirit residing in your heart.

Either of those is not that to which God called any of us.  Rather, the body of Christ is to be a working force, every member using his or her gifts appropriately, respectfully, and humbly, so God gets the glory as unbelievers are converted.

For You Today

Our goal as a church is never to approach entertainment or satisfying someone’s opinion or preferences…or even just keeping peace.  It is to have the mission of Christ effective in our lives, declaring with power that God is truly among us.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

SAFE

 

Friday, December 17, 2021

Listen to me, you fat cows living in Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, and who are always calling to your husbands, “Bring us another drink!”  The Sovereign Lord has sworn this by his holiness:
“The time will come when you will be led away with hooks in your noses.  Every last one of you will be dragged away like a fish on a hook!  You will be led out through the ruins of the wall; you will be thrown from your fortresses,” says the Lord.  “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel.  Keep on disobeying at Gilgal.  Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days.  Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving.  Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere!  This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,” says the Sovereign Lord.  “I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town.  But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.  “I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most.  I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another.  Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away.  People staggered from town to town looking for water, but there was never enough.  But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.  “I struck your farms and vineyards with blight and mildew.  Locusts devoured all your fig and olive trees.  But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.  “I sent plagues on you like the plagues I sent on Egypt long ago.  I killed your young men in war and led all your horses away.  The stench of death filled the air!  But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.  “I destroyed some of your cities, as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  Those of you who survived were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.  But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.  “Therefore, I will bring upon you all the disasters I have announced.  Prepare to meet your God in judgment, you people of Israel!”  For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.  He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth.  The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!  Amos 4:1-13

There is an enormous difference between SAFE and Safe…when used as directed.  A few days ago I was using one of those sponges that is “safe,” meaning it won’t scratch your stove, sink, or refrigerator's polished finish…but only when used in strict adherence to the instructions on the wrapper.  The manufacturer takes no responsibility if you disregard the instructions.  That means you can use it any way you want…but that also means you will live with the consequences.  In my case, the lady of the house would see to the consequences if I leaned hard on the scratchy side of that sponge, and left a trail of scrapes on her black porcelain cooktop!  I suppose it also makes sense that you don’t use Ajax cleanser on a stainless-steel sink, unless you prefer dull stainless to shiny.  I’ve learned a lot of things in our nearly 55 years of marriage (mostly the hard way).

So, what does that have to do with Amos?  Well, I was just connecting the dots when it comes to ignoring instructions from the manufacturer.  Amos learned that 2,800 years ago when God gave him the message that Israel’s time was about up.  Their self-serving, self-absorbed ways had run God’s patience thin.  They were about to experience the consequences of ignoring their manufacturer’s warning label.  They’d disregarded God’s instructions, and all the emails, texts, calls, and final notice letters…housecleaning was about to take on a new look.

When it comes to God-blessed nations, Israel and America would certainly be on anyone’s list.  But with blessing comes responsibility.  If you fail to follow His instructions, you set yourself up to be on your own in dealing with the consequences.

For You Today

The people who belong to Jesus have a responsibility to speak plainly to our culture and this generation.  We cannot afford to depend on our reputation, history, or resources with the arrogant attitude that says we will never be judged.  None of us is exempt from the manufacturer’s instructions.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For other posts on this text see When God's Message Stings and Stubborn to the Bitter End