Posts
(Learning
to Love God)
Post 240
In the last post we concluded that the solution of
our regularly provoking God to anger, is to learn to love him. We saw that
these provocations were evidence that we do not actually love God. The question
then became:
“How do I learn to love God when I really
don’t?”
* * *
I do not believe it is too presumptuous to declare
that most American professing Christians actually desire to love God but find
they cannot. Yes that is a very broad brush, and as already stated in the
previous post; love is really hard to put on a scale. Yet I believe by the end
of this post you will be able to see the reason why our churches are filled
with both adults and youths who perpetually struggle and fail with all manner
of sin though they declare they love God.
The evidence of the struggle itself suggests a
desire to rise above the sin that they obviously know is destructive, and so it
is concluded that these wish to have a healing relationship with God greater
than what they have but are powerless to get there. Clearly they have some
feelings for God but the love that transforms is missing. They know it’s
missing but if you don’t love, how do make yourself love? Isn’t love an emotion
that comes and goes of its own volition and is uncontrollable? We are too often
told that it is. The answer to this problem of perpetual failure, which is most
often provided by religious leaders, is that “All men sin and it cannot be
overcome; It is a part of our nature and this is why there is grace”. The obvious conclusion of such a simplistic false
doctrine is that the only difference between the saved and unsaved is that the
unsaved don’t struggle in their sin. But isn’t there something else to this
salvation? Is it actually possible to break the unbreakable chains? “How
can I learn to love God when all my efforts have utterly failed?”
To answer that, we need a different perspective
than the one we have that does not work. To get that perspective, God gave us a
word picture where the lights come on as we finally “get it”. We get that word
picture when we honestly ask; “Why did God take the Exodus people on that
miserable trip from Egypt to the Jordan River, through the wilderness?”
Now don’t just assume you know the answer or you
wont look for it. Sure we all have reasonable explanations that we come up with
off the top of our heads, some are even based on the misunderstood reason that
God himself gave;
“And it came to pass,
when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of
the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest
peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But
God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea…” Exodus 13:17-18a.
So are we happy with the generic and simple
explanation that God wanted to take them the long way, which was so far in
distance and through the un-passable Red sea, that they couldn’t go back if
they decided they wouldn’t face the war at the end? This perspective of God’s
explanation is practically and geographically illogical on several points:
1. The
very common and familiar trade route from Egypt to Canaan was the most direct
and shortest; it was the I-5 freeway of that region. It is foolish to assume
that by taking them on a long detour, they would get confused and think it was
too far back to Egypt.
2. The
Red sea is not on that short route, so taking them through the sea was no
topographical hindrance to their return; Head north and hang a left.
3. At
the end of the long route God picked for them, they still changed their minds
(repented) when they understood the intended war, and failed to accomplish the
job of entering in.
So did God’s “Extended Red Sea Route” plan fail?
It did if this is the way we want to interpret his explanation, but that’s
ridiculous; God has a completely different meaning for his explanation.
* * *
God’s explanation of taking them the long way is
not about the distance. What God said was that he needed the longer course to
complete the process he designed for them so that at the end of it they would
not return to Egypt when things got too tough. We know by his statement that
the purpose for the wilderness program was that at completion they would be
altered enough NOT to go back to Egypt, whether they failed to engage the war
or not. And we know they did not return to Egypt but wandered around in the
wilderness the rest of their lives. God’s plan succeeded! (More in later
posts).
So now we just need to understand the process that
he carefully designed that brought about the change in them that would keep
them from returning to where they were before they left. Why the Red Sea
miracle at the start? Why the wilderness? Why the hardships? The bitter water,
the lack of normal food and the carefully rationed special food, the exclusion
from others, the lack of water, the extended stay at the rugged mountain camp?
What did God have in mind for all these miseries, when he constantly comforted
them with the cloud, showing them he had their best interest at heart? To make
sure we get the I Corinthians 10:11 application, the same questions must be
asked regarding why God sends us through the tough times in our own “wilderness
journey” of life in preparation of entering into the kingdom of heaven.
The answer comes clear when we realize that God
had to run them through the world’s first recorded addiction rehab program. It
was not that God wanted to make them suffer, but that the suffering was simply
a necessary by-product of the detox and withdrawals from the life of Egypt.
When you send your Heroin addict son or daughter to rehab, it is not a
punishment, or an intentional suffering that you wish upon them, it is an act
of love and hope while you mournfully empathize with their great miseries that
you put them into! but in their condition they cannot yet see it as help;
“And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened
not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage” Exodus 6:9.
In spite of the motivation of love and the needed
treatment, the suffering is still very real and the addict really struggles
with feeling like you hate them and are trying to kill them! And this is exactly
the reaction God received from the Exodus people as he confiscated their
familiar lusts of Egypt from them;
“And they were sore afraid…And they said unto Moses, Because there
were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore
hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the
word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve
the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that
we should die in the wilderness” Exodus
14:10b-12.
In this drug induced confused mindframe, could
they be held accountable for their words? Did they have the clearness of mind
that would allow them to make an intelligent decision for themselves? No. and
Moses did not rebuke them for it, he just comforted then in their sorry state
and said;
“…Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD…The LORD
shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” Exodus 14:13-14.
But even in this drug induced state, we cannot
force a grown adult into rehab, it is something they have to allow us to lead
them into, it’s a legal thing, and God likewise tells the Exodus people that
they must walk into the clinic and sign themselves in;
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak
unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:”
Exodus 14:15
The door to the wilderness clinic is the Red sea
of baptism. The wilderness clinic is God’s. The detox program is God’s. He
provides the facility, the medicine, the food, the water, the caregivers, and
the mental rehabilitation program, but it’s the patient’s job to do the doing
and the doing is difficult.
Once all the patents entered the clinic God shut
the door of the Red Sea, not to keep patients from escaping but to lock out the
world they had been rescued from (Exodus 14:19-31). While Christians wrongly
assume that salvation is the whole plan and the end of the work, the entrance
into the clinic is only the beginning of the rehab program.
* * *
Have you ever had any proximity to someone with a
drug problem? Do you know anything about the foundational altering effects that
drugs have on a person’s mind will and emotions? Their personality? Let’s use
Heroin as an example:
From the outside perspective, a person under that
influence is narrowly drug focused and disconnected to the reality that the
rest of us live in. One of the Thamkrabok rehab monks said it like this: “Heroin
creates this sort of bubble around you. You’re in a false environment, a false
world. So once you take that away the only way to describe it is that you’ve
just knocked the wall down and the real world comes at you a million miles an
hour” *1. But before that wall is knocked
down, you can still hold some semblance of a conversation with them, and they
may even weep emotionally in sad recognition that they are destroying their own
lives as well as those whom they love and who rely on them, but there is no
successful link between recognition and the needed behavioral change. They
simply cannot make it happen. How does a person on Heroin make the needed
change? Do they try harder to be a good mom? Do they will themselves to perform
better? Is it even possible, or would such an effort to improve themselves be
more evidence that they really don’t have a clue to the problem?
We might give them examples of their problem, not
as rules they must conform to in order for us to be happy with them, but as
evidences of their problem that goes far beyond behavior. But in the utter
helpless impossibility to improve, our comments are only received as judgment
(law) to them. “Doing better” is
not the present need but is a by-product of the intended goal. Heroin has no
redeeming qualities and is only utterly destructive to the addict as well as
those around them. Yet to the addict, they are sure they cannot live without
the Heroin even after they cease wanting it because the thrill is gone. They
are trapped because the withdrawals are just too painful to bear, and are
frustrated that you cannot “accept them as they are”.
But the greater problem, are those who have seemed
to manage their addiction in moderation where they can mostly participate in
reality. These people cannot see the merits of your argument and defend the
drug with vigor (Revelation 3:25-18), in this state these cannot be
rehabilitated, and in today’s sophisticated society we are seeing a great
increase in these who are managing their addictions and they are now filling
our seats of government with their twisted perspectives, writing insane laws to
which we all must conform.
I recently watched a documentary called “Heroin:
Facing the Dragon” about a Thailand
monastery rehab center for Heroin addicts *1. It was interesting as they
followed two young British girls through the program, but what really fascinated
me was the amazing direct overlay this had on the scripture’s documentary of
the Exodus journey from Egypt. The medication and purging, the waiting while
detoxing, the seclusion and foods, the expected attitudes and personal wars,
the restructuring of the mind, etc., all are shown paralleled in the Exodus.
I recognize that I am stepping outside the
authoritive scripture to make this overlay, and it has no direct scriptural
validation to declare its merits, I only offer it as a current perspective of
God’s intent for the process he used, that may help us accept the events with
purpose and see ourselves in a new light allowing us to interact with God’s
process in deeper understanding and surrendered compliance.
* * *
The Wilderness Drug Rehab Program:
After the first three days of detox (Exodus 15:22)
without the familiar drug of Egypt life, the next thing on the agenda for the
new Exodus rehab patients was some very distasteful medicine the scripture
calls “bitter water”, and the patients complained of its bad taste (Exodus
15:23-24). So Moses, the clinic director, went to the designer of the clinic
program to see what could be done. And God provided a sweetener for the
medicine; though the medicine still had to be drunk (Exodus 15:25a). But that’s
not the end of it; we are told what the medicine was for:
“…there he made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If
thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that
which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep
all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have
brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. And they came
to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees:
and they encamped there by the waters”
Exodus 15:25b-27.
In essence, God gave them the raw medicine so they
could taste how bitter it really is, then he gave them an additive that made it
actually tasty and they were expected to drink it, and by doing this he
provided a tangible pattern of the clinic principle he was about to make; which
was to purpose in your heart to “get on board” with the program and follow the
rules whether you liked it or not. The promised result is that the patient will
be healed and avoid all the diseases that plague the addicts they were just
rescued from; God informed them that the purpose of the clinic was for him to
heal them. And after drinking the medicine, they were taken to a pleasant place
where they could wait out the detoxing affect. But the withdrawals had not yet
begun.
30 days into the program (they left and arrived on
the 15th of each month; Numbers 33:3+Exodus 16:1) the affects of
withdrawals had begun and their reaction was typical of withdrawals from
Heroin;
“And the whole
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron (the clinic staff) in the wilderness:
…Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have
brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger”
Exodus 16:2-3.
Understanding the reaction of an addict in rehab
helps us comprehend why the Hebrews would react so dramatically, they were
addicted to the lifestyle and product of their addiction and they could not
bear to be without it. Today the same phrase is; “I wish I were dead” and at this point in the program they really mean
it. They had forgotten how miserable they were back in slavery, and now without
the drugs of that life, the affect is all they can think about.
Here we see that God provided them the most
perfect foods (Exodus 4-19) to give them all the needed vitamins and minerals
and proteins and such that their depleted systems desperately need to recover,
and no mater how much or little they collected daily, it always turned out to
be a specific ration by weight (Exodus 16:18). Was it supposed to be received
as a placation for the desirable Heroin of Egypt? No. It was what they needed.
And God watched their rehabilitation progress by how they received it (Exodus
16:4,12); Some, while still miserable from the withdrawals accepted the
treatment program as necessary and were grateful to comply, while others fought
with the whole process (Exodus 16:20) and could not figure out the point of the
rules and so struggled to comply (Exodus 16:27). Now think about it; these are
Heroin addicts who have shown a failure to manage their own lives with good
mental processes, now arguing with the rehab director and staff about how the
operation should be run! That didn’t go over so well;
“And the LORD said
unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Exodus 16:28.
God was holding Moses responsible for the smooth
operation of his wilderness facility and we see in the next verse that a
detailed explanation accompanied the lack of manna on the seventh day so even
the frustrated could go along; “so the people rested on the seventh day” Exodus 16:30.
Chapter 17 begins by implying they made it through
the worst of the withdrawals in the Wilderness of Sin and now moved on to focus
more on their mental rehabilitation. But we see that withdrawals from the
mental addiction is perhaps even harder than withdrawals from the physical
addiction, though in a different way. By now they have a bit more strength and
have recovered some will power, but misapply it to their base needs as if in
fear that the program managers have suddenly lost their proven skills and
designs for their best interest. In ignorance of the carefully designed program
the patients turn on the staff and demand what they feel they need (Exodus
17:2-4,7). And in love, patience, and compassion for their pitiful condition,
God again provides (Exodus 17:5-6); not because they demanded it, but because
it was already in his perfectly scheduled plan, as we see evidenced by prophecy
all through the scripture from the fall of Adam to the second coming (Genesis
2:10, 9:4+6, 3:15, 4:8+Hebrews 12:2, Zechariah 14:4 etc.).
Next in the program, after the life giving water
of the Rock of Christ, the patients were provided a first battle with the
Amalikites (Exodus 17:8-13) of the children of Esau (Genesis 36:12). I have
long wondered why this is here in the narrative? It really doesn’t seem to fit
in the rest of the Exodus narrative, What meaning can this have to us? With
this rehab overlay perspective we find in Deuteronomy 25:17-18 an aid to
understanding this part of the program;
“Remember what Amalek
did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; How he met thee
by the way, and smote the hindermost of thee, even all that were feeble behind
thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God”
Deuteronomy 25:17-18 KJV.
In attempting
to define “smote” I was led to the LXX Greek Septuagint, which in translation
reads;
“Remember what things
Amalec did to thee by the way, when thou wentest forth out of the land of
Egypt: how he withstood thee in the way, and harassed thy rear, even those that
were weary behind thee, and thou didst hunger and wast weary; and he did not
fear God” Deuteronomy 25:17-18 LXX.
This was not the only battle these people would
face; in fact being prepared to face the actual war at the end is a significant
purpose for the whole rehab program as God already made clear at the beginning
(Exodus 13:17). This Amalek battle was only a carefully controlled strength and
endurance training as a part of their rehab. Here in Deuteronomy (written to
the next generation that WOULD go in) we are informed that Amalek specifically
targeted the weakest among the patients falling behind, with intent to harass
them. Now while the KJV translation declares this attack came when they were all faint and weary, the Septuagint lends
to the idea that the battle made
them hungry and weary.
The lesson to be learned here is that weariness
and faintness is indeed going to be a part of the war in real life after rehab
but those who are the weakest will take the brunt of the harassment. Since this
was designed into the program we can conclude the purpose of God was to
motivate the weak to kick it up a notch; to be better prepared for the next
time. And not only the weakest, but all of them were exercised in the event to
become stronger as a unit by the increase of their individual strengths by
exercise.
The whole bit with Moses’ arms, was to drive home
the point that in the long and laborious battles against evil, we will face
weariness. In our weariness of the battle the enemy will gain the upper hand.
But when we come together for mutual support of each other’s faith in uplifting
our weary arms to God (from whence comes our help), we will find strength and
the LORD will sustain our diligence and give us victory through our efforts; “And
let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not” Galatians 6:9 (+10, also Exodus
23:29-30, II Thessalonians 3:13).
Now Deuteronomy 26 goes on to direct a memorial
First Fruits sacrifice to remember this concept of the source of our success while
weary, but the Exodus generation failed the final exam of this concept and so
were not given chapter 26. If you are of the second gen kind of believers, it
would be valuable to read Deuteronomy 26:1-11, not as a rule but as a concept
of understanding the deep meaning of first fruits with this in mind.
This is
rehab!
Exodus 18 is a very interesting diversion from the
rehab program itself, and goes into some inner workings in the management of
the wilderness rehab center. There is A LOT of fascinating understanding found
here far more than just symbolic to our own “real life” management as we are
all patients, now in the staff, to aid those less stable in the program, but I
must pass over the details to continue the documentary of the patients. Only keep
in mind that this selection of Jr. staff members from among the patients
(Exodus 18:25) is not the same event as when, the faithful among them are later
officially sanctioned as staff by the anointing of God’s Spirit (Numbers
11:16).
Two months into rehab (they left and arrived on
the 15th) they are taken to the Sinai mountain camp for an extended
stay and a new phase in their rehabilitation (Exodus 19:1-6). It is here that
they are given a whole new set of rules to live by now that they are mentally
healthy enough to receive it. The toxins of their Egyptian addictions are now
cleansed from their system, and the
exclusion from any other social distractions has prepared their minds to accept the training of a completely different
lifestyle from what they had known. But here their hearts will suffer the challenge of choosing the life they
WANT. Here is where will be tested their success of how they applied the first
rule of rehab;
“If thou wilt
diligently hearken (8085) to the
voice of the LORD thy God…” Exodus 15:26
Hearken 8085 shama; a primitive root; to hear
intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.)…
As a child, I would sometimes get in trouble even
though I had intended to followed the specific directive of my dad. He used the
line “going through the motions” to
express that although the letter may have been followed, I had missed or
ignored the whole spirit of the directive. From disinterest I did not “hearken”
to his voice though I attempted to do what he said, the results were self
evident that I was just going through the motions.
Here at the mountain of God in Sinai, they were
about to be graduated into the next phase of their rehab and given guiding
rules to live by (Exodus 19:9-11), but if their heart was not committed to this new way, all the rules
would fall flat and miss the whole purpose. They were not strung-out on the
drug of Egypt anymore so whatever they decided to do was simply a clear choice
of their heart’s desire approved by a clear mind. Their decisions were
legitimately their own and they could be accountable to them now.
After giving them the verbal rules (Exodus
20:1-17), it was no mistake that Moses “left the room” to spend time in the
mountain of God; it was a part of the program to see how the patients were
doing on their own in preparation for “real life” choices (II Chronicles
32:31).
They didn’t do so good;
“And when the people
saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which
shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of
the land of Egypt, we wot not is become of him” Exodus 32:1.
Now it’s easy to criticize them for their quick
departure, but remember this whole program had only been going for two months
and now Moses the rehab director goes absent for more than a month! (40 days
per Exodus 24:18), that’s not insignificant.
If the patients had understood that this was like
today’s term; “halfway house”, they would have carefully and diligently applied
the rules in Moses’ absence to make sure they graduated successfully from the
program. But as long as they assumed they were but patients, they felt no
personal responsibility and actually felt their failure was Moses’ fault for
spending so much time away! Incredible the damage allowed by a wrong
perspective! And this irresponsible perspective is what got them hooked as
slaves to Egypt in the first place. But is this not exactly what modern Christians do today while waiting for
Jesus to come back? “I want to do right, but without the director
holding my hand, I just can’t help myself.”
Somehow that doesn’t sell so good from this overlay interpretation of the
passage. This failure to apply (act of the will) the law with the mind, is
directly due to a failure to rehabilitate (repent) the heart. The whole package
can be called a wrong spirit. Caleb had another spirit (Numbers 14:24) as he
accepted his personal responsibility to succeed in the program with diligence.
I don’t want to belabor the shameful details of
their full return to their former conduct even without the actual Egyptian
Heroin of slavery to overtake and influence them, but that they still had not
eradicated the lust for the former pagan pleasures they retained in their
hearts. This problem is made very clear in any rehabilitation program by
expounding on the great captivating dangers of even once falling back into the
evils you have been saved from. There is a very long (and often declared life
long) weakness to the addiction that was left behind, and this weakness must be
guarded against diligently though the deep wrestling stops when the heart
actually changes. But the heart cannot fully change until the toxins are
dispelled and the withdrawals come to an end; All the factors are combined to a
successful rehabilitation.
Moses the director, comes back after his extended
absence; sees the regression and shame, and breaks the tablets in anger (Exodus
32:19, more on this in later posts). But by the documentary we see that he was
not angry at the people but at their failure; Moses is not the creator of the
program but only the director, and he must go to the creator and appeal to him
not to throw out the whole lot *2 (Exodus 32:30-31). He could not make such an
appeal if his heart was angry with the people in the way we tend to think, yet
before he made his appeal he had to remove from the program some of the
patients as a serious lesson to the rest if nothing else, but more likely as a
redemption of the whole lot he was about to seek forgiveness for (Exodus
32:27-29+ Hebrews 9:22+ Matthew 26:28).
The appeal for forgiveness is not approved (Exodus
32:32-35) though they do receive a pardon and they get to stay in the program,
but the creator makes note that all is not forgotten (Exodus 32:33-35+Jeremiah
14:10) unlike in forgiveness (Psalm 103:12+Hebrews 10:17). The incredible
importance to these few verses is quickly ignored by the patients who are just
happy they didn’t get ejected… but this should not be; there is very serious
instruction here if we will accept it; remembering that Moses is the ensample
of Christ Jesus our atonement for sin (Exodus 32:30) that only goes so far with
God. In today’s confused “Christianity” such a concept is viewed as heresy as
they party with the golden calf worshipers while waiting for Christ to return!
At this point (unlike addicted Christians today)
the Exodus rehab patients know they really goofed, but they had no idea what
would come of it. As they stand there quietly waiting (Hebrews 10:27), they
know they are still in the program but clearly the administration is making
changes because of them (Exodus 33:1-17). What we see, is that originally God
was right in their midst as the tabernacle was in the center of the camp with
the Levites and priests, but now the tabernacle was removed from the camp and
from the presence of the priest’s domain, and the LORD went with it to abide
alone, outside the camp. God was still there, Moses was still there, Aaron was
still there, the Levites were still there, but somehow there was a separation
from God, and it was stark (Exodus 33:8-10).
How does this apply to our Christianity today? Is
there really no permanent damage done when we choose to sin because Jesus is
our atonement? Hardly! Such a thing is a warning sign of an unreformed
(unrepentant) heart that if left unchanged will result in failure to enter in
because of fear, which is a lack of faith. The lack of faith in fear is
Unbelief (Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:6,16:14, Romans 11:20, Hebrews 3:10-12,19).
*
* *
Bad Friends:
So things are patched up (with a few diminishing
changes) and Moses gets a new set of tablets (Exodus 34:1), and by this we
learn that indeed we are not God’s people because of our great righteousness,
but rather because of God’s incredible mercy on these still pitiful, former
spiritual-drug addicts floundering to get their feet under them (Exodus
34:5-7). The second set of tablets is an incredible sign of full failure and
yet a second chance *3 (Jeremiah 18:1-6+). But with a second chance comes a
double punishment if a further failure is not avoided (Jeremiah 16:18). And
with this last chance concept the patients are given some pretty hard words
regarding their social interactions:
“And he said, Behold,
I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not
been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which
thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will
do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day: Behold I drive
out before thee the (six named nations).
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land whither thou goest, lest it (your
covenant) be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy
their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: for thou shalt
worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a
whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee,
and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons,
and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a
whoring after their gods” Exodus 34:10-16
*4.
I write all this out because it’s important to see
the scripture itself in this hard command. Today in our “enlightened” age, we
take pride in being tolerant of everyone and everything as if it is a virtue of
God. I remember back in 2001 when I heard on the news that the Taliban had
invaded Afghanistan, and blown up some huge ancient images carved into the
cliffs *5. Foolishly I was appalled that anyone would destroy such ancient
relics, even if they are gods we don’t choose to accept; “It’s ancient
history they are destroying!” But as
conquerors are they not purifying their new possession for their god just as
our scriptures told the Hebrews to do for their God?
Today’s Christian cannot stomach the idea of such
violence, even in the face of those who openly declare they intend to kill us
or enslave us. In spite of the willingness of our forefathers’ to fight to the
death for what they believed was theirs by the hand of God, our generation is
so passive in confused “faith” that we cannot stand against anything and so
reject the natural law of “right of power” to do as it wishes (II Kings
19:10-13). And so not standing against
anything, we cannot stand for
anything; not even for the God of All Power to rise against their challenging
power as did Hezekiah (II Kings 19:15-19). And so, like the Exodus patients in
Moses’ absence, we just passively blow with the wind and do what comes natural
in the moment while guiltlessly waiting for our director to come back and lead
us; “If not him, then why not someone else? It’s all the same so long
as we are led.” This is still the mind of a
slave, which is what the rehab program is trying to alter.
Is our acting president not making covenants with
the enemies of our God in violation of this Exodus 34 principle? (also
Deuteronomy 17:3-5). Are our people not eagerly willing to defend their imagined rights on our soil, even over our own
rights? Are we not as a nation trying to incorporate their people’s values and their laws into our own nation as an act of kindness while they openly defy our God? This is exactly what God commanded the Exodus people NOT to do, and
he explained why just to make sure they couldn’t confuse his meaning.
Keep your eye on the news first, and then in your
own home as your children adopt Chrislam *6 right before your Christian eyes!
This is a promise of God for taking this forbidden path of tolerating foreign
wickedness in our own Christian land. But we are so intoxicated with our now
familiar iniquities and confusions that we cannot comprehend what God actually
meant for us to do;
“Didn’t Jesus teach us to love everybody?”
Yes, that’s why we entered the war to stop Hitler!
A simple mind is hardly better than one on drugs. Although many are quite happy
in their simplistic faith of warm and fuzzy, the Lord is not quite so happy
with it because such a weak standing will not prepare you to face the spiritual
war that must be fought between the holy and the blasphemy (Ephesians 6:10-18).
There is simply no use for armor to the lily livered Christian who’s faith will
not allow him to stand against wickedness because he is covenanted with it.
The second set of tablets (new covenant) have been
given in the birth of Jesus the Messiah. It is not a new set of rules on the
new tablets, but a rewriting of the old (post 232 New Old Commandment
http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-old-commandment.html).
*
* *
You’re Not Home Yet:
One year, one month and five days into the
program, the rehab center was relocated from the mountain of God and moved to
the Wilderness of Paran (Numbers 10:11-12). Three days after packing up out of
the now familiar Sinai retreat, the patients whom had by familiarity grown
reasonably comfortable there, began to whine again presumably because of all
the efforts of moving (Numbers 10:33-11:1).
We are not told much about the conditions at the
Sinai camp but for some reason they had not been complaining until they started
moving again. Apparently they had learned to accept it by familiarity as “the
way it is”, but now with the change came fresh whining. The Greek Septuagint
make the whining more than casual;
“And the people
murmured sinfully before the lord”
(Numbers 10:1 LXX)
and God was really not wanting to hear the whining
and sent fire in the camp to stop it (Numbers 11:1-3). It seems his patience is
wearing thin as their number of provocations reaches the limit. Now the
complaining is more than surface discomfort as before, and they were really no
longer rehab patients but a people now in control of their faculties and quite
familiar with the wilderness “clean” life. But the moving awoke their
displeasure and they suddenly realized they were really sick of camping, and in
spite of the warning fire, the murmuring turned into serious lusting for the
pleasures of their former life while utterly forgetting the miseries they paid
for them (Numbers 11:4-6).
Here is where, of all their provocations of God, I
can empathize with their complaint, so here is where I have to be diligent to
learn the lesson provided. I really don’t like being uncomfortable, I like
luxuries and vacations and toys and the things money can buy. But I have
learned to be content with far less because the purpose of my life is not to
indulge in my personal pleasures. Yet once in a while I focus on the wrong
perspective and I see my personal condition head on, and I don’t like it. And
here I have two choices;
1. I
can remind myself that God is in control and he has me exactly where he wants
me for the time being, to do what he has planned for me, or
2. I
can complain to God that I’m tired of it and want a change, as if God owes me
better.
When my heart is focused on “me” my attitude is
horrible, but when my heart is focused on the Lord and his work of the kingdom
I find myself very happily content. Frankly, like Paul, by the experience and
practice of surrender, I have learned to be content and the resulting happiness
is far more desirable than misery (Philippians 4:11-12, I Timothy 6:6-9,
Hebrews 13:5). And so though compassionate for their struggle with the extended
wilderness lifestyle, they needed to find their contentment only in the LORD,
which was the reason for the long delay in completing their program.
“Then Moses heard the
people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent…” Numbers 11:10.
This is not good; they took option 2.
Here is where we spent some time in previous posts
exploring that Moses in the image of the Christ to come, actually got weary
with the burden of these perpetual whiners and cried out to God for relief. And
so God gave him 70 elders from among the best of the rehab patients, to share
the management of the people in anticipation of their graduation and move
across the River from the wilderness rehab facility. I will only here note Luke
10:1-20 to show that indeed these spirit filled seventy were actually a type of
a later seventy of Jesus Christ, who shared in his ministry to spread the
message that the kingdom of God was very near.
*
* *
What Makes Moses so Special?
It seems strange to me that Miriam, Aaron’s
sister, would persuade Aaron the priest to challenge Moses’ authority at this
late point in the program. But as they say; “familiarity breeds contempt” and
so after so long of seeing Moses and Aaron working as a team, Miriam was not so
sure Moses was all that special. It really rankled them that Moses had married
a black woman after his first wife, and so they said; “…hath the lord indeed
spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?...” Numbers 12:1-2.
I don’t list this as one of the ten provocations
of the people, because it was not. But what this did was begin a doubting of
Moses as the only spokesman of God. They did not declare Moses was NOT the
spokesman of God, only that perhaps they too were equals in hearing from God,
and frankly they were pretty sure they heard from God that he was not happy
with Moses’ black wife. The high priest and his sister the prophetess in effect
were challenging Christ himself in the image of Moses *7! What I find hard to
comprehend is that God did not open the earth and drop them in as he later did
with Korah (Numbers 16) a by-product of this challenge. But God was interested in making a very public statement to
confirm that indeed Moses was his only man with no equal, (and the position of
priest held tremendous sanction by God even when wrong);
“and he (the LORD) said, Hear now my words: if
there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a
vision, and will speak unto him in a dream” Numbers
12:6.
That’s pretty great! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to
be such a prophet to have God reveal himself in a vision or hear from God in a
dream? But God is not done with his thought;
“My servant Moses is
not so (like that prophet), (Moses) who is faithful in all mine house (above all prophets). With him (Moses) will I speak mouth to mouth, even
apparently (4758: the act of seeing),
and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold:
wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Numbers 12:7-8.
Wow! Moses has no equal in humanity but the Christ
of whom he is a Type! And to confirm this powerful declaration from God
himself, Miriam became a sudden leper (Numbers 12:10). Aaron the priest begged
Moses to forgive them both and then begged Moses for Miriam’s life, and in love
for them personally Moses turned and likewise begged God for her life (Numbers
12:11-13), and God spared her though not till seven days (v.14-15).
Today, we often find ministers of God who in
reading their scriptures find themselves inventing something other than what
Christ has written. This is because like Miriam they presume to hear from God
that which challenges the Word of God. This is utter folly and destruction;
“But though we, or an
angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed” Galatians
1:8.
But to know if it is a false gospel, you first
have to know the scriptures!
Now finally, after all the experiences in the
wilderness rehab center, the program is finished and their graduation is at
hand. God just confirmed that Moses was not some whacko coming up with his own
ideas but that he was hearing from the mouth of God directly. And now the mouth
of God was commanding them to go in and conquer the land in the Power of God.
And to do so there would be 12 spies to plan the way (Numbers 13:1-3)… but was
it really the voice of God or of men? (Deuteronomy 1:22-23).
I find this apparent dichotomy a fascinating study
that will have to wait for another day. But I will say here that the people of
the first try were not ready in faith to hear the details that the next
generation were told on the second time around. There is no dichotomy when you
study the details and understand how God speaks through his Spirit in man, but
here in their limited faith “the word was given by God” to first send in twelve
spies. How easily the doubt creeps in at every little apparent scriptural
glitch that plays against our doctrine of faith, and instead of a sudden rush
of excitement to see God provide an answer, the doubts spring up choking weak
faith and tarnishing anticipation (hope).
And so when the twelve spies returned, ten
reported the prospect hopeless and by the ten reports the people were so
greatly discouraged as to respond in a violent refusal to meet the challenge in
faith. As ex street junkies these people could not actually see themselves
acquiring the new life and had no confidence in the one who had completely
turned their lives around as if being born again. Like Peter sinking in the
sea, they focused on the wrong things and became afraid. Boldness and
confidence in faith do not suddenly come by working it up, you have either
acquired it by experience or you have not. Standing at the river’s brink is not
the time to work up the faith that they should have acquired through the
program. Unlike them, Caleb was eager to charge the river and lead the people
into battle and witness the victory of the LORD. How it must have broken his
heart to be told No, they would not go. I imagine he and Joshua must have spent
many lonely nights playing checkers beside the tabernacle as they quietly
talked about the glories they saw of the Promised Land that had to be left
behind. Forty years they wandered the wilderness with this bunch of faithless
aimless people, but forty years did not diminish their faith as they were still
ready to go when they again came to the river they had not seen for so many
years.
That is faith indeed! It is the faith of Abraham, it is the faith that
each of us must have if we are to join them on the other side of the river!
(Hebrews 11:39-12:4).
*
* *
So how do you learn to love God when you
actually don’t?
It takes a rehab program to first eliminate the
debilitating drugs of life that block your spiritual mind, will, and emotions
from seeing anything other than your present driven situation. To try to love
God while strung-out is pointless and ignorant of the real problem.
“But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.
This redemption is so wonderful it is nearly
unbelievable that God would love a wretch like me that much! God heard the
cries of the suffering People in Egypt and gathered them to himself while they
were still really messed up! That’s you too! All he asks is that we go through
the rehab wilderness and actually apply ourselves to success in the program he
provides. It didn’t matter that they had very little to give, the program would
do that for them. They just had to accept it for themselves, they had to want to be healed, and willing to depart
the life they knew.
Sneaking in other “lesser drugs” is not the
approved way, and looking down at Heroin addicts suffering in detox and
withdrawals while you pop socially acceptable spiritual Valium, is a violation
of the whole philosophy of the program. The common sinners on the streets are
suffering under spiritual Heroin, but the churches are also filled with
spiritual Ritalin addicts; a “socially approved” drug. If you cannot see that
your addiction is the same as those on the street, with just a different name
and side affects, then you will never be able to be free from the mindframe of
the habit, even after going through the entire program as a Christian.
How do you love God when you really don’t?
Be fully committed in your heart and mind and
spirit to seriously kick the habit that stands between you and being a healthy
Christian, and out the other side will be a love for God that you have always
dreamed of!
“And ye shall seek me,
and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” Jeremiah 29:13 (also Deuteronomy 4:29).
*
* * * * * *
*1 “Heroin:
Facing the Dragon” trailer:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJMTXir7_nk&feature=related)
*2 Pardon:
Here in response to this bold and clear act of
disobedience without any excuse of ignorance or powerless external manipulation
as before, there was not the usual forgiveness. Moses appealed to God by
atonement; asking God for forgiveness but he had nothing to stand on (Exodus
32:32). They got a pardon, but this is a completely different thing than
forgiveness (Exodus 32:34b-35).
*3 Scriptural Second Chances:
Another scriptural support reflecting the Exodus
second chance tablets is Jeremiah 36:23-29, showing that God can and will bring
back his Word a second time, even after it is destroyed. Of course this clearly
represents Jesus the Word of God, killed the first time and coming back a
second time to speak again salvation to man. The two Baruch rolls of Jeremiah
36 speaks of captivity and punishment but we see God’s intent for it in verse
3;
“It may be that the
house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that
they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity
and their sin”
Jeremiah 36:3
My entire Blog has been a harsh report and
perceived as “doom and gloom”, but this is because what I have written is God’s
purpose to do to us. But the hope is that by hearing the warning of God’s
intent, we may like Nineveh (Jonah 3:5-9), earnestly repent from our wicked
addictions and turn God’s plan of destruction (Jonah 3:10, Matthew 12:41).
*4 The Covenant:
It is too easy to bunch the whole paragraph and
assume the covenant is the bit about segregation from the wicked, and it is.
But the bit about God doing; “before all thy people I will do marvels, such
as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people
among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing
that I will do with thee”, is not
referencing that he will drive out six nations or set them up in their own
kingdom, these kinds of things had been done many times before.
The marvels that have never been done before, that
will be before every nation on the earth where the Jews are, is that terrible
thing God will do with the Jews when they violate the covenant he is here
making! And so we have indeed seen God do so with the Jews something never
before seen; A people who cannot be destroyed though nearly every nation on
earth cries out for their destruction! A people so abused that even their
enemies are dumbfounded that they remain. This is the terrible thing that God
said he would do when they did not obey the covenant to keep their land
segregated from the wicked, but instead joined with them in pacts. This is the
sin of the well-meaning Glenn Beck “Restoring Courage” event in Israel last
year; It encourages Israel to spit on this covenant as ignorant. May God
forgive him for his ignorance because like Saul/Paul, he did not know what he
was doing.
*5 Taliban Blows up Buddhas:
March 2001: Buddhas fall to Taliban dynamite
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1214384.stm)
*6 Chrislam: (http://www.chrislam.org/)
is the blasphemous blend of Christianity and Islam
that our new confused age will force upon us at the point of punishment for
being narrow minded and bigoted.
The way of modern peace is to compromise our faith. This will become a
social burden and not remain a private choice.
*7 Moses’ Black Wife:
We find a clue to the identity of this prophetic
Ethiopian wife of Christ as we read the Song of Solomon. What Miriam and Aaron
the priest found hard to swallow was that the Messiah would include into his
person the greatly undesirable and unapproved. But more on this will have to
wait for another time.
*
