Resolve To Allow God To Wall You In - Lamentations

Lamentations 3:7-9 (ESV)

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

Compare Jeremiah’s words above with David’s words below:

Psalms 139:5 (ESV)

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

There is a double edged sword with these words of Jeremiah and David.    We love that God cares for us by walling us in.  But we don’t like that we are hemmed in, at the same time.   

Jeremiah in Lamentation is lamenting the fall of Jerusalem and his people.   David is in a cave hiding out.   They both have come to a point in their faith to realize that God is in complete control.   God takes our plans and makes them his own.   Jeremiah’s lament is because the nation has sinned.  David’s words come from a man who is on the run.  Both come to faith realizing that God walls us in.  He hems us in.   He puts heaven chains on us.   Sometimes this is for discipline and sometimes it is for our safety.  In ether case both men have resolved to allow God to protect and guide them.  They invite this boundary setting by God.  They have come to realize that He knows best.  So be it God!

God’s Disciplines For Our Good - Proverbs 2-3

Proverbs 3:11-12 (ESV)

My son, do not despise the LORD’S discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.

Do not reject discipline? Is that really what Solomon is telling us?  Who can even do this?  From the minute we are born we reject discipline.   The doctor spanks on the butt to take our first breath and we do what we naturally do, "cry."   We push back against discipline, no matter why or how it comes to us.   Solomon tries to soften the message by telling us that the Lord loves us and that is why He disciplines us.  However, like a mom or dad telling us, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you." we recoil in frustration and rebellion.  No one, in the flesh, embraces discipline.   That is why we must live "by faith."  We must be willing to put the flesh aside, if we ever want to embrace reproof and correction.   We must enter it by faith that God loves us and desires the best for them.    We will always reject discipline without faith first leading us.  To get the most out of the Lord's discipline we must accept by faith that God loves us and has our best in mind.  God does love us.  He knows we need correction to be conformed to the image of His Son.  That is why He allows "things" to happen in our lives.  But He uses those "things" to bring us to a clear image of Christ (Romans 8:28-30).   God is the best person to discipline us.  Because, unlike our parents and other authorities, He has perfect love and perfect understanding for what we need and He has the perfect shape He is trying to form us to look like: His Son.

Pay Your Vows - Psalms 66-68

Psalms 66:13-15 (ESV)

I will come into your house with burnt offerings;

I will perform my vows to you,

that which my lips uttered

and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.

I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,

with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;

I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah

Paying our vows back to God is serous.   Here is a prayer list I use each week to make sure I do not forget the vows I make to Him. 

Numbers 30:2 (ESV)

If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

MON

Psalms 50:14 (ESV)

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and perform your vows to the Most High,

TUE

Psalms 56:12 (ESV)

I must perform my vows to you, O God;

I will render thank offerings to you.

WED

Psalms 61:8 (ESV)

So will I ever sing praises to your name,

as I perform my vows day after day.

THUR

Psalms 65:1 (ESV)

O God of Our Salvation

TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. A SONG.

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,

and to you shall vows be performed.

FRI

Psalms 116:14 (ESV)

I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people.

Psalms 116:18 (ESV)

I will pay my vows to the LORD

in the presence of all his people,

SAT

Proverbs 20:25 (ESV)

It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,”

and to reflect only after making vows.

SUN

Ecclesiastes 5:4 (ESV)

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

Others:

Deuteronomy 23:21-22 (ESV)

“If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin.

God Stops the Cycle of Sin - 1 Kings 5-9

1 Kings 8:58-61 (ESV)

that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

Solomon has just built the Temple.  He has furnished it.  He has done what God instructed him to do.  The above is the last lines of his prayer of dedication.   He is praying to God to ask the nation will fully follow God.  They don’t!   That is the difficulty of knowing the end of the story.  We read in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel the lack of follow-through on Solomon’s prayer.  But it was not just the nation.   It was also Solomon who fell away.  Note:

1 Kings 11:1-3 (ESV)

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

We pray and we fail.  We pray again and we fail.   But in the end, God will establish us.  Like Israel, God eventually sends the a Messiah.  Christ is the answer to end this cycle.   We have His power and His grace and His mercy to help us stop this cycle.   

 

God Uses Mankind to Do Things for Him - Exodus 37-40

Exodus 38:22-23 (ESV)

Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses; and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

Key Items Created by Bezalel:

• The Ark of the Covenant: Made of acacia wood, covered in gold, featuring carved cherubim.
• The Table of Showbread: Made of acacia wood and gold.
• The Lampstand (Menorah): Crafted from pure gold.
• The Altar of Incense: Made of acacia wood.
• The Anointing Oil and Fragrant Incense: Specially blended.
• The Altar of Burnt Offering: Made of acacia wood and bronze.
• The Tabernacle Structure: Included the curtains, pillars, and tent. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

God uses us:

• God uses mankind to make things for Him.  
• God equips mankind to make things for Him.
• God DOES NOT need mankind to do this.  
• God chooses to use man.  

One In Christ - Galatians 1-3

Galatians 3:28-29 (ESV)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

In our country today we have, once again, started to define people by categories.  For being all grown up and modern we have fallen back to the days of Paul.   He, too, faced ethic, social and gender bias.   He addressed it with on bold statement:  You are all one in Christ Jesus.   With that statement he breaks down all classes of people.  With that statement he puts us at the same place with God.  Our spiritual riches in Christ are not tied to our experiences in this world.  In his day, Paul would have seen much class warfare.  In the Body of Christ we are one.  Jesus actually prayed that:

John 17:21 (ESV)

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

We ought not contribute to the separation and categorial shaping of the world.  In the Body of Christ we are all one in Christ.  

Jesus the Light Will Expose those in the Dark - Luke 7-8

Luke 8:16-18 (ESV)

“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

In this section of Luke’s Gospel he is introducing his readers to some of the teaching of Jesus.   In the most recent Jesus was with a crowd, a tax collector, religious leaders and His disciples .   In the above passage He is directly talking to the disciples.  His comments to them are about what God expects for our walking for HIm and declaring Him to others.  Since He is the light, we are to treat Him like we would a light in a dark place ... let Him shine.   

He interesting, however, turns from a theme in others Gospels about us simply declaring His light to a subject about using the light to expose the sins in a dark world.   He is telling us that He is the light and He will use that light to expose those who have much but not in the right way.  There is no doubt He is exposing the religious leaders of the day.   He knows that they will be exposed as imposters.  The power, the privilege, the positions they hold will be removed from them in the Kingdom and given to those who walk in His light.  We are to use the light to expose the darkness and that exposes those who have put themselves up.  They will be brought low by His light.