Rational Belief Leads to Emotional Response - Psalm 96-98

Psalms 98:4 (ESV Strong's)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;

break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Rational Belief Leads to Emotional Response

In the above verse we see the command to praise God.   We are commanded to “make a joyful noise to the Lord.”    Most people probably make a “joyful noise” when they feel like doing so.   We make joyful noises at birthday parties, at parties of celebration, at sporting events.   In this Psalm we see that this verse is a response those that come before it.  Note:

Psalms 98:2-4 (ESV Strong's)

The Lord has made known his salvation;

he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness

to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

The reason for the “emotional” praise is because of “intellectual” belief.   God “made know his salvation” and that calls for intellectual and rational belief.   Some might say “belief” is not “rational” and only “emotional.”    But, it is “irrational” to not believe in God’s salvation.  God has made known that He will save us.    He has “revealed His righteousness.”   That calls for our emotional response in praise and appreciation.    It is irrational to know that God has saved us and not praise in joyful noise.   It might be a command to praise Him with a joyful noise, but it is also a natural response to an intellectual truth that God saves.   

God Takes Leadership Seriously - 1 Chronicles 6-10

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 (ESV Strong's)

So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

God Takes Leadership Seriously

When we look at today’s leaders we often scoff and shake our heads.  Their character is wanting and their backbone frail.   There is little to inspire us or to encourage our follow-ship.    When can say with agreement with Francis Scheffer, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”   The same was true in Israel’s day.  This section of Chronicles is still listing out the “leaders” of the day and their service to God.  One such leader, most Bible readers are familiar with, is Saul.  Saul started out humble and insecure.   He ended us, with his son, slain in his pride.   Saul was given a great position of leadership.  God puts ALL leaders in their place.  No one has a leadership position then or now, who is not placed there by God.   

Psalms 75:7 (ESV Strong's)

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.

Saul failed to carry out the charge he was given.  It was his spiritual bankruptcy that lead to his physical termination.  God is not hiding what the cause of Saul’s death was all about.   God plainly tells us that our lack of a healthy spiritual walk can and will end up in death.  That might sound frightful, but it is the truth.  Those placed in leadership have a judgment that only God can do.  We might elect others to office and place them in leadership, but it is God who holds man accountable for how he leads.  

God Owns Those He Redeem - Numbers 1-4

Numbers 3:39-43 (ESV Strong's)

All those listed among the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron listed at the commandment of the Lord, by clans, all the males from a month old and upward, were 22,000.

And the Lord said to Moses, “List all the firstborn males of the people of Israel, from a month old and upward, taking the number of their names. And you shall take the Levites for me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel.” So Moses listed all the firstborn among the people of Israel, as the Lord commanded him. And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names, from a month old and upward as listed were 22,273.

God Owns Us

In the above passage we see Moses taking a census of the first born of Israel and a census of the number of Levites.   There were 22,000 Levites at the time of the exodus from Egypt and there were 22,273 firstborn of the families of Israel.   The point of the census and to find out the difference was to make sure they cared for the disparity.  When God brought them out of the land of Egypt He redeemed them and purchased them.  He specifically purchased, through the redemption process, the first born of every family.   God states, in this section, that the first born of the families, of the flocks, of the pasture land, is His.   But, instead of taking the firstborn of every family to serve before Him, God substituted the entire tribe of Levi.   The Levites would replace the first born in regard to this service.   This is the reason for the numbering.    God found they were lacking 273 Levites to cover for the first born.  Later in this passage God instructs Moses to collect a tax for the remaining 273 that will be given to the Aaron, the leader of the Levites.   Here are the points for this story:

1. God owns us.  God created us, redeemed us and therefore has say over what we do.   Until we understand that we are slaves to Christ we can never, truly, be free.  

2. God is precise.   God does not fudge with numbers or His plan.  He is specifics in His dealings with mankind. 

3. God knows each and every person He redeems.  This counting was not because God needed to know.  The counting was so that Moses and the people of Israel would know.    God already knows each of us. 

4. God has a specific purpose for each of us to bring glory to Him via His plan.   We are all part of that plan.   

God owns us!!  We can rejoice in the fact that He has a plan and a purpose for all those He redeems.  

God Sanctifies Our Resolve for His Glory!! 2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (ESV Strong's)

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God Sanctifies Our Resolve for His Glory!!!

We live in a world where even in the Christian church people want to take credit for their own growth and progress.   We like to brag about what we accomplish in all the realms of our lives.  In the above passage, Paul is telling the church at Thessolanica that he was praying that what they “resolve for good” and “every work of faith” would be done in “His power.”    This would result in “the name of our Lord Jesus” being “glorified in” them; “according to the grace of our God.”   So, the formula for sanctification is outlined in this passage:

(Pray x Resolve) + (Good work x God’s power and grace) = Glory to Christ.  

Our side of the equation is prayer and resolve.   The Greek word for “resolve” in this passage is: eudokia.   It is translated in other passages of the New Testament as “purpose” (Ephesians 1:5, 9).   We are to have an internal “purpose” to do “good.”  Since Paul told us in Romans that NO ONE does good, we have to believe this can only be as we submit to Christ and He replace our sin nature with His nature.  So, even on our side of the equation we see it is an initiated by an act of Christ. We pray that our resolve is used by God and He takes His power, via His grace and brings glory to Christ.   We can rest that the entire act is completed by our simply faith in God’s process.   

Christ Meets Needs ... But Which Ones? John 3-4

John 4:15 (ESV Strong's)

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Christ Meets Needs

I is not surprising what the woman at the well said to Jesus.  In the above verse we see the response of the Samaritan woman who meet Jesus at the well.   She would have to come to the well everyday to get water.   She was a “Samaritan” and therefore unliked and despised by the Jews.   So, the act of coming to the well was filled with contempt, bias, and bigotry, not to mention hard work.    Jesus is at the well when she shows up to get her water.  She is probably coming at a time that no one else would be there (perhaps the heat of the day).   Jesus asks for a drink and that floors her.  No self-respecting Jew would even talk to a Samaritan.   Most men would not talk to a woman in public like this.   We learn from the story that she was married five times.  So, her reputation was not that proud to begin with.  Everything about this story is shocking to the naked eye.    Yet, Jesus not only speaks to her, He offers her “living water.”   He describes this water in such a way that she believes by taking the water she will never have to come to the well agin and be embarrassed, laughed at, looked at, or ridiculed.   Who would not want that kind of water.    The Scripture does not give us tone of voice, but we might her excitement and eagerness in her voice when she says, “Sir, GIVE me this water!”   Christ, of course, is not offering her physical water.  He is talking about Himself.   He is saying that like water, the main sustainer of physical life, He is the main sustainer of spiritual life.  Jesus is talking meeting spiritual needs, she is ready to believe that He is talking physical needs.    Those who first come to Christ see Him first as meeting material and physical needs and wants.  Jesus certainly can do that.  He feed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and then taught them spiritual truths.   Jesus heal the bodies of many and then gave them spiritual truth to heal their souls.    We ought not think it strange that we think Jesus will take care of the pain in our lives.  He has a track record of doing some of that.  But, He wants to heal our souls.  He wants to prepare us for HIS Kingdom and not the concerns of this kingdom.   Jesus does not always heal our circumstances but He always changes our spiritual condition.   When we come to Christ we are to come to Him for spiritual blessings.  That is the mistake early believers make.    They often want the outward physical to change without regard to the internal.  We have to come to Christ in faith that He will change the inside and restore us to a relationship with His Father.   Once we believe that, the outside with the world means far less and, eventually, not important at all.   

God is in Control of the Responses to Our Messages - Daniel 1-6

Daniel 5:29 (ESV Strong's)

Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

God is in Control of the Responses to Our Messages

Proceeding the above verse, Daniel was asked to interpret the writing of on the wall that appeared during a party Belshazzar gave for his friends.   The writing said:

Meme Meme Terkel Peres

Belshazzar was throwing a great party and, to impress his friends, he sent for the golden goblets that were taking by his father, Nebuchadnezzar, from the Temple in Jerusalem.   The way Daniel responds to seeing them being used for a “party” would lead us to believe these were “holy” items from the Temple.   Belshazzar asks Daniel to interpret the writing on the wall and Daniel does not hesitate.  The writing stated:

Meme Meme, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Basically, Daniel was sent by God to tell Belshazzar that he was about to die.   In fact, he does die that night (see verse 30).    Yet, despite the gravity of the message, Belshazzar promotes Daniel for delivering that bad news. Only God can solicit this response from such a message.   This is amazing.   When Jonah was sent to speak his message the Ninivites repented.  Only God could do that.  When Hosea preached no one responded.   Only God does that.   We are NOT responsible for the responses to our messages.  We are only response to honor God and deliver the message he wants us to deliver.   God takes care of the response.   

We can PLAN, but God is Fully In Charge - Proverbs 16

Proverbs 16:1 (ESV Strong's)

The PLANS of the heart belong to man,

but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Proverbs 16:3 (ESV Strong's)

Commit your work to the Lord,

and your PLANS will be established.

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV Strong's)

The heart of man PLANS his way,

but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:30 (ESV Strong's)

Whoever winks his eyes PLANS dishonest things;

he who purses his lips brings evil to pass.

We can PLAN, but God is Fully In Charge

In the above proverbs there are three different Hebrew words for “plan.”  Although we translate them all the same, the difference in the Hebrew words is worth noting.  According to Vine, here is what we learn: 

16:1 - Hebrew “ma‘ărâḵ” - an arrangement, i.e. (figuratively) mental disposition: — preparation.

16:3 - Hebrew maḥăšâḇâ; a contrivance, i.e. (concretely) a texture, machine, or (abstractly) intention, plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice): — cunning (work), curious work, device(-sed), imagination, invented, means, purpose, thought.

16:9 & 16:30 - Hebrew - ḥâšaḇ; a primitive root; properly, to plait or interpenetrate, i.e. (literally) to weave or (gen.) to fabricate; figuratively, to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense); hence (from the mental effort) to think, regard, value, compute: — (make) account (of), conceive, consider, count, cunning (man, work, workman), devise, esteem, find out, forecast, hold, imagine, impute, invent, be like, mean, purpose, reckon(-ing be made), regard, think.

In our way of thinking it might look like this:

16:1 - it is speaking of the “beliefs” of our mindset

16:3 - it is speaking of the “plans” of our mindset - or produced by our mindset

16:9, 30 - it is speaking of the “logic” of our mindset

In each case, what we are taught is that God is perfecting still in control, no matter what we might produce in our minds.   We can, if we want, contrive and contour the path we are on, but God will still make sure we travel the way He wants, when He wants and the way He wants.   That is both assuring and frightful.   To those who do not want to recognize the sovereign power and privilege of God, it can, probably, insulting.   Never-the-less, it is God and He is in charge.   He is in control.  Some fight that truth.  They don’t like it.  As if they, in their own faults and struggles, can actually plot a better path.  But, to those who trust completing in God’s perfect plan and ultimate control it can be the very assurance they are desiring.