Therefore, do this…

 

Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?” (Genesis 27:41–45)

At least three times Jacob is told by his father, or his mother, to obey them. The first was Isaac’s command. Thinking he was talking to Esau, he told his son to prepare food for him. Jacob thought his father would realize the deception but his mother told him to obey. The third was when his mother learned that Esau planned to kill him. 

Even though it was not right to lie to his father, nor to earlier rob his brother of his birthright, there is a principle here that didn’t stop God’s plan to use these events to shape the future. The NT states the principle:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1–4)

The Ten Commandments also say to honor parents. Perhaps Jacob was trying to do this in his earlier concern about doing what his mother said, but the Bible is plain: a child owes obedience to a parent in all areas except those that contradict the revealed law of God. It was not right to lie to Isaac, even though his mother told him to do it. But it was right to flee!

This event does not condemn Jacob’s father. He was oblivious and deceived. The mother approved the deception and took advantage of the likelihood that Jacob had been raised to obey his parents. However, Jacob also knew this deception was wrong before God, but he seemed more concerned about what would happen to him if he was caught:

Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice. . . .” (Genesis 27:12–13)

Yet in all of this deceptive behavior, God protected Jacob. This son would be father to Judah and in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The big picture of redemption used these selfish decisions made in the OT story, showing how God can use anything for His purposes. 

Yet this is never an excuse that it is okay to do such things. The NT does say, “obey your parents IN THE LORD” while at the same time honoring them, not with lies and deceptions but living in the instruction and the godly enablement of the Holy Spirit. Jacob fled as he was told.

PRAY: My parents are no longer alive, but Jesus, I am thankful that You made them easy to honor. My prayers today are for those who live with difficult challenges because the children are being “provoked” by ungodly moms and dads. Also, may no one think it is okay to disobey You in order to please or appease their parents or anyone else. Amen.

God’s will accomplish His plan…

 

When puzzled by what is happening around me, or in the lives of others, I need to remember the important truth behind all of God’s dealings with us. Nothing is random. Nothing escapes His notice and nothing can thwart His purposes. The worst I can do is prolong His goal for me. The best I can do is see it and cooperate with it.

This is HIs goal:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)

The end result of what happens to me and to all God’s people is that we will be like Jesus. The process can be hastened by cooperation, by making that my goal also. But I cannot fake it, put on a show of having arrived, or even think that is true. I need to keep growing and changing.

I also have to remember that this isn’t just about me. It is about the witness of God’s people to a world that needs to know Him.

Today’s reading begins with: “All the dealings of God with the soul of the believer are in order to bring it into oneness with himself that the prayer of our Lord may be fulfilled.” In this prayer Jesus asks that the Father works:

“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. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:21–23)

This glorious purpose has been the heart of God for His people from before the foundation of the world. It is called a mystery yet was accomplished in the death of Christ and made known by the Scriptures. It is also an actual experience by many of God’s people, but not all. This goal is not hidden it nor is it impossible. However, as the reading says, the eyes of many are too dim and their hearts too unbelieving for them to grasp it.

This goal is behind many events in life as the Lord works to open eyes and shake up how we think and live. He wants me to realize my sin, my weakness, all areas of resistance to Him so I will think and act more like the One who lives in me and desires my perfection.

Everything in my life is supposed to lead to union with Christ and this amazing transformation that reflects His image to an unbelieving and needy world. When something happens that upsets my hopes and plans, trying to fix it instead of letting it do what God intends only slows the process. If I resist and keep on resisting Him, the change will eventually happen but too late to have value in this world. Not only that, I will not experience the rest and peace that He died to give me, His abundant life in this life.

PRAY: Jesus, I realize that many Christians are not into this kind of radical surrender. Sometimes they pray as if You are a genie in a bottle giving wishes out for comfort and prosperity and all good, but temporary things. Forgive us for wanting You to be our servant instead of surrendering ourselves to Your purposes. How often do I need “your peace in my storms” to realize that being like You IS the abundant life You want for me.

What happens when I abandon doing it my way

 

Today’s devotional offers more on the difference between law and grace. Most of them contrast what law asks for and what God gives. For example, the law demands holiness while the gospel gives holiness. The law says do; the gospel says done. The law places the day of rest at the end of the week’s work; the gospel places it at the beginning. Under the law, salvation has wages; under the gospel, salvation is a gift.

Our big problem is waiting. Some of what we hope for is not instant. I pray, sometimes for years, yet see no answer. Will I take matters into my own hands? Not a good idea. Abraham and Sarah did that, producing a son from her handmaid whose descendants are still trying to destroy the descendants of the son that God gave later.

Waiting on God is difficult. Not only that, He produces patience by trials.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

And those trials are a huge temptation to take matters into our own hands, even asking God to remove them rather than yielding to their purpose. Yet in yielding, we have power with God because our prayers eventually bear fruit, and almost always in surprising ways. If the flesh insists on personal comfort and God relents, I will miss the surprise and the joy of experiencing God’s sufficiency.

So what else is in it for me if I yield to God? Faith is about knowing what cannot be seen. In yielding, I will not have a clue — but I will have the promises of God. Is that not a great something? This verse seems to refer to physical battles, it also points to the abundant life that Jesus gives:

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go. (Jeremiah 45:5)

Oswald Chambers says, “This is the unshakable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him” for what more does anyone want than their life? He adds, “’Thy life for a prey’ means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life, nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in the show of things, not in the way of property and possessions, but of blessings. All these have to go; but there is something grander that never can go—the life that is ‘hid with Christ in God.’ ”

Chambers says the test is in how we question God with suppositions, asking ‘what about this’ which reveals that I’m not trusting Him with all things. The opposite is thinking no more about what God is going to do after I ask Him to do something.
This week, two large issues involving people with mental health issues had me praying until I reached a place of trusting the Lord to take care of them. When that happened, I was surprised to be no longer thinking about them and their problems. Not that I ceased to care, but that I ceased to worry. I can hear Him saying, “I got this” and am now waiting to see what happens.

So abandoning anything to God means no more questions or ‘what if’ thoughts. Chambers says that people get tired because their life is not seen as given to them by Jesus. He adds, “When you do get through to abandonment to God, you will be the most surprised and delighted creature on earth; God has got you absolutely and has given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience or a refusal to be simple enough.”

PRAY: Jesus, forgive me for actually being worried that I have no concerns and thinking that means I don’t care — instead of recognizing the peace that comes with giving all my worries to You. Certainly Your yoke is easy and Your burdens are light. You are taking care of the things that I abandon to You so I don’t need to be anxious. The gospel says Your peace will guard my heart and mind, and this peace is greater than my understanding! How incredibly easy to worship You!

God never quits

Deuteronomy 19; Psalm 106; Isaiah 46; Revelation 16

If anyone doubts the love and patience of God, Psalm 106 is the place to go. It tells a partial history of His dealings with His people as He brought them out of bondage and into the land that He promised them. It is peppered with praise and reminders of His promises but stained with the rebellion of those He redeemed. These descriptions humble and bless me:

Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked but sent a wasting disease among them. (Psalm 106:6–15)

This up/down record is repeated as the Lord repeatedly disciplined them and they turned to Him — “Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. For their sake he remembered his covenant and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. He caused them to be pitied by all those who held them captive.” (Psalm 106:43-46)

Why? Why does a mother persist in training a child who has discovered the word NO? Part of the answer is that God loves His people as a mother loves her child, unconditionally and because it is her nature to care about her baby. But it is not the full answer for why God persists. It is found in the middle of the first passage above: He does it for “His name’s sake, that He might make known His mighty power.”

Redemption for Israel and redemption for me is to show the world what God is like. He reveals Himself in His dealings with people. Yesterday I noticed Isaiah 45:7. God says, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.” Humanity tends to see God only as they want Him to be, only in the events and circumstances that feel good. Others see Him only in the disasters with an attitude of blame, that God is ruining their lives. Psalm 106 shows that God’s hand is in both. He is at work using all things to reveal both His love and His power that we should respond as the psalmist responds:

Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD! (Psalm 106:47–48)

If anyone is wondering why this world seems to be falling apart at the seams, or wondering why they are so protected during the many calamities of life, the answer could be this: “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.” (Isaiah 46:12–13)

I don’t know the responses of everyone, but the news every day seems to declare the need of humanity for changed hearts and involves the bower of God doing whatever it takes to bring all of us to our knees admitting our need. Protests will not change prejudice; it only makes us more aware of our sin. The threat of death cannot scare us into removing that threat; it only makes us more aware of our limited lifespan. Even our resistance to the ‘rules’ of this pandemic make me more aware of my desire to control things, resisting the authority of anyone else, including God. What will it take to bring all of us to the realization of who He is and to the, “Amen, praise the Lord” that is due Him?

APPLY: I cannot change anyone. I cannot change myself. Only God can change my heart. As the ancient Israelites, I need to remember His goodness and repent at every sin — for there is a day coming when all will “curse the name of God” . . .  and will not “repent and give Him glory.” (Revelation 16:8-10)

 

God’s Mysterious Ways

Wednesday began with a serious nosebleed. As I tried to stop it, a strange thought entered my head; Jesus bled and died for the sin of the world and I am to identify with Him. I cannot bleed and die for the sins of others, so what possible reason could the sovereign Lord have for this?

Hubby took me to the ER where I waited less than a couple minutes and was taken to a bed. They could not stop the bleeding so packed my sinuses. Unless anyone has had this done, it is hard to describe the pain involved. They sent me home and told me to endure until Saturday if I could. By Friday morning, I couldn’t take any more. The painkiller they gave me only numbed me enough that I could sleep. The sinus headache from having them blocked was awful. So back to the ER.

This time, without profuse bleeding, we had to wait. The nurse said, “We will triage you shortly” meaning they would assess the urgency of my condition to decide the order of treatment” which is how hospital emergency rooms operate. Lots of patients. A few hours. It appeared I’d been forgotten. I felt bad too because in all this, I’d not been praying very much.

After some time, a young woman came in and had been assessed, but nothing was done for her after that. She was in horrible pain and crying with her head in her hands. (The father of her unborn child punched her in the stomach and she was having a miscarriage.) 

I moved beside her and asked if she needed a hug. A few moments later, I asked her name and if I could pray for her. She nodded and I did, asking God to quickly deal with her need for a bed and for several obvious things. She had waited far too long. As I had my arm around her, the nursing station people noticed. One came over, said they were still without a bed for her, apologized for forgetting me, took me to triage and registration (took about 5 minutes or less). I came back, this young woman was now looking up and saying, “Help me, Lord.” Just then, a nurse came with a wheelchair; God answered quickly. As she left, she mouthed, “Thank you.” And at that moment I realized why I had this terrible nosebleed.

In the OT, the bloody sacrifices point to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for sin. They were only as good as the faith behind their offering . . .

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1–4)

Human bloodshed can save lives; ask any war veteran, even any blood donor. But this time God used it to get me where He wanted me to be so I could comfort and encourage a poor soul who was suffering and needed Him to answer the cries of her heart. I am very thankful and extremely emotional as I again realize — in just a small way — the sacrifice of Jesus for my sin and the sin of the world.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, only You can make plans and do things that work out like this. I still feel ‘full in the head’ but even more, ‘full in the heart’ for You are a caring loving God. You gave Yourself to take care of the world and You put on me a load I can bear to help someone with an unbearable burden. As I continue to pray for her, I know that her life is in Your capable hands.

Today’s thankful list . . .

- the power of God to use all things for good in my life.

- the skill of ENT doctors who know how to deal with nosebleeds.

- that first doc who used humor and knowledge to help me relax.

- that second doc who had played rugby (my latest interest) and had his nose packed, so comforted me with words he knew I needed to hear.

- my hubby who waits on me in every way.

- being able to sleep even with sinuses that will take a long time to clear out.

- that God showed me His purpose in this strange event.

- that He answered quickly the prayers for this woman in great distress.

- today a visit from our grandson and his family.