Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "discipline"
Tit for Tat
And (Isaac) said (to Esau), “Your brother (Jacob) came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing”… And (Jacob) said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” [Genesis 27:35; 29:25].
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Hot and Cold - Part 1
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Hot and Cold – Part 2
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off half cocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off half cocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Spank the Baby! – Part 1
When He killed them, then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer [Psalm 78:34-35].
As a father who raised two kids into adulthood, I have a little bit of perspective on teenage rebellion. Oh, by the way, I also have my own personal experience, which unfortunately is substantial.
It is pretty much mandatory during the post WWII era that teenagers know it all. They needn’t bother to waste time learning first. That was the way of the old fogeys. Out with the old. In with the new. That’s the slogan of “modern” generations. What the “new” consists of no one seems to know. The definition depends on whom you ask. But why quibble over trifles, huh?
Responses coming from teenage rebels are automatic. They needn’t give thought to their words. Simply memorize a handful of comments and play one back automatically at every instruction directed their way. Something like this:
“Clean your room, son.”
“You’re always trying to boss me around, dad. How can I grow up if you don’t let me make my own decisions?”
Sound familiar? How they are supposed to make intelligent decisions without first being intelligent, well, that doesn’t deserve their consideration. How to be intelligent without first studying and also gaining experience? Ah, another old fogey concept to youth today.
I remember the lyrics of a song written and performed by the Doors. For any of you who are familiar with this group, you know they aren’t the kind of dudes you want babysitting the kids! Part of the song expressed a teenage rebel’s demands on the world. Listen:
We want the world, and we want it…NOW!
Tell the teenage rebel that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”, and he shrugs the shoulders and wonders what planet you live on. After all, he reasons, he’s had free lunches all his life, so he knows what you’re saying is a lie. His parents pamper him without limit, so he gets the best of everything without limit and without trying.
Even the liberal politicians give free handouts to every person who will put his hand out. It’s gotten so bad in politics that, in order to get elected, the conservative politicians so-called mimic this behavior. It matters not anymore which party is in power. Both are taking us to the same place, only the liberals are getting there a little faster. Dear friends, we don’t want to get there at all. I promise!
There are no absolute right answers for dealing with this mess today. The mess has grown over too long a period of time and gone way beyond redemption. Only a temporary reprieve can occur, a Josiah type of reform if you would, and that is the best case scenario. We are a dying culture and the last gasp is frighteningly nearer than we imagine.
We must pause and refresh ourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus now. Tomorrow we will continue this study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
As a father who raised two kids into adulthood, I have a little bit of perspective on teenage rebellion. Oh, by the way, I also have my own personal experience, which unfortunately is substantial.
It is pretty much mandatory during the post WWII era that teenagers know it all. They needn’t bother to waste time learning first. That was the way of the old fogeys. Out with the old. In with the new. That’s the slogan of “modern” generations. What the “new” consists of no one seems to know. The definition depends on whom you ask. But why quibble over trifles, huh?
Responses coming from teenage rebels are automatic. They needn’t give thought to their words. Simply memorize a handful of comments and play one back automatically at every instruction directed their way. Something like this:
“Clean your room, son.”
“You’re always trying to boss me around, dad. How can I grow up if you don’t let me make my own decisions?”
Sound familiar? How they are supposed to make intelligent decisions without first being intelligent, well, that doesn’t deserve their consideration. How to be intelligent without first studying and also gaining experience? Ah, another old fogey concept to youth today.
I remember the lyrics of a song written and performed by the Doors. For any of you who are familiar with this group, you know they aren’t the kind of dudes you want babysitting the kids! Part of the song expressed a teenage rebel’s demands on the world. Listen:
We want the world, and we want it…NOW!
Tell the teenage rebel that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”, and he shrugs the shoulders and wonders what planet you live on. After all, he reasons, he’s had free lunches all his life, so he knows what you’re saying is a lie. His parents pamper him without limit, so he gets the best of everything without limit and without trying.
Even the liberal politicians give free handouts to every person who will put his hand out. It’s gotten so bad in politics that, in order to get elected, the conservative politicians so-called mimic this behavior. It matters not anymore which party is in power. Both are taking us to the same place, only the liberals are getting there a little faster. Dear friends, we don’t want to get there at all. I promise!
There are no absolute right answers for dealing with this mess today. The mess has grown over too long a period of time and gone way beyond redemption. Only a temporary reprieve can occur, a Josiah type of reform if you would, and that is the best case scenario. We are a dying culture and the last gasp is frighteningly nearer than we imagine.
We must pause and refresh ourselves in the presence of the Lord Jesus now. Tomorrow we will continue this study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Spank the Baby! – Part 2
When He killed them, then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer [Psalm 78:34-35].
The USA today is a dying culture. What was once a society permeated with the Bible’s influence is now an outright antichrist society. Abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce—all are denounced by the Word of God, specifically and undeniably denounced. Yet they are not only universally entrenched in our land from Atlantic to Pacific, but they are practices considered taboo for discussion, much less for serious criticism.
Egads! Anyone daring to preach the Bible on these issues must be promoters of hate crimes! That is where we have come today as a society. This is utterly anti-Bible and antichrist. The teenage rebels of yesteryear have become the political leaders of today, and they’ve incorporated their teenage rebellion into the warp and woof of our society, you see.
The specifics for trying to meaningfully relate to teenage rebels, during the years they are still teenagers or nearly so, varies with the individual. What works, at least somewhat, with one person flops with the next.
Experience and experimentation are needed by parents. Part of that experience is to learn the rote responses their own teenage rebel spouts, all the while he is insisting on his uniqueness as a person, mind you. As parents we should recognize this truth.
Indeed, we would be benefited immeasurably to recognize that our loving heavenly Father goes through the same things with His kids. Our Bible verses for today portray an extreme case of teenage rebellion by the Lord’s kids. The Lord’s response to these rebels was itself extreme, but it came only after prolonged refusal on the part of the rebels to recognize spiritual reality and adapt accordingly.
When a parent inflicts penalties for disobeying the family rules, it is known as chastisement. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Those are a couple of examples from Proverbs which come to mind.
The fact that the Lord inflicted penalties on the Israelites was proof positive that He was their Father and they His children. The fact that the penalties were so severe demonstrated that they were inveterate rebels who had spurned His chastisement on numerous prior occasions.
When my son didn’t obey the family rules, I warned him about it. If he continued to disobey, I spanked him. Should he have persisted in disobedience after that—which he never did—I would have spanked him harder. The more the rebellion, the worse the chastisement.
But he was still my son regardless. I would never have executed him! I wouldn’t even have disowned him. I’d do whatever I could to bring him to repentance and restore his fellowship with me and the family.
Let’s pause and reflect on this overnight. Allow the Holy Spirit to pour His truth over our hearts and minds, as we sit with Jesus a while.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
The USA today is a dying culture. What was once a society permeated with the Bible’s influence is now an outright antichrist society. Abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce—all are denounced by the Word of God, specifically and undeniably denounced. Yet they are not only universally entrenched in our land from Atlantic to Pacific, but they are practices considered taboo for discussion, much less for serious criticism.
Egads! Anyone daring to preach the Bible on these issues must be promoters of hate crimes! That is where we have come today as a society. This is utterly anti-Bible and antichrist. The teenage rebels of yesteryear have become the political leaders of today, and they’ve incorporated their teenage rebellion into the warp and woof of our society, you see.
The specifics for trying to meaningfully relate to teenage rebels, during the years they are still teenagers or nearly so, varies with the individual. What works, at least somewhat, with one person flops with the next.
Experience and experimentation are needed by parents. Part of that experience is to learn the rote responses their own teenage rebel spouts, all the while he is insisting on his uniqueness as a person, mind you. As parents we should recognize this truth.
Indeed, we would be benefited immeasurably to recognize that our loving heavenly Father goes through the same things with His kids. Our Bible verses for today portray an extreme case of teenage rebellion by the Lord’s kids. The Lord’s response to these rebels was itself extreme, but it came only after prolonged refusal on the part of the rebels to recognize spiritual reality and adapt accordingly.
When a parent inflicts penalties for disobeying the family rules, it is known as chastisement. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Those are a couple of examples from Proverbs which come to mind.
The fact that the Lord inflicted penalties on the Israelites was proof positive that He was their Father and they His children. The fact that the penalties were so severe demonstrated that they were inveterate rebels who had spurned His chastisement on numerous prior occasions.
When my son didn’t obey the family rules, I warned him about it. If he continued to disobey, I spanked him. Should he have persisted in disobedience after that—which he never did—I would have spanked him harder. The more the rebellion, the worse the chastisement.
But he was still my son regardless. I would never have executed him! I wouldn’t even have disowned him. I’d do whatever I could to bring him to repentance and restore his fellowship with me and the family.
Let’s pause and reflect on this overnight. Allow the Holy Spirit to pour His truth over our hearts and minds, as we sit with Jesus a while.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Spank the Baby! – Part 3
When He killed them, then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer [Psalm 78:34-35].
When a parent punishes his child for disobedience, it is meant as chastisement, not judgment and condemnation. It is meant to teach the child that what he has done is a no-no, and that he needs to desist doing it and ask for forgiveness. This is how families function.
It is quite otherwise with folks not a part of the same family. I never took the time to chastise the neighbors’ kids. It wasn’t my responsibility or my place. If things had become too difficult with any of the neighbors, it would have resulted in strife, not chastisement. It might even have led to a court case, but a spanking would never be on the agenda for differences between the neighbors and myself.
So it was (and is) with differences between the Lord and the peoples of the world. As God He is in charge of every person and every nation. He is like the government, not like everyone’s good friend. All persons must obey or else.
As the Lord he is in covenantal relationship with His people. This is personal, like a spiritual family. As the governmental authority God judges all men and sentences them to their just desserts. As the head of the family the Lord rears His kids to function righteously in His family, and He chastises us when we don’t.
Notice how the Psalmist portrays the Lord’s chastisement of the Israelites: “He killed them”! Huh? That doesn’t compute. God does that with the people of the world, the devil’s kids. He is supposed to chastise His own kids, not kill them. This sounds like the judge sentencing the criminal to death row, not a father disciplining his kids. What gives?
And a right fine query it is too. I’ll tell you what I find more curious than that. What follows is inexplicable. What did the Israelites do when the Lord killed them? We would think to read that they died. Right? Well, we don’t! We read,
Then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God.
Strange doings for folks who have just been killed, wouldn’t you agree?
This curiosity affords us the context for understanding what is being taught, dear friends. It’s not just poetic license, as if to say the Lord didn’t really kill them. He indeed did literally kill them. Those He killed didn’t “seek Him”. The dead didn’t “return and search diligently for God”. But the survivors got the hint when they saw Father God kill the rebels, and they changed their ways pronto! They were the ones who returned and sought Him.
So the context has to do with the entire family of God, not merely with individual rebels in the family. Some of the kids rebelled and were used as examples of how not to behave in the family. Others saw the consequences of the wrong behaviors and learned better than to imitate the rebels. That is what the Lord did vis-à-vis the Israelites, as depicted by the Psalmist.
We will delve a little deeper into this concept in our next study. Now let’s spend some quiet time with Jesus.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
When a parent punishes his child for disobedience, it is meant as chastisement, not judgment and condemnation. It is meant to teach the child that what he has done is a no-no, and that he needs to desist doing it and ask for forgiveness. This is how families function.
It is quite otherwise with folks not a part of the same family. I never took the time to chastise the neighbors’ kids. It wasn’t my responsibility or my place. If things had become too difficult with any of the neighbors, it would have resulted in strife, not chastisement. It might even have led to a court case, but a spanking would never be on the agenda for differences between the neighbors and myself.
So it was (and is) with differences between the Lord and the peoples of the world. As God He is in charge of every person and every nation. He is like the government, not like everyone’s good friend. All persons must obey or else.
As the Lord he is in covenantal relationship with His people. This is personal, like a spiritual family. As the governmental authority God judges all men and sentences them to their just desserts. As the head of the family the Lord rears His kids to function righteously in His family, and He chastises us when we don’t.
Notice how the Psalmist portrays the Lord’s chastisement of the Israelites: “He killed them”! Huh? That doesn’t compute. God does that with the people of the world, the devil’s kids. He is supposed to chastise His own kids, not kill them. This sounds like the judge sentencing the criminal to death row, not a father disciplining his kids. What gives?
And a right fine query it is too. I’ll tell you what I find more curious than that. What follows is inexplicable. What did the Israelites do when the Lord killed them? We would think to read that they died. Right? Well, we don’t! We read,
Then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God.
Strange doings for folks who have just been killed, wouldn’t you agree?
This curiosity affords us the context for understanding what is being taught, dear friends. It’s not just poetic license, as if to say the Lord didn’t really kill them. He indeed did literally kill them. Those He killed didn’t “seek Him”. The dead didn’t “return and search diligently for God”. But the survivors got the hint when they saw Father God kill the rebels, and they changed their ways pronto! They were the ones who returned and sought Him.
So the context has to do with the entire family of God, not merely with individual rebels in the family. Some of the kids rebelled and were used as examples of how not to behave in the family. Others saw the consequences of the wrong behaviors and learned better than to imitate the rebels. That is what the Lord did vis-à-vis the Israelites, as depicted by the Psalmist.
We will delve a little deeper into this concept in our next study. Now let’s spend some quiet time with Jesus.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Spank the Baby! – Part 4
When He killed them, then they sought Him, and returned and searched diligently for God; and they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer [Psalm 78:34-35].
If my son misbehaved and was taken to the woodshed for a deeper understanding, his sister didn’t need to learn the same lesson in the woodshed. She chose to learn vicariously from her brother’s chastisement. It hurts considerably less!
This is the concept depicted by the Psalmist, regarding Father God’s parenting mannerisms with His kids, the Israelites. The Israelites more often than not were incorrigible rebels. They thrived on holding public demonstrations in the city square against the injustices of the Lord’s rule. They followed it up with building barricades and storming the Bastille.
The Word of God commanded they obey His Law. When they did so He blessed them. When they didn’t He chastised them. After He chastised them the survivors repented, snapped to attention, and made it a point to be on their best behavior. Again the Lord blessed them.
Blessings are infinitely more dangerous than curses, dear friends. Blessings tend to promote indifference and lassitude in those who are blessed, you see, resulting in feckless folks who are of no earthly good to the Lord’s family. When they were blessed, the Israelites grew fat heads and resented it whenever the blessings weren’t increasingly abundant.
Accordingly they rebelled again and suffered the Lord’s chastisement some more. The survivors again repented and put their best foot forward, and the Lord restored them and blessed them again. It was a vicious circle. I tell you, blessings are infinitely more dangerous than curses.
I know a young man who has yet to learn this lesson. Truth be told, I could probably count on one hand how many young men today have learned this lesson, and still have enough fingers left over to count the pennies in a nickel!
Like a sponge this young man sucks up the Lord’s blessings. He takes them all in, enjoys himself as he pampers his lusts, and believes they are his right. He is entitled to easy living, you see. The considerable gifts given him by the Spirit are his, not the Lord’s. He uses them to feather his own nest, not build the Body of Christ.
Should he persist in this foolish course of action, I am waiting to see how long it will be before the Lord inflicts severe chastisement on him. I know the Lord loves him too much to allow him to squander his talents on his own lusts. It will not end in a pretty sight at the Bema of Christ, His judgment seat for His kids where rewards are given for service to Him.
If we won’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. This young man has been gifted for the ministry. His gifts are not meant to be used to have a grand old time performing secular jobs for the young man’s ego and financial success.
If he would only learn from the history recorded in Psalm 78, it would spare him grievous vexation at the Bema. Indeed, the vexation will most certainly commence long before eternity. Woe is this young man, if he won’t learn from Israel’s history. He knows better!
May we know better, O Lord. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
If my son misbehaved and was taken to the woodshed for a deeper understanding, his sister didn’t need to learn the same lesson in the woodshed. She chose to learn vicariously from her brother’s chastisement. It hurts considerably less!
This is the concept depicted by the Psalmist, regarding Father God’s parenting mannerisms with His kids, the Israelites. The Israelites more often than not were incorrigible rebels. They thrived on holding public demonstrations in the city square against the injustices of the Lord’s rule. They followed it up with building barricades and storming the Bastille.
The Word of God commanded they obey His Law. When they did so He blessed them. When they didn’t He chastised them. After He chastised them the survivors repented, snapped to attention, and made it a point to be on their best behavior. Again the Lord blessed them.
Blessings are infinitely more dangerous than curses, dear friends. Blessings tend to promote indifference and lassitude in those who are blessed, you see, resulting in feckless folks who are of no earthly good to the Lord’s family. When they were blessed, the Israelites grew fat heads and resented it whenever the blessings weren’t increasingly abundant.
Accordingly they rebelled again and suffered the Lord’s chastisement some more. The survivors again repented and put their best foot forward, and the Lord restored them and blessed them again. It was a vicious circle. I tell you, blessings are infinitely more dangerous than curses.
I know a young man who has yet to learn this lesson. Truth be told, I could probably count on one hand how many young men today have learned this lesson, and still have enough fingers left over to count the pennies in a nickel!
Like a sponge this young man sucks up the Lord’s blessings. He takes them all in, enjoys himself as he pampers his lusts, and believes they are his right. He is entitled to easy living, you see. The considerable gifts given him by the Spirit are his, not the Lord’s. He uses them to feather his own nest, not build the Body of Christ.
Should he persist in this foolish course of action, I am waiting to see how long it will be before the Lord inflicts severe chastisement on him. I know the Lord loves him too much to allow him to squander his talents on his own lusts. It will not end in a pretty sight at the Bema of Christ, His judgment seat for His kids where rewards are given for service to Him.
If we won’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. This young man has been gifted for the ministry. His gifts are not meant to be used to have a grand old time performing secular jobs for the young man’s ego and financial success.
If he would only learn from the history recorded in Psalm 78, it would spare him grievous vexation at the Bema. Indeed, the vexation will most certainly commence long before eternity. Woe is this young man, if he won’t learn from Israel’s history. He knows better!
May we know better, O Lord. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Tit for Tat
And (Isaac) said (to Esau), “Your brother (Jacob) came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing”… And (Jacob) said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” [Genesis 27:35; 29:25]
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Hot and Cold – Part 1
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Hot and Cold – Part 2
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off halfcocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off halfcocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
