The Lord will fight for you, never be afraid

Exodus 14:13-15  (NIV)

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.         

           

The normal human attitude is to think that whatever happened thousands of years ago cannot possibly apply to life today.  So we tend to ignore Old Testament writings and teachings, thinking that somehow people today are totally different than people who lived back then.  Yet, while specific circumstances are entirely different (e.g. you are not being chased by Egyptians), emotional reactions to stresses in your life are exactly the same.  You face threats to your life’s security and peace all the time and what is your normal reaction?  Fear, even you don’t want to admit it.  Fear can be evidenced in several ways---feeling anxious, having doubt, worrying, and outright being scared.   

God’s answer to fear to the Israelites escaping the pursuits of the Egyptians is exactly the same as to anything you are struggling with today---do not be afraid.  Why?  Because by standing firm in your faith instead of wavering in fear caused by lack of faith, the Lord will deliver you.  The word used for “deliver” also means “salvation” and “victory”.  The Lord promises victory to you if you stop feeling afraid of whatever is bothering you and instead stand firm by trusting in the Lord’s promises.  The word for stand firm has a sense of being proactive rather than reactive in that not only are you bracing yourself for whatever happens but you also are presenting yourself in a more positive front, like taking a strong stand on what you believe.  Oh, indeed, it takes great faith to position yourself in this way in the face of adversity. 

The Lord will fight for you, writes Moses.  You don’t have to do anything, you only need to stand still.  Oh, indeed, that is not human nature.  Plus I think that there are times where we must do something, e.g. applying the faith and works principle (James 2:14,26).  For example, you need to change something in your life, you pray daily for this, but you also must do something.  You want to lose weight, prayer alone without changing your diet won’t help.  You want a better job, prayer alone won’t help without going out and looking for better opportunities.  You want to be a better servant of the Lord, you pray about it, but you also go out and start getting involved in ministry and helping others in some way. 

Yet, other times, when you know deep in your heart that things are out of your control, you can do nothing but wait on the Lord.  When you are “at your wits end”, when you are like the Israelites who have no place to turn, you stop trying and stand firm and be still.  Oh, indeed, it takes great faith to do this.  That’s why everyday you need to work on deepening your faith and not wait until it’s too late and you find how shallow your faith really is. 

“Move on” says the Lord.  If you have faith in Him, you have nothing to fear (except Him) and you carry on.  You stand firm and still and let the Lord fight your battles, but you also continue to live your life.  Letting go and letting God does not mean giving up, it means to move on.  Are you standing firm, being still, not being afraid, and still moving on with your life?  Perhaps not, but today can be the start of a brand new walk of faith for you.  

The evil of pride

Isaiah 14:12-15 (NLT)

How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!  You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.  For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.  I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’  Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.

Isaiah 14 is described as a song of triumph (even a taunt, see verse 4) of Israel over Babylon.  However, this is a prophetic song, written 150 years before Babylon became a conquering empire over Israel.  The most significant king of Babylon (see Isa 14:4) was Nebuchadnezzar who carried away Judah (southern kingdom) into a 70 year captivity and was the prominent king in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. 

Who is the “you” in this passage?  Is it Nebuchadnezzar or Satan or both?  It describes the fall of king of Babylon which ostensibly seems to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, but also could describe Satan’s fall from heaven.  Nebuchadnezzar was Satan’s representative during his brutal and ruthless reign over the Israelites.  The fall of Satan from heaven and the fall of Nebuchadnezzar from his rule over Israel run in parallel. 

“O Shining star” can be translated as “Lucifer”.  Lucifer is another name for Satan although some scholars do not believe this.  It gets very confusing when you read in II Peter 2:19 and Rev 22:16 that Jesus is referred to as the morning star (“phorphoros”).  So Lucifer in this passage could refer to either Satan or Nebuchadnezzar. 

Whether Isaiah is writing about Satan or Nebuchadnezzar or both, note that he describes this person as being filled with excessive pride, e.g. “I will ascend to heaven”, “I will set my throne above God’s stars”, “I will preside on the mountain….”, I will climb to the highest heavens”, “I will be like the Most High”.  Such excessive pride exists today in the hearts of too many people.  What happens, however?  Such a person, be it Satan, Nebuchadnezzar, or whoever shows this kind of pride, will be brought down to the place of the dead, even to its lowest depths! 

Indeed, Proverbs 16:18 says that “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Yet prideful people don’t know that the Bible says this, don’t believe it, or know and believe it, but still allow pride to control their lives.  Pride, in the form of selfishness, self-sufficiency, arrogance, smugness, and anything/everything that replaces God’s will with your own will, eventually will cause some kind of destruction, the worst being what Jesus exclaimed in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter”

Satan appeals to human pride as he did to Eve and Adam in Genesis 3.  Every wrong and every sin in human history is rooted in human pride.  Examine your life right now and determine what pride might be doing to you.  You may think that being prideful is proper and justifiable, but realize that it counters biblical truth.  Confess you pride and ask the Holy Spirit in you to replace the human pride in your life to godly pride where you aim to put the Lord first in everything you do.  Oh, indeed, it’s a lifelong process and you’ll stumble along the way, but work daily on reducing/ eliminating a prideful life is what Jesus meant when He said, “Deny yourself……..” (Luke 9:23).   

Living the daily life the Lord desires you to live

Colossians 3:5-14 (NIV)

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.  You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

I am not certain that there is a better section of the entire Bible that gives such clear guidance for the kind of daily life the Lord wants His people to live.  My Bible contains the subheading for Chapter 3 as “Rules for Holy Living”.  Paul provides very specific descriptions on how you, if you claim to be a Christian, should act every day of your life.  Before you were a Christian and as you will continue to see non-believers act around you, your earthly nature prevailed.  Paul lists at least 11 characteristics of a person who is not controlled by Christ.  It is these characteristics, e.g. sexual immorality, greed, anger, filthy language, and lying that will bring the wrath of God against those who commit such awful deeds.  The command is clear here that as a reborn person in Christ, if you claim to put Christ first in your life, you will stop---literally put to death (they no longer exist in your life) these 11 bad characteristics.  These were part of your life without Christ, but are no longer to be part of your life.  Others must clearly see this in you or else you really have not truly repented of your former sinful life. 

Your new personality in Christ is described by 8 characteristics—as a Christ follower, you are to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patience, lenient, easy-going and forgiving others, and be a role model of Christ-life love.  You might say that you cannot be like this, especially if you converted to Christ after many years of living an uncontrolled life, but you can with Christ’s help, help that you ask for everyday both proactively (asking for help as you start your day) and reactively (asking for forgiveness and help at the end of your day).     

The January 7, 2010 devotional from Our Daily Bread contained this quote from Phil Yancey, one of my favorite Christian authors--“Pleasing God doesn’t mean that we must busy ourselves with a new set of “spiritual” activities. As the Puritans said, whether cleaning house or preaching sermons, shoeing horses or translating the Bible, any human activity may constitute an offering to God.”  You do not need to worry about trying to concentrate on behaving as a Christian.  Simply by trusting in Christ, praying to Him daily, and saturating your mind with His Word, such as what is written here, you will be guided by Him and everything you do will be a service, an offering to God. 
       

Hearing and believing

John 5:24 (NASB)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” 

Jesus defines what is required to be assured of eternal life.  There are two requirements---(1) hearing His word and (2) believing God who sent Jesus to be your Savior.  To hear His word means more than simple hearing…….you must receive His word with an open heart and do what it says.  To “believe Him who sent Me” means to believe in the love of God, to honor God, and to believe, as Jesus said earlier, that the “Father has given all judgment to the Son”.

Jesus basically is teaching that you have two choices.  Either you believe His claims, His promises, and His teaching or you don’t.  If you do believe you are given eternal life; you will not be judged as an unbeliever, and you will forever with the Lord in heaven.  If you don’t believe in Jesus’ words, then you are choosing His condemnation (John 3:18) and eternal death (separation from the Lord). 

When Jesus’ words become personal to you, you develop a personal relationship with Him and you receive personal freedom from ever having to be judged whether or not you deserve eternal life.  Eternal life is given to you by the words of Christ without you having to do anymore than to believe in Him.  Of course, to believe also means to act like a follower of Christ; i.e. your actions reflect your relationship with Him. 

Jesus expects people to take these words seriously.  Why else would He start this verse by stating “Truly, truly…….”  To repeat this word means that it is absolute truth.  The word Jesus used here is “amen, amen” with the original meaning of amen being “so be it”, “so it is”, “it is fulfilled”.  The Greek word “amen” is almost identical to the Hebrew word for “believe” (amam), an expression of absolute truth and confidence.  For Jesus to say this word twice emphasizes how much He is stressing the importance and the absolute, irrefutable truth of His words that follow. 

Do you hear His word?  Do you believe in the Father who sent the Son?  Do you know that you have eternal life?  Do you feel any kind of peace because the Lord promises that you will not be judged because of your faith?  One of the most comforting verses for all Christians is Romans 8:1 where Paul says that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.  You are free because of your faith.  Jesus even said that in John 8:31-32 that reinforces John 5:24: “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”.  Don’t you want to stand up, lift up your arms and praise almighty God for these words of personal freedom because of your choice to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? 

Forgetting God

Deuteronomy 8:11 (The Message)

Make sure you don't forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today.

I have been reading Kent Hughes 1992 book Disciplines of a Godly Man.  In his chapter on “Discipline of Purity”, he quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Temptation, SCM Press, 1961, p 33) that I have not quit thinking about:  “When lust takes control, at that moment, God loses all reality……Satan does not fill us with hatred of God, but with the forgetfulness of God.” 

Forgetting God is a characteristic of wickedness.  Indeed, God would consider a person wicked who never thinks about Him.  Wicked moments in our lives are a result of forgetting God.  There are many passages in the Bible that speak about the tragedy of forgetting about God.  Human pride in the form of self-sufficiency causes people to forget God (Deut 8:12-14, Hosea 13:6).  When people backslide, God is forgotten (Jeremiah 3:21-22).  When you start following other gods (money, pleasure, human achievement, etc), you forget about God (Deuteronomy 4:23, II Kings 17:38).  Indeed, the cycle of sin and confession (sin—sorrow—confession--repentance—forgiveness/ restoration—sin again) written about throughout the Old Testament is fundamentally the result of forgetting God in everyday life. 

James 1:14-15 gives the “LSD” of sin:  “Lust-Sin-Death”.  Note that verse 14 says that you can be “carried away” or “dragged away” by lustful temptation(s).  Lust is simply the desire for things forbidden by God and His Word.  Lust lures you away from the safety of self-restraint to sin and when you sin you are separated from God.  Being separated from God prevents you from remembering Him and His commandments; you simply forget about Him.  The most common sin committed by men is sexual lust; the most common sin committed by women is pride (according to a 2009 Vatican survey).  If you are a man reading this and you start thinking about sexual lust, why might you continue to think about this subject?  Because you have forgotten the presence of God in your life.  The same is true of women when entangled by pride and envy.   

The Bible commands that you not forget God.  You are not to forget His works (Psalm 78:7, 106:13), His benefits (Psalm 103:2), His Word (Heb 12:5, James 1:25), His commandments (Psalm 119:176), and His past deliverances from whatever sin you committed (Judges 8:34, Psalm 78:42). 

One approach you can make to keep from forgetting God is simply to resolve in your heart never to do so.  Psalms 119:16 and 93 simply proclaim that “I will not forget Thy Word”.  Another approach, of course, is to keep feeding yourself spiritually by daily reading and meditation of the Bible.  Evangelist Joseph T. Larsen wrote in the Moody Bible Institute Monthly (July 1993) that America is progressing toward forgetting God “by largely banishing the Bible from schools and by misinterpreting it in universities, criticizing it in theological seminaries and colleges, and scoffing at it among the infidels and atheists of the nation.”

Think about what Abraham Lincoln wrote about forgetting God: “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”--Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, April 30, 1863.