Something To Remember

"Don't turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, As on the day of the Wilderness Test, when your ancestors turned and put me to the test. For forty years they watched me at work among them, as over and over they tried my patience. And I was provoked--oh, was I provoked! 'Can't they keep their minds on God for five minutes? Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?' Exasperated, I exploded, 'They'll never get where they're headed, never be able to sit down and rest.'"

(Psa 95:8-11 MSG)

The author of Hebrews uses this text to exhort New Testament believers:

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "SO I SWORE IN MY WRATH, 'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,' " although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

(Heb 4:1-3 NKJV)

Adam Clarke shines some light on why the Israelites who came out of Egypt were denied entrance into the Promise Land.

1.  It is a people that do err in their heart - Or, according to the Chaldee, These are a people whose idols are in their hearts. At any rate they had not God there.

2.  They have not known my ways - The verb ידע  yada, to know, is used here, as in many other parts of Scripture, to express approbation. They knew God’s ways well enough; but they did not like them; and would not walk in them.

It is a poisonous mixture Mr. Clarke describes that spells sure doom for anyone who supposes they are going to get anywhere with God.

1.  They came out of Egypt with idols.  If you are going to come out of Egypt, come out all the way.  Don't try to bring some of its ways with you.  God has called you to a new way; one that has nothing of the familiar ways of the past connected to it.

John warns the church in 1 John 2:15:  "Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

These are strong words not to be taken lightly.  I don't think many of us realize the enmity that exists between the Spirit and the flesh (the carnal mindset).  There will never come a time when these two will ever be at peace with each other.  The reason?  Because they are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

One is motivated by the law of love that seeks out the highest good of being while the other is entirely motivated by selfishness.  Those two ideas can never be reconciled.

Remember your past.  Use it to motivate you to leave behind everything that was there and embrace the new way God wants to bring you into however foreign it may seem to be.

Israel should have reminded themselves of their slavery and oppression in Egypt and used that to forsake whatever ways and whatever idolatrous practices they had picked up while living there.  They should have reminded themselves of their burdens and toil and the ridicule they suffered for being Israeli.

They should have reminded themselves of the children that were killed by Pharaoh trying to wipe out their ethnic group.

They should have recognized that whatever idols they had adopted from the Egyptians certainly had not profited them while in Egypt let alone while on their journey to the Promise Land.  In fact, God had tried to prove not only to the Egyptians but to His own covenant people His superiority to any of Egypt's idols through the plagues.

O but we come to love our idols, don't we?  And they beg us not to let go.  Why?  Because they appease something in our flesh that we aren't willing to give up.

2.  They didn't know God's ways.  Clarke expressed something about this that needs to be examined.

"The verb ידע  yada, to know, is used here, as in many other parts of Scripture, to express approbation. They knew God’s ways well enough; but they did not like them; and would not walk in them."

He then observes:

"This ungrateful people did not approve of God’s ways - they did not enter into his designs - they did not conform to his commands - they paid no attention to his miracles - and did not acknowledge the benefits which they received from his hands."

It wasn't ignorance that cost these people entrance into their inheritance.  It was disapproval of the way they were going to have to go to get there.

We seem to want to make our own terms with God.  How foolish.  His ways are truly best.

God made His determination concerning the Israelites when they complained at the because of the lack of water (Exodus 17).  Verse seven of that chapter shed important light on why this event was so decisive.  Moses called the place Massah and Meribah "because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'"

Wow!  You have just been delivered out of the hands of Pharaoh and his army and you have seen God part the waters of the Red Sea so you could walk across on dry land.  Then you watch as God causes those same waters to kill Pharaoh and his army that is bent on your destruction and have the audacity to ask if God is among you or not?

I wonder how many of these Israelis came out only because they were forced out?

To have the heritage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in your DNA and yet not want anything to do with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?  Incredible.

O God, help me to rid myself of any idols and fully embrace your ways!  I don't want to miss out on the power of the covenant made with me through the shed blood of your dear Son.

Holy Spirit help me, remind me, convict me of these words when I am tempted to go back to the ways of Egypt or even tempted to look back in that direction.