Hear and see

 

Hab 2:1

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

There is something interesting in this verse, which is easy to miss on first reading. The prophet says: I will look to see what He will say to me… We do not often use our sight to hear something, do we? And yet, it is such a natural thing to do. If I were to speak to you about the deliciously cold glass of Coke we drank after a long walk in the mountains on a sunny summer day, I just know that you would vividly picture that tall glass, covered with condensed drops of moisture on the outside, as I was speaking!

God most often speaks to us in picture language, which is why He designed us to have an imagination. If I mentioned a beautiful red apple, you would “see” it in your mind’s eye, which is your imagination. You would not see it as letters spelling a-p-p-l-e. And it would not matter whether your physical eyes were opened or closed – in both cases your spiritual eyes would see the apple, using your imagination.

This is why it is so important that we ask God to sanctify our imaginations, and then very carefully guard what we allow to go into our minds via our eyes and ears, so that we do not defile it. This has become the most critical battlefield of our time – to not be exposed to the ever-increasing obscene images strewn all over our environment, and the God-reviling words reaching us via music and other media forms.

How do we use our imagination to hear from God? There is a vital key given to us in this verse from Habakkuk, when we read that we must “stand” and “station ourselves”.  To stand means to come to a standstill, to stop. Station yourself means to present yourself to God. Therefore, you need time, and an eagerness to hear from God. Choose a time in the day when you can cease all your activities, when there is nothing that will interrupt your special time with God. And start that time with positioning yourself before God in your imagination, it could be kneeling before Him in the throne room, it could be meeting Jesus at the well. No details are necessary, it is the intention of the heart that is important to God. And then patiently wait on Him to respond. Do not let your own thoughts intrude, keep your mind stayed on Him. If He gives you a vision, or Scripture, write it down when the encounter is over, and ask Him to interpret it for you. If nothing happens, praise Him and worship Him, and go about your day knowing that He is always with you, whether you “feel” something or not – take by faith the truth of Jer 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And joyfully schedule the next meeting with Him for tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Persevere. Very soon your spiritual eyes and ears will become sensitive to His way of communicating with you!

Points to ponder:   Think about Jer 29:13 – what does “with all your heart” mean? What do I need to do differently to let this be true in my life? Do I need to re-order my day? Stop looking at certain shows and videos? Choose different forms of music to listen to?

Encounter Jesus

Total fulfilment

 

Lev 23:15-17

From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering (this is the firstfruits offering presented during the Feast of Firstfruits), count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.

During this past week, Jews all over the world celebrated the Feast of Shavuot (the plural of a word meaning week, or 7), also called Pentecost (the Greek name meaning 50).

This feast is uniquely linked to the Feast of Firstfruits (where the first sheaves of the barley harvest were presented to the Lord, so that the rest of the harvest would be sanctified as well) by 50 days of counting the omer, or sheaves, day by day. This is the time when the wheat harvest is ready, and another offering of new grain is presented to the Lord as firstfruits.

Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Passover with His death, He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the burial of His sinless body, and He fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits by His resurrection. He fulfilled these feasts in incredible detail. Let me show you just the following regarding the Feast of Firstfruits:

In ancient Israel, since not all the barley ripens simultaneously in the land, a small plot of land was set apart in the Kidron Valley to grow this firstfruits offering. On the Day of Passover (14^th Nisan), the place where the first sheaf was to be reaped in that field was marked by members of the Sanhedrin, by using a red cord to bind three bundles of the standing barley designated to be cut down. Three days later, on the 17^th of Nisan (a Sabbath day in the year Jesus was crucified), as the sun was setting, a large crowd would follow the delegates of the Sanhedrin outside the city, across the Kidron brook, and watch them cut off the marked barley sheaves. They would worship and return to the temple to prepare these to offer to the Lord. It was now officially the morning after the Sabbath (remember, the new day starts after sunset on the previous day in Israel).

Now celebrate the fulfilment of these details with me: About the time that Caiaphas, the High Priest, was trying Jesus, the Sanhedrin members were assessing the crop in the field to decide which would be selected to be harvested for firstfruits. While the Romans were binding Jesus up for crucifixion, the disciples of the Sanhedrin were binding up the sheaves designated for the firstfruits offering. Three days later, when the red cord was cut and the sheaves gathered, Jesus rose from the dead after sunset on the Sabbath, officially the morning after, to be presented to the Father as the Firstfruit from the dead, the first to arise from the dead never to die again!

And 50 days later, as the Israelites faithfully counted the omer, the 120 disciples of Jesus became the firstfruits of the emerging church of Jesus Christ by baptism of His Holy Spirit, an offering of new grain to the Lord in the fulfilment of the Feast of Shavuot, ensuring that the harvest of souls to follow would be sanctified by Him also.

Points to ponder: Meditate on how Jesus is showing that He is the fulfilment - to the very last detail - of every Feast of the Lord, and let this forever be your guarantee that He will fulfil every promise He ever made to you!

The anchor of my soul

Honour

 

1 Sam 2:29-30

……Why do you give your sons more honour than you give me……

……But I will honour those who honour me……

When God sent this message to Eli by word of a nameless man of God, he was the priest (probably the high priest) over the Tabernacle at Shiloh. His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, also served as priests in the temple, but they were base and worthless, they did not know or regard the Lord. Instead, they were corrupt - stealing, embezzling, even committing acts of sexual immorality with women who came to the Tabernacle to worship. Their wickedness profaned the Tabernacle, but even worse than that, people avoided coming to worship God because of their actions.

Now Eli was made aware of what his sons were up to, and we read in verse 23-25 that he spoke to them about their sinful behaviour. Nevertheless, God held him accountable for the actions of his sons. Why would this be?

Eli’s responsibility was two-fold. As their father, he should not have condoned some of their behaviour by sharing in the illicitly gained portions of the offerings that people brought to the Tabernacle to offer to God. They took the portions that were meant for God for themselves, sometimes even threatening to use force - verse 29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honour your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel? And then as high priest he should have fired the two of them for the disgraceful way in which they conducted themselves, sinning against God in every way possible instead of leading the nation to serving God.

It is Eli’s inaction to do something about his sons' wicked behaviour that leads God to ask why he honours his sons more than Him, and this misplaced honour is the sin that Eli will be judged for.

We have all been in this situation, where we see wrongdoing, but because we do not want to lose the love and regard of brothers/sisters/parents/friends/work colleagues/fellow church goers… we fail to do something about it. It is however important to heed Paul’s instructions regarding this in 1 Cor 5:12-13 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those outside. We first need to build relationships with fellow believers before we may lovingly confront them with the truth, following Holy Spirit’s leading all the way.

Points to ponder: Carefully consider the question: who do I honour above God? Is there a situation in my home/work/church that I am ignoring, simply because it is easier to just do nothing about it, than to open that can of worms and maybe ruffle a few feathers? Ask God for a strategy to confront wrong in a loving but honest way. And this will become a win-win situation, because of His promise to honour those who honour Him!

Jesus is the name we honour

Calling good evil

 

Proverbs 11:1 and 16:11

A false balance and dishonest business practices are extremely offensive to the LORD, But an accurate scale is His delight.

The LORD demands accurate scales and balances; he sets the standards for fairness.

On first reading, these verses are very directly focussed on fairness in business dealings – only accurate standardised measures are to be used so that the true proportions or weight of products are presented to the seller, no false representations that are hidden from sight.

We have all been exposed to familiar products suddenly appearing in containers that are slightly smaller, priced in such a way that we are misled to believe that we are buying a bargain when in actual fact the product works out to be much more expensive this way! Other products come in such overwhelming big packaging that we think that we are justified in paying a hefty price for something much bigger than what is revealed once the packaging is removed. Advertising is specifically aimed at tricking us into buying certain products, often through misrepresentation of the truth. And so we can go on naming the dishonest business practices routinely used in our society today.

Not only does the Lord our God find these practices offensive, but He actually forbids them in Lev 19:25 “’Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.”

But there is a deeper spiritual connotation here. When a civilization redefines its values, ignoring God, moving away from His created order – this is also using faulty scales and balances. When man’s idea of justice begins to take precedence over God’s absolute truth and righteousness, such a civilization starts measuring its values and norms against false scales. Man begins to conform what is right and wrong to fit his idea of morality, to fit his own sinful desires. And the result is corruption and decay on all levels of society.

What would some of these altered weights, false measures or changed values be? We could name legalised abortion; altered male/female identities; same-sex relationships; fornication; cursing Israel; accepting bribes; among others.

It is a sobering thought to know that God will deal very severely with those guilty of using man’s corrupt scales of measurement over and above God’s absolute measuring rod of truth and righteousness – Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Points to ponder:

Meditate on whether you are conforming your life and life decisions to the truth that is found in the Word of God, or to principles as upheld by the society around you. Clarify for yourself what God’s standard is by searching the Word, not by listening to corrupting debates based on philosophies of man.

The Truth