SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/20/2012 7:03:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm
106 PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm
106:24-33
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
look at the next two main points from Psalm 106. We must remember that this psalm is the last
of Book IV in the book of psalms, and it was written by an anonymous author
probably after the Jews returned from captivity from Babylon. It is the witnessing autopsy of the nation of
Israel, but we must remember that we are to keep our eyes on our Savior as we
study this psalm for then we will see His kindness and faithfulness to His
sinful people. Remember that our Lord only uses sinful people to
accomplish His plans, for when you stop and think about it sinful people are
the only people on this earth for God to use, for there are no other kinds of
people for the Word says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The good news is that Jesus died for sinful
people and “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Tragic
Failure (vv. 24-27): “24 Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not
believe in His word, 25 But grumbled in their tents; They did not listen to the
voice of the LORD. 26 Therefore He swore to them That He would cast them down
in the wilderness, 27 And that He would cast their seed among the nations And
scatter them in the lands.”
Israel spent about two years in
the wilderness when they came out of Egypt, and during this time they received
the Law, and Moses spent time with the Lord in order to write the first books
of the Bible, and Israel built the tabernacle and all of the items needed for
worship. At the end of these two years
Israel was on the edge of going into the Promised Land as they were camped at
Kadesh Barnea ready to triumphantly go into the land that God had promised to
give to the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However a problem arose again with the people
and they came to Moses and ask him to send twelve spies into the Promised Land
to see what was there. Now you don’t
find this out until your read the book of Deuteronomy when Moses speaks of this
to the next generation of the children of Israel. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Israel did not need more facts; they needed more
faith.” The spies were in the
land for forty days and when they came back ten of the spies reported that
there was no way that they could conquer these people for they were large and
they lived in walled cities. Two of the
spies reported that God would fight for them and that they would defeat these
inhabitants that were in the land. A
couple of points that will help us understand this better. God had told Abraham that one of the reasons
that the children of Israel would be in Egypt was because the iniquity of those
who were living in this land had not been complete, “12 Now when the sun was
going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness
fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your
descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be
enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation
whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15
“As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a
good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite
is not yet complete.’” (Genesis
15:12-16)
When we get to the time, (38 years
later), that the children of Israel were again going to cross over into the
Promised Land Joshua would send two spies into the city of Jericho to see what
the situation was there. The spies ended
up in the house of a prostitute who told them something that was very
interesting. She told them that the
people had lived in fear for many years because of the children of Israel, for
they had heard about what the Lord had done to the Egyptians, how He had
destroyed Egypt with ten plagues. Again
we see that the ten spies were wrong and Israel should have trusted the
Lord. After the incident at Kadesh
Barnea the first time God was again angry with Israel and told them that they
would march around the wilderness for forty years, a year for each day the
spies were in the Promised Land and during that time all those who were over
the age of twenty would die in the wilderness.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “This
is what happens when we want our own way and refuse to trust the Lord and obey
Him.”
Costly
Disobedience (vv. 28-33): “28 They
joined themselves also to Baal-peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 29
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And the plague broke out
among them. 30 Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, And so the plague was
stayed. 31 And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, To all generations
forever. 32 They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, So that
it went hard with Moses on their account; 33 Because they were rebellious
against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips.”
I will try to explain about the
first of two disobediences of the children of Israel and then will allow the
text of Dr. Wiersbe explain the second.
We read in Numbers chapters 22-24 that the king of Moab hired a
“prophet” named Baalam to curse Israel, but God turned the cursing into
blessings which was very upsetting to the king of Moab. Baalam told the king of Moab to invite the
Jewish tribal leaders to share a feast with them and it was during this feast
that they ate meat offered to demons and also slept with cult prostitutes, and
this angered the Lord so he sent a plague and according to Num. 25:9 24,000
from Israel died and more would have died if not for the High Priest’s son
Phinehas who killed a Jewish man and his Moabite partner who were sinning in
the camp of Israel. Phinehas was treated with honor
by the Lord because of his hatred of sin.
“The second demonstration of
carnality was seen in Moses, not
a sin of the flesh but of the spirit:
he became proud and angry and took for himself the glory that belonged
only to the Lord (Num. 20:1-13).
Provoked by the people, the ‘pride of life’ possessed Moses and he lost
his temper and spoke rash words that offended the Lord (Ps. 78:40; Isa. 63:10;
1John 2:15-17). This sin cost Moses the
privilege of leading the people into the Promised Land (Deut. 3:23-20). ‘Meribah’ means ‘quarreling’ (see Ex.
17:1-7).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of
the things that I learn from this section or at least have been reminded of, is
that God is not a respecter of people for God is holy and cannot stand sin,
which is what Moses did, and even though Moses did many, many wonderful things
in serving the Lord he lost his privilege of leading the people into the
Promised Land because of sin. I cannot
live on past merits, and neither can anyone else.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Remember the need of having the spiritual armor on.
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-6
1.
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of
Jesus Christ,
To
those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness
of our
God and
Savior, Jesus Christ; 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord: 3. seeing
that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
excellence. 4. For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that you may become partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith
supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge, 6. and in your
knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your
perseverance, godliness
7/20/2012
7:59:13 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment