Faith Versus Sight
11/03/09 06:51 Filed in: Devotions
Today I read Deuteronomy 16-18, Psalm 38, and Galatians 2. The themes of these three passages seemed to blend together this morning. In Deuteronomy, Moses is giving the people the rules on how they should live in the land that God has given them. He talks about the sacrifices, the festivals they are to observe, etc. Then he mentions two things that I don’t remember seeing before. First, he sets them up for their own desire to eventually want a king. Even though God is to be their king, he knows that they will want one leader who is their king like the other nations and so Moses lays out how they find the king and how the king should live. The king was not to have a bunch of wives and he was to write down word for word the words of the law so he wouldn't forget it and would govern by it. I found this interesting because Solomon was said to have many wives and it did seem to take him down a bad a path at one time from what I remember. But this focus on the law and remembering it and forcing the king to remember it by writing it down is an interesting concept. Kind of like a quiet time with God on steroids
.
Then Moses told them that God was going to send prophets to them who would speak for him since the children of Israel asked that they never have to deal with God directly again because of their experience on Mount Sinai which they felt almost killed them. So God honored his promise by sending a prophet to speak for him who they had to listen to and could test by seeing if what he said came true. In a day where we have people saying things like, “If God wold show himself to me I would believe,” we have people who said don’t show him to me because he scares me and they still waffled back and forth from belief to unbelief even when having God’s presence with them in a very tangible way. For all of those who say they need God to show himself to them before they will believe, There is a whole nation who saw him and didn’t continue to believe and follow him regularly. I am sure the same would be true today where people would want “on-demand” demonstrations that he is still there to hold their belief in check. I can see why God went the route of faith without seeing.
In Galatians Paul talks about how Christ fulfilled the law and that our relationship with God is finally made right through belief instead of trying to keep the law perfectly which was impossible to do from the start. So it is by grace through faith in Christ that we are finally able to have relationship with God and actually have the Holy Spirit living within us to guide and direct us. What an incredible gift especially in light of how it was before Christ came. I am not grateful enough for all this means for me especially in light of the fact that all of the prophets and those who loved God who came before us, longed to see the day in which I live.
Lord, thank you for what you did for me in the life, work, death, and resurrection of your Son. Please help me to live in such a way that I am at least displaying in some imperfect way, the love you have for others. Make me a man that others can point to and say at least he is trying. Amen.
. Then Moses told them that God was going to send prophets to them who would speak for him since the children of Israel asked that they never have to deal with God directly again because of their experience on Mount Sinai which they felt almost killed them. So God honored his promise by sending a prophet to speak for him who they had to listen to and could test by seeing if what he said came true. In a day where we have people saying things like, “If God wold show himself to me I would believe,” we have people who said don’t show him to me because he scares me and they still waffled back and forth from belief to unbelief even when having God’s presence with them in a very tangible way. For all of those who say they need God to show himself to them before they will believe, There is a whole nation who saw him and didn’t continue to believe and follow him regularly. I am sure the same would be true today where people would want “on-demand” demonstrations that he is still there to hold their belief in check. I can see why God went the route of faith without seeing.
In Galatians Paul talks about how Christ fulfilled the law and that our relationship with God is finally made right through belief instead of trying to keep the law perfectly which was impossible to do from the start. So it is by grace through faith in Christ that we are finally able to have relationship with God and actually have the Holy Spirit living within us to guide and direct us. What an incredible gift especially in light of how it was before Christ came. I am not grateful enough for all this means for me especially in light of the fact that all of the prophets and those who loved God who came before us, longed to see the day in which I live.
Lord, thank you for what you did for me in the life, work, death, and resurrection of your Son. Please help me to live in such a way that I am at least displaying in some imperfect way, the love you have for others. Make me a man that others can point to and say at least he is trying. Amen.
blog comments powered by Disqus