18 April 2012

Psalm 119:1-24; Exod. 15:22-16:10; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; John 15:1-11

It didn’t take long to go from worship to grumbling did it?  The complaint, however, is legitimate, they need water for the animals and themselves, it isn’t wrong to expect God to provide for their needs since He is the one who called them to this place.  The grumbling, however, is misdirected, it is against Moses, they haven’t learned who provides.  The Lord miraculously provides fresh water from bitter and then gives a very strange promise or statute, that if they will obey Him they will not experience any of the diseases of the Egyptians.  Where did that come from?  It seems like a non-sequitur, having no apparent connection with the provision of water.  The Lord healed the waters and just as He healed the waters He would heal them, they are learning that everything is connected.  They surely would have been happy remaining at the oasis of Elim but they had to move on.  The next “crisis” that precipitates grumbling is the issue of food, a wandering people can’t grow food for themselves so the Lord will have to provide and yet the people grumble against Moses and Aaron at their lack.  Moses begins here to point away from himself and realize the grumbling is against God.  They are about to begin receiving their daily bread directly from Him.

The key to life is abiding in Jesus.  Without the Holy Spirit that honestly isn’t possible.  He abides in the Father and we see the results, power, peace, wisdom and knowledge of people and truth.  Who wouldn’t want those things?  Much is possible if we will but abide in Him rather than taking life into our own hands.  Humility, the realization that everything in life, every encounter, is fraught with possibilities we cannot even imagine and that in order to navigate life well requires Him to reveal those possibilities, is the key to abiding.  The sooner we realize that in all things He can be glorified the sooner we will begin to desire to see that happen and then we will abide well. 

Some days I wonder if there would be anything left of me if I put away deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  Peter is saying that the church is called to be the Israel of God, ascribing the same duties and honors to the Christian church as applied to Israel in the Old Testament.  Does that mean that we have replaced the Jews in God’s heart?  The true Israel has never been the nation as a whole, that has always been God’s desire, but not the reality.  The true Israel are those fully submitted to Him and seeking after Him.  We have been given the Holy Spirit in order to enable and encourage us to do those things.  Our call is to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, not only with our lips but also with our lives.  The world trades in things like deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, it needs to see that there is another way.  Let us indeed put away all those things by the power of the Holy Spirit that we might become a people who know peace and contentment in the one who provides.

Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use Thy folds prepare.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus! Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.