Do God's bidding as you receive it

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching the blog archives for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. As you read, I encourage you to record any reflections or comments you may have, for the entries here serve best as the first remarks in a conversation.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Devotions: Ps 87, 90, 136; Num 13:31-14:25; Rom 3:9-20; Mt 19:1-12

God loves Jerusalem; He chose it as His special place on planet earth, and to be a native of Jerusalem is a great blessing. It is the wellspring of song, dance and worship! YHWH Himself is my Dwelling Place—God forever, Creator, Master, Redeemer, Protector. God is eternal, and an eon is a moment to Him; we mortals are like dust, like short-lived grass, flourishing and fading in a day. Lord, we are consumed by Your anger; You see all my sins, and I quaver under Your holiness. My days pass under judgment, and my years come to an end like a sigh; my life is toil and trouble, brief and soon gone. So teach me, Holy One, to number my days, that I may gain a wise heart. Bring Your steadfast love this morning, Father; make me glad as many days as You have afflicted me. Let Your work and Your character be manifest to all Your servants, Your glory and power to Your children, and establish the work of our hands! Let all God’s people give thanks to YHWH, for He is good and His steadfast love endures forever. He is God of gods, Lord of lords; He does great wonders; His understanding created all the cosmos, and He has made the universe beautiful. He has chosen and delivered a people of His own, and through them, He has blessed all humankind. He remembers me in my low estate, rescues me from all my foes; He feeds and sustains me. Lord I am Yours; thank you for your steadfast, eternal love!

When Moses’s spies returned from reconnoitering Canaan, most reported that their project was hopeless. Joshua and Caleb dissented. But the people sided with the majority, and wept all night. They murmured against Moses and Aaron, and groaned that they wanted to return to bondage in Egypt. They were convinced that they would die in the futile attempt to conquer the land God had promised. Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the people, and Caleb and Joshua tore their clothes in protest. They repeated their finding: ‘The land is wonderful, and if YHWH delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us. Don’t rebel against YHWH; fear Him, not the people of the land: they are bread for us; YHWH has removed their protection and sided with us; do not fear them!’ But the congregation prepared to stone them! Then YHWH’s glory appeared at the Tent of Meeting, and YHWH addressed Moses: ‘How long will these people despise Me? I have shown them mighty signs of power and favor. Enough! I will strike them with a pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’ Moses interceded for the people, arguing that disowning Israel would harm God’s own reputation among the pagan nations. Moses called God’s own nature to His attention: ‘YHWH is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression. He will not clear the guilty, but bring the penalty for sins upon the third and fourth generations.’ Moses asked God to pardon the sin of the people because of God’s great love and forgiveness. And God pardoned and promised to fill the earth with His glory; He also decided that the unbelieving members of the Israel community, who had seen God’s glory and signs and yet denied His authority and trustworthiness—that these would fall in the wilderness and never see the land YHWH had promised to their ancestors. But Caleb would be spared, and he and his descendants would be among those to enter and possess the land. God sent the people on a new path, past the Red Sea and again into the wilderness.

Paul continued his discussion for the Romans: Are Jews better off than Gentiles? No; all mortals are under sin’s power; none is righteous, no one understands God. All have turned aside, all do wrong. Their throats are open graves; their tongues deceive; their lips drip poison, and their mouths overflow with curses and bitterness. They run to shed blood; their paths are ruin and misery, and they do not know the way of peace. There is no fear of God before them. We know that the law speaks to those who are under the law—so every mouth is stopped and the whole world is held accountable to God. No human being will be justified in God’s sight by works of the law; the law’s function is to bring consciousness and understanding of sin, and our sin predicament.

Great crowds followed Jesus wherever He went; when He left Judea for Trans-Jordan, they came to Him and He healed them there. Pharisees approached Jesus to test him. They asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ Jesus answered that as scripture testified, God created humans male and female and declared that ‘For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they two shall become one flesh.’ Jesus concluded: ‘Therefore, what God has joined, let no man put asunder.’ The Pharisees challenged this, citing Moses, who specified that a man can divorce his wife by giving her a certificate of divorce. Jesus answered that Moses had done this as a concession to the hardness of heart of the people, ‘but it was not like this from the beginning. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery.’ The disciples, hearing this, said to Jesus, ‘If this is the case, it seems expedient not to marry.’ Jesus replied, ‘Not all men can accept this saying—only those to whom it is addressed by God. There are eunuchs who have been so from birth; and there are those who have been castrated by men; and there men who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him receive all this who is able to receive it.’