Weekly Devotion

God told Moses that He will bring the Israelites into the Promised Land and that He will destroy all the inhabitants living there now. Why will He destroy them? Because they were evil in His sight and they worshiped detestable gods. And how will He destroy them? He will destroy them through the Israelites. They were to go into the Promised Land and not make any treaties with the people and they had to totally conquer them and destroy all their gods. They were not allowed to let these people live among them lest they turn their hearts away from God.

"You must serve only the Lord your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water and I will keep you healthy." Exodus 24:25

God wanted them to serve Him only and to have nothing to do with those living in the land at that time. In fact He ordered them to totally destroy them.

Today as Christians we also live amongst the 'Canaanites' of old, people who are evil and who worship modern idols and gods. And we should learn a lesson from what God told the Israelites to do. He said they should not mix with them and they should not worship their idols. Now today we are not at liberty to destroy them as He told the Israelites they should, as we know that judgment is Jesus', not ours. But we need to make sure that we don't mix with them.

Now let me explain what I mean by not mixing. The Bible teaches us to love our enemies and do good to them, that means the 'Canaanites' of our society too. We should live by example and we should preach the gospel to them when the time is right. We work and live amongst them and we should be an example to them. Paul states this clearly:

"You must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven." Philippians 1:27

But, the Bible clearly states that we should choose our friends wisely and we should marry to fellow believers, because if we don't, the chances are that they would drag us down and not the other way around. It is much easier to pull someone standing on a wall from the wall, than to pull someone up a wall. We can easily be influenced by them.

I found that to be so true in my own life. I worked alongside many unbelievers and at a time I not only worked with them, but I hang out with them after work too. We became close friends and after a while my morale started slipping. I started to think that the worldly things that they were doing were okay and not so bad. It didn't touch me as much as it used to, and you know what, my relationship with God deteriorated. It was only when I took another job that I realized how much they had influenced me instead of the other way around. And you can see it with the Israelites too. We all know how they didn't destroy all the Canaanites in the land and how they allowed them to influence them, so much so that the Israelites started to worship their gods instead of the only true God and King! And that was their downfall.

We need to choose our friends and spouse wisely. A believer and an unbeliever cannot pull at the same yoke together, some time or another they will influence your relationship with God and that is not worth it. Let the unbeliever see God in your life and if they repent and become a believer too, wonderful! But if they decide that the world and what it offers is too alluring for them make sure that you don't spend too much time with them. Remember, we are from this world, but we are not of it. We are citizens of heaven and we need to act like it.

Father, thank you for all the unbelievers You place in our paths to share the Gospel with. But help us to discern when we should mix with them and share the Gospel and when not to. You are infinitely wise and thank you that we can trust You to help us. In Jesus' Name. Amen

I was about to continue with my series of Moses today, but the Holy Spirit gently nudged me to write something else for Easter. So what I am about to write comes directly from Him to you in this wonderful Easter time.

Easter and Christmas is the only two holidays kept by the majority of countries. Even if they don't celebrate it for the right reasons, they have a public holiday on these two occasions. And I think that is amazing! Jesus is the only human being who ever lived whose birth and death is commemorated. That is really a testimony to His greatness. And as we celebrate Easter this weekend we need to focus again on Who He was and what He did for us.

By His death He opened the way of salvation to us all, He joined the Gentiles and believing Israel into one family, He set us free from the power of sin, He created a new person inside us all who believe, He formed us as part of His Body, He paid the blood price for His Bride and He took the punishment of sin upon Himself and opened the way for us all into the very presence of God the Father. He did this all because He loved us and still loves us.

And today I experience that the Holy Spirit wants us to focus on all this this Easter, but especially on the fact that Jesus is alive! He is really and truly alive! He rose on the third day from the grave and He appeared in His glorified Body to several of His disciples and followers. There was no denying that He did in fact rose from the grave. And we need to focus on that and be excited for all that lies ahead for us because He did.

Because Jesus is alive, we will be alive forevermore. We can experience heaven today, because we are part of the Body of Christ Who are seated at the right hand of God the Father. Because He is alive we can look forward to a King reigning in a Kingdom without end. We can look forward to a life without heartache, without sickness, without tears and without pain. We can look forward with excitement to a life without injustice and without corruption and poverty. We can look forward to the wedding of all ages, because Christ, our Bridegroom, is alive!

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on His shoulders. These will be His royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this!" Isaiah 9:6,7

I feel an excitement welling up inside of me and I hope you do to when you read this. Jesus is alive and He is going to reign forevermore! He will have the government on His shoulders and we can be certain that He will be fair and kind. But more than that we are His faithful Bride and He will tenderly love us forever and ever. He longs for that day and so should we! It is going to be a glorious day. And therefore we need to pray along with the Lord's prayer that 'Thy Kingdom come' and also pray along with the second last verse of the Bible:

"Jesus who is the faithful witness to all these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon!" Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!" Revelation 22:20

Amen! Come Lord Jesus! Let thy Kingdom come! We love You and we long for You to come and take over. We know that Your reign is good and fair and we cannot wait for that day! Help us to be the faithful Bride that You desire. Amen

God wants us to live honorable lives. He wants us to love one another and to reach out to one another, to exalt and to lift up, not to destroy. God's intention is so clear when you read the laws that He explained to Moses. And one that I would like to stand still on today is the following:

"Do not pass along false reports. Do not cooperate with evil people by telling lies on the witness stand." Exodus 23:1

God doesn't want us to harm one another unnecessarily. He doesn't want us to spread rumors and He doesn't want us to participate in lies spread about our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we hear about rumors He wants us to squelch them, not spread them.

Gossip is truly a spiritual cancer in our day. Just look at the big news it makes when a celebrity does something wrong/ or there is a rumor of misconduct on their side. I have heard of programs on television, where celebrities are judged and analyzed according to their conduct and people love watching it! They live for magazines spreading all the dirt on those who are famous. They can't wait to read it.

But unfortunately not only celebrities have rumors spread about them, but everywhere we go people spread rumors about people they know. I have found that no matter where you worked or lived, people tend to spread bad things about others. And before you know it, you are in the middle of a conversation like that. What is our responsibility as a Christian? Well, first of all don't spread the rumor any further. And secondly, try and stir the conversation unto another subject/ excuse yourself from the conversation. God wants us to build up one another, not tear down.

But it is very difficult, I know. I battle with this myself. And through this battle I have asked myself when is something gossip and when is something simply telling what happened to someone else? When is talking about someone a bad thing to do and when is it simply conveying facts that happened? And I think we can follow the following three things as guidelines:

1. Is it up building and positive towards the person you are talking about? For example you tell of someone who won a competition. If it is not up building, then stop.
2. Is it merely facts you are conveying, for example, poor Stacy's car was stolen from the shopping mall? If it is merely facts, then it is okay.
3. Would you still feel comfortable in telling the story if the person you are talking about was in the room with you? If yes, then it is okay.

This morning God reminded me of scripture in Philippians 4:8:

"Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

And if you fix your thoughts on these good things listed above, you will automatically tend to speak only of the good in others too. And you will tend to want to leave/switch off the television when evil is spoken of others. God doesn't condone gossiping and the Holy Spirit inside of us certainly doesn't either. And if we want to be happy and at peace with God, we can't condone it and we certainly can't participate in it!

Father God, please forgive us for giving in to our culture and gossiping about other people. We are sorry. Please give us the strength not to give in to the pressure again. In Jesus' Name. Amen

God is giving and explaining His law to Moses in detail at Mount Sinai. And what is interesting to note is that God is in favor of restitution, in other words correcting a wrong and He is also concerned about people's well being. Two things I would like to highlight today are the following:

"Do not oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt." Exodus 22:21

"Do not exploit widows and orphans. If you do and they cry out to Me, then I will surely help them." Exodus 22:22

God cares for everyone and hates it when people are misused for their unfortunate position. Since we live in a global world, where traveling is so easy, we find many foreigners living amongst us. And we need to ask ourselves, how are we treating them? Are we nice to them? Are we exploiting them and misusing their desperate situation for our own gain? Or are we forthcoming and try to help where we can? God wants us to be His hands and feet towards them and help them to see His love in action.

The same goes for widows. Now I know today woman are able to work and to support themselves, it is not dire straits for a widow like it was in Moses' day. But I think it would be nice to reach out to those widows who either can't find a work/ or to those widows who have enough money, but are extremely lonely after their husband's passed away. Try to include them in activities and help them where possible.

God has a special heart for orphans too. As a Father, He knows how devastating it could be for poor orphans. Try and reach out to them too, even if it is only by donating to a foster home/ or by treating the orphans you do know with the respect and dignity they deserve.

God cares for us all and He wants a society where we care for one another too. That is why Jesus said the biggest commandment is to love God with all your heart and all your soul. And the second biggest commandment is to love your neighbor. Let's make a renewed effort to look at those around us with new eyes and to see them as valuable human beings, just like God sees them.

We need to follow Paul's advice:

"Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing." Philippians 2:4

Father, we are so guilty. Please forgive us that we don't look at other people the way that You look at them. Please help us to see them as You see them and to help wherever You have placed it on our hearts. Thank you Lord. Amen

God gave the Israelites the ten commandments at Mount Sinai. His presence scared the Israelites and they begged Moses to ask God not to speak to them again. God then spoke to Moses and gave him several instructions to give to the people. One was that they shouldn't make elaborate altars when they worshipped and made sacrifices to Him.

"The altars you make for Me must be simple altars of earth. Offer on such altars your sacrifices to Me - your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Build altars in the place where I remind you who I am, and I will come and bless you there. If you build altars from stone, use only uncut stones." Exodus 20:24, 25

The reason why God instructed them in this way is because God knew their frail hearts. God had to teach them from scratch how to worship Him as they had no guidelines up to this point. He also knew that if they made elaborate altars, sooner or later they will start worshipping the altar instead of Him. This certainly happened not long after this when they made an idol of gold and worshipped it, but we will get to that. God wanted them to focus their attention on Him and not on what was in front of them. They were even forbidden to cut the stones, for in case they took all the glory for themselves and prided themselves in their handiwork.

Today we need to watch out to be too elaborate in our worship of God that we tend to forget all about Him. Jesus warns against this too in the parable of the two men who prayed. One was a Pharisee. He was so proud of all that he did for God. He stood in the temple and prayed an elaborate prayer for all to hear. In contrast the tax collector stood at a distance and couldn't even lift his eyes up to heaven. All he did was to beat against his chest and ask God for forgiveness for his sins. And Jesus said:

"I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored." Luke 18:14

Humble yourself before God and focus on Him. Don't pray elaborate prayers just to impress the person next to you, but pray to God out of the depths of your heart. God doesn't want elaborate worship, He wants worship out of a humble heart. That is worth more than all the gold in the world.

Dear Father, please forgive us our sins. Forgive us if we tend to think we have 'made it' in Your sight. We are Your humble servants and we love You. In Jesus' Name. Amen

The Lord spoke to the Israelites at Mount Sinai and they were scared to bits! They trembled with fear and immediately rushed to Moses and told them that the Lord must stop talking to them! He must rather speak to Moses. Now as I discussed last week they were wrong in asking Moses to tell the Lord to stop talking to them. God wanted to speak to them and today He wants to speak to us too.

But another thing stood out for me when I read this. If anything, the Israelites definitely were not blasé with God and about God. They had the necessary reverence for God and His holy character. And I think we have lost something of that today. I have often heard people speaking very blasé about God as if He was their best next door buddy. How God told them this and that, and how God had shown them everything about the future and how God always answers their prayers immediately and how He moves when they pray etc etc. I think we have all met someone like that or seen them speaking from pulpits/at seminars.

I think we have lost a bit of the awe of God that is such a precious part of our relationship with Him. In our day and age with everything happening instantly, we also reduce God to Someone who needs to respond instantly too. When I hear people speaking like they and God are bosom buddies, I look to the Bible and I see that people who really met the Lord were definitely not blasé about it, they fell like dead to the ground! Let's look at only three examples of great people of God:

"When I saw God, I fell face down in the dust." Ezekiel 1:28

"When I saw Jesus, I fell at his feet as dead." Revelation 1:17

And when Daniel saw a vision from God and heard Gabriel speaking to him:

"My strength left me, my face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. When I heard him speak, I fainted and lay there with my face tot the ground." Daniel 10:8, 9

They had reverence and a healthy fear of the Lord, after all, the Bible tells us that 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'. Now I am not suggesting that we all fall to the ground every time we hear God's voice through His Word, but I think we need to have a healthy reverence for God again and not treat Him as our equal.

God is holy and He is worthy to be praised! We need to treat Him with the respect He wholeheartedly deserves!

Forgive us Father when we tend to treat You like our next door neighbor. Please forgive us for reducing You to our level. You are holy and You are worth praising forever more. We love You Lord. Amen

At Mount Sinai God spoke to the Israelites directly from the mountain. There He gave them the ten commandments. He spoke to them directly from the mountain. And instead of a feeling of awe and wonder, the Israelites trembled with fear.

"When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the horn, and when they saw the lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. And they said to Moses, "You tell us what God says, and we will listen. But don't let God speak directly to us. If He does, we will die!" Exodus 20:18, 19

The people were scared to bits and basically begged Moses not to let the Lord speak to them again. They were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, communicating with their God, but they didn't want to, they preferred that someone else hear His message on behalf of them.

As I have discussed before, we are a kingdom of priests too. We are priests who are able to hear God's Voice and to hear His direction for our lives. We can hear it ourselves. But I think a lot of us pass the buck and rather ask other people to hear on our behalf. I know lovely Christians who drive from one Christian counselor to another, to hear what God wants to tell them about their lives and about their present situations, rather than hearing from God themselves.

I was like that too. I wanted to know what God wanted me to do and when I heard of someone that people say gave them a prophecy or Word from God, I was there! I desperately wanted messages from God! It was only when one of the counselors told me that I need to hear from God myself, that I realized that it was true. We all have the capability to hear God's Voice. How? Through His Word, through spending time alone with Him, by keeping a journal, through dreams or even by receiving a word/prophecy from someone else.

Yes, you can receive a word or a prophecy from someone else too, but don't let them be your first 'stop'. Let God speak to you first and only then ask for confirmation from other people. There is nothing wrong with asking other people, but don't give up your authority as a priest. Go to God first and the more you do, the clearer His voice will become. Otherwise you might just end up like the Israelites, with God only speaking to Moses and not speaking to them.

Father God, please help us to hear Your voice loud and clear. Forgive us if we prefer to hear more clearly from friends and counselors instead of from You. We want to hear from You. Thank you Lord that You have given us the ability to do just that. Amen

God made a covenant with Israel that they will be His very own possession, His kingdom of priests, if they will obey Him and keep His covenant. Moses brought the message to the people and they answered:

'They all responded together. "We will certainly do everything the Lord asks of us." Exodus 19:8

Without wavering and without thinking it through, they agreed to follow God and to obey Him. It is lovely when you think about it, but the problem is that they were not sincere and they didn't obey Him going forward. In fact they frequently overstepped the boundaries set for them and it cost them dearly.

Making a rash promise to God is a common theme in the Bible and the Lord warns us against it. Don't do it, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don't make promises to God. Because if you do, God expects you to keep them.

For example one of Israel's judges, Jephtah made a rash vow to God. He promised God that if God will give him victory over the Ammonites he will sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house when he returned to the Lord as a burnt offering. Unfortunately for Jephtah, the first thing that greeted him when he came back from the battle was his daughter, his only child. How sad! He didn't have to make a vow to God, God would have helped him even if he didn't. But now he did make such a rash vow and how he regretted it!

Have you made a promise to God? Or have you made a commitment to Him? And if you did, are you keeping to it or are you bargaining with Him when it becomes uncomfortable?

I once made a promise to God. I was doing a Service year of Christ and I promised that I would read my Bible and spend time with Him every morning and every evening before I went to bed, for that whole year. Now it was very easy at the beginning. During our 12 weeks of training we had scheduled times with God. So it was very easy to keep to my promise because it was scheduled into our program. But once we started to move out and to travel the whole country proclaiming His Name to all the schools we went to, it became increasingly difficult for me. It wasn't as easy as before, because now I had to get up earlier as the rest, to read my Bible. I also had to stay up later than the others to read my Bible even if we returned home at midnight after a hectic day of ministering to others. It was very difficult for me. God never told me to make the promise, but once I did, He expected me to keep it. I had a reverent fear of the Lord and I did keep to the promise, but it was very difficult and I was sorry that I made it.

We need to keep to our end of the 'bargain'. We are treading on dangerous ground if we make rash promises to God. Don't do it. But if you want to, think of the consequences and stick to it, God will certainly bless you for it. But at the end of the day, rather spend time with God because you want to and not because you made a promise, or rather trust God than making a promises trying to 'twist His arm' to do something for you in return. Rather treat God as Holy, because He is!

Forgive us Lord if we make rash promises to You and then do not keep it. Please forgive us. Rather help us to trust in You. Amen

The Israelites were camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. There Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. God here reaffirms the promise He had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He tells Moses:

"Now if you will obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own special treasure from among all the nations of the earth; for all the earth belongs to Me. And you will be My kingdom of priests, My holy nation." Exodus 19:5, 6

How lovely. If they will obey Him, they will be His own special treasure and a kingdom of priests. All of them, every single one. The problem is, we know that God later instituted the Levitical priesthood in Israel, where not everyone was priests, but only those who descended down from Levi. Why did this happen? Well, simple really, the Israelites corrupted God's plan and worshipped golden calves the minute Moses turned his back. They didn't obey God, but rather made a god for themselves, a god they could control. How sad! They all had the opportunity to be priests, but they didn't want it.

But glory to Jesus! Due to His coming, the Levitical priesthood has been made obsolete, and a new kingdom of priests has risen. Us! How exciting! Listen to Peter:

"You are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's Holy nation, His very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Wonderful! We are priests of the Most High. I wonder how often we think about it. We know we are children of God, but we don't often think about being priests of God. We have the ability now to approach God in His throne room and actually talk to Him. We don't need to go to other people to get a revelation for us, no, we can get a revelation on our own. We have the authority to minister to the people of God, to help them on their spiritual journey and to aid others that are new in Christ. And as Peter says, we are priests to show others the goodness of God. Live a life above reproach and draw people from the darkness into the light. We need to be an example to them of God's loving care.

We need to stand up as priests and not wait for literal 'priests' to do the job we are called to! We are a kingdom of priests, God's very own possession.

We praise You Father for the position You have given us. Please help us and guide us on the right path. Help us to be Your light to a world of darkness. In Jesus Name. Amen

Whilst the Israelites were camped close to the mountain of the Lord, Moses alone handled all the conflicts of the people. He alone heard their cases and presented them before God to hear His answer and verdict. Can you imagine the burden that was on Moses? He alone had to handle all the disputes of two million people! That must have been grueling and extremely tiresome. I wonder if Moses ever had time to do anything else except listen to disputes all day long. The Bible says that the people were lined up in front of him from morning till evening.

Luckily Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, saw this desperate situation:

"This is not good! You're wearing yourself out - and the people too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself." Exodus 18:17, 18

Moses was quickly on his way to a nervous breakdown. No one would be able to bear a burden like that. Jethro was wise, and I believe inspired by God, to tell Moses to delegate his workload. He told Moses to appoint capable, honest men in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty and ten to handle the disputes of the people and only to approach Moses with the important/ difficult cases. Moses' time could then be freed to focus on more important, strategic issues and to seek God's face concerning the future of Israel.

Moses listened to his father-in-law and did exactly what he suggested. It is lovely to me that he did. He didn't consider himself too important to receive advice. No, he followed the advice and I personally think it saved him from getting totally worn out.

Sometimes we must be open to advice as well. We must never be too proud and think that we know it all, because we don't. We need other people's input; it might just save us a lot of heart ache. Plus don't be too attached to your position of authority that you don't want to share your workload with anyone else. God doesn't expect any of us to carry a weight above what we can bear. Our human bodies are frail and sooner or later will show the signs of overload. God cannot use us to the optimum if we are burnt out.

He wants to use us for certain responsibilities and if you don't share it, not only will you burn out; you will deny other people the opportunity to be part of a team for God. Don't be selfish, because at the end of the day not only you will suffer, but the work of God will suffer too. No, listen to sound biblical advice and share your burden with others, in order for you to be able to focus on God and all He has in store for you.

Dear Father, please forgive us if we think we are too important to receive advice/to delegate our work to others. We want to be free to worship You and have time to walk on the path You have prepared for us. Thank you Lord. Amen