The danger of compromise

 

A sentence has caught my attention in the book of Numbers: “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!"” (Nu 11:4, ESV) And in this sentence, I  was particularly drawn by the word rabble. The KJV has the “mixed multitude” instead.

A rabble is a bunch of things of little value, a gathering of worthless people. Who then is this mixed multitude, this rabble that seem to have initiated a movement of lust?

The Contemporary English Version reads: “One day some worthless foreigners among the Israelites became greedy for food, and even the Israelites themselves began moaning, "We don't have any meat!” And the Good News Bible, “There were foreigners traveling with the Israelites. They had a strong craving for meat, and even the Israelites themselves began to complain: "If only we could have some meat!”

Indeed, when the children of Israel left Egypt, a mixed multitude also went up with them (Ex 12:38). This is the multitude of foreigners and disreputable people who is being referred to as a rabble in Numbers 11.

These people aroused false desires within the Israelites in the same way that the serpent of old also aroused false desires in our first parents. We must be very careful what enters our ears: what we listen to might very well lead us astray. I would not be surprised to find out one day that it is this same rabble that suggested the idea of the golden calf (Ex 32.1-4). They were used to having gods that they could see; and one of them was Apis, the sacred bull, the herald of the creator god Ptah. It is therefore highly possible that thinking Moses -the herald of the Creator God of the Hebrews- had died on the mountain, they could have meant well by proposing to continue the journey with Apis, another harbinger of the coming of a creator god. And if you add to this the fact that a bull was also used in Egypt to represent a king who had become a deity after his death, you understand that it could have been their own way of honoring Moses: a man-god. But hey, that's another story…

The apostle Paul said: A little leaven leavens the whole lump; and also: Bad company ruins good morals. (1Cor 5:6 & 15:33). This is exactly what happened in Numbers 11. That's why, before entering the Promised Land, God warned the people saying: “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim... Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.” And, “But you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.” (Ex 34:11-16, Deut 20:17-18)

Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land… Amos asks: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” Could the children of Israel walk with that rabble without prior agreement to do so? No. And yet, the Lord had not told them to associate themselves with them.

There is great danger in believing that we can easily manage the presence of bad company. If God has not specially sent (and equipped) us to hang around with such crowds, we won’t be those changing them but their leaven will definitely leaven our lumps. That’s why the Lord was so radical in His instructions to the Israelites.

There is a real danger in tolerating the presence of ''small'' or ''cute'' sins in our lives. Compromise is a slow and subtle but effective venom. Let’s not assume we are stronger than we really are. Those things are snares that will make us imitate pagan worships and idolatrous practices. Dear friends, sin is sin, regardless of the perfume, the shoes or the clothing that we make it wear. If you reach out to the devil with your hand, he will eat your arm.

Is there anything in your life that you know that the Lord of glory would not like to find there? We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and we have been called to holiness i.e. to separation: let’s drive the thieves and the merchants out of the Temple.

May GOD give you grace and bless you,

Have an excellent week!

Attracting God’s Glory

 

I would like to share a few pearls gathered from the book of Exodus with you today. They are four keys that will help us to attract the glory of GOD in what we do. It is written indeed that Moses, “erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” (Ex 40:33-34)

Then the cloud covered the tent…: covered the tent i.e., covered the work that Moses had finished. Then the cloud covered the tent… and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle… Then… In other words, something happened before that was necessary. What was decisive in the fact that the glory of GOD came to rest on what had been done?

1) Moses withdrew to the mountain (Ex 24:12-18)

We need to know how to cut off from everything and run away from distractions in order to ascend to GOD in prayer. Moses stayed 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain; but for the first 6 days, nothing was happening; the radio was silent and it is only on the 7th day that GOD finally called him. This also speaks to us about patience. People have stayed for hours without grumbling in waiting rooms before being received by Heads of States. But when it comes to GOD, nobody wants to wait. You don’t hurry GOD; if you are really serious about hearing Him, you'll have to wait in His antechamber.

2) Moses received clear instructions regarding all he had to do

“See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” (Ex 25:40). There was a pattern to look at and to see; and this pattern was on the mountain only. Therefore, we must first ensure that we have truly SEEN what we wish to do in GOD and with GOD.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD, and the Word was GOD. » If our work is from the beginning with GOD and in GOD, it will not fail to become “God.” Meaning, it will not fail to be covered by the cloud and to be so saturated by GOD’s glory that whosoever would have seen it would have in a way, ‘seen GOD’ (since the whole thing would be totally covered by and submersed in GOD). Moses saw the tabernacle that was with GOD before erecting his own. Indeed, the letter to the Hebrews refers to a true, greater and more perfect tabernacle and sanctuary not made with hands, which Christ entered into and whose pattern was given to Moses on the mountain (9:11, 9:24, 8:5).

3) Moses did all that he had been asked to.

From Exodus 39:43 to Exodus 40:32, it is repeated nine times that: “This, Moses did; according to ALL that the Lord commanded him, so he did.” ALL. He did not leave any detail out; he dared not consider any of them as insignificant or ridiculous. And GOD had paid so much attention to details even to the point of indicating the number of clasps to use for the curtains! How many of us would have minded or even noticed that precision? We would have certainly been many to overlook this ''triviality.'' But Moses carefully listened to ALL the orders of the LORD (he received them in his heart), fully and faithfully transmitted them, and made sure they were executed to the letter. The work done, Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them (Ex 39:43). The blessing followed the conformity of the work to the vision, to the instructions. 

4) Moses completed the work.

The Bible says that the end of something is better than its beginning. The proverb adds, “Slow and steady wins the race.” Which is better translated from French into: “There is no need to run; one must leave on time.” Moses went to the end of what GOD asked him to do. The work started and probably lasted for many months. Yet, Moses didn’t just complete the work for the sake of it: he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar himself, and set up the screen of the gate of the court before relaxing at last. What happened next? Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Ex 40:34). The cloud did not come down before the curtain of the gate of the court was set; GOD’s glory did not descend before the final touch was made. The Kabod was such that Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Ex 40:35).

Today we want to see the glory of God without paying the price that Moses had to pay for it to come down. And besides, when Moses was busy obeying, he had no idea what awaited him after his obedience. He simply followed the instructions and orders of the LORD. “Come up to Me on the mountain”: he went up, without knowing that it was going to last 40 days and 40 nights and that he would have to go back because the sin of the people would make him break the first tables of the Law. “Make it after the pattern that was shown to you”: he complied. I am not even sure that he was aware he was reproducing a heavenly thing on earth; maybe he thought it was simply a vision… Moses blessed the workers (and the children of Israel) because they had thoroughly obeyed the command of the LORD. As for us, we want GOD to bless our enterprises, while we have not bothered doing things the way He wants. We bring our "masterpieces" to Him and ask Him to bless and cover them with His glory, instead of going up to Him to receive our assignments from Him along with the related instructions. May God help us!

If you really want to see the Kabod on your life, your work, on everything you do and on all that concerns you, then: stop what you are doing; go back to scratch; go up to HIM with two tablets of stone and stay up there as long as necessary. Only come down after He has engraved the Law (His guidance) on them. Then, apply yourself to execute them carefully and do not give up; but persevere to the end and finish what you have started. Finally, this done, take a step back, present your work to the LORD of glory and watch as the cloud comes down and rests on it.

God bless you.

The sacrifice of Isaac (2)

 

In order to understand what follows better, it is important to read last week’s article first: this is the 2nd part of the posting.

We continue with what walking in the steps of our father Abraham and doing his works mean in practice.

 

1) We must bring our Isaacs to the Lord:

We all have something that means the world to us: it is our only one, our beloved, our Isaac. We have something that represents God’s promise and the guarantee of our survival and survivorship. For Abraham, it was Isaac ; he represented the continuity of his name, the transmission of all that for which he had laboured so hard for. We have something that we have desired above everything else and that the Lord has finally given us after months or years of galley: it can be a spouse, a job, a career, a contract, a business, money, fame, a child, a house, a church, a car, an object, it can even be your faith! That’s what happened to Peter in Acts 10 when he was asked to kill and eat unclean beasts. In short, it is a passion. It is currently the biggest success of our lives (our values change and so do our Isaacs); but God wants to test us for us to know whether that thing has taken His place in our heart. If we were asked directly, we would all be offended and would all say no. But what would we do if He would ask us back what He has given us Himself? Would we still be able to keep on believing in His provision? If yes, then why is it so hard to give Him what is most precious to us? Why do we find all sorts of excuses not to sacrifice Isaac? We can sing our love and fear of God as hard as possible, even to the point of convincing ourselves; we can also drive all our Ishmaels away, but until we lay Isaac on the altar, we will not yet have passed the test of the fear (i.e. a holy reverence) and a sincere love of God. It is only then that we would have really offered ourselves unto the Lord and that we will be able to say: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things… that I may gain Christ… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings…” (Phil 3:7-10)

 

2) We must be priests who offer their children as burnt offerings to the Lord.

If we truly love our children as Abraham loved Isaac, then we must take them with us to the land of Moriah –the land of visions- and climb individually with them (each of them is unique) on the mount of prayer in order to offer them bound –that is bound by the Spirit (Ac 20:22)- to the Lord of glory. We must offer them in sacrifice after having offered ourselves. How can we say that we love them and want their utmost good when we are sometimes incredibly tolerant vis-à-vis their behavior and sins? We find it normal when our young teenagers of sons go from one girlfriend to the other. Sometimes, we even encourage them to make sure that they are manly enough. We buy our daughters suggestive and ‘sexy’ fashionable clothes so that they will not feel awkward amongst their friends. We let them behave anyhow in the presence of God. We plunge them into the consumer society by buying them all sorts of gadgets or by offering them the constant spectacle of parents whose eyes are always bigger than their stomach; and then we wonder that the love of the world has so filled their hearts that there is no place left inside for the Lord. May God help us!

Abraham and Isaac went up together: we must be partners of our children in their spiritual growth and ascension. And once up there, at the place of convocation, we must bind them (by the Spirit), lay them on the altar and slaughter them: kill their old nature. They must get up from that altar changed, transformed by the blood of the replacement Lamb that God would have sent to be slaughtered at their place.

 

There are so many things I wish I could add; but this is enough. If you are thirsty, the Spirit of God will continue to deepen some of the revelations that I have barely grazed here.

I will simply end with this: Everything started in the land of Moriah, “the land of visions” and when Abraham died, the Bible says that God blessed Isaac who had settled at Beer-lahai-roi (Gen 25:11): the well of the Living One seeing me, “the well of the vision.” Think about it…

 

May God bless you and give you the grace to obey Him.

The sacrifice of Isaac

 

I would like us to stop and ponder today on one of the most profound and most mysterious passages of the Holy Scriptures: that of the sacrifice of Isaac.

Gen 22:1-14, “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided."

After these things: That is after God had requested that he should get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Now, God puts Abraham to test. In other words, chasing his first son away, his very flesh and blood, without knowing whether he was ever going to see him again was not considered as a test as yet from God’s point of view. The real thing was just about to start… 

God calls Abraham and asks him to go to the land of Moriah [i.e. ‘‘seen of Jah (God)’’, ‘‘gazed of Jah’’ or, ‘‘chosen by Jah’’] and offer his son as a burnt offering there. But it was not just any son; it was his ‘‘only son,’’ to emphasize the fact that Abraham really had to forget Ishmael; he was no longer counting: he now had one son only. So God asks him to sacrifice that only son whom he loves and knowing that Abraham loved his two boys –hence his reluctance to let Ishmael go- and could have gone to seek for the elder; but in order to remove any possible doubt on his mind, the Lord adds: Isaac. 

So, here is a man who is about to see everything that was very dear to him disappear in no time. Abraham had resigned himself to die without children; He had even made arrangements to make his most faithful servant, his heir. It was fine until the day God came to 'disturb his peace' by promising him an heir out of his loins. Abraham then became father of two sons. And now, only a few years after the birth of the long-awaited son, God asks Abraham to kill him! I don’t think that he even thought for a moment that it was the devil who was tempting him; because he had heard God’s voice many times before then and knew it. But like Jeremiah, he could have said: “O Lord, you have deceived (enticed) me, and I was deceived (enticed); you (have laid hold of me) are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. » A French version has: “You have persuaded me O Lord, and I was persuaded…” (Jer. 20:7) In other words, “I should have never got myself involved with this business. If I had refused, I would not be going through the pain of losing two sons. You have flashed something sublime at me and now, You are taking it away.” And many of us would have added: “What have I done to deserve this?”

But this was just the beginning. Abraham obeyed and took the child and for 3 days, he had to behave normally and pretend that everything was fine in order to guard against any suspicion. During those 3 days, he had to behold and enjoy the company of the one that he was going to sacrifice, certainly visualizing the future scene over and over again in his head. Many would have turned and gone back home. I can neither imagine the moral torture that was his; nor can I help admiring his exceptional strength of character and his extraordinary self-control.

After departing from his servants, they went both of them together: they communed. Indeed, « Can two walk together unless they are agreed? » (Amos 3:3, MKJV) They went both of them together: but in reality, they were more than two; for where two or three are gathered in His Name (they were going to worship Him), He is in the midst of them… (Mat 18.20)

They went both of them together and Isaac says: “My father!” and Abraham answers: “My son…” Simple words, but filled with an inexpressible love and tenderness. Simple words which had often transported Abraham with joy, but which are now hurting as deep as the nails of the crucifixion.

After reassuring Isaac that God was going to provide a lamb for Himself, Abraham binds him, lays him on the altar and is about to cut his throat when the Angel of the Lord stops him from heaven. Abraham would have gone through because “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.” (Heb 11:19) Indeed, he had already had to hope against hope, believe without weakening in his faith and had seen God resurrect -so to say- his fertility and his wife’s (Rom 4:18-19).

In any case, after presenting God with the perfect burnt offering of a sacrificial obedience, the Angel (and not God) told Abraham: “Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” At another time, another angel (a fallen one this time) who thought Job’s love for God was not free of interest, received the permission to harass him; but after taking away his wealth, his children and his health, he had to yield to the evidence that Job as well, feared the Lord.

The Bible encourages us to imitate the faith of our father Abraham and do his works (Rom 4:12, Jn 8:39). What does it mean in practice?

To be continued…

 

God bless you!