Living Blessed
Perhaps
the greatest abuse of faith is the failure to use the resources
available to us through our relationship with God. God’s Word is filled
with His promises to those faithful to Him. Being faithful
means living in loving obedience to His commands. Yet, the vast
majority of those professing to believe in God do not read His Word or
study His Word to know His will. The saddest of all testimonies are the
testimonies of those that profess faith in Christ, but never seem to
get around to making His will for their lives the highest of their
priorities. There always seems to be something on their agendas that
come before what Christ wants them to do. The ultimate testimony of a
faith relationship with Christ is that His agenda for your life should
be your agenda for your life. If His agenda for your life is not your
agenda for your life, He is not your Lord in any practical sense of the
meaning of the word.
“9
Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes,
even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 10 The
mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water
passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high”
(Habakkuk 3:9-10).
Habakkuk
3:9-10 address the surety of the promises of God to the children of
Israel in the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was also known as
“the blessing and a curse” Covenant as defined by Deuteronomy 11:26. The
sad testimony of the thousands of years of the majority of Israel’s
history was that they seldom experienced the blessings of the Mosaic
Covenant because they were unfaithful to God’s commandments. This is
certainly true of most Christians as well. How readily and easily are
most believers “drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14).
“26
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A
blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I
command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the
commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I
command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known”
(Deuteronomy 11:26-28).
In
Habakkuk 3:9, God states “ Thy bow was made quite naked, according to
the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the
earth with rivers.” The point here is that God has unsheathed His bow
and is prepared to protect and defend Israel against her adversaries if
she will repent and be faithful to the Mosaic Covenant as she agreed. God
wants His children to know Him. He wants them to know Him personally,
intimately and accurately. God wants His children to obey and be
blessed.
God wants His children to live in the midst of His blessings.
This is His central purpose of the inspiration and giving of the
Scriptures. God wants believers to know His will and live according to
His will in loving obedience. Living in loving obedience is the supreme
expression of faith and trust in God. The child of God who truly loves
the Lord wants to know God’s will because he wants to worship and
praise His Redeemer with every action of his life. It is a sad
testimony when a person wants to be blessed more than wanting to be a
blessing. Have you ever considered that your purpose for existence is
to be a blessing to God and to others?
God
is consistent in everything He does because He is consistent in both
character and nature. The very nature and character of our loving God
is to be a blessing to those who believe and trust Him. God is
not evolving as the Emergent Church leaders are trying to tell us. God
loves righteousness and hates unrighteousness. God is not becoming
more tolerant of the practices He calls sin. Those practices that were
an abomination to Him from the beginning are still an abomination to Him
today. What ought to amaze us is that God tolerates any of us!
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).
Although
the believer is to live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4), faith is not intended
to be totally blind. Faith is intended to be intelligent and
knowledgeable about the way God works in His dealings with mankind,
especially in His dealings with His redeemed. Much of the Old
Testament is intent on revealing God’s pattern of dealing with both His
redeemed and the lost in various circumstances of life. Peter says
essentially the same thing as Habakkuk 3:9-10. In the midst of the
warning there is also the blessing of God’s protection of His redeemed.
“3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise
of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not. 4 For if God spared not the angels that
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world,
but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing
in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7 And
delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8
(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing,
vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to
reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 10 But
chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and
despise government” (II Peter 2:3-10).
The
life of faith lived in loving obedience to the commands of our loving,
longsuffering God is intended to be a place of secure rest. Although we
live in the midst of the curse and all of the discomforts and threats
that come from the adversary of righteousness, we can rest in the
assurance of God’s protective custody of our eternal soul.
Although we have this eternal “rest” available to us, we tend to
regularly drift out into the open tumultuous waters of worldliness never
even considering the fact they we have left God’s protective custody.
This is the substance of the warning of Hebrews 4:1-13.
Doctrinal definitiveness and doctrinal purity keep us anchored within the harbor of God’s blessings.
Theological compromise and doctrinal inconsistencies will cause us to
drift with the tides that draw us back into worldliness. The point of
Hebrews 4:1-13 is that we can always repent and return to the enabling
grace of God’s protective custody (“rest”) within the center of His
will.
“1
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into
his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was
the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we
which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain
place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day
from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into
my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of
unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day,
after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus {Iesous; ee-ay-sooce’: of Hebrew origin referring to Joshua of the Old Testament}
had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another
day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he
that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest
{God’s protective custody in the center of His will trough loving
obedience to God’s commands}, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that
is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto
the eyes of him with whom we have to do {there are no secrets or hidden
sins from God, your life will be measured according to obedience to
God’s Word without any prejudices}” (Hebrews 4:1-13).
According
to Habakkuk 3:9, true biblical faith should know and understand that
God is oath bound in His dealings with His redeemed. God never breaks a
promise and will always do what He says He will do. The
“blessing and a curse” Covenant as defined by Deuteronomy 11:26 is a
twofold promise. The children of Israel did not stand without warning.
In every case, when God made covenant with them, He also gave a warning
should they choose to disobey.
The
phrase “Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the
tribes, even thy word,” is a statement of faith. It means God had
faithfully warned the tribes what would happen if they began to break
His commandments. Israel had promised they would follow the
leadership of Joshua as he commanded them according to the commandments
of God. In Habakkuk 3:9, God is telling Israel that they are now
experiencing the curse aspect of “the blessing and a curse” Covenant.
Even in this God is seeking to turn their hearts through repentance and
return them to obedience to Him. Chastisement has not accomplished its
purpose if those chastised to not repent of their sins and return to
loving service in loving obedience to the Lord.
“16 And they {all the children of Israel}
answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and
whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. 17 According as we hearkened
unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD
thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. 18 Whosoever he be that doth
rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in
all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong
and of a good courage” (Joshua 1:16-18).
The
children of Israel living under Joshua’s leadership faithfully did
according to their promise recorded in Joshua 1:16-18 all the days that
Joshua was their leader. Every generation must be equally
committed to know the Word of God, love the Word of God, and live the
Word of God with all their heart, soul, and might. Without a continual
reminder of the necessary commitment to full surrender to God’s will,
every generation will begin to drift away from God’s will through both
theological ignorance and theological compromise.
“And
Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the
elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the
LORD, that he had done for Israel” (Joshua 24:31).
It
is important for Christians to know that God’s warnings extend to all
generations and are consistently administrated by God. Theological
drift will always result in compromises that will take believers into
various degrees of worldliness and varying degrees of God’s
chastisement.
Deuteronomy
chapter thirty-two is known as the Song of Moses. In this chapter,
Moses records the history of humanity and its unrelenting, consistent
failures to produce continuing generations of faithful believers.
Deuteronomy 32:4-5 state the two great contradictions that have existed
since the fall of Satan and the fall of humanity into sin and the
curse. God is perfectly righteous and humanity continually corrupts
themselves through increasing levels of unrighteousness.
“4 He {Jehovah our God}
is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. 5 They have
corrupted themselves {the point is that if they are truly God’s progeny, they will seek to live uncorrupted by the world}, their spot {their existence is like a stain upon righteousness} is not the spot of his children {not God’s redeemed}: they are a perverse and crooked generation” (Deuteronomy 32:4-5).
In Deuteronomy 32:34, God says His chastisement and judgments are part of His “treasures.”
In other words, the righteousness of God demands that He purify the
world of all unrighteousness. This fact ought to be viewed as a
treasure to believers whose hearts are in alignment with God Word.
Believers should view God’s chastisement as purifying their lives to His
glory. Every wrong will be righted. Every righteous act sown to the
glory of God and His purposes will reproduce itself with the
righteousness of another generation. However, the opposite is also
true.
“34
Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in
due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. 36 For the LORD shall judge his
people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their
power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. 37 And he shall say,
Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, 38 Which did eat
the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink
offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. 39 See
now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I
make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver
out of my hand. 40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for
ever. 41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on
judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them
that hate me. 42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword
shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the
captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. 43 Rejoice, O
ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his
servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be
merciful unto his land, and to his people” (Deuteronomy 32:34-43)
After
Joshua’s death, the book of Judges records the progressively incomplete
obedience and compromising disobedience of Israel as they began to
compromise the commands of God. This fact is a historical constant
repeated in all generations. The constant creates an ever decreasing remnant of faithful believers from generation to generation.
“8
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an
hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him in the border of his
inheritance in Timnathheres {tim-nath kheh’-res}, in the mount
of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10 And also all that
generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which
he had done for Israel. 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the
sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: 12 And they forsook the LORD God
of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and
followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about
them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. 13
And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14 And the
anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the
hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of
their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand
before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the
LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD
had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed” (Judges 2:8-15).
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at:
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Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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