2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
There are a host of wonderful citations using Adonai as the name for God that can help us to have a deeper understanding of our relationship with God, our Lord and Master. He leads me to follow the path He has laid out for us in our quest to know Him better. Those of you who read the series I wrote on PS 119 know that this longest of all the Psalms is divided into 22 sections, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter represents not only a letter, but a number and a spiritual message from God. PS 119: 125 is in the section on the 16th letter, ayin. This passage which contains verses 121-128 deals with obedience to the law of the Lord. PS 119: 125, “I am your servant; give me understanding, so I may know Your teachings.” We can see that the Psalmist approaches Adonai with humility, acknowledging the servant/Master relationship and that God is the source for understanding. Because we are blessed enough to have the NT with the increased revelation it brings, we know that the vehicle for that understanding is the Holy Spirit. If I may offer an opinion, I believe that this Psalmist was granted that understanding of God’s teachings. It is because I know that God wants all of us to approach Him in humility like this and to know Him better. It’s why God invites us to read and reread the Scriptures, giving us deeper insight every time we do this. It is also why God wants us to have an active two-way prayer life with Him.
This very same humility was demonstrated by Gideon when God was commissioning him for a very important task in JG 6: 14-16. “Then the Lord ordered him, ‘Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I Myself am sending you.’ Gideon replied, ‘But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.’ The Lord answered, ‘You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.’” Gideon didn’t view himself as a man with “great strength,” but God [Adonai] knew better. Of course, this brings to mind DN 4:17 in which God asserts that He alone determines which men are given authority and for how long, that he can give authority to even the least of men. How many of us have been given an assignment by God and felt we weren’t capable of doing it? The same thing happened to Moses in EX 3: 11-12, which I hope you will read. Again, it happened to Jeremiah in JER 1: 4-8, which I hope you will read. We must acknowledge that God’s view of us and knowledge of our potential to serve is often quite different than our own. We often don’t see the complete implications to ourselves and others of assignments that our Lord God, Adonai, gives us. When one understands that, he should be more willing to take on these assignments, answering God’s call to serve, even if it is confusing or at times we think inconvenient. God asks us to reach toward a higher perspective than we would have naturally. We must ask ourselves how willing are we to do that?
After the golden bull incident, the disobedience that Moses’ own brother and the High Priest, Aaron, had led, Moses engaged in a heartfelt intercessory prayer on behalf of the people. DT 9: 26-27, “And I [Moses] prayed, ‘Sovereign Lord [Adonai], do not destroy Your own people, the people You rescued and brought out of Egypt by Your great strength and power. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and do not pay any attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people.’” It is appropriate to cite this passage here, because of God’s response to Moses’ humble pleas. We know that God must demonstrate His righteousness by putting a limit on how much sin He is willing to tolerate [see RO 3: 26]. We also know that God had already promised not to destroy the people with a flood ever again [GN 9: 11-13]. So, we must ask, why was God willing to be as patient with the disobedience of His people as He obviously has been? I believe we can find the answer in the love He has for us and in His own knowledge that it will take Him some time to teach His people the value of obedience. However, the Scriptures support the concept that His patience does, indeed, have a limit. That is why there will be that final separation of sheep and goats spoken of in MT 25: 32. To this day, His own people are still disobedient; I am sure that displeases our Master enormously. We are blessed that He is so patient and willing to work with us. The time for our obedience to Him is now!
That God has the sovereign power to punish men when He feels it necessary is demonstrated in two stories from the Scriptures. The first is that of Eli and his family from 1 SAM 2: 27-36. God was angry with Eli, the priest, because of Eli’s greed and willingness of honor his sons more than Himself. God had made a promise to allow Eli’s family to serve Him as priests, and thus, surely had the right to expect a higher standard of behavior than Eli had demonstrated. The punishment Adonai meted out was to prevent any of Eli’s male issue to live to old age. In addition, Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas were to both die on the same day. 1 SAM 2: 35 clearly reveals God’s will. “I will choose a priest who will be faithful to Me and do everything I want him to. I will give him descendants, who will always serve in the presence of my chosen king.” The other story which exemplifies God’s willingness to punish sin without repentance is found in the fate of Solomon’s son, Adonijah, and the priest who supported Adonijah, Abiathar, in 1 K 2: 13-27. David had just died, and God had given authority to Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, to rule Israel. Another son of Solomon’s, Adonijah (son of Haggith) felt he should have been crowned king. He asked Bathsheba to go to Solomon with one request, that he should be allowed to marry Abishag, a girl from Shunem who had been David’s nurse. While Bathsheba didn’t understand the full implication of this move, Solomon knew that this marriage would interfere with the consolidation of his power in Israel. Because Solomon saw through this request, he ordered Benaiah to kill Adonijah. Solomon realized that if Adonijah were allowed to live, the latter would spend the rest of his days trying to usurp the throne, something this wise king knew was not God’s will. Because the priest, Abiathar, had supported Adonijah’s position, Solomon knew that this man was no longer obedient to the Lord. 1 K 2: 26-27 tell us the step God led him to take with him. “Then King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Go to your country home in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not have you put to death now, for you were in charge of the Lord’s Covenant Box while you were with my father David, and you shared all his troubles.’ Then Solomon dismissed Abiathar from serving as a priest of the Lord, and so made come true what the Lord had said in Shiloh about the priest Eli and his descendants.” The lesson to us about the urgency of being obedient to Adonai is clear.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have led me to speak of the issues of humility and obedience to You today, because of their importance to You. We should not question the love You have for us, because it is so profound as to be beyond our complete understanding. When we know You, we know that the agenda You have for us is always in our best interests because of Your consistent righteousness. Knowing that builds our ability and willingness to trust in Your commands and to follow them. Over and over again, You have called people who appear ordinary or even challenged with some physical problem, like the speech defect that Moses had, to crucial assignments. Repeatedly, You show us through the stories in the Scriptures that the people who have been Your best servants were those who were humble and obedient before You. The Scriptures are Your love letter to us, a letter designed to forward our sanctification. You honor us when You ask us to be Your servants. For that and so much more, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, trust, obedience, praise, honor, glory, and thanks. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
I never know ahead to which citations the Lord will lead me, but I hope you are finding the adventure we are on a meaningful one. The Lord’s love for each of us is palpable to me, as I hope it is to you. Tomorrow, we will continue seeing what Adonai, our Lord and Master wants to teach us. Know this: God loves you and so do Peter and I.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn