Hebrews 2 -- Warnings About Drifting From God's Word

My commentary said there are five admonitions in Hebrews, and this is the first:  a warning not to drift from God’s Word.  It’s “the danger of neglecting our salvation … not rejecting, but neglecting it … We neglect God’s Word, prayer, worship with God’s people, and other opportunities for spiritual growth, and as a result, we start to drift.  The anchor is later used as an illustration of God keeping His promises,  and the anchor does not move; WE do…. Neglect of the Word of God and prayer, publicly and privately, is the cause of most spiritual drifting.”

The writer was explaining to Jews why Jesus is not inferior to angels because of His humanity.  “His humanity enabled Him to regain man’s lost dominion over creation … it enabled Him to bring many sons to glory … it enabled Him to disarm Satan and deliver us from death … and it enables Him to be a sympathetic High Priest to His people.”

My commentary also spoke of the difference between Jesus’ ministry as High Priest and His ministry as our Advocate:  “As our High Priest, our Lord is able to give us grace to keep us from sinning when we are tempted.  If we do sin, then He as our Advocate represents us before the throne of God and forgives us when we sincerely confess our sins to Him.”

Father, thank You for giving me a High Priest who has struggled in every way that I struggle – who knows what I feel and can understand how our flesh so wants what we shouldn’t have.  Thank You that He bolsters my will to obey You.  Yet when I do fail, as my Advocate He speaks to You about me and forgives me when I confess my sin, taking upon Himself the punishment for what I chose to do!  Such grace!  Such love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 1 -- Amazingly Starts Where I Left Off Yesterday In Deuteronomy 33!

Having just read Deuteronomy 33 yesterday, I was amazed to see that my commentary referenced it regarding this chapter!  In Deuteronomy 33:2, we read that the Lord came to Mt Sinai with thousands of angels.  “Since the theme of Hebrews is the superiority of Christ and His salvation to the law of Moses, the writer would have to deal with the important subject of angels,” my commentary explained.  The Jews saw Jesus as a man, and they were used to reading about angelic spiritual beings.  Since these beings served God and helped deliver the Word, the Jews needed convincing that Jesus the man was superior to angels.

The writer brought out many Old Testament verses to make his case:

“You are My Son.  Today I have become Your Father.”  (Psalm 2:7)  That day was the day of Jesus’ resurrection, my commentary explained.

“Let all the angels worship him.”  (Deut. 32:43)  That makes Him higher than the angels.

“But God said this about His Son, ‘God, Your throne will last forever and ever.’” (Psalm 45:6-7)  “Angels minister before the throne; they do not sit on the throne,” my commentary said.

“God also says, ‘Lord, in the beginning You made the earth, and Your hands made the skies.’”  (Psalm 102:25-27)  Angels were created beings.  They did not create.  Jesus did, my commentary noted.

“And God never said this to an angel:  “Sit by Me at My right side until I put Your enemies under Your control.’”  (Psalm 110:1)  “Jesus is now at the Father’s right hand (the place of honor) … Angels are ministering spirits who serve the Lord seated on the throne … He is sovereign.  Angels are servants,” my commentary explained.

Father, I’m thankful that You settled in my mind and heart long ago that Jesus is Messiah and Your Son.  I have no doubts about His sovereignty and that angels are His servants.  Please help me, though, to grant Him absolute sovereignty over my life and don’t let me hold back anything from His control.  I do not want to deny Him access to any part of me.  If I do, gently pry my fingers away from it and reassure me that You have my absolute best in mind!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 33-34 Great Final Words

Moses wrapped up his farewell address to the people.  Several things really stuck out this morning:

“The Lord’s loved ones will lie down in safety, because He protects them all day long.  The ones He loves rest with Him… The everlasting God is your place of safety, and His arms will hold you up forever.”

In my commentary:

“The better we know the Word of God, the more able we are to express proper worship to Him.”

“God’s sovereign grace and love are never reasons for pride on the part of sinful people.  Rather, they are truths that should humble and make us want to serve Him with all our hearts.”

“Moses didn’t see the law as a burden from God but as a rich inheritance.”

“Israel’s greatest danger wasn’t the armies around them so much as the appetites within them.  Their hearts need to be weaned away from their love of idols and the sins associated with idol worship.”

“God has different ways of training His servants, and each person’s training is tailor-made by the Lord.”

Father, thank You for loving me.  Help me to rest with You.  Be my place of safety and remind me to run to Your arms.  As I read and study Your word, make me better able to worship You.  Never let pride set in because of the grace You give me, but keep me humble because You’ve given me grace.  Remind me that Your Word is not a burden to bear.  Remove the appetites within me that aren’t of You, and wean me away from what You don’t want me to have.  Thank You for tailor-making my training.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 32 -- What Will Happen

Moses gave Israel a song to remember God’s “assurances” of what they were going to do once they entered the Promised Land – how despite His blessings they were going to leave him for idols.  They would break the covenant, not God.  “Everything in creation obeys the Lord except His own people,” my commentary said.  “Moses didn’t call for a storm; he gave his message as a quiet shower trusting that the Word would soften the hard soil and produce fruit in the hearts of the people.  Speaking the truth in love is the best way to proclaim God’s love, my commentary added.

It also quoted A.W. Tozer:  “No religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.”  And, “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.”

Moses likened God’s interaction with His people during the wilderness journey to the way eagles eventually tear apart their nests to force their young to learn to fly.  “It’s a beautiful picture of the difficult process of maturity that God puts all of us through just as He did the nation of Israel … Every experience was an opportunity for them to grow up, but too often they regressed and acted like babies… In worshiping idols, Israel was not only grieving the Lord but also playing right into the hands of the wicked one … their attitudes and actions prevented him from loving them as He longed to do, so He had to show His love by chastening them.”

Father, please help me and those I love not to do as the Israelites did.  Help us to experience Your love as You want to show it, because of our obedience, rather than experiencing Your love through Your chastening, because of our disobedience.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 31 -- He KNOWS What They Will Do

I’m sure these were bittersweet words.  Moses had to say, “I cannot lead you anymore.  The Lord told me I would not cross the Jordan River.”  Don’t you know the people started thinking, “What will we do without Moses?”

But he reassures them, telling them that God Himself will lead them across.  He would destroy the nations for them, and He had appointed Joshua to lead them.  Moses knew that the uncertainty of this leadership change would worry them.  So he said, “Be strong and brave … Don’t be frightened, because the Lord your God will go with you.  He will not leave you or forget you.”

But they would do that to him.  It was therefore important that they regularly review what Moses had written down.  Every seven years they were commanded to review this book.  Those who’d heard it before would be forgetful of what they’d heard, and the children would need to hear it for the first time.  In particular, the youth were mentioned:  “So that they can listen and learn to respect the Lord your God and carefully obey everything in this law.  Since their children do not know this law, they must hear it.  They must learn to respect the Lord your God for as long as they live…”

God called Moses and Joshua into the Tent of Meeting, and I’m sure Joshua hated the hear these words:  “Moses, you will soon die … these people will not be loyal to Me … they will leave Me … Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave THEM … and they will be destroyed … I know what they plan to do, even before I take them into the land I promised them.”

God knew that many of them were still carrying idols they’d brought out of Egypt and idols they’d collected along the way!

On the cusp of entering the Promised Land, they were being told how they would wreck it all with their idolatry.

Father, I know that You already know everything that I will choose to do.  I pray that You will hear my prayers and that You will increase my faith and help me to rid myself of anything that is not of You so that I won’t be sealing my future fate by my present actions as these people were.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 30 -- What's So Hard About Making This Decision??

Moses cut right to the chase.  My commentary summed it up:  “We’re created in God’s image and He gave us minds to think with, hearts to feel with, and a will to decide with, and God calls us to make right decisions.”  God has also given us His Word, readily available to us.  Yet Moses starts, “When all these blessings and curses I have described happen to you …”  They aren’t even in the Promised Land yet, but God has already shown Moses the future.  They are going to choose curses and death instead of blessings and life!  After 40 years wandering in the desert with them, you’d think that after having this revealed to him by God, Moses would simply walk away and say, “I give up!”  But God didn’t stop with that particular revelation, and what He said caused Moses to not lose hope:  “Then you and your children will return to the Lord your God, and you will obey Him with your whole being in everything I am commanding you today.  Then the Lord your God will give you back your freedom.  He will feel sorry for you … the Lord your God will prepare you and your descendants to love Him with your whole being so that you will live.”

Moses asks, “What’s so hard about making the correct decision?”  After all, it’s life or death, blessings or curses!  Why would anyone choose death and curses?  Because their hearts are far from God and they don’t trust Him.  Satan has put blinders on them and they’ve bought the lie.  And they just can’t believe that what they’re having to give up is going to be worth whatever they will someday receive because they did.  I understand that.  It comes from the old saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”It’s operating not by faith but by sight.  It’s a sin that’s so besetting that we cannot imagine how we could survive without it … much like an addiction, and it has overridden our intellectual processing that would tell us otherwise.  It all harkens back to 29:4 – “To this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands; you don’t really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears.  I led you through the desert for 40 years, and during that time neither your clothes nor sandals wore out.  You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer.  This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God.”

In our own lives, God is describing how, ever when we were away from Him, He loved us and prepared our minds and hearts, despite ourselves, to be able one day to recognize His fingerprints all over every area of our lives – to know that despite our sinfulness, He loves us and He kept loving us until we came back to Him.

Father, thank You for not giving up on me, despite my sinfulness!  Looking back, it’s hard to believe how far I drifted and that You pursued me anyway!  Such love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 29 -- Oh, Now I See!

God directed Moses to reveal something additional about the covenant at Sinai.  My commentary said it wasn’t a new covenant, because Moses didn’t make any blood sacrifice.  He said, “But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands; you don’t really understand what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears.  I led you through the desert for forty years, and during that time neither your clothes nor sandals wore out.  You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer.  This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God.”

They’d been amazed at the great displays of power God had shown them during the 40 years they’d traveled, but it sounds like they’d completely missed the fact that clothing and shoes hadn’t worn out during their 40-year journey.  As children grew, hand-me-downs didn’t wear out, and adults didn’t grow larger than their clothes, likely because of the diet God was providing!  God was giving them the gift of understanding now so that they could look back and see where He’d been at work.

As they readied to enter and take the land, God warned them again not to make anyone or anything their god, for He is God and He would not prosper them if they let anyone or anything else take His place in their lives.  Even during their time in Egypt and while they were being led through the wilderness by a pillar of fire and clouds, some were carrying Egyptian idols and practicing idolatry!  And now God warns, “These are the kind of people who hear these curses but bless themselves, thinking, ‘We will be safe even though we continue doing what we want to do.’  Those people may destroy all of your land … The Lord will not forgive them … The Lord will destroy any memory of them on the earth … Your children who will come after you … will see the disasters that come to this land … ‘Why has the Lord done this?  Why is He so angry?’ And the answer will be … ‘They went and serve other gods and bowed down to gods they did not even KNOW.”

They’d had no clue about the future ramifications from what they were doing, bowing down to anyone or anything other than God and giving them or it control of their lives.  They’d one day have children and their actions would affect their children!  And their children would look back and see what their parents’ idolatry had cost them.

Father, help each of us to see when we’ve made something an idol in our lives – when we’ve let anything or anyone become more important to us than You.  In Your love, stop us before we do it!  Give us minds that understand.  Remove Satan’s blinders from our eyes.  Enable us to see Your truth.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford