I decided to share a link with a message from another ministry with you today. It is on choosing hope in this time we are in. I hope that it blesses you the way it blessed me. That one sentence of "What can I believe God for in this situation?" blessed me immensely this week.
You can find the message by clicking on the following link:
Am I the only one or do you also sometimes feel that the size of this Covid-19 battle is overwhelming? Today we need to restart life and SAW classes in a whole new way that none of us had foreseen, or are looking forward to. There is a story in 2 Chronicles 20 about King Jehoshaphat, whose battle was seemingly overwhelming. The story starts with some messengers who came to bring King Jehoshaphat the news that a great multitude was gathering against his kingdom, and Jehoshaphat feared. He feared because the multitude was overwhelming and they came from beyond the sea. Beyond the sea? Hmm… sounds like an army of Covid-19 viruses to me.
It is under these circumstances that Jehoshaphat decides to do seven things:
He seeks the Lord (vs 3)
He proclaims a fast (vs 3)
He calls on the people to come to Jerusalem – and they came! (vs 4)
He asks for help from the Lord ( vs 4)
He stood in the midst of the assembly (vs 5)
He and the people gathered in the temple, before the new court (so they gathered in a specific location in the temple)
And where everyone could see and hear him – he spoke to God. (vs 6) In other words, he publicly acknowledged his dependence on God. He did not pretend to be strong before the people, he did not pretend to have all the answers, and he did not try to look good in the eyes of the people.
Then he starts speaking to God. And he asks God a few questions. However, his questions are not really demanding an answer from God. Rather the questions remind him and the people of Who their God is.
So here’s what he asks:
Are you not… our God in heaven? (vs 6)
With this question he calls on the identity of God, His sovereignty, and the ‘our God’ calls to remembrance the covenant He has with His people.
Do you not… rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? (vs 6) This is an acknowledgement of God’s supremacy over all the kingdoms of this world – but also over the kingdoms of the spirit world.
Is there not… (vs 6) power and might in Your hand so that no one is able to withstand You? This is a declaration and acknowledgement of God’s power. Not only is He supreme in who He is, but He is also the all-powerful One! Are you not… (vs 7) our God who drives out the enemy?
In vs 8-9 he says – on grounds of the above, when we face disaster, we will stand in the temple and in His presence and You will hear us and save us! In this discussion he has with God he declares his inability, his powerlessness against this multitude, he acknowledges that he does not have an answer, a plan or a strategy, in other words he declares his dependence on God by saying:
“For we have no power against this multitude that is coming against us,
nor do we know what to do”.
I think we very much feel that we have no power over the multitude of viruses coming against us, nor do we really know what to do.
King Jehoshaphat declares that his trust is in God by saying ‘our eyes are on You’ - we look to You, we focus our attention and our faith and our trust solely on You, God, for an answer in this situation! I think we should be doing the same. Let’s see what God answeres King Jehoshaphat. He says:
Do not fear nor be dismayed because of the great multitude
The battle is not yours but it is God’s
Go down against the enemy
They will come up against you
You will find them at the brook before the wilderness
You will not need to fight the battle
You have to position yourself
You have to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord
Do not fear nor be dismayed
Go out against them, the Lord is with you
Our current battle is against an enemy we cannot see. It is a tiny invisible virus. The battle is not against a fellow human being or an army that threatens our existence. It is true that in every battle that comes to the door of our life there are some things we must do but the real, spiritual battle is the Lord’s. He is the stronger covenant partner who will fight for us! The battle is His, the victory is ours. We need to not fear nor be dismayed, we need to be obedient to what He tells us to do – we need to position ourselves and go face the enemy, we need to stand still and see the salvation of God!
Note Jehoshaphat’s reaction when he heard this from God:
He bowed his head with his face to the ground, and the people followed his example
They worshipped the sovereign God with all their hearts
They praised God with voices loud and high
The very next morning they went out to face the enemy and Jehoshaphat exhorts the people to BELIEVE in the LORD YOUR GOD!
He positioned the worshippers in front of the army as they went out. Worship is our strongest form of warfare against fear and despair in the current crisis we are in. We need to move ourselves into a position of worship where we can praise the beauty of God’s holiness, His provision and protection and His mercy that endures forever!
In the story of Jehoshaphat, when they began to sing – the Lord ambushed the enemy and the enemy fought against each other, destroying their own army. I do not know which strategy God will use to overcome this virus pandemic for us, but I do know that we need to face this enemy with the courage He placed inside of us, and with the spiritual weapons He gave us – like worship. When the battle just seems to be simply too big and our courage falters, let us worship our covenant-keeping God Who promises to fight the battle for us and give us the victory.
People of Hope Part 15: Isaac and Rebekah Monday devotions @work 13 July 2020
Read Gen 24
Abraham was growing old. Sarah had already passed away and Isaac was a grown man. Isaac was going to have to get married. Abraham sent his servant Eliezer (whose name means “my God is my help”) to his own people to find a wife for Isaac, but there was a prerequisite. He was not allowed to take Isaac with him, so his future wife would have to make the decision to marry Isaac even though she had never met him before. She was to be from Abraham’s extended family, not a woman from the Gentile nations where Abraham lived. Abraham had no particular woman in mind. God would have to bring Isaac’s chosen wife to the attention of Eliezer, and if she did not want to come, Eliezer would be under no obligation to fulfil his duty in this matter.
Eliezer journeyed to the far land and arrived at a well near the city of Nahor, and conveniently arrived just at the time when the women went out to draw water. He worshipped and prayed fervently to the God of Abraham, knowing that the daughters of the men of the city would come to the well in the late afternoon. Note that he did not go to the family of Abraham canvassing all the possibilities. He just stayed outside the city waiting for God to bring the right bride to him. He asked God to give him a sign so that he would know which one of the daughters would be the wife for Isaac. This sign had to do with servanthood. He would ask her to give him some water without any promise of reward or payment, and if she offered out of her own choice to provide water not only to him but also to his camels, that would be the sign. Rebekah arrived and the servant asked her to give him some water which she gladly did, but she went the extra mile and ran to water his camels also. Now we may be tempted to just read over that sentence, but if we contemplate it for a moment, we see what an amazing woman she must have been. There were 10 camels. Apparently a thirsty camel can easily drink 113 litres of water, multiply that with 10 and you get 1113 litres of water - which she gladly ran to draw just because she wanted to do him a favour – for no apparent reason or reward she just offered to do it? Eliezer silently wondered at her servant heart, waited until she had finished, rewarded her with gold and jewellery, and then asked whose daughter she was. She just happened to be family of Abraham and again Eliezer bowed his head and worshipped the God of Abraham.
Rebekah invited him to stay over with her family. He then proceeded to negotiate with her father to take Rebekah to Isaac as his wife. He wanted to leave immediately, the family still tried to negotiate for ten days to prepare for her leaving, but after Rebekah was asked her opinion, she agreed to go with him. She made the decision of her life that day, a destiny-changing decision for herself and her generations to come. She was going to marry a man whom she had never met, in the hope and faith that this was her destiny and that he would be good to her. She made the decision on the grounds of the report the servant gave her about Isaac. Rebekah’s father and brother both recognised the hand of the Lord in this and agreed that Rebekah return with Eliezer to Isaac to be his wife. The family saw her off with a blessing: “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousand, and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them”. Little did they know that Rebekah would become the mother of thousands of believers because she became part of the generational line of the coming Messiah, Who would possess the gates of hell – the gates of those who hate Him.
Imagine her journey to Isaac with Eliezer. Many a night around the campfire I am sure she would have asked Eliezer about her bridegroom. Who he is, what is his nature? What does he like and dislike? What is his favourite food? How does one cook that?
Meanwhile back at home, Isaac was waiting, expecting the arrival of his bride on the return of the servant. However, he did not just wait for this special bride that God would send him. He prayed, meditated, and spent time with God, purposefully separating himself unto his God. Isaac had vision and expectation. He had the vision of receiving his bride and in faith he was preparing himself for the moment when he can receive her into his heart, serving his God and serving his bride-to-be with prayer even before he met her. In Gen 25:21 we see how this continued throughout their lifetime as Isaac continued to pray for his wife, pleading with the Lord for her to fall pregnant when initially she was barren.
When Eliezer and Rebekah saw Isaac in the field coming to meet them, she immediately dismounted and asked Eliezer, “Who is that?” How many male travellers would they have passed on their journey? I am quite convinced she did not ask that about every traveller they passed, but this time she did. It is as if her spirit knew, as if she recognised him. Perhaps because of all the discussions and descriptions from Eliezer on the way, she recognised him when she got near. She veiled and covered herself as was the custom of the day. Isaac took Rebekah into his tent, she became his wife, and he loved her. He loved the one God chose for him, no questions asked, no arguments, no clever reasoning… It simply says - he loved her.
The story of Isaac and Rebekah is an unusual love story. A story of life-changing decisions that moved them both into their destiny – the destiny God the Father had for them.
I believe that even so many years after this there is still a spiritual lesson in this story for us. When Jesus ascended, He went to His Father and send the Holy Spirt to journey with us through life. Like Eliezer went to fetch Isaac’s bride so the Holy Spirit fetch, teach, counsel, guide us and reveal the nature and character of Jesus to us. Just like Isaac prayed for his bride-to-be it says in Romans 8:34 that Jesus intercedes for us “…who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Sometimes we are faced with a crossroads in our life. A place where taking risks and making seemingly foolish decisions to serve beyond what is asked for, makes the difference between having just an ordinary life and having a life with larger-than-life purpose and destiny. Sometimes we must wait pray, meditate, and intercede in faith, preparing our hearts to receive the answer to prayer beyond a shadow of a doubt, deciding in blind faith and with immediate obedience. Like both Isaac and Rebekah did. A remarkable man of faith meeting a remarkable woman of faith. Both serving beyond what is asked for.
Jesus intercedes for His bride and is looking forward to receiving her into His tent. We have to make a decision based on faith, based on the report of The Servant to follow Him, to allow Him to prepare us and journey with us on our way to the ultimate meeting with our Bridegroom – at the marriage supper of the lamb. The heart the Bridegroom is looking for is one prepared to serve beyond what is asked for. Are you and I prepared to serve beyond what is asked for? If we are, it will be a destiny-changing life decision to do the seemingly foolish thing to follow The Holy Spirit into uncharted territory, into a new and unknown life, into a destiny unbeknownst to us, possibly never even understanding the full significance of it in our lifetime.
Last week we contemplated Saul’s story and saw how God gave him a second chance to walk in the calling God had created him for – to carry the Name of God before the Gentiles, the Kings, and the sons of Israel. Saul immediately started to proclaim that Jesus was the Son of God. The believers in Damascus embraced him, supported him, and even helped him escape when some wanted to kill him for his sudden change of mind. He fled back to Jerusalem and tried to join the believers there.
However, In Acts 9:26 it says that they were afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple and was exceedingly distrustful of him. They did not believe this sudden change of heart and were very skeptical of him now suddenly wanting to warm up to them and become part of their church. They probably thought this was simply a change of tactics. That he just wanted to infiltrate them so that it would be easy for him to betray them to the Roman authorities. There was no social media at that time and the only news network that existed then – Camel Network News (or CNN!) – took some time to relay the message. I can imagine his discouragement and he probably thought that he deserved their distrust. But how was he going to be able to convince them of his genuine intent? He needed to be part of the body of Christ and they needed him (even if they at this point did not know that).
In verse 27 we read: “But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. 28And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.”
It was Barnabas, whose very name means “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36), that opened his mind and his heart to Saul and took him to the disciples and described to them what had happened on the road to Damascus. Barnabas believed him, he believed in him when nobody else would. He saw the genuineness of his conversion; he saw his heart. Saul desperately needed someone to believe in him at that moment and God provided a friend and a mentor that would see beyond the messy story of Saul’s life. And Barnabas saw… And Saul became Paul and grew into a great man of God.
How about today we make an inventory of the people that God brings alongside us to serve us with encouragement, to take us in and believe in us at our crossroad moments, when it is do or die for us to walk in our calling, or move towards our destiny? Those people that pray for us, that have a positive attitude, an encouraging smile, words of affirmation or a gift of some sort, that really build us in faith and give us the opportunity or open the door for us to move forward. Those people who see the potential God placed inside of us, and do not shy away from us because there is a mess to clean up first.
Let us celebrate with thankfulness the God who does not leave us to walk alone and fend for ourselves, but who provides us with people that see what He has put in us and called us to. People that can draw forth the gold in us at those pivotal moments in our lives when we need it the most.
… and then let us ask ourselves who it is that God brings on our life-path that we are supposed to build up in the faith. Are you and I one of those who will dare to believe in someone against all odds? Those that God brings into our world so we can be a “son of encouragement” to them on the journey to their destiny? Who knows if God will not bring a Saul over your path who is in a really big mess now, but who is destined to become the world changer - like Paul?
