God and God alone

DEVOTION

EXODUS

GOD AND GOD ALONE

Ex 23:20-26

20 "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25 Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26 and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.

NIV

This sounds a whole lot the entire gospel message of the New Testament. It is none other the Holy Spirit who will lead us to the place Jesus has prepared for us. Oh yes, Jesus is coming back to actually take us there, but it is the Spirit who leads us in all truth and that truth is all about the place Jesus is or has prepared for us. Certainly we are not to rebel against the Spirit of God. To rebel is to refuse to admit is authority to lead our life journey to the Promised Land. To rebel carries the same sense as blasphemy which is that unforgivable act of disobedience. There is no question about the fact we should not bow down to the gods of this world, in fact we should be breaking the sacred stones to pieces. What this world worships would take way too long to enumerate yet it might be able to be summed up in two words, materialism and self-centeredness. Nevertheless we are not only not to have anything to do with these gods of the world, we are to smash them, demolish them, at least in our lives. They have no place in the place that has been prepared for us. Now we know that means the new city of Jerusalem, but there is also a place here on earth the Spirit leads us to as well. We must live where he leads us, to be among the people of this land, so as to demolish their strongholds, there gods, and witness to them about our God. Look at the promise God made to the Israelites if they demolish the gods of that land and worship only him. His blessings would be on their food and water and there would be no sick among them and there would be no miscarries, all babies would be full term and be born well and they would have a full span of life. It is interesting the original word for take away sickness means to turn off. He will turn off sickness among them. They would continually be healthy. But look what happened by the time Jesus came to them. There was hundreds of sick and lamb, blind and deaf who Jesus healed. If God had turned it off why was there so much of it? The only reason would have to be they did not demolish all other gods, in fact it appears they were not allowing the Spirit to lead them at all and they were living according to their own making. Although they appeared spiritual, they were living under their own religion. They had forgone the way of God for their own gods, and thus he no longer needed to turn off sickness among them. Could we be bold enough to make that jump to our lives? Could we say the reason we have sickness is because we are not following the Spirit, we are not worshipping our Lord alone, but rather we have picked up some of the gods of this world along the way? Could we be bold enough to admit we have not demolished all the gods of the world and in fact we have given some of them room in our lives? Could we expect God to honor his word about turning off sickness among us if we turned from our wicked ways and truly worshipped him in spirit and in truth?  In the instructions about engaging or participating in the Lord’s Supper, we are told there is a reason why many are weak and sick.

1 Cor 11:27-32

27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

NIV

It is because we do not judge ourselves rightly as sinners saved by grace. If we ever start thinking we have any goodness at all within us, we do not judge ourselves at all and maybe, just maybe that is why God has not turned off sickness from among us. What if we truly lived a life lead fully by the Spirit, and not by our own religion? Could we expect God to once again turn off sickness from among us? Could we expect to live a life full of years? Certainly the gods of this world have determined they not only prefer women to miscarry, they induce it, and they abort the young. The world has gone so astray, how can we embrace any of it or its gods? We need to get back to the place God wants to us to, forfeiting all else for him. Worshipping him and him along. If we do this, we would be healed, we would be both spiritually and physically healed, living a full span of life. What a promise for those who worship God and God alone.