DEVOTION
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
ENDURING CONDUCT
Acts 13:16-20
16 Standing up, Paul motioned
with his hand and said: "Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God,
listen to me! 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the
people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of
that country, 18 he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert,
19 he overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as
their inheritance. 20 All this took about
450 years.
NIV
Although Paul is recounting
the history of Israel which the men of Israel should have known. However, the Gentiles
who worshiped God might of had a little knowledge about Israel, still Paul was
going to make a point using this history. Still, there is something of interest
in this introduction of sorts. God had taken care to save Israel and his family
during the famine by working through Joseph, the one son the rest of them despised
and sold into slavery. Then after they had multiplied under the hand of God within
Egypt, they became slaves and endured hardship for four hundred years. But the
mighty hand of God brought them out to take them directly to the promised land.
We know this story, they were afraid and God turned them around to wander for
forty years in the wilderness, which was for the purpose of waiting until they
all died, then he brought their children across the Jordan. God endured their
conduct for forty years. He could have wiped them out right there and then, however
we do not know how old their children would have been, and God who knows all things,
past, present and future, knew their refusal, and their conduct would result in
their deaths. We know after forty years the children would be adults and able
to enter and possess the promised land. But it is this enduring or suffering their
conduct which stirs thought within us. Although God knows all things, he does
give people their own choices and although he wanted them to choose to enter
the land, he allowed them to refuse, a conduct that is not pleasing to God.
Refusal of God’s plan is poor conduct. Their conduct during those forty years
was of constant complaining, they were thirsty, they were hungry, they were unsatisfied
with just manna, they wanted meat. According to the record, they were never
satisfied with what God did for them, they wanted more and when Moses was gone
too long, they made their own idol to worship. Conduct completely unbecoming of
people of God, who the Israelites were his chosen people. We are among the
people of God and we must wonder if God is enduring our conduct. We know that
Jesus has prepared a place for us and that if he went to do that, he would come
back for us to take us there. But how ready are we willing to leave Egypt behind?
How willing are we to go where we don’t know? Sometimes, it seems we get
so comfortable with our own little routine we fail to see the leading of the Lord
to a place he has for us within this community of faith, or even within the
world. He calls us to live under his promise to take us to the Promised Land,
the new city and new earth, the new creation of God, a paradise full of everything
good. How well is our conduct in this journey we are taking with the Lord? Is
our conduct that of trusting and obeying or are we just a bit discontent with
our lot in life, and complain from time to time, wanting something more from
life, or jealous of what others have or are doing. We know that we have to
learn to be content in whatever situation we are in, having much or being in want.
Contentment in life is a gift of God, for as we learn to be content, we simply
follow wherever God leads us, and do it with rejoicing in our hearts, because we
know that we are within the perfect will of God. However, that still does not
imply that we live perfectly, and sin continues to be a struggle for us. But
through the grace of God, Jesus paid the price and because we live in Christ,
we have been declared holy and blameless in his sight, therefore we live making
every effort to conduct ourselves accordingly. However, we still feel that in
some sense, God still endures our conduct.
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