Exodus 17:8-16
Psalm 78:12-16
Matthew 21:23-32
Reliance upon God is trusting in Him to guide your life all the way to
heaven.
Reliance upon God is not acting negatively or blaming God when things don’t
happen as we want them to, or they are not happening as quickly as we want
them to, or doing things on our own that are not in the heavenly will of
God.
However, reliance upon God is working with God according to His heavenly
will to achieve the goal we seek, such as freeing all animals from human
exploitation.
Let’s begin our discussion about reliance upon God by looking at Exodus
17:8-16…
8. Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.
Amalek was the son of Esau's son Eliphaz, and was presumably the eponymous
ancestor of the Amalekites, according to Jewish history.
This happened shortly after the Israelites grumbled against Moses and the
Lord because they were thirsty instead of praying to the Lord for water, but
nevertheless God brought forth streams of water from the rock.
The Israelites were not relying upon God; they grumbled against Moses and
the Lord, because they were angry with Him for not having water there
waiting for them.
So we can’t help but wonder if the Lord allowed this Amalek attack to happen
because of the lack of faith and hardness of heart of the Israelites, and
their non reliance upon God, for the vast majority of them sure don’t seem
to have learned very much from all the miracles the Lord had performed
before their eyes.
9. So Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight against
Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff
of God in my hand."
Did Moses pray to God about this? Did God tell Moses to do this, or was he
acting on his own?
We simply don’t know, because the Bible doesn’t tell us, but it is
definitely something to think about when we face tough decisions, because we
should always seek God’s guidance first.
10. And Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses,
Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
Is this reliance upon God or mankind?
11. So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and
when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.
Did God put Moses in this horrible position because he acted on his own, or
was it to show the people that Moses was their leader and they needed to
trust in him?
Again, we don’t know because the Bible doesn’t tell us, but it is definitely
something to think about.
12. But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under
him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one
side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set.
We are not as strong as God, and like Moses, we need to rely upon teamwork
to succeed.
We can’t help but think about this in terms of the animal rights movement,
where we lack uniformly and solidly working for a common goal such as
freeing all animals from the exploitation of humans, and working together on
every incremental step that brings us closer to that goal, and to add
credibility to our efforts, we should also be vegan.
Another problem with the vegan/animal rights movement is that most of the
activists involved don’t have a reliance upon God, and often work at cross
purposes with His heavenly will.
13. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Since God is a peacemaker, did He advocate this violence or did He just use
it as a judgement against Amalek when the Israelites went after Amalek?
But based upon other Biblical records, the Lord could have fought the battle
for them as He did with the Egyptians when they were trying to stop the
Israelites from crossing the Red Sea.
14. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial, and
recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from
under heaven."
This battle doesn’t seem to be the end of Amalek, because we are told that
God will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek.
But his name and memory were not blotted out to this very day, for we see it
here in the pages of our Bible.
So what did God mean when he said “I will utterly blot out the memory of
Amalek from under heaven?”
And, biblical scholars believe the modern day Amalekites are the Iranians.
15. And Moses built an altar, and named it The LORD is My Banner;
16. and he said, "The LORD has sworn; the LORD will have war against Amalek
from generation to generation."
NASB
Something doesn’t make sense, at least from what we know about the heavenly
will of God as peacemaker; we know that Israel had many encounters with the
Amalekites because of their disobedience to God, but was it really God who
fought against them?
Was this reliance upon God or mankind?
Let’s continue our discussion by looking at Psalm 78:9-16…
9. The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.
This happens when we act on our own without reliance upon God.
10. They did not keep the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in His law;
Simply claiming to be Godly doesn’t make it so, as is the case with many
Christians and Jews today, for in order to be truly Godly, we need to live
in the Lord’s heavenly will.
11. And they forgot His deeds,
And His miracles that He had shown them.
This is exactly what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness, and
unfortunately most Christians today, for they continue to live in the
corrupt and evil ways of this world.
12. He wrought wonders before their fathers,
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through;
And He made the waters stand up like a heap.
And even with all of this, most of them didn’t have any reliance upon God.
14. Then He led them with the cloud by day,
And all the night with a light of fire.
Even if some people don’t believe that these events actually happened as the
Bible tells us, how can people claim to be Christian and not follow the
teaching of Jesus?
And this is the problem we face today, and why we believe the world is so
full of violence and corruption.
15. He split the rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.
16. He brought forth streams also from the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
NASB
And even if some people don’t believe these events happened, we believe that
we should listen to the lesson that they teach and have reliance upon God.
Let’s close today’s discussion by looking at Matthew 21:23-32…
23. And when He had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders
of the people came to Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority
are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?"
The temple leaders seemed to know that what Jesus was teaching was from God,
but they were the ones who were supposed to be teaching those precepts but
were not.
So instead of being convicted in their hearts and souls to teach these
things, they tried to protect their jobs by trying to make the people think
that Jesus was wrong.
There are people who are just like these temple leaders with us today, and
like the temple leaders these self-serving religious leaders are living in
the corrupt ways of this world, and saying that this is the way God wants us
to live; beware of such people for they can lead us astray if we follow them
and not the heavenly will of God that Jesus taught us to live by.
24. And Jesus answered and said to them, "I will ask you one thing too,
which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these
things.
Jesus saw their evil intent and wanted everyone else to see it too.
25. "The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?" And
they began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He
will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?'
Jesus has them in a position where they cannot tell the truth without
admitting their own ungodliness.
26. "But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude; for they all hold
John to be a prophet."
We are to serve God and not man, and those temple leaders knew that, which
is the reason they feared the multitude.
27. And answering Jesus, they said, "We do not know." He also said to them,
"Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Jesus knew that a lot of the people understood that His teachings were from
God.
28. "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and
said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.'
Jesus responds further by telling them a parable.
29. "And he answered and said, 'I will, sir'; and he did not go.
These kinds of people are passive resistant, and Jesus teaches us they are
among those who end up in hell.
30. "And he came to the second and said the same thing. But he answered and
said, 'I will not'; yet he afterward regretted it and went.
These kinds of people have a conscience (they hear the unction of the Holy
Spirit, and repent, and do what is right in the sight of God.
31. "Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The latter."
Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots
will get into the kingdom of God before you.
The religious leaders knew the truth but didn’t do the Godly things; they
fought against the truth to preserve their perverse way of life; they had
little or no reliance upon God.
32. "For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not
believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you,
seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
NASB
We are not to be like these religious leaders; we are to be the peacemaking
children of God who live in His heavenly will and do everything in their
power to help free creation from its present corruption.
We should always have our reliance upon God.
Amen?
Amen.
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