Take God Seriously

“And Joseph said unto them the third day, ‘This do, and live; for I fear God'” (Genesis 42: 18).

Joseph’s brothers were standing in fear before this “strange man, Joseph” who was second in command over Egypt. The ten brothers stood in great fear because of their past sin against God by selling their child brother from a pit to traveling strangers. Guilt ridden and guilt driven caught up with them (Numbers 32:23).

They lied to their father Jacob and lied to themselves, but their consciences would never allow them to go free. Now they were locked up for three days in Egypt’s prison and they knew God was behind it. On top of that the brothers heard a “pagan viceroy” who mentioned the name of Elohim (God) which troubled their swirling minds and souls.  This brought great dissonance to their whole being.

What was this younger brother doing? Joseph was working it out for his brothers to be reconciled to one another and to confess their sin before God and their father. He was trying to get them to bow before the God of heaven. What a reunion when the boil was lanced.

God has made it possible for you and me to be released from our sins and to be reconciled to Him and to one another. Do we want our sins to catch up with us and find us out? Or do we desire God more than our sins?

The choice is ours. As Joseph said, “This do, and live, for I fear God.” Go to the mercy seat of God and the throne of grace and find help for your soul. Confess your sins before God and you will live. This is the great power of the third day.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

In Noah’s day the creation of the Creator chose to choose against God. They lived as if He wasn’t there. They were devoid of God. They were detoxing themselves from all that reminded them of the true and living God. They unanimously voted God off the island, eliminating Him completely from earth’s equation. Humanity hung by a thread of a thin, godly line. Though outnumbered by millions, Noah’s little family is the “why” God held back His judgment for 120 years.

We see a sneak preview of things to come, an advance viewing of humanity in the last days. That generation was a God-hating breed, and their kind has returned in this generation. Noah’s contemporary message was ignored by the masses and the messenger was maligned and hated. They ate, drank, and pursued relationships without the acknowledgment of God at all.

God was not in their human hard drive, erasing Him from their collective conscience and culture. They produced after their own kind, making more degenerates, just like them. They flocked together, sinned together, and hated together. Rejecting the words of a man who gave them the Words of God, they chose to suppress the truth and avoid all witnesses.

We as Christians are, by nature, salt and light, we’re also masters at hiding in the salt shaker and hitting the dimmer switch. We must allow God’s Spirit to lift us and load us for love. For it is God’s people who again are postponing inevitable judgment. Noah’s world did not begin without God, but it sure ended up that way.

Look around. Which way do you think we’re headed?

And what are going to do about it?

“Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me. My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (Jeremiah 15:1).

One would think that God would hear the prayer of His servant Moses and Samuel in any circumstance. But here we learn that the people of God were resilient in their behavior unfavorably before God. They were recalcitrant and rebellious.

Jeremiah is heavy in heart. He is running out of steam. He has prayed, prayed, and prayed some more and yet he is not seeing the God of Israel move. God doesn’t even seem to care about saving them out of their upcoming judgment and Jeremiah is also caught in the judgment.

What do we do when America doesn’t seem to understand? What do we do when our children and grandchildren do not understand and we don’t seem to get our prayers answered? We have to be taught like Jeremiah to run with the footmen, and to contend with the horses. Don’t wear out where you are but look up to where God is.

Our source of grace is found in the Lord. Our strength is found in Him. Things are going to get worse but we need to get better. Don’t run from your assignments because it doesn’t matter where you are God has you there to train you, to form you, and to fill you.

Though the world loves to wander away from God, nor restrain their feet from living in pleasure, don’t you do it? Keep on the line with God. Let God toughen you! Things are going to get worse but let God make you the man or woman of God you need to be.

“Then she arose…that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard…how the Lord had visited his people in giving them food” (Ruth’s 1:6).

Naomi left the Promise Land, the House of Bread, Bethlehem.  She, along with her husband and sons, only planned to stay for a little while in Moab, but she ended up dwelling there in the land that is half-washed.  She lost her husband and her sons to death.  She was a broken woman who was living in a barren and pagan land.

Repentance can be dramatic, but most true repentance is like a gentle rain, slowly and surely softening the hardened soil of our hearts.  In Psalm 23, the Lord “restores my soul” (v. 3).  The Hebrew word for “restores” is shun, which means “turn” or “return.”  When Naomi returns to Israel, to the house of the Lord, her own soul is restored.

If you a part of the group that is “weary and heavy laden“, return with your depression, anger, and withdrawal.  You can come back complaining, but “come back.”  Come to Jesus with your mess, grumpiness, loneliness, and your self-centered heart.  He will clean you up.  The point is to come back! He loves you with an everlasting love!

“And it came even to pass on the third day that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes torn, and earth upon his head; and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance” (2 Samuel 1:2).

This man that came to Ziklag thought David would enjoy the news that Saul was dead. He knew of the trouble between Saul and David. But the surprise was that David did not have a quarrel with Saul. Because of David’s human nature the Amalekite thought he could invoke a position with David and he lied to the future king.

It took three days, approximately eighty miles, for the Amalekite to arrive from the battle scene of the Philistines against the Israelites to the camp of David. So when he stepped in front of David he was confident. There was no question the Amalekite was at the battle scene for there he took Saul’s armband and crown or gold chalet from his helmet and presented them to David. But look what took place–as David stood in that burnt city of Ziklag David’s own heart was not burned or charred.

Friend make sure that you do not have a quarrel with anyone. Cleanse your heart from all grudges and bitterness. If you will do just that then you can lead people with the integrity of your heart. David had a heart that was undivided with God. “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78:72).