The Lord seems so stern at times. Utterly destroy everybody? Wow, that is tough! When Saul does not destroy everything and everybody, the Lord “regrets” having made him king and decides to remove him as king. Wow, that is stringent! But wait a minute; who were these Amalakites? They were the descendents of Esau’s grandson, Amalek. Esau despised the blessing of Abraham and demonstrated it by selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of porridge. Esau’s lack of respect for the Abrahamic blessing and the glory of God was passed on to his descendants and intensified by them. Consequently when Israel came out of Egypt. The Amalekites attacked them. The Lord swore that He would always be at war with them. Why? Because they would not respect the glory of the Lord.
Saul would not obey the Lord. Why? Look at verse 24. Saul says, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.“ Saul was more concerned about how the people viewed Him than he was concerned about the glory of the Lord. God is looking for men who are more concerned about His glory than about how people view them.
The Lord “regrets” making Saul king. That same word is used in Gen. 6:6 when He says that he was “sorry” that he had made man. He was pretty stern at that time also. He wiped out everyone on the earth except Noah and His family. What does that tell us about the glory of the Lord? It tells me that the glory of the Almighty is more important than anything else. I must seek His glory with all that I am. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 53
Comedian Jeff Allan said in the date night challenge produced by Focus on the Family, “I know why God created teenagers. He wanted us to experience what it was like to create someone in our image, who denies our existence.” The Psalmist says that “God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.” What did this glorious God find when He looked? There is no one who seeks God. Paul quotes these verses in Romans 3:10-12 in order to demonstrate that all have sinned. So how is it that this glorious God could create us in His own image, and we refuse to acknowledge His existence? What should a righteous God do with this enigma? Here is what the righteous God did. He said that sin required the death of the sinner.
If we fail to acknowledge God’s existence and claim upon our lives, how will that affect our relationships with each other? If we are made in the image of God, and we are, then every time we see another human, we see the image of God. We are then faced with a subconscious choice. We must either acknowledge God’s existence in them or deny it. If we deny it, if we view them simply as a big bag of chemical electrical reactions, what is wrong with killing them, if leads to my survival? After all, if there is no god, then the ruling force is survival of the fittest. Naturally such a mindset would lead to much killing, or as the Psalmist puts it in verse 4, “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon God?” So when I desire the demise of another is not part of the reason because I have failed to acknowledge the image of God in them?
So what do I do with this knowledge, for I know that I have desired the demise of others and others have desired my demise? And the problem stems from my failure to acknowledge God’s existence and claims upon my life. What should or will this Holy God do? He should kill us, but His holiness extends beyond His justice to His mercy. Because of His great mercy, He brings us salvation, so we can call out with David, “O that salvation would come out of Zion!” He provides salvation for us. So, when we continually receive that salvation and gaze upon His image, it changes us. He delivers us out of our captivity to sin. He restores us to right relationship with Him. He causes us to rejoice and be glad. It is a gladness that is not dependent upon circumstance. It just flows from him. Wow! Instead of death, we receive joy and gladness. What an amazing God! ? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
EZEKIEL 23
Samaria, Oholah means ‘her own tabernacle.’ Jerusalem, Oholibah means ‘My tabernacle is in her.’ In order to maintain the split to between the two counties/cities, Jeroboam instituted two other places of worship in the northern kingdom, Dan and Bethel. The move was basically established in order to keep the northern people from returning to Jerusalem to worship. Jeroboam was fearful that regular returns to Jerusalem to worship might incite a desire to reunite the country, and he or his descendants might lose their power. Eventually after the exile, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt. Gerazim near the city of Samaria. The woman at the well unsuccessfully sought to draw Jesus into the argument on the proper place to worship. The split remains to this day. Samaritans still worship on Mt. Gerazim and Jews at the wailing wall in Jerusalem. The Lord points out through Ezekiel that both of them have committed spiritual adultery with other gods in their places of worship. They were both guilty of exchanging the worship of the true God for the worship of false gods. Not only did they worship other gods, but they tried to incorporate that worship into the worship of the Lord. But the Lord will not share His glory with any other. It’s like sharing your wife with someone else. It just doesn’t work.
I wonder if the reason that the American church is so weak is that we have placed our own spiritual desires in place of true worship of our Lord. We have dressed it up nicely, like it looks it is worshipping the Lord, but spiritually we’ve gone to bed with another god. The Lord doesn’t put up with that. Lord, remove any spiritual unfaithfulness in me so that your glory might shine alone in me. Lord, cure us of our spiritual whoredom so that Your glory might reign supreme in us! Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
1 CORINTHIANS 6
"WE will judge the world." Now, if I didn't understand the glory of Christ, that would be a most disturbing thought! Just, look at our judicial system now! Just look at our churches now! We will judge the world? How can one keep from throwing up his or her hands and crying out, "I don't think so?" ONLY by looking at the glory of Christ can we keep from that. What is His glory? He takes the wretched refuse of our sin and washes it clean with His blood. We were once fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortionists. But He washed us, made us holy and declared us righteous. If He can do that, and He has, He can change us so that eventually we will have the ability to righteously judge the world. Isn't He glorious? He can take our vileness and make us holy! He can take our foolishness and make us wise! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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