Day 10 & 11
Leviticus & Numbers
Finally seeing the light at the end of the endless rules tunnel!
And finally we see the benefit of obeying those rules!
I like what Leviticus 26:3 says in "If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your contry. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high."
And then what happens if you think you're "Above the Law" and don't follow rules and live in disobedience, you ask? I shall answer with Leviticus 26:18 which says, "If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit. If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve."
Ha ha ha, gotta love a God who tells it like it is!
The world today needs more of that.
In the book of Numbers it goes on to say in 14:17 that "The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished....."
I take comfort in that. All around me with Autism and how everyone else can break the rules, at least I know that it will not go unnoticed. Unpunished.
The Lord is talking about punishment in response to the whiney-bag Israelites who constantly doubt God's provision and promise of a promised land.
The LORD replied to them even further, "I have forgiven them. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times -- not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit adn follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he wnet to, and his sescendants will inherit it."
Wow.
Makes me want to be a Caleb and follow God wholeheartedly and live in obedience!
I think I shall try...
I could sure use that land of milk and honey.
(smile)
