Deuteronomy 13:4
It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his
commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
Over the last month or so, I've been slowly reading through the book of Genesis. As I read the close of this book in Chapter 50 and began Exodus, a common and obvious theme stood out to me, that of 'Fear God and keep his Commandments'. This theme runs throughout the whole bible.
God has a divine agenda for each of our lives, he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Sadly and so often we thwart or interfere with the plans of God, by trying to intervene, and 'help' or alter the course slightly. We become impatient, as was the case with Abraham and Sarah, when God promised Sarah would bear a child in her old age. Sarah grew impatient, not believing that God could bring fourth an heir when she was well past child bearing years and took matters into her own hands. She decided that the heir would need to come through her maid servant instead. God of course kept his promise and meanhwile Sarah had to bear the brunt of her own actions and the problems it created. God was simply doing it in his own time and Sarah learnt lessons along the way.
Impatience is a terrible thing...we are so bad at 'waiting upon the Lord', thinking perhaps he hasn't heard us. He always hears us !!!, we need to get this into our hearts. He always answers, in his time, in his way, and for our good. Many times not what we ask for, but in hind sight, we are greatfull and relieved.
Oftentimes we can fear man, more than we fear the Lord. But every time thoughout scripture, I read that those who wait on God, who walk in his ways, obey his commandments and reamin faithful to him, (as in the case of Joseph, son of Jacob) are blessed. Jospeh always sought the Lord, always remained faithful, didn't hold grudges, didn't seek revenge, but instead forgave all his brothers did to him, and even blessed them and provided them with Land and a good life, because of his own prosperity and favour in the eyes of God and Pharoah, king of Egypt. Jospeh had a tender heart for the ways of God, he was merciful and forgave. Mercy and forgiveness are two virtues sadly lacking in our world today and in the hearts of many christians.
To fear God and keep his commandments at all times, is not easy, but also not optional, even when lifes circumstances or our own choices throw us off course. God's ways are not our ways and he knows what the outcome will be if we stray from his divine plan. He puts his laws in place to protect us.
As I finished off Genesis and began the first chapters of Exodus, the legacy of the Patriarchs stands out. The Israelites are said to be 'fruitful and multiplying greatly', they have become 'exceedingly numerous', to the point that the land of Egypt is full of them. God's hand is upon them, and the Egyptians came to dread them. They worked them hard and used them ruthlessly (Exodus 1:14). The new king of Egypt hatched a plan to decrease the population of the Israelites, by asking the midwives to kill every Israelite baby boy that wass born. The midvives however 'feared GOD', and did not do what the king of Egypt asked them to do, instead they let the baby boys live.
Then the king of Egypt summoned them and asked them why they had done this. The midwives were wise and answered, that the Israelite woman were so vigourous in childbirth, that they had already delivered their own children, before they arrived, so therefore it was not possible to carry out the kings command.
Because of their obedience to Yahweh and fear of him, God was kind to the midwives and blessed them, by giving them famlies of their own, and consequently the Israelites became even more numerous.
What can we learn from all this?
Well how it speaks to me, is simply this, 'God is an all knowing, all powerful, all seeing God' and nothing escapes his attention. If people work to feather their own nest, disobey the laws of God and trample over anyone else in the process, eventually the day will come when they will reap the consequences of their actions, either in this life or the next.
We are not to fear man and what he can do to us, we are to fear the Lord and keep his commandments. In the lives of all believers, we will be tested, people will let us down, we'll also let people down. However, if we continually walk in the promises of God, repent of any of our own sin, and seek forgiveness, God will always honour that, forgive and restore us and his favour will once again return to our lives. Its really over to us to do our best and obey him, keep our eyes, hearts and minds fixed on him and continue on the narrow path, that leads to life.
2 John 1:6
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard
from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Psalm 16:11
'You
have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your
presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.'
Deuteronomy 10:20
Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in
his name.
Blessings to anyone who reads this,
Follower of the Way (of Christ).
