ELUL DAY 16
POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER
- How does God feel about murder? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the difference between “killing” and “murder?”_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- There are many different kinds of murder and some of us are surprised to find out that we are spiritual murders, murdering with the tongue, with anger, with abuse of our words. Have you ever been guilty of such as this over the year that just passed us by? If you answered “yes” have you repented? How will you turn this around in the year ahead? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELUL DAY 16 MEDITATION
UNLAWFUL SEXUAL RELATIONS AND THE CONSEQUENCES
THE CONVERSATION ON THE MOUNTAIN CONTINUES
So God was still talking to Moses about how He wanted His people to live.
He emphasized once more that He was their Sovereign God.
Perhaps a few people had forgotten this fact and they needed reminding again.
Moses was listening and taking notes as usual. God told Him that the Israelis needed to behave different than the other people living in the Land of Canaan.
The Land of Canaan was the place of the Promised Land that God wanted to give to them. They were on their way to Canaan Land; but apparently they needed to polish up their morals a bit before they arrived.
GOD IS VERY CLEAR
God was very vividly explaining how He wished for the people to live within the land and in the course of this important conversation with Moses, it becomes clear that God does not appreciate sexual immorality among His people.
God was telling Moses that The Children of Israel must not act like all the other people who were currently living in the land.
The People of God were to obey God’s laws and to follow God’s decrees.
God did not want them to blend-in with the cultures of Canaan.
Remember the last time that things got out of hand because of blatant sin and immorality?
God sent the flood!
You can’t tell me that God isn’t merciful.
He had the power to wipe out all future generations right there in the desert back in those olden days.
God decided to linger with us longer.
He exercised his prerogative in giving mankind free will.
Will we ever learn not to disappoint Him?
PEOPLE IN SIN AND REBELLION
After reading the scriptures explaining this particular conversation between Moses and God, you begin to get the idea that maybe the people were already becoming a bit confused about proper and holy sexual relations.
This seems to be a human pattern that never changes.
God had to explain some pretty intimate and personal things; like the fact that no one was to have sex with their father or their mother, or their step-mother or step-father, or their sister or step-sister, or brother or step-brother, or their aunt or uncle, or cousins or any of their other in-laws!
Had all those years in slavery reduced God’s people to mere animals?
How embarrassing for God to have to remind them of such shameful things.
GOD’S WORDS DESCRIBE HOW HE FEELS
Nevertheless, all of that is to say; God had to stoop to the very low level of telling Moses to remind the people of their morals. Over and over God gave examples for Moses to let the people know that such forms of sexual behavior were nothing but wickedness.
Wickedness isn’t my word; I got that word straight from the scripture passages.
After several other added and very clearly stated instructions about how they could and could not express themselves sexually; the people were to be again reminded of that commandment which states “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
God saved the worst for last.
He went over a final list of the most abominable of child abuse and sexual sins all at the same time.
God explained that the people were never to give their children to be sacrificed to Malek.
Malek was a pagan idol.
Immediately after commenting on this horrid sin of offering innocent children as sacrifices to pagan gods; God follows with the fact that He finds homosexuality detestable and forbids that His people participate in such forms of sexual immorality.
Leviticus 18:22 says; “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”
Detestable was a word from God; not me.
If you don’t like it, please take it up with Him.
DESIRING GOD’S BEST FOR OTHERS
Can I love you while you live your life as a homosexual person?
Yes; I can love you like a brother or a sister, and I will definitely do that; but I can’t say that I love your lifestyle.
God called it detestable.
I’m not going to argue with Him about this or any other sin for that matter.
If you understand this as “hate;” you are not understanding.
I am not judging anyone; I am simply repeating what God instructed Moses in the scriptures.
God is love.
To say God “hates” would be a lie.
You don’t send your only begotten Son to live and die a horrible death in order to save those that you “hate.”
No, my friend; this is not hate; but true love.
As for me; I have enough other types of sins of my own to worry about; thank you, and I would expect to receive the same truthful tough-love from you in return; but I would NOT expect you to accept my sins, and I would expect you to care more for my soul than to tell me whatever I want to believe is okay.
It isn’t.
WE MUST COME TO GOD ON HIS TERMS; NOT OURS
In the days of old God was forming a holy nation from those who were willing to do His will.
Today God is forming a spiritual nation from those who are willing to do His will.
God’s ways are the only acceptable ways.
Mankind’s ways are like filthy rags before Him.
We must come to God on His terms; not ours.
Sometimes that means dying to ourselves and submitting our will to His will.
Often this means changing our world from what we thought we wanted to what we KNOW He wanted.
True love is always desiring God’s best for a person.
Sometimes God’s will is just better for a person; even better than their own desires.
It isn’t always easy for people to understand this, but there is never anything hateful about desiring God’s best for someone.
WE ARE TO BE A DIFFERENT KIND OF PEOPLE
God seems to be covering all of the subjects that he finds the most disgusting in this long conversation with Moses.
In just one paragraph He forbids child abuse, homosexuality and bestiality.
Yes; the last horrid sin is bestiality.
God calls this sin a perversion.
Again, that was GOD’S word; not one that I just threw in.
Moses is further reminded that all of these sins of immorality are the same things that define the very nations that God wishes to destroy and replace.
The cultures from Canaan were all full of the sins of incest, sexual immorality, adultery, lust, homosexuality, bestiality and child abuse.
God hated these things and therefore; He was removing these people from the land and replacing them with people who were willing to live in righteousness and follow His ways.
GOD’S PEOPLE CANNOT DEFILE THE LAND
The very things that God forbid the people to participate in were the things that God says will cause a great nation to be defiled.
God says if His people later change and decide on their own to once again defile the land with such sinful disobedience; He will vomit them out of the land; just as He is going to vomit the current pagan population out of the land and give it to Israel.
God has all of the same consequences for disobeying these laws of morality as for any other types of disobedience. He expects His people to keep His laws; because this is how the other nations will distinguish them from the ungodly nations.
This is how they will become known as God’s nation.
If the perfectly clear instructions of God aren’t kept; the person who disobeys will be outcast from the community.
If they do not keep God’s laws and commandments; they will not receive God’s blessings as owners of The Promised Land.
JUST ANCIENT LAWS FOR AN ANCIENT PEOPLE?
Well; you may say the same thing about these instructions as you might have said all along about all the other instructions and laws. They were ancient instructions given specifically to the ancient Israelis living long before the days of Jesus.
Surely we are not expected to keep these laws and instructions today; are we?
Well; one thing is certainly right about that statement. Jesus Christ HAS come and He HAS set the people who believe in and follow Him free.
We are no longer under the letter of the law; but we are expected to do something even harder than the letter of the law. We are expected to wish to keep God’s ways straight from our hearts instead of out of duty.
LOVE INSTEAD OF FEAR
We are expected to honor God out of love instead of how the ancients did; out of fear.
Today we are held to a higher standard than ever before; but think of this: today we have the strength and help of a perfect Savior.
ETERNITY WITH GOD OR IMMORALITY WITH ANOTHER SINNER?
Nothing is impossible when a person follows God with a true heart.
Whatever strength is lacking in their humanity God will supernaturally supply.
Any suffering they are required to endure will be only for a moment; then later they will have the awesome privilege of looking upon the Face of God throughout all of eternity.
This alone should be worth anything forfeited or suffered on the earth.
What sounds better to you; eternity with God or immorality with another sinner?
The pleasure of a moment only last a short time and it is gone; never to be again.
Eternity is forever.
It never ends.
I know what I want.
WHAT FUTURE DO WE WANT FOR OUR NATION?
The decisions we make today will form the foundations for the structure of having God in our nation for the future.
We should be teaching morality to the children of our nation instead of feeding them Kool-Aid that is full of artificial sugar.
If you want a child to be healthy; you must give them the proper nutrition.
Why not give them the real thing?
Why not tell them the truth of God?
Do we really want to destroy the hope of their days by letting them have to search the truth out on their own without a loving and scriptural warning?
What future do you wish for your own children and grandchildren?
The morality that we keep as a nation today is the morality that they will be facing later.
Will God cast you out forever; or will He lead you to the final place of promise?
WE WERE GIVEN THE TRUE EXAMPLE
It is a choice that you can make.
All you have to do is turn and follow Jesus.
He committed none of these sins mentioned above.
Jesus set the perfect example for all of us.
It does matter very much to God what we decide.
Your fate is your own; so choose wisely.