‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. Exodus 19:4-6 NASB
Have you ever found favor with someone who you deemed to be important? Perhaps it was a teacher in school, a grandparent, or aunt or uncle, or even an employer. When people find favor with us just because of the kind of person we are, we usually strive to do a better job for them or do our best in all that they ask us or expect us to do.
The Israelites were God’s chosen people. He loved them and really wanted them to be in a close, committed relationship with Him. He wanted to provide for them. He wanted to protect them and He wanted them to reap the benefits of a committed relationship with Him. But we all know that they had a history of messing up. The Israelites were the twelve tribes derived from Israel who had previously been known as Jacob. He had twelves sons and their offspring were formed into tribes. Now you may recall that his older sons sold his young son, Joseph into slavery in Egypt. But Joseph stayed faithful to God and did well. He did so well that He was made second in command over all of Egypt and brought his father and his brothers to live there during the great famine. They were well taken care of. The brothers never could believe, however, that Joseph had completely forgiven them so even after their father died, they still plotted ways to keep themselves safe. They didn’t trust God to take care of them, but plotted and schemed to take care of themselves. But after Joseph died, these brother’s families continued to greatly multiply. This made the Egyptians fearful so they made them their slaves and oppressed them in their land for many years.
Once the Egyptians began to oppress them, they cried out to God for His help. The Israelites saw God perform many miracles during their exodus from Egypt. They saw God bring plague after plague upon the Egyptians. They saw Him strike down the young sons of Egyptian households. They saw Him provide a cloud by day and a pillar of fire to guide them by night. They saw God part the Red Sea so that they may walk through on dry ground unharmed. They saw God swallow up Pharaoh and his army in the sea when they chased after them. God provided manna for them to eat, He never allowed their shoes to wear out in the 40 years they wandered around in the desert.
How could a people who had seen God perform so many miracles ever doubt Him? How could they construct idols of wood and stone and worship them instead of God? How could they go against God?
But we know from scripture that any time things did not go their way, they began to worship idols. They had a horrible pattern of doing well and honoring God, backsliding, becoming discouraged and worshiping idols, suffering punishment, crying out to God, being saved by God and then doing well for a while only to repeat this same pattern over and over again. Sound familiar? I lived life this way for too many years.
Our scripture passage today calls on them to remember all that God has done for them. It reminds them that God will take good care of them if they obey His commandments. It reminds them that if they do not obey His commandments, God will punish them. These words hold true for us today.
Our problem is that just like the Israelites, the devil wants to tear us away from a loving God. The devil wants us to suffer God’s wrath and punishment. The devil wants to see us rot in hell. The devil doesn’t love us, he only lies to us.
The devil makes sin look really good and promising and profitable. Once he gets you hooked, then destruction comes. You may have heard it said that at any given time we have the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. The devil is trying to get us to mess up and the angel is trying to keep us from destruction. So, I ask you today, who are you going to believe?
Will you believe the devil’s lies like God will overlook or understand your sin? Will you believe the devil when he says no harm will come to you? We must remember that the devil is not only a liar, but the father of all lies (John 8:44).
When the devil lies to you, I strongly encourage you to think back to a time when you were in fellowship with God. I hope that you can remember a time when you loved God with all you had and were not allowing distractions to get in your way. I hope you can remember a time when you weren’t making idols of things like possessions or your job or a relationship or any other thing that might lead us away from God. During this time you experienced peace, joy, provision, and protection. This is what God wants us for us. He wants us to have a good life (Jeremiah 29:11). The choice is yours, decide today who you are going to believe. Will you believe the devil’s lies or will you focus on God’s truth. The choice is yours.
Have a great day!