King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2020
Chapters: Deuteronomy 32-34, Psalm 91
Message: Be Humble, Pray, And Seek My Face
Hello My Friend,
Well, I had started this earlier, but God led me in another direction for today’s devotional. When you stop to think about this pandemic going on all over the world, this is not something that is affecting just one nation, this is affecting the entire planet. We love to make comparisons of what happened years ago, we need to stop doing that because we are in a very different time than we were eleven years ago when the swine flu was declared a pandemic by President Obama six months after, and thirty-nine hundred people died. No, this is not a political message, this is a warning, God is giving His people a stern warning. “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.” – II Chronicles 7:13-16.
This has nothing to do with the world, for they know not what they do, and He will deal with them another time. This is about His people, they have turned their backs on Him, created false religions, written false versions of His Word, made a mockery out of His Son’s good name, knowingly living in sin. Now, It was time for Moses’ journey on earth to come to an end, he led the people to the promised land, just as God called him to do, gave them His law, wrote it down, and told them of what was to come once they took possession of the land. He also gave them the blessings and curses that would come if they turned their backs on God. Before God sent him to the top of Mount Pisgah, He gave one more speech. If you read carefully you will find that while it appears to be Moses speaking, it is clearly the LORD Himself.
“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.” – Deuteronomy 32:1-4,8-9,15-18.
“He is the Rock,” The LORD, Jesus Christ, Almighty God in the flesh Himself, is the Rock that His people stand upon and cannot be moved. Praise God! And it does not matter which era we came from, the LORD, Jesus Christ is His name, and He is the Rock upon which every believer stands (I Corinthians 10:1-4). “For the LORD’S portion is his people;” While God did have other believers, He made His covenant with Jacob (Israel), who are decedents of Abraham, and Isaac. Why? To establish His name with one nation of people. “But Jeshurun waxed fat,” Jeshurun is a symbolical name for the people of Israel, it means upright. This means they were blessed greatly while they followed His commands, until they turned on God. “Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful,” This is the same exact thing that we read in the New Testament (Romans 1:18-32). God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Grace may save us through our faith in Christ alone, but sin is sin, and God will judge His people for their sin. They may not lose their salvation because they are standing upon the Rock, God will not be mocked, He will let them suffer in their sin until they repent or die in their sin. God is not only disgusted over the way His people behave, He is jealous, and He’s declaring vengeance.
“For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.” – Deuteronomy 32:28-31,35-40.
“except their Rock had sold them,” This is why God allows false religion, this is why He allows false versions of His Word, they are not His, and He will have nothing to do with them. When a man who is said to represent the Church stands before a picture of Mary and prays to it, that is when you know God has sold His people. Some of these religions may have at one time led people in the right direction, but they are so far gone that God has sold them to the devil himself (John 8:43-47). “For their rock is not as our Rock,” If anyone questions the existence of God, if anyone denies His Word to be His Word, if anyone says that His Word is missing books or words, if anyone says that His Word does not apply to us today, then they are not standing on the Rock upon which I stand. And I stand upon the Rock of Jesus Christ. Amen! “Where are their gods,” Do you think the people who started these false religions are trusting in their false version of God now? They are all in hell right, having led countless souls down to hell with them (Revelation 21:8).
“I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal:” This is how God gets His people, through the pains, sorrows, sickness, and death, He uses these things to bring those who know of Him to repentance. You cannot have it both ways, you either accept that Christ is the way, truth, and life, or accept some false religion, and be denied by Christ, (Matthew 10:32-34). All saved, born again Christians living in sin need to get through their lustful hearts that while they cannot lose their salvation, they will lose much here, and will lose their lives prematurely. Right after God gave His speech, He reminds Moses that he cannot go into the promised land, and why.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people: Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.” – Deuteronomy 32:48-52.
“Yet thou shalt see the land before thee;” I am sure that Moses was quite disappointed to not be able to go into the promised land because he hit that rock instead of speaking to it out of anger. Nevertheless, he did not fear death for he knew what Rock He was really standing upon. Moses wrote this Psalm as a reminder. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” – Psalm 91:1,5-11,14-16.
“Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness;” We cannot see this virus, it is lurking about, seeking to invade the body of the one who is not strong enough to fight it off. It is not a respecter of persons, it is from Satan, and it is God who allows him to afflict the people, (Job 1). God will afflict, He will chasten, He will heal, He will save, He will come to all who call upon Him, (Romans 10:13). “Because he hath set his love upon me,” It is only when we love God with all our heart, that we will see Christ for who He truly is, and not just someone to save us from hell, He is someone to save us from the live we lived, and the endless suffering that sin brings, (Galatians 5:13). Now, God leads Moses up to Mount Pisgah, it was there that he could see the promised land.
“And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.” – Deuteronomy 34:1-6,10-12.
“And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab,” God Himself buried Moses, and it is still not known where his grave is. However, even after thousands of years, it is only the shell of his body that is sleeping in the grave, He is safely up in heaven, talking with Jesus, and fellowshipping with Him face to face. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” – I Thessalonians 4:13-17.
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for the gift of eternal life through Your Son, we do not need to work for our salvation, we just need to believe in and accept that He alone paid the price for our sins, and He alone is all we need to be saved. While my salvation can never be earned or repaid, my faith in You will lead me to obey Your commands as I learn of them through Your Word. You are my Rock upon which I stand, and I know that no one, not even Satan himself can knock me off of it. Lord, Lead me and guide me, give me Your power, wisdom, mercy, grace, and love to get through every trial, temptation, and affliction. Help me to live by faith and not by what I see, show me great and mighty things as I know You have the power to do all things. If there be any wicked way in me, reveal it that I might repent and not hinder any of Your blessings. Put Your hedge of protection around each and every one of Your faithful to keep this virus from attacking them. Those who contracted it, touch and heal them as You see fit. Open the hearts of Your people, bring them to humble themselves, to pray, and seek Your face to heal our lands. Lord, please remove this pestilence, and heal our land. In ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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