Faithful in Consequences

September 29, 2019 Background Scripture: Numbers 14:10b – 23 Lesson Passage: Numbers 14:10b – 20 Today’s lesson is a continuation of the text from last week’s lesson. Israel demonstrated an absolute lack of trust in God to provide them with what He promised. Although God had led them to the land He promised to give them, they did not trust Him to give it to them. They believed that God had led them into a situation of doom. They rejected God’s offer to occupy the land of Canaan and recommended stoning Joshua and Caleb for suggesting it. It was at this point that the glory of the Lord appeared inside the holy tent. God addressed Moses from within the holy tent. All of the miracles God performed for Israel was to engender in them a trust for Him. God had constantly led Israel into situations of need and provided everything to meet those needs. God’s provisions came through works of miracles: dividing the Red Sea, turning bitter waters into potable water, delivering water from a rock in the desert, and providing food (manna) Israel had never heard of. All of this demonstrated God’s power and His concern for the needs of Israel. In spite of the evidence God showed of His trustworthiness, Israel continued to lack trust in God. They behaved and spoke as though they believed the last thing God did for them was the last thing that God was going to do for them. God spoke to Moses of losing patience with them. God threatened to destroy Israel and to build a new nation from Moses’ descendants. Moses reminded God that He had established a reputation that the Egyptians were telling others about. Although Israel refused to see and acknowledge God’s ongoing provision for them, the other nations freely recognized it. Even the Egyptians were watching to see if God was going to do all that He promised He would do for Israel. Moses stated that God’s reputation among the other nations would be at stake if God did not preserve Israel and bring them into Canaan as He promised to do. A failure to do this would cause the other nations to question God’s power to deliver His people. God offered to make a nation out of Moses’ descendants but Moses saw this as too great a risk for God’s reputation among the people who only knew Him based on what they had heard. Moses asked God to demonstrate His power through His patience, mercy, and forgiveness. Moses did not ask God to ignore or remove Israel’s guilt. Rather, he begged God to pardon Israel in spite of their guilt. This would be a greater demonstration of God’s might to the other nations than destroying Israel because of their iniquity. Moses’ prayer demonstrates that he had indeed learned much about God’s character. God had offered to extend to Moses the same promise He made to Abraham and renewed in Isaac and Jacob. Moses declined God’s offer in favor of God demonstrating to the heathen nations the true essence of His character. Moses chose to defend God’s character rather than seek worldly fame for himself. God accepted Moses’ prayer and granted his request because Moses had shown that he was faithful to God in a time when the nation of Israel was facing dire consequences for their iniquity. God pardoned Israel’s iniquity but they still had to suffer consequences for their lack of faith. Robert C. Hudson September 13, 2019

Faithful Despite Unfaithfulness

September 22, 2019 Background Scripture: Numbers 13:1 – 14:10a Lesson Passage: Numbers 13:1, 2, 17, 18, 25 – 28; 14:1, 2, 5 – 10a One of the most remarkable attributes that God has revealed about Himself is His immutability. Immutability simply means that God never changes. Since God has revealed to us that He is holy, we can rest assured that He is always holy. Likewise, as today’s lesson will show, God is always faithful. God’s character does not depend on anyone or anything outside of Himself. God is Who He is and He will always be the same. On the other hand, human relationships are very dynamic. Individually, we adjust and make changes to our interpersonal interactions within the confines of relationships based on the actions and/or inactions of others. We expect them to do the same and, together, we hope to find a happy medium somewhere that the relationship can subsist on. However, this is of no use to us when it comes to having a personal relationship with God. We are constantly changing, whether it is the result of learning or never learning. While we are going through the dynamics of our changes and acting and refusing to take action, God remains the same. Today’s lesson also reminds us that there are God-fearing people who can also be counted on in difficult times to remain faithful to the causes of God. Joshua and Caleb are brought front and center today as faithful followers of God. They were two of the twelve men chosen to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The group was sent on a mission to examine the land of Canaan to check its suitability for Israel to begin occupation of it. According to Moses’ statement in Deuteronomy, this was done at the request of some of the people of Israel. God had promised the land to Israel. God had examined the land for its suitability. Finally, God had led them to it by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. However, it seems as though this is where their trust in God stopped. Rather than follow God’s guidance and be led to occupy the land—trusting that the land of Canaan would be everything God promised it would be—they decided to have their representatives evaluate the land for them. After forty days of examining the land, the group returned with a report of their findings. They reported that the land was all that God said it was. In other words, their evaluation agreed with God’s evaluation of the land. Unfortunately, this is when things got twisted. Ten of the twelve men did not consider God’s guidance as an important factor in occupying the land. Based on that, Israel could not overpower the people who were currently living in Canaan. A war with the Canaanites would be disastrous for them and their women and children would become prey for the Canaanite armies. The mission to occupy the land would be futile and fatal. This report upset the congregation of Israel and they felt they were deceived into leaving Egypt and led into a situation where they could all be killed. Again, this was all based on not including God’s leadership to guide them into occupying the land. As a whole, the congregation was showing itself to be very unfaithful as far as trusting God. They seemed to be determined that they would have to survive without any help from God, although God brought them out of Egypt without them having to fight the Egyptians for their freedom. Only Joshua and Caleb stood up against the unfaithful opinion of the congregation. They proved to be faithful to God despite the unfaithfulness of the rest of the congregation. Robert C. Hudson September 9, 2019

Faithful During Uncertainty

September 15, 2019 Background Scripture: Exodus 16 Lesson Passage: Exodus 16:1 – 15 The book of Exodus provides many interesting details about God’s deliverance of the descendants of Jacob (Israel) out of Egypt after over four hundred years. We know that many of those years were spent in bondage under Egyptian enslavement. What is often overlooked in the book—and yet, perhaps more important—is how God carefully led them so they could develop an everyday faith in His protection and provision for them. A close study of the first five books of the bible makes it clear that God was protecting and providing for them even during the four hundred years. Indeed, God makes all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them. One of the things that can be observed about Israel, soon after they were freed from slavery, is how they had become dependent on their enslavement for basic necessities. As a result of their dependence, at the Red Sea, they felt vulnerable and defenseless. Defending themselves was not a necessity while they were enslaved. At Marah, they thought they would certainly die of thirst because they found no water suitable for drinking. Again, the Egyptians made sure they had water available to drink. And one month into their freedom journey, they had apparently consumed all of the provisions they brought with them from Egypt. Now they were convinced they would die of starvation in the wilderness. Some of them even reminisced about the “good ole days” back in Egypt when they could depend on some meat being cooked in the fleshpots. There’s nothing like hard times and uncertainty to make you forget about the misery of the past! How quickly the children of Israel had forgotten the dehumanizing conditions of enslavement. Many of them were ready to trade their newfound freedom for future enslavement so that they could eat the meat from the pots until they were full. They had forgotten the bitter rod of chastisement, the unfair burden of quotas, and being treated as less than human. A time of uncertainty had dulled their sense of reality. At this point in their journey, slavery seemed to have more benefits than freedom. Because of the uncertainty of their present situation, they could only remember positive things about their past. What God asked of Israel was for them to listen to His voice, do what is right in His sight, and keep the statutes He gave them. In return for their faithfulness, God promised to be their healer and not to afflict them with any of the diseases He cursed the Egyptians with. There are two things that are common to the Red Sea, Marah, and the Wilderness of Sin. God purposely led them into all of those situations where they experienced uncertainty, and in each situation, they experienced a great need. None of those places were reached accidentally or haphazardly. God led them to each place purposely. God had provided for them what they needed at each place, but they could not see it until He revealed it to them. God was teaching them how to be faithful to Him by demonstrating His protection and provision for them—even during times of uncertainty. Robert C. Hudson August 15, 2019

Faithful During Grief

September 8, 2019 Background Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1 – 2:10 Lesson Passage: 1 Samuel 1:9 – 20 Few things are as emotionally burdensome as the sense of great loss in a person’s life. Although we tend to only associate grief with the death of a loved one, any significant loss or the anticipation of an impending loss can cause a person to grieve. Personal loss can cause the onset of a season of much mental and emotional pain. We simply call it grief. It truly seems like too small of a word to fully capture the pain that one endures in it. Grief has been the subject of research and experimentation for centuries. Its stages are well defined and painfully consistent across gender, racial, ethnic, cultural, educational, and financial demographics. Grief affects people of all classifications. At least two stages of grief can become so intense that clinical/medical intervention may be needed to help the person cope and return to a sense of normal. Those two stages are anger and depression. I believe those are important as we consider the scripture in today’s lesson. The central figure in today’s lesson is Hannah. Hannah was one of two wives of a God-fearing man. Hannah was barren but the other wife gave birth to sons and daughters. The biblical description of Hannah’s disposition indicates that she had become very depressed (perhaps clinically). The bible indicates that the other wife added to Hannah’s misery by provoking her. The bible does not give details about what the other wife did but it was enough that she was referred to as Hannah’s rival. Hannah’s depression returned on an annual basis at the time the family went to Shiloh to take offerings before the Lord. Of course, her rival was present to “rub Hannah’s situation in her face”. The annual return to the house of the Lord was also a time of provocation. On the occasion identified in the scriptures, Hannah cried and had no appetite. Her husband attempted to console her but to no avail. The priest in Shiloh, Eli, observed Hannah in prayer pouring her heart out to God and begging for a baby boy. Because she did not pray aloud, Eli assumed her actions were indicative of her being intoxicated. Eli rebuked Hannah because he thought she was intoxicated but Hannah responded in self-defense and explained that she had not drank any intoxicating drink but was merely pouring her heart out to God. Eli blessed her by asking that God would grant her petition. Hannah gave birth to a son before the family’s return to Shiloh the following year. This time she did not go with them but vowed to stay away until she weaned the baby and then she would take him before the Lord in Shiloh and leave him there as she had vowed. After he was weaned, Hannah took the baby boy and an offering before God in Shiloh. After the offering, she announced to Eli that she was the woman who had prayed before the Lord and He had granted her petition. Therefore, she was bringing the boy back to the Lord as she had vowed. After a time of prolonged grief, Hannah looked to the Lord for the answer to her depression. The Lord answered Hannah’s prayer and removed her grief. The baby boy, who was God’s answer to Hannah’s prayer, was named Samuel. Samuel was the last of the judges and the last to serve in the triune office of judge, priest, and prophet until the birth of Jesus. God gave him to Hannah so she could give him back to God because Hannah was faithful during her time of grief. Robert C. Hudson August 14, 2019

A Covenant to Marry

August 18, 2019 Background Scripture: Ruth 1:6 – 18; 3; 4; Matthew 19:1 – 12 Lesson Passage: Ruth 3:1 – 6, 8 – 12, 16 – 18 Today’s lesson finds Naomi and Ruth safely in the land of Judah after the famine had passed. In the Law, God had given instructions for His people to provide for the poor among them by allowing them to glean in the grain fields. The few scattered stalks of grain remaining after the reapers were finished were considered God’s provision for the poor. Naomi and Ruth were in Judah, but because they were both widows, they were now counted among the poor. Ruth, true to her commitment to Naomi, had joined the gleaners to gather enough grain for Naomi and her to survive on. It was while Ruth was gleaning in the grain field that the providential hand of God began to move on behalf of Ruth and Naomi. (It seems to never fail that when we set our hearts to do right, and earnestly work at it, God steps in and does for us what we could never do for ourselves.) Although Ruth was not aware of it, God had directed Ruth to the field of a near-relative of Naomi. While Ruth was in the field gleaning, God had caused Ruth to catch the eye of Naomi’s near-relative. God is an incredible match maker. The near-relative’s name was Boaz. Boaz inquired of his servants concerning Ruth’s identity. He learned that she was the daughter-in-law of his relative, Naomi. Boaz spoke to Ruth and advised her to stay in his field and glean with the other women who were there. Ruth humbled herself and bowed before Boaz. She asked him why she was receiving this favor. Boaz informed her that her reputation had preceded her. The story of Ruth’s covenant with Naomi and all that she had done to assist Naomi had become known in the land of Judah. Boaz told Ruth that the favor she was receiving through him was the God of Israel’s way of repaying her for her unselfish devotion to Naomi. Naomi was one of God’s children by divine covenant. Ruth’s unselfish devotion and commitment to a child of God had come full circle and she was now reaping unexpected blessings for it. After learning of the encounter, Naomi shifted into “mother mode” and started instructing Ruth according to the custom of the Jews on how to win the heart of Boaz. God set the stage and now Naomi was quickly taking over as production manager of the drama that was about to unfold on that stage. Ruth followed the instructions of Naomi and she won the heart of Boaz—just as Naomi told her it would happen. Boaz complimented Ruth for her virtuous character and made a commitment to seek to have her as his wife. What a miraculous transition. Ruth went from being an impoverished gleaner in a field to being the wife of the field’s owner. Boaz succeeded in marrying Ruth and they became the great-grandparents of King David. King David is a progenitor of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the son of God. God selected some individuals with amazing traits to be in the family tree of His only begotten son. God ordered the steps of faithful people and, in this situation, it led to a covenant to marry. Robert C. Hudson July 20, 2019