The Lord's Self Described Character and Job Description - Ex 34

Exodus 34:5  And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 

1. YHWH, Jehovah - The self existent, eternal. Repeated for emphasis!
2. God, El - Almighty.
3. Merciful
4. Gracious
5. Longsuffering
6. Abundant in Goodness
7. Abundant in Truth
8. Keeping Mercy
9. Forgiving Iniquity & Transgression & Sin
10. Just
And for good measure:
11. Jealous, 14. (He demands allegiance)

Moses' reaction: 8  And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 

Israel's Actions were a Bunch of Bull

The Golden Calf - Exodus 32

Why would the people resort to such an extreme measure as worshiping this idol?

They had recently experienced:

*Delivery from Bondage

*Miraculous supply in the desert of Water, Manna and Quail

*The presence of God in the Cloud and Pillar

*The lightnings, thunderings and an earthquake at Mt. Sinai

Talk about your basic, "but what have you done for me lately?" mentality!

So, what happened?

1. Impatience - people want what they want when they want it.

2. Impertinence - they lacked respect for God and His chosen leader.

3. Impotence - they were so incapable of caring for their own spiritual well-being.

4. Indolence - they were lazy. Rather than being vigilant of the important things of life, they easily let down their guard, and thus were low hanging fruit for the enemy.

5. Incongruence (idolatry) - they wanted an empirical god. One they could see and touch, rather than the true God Who saw their conditions in Egypt, heard their desperate cries, knew their plight and came down to save them. Passing over them on the night of the deaths of the firstborn.

A Lesser Light - Ex 31:1-11

Bezaleel - "In the Shadow of the Almighty"

This special servant of God gets zero mention in modern preaching. He dwells in the shadows of Bible, on the periphery of the attention. People like him give way to the biblical giants: Mary, Abraham, Moses, David, Paul...

But he was definitely big stuff in his day and deserves a look from us!

What was so special about our friend, Bezaleel?

*His Enrichment (Heritage): His dad was Uri ”Fiery,” His grandpa was Hur “White Linen,” and son of Aaron, of the tribe of Judah “Praise.”

*His Empowerment: He was filled with the Spirit of God.

*His Endowment (traits): Wisdom, understanding and knowledge. He was at the same time theoretical and practical. He is noted for his cunning (he was skilled and adept) as a metallurgist, artificer (craftsman), stonemason, carpenter.

*His Compliment: (appointed by God) Aholiab (tent of his father), who was Ahisamach (brother of support). In other words, there should be no Lone Rangers in the Lord's work, we can't go it alone. We need suitable help. Even Tonto was there to support the Lone Ranger. He was there to offer support and wisdom to Bezaleel!

*His Employment: an extremely high calling, crafting the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat, table of showbread, golden candlestick, brazen altar, the golden laver (pan) and altar of incense. Also, crafting the holy garments of the ministers. As well, he was responsible for compounding the anointing oil and incense (see chapter 30:22-38 for the details of the exacting recipes demanded).

Bezaleel was:

Ø  Essential to the Worship of God

Ø  Responsible to the Work of God

Ø  Integral to the Word of God

You may not receive the lime-light or the marquee billing, but God, your Heavenly Father, has a great work for you to do. He is gifting you to do it. He is surrounding you with encouraging supporters, and the Holy Ghost imbuement is available for your enabling. Do something great for God as you become essential, responsible and integral in your place of service. The Worship, Work and Word of God would benefit from your service today.

Happy Reformation Day!

Wycliffe, Huss, Calving, Melanchthon

Knox, Luther, Cranmer, Latimer

Zwingli, Bucer, Tyndale.

We honor these and many others today.

Vengeance Belongs to the Lord

Gen 45:22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. 

Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver by his brethren ($200). In response, he earlier filled his brother's sacks with grain and returned their money. But now, to Benjamin, he gives 300 pieces of silver ($3000), 15 times as much as he was sold for. 12 brothers, Joseph's 2 sons and Jacob make 15.

Interesting how the Lord more than takes care of situations, how He more than makes things up to His own.

When you are reviled, revile not again, we are admonished.

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

Leave the getting even thing up to Him. don't take it upon yourself to extract a pound of flesh. Situations become a win/win in His hands. Nobody wins when you take it into your own hands.

Fallen Leaves

Fallen leaves remind us, as we rake them from our lawn

That life provides us seasons, as we grow & move along

Sometimes flowers and sunshine, others, gloom and rain

But in the end, God keeps us, He grows us through our pain

GF

Say the Word "Corn"

We read of the dream of Pharaoh in Genesis 41, and the interpretation of the dream by Joseph which led to the salvation of the world and the building of Egypt through his God-given wisdom to dole out the corn during years of famine.

Please notice the word, Corn - Shibboleth (Heb). This in not Nebraska sweet corn (otherwise called manna :), rather, grain, as in, a grain of wheat, etc.

Where do we hear this word "shibboleth" elsewhere in the Bible?

Look toward the end of Judges 12, especially verse 6.

During the days of the Judges when God punished Israel for their idolatry, there happened to be this rift between the Ephraimites and Mannassites (stemming from both of Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh) and the men of Gilead.

The Ephraimites couldn't pronounce the word shibboleth. They had a problem with the sh blend. Think: Gringos trying to roll their R's like the Latinos.

The Gileadites used it as a password for those coming across the river Jordan. (Like the Grumpy old Troll - "If you want to pass over, solve my riddle").

If the Ephraimites couldn't say it, but instead said "Sibboleth," they were slain. 42,000 men died because they couldn't say corn. How tragic!

Yet, here is Joseph, progenitor of the Ephraimites and Manassites, in Gen 41, saving the world through corn (shibboleth). I wonder if he could pronounce the word???