Prayer: Father, do I follow the dictates of Your Word? Am I always seeking Your will? Unlike Israel, may I seek You and obedience unto You. Amen.
Reading: Hosea 8 key: vs. 1-4 ““Put a shofar to your mouth! Like a vulture he comes against the house of Adonai. For they overstepped My covenant and transgressed My Torah. Will they cry out to Me, ‘My God, we—Israel—knew You’? Israel has rejected goodness— an adversary will pursue him. They crowned kings, but not by Me. They appointed princes I did not approve. Their silver and gold they made into idols— just so they would be cut down.” TLV
Attention: Do you study the Old Testament and shake your head at the circular relationship which the nation of Israel had with Adonai? If you have never studied the complete Old Testament, a good book to begin with is the book of Judges. I quoted the scripture found in Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 recently. They are words from the wisest man to ever live, Solomon. He says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything about which is said, “Look! This is new!”? It was already here long ago, in the ages long before us. There is no remembrance for former things, and things yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” What Solomon is saying is human actions are repetitive unless we learn from them. In the book of Judges, the cycle of relationship with God was, the people would sin, God would send an oppressor (most of the time it was the Philistines), the people would cry out to God to save them from the Philistines, He would send a judge who would beat the enemy back within it’s borders, peace would be had for a period of forty years (till that judge died), and the process would begin anew, the lessons of the past forgotten.
The book of Judges is a microcosm of the behaviors of the nation of Israel. Unless we learn from them, we too experience the same cycle of failure.
The apostle Paul warned the faith community in Corinth about the same obstacle. Unless we study the scriptures and learn from those who have preceded us, we will face the same problems. Here is what Paul told the Corinthians, “Now these things happened to them (the people of the Old Testament) as an example, and it was written down as a warning to us—on whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10”11).”
They did a lot of things without consulting Adonai. God appointed the first two kings of Israel. After Saul and David, they appointed their own kings. They asked for a king and God granted what they asked for. When they began appointing their own kings, they were not happy with the results.
Let us be careful what we ask for and be careful to consult God about what He wants. Let us study His word and avoid the mistakes of those before us.
Action: I choose to live a life of humble obedience unto Adonai.
Yield: I choose to live a submitted, yielded life unto Messiah.
Engage: I choose to live a life engaged with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Relationship: I choose to live in humble, intimate obedience with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, as the word of an old hymn says, “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” Thank you for the scriptures which instruct me. Give me ears to hear, give me a heart which heeds. Amen.
Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, and it was written down as a warning to us—on whom the ends of the ages have come.” TLV
Music Video: Brandon Lake—Living Sacrifice https://youtu.be/KqS-bxXz1co?si=QyPZuFz_EN8IENkG
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”