WHAT TIME IS IT?

When I was little, no one talked about Jesus coming back.  I guess the book of Revelation seemed implausible and futuristic in a wild-eyed way.

Now in the last fifty years, we've watched our culture "advance" so that now we're using our forearms for either chips or computer screens (LINK)...and we also have the ability for people all over the globe to see something at once.

Running on parallel tracks, the same fifty years have also seen wickedness advance at warp speed.  Robert Bork coined a prophetic phrase when he said we are "slouching toward Gomorrah".  It is this slouch that fills the cup of wrath against men as they write their own report card of destruction.

One day that cup will be full.  Then when the last soul comes into the kingdom (after the last person who WILL humble himself HAS humbled himself), we can borrow from Noah's story and know God will shut the ark door and the rain will begin.

Here are some signs of the Lord's return that are familiar:

1.  WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR.  Yes, war's an old story.  But has the world ever seemed closer to global fury?  We don't even know whether to be more afraid of cyber war or nukes or terrorism or invasion.  Hacking is daily news and the Pentagon/IRS have already been hacked.  Now Russia pokes us in the eye by annexing the Ukraine breadbasket...while her pilots fly close to Alaska and taunt us on the Fourth of July.  China is also getting militaristic in the South China Sea.  ISIS stirs up the entire Middle East and Africa in flames of terror.  Iran is close to a nuke that it promises to use.  Setting off a nuke high above America makes an electromagnetic pulse that will fry our electric grid (affecting communications, transportation, banking, food and water).

As a result of all the death in the Middle East, the greatest mass migration since WW2 is happening in Europe.  People are running for their lives ahead of ISIS, pouring out of the Middle East and Northern Africa.  This morning's news said Greece is inundated with 2,000 refugees each day.

Some believe our enemies will try to take us economically rather than militarily.  Those people took note this week as Monday our stock market tanked because of China's flux.  How secure can we be while we (the borrower) are China (the lender's) slave?

2.  WEATHER, FAMINE, PESTILENCE, EARTHQUAKES.  Food supplies can be affected by the increasing droughts, fires, and floods.  Have you read articles about the area under Yellowstone?  They call it a "supervolcano" that is much larger than anyone thought.  The New Madrid and San Andreas faults are rumbling, but more active still are the plates off the coast of Washington and Vancouver.  Scientists say the probability of a magnitude 8 or larger is as high as 75% in the next fifty years.  They say it could shake four minutes and cause a tsunami which would inundate the coastal area.

3.  ISRAEL IS GATHERED TO NATIONHOOD.  Israel fulfilled prophecy as she was birthed in November of 1947.  According to Amos 9:15, she will never be rooted out again from her land.  As anti-Semitism flourishes in Europe, Jews are "coming home" to the Beautiful Land.  Many left France after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, answering a very old Jewish question "Do you have a bag packed?".

4.  A STRONG DELUSION.  In Thessalonians 2 it says "For this reason (the reason of wickedness) God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe what is false."

Never before have so many people around the globe been connected by such a separating medium as the internet/cell phone technology.  Such technology causes us to have our heads down.  Then preoccupied and entertained unto ourselves, we have no time for God.  We forget what is good and call evil good.  The result?  The Lord gives a veil called "delusion".  If people do not want to see what is right, the LORD gives them what they want.

What else is happening that perhaps quickens Christ's return?

5.  LOSS OF LOVE FOR GOD AS WICKEDNESS INCREASES.  "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."  It takes more and more courage to stand for righteousness today than even ten years ago.

Now the state can now bring punishment for abiding in what the Bible says about homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion.  Who could have guessed Denver would not want a fast food restaurant just because they stand for natural marriage?  We watch people lose their businesses (marriage caterers/florists) and leave jobs (such as court clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses or cases like the Atlanta fire chief who was kicked off the city payroll for giving his testimony).

If wickedness cannot be defined as "pulling an innocent baby out of the womb and suctioning its brains" then we need to apologize to the word "wicked".

6.  DECEIVERS INCREASE.  "Take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in My name saying that I am the Christ and will deceive many."

"Nutcases" who think they are Jesus are a dime a dozen.  But the latest shock has been to hear evangelical pastors accommodating same-sex marriage.  God's words to Moses (repeated by Paul in the New Testament) say people who engage in such practices will not be in heaven.  Aren't pastors here to point the way to heaven?  To accommodate on the issue of unrepentant homosexuality...is to mislead congregants, ending in destruction.

All the world's religions are looking for the return of their particular religious man.  ISIS tries to hasten their Mahdi's return by all their killings.  But there is only ONE Son of the Living God who proved who He said He was by the resurrection.

7.  SKY SIGNS.  In Luke 21 we read of how the sun, moon, and stars will be signs in the last days; they have long been message boards for the LORD.  Remember He hung a rainbow in the sky to remind us of His covenant?  He tells us the heavens declare His glory and they do describe His faithfulness as the great lights appear day after day and night after night.  On June 30th, Jupiter and Venus came close and their brightness caused some to call it the "Bethlehem Star" (link).  The meteor showers this month (August 12/13) were dazzling and had us looking up.

But the skies also provide fair warning.

8.  BLOOD MOON WARNINGS.  "And I will show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of Jehovah."  (Joel 2:30,31/Acts 2:20)

It's not just that we HAD two blood moons in 2014 and have two more scheduled in 2015.  The significance is that the blood moons happened on certain feast days (Passover and Feast of Tabernacles) for two years in a row.  Those four moons are called a Biblical tetrad and have only occurred seven times in the history of the world.  Each time there was a tetrad, something of importance happened to Israel.  NASA says there will not be another Biblical tetrad scheduled for 500 years, but next month one will happen on the Feast of Tabernacles (September 28th).

9.  FALSE PEACE.  The Bible says that in the latter days, while people will be saying "peace and safety", destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape.  We've sure heard a lot about the peace that the Iran agreement purports to afford America.

10.  UPHEAVAL.  "Immediately after the distress of those last days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken" (Matthew 24:29).  We sing an old song about the sky being rolled up like a scroll and it was Isaiah who gave us that insight in his 34th chapter.  August's meteor showers were so pretty as the comets streaked across the sky and burned out, but we might think differently about countless stars pelting the earth.

In 2 Peter 3:10 it says we will not be expecting that day.  "The day of the LORD will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything on it will be laid bare."

The natural world will be in flux as her Creator makes the seas roar and the heavenly bodies shake and fall to earth.  If Christians are still here when this happens, we won't be shaken.  Although it says nations will anguish and be perplexed and men will faint from terror and apprehension about what is coming on the world...Christians who know their God will know what to do.

Through God's kindness, He prepares our hearts through reading His words.  He says no one knows the day of His return, but He also says we should watch for the signs.

Believers are familiar with Luke 21:28 which says "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near".

THE LAWS OF NATURE AND NATURE'S GOD

Did you hear that?

It's the sound of another pillar of civilization falling.  Our underpinnings are disappearing and the structure of society is tottery.

Which enemy came in to take out our pillars?  Was it ISIS? Communism?

No, we have broken our own pillars as we have dropkicked TRUTH.  And in doing away with what is objectively true, we now are left with only the perception of truth.

People perceive themselves to be a different race, a different gender, an arbiter of life/death, and a valiant re-tweaker of institutions established since time began.  What folly!

All the while, we are proud to be "evolving".  That is madness akin to the young man last week who thought he could launch fireworks off his head.  That was a sad end.

Affirming abhorrent behavior is also risky.  Laws written against sodomy, bigamy, beastiality, pedophilia, and incest broke nature's law....before they were codified into man's law.  But now our society has affirmed it,  encouraged others toward it, and incorporated some into the law of the land.

FAIR WARNING:  WHEN YOU DEFY THE LAWS OF NATURE, YOU ARE DEFYING NATURE'S GOD.

   *To Bruce Jenner and the transgendered, God says "I made them male and female."


   *To Rachel Dolezal and the transracial people, God  says "I made people from every tribe and tongue."

    *To the Kevorkian folks and the Gosnell abortion people, God says "I breathed the breath of life into man and I know the number of your days."

   *To the same-sex marriage proponents, God says "No human institution has the authority to redefine marriage; on the last day all marriages will be judged according to Biblical grounds."

It doesn't pay to massage God's Truth because He says nothing formed against Him will stand.  The Lord doesn't have editors.

In our contempt for Him, we took His plans and airbrushed them to suit ourselves.  We raise a fist to heaven and say "we are who WE say, not who You say".  We steal His sovereign right to rule over the very people He made.

How else would you explain a 65-year-old grandfather wanting to be a woman in a tight skirt?  Or the LGBT community taking God's bow in the sky (meant to remind man of His judgment and mercy) and waving it brazenly over unrighteousness?

Charles Stanley says living far from God binds us up tightly until we lose our sight and aspiration and gratitude.  We become plagued by fears and anger, devolving into either depression or aggression (depending on whether emotions turn outward or inward).  

But the good news says a Savior came to earth to free such internal prisoners.

The natural scientist Friedrich Dessauer once said "The discovery of natural law is a meeting with God."

Such a meeting takes place in the heart as the kindness of God leads to repentance.  Nature's God  unshackles us as we turn to what is true and right and unchangeable...the living Word of God, the truth for all mankind.

WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE

Abraham Lincoln had it right.  We don't want to carry malice for others.  That load is heavy.

Unfortunately some people of good will have been swallowed up in the net of stereotypes as the Confederate flag controversy roars.

How do you prove you don't hate anyone?

All I can say is what I've experienced.  I love the South and her sweet tea and redneck jokes and church potlucks.  I don't look at the Virginia battle flag and pine for slavery, nor does the flag make me prefer one race over another.

At the risk of joining the "easily offended" bandwagon, I can find it a bit offensive to be grouped into that false assumption of racism.

At the same time, I know there are times when the Lord calls His people to cut slack for a brother.  For example, if drinking causes a brother to stumble, we are to pass a drink by...rather than harm a brother's walk.

Because the rebel flag causes black Americans pain, it is a kindness to move it from the state capitol grounds to a museum or consign it for private use.

That was Governor Nicki Haley's appeal as she set the right tone in her classy appeal to the people of South Carolina to retire the flag.

Now the people of South Carolina will make their decision at the ballot box.

But the flag controversy is waving wildly as products with that symbol are being pulled from the market.

In addition, statues of Confederate generals are being defaced and the call is for them to be removed.  The movie "Gone with the Wind" is on the hit list...as well as the "Hukes of Dazzard" (as my Daddy used to call them).

Hooray for the military, who have taken a cooler approach, saying their ten bases named after Confederates won't be renamed.

Doesn't all this cultural cleansing smell like the Afghanistan Taliban blowing up that ancient Buddha on the hillside?  These Confederate statues remind us of how far our country went to remedy slavery.   We need to remember the cost Americans paid to "right the wrong".

Voices clamoring for the removal of the flag believe the Charleston shooter was influenced by it.  Was Mr. Roof the product of a racist South?

His friends were black guys!  In this INTERVIEW, Roof's friend claims that Roof's original target was the College of Charleston.  The power of hate doesn't prefer one color.  

Pictures of the shooter's volatile father show him bare-chested with full tattoos and nipple rings.  The elder Roof beat his second wife, a woman who was a mother to Dylann Roof for ten years.  When his stepmother was gone and his father was on the road four days a week, this feral young man was not given a reason to even finish the ninth grade...much less taught the value of life.

Drugs and booze and video games made things worse and Mr. Roof's crazy life perceptions were born of that misery.  He was apparently seething with powerlessness and resentment (resenting both college kids and a black guy who stole his girl).  But then, who knows how a madman chooses a target?

Mr. Roof was unstable in all his ways.  He USED racism, but racism was not the root cause of his dysfunction.  The flag didn't "make him do it"; the fault lies squarely on Dylann Roof's hateful heart.

Yet the media covers Mr. Roof in a rebel flag, citing Roof's statement that he was beginning a race war.    The reality is...when that young man walked into the AME Church, he walked alone because he was a lone wolf.  Instead of a race war, the LORD chose to use the incident for His glory in the supernatural response of those dear family members.  Their choice to forgive preached more than a hundred sermons.

THE SOUTH DID NOT PRODUCE THE HATRED WHICH CULMINATED IN THE DEATH OF NINE CHARLESTONIANS.  

In fact, Charleston showed the best of the South.  We are known to be the "Bible Belt" and the presence of the Spirit of God produces a marked difference of friendliness and graciousness...and FORGIVENESS.

In the absence of love and parenting, this young man hated.  What gun or flag law can stand against pure hate?  That young man was under the control of the Prince of Darkness who comes to kill.  Roof was able to sit in a circle of loving people and then open fire on them.  As the Restrainer of Evil is pushed aside by society, our future will include more of these fringe people going haywire.

No one talks much about this picture of Dylann Roof showing contempt for another flag.  Pictures like this are painful for those who love their country.

The Confederate flag may have rallied the South in days gone by, but the greater banner which Americans gather underneath is the "Grand Old Flag", representing our national common cause.

Of course, there is a flag representing a higher allegiance than the American flag.   Our ultimate Sovereign is the LORD and Christians delight to read that the LORD's banner over us is love.

Charlestonian Christians demonstrated that love.

LIVING BY BIBLE WORDS

How do Christians prosper?

Psalm 1 and Psalm 119:9 both say we prosper (are blessed) when we live according to Bible words.

But opposition holds Bible words in their crosshairs.

As the war on Christians gains ground, prayer has almost disappeared from schools.  Displays of the Ten Commandments, crosses, or even a Christmas creche in a public place are a scarcity.

Now the next step in this fight has arrived.  People who take God at His word are declared haters.  Wedding cake bakers and wedding photographers have found no space for their convictions as that one particular group (the homosexual lobby) would like to de-legitimize Bible teaching.

Choosing to be deliberately provocative, the lobby forgets a warning by our first president.  As George Washington left office, he reminded Americans that religion and morality are "indispensable to political prosperity"... and..."morality cannot be maintained without religion".  That's a long way from barring religion from the public square.  Without that sure foundation, the house of cards blows over.  And we feel the winds blowing.

As Christianity is excluded, more unthinkable things happen.  Just yesterday in a little town about thirty miles from Fayetteville, a man and his wife were arrested for raping and killing their six-year-old son.  Dinosaurs like moi can remember a different society.  We have mocked "Leave It To Beaver" at our own peril.

Jeremiah 5:30,31 says in the last days there will be religion without revelation.  That means there will be posers with no regard for truth.  Still, the Author of the institution of marriage gets to define it and declare its purpose.  He also gets to declare the things that go against His law and His character as sin.

The really good question is "Why is same-sex marriage harmful to the institution of marriage?".

God helps us learn His principles by giving us pictures, and marriage is a picture of the union between Christ and His church.  Marriage connects our thoughts to the time when we will "eat the marriage supper with the Lamb".  Marriage on earth does not continue in the coming kingdom because in heaven we will love on a higher plane.

Did you know the Old Testament speaks into the future just like the New Testament?  Isaiah's Chapter 25 sounds a lot like John's Revelation as they describe the marriage supper of the Lamb.

*from Isaiah 25:6...."The LORD who commands armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain.  At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine - tender meat and choicest wine."

*from Revelation 19:6-9... "Hallelujah!  For the LORD our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure...for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  These are the true words of God."

*from Isaiah 25:8..."On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples."  What shroud?  It's the shroud of death.  The verse goes on to say "He will swallow up death permanently.  The sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove His people's disgrace from all the earth."

*from Revelation 21:4..."And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

*from Isaiah 25:9..."At that time they will say, 'Look!  Here is our God!  We waited for Him and He delivered us.  Let's rejoice and celebrate His deliverance!"

*from Revelation 12:10..."Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens "it has come at last - salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ."

Those verses speak of a time when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of heaven and the people who have waited for the LORD are rewarded.

The marriage supper is attended by people who wear white because their sins have been washed away.  Their admission was bought by the blood of the Lamb, while their increased submission to His word illustrates their allegiance.

Men divide into many subsets, but the LORD only sees two groups of people.  There are people who want to be with our Bridegroom at the marriage supper...and people who want to do life their way.

God's word is always loving, even when it is a warning.  He disciplines those He loves and behavior that will not carry someone to the marriage supper needs to be addressed.  God wants everyone there.

Are you looking for Him and living by His words?

SENOR CITIZEN

Mike had a good week last week.  My favorite "Senor Citizen" had a birthday and now he's five dozen plus a baker's dozen.

What was his celebration pick?  He wanted to go to the cabin for a couple of nights.

One day it rained and he read ("When A Jew Rules The World") while I wrote.  We watched that movie about Stephen Hawking.  I got a four-wheeler ride behind him through the woods and Mike showed me a real live hog wallow...and showed me an elephant ear tree, which I'd never seen.  One morning he went out hiking at dawn to listen for turkeys.  There were two new calves born.

It's a slower pace at the cabin.

This is a picture of Mike before we married.  He hasn't changed a bit.

Sometimes our age surprises us.  We've never been "old" before and as the joke goes, we thought it would take longer.  These days we cozy up to Nexium and Advil and have been known to repeat ourselves.

Still, Mike is fit and just now...is out spreading the third trailer-load of bark in the flowerbeds.

As Raymond ("Rain Man") would say, "my main man!".

Mike's life hero is his Mother's father, Granddad Robinson, who was a Southern gentleman.

When this picture was made, cars didn't park themselves.  You certainly didn't carry your wall phone in your pocket.  Some of these modern developments are "Flash Gordon" unbelievable.

But the truly unbelievable thing happened when Mike was thirty-six and Jesus made a bridge between his life and the next.

We agree that as we reflect over the years Mike has been given, gratitude just wells up and pours over.

"Ya can't buy satisfaction" and we are very thankful for one another and for our piece of time on Planet Earth.  We look forward to heaven, and are convinced of the nearness of Jesus' return.

Speaking of heaven, Mother used to say she wasn't gettin' up a busload.  She might change her mind if she could see this day.  But in the meantime, we give thanks.

Happy Birthday, dear Mike.

BLESSING AND CURSING

America is in a brand new (and foreboding) place. We're creating an oppositional stance toward Israel.

Israel was born as a nation when I was seven months old.  Since then our two nations have locked arms because we share democratic values and common goals.  And what else?  Historically, Americans have held to a Genesis 12:3 understanding that God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel.

In recent years, our grasp of God's sovereignty toward Israel may be fading as anti-Semitism rises. But God and His promises never change.

This Rembrandt (to the right) gives us a glimpse of Balaam's story from Numbers 22/23 which perfectly illustrates the blessing and cursing of Israel.  Remember Balaam?  He's the man who gets set straight by a talking donkey.

Here are the basics:

1.  WHO was Balaam?
Balaam was a soothsayer from a long line of soothsayers who lived close to the Euphrates River.  His name means "destroyer" and his daddy's name meant "to burn away, consume".  Their specialty was "seeing"; they inspected livers from a religious ritual sacrifice and thereby communicated with the gods for favor or predictions about the future.

According to an archaeological find in modern-day Jordan, Balaam was well known.

2.  WHEN did Balaam live?
This diviner lived in 1451, one thousand four hundred and fifty-one years before Christ.

In this same time period, God had just delivered Israel from Egypt, one of the world's greatest empires at the height of their rule.  Now God is bringing His people to the land He promised.  As they come out of the wilderness, their number has swelled to include over two million Israelites.

First they came to the territory of the Amorites and sent a request of the Amorite king for permission to pass through their land on the public highway.  The Amorite king turns Israel down and then proceeds to attack the flank of Israel's line (killing women, children, the sick and the elderly).  God gave His people a complete victory over the Amorites. Now as the Israelites approach Moab, their king (Balak) saw what Israel had done to the Amorites.  And since his country was once defeated by the Amorites, he feels very threatened.  He acts pre-emptively and hires a curse specialist named Balaam, saying "I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed."  Uh, oh.

3.  WHAT happened?
When Balaam stood on the outcropping and looked down at the Israelites camped below, he opened his mouth to curse them...but the Holy Spirit came over him and his words came out as a blessing.  That must have made the vein stand out on King Balak's neck.

The king had dangled a nice fee and Balaam tried his best to curse Israel.  He tried three times, but it was God in control, not Balaam.

When it was over, Balaam had spoken seven "oracles" (blessings) which restated the Genesis 12 promises God gave Abraham about Israel.  God said He would live among them; in the picture you see the tabernacle smack dab in the middle of their tents.  He said He would make them a great nation; it was that great number that scared King Balak, because as Balaam said "Who can count the dust of Jacob?".  God promised land and here they were on the way to the Promised Land.  When they were slaves in Egypt, that promise must have seemed completely unattainable.  God promised to bless the world through the Jews.  Not only did Jews write the Old Testament for us, they've also offered the world many medical and technological advances LINK.

Of course, Israel's best gift was a descendant (Jesus) who gave the world the provision that was lost in Eden.  Numbers 23 records Balaam's reference to Jesus as "a star out of Jacob and a scepter out of Israel".

4.  HOW do we know Balaam was one of the bad guys?
Balaam was pious, saying "my God" and calling on the name of Yahweh.  But the first hint of the man's true colors is when he's on his way to one of his cursings and the donkey sees the angel blocking the way, but Balaam does not.  Here's a guy who works in the spiritual realm, but doesn't seem to be aware of God's spiritual realm.  My BSF notes on Balaam offered several great contrasts:

   a.  Balaam pushed his donkey onward until God's angel intervened.  Balak pushed Balaam to curse Israel, but God repeatedly stopped him.
   b.  God opened the donkey's mouth to speak truth to Balaam.  God opened the prophet's mouth to speak God's true blessing on Israel.
   c.  The donkey's human speech did not make the donkey truly human.  Balaam's prophetic words did not make him a true prophet.
   d.  The donkey was caught between the angel of God with his drawn sword and Balaam's stick.  Balaam was caught between the unchangeable will of God and Balak's urgings.

The next clues about Balaam's heart comes in Numbers 31 (when his counsel caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord), and in Judges (which speaks of Balaam's greed).

Finally, there is a Revelation passage which urges believers not to fall for false prophets like Balaam. After the LORD repeatedly blocked Balaam from cursing Israel, the false prophet still went on to manipulate behind the scenes.  He explained to King Balak how to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols.  That would have separated them from the Source of their power.

4.  WHERE did the story end?
The book of Joshua says the sons of Israel killed Balaam, the magician.

5.  WHY was this story included in Scripture?
   a.  We need to remember that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" is truly His.  Pious talk may be just talk.
   b.  Balaam's profession was divination and God forbids that; only He holds the future.  As God told Moses in Deuteronomy: "Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the LORD your God has not given you permission to do such things." Do we listen to predictors of the future? Horoscopes?
   c.  The donkey was beaten when he was protecting Balaam.  Are we stopped by obstacles in our path that are put there for our good?  Do we discount unlikely messengers?
   d.  Balaam tried unsuccessfully to manipulate God and take His place for Balaam's personal advantage.  Do you bargain with God?
   e.  God gave voice to a dumb animal, so we remember He can use anyone or anything.

Balaam heard the voice of Yahweh, yet he did not reverence or fear Him.  Instead, Balaam tried to go around God for personal gain.  He was used to manipulating demons, and now he was up against the One True God.  Balaam's judgment came at the tip of a sword.

The Bible is full of stories with the same thread that runs from before the Garden of Eden to Jesus' return.  It's the story of the LORD loving people to Himself.  God loved Balaam, but Balaam loved himself more.  He did not submit himself to God even though he had a front row seat in God's affairs, even hearing the LORD's voice.

In 1451BC there were power grabbers like Balaam and King Balak who tried to curse God's people.  But God protected Israel, the apple of His eye.  That's not based on whether Israel deserves it, but because the LORD made a promise.

America would do well to believe God's promise that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her.

STRIKE ONE, STRIKE TWO

When was the last time you saw God's power?

When the LORD brought His people out of Egypt, He was teaching them to depend on Him.  The Israelites had watched multiple displays of power in the ten plagues, and then they saw Moses raise the symbol of God's power (his staff) to part the Red Sea.

As He was teaching them, the LORD was also teaching us and giving us a picture book for the ages.  These images declared that Yahweh is the one true God.

EXODUS 17 - STRIKE ONE.
The freed Israelites looked ahead to the desert and knew they were thirsty and hungry.  They began to complain...just like we do when the drive-through line isn't moving fast enough.

As the grumbling intensified, Moses cried out to the LORD "What will I do with this people?  A little more and they will stone me!"  God gives Moses a plan (God always has a plan).  Moses was to take the elders and his staff and go to the rock at Horeb.  Then God said:

"I WILL BE STANDING BEFORE YOU THERE ON THE ROCK IN HOREB, AND YOU WILL STRIKE THE ROCK, AND WATER WILL COME OUT OF IT SO THAT THE PEOPLE MAY DRINK.  AND MOSES DID SO IN PLAIN VIEW OF THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL."  Exodus 17:6 

THOUGHTS ABOUT STRIKE ONE:
   1.  God said "I will"...and it came to pass.  God is able and He keeps His word.  He is worthy of our confidence.
   2.  The water that came from that desert rock served an estimated two million people plus their animals.  Psalm 78:15 says "He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas."
   3.  Jesus is often referred to as "the Rock".  "...and all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ."  1 Corinthians 10:4   He is the Rock that the builders rejected and the Rock of our salvation.
   4.  Notice God's position.  He says He will be on the rock.  The pillar of cloud is specifically marking the place for Moses to discover God's provision.  "He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions.  He brought you water out of hard rock."  Deuteronomy 8:15
   5.  As Moses struck the rock with his staff, Almighty God is there where the staff strikes.  God is picturing the coming Messiah, who will take the strike for us.

NUMBERS 20 - STRIKE TWO
Fast forward 38 years.  The Israelites have wandered in the wilderness and the LORD has proven faithful to provide water and manna for them.

Now a new generation has come to the southern border of the Promised Land and they camp at Kadesh, where there is no water.  Cue the whining.  

"The people contended with Moses, saying 'If only we had died when our brothers died before the LORD!  Why have you brought up the LORD's community into this wilderness so that we and our cattle should die here?' "  This generational sin is not any prettier than mine.  

Moses and Aaron sensed the gravity of the moment and they threw themselves on their faces at the entrance to the tabernacle to plead for the people.  Then the glory of the LORD appeared to the priests and the LORD told Moses to do two things.  He and Aaron were to assemble the community, and Moses was to speak to the rock before their eyes.

Something must have happened in the white spaces between the instructions and the gathering, because Moses seemed to lose it. He railed angrily against the people "Listen, you rebels, must WE bring water out of this rock for you?" And then he raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff.

THOUGHTS ABOUT STRIKE TWO:
   1.  In spite of Moses and Aaron's disrepect, God generously gave water for the community and their beasts to drink.  "In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them." Nehemiah 9:15
   2   Then God turned to rebuke Moses and Aaron by taking away their privilege to go into the Promised Land.  Did Moses just want to hurt someone (with words) more than he wanted to obey God?  I've been there.  When he and Aaron took credit for the provision, were they just thinking God wouldn't notice?  Did they think God would use the same plan He had used before?  It's no matter.  They had not believed God or trusted Him.  They did not respect the LORD's holiness but were pridefully acting as if THEY were the deliverers.
   3.  Strike one on Horeb's rock had been a picture of the crucifixion of Christ. Now they are to speak to the rock at Kadesh, just as we pray (speak) to our Rock today.  Christ was wounded once for the sin of man; striking the rock twice was as if the first was not sufficient.  That picture was no small thing to get wrong.

These two stories of the wilderness rock are a beautiful picture of Christ in the Old Testament, CONCEALED...while Christ is in the New Testament, REVEALED.

Some think Moses was such a great leader and they wonder at God's harshness to keep him from going into the Promised Land.  Moses WAS a great leader, but he had sin issues just as we have sin issues.  It's not hard for me to relate to his issues with anger and frustration.  But God is in the business of restoration and He will continue to use His servant.  Later, Moses put his feet on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus...and he will return in the Tribulation as one of the two witnesses. Then we will all be in the new Jerusalem.

Moses' story reminds us that our God wants us to follow Him and trust Him and believe Him and obey Him...and He doesn't take sin lightly.

Almighty God wants to be the living water that satisfies our souls.  We take in that water as we read His words.

This grumbler gives thanks for the living water of the Word.