As we come to the end of this year and move into 2022, in the midst of everything else, I sense God saying two things to us:
- Take time to learn my ways
- Keep yourself in my love as you wait for the fulfilment of your visions, dreams, hopes, expectations, desires, prayers, prophecies, aspirations, goals etc.
PART 1 – LEARNING GOD’S WAYS
‘Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. Exodus 24.9-11
I am always fascinated by the above scripture. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel saw God and ate and drank in his presence! I try to imagine what that must have been like. Mortal beings seeing the invisible God, the one who dwells in the unapproachable light, the all-consuming fire.
This experience must have had such an impact on Aaron, his sons and the seventy elders! However, shortly after this experience, Moses was called up the mountain and Aaron, Hur and the rest of the elders were to take care of the people until Moses returned. When Moses delayed in getting back, Aaron (and I’m sure the elders must have approved) made a golden calf and declared, ‘These are your Gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt’ – a calf made by human hands, how can that be possible after such an encounter with God?
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ Exodus 32.7-8
In Hebrews 3.10, God says, ‘That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
Here we see the key issue – the lack of the knowledge of the ways of God. It is so crucial to continue on from encounter to knowing his ways. If not, we are very quick to turn away to other things.
Knowing God’s ways is key to continuing in his favour and running and finishing well. The contrast between Aaron and the elders with Moses and Joshua is so amazing. Aaron, the elders and the people turned away from God’s command in spite of the encounters they had with God whereas Moses, and Joshua his assistant, continued with God even unto greater glory. The reason for this contrast is found in Exodus 33.13 – ‘If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favour with you….’ and Psalm 103.7 ‘He made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.’
From these two passages, we can see what made the difference between Aaron and the elders, the people and Moses – the knowledge of the ways of God.
‘“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.’ Isaiah 55.8
Aaron with the rest of the elders saw and encountered God. However, Aaron, in a very short time, had moved from that encounter to setting up a golden calf for the children of Israel to worship. Moses, on the other hand, experienced the burning bush, the miracles in Egypt, the crossing of the red sea on dry land, eating with Aaron and the elders in God’s presence but remained hungry for more of God’s glory. The main reason for Moses’ continued hunger can be found in Exodus 33.13 quoted above.
As we come to the end of 2021 and enter into the new, let your heart cry be this……
Teach me your ways, O Lord!
PART 2 – KEEP YOURSELF IN THE LOVE OF GOD
‘…keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.’ Jude 21
Our world has changed drastically in the last couple of years and will continue to change even more. It may even get to the point where people will wonder if anyone is in charge! There are issues with diseases, pestilence, climate change, famine, wars, chaos, riots, rebellion on the streets against authorities in different nations and an increase in wickedness.
Jesus said in Matthew 24.12-15, ‘Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.’
In the preceding verses, he had said, ‘…see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.’ The amazing thing is that while all these things are happening, the gospel of the kingdom will continue to be preached in the whole world, I believe, with great unprecedented levels of glory, signs and wonders and then the end.
See to it that you are not alarmed
These past two years have been characterised by fear, anxiety and all kinds of conspiracy theories and counter-theories that have in turn created more fear and anxiety. If we are not to be alarmed, We must stay in the love of God. But how?
We are not always good at waiting. The scriptures we read in Part 1, in Exodus 24 and 32, Aaron and the children of Israel got tired of waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and as a result were quick to set up an idol.
We know that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. We also need to know that his timing is not the same as ours. Many of us have been waiting for various things such as the promised revival, harvest of souls, second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ or even for other things like a spouse, answers to prayers, fulfilment of dreams, visions, prophecies etc. and sometimes it feels like these things will never happen making us grow weary and discouraged and even get into unbelief. God is saying from the scripture in Jude, that in our waiting we should keep ourselves in the love of God.
God’s love for us is total and complete and there is nothing we can do to make him love us more or less. However by the Holy Spirit, Jude, one of the half brothers of Jesus, in this passage tells us that we have a part to play in keeping ourselves in God’s love. In addition to asking God to teach us his ways just like Moses did, we must also ask him to fill our hearts with his love. It is his love and encounters with him and his love that changes our hearts and transforms our lives continuously, otherwise we are prone, like the children of Israel, to turn away to other things.
Another thing is that we must settle the issue about God’s love for us once and for all. His love for us does not change when our circumstances change. We must settle this by looking steadily at the cross and not our circumstances, or on whether our prayers are answered or not, but on the cross where God once for all times demonstrated his eternal love for us. This is one of the ways we keep ourselves in the love of God. This point is so important because there will be times when your circumstances and delays in the fulfilment of your dreams and visions, as well as the enemy, can cause you to doubt the love of God for you.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2.3
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6.9
Happy New Year!
