The Rest Giver
We are all restless until we find rest in His presence. Then we can relax. Moses’ Ten Commandments and the mass of other rules he gave to Israel never gave them rest, but only hard work. Laws bind, not emancipate. Their escape from Egypt was a faith operation, not a reward for being law abiding. Virtuous they certainly were not.
God gave Commandments, but made one fact clear; success was only by His presence. "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain" Psalm 127:1. The introduction to the Ten Commandments again is a reminder. "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." That’s Who He is - a loving God of concern for His people and that’s why He gave them the Commandments. They were only the ABC's of His loving guidance for a primitive society on earth. Unfortunately, modern society has not yet learned the ABC's.
God Himself means to be our all in all; our very environment. He wants us to rest in Him, in what He is. That is a lesson of the Exodus. It was all God’s doing. He planned it and carried it out. It was not the wish of Pharaoh, the co-operation of Moses, or the will of the people. On the contrary, Pharaoh refused to let them go. Moses wanted to back out of the whole project. The people only went when driven. The only goodwill at work was God’s good will. He resisted Pharaoh’s resistance, willed against unwilling Israel, and worked when Moses didn’t want to work. He knew what was to be their permanent good in all their generation and was not to be thwarted by their unwilling and short-sighted fathers.
When Moses died and Joshua took over, he had to learn the same lessons as Moses. On the verge of the Promised Land, with years of campaigning ahead, the Lord promised just one thing - ‘The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ Joshua 1: 5-9. The greatest historical act of emancipation could never have taken place except for the fact that He was in the midst of Israel. They neither asked for nor deserved it. They had nothing to recommend them. He simply chose them, mapped out their destiny, and made it happen.
The Lord’s words to Joshua were so much like the words of Jesus when He gave us the Great Commission to preach to every creature. "Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Christians tackle a hostile world like Israel tackled a hostile country. The same guarantee comes with God’s orders His presence. The Church today has organization, brains, prestige, and nearly some 2 billion name themselves as Christians. It is vast and complex, but its inner secret and reliance is the ever-presence of Christ.
(Guest content by: Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke of CFAN)
