LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Most of us don’t like reading stories like this one from the Bible.

Exodus 32:25-29 “Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”

We do not like to think about the brutality of men with swords piercing the hearts of men with sin and putting them to death. We certainly do not want to think about the screams for mercy from the dying and the cries of mourning from the living.  We avoid reflecting on the fact that men killed their own family members and the horror of such an action. But we must take the time to review these events and let this be a teachable moment for us as it was for the nation of Israel.

Since the beginning of their deliverance from Egypt, the people of Israel were being shown more than just a path to follow – they were being shown a God to follow. It has been God’s intention in all of creation to make Himself known and reveal His glory to us.  That requires more than just intellectual understanding: it must also be experienced. The glory of God can only be known through the full experience of God, and that means we must experience every aspect of His nature.

In today’s story, the people of Israel experience the holiness of God. They had seen His holy character manifested in the destruction of their enemy Egypt, but they did not yet understand that all sin is equally punishable. They did what we do – qualify sin and sinners into categories so that our sin is justifiable. God will certainly punish the rapist before the one who lusts and the murderer before the gossiper.  But God said that the breaking of any moral law is direct rebellion against Him, and is punishable by death.  

Isaiah experienced the holiness of God and tells us about it in chapter 6 of his book.

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple…“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips,  and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Notice what Isaiah expressed as his condition of sin – unclean lips. Not murder, not rape, not adultery, not stealing, but unclean speech. Isaiah understood God’s principle that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”, and he knew his heart was unclean. It’s true of us as well.

Here’s the point – in our human flesh we are unclean before a holy God. We deserve the punishment of death, even for what we consider to be the least of our sins. In God there is no darkness. Yet the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross on Calvary can wash away the guilt of all such sin. Many of you have experienced God’s grace that saves you from death. And yet God may be dealing with you today because of your choice to continue to live under the influence of sin’s passions. Is it not time for us to get on our knees and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and live in the promised land of victory? Is it not time to accept personal responsibility for the smallest of offenses against the holiness of God? Is it not time to fully know Him by fully experiencing Him and thus fully dwelling in His glory? To all of this I say an emphatic “YES!” and “AMEN!”

Pastor John