One Year Bible, March 10

NUMBERS 14:1-15:16
God's Unconditional Declaration: "The earth shall be covered with the glory of the God." Those who see the glory of the Lord and do not respond in faith, shall not enter or see the Land (Kingdom of God).

Testing God: (1 Cor 9 and 10) The Apostle Paul feared disqualifying himself for God's blessings, and one of the disqualifiers he listed was "testing God". If you look at the record of each of the 10 times God speaks of, the people were complaining, which is outward evidence of unbelief and ingratitude, especially in the face of all the proof God gave them to bolster their belief and faith. V.23 says they "provoked" God. They treated Him with scorn and contempt, which is the lowest of the low - it's even worse than hatred because now God became a non-issue to them. Like being a non-person, just tolerated. They didn't listen to anything He said.

Presumption: Presumption is willful sin - prideful and knowing sin, not ignorant or inadvertent. Presumption is when we don't wait for God before we make a decision, we act independently. It is "going to war" in our own strength and our own reasoning. See Psa 106:13 When we do things presumptuously, God and His anointing take their cloud and go away!

God gave instructions for the Land to a people who won't even see it! The instructions must have been for the children under 20 years old. Keep in mind, 1 Cor 10 and Heb 3:1-4:16 say that Numbers 15-20 were written for our warning!

RESPONSE:   Warning! Don't provoke God like they did. It is a disqualifier. What provokes God? Unbelief, complaining, not listening to Him, not considering Him to be the center of our lives, when we make unilateral decisions, when we challenge His authority, unforgiveness and bitterness, discontent. He is like a neglected wife. Or we are like a Bride who wants the privileges of the relationship, but not the responsibilities. I hate being ignored too!   I NEVER want to "forget" God in my day. I start out in the morning with the Lord, and then talk to Him about EVERYTHING during the day. My first instinct is to talk to Him about things. I didn't used to be that way. I had to form the habit - but it was a habit because I love Him. I didn't at first. I taught my heart and my mind to love Him and to do what pleases Him. It seems like the times when that is the hardest, are the times when I need to do it the most!

MARK 14:53-72
The Temple: I think it is ironic that the worst thing that a witness against Jesus could come up with was that He prophesied the destruction of the Temple. Even then, Jesus refused to defend Himself. The truth is that God will NEVER dwell in a physical Temple again! Today we have a Temple in heaven (Heb 8:5), Jesus the True Temple (John 2:19-21), and the Temple of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 5:1-4; 1 Cor 6:19).

Denying the Lord: What makes people do that? Self-preservation. That is why Satan told God, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job 2:4). And so Jesus told us to "lose it" (Mat 16:25) (original language = "perish", "destroy fully", "die") "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col 3:2-3) This requires a walk of faith - your natural mind will not help you to stand up for Jesus (Rom 8:7).

RESPONSE:   Sometimes we deny Jesus by what we DON'T SAY - which is NOTHING when the opportunity is there. He promises to put words in our mouth if we would just talk! Actually, I think them first, then say them. Or sometimes I just blurt out the first thing that comes into my mouth - yikes! That can be the wrong thing to do too! How many of you know that an apology can also be a witness to wanting to live right for the Lord. I want to live in such a way that people will pursue me as one "who was with Him", as one who "is one of them".

PSALM 53:1-6
The godless are fools: This Psalm is almost identical to Psa 14, but God wanted this in here twice - this gives two witnesses to the universal sinfulness of man. It describes the character of the "practical atheist" - the one who lives as if there is no God. He is corrupt (rotten, perishing), his works are an abomination (loathsome), turned aside from Truth, persecute the righteous, are prayerless, are paranoid, and has hardened his heart.

PROVERBS 11:4
"Day of wrath" is the day of death for the wicked, and money won't stop it from coming.

RESPONSE:   I think the reason some people deny the existence of God is because they don't want to be accountable. But they also deny themselves comfort and protection from God when they do that. Everything he does is corrupt because of the source. There are way more privileges of believing in God than there are responsibilities. And this isn't talking about just "believing in God" either, because the devil does that much! This is talking about an interactive believing - with obedience being the evidence of real believing.