One Drop

Deut 32:2 Song of Moses
This was the beginning of Moses’song. What a wonderful reminder of the beauty and excellence of Your Word, Father.
“Let my teaching drop as the rain
My speech distill (flow) as the dew,
As the droplets on the fresh grass
And as the showers on the herb.
Your words are beautiful, Father
This scripture in verse Deut 32:2 is one that brings awe to our needy hearts. How great is our God that He takes human words and makes them divine.

…My teaching drop as the rain….Refreshing! Inspiring! Filled with Hope! Causing growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

…My speech distill as the dew…Your word, Father, flows freely to us, flowing gently, softly, lightly as the morning dew, full of living water, enabling the most inadequate tongue to fulfill your purposes.

 …As the droplets on the fresh grass…even the simplest word that You send, one drop of Your word, can bring life and divine revelation in the moment of need.

 …And as the showers on the herb…evoking the wonderful fragrance of a Risen Savior pouring His love out on His beloved Body.

 
Deut 32:3For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
  Ascribe greatness to our God!
3       The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just (judgment)
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.

Exuding Fragrance

Ex 30:8 And when Aaron trims (causes to ascend) the lamps at twilight he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

Though this altar represents the prayers of the saints, it brought to remembrance how beautiful in every way Jesus, our Savior is. He is truly a sweet fragrance where His presence is manifested.
As J.Gill comments, the burning of the coals represents His death and suffering and then came His mediation and intercession for us who believe.

2 Cor 2:14-15 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
:15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
:16 To the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

Jesus is the sweet aroma in Your children, Father, when people sense there is something different about them. It is the knowledge of Him that has changed their hearts and minds, and this manifests itself wherever they are.

15 To God, we are a fragrance of Christ Himself
The Message says :15 Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation-an aroma redolent (exuding a fragrance) with life.

Exuding the fragrance of Christ! Exuding His life to those around us, wherever we are. Whether at home to those closest to us, or to our extended family or friends, or even as importantly to strangers. You, Father, have placed in Your Son, Jesus this sweet scent that rises to Your Most High throne in the highest of heavens. We are vessels of this holy treasure (2 Cor 4:7) and are so privileged to be one that You have chosen to share His life with others.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ is life and the amazing thing is that a heart only has to open itself, (no matter where they are in life or what they have done, or anything of the past,) when Your Spirit presents them with an  awareness of that wonderful sweet fragrance that only the Spirit of Jesus exudes.
May Your children and those that are not, open their hearts to You, the One, true Living God!

Throne of God

Ex 17:15;16

And Moses built an altar, and named it The Lord is My Banner; (Jehovah-Nissi)
:16 and he said, “The Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”
NAS Literal note: “Because a hand is against the throne of the Lord….”
Ampl says “Because theirs is a hand against the throne of the Lord….”
Wow! I loved that!

Amalek’s (grandson of Esau) hand was against the throne of God because he was coming against the Israelites, God’s chosen people.
His attack was cruel. The Israelites were worn and tired and not fit for battle. He was interfering with God’s plan.

No hand can be lifted up against the throne of God and succeed!

Ps 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand,
           And the rulers take counsel together
           Against the Lord and against His Anointed
     2:4 He who is enthroned in the heavens laughs,
          The Lord scoffs at them.

Acts 7:49 heaven is My throne and earth is the footstool of my feet
Hebrews 1:8 Your throne is forever and forever
Hebrews 4:16 let us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace
Hebrews 8:1 (Jesus) taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens
Hebrews 12:2 and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God

Jesus is there at Your right hand, Father, and He has finished His work.
Rev 5:12;13“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
The majestic throne of God is forever and forever and will always be. No plan of man can defeat Him who created all things for His purposes.
Rev 4:9 Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, To receive glory and honor and power;
For You did create all things, And because of Your will they existed, and were created.
Rev 15:3…“Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations.

Rev 19:6…Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Behold His Beauty

Ps 27:4
One thing I have asked of the Lord that I shall seek. That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.

David asks the Lord for something and he says that He will seek it. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. For the purpose of dwelling in the Lord’s house everyday of his life. Today, we as believers have the privilege of His indwelling us and having His presence continually. Do we behold His loveliness throughout our day?

Behold-#2372
a)To see, perceive.
b)To see by experience.
I like these two definitions.

a)To perceive: to attain awareness of or understanding of; to become aware of through the senses.
Your Spirit can enable us to become aware of Your beauty not only in nature, but in the eyes of a happy child, or a humble person, or an expression of love; or of any manifestation of Your Spirit in others.

You desire for us to see and be aware of Your beauty in this journey we are on in this earth. To behold it in the lives of other believers and appreciate it, whether it is their gifts at work or the joy You manifest in them. To see through the faulty humanness of mankind and to look through to the Spirit within of the Risen Christ, though outwardly not evident in the moment or season of their life, He is within and You have covered them with His blood, You have clothed them with the righteousness of Jesus.

You, Father, love them with unending love where they are at as a believer and this itself is truly beautiful.

b)Perceive: to see by experience.
What does it mean to experience Your beauty? Is this why David wanted to meditate in Your temple? To experience the beauty of Your life within?

Truly, Your life within a believer IS the most beautiful thing about a person.
A countenance alit with Your presence expresses the beauty of genuine joy (Ps 16:11 in Your presence is fullness of joy)

To experience Your forgiveness, thereby extending it to another, speaks to the beauty of the Cross of our Lord Jesus. ( Eph 4:32..forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you…)

The beauty of communion with You restores peace and quietness to one’s soul.

The beauty of the Risen Lord within is full of splendor and glory.


May your church seek to behold this beauty and to meditate in Your temple.

Recite It

Ex 17:14

The Lord said to Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite (place in the ear of) it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."
It is interesting that the Lord wanted Moses specifically to make sure Joshua knew that He would blot out, obliterate the memory of Amalek forever. God would deal with Amalek. He wanted Joshua especially to understand that Joshua did not have to fear this people, the Lord had already proclaimed their destruction.

Joshua was to be the next leader and a courageous warrior that lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. This was his first battle. In this victory God clearly showed that it was His power that won the battle over the enemy.

By “placing in the ear of” Joshua this reminder about Amalek, He was giving Joshua confidence in Him as his Banner; He was preparing him for the future.Fear would not hinder Joshua if he really understood that it was all God’s power that brings the victory.

A banner is something that you lift up. It is something that you lift your eyes up to see.
That is what God Almighty is to us. When our eyes our stayed on Him we will know without doubt that He is the One that will win the battle for us.

“…recite it to Joshua…” that means say this word to him more than once! Moses was to set it and place it into his ear. This Word would encourage and give him the faith to do what God had planned for him and for Israel.

The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword… (Hebrews 4:12). God has given us His word for the same purpose, to encourage and to build our faith; ….“for faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ”. (Romans 10:17)

The Bible also calls Jesus the Word.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” (John 1:1)

Jesus is the Word that God has sent to us. When we set the words of Jesus into our ears and set Him at the center of our thoughts throughout the day, we will indeed walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He promises, for He has already won the battles of life for us. In Christ, our Risen Lord, it is finished!

Thank You Father for Your mercy and lovingkindness that follows us all the days of our lives.

Amalek

I like this story, Father. You are truly a God who does reign as our Banner.

Ex 18:8
Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

The Israelites had arrived at Rephidim weary and thirsty. They had no water to drink and were grumbling against Moses that he had brought them out of Egypt only to die of thirst.
They were not only weary, but having come out of slavery, they were not warriors either.

You are so amazing Father how You show Yourself to be our Defender and Rescuer! Just as You brought them out of the darkness of slavery, even in their weariness and weakness, You show us today that You have done the same for us.

Col 2:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son.

As the Israelites were to face the Amlekites:

Ex 18:10 So Moses said to Joshua “Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”
: 11 So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down (rest), Amalek prevailed.
: 12 But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sun set.
: 13 So Joshua overwhelmed (weakened) Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
: 14 Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite (place it in the ear of) it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.
15 And Moses built an altar, and named it The Lord is My Banner.

I love this! It makes me think of how little we conquer without Jesus being our Banner, our Mighty Defender, and the One who truly has already conquered for us. There is no win for us without Jesus.
Moses simply believed, he depended on the fact that You would enable them to conquer if he followed Your leading. And so he sent Joshua and other men out to battle against the Amlekites, when they were not  warriors and were weary.
"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit", says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

Moses himself needed help and it was supplied by Aaron and Hur by holding his hands up. The fact that he sat down, to me, says that we can have “rest” in our battles. I know first of all it was the wisest thing to do since it would be easier for Aaron and Hur to keep Moses’hands up, but as we choose to allow Jesus to lead us and even face the “difficult” things in our lives with Him as our Banner, our own victory is resting in His Victory.

The Truth is that Jesus has already conquered death, sin, the curse, and the devil at the Cross. The total and complete expression of our worth to You, our God, of Your love for us, is demonstrated to us at Calvary where Jesus died and rose victoriously. He is always for us. He is always present to help us in time of need.
In our weariness, You and You alone are our strength.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

Remind me also Father to “place in the ears of” our loved ones as well as other people in our world what great things our Mighty God does for us. This reminds me of passing the “Banner of the Lord” onto others that they may experience and know what a marvelous God You are!

True Manna

Manna


Exodus 16
Manna in Hebrew means “man” which means “who or what” and the word means “What is it?”

Jesus Christ is our manna.

Deut 8:3
And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Matt 4:4
“But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,’”

He knows what it means to be hungry physically.
Matt 4:2
After He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.


He also knows the hunger of the human soul to fill the emptiness within it. This is a deep and desperate hunger that is never satisfied by anything of the world. It gnaws away at the poor as well as the wealthy; no material thing can satisfy it.

But praise to You, a Living God and Father, Jesus Christ is able and willing to come in like a flood and fill every dry and empty earthen vessel with His love, faith, and peace.

The Israelites were given manna to sustain them every day for 40 years and to demonstrate to them Your provision and care.

The JFB commentary had some interesting observations:
They gathered it and if they gathered much, when measured, had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack. No matter what they gathered, it measured out to the need of the number of persons in the tent.
( Ex 16:18)
They would grind it between two millstones or beat it in the mortar, and boil it in the pot and make cakes with it. (Num 11:8)
The taste was as the taste of cakes baked with oil and like wafers with honey. (Ex 16:31)
And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna… (Joshua 5:12)

Jesus will always provided our need.
Jesus was “crushed for our iniquities”.
Jesus is sweet as honey.
Jesus is always with us in this earthly journey of ours until the day we know Him fully in our heavenly home.

Thank you Father for the Bread of heaven that daily provides true life to your children.

Jesus is our manna!