Day 94: God Knows But Gives Anyway

Act 8:1; Deuteronomy 31-32; Job 19

God constantly tells the people to be brave and not to be afraid of their enemies because he will help them to defeat them.  God is bigger than any obstacle, barrier, or enemy we face in this life.  So who or what are our obstacles and enemies?  Why have we not approached them?  Are we afraid of being defeated?  God is with us, we have no reason to fear anything in this world.  If we are being obedient, God will help us through, maybe not in the way we expect, but he will keep his promise of salvation and that is the thing we place our hope in.

Instead of God telling the Israelites “don’t be afraid” over and over, I would be telling them, “don’t be stupid.”  God knew that they were going to enter this beautiful land, defeat it, and then reject the God that gave it to them.  God knew their sin would happen!  And he gave them the blessing anyway!  How does that make sense?  But, he also loved them more than he wanted to condemn them, so he taught them a song that would help them to escape their sin and follow God again.  In the song it talks about the Lord, rescuing the people from the desert; how God was like an eagle, teaching them how to fly; how the people have turned away from the God who is their life; how they ran to other idols and how worthless those idols were to help them; and finally, how God will forgive them and rescue them once again.  If we think about these things, we recognize how much they relate to our experience.

God saves us from our deserted lives and welcomes us into a relationship with him.  Then he shows us how to live through his son, Jesus.  We sin, and try to fix our lives with other things:  money, relationships, food, substances, popularity.  Those things do nothing but continue to pull us down until we realize how worthless they are.  If we give them up, God is there to save us again.