Sabbath Year

"Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.'" -Leviticus 25.2-7

God had commanded His people to take one day out of seven to rest. It was a time set aside for worship and renewal of their bodies, souls, and minds. On that day they were to do no work, simply to rest, worship, and fellowship with each other and God. While on the journey to the Promised Land it required faith because God didn't send any food on the sabbath, so they had to gather twice as much the day before.

Now He is telling them that the land is also to be given time to rest and renew itself. Every seventh year they aren't to plant any crops or prune their vineyards. They aren't to gather anything that is produced. Instead God had promised that during the sixth year the land would produce so much food that it would last for three years. They would eat it during the sabbath year, when they were planting the eighth year, and until they the harvest from the ninth year (Leviticus 25.20-22). The sabbath year was a test of faith, and a chance for the people to remember God's provision and blessing. It would give them yet another reason to rejoice and worship God for all that He had done.

Men, has God called you to take a sabbath year? I'm hoping at some point in the next decade (hopefully less) to find a decent piece of ground to live out my days on. I've made layout plans for all kinds of produce: fruit trees, grape vines, berry bushes, nut trees, and several garden beds. There is even a maple grove so that I can make syrup. Every time I'm at the grocery store to buy apples I look hopefully to the day when I won't ever have to pay for an apple again. I'm hoping to be able to grow most of what my family would eat. What if God asked me to do a sabbath year?

For you it might not be with gardening. Maybe God is asking you to take some time off of your job to pursue ministry. Maybe a mission trip, or your education. What do you do? Do you have the faith that He'll provide for you and your family financially? When God spoke to the people about the sabbath year He promised that in the sixth year they would have food for three years. They only needed food for two. They need food during the seventh year since they weren't plowing, planting or harvesting, and they needed food for the eighth year since they didn't collect anything the seventh year. But God goes above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3.20-21), and so just because of who He is He gives food for a third year, just to bless His people and show His love and provision for them.

We have no reason to doubt God. The Bible is full of His promises, and the fulfillment of those promises. Israel never practiced the sabbath year. They never trusted that God would provide for them. For 490 years they lived in self reliance, and they ended up as captives, exiled in Babylon for their lack of faith.

If we choose to ignore God, to not live in faith and trust of His promises, we too will be exiled. It might not be literally like Israel, but we may find ourselves exiled for the peace and joy, certainly from the full blessings of God, because we refuse to trust Him.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

Daily Needs

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.'... When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, 'It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.' ... Moses said to them, 'Let no man leave any of it until morning.' But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. They gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would melt." -Exodus 16.4-5, 14-15,19-21

Israel's complaints about empty bellies have reached God, and now He is about to fill them. But with this provision comes a test of faith. Do they really trust God to continually provide for them? Do they trust Him to come through over and over again?

One morning they wake up and the ground is covered with something they have never seen before. Bread has come from heaven, just as God promised. And with this provision comes instructions, only take what you need for today, except on Friday, then take enough for two days so that you can rest on the Sabbath. Here they face a choice, trust or attempt to control. If they choose to trust, then they rely upon God fully. They depend on Him to bring food each morning as He promised He would. This faith is what God is trying to cultivate in them, but in order to choose faith there has to be an option opposite faith, and some choose to try and control.

For one reason or another, some don't trust God. Maybe it isn't that they don't trust Him, but they just want to cover their bases in case He happens to be busy and forget one morning. So instead of gather what they need, some hoard and stock pile, making sure they have enough to take care of themselves. But their plan backfires, as our attempts at control most often do. Instead of waking up to manna, they find worms and a foul stench.

Men, we like control, we've said all this before. We don't like when we can't control things and have to rely on others to get the job done right. It's nerve racking to have to depend on someone else for something that you need in order to survive. But that is the just the faith that a Man of God is called to have. I think of Jesus is Matthew 6.11, "Give us this day our daily bread." As He teaches His disciples to pray He tells them to seek from God only what they need for today. He is teaching them to live in dependence upon God.

Now to clarify, faith is not an excuse for irresponsibility. I'm not saying that you shouldn't save for retirement, or your kid's college. But don't hoard everything that you get trying to build a safety net that allows you to have a false sense of security in your own resources and abilities. Let us learn to trust in God for our daily needs, because when we try to hoard we end up with worms and a foul stench.

God will provide the things that we need. Let us trust Him for our daily bread.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

Let God Handle It

"Moses said, 'We shall go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we shall go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.' Then he said to them, 'Thus may the Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Take heed, for evil is in your mind. Not so! Go now, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you desire.' So they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence." -Exodus 10.9-11

Pharaoh just said the men could go. The men that he had piled work on so that they wouldn't have time to listen to Moses, he is now permitting to leave. A leader who hadn't learned to trust fully in God would probably have jumped at the opportunity. The men can head out of Egypt, and then meet up with a neighboring king who wouldn't mind expanding his territory. They join forces and return to Egypt in battle formation, take out Pharaoh, and free their families.

Sounds like a decent plan, men doing what they were made to do, fight and protect their families. But his isn't the way God has said He will deliver His people. He isn't going to have them do a thing, because if He did then their praise would be for themselves. They would say, "We rescued ourselves from Egypt with our own strength and courage. We defeated Pharaoh and won our freedom." That isn't the way God has in mind, and thankfully, Moses is a leader who trusts fully in God.

Men, what is your course of action? Do you trust God to handle it, or do you seek an ideal opportunity and then take matters into your own hands? Let's face it, we like, no, we love control. We love to take matters into our own hands, and we hate when we don't have control over a situation. We hate when we can't figure something out or do anything to determine the outcome. But there is so much with life that we can't control. And as Men of God there is so much we are called to give up control of, or at least our attempt of control.

Had Moses taken matters into his own hands, thought, "Maybe this is what God had in mind all along" a lot of Israelites would have been killed. But because he listened, and more importantly trusted God to handle it, he leaves Pharaoh's presence and ushers in the next plague.

What does taking matters into our own hands end up costing us? Is it worth it? Let us learn to trust. Let's let God handle it.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

Hardships to Trust

"But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst." -Exodus 7.3-5

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and the work of the people was increased. Moses is wondering why God even sent him at this point because things have only gotten worse. And as he seeks God's direction, signs are promised. God says He is about to act. Here we find one of those verses that has given many people trouble over the years. God tells Moses that He will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I think people have trouble because they don't read the rest of the verse. Why is God going to harden Pharaoh's heart? So that He can multiply His signs and wonders. God is going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that He can display His power.

Israel hasn't known God for centuries. They have heard stories of Him passed down, but He is always referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And if you think about it that's how He was always referred to. He has been the God of one man at a time, never a nation. And for four hundred years they have been slaves, which God told Abraham would happen, but they haven't heard from Him or learned about Him in that time. They don't know who He is, or what He is capable of. How are they to trust Him? God is going to make it easy, He's going to show them His power.

Men, sometimes God does things that don't make complete sense to us in order to show us what He is capable of doing. Sometimes God allows hard times to take place so that we can learn to trust Him more. And sometimes He allows us to experience hardships so that we come to know Him. He said that the Egyptians, a polytheistic pagan culture, would know He was the Lord. Sometimes it's only at the bottom that we can clearly see Him.

What are you going through right now? What hardships or struggles are you facing? What is God trying to teach you? Financial issues? God could be teaching you to have faith in Him to provide for your needs. Family issues? God could be allowing them to help you mend relationships, or maybe sever them. Trouble at work? God could be preparing you for something else, something that excites your heart. What is it in your life?

God is trustworthy. Not everything He does will make sense to us, but everything He does has a point, and ultimately that point is to show us that we can trust Him.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

Trust Carefully

"But Joseph had recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him... Now Joseph said to them on the third day, 'Do this and live, for I fear God:  if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be verified, and you will not die.'. And they did so."  -Genesis 42.8, 18-20

Finally, after all of these years, Joseph comes face to face with his brothers again.  He hasn't forgotten them, but they think he's dead of maybe a lowly servant.   They aren't looking for him anywhere let alone number two in command of Egypt.  Plus that was close to twenty years ago.  He was I his teens when they sold him, now he's a man.  

It could have been an immediate family reunion.  Joseph shows them who he is, they apologize, everyone's happy.  But that isn't what Joseph does.  He was deeply wounded by these guys years ago, and so he doesn't just blindly trust them.  He is careful and he takes his time, waiting to see who they are now.

Men, let us learn to trust carefully.  How many times have we rushed into a decision or relationship and gotten burned?  I've done this many times, and the pain and let down that often follows is an unnecessary hardship to bear.    But if we trust carefully, is we test the waters before we fully commit, or spill our hearts, we save ourselves a lot of grief.

I'm not saying to live a paranoid existence that never let's anyone in.  I'm not saying to never drop the rugged exterior and allow people to see what's beneath the surface.  I'm saying be careful.  Your heart and emotions are previous things.   I'm not saying when someone hurts you trust is over forever.  But at the same time I am saying that when so women hurts you don't fully trust them right away and put yourself in the same position again.

Who knows how the story ends if Joseph just lays it all on the line here.  He doesn't find out if his brothers have changed.  He doesn't find out if they have any regret.  But because he is careful he is able to learn so much.  

Let us trust carefully and make well informed decisions.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

Trust and Follow

"Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you;'... So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him;" -Genesis 12.1, 4a

God says to Abram, "Go, leave all that is familiar and secure, and follow me into the unknown." And Abram does it. Back in Genesis 4 Cain was told to wander. He was sentenced to a life of trust and dependence upon God, and he builds a city instead. But now we see Abram, a man in his mid seventies, being told to pack up and leave everything familiar, and follow a God whom he has never met before. But he does it.

How many of us would go? Abram at least got a heads up that the journey was beginning, sometimes we don't even get that. For almost a year and a half my wife and I have been on a journey into the unknown. Recently we've gotten some insight on how long this journey will last, but we still don't know where we are being led yet. But in the past several months we've learned to trust and follow God.

I think that's really what the beginning of the journey is all about, do you trust God enough to follow Him? I can tell you this much, the ultimate destination is never given to us. I've heard that it's because if we knew at the beginning the full scope of what was in store we wouldn't have the courage to take the first steps. But I think a bigger part of it is that if we knew where we were going, we wouldn't need the same faith and trust to get there.

God says, "Go where I will show you." Not go here to this specific place, but go where I will show you. God is leading us into the unknown. Faith is required with each step, and the journey contains trials we will be ready for when we reach them. But we must be willing to trust and follow, or we'll simply stay at home on the couch, watching others adventure on TV.

I don't want to watch others live, I want to live myself. Recently God has begun to give me some more directions, but it wasn't until I decided to trust Him that He could begin to lead me where we're going. I'm on a journey with God into the unknown. It isn't easy, and it isn't always happy, but I'm excited to see where the road leads.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor