Articles
A Loving Parent
Eat your vegetables... Don’t play in the street... You’re going to shoot your eye out!
As parents and loved ones we do our best to warn children of the dangers of life. We do so out of love, not wanting what we know can happen in the world to happen to those who are so precious to us.
But of course we also know that many times they don’t hear us... they don’t listen to us! It isn’t that they don’t want to be safe, but they want to do what they want to do!
Imagine how frustrating that must be to our God. It’s not like He doesn’t already know what can and will happen if we choose to ignore him, but like us, He has determined to allow each and every person to have a a certain amount of freedom... a certain amount of free will... to do what they have determined within themselves to do! God works “the carrot and the stick” throughout our lives! Much like parents warn and discipline.
Exodus 23:20 "Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. (God will surely keep His promises to His people) "Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; (god has the expectation, much like a parent, that His children will follow His instructions for their good) do not be rebellious toward him, (God knows when we choose a way different then His it usually causes us harm) for he will not pardon your transgression, (if we refuse to listen He will let us suffer the consequences) since My name is in him. (God canno deny His own character and must demand His children be of His character) "But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (God has the power to protect us) "For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; (God has the power over all our enemies) and I will completely destroy them. (God will save us from harm) "You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; (God has a standard for His people) but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces. (God expects His people not only to keep His standards, but to advocate for them) "But you shall serve the Lord your God, (God expects us to bow our will to His will for our own good) and He will bless your bread and your water; (when we do what God has taught us He causes all things to work for good for us) and I will remove sickness from your midst. (sin in this world has given us the curses of this world including of course illnesses of the flesh) "There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; (imagine a world in which God protects all life from its very beginning) I will fulfill the number of your days. (right up to its ending) "I will send My terror ahead of you, (to any who would do us harm) and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, (even to fight for us against any who would want to hurt us) and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. (God can make all the threats of the flesh disappear)
Of Course the promises of this text were conditioned on God’s people remaining within the boundaries of the promises of God. Straying outside them and rebelling against God would make His people vulnerable again to their enemies!
1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
- A_Loving_Parent.pdf (98.43 kB)
