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A Heart for Restoration

November 11, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:9-13
The Call of Matthew, as portrayed in The Chosen, created by Dallas Jenkins, (c) 2019

One of the recurring themes throughout the gospel of Matthew is the theme of reconciliation and restoration. Additionally, we see repeatedly how when Jesus fulfills this missionary mandate, He is met with resistance from the religious elites. And Matthew himself was no stranger to being an outcast in his own society. Tax collectors across the Roman Empire were often despised by their local communities – much the same as they are today even. However, as tax collectors were handsomely rewarded by their Roman overlords for their meticulous, and often excessive, collection of revenues, local communities would often look at tax collectors as traitors to their own people – parasitic leeches living off the fruits of the labor of others.

And this colored the perspective of the Pharisees who prejudiciously viewed tax collectors as cheats and traitors, thus classifying them as societal “sinners”. The truth of the matter we don’t know how much tax collectors cheated their charges, but the fact that they served a foreign occupier in deference to their own people was sufficient reason for their shunning.

But Jesus, as He always does, looks past the circumstances and status and offers grace and restoration, much to the consternation of the Pharisees. Jesus had already been criticized by the scribes and experts of the law for forgiving sin. Now the Pharisees, the elite priests and teachers of the law of Moses, criticize Him for relating to the outcasts.

We have seen this attitude play itself out all too often in today’s society, most especially in the intersection of faith and politics. We find ourselves divided in the camps of red and blue, each shouting down the other as out of touch, reprobates, and sometimes worse. In each camp, members are more concerned about furthering their agendas than fostering reconciliation and relationship. Each camp has different ideas of how to address the common problems we both see, but one camp sees it as a problem for the government to fix while others see it as a problem for private individuals to address. Is it possible that there is somewhere in the middle where both could be right? To hear the rhetoric from both camps, one would think there isn’t any common ground upon which we can stand. As a result, the dividing wall of separation continues to stand stronger than ever before, but I digress.

It should come as no surprise that Jesus would quote from the prophet Hosea to His critics in this circumstance. He directly quotes the first part of Hoses 6:6, but I believe He intentionally left out the second part of the same sentence and when you read it, you can easily see why:

“For I desire steadfast love [mercy] and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Hosea 6:6

To know God is to love Him; to love Him is to desire to know Him more. This is first and foremost on the heart of God the Father – a restored relationship with His children. This is why Paul referred to his ministry as a “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). Our number one mission in this world is to restore relationships between mankind and God as well as between each other. The heart of the gospel is redemption and restoration.

As we enter into this festive holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I challenge you to seek opportunities to restore broken relationships. I challenge you see opportunities for redemption at the foot of the cross. I challenge you to humbly set aside your pride and prejudices and seek reconciliation in the name of the Father of grace.

Above is a video from Season 1 of The Chosen, available in your mobile device app store, showing a creative take on the call of Matthew. The attitudes I described before are prevalent in this scene, but are also setup in earlier episodes. I encourage you to download the app today and experience this unique presentation of the life of Christ and His disciples in your app store today.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-chosen/id1473663873
Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…

Filed Under: Matthew, New Testament, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: Binge Jesus, Get Used To Different, The Chosen, thechosentv

The Salt of the Kingdom

July 30, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Matthew 5:13

Salt is undoubtedly one the most common chemical compounds on the earth. It comes in many forms and in multiple chemical combinations. The most common of which is NaCl – one positively charged atomic ion of sodium and one negatively charged atomic ion of chlorine. Seawater contains an average of 2.6% salt by weight, which amounts to an estimated 78 million metric tons per cubic kilometer of water in the oceans and seas of the world.

Throughout the history of the world, salt has had a wide variety of applications. The most obvious use of salt is to add flavor, or rather to enhance the natural flavor of food. Prior to refrigeration it was the most common preservative of meats. In fact, the word “sausage” is derived from a word that literally means “salted meat”. Our word “salad” originates from Romans using salt on leafy greens and vegetables prior to eating. It also where we get the term “salivate.” If we “oversalt” our food, we ruin it. If we don’t use enough salt in cooking, the food is bland and tasteless. It’s all about the right amount of seasoning to perfect the dish.

It has also been used for medicinal purposes as an antiseptic. It has been used in hygiene and cosmetics as an exfoliant in soaps to scrub off dead skin cells. It is used as a bonding agent in pottery and as a chemical agent in textiles, leather tanning, fabric dyes, and bleaches. Salt is often used in dry, arid places in the world to stimulate water retention.

Salt has often been used in various religious rituals as a symbol of purity. There are numerous references to covenants in the Old Testament that were sealed with salt. The word “salvation” also comes from this element of spiritual purification.

There are also military uses for salt. The term “salting the earth” is a reference to a practice of spreading large amounts of salt on the grounds of conquered lands in order to curse the ground and prevent the growing of healthy crops. Salt is used in the production of gunpowder and dynamite.

Salt is also important to our health and diets, but in proper amounts. Too little salt in our diets can lead to blockages in the small intestines, underactive thyroid, heart failure, higher propensity for sunburn, and diarrhea. It can lead to lethargic brain activity resulting in muscle twitches, seizures, cramps, loss of consciousness, coma, and even death in extreme situations. In fact, it is reported that more of Napoleon’s troops died during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 than the invasion of Moscow itself because their wounds were not properly healing due to a lack of salt in their diets.

Too much salt in our diets has been link to osteoporosis, kidney disease, and hypertension – leading to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Excessive salt in the bloods causes the body to pull more water into the bloodstream, thus increasing the volume of blood within the cardiovascular system. This puts more strain on the heart to pump the greater volume of blood, stretching the walls of blood vessels, leading to aneurysms and easy bruising.

For thousands of years, and still to this day in certain parts of the world, salt has strong economic uses beyond mere commodity as a form of currency. In fact, salt was at one time more valuable than gold due to the difficult process of extracting salt from seawater or mining from rock. The word “salary” and the phrase “worth your salt” comes from this use of salt as money.

And salt that has become damaged by misuse or neglect to the point that it has lost its usefulness cannot be made salty again. It is reduced to nothing more than a useless, grainy rock. Its purpose is then lost, which is why it is so important that salt is kept in place that it easily accessible, but secured from corruption by pests and excess water.

Salt extraction from seawater

Most importantly, in order for salt to be usable, one of two processes has to happen – and in some cases – both. First, there is the process of extracting salt out of sea water. It’s a difficult and time-consuming process, but it is a process that yields tremendous results. Sometimes it happens naturally as is apparent around the edges of the Dead Sea.

Salt along the shores of the Dead Sea

The other process is by mining – which requires extracting salt out of the earth and the large rocks of salt have to be broken until it is small enough to be usable by the consumer. In rare cases, even in the case of extraction of salt from seawater, this breaking process is still required to pulverize the salt into small enough grains to be of value.

Salt mines

But just like gold, salt at its core is nothing more than a rock. It has no inherent value of its own beyond that which we place upon it. Today, salt is so common that it is rarely used as currency in industrialized countries. In fact, while gold does have value as a commodity for jewelry, it holds very little value as a liquid currency as even our own American dollars are no longer backed by the gold standard – but simply by supply and demand of government issued legal tender.

When Jesus speaks of us being the “salt of the earth”, He is speaking to our value. If we place our value and worth in the marketplace of the world, while over time we may see some profit, eventually we become so common that we are worthless. We lose our flavor and thus our value to society. The people of Israel know this imagery all too well as they were now an occupied people by the Roman Empire, cast aside as a backwater land with weird customs, but just valuable enough due to its location at the junction of three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia – to retain worth to the Empire.

But in God’s economy you are His most precious commodity. You are His most precious jewel. He wants to use you to bring value and flavor to the world. He wants to use you to bring healing to a hurting world and scrape out that which is dead and lifeless. He wants to use you to destroy the enemy of this world. And He wants to use you to be an agent of purification in the world.

At the same time, we must be careful not to be “too salty” to the point that we drive people away. Or not salty enough so that people are uninspired to eat more at the table of grace. We must exercise discernment to the point that we provide just enough salt for the given situation so that we sate the appetite and leave them hungering for more.

But most importantly, we must be extracted from the world, set apart, and broken so that we can be usable for the Kingdom. Our hearts must be broken for the things that break the heart of God. Otherwise, our hearts are nothing but a useless, hardened stone that beats only for ourselves.

Filed Under: Matthew, New Testament, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: Jesus, Kingdom, salt

The Mourning of the Kingdom

July 16, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Matthew 5:3

There is no mistaking that 2020 has been a truly unusual year. The year started with one disaster after another, leading into a global coronavirus pandemic that so far has lasted for five months in the United States, and as long as eight months in China, where it all began. During this time reported case numbers have risen and fallen, as have deaths from this disease. With lockdowns and quarantines being enforced in cities across the nation, life has indeed changed.

Grandpa Roscoe Goynes and me
Family Reunion 1990

In May, we laid my grandfather to rest after a short battle with advanced stomach cancer. He was one of my personal heroes and his legacy is one that I will carry in my heart for the rest of my days. He was a well known man in his part of the state of Louisiana, especially in the farming and baseball/softball communities. I learned a lot growing up with him about cattle ranching and my love for the “grand old game” is rooted in his mentoring and story-telling of a bygone era where baseball players were superheroes.

When he passed, we were forced into a situation of only having a maximum of 10 people available for the funeral service. We went to the funeral home and spent about an hour saying our last goodbyes and then proceeded to the small country church that I grew up in, where he would be interred with his late wife, my grandmother, who had passed away nearly 20 years ago. When we got back to the house, I became a bit depressed. Not only because my grandfather was gone to be with the Lord, but more because there were so many who did not have a chance to mourn him publicly with us or to offer us a word of encouragement and arms of comfort, as would have been normal. Later that day, my aunt (my mother’s sister) quietly and cheerfully gave me a long, comforting hug that helped me to regain peace and emotional composure. And life became very different from that moment forward.

Mourning is not an enjoyable experience, but it is a necessary one. That is why Jewish law made it so imperative that people have a time of mourning for the passing of a loved one. The time period for mourning is somewhat flexible, where it is typically seven days, but in some cases (such as with Moses and Aaron) it can be extended to 30 days. According to the laws, a person had to be buried the same day of death and then the mourning period would begin. A meal would be provided and mourners would remain with the family for the entirety of the mourning period to help serve one another and comfort each other during the time of loss.

In the second of the Beatitudes, Jesus is harkening to this Jewish practice of mourning and comforting. When we come to faith in Christ, we experience a form of spiritual death as our old life passes away and a new life begins in Him.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

Jesus likens the mourning process to our remorse and repentance from this old life. As we grieve over our sinfulness, which now motivates our life transformation, the Holy Spirit comforts us in our mourning and encourages us in our new life.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

1 Corinthians 1:3-5

Even today, only a couple of months later the pain of my grandfather’s passing is still somewhat fresh as certain memories surface. In the Christian life, we will still experience the pain of mourning our sin as we die to our old selves daily to walk in the Light of Christ. But it is in our mourning that we find His comfort. It is in grieving our sinful past that He delights in wrapping His gracious arms about our hearts. It is in the act of daily repentance that we find His peace reigning in our lives.

If we do not mourn our old life and lay it to rest, and walk in a new life, we cannot experience the comfort of our Abba Father. Our mourning is the evidence that our lives have changed. It is the realization that our lives are now missing a critical piece of who we were made to be. And it is in this mourning that our Father swoops in to fill up that emptiness with His Spirit to bring us comfort and make us whole. You can rest in Him knowing that He is the God of all comfort, who longs to encourage you and make your steps lighter and let your heart beat strongly once again.

Filed Under: Matthew, New Testament, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: Beatitudes, Jesus, Kingdom, mourning

The Freedom to Serve

July 2, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23)

Slavery vs. freedom. The choice is obvious. Given the choice, freedom is the natural decision. But as a slave, what choices do you have? You are driven by other forces beyond your control – appetites, peer pressure, blindness. But how does one transition from slavery to freedom? A slave cannot buy their own freedom unless they have the resources to pay the price for that freedom. And since the slave hardly earns the financial resources to meet the market demand for their freedom, they must depend upon alternatives. The alternatives are death in slavery or redemption from slavery through someone else paying the price – either the slave owner or another.

In spiritual terms, we are all born into slavery. Slavery to sin thanks to the curse applied by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As slaves, we are governed by our appetites and owned by our enemy, Satan. As he is the “god of this world [who] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) Our choices for freedom from this slavery are death within slavery or redemption to a new life under a new Lord. “For the wages of sin is death.” This is what we earn for our labors to fulfill our natural selfish appetites. But God offers a better alternative, if only we would open our eyes to see it and take hold of it.

Because our slavery in sin demands a price to be paid for our freedom, and because that price is too great for us to pay it on our own, God Himself paid the price to give us a new life. He redeems us from the penalty of sin by becoming sin on our behalf. “For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The price of death was paid on the cross of Calvary in order to redeem us from the curse of slavery to sin.

As a result, we are provided a new life with a choice. We can choose to live life as a bondservant to our new Lord and enjoy the benefits of our service to Him. The fruit of this life is a treasure most glorious and provides hope beyond our imaginations. However, all too often, we choose to reject His redemption in favor of the familiar chains of bondage. We grow comfortable and adjust to our shackles of pride. We grow complacent and sit on the sidelines, not contributing to the household of our Lord. We live in fear of the discipline of the King rather than live in the freedom of being a child of King.

Freedom is a gift, a gift that we did not nor could we ever do enough to earn. Freedom is also a choice. God doesn’t force Himself upon us. We still have a choice in the matter. We can choose to accept His gift of grace that leads to an eternal life here and now, as well as in the hereafter. Or we can choose to reject His gift and continue to languish in our chains and bondage, wondering why life never gets any better and why we never see any further than our own hand in front of our faces. Just as any parent offers their child a gift, the gift is not theirs until they accept and take possession of the gift. The same principle is true of the fruitful gift of eternal life that God offers us. A life that is lived “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not “Christ Jesus our Teacher.” Not “Christ Jesus our Savior.” Not “Christ Jesus our Friend.” It’s “Christ Jesus our LORD.” He paid a price to set us free from our old life. Why then do we continue to live like we are still slaves? The reality is still this: we are either slaves to sin or we are slaves to His righteousness. There is no other option. Freedom is found in righteousness. Not our righteousness, which is worth nothing more than filthy rags.

“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Isaiah 64:6

His righteousness, however, has earned Him the seat on the throne of grace.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:21-24

The King invites you to His table. He redeems you into His household of faith by His sovereign will. He longs to know you and gift your with freedom beyond what you can possibly imagine. Step away from the chains that lead to death and live a life in the embrace of the Father. The price He paid is worth your devotion.

Filed Under: New Testament, Romans, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: freedom, Romans, serve

The Brotherhood of History

June 18, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.” (Psalm 78:9-16)

One of the codes of honor among our branches of the military is the simple creed that no soldier gets left behind. Sometimes this is easier said than done, when you consider that thousands of US service personnel have still not had their remains returned from the battlefields of Vietnam and North Korea, among others. The creed speaks to the sense of comraderie and brotherhood, united by a patriotic duty and love for country.

Unfortunately, this creed isn’t universal. Even as far back as the conquest of the Holy Land, as Israel began to claim the promise that God had for a home for His chosen people, the tribe of Ephraim, most likely because of fear of the Philistines that inhabited the land as described in Numbers 13. This act of betrayal was not only a slap in the face of their Hebrew brothers, but it was a wanton disregard and doubt in the covenant of God.

By turning their backs on God’s command to pursue the Promised Land, they turned their back on God Himself. Their doubt in the deliverance of God was borne out of the fact that they had forgotten all the miracles and wonders that God had done for them to bring them out of slavery in Egypt. The “fields of Zoan” was the place near the capital of Egypt at the time of their captivity. It was here that they worked the fields to harvest the straw used in the making of bricks for the building of the Egyptian monuments that were in Zoan, also known as Tanis in the Nile Delta.

The had forgotten all the miracles that God had performed to separate them from the pursuing slavers of the Egyptian Pharoah. They had forgotten how he led them day and night through the barren wilderness, providing water from within the rocks that permeated the Wilderness of Zin (Sin). And God didn’t just bring small springs from those rocks, but He brought forth flowing streams and rushing rivers of water. His blessings that He lavished upon His children were abundantly more than they deserved considering their constant complaining through the desert and expressed desire to return to the chains of slavery in Egypt.

The Christian life, especially in the early stages of growth, will often allegorically mimic this historical exodus out of slavery. As we are no longer enslaved to our sin nature, we struggle through the wilderness trying to make sense of this new life that we are called to. Sometimes we want to slide back into our old life thinking it was so much easier, forgetting that grace has set us free from our worldly passions and lusts that were weighing down our lives. But God Himself, through the power of His Holy Spirit continues to guide us and provide us refreshment along the way, in spite of our questions and grumblings.

All too often, however, we find ourselves at a point of decision – do we fight on, stay put, or turn back? In the case of Ephraim, they chose to stay put, paralyzed by fear and doubt, refusing to advance further for the glory of God and His Kingdom in keeping with His covenant promise.

Don’t miss this – they were still considered a part of Israel and a tribe of the covenant, in spite of their disobedience. They did not return to the slavery of Egypt. They did not advance the Kingdom of God in Israel. They simply stopped. Just as the half-tribe of Manasseh decided to stop short of the Promised Land (Joshua 1:12-15). They stopped short of experiencing the full blessings of the covenant, yet remained a part of the brotherhood of Israel.

In the same way, we can fall short of the experiencing the full blessings of the Christian life when we choose to live the bare minimum. It’s not enough to pray a prayer and get baptized. It’s not enough to attend a weekly service and sit on the sidelines. If you are a part of the brotherhood, you are expected as required of the covenant to fight alongside your brothers and sisters in the faith. We are expected to experience life together. We are expected to participate rather than spectate.

So I ask you today to examine yourselves. Are you content to just sit on the sidelines and partake of the benefits of brotherhood without experiencing the joys of fellowship? Or are you willing to take up your spiritual sword (The Word of God) and fight for truth. Are you willing to walk arm-in-arm with your fellow believers as a unified phalanx ready to do spiritual battle for one another? Are you willing to serve your brother who is struggling to feed his family? Are you willing to comfort your sister whose husband has abandoned her with their children? Are you willing to feed the poor, comfort the widows and orphans, teach the ignorant, and strengthen the weak?

That is our mandate. Anything less is settling for selfishness. Anything less is looking out for yourself instead of advancing and strengthening the Kingdom. Anything less is abandonment of the dictates of the covenant. Anything less is wandering in the wilderness of Sin, wondering why you never experience victory living a life without risk. Anything less is sin.

Filed Under: Old Testament, Psalms, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog Tagged With: ephraim, military, Psalms, serve

The Lessons of History

June 16, 2020 by David Noland Leave a Comment

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.” (Psalm 78:1-4)

When I was growing up in south Louisiana, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents on the farm. My grandfather was a beefmaster rancher and I remember many a weekend and summer spent in the fields tending the cattle, baling hay, moving them from the front fields to the back 40 acres. It was during this time with my grandfather that he would regale me and my brothers with stories of his younger days as he played that great American pasttime – baseball.

I remember his passionate adoration of Mickey Mantle as he told us how he could do anything you needed to win a game at any time. If you needed a bunt to move a man into scoring position, Mickey was your man. I remember how he told us of the 1961 home run race between Mantle and his teammate Roger Maris (who ultimately won with 61 homers).

The joy that was evident in his heart and his eyes as he would tell the story of his childhood heroes was captivating and it inspired me to play ball in my youth. My grandfather rarely if ever missed one of my games as I was growing up. He was always there on the sidelines cheering us on and when I was in the dugout waiting my turn to go on-deck, he would often be near our bench giving me pointers and scouting tips on how the pitcher was throwing and what I needed to do to attack.

Roger Maris (left) and Mickey Mantle (right) (c 1961)

In a lot of ways, the Psalms often give us a similar glimpse of this same excitement and teaching. The goal of all teaching is for us to learn how to be better than we are today by leaning on the lessons of years gone by. This Psalm is no exception.

First, we must be willing to hear and absorb the wisdom of the ages gone by, even if it isn’t pleasant to hear. Unless we lean into the teaching, we will not fully understand what is being taught. History is full of lessons that we must all learn not to take for granted. It is full of wonders to celebrate like the art and majesty of the Florentine Renaissance. It is full of the darkness of the Middle Ages and great wars of the 20th century. History has both good and bad points, but it does not discriminate. History simply records. It is up to the wise to discern the lessons to be learned from the past and pass on to the future generations.

Secondly, much like with the history of Israel, not all of our history is good news. There is plenty of bad news to share, but it is necessary that we remember the failures of the past so that we are not doomed to repeat them in the future. Today we see an aggressive movement to sanitize our history and eliminate or revise the mention of our dark times, instead of recognizing our failures. By sanitizing our history, we also eliminate and revision many of our successes. Most of our national successes are a direct result of our response to our failures. That is why the Psalmist declared that “we will not hide them from their children but tell the coming generation”.

Finally, the Psalmist goes on to tell a detailed listing of all the times that the people of Israel failed God and angered Him with their doubt and their sin. But He also goes into great detail about how God still loved Israel in spite of their failures and how He proved to be faithful to His word and His promises. The Psalmist tells of “the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that He has done.”

We must remember that stories of history are there for our edification, our growth, and our improvement. Additionally, we must remember that that the successes of our past are often predicated by our response to our failures. And most importantly, we must tell of the wonders that God has wrought, through the good and the bad. We cannot deny the failings of the past, but we must not forget the context of the successes of the past as well. This makes the good news that much sweeter when we truly understand how bad the bad news really was. And that is what gives us cause for celebration!

Filed Under: Old Testament, Psalms, Uncategorized, Wilderness Wonderings Blog

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