The Preacher's Diary Of the four divine options presented in two mutually opposite sets in Deuteronomy 30:15, two are positive (“life and good”) and two are negative prophecies (“death and evil”). Can opposite prophecies emanate from the same God? Does God contradict Himself? Is God so unsure of the future as to leave so wide a window open? Is He not in control of the world? Four verses later, in verse 19, the earlier list of four options is extended with the addition of four more possibilities.
Can God truly say something to one person different from what He says to another person about the same matter? Would it still be God when His prophets seem to be at variance in their declarations on the same subject? Can God be so uncertain of what to do with a nation as to leave an open door of multiple (sometimes opposite) options? Are some prophecies so determined that no prayers may change them, and others variable, so that they might be amended by human response?
Some worries arise not out of true lack but because of blindness. Some passionate prayers would have been unnecessary if we had seeing eyes (2 Kings 6:14-17).
Jesus met a very religious woman by the well, who told Him vehemently, “I know that Messias cometh” (John 4:25). She was a believer in the Messiah. She also strongly believed the Scriptures and the prophets who had spoken about the coming Messiah. She herself preached emphatically about Him, declaring, “I know.”
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Acts 3:6.
Do not focus so much on what you do not have, that you lose sight of what more you have – even in such abundance and to share. Peter and John knew what they had, despite what they lacked. They were frank about what they lacked, yet they were not going to let anyone blackmail them with that particular lack. They were not going to let anyone put them under the unfortunate stress and pressure of a struggle to ‘also give’ what they didn’t have, just to meet some outsider’s sudden public expectations.
And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar.
Numbers 23:14.
Balaam was a famed prophet of international repute whom kings often hired to curse their foes. He was so highly ranked that, like flocking insects to a night lamp, nobles were his clients (Numbers 22:4-17). He was a man of such aura that even animals took up a human voice in his sessions (Numbers 22:28-30). That was whom Balak the king of Moab consulted to cast a spell over the Israelites in transit from Egypt. To do that effectively, Balaam raised seven consecutive altars in each of three separate locations, making a total of twenty-one altars, to wage just one battle of a curse. Unfortunately, those many altars with their lavish sacrifices failed against his innocent and unaware targets (Numbers 23:1, 11, 14, 29). How many altars make a potent curse?
If we would but obey, we would waste less prayers. Ten loud lepers met Jesus, needing a miracle. He never prayed, He only instructed: “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Their miracle came “as they went.” Jesus didn’t say a prayer about their case (Luke 17:14). Prophetic instruction is not less potent than prophetic prayers (2 Chronicles 20:20).
To a man born blind, Jesus instructed, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Healing for that man came not by prayers offered but by obedience implemented: “He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:7). Many a miracle is hidden not in mighty prayers but in simple obedience. Certain sacrifices and prayers would have been unnecessary if there had been obedience. In the equations of God, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). A pending obedience could be a pending miracle.
From The Preacher’s diary,
January 12, 2023.
Under “strong delusion,” according to 2 Thessalonians 2:11, a people will “believe a lie”; in fact, according to the Living Bible, they will do so “with all their hearts.” Therefore, the fact that something is believed, even strongly believed, does not make it true. That something is believed by many does not mean that it is right. That it has become tradition, because it has been believed for so long, still does not make it correct. A thing is not true because of who believes it. Belief is neither fact of the matter nor validation of it. Delusion could be at work, and believers in lies are often marked by a readiness to defend it violently. Sometimes, that’s how to tell (Acts 19:26-29; James 3:14-18).
From The Preacher’s diary,
December 29, 2022
It might take a miracle to get some baby, but it will take the mother to nurse that miracle. If she should fail, that miracle could die, prophetic though the miracle had been. Often, we invest intensity to procure a miracle, and celebrate it with more intensity and noise, but not always have we watched over that gift with the same dedication. Every miracle is often human participation in divine intervention. Where the human element fails, miracles also often fail, despite having come graciously from God.
God made Moses “a ruler and a deliverer.” Not every ruler is a deliverer, and a deliverer might be no ruler. In Moses, both roles were combined.
In all of this, the spiritual element should not be missed. Moses was a natural leader on a mission from a supernatural Agency; a mortal man empowered by a Spirit: “the same did GOD SEND.”
This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Acts 7:35
Not always do an oppressed people recognize and receive their messiah, because messiahs don’t often look like it. A people’s reception or refusal of their messiah, however, does not dismiss his mandate, although it can diminish his mission to them. Reception often determines delivery. In other words, how well one receives a messenger often determines how much of the message, or of the benefits of the message, one gets (Matthew 10:41; Mark 6:11). It may also be said that reception begets reception. That is, the reception that one gives to a message or messenger often influences how much of the related benefits one can receive.
