Waist Deep 2018 - A Daily Dip in the Bible

Deuteronomy 4: 15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. (NIV) Our earthbound minds can’t completely fathom all he is and all he does.* In Exodus 33: 11, God says he spoke to Moses “face to face”; in Numbers 12: 8, we are told that Moses also “sees the form of the Lord.” Later on in Exodus 33, God tells Moses, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you,” (verse 19) but, he says in verse 20, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” God spent a lot of time in Moses’ personal space, but what Moses saw was not a countenance or a shape that could be reproduced in stone or on canvas.  There are reasons that God does not allow us to see his face. First, he is spirit so perhaps there is nothing to see. This is not an easy concept for us who are limited by the physical world. As someone else said, we are, like the Israelites, “insensitive to the reality of a God who could not be touched or seen....

Deuteronomy 4: 2, 6 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God. . . . Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations. (NIV) Underlying every sacred commandment is the purpose of God to achieve the utmost happiness and benefit for the obedient child of God.* The leaders of the Jewish religion in Jesus’ day were notorious for making “many laws out of a few” but Jesus came along and made a “few laws out of many.”* Often the adding to/taking away was done with the sole intent of making it more difficult to be obedient. Jesus points out an example of this in Mark 7: 9–11. In Revelation 22: 18, we read that there is a curse attached to adding to or taking away from the prophecies recorded in that book. God’s law, like God himself, is unchanging and reliable. There is no need to fluff it up or smooth it out in order to make it more palatable (or more difficult). Throu...

Numbers 12: 8 “With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles.” (NIV) Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking.* This is God stepping up and defending Moses against his harsh critics – who, it turns out, were his brother and sister. Perhaps they were jealous of his close relationship with God. Perhaps they thought Moses was an easy target – the Bible says he was the most humble man on the face of the earth. In any case, God was moved to make an appearance on Moses’ behalf. Moses didn’t have to speak up for himself because he had the Almighty as his defense attorney. In mounting Moses’ defense, God placed his seal of approval on Moses. Aaron and Miriam got the message: What Moses says goes. God does the same for us. He stands up and speaks for us. God also speaks to us. We may not hear God “clearly and not in riddles” because our relationship with him has not reached that level of intimacy, but the closer we get to God, the easier it ...

Numbers 4: 15 “They must not touch the holy things or they will die.” (NIV) If he had not come to earth as a man, he would have remained completely inaccessible.* There are strict guidelines for handling radioactive material. Failure to follow proper procedure is a death sentence; so was the mishandling of the sacred items in the tabernacle. God made and enforced the “do not touch” rule regarding the Ark of the Covenant, not just to protect the “symbol of His throne”* from contamination, but because the power and holiness of God, compacted and contained within, was “hotter” than nuclear waste. It was not to be treated with less than the utmost reverence for its sacredness, and respect for its potency. Because God allowed himself to be contained within a vessel that we could touch, perhaps we under-estimate our need to be properly prepared to encounter him. While a purification “ritual” is necessary afte r exposure to radiation, cleansing is required before ...

Leviticus 20: 7 “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.” (NIV) No man can make himself pure by obeying laws.* Consecration is the procedure for making something holy. In the Old Testament, God’s people could attain a state of temporary holiness by observing the rituals and sacrifices required by the law. Today, people of God strive for “moral holiness” for the same reasons that the Israelites did: because God is holy. We tend to miss the holiness mark, however, because we are tolerant of a certain amount of sin in ourselves and in others, depending on who they are and what they’ve done. God’s holiness is not compatible with tolerance. We can’t come into his presence with just a little bit of sin on us or mask our sin with make-up. It must be washed completely away. On our own, we do not have the power to consecrate ourselves. On our own, we are not holy, but he has made it possible for us to approach him through the blood of his Son. ...

Leviticus 19: 18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (NIV) One cannot love God and not love one’s fellow human being, for God does not accept such love .* Did your parents ever answer your “why” question with “because I said so”? Sometimes God answers us the same way. We may offer excuses as to why we can’t love our neighbor, but God will not be drawn into our argument. “I am the Lord,” reminds us of his authority. This verse (and Jesus’ quoting of it in Matthew 22: 39) is frequently used to promote the theory that in order to love others, we must first love ourselves. Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to love ourselves; indeed, no one has to tell us to love ourselves. While we hold grudges against each other, we are usually ready to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and make excuses for our behavior. We are quite capable of loving ourselves even when we know how unlovabl...

Exodus 34: 6, 7 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” (NIV) Numbers 14: 18 The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. (NIV) Psalm 86: 15 But you, O lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (NIV) Psalm 103: 8, 10 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. . . . [H]e does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (NIV) God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.* Interviewing for a job challenges our ability to balance just the right amount of modesty with a healthy dose of self-confidence. We can be proud of our accomplishments but we don’t want t...

Exodus 33: 19 “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (NIV) God is always consistent with Himself in His actions.* When God speaks these words, it is not to portray himself as a God of whimsy, or of random or frivolous behavior, but to remind us that he is God. What does he mean then, that he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy?  God’s grace is always free, so it can’t be earned; it is always dished out according to his purpose. In contrast, God doesn’t say, “I will be at angry at whom I will be angry,” because we actually earn his wrath by rejecting him. His wrath is always just and holy,* but thanks to his mercy and grace, his anger is deflected. Justice demands payment but God chooses to be merciful. That is his prerogative. It is our prerogative to choose whether we will be recipients of his mercy or victims of his wrath. He never damns by prerogative, but by prerogati...

Exodus 33: 16, 17 “How will anyone know that you are pleased with me . . . unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me . . . from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” (NIV) God answers prayer when our life choices radiate from our faith.* These verses are rich in meaning on more than one level. On the literal level, it’s a conversation between God and Moses. How could God and Moses be having this conversation? Remember back in the desert when Moses was like, “Who me?” and God was like, “Who made your mouth?” (Exodus 3: 11 and 4: 11); but here, we see Moses asking God to manifest himself in such a way that the world will know that God is pleased with him. God admits that he is pleased with Moses and agrees to fulfill Moses’ request. And there’s the spiritual/personal level - how it applies to us. For our personal ...

Exodus 33: 14 The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (NIV) Resting in the Lord does not depend on external circumstances . . . but on your relationship to God.* While Moses’ mind was on performing God’s will – on getting the job done - God was promising him rest. God probably wasn’t talking about giving Moses a good night’s sleep; likely he was referring to rest from wandering after taking possession of the Promised Land. Along with the thrill of claiming God’s promise came the “assurance of the divine presence.”* God knows that we need rest – he made us that way. As someone has observed, “Rest is a universal human longing.” *  But at times our schedules do not allow for lots of rest. Life is often hectic and out of control. These are the days when we need to claim God’s promise that his presence will give us rest. In his presence, we are so comfortable that we find rest at its finest. No stress, no unfinished busines...