Volume 50 Number 4 April 2008
Later on, in
Numbers 11:10-15: “Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the LORD, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now – if I have found favor in your eyes – and do not let me face my own ruin.’”Now read these passages (with some changes) to make it applicable to us:
Now the congregation complained about their boring worship services in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then the desires of the flesh burned among them and consumed some of the weaker members of the church. When the people cried out to the elders, they prayed to the LORD and the complaints died down…
The complainers with them began to crave other activities, and again the congregation started wailing and said, “If only we had better song leaders (or better preaching, or more social programs, or sports teams, or a recreation center, etc)! We know about the wide variety of programs the denominations have in place. But now we have lost our interest; we never see anything but the preaching of truth!”
The elders heard the congregation wailing…The LORD became exceedingly angry, and the elders were troubled. They asked the LORD, “Why have you brought this trouble on us elders? What have we done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on us? Did
we conceive all these people? Did we give them birth? Why do you tell us to carry watch over and lead them, as a shepherd does his sheep, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can we get activities for all these people? They keep wailing to us, ‘Give us some recreational activities to participate in!’ We cannot carry all these people by ourselves; the burden is too heavy for us. If this is how you are going to treat us, put us to death right now – if we have found favor in your eyes – and do not let us face our own ruin.” (Wouldn’t you hate to think that you had caused the ruin of one or all your elders?)Now let’s see what happened to the Israelites when they further rejected God’s plan in
1 Samuel 8:4-9: “So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’ But when they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other god, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”We know that God finally allowed them to have their own way and gave them a king. We also know, that under the kings, they continued farther and farther away from God until they were worshipping idols and it was difficult to tell the Israelites from the other people in the land. In
Proverbs 14:12, we are told that “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” That certainly seems to have held true for the Israelites. Could it be true for us also?Some of us may have been on the slippery slope to worldliness, but we don’t have to continue on it! There’s a way to get back to the way God wants his followers to live and worship him!
Jesus has told us that HE is the way, the truth and the life
(John 14:6). Jesus’ message is simple. All the other things that PEOPLE believe are so important are nothing to our Lord and Savior. His prescription for our discontent is to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Sure, our worship services are not as exciting as those of the denominations with their bands and soloists, hand clapping and pageants, it’s true. But the Word tells us that our worship is to be in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). It is because of the simple and pure nature of our worship that GOD is glorified. All the other trappings of the denominational world actually detract from our worship to God rather than add to it. Those things have been added because people like them, not because they have been ordained by God!If we want to be pleasing to God, our attitude should rather be the same as the attitude of the writer of
Psalm 119:33-40: Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes,