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Psalm 105:44-45 And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.
God enables obedience to His commands! Here, the children of Israel were commanded to observe all of God’s statutes, and keep all His laws. If you know anything about the old covenant, MUCH work went into keeping all the laws that The Lord had commanded them to observe. Time would not permit me to go into all the details, suffice it to say that (by modern standards of living) extreme efforts had to be made in order to do what God expected of them.
Understanding, then, that it took WORK to obey God’s commands, The Lord made it so that when Israel arrived at their promised land, they would inherit the labour of the inhabitants, for the specific purpose of enabling His people to put their energies into obeying His commands. They dwelt in houses they did not build and ate from vineyards they did not plant. Essentially, God paved the way for their obedience!
I’m now reminded of the same principle found in the New Testament under the new covenant of Grace. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” In other words, if you will seek to do God’s will, then God will seek to make that possible by providing you what you need in order to do so.
I’m afraid that’s where many Christians fall off the wagon today; they make great effort in securing a living for themselves FIRST, then, IF they have any time, talent, energy, or resources left over, they MIGHT give them to God’s work. However, we need to relearn the concept of living by such faith that when God speaks, we obey, and let HIM figure out the logistics of how it’s all going to come together. Trust and obey!
Pastor Gary Caudill
copyright © by Gary D. Caudill, all rights reserved
Go deeper with the daily reading that goes along with today’s devotional HERE.
Song by Leeland called “Way Maker” can be found HERE on YouTube.