Closer Day By Day

We are more endangered by the charms of a smiling world than by the terrors of a frowning world, do you agree?

This time the Israelites incurred the wrath of God not due to complaints, but due to falling into a snare willingly and broke the commandments of God.

Bible Passage: Numbers 25 to 28

Complacency and Stubbornness are Dangerous

In the previous chapter, God kept His promises that He would bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey, and He turned the curses intended by Balak into blessings. God always keeps His promises and He does His part faithfully, but it is often man who neglects and refuses to receive these wonderful promises willingly and thankfully.

The event in chapter 25 reminds me of what elder James warned us,

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be

tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is

full-grown, brings forth death.

Jas. 1:13 - 15

Temptations are always lurking around us; but temptation is not sin yet, it is our reactions to the temptations that will determine our consequences. Therefore we have to be careful of how we react to temptations, never to go near temptations to be enticed, and never to fall into its snares, for the end will be disastrous.

Hold Fast To The Laws of God and Fear Him

The continued reminder from God regarding the laws of the Sabbath and the offerings tell us of God’s yearning that His children could be holy as He is holy. God wanted to smell the sweet aroma from these offerings from His children, and to draw near to them. The additional items of offerings commanded by God during the weekly Sabbath shows that God wanted to put additional emphasis on the importance of the Sabbath Day, that this Day is indeed a day of blessings from God. God also reminded in details regarding the monthly offerings, the Passover and the Feast of Weeks.

Man is very prone to forgetting things if not being reminded constantly; therefore we have to admit to this weakness of man. The frequent services we have in church serve as constant reminders for all of us regarding the grace and salvation of God. These constant reminders can also warn us from falling into the snares of Satan, who prowls about seeking whom he may devour.

I hope in today’s reading, we can learn and be reminded of the constant love of God towards our souls. Look into ourselves and reflect, do we have the same inclination as the Israelites, wanting to draw near to forbidden areas and things? Very often we do many things that are actually quite risky, in the sense that there is a high chance that we can fall into temptation.

But because we desire to do them, because we feel we have all the rights to pursue certain things in life, and then we come up with many reasons to justify our actions and we often seem to be very confident of ourselves that we would not fall into any traps of the devil.

But how sure are we that we are able to withstand the strong pulling force from all these temptations? If we are not careful and shun the admonitions from the Bible or those brethren who could see that we are treading on dangerous grounds, then we have to bear the consequences alone.

So before we want to do anything, think of God first. When we are being tempted, remember the Laws of God, remember the offerings He requires of us, and remember the path of salvation that He has paved for us, and then all these temptations will fade away when the glory of God’s word shines into our hearts.

So ask ourselves when we are being tempted to do things that may cause us to sin, do we choose the fear of the Lord or the desires of our flesh?

Ponder over this as we listen to the following gospel song, “We Choose the Fear of the Lord”