Psalm 19:7-11 captured my attention recently in a way that was deeply convicting. The first part of verses 7-9 is God’s revelation of His Word. “The law of the LORD is perfect; the testimony of the LORD is sure; the statutes of the LORD are right; the commandment of the LORD is pure; the fear of the LORD is clean; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” The latter part of those verses reveals the eternal power of God’s Word. The law converts the soul. The testimony makes wise the simple [naïve]. The statutes rejoice the heart. The commandment enlightens the eyes. The fear endures forever. The judgments are righteous altogether.
Since all Scripture is God breathed, He gives these particular words their supremacy. Verses 10-11 declare why these words are beyond value. “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 119:162 says, “I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds great treasure.”
Note that the fear of the LORD is priceless. God’s Word implants reverence and moral respect in the minds of those who embrace it. They can then experience the joy, that deep abiding sense of spiritual fulfillment, that cannot be smothered, and the peace which surpasses understanding. Psalm 103:10-11 says, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” With that kind of joy and peace in our lives, it does not get any better than that!
Many of us are familiar with the song “Prepare to Meet Thy God” by J.H. Stanley. The lyrics to the verses are:
- Careless soul why will you linger, Wan-d’ring from the fold of God? Hear you not the invitation? O prepare to meet thy God.
- Why so tho’t-less are you standing, While the fleeting years go by, And your life is spent in folly? O prepare to meet thy God.
- Hear you not the earnest pleadings, Of your friends that wish thee well? And perhaps before tomorrow, You’ll be called to meet thy God.
- If you spurn the invitation, Till the Spirit shall depart, Then you’ll see your sad condition, Unprepared to meet thy God.
Do we truly believe the message of that hymn?
First Corinthians 10:1-14 stands as a current breaking news flash from the pages of the Old Testament of just a few of God’s warnings to us through disobedient, rebellious Israel. Paul began by stating that he did not want his brethren in Corinth to be unaware that all their fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. “For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4b). Paul’s tone completely changed in verses 5-6. “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”
God had warned Israel about the consequences of the sin of complaining and lusting or craving. In Numbers 11:1-6, the people were complaining, and the mixed multitude that was among them yielded themselves to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept with them again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” God told Moses to tell the people He would give them meat and they would eat.
Moses told them in Numbers 11:19-20, “You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?’”
Even Moses was doubtful about what God had said! He proceeded to “inform” God that he was among 600,000 men on foot. Moses asked God should flocks and herds be slaughtered, and all the fish of the sea be gathered to provide enough for them? God’s response exemplified His Deity! “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Has the LORD’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not’” (Numbers 11:23). Was Moses ready?
Numbers 11:31, 34 reads, “Now a wind went out from the LORD, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp… And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail… but while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was aroused against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague. So he [Moses] called the name of that place Graves of Craving because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.” In recounting this event, Psalm 78:31 says, “The wrath of God came against them, and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel.”
God had warned Israel about the consequences of the sin of idolatry. God had spoken the Ten Commandments to Israel in Exodus 20:1-17. The very first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (vs. 3). Exodus 32 is the disgraceful account of the people talking Aaron, of all people, into making a golden calf and declaring it had brought them out of Egypt! About 3,000 men fell that day. What about us? We must understand that anything or anyone that we love more than or rather than God is our idol! The height of idolatry is the worship of self. We all have idols—it’s just a matter of us identifying them. Who or what are our idols? Is it Money? Possessions? Job position? Business? Education? Entertainment? Music? Social status? Retirement? Family? Sports? Invention? Recreation? Research? Food? Drink? Time? Determination? Politics? Pride? Power? Prestige? Health or exercise? Medicine? Clothes or shoes? Grooming? Technology? Discipline? The list stretches to infinity! Whoever or whatever it is that comes before God in our lives must be eliminated!
God had warned Israel about the consequences of the sin of sexual immorality. God forbids every sort of illicit sexual activity. Leviticus 20 is the “go to” chapter that details the penalties for sexual perversion. Marriage between a man and a woman is the only relationship involving sexual activity that God sanctions. Numbers 25:1-9 is the account of Israel committing harlotry with the women of Moab and bowing down to their gods. Those who died in the plague were 24,000! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:7-8, “And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play [lively heathen dances]. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.” All these Israelites suffered the consequences of their sin at the cost of their own lives! Is sexual immorality really worth burning in hell forever, and ever, and ever?
In the United States, we have traffic laws that are posted in the form of speed limits. Most of us have been stopped by law enforcement officers for violating posted speed signs. Some of us, for a variety of reasons, are only given a warning. However, we know what the consequences of repeated offenses will be. How is it that we will heed temporary, manmade warnings and not the eternal warnings of Almighty God? God warns us repeatedly from Genesis to Revelation that His expectation of obedient, submissive faith is imperative if we are to live with Him forever.
