In your love, you led the people you redeemed; in your strength, you guide them to your holy abode (habitation). Exodus 15:13
9. They lived in it (v8).
As I read this phrase in both the KJV and the CJSB, looking at the words lived and dwelled, one word kept rising up in me: habitation. From the beginning, Adonai has been about habitation, and it began in the Garden of Eden. Before the tabernacle in the wilderness, Adonai first dwelt, tabernacled, and made habitation with Adam and Eve. Instead of a tent made of fine linen, the canopy of trees was their intimate meeting place where they fellowshipped together.
One of the words for dwell in Hebrew is shakan (shaw-kan) and means to settle down, abide, dwell, tabernacle, reside. Just as He brought His people to the Promised land to abide there, as well as dwell and tabernacle with Him, He wants habitation with us. When we accept Yeshua as our Savior, He settles down, abides, dwells, tabernacles, and resides in our hearts. When we ask Him to come into our hearts, we have habitation.
Psalm 102:29(28) reads The children of your servants will live securely and their descendants be established in your presence. Habitation, shakan, is made of the letters Shin (ש), Kaf (כ), and Nun in its final form (ן). Shin is symbolized by consuming passion, Kaf by an open hand, a container and an empty or full heart, and Nun by life or the breaking down walls of separation. Yeshua is my consuming passion, I am a vessel or container with both an empty and full heart. While my heart is full of Him, I try to remain empty of myself and broken before Him so that He may continue to fill me. He has given me life and daily breaks down walls that would separate me from Him. He is my habitation.
10. Built you a sanctuary in it for your name (v8)
In 1 Chronicles 17, after bringing the ark to Jerusalem, David tells Nathan the prophet, “Here, I’m living in a cedar-wood palace; but the ark for the covenant of Adonai is kept under a tent!” (v1) After telling David to go ahead with his plan, Adonai came to Nathan telling him “You are not to build me a house to live in, because from the day I brought up Isra’el until today, I never lived in a house, rather, I’ve gone from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another. Everywhere I traveled with all Isra’el, did I ever speak a word to any of the judges of Isra’el, whom I ordered to shepherd my people Isra’el, asking, ‘Why haven’t you built me a cedar-wood house?’” (v4-6) Adonai would go on to say, “Moreover, I tell you that Adonai will make you a house. When your days come to an end and you go to be with your ancestors, I will establish one of your descendants to succeed you, one of your own sons; and I will set up his rulership. He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be a father for him, and he will be son for me; I will not take my grace away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. Rather, I will maintain him in my house and in my kingdom forever; and his throne will be set up forever.” (10-14) There is so much going in Nathan’s vision. We know that Solomon would go on to build the first temple and that fire would fall from heaven, consuming the sacrifice at its dedication, that the priests would not be able to stand to minister. However, Solomon was not the son of David being spoken of whose throne would be set up forever. This prophecy could only be fulfilled by Messiah, Yeshua, the eternal King of Kings.
The word sanctuary, or miqdash (mik-dawsh) means a sacred place, holy place, temple, or tabernacle. In His interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, Yeshua told her The time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. (John 4:21), that true worshipers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the father wants worshipping him. God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly. (v23-24) The true sanctuary is not a building, but people. We are the sanctuary for His name. In 1 Corinthians 2:19-20 Paul wrote, Or don’t you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves; for you were bought at a price. So use your bodies to glorify God.
11. If calamity strikes us, such as war, judgement, disease or famine, we will stand before this house, that is, before you, since your name is in this house – and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear us and rescue us. (v. 9)
I sat down and started working on looking up the Hebrew for multiple words in this sentence. I made note of each number from Strong’s that I was going to then cross-reference against the Brown Driver Briggs lexicon. In other words, I had a plan. Last night, that plan went out the window, as I got a phone call that required immediate prayer. As I knelt at my bed, tears streaming down my face and poured out my heart to Adonai, praying in the name of my savior, Yeshua, my head snapped up and the words from this verse were in my head. I grabbed my bible and pulled out the index card that I had it written down on, and I began speaking this verse over the situation. I’m still speaking this verse over the situation.
War, judgement, disease, famine. Sounds somewhat similar to the four horsemen listed in Revelation chapter 6, however when my eyes slid across to the next page and chapter 7 the words, “Victory to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (v 10), jumped out at me. “I will cry out to you in my distress, and you will hear and rescue me”. Who does the rescuing, other than the victor? And there is no other victor than Him.
I’m not going to lie, my flesh wanted to fall apart, break down and not trust. However, I immediately thought of a truth bomb dropped in this last episode of The Chosen, when Jesus tells the disciples, “You can’t just shut down when you’re fearful.” He did not give me a spirit of fear, and I had to stop my flesh and say NO! You serve a God who is mightier than any situation that is going to be thrown at you. When I am in distress, I am going to cry out to Him, He will hear me and rescue me. He will hear me, and He will work whatever the situation is for my good. Our faith is does not grow when things are going right. Our faith grows when we are faced with situations that are impossible outside of Him. Is my situation resolved? Not at the time of this writing, but I KNOW who is in control of this situation, and I KNOW who holds every moment of every day in His hand, and I KNOW that no matter what it will be used for His glory.
**At the time that I wrote point 11, we did not know the severity of the situation with my mom. A couple of days later, she was flown to OKC and spent two days in ICU, one in ICU Step Down and at the time I write this, she is in Mercy Rehabilitation Center. She is classified as a stroke as it was a hemorrhage on the brain. We serve a mighty and wonderful God, who has His hand on her through this whole ordeal. She has no loss of mobility, no droopiness or weakness caused by stroke. Each day that passes, she is getting stronger and is looking to make a full recovery. **
12. So now, see: the people of ‘Amon, Mo’av and Mount Se’ir, whom you would not let Isra’el invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, so that they turned away from them and did not destroy them, are now repaying us [evil]; they have come to throw us out of your possession, which you gave us as an inheritance. (v 10-11)
Verses 10 and 11 took me on a hunt back into the Torah, specifically the book of Deuteronomy. In chapter 2 verse 9 Adonai said, “Don’t be hostile toward Mo’av or fight with them, because I will not give you any of their land to possess since I have already given it to the descendants of Lot as their territory.” Likewise, in verse 19 He said, “When you approach the descendants of ‘Amon, don’t bother them or fight with them, for I will not give you any of the territory of the people of ‘Amon to possess, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their territory.”
When we look back even further, in Genesis 19 we find the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is at the end of this tale, we see that Lot’s daughters feared there were no men left in the world after the destruction, so they got their father drunk and each slept with him, both becoming pregnant. The older daughter named her son Mo’av, and the younger named her son Ben-‘Ammi. They became the ancestors to ‘Amon and Mo’av in the scriptures of Jehoshaphat’s prayer.
While pointing out that ‘Amon and Mo’av were coming against God’s chosen people, and that Adonai Himself would not let the Israelites destroy them upon entering the promised land, it shows the faithfulness of God’s word and promises. He told them why He would not give them that land, and why He did not want them fighting with them, because He already gave it to Lot, and his descendants. Abraham himself told Lot that he did not want to fight with him, or their servants fight each other, so he let Lot choose the portion of land he wanted. When it was all said and done, God was not going to go back on that promise of inheritance. How much then, will He be faithful and true to us after giving His Son for the forgiveness of our sins? How much then, does He love those that we perhaps don’t? He has made the same promises for all of us who come to Him, even those we don’t get along with. The promise of inheritance into the Kingdom is for all who accept Him.
13. Our God! Won’t you execute judgement against them? (v12)
As I thought on this line, I began thinking of how Jehoshaphat was crying out for judgment against foes of flesh and blood, and how while we do in our lives have those that we could call our enemies and at times want to call on Adonai to execute judgement against them on our behalf, He taught us a different way through Yeshua. In the most famous sermon in history, the Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua said, “But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. What reward do you get if you love only those who love you?” Matthew 5:44-46
The judgement of mankind was handed down when Yeshua laid His life down as the ransom for the world. I am in awe every day that He took my judgement upon Himself. He also took the judgement of those that don’t like me, and that I feel have wronged me. It isn’t always easy to “love your enemies”, and standing in our own love, we fall short of being capable of such a command. However, when we are standing in HIS love, we see past our hurt, our anger, our pride and see them through His eyes, and see them with His love and it is then that we are able to love them, not judge them.
14. For we haven’t the strength enough to defeat this huge horde coming against us (v 12)
This is a line that I have lived for two weeks now. I don’t have the strength to defeat what is coming against us right now. If not for the love, peace, grace, strength, and joy of Yeshua, I would not have survived this past two weeks. In my own flesh and strength, there is zero way I could have. I have felt fear that has rattled me to the core. Even as I write this, I am so tired due to inadequate amounts of sleep, and just the over all fatigue of living in a hotel for a few days, and the extended travel time to be with my mom as she is in rehab working with the therapists. Spending four hours plus on the road each day begins wearing you down. My finances are taking a hit with gas being almost $3.00/gallon. My emotions are in over-load, and I cry at the drop of a hat. I understand Paul a lot more in his second letter to the Corinthians as he boasted in Yeshua regarding his own weakness. In chapter 12 verse 5 he said, “About such a man I will boast; but about myself I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses.”, and in verses 8-10 he continued, “Three times I begged the Lord to take this thing away from me; but he told me, ‘My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection in weakness.’ Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me. Yes, I am well pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties endured on behalf of the Messiah; for it is when I am weak that I am strong.”
If I had tried to survive these past two weeks in my own strength, or if I try to in the weeks to come, there is no way I could. I am not strong enough. Knowing that I don’t have to be strong, I can wrap my weakness in His strength, that He is going to carry me through and that His grace is enough for me is all I need.
15. And we don’t know what to do (v12)
I have prayed this exact phrase so many times through this time with my mom. Even before we took her to the hospital, I was crying out to Him saying, “I don’t know what to do!” I have prayed for His wisdom, His discernment, for Him to show me what I needed to do. We quote Proverbs 3:5-6 a lot. “Trust in Adonai with all your heart; do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him; then he will level your paths.” This is easy to say until you find yourself in a situation where you don’t understand why this is happening to you and someone you love. I have used this scripture all week to stamp down my fear. It is when we don’t know what to do that, we cast our care upon Him, because that’s all we can do. We pray, we praise, we worship, we don that armor of God tighter than we ever have before. We use our Sword, the Word of God to strengthen our Shield of Faith, because Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17). When we don’t know what to do, when having done all to do, we stand, and we let God handle it.
16. But our eyes are on you (v12)
For me, this is the most important line of this entire prayer. Keeping our eyes on Yeshua. Each day, I have laid my hands on my mother’s head and prayed part of Psalm 121 over her “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help! My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” No matter if we are on the mountain, or if we are in the valley, if we are in the most prosperous or the most desperate times of our lives, our eyes should always stay on Him. He is the answer to everything.
There is a classic praise and worship song, that sums it up best.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
As I looked back over this prayer in its entirety, I noticed something. In seven verses of scripture, only the last two looks at the problem they were facing, and the final verse only partially does as it ends with the focus back upon Adonai. The first five verses focus on who Adonai is, His power and might, remembering the works He had done for their ancestors, and that He hears when we cry out to Him. More emphasis was on Adonai in this prayer than the problem itself. Verse 13 of 2 Chronicles 20 says, All Y’hudah stood before Adonai with their little ones, their wives, and their children. The entire people were in agreement with their king, calling out to their God. I also noticed a striking resemblance with verse 6 and the opening of The Lord’s Prayer.
Adonai, God of our ancestors, you alone are God in heaven. You rule all the kingdoms of the nations.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In the moment of his greatest fear, Jehoshaphat did not rely on his own understanding or military might. He instead did the one thing that we all should do when we find ourselves in our own moment of great fear. He prayed. He called the people together and prayed. This is why we have prayer requests and prayer chains, so that the people of God stand together in agreement and in faith, crying out and looking to the One who holds everything in His hands. In his moment of fear, he praised His God and the God of his fathers. He acknowledged that in his own strength he could do nothing, but that Adonai could do anything. What a great example of prayer for us today. I have no doubt that I began studying this prayer and writing about it at the time He wanted me to. Not just to put pen to paper, but to strengthen my own heart, for my own moment of great fear. I believe it was a divine encounter to shore up my shield of faith, to sharpen my sword and to stand and watch a great and mighty God work wonders I never dreamed possible. Two weeks ago, my mother was near death, today you would not know it, and that is only possible by the grace of a merciful and wondrous God. May He receive all glory and honor, praise, and worship. Our eyes are on Him.
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