Open Wide Your Mouth

Tuesday, January 01, 2013, 6:12 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 81 (NIV 1984):

Sing for joy to God our strength;

    shout aloud to the God of Jacob!

Begin the music, strike the tambourine,

    play the melodious harp and lyre.

Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,

    and when the moon is full, on the day of our Feast;

this is a decree for Israel,

    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He established it as a statute for Joseph

    when he went out against Egypt,

    where we heard a language we did not understand.

He says, “I removed the burden from their shoulders;

    their hands were set free from the basket.

In your distress you called and I rescued you,

    I answered you out of a thundercloud;

    I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

“Hear, O my people, and I will warn you—

    if you would but listen to me, O Israel!

You shall have no foreign god among you;

    you shall not bow down to an alien god.

I am the Lord your God,

    who brought you up out of Egypt.

    Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

“But my people would not listen to me;

    Israel would not submit to me.

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts

    to follow their own devices.

“If my people would but listen to me,

    if Israel would follow my ways,

how quickly would I subdue their enemies

    and turn my hand against their foes!

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,

    and their punishment would last forever.

But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;

    with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

The Celebration

The people of God had been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. In their distress they had called out to God and he rescued them. He removed the burden of slavery from their backs and they were set free. This celebration was a reminder of what he had done for them.

The celebration, as well, was a call to repentance and renewed faith in God. He had established a decree (an order; a ruling) and an ordinance (law; regulation) with them when he delivered them out of slavery that they should have no other gods among them and they should not bow down to a foreign god. Yet, his people did not listen to him and they did not submit to his Lordship. So he “gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.” Yet, in this celebration he was still extending the call to his people to listen to him and to obey his ordinances, and he would deliver them from the hand of their enemies.

Deliverance

About 2000 years ago God the Father in heaven sent his Son to the earth to be born as a baby, to take on human flesh, to suffer as we suffer and to be tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin. He also sent him to die on the cross for our sins. When he was crucified, he took upon himself all our sins, they were buried with him in death, yet when he rose from the dead, he conquered our sins, hell, Satan and death so that we could go free from slavery to sin. The historical recollection of God’s deliverance of his people in Egypt out of bondage to slavery was a prefiguring of our salvation through Jesus Christ by faith.

The people were in slavery to Egypt. We are born into sin and thus are in slavery to sin. God sent judgment upon Egypt in the way of death of the firstborn in order to set his people free. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins so we could be free from slavery to sin. Those who followed God’s commandments and who slaughtered the required lamb, and who placed the blood of the slain lamb on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they ate the lambs would be spared the death of their firstborn. When God would see the blood, he would pass over them (see Exodus 12). It is through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross for our sins that we are set free from sin and death. When God sees the blood of Jesus Christ covering our lives of sin because of what Jesus did for us, and because we believed in him, we are spared the judgment of eternal damnation.

A Decree

When God delivered his people out of slavery he made a decree (ruling) with them that they should have no other gods among them and they should not bow down to (worship) an alien god. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, and even before he physically went to the cross, he decreed for us that to follow him we must deny ourselves (die to self) and take up our cross daily (die daily to self and sin) and follow him in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives (see Luke 9:23-25). As well, we read in Ephesians 4:17-24 that when we come to know Christ that we put off our old self, “which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires,” that we are made new in the attitude of our minds (that being the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives in transformation of heart and mind), and we put on the new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Jesus said that if we love him, we will obey what he commands (see Jn. 14:15). He told his disciples that they were to make disciples (of Christ) of all nations… teaching them to obey all that Christ had commanded them (see Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus also said that if anyone loves him, he will obey his teaching, and his Father would love him, and they would come to him and make their home with him (see Jn. 14:23). Peter and the apostles said they must obey God rather than men, and they also said that the Holy Spirit is given, by God, to those who obey Him (see Acts 5:32). John, in 1 John continued with this same thought when he said that we know that we have come to know God if we obey his commands, that those who obey him live in him, and he in them, and that love for God is to obey his commands.

So belief in Jesus Christ = repentance, obedience and surrender of our wills to the will of God for our lives. It means we choose to obey God rather than men and to not bow to other gods of men. Our heart response to all that Jesus Christ has done for us in saving us from our sins is to obey him in all things, to love him above all else, and to trust him to meet all the needs of our lives rather than to place our trust in men or in the things of this world to satisfy our hearts’ desires. Yet, are we doing that? Or, is God often our last ditch effort when all else fails? Do we, like the Israelites before us, call on God in times of distress but then forget about him when things are going well, i.e. when he comes to the rescue?

Other gods

Just like God delivered his children so they would be free, not only from slavery, but free to follow him in obedience, he has delivered us from slavery to sin via Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for our sins, and, in turn, he expects (demands) our obedience. It is not as though God is a tyrant, though, trying to spoil all our fun. He loves us so much. He knows what damage we do to our own lives, our relationship with him and our relationships with others when we choose to continue in willful sin and to follow after other “gods” of our own making. When people or the things of this life are what we look to for our healing, deliverance, protection, satisfaction, and fulfillment instead of or over and above God, then we are guilty of idolatry and of worship of (bowing to; devotion to) foreign gods.

God wants to meet those needs in our lives that we so often seek to be met by others or by the things of this life, and he wants to be first choice in our lives in all things, and not just the one we go to when all else fails. This kind of faith and trust in God is often considered “crazy” by those who do not comprehend it, yet if God is who he says he is, and we truly believe in him, then why don’t we trust him more? He knows us better than anyone else. He knows us inside and out and he knows what we need even before we voice it to him. And, he is there to meet us in our needs if we would but look to him as our only true source of hope, healing, deliverance, protection, joy and peace.

The Call

The call here is for us to take time to remember all that Jesus Christ has done for us in saving us from our sins, to reflect upon what all that means for us, to take time to hear God speak and to listen to what he says, and then to obey his commandments to us. Yet, this is a call, as well, to trust in the Lord for all our life’s needs instead of turning to other “gods” of men to satisfy the longings and desires of our hearts. If we will look to our Savior Jesus Christ instead of to the people and things of this world, God will fill us with all good things.

The Warning

There is also a warning here to listen to God, to obey his commandments and to trust him with all our needs, because if we refuse, and we do not listen to him, he will let us go our own stubborn ways in the sense that he will turn us over to the stubbornness of our own hearts, because God will not force his will upon us, because we are not puppets. He desires that we choose to obey him because we love him, and because we want to do what pleases him. That is why we see so many appeals and calls throughout the New Testament to remember from which we have been saved, and to turn back to the Lord in obedience, and to follow him and to do what he says (see Rom. 12:1-2). If we do, he will satisfy us with the richest of his spiritual blessings and he will fill our lives with all good things.

I pray that all those who wear the name of Jesus Christ would honor him with their lives, and not just with their lips, that they would walk in daily obedience and surrender to him and to his will for their lives, and that they would look to him only to meet all of their needs.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer / Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.