faith

Faith

A constant in Israel’s history after they entered the Promised Land was that they achieved military victories when they relied on the LORD and were defeated when they did not. After the kingdom was divided, the LORD began to protect Judah when they fought against the rest of the nation of Israel. It says in 2 Chronicles 13:18, “Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.”

Even though Judah had less military strength, they were able to live securely and were blessed by God. Through the prophet Azariah, God delivered a message to Asa, saying, “The LORD is with you, while you be with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2). The words with, seek, and found, as well as forsake, have to do with location. They convey the idea of traveling together, what we refer to today as walking with the Lord.

The notion that God could or should be found, implied that he was not restricted to the temple as most people thought. The Hebrew word translated found in 2 Chronicles 15:2 is mâtsâ’ (maw – tsaw´). “Matsa’ refers to ‘finding’ someone or something that is lost or misplaced, or ‘finding’ where it is” (4672). Properly translated, matsa’ means to come forth, to appear or exist. God wanted to live among his people and be a part of their everyday lives. In order for that to be possible, the people had to pay attention to what was going on in the spiritual realm. They had to seek God with their heart so that they could get their spiritual eyes on him.

The problem was that the people had no faith. The material world was constantly vying for the Israelites attention. When Asa, king of Judah got a message from the LORD, he listened and obeyed, but when it came to asking for help, Asa relied on the wealth of resources around him. In particular, the alliances Solomon formed with the nations surrounding Israel became a stumbling block to Asa. Toward the end of Asa’s reign, when Israel came up against Judah, instead of seeking the LORD, Asa asked the king of Syria for help.

A prophet in the Old Testament was sometimes referred to as a “seer” (2 Chronicles 16:7). The term seer literally means to see (7200), so the question then is, what did they see? Although it is likely a seer had dreams and visions, messages from God in pictorial form, it is possible that a seer was someone who could perceive the spiritual realm and was aware of God’s activity. In 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 is recorded a message delivered to Asa by Hanani the seer. Hanani does not say, thus says the LORD and there is no indication that the LORD sent Hanani to Asa to deliver a message. It could be that Hanani was merely communicating to Asa what he had seen, what he was aware of with regards to Asa’s relationship with the LORD.

After Asa received the message, it says in 2 Chronicles 16:10, “Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing.” Asa had not committed a sin. His heart was perfect toward the LORD. The only thing Hanani pointed out to Asa was that he had acted foolishly by relying on the king of Syria instead of God. I believe the reason Asa went into a rage was because he had been found out. Hanani told Asa what was in his heart. Asa had lost his faith.

Thank you

A phrase that is sometimes used in business communication is “thank you in advance.” Expressing gratitude for something that has not yet happened is supposed to be a way of encouraging the person to actually do it. God does not need to be encouraged to bless his children. It says in Psalm 149:4, “For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.” The word translated salvation, yeshuwah (yesh – oo´ – ah) means something saved (3444) and it is derived from the word yeshuwa which means “he will save” (3442). The personal name Jesus contains a Greek form of the word yeshu’ah (3444).

Psalm 150:2 refers to the mighty acts and excellent greatness of the LORD. The word translated mighty in this verse is gebuwrah. “The primary meaning of gebuwrah is power and strength” which is associated with the Messiah’s special role (1369). The term praise has various meanings. In psalms 149 and 150, the Hebrew word halal is used. Halal means “to boast” (1984). The fact that the Israelites were expected to praise the LORD for acts not yet completed indicates an element of faith was at work in their worship of the LORD.

In Psalm 149:1, the worshipper is instructed to “sing unto the LORD a new song.” The Hebrew word translated new, châdâsh (khaw – dawsh´) “means ‘new’ both in the sense of recent or fresh and in the sense of something not previously existing” (2319). The choice to believe God and praise or thank him in advance for what he will do is an act of faith. To a certain extent, it does encourage him because he wants us to act on our beliefs, therefore he often responds in a way that reinforces and builds our faith.

It is a privilege to receive God’s special favor, but there is more to our relationship with Christ than having our sins forgiven. After we are saved, God begins a process of sanctification that enables us to be like him and to receive honor as he does. This means that we are assured of victory over our enemies and can “shine” (1984) like he does (Psalm 149:5-9). Praise ye the LORD can simple be translated as, give God credit. We can do that by thanking him in advance.

A wonderful life

After David spared Saul’s life a second time, he said, “The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness” (1 Samuel 26:23). The terms righteousness and faithfulness were central to the covenant that God established with Abraham. A key scripture that should be familiar to all Christians is Genesis 15:6 where it says of Abraham, “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

The righteousness that was counted to Abraham because he believed in the LORD is the same righteousness that David said will be rendered to every man. The word translated believed, ’âman (aw – man´) indicates that Abraham “came to experience a personal relationship to God rather than an impersonal relationship with his promises” (539). The easiest way to explain this type of believing is with the example of a baby being fed by his mother. The baby does not know what his mother is feeding him, he eats because he is hungry. He trusts that what he is eating is good for him because he senses that his mother loves him and is taking care of his needs.

Righteousness “is a legal term which involves the whole process of justice. In its causative pattern the meaning of the verb brings out more clearly the sense of a judicial pronouncement of innocence” (6663). David uses the word righteousness together with the word faithfulness because he knows that he will be held accountable for his actions according to what he knows the LORD has asked him to do. Abraham’s faith was put into action when he obeyed the LORD and left his home in Haran for a land that he had never been to. David refused to kill Saul because he knew that it was a sin, “for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?” (1 Samuel 26:9).

The word translated render in 1 Samuel 26:23, shûwb (shoob) means to turn back (7725). Shuwb is also translated as restored and recover. One of the ways to look at render is in the context of something that has been lost or stolen. The LORD says in Joel 2:25, “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.” He didn’t say he would restore the crop that the locust had eaten, he says the years because he is referring to the time and effort that was spent producing the crop. It is not the result he is concerned with, it is the investment, what was done by faith and with trust in the LORD.

When I became a Christian, I believed I was going to have a better life. All the pain and suffering I had gone through up to that point made me want something different. I believed I was going to get a new life, one that would be filled with love and happiness. I trusted that if I lived like God wanted me to, I would eventually get the life I was hoping for. Although I know I haven’t yet received all that God has planned for me, I can say with confidence that the LORD has restored all that was taken from me and given me a wonderful life.

God is faithful

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most well known of the Bible probably because it is taught in every Sunday school classroom and used as the primary example of courage in the Old Testament. David’s battle with Goliath was really not so much about courage as it was about faith. David believed that God would protect him if he went up against a giant because he had already been delivered from a lion’s mouth and had rescued a lamb from a bear that was about to eat it.

David’s explanation for defeating Goliath was that he had defied the armies of the living God. “David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with you” (1Samuel 17:37). The reason David was able to defeat Goliath was that the LORD was with him, but what is more important is that the LORD was with him because David was carrying out God’s will which was for the Israelites to drive out their enemies from the Promised Land.

The Philistines were hard core warriors and Goliath was not the only giant among them. When the Promised Land was spied out while the Israelites were still living in the desert, the giants in the land had caused the spies to give a bad report and basically caused the Israelites to have to spend 40 years wandering in the desert because of their lack of faith in God. Fear was the main thing that kept the Israelites from taking on the Philistines and Saul was just as reluctant as the rest of the people to face Goliath in a one on one encounter.

David’s defeat of Goliath not only made him famous, it made him courageous. After defeating Goliath with a sling and a stone, all the Philistines fled from David. The table had been turned and David was the one instilling fear in his enemies. The word defy or châraph (khaw – raf´) in Hebrew means to pull off and by implication to expose or defame (2778). When Goliath defied the armies of the living God, he exposed their fear, but he also exposed their lack of faith. David was the only Israelite who truly believed God was greater than any man that would stand against him. He not only was willing to put his life on the line, but David testified to God’s faithfulness before he took on Goliath so “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45).

An act of faith

The purpose of having a relationship with God is so that he can communicate his will to us. Most people don’t understand or choose to deny that God’s will is the force that governs our universe. When we align ourselves with God’s will, we have the benefit of his help. He is like the wind that drives a sailboat along its course. If we try to go against the wind we won’t get very far.

Many people struggle to determine God’s will as if it is a mystery or something that is counter intuitive. Determining God’s will is as simple as looking to see which way the wind is blowing. The problem is usually not that we don’t know God’s will, it’s that we don’t want to do it.

Saul’s son Jonathon understood that God wanted to deliver the Israelites from the tyranny of the Philistines and he was willing to do his part. Jonathon was looking for an opportunity to do God’s will. Rather than waiting for the Philistines to attack them, he wanted to take an offensive position even though the Philistine army far outnumbered the Israelites.

“And Jonathon said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6). Jonathon was familiar with God’s way of working and when he discovered an opportunity to attack, he did not struggle with the situation, he assumed God would help him defeat the Philistines.

In order to confirm his belief, Jonathon determined a way for God to show him if it was his will for Jonathon to go forward with his plan. The sign that Jonathon established for the LORD to reveal his will was an act of faith because it meant that Jonathon believed God could make the Philistines answer one way or another when they discovered Jonathon and his armourbearer outside their camp.

The interesting thing about the sign that Jonathon established was that if it was not God’s will for Jonathon to attack the Philistines, then he and his armourbearer would be killed by the Philistines. Jonathon was so confident that the LORD would use him to defeat the Philistines that he risked exposing himself to them before taking any action.

And the men of the garrison answered Jonathon and his armourbearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathon said unto his armourbearer, Come up after me: for the LORD hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. (1 Samuel 14:12)