- araratchurch
- Apr 13
- 3 min read
“And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”
Exodus 17:11-13 NKJV
Army ants forage for new hunting/gathering grounds in groups of thousands. The amazing thing about this enigmatic creation is that when the huge swath of ants comes to gaps, slowing their forward progress, they form bridges out of their own bodies. In so doing, they seamlessly continue their forward push without stopping for one planning meeting. These ants demonstrate a phenomenon—often seen in nature—best described as a “collective consciousness.”
In a collective consciousness there seems to be an “automatic” ability to think—or operate—in perfect coordination.
Now, this innate ability to work as one, should humble humanity, too often operating according to an “every man for himself” mentality.
However, truth be told, most people do not want to unwillingly and unwittingly be sucked into a collective. After all, God made us with a will of our own. Otherwise, our Fall would never have happened. And as good a thing that would’ve been, there could not have been true fellowship with the Lord, if our obedience were to be involuntary, “programmed in.”
That being said, when people do work together, they can do great things for good or great things for evil.
Look what the Lord said about those who were building the Tower of Babel:
“And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”
Genesis 11:6 NKJV
Now imagine, if this could be said about fallen, unredeemed humanity, what could be said of those who have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light in Jesus Christ? Well, you don’t have to imagine; Jesus told us plainly what our unity of operation (made possible by the Holy Spirit) could accomplish:
““Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.””
Matthew 18:19-20 NKJV
We see here the Lord declaring that requests made in unison are answered for those who are gathered in His name! And, this happens because He enters into the midst! He—by way of His Spirit—agrees with our agreement. Now that’s a formula for success every time!
The importance of unity of operation among believers is reflected in this fervent plea from the Apostle Paul:
“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
I Corinthians 1:10 NKJV
Today we find Moses getting a little help from his friends for the purpose of achieving victory over the Amalekites. Now, we know that the Lord could have destroyed the Amalekites without Moses holding his arms up. But, I believe the Lord chose to perform this miracle victory in this way to affirm a couple of things:
On the one hand, God is affirming that Moses is His delegated authority.
Additionally, it demonstrates that Moses’ authority needs the support of his brethren in order to remain effectual.
No matter where we may find ourselves in terms of the operation of the body of Jesus Christ, we must remember that our agreement with our brethren is inhabited by the Spirit of God to produce great things.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
There is power in agreement.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Apr 12
- 4 min read
“And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!””
Exodus 17:3-4 NKJV
I think that one of the saddest things I have witnessed over the years, is when people who have been greatly blessed by God’s miracle working power, still fail to believe. Inevitably, in these cases, I have seen a temporary boost in the person’s “positivity” toward the Lord, when—at the point of their need—God brought miraculous relief; but true faith, enduring faith, never developed.
For people with “fickle faith,” all their “zeal” would subside, as they again walked in their own lusts. They only “remembered” the Lord when they needed another miracle. And, if the miracle “dispenser” seemed broken, their patience failed; and so did they.
I know of a young man who narrowly escaped death when a horse fell over on him. The Lord not only kept the horse from crushing him, but answered a cry to stop the blood gushing from an ear nearly torn off his head. At first he had an emotional testimony; he seemed to be thoroughly convinced to surrender his life completely to the Lord. And then, he wasn’t. His old ways barely skipped a beat.
I know that the telling of a story like that may come across as sounding cynical; but that is not my heart. What you should hear is recognition of the tragedy of such a missed opportunity to live the rest of your life for the glory of God.
Make no mistake, signs and wonders are an important part of God’s interaction with men. But we must note that signs and wonders are primarily meant to follow those who believe, for the purpose of confirming the word.
Consider the words of Jesus as He commissioned His disciples:
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.”
Mark 16:15-18, 20 NKJV
Certainly, signs and wonders offer an opportunity for people to believe the word they have heard. But, if they will not believe the word, the signs and wonders they experience will turn around and become their accuser.
“If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.”
Isaiah 7:9b NKJV
A person who refuses to believe, will never be stable.
“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:6-8 NKJV
A person continuing in unbelief—or returning to their doubt—in spite of all they’ve seen, in spite of the goodness of God, is on a collision course with disaster.
Today we find Moses again dealing with the multitude’s unbelief concerning God’s ability to sustain them.
In fact, this pattern of unbelief, is used by the Apostle Paul in his admonition to the Corinthians:
“nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.”
I Corinthians 10:9-10 NKJV
The writer of Hebrews offers this warning:
“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:12-19 NKJV
As noted earlier, signs and wonders offer an opportunity to believe the word of God.
Indeed, our faith in the Lord may be encouraged and rewarded with signs and wonders. But signs and wonders will never produce true faith in a heart determinedly set against obedience to the Lord.
Sadly, signs and wonders may serve as only a temporary life raft for the person sinking into unbelief. But, if that person never learns to “swim,” if true faith in, and obedience to, the word of God doesn’t develop, eventually they will encounter a big enough storm that the life raft is pulled from them; and they perish.
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
Signs and wonders don’t necessarily lead to enduring faith.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
- araratchurch
- Apr 11
- 4 min read
“And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”
Exodus 16:14-15 NKJV
I heard a touching story once that has stuck with me for a long time.
A group was ministering to orphaned children, casualties of War World II. They found that when the children first got there—even though they were fed—they still seemed to have great anxiety and couldn’t seem to sleep well. One of the people decided to try something to calm the anxious children, something that sounds odd. You see, they tried giving the children some bread to sleep with. This simple act seemed to calm the children’s troubled souls; they knew they would have something to eat in the morning.
The fact is, we can’t survive very long without sustenance. And for the world—past and present—bread has always been a very important source of that sustenance. Therefore, bread has been referenced as “the staff of life.” Indeed, the KJV of the Bible references it as such:
“Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:”
Ezekiel 4:16 KJV
I remember a prayer that was very common when I was a child:
“God is great; God is good.
Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands, we are fed.
Give us Lord our daily bread.
Amen”
As well, Jesus—in teaching His disciples how to pray—instructs that we ask the Lord to, “Give us this day our daily bread.”(Matthew 6:11)
Yes, bread is important.
Today we find Moses and the children of Israel seeing the Lord literally providing them bread from heaven. The Israelites—having fled Egypt suddenly—soon ran out of the food they had brought with them. And, as we discussed last time, they began to complain about their hunger. In response to their need, the Lord sent quail in the evening and manna in the morning.
As we see in our opening scripture, the people had no idea what manna was; but they discovered that it was good.
We find out more about how the people used the manna in this passage from the book of Numbers.
“Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.”
Numbers 11:7-9 NKJV
Yes, the people ground the manna and made it into bread!
The phenomenon of the Lord providing manna from heaven was used by the religious leaders to issue a challenge to Jesus’ authority:
“Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ””
John 6:30-31 NKJV
To which Jesus responded:
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 6:32-35 NKJV
Yes, bread is important. But the Lord has shown us that the most important bread, the bread we can’t live without, is provided by His sacrifice.
Consider what the Lord said as He shared the Last Supper with His disciples:
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.””
Matthew 26:26 NKJV
Also consider: Jesus referencing His body as bread that must be eaten, caused many of His followers to walk away.
“This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
John 6:58, 66 NKJV
Indeed, Jesus’ sacrifice, the breaking of His body for our sins, takes us from death into life; and that life, is everlasting!
For today let us discover what Moses discovered:
We can’t live without the Bread from Heaven.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!