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Manna From
Messiah
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Pastor Ellen Mumper, Canada
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Our Never Failing God
My husband and I were too tired to work anymore
one night and though we rarely if ever watch TV, we turned it on and there was
some disaster movie playing. We laughed. We counted the disaster movies we knew
of- about volcanoes, asteroids, aliens, earthquakes, etc. We noticed how all of
these except the one this night, ended with someone saving the world just in
time. This night however, the earth was cataclysmically destroyed into
fragments by some kind of particle collider and broke into scattered fragments
into the universe. We watch things where the countdown is down to 5, 4, 3, 2 and just in time there it is, someone or something is
salvation.
Psalm 96 is a beautiful and powerful Psalm telling of the goodness
and glory of our Creator- who makes no mistakes, who never is late, and who
never fails in a case. I thought long and hard about a phrase in verse 2-
"show forth His salvation from day to day." I don't believe folks
have to know Hebrew to experience a rich and full walk with the LORD but
sometimes it helps. The word salvation is Yeshuah -
Jesus! In Hebraic thought there are many kinds of salvation. The one we know
best is the salvation of our souls eternally because of the shed blood our our Redeemer. When we think of the word salvation we should
immediately figure out what we are saved FROM. In the case of our eternal
salvation, we are saved from the awful penalty of our sin so that we can be
forever with the One who loved us and died and rose again. There are other
kinds of salvation. Sure we are to testify of this saving knowledge of Yeshua
to all who will listen. From day to day though, there are other kinds of
salvation.
Romans 5:10 has another interesting 'salvation'. It says "For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His
son" (eternal salvation in Messiah mentioned above), "much more,
being reconciled" (saved, redeemed, born again) "we SHALL be saved by
His life." His life, Yeshua's life in us, saves
us every day... saves from calamity, saves from self, saves from our enemies, saves from things in the spiritual world that we cannot see.
Just in time! Our God cannot and does not ever fail.
We all know stories of miraculous things that have happened. Just
now as I type this, the miners trapped in the Chile disaster have all just been
lifted to safety. A miracle. Just in time- who knows
but that another day, another week, might have seen
disaster. In our own lives the miraculous happens all the time- we leave late
for an appointment and miss an accident. We answer a random phone call or ad
and our lives change. No wonder the writer of Psalm 96 over and over lifts us
out of the dreariness that sometimes overwhelms us in the mud here below to the
courts of praise and majesty. What a God! What a Saviour!
What beautiful praise is in these majestic words! "Honour
and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." (vs 6). To see these things we need
to look up, not down, and not inward. Isaiah in his account in chapter 6 saw
the majesty and beauty of the mighty Holy Holy Holy God of Heaven and was speechless with wonder. Why do
we look around us so much? We expect a Deliverer. This Psalm says that He will
judge the world righteously.
Often I think of Avraham's faithful
servant seeking a bride for Yitzchak (Isaac). He prays specifically and
faithfully, asking for God's leadership. God did not fail him. His prayer was
in line with the will of God and the servant then said, in worship, "I,
being in the way, the LORD led me." (Genesis 24:26 and
27). He was "In the way"- meaning walking in the right way.
God did not fail him. Many times I wake and pray Psalm 143:8- "Cause me to
hear Your lovingkindness in the
morning, for in You do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk,
for I lift up my soul unto You." So where do fear
and doubt and loss of faith come from? They come from the enemy of our souls
and should be rejected. Even when bad things happen, and they do, He is there
and He will go all the way with us through the present problem and live His
life in us and glorify Himself in us and bring us to His throne.
"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His Name; bring an
offering and come into His courts" (vs 8).
Yeshua said in Yochanan (John 17)
"and now O Father, glorify Me with the Glory I
had with You before the world was." Isaiah 42:8 says God will share His
glory with no other.
Yeshua is given a Name which is above EVERY Name, in Philippians
2:9, and there is NO other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved, in Acts 4:12.
We must not be afraid or give into despair about the future. A
friend of mine says "God may make you wait, but He is never late."
Stand still and see the "salvation" (Yeshua, Jesus!) of the LORD!", Exodus 14:13. The situation was impossible. The
mighty sea was before the children of Israel, ready to drown them. An army was
assembled in might behind them, ready to enslave them again or kill them.
And there was Yeshua!
