Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

30 - Using God’s Name

Our mouths expose our hearts. Sooner or later our real beliefs and attitudes pour out of our lips. As hard as we may try to hide them it’s impossible to filter everything, and in those moments when we drop our guard our hearts speak what we really believe. That’s why in these lessons on how to love God (Ex 20:3–11) He draws our attention to how we use His name. His purpose isn’t simply to get us to patrol our speech more carefully, His concern lies much deeper than that. He wants us to love and respect Him and knows that if we do our mouths will speak accordingly. Jesus said, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Mt 12:34), and again on another occasion He said, “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart” (Mt 15:18). So an honest evaluation of how we use God’s name will tell us a lot about our spiritual health.

 

Today we’ll listen to the warning God gives about using His name in vain, but we’ll also look at the positive side of using His name. After all, as Christians we are people deeply associated with that name: we believe in His name, we pray in His name, we gather in His name, we serve in His name and we have been baptized in His name. Amazingly, we have been given the privilege to use “the name which is above every name…” (Php 2:9).

29 - No Other Gods

We learned in our study of the “law of Moses” that the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to teach us how to love: first, to love God with all our heart, soul & might (Dt 6:5), and then to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18). Considering these commandments as a whole, we see that the first four focus on loving God, and the final six focus on loving our neighbor. Today, we’re going to look more deeply at the first two: 1) You shall have no other gods before Me (v 3); 2) You shall not make for yourself an idol (v 4).

 

In order to understand them better, it’s helpful to paraphrase verses 1–11. God’s message in these verses is this: “I have already proved My love for you, My power, and My faithfulness by delivering you from Egypt and bringing you safely here. Now I’m asking you to ‘marry Me,’ that is, to love Me, to be loyal to Me, to treat Me respectfully, and to regularly spend time in personal fellowship with Me. I warn you, if you promise to do so and then don’t, I’ll react like a wounded spouse and I’ll punish you until you repent. But if you continue to love Me, be loyal to Me, show Me respect and fellowship with Me, I’ll pour on you the blessings I promised generation after generation until the end of time.” When we realize what God is saying in these verses, it is amazing how tender and vulnerable He was being toward Israel. Really He should never have had to say these things in the first place, because if people really love Him they would be automatic.

28 - The Law of Moses

The Law of Moses was the code of rules and regulations which Israel agreed to live by as people in covenant with God. Moses didn’t invent these laws, he just wrote them down as God dictated them to him. And the “heart” of these laws is the Ten Commandments which the Lord Himself wrote down on two flat tablets of stone (24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; 34:1–4, 28). He gave Israel these laws so they would know how to lead holy lives, and therefore God’s presence could dwell among them. His goal was to use their nation to evangelize all the other nations on earth (19:6). But, for the most part, things didn’t work out as He intended. People either ignored His laws, or looked for excuses to avoid obeying them, or used them to put others under a form of religious slavery, or tried to earn eternal life by practicing a superficial level of obedience. Of course none of these was the reason God gave His laws in the first place. But misunderstanding and misusing His laws didn’t necessarily end with the arrival of Christianity. Sadly some still misunderstand and misuse them. So today we’ll let the Apostle Paul explain why God gave the Law to Moses and how He wants to use that law in our lives. As we listen to him we’ll hear the good news of the gospel in a fresh way.

27 - The Holiness of God

The word “holy” is a strange word. It’s a word we use all the time in our worship songs and repeatedly ascribe to God, yet if asked to define the word, few would know what to say. We know it’s a good thing and that it applies to God. We may even be aware the Bible says it can apply to us as well, but again, we’re not sure what difference that makes in our lives. Today we’ll investigate this wonderful word starting by looking at a display of God’s holiness on Mount Sinai. In this study we’ll define holiness (and also glory); we’ll discover its powerful effects on different kinds of people; and finally we’ll see what it means that Jesus Christ is willing to share His holiness with us.

26 - The Jethro Principle

The kingdom of God is all about bringing lost people back to the God who loves them. Those of us who love God know this about Him: He’s always reaching out to save more people and wants us to help Him do it. And to Him it’s always an urgent matter because He sees the eternal destiny of people. To be successful He needs to be constantly producing spiritual leaders because without enough leaders His kingdom can’t keep growing (Lk 10:2). In today’s lesson we watch as God teaches Moses how to prepare for the explosive growth of the nation of Israel. They would certainly grow by producing more children, but God hoped they would also grow by evangelism. His plans for them were that they would become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (19:6) proclaiming the true God to a world that worshipped idols. The principles Jethro taught Moses still work today and if we have God’s expansive heart in us we need to learn these practical lessons and make a serious choice to let God turn us into leaders who will care for the multitudes He wants to save.

25 - Never Fight Alone

No sooner had rivers of water flowed out of the rock at Rephidim than Israel experienced a vicious, unprovoked attack. The Amalekites were distant relatives (Ge 36:12) and therefore should have welcomed the news that Jacob’s descendants had been freed from slavery in Egypt, but instead they sent an army to attack when Israel was “faint and weary” (Dt 25:18). In fact, the Amalekite soldiers deliberately targeted the young, elderly and infirm who walked slowly at the end of the procession. They showed neither mercy for their weakness nor a fear of God who visibly preceded the nation in the cloud and fire, slashing through the stragglers like sharks through a school of fish. When darkness fell, Moses had a chance to regroup and develop a battle strategy. He knew they would be hopelessly overpowered without God’s intervention. So instead of leading his men in battle Moses gave that job to Joshua and committed himself to fight in prayer. And the picture of him standing on that hilltop with his hands in the air from morning till night has inspired believers to fervent prayer ever since. His example at Rephidim teaches us important lessons about how to win when we fight spiritual battles.

24 - Living Water

Jesus Christ did not simply die to forgive our sins. If that were all He did we would still have a wonderful gift for which we would be eternally grateful. But when we believe in Him we also receive another gift. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit who, because we have been made holy by our faith in Jesus, can join Himself to us forever. Not only are Christians forgiven but we are also filled and that makes the good news of the gospel even better. Jesus gives dry, thirsty people “rivers of living water” meaning we have an unlimited supply of God’s presence always available to us. All we need to do is ask in prayer and He will refresh us with His Spirit.

 

Throughout Israel’s history God ordered certain events so they would prophetically point to the ministry of Jesus Christ. By doing this He was preparing their hearts and minds to recognize their Messiah when He came. The Rock which poured out rivers of water at Rephidim was one of these events. It is a powerful illustration of the crucifixion of our Lord. But it also challenges us to remember the other gift Jesus has given us—the Holy Spirit whose limitless presence in us opens the door to a brand new life.

23 - Our Daily Bread

Using “manna” the Lord taught Israel to depend on Him daily and commune with Him once a week. We no longer get up in the morning to go out looking for manna on the ground, but the spiritual principles modeled in this event should still guide us in our walk with God. In fact, I believe Jesus deliberately drew our attention to the manna when He taught us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread” (Mt 6:11). He wanted His followers to learn to depend on God daily just like Israel did. Today we’ll look at these simple concepts and try to understand why we Christians need “daily bread” as much as those in the Exodus.

22 - Jehovah Rapha

Most people have no problem theorizing that God is powerful enough to help them if He wants to, but if asked the question, “Does He want to?” their answer is far less confident. Either they aren’t sure whether God wants to help them or not, or they may admit they actually suspect He may be the One who brought the problem upon them in the first place. So when it comes to asking for help, many people are unsure of whether they can expect His help or not. But when we’re sick or in trouble there’s no one we want on our side more than God. So if there were a way to be sure He wanted to heal us or help us that would be one of the most helpful truths we could know. It would encourage us to be bold in our prayers and full of faith. We would be certain He wanted to do miracles on our behalf.

 

At a place called Marah, God turned a poisonous pond into a pool of fresh water. He told Moses to throw a tree into the pond and instantly its waters became fresh. He did it this way so the entire nation could observe how easy it was for Him to help when they had a need. Then He made a promise to them. He said if they would live by certain guidelines, they would never again have to ask whether He wanted to help or heal them. They would always know the answer. Since those guidelines still work today let’s learn what we must do to know Him as “Jehovah Rapha.”

21 - The Bread of Life

The next day, after Jesus fed about 15,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish, a crowd of people found Him and tried to convince Him to again miraculously provide them with bread. He refused, but picked up on their reference to the manna in the wilderness (vs 31–33) explaining that they had not understood the real message in the miracle of the manna. The real message was that God would someday provide a bread that they would only have to eat once and would keep them alive forever. Still not understanding, they begged Jesus to give them that bread and He immediately granted them what they asked for. He said, “I am the bread of life who will fulfill your spiritual hunger and nourish you so you’ll never die.” Sadly most who heard Him say these words argued against His claims and walked away (v 66). But today He still offers Himself just as surely as He did 2,000 years ago. And if the Father is drawing us, we can behold the Son, believe in Him and choose to be one with Him forever. Those who do, quickly discover He is always with them (v 56) and have peace in knowing they will never die (vs 54, 58).