It is not enough that the offering is brought; it must be acceptable to God. God must receive it.
Gideon wins the war against the Midianites, righteously refuses to be king and judges Israel for forty years. Yet in making the ephod, he sets Israel up for their next plunge into idolatry and rebellion.
We live in a day when we have all of the resources we need to be a good Christian. We have multiple Bibles in each home, a church on every corner, Bible teachers and material at our disposal 24 hours a day. There has never been a day when there were so many different ways to serve the Lord by practice, preaching and publishing. Yet we have allowed the spirit of Laodicea to deaden us. We like the Laodiceans are “lukewarm”, growing cold on the things of God. May we use this service to survey our relationship with God and the things of God
These chapters look prophetically to the day of the Lord. This will be a day when God will come in wrath and will judge the wicked. However, all is not lost. Those who fear the Lord will be remembered and will be spared. To them, the Sun of righteousness will rise will healing and will care for them as calves that are brought up in the stall. In closing, they are told to look backward to the law of Moses and forward to the coming of Elijah as the herald of the day of the Lord and the Messianic Kingdom to follow.
A need broke the heart of Nehemiah. Others saw the problem, but he sought a solution from God with all his heart. Because of his broken heart and because of his willingness to be a part of the solution, the Lord sent him to bring about the solution. We have much to learn from this lesson.
