My Utmost for His Highest for Tuesday, 27 June 2017 "The Overshadowing of God’s Personal Deliverance" by Oswald Chambers
"…I am with you to deliver you," says the Lord. [Jeremiah 1:8]
God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally— “…your life shall be as a prize to you…” (Jeremiah 39:18). That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are to be a matter of indifference to us, and our hold on these things should be very loose. If this is not the case, we will have panic, heartache, and distress. Having the proper outlook is evidence of the deeply rooted belief in the overshadowing of God’s personal deliverance.
The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on a mission for Jesus Christ, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, “Don’t worry about whether or not you are being treated justly.” Looking for justice is actually a sign that we have been diverted from our devotion to Him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will only begin to complain and to indulge ourselves in the discontent of self-pity, as if to say, “Why should I be treated like this?” If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust. In essence, Jesus says, “Continue steadily on with what I have told you to do, and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.” Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard— we do not believe Him. We put our common sense on the throne and then attach God’s name to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts (see Proverbs 3:5-6).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. [The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R]
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Job 8:1 Bildad the Shuchi spoke next:
2 “How long will you go on talking like this?
What you are saying is raging wind!
3 Does God distort judgment?
Does Shaddai pervert justice?
4 If your children sinned against him,
he left them to be victims of their own offense.
5 “If you will earnestly seek God
and plead for Shaddai’s favor,
6 if you are pure and upright;
then he will rouse himself for you
and fulfill your needs.
7 Then, although your beginnings were small,
your future will be very great indeed.
8 “Ask the older generation,
and consider what their ancestors found out;
9 for we who were born yesterday know nothing,
our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 They will teach you, they will tell you,
they will say what is in their hearts:
11 ‘Can papyrus grow except in a marsh?
Can swamp grass flourish without water?
12 While still green, before being cut down,
it dries up faster than any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of a hypocrite will perish —
14 his confidence is mere gossamer,
his trust a spider’s web.
15 He can lean on his house, but it won’t stand;
he can hold on to it, but it won’t last;
16 [for its destruction will come] like the lush growth
of a plant in the sun,
its shoots may spread out all over its garden,
17 but meanwhile its roots cause the stone house
to collapse, as it seizes hold of the rocks;
18 someone who tears it away from its place
denies he has ever seen it.
19 Yes, this is the “joy” of the way [of the godless],
and out of the dust will spring up others [like him].’
20 “Look, God will not reject a blameless man;
nor will he uphold wrongdoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.
22:1 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will cease to exist.”
9 Then Iyov responded:
2 “Indeed, I know that this is so;
but how can a human win a case against God?
3 Whoever might want to argue with him
could not answer him one [question] in a thousand.
4 His heart is so wise, his strength so great —
who can resist him and succeed?
5 “He moves the mountains, although they don’t know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
6 He shakes the earth from its place;
its supporting pillars tremble.
7 He commands the sun, and it fails to rise;
he shuts up the stars under his seal.
8 He alone spreads out the sky
and walks on the waves in the sea.
9 He made the Great Bear, Orion, the Pleiades
and the hidden constellations of the south.
10 He does great, unsearchable things,
wonders beyond counting.
11 He can go right by me, and I don’t see him;
he moves past without my being aware of him.
12 If he kills [people], who will ask why?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13 God will not withdraw his anger —
even Rahav’s supporters submit to him.
14 “How much less can I answer him
and select my arguments against him!
15 Even if I were right, I wouldn’t answer;
I could only ask for mercy from my judge.
16 If I summoned him, and he answered me,
I still can’t believe he would listen to my plea.
17 He could break me with a storm;
he could multiply my wounds for no reason,
18 to the point where I couldn’t even breathe —
with such bitterness he could fill me!
19 If it’s a matter of force, look how mighty he is;
if justice, who can summon him to court?
20 Even if I’m right, my own mouth will condemn me;
if I’m innocent, it would pronounce me guilty.
21 “I am innocent. Don’t I know myself?
But I’ve had enough of this life of mine!
22 So I say it’s all the same —
he destroys innocent and wicked alike.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he laughs at the plight of the innocent.
24 The earth has been given to the power of the wicked;
he covers the faces of its judges —
if it isn’t he, then who is it?
25 My days pass on more swiftly than a runner;
they flee without seeing anything good.
26 They skim by like skiffs built of reeds,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 “If I say, ‘I’ll forget my complaining,
I’ll put off my sad face and be cheerful,’
28 then I’m still afraid of all my pain,
and I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I will be condemned,
so why waste my efforts?
30 Even if I washed myself in melted snow
and cleansed my hands with lye,
31 you would plunge me into the muddy pit,
till my own clothes would detest me.
32 “For he is not merely human like me;
there is no answer that I could give him
if we were to come together in court.
33 There is no arbitrator between us
who could lay his hand on us both.
34 If he would remove his rod from me
and not let his terrors frighten me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him;
for when I’m alone, I’m not afraid.
10:1 “I am just worn out.
“By my life [I swear],
I will never abandon my complaint;
I will speak out in my soul’s bitterness.
2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t condemn me!
Tell me why you are contending with me.
3 Do you gain some advantage from oppressing,
from spurning what your own hands made,
from shining on the schemes of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?
5 Are your days like the days of mortals?
Are your years like human years,
6 that you have to seek my guilt
and search out my sin?
7 You know that I won’t be condemned,
yet no one can rescue me from your power.
8 Your own hands shaped me, they made me;
so why do you turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you made me, like clay;
will you return me to dust?
10 Didn’t you pour me out like milk,
then let me thicken like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh
you knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You granted me life and grace;
your careful attention preserved my spirit.
13 “‘Yet you hid these things in your heart;
I know what your secret purpose was —
14 to watch until I would sin
and then not absolve me of my guilt.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me! —
but if righteous, I still don’t dare raise my head,
because I am so filled with shame,
so soaked in my misery.
16 You rise up to hunt me like a lion,
and you keep treating me in such peculiar ways.
17 You keep producing fresh witnesses against me,
your anger against me keeps growing,
your troops assail me, wave after wave.
18 “‘Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died there where no eye could see me.
19 I would have been as if I had never existed,
I would have been carried from womb to grave.
20 Aren’t my days few? So stop!
Leave me alone, so I can cheer up a little
21 before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of darkness and death-dark gloom,
22 a land of gloom like darkness itself,
of dense darkness and utter disorder,
where even the light is dark.’”
Acts 8:26 An angel of Adonai said to Philip, “Get up, and go southward on the road that goes down from Yerushalayim to ‘Azah, the desert road.” 27 So he got up and went. On his way, he caught sight of an Ethiopian, a eunuch who was minister in charge of all the treasure of the Kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia. He had been to Yerushalayim to worship; 28 and now, as he was returning home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Yesha‘yahu. 29 The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot, and stay close to it.” 30 As Philip ran up, he heard the Ethiopian reading from Yesha‘yahu the prophet. “Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him.
32 Now the portion of the Tanakh that he was reading was this:
“He was like a sheep led to be slaughtered;
like a lamb silent before the shearer, he does not open his mouth.
33 He was humiliated and denied justice.
Who will tell about his descendants,
since his life has been taken from the earth?”[Acts 8:33 Isaiah 53:7–8]
34 The eunuch said to Philip, “Here’s my question to you — is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip started to speak — beginning with that passage, he went on to tell him the Good News about Yeshua.
36 As they were going down the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Here’s some water! Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be immersed?” 37 [Acts 8:37 Some manuscripts include verse 37: And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” He answered, “I believe that Yeshua the Messiah is the Son of God.”] 38 He ordered the chariot to stop; then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip immersed him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw no more of him, because he continued on his way — full of joy. 40 But Philip showed up at Ashdod and continued proclaiming the Good News as he went through all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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