“Watch out, don’t touch, that will burn you!”

“Look both ways before crossing the street!”

“Be nice to your friends, don’t fight.” 

“Love everyone like God loves you.”

“Be and do what for others what you would like done for you” with kindness, not expecting anything in return.

“Clean up the area better than the way you found it.”

“Stop complaining and be a helper.”

“When you see trouble; look for the Helpers you can trust.”

“Pray, seek God first, then listen to what He says and then do it.”

These are mere examples of some of the teachings of warnings and truth telling said often by my parents.  I was fortunate and blessed by God to grow up in a home with parents who loved me so much they taught me with disciplined words of faith. I did not grow up in a legalistic world of teaching either as relationship with God was our reason for living and walking with God each day.  Their unconditional love saturated their teachings about God who is Love.  Their words, and the words of my grandparents who also had a solid faith in God through Jesus, were ingrained without my whole being. I am not resentful but grateful that I was cared for enough to be corrected when I needed God most.

When Asaph writes warning to God’s people; he is correcting their often paganistic thinking with words of remembering who God is, what He has done, is doing and will do.  “LISTEN to God’s truth!” is the cry of his heart. Inspired by God, Asaph loves and cares enough for people to tell them the truth…

Psalm 78, The Message

Composer–Asaph

^1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,
    bend your ears to what I tell you.
I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
    I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
    counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.
We’re not keeping this to ourselves,
    we’re passing it along to the next generation—
God’s fame and fortune,
    the marvelous things he has done.

^5-8 He planted a witness in Jacob,
    set his Word firmly in Israel,
Then commanded our parents
    to teach it to their children
So the next generation would know,
    and all the generations to come—
Know the truth and tell the stories
    so their children can trust in God,
Never forget the works of God
    but keep his commands to the letter.
Heaven forbid they should be like their parents,
    bullheaded and bad,
A fickle and faithless bunch
    who never stayed true to God.

^9-16 The Ephraimites, armed to the teeth,
    ran off when the battle began.
They were cowards to God’s Covenant,
    refused to walk by his Word.
They forgot what he had done—
    marvels he’d done right before their eyes.
He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents
    in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan.
He split the Sea and they walked right through it;
    he piled the waters to the right and the left.
He led them by day with a cloud,
    led them all the night long with a fiery torch.
He split rocks in the wilderness,
    gave them all they could drink from underground springs;
He made creeks flow out from sheer rock,
    and water pour out like a river.

^17-20 All they did was sin even more,
    rebel in the desert against the High God.
They tried to get their own way with God,
    clamored for favors, for special attention.
They whined like spoiled children,
    “Why can’t God give us a decent meal in this desert?
Sure, he struck the rock and the water flowed,
    creeks cascaded from the rock.
But how about some fresh-baked bread?
    How about a nice cut of meat?”

^21-31 When God heard that, he was furious—
    his anger flared against Jacob,
    he lost his temper with Israel.
It was clear they didn’t believe God,
    had no intention of trusting in his help.
But God helped them anyway, commanded the clouds
    and gave orders that opened the gates of heaven.
He rained down showers of manna to eat,
    he gave them the Bread of Heaven.
They ate the bread of the mighty angels;
    he sent them all the food they could eat.
He let East Wind break loose from the skies,
    gave a strong push to South Wind.
This time it was birds that rained down—
    succulent birds, an abundance of birds.
He aimed them right for the center of their camp;
    all round their tents there were birds.
They ate and had their fill;
    he handed them everything they craved on a platter.

But their greed knew no bounds;
    they stuffed their mouths with more and more.
Finally, God was fed up, his anger erupted—
    he cut down their brightest and best,
    he laid low Israel’s finest young men.^32-37 And—can you believe it?—they kept right on sinning;
    all those wonders and they still wouldn’t believe!
So their lives wasted away to nothing—
    nothing to show for their lives but a ghost town.
When he cut them down, they came running for help;
    they turned and pled for mercy.
They gave witness that God was their rock,
    that High God was their redeemer,
But they didn’t mean a word of it;
    they lied through their teeth the whole time.
They could not have cared less about him,
    wanted nothing to do with his Covenant.

^38-55 And God? Compassionate!
    Forgave the sin! Didn’t destroy!
Over and over he reined in his anger,
    restrained his considerable wrath.
He knew what they were made of;
    he knew there wasn’t much to them,
How often in the desert they had spurned him,
    tried his patience in those wilderness years.
Time and again they pushed him to the limit,
    provoked Israel’s Holy God.
How quickly they forgot what he’d done,
    forgot their day of rescue from the enemy,
When he did miracles in Egypt,
    wonders on the plain of Zoan.
He turned the River and its streams to blood—
    not a drop of water fit to drink.
He sent flies, which ate them alive,
    and frogs, which drove them crazy.
He turned their harvest over to caterpillars,
    everything they had worked for to the locusts.
He flattened their grapevines with hail;
    a killing frost ruined their orchards.
He pounded their cattle with hail,
    let thunderbolts loose on their herds.
His anger flared,
    a wild firestorm of havoc,

An advance guard of disease-carrying angels
    to clear the ground, preparing the way before him.
He didn’t spare those people,
    he let the plague rage through their lives.
He killed all the Egyptian firstborns,
    lusty infants, offspring of Ham’s virility.
Then he led his people out like sheep,
    took his flock safely through the wilderness.
He took good care of them; they had nothing to fear.
    The Sea took care of their enemies for good.
He brought them into his holy land,
    this mountain he claimed for his own.
He scattered everyone who got in their way;
    he staked out an inheritance for them—
    the tribes of Israel all had their own places.

^56-64 But they kept on giving him a hard time,
    rebelled against God, the High God,
    refused to do anything he told them.
They were worse, if that’s possible, than their parents:
    traitors—crooked as a corkscrew.
Their pagan orgies provoked God’s anger,
    their obscene idolatries broke his heart.
When God heard their carryings-on, he was furious;
    he posted a huge No over Israel.
He walked off and left Shiloh empty,
    abandoned the shrine where he had met with Israel.
He let his pride and joy go to the dogs,
    turned his back on the pride of his life.
He turned them loose on fields of battle;
    angry, he let them fend for themselves.
Their young men went to war and never came back;
    their young women waited in vain.
Their priests were massacred,
    and their widows never shed a tear.

^65-72 Suddenly the Lord was up on his feet
    like someone roused from deep sleep,
    shouting like a drunken warrior.
He hit his enemies hard, sent them running,
    yelping, not daring to look back.
He disqualified Joseph as leader,
    told Ephraim he didn’t have what it takes,
And chose the Tribe of Judah instead,
    Mount Zion, which he loves so much.
He built his sanctuary there, resplendent,
    solid and lasting as the earth itself.
Then he chose David, his servant,
    handpicked him from his work in the sheep pens.
One day he was caring for the ewes and their lambs,
    the next day God had him shepherding Jacob,
    his people Israel, his prize possession.
His good heart made him a good shepherd;
    he guided the people wisely and well.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

One thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. We read the history of God’s chosen people and wonder why the people in the stories were so foolish and whiny; then we behave in some of the same ways, maybe even worse, then invent rationalizations for our own behaviors!  Bottomline: History of sin repeats itself because evil still present various ways to sin.  And we fall for it.

If you study the Bible and church history, you discover that Israel made that same mistake over and over again. Fortunately, our God’s heartache over His people, the center of his anger, because He wanted the best for them not their worst, didn’t last long.  Our Faithful, loving Father God gave them plenty of opportunities to come back to Him, trust and obey Him, because of their love for Him.

As Asaph reviewed the history of his people, he saw a sad record of forgetfulness, faithlessness, foolishness, and failure, and he sought to understand what it all meant. These things were written for the profit of believers today.  Paul, a learned scholar of The Law who because a disciple of Jesus Christ, writes to the church in Corinth.  This was church full of idolatry, orgies, division, selfishness, pride, sexual misconduct and other behaviors not of God.  New Christians wanted to believe in Jesus but clung to their former sin filled lifestyle.  God and sin do not mix.  Here’s what Paul wrote with warnings from Israel’s history;

“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. “We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. –Paul,1 Corinthians 10;1-13, NIV

Paul warned that privileges were no guarantee of success. Israel had been delivered from Egypt by the power of God, just as the Christian believer has been redeemed from sin. Israel ate the manna from heaven and drank the water God provided, just as Christians nourish themselves on the spiritual sustenance God supplies (See John 6-7). However, these spiritual privileges did not prevent the Jews from falling into sin. 

Knowledge of God does not keep us from sinning; therefore warnings are necessary when we are led to sin. God knows our hearts.  Jesus, Son of God, knew hearts while He walked the earth to convict; not condemn but convict people of their sins who have to turn from sin to God’s saving grace! God followed up by sending new believers the third part of Himself to come live in our hearts to guide us to all that is Truth—His Holy Spirit who comes with power to help us trust and obey and run from temptations meant to distract us from God, deceive our thinking about God with the goal to destroy of faith.

Jesus came to warn us, cared enough to show us how to avoid evil, and loved us enough to die for us, paying the debt for our sins that hold us in bondage.  Jesus is truth and was God’s once and for all Way back to Him.

• “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”—Jesus, John 14:6 ESV
• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.—Jesus, John 14:15-17, ESV
• “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”—Jesus, John 14:25-26, ESV

Lord,

May we remember.  As I remember, I repent.  Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh my souls with your new tender mercies fresh each day, and continually restore the joy of your salvation at work within me.  You living in me is the only way to peace with God.  Help us to tell our children to tell their children and all the generations to come of your saving grace and unending love for us—demonstrated by you, Lord Jesus!

In Jesus Name, Amen