King James Daily Bible Study Devotional
Message Title: Lean on God's Understanding
Date: Sunday March 18, 2012
Today's Chapters: Judges 17-19

Hello My Friend,

The majority of people you talk to believe in God, the problem is, what god are they believing in. There is only one God and He is in the form of three person, God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Alter this in any way is creating a false god. There is only one God to worship, we are not to worship statutes, pictures, or any other person, alter this and it becomes idolatry. Those who truly want God in their lives will learn of Him, study His Word and follow all of it. Of course, it takes time to grow and conform to God, but we must trust God with all our hearts, believing He is able and wise to do what is best for us. It is promised that He will direct our paths so that we can avoid unnecessary suffering. The key, leaning not on our own understanding, but God's.

“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” -Proverbs 3:1-8.

After Joshua died the children of Israel were left without a leader, almost instantly, they went from knowing the one true God to following false gods, this time we learn of one man, Micah, who even went as far as creating his own gods and graven images to go with them. “And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son...Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.” - Judges 17:2-7,12,13.

See the cause of this corruption? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and then they soon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. This woman's silver was her god, before it was made into a graven or a molten image. Micah and his mother agreed to turn their money into a god, and set up idol worship in their family. Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door, but he disregarded God's first two commandments, have no other gods before me and make no graven images.

What he and many others fail to realize is that God is not a statue or an image, He is God. We do not need a statue, an image, or person to remind us who God is. God reminds us who He is, from the beauty of the world, to the birth of a baby, to His Word, God reminds us who He is. The key to knowing Him is having faith in Him. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” - Hebrews 11:1-3.

Who creates their own god and expects approval from God? That is just asking for trouble and exactly what he got too when the tribe of Dan showed up and took everything they had, including their graven image and the Levite too. “And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here? And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest...And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.” - Judges 18:2-4,17.

Those five men took off with all Micah's idols and the priest he hired, this goes to show us that everyone wants God in their lives, and His blessings, and are willing to go through anything to get them. The sad thing is that they go about it the wrong way, instead of listening to God and learning His way they do what they think is best,

creating a god of their own. Micah's only response when confronting the Danites. “Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?” - Judges 18:24. They took his gods, which he made, Micah thought he lost everything he had, including God. He did lose God, but all he had to do to find him was learn of Him and repent. The same thing is true for us when we seek Jesus Christ. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:27-30.

The consequences and repercussions of trusting our own reasoning effects everyone around us. We learn of this through another illustration of a Levite and his concubine. When a Levite thought it was right in his own eyes to get involved with a woman outside his tribe, he never realized the consequences of that sin, not only for him, but the woman, and all of Israel. The woman left him and went back home to her father, four months later the Levite went to retrieve her resulting in a mess, introducing them to homosexuality, rape, murder, and vengeance. The woman died, the Levite later declared vengeance, causing a civil war between the tribes.

“Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly...But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go...And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.” - Judges 19:22,23,25,29,30.

Sin is sin and the consequences of it, even if it is done out of ignorance is death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 6:23. We can praise God for sending Jesus who can redeem us from sin, but the repercussions of it will never go away. The best thing we can do to avoid unnecessary suffering is to do what is right in God's eyes, not what is right in our own. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.” - Psalm 119:165-167.

Today's Psalm: 106:15 - “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”

Today's Proverb: 3:15 - “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Today's Prayer: God, I want to live my life through Your eyes, open my eyes that I may see anything that hinders me from having the best relationship I can possibly have with You. I know that in the end everything that I go through will work together for good because I love You. Lead me and guide me, help me to lean not on my own understanding, but Yours. Help me to avoid people or things that would cause me to worship any other thing, but You and to know when I am walking into something that could corrupt my perception of You. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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