Darcy and I were talking about Psalm 103 and it reminded me of one of my favorite verses in that chapter, verse 7: “He made known His ways to Moses; His acts to the sons of Israel.”
When I first studied that verse, I thought, “what is the difference between ways and acts?” Initially, they seem the same but then I thought about Moses’ close communion with God face to face on the mountain. Then I thought about how the Israelites didn’t want that “face to face;” they said, “You go, Moses, we’re not so sure we want to be in close contact with this God who scares us.” As a result, Moses knew God personally but the Israelites only knew Him through Moses’ recounting.
As a result of that, Moses knew God’s ways–His heart. The Israelites knew His acts–knew about Him and what He did, but didn’t know His heart–the motives behind God’s acts.
I want to be like Moses knowing God’s heart, His ways. I have to confess that today when I was resisting God’s call to be a caregiver, I wanted to be like the Israelites; maybe not even at the foot of the mountain but far far away. And I realize now I don’t even think I said anything like, “Help me, God!” I just wanted to go to a movie and escape.
So this wasn’t the best day but I’m reflecting again on God’s heart and though I’ll never know all His motives for this caregiving journey, I do want to know God’s ways and His heart more and more.
I had just posted the above when I went back to my reading in Isaiah and this is what I read. It ministered to me: “You people who live on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will not cry anymore. The Lord will hear your crying, and he will comfort you. When he hears you, he will help you. The Lord has given you sorrow and hurt like the bread and water you ate every day. He is your teacher; he will not continue to hide from you, but you will see your teacher with your own eyes. If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. You should go this way.” You have statues covered with silver and gold, but you will ruin them for further use. You will throw them away like filthy rags and say, “Go away!” (Is. 30:19-22 New Century Version)
I take from it:
He hears my crying and wants to comfort me
He has a purpose in this journey
I’m learning to follow Him even more closely and see His ways more clearly
My statues/idols are being destroyed and I’m learning to not value them–but God instead.
Thank you, Lord! Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy Name.