November 4, 2020 CAC Living Water Devotional : Topic – AVOID PROVOCATION
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LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
AVOID PROVOCATION
Read: Exodus 32:1-19
Exodus 32:1-19 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
MEMORISE:
Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools (Ecclesiastes 7:9)
EXPOSITION
To provoke is to cause someone to become annoyed, or angry, or to bring about a reaction. Provocation is the action or speech that makes someone angry, especially deliberately.
In Exodus 34:28, Moses was called upon by God to come up to mount Sinai, and present himself to God on the top of the mountain. He had to repeat what he had done before, because the Israelites provoked him. He was summoned the second time to spend forty days and forty nights without food and water because his anger burned to the extent that he threw the tablets written with the finger of God (Exo. 31:18) from his hands and smashed them at the foot of the mountain. (Exo. 32:19).
In Numbers 20:1-13, the Israelites, after 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, gathered themselves together, and took up arms against Moses and Aaron not considering the mercies of the Lord they had enjoyed all through their wilderness experiences. Their present want was that of water only. They were so bitter towards Moses and Aaron. The duo made no reply to them but retired to the door of the tabernacle to know the mind of God towards the issue at hand.
Moses was to command for the second time in God’s name water out of the rock for them to show that God is able as ever, to supply His people with good things (Phil. 4:19). They were to speak to the rock to shame the people who had been stiffed-necked that God is constant (Ex. 32:19; Num. 20:12) Someone says “anger is a small madness”.
It is expedient to note that whenever one is provoked to react angrily, the result is not always palatable because, both the doer and the receiver will bear the consequence. Someone rightly says, ‘angry is a small madness’.
‘Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly’ (Pro. 14:29, 29:11).
PRAYER POINTS
1. Pray against the spirit of anger in your life, beg God to help get rid of it.
2. Pray that God will give you the spirit of self-control and long suffering.
3. Pray that God will purify our Churches and rid her of every spirit of disunity, and make love reign amidst us.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Jeremiah 30 – 31