LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE FOR OCTOBER 4, 2019 : TOPIC – DON’T DARE GOD
LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
Friday, October 4, 2019. – WORLD ANIMAL DAY
DON’T DARE GOD
READ: 1 Samuel 6:19-21
1 Samuel 6:19-21 And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjathjearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the LORD; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.
MEMORISE: Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his errors; and he died there by the ark of God (2 Samuel 6:7)
EXPOSITION
Once upon a time, some monkeys got themselves into trouble by playing with the short gun of a sleeping hunter. The hunter was tired after he had searched for games and could find none. So, he decided to rest under a big tree that served as a habitat for the monkeys. Mistakenly, because of their ignorance of the operation of the gun, one of the monkeys pulled the trigger of the loaded gun. Expectedly, the other monkeys peeping into the gun through its mouth were wasted.
The above story is similar to the case of the people we are considering in the Living Water today. When we choose to live right, we may not quickly realise the good we bring on those affected by our actions and ourselves.
Today’s dose of the Living Water encourages us to examine the trouble the people of Beth Shemesh brought on themselves, because they did what they shouldn’t have done in the first place. They were so privileged to receive the Ark of God after several days in the camp of the enemies. Yet, they did not realise that their God has principles. Breaking His rules is like trying to break His personality, power and presence. He won’t tolerate and has never tolerated that from anyone, including His own. They looked into the Ark and several of them died.
We do worse today. Don’t we? We belittle God and bypass His holy standard. We are guilty of familiarity contempt. In fact, spiritual things don’t matter to so many of us, again. The Christian faith has been bastardised by It-Does-Not-Matter syndrome, with so many. How many of our actions are moderated again by the Scripture? This is an era of worshipping God anyhow. What is happening to the Church today, is more than what happened to the Ephesian church, then. How real is God’s presence to us? Looking into the Ark always attracts disaster. Learn from Uzzah and the Beth Semesh people.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Help me, Lord, to desist from daring You and flouting Your orders.
2. Lord, deliver Your Church from all forms of bastardisation of the genuine faith bequeathed to us by our patriarchs.
3. Lord, help our leaders not to misdirect us, henceforth, and cause us to be followers with genuine hearts of loyalty to You, and our God-given leaders.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Song of Solomon 1:1 – 5:2; Ephesians 1:11 – 2:9