Scott Beyer

Fearless

“But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.” (Lev 26:7-8)

We are impressed with the faith of David – a faith that caused a normal-sized man to defeat a large-sized man.  Without undervaluing David’s character, David’s victory was mustard seed in size compared to what Leviticus 26 says God can do.

Be bold.  The Goliath-sized problems in your life are tiny compared to what God has promised.

Doubts from the devil.  If you knew you couldn’t fail – what righteous act would you do today?

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

What the Soul Pines For

“I, in turn, will do this to you; I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up.” (Lev 26:16)
 
Jehovah warned the Israelites of the consequences of not obeying Him and living as He intended them to. However, some of those consequences are subtler than we would expect.
 
He’ll give you a pining soul that wishes for a life that would be more fulfilling.
 
Or a sense of futility that you “sow your seed uselessly” and no matter how hard you work, you can’t get ahead.
 
A lack of fulfillment in life and a sense of hopelessness are real impacts we receive from removing God from our life. When we don’t put God first, all the other pieces don’t fit right. A poor foundation leads to an unsteady building.
 
Check your schedule and then ask, “Is God in my calendar?”
 
Check your bucket list, and then ask, “Are my goals, His goals?”
 
Check your budget, and then ask, “Do I save treasure in heaven or on earth?”
 
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat? or What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:31-33)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

The Work of Worship

“It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls” (Lev 23:32)
 
The Sabbath was the Jews first introduction to what true worship was supposed to be like. The word ‘worship’ means to bow low. Worship is an act where we recognize the greatness of something else and the smallness of ourselves. Worship is a humbling act that gives us perspective.
 
We need perspective… and we need it regularly. If you’ve ever gotten on your high horse, worship will knock you back down to earth. There is something very freeing about remembering that we aren’t as big as we think we are. Humility is a necessary part of a healthy spiritual diet. It may taste more like broccoli than pie, but it has a lot more nourishment to it than the “we’re the greatest” message of today’s culture. Worship prepares you to serve, it equips you for the work of service we should be doing every day of our lives.
 
Worship isn’t about you. That’s why worship shouldn’t be about what we want it to be or how we want it to make us feel. Worship is the humbling of our souls to the Creator who made it. It is about bending our will to His, because we are small and He is not. Today’s “worship-tainment” atmosphere in religion misses the whole point.
 
“When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” (Ps 8:3-4)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

More Holiness Give Me

“Thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Lev 11:45)
 
Holiness is imitation of the Creator. It is the creation crying to the Creator that we adore Him and wish to be near Him in character. The Christian is holy for the same reason a child imitates their father.
 
“I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean…” (Lev 20:24-25)
 
The Jew understood that what they ate, how they worshipped, and even how they dressed was because they were meant to stand out as peculiar – as holy. Their God was different so they would need to be different. Simple Christianity asks the same of us (1 Pet 2:9).
 
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Wake up, be holy, and flatter God.
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

Restitution

“then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.” (Num 5:7)
 
Sin is a heinous thing and it often damages both our relationship with the Lord and our relationship with our fellow man. The two greatest commands are to “Love the Lord” and “Love your neighbor” (Matt 22:37-40). Many sins do wrong to both the Lord and our neighbor.
 
Seeking forgiveness from the Lord does not absolve us from seeking forgiveness from our neighbor. Even under the old Law, God taught that, if possible, a man was to make restitution to him he had wronged.
 
Many times, we make the mistake of admitting our sins to God, but not admitting them to those we have hurt. True repentance involves both. Character requires us to seek to undo the damage we have caused whenever possible. It isn’t always possible to repair what sin has destroyed, but we should do what we can, when we can.
 
Remember the behavior of the prodigal son? It takes humility to admit our faults, return to the one we’ve hurt and make things right.
 
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matt 5:23-24)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

Age Before Beauty

“You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.” (Lev 19:32)
 
Respect for age is a respect for God. The first commandment God gives to a child is to honor their father and mother and Eph 6:2-3 says that the command to honor your parents comes with a promise for good days ahead.
 
There is a legacy of knowledge and experience that can only be passed down from the older generations when the younger ones value the aged. Time has not made us equals with the older generation. Thanks be to God that we have the gray-headed to pass down wisdom so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every generation. Wrinkles and scars are an honor given to survivors and warriors.
 
A society that worships at the feet of youth and beauty is doomed to foolishness and heartache. Find a life well-lived this week, buy them a cup of coffee, and soak up their splendor.
 
“The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.” (Pr 20:29)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

A Permanent Work

“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and give permanence to the work of our hands; yes, give permanence to the work of our hands.” (Ps 90:17)
 
The entire 90th Psalm is worth the five minutes break in your day it takes to read. The entire Psalm is dedicated to the brevity of life and the importance of numbering our days. Verse 17 is the culmination of that message. When our years end with a “sigh” (vs. 9) and the years wither like the grass (vs. 60, what will your life have meant? What will be your legacy?
 
Very few things we do will be remembered after we are gone, and nothing that man builds with his hands has any permanence to it. Spend your seventy or eighty years (vs. 10) with your eyes on eternity where moth and rust can’t destroy (Matt 6:19-20). Don’t let this world drag you down.
 
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col 3:2)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

Sober-Minded

“The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, ‘Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die.” (Lev 10:8-9)
 
God spoke these words to Aaron right after his two sons, Nadab and Abihu died while serving in the tent of meeting. They spoke where God was silent and offered strange fire which He had not commanded (Lev 10:1).
 
Though not implicitly stated, the nearness of this warning to those events makes one wonder about the sobriety of Nadab and Abihu on that fateful day. Regardless, the warning still stands – if someone is going to serve God, he must do so sober. There is too much at risk and “reverence and awe” (Heb 12:28) for the Lord requires a clear mind.
 
Every generation talks about how much you can drink, when you can drink, is it a sin to drink, etc. And every generation ends up learning the same thing the hard way – alcohol is not the friend of wisdom and clear thought. No matter how you wish to look at it, the alcohol industry is an industry of warning labels.
 
The phrase “be sober-minded” shows up seven times in the New Testament, and each time as a warning to be clear-minded because of the importance of the life and choices we are to make.
 
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8)
 
#Biblebites Matt 4:4

Without Respect for Persons

“You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” (Lev 19:15)
 
A poor man garners our sympathy and a great man can barter for our favor, but who says something does not affect whether or not it is true. Truth is impartial and often hidden behind the clamor of our emotions. A man’s identity does not prove his case.
 
Society is polarized, always has been and always will be. That polarization causes us to ignore the argument if we don’t like who makes it. It also makes us rationalize the bad behavior of our friends when just yesterday we condemned our enemies for the same thing.
 
That is not truth; it’s partiality.
 
It also isn’t love, because love rejoices in the truth (1 Cor 13:6)
 
Simple Christianity seeks truth from every corner. It sets aside partisanism and partiality because both of those words start with the word ‘part’. We don’t want part of anything. We want to be whole.
 
“The sum of thy Word is truth” (Ps 119:160)
“fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole of man.” (Eccl 12:13)
 
#Biblebites Matt. 4:4

The Heart of God

“The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Gen 6:5

In describing God’s reaction to the corruption of the world it doesn’t say He was mad (although I’m sure He was), nor does it describe God’s clinical plans to start over… because they weren’t clinical.

Instead, it says that we made God sad.  We broke His heart.

We aren’t Jehovah’s playthings or His tools, we are His children.  He loves us and grieves over the loss of each wayward soul.  You can, and do, affect His mood.  You can’t change His character, but you can stir His heart.

“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Gen 6:8)

Noah brought Him joy and the rest brought Him sorrow.

God, the heart-knower, has invested His heart in us.

#Biblebites Matt. 4:4