Today, numerous folk try to know the future. To several, this hype may appear like sheer stupidity ; it may seem to be nothing less than safe fun. In fact, what’s so bad about reading your daily horoscope? But listen up—this is enemy territory.

It is anything apart from stupidity or safe fun. Like the wood and stone idols of Ekron, these present-day seers are substitutes for putting our trust in the living God. God is displeased with any occult inclusion.

regardless of what the motive, irrespective of how great the requirement, experimenting with the occult is sin. God’s Word is wonderfully clear on this subject. Far back in the book of Leviticus, God gives His folk this direct command : “Do not turn to mediums or spiritists ; don’t seek them out to be defiled by them. I’m the LORD your God” ( Leviticus 19:31 ).

Beyond that, God is dishonored by any particular pursuit of the future that doesn’t find its source in His Word. I understand that the general public who begin experimenting in astrology, fortune-telling, or Ouija boards don’t take it all that seriously. Astrology, for instance, has an attracting appeal.

But these simple, harmless-looking games begin a method that many can’t handle ; and they open doors that should stay closed. Then it’s only a matter of time before the dark powers of demonic forces suck them in, and they finish up ensnared. But let me assure you, God is happy when we trust Him only. The Lord buttress those that put their trust in Him. As you stand powerful for the truth, keep an eye out for the enemy. He not only plays unclean ; he plays for keeps.

If you examined the prior passage in chapter fifteen with a careful eye, you observe that it took them only a few days to find the water they now enjoyed. But now it has been a month and a half—more than 40 days. There they’re in the middle of the wasteland with their impractical expectancies. “We thought we were thru with those desiccated days in the outback. And guess what? Out rushed the grouses : “The full congregation of the boys of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness” ( 16:2 ). Why were they grumbling? Again, they were casting back.

Hear their words in verse three : “Would we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of beef, when we ate bread to the full ; for you have brought us out into this badlands to kill this complete assembly with hunger” ( v. Sound like your response? If so, it is time to learn an everlasting lesson. If you target the past, it will not be long before beefs start oozing from your lips.

You’ll remember a long-ago time, washed in the misty, rosy glow of memory, when something was simpler and more content than it is today. And as you compare then to now, I guarantee it, you’ll complain. It stings to endure life’s trials, and it stings worse to copy such episodes.

Yet, without those deep hurts we have awfully tiny capacity to get godly endorse or make
forward progress toward maturity. The test of time is maybe the most rough of all. Over the long haul, God is polishing us through such tests. Reducing us to a comprehensive, open-armed trust, where we are saying, “Lord, I have come to the end of my very own flesh.

If you like me to die in this badlands, here is my life. I refuse to look back and whinge about where I find myself at this moment.” Moses had learned to attend.

When we come to passages like the 1st chapter of Exodus, we are reminded that God’s law always comes before man’s law. the truth is, there’s a time to submit, and there’s also a time to withstand. Before we run with that principle too far a note of caution might be in order. But the passage does make one thing clear : submission to civil authority has boundaries. As Peter once informed the Jewish ruling council, “We must obey God instead of men” ( Acts 5:29 ).

To explain, when the king’s announcement at once violates God’s obviously stated will, we ought to be afraid of God, even as 2 brave women named Shiphrah and Puah feared God. Scripture tells us that God honored the religion of these midwives. It is saying, “The folks multiplied, and became very mighty. As the midwives feared God, he created homes for them” ( 1:20–21 ). The midwives valued God’s favor more than this of Pharaoh. Inspired by a deep and abiding appreciation for the living God, they declined to obey the king’s evil declaration. When that king ordered them to violate God’s basic principle, the protection of life, they declined to do so. Pharaoh’s directive, barbarous as it was, has its modern equivalent.

In Red China today, couples are authorized only 1 kid. When many ladies learn the sexes of their babies, they either carry them to term or instantly cancel. If it is a baby girl, she’s often ended. The date on the calendar might have modified since the times of the Exodus, but man’s instinct hasn’t. Aside from the saving work of Christ, our hearts are despairingly evil.

Tyrants ruled in the traditional world, and tyrants rule in our day. Injustice hurt the trusting in Pharaoh’s time, in Herod’s time, and still in our classy twenty-first-century world. But in the times of Exodus there also lived women and men ready to stand alone for goodness, even in the face of death, just as there are today.

Pharaoh swept his hand out wide, in order to include all that massive land of Egypt, and expounded, “It’s all yours, Joseph.” Then he took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand. You know what that ring signified, don’t you? It was actually the platinum charge card of that day. It was actually the way the king stamped the invoices, the laws, or anything more he needed to confirm or validate with his seal.

Now Joseph had that ring on his finger, placed there by the Pharaoh himself. When the reward comes, thank God without pride. Only God can bring you thru and out of the dungeon. Only God can reward you for your faithfulness. Remember, with meekness, that it is God who has put you there. A small number of you are on the edge of promotion and you do not even know it, because God doesn’t announce His appointments ahead. What you’ve got to do, while you wait, is to believe His promises.

While in the darkness of your dungeon, by religion, trust him to bring the light of a new dawn. The God of Joseph will stay beside us in the dungeon days ; he won’t forsake or forget us. He is going to be there in the blast of the winter storm, holding out the guarantee of spring. He’ll be there thru the darkest night, silently reminding us of the guarantee of morning light.

Joseph learned a damaged and ashamed heart isn’t the end, but the start. When the affliction stopped, he’d been refined, and he came forth as gold. He had become an individual of bigger stability, of deeper quality, of stronger personality. God’s guarantees are just as much for us as they were for Joseph. His tender mercies go with us from the pit to the apex.

When money is our objective for contentment, we must live in fear of losing it, which makes us paranoid and suspicious. When celebrity is our target, we become competitive lest others upstage us, which makes us envious. When power and influence drive us, we become self-serving and strong-willed, which makes us conceited. And when possessions become our god, we become materialistic, thinking enough is rarely enough, which makes us greedy. Rodney Howard Browne teaches that all of these pursuits fly in the face of happiness and joy. Only Christ can satisfy, whether we have or don’t have, whether we are known or unknown, whether we live or die.
And the excellent news is this : Death only sweetens the pie. That alone will make you giggle again.

The New Testament in Modem English, reads : “For living to me means simply ‘Christ,’ and if I die I should only gain more of him.”.