OT DAY 217 - They Attack You, Don't Defend, Pray, God Will Vindicate You (Please click here for English podcast)

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

        
           In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
                             incline your ear to me, and save me!
3          Be to me a rock of refuge,
                              to which I may continually come;
             you have given the command to save me,
                                for you are my rock and my fortress.

                             Psalm 71:2-3

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Numbers 16:1-50)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+15&version=ESV

Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. 2 And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” 4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, 5 and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him.

28 And Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord. 

31 And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart. 32 And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 

                             Numbers 16:1-5, 28, 31-33

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     This is a terrible scene! You may think, "How can God do that to destroy all those people? So cruel!" How about having a new paradigm shift to look at it on Moses and Aaron's mind, "How can those top leaders do that to me? So cruel!" 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     Moses continually has to deal with the pressures of leadership, which come sometimes from the people, sometimes from other would-be leaders, and on a bad day from both…
     The account of Moses and Aaron's making expiation for the people so they are not annihilated also reminds the people's later leaders to be prepared to lean into the wind when people attack them. Such attacks go with the territory. Their vocation is to continue serving them and praying for them, concerned to keep the people in being. They are to do nothing to prove that they are in the right. It is God's job to vindicate them, not theirs. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.43-44.

      Since Moses time, we as leaders always get attack from all kinds of people. Even deserted by leaders we trained, just as Paul says in 2 Timothy 1: 15, 4:14-18, , he had the whole region of Christians he loved and discipled deserted him, he had someone always wanted to hurt him and more:

15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.                         2 Timothy 1:15

 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.   2 Timothy 4:14-18

       I have been heavily attacked, bad mouthed and slandered the past 28 years since I become a priest. What our Lord Jesus Christ teaches me every time when it happened, I examined myself first, then I prayed for those people of their repentance and for their eyes to open knowing that I am God's faithful servant with integrity. I fasted, sometimes without food totally for three days using Esther's method. I never defend myself knowing that in God's time He will vindicate me.

    How about you? I do hope and pray that you won't like those people in Moses time to attack on God's servants. Of course, when you attack, you think that they are not God's servants, right? How can you be so sure?

    Be careful! Don't let Satan using you to hurt God's servants or even to destroy your own church and God's Kingdom ministry! 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Protect us from all kinds of attack knowing that you are our Rock and Fortress.  And, in your own time, you will vindicate us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Have you ever do similar thing as the Korah's group did thinking that you are doing righteous deed for God? Why did you do that?How about it now? 

2. How do you face with the attack from your own people or even those you discipled? 

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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