God Delights in Our Well Being

God delights in our well being
We are living in times of great stress for many people as the economic crisis in the USA has radically impacted millions of lives. Some have literally become victims of a system gone wrong and others have made poor decisions that have placed them in a bad situation. In times as these it is comforting to know that for those whose faith and trust is in God can be reassured that He cares for the well being of his people. David experienced this throughout his life and wrote the following in Psalms 35.
Psalms 35:27, 28 May those who want to see me acquitted shout for joy and say again and again, “How great is the LORD! He is pleased with the success of his servant.” 28 Then I will proclaim your righteousness, and I will praise you all day long.
Other versions of the Bible translate, “the success of his servants” as follows:
“who loves to see his servants do well.” New Century Version
“who delights in blessing his servants with peace.” NLT
“who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” ASV
“who delights in the welfare of his servant!” NRSV
“who delights in the well-being of his servant..” NIV
“who enjoys helping his child!” Living Bible

I read this Psalm the other day and reflected upon it as I have been reading through the book of Deuteronomy. Moses was preparing a new generation of Israelites to enter the Promised Land. He recounted the journey from Egypt to where they were at. Moses did not want the new generation to forget where they had come from and what God had done for them, nor did he want them to forget what had hindered their fathers from entering into the Promised Land. The words of Moses were to be passed on to future generations to help them remember who they were as a people and nation but more importantly who God is and what He has done for them and how much he cares for them.
Second and third generation Christians often lose sight of what God has done in the past and many do not have the same experiences with God because they have lost the true vision and understanding of who God is. I think all of us have seen this happen in the church today where the parents are strong believers but their children do not have the same passion and some even leave the faith because they have lost sight of who God is and wants to be in their lives. The vital connection their parents had is not the same as the experience of their children and they wander from the pathway that leads to God in pursuit of their own gods. Moses did not want this to happen to the new generation thus he made a written record that would be passed on to them that would remind them of God’s choosing of their nation as his special people, his miraculous deeds and his constant love for them.
Moses as he was giving final instruction to the nation of Israel and its new leaders wanted to leave them with a history that was undeniable and unforgettable so that they would place their confidence in God and seek him and serve him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. Moses had firsthand experience with God as did all the Israelites who wandered for 40 years in the desert. They saw God do miraculous things among them. Moses was captured by the awe of God and he did not want the next generation to lose this sense of awe. In Deut. 4:1-5, Moses reminds Israel of the Laws God had given to them. These laws set them apart from all the nations around them. God was interested in the well being, the welfare, and the prosperity of his people and it was through the obedience to his laws that he would bless them and set them apart from all the nations on earth. His laws were necessary because the heart of man is easily drawn away into seeking other gods and practicing wickedness that is an abomination to God. The nations that Israel would destroy when they conquered the Promised Land were wicked nations involved in sexual sin that included incest, bestiality, and homosexuality. The nations they would destroy were even sacrificing their children to foreign gods. They were a perverted people that needed to be judged and completely destroyed. God did not want them to spare any life; everyone was to be destroyed because of the corruption of the people. God was looking out for the well being of his people. He saw and they saw what happens when people serve other gods. Israel experienced this in Egypt. They saw the corruption and oppression of the people. The gods of Egypt were judged by God in the plagues that he sent. God is a God of judgment. He does not stand idly by or turn his eyes away from evil. He waits for man to repent but there comes a day when he must judge sin and pour out his wrath against it. God waited until it was time to judge Egypt for their worship of false gods and he waited for the nations that inhabited the Promised Land to turn away but their day of judgment had now come. His first commandment he gave to Israel was that they should have no other gods before Him. He is God and He is a jealous God. He does not want his creation to serve other gods they have created in their minds and made images to represent. He created us to worship Him alone and anything else will only serve to diminish us as people and cause us to fall into sin that is an abomination to him. God gave Israel his laws for their own good. His laws would preserve them as a nation and allow them to enjoy life, prosper, be at peace and be well. God’s laws are designed to keep us free from things that will destroy our lives and enable us to enjoy life as he intended it. God is a God of pleasure, He wants what is best for us, what will bring us the most joy and ensure our well being. He delights in our well-being!
Moses told the new generation to obey the laws of God and he explained what would happen if they obeyed.
 
Deut 4:6-8 6If you obey them, they will give you a reputation for wisdom and intelligence. When the surrounding nations hear these laws, they will exclaim, ‘What other nation is as wise and prudent as Israel!’ 7For what other nation, great or small, has God among them, as the Lord our God is here among us whenever we call upon him? 8And what nation, no matter how great, has laws as fair as these I am giving you today?
Wisdom, intelligence, prudence were the reputation they would have among the other nations. The laws God gave them were to set them apart and act as a magnet to the other nations. The wisdom and justice of their laws were designed to make an impression on the neighboring nations. This is why God always made provision for the foreigners to be a part of Israel. Foreigners were drawn to Israel because they witnessed the justice, rightness, wisdom and intelligence of the laws and how they transformed the nation.
God is still concerned for the well being of his people. He wants us to be successful, he wants to prosperous us, he wants us to be at peace and he has given us His word and his promises that show us what He wants us to do in order to receive all that he wants to give to us as his children. God wants to set us apart from the people of the earth who are following after manmade, demonic inspired gods. He wants to demonstrate through our lives how intelligent, how wise, how just He truly is. We are to reflect his character and nature to the world. And to those who are observant and honest with themselves, they will see the greatness and goodness of God in our lives as they witness our well-being.
Is your life demonstrating God’s blessing of well-being? This does not mean that you are living in a state of complete bliss and have no battles to fight but it does mean that God is with you and your life is experiencing success in the terms that God defines success. Many try to define success in terms of finances and possession. This is not real success. Real success is being at peace with God and peace with one another. Life is all about relationships, with God and one another. If you are not at peace you have no well being, no real prosperity. When we are not walking according to God’s laws we will not experience peace and well being. We may accumulate great wealth and appear successful but we truly have failed if that is our measure of success. When we are in right relationship with God, He will give us the wisdom, intelligence, knowledge and justice to help us make decisions that will prosper our lives and bring us peace and well-being. If your life is chaotic, full of troubles and misery, always lacking in what you need, marked by broken relationships and anguish then you need to evaluate your relationship with God because something is missing.
Moses continues his discourse by recounting some of the things that God had done for Israel (Deut. 4:11-14; 32-40) He reminded them of the miracles God performed and how they were to have a permanent effect upon their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren. Our testimony of God’s work in our lives is meant to have a permanent effect upon our children. Our relationship with God has to be in the present tense, God has to be working in us daily and the testimonies of what he has done are to serve as a stimulus to our children and grandchildren to become seekers and followers of God. The Israelites saw the glory of God, they heard the voice of God, they saw the commandments of God written by his finger, they saw the fire of God and the pillar of his presence, the miracle of water being provided and daily manna. It seems as though all these experiences would be more than enough to convince someone that God is real and that he is powerful and that he cares. Unfortunately, the memory of all that God did was still not sufficient nor would it bring permanent change in the hearts of the children of the next generation.
Moses predicted a bleak future in verses 25-28 25“In the future, when your children and grandchildren are born and you have been in the land a long time, and you have defiled yourselves by making idols, and the Lord your God is very angry because of your sin, 26heaven and earth are witnesses that you shall be quickly destroyed from the land. Soon now you will cross the Jordan River and conquer that land. But your days there will be brief; you will then be utterly destroyed. 27For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, and you will be but few in number. 28There, far away, you will worship idols made from wood and stone, idols that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
God knew the heart of the people. They, like their fathers would rebel and be punished for worshipping idols that were nothing but manmade materials. It is scary to think how quickly one can lose faith and allegiance to God. I think all of us know people who at one time were in a relationship with God but have now left their faith and some are even opposed to belief in God. Our relationship with God must be first hand, it cannot be the faith of our parents, it has to be our own that we develop and nurture each day. Our faith must be real, active, and meaningful; it must be able to stand against all other belief systems because it will be challenged. The Israelites daily collected the manna which was a constant reminder of God’s love and provision for them. Their lives depended upon God providing for them daily. We too must daily be reminded of God’s care and desire to enter into relationship with us. The basis of our relationship always must be God’s immense love for us. It was God’s love that caused him to choose Israel, rescue them from Egypt and daily provide for their needs. This is the first mention in the O.T. about God’s love for his people.
God predicted the falling away yet he also predicted the return of the people after they realized the purpose of his discipline and sought for him with all their heart and returned to obedience to his laws. God’s love was always present in spite of their disobedience and his discipline; he still loved them and wanted to bless them. This is the heart of God for his people. Though we may fall away, he never changes his love for us. It does not diminish. We are the ones who suffer because we choose to believe that life without God is better than life with God who always acts in love and in our best interests. I don’t know about you but this is very encouraging to me. God is always ready for us to return to him. He always wants to reestablish the relationship and fulfill his part of the covenant he has made with us. He wants to demonstrate his love and provision for us. He wants to bless our lives and see us prosper. He delights in the well-being of his people. Later on in Deuteronomy 20:5-8, Moses gives instructions about choosing men to go to war. He gave four exemptions. If you fell into one of these four categories you did not have to go to war. One was for anyone who was fearful. A fearful person will pull down the courage of others and will be a detriment to the army. It would be better for them to stay back than infect the troops with fear. A second exemption was for anyone who had just planted a vineyard and had not been able to enjoy the fruit of his labor. A third was for a man who had just got engaged and would miss out on enjoying the future married relationship with his new bride. A fourth was for the man who had just built a new home and had not dedicated it. God knew that men would be killed in the battle but he did not want men in these last three exemptions to miss out on the blessing of a new home dedication, the harvest of a newly planted vineyard nor the opportunity to enjoy a married relationship with one he loved. This is the heart of God and how much he delights in the well being of his people. These may seem like pretty simple things in life yet they are things that bring pleasure to man and pleasure to God. They were important enough for God that he gave these exemptions. God wants us to reciprocate his love for us. He desires that we love him with all of our heart because he is worthy of all that we can give him. He is a jealous God because there are no other gods that can compare with him. He is so far removed from the gods man creates and serves. It is hard to make an analogy that would even come close to the comparison but one that I can think of is the difference between choosing a Lamborghini or a Yugo. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would choose the Yugo over the Lamborghini. There is no comparison regarding style, ride, value, and comfort. Yet man chooses to serve gods so inferior to God. It is insulting to God. He has a right to be jealous for our devotion because no other god cares and loves his people like he does.
God’s presence, his power and miraculous intervention, his holiness and righteousness, his love and provision, his protection and guidance are all aspects of his nature that draw us to him as we experience these things in our daily walk with him. These are the things that he wants us to experience and testify of him to bring glory and honor to him. These are the things that will create a desire in others to know him and realize how far we have fallen from him and need to seek him with all of our heart.
Our obedience to God is a product of our understanding of who He is and what He desire for our lives. God is love and all that he has done for us is based in his love for us. When we see God as he truly is we can only fall down in his presence and say how wrong we have been in our thinking and actions and how much we need to be forgiven. When we see God for who He truly is we will readily acknowledge our poverty of spirit, our lack of humility and meekness, our lack of purity and pursuit of righteousness and come to the realization that we need to surrender our lives and live in obedience to Him. King David saw himself in the light of the revelation of God and said, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” Pharaoh had a totally different perception of himself and God and he said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?” This is the reality of the world today. There are those who recognize God and man as they truly are and those who have no place for God in their lives and are unwilling to submit to Him and never will enjoy the relationship and blessing of knowing God who delights in the well-being of his people.
Tonight I want to end by challenging each one of us to ask ourselves if we are truly enjoying a relationship of well being with the Lord. Do our lives truly reflect a life that enjoys God’s peace or are we struggling because we have not walked in obedience to what he has asked of us for our own good?
Secondly, are we actively pursuing God in our daily relationship with him? Are we seeking Him daily and can truthfully say that we are doing it with all heart? Are we holding back, distracted and diverted in our pursuit of intimacy with him?
Thirdly, are we experiencing God’s presence, power, provision, purity, and passionate love on a daily basis such that we can testify of it to our children and grandchildren in such way as to inspire their faith in God through our example?