i:60 And I Loathed That Generation

And I loathed that generation….


Psalm 95 was brought to my attention last Sunday and in Psalm 95 verses 7-11 drew me in even more but it was the beginning of verse 10 that really caused me to think about the relationship between God and us, a stiff neck people. In God's own words He says this., “For forty years I loathed that generation……. "Just for the sake of those who are reading this I want to clarify that God is speaking of the Israelites who He brought out slavery from Egypt and allowed them to roam the wilderness for forty years before entering the promise land. I don't know about you but to be loathed by someone is pretty intense. Think about the thought of loathing someone, you don’t want to be around them, they make your skin crawl, no respect for them in any regards, they make you physically sick and you want nothing to do with them. And here we have God saying this about the people He chose to be descendants from the line of Christ. “For forty years I loathed that generation” I couldn't help but to think to myself I would never want God to loathe me. Some might disagree on how God feels about us but we cannot put ourselves in a place where we would say I would never test God’s patients and exercise the extent of His tolerance like the Israelites did. Well guess what? We do and we don't just do it once a year but every day of our lives. Now if we focused on this failure and really read into it we might just talk ourselves into a place of worthlessness and shame. But that is not how God works. He tolerates with a purpose, a goal an endgame you might say. He values the future generation of His children even at the cost of waiting out the life of an entire generation before starting anew. This is exactly what he did during those years that the Israelites roam the desert. God had a plan. In that plan He had steps and these steps are still relevant today as we draw nearer to Christ.

Step 1: Get His people out of Egypt.
Now this step wasn't too difficult for God. The Israelites were already motivated because of their slavery under the Egyptians for 400 years and the Israelites really didn't have to do much other than watch God do His God thing. Nine times God asked nothing of His people and God provided and exercised his power to the Egyptian nation in claiming His people. Only once out of the ten displays of his power did God ask the people to follow instruction and that was in the passover of the angel of death. Which was the straw that broke Pharaoh.

Step 2 Get Egypt out of His people.
This step is not as easy as the first step. This was where God was tested by his people. Not in a test of proving himself but rather in the test of his patience. He says this about the people, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. Psalm 95:8–9. So what did God do? He simply let them roam the desert until the pagan generation had pretty much died out. Remember God has tolerance only in reaching His end game.

Step 3 Replacing the provisions of Egypt with the provisions of God
God did this 24/7. In those 40 years God never failed His people. They grumbled and He’d provide, they disobeyed and He still provided, they would quickly forget what God provided just 3 days ago and would grumble and He still would provide.. He was faithful in the small things as much as the big things. He never failed those who were faithful. “Yet the LORD says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.” Deuteronomy 29:5

Step 4 Entering the Promise land
Out of all the steps I believe this to be the most dangerous one. Not in the idea of the battle that Joshua was going to fight and win in taking the promise land, but rather in the comfortability and the complacency of God’s children homesteading the promised land. God knew this and He gave great warning in reminding the people to guard themselves against the enemy within themselves. Moses delivered a speech from God to the people just before they entered the promise land. I believe this to be important and relevant for today's children of God. So allow me to add this scripture to your reading. Don’t gloss over it but read it and examine yourselves.

The Greatest Commandment
These are the commandments and statutes and ordinances that the LORD your God has instructed me to teach you to follow in the land that you are about to enter and possess, so that you and your children and grandchildren may fear the LORD your God all the days of your lives by keeping all His statutes and commandments that I give you, and so that your days may be prolonged. Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

And when the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would give you—a land with great and splendid cities that you did not build, with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you. For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah.You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you. Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may be well with you and that you may enter and possess the good land that the LORD your God swore to give your fathers, driving out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.

Teach Your Children

In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you are to tell him, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household. But He brought us out from there to lead us in and give us the land that He had sworn to our fathers.

And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes and to fear the LORD our God, that we may always be prosperous and preserved, as we are to this day. And if we are careful to observe every one of these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us, then that will be our righteousness.”

So, reader if you have made it this far in the read I want to wrap it up with this thought. You may still be a slave in Egypt and God will claim you and fight for you, if you ask Him. To those of you who came out of Egypt who still have some Egypt in you God will remove it from you if you seek Him. Those who are empty and have escaped their identity in Egypt trust God and emptiness will be replaced with Him alone. He will give you a new heart and He will test that new heart yet through the test He will remain with you. And for those in the promise land be reminded and examine yourself daily in your comfortability and possible complacency of your obedience in Christ Jesus the true purpose to God's endgame. The reality is Good does not loathe is and for this reason only. He no longer see you but see His son in you. Surrender you life to Christ now now and you will be free from the loathing of God. 

The above topic was a collection of highlights from several sermons delivered by our local shepherds of the Lord. Thank you for sharing the truth of God's Word.