ReFocus

When you suffer for doing wrong, there is a sort of poetic justice. You are getting what you deserve. But when you suffer for doing right, that is extremely hard to take.

Jeremiah spoke what God told him to say. Powerful people did not like what Jeremiah spoke so they convinced the king to punish Jeremiah.  He was thrown into a dungeon and sank in the mire.  There was no food and no water.

Along comes Ebed-Melech. He was an Ethiopian and a eunuch in the king’s house.  Ebed-Melech was a title that meant ‘servant of the king’.  Evidently he occupied a place of respect in the mind of the king.  Ebed-Melech went to the king and told him that it was wrong to leave Jeremiah in the dungeon.  So the king agreed to let Jeremiah go.  Now Ebed-Melech had free run of the king’s house including the treasury.

Jeremiah was a praying man. It is not recorded for us but you have to believe that he was praying for deliverance. “God get me out of here, please!” It is during those times that your mind begins to imagine how God will do it…a royal escort with brand new ladder and a royal robe and public apology!

Sometimes deliverance does not come the way we imagine. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that it is still deliverance and God can do it anyway that He wants to.

Ebed-Melech is an Ethiopian who is a eunuch and has free run of the house.  He goes into the house of the king. He goes past the treasury where all the royal treasure is and bypasses that room. He goes under that room and finds old rags and old clothes. They let down a rope to Jeremiah and drop the rags and old clothes to him.  He places the old rags and old clothes under his arms and the ropes go under his arms. He is lifted out. He is delivered from the dungeon.

God may not follow your blueprints but He will deliver you! Accept it and know that God knows best!

Exodus 15 records what may well be the oldest song ever sung.  It is the song of deliverance:

Exodus 15
1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD. He has won a glorious victory. He has thrown horses and their riders into the sea.
2 The LORD is my strength and my song. He is my Savior. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will honor him.
3 The LORD is a warrior! The LORD is his name.
4 He has thrown Pharaoh’s chariots and army into the sea. Pharaoh’s best officers were drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The deep water covered them. They sank to the bottom like a rock.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, wins glory because it is strong. Your right hand, O LORD, smashes your enemies.
7 With your unlimited majesty, you destroyed those who attacked you. You sent out your burning anger. It burned them up like straw.

The children of Israel sang this song after the Red Sea parted and Pharoah’s army drowned.

The problem: anyone can sing this song after the fact.  God is looking for people who will sing the song of deliverance while still in the problem! Israel had not learned anything.  Three days later they were murmuring again.

I will sing this song now before God brings the deliverance!

Sylvia Gunter is a great friend. She is a powerful prayer warrior. Her website is: www.thefathersbusiness.com . She sends out a weekly newsletter. All of them are good. This week’s is an excellent prayer guide. I simply offer it now:

When does the favor of God rest on you?

Ezra 7:6 says, “Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the scripture, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.”

Ezra 7:9 says, “…according to the good hand of his God upon him.”

Ezra 7:10 says, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the scripture, and to do it, and to teach the word in Israel.”

It seems that the favor of God comes to a person as they:

1. Seek God through the study of His word
2. Live out what you have studied
3. Teach it by demonstration.

Judges 6 and 7 tell the story of Gideon, the might man of valor.  The Midianites had raided Israel for 7 years in a row coming right at harvest time.  They stole everything.  In fact in Judges 6:6, it says that Israel was impoverished…it means that they were emptied.  Because of this, they cried out to the Lord.

How did they get in this mess?  Judges 6:1 says that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  So this 7 years is simply the consequences of bad living.  Does God ever deliver us if we are at fault?  Yes!

God let the consequences go until it had made an impression on Israel.  But in His mercy, He heard the cry of His people.  He raised up Gideon to lead them.  God asked Gideon to do the illogical…reduce your army from 32,000 to 300.  It was going to be bad enough with 32,000 going against 135,000 Midianites…but now its only 300 up against 135,000.

God fought this battle for them.  The 300 were there as observers to the power of Almighty God and to give testimony after the battle!

What a comfort to know that even if my situation was caused by my deliberate sin or my stupidity or my foolishness, God is still my Father and thus He is my deliverer!