Counting Pentecost ~ Day Forty Two ~ A Strand of Three

Update may 19th 2018 ~ By Leilani

Today is the 7th day of the 6th week of seven weeks. Today is the 42nd day of the counting of fifty days from the day of the waving of the Omer on the morrow after the Sabbath. Today is Sabbath, the 6th Sabbath of seven Sabbaths. Today completes the 6th week of seven weeks.
I think it is no small wonder that as we have been “counting the omer”, in these last few days the daily devotion with Oswald Chambers has seem to fit right in with what we wrote six years ago, although we had not ever read any of his writings. Today’s devotion is an oft used Bible verse in times of struggle. It is an immense comfort to me, knowing that I can never be separated from God and his love. I also believe nothing is a coincidence, that God’s plans are never foiled, and that the adversary’s intended evil against me–God means it for good.

May 19
“Out of the Wreck I Rise”
Romans 8:35

God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble . . .” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors . . .” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there.

“Shall tribulation . . . ?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be — whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness — it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22).

“Shall . . . distress . . . ?” Can God”s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall . . . famine . . . ?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it — the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

Original Post May 19th 2012

26 Ziv 131 BC

Moses took his stand, he brought with him Aaron and Hur. Have you ever been struggling with someone or something alone. and it seems like God is not hearing your prayers, and you get so tired that you stop praying, kind of giving up and giving in? Then, you tell someone you need help and everything changes! Moses is in his eighties so he knows he needs help at the outset of any battle. When he gets tired his friends are there to help him, keep his arms up, get a seat for him. This reminded me of another Scripture, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matt 18:20

The Amalekites, the descendants of Esau, then came and attacked Israel at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Pick some men and tomorrow morning go out and engage Amalek. I, for my part, shall take my stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.’ Joshua did as Moses had told him and went out to engage Amalek, while Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses kept his arms raised, Israel had the advantage; when he let his arms fall, the advantage went to Amalek. But Moses’ arms grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him and on this he sat, with Aaron and Hur supporting his arms on each side. Thus his arms remained unwavering till sunset, and Joshua defeated Amalek, putting their people to the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book to commemorate it, and repeat it over to Joshua, for I shall blot out all memory of Amalek under heaven.’ Moses then built an altar and named it Jehovah-Nissi, and he said, because theirs is a hand against the throne of Jah; Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation Exodus 17:8-16

In Deuteronomy 25:18 it says the Amalekites attacked from the rear, where the Israelites would be the weakest, the old and the young. Isn’t that just like the enemy, he strikes where we are the weakest! We need to always have on the full armor of God, lest we forget that we’re in a battle! Ephesians 6:10-20

Keil & Delitzsch say in their Commentary on the Old Testament “Whereas he had performed all the miracles in Egypt and on the journey by stretching out his staff, on this occasion he directed his servant Joshua to choose men for the war, and to fight the battle with the sword. He himself went with Aaron and Hur to the summit of a hill to hold up the staff of God in his hands, that he might procure success to the warriors through the spiritual weapons of prayer. […] He took Aaron and Hur with him, not as adjutants to convey his orders to Joshua and the army engaged, but to support him in his own part in connection with the conflict. This was to hold up his hand with the staff of God in it. To understand the meaning of this sign, it must be borne in mind that, although Exodus 17:11 merely speaks of the raising and dropping of the hand (in the singular), yet, according to Exodus 17:12, both hands were supported by Aaron and Hur, who stood one on either side, so that Moses did not hold up his hands alternately, but grasped the staff with both his hands, and held it up with the two. The lifting up of the hands has been regarded almost with unvarying unanimity by Targumists, Rabbins, Fathers, Reformers, and nearly all the more modern commentators, as the sign or attitude of prayer.”