HOW LONG WILL GOD ENDURE YOUR PROVOCATIONS?

 ANCHOR OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE For SATURDAY, 28TH JANUARY, 2023.

Author: PASTOR DR. SAMUEL AYORINDE – General Overseer

Anchor of Life & Redemption Ministry Int’l

Topic: HOW LONG WILL GOD ENDURE YOUR PROVOCATIONS?

MEMORIZE: "Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?" (Numbers 14:11)._

SCRIPTURE READING: 2 KINGS 23:26-30.

“26 Nevertheless the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the LORD said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'" 28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. 30 Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.”

EXPOSITION:

King Manasseh provoked the Lord and overstretched the mercy of God through provocations and unrestrained abominable acts King 21:11-16. The provocation was so much in the sight of God that his successor, Josiah the great reformer, could not reverse the judgement of doom and captivity on Judah despite all his unparalleled reformation vv26,27 (our text).

What provoked God?

a. Unbelief that led to open rebellion against God's appointed ministers, Numbers 14:11;                                                                                                                       16:30. 

b. Breaking His covenant ( His word) and secret or open allegiance to other gods, worldly desires, ambitions and habits Deuteronomy 31:20, Ezekiel 8:3.

c. Open rebellion against His word with the disposition of "nobody can do anything" Isaiah 3:8,9.

d. Wrong actions and wrong use of the tongue against the Lord, Isaiah 3:8,9.

Read Numbers 14:23, Ezra 5:12, Hebrews 3:17,18 and observe that unrepentantly provoking God led to final irreversible evil prophecies and judgements on His people. God has not changed. "They do always err...", "how often did they provoked me" (“How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!” Psalm 78:40, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.'” Hebrews 3:8,9,10) were divine utterances that signalled irreversible judgements as a result of recklessly provoking the Lord.

The New Testament language for provoking the Lord is grieving the Holy Spirit – “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!” Psalm 78:40, “Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.'” Hebrews 3:10. Believers can grieve (or provoke) the Holy Spirit in different ways. Check Ephesians 5:30-32 to be sure you are free from this sin. There is a limit a believer can continuously grieve the Holy Spirit. 

PRAYER POINT:

i. Let the Holy Spirit do a deeper cleansing of my heart from all thoughts and habits that grieves the Holy Spirit🙏

ii. Lord save and purge your children from all their peculiar sins that grieves the Spirit🙏

DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  Leviticus 1-4

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ANCHOR OF LIFE is the daily devotional of the Anchor Of Life & Redemption Ministry (ALRM) written by Pastor Dr. Samuel Bayonle Ayorinde. It is an extraction of God’s Word designed to draw the sincere seeker closer to God on a daily basis through an insightful exposition and analysis of God’s Word.  Please share this message on all platform and let’s join hands together in proclaiming the kingdom of God. God bless you as you study it and also spread the Gospel by sharing it in Jesus name. 

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