To us, that little phrase, “the Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word,” is precious. And as we come today, that is the spirit in which we gather. We are thankful for what He has shown us, but we have a desire that He would show us more and more of Himself as we consider His Word.
Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we are thankful for the great revelation we have of this so great a salvation, and the price that You have paid—that so great a love—and the richness of what we have been brought into. Lord, we are thankful, too, for the greatness of Your Word. We are thankful how, throughout the ages, You have been speaking to man through Your Word and encouraging us.
Lord, we are thankful that Your Word is so relevant today, just as relevant today as when it was spoken—so relevant today as when it was written. Lord, we offer ourselves to You, that we can come in a spirit of an open heart to receive from You and allow You to reveal more and more of Yourself unto us. In Your precious name, amen.
I sent out in the email last night to read Psalm 90, and we are really not going to be looking at the fullness of that psalm today. We do not have time for that. But there was one verse in particular I would like for us to look at, and it is Psalm 90:12.
Teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Darby has, “acquire a heart of wisdom.” New American Standard says, “present to Thee a heart of wisdom.” But I like the translation that says we can gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90 is very precious.
I want to ask a question. Tim, who wrote Psalm 90?
Moses, the man of God. Moses, the man of God, wrote Psalm 90. Amen. Praise God. Attaboy, Tim.
We see how this is actually the oldest psalm we have, written by Moses some four hundred years before David lived. So we could say this is the first psalm. I do not know why they put it at 90; it should be number one.
It was written toward the end of Moses’ life. He was getting ready to prepare the ones who were going to enter the Promised Land. He was about 120 years old.
Now, a lot of times when you think of somebody 120 years old, you do not think of them as being too bright. You know, they are just kind of tottering along. But what does the Holy Spirit say about Moses when he was right about that age? Look at Deuteronomy 34:7.
And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
What a precious testimony. His eye was not dim. I love how it says that his eye was not dim. It does not say his eyes were not dim; it specifically says his eye, speaking of singleness of vision.
There was one thing, one thing he had upon his heart. One thing: he saw the Lord and His wonderful purpose. That is what he had seen, and that is what kept him.
Also, it says his vigor was not abated. I believe this is speaking far more than just of a physical testimony. This is speaking of a spiritual testimony of the life within him. We are thankful how that vigor—the freshness and zeal for God’s high purpose—really continued on throughout his life.
As I said, he was writing this psalm before the people of God were getting ready to go into the Promised Land. If you read that psalm, he reflects back. He looks back very clearly, with that singleness of eye, and he sees the greatness of God. He sees the Almighty. He sees the Creator. He sees His majesty. He sees His great faithfulness.
Then, with the same clarity, he sees the people of God who have come up short. He sees their frailty. They are like the grass: it flourishes in the morning, and by evening it is gone. They had not really been the faithful ones that God had desired them to be.
So really, this psalm—and Moses, as he is penning it, and then a prayer comes forth—is for the next generation. It is for a people who are getting ready to go in and possess what God has prepared for them. God has a great inheritance for the people of God, those ones in that wilderness.
Moses is there desiring that they would enter into the fullness of all God has for them, that they would respond in such a way that they could enter in and possess their full possession. It is a great psalm and a great prayer, with a burden for that next generation.
That is why he really prayed that. When he prays it, he says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Now, sometimes we focus so much on the first part of that verse: “Lord, teach us to number our days.” And that is good. But I do not think that is really his burden. There is a reason why he wants us to number our days. Why does he want each day to count? That we can gain a heart of wisdom.
A heart that knows the Lord, a heart that knows Him, a heart that knows His desire, a heart that knows His purpose. Who is the One who has been made unto us wisdom? It is Christ. Who is in God’s heart? It is our Lord Jesus.
It is a jealousy that we know more of God’s heart, more of God’s purpose—everything related to His Son. He has created and done everything for His Son. His Son is what He desires: that there would be a total wrapping up of all things found in Him.
Just as it was vital in those days for the people of God to know everything upon God’s heart, it is just as vital for us today. When we talk about knowing God’s purpose, knowing His heart, what are we speaking of?
We are speaking of how He is looking for a relationship with us. You see it from the very beginning in the garden. God had a desire to have that relationship between God and man. He desires to be at home, to dwell among His people. Our Lord Jesus came and tabernacled amongst us, full of grace and truth.
He also desires that corporate expression: a people gathered unto Him, a people set apart unto Him, a people that will one day eventually be the precious bride of His beloved Son. That is what is upon the Father’s heart.
This is what He desires: that the people of God, as we make each day count for Him, would gain this heart of wisdom of seeing all that is upon His heart.
Now, you know, we often hear about God’s eternal purpose. Oftentimes, we can just allow it to go over our heads, or just say, “I have had enough of that.”
But I remember for years, I would go to conferences and hear Brother Kong and Lance speaking about God’s eternal purpose. I kept sitting there with my pen, waiting: “Okay, tell me what it is.” They would be describing it, and at the end I was still thinking, “Okay, next time, tell me what it is.”
They were speaking in the Spirit, and I was trying to comprehend with my mind. They kept pouring it out, and at times I would get pretty frustrated, because I could actually talk about it, but I knew within myself it was not really real within my heart.
Then I was reading Daniel. In Daniel 12:8-9, it was so helpful to me in my Christian walk—not only with His purpose, but with many things.
We know how, in Daniel’s life, the Lord revealed so much to him. The Lord revealed the future, so many events. He would have dreams, and he would give interpretations of dreams. Particularly in the second part of Daniel, it is all related to the future.
Daniel comes up in Daniel 12:8, and Daniel testifies, speaking to the Lord:
And I heard, but I understood not.
And I said, “Amen.” You hear things, but you do not understand them.
What did God say to Daniel at that point? He did not say, “Daniel, you are a prophet. You should understand. Mac, you have been in this fellowship twenty years. You should understand. If you do not understand, I cannot use you anymore.”
He did not throw Daniel out. He did not rebuke Daniel. What did He say to him? If you look at the first part of verse 9, He said:
Go thy way.
Just continue going on. Go your way. As you go on your way with Me, I will show you more of My heart.
I am thankful how, within Daniel’s life, he did not let his lack of understanding hinder him from serving the Lord. He knew the Lord. He might not have had a full understanding of everything going on, but he knew the Lord, and he continued faithful.
That is what we see in Moses’ life too. Moses gained a fuller understanding as he walked faithfully, day by day, with the Lord. The Lord opened his heart. Neither Moses nor Daniel stopped following because they did not fully understand.
I think that is encouraging for us, because at times we hear things and we know they are true. We know they are in the Word of God, but we do not fully understand them. Does that hinder us from going on? No, we keep going on.
In that, the Lord shines that light brighter and brighter. That is really the reason that hymn spoke to me so much: as you continue to go on, realizing there is so much more of Him to see and understand, He brings us into that. He shines that light brighter and brighter.
It is like Proverbs says: the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the fullness of day. As we go along, the Lord shows us. But it is that continuing to go on in Him.
That is why Moses, as he was praying this prayer for the people of Israel, wanted them to continue going on. Make each day count. “You can live for Me this day, and we will go on. Live for Me another day. We will keep going on.” That light will be shining brighter and brighter.
How did Moses grow in understanding? How did he come about gaining a heart of wisdom? There are obviously a lot of Scriptures related to Moses, but there is one in Hebrews 11:24-26 that captures a great turning point within Moses’ life.
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward.
What a precious revelation Moses had there in verse 26: considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He made a choice.
At this point in time in his life—also recorded in the book of Acts—Moses was about forty years of age. We know Moses’ life is divided into three sections of forty years each: forty years in Egypt, forty years in the desert, and forty years in the wilderness.
This was toward the last part of the forty years when he was in Egypt being raised there. He was not a naïve youth in any way at all. He was a man of experience, a man of the world. He grew up in the palace. He knew all the worldly ways.
He was educated in all the learning of Egypt. He was mighty in words, as Acts says. He was also a great military leader. History records some of his great victories. He was mighty in deeds. Literally, he had the whole world before him.
Many believed that he would probably have been the next Pharaoh of Egypt, since he was raised as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. Moses had everything set before him.
But there came a point in his life where he had a sensing that he could not go that way anymore. He had a sensing within him that he could not possibly follow this path, and he made a choice.
I personally believe this sensing was instilled within him by his mother. We know how, in the sovereignty of God, when Moses was born, God provided a place of salvation—an ark for Moses. Then, through his sister, his mother was brought in.
While he was there, he was raised by his mother until he was weaned. People think she may have been with him six or seven years, because weaning then was much longer than now. But during that time, his mother instilled within him the Word of God, and that was within him.
Then there came a point in his life where he had to make a choice. On one hand, he knew all of his power, his position, and his prestige in Egypt. Every fleshly desire he had, whatever it might be, he had right at his fingertips. All the great riches of Egypt were there.
He was well respected. He was a man that people looked up to. But on the other hand, he saw his brethren being ill-treated. He saw those reproaches of Christ, and he made that choice.
It was an absolute choice. It will be the same for us, but it was a choice that revolutionized his life. He forsook that position—all the great position that he had, greater than any position we have on earth. He forsook it.
He forsook all the power he had. Moses literally had the power of life and death. He had power over almost everybody in Egypt, except for a handful like Pharaoh. He had great power, but he forsook it.
He had that great prestige, so respected as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But he could not be called that anymore. He had so many possessions. Moses was in a place where, whenever the latest iPhone came out, he got it before Jack Cox.
But he had all of this stuff, and he said, “I forsake it all,” because there was something within him that had captured his heart. He did not fully understand it at this time, but he knew he had to make a choice.
He said no to all the world, no to self, and yes to Christ. He made it by refusing and choosing. The refusing is saying no, and the choosing is saying yes.
Sometimes we can say no to the world, but are we really saying yes to the Lord? We can say no to this, but are we really fully yielding ourselves to say yes to the Lord? Sometimes we can say yes to the Lord, but we are not saying no to the world, and we get a mixed life.
But Moses said absolutely no to this and yes to that. That is the life He is looking for in us in these days. He was saying, “That is the key for you as the people of God going in to possess your possession”—making these choices.
Moses prayed this prayer that the Lord would teach them to number their days. Again, this teaching is not something natural. Any child can count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. But this is spiritual.
The Lord is not so much interested in the quantity of those days, but the quality of the days. Hopefully the quantity will be great, but He is looking for that quality of days, because that is the only way they are going to be able to fully go in and possess what He has for them.
This prayer is actually showing us one of the secrets of Moses’ life. It says, “Teach us to number our days.” Moses is sharing with them one of the secrets of his life, and it is really one of the keys within our lives: teachableness.
Moses was teachable. Are we teachable? Moses had all the wisdom of the world at his fingertips. He knew all this stuff, but there was a teachableness to the Lord and His ways within him.
In Numbers 12:3, it says of Moses:
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth.
The most humble person upon the face of the earth. As many have shared, another way of saying teachable is humble. The pride of life says, “I know everything. I do not need to be taught anything.” But someone with humility, that humbleness of heart, has an open heart to receive what the Lord has for us.
This was one of the keys of Moses’ life, because he wanted the Lord to teach him. In fact, he prayed for this. Look at Exodus 33:13.
Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, show me now thy ways, that I may know thee, to the end that I may find favor in thy sight.
We see Moses actually praying that the Lord would teach him. Many of us are familiar with this prayer because it was right after the golden calf incident, when the journey was getting ready to begin again.
We are more familiar, perhaps, with the next two requests Moses made. “Lord, if Your presence does not go with us, we are not going to go.” We hear sermons on that: “Lord, we need Your presence to go with us.” The Lord assured them.
Moses also prayed, “Lord, show me Your glory.” The Lord said, “I am going to hide you in the cleft of the rock, and My hand is going to hold you there. If you see the glory of My face, you will die, but you can see My back.”
We are familiar with that, but this is the same prayer, so important to him at this point in time. Why is he praying it? He says, “Let me know Your ways, that I might know You.” He wants to know Him. He wants to know the Lord, His heart, and His purpose.
Was this prayer answered? Was the prayer, “Lord, teach me Your ways,” answered? Actually, if you look at Psalm 103:7, it says:
He made known his ways unto Moses,
His doings unto the children of Israel.
He made known His ways to Moses. The Lord answered that prayer. To know His acts is to know what He does; it is looking at the outward. To know His ways is knowing why He does it—seeing His heart.
For example, on the day of Pentecost, everybody in Jerusalem could see the acts of God. The Spirit came down. People were speaking in tongues. That was the act of God on that great and glorious day.
But there were a few who knew why He did it: that He sent forth His Spirit to dwell in man, to do that transforming work, to birth the church upon earth. That was why, because that church could be used by God to fulfill His purpose. There was a why behind all the acts of God.
To me, it is interesting that in the last month or two, I have gotten so many texts and had conversations with various young people about artificial intelligence. How does artificial intelligence do this and that?
You can read stories about certain pastors using artificial intelligence—AI—to write their sermons now, and counseling groups, even within Christianity, using it to answer questions people might have.
To me, this verse gives us an oversimplistic way of looking at that. Artificial intelligence can maybe copy the acts of God, the what He does. But really entering into the why—the spirit of what He does, His heart, His ways—it can never capture that.
There is a spirit of life. The very word artificial tells you right there to start with. There is an essence of God’s heart that is spirit to spirit, and that is what He is after: to capture us in this.
This is what Moses prayed. It is interesting that someone else prayed this too. David prayed it in Psalm 25:4:
Show me thy ways, O Lord;
Teach me thy paths.
It is the same Hebrew word there. “Make me know Your ways. Teach me Your ways, Lord.” It is having that teachableness. When we come to the New Testament, believers are called disciples—learners, students. That is what being teachable is.
One of the things that caught my heart about the two men in the Old Testament who prayed about knowing God’s ways is that they were two men burdened for the dwelling place of God: Moses and David.
Moses was burdened for the tabernacle; David, for the temple. They both had that same prayer. What did God show them? He showed them the same thing. He showed them that He wants to have that relationship. He wants to have a dwelling place. He wants to have that corporate expression of His people upon this earth.
That is what He is after. We see God’s ways. We see God’s heart and His purpose. There is always that end in view.
Recently, we looked at that little booklet, Why Do We Gather? Even in that little book, we could look at the acts of gathering, but do we know God’s ways? Do we know the why?
It is not so much about the what of gathering—that is the outward—but the why. Why are we gathering? That is God’s heart. That is God’s purpose. That is what He is after within all of our hearts and lives: that we can enter into living the reality of that, and it impacts our lives.
One of the things about reality, one of the things about knowing the ways of God, is that it impacts our lives. We can know about things. We can know the what of what God did. It might not impact our lives at all.
But once we see those ways of why He did something, and what is going on within His heart, it impacts our lives. We are thankful how this was such a desire within Moses.
How did the Lord go about teaching Moses His ways? This is a real popular answer that we all love: He taught Moses by the way of the cross. Sometimes we like to find the easy way, but He taught Moses by the way of the cross.
As Moses learned of the Lord in this, He gave him a fuller and greater revelation. We have already shared how, when Moses made that choice, it was a hard choice. It was an absolute choice, and it cost him everything.
But when he made that choice to go and be with his brethren, how did it go for him? We know the story of how he went down one day and saw an Egyptian treating one of his brethren badly. So he killed the Egyptian and buried him.
He thought he got away with it. He went back the next day and saw two Hebrews fighting. He tried to break them up, and what did they say to him? “Are you going to kill us too? Are you going to kill us?” He realized he had been found out.
They challenged him: “Who made you ruler over us?” There was such a challenge there. In fear, he fled to that desert, and he was out in that desert for forty years. It was a disaster.
Why was it a disaster? Because Moses did it in his own natural strength and in his own timing. He had not learned the ways of God. He did not know God’s way. He did not know God’s timing at this point. Moses was unprepared.
The Lord literally had to take him out into the desert, put him among those sheep, and keep him there for forty years to learn of a new Master. He had been the master of his old life. In Egypt, he was self-sufficient. He could do everything.
He had to learn that he had a new Master who was in charge of his life.
Moses made the right choice, but he did it the wrong way. He did it in himself. David did the same thing, and he is in good company. We are in good company when we do that.
When David finally brought all Israel together and captured Jerusalem, he said, “We have got to get the ark here to Jerusalem. We have got to bring it in.” So he went out to bring that ark. They made a nice cart for it, and they were bringing it in.
We know how the cart stumbled, and it looked like the ark was going to fall off. Uzzah got up there and steadied the ark, and the Lord struck him down just like that. The ark was left at the house of Obed-edom.
David was afraid. He feared the Lord. He went back upset and fearful, asking, “How can we bring the ark to Jerusalem?” Then he learned the right way: the priests brought it in. God’s way, not man’s ways.
We can have our ways. We can have our good intentions. But it is the wrong thing done the wrong way and at the wrong time.
Sometimes we see a need within the house of God, or we see a need somewhere, and immediately we say, “Oh, there is a need. I will do it. I will help.” Is that really coming under the headship of Christ?
There are certain of us who are Mr. Fixits. We see a need, and we are going to do it. But do we even pause to say, “Lord, do You want me to take care of that need? Do You want me to come alongside this one?”
Now, I am not talking about seeing a child in the street. Obviously, you go out and get the child. But in the normal days, when we see brothers and sisters going through things, do we pause and say, “Lord, am I the one You want to use in this way?”
Sometimes He will say yes. Sometimes He might say, “No, I want to use someone else.” But we can still pray for that particular need and that particular situation. That is coming under a new Master.
Our old master might love to just help, go out, do this, and do that. No, it is coming under that new Master who says, “This is the way; walk ye in it.”
Moses was in that desert for those forty years, caring for those sheep. We are somewhat familiar with the end of that forty years, where all of a sudden he is out there. He had been there day by day, taking care of those sheep.
I wonder what it was like when he first got into the desert. He was still full of himself. Maybe he said, “Okay, I will be out here in the desert now. Let me see. Plan A did not work. Ah, I will develop a Plan B.”
This is imagination. It is not scriptural, but it is the way a lot of us think. Plan A does not work, so we are going to Plan B. He may have been thinking, “How can I do this?” But he was there longer and longer, and the Lord was working with him.
He had to learn to lay his ways aside and come under the new Master. Finally, maybe he came to a point where he had given up totally, never expecting to go back at all. “The Lord is going to use someone else. Lord, I know You want to deliver those people because You have promised You are going to deliver them. Maybe it is someone else, Lord.”
We do not know. But all of a sudden, there was that day when he saw the burning bush. That was a pretty common sight out there. Because of the heat and dryness, bushes would combust, catch on fire, and burn out.
But this one kept burning. It was not consumed. He stopped, turned, and looked at it. All of a sudden, a voice came out of the bush. Moses realized it was the voice of God, and it was the call of God upon his life.
Moses was starting to see more and more of the ways of God. He saw life in a dried-up old thorn bush. That was impacting him.
When he was in Egypt, he was utterly self-reliant. When Moses went out to that desert for forty years, he went out there strong. He may have thought he was like the cedar of Lebanon—the cedars of Lebanon being the strongest things out there. He thought he was going to be that strong, mighty one.
But when he came back after those forty years, he saw he was simply a dried-up old thorn bush. Yet there was a life within him. He saw God. He knew God in a way that he knew, “In myself, this thorn bush cannot do anything, but there is a powerful life within me that can do all things.”
He had learned that from his new Master. “Not I, but Christ,” is the way we would phrase it. He saw that there was a great divide in Moses’ life between the old Moses—the self—and the new Moses, the man in Christ.
He was able to go back to Egypt in a mighty way. We would describe Moses at that point very similarly to what Paul said: there was a treasure in an earthen vessel.
When he left Egypt the first time, he may have thought he was the cedar of Lebanon, or some great golden vessel. But he came to see he was a simple old earthen vessel. Yet he had a light, a treasure within.
That is what we have, brothers and sisters. Sometimes we know of the treasure within, but sometimes we do not realize that we are just an old earthen vessel. Would the Lord show us His ways in that.
As Moses had gone through that desert, walking daily in the light of the Lord, the Lord had shown him. Now Moses went back to Egypt in a whole different spirit, in a whole different way.
We are not going to go into all that occurred in Egypt with the miracles and deliverance, but this time he left Egypt in a very different way. Hebrews 11:27 says:
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
The first time he left Egypt, it was not by faith; it was by fear. This time, by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. Why was that? For he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
He had seen Him who was invisible. He saw His ways. He saw the Lord in a very marvelous, precious light.
God had trained Moses for those forty years, and God trains us in a similar way. God has a very unique way of training us: He trains us every day. He wants to train us day in and day out.
Many of us do not really see the significance of daily life, how we need to see each day as a gift from Him. If we can capture the essence of Moses’ prayer, it would help us to value daily life more and more.
We focus a lot of time on “teach us to number our days,” but there is a purpose in that: that we can gain a heart of wisdom. What is the heart of wisdom? It is Christ. It is gaining more of Christ. That is what we are after.
He does that day in and day out. But often we do not really appreciate each day. They become routine. They become monotonous.
Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you can just be on autopilot. You go through the first part of your day, and you have not even woken up. All of a sudden, you are dressed, your teeth are brushed, and everything is falling in place. But there is a monotony there, and we do not think it is significant.
Maybe daily life is too simple for us. But God wants us to really value that. If we stop and count our days, over 90 percent—I will be conservative—probably 90 percent of our days are pretty routine.
There are really just a few significant days in our lives. Think of Daniel. We always think of Daniel as this great prophet. We mentioned him earlier, but if he lived to about eighty-five or ninety years of age, how many days in Daniel’s life were out of the ordinary?
If you go back and look at the book of Daniel, in the first chapter, they did not want to eat the food. So for ten days they said, “Okay, ten days we will not eat it.” That was ten days out of ninety years.
Then the king had a dream. “Who can interpret the dream, or we are all going to get killed?” Daniel went in, interpreted the dream, and went back out. That was another day. Then there was another dream, another handwriting on the wall—a few more days that are recorded for us.
Later in his life, he faithfully, day in and day out, went and prayed toward Jerusalem every day. He was so faithful that when they were trying to trick Daniel and catch him in something they could accuse him of, they could not find anything. He was under a microscope in his life, and he was faithful every day.
Then they threw him into that lions’ den. That was another day or so. He came out, and the Lord saved him. But, brothers and sisters, in most of our lives, there are not that many significant days. The vast majority of them are pretty routine.
That is where the Lord does His work. It is the day of small things, not the day of big things. It is the day of small things when He works within us day in and day out.
Sometimes, if we know we have to do something, we get more focused on that. But every day, do we get up and have our morning devotions when there is nothing set before us that day?
Do we do our morning devotions just as faithfully then as when we have something? “Oh, I have a big meeting. I have got to do this. I have got to do that. I really need to do my devotions this morning.”
There is that dailiness of feeding upon Him. I think of Moses: he was out there those forty years caring for those sheep. He had to take care of them every day. It was pretty monotonous.
Day in and day out, he probably did pretty much the exact same thing, taking care of those sheep. Sometimes within the house of God, caring and walking with brothers and sisters day in and day out can get monotonous. It can get challenging too.
But are we there? Are we caring for one another day in and day out? If we can get a glimpse into God’s heart of how much He wants to make each day count for Him, it changes things.
The Lord shows us both through His acts and His ways all through Scripture. This is the way He trains us day in and day out. Go back to the very beginning. Go back to Genesis 1. We will just pick a few examples here, not just focusing on the what, but the why.
In Genesis 1, we have creation. How does God do that? He does it one day at a time. This day He creates this. This day He makes that. This day He does that. At the end of the day, He stops, and then there is another day.
That is the what. But why is He doing that? The why is that He is trying to show us how He works. “I want you to see this picture. This is how I work in life. This is how I work in your life.”
There is no doubt that if God wanted to, He could have created everything instantly. I am not talking about the big bang theory, but He could have created everything in one day. But He wanted us to see, “That is not how I work.”
“I am going to work in your life this day. Then the next day, I am going to work a little more in your life. The next day, I am going to be working a little more in your life.” Day by day. Do we see the value of it, that we can grow in that?
Later on in the wilderness, there was that time when they came out of Egypt and the people were complaining about the food. God said, “Okay, I will provide manna.” We are familiar with the story of manna.
He provided that for every day. He said, “Each day you go out and collect this manna. That will be enough for today. On the sixth day, you collect a double portion, and that will be for that day.”
Again, the act was providing provision for every day. But what is the why of it? The why is that He wants us to become more and more dependent upon Him. He wants us to be dependent upon Him in life, to live a dependent life in Him by faith every day.
He does not want us trying to be independent, but every day dependent upon Him. I believe He could have made manna that would have lasted one week. He would not have had to use preservatives or anything. He could have said, “Here is this manna. Get it once a week, and it is done.”
But no, He wanted us to see: day by day, you need to come to Me for all your provision. Even in the New Testament, in the so-called Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Teaching us His ways is teaching us to live a dependent life upon Him. It is sad that today some people think God just provides manna once a week. They show up on Sunday, get their manna for the week, and try to make that last for a whole week.
But He wants us every day to be feasting upon Him. Moses learned God’s ways, and he knew the significance of the daily life. He knew that is how you gain a heart of wisdom.
That is why Paul writes so often about taking up your cross daily, dying daily, and being transformed daily. Moses saw within God’s heart and desire that this was what he needed to pass on to the next generation and pray for them to enter into.
This was going to be the secret for them as they went in to possess the land. This was the real purpose behind Psalm 90: that they could really gain that heart of wisdom. It is so valuable for us today.
If you look throughout Scripture, you see there is a persistency in God. There is a jealousy in God for His people to really see His purpose, know His ways, and enter into it.
We see not only the value of daily life from the beginning, but the value of knowing His ways—the why. From the very beginning, we see that He wants to have that relationship with man. He wants to have that corporate expression with man.
In the garden, when God created man, He created them male and female. He did not give them a choice of what they wanted to be. He said, “You are male; you are female.” We will not go there.
But we see how He created them. That was the act; we could see the creation. But it was with a purpose. He created Adam and Eve together.
As we see in Ephesians, we are getting a glimpse from the very beginning of God’s desire for Christ and the church—that desire for a bride, that desire for this love relationship. This is what He is after. He is continually revealing His heart to us over and over.
Then Abraham comes along, and through Abraham we see the family of God. It is not just about Abraham, a great man of faith; it is about the family. That is what He sees in us. He wants us to have that. That is God’s way of working through the family of God.
Then through Moses, we see how God has a holy nation, a people set apart unto Him. It is not about Moses, but about that corporate expression—that testimony of God expressing His life and being that testimony upon this earth.
Finally, we see David. David was raised up, and he united the people of Israel into that one kingdom. Within a kingdom, the king is what is important. It is not about David, though. It is about our King of kings and Lord of lords—that expression.
Each one of these men—Abraham, Moses, and David—gained that heart of wisdom. They knew what God’s heart was, and it kept them going regardless. Each person in Hebrews 11 saw Him who is invisible, and it kept them going.
They saw God’s ways. To accomplish this, God wants us to come into that greater and fuller revelation of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been made wisdom unto us.
That is why He says, “I am the way.” I am the way—walk in it. That is the way, and we do it according to His way.
We are thankful that His way, which we have been brought into today, is the church. It gets described in many different ways: the body of Christ, the family of God, the house of God. But it is the corporate expression of His life, that we could see how God is working and the ways He is working today.
He is jealous for reality. He is jealous for the reality of the life of His Son to really be expressed and lived out in His people.
In this day, where truth is relative and there is so much evil being called good, the church on earth—the true church on earth—is the visible testimony of His life upon this earth.
Would that be recovered. Would there be truth in the midst of the darkness.