Questions for Reflection
What kind of God is He? What does it mean to be jealous?
As a jealous God, what things provoke God's anger? ()
A. Setting God aside when facing choices
B. Choosing what one deems important
C. Not offering oneself, time, or money
D. Enjoying a comfortable life
E. Worshipping idolsWhy do people not revere God? What is the root of all human problems?
Why is the proportion of Christians getting cancer far higher than that of others in the world?
Does living a comfortable life provoke God's anger? Does that mean people have to withdraw from the world and cultivate themselves in solitude? How do you view this issue?
Introduction
Greetings, everyone! Let's read Exodus chapter 34. I suggest that as you read, strive to find out what God is trying to tell us in this chapter. I believe Moses also tried very hard to express things clearly. When did this chapter take place? It happened when Moses went up the mountain and stayed with God for forty days, and the Israelites made a golden calf below. When Moses found out, he was very angry and smashed the two tablets with the commandments written on them. After smashing them, God wanted to destroy the Israelites, but Moses interceded for the Israelites before God, and God, because of Moses' prayer, had mercy on the Israelites once again.
I tell you, many Christians were almost destroyed. If you see many things that are difficult to understand, don't be surprised. Even if a large number of stiff-necked people are struck down and ruined by God, it cannot deny that Jehovah is a God full of compassion, full of grace, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth.
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (Exodus 34:6)
If you ask me what this sentence is about, my personal view is that Jehovah is a jealous God, but He has abundant grace and mercy, and abundant loving-kindness and truth. Our brothers and sisters must begin to know that Jehovah is a jealous God. If you don't believe it, observe carefully around you, how many Christians have cancer? How many pastors die of cancer? How many disasters happen to these Christians? How many problems are difficult to understand after seeing them? The Israelites lost their country for more than two thousand years, and then were thrown around among the nations, suffering a lot of sins and hardships.
The proportion of Christians getting cancer is far higher than that of others in the world. Why? Because our God is a jealous God! Our brothers and sisters, take a closer look at the sins you have suffered and the sufferings you have endured, are they suffered in vain? Absolutely not! It is because we do things with a stiff neck. God should have crushed us to death long ago, but He has abundant grace, is slow to anger, and has abundant loving-kindness and truth, waiting for us to turn back to Him.
Every week when I lead you in prayer, many people have this disease or that disease, they are uncomfortable here or uncomfortable there, but have they changed? They pray week after week, but they haven't changed! How can people's necks be so stiff? Don't arm-wrestle with God, and in the end, wrestle yourself into cancer, what's the point? There is time to talk business, but no time to study the Bible; there is time to work, but no time to worship God! There is time to do everything! But there is no time to pray, serve, keep and follow God's word, and obey God's will!
Brothers and sisters must reflect on yourselves! I often say a sentence: Serves you right! Don't think I'm talking about you, I say the same when I talk about myself, because many things serve us right. You say, how can you gloat? This is not gloating, gloating is speaking with a mocking tone. God has abundant grace and mercy, I really hope that everyone can know that God is a jealous God, if people don't know that God is a jealous God, it is a tragedy!
God is a Jealous God
Don't treat God as Santa Claus, it will be troublesome if you treat Him as Santa Claus. What have you believed in these decades of believing in the Lord? Why is Jehovah a jealous God? Originally, the Israelites made a golden calf, and then God was furious. They regarded the golden calf as the God who led them out of Egypt, and as a result, God almost destroyed them. Then the LORD God came down in the cloud and stood with Moses, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5-7)
for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, (Exodus 34:14)
If a person believes in this God who created the universe and then loves the world, then you can try it. What are you comparing with God? Don't put a green hat on God, if you put a green hat on God, God will put a few iron hats on you. We must know that Jehovah God is a jealous God. Although God has abundant grace and mercy, and is slow to anger, don't try God today and try God tomorrow, today make a golden calf, tomorrow make a silver calf, after you finish, you will not be able to bear it. So don't put a green hat on God, people put a green hat on God just for the sake of living . If you don't see through the things of living, and take the things of living so seriously, you are taking God lightly.
And He said, “Look, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. (Exodus 34:10)
Do you think this is a good thing? No, there are good things and bad things, because this is a stiff-necked people. This was written by Moses three thousand five hundred years ago, what is this thing about? The Israelites did a terrible thing, because what? Because God is a jealous God, why? Because they are a stiff-necked people, but no matter how stiff they are, they cannot be stiffer than God's hand. What was the result? The Israelites were thrown around among the nations. Jesus Christ came into this world, was nailed to the cross for us, resurrected, and ascended to heaven for nearly two thousand years. In these nearly two thousand years, what has God been doing among His people? God has been doing terrible things among His people.
So our brothers and sisters must know that God is a jealous God, from Moses writing Exodus to today, what has God been doing to His people? They are all jealous things! The Israelites are so miserable, but are they all God's people? Not all of them, so sometimes, many people don't understand. All who imitate Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the true Israelites, and God will surely protect them. God will surely make a covenant with them, keep the covenant, and show loving-kindness, but those who despise God and are stiff-necked, God will kill them all without missing one! So what kind of person do you want to choose to be? To tell you the truth, I am not like some pastors who don't like to say harsh words, I like to say harsh words, because these are God's words. If you want to be stiff-necked and not listen, try it.
But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All firstborn sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. (Exodus 34:20)
I see if your neck is stiff, or God's hand is stiff? If you don't know, you can try it. How many people are very interested when it comes to making money, but when it comes to studying the Bible, they run away if they can, and hide if they can, so they get cancer without exception, what a sigh! Jehovah God has done terrible things to God's people, it is clearly stated in Deuteronomy that if people do not carefully keep and follow, God will put these great and heavy disasters, and long and lasting diseases, on God's people, and then be thrown around among all nations and peoples , may God have mercy!
Why are we so muddled, so stiff-necked, as long as we turn back to God, let the precious blood of Jesus Christ cover us, God is still a God of mercy and grace, slow to anger, and a God of abundant loving-kindness and truth? So have you suffered enough? If you haven't suffered enough, then continue to suffer. Our brothers and sisters must revere God! God has done terrible things to God's people, from ancient times to the present. So what is the problem? The problem is that people don't believe in God, people believe that their business is the most important, and they think that making money is the most important. Until today, my impression of businessmen is not very good.
Don't think that I look down on businessmen, do you know what businessmen do? Businessmen make money, and making money is a matter of course. If making money becomes the most important thing in life, are you putting God first? Or are you putting business first? Only you know, and only God knows, and I don't want to judge this matter. Then when the time comes, you will definitely put God aside first, put the service aside first, and value your own little things. You always feel that things can't be dealt with, if you think so, then deal with it!
Time Provokes God's Anger
Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. (Exodus 34:21)
If your project is halfway done, and tomorrow is the Sabbath, and you say, oh no, no, I have to rush again, and get another one, and as a result, God is angry! Whether we can set aside time as holy is all a test. It's not just businessmen, because businessmen are facing real money, if you don't do a good job for people's projects, and customers complain, you have to deal with it, and then a bunch of things will be pulled out. So whether time can be set aside as holy is really a matter of life and death!
You must rest even during plowing and harvesting, and as a result, half of the crops are harvested, and tomorrow is the Sabbath, and you can't move yourself, and you have to worship God tomorrow. Then you start to worry, what if it rains and the crops rot in the ground, and then you have to pay compensation, or the grain is taken away by others, you are thinking about these things. I want to remind everyone, can't God take care of such things?
And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. (Exodus 34:22)
Brothers and sisters must know that it is not a joke, to observe the Feast of Weeks on the day of harvesting the firstfruits of wheat, but if the wheat is not harvested after the time, it is impossible! So you have to observe the Feast of Weeks, you have to observe the Feast of Ingathering, and you have to harvest wheat, these are all tests, everyone must think carefully!
Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. (Exodus 34:23)
This is a matter of time, God is a jealous God, can we set aside time as holy? What will happen if you put things down? Don't be religious, if there is accusation in your heart if you don't put it down, then don't put it down, just follow your own set of things. Some people still miss it when they put it down, and they struggle and compete, why? Because people don't believe in God, if people know that God controls everything, doesn't God take care of this matter? Don't you know that this time is the Sabbath? Don't you know that this time is the Feast of Weeks? Don't you know that this time is the Feast of Ingathering? You know it! Then can you arrange things well?
If the house is half built and you have to appear before God, you will think that the house will be damaged by the wind and rain, won't it? Can't you plan well? Can't you arrange the time well? No, you have to arrange it to the time when you appear before God! Once you arrange it, you arrange things that provoke God's anger, once you arrange it, you touch the jealous God. God wants to test people in time, this matter is very important! You men must appear before the LORD three times a year in the temple of the LORD, you can not appear, but you must know that the God of Israel is a jealous God, don't compete with God, He is God, you are a person, what are you competing with God for?
It is about one or two hundred kilometers from Galilee to Jerusalem, it takes a week to walk back, and if you stay there for two weeks, a month is gone. You have to go again not long after you come back, and you have to come back again, three times a year, three months are gone, so what about the work at home? What about the business? What about the cattle and sheep I raise at home? What if the house is half built? What if my project is half done? It's very real, and the problem is here! Are you living by God? Or are you living by business? Or are you living by building houses? Or are you living by your cattle and sheep? There are many conflicts!
I thank God! From the time I believed in the Lord, I knew how much I weighed, I knew that I couldn't do it by myself, and I couldn't do it by work, because my work was given to me by God. Later, I knew that I couldn't live without God, until today I can put down anything, as long as it comes to this time, I will come to worship God. I used to be an ordinary believer when I believed in the Lord, but I can tell you that whether it is ten years, twenty years, thirty years, or forty years, until the day I breathe my last, I have not missed a Sunday service. You will ask, what if you have something to do? It's okay, things are arranged by me, and time is also arranged by me. I have also competed, but something will definitely happen at that time, let it happen, I will also go to worship my God!
At that time, the requirements of the church were not high, as long as you could go every Sunday, you were the best Christian. I don't care how the pastor preaches, but I will definitely be there at that time, and there are people sleeping below, but I spend most of my time desperately reading the Bible. Sometimes the pastor preaches the scriptures above, and I will sort them out before and after, and then make a set of my own sermons. Sometimes I fall asleep, and I don't care. Even if I sleep, I will go to the temple to sleep, I just want this kind of faith.
At that time, if you went to every small group meeting, you were a very good Christian. If you went to every prayer meeting organized by the church, you were a very good Christian. So those pastors were also very strange, this person is not a leader, but you will definitely see him at the meeting. If you calculate according to twenty years, there are fifty-two Sundays a year, ten years is five hundred and twenty Sundays, and twenty years is more than a thousand Sundays. More than a thousand days, nearly three years, can you understand?
Can time be set aside as holy? God is testing you, whether you can pass this test is your creation. Is it worth it to trust God? It's too worth it, I am a person, He is God, when I couldn't find a job, He gave me a job. Later, when I was doing it, He took away my boss above me, and I sat in the position of the boss. Later, He took away my current boss again, and I sat in the position of the boss again. If God didn't take away my boss, I would never have a chance to get ahead! So, I was promoted so fast when I was working, and my salary also increased!
God gave me good opportunities, God made me successful in everything! My boss gave me a very challenging problem, and God helped me, because I took the time out to give to God, I have this kind of personality. If I go back to the time of Moses, the time of Israel, no matter which era, I will definitely be there to appear before God three times a year, one hundred kilometers back and forth. Although it takes three weeks to go back and forth, and it costs a lot of money on the road, I will definitely go, and I will never appear before God empty-handed, do you know why? Because He is God, do you understand?
Time is the most testing thing, why? Because the realm around me is guarded by God. If you appear before God three times a year, and your wife at home says, oh! You are gone, a mouse ran out at home, and a snake ran out, what should I do? There are no men at home, and what if the surrounding countries attack? Can't God control these things? What is your head thinking?
There is a brother among us who is very temperamental, why is he very temperamental? I kicked him out, and he came back again, and he has been kicked out again now, and as a result, he has to be here with us. Although he is a businessman, he has touched a law. He used to do business in a mess, and he was busy losing money every day, but now he is making money unhurriedly. It is good to have God, business needs God, and living needs God , right? Later, I slowly pondered, living is not靠靠 business, living is靠靠 God! I think, whether it is observing the Feast of Weeks, or resting on the seventh day, do you dare to set aside time as holy? If you dare to offend this God, then try it.
I have seen many people who think they are living well, nothing happens, God still blesses them, and they can make money in business. As a result, they get cancer at the age of sixty, what a suffering! But he met me, I served him, do you think I will say good things to him! Cancer is all curses, all demons, all because of loving the world and not revering God. So you have offended this jealous God, you deserve to get cancer! Repent quickly today, God is full of compassion, full of grace, slow to anger, and has abundant loving-kindness.
No matter what you do, how can you live without God? I don't know how to live, nothing can stop disasters, I happily bought a plane ticket to talk business, to attend a wedding, to attend a funeral, and as a result, the plane crashed. So is money important? Money is not important, business is not important, customers are not important, God is the most important. What does it mean that customers are God? Customers are not God, God is God, God is my God. God is a jealous God, don't play fake with God in time.
Money Provokes God's Wrath
During the most difficult time of establishing my church, a businessman made an offering. How did he make it? One day he had a dream, dreaming that God asked him to make an offering. Later, he came to my office and told me that he had a dream where God asked him to make an offering to me. I said, that's great! He said, how much do you think I should offer? I said, how would I dare to say! Then he wrote me a check for a significant amount. So many years have passed, and we mentioned this incident when we were having dinner together a few days ago. I said, at the time, I was thinking, why didn't you write a larger amount on the check? What's the problem? The problem is that our God is definitely not short of money.
If we want to know God, we must first recognize that God is a jealous God. This is absolutely not a joke; God does not lack money. I shared with this person that I write software, do IT training, and do renovations, all very well. I do renovations, do a lot of work, write books, more than eighty of them, and I also preach, do Bible studies, healing and deliverance, and cast out demons. After hearing this, he was very surprised, how is that possible? Where do you get so much time?
Do you know where my time comes from? Because I dedicate my time to God, my time comes from God! I work fast, God blesses me, and then gives me good opportunities and wisdom. After I said this, some pastors don't like to listen to me. After I speak, they start to feel uncomfortable, and then they involute, involuting very severely, because they can't compare to anything I do. Why can't they compare? Because they don't have the same heart as I do.
My service is very serious. If someone looks for me at two in the morning, I serve; if they look for me at four in the morning, I also serve; if they look for me at six in the morning, I still serve. But you can't find me today because I have trained a large group of people to participate in the ministry. God is a jealous God, and I train them to be like me, to sanctify their time and dedicate it to God.
Why can I do so many things? Because God is the source of my wisdom. I fear God, God is great and awesome, and mighty, and I trust Him in everything I do! I am not interested in money, but God will never let me lack money. Sanctifying time is very important because all time is created by God. After listening to me, brothers and sisters, please don't say you have other things to do on the Lord's Day and skimp on time when it comes to God's affairs.
In the future, I want to write a book on management. Do you know what my management philosophy is? If my employees tell me that they are a bit tired and don't want to work, I will tell them, then don't work. Then many people come to me and say that if I continue like this, won't the company go bankrupt? Actually, what will happen after he doesn't work? He will find himself very uncomfortable, he will see himself as dog poop, and others will see him as dog poop, and then he will involute. But involution is not a solution, so I unlock his thoughts and teach him to enjoy working, so the people who work for me are very happy! If you want to work, work hard; if you don't want to work, you don't have to! The reason this can work is because God is there.
When we all get to this time, we will sanctify the time, and then everything we do will have God's blessing, which is wonderful! If you yourself are not a person of the Word, not a person who fears God, how can you lead others to fear God? I recently learned a word, involution, involution is the meaningless consumption of one's energy, self-consumption. Why? Because we always fail to sanctify time and give it to God. Not only are many of us involuting, but many pastors are also involuting. What can you involute out of involuting? God is a jealous God, we must deeply engrave this in our minds!
The first thing to be jealous of is time. Measuring with time, you can know whether you put God first, or your son and business first. So no matter what I do, you will see God with me, and it's a little difficult for those who are close to me not to be blessed. A sister worked for many years and earned more than seven thousand a month, saving seventy thousand in five years. I said, stop working and come to me for training. Then when she went out to find a job again, her salary was twenty thousand. She said to me, teacher, it's so good to believe in the Lord! Of course it's good, we are blessed not by involuting, doing sit-ups all day long, how painful! We haven't done any work, but we are sweating profusely, which is good for losing weight, but it's useless, so people must rely on God in everything.
What do you rely on to live? You have to figure this out. If you see through the matter of living, what are you involuting for? There is no need to involute at all, and there is no need to lie flat, just enjoy every day in this world peacefully and quietly. Then your productivity will be very high, and none of your inner energy will be wasted.
The second thing that provokes God's wrath is money. Time is money, and money is time. All the firstborn belong to God. A person lived very poorly, and I asked him to learn to give offerings. He said to me, I only have one sheep at home. Should I cut off the leg of the sheep and offer it to God, or should I keep the sheep? I said, your life has been cursed to this point, and your mind is still on the sheep, that's terrible. You only have this one sheep left, shouldn't you think about whether this way of living is wrong? You need to know that your way of living is wrong. If you live like this, go home and raise sheep, don't follow me and believe in the Lord until you don't even have this sheep left.
If you have, more will be given to you; if you don't have, even what you have will be taken away. So I never dare to play tricks with God, because I know I can't outsmart God. There is a movie called "Ashes of Time," in which Huang Yaoshi is very powerful in people's hearts, but can he outsmart God? So don't play tricks with God, God is a jealous God. When I believed in the Lord, I made a choice, and to this day I still think this choice was very smart! At that time, my monthly salary was only one thousand yuan. If I had to take out one-tenth as an offering, I would have no savings. Then I thought, how can I live on this one thousand yuan? But I chose to continue to give offerings, taking a risk, because what I need most is God's blessing, to sanctify everything.
Then I calculated my provident fund and the taxes I had to pay, and took out one-tenth of my pre-tax salary to offer to God. After giving the offering, I found that this was a really smart decision! Can one thousand yuan make you rich? If I saved one hundred yuan every day at that time, how much money would I have left today? Do you live by money or by God? Offer the firstborn to God, and God will bless you later! No one can come to see God empty-handed. Later, I developed a habit. When I want to give an offering, I must feel a little pain. It really hurts to give so much money. If it doesn't hurt, it's like giving God a tip. How dare I give God a tip! So when I want to give an offering, I give a large amount, understand?
Living a Small Life Provokes God's Wrath
Neither shalt thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, lest their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. (Exodus 34:16)
The third thing that provokes God's wrath is marriage. If your son falls in love with a local girl, what do you do? Many churches become marriage agencies. I have a friend from many years ago, who is also a believer, and he asked me if I have introduced partners to the church's co-workers. He is my good friend, so I can't involute him, I can only say I have. Actually, I never thought about that matter. Serving God is so good! Why get married, why find a partner? It's for living a life! Be clear that living a small life will provoke God's wrath, you can slowly ponder this.
If living a life is your highest priority, then what has God become? God has become your tool for living a life, doesn't this provoke God's wrath? God is a jealous God, you cannot put living a life above God. If you put living a life above God, then you are putting a green hat on God. Marriage is normal, marriage is not a sin, but after marriage, you go to live a life, and then you take living a life as the most important thing, then that's fatal.
Idols Provoke God's Wrath
The fourth thing that provokes God's wrath is idolatry. Why do I put idolatry last? What are people worshiping when they worship idols? Going to temples to worship idols to ask for a son, ask for money, bless my business and I will build a golden mountain, and then ask for career, marriage, peace, education, business... all are asking for living a life. Have you ever seen anyone burning incense and asking for world peace? Maybe there are, but most people are asking for their own little things. But is it effective to ask for these things? It was very effective for the people of Canaan to ask for things, and then the Israelites were tempted by this phenomenon and also asked Jehovah God for things, and as a result, they were disciplined. It was better not to ask, it was even worse after asking.
Many people ask for a partner, and after getting married, they find that their husband is having an affair or prostituting. Then they ask God, God! Why did you give me such a person? We need to know that worshiping idols is very effective, don't be surprised, the things of the spiritual realm are very real. If Christians worship God as an idol, also asking for these things, what they ask for is God's wrath. God wants us to see through the matter of living. If we just live for the sake of living, I wish you good luck.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7)
Because God is a jealous God, God will do great and awesome things to His people, I hope this doesn't happen to you. Man does not live by food, business, money, family, marriage, man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Moses went up the mountain and entered into the presence of God, fasting for forty days and forty nights, and nothing happened, and he did not become a mummy after coming down, his face was still shining, can you understand? His face was shining, manifesting the glory of God. If the Israelites saw Moses' face shining, and also wanted to draw near to God, this should be a normal reaction. But after seeing it, they were afraid, and didn't know what they were afraid of? They were not afraid of what they should be afraid of, but they were afraid of what they should not be afraid of.
Summary
Jehovah is a jealous God, and the things He does are great and awesome. Don't provoke God's wrath, and don't put a green hat on God. The first thing that provokes God's wrath is time, the second is money, the third is living a small life, and the fourth is idols. A person who draws near to God and lives by God, your face will shine, and will radiate the glory of God.
Do you know God now? If you only know God and think God is a Santa Claus, then you will also provoke God's wrath. Don't think it's okay, God will manifest His wrath. I hope everyone will read Exodus chapter thirty-four again, and see if what I said is the case? If it is the case, start to remind yourself often. May God bless everyone!