Brenda Speaks

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78 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

The first thing our children ought to hear from us while they are learning our language and how to form words should be the Word of God.  The parent's responsibility is to children how to run the business of God.

² I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

I will complete and bring to fulness what was spoken of me.

I will speak using what you can understand and compare what you must understand in the Word of God.  I will take dark sayings, sayings that have been spoken or understood, that you could not figure out, and make them easy for you to comprehend.

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

We heard our parents speak of them but you are going to show us even an easier way to understand Your Word.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

We will not hide God from children.  We will tell them the praise due to God and his power and the wonderful works he did.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

God settled His Word with Jacob.  God gave His order of operation to Israel and commanded them to follow directions.  He firmly said, teach your children about me.

⁶ That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

The Word of God is to be passed down forever.

⁷ That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

Teach the children so will trust God.  Teach them His power so they will know His strength. God commanded all to keep his commandments.

⁸ And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

Do not be as your fathers were stubborn.  They were not serious about God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

Ephraim trusted in ammunition and what they thought to be their own strength in times of trouble.

¹⁰ They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

God told them what to do and they refused to obey.

¹¹ And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

The people of God forgot the Word of God.

¹² Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

God brought the children of Israel from Egypt with miracles unlike anything ever known to man during their flight.

¹⁷ And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

They sinned even more.

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

They made a decision in their hearts against God by asking meat for their own selfish appetite.

¹⁹ Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

When we question if God can supply for us no matter where we are, we doubt God.  To doubt God is to call Him a liar. 

²⁰ Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?

They saw God bring water, but yet they asked if He could bring bread too?  Can He give meat for His people?  They were rude and unbelieving.  To meet your need miraculously, and you still want me to do more is very disrespectful.  When you see someone going out of their way to meet your need and you doubt them, you are like a scoundrel. 

²¹ Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;

Numbers 11 speaks of the wrath of God using fire to consume the people who spoke against Him.

²² Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

²³ Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,

²⁴ And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.

²⁵ Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.

The children of Israel saw God move on their behalf.  Yet they complained.  They did not trust God to know what He was doing.  Imagine leading people and you know the way, and they consistently complain and they know nothing of the outcome.

²⁶ He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.

²⁷ He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:

²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.

²⁹ So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

They wanted more than they needed.

³⁰ They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

They did not keep a distance from their own selfish desire,

³¹ The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.

While they gouged, God killed them.

³² For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

They still continued to sin.

³³ Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

God did not allow them to prosper in what they did and they had continuous problems.

³⁴ When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.

After they saw death, they cried out to God.

³⁵ And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

They remember who God was to them.

³⁶ Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

They complimented God.  They made promises they did not keep.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

God forgave them many times.

³⁹ For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

He knew they were flesh.  They die and life moves on.

⁴⁰ How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹ Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

They provoked, grieved, turn their backs on God, tempted, limited the God that tells nothing but the truth.

⁴³ How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.

⁴⁴ And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

⁵⁰ He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

⁵¹ And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

Moses as the leader sought God in many ways to let the people know that God was on their side, but they ignore all the works He performed on their behalf.

⁵² But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵ He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

He kept His Word of protection.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

They sinned again.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

They turned to other gods.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

God supported the enemy of Israel to fight against His own people.

⁶² He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³ The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

The priest were killed and their wives did not cry.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

God turned on His enemy and gave them a disease that made them a reproach among the nations.

⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

He rejected Ephraim who was of the tribe of Joseph.

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

He built His sanctuary-like palaces as beautiful as the earth he made.

⁷⁰ He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹ From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

He gave David as a gift to His people.

⁷² So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

He fed them according to what He knew would be right. He guided them with skill.