“Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety”. (Leviticus 25: 19-20).
Many have served God but are disappointed with the hope of expected reward. They have searched the scripture and found there is a reward for service yet they are failing in dividends.
In other words their toil in the service of God continues to fall short of desired dividends.
Why did the Israelites (the symbol of the first church) fall short of the blessings of service found in the book of Leviticus? One simple explanation is that they disobeyed the instruction of the Lord their God who masterminded their journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.
We know that the scripture cannot be broken and God isn’t a deceiver concerning his promises so how could the promises of God have failed for some in the first church – Israel?
Because they became complacent and self sufficient therefore relying less on God’s divine guidance. As long as they walked in self sufficiency and complacency they played into the hand of their enemies who would plunder and destroy them.
In a walk with God obedience leads to freedom and prosperity while disobedience on the other hand leads to bondage and oppression in the hand of the enemy, Satan.
You can’t walk in the middle between God and the devil and expect a negotiated dividend: it’s your all for God or nothing.
In the case of the Israelites, as long as they obeyed the Lord fully they prospered.
Now, make no mistake about this- God is ever willing to bless us as long as we keep close to his commands. In the Bible we read that God blessed King Uzziah abundantly : “ as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him.” (2 Chronicles 17:5).
Unfortunately as it’s the case with complacency King Uzziah after enjoying a series of success with the help of God became proud and unfaithful in his walk with God.
What lessons can we draw from the above narrative?
Firstly, God desires obedience, not just sacrifice. (1 Sam 15:22; Hos 6:6). In fact, our relationship with God, including service for God means nothing without a walk in obedience.
Secondly, God wants his children to build a solid faith in him and also learn to trust his plans for their lives. King Jehoshaphat had issued a rallying cry to Israel ahead of a crucial battle, “Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God; so shall ye be established. Believe His prophets; so shall ye prosper.” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Thirdly, God wants us to keep our eyes on his provisions without losing focus. And he wants us to abstain from sin. When our eyes are on God we will not confess evil like the world knowing that the Lord is birthing for us his perfect will regardless of the circumstances.
Some in the first church brought up an evil report against their circumstances oblivious to the fact that God was birthing something new for them as they made their way to the land of divided- the promised land.
Their lack of spiritual awareness and focus made them to confess evil and consequently fell short of the dividend provided by God.
The Bible says “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature”. (Numbers 13:32)
Beloved, that our land may yield the desired dividend, that our Labour in God may become productive we must choose God sufficiency over self sufficiency and refuse to give in to the temptation of complacency.
Self sufficiency brings complacency, and complacency leads to spiritual defeat and the loss of God’s abiding dividends.
Reading
Chronicles 26:14-21.
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