October 4, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Proverbs 18

Weekly Memory Verse: Mark 12:30

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Numbers 6:25 (NASB95)
²⁵ The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;

Psalm 119:135 (NASB95)
¹³⁵ Make Your face shine upon Your servant, And teach me Your statutes.

Ephesians 2:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. ^[1]

Rick titled today’s study “What makes God smile?”  At first that made me wonder, does God really smile?  He can see all, knows all and understands all that makes us tick, considering all of our lives, including our private lives, church lives and work lives, what would it take for God to smile when He considers our lives?  Remember, you can’t fool God, He knows about everything, every time you loose your temper, think wrong thoughts, and every time that we give more attention to our toys than we do to Him.  He knows where our passion lies in life, I wonder how many of us serve the idols of sports, houses, or possibly careers (to mention just a few) more sincerely than we serve and follow Him.  What does it take to make God smile?

I did a little digging when I read the difference between the way that the NASB translated the word “face shine” compared to the Message Bible and New Living Translation that Rick used.  I can certainly see how that the words could be translated as smile.  In the Hebrew, the word is interesting, it speaks of the face lighting up, or becoming bright with joy and with the “light of life”, and can indicate divine approval (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament). 

Psalm 44:3 (NASB95)
³ For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.

Psalm 89:15 (NASB95)
¹⁵ How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.

Psalm 31:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness.

Psalm 80:1-19 (NASB95)
¹ Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth! ² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power And come to save us! ³ O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. ⁴ O Lord God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people? ⁵ You have fed them with the bread of tears, And You have made them to drink tears in large measure. ⁶ You make us an object of contention to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves. ⁷ O God of hosts, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved. ⁸ You removed a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. ⁹ You cleared the ground before it, And it took deep root and filled the land. ¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shadow, And the cedars of God with its boughs. ¹¹ It was sending out its branches to the sea And its shoots to the River. ¹² Why have You broken down its hedges, So that all who pass that way pick its fruit? ¹³ A boar from the forest eats it away And whatever moves in the field feeds on it. ¹⁴ O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine, ¹⁵ Even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, And on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself. ¹⁶ It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. ¹⁷ Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. ¹⁸ Then we shall not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name. ¹⁹ O Lord God of hosts, restore us; Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.^[2]

Notice in Psalm 80, that a lot of distress is discussed by David, yet he ask for God to “cause Your face to shine upon us” in verses 3, 17, and 19.  The smile of God is highly desirable, and sought after by those in distress.  Today we are in a state of distress; our world is topsy-turvy upside down.  There are many people who are intent upon living their lives in a form of godliness, (playing church), yet are not serious enough to put God’s word deep within their hearts.  As I read further into the commentary on the Hebrew word which was translated as “shine”, I ran across an interesting discussion which you may find interesting:

“Prosperity and life are closely linked with joy, so it is appropriate to find “happiness” as a meaning for “light.” The two concepts are parallel in Ps 97:1 l. In Est 8:16 (using ˒ôrâ) “light” is one of several words describing the relief and joy felt by the Jews in Persia when the decree to destroy them had been rescinded. Proverbs 15:30 speaks of the light of the eyes that makes the heart happy.

Another prominent metaphorical usage relates light to instruction. When a man finds wisdom, his face lights up (Eccl 8:1). The teaching of one’s parents (Prov 6:23) as well as the word of God are a lamp to one’s feet, a light to one’s path (Ps 119:105, 130). In Psalm 19, which compares the written Scriptures to nature and to the sun in particular, the commandments of the Lord are said to enlighten the eyes (v. 8 [H 9]). Most likely the challenge to Israel “to walk in the light of the Lord” denotes adherence to the laws and teachings of God (Isa 2:3, 5; cf. 51:4). In a word, whereas darkness is associated with death (Job 3:5; 10:21; Ps 88:6; 91:6). failure and suffering (Jer 28:12; Amos 5:18, 20; Lam 3:2), folly (Job 37:19; 38:2; Eccl 2:13), and sin (Job 24:16; Ps 74:20; Prov 2:13; Jer 49:9), light is associated with life (Mal 3:20 [H 4:2]), salvation and prosperity (Job 29:3; Isa 58:8; Ps 36:10 [H 9]), wisdom (Ps 19:9 [H 8]; 119:105, 130; Prov 6:23; Dan 5:11), justice (Isa 42:1–3, 6; 49:6; 51:4f; Mic 7:8).

The ultimate development is to compare God himself with light. The Lord is my light and my salvation (Ps 27:1), though a flaming fire to purge out wickedness (Isa 10:17). Isaiah describes the Messiah as a great light shining in a land of deep darkness (9:2 [H 1]). He will be “a light to the nations” so that God’s salvation may reach the ends of the earth (42:6; 49:6).

Though the ot is careful not to identify God and the sun, the shining glory of God is described in terms of the sun (Ezk 43:2). He is the resplendent one (Ps 76:4 [H 5]) with healing in his wings, or rays (Mal 4:2 [H 3:20]). In the future age of bliss the glory of the Lord will rise upon us (Isa 60:1–3) and he, not the sun, will be an everlasting light (Isa 60:19–20).”^[3]

Genesis 6:5-9 (NASB95)
⁵ Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷ The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. ⁹ These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. ^[4]

Sorry for the deviation on the study today, now back to the book.  The Lord delighted in Noah, and as a result of Him smiling upon Noah, the entire world’s population today are in debt to him.  God was ready to wipe man off the face of the earth, He was sick of the wickedness of men and decided to destroy all mankind.  Yet Noah stood righteous in God’s eyes and found favor with God, in other words, it could be said that God smiled upon him.

Rick goes into detail in discussing Noah’s life in the book, I would encourage you to read the chapter today as it gives great detail on his life and how God shone favor upon him.  Rick discussed several aspects of Noah’s life pointing out how that God smiled upon Noah, here are the headers:

1.      “God smiles when we love him supremely.”

2.      “God smiles when we trust him completely.”

3.      “God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly.”

4.      “God smiles when we praise and thank him continually.”

Noah’s life was a study of one who was in love with the Lord and walked with Him on a daily basis.  Imagine how it would have been to build an ocean liner in your front yard, with the ocean being several hundred miles away.  Add to that the fact that up to that time in history it had never even rained on the earth.  Then consider that this wasn’t a weekend project, it took him 120 years to complete the ark.  Noah followed the Lord and trusted Him completely working according to detailed plans that God had given him even though it looked impossible.  That doesn’t even consider the problems of storing food to feed the animals for one year in the ark, or how to coax the animals to walk into the ark once it was completed.  Noah relied upon God every step of the way and was an example to all of us.  Once the year was completed in the ark, Noah offered sacrifices to the Lord from the animals that were in the ark.  Talk about a step of faith!  Noah lived a life that was in touch with God, one that was intent upon worshipping Him, and one that was in constant fellowship with God.

When we consider the life of Noah, do we consider him a nut?  If God were to ask us today to do the same thing, would we believe God enough to carry through with His instructions?  This is the time that we should be drawing near to God, it is not a joke, this is serious business.  God desires to smile upon each of our lives, in order for that to happen, we have to quit playing church games in our lives and get serious about our relationship with Him.

I didn’t even begin to scratch the surface on what Rick discussed today, I hope that I have whetted your appetite for the book and would encourage you to buy it, borrow it, or somehow obtain a copy for the next few weeks.  I have a few copies available, email me. 

Father, as we consider Noah’s life today, I pray that you will draw each of the members of this study to Yourself.  Teach us to lean upon You completely in our lives.

In Him,

Joe Turner.