Bible Bibliography

Let’s look at some totally disconnected (but are they really?) Old Testament verses, shall we?

Deuteronomy 32:6 “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.”

Ezekiel 36:23 “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.”  And Isaiah 6:2,3 “² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Micah 4:8 “As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you;” And Exodus 19:6 ”’…and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

Ezra 10:11 “Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” And Psalm 40:18 “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”

Proverbs 30:8 “Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion,” and Exodus 16:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.”

Numbers 14:19 “Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your loving kindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now” and Jonah 4:11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

Psalm 97:10 “Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked” and Amos 5:15 “Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate!  Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

And that should be enough…but for good measure and a shot of tradition, let’s add:

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.”

Psalm 62:11 “Once God has spoken; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God”
And one last Psalm reference
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”

Wow, those all seem pretty significant.  Those few verses tell us that God is our Father, and that He is holy.  That the nations of the world will be restored to God, and that His Will should be done.   They tell us that we should not be greedy and ask only for what we truly need (not what we truly want).  They tell us that we should ask God to forgive us just as He has forgiven others from the time they were taken out of Egypt…with the logical conclusion that if HE can forgive Nineveh, that maybe we should forgive our personal Ninevehs.  And that we should hate evil and rely on God to lead us.  And just for tradition let’s add that His is the kingdom, the power and the glory.  Amen.  Because in the end, when is it bad to praise God a little more?

Listen for the Whisper that tells you that when Jesus speaks, it’s with scriptural authority.  Just like my earlier devotional about Jesus’ quoting of King David as he died on the cross, this devotional proves that when Jesus speaks, He speaks with unequivocal knowledge of the Word of God.  By now, you realize that the verses above are just a few references from the Old Testament for what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” from Matthew 6:9-13.  And while we’ve found in older manuscripts that the last part was added to the original text, it’s not a bad ending to throw on there…even if it’s just tradition.  Sometimes you need to just get out of the way and let the Jesus speak for Himself.

Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]

Yup…Amen.

~Dwayne

ListenForTheWhisper@comcast.net
http://listenforthewhisper.blogspot.com