No Blessing Goes Uncontested
Introduction
‘No blessing goes uncontested’ is one of Bishop Sandy Millar’s many original aphorisms, with which he would encourage us all. During his time as vicar of HTB he taught us not to be discouraged by the difficulties we faced because, as he liked to reassure us, ‘No blessing goes uncontested.’
God will bless you in amazing and wonderful ways. In the passages for today we read about the promise, the extent and the privilege of God’s blessing.
However, it was true of the people of God in the Old Testament and of the disciples of Jesus, and it will also be true in your life that ‘No blessing goes uncontested.’
Psalm 41:1–6
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 Blessed are those who have regard for the weak;
the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.
2 The LORD protects and preserves them—
they are counted among the blessed in the land—
he does not give them over to the desire of their foes.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed
and restores them from their bed of illness.
4 I said, “Have mercy on me, LORD;
heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die and his name perish? ”
6 When one of them comes to see me,
he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander;
then he goes out and spreads it around.
Commentary
Blessings contested by trouble, sickness and slander
1. Blessings on those who care for the poor
Blessings follow those ‘who have regard for the weak’ (v.1) – those who care, for example, about the poor, the hungry, the sick, the addicts and those in prison. This should be a characteristic of those who follow the Lord. If you care for the poor, God promises to deliver you in times of trouble, to protect you, to preserve your life and to bless you (v.2). He promises to sustain you and to heal you (v.3). But these blessings from God do not go uncontested.
2. Contested by trouble, sickness and slander
There may be ‘times of trouble’ (v.1b). There may be ‘foes’ (v.2b). There may be periods of ‘illness’ (v.3). There may be enemies: ‘they speak falsely, while their hearts gather slander; then they go out and spread it abroad’ (v.6).
Being aware that there are enemies around should put you on guard. There are some, for example, who come to ‘gather slander’. They are on a fishing expedition to find gossip against you so that they can go out and ‘spread it abroad’. But God promises his blessing and that he will ‘not surrender’ you (v.2b).
One of the encouraging things about the psalm is that this blessing of protection does not seem to be dependent on you always getting it right. David is very aware of his own sin, crying out to God for mercy and healing where he has fallen short (v.4).
Prayer
Lord, thank you for all the blessings you have poured out on me. Thank you for your promise to deliver me in times of trouble, sickness and slander.
Luke 9:57–10:24
The Cost of Following Jesus
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
22 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
Commentary
Blessings contested by Satan and demonic powers
1. Blessings of following Jesus
As a follower of Jesus, you are more blessed than any human being in history who lived before Jesus. Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it’ (10:23–24).
The blessings are so great that they far outweigh any apparent cost. At times, you may have to say farewell to comfort (9:58), compromise (v.60) and even company (vv.61–62).
Like the ‘seventy-two’, you have the great blessing of being sent out by Jesus into a huge harvest (10:2). You have the privilege of healing the sick and of telling people, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep’ (v.9, MSG).
It is not just the Twelve who were sent out to heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom. The seventy-two went out and did exactly that. They returned ‘with joy’ (v.17). Jesus is ‘full of joy through the Holy Spirit’ (v.21) as he sees the wonderful blessings that come to his disciples.
2. Contested by Satan and demonic powers
Jesus sends us out as ‘lambs among wolves’ (v.3). But our ultimate enemy in the New Testament is spiritual (‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood’, Ephesians 6:12). When ‘the seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” [Jesus] replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy…”’ (Luke 10:17–19). The enemy is Satan and his demons.
It is remarkable that, almost as an aside, Jesus says he was there at the moment, before the creation of the world, when Satan fell.
Again, you are promised victory. The demons have to submit to the name of Jesus (vv.17,20). But Jesus says there is an even greater blessing and that is that ‘your names are written in heaven’ (v.20).
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you that my name is written in heaven. Help me not to be put off by attacks, because you have given me ‘authority… to overcome all the power of the enemy’ (v.19).
Deuteronomy 1:1–2:23
The Command to Leave Horeb
1 These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan —that is, in the Arabah —opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.)
3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them. 4 This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth.
5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
6 The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land . Go in and take possession of the land the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.”
The Appointment of Leaders
9 At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. 10 The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! 12 But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? 13 Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.”
14 You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.”
15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.” 18 And at that time I told you everything you were to do.
Spies Sent Out
19 Then, as the LORD our God commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites through all that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen, and so we reached Kadesh Barnea. 20 Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us. 21 See, the LORD your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
22 Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”
23 The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe. 24 They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshkol and explored it. 25 Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.”
Rebellion Against the LORD
26 But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. 27 You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt in fear. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’”
29 Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
34 When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: 35 “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly. ”
37 Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, “You shall not enter it, either. 38 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. 39 And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. 40 But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea. ”
41 Then you replied, “We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us.” So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
42 But the LORD said to me, “Tell them, ‘Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.’”
43 So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD’s command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. 44 The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah. 45 You came back and wept before the LORD, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you. 46 And so you stayed in Kadesh many days—all the time you spent there.
Wanderings in the Wilderness
2 Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the LORD had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir.
2 Then the LORD said to me, 3 “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north. 4 Give the people these orders: ‘You are about to pass through the territory of your relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. 6 You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.’”
7 The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
8 So we went on past our relatives the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion Geber, and traveled along the desert road of Moab.
9 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land. I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as a possession.”
10 (The Emites used to live there—a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. 11 Like the Anakites, they too were considered Rephaites, but the Moabites called them Emites. 12 Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land the LORD gave them as their possession.)
13 And the LORD said, “Now get up and cross the Zered Valley. ” So we crossed the valley.
14 Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then, that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. 15 The LORD’s hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.
16 Now when the last of these fighting men among the people had died, 17 the LORD said to me, 18 “Today you are to pass by the region of Moab at Ar. 19 When you come to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them to war, for I will not give you possession of any land belonging to the Ammonites. I have given it as a possession to the descendants of Lot. ”
20 (That too was considered a land of the Rephaites, who used to live there; but the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. 21 They were a people strong and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. The LORD destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out and settled in their place. 22 The LORD had done the same for the descendants of Esau, who lived in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them. They drove them out and have lived in their place to this day. 23 And as for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place.)
Commentary
Blessings contested by problems, burdens and disputes
1. Blessings in the wilderness years
Are you going through hard times at the moment? Do you feel like you are in a wilderness period of your life?
Sometimes there seems to be a long delay between the promise of God and the fulfilment of that promise. What do we do while we are waiting for God to do what he has promised to do?
During these times, your faith is tested. Learn to trust God, seek his presence and worship him when life is hard.
Deuteronomy is one of the longest sermons ever preached. It is certainly the longest sermon in the Bible and the last preached by Moses.
In the book of Deuteronomy we read of Moses’ parting instructions to the people. Here Moses reiterates the law God has given the people, retransmitting God’s ways for a new generation. A key theme is ‘the land’, which is perhaps paralleled in the New Testament by the blessings of the ‘kingdom of God’, which come through being in Christ and living under God’s rule and reign.
The Bible is the story of God’s people, God’s blessing and God’s rule. You experience God’s blessing when you are living under God’s rule. At the start of Deuteronomy, we are reminded about God’s blessings to his people in the past, present and future.
First, regarding the past, Moses said, ‘The Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son… The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything’ (1:31; 2:7).
Second, concerning the present, Moses reminds them of the ways in which God has been faithful to his promises to Abraham: ‘The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky’ (1:10). Four times in the opening chapter we discover that God is giving his people the land of Canaan (vv.8,20,21,25). It is a gift of undeserved grace to God’s people – much as it is pure grace that you and I can have a relationship with God through Jesus.
Third, in relation to the future, Moses spoke of all the blessings God will give to his people. He prayed, ‘May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!’ (v.11). You will increasingly experience God’s blessing as you continue to live under God’s rule.
2. Contested by problems, burdens and disputes
Yet alongside all these blessings Moses also highlights a series of problems, burdens and disputes (v.12). God said, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain… See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land’ (vv.6–8). It was only eleven days’ journey, but it had taken them forty years! They had developed a wilderness mentality and allowed themselves to be overcome by fear and discouragement (v.21), grumbling (v.27), loss of heart (v.28) and opposition (v.26 onwards).
Now the time had come to ‘get moving’ (v.7, MSG). Yet Moses did not promise that they would be free of problems. In fact, Moses talked about ‘your enemies’ (v.42). They were going to have many battles ahead and much opposition. The key is to follow the Lord wholeheartedly (v.36b).
We also need leadership and organisation. Moses told them to choose ‘wise, understanding and respected’ people (v.13) and then to delegate. Choosing the right people is the key to delegation and will avoid the need to micromanage. As General George Patton said, ‘Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.’ Delegation involves putting others in charge but being willing to take ultimate responsibility (vv.9–18).
Never allow opposition to put you off. Moses said, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you’ (vv.29–30).
Prayer
Lord, help me not to be put off by problems, burdens and disputes, fear, discouragement or opposition, but to follow you wholeheartedly and to enjoy your blessings to the full.
Pippa adds
In Luke 10:19 it says,
‘I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.’
It is encouraging that we have authority over ‘all the power of the enemy’, but I’m not going to try trampling on snakes and scorpions to put that bit to the test.
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References
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.