GETHSEMANE: Stay Awake

It is a small garden, peaceful, quiet oasis… Looks like just the place to get away from the busyness of the city and spend time in prayer.

There we were standing in the garden of Gethsemane.

I could just picture Jesus entering the garden with His disciples.  They had finished the Passover meal and Jesus brought then for a time of prayer.

As I think about Peter, James, and John. They were full from the meal and tired from the day’s activities, even though they likely had good intentions, they did not stay awake.

Jesus was grieved and He had brought these three men to keep watch and pray with Him in this garden.

“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Matthew 26:41

Their failure didn’t stop Jesus. He encouraged them to keep watching and praying and went away a second time to pray.

“My Father if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Mathew 26:42

The same a third time…they are sleeping and Jesus is praying. His prayer affirmed His surrendered life and gave Him strength to walk the path that God had planned for HIm.

May we also be reminded to keep alert and ready to live out God’s plan for our lives.

The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. 1 Peter 4:7

 

Wilderness of Zin: No Water!

My husband and I went on a tour of Israel several years ago. This post includes pictures and memories of our time there.

As we stood looking out over the desert below, there was nothing but dirt and sand for miles (or so it seemed).  I could just picture  thousands of Israelites.  The children who had left Egypt 40 years earlier, were grown now. They had watched their parents die in the wilderness, because they had rejected God’s plan for them to enter the land of Canaan (Numbers 13-14). Again,  whole congregation contended with Moses. Grumbling about their situation and blaming Moses for it.

The people then contended with Moses…”Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this widerness, for us and our beasts to die here?  Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place?  It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.”  Numbers 20:3-5

If I was leading these people, what would I have done?  How I would I have handled these people who had seen God’s miracles, yet complained and rejected God’s commands again and again?

Moses and Aaron went to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces…the glory of the Lord appeared to them.  There Moses was told  to speak to the rock before the people and then it would yield water for the people and their animals to drink.

…Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock.  And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”  Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly…Numbers 20: 9-11

           The water flowed and the peole drank…but Moses had been disobedient.   He had failed to treat God as holy before the congregation.  Both Moses and Aaron would suffer consequences of this action as neither would be allowed into the Promised Land. 

This action may seem small or even harmless to us…but to God it showed disbelief…Moses did not treat God as holy.

This event makes me think.

Are there times I fail to obey God in “little ways”? Do I fail to treat God as holy before others? Will I and others around me suffer consequencs of my actions and words. Will God avenger my evil deeds?