Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord

 

“If the man is poor and gives you his cloak as security, you are not to sleep in it.  Take it back to him at sundown so that he can use it through the night and bless you; and the Lord your God will count it as righteousness for you.” (Deuteronomy 24:12-13)

 

If you have an encounter with someone who is poor and they need something you have, don’t hold back in giving it to them.  If you are generous, you will be blessed because God will notice you.   There is something about generousity and kindness that pulls on the heartstrings of God. 

 

If I was to sum up all the rules that are given to the people in Deuteronomy, it would be best described as “let love prevail.”   In all things, consideration for others was a priority.   The Israelites were not only to be faithful to God and the covenant but build margin in their lives for loving others.

 

One of the rules was to pay someone their wages that very day if they need the funds. Another one to leave room in all you are given from your produce to provide for others.   Leave sheafs in the field, leave some olives on the trees for others to glean and don’t pick all the grapes.   Build margin in your life for loving others.   

 

When one received a harvest for the year, they were to first bring their offering before God and acknowledge His goodness and provision.   They were to remember His mighty miracles and powerful hand.   Then after coming before the Lord, one was to go celebrate with a feast including family and any others living among them, including those in need among them. 

 

They were to care for those who were right in their midst and among them. Every third year was to be a year of special generousity.  One was to give all their tithes to not just the temple and their spiritual leaders, but to all the migrants, orphans and widows— making sure they are all provided for and well fed.  

 

As made clear by Jesus when He walked among us as a people was that we are to love the Lord with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves because in this we find the fulfillment of the Covenant.   The “good way” in which we should walk is in the light of awe of God and expressing His heart to others.

 

As one source notes (not sure where this came from anymore), “The real proof of our love for God must always be how express, love and treat others with dignity and respect – esteeming them in love.”

 

If one fully obeys these commands that are provided to them by the Lord, Moses promises that God will transform them into the greatest nation in the world.  They will be continually blessed with crops, flocks and great and rich harvest.  Not only this, but He will walk among them and transform the people to be holy and dedicated to himself.  There will be such differentiation, that all the nations shall see and stand in holy awe. (Deuteronomy 27)

 

We know this differentiation from the success we experienced as a country.  We are the only nation that puts on all our money, “In God we trust.”   When our nation was established, the folks of our county, prayed, fasted and had a heart to leave this legacy for those who would follow them.   They saw it through His Word and, by faith, pulled down the promises of God.  Then through our country, so many nations have been protected, provided for and blessed.  Because of our national abundance, we have helped many other nations.  And many from other countries want to come here to live because of the blessings we experience. 

 

Making America great again is not to do with abundance or white privilege, it is about being a nation under God.  It is about aligning the laws of our nation with the Lord’s commands and making Him our priority.  It is about the blessing that only flows through covenant provision.  It is about being a people who serve Him and know the shining light of His face upon us.  Yet, we can’t even see this as a people because our faith has become watered down by consumption and love divided by all we hear in news reports whose whole purpose is to create drama and division.   

 

The place that I work is a group of people of this sorts--a covenantal ministry.  Based upon the passionate legacy of David Wilkerson and created with the heart, vision and sacrificial dedication of Pastor Rich our CEO, we have been blessed, protected and provided for at every turn.   The best part of this is that God walks among us to transform us into a people who are holy and dedicated to Himself. 

 

His mercy is stretched out wide from wall to wall and He has erected His pillars – He will establish, and in it is strength.  It is a place that is ran by human hands but not really.  God meets us and provides for us at every turn.  And the gift of Him walking among us is the greatest gift of where I work.

 

There is such a differentiation that we continually win awards as the best of the best for employers, treatment centers and the difference we make.   We have an unheard-of success rate in helping people get freedom and start a new life.   Even in the midst of the rioting and city of Minneapolis burning, our buildings stood unharmed with not even a stench from the smoke.  Even trouble turns out for good as God’s redemption is at the core of who we are as a people. 

 

As the head finance person, I sometimes get a little nervous and I am tempted to encourage us to shrink back or hold back in uncertain times. But God speaks to use faith-filled, generous measurements and that He will not forsake His people.  While I would be tempted to try to ‘secure’ our future by physical means, it is through His covenant promises which are built on trust that our future is secured.  

 

“I have no good thing apart from You God” sings

 

From my own life, I can say with confidence, no one whose hope is in the Lord is ever disappointed or put to shame.   There was a time that my life was dark and miserable.  I didn’t even want to live.  This is because I really didn’t know how to live.   As I lived a life away from the ways of God, I reaped despair, strife and misery.   I struggled with terrible anxiety and phobias.   I lived out of my deep woundings that so desperately needed to be healed.  And I lived with more toxic shame than I could carry for not knowing how to live. 

But the light of His shining face came in and changed everything.   He loved me to life and I found the true treasure.  And in living in His love, there is no good thing that I lack.  His goodness abounds to me at every turn.   Every day is filled with joy because He is in it.  He is the joy of my life.  

 

“Unmatched in power, unmatched in beauty, unmatched in glory, who is like You God?” sings.

 

Some years ago, when I worked at a university, after praying some years every day for the campus, He gave me the scripture from Zachariah 2:10, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.”   I wrote the scripture out and framed it so I could put it on my desk at work.  It was the day of my heart’s joy.   I had a new sense of His presence with me and then we had a powerful move of God in a prayer room and a few gatherings on campus.   

 

When I think about what I want out of life, since I came to know Him, this is my heart’s desire and joy.   Since then, the places I have worked, a deep sense of the Lord’s presence has already been dwelling among us.  I have been so grateful for this.  It has been my deepest desire.   It is everything that I want to order my life around.  

 

It is the desire of the Lord to dwell among us in places that give Him glory and honor.   In Deuteronomy 12:4-5 (LB) He tells His people, “You must not make sacrifices to your God just anywhere, as the heathen sacrifice to their gods.  Rather, you must build a sanctuary for him at a place he himself will select as his home.”

 

Sacrificing and rejoicing have been huge in those places that He dwells among us.  He goes on to say in Deuteronomy 12:6 to bring sacrifices to the Lord.  With great joy, bring offerings, tithes and more offerings to the Lord.  He goes on to say in Deuteronomy 12:7 (LB) that “There you and your families shall feast before the Lord your God, and shall rejoice in all He has done for you.”

 

The purpose of tithing, Deuteronomy 14:23 (LB) says, “is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.”  Part of God dwelling in our midst is that we are to be exclusively the Lord’s people, following His ways.  It is also a fruit of Him dwelling in our midst as we press into it.  

 

During the time of Judges, after the glory of the Lord left from dwelling in their midst (Ezekiel) and they were in years of barrenness, it says that the people did whatever what right in their own eyes.  Here in Deuteronomy 12:8 (LB) it says about God dwelling in their midst, “You will no longer go your own way as you do now, everyone doing whatever he thinks is right.”

 

The greatest gift we can be given is to have the Lord dwell in our midst and belong to Him.   The Lord promises that in this place, He will give us rest and keep us safe from all our enemies through His covenant promises as we order our lives around Him in all we give and all we do for loving God and others (Deuteronomy 12:10, LB).  

As powerful and treasured has His promise been to dwell among His people, one day we will see the fullness of this promise fulfilled.   He will fully come to take up His people and dwell in our midst.  When everything is ordered perfectly around Him, there will be no more pain, no more tears and no more darkness.  The light of the glory of the Lord will light our way in everything.   

Lord, there is no greater gift than having You dwell among us.  We are Your people and You have chosen us to be Your very own possession.   Let this be the differentiating factor that all can see Your goodness among us.   Dwell in our midst and let Your glory reside among us.   Fill us with joy as we live, not according to our own ways, but Yours – creating lots of margin for sacrificial love of those around us.