HE IS EXALTED...GOD MOST HIGH...

MEDITATION MONDAY

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When I was in elementary school, I learned that there can be different degrees of words, such as

• high
• higher
• highest
  

It was an easy concept to learn for two reasons:

1. My dad was in the military and rank is something that is understood by even a soldier's child. Since my dad had started out as a lowly private and worked his way up, I was in awe, in middle school, of my best friend's dad who just happened to be Admiral of the 7th fleet. Although we lived in Okinawa, I understood that except for maybe the Secretary of Defense or the President of the United States, the buck stopped with him.


2. For years, we were stationed in Utah, west of the Wasatch mountain range and in Colorado on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. Mountains were catagorized by their height. When I was in high school, we could sit in our living room and look out our "picture window" at Pikes Peak - known by many as "America's Peak". It is the most visited mountain in the United States of America. Pikes Peak is the first mountain seen in the horizon as you travel west through the plains states. Sometimes it can be seen up to 130 miles away. The song that we know as "America the Beautiful" was penned from the top of Pikes Peak as the author looked back out toward Kansas and the east. Conversations about the mountain range, just west of Colorado Springs, include comparisons of the heights of the mountains. "Of the three highest mountains... which is the most high?" Of, course, "Pikes Peak" is always the answer.

For years, I thought that Pikes Peak was the "most high" mountain in the continental United States, only to be out heighted by Mt. McKinley in Alaska. I loved the fact that I had lived in such an "exclusive" place. Boy, was I shocked to find out that there are almost 60 other mountains in the USA that are higher than "my mountain".

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Isn't the same thing true when it comes to God? Millions of people believe that their god is the highest. Their god might give them "feel good feelings" but their god is not the MOST HIGH GOD! When will they be shocked into that realization?

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So, in the Old Testament, why did the children of Israel whine and complain? After all, The Most High had...

• sent 10 amazing plagues to save them from the Egyptians
• led them toward the Red Sea by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
• had opened up the Red Sea for them to cross through
• had gone behind them in the pillar to separate them from those in pursuit
• closed the Red Sea to swallow up the Egyptians
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Exodus 14:31 says,

"And when the Israelites saw

the great power the LORD displayed

against the Egyptians,

the people feared the LORD

and put their trust in Him

and in Moses his servant."

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In the wilderness, God provided food, clothing and all necessities for His people. Yet, they murmured and complained. We are told that the children of Israel even had this visual, via the tabernacle, of how important holiness was to God. There was a holy place. Then, there was a Most Holy Place. They knew the Most High God, who could forgive their sins, came to the Most Holy Place. Yet, they continued to sin. Steve shared this diagram with us yesterday in his wonderful adult Bible class.

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This week, our theme song is He Is Exalted. I looked up the definition of the word and sure enough...it means what I thought it meant:

• EXALTED = elevated in rank, character, and/or status
  

God has shown to His people over and over again that He is God Most High. Yet, we, along with the Israelites, seem to be short rememberers. In the workbook, for our Tuesday ladies' class entitled, The Virtuous Woman, Shattering the Superwan Myth, Vicki Courtney says this,

• "Again and again, God forgave the Israelites' rebellion at the prompting of His servant Moses. As a result, Moses declared that God is slow to anger, abounding in love, and forgiving of sin and rebellion. However, the Israelites sin was not without consequences."

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As the Bible tells the story, the people did not fear the LORD, and because of this all of the men 20 years or older (except Caleb and Joshua who responded in faith) would die in the desert. Their children would enter the promised land.

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In Numbers 14:24,

God says,

"But because my servant Caleb

has a different spirit

and follows me wholeheartedly,

I will bring him into the land he went to,

and his descendants will inherit it."

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What amazing praise for a child of God to hear from his Heavenly Father! We named one of our sons Caleb after this "different spirited" man. A man who had a holy reverent "fear" for who God was and faithfully obeyed God without grumbling or complaining.

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It seems that when people "get the picture" of God and understand that He is truly THE MOST HIGH GOD, that it forever changes them deep in their spirits. Joshua and Caleb "got the picture". I believe in Proverbs 31 that is what God says about the virtuous woman, "A woman who fears the LORD shall be praised." A virtuous woman knows deep in her heart what her Heavenly Father's rank is. Like Caleb, she learns to follow the LORD wholeheartedly.

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As we finish up today's post, join me in meditating on the lives of these faithful people who knew God's place in their lives and actually referred to God as THE MOST HIGH:

• Melchizedek - In Genesis 14, he said to Abram, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand."


• Moses - In Deuteronomy, he spoke to Israel the words of a song, that included this: "Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations.Ask your father, and he will inform you,your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples..."


• David - He spoke the words of this song to the LORD, in 2 Samuel 22, "In my distress I called upon the LORD, Yes, I cried to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice,And my cry for help came into His ears....The LORD thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice....He delivered me from my strong enemy."


• Satan - We're told in Isaiah 14 that even Satan knew God's place and wanted it, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. "


• King Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel 3 came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire."


• Daniel - In chapter 5, Daniel was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes."


• The Angel Gabriel to Mary - In Luke 1, the angel told Mary to not be afraid of the son that would come from her womb, "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end. "


• Jesus - After Jesus grew up as Mary's son, He said, "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."


• Demon-possessed man - In Luke 8, Jesus "was met by a certain man from the city who was possessed with demons; and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs. And seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, "What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me. For He had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man."


• Stephen - In Acts 7, Stephen said, " The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: 'Heaven is My throne, And earth is the footstool of My feet..."

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