The Sword of the LORD

“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” (Psalms 34:8).    When I was very small and resistant to trying new foods (especially vegetables), my mother would say, “Just taste one bite, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.”  Usually she would have a fight getting me to try even one bite because I had already made up my mind that I didn’t like it.  Something about the color, or the texture, or just the way it laid on the plate would turn me against it.  As unsuccessful as my mom's method was, I still tried it with my own kids with similar results.  Once in a great while, though, they would actually take a taste and, lo and behold, they would like what they tried and want more.    David tells us in Psalm 34, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”  One can never know just how good a thing is until they experience it for themselves.  We can try to express to others how sweet this re

Good is always the enemy of best.  Doing good things for God is not the same as doing the thing that God asks us to do.  We can fill our lives with many religious activities and good works, and still be disobedient to God because we do not do the thing that He asks.  Saul, the first King of Israel, fell out of favor with God by offering a great sacrifice to the Lord instead of simply obeying what he had been told to do.  Jesus told a rich ruler who had kept all of the commandments since he was a child that he yet lacked one thing from having eternal life.  That man walked away grieved because, despite all his devotion, he could not do the one thing Jesus asked.   After being delivered from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, the Israelites were then lead by Moses into the Desert of Sinai.  God had told them that He would lead them to a land flowing with milk and honey - the Promised Land - but they didn’t know where that was!  They didn’t know what direction to go, or how far away it