"Reign In Life" -2

"They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust." (Psalms 72:9) Not that the wilderness dwellers are a bad thing, because there is where God is in control; but the thing about those that dwell in the wilderness, is that they are always looking for a place to settle, always seeking to be brought out of that wilderness. In other words, it is a place where God's direction is being sought after, which is a good place to be, you just don't want to find yourself wanting to stay there. That is the whole point of God's direction being what guides our lives, in that it's not about what we want that matters; it's not even about what we think, but what God says that matters most; even if what He says does not make any sense at all, because those are the times when miracles happen and great battles are won. If you don't think it is so, then you have not studied your Bible very well; the cross of Christ made no sense whatsoever, but look at what Jesus was able to do from that cross! The enemies of Christ are not just people that are enemies of God, at least they don't think that they are; some of them are very devoted to what ever form of worship and service to God they think they are performing. I don't know if we can totally understand the real impact that Jesus had upon religion in general, let alone the Jewish religion. But then again, it all depends on the view of the cross; just like that serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness, they accepted it's purpose and lived, they denied it's purpose and died. But, it was not their denial of the acceptance that killed them! That is where people have it all wrong, because they were dying already; they just needed to accept the gift of life. That is kind of the way I see the "lick the dust" part of this verse, because it takes work to deny Him, and it takes work to worship God without Him; but in the end, that's all you get a taste of, the dust left behind... "What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God's standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in Him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced."" (Romans 9:30-33) NLT