"So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. ²⁶ No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. ²⁷ “I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. ²⁹ I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land. ³¹ And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ³² You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

Exodus 23:25-30

 

The first thing we can rightly see from the beginning of that verse 25 is what qualifies us for the blessing or the benefits and it is service! It says, "So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will" which means when you serve, then the Lord will do something in return. Now, the opposite of that is if you don't serve the Lord, then you may not be qualified for the benefits. Well, somebody may say "what about people that aren't serving the Lord, they enjoy some of these things that we just read in Exodus." Well, the truth is this: the devil also blesses his own really. But this will be a matter for another time if God permits. But let us focus on what the Lord wants us to learn in this message for today.

 

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Now, in this chapter of the book of Exodus, there are a number of benefits of serving the Lord that are mentioned, and I want us to extract them out before we start to examine them one after the other. The benefits are:

 

a. The Lord Blesses your bread and water

b. The Lord takes away sickness far from you

c. You will not suffer miscarriage of any kind nor be barren

d. The Lord fulfill the number of your days

e. The Lord sends His fear before you that will confuse your enemies and drive them out before you

f. The Lord increases your influence

 

A. The Lord Blesses Your Bread And Water.

What exactly does this mean? In many places in the Scriptures, bread actually signifies food. When Jesus was teaching His disciples the Lord's prayer, He said to them to pray thus in Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day, our daily bread." In the Old Testament, the Bible recorded as well how God fed the children of Israel with bread daily in the wilderness. In Exodus 16:1-4 (NIV), the children of Israel had complained to Moses and Aaron how they lacked quality food to eat in their sojourn to the promised land. But see what God did.

 

"The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions."

 

Did we see that? The Lord rained down bread from heaven for the people so that they can have what to eat. So, when God said in that passage (Exodus 23:25) that when you serve Him, He will bless your bread and water; that statement actually connotes a number of things and I want to show us.

 

Number one, it means that you will never lack bread to eat and water to drink. Psalms 23:1 (NIV) tells us: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing." Number two, it means that God would be the source of your daily supply, just as Jesus told His disciples to pray to the Father for their daily bread. 2 Corinthians 9:10 (NIV) says: "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness." Number three, it means that your bread and your water will not harm you because the Lord has blessed it. Mark 16:18 tells us: "they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

 

So, how do you enjoy all these dimension of God's blessing on your bread and your water? It is in the place of serving Him. When you wholeheartedly serve the Lord, He will be totally committed to you and yours too.

 

B. The Lord Takes Away Sickness Far From You

When you serve the Lord, He takes away sickness from you. Now, in case we don't know yet, the root cause of many sicknesses today is the devil. God's plan for us is that we live in health with a prosperous soul. 3 John 2 (NIV) says: "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well." Also, David wrote in Psalms 103:3 something that God specializes in doing. It says: "Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases." When one is not serving the Lord, it means one is serving the devil and the devil will reward you with everything that he possesses, even sicknesses and diseases.

 

Why will the Lord take away sickness far from you? Because He wants you to fulfill the number of your days and serve His purpose and Agenda. You cannot be held down by sickness or any disease when you are in the service of God. Covid-19, Lasser Fever or whatever disease that is plaguing the world cannot come near you. Of all the plagues that came to the land of Egypt, non was recorded among the people of God. There was no record that Jesus fell ill in His thirty-three and half years on earth. Jesus was super healthy, walking from one place to another preaching about the kingdom of God. What was His secret? He was busy about serving God. He said somewhere, "I must do the work of Him that sent me while it is day, the night comes when no one can work." This must also be our mindset. When we throw ourselves into the serving the Lord, he takes away sickness and diseases far from us.

 

C. You Will Not Suffer Miscarriage Of Any Kind Nor Be Barren

Now, miscarriage is not only peculiar to pregnant women alone. Anyone can suffer miscarriage irrespective of whether they are pregnant or not. For example, a man or a woman may suffer miscarriage in his or her business. An example is in the book of 1 Kings 22:48-49. The Bible says Jehoshaphat's business suffered a setback and the man was greatly discouraged and distressed for it. "Now Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail—they were wrecked at Ezion Geber. ⁴⁹ At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my men sail with yours,” but Jehoshaphat refused." That is an example of a business miscarriage.

 

Also, a man or a woman may suffer miscarriage in his or her vision. A vision that is not carried to term or that does not come into manifestation has suffered a miscarriage. But the word of the Lord is that when you serve Him, there will never be any miscarriage whatsoever in what you do. The latter part of that benefit says you will not Be Barren. We know that God is a God of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness has to do with expansion and increase, productivity and effectiveness, prosperity and success. When God made man as we read in Genesis, the Bible recorded that God blessed them and commanded them to be fruitful, and not the opposite.

 

So, when you serve the Lord, one of the benefits is that you will not suffer miscarriage or be barren. You will be fruitful in all that you set your hands to do and your endeavors will not suffer any miscarriage. See what the Lord said in Leviticus 26:3-5 to corroborate this: "‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, ⁴ then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely."

 

D. The Lord Fulfill The Number Of Your Days.

What does it mean to fulfill the number of one's days? It simply means longevity of life. In the Scriptures, longevity of life is usually seen and regarded as a blessing. Job 5:26 says "you shall come to the grave at a full age, as a sheaf of grains ripens in its season." Also in Isaiah 65:20, the Bible says: "No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed." Also, Ephesians 6:1-3 (NIV) says "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³ “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

 

All the Scriptures above establishes the fact that longevity of life is actually a blessing. But the Lord is now saying that when you serve Him, He will confer this blessing on you by Himself. The Scripture says "He will ensure that He fulfill the number of your days." In other words, you don't have to struggle to keep yourself alive, as long as you are in the service of God, He will see to it that you fulfill your days on earth. When you are serving the Lord, you don't have to be afraid of death simply because death is not your portion. Death cannot rear its ugly head around you because you are in the Lord's service. It is until you are done and God Himself takes you home.

 

See what David said in Psalms 55:23:

 

But you, God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

 

E. The Lord Sends His Fear Before You That Will Confuse Your Enemies And Drive Them Out Before You.

 

An example of this benefit is found in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 20. The Bible says three nations; Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir had conspired together to fight Judah. When Jehoshaphat heard the news, he was greatly distressed and afraid. But he did not allow the news to weigh him down, the Bible recorded that he simply turned to the Lord for help for himself and all the people of Judah, and we can see this from verse 3-4 and verse 13.

 

"And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴ So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. ¹³ Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord."

2 Chronicles 20:3-4, 13

 

After they sought the Lord, He did something on their behalf and this is the crux of what I want to share with us here. After Jehoshaphat and the people resorted to the Lord for help, then He spoke to them on what they should do and this we can see from verse 14-18. The Bible recorded that:

 

"Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. ¹⁵ And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶ Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” ¹⁸ And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. ¹⁹ Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high."

2 Chronicles 20:14-19

 

As they began to do this, singing praises to the Lord and shouting with their voices loud and high, something terrific happened in the camp of their enemies. Because I really want us to get this point, that talks about the Lord sending His fear before you that will confuse your enemies. There is a way it works, and it is important you know how it works so that it can work for you. You see, when you are busy serving the Lord, you don't need to bother about your enemies or your detractors, the Lord Himself, the Almighty God will be the one to take care of them by Himself in His own way. You don't need to fight your own battles, you just keep on serving the Lord and see Him fight your battles for you.

 

If you continue that story from verse 22, the Bible says:

 

"Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. ²³ For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. ²⁴ So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped."

2 Chronicles 20:22-24

 

So what happened? The Lord had sent His fear before Jehoshaphat and his people so that before they arrived at the battle field, the enemies had turned against themselves and have helped destroy themselves by themselves. The Bible recorded in verse 24 that no one had escaped among them. So, what happened in this story that we just read is exactly what it means when the Lord says He will Send His Fear Before You That Will Confuse Your Enemies And Drive Them Out Before You. Jehoshaphat and his people did not have to do the fighting, all they just enjoyed was the spoil of war. The Bible says they packed enough to the point that there was no room for them again to pack.

 

F. The Lord Increases Your Influence.

Serving the Lord brings about influence. You cannot wholeheartedly serve the Lord and you turn out to be a nonentity. The disciples did not turn out to be a nonentity. Jesus had told them; "follow me and I will make you." Colossians 3:23-24 says "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ." As we heartily serves the Lord, He increases our influence.

 

I believe you have been blessed!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!