Numbers 8-9
Most of what is happening here is in
retrospect; that is, it happened before the census that begins the book. It is
looking back to the order of service and the servants of the tabernacle and
then to the first Passover in the tabernacle. If you look at the date notation
of Numbers 9:1-5, you'll notice it is about 15 days earlier than the date given
for the census in Numbers 1:1. Apparently God doesn't know North Americans
always like to read things in chronological order. Actually, when this was
written, who were the North Americans? Maybe they wouldn't have minded.
Numbers 8
Vs. 1-4 These were the seven lampstands
inside the outer court around the tabernacle, but not the one lampstand in the
Holy Place. These lampstands would have allowed for light in the courtyard. It
makes sense that they would have needed light so that sacrifices could have
been made in the evening and so the priests could see to go into the Holy Place
in the evening. This was an instruction not given earlier.
Vs. 5-26 This cleansing of the Levites
actually took place before the Passover feast in chapter 9. Logistically, this
cleansing would have taken a few days, and it was important to get the Levites
cleansed so they could serve in the Passover preparation and following feast.
Vs. 5-8 So, the Levites were cleansed outside
and in. I don't know how to read v. 7. I mean, they didn't have to be bald, so
does this mean shaving everything (armpits, etc.) or was it just some kind of
trimming? It wasn't required for Aaron or his sons and, from this point on, was
never required of any priest or any Levite.
My understanding of this is that it was a
very visual, one-time cleansing, and that they shaved all the hair off their
bodies, head to toe, like making them newborns, showing they were born for the
service of Israel.
Vs. 9-11 Representatives of the people
actually laid hands on the representatives of the Levites to set them apart for
the service, thereby transferring the status of "firstborn" from the
people to the Levites. In a way, the Levites were a ransom for the people. Read
what it says about the Levites taking the place of the firstborn and the link
to the Passover night when the firstborn were killed.
V. 21 Notice that it mentions a couple of
times that Aaron offered the Levites as a wave offering. Usually the priest
waved sheaves of barley or wheat in thanks to God for the harvest and then this
offering belonged to the priests. This meant that whatever symbolism was present
for Pentecost and the Feast of the Firstfruits was present here also. The wave
offering was a thanksgiving for the provision and blessing of God, there
represented in His provision of food, and here in His provision of service for
the people. This tribe was given to serve and protect (v.19). The Levites were
a living sacrifice presented to God.
Take your time reading this and do a lot of
underlining. There is a lot of interesting stuff and lots of symbolism.
Symbolically, I think that this is what the church
is meant to be to the world.
I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans
12:1)
But on some points I have
written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by
God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of
the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable,
sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:15-16)
But you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
Numbers 9
Vs. 1-14 This Passover means that the people
had been out of Egypt for one year. God has done some incredible work in a
year, making them a nation with laws and order. The entire nation was built and
focused around their worship of God. Every law and ordinance, and every feast
and ceremony, have been connected to their relationship with God and His love
for them.
Vs. 6-12 Notice in v. 6 there are actually
guys who understood the laws and realized they were out of step and came to
Moses and Aaron. What this tells me is that even though they were more than 2
million people, they were really obeying. I can't think of any group of two
million people anywhere who all obey anything. It says in the text that it
happened here. Too bad it wouldn't last very long. God made provisions for
exceptions. If the people would have come to the priest and asked, it seems
that God was ready to extend grace.
Vs. 13-14 It only makes sense that if people
didn't want to be a part of this covenant community with God, they could have
left. Israel had plenty of neighbors to whom they could have gone. But if they
were part of the community, they needed to live according to the rules. It
could be that being "cut off" would mean excommunication from Israel.
Yet the fact that he would bear his sin suggests that if a man could, but
didn't go to the Passover, he would be punished by death. In Israel's history,
we will see plenty of patience and mercy on God's part, but ultimately, to
openly resist God, or worse, to spit in His face, resulted in death. Foreigners,
on the other hand, who became part of the community by circumcision, were
invited to become part of the community.
Vs. 15-23 This is a summary of what happened
when they moved, over the next 39 years. The tabernacle has just been set up,
and the order of priests and Levites and the plan for taking down and setting
up the tabernacle has just been given. Israel, organized as they are now, has
never marched. That will happen tomorrow. Get ready.
There are so many things in this section that
are amazing. They lived in the visual, daily presence of God's grace to them.
They awoke every morning to the absolute certainty of His blessing. They had a
pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, and food every morning -
miracles beyond our comprehension. How much more secure and blessed and
confident as a nation could you be? And with all of that, in a couple of
chapters you'll want to cry.
We, of course, are the same. We have been
given the absolute blessing of the Father. We are secure eternally in Christ
and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is exactly why we need the church. The
church is comprised of disciples following Christ into the harvest to glorify
the Father by bearing fruit and so proving to be disciples of our Lord. We need
each other to keep us encouraged and focused on the truth, in the harvest and
aflame in His love. We need each other. None of us is always up and always feeling
great about ourselves or our walk with the Lord. This mission is very serious
and full of joy and purpose to be sure, but we get tired. We forget the stakes
are grave and that people without Christ, from every race and nation and
language, are in some sense, our responsibility. We are to be those consecrated
people, set apart by God, to give our lives in service to Christ to reach them,
that they might be saved. This is the love and joy of Christ. To live for
worship services and pot lucks has nothing to do with the true love of Christ,
and it's not a lot of fun. It only gets us the kind of temporary devotion we
see all over today, and what we'll see in Israel in the next week.
Mark 13:14-37
Vs. 14-23 Jesus is now issuing a future
warning to the believing Jews who will be in Jerusalem during the Tribulation
at the close of the age. The judgment of the Lord on the earth will last seven
years. The first 3.5 years will take their toll in natural disasters, but
Israel will enjoy peace from these disasters and from the attack of its
neighbors. During this time there will be a revival of faith among the Jews,
not only in a return to orthodoxy, bringing about the rebuilding of the temple;
but many will come to faith in Jesus as their Messiah. These followers of
Christ will become the greatest missionary movement in history and will blanket
the earth (Mk. 13:10). The hour when Israel will be a witness to the world will
come. People from every nation will believe. In Jerusalem there will be two
witnesses, like Moses and Aaron, who will be calling down all of this trouble.
The book of Revelation shows us the "heavenly" side of what is
happening (broken seals, etc.), but these two men will be the human side of the
story.
At the midway point in these seven years, there
will be a judgment in heaven. (It may be at this point, because Satan is
otherwise occupied, that an army from the far north will come to attack
Jerusalem and be destroyed as it camps in the area around the Dead Sea.) Satan
will be cast out and everything will become much darker. The witnesses will be
slain. Satan's human governor, the "anti-Christ," will finally be fed
up with the Jews and the spread of faith (resistance to his rule). He will
launch a campaign of extermination, against both the Jews and all believers in
Christ. At this middle point, he will break the peace agreement with Israel,
enter the temple and defile it, making it "unclean" for worship by
setting up an image of some kind of abomination, and declare himself to be god
or like god, a kind of Christ. At this point, when those living in that
generation, who are in Jerusalem, hear of this guy entering the temple, they
are to fly into the hills, probably toward Jordan and the Dead Sea.
V. 19 means that things will get
exponentially worse. The Tribulation will kick into afterburner. Both Jews and
Christians will be sought and killed worldwide; and yet, they will be hidden by
some of the people on the planet. Let's call them the sheep. Not everyone will
be blind to how the Word of God is playing out. There will be a minority from
every nation who will have faith. Yet the time will be so intense that it would
lead to the human race exterminating itself. The Jews as a people will cry out,
somewhere, somehow, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord;" and, as Jesus promised when He wept over Jerusalem before His
crucifixion, He will come, in the clouds, returning to the Mt. of Olives where
He left His disciples.
All of this will make sense for the people
going through it. Verse 23 is Jesus' encouragement and warning to them.
Vs. 24-31 All of this is a summary of Jesus'
coming, short and sweet.
V. 27 When Jesus comes He will come with
everyone, all who have ever believed in Him from the OT and the church. Those
killed during the Tribulation will also be resurrected. In sending out His
angels at this time, He is gathering all of the Jewish and Gentile believers on
the planet, unresurrected, to Jerusalem. After this, begins the judgment of the
Gentile nations (the sheep and the goats) and then the beginning of the
Millennial Kingdom.
Vs. 28-31 In the parables, Jesus describes
this as "the close of the age." A new age will begin. He will reign
1000 years on the earth. The generation mentioned in v. 30 is the generation
that sees the temple defiled by the abomination that makes desolate. This is
all meant to give hope to the people reading Mark and going through the great
Tribulation.
Vs. 32-37 The hour of v. 32 is the initial
time of the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation. Nothing will ever be
normal again after the start, just like in the days of Noah. Things seemed fine
up until the first drop.
When this begins is not for us to know. So,
to make a cool transition and to figure out what we are supposed to stay awake
for and what we're supposed to be doing, let's go to the disciples asking this
question to Jesus.
So when they had come together,
they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He
said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has
fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as
they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their
sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood
by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking
into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in
the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts
1:6-11)
Psalm 50
So my question is, did you read 50 psalms
last year? If not, congratulations! What an amazing thing, and it's only March
and you've already read 50 psalms.
Your observations here are more valuable than
anything I have to say.
This is the first psalm we've read by Asaph,
the chief of David's singers. Asaph was present when David brought the ark of
the covenant into Jerusalem, and the sons of Asaph were present in temple
worship throughout Israel's history.
Jesus just talked about the Tribulation. Look
at v. 3; in fact, you can read the entire psalm in terms of God refining His
people and preparing them for the final day of judgment on the earth. This is
not only a messianic psalm, but it is one of those psalms when Israel's future
glory is predicted.
Vs. 1-6 Notice all of the imagery here to the
Lord returning to Zion. He gathers His faithful and calls the nations to
judgment.
Vs. 7-15 The basis of salvation, even during
the period of the law and the symbolism of the sacrifices, was always to love
God. Verse 15 is something the nation will do during the Tribulation and before
the coming of Christ.
Vs. 16-20 Notice in v. 16 that these people
were religious, but not so in love with God that it changed them. Like most
people, religion was a cloak to achieve their own ends and live like they
wanted.
Vs. 21-23 This is the warning of the psalm.
God will return with punishment and reward. Amen.
Proverbs 10:29-30
What is interesting in this stronghold is
that it is relational. Knowing God and loving Him, following His way, is not
dependent on education or wealth or race. The Lord protects those who love Him
and follow Him, yet the reaction of those who resist Him will ruin them.
Notice that if you think of the truth being
expressed here in terms of the reality of the Lord's return, v. 30 has a fuller
meaning.
The sin within us is still the number one
killer of mankind. The only cure is Christ. That is why we follow Him in the
harvest, abiding in the vine, bringing the message of salvation and making disciples,
who make disciples until our Lord appears.
If you’re reading along and don’t have a One
Year Bible, click on this link http://oneyearbibleonline.com/weekly-one-year-readings/?version=47&startmmdd=0101. This version is set to the ESV but you can reset this to a different
version or different language.I'm writing these comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples, disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a complete description of this model of being and making disciples you can find it in my book: Simply Disciples*Making Disciples. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.
I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible; in fact, I read something you don't, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it. Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like documents containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download these to use on your computer or to print.
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