Old Testament
1. The duties of the Kohanites, Gershonites, Merarites.
- Moving the Tabernacle. Keep Holy thigs holy, keep the sacred things sacred.
- Don't touch the holy things if that's not your job. You will be put to death. (this comes up later in the OlD Testament)
- Ministry of work. Not for priestly duties, but to do the heavy lifting for God. Shouldn't more of us be doing this? Everyone wants to be in charge. Wants to be up front and acknowledged. Who is left to do the grunt work?
- This thought may apply more to the New Testament for us, but are we spending too much time and effort wearing the cross, and not so much on bearing the Cross?
2. Unclean things banned from the camp.
3. Protecting marital faithfulness.
- "The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin."
- Doesn't say anything about the man being unfaithful???? We will have to wait and see if this gets addressed.
New Testament
4. The Sadducees approach Jesus. The scripture clearly says that hese religious leaders did not beleive in resurrection. Strange that they would ask about what happens after the resurrection.
- Jesus' answer is that our earthly concepts of marriage and intimacy will change, be washed away with our "old selves". That all of these pleasures will be shared with God.
5. Sadducees- definition- Sadducees rejected oral Torah (first 5 books of bible), and created new interpretations based on a literal understanding of verses. In their personal lives this often meant an excessively stringent lifestyle from a Jewish perspective. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of, "an eye for an eye". The Jewish understanding for centuries was that the value of an eye was to be sought by the perpetrator rather than actually removing his eye too. In the Sadducees' view the law was to be taken literally, contrary to that traditional interpretation. From the point of view of the Pharisees, the Sadducees wished to change the Jewish understanding of the Torah.
6. The most important commandments...
- Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
- Only two commandments to worry about. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. You know, if we could embody these two rules and nothing else, all the other commandments, and in fact, all of life would fall into place.
- Unfortunately, we are not whole-hearted. Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted and to set the captive free. We are not whole-hearted and we are not free.
- Our hearts are divided. We try to serve too many gods. Money, our ego, our career, our children. Don't you know people who would at least say that they would sacrifice anything and everything for any one of these things. Well, if we think we can make such a huge sacrifice to get ahead in our workplace, why can't we use that same single-mindedness to get to God?
- And love your neighbor as yourself? What would happen if you just thought of this phrase every time you were about to open your mouth to make a smart remark about someone? Or to speak about someone else in a not-so-flattering way? Or to gossip? Or just think before you said anything..."What if someone else were saying this about me? How would it make me feel when I found out?"
- Feeling convicted yet?
- Our hearts are broken, and we are not free. That's what Jesus came for, and why He should be living in our hearts all the time.
7. The people like Jesus' teaching. That's a problem for the Pharisees, the Saducees and as we talked about yesterday, the Herodians.
Psalm
8. "O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.." Even the Old Testament tells us we should meditate on things.
Proverbs
9. "Lazy people irritate their employers..."
See you next post...
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Numbers 2-3:51; Mark 11:27-12:17; Psalm 47:1-9; Proverbs 10:24-25 (New Living Translation)
Old testament
1. How to set up camp...around the Tabernacle.
2. How to organize the march.
3. Geneology of Aaron and Moses. Remember that Aaron had lsot 2 of his sons.
- The tribe of Levi will attend to the furnishings of the Tabernacle.
- The trobe of Levi will stand in for the firstborn of the Israelites who belong to God. They are consecrated by His destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
- The Levite number 22,000. The real firstborn males of the Israelites number 22,273.
- The extra are redeemed with a set price of silver to be paid to the Tabernacle.
New Testament
4. Mark has already established a theme with his first two stories. How can it be that Israel's faith, rooted in God's Old Testament revelation, had become futile and empty? What was it that had distorted in practice the beauty of the faith God Himself had revealed?
5. Empty authority.
- The chief priests and religious teachers had never commissioned or recognized Jesus, So they liked to think that He spoke without any real religious authority. This despite the fact that Jesus did speak as a Man with authority, unlike their official leaders. Jesus question to them showed how empty their "authority" was. The obvious answer, to anyone who has spiritual authority is that John's baptism derived ultimately from God. So anyone who exercises authority must refer to God and God's will in making his decisions.
6. Misuse of authority. (Parable of the evil farmers)
- Jesus told the parable of the person who prepared the land and planted a vineyard. The leaders realize that Jesus has spoken this parable against them, and became even more determined to arrest Him. They had not used their authority as God's agenst to serve Him at all! They had misused their authority, seeking only their own benefit. Their fathers had been willing to kill God's servants, the prophets, and now this generation was eager to kill His only Son!
7. Hipocrisy.
- The Pharisees and Herodians came to try to trap Jesus. The Herodians were a political party that beleived in accommodation with the Romans. To them Jesus seemed a dangerous revolutionary. Both these groups, usually opposed to each other, feared Jesus and hated Him passionately. His answer to their trap: Let Caesar have his things, but give God your heart.
- There it is again...give God your heart!
Psalm
Proverbs
8. "The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted."
9. "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation." A lasting foundation!
See you next post...
1. How to set up camp...around the Tabernacle.
2. How to organize the march.
3. Geneology of Aaron and Moses. Remember that Aaron had lsot 2 of his sons.
- The tribe of Levi will attend to the furnishings of the Tabernacle.
- The trobe of Levi will stand in for the firstborn of the Israelites who belong to God. They are consecrated by His destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
- The Levite number 22,000. The real firstborn males of the Israelites number 22,273.
- The extra are redeemed with a set price of silver to be paid to the Tabernacle.
New Testament
4. Mark has already established a theme with his first two stories. How can it be that Israel's faith, rooted in God's Old Testament revelation, had become futile and empty? What was it that had distorted in practice the beauty of the faith God Himself had revealed?
5. Empty authority.
- The chief priests and religious teachers had never commissioned or recognized Jesus, So they liked to think that He spoke without any real religious authority. This despite the fact that Jesus did speak as a Man with authority, unlike their official leaders. Jesus question to them showed how empty their "authority" was. The obvious answer, to anyone who has spiritual authority is that John's baptism derived ultimately from God. So anyone who exercises authority must refer to God and God's will in making his decisions.
6. Misuse of authority. (Parable of the evil farmers)
- Jesus told the parable of the person who prepared the land and planted a vineyard. The leaders realize that Jesus has spoken this parable against them, and became even more determined to arrest Him. They had not used their authority as God's agenst to serve Him at all! They had misused their authority, seeking only their own benefit. Their fathers had been willing to kill God's servants, the prophets, and now this generation was eager to kill His only Son!
7. Hipocrisy.
- The Pharisees and Herodians came to try to trap Jesus. The Herodians were a political party that beleived in accommodation with the Romans. To them Jesus seemed a dangerous revolutionary. Both these groups, usually opposed to each other, feared Jesus and hated Him passionately. His answer to their trap: Let Caesar have his things, but give God your heart.
- There it is again...give God your heart!
Psalm
Proverbs
8. "The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted."
9. "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation." A lasting foundation!
See you next post...
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