5 posts tagged “israelites”
The Lord spoke to Moses, Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the Israelites because he was zealous among them with My zeal, so that I did not destroy the Israelites in My zeal. Therefore, I grant him My covenant of peace. It will be a covenant of perpetual priesthood for him and his descendants because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites. Num 25: 10-13
I find it interesting how the enemy of Israel summoned a foreign prophet to curse Israel, but they were unsuccessful because the Lord would not allow Israel to be cursed. The end of chapter 24 has Balaam and Balak going their own ways, frustrated over Gods blessing of Israel, despite their attempts.
Of course, all of this plotting was taking place outside of Israels awareness. Perhaps, more interesting is how unaware of Balaam & Balak Israel was doing a fine job of cursing themselves! Their enemies were wondering where Israels weakness was, and Israel was engaging in open sexual sin with the women of Moab. The bible says the personal sexual sin was itself, Baal worship.
Lesson: Israels enemy is not among the Nations. The enemy of Gods children is Satan. This also applies to His children in Messiah, Jesus.
For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. Eph 6: 12
Make no doubt: Spiritual forces affect human attitude and actions. But where men will give up the fight, the enemy never relents. Balak & Balaam walk away confused, but Satan entices the men of Israel with the oldest trick in the book.
Were it not for the zealousness of Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, Gods wrath would have destroyed Israel.
Often, we compartmentalize our lives. We have a section for work, family, religion. When we say we give our lives completely to God, we often mean we give Him all of that compartment which bears His label.
God is jealous to consume ALL of your life. Whether our sin is hidden our openly flaunted, if we are truly His people, He will pursue us in order to purge that sin from our midst. Why not just confess it, and give it up?
Blessings.
Steve Wiggins
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on each tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes. This way you will remember and obey all my commands and be holy toy our God. Num 15: 37-40
Jesus said to some of the religious leaders of His day, “You make your tassels long and phylacteries large, and pray loudly on the street corner, because you love to be seen and greeted loudly in the marketplace.” Basically, God-given displays of spiritual identity had become objects of egocentric attention for the worshiper.
Prayer, phylacteries, and tassels are all outward religious displays, supposedly reflecting an inward devotion to the Lord. Phylacteries are tiny boxes, affixed by leather straps to the head and hands. Inside these boxes are the commandments of God.
When a phylactery is enlarged, a prayer is shouted on a street corner, or a tassel elongated, attention is thus drawn away from personal worship, to the person worshipping. The observer is led to believe the size of the vestment is proportional to the piety of the worshipper. Grandiose displays may be impressive to people, but God is more concerned with sincerity than sensationalism. Quality of worship wins-out over quantity.
Personally, I like the idea of reminders. I think most people do, or else the “Post It” note people would be out of business! God is concerned with our remembrance. This extends beyond an annual holiday, or weekly Sabbath rest. He wants us to continually remember Him…as He continually remembers us, through His Son who is ever before Him as our testimony and advocate.
The Hebrew word for tassel is: “Tzitzit”. In Hebrew each letter has a numerical value. The letters of the word tzitzit equal 600. Each tzitzit has 8 cords and five knots. This gives a total of 613, the number of all the commandments in the Tanoak (Old Testament).
God does not simply want us to be reminded of the 10 commandments, but of all 613.
Blessings.
Steve Wiggins
"Whether it was two days, a month, or longer, the Israelites camped and did
not set out as long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle. But when it
was lifted, they set out. They camped at the Lord's command, and they set
out at the Lord's command. They carried out the Lord's requirement
according to His command through Moses." Num 9: 22-23
While I was tooling around the world in a Christian rock band, I stumbled
into some really interesting encounters. One such encounter happened at the
United States Air Force Academy.
Our concert at the Academy happened to fall on the induction weekend for the
new Academy plebes. Sometime after our soundcheck, an upperclassman gave me
the "psssst.." sign. I inclined his invitation. After we walked around the
corner, he asked, "You want to see something cool?" Of coarse I did! He
led me to the projection room of a theater where they were "hazing" the
underclassmen.
Then, abruptly, the hazing stopped and they began projecting patriotic and
battlefield images onto the screen. This group of sleep-deprived and
thoroughly hazed late-teens went wild! The energy and patriotic fervor was
quite remarkable. Their seniors were reminding the newbies of America's
tradition of military superiority, and why the United States is worth
fighting for.
The book of Numbers describes how God ordered Israel into a disciplined
nation. After the tabernacle was assembled and the Levites consecrated, the
Lord's first command was for Israel to remember. They were to observe the
Passover. Adonai knew that Israel's remembrance of their slavery, bitter
tears, and His deliverance, was imperative to make their wilderness "boot
camp" endurable.
An interesting phenomena occurs in boot camp: All personal identity is
diminished and the company identity develops. Everyone gets the same
haircut, the same uniform and endures the same hardship. Nobody has a
predictable sleep or eating schedule. It makes no sense, except that
everyone goes through it, together…and that's how war is. God generally
chooses to bond His people through adversity.
Adversity produces better followers than miracles…because the individual
learns to depend on the voice of the leader, and the members of their
community.
Take a moment to remember life before your personal deliverance through
Jesus. Now, commit yourself afresh, to trust & follow Him wherever,
whenever, and however He leads.
Blessings.
Steve Wiggins
“The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, if only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this desert to make this whole assembly die of hunger!’” (Exodus 16: 2-3)
We generally think of slave life as a constant stream of whipping and starvation. In actuality, the Library of Congress has compiled first-hand accounts by American Civil War era slaves, who describe a very different way of life.
To be sure, I am not advocating slavery, or seeking to absolve slave owners of their moral injustices. I am simply relaying the testimonies of those who lived the life of slaves.
It helps to understand that slaves were forced laborers. No slave owner, who was concerned about making a profit, would deprive or abuse his “property” to the point that it reduced productivity. Rather, the slaves were clothed, housed and fed.
It has been proven that free workers are far more efficient than slave labor. Not only is slavery a high moral crime. It is also bad business. Part of what makes slavery inefficient for the “master” is how enslavement affects a person’s spirit. Slaves become crafty. They become quite adept at working just hard enough to avoid the whip. Take away a man’s freedom, and he loses self worth, initiative, discipline.
The New Testament calls the followers of Jesus, “disciples”. The simple meaning is “one who disciplines himself to follow”. This is exactly why God led Israel through the desert. He was weaning Israel from slave life, slave mentality, slave ethics, etc.
While still a “youth”, Israel is led through difficult circumstances…desert after desert. Their responses to adversity exposed their craftiness, unrighteousness and spiritual immaturity.
What difficult circumstances has God led you through, lately? Have you disciplined your walk, so as to condition a response that honors the name He has given you, “Redeemed”? Or do you still long for the dysfunctional comfort, the slow certain death of sin’s bondage?
Blessings.
Exodus 13
“Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelites swear a solemn oath, saying, ‘God will certainly come to your aid; then you must take my bones with you from this place.’” Exodus 13: 19
Do you remember the names of your grandparents’ parents? I don’t know the names of mine. I’ve definitely not heard of any agreements they made about their bones. I’m cursed if they did!
What if we compounded this scenario by 400 years? Do you know the names of your ancestors who lived 400 years ago? Imagine a solemn oath that endured twice as long as the United States has been a nation. This was the case with Joseph’s bones.
Attached to the folklore Joseph’s bones 400 years later, was the promise of hope. It was the hope of freedom by Divine intervention that sustained the Israelites all those years. For the Israelites, the tradition of, “what we’re going to do with Joseph’s bones”, had to be comforting, because it promised deliverance.
Sometimes, planning your response to blessing is all the hope you need to get through the day. In the past, when money was tight, I would make a mental list of the people I was going to give money to, as soon as I was financially free again.
But in the end, freedom is not about finances. Freedom is spiritual. Many wealthy people are miserable, and many poor folks are peaceful.
“Your life should be free of the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ Therefore, we may boldly say: The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13: 5-6
Jesus said, “I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I prepare a place, I surely return to take you there.” John 14:2-3
It is this hope of the resurrection, combined with Jesus’ promise to never leave or forsake us, which allows the believer to hopefully endure.
As was the case with Israel in Egypt, so will the Lord prove Himself faithful towards us.
Blessings.
Steve Wiggins
