March 10th readings

~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Numbers 14:1-15:16 ~ Mark 14:53-72
Psalm 53:1-6 ~ Proverbs 11:4

Old Testament - Today in Numbers chapter 14 we read about Joshua and Caleb's bold faith.  They were ready to move into the Promised Land!  Again, similar to my thoughts in yesterday's post, I wonder if sometimes in our lives, when we are on the brink of something new & something big - that is of God - are we like Caleb & Joshua, or are we like the Israelites?  Are we ready to move forward quickly and decisively on toward what God is giving us?  Or, are we putting on the brakes and starting to complain?  Do we sabotage ourselves?  This is a tough question to ask ourselves I realize.  But I think that if I honestly look at my life, I can more often be like the Israelites in this situation chapter - putting on the breaks and really becoming the cause of my own problem...  I pray that I can have faith like Caleb and Joshua.  I pray that I will boldly move forward to what God is calling me toward.  How about you?

New Testament - Today in Mark chapter 14 we read an amazingly powerful statement from Jesus in verses 61 & 62 - "Then the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the blessed God?" Jesus said, "I am, and you will see me, the Son of Man, sitting at God's right hand in the place of power and coming back on the clouds of heaven.""  Wow.  This is it.  This is a statement that changes everything.  The question for us is this - is this more than just a statement from Jesus.  Do we believe this is Truth?

Psalms - If you've ever asked yourself - or ever been asked - why do we need a Messiah?  What is our need of Jesus?  Well, I think this question is clearly answered in verses 2 & 3 of Psalm 53 - "God looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding, one who seeks for God. But no, all have turned away from God; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not even one!"  This is why we need Jesus.  With Jesus, we indeed seek for God.  With Jesus, we are blessed with the Holy Spirit to begin to have some real understanding.  But without Jesus.... well, it reminds me of the DC Talk song "In the Light" - "What's going on inside of me?  I despise my own behavior.  This only serves to confirm my suspicions, that I'm still a man in need of a Savior!"  Amen...

Proverbs - wow... this is a powerful Proverb in chapter 11 verse 4 today - "Riches won't help on the day of judgment, but right living is a safeguard against death."  What are you focusing your life on?  Is right living one of your focuses?  Think it should be?  (right living through your faith in Jesus of course - not "trying" or "working" to live right on your own will or power...)

What verses or insights jumped out for you in today's readings?  Please post up in the Comments section below!

Grace,
Mike

Comments

[Phil H]

" I want to be in the light, as you are in the light"

Caleb and Joshua really shone out for me today. I think the text desguises how brave they were to be so bold against so many people. Oh if our political leaders had that kind of bravery...

[Vance Brown]

Numbers 14 (NKJV)
17
And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying,
18
‘The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ [EXODUS 34: 6, 7]
19
Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20
Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word;
21
but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—
22
because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice,
23
they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
24
But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
25
Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow turn and move out into the
wilderness by the Way of the Red Sea.”

~~~

MY NOTES:

Notice the CROSS REFERENCE NOTE on Numbers 14 verse 18: EXODUS 34: 6 and 7.
*
Exodus 32 is when the adult generation really blew it THE FIRST TIME through impatience and built the golden calf (an image of God formed out of their own understanding and mind). God hates willful, chosen idolatry and He insisted they be destroyed.

This is also when the Levites were called BY GOD to kill those who refused through willful and chosen idolatry to make the golden calf.
*
Exodus 33 is Moses’ intercession and plea for them, and that His Presence go with them and not destroy them on the way.
*
Exodus 34 is God revealing His Goodness to Moses. This is when the Lord spoke to Moses what Moses quotes here in Numbers 14.

Exodus 34 is when the Lord once again wrote the 10 commandments with His Own Glorious Finger on stone. Since He wrote it HIMSELF, it must be absolutely necessary wisdom to save us from ourselves.

~~~
The character we are born with and the character we choose to develop ARE OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE. Like the Israelites, OUR CHARACTER either brings us LIFE or DEATH.

In Genesis 49, Jacob gives blessings and curses to each of his children, which are conditional on each child’s relationship to Yahweh, the living and true God.

In Genesis 49, verses 5-7, Jacob curses the anger of Simeon and Levi. They are the one who devised the plan to have the city of men which included the young man who raped their daughter Dinah circumcised. The reason for Simeon and Levi wanted them circumcised is not because they wanted to have the city included in covenant fellowship with Yahweh, but so that they might kill the people in the city and burn the city to the ground.

Thus, they were to be scattered and dispersed in Israel so that their anger would not have the support of group fury.

~~~

The note in the Bible on Genesis 49:7 in the Bible I have (when God through Jacob cursed the anger of Simeon and Levi) indicates that there nearly always hope.

“Because of the stand for God taken by the Levites (i.e., the family of Levi) at the scene of the golden calf, the curse spoken here was removed and a blessing and honorable place were given them—showing that the curses on a father and his family can be broken and removed by the repentance and faith of his children.”

~~~
What is interesting to me is to compare the Levites in Exodus 32 (when they killed the willful idolaters who made the golden calf) with Numbers 14.

Compare the repentant and obedient Levites (which gives us hope) with the children of Israel in Numbers 14 (no more chances for hope for the persistently rebellious ones)

~~

God’s glory WILL FILL THE EARTH. MAY OUR CHARACTER, which have a choice in how we develop, BE FORMED BY TAKING TIME TO KNOW THE LORD AND ALLOW HIS righteous character be formed in us.

We are all very busy. Do we take the time to be holy?

Vance

[Peggy Williams]

Today was a powerful lesson to me. The first thing I thought of was how many days in my life I have spent in the dessert. If only I had trusted God and not myself in different matters life would have been very different. I have been struggling with different fears in my life, but I have found myself letting go and letting God do his work. What a relief to have this burdon taken off of me. I'm trying to walk a closer walk with the Lord so I can stay out of the dessert. Thank you for this reading today. Have a Blessed day. Peggy

[Robin]

Just a quick comment.
How wonderful and powerful that the ONLY words Jesus used in Mark 14:62 to reply to who he was...."I am” were the same words that God himself used in Exodus to tell who He was. The intense relation and justification to being the "I am". This just blows me away, how every detail of every WORD seems to be in God’s overall plan to bring His Son to save this world.
God's best to you all today.

[Robin]

Oops, forgot to tpye, how much I thank Him and how much I need Him everyday.

[Laura Jones]

"I wanna be in the light as you are in the light, I want to shine like the stars in the heavens". I love that DC Talk song. Now it's stuck in my head. Shouldn't we all have thoughts of the Lord stuck in our heads always?

Many lessons in todays readings. God is in control we just need to trust him. Those who deny him and are rebellious are reckoned with. Isn't God's power and dicipline amazing? He is always the Boss!!!!!

He will take care of all the "grasshoppers in our life" Numbers 13:31-33 NIV, 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, We can't attack those people they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. Raising doubt among the people (their first sin) They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilm). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. and we looked the same to them." Total lack of trust for God and His provision on their part.

I love Caleb's bravery in this situation. He stood before the crowd voicing an unpopular opinion. Caleb was willing to take the unpopular stand to do as God had commanded. Caleb had the facts, had the right attitude. He trusted God's promise to give Israel the land. Caleb stated clearly what he believed when he said "We can certainly do it". What a sign of a true leader who had faith in God.

[John]

Jesus's silence

Is. 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

Mark 14:60-61
Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Jesus never answered the charges facing him, which were of course false. Part of Jewish Court Law was that a case was to be made by two or more witnesses, or the defendant was not even to be questioned.(Lest his testimony be self-incriminating?). Most important, Jesus knew it was God's will and what He must do to fulfill God's plan.

As a part of Passover sacrifice, the Lamb was to be taken and inspected by the priests. So was Jesus. Jesus was silent probably like the real lambs in the temple waiting area awaiting their turn at the altar. Jesus was led and shorn of his dignity through the sham trials and eventually slaughtered.

However, He was not quiet on the subject of deity. He answered that question,
"I AM" (Gk. ego eimi),the words that always made the leaders frenzied.

[Note: Christians are asked to check their tongue in many instances - I do not think the question of Christ's deity is one of those times.]

Not a rancher, so I wondered about the "silent lamb" description.

Found this:
"Sheep get their annual haircuts...It's a spectacle that evokes the thermodynamics lessons of high school physics. But it's more remarkable, perhaps, for its near silence....Slim men with brawny arms, they lean forward into hanging loops for support while they roll each submissive ewe onto its back and sides for the two-minute job."

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/11/02/news/regional/8a5b3a126e11ee1a872570aa0020f8e7.txt

[John]

Jewish Law and the Sham Trial

A person under prosecution had three guarantees.

(a) The right to a public trial

There could be no secret trials. Every trial was to be held in public so no one could be framed and then be penalized or executed. In that way the judges were constantly under the scrutiny of the populace, who were able to attend and know what was going on. All fair courts today have maintained the same procedure.

(b) The right to self-defense

There was to be a defender--someone who provided a defense for the accused.

(c) The right to hear witnesses

No one could be convicted of anything unless proven guilty by two or three witnesses. A solid case could be built only on the evidence of more than one witness.

No criminal trial was to be conducted at night, but Christ's trial was. Before condemning a criminal the judges were to fast a day before the execution, but those who condemned Christ didn't--they killed Him the same day. Witnesses were required to testify against the accused, but none were found who had truthful testimony against Christ. The accused had the right of defense, but that wasn't allowed in the case of Christ. - John MacArthur
======================================================
Oh yes, they were in a frenzy about Christ. Frenzied enough to subvert their own legal system - just to get him out of the way.

[Bald Man]

Mike,
I noticed the absence of images today. Hope all is going well with you.

[John]

Psakm 53
[The main difference between Psalm 14 and this one is that the name of God is changed from Jehovah (or Yahweh) to Elohim. In Psalm 14 the fool denies the existence of the covenant-keeping God (Jehovah, Lord) who is deeply interested and involved in the welfare of His people. Here the fool denies the existence of an almighty, sovereign God (Elohim) who sustains and governs the universe.

God can be denied in both senses: some deny that the Creator has any special interest in any particular race or group of men; others repudiate any possibility of there being a God at all (Daily Notes of the Scripture Union).]
MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. 1997, c1995. Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments . Thomas Nelson: Nashville

The Hebrew "says in his heart" in the Qal tense implies an intentional refusal to acknowledge the truth.

vs.3
Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.

As God views mankind, all have become (oriented) of the "world", no one does "good". Without being oriented to God, and in the New Testament that orientation will lead to being "covered by the blood of Jesus" - no one can do anything pleasing or acceptable to the Lord. In the sense that you can gain favor or merit with the Lord.

Goes back to Matthew 7:23.

Doesn't bode well for the doctrine of some churches and religions that "man is basically good".

[Ramona]

Numbers 14:1-15:16

Things I took note of:

Again, it is impetrative that we learn to examine evidence for ourselves and NOT fall into a “herd” mentality. Groupthink does not equal truth. We are under the assumption that if something is from God it will not require work. If we have to work for something then it must be drudgery and have no value, at least this is a common thought in the USA. God puts His promises in our reach NOT in our hands.

The Promise Land was two weeks away from where they were encamped, but the Egypt they had been removed from geographically was that same Egypt they had embraced within their hearts. . They desired the accouterments of slavery, they wanted someone else, someone other than God, to tell them what to do and where to go. They wanted their Freedom without the responsibility or requirements of obedience and accountability for wrong actions.

Israel’s sin in the dessert is our sin right now, freedom without accountability or responsibility. We want things in our hands, right now, because we don’t want to get up from off our “duffs” to reach out to grasp the freedom we desire.

The writer of Proverbs states:

Pro 21:25 What the sluggard desires will kill him,
for his hands refuse to work.

Busyness and actual work can often be confused and passed off as one and the same. Let us not fall into the trap that Israel fell into. If we are in that trap, take a clue, admitting that you have sinned or in sin is not enough without repentance, turning from the old ways toward God’s ways. The “gang” admitted their sin; however, there was no repentance.

Grace and peace,
Ramona