Marital Defilement (Num. 5:11-31)

12/9/2008 8:44 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  Marital defilement

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference: Numbers 5:11-31

            Message of the verses:  “11 ¶  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 12  "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, 13  and a man has intercourse with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act, 14  if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself, 15  the man shall then bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of iniquity.  16  ‘Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the LORD, 17  and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.  18  ‘The priest shall then have the woman stand before the LORD and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse.  19  ‘The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; 20  if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you" 21  (then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), "the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people by the LORD’S making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell; 22  and this water that brings a curse shall go into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away." And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."  23  ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness.  24  ‘Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness.  25  ‘The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar; 26  and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.  27  ‘When he has made her drink the water, then it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness, and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.  28  ‘But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children.  29  ‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, being under the authority of her husband, goes astray and defiles herself, 30  or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then make the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest shall apply all this law to her.  31 ‘Moreover, the man will be free from guilt, but that woman shall bear her guilt’”

            This section of Scripture is one of the most difficult passages that I have read, and I have read this on different occasions on my journey through the Bible.  Dr. Wiersbe, in his comments on this section writes over two pages on this section, as he details all of the parts of this test, the test of whether a woman has committed adultery or not, and the test is given to the Lord to decide.  

            As I read through this test I understand the procedure of it and one of the things that I learned, that I did not know before was what the curse of this test would be.  Since I use the NASB the reading is somewhat different from the KJB that Dr. Wiersbe usually writes his commentary from, however in the section about the curse he quotes the NIV, which seems to be very similar to the NASB in the section of the curse.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that the curse of bitterness would be that the woman would have a miscarriage and then would not be able to have children again after the miscarriage. 

            I think that the most important part of this section is that God hates adultery and therefore He may have given this “jealousy test” to detour adultery in the camp of Israel, for when the marriage breaks down in a society it is not too long before the society breaks down, as can be seen in our country at this present time.  It is pointed out in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary that there is never one time in the Scriptures that this jealousy test had ever been preformed on anyone.  Why would that be?  Well for one thing the test was given in public, at the very center of the camp, because it was done at the tabernacle and it certainly would not be a wining situation for a husband to subject his wife, whom he only suspected that his wife was unfaithful to him to such a humiliating test in public.  Perhaps after reading about what could happen the people of Israel could understand that God wanted His people to be holy, something that was stressed throughout the book of Leviticus, and this would be one way of making that true in their lives.

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am very happy that I understand this section of Scripture a bit better than before, for I always though that this may have been unfair for the woman to go through such a test since the man was not subjected to something similar, but he was actually going through this test because it was in such a public place and God knows the heart of him as well as his wife, for God knows all things.  In the section of John’s Gospel it can be seen that God does certainly forgive adultery. 

            What I have been reminded here is of the seriousness of marriage, serious to God and should be taken serious to all including me, and the vows that I took at our marriage are very serious to God and therefore should be to me.  I am also reminded that God can see all things and is in all places and knows all things and I am comforted because of that, for I would not want to worship a God that did not know all things.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Put on my spiritual armor.
2. Give myself to the Lord today for worship, service and to be transformed by the renewing of my mind through Bible study, prayer and memorization of Scripture.
3. Learn to be content, for contentment is a process.
4.  Ask the Lord to guide my path.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-11

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him though baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too shall walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12/9/2008 9:46 AM

Physical Defilements (Num. 5:1-4)

12/7/2008 10:36 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Physical defilements

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Numbers 5:1-4

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person.

3 “You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst."  4 The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the LORD had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.”

            I am beginning a new chapter in both the book of Numbers and also in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary, “Be Counted.”  The title of this chapter is “Dedication and Celebration—Part One.”  There is always a clue to what Dr. Wiersbe is going to write about, and it is usually given in the last part of the ending paragraph of his introduction to the chapter, and in this case the last sentence has this to say, “What kind of people did the Lord want them to be.”  The “them” in this case is Israel. Well the answer to this question will give the different sections in his book, and the first answer is “A clean people.”  “The word defiled is used nine times in Numbers five, and thee kinds of defilement are defined.”  The first of these is physical defilement and that is the first section that will be studied.  The first four verses in Numbers five show three kinds of defilement:  Leprosy, discharging body fluids, and those who touch the dead, either animals or humans.  During their forty year wonder in the wilderness, and figuring that there were one million people that came out of Egypt, that would mean that there were a lot of funerals each day and a lot of people unclean by touching the dead bodies of their dead family members.

            While studying the book of Leviticus I learned that God wants His people to be holy, as that seems to be the theme of Leviticus, and some of the ways that taught holiness in Leviticus were the laws concerning cleanliness, for defilement pictures sin and cleanliness pictures holiness.  This is still true in the Church age, “1 ¶ Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, (2Cor. 7:1). 

            Israel was just a brand new nation, and they had been living in Egypt for four-hundred years and there was a lot of Egypt left in Israel, so God would use things like defilement and cleanliness to show them what sin and holiness were, kind of like what the writer to the Hebrews wrote when he was chastising his readers for being immature and wrote, “Heb 5:12  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”  There are other times in the NT that this type of writing can be found, for it takes an effort to come to maturity in the faith, it does not happen by accident.

            These three groups of defilement are pretty much seen in these verses and so I will not write a lot about them in what is physically meant by them.  The main point is that “Although health and hygiene were involved in these laws, their basic purpose was to teach the Jews the meaning of separation and holiness.” 

            Jesus Christ, while on earth ignored these laws of uncleanness, for He touched lepers, and also dead people, and even people with unclean discharges and He healed them all, even those who were dead.  However when Jesus died on the cross he did become defiled by my sin and the sin of the world by becoming sin for me so that I could have His righteousness imputed to me.  Halleluiah what a Savior!

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that what I can take out of this is when I have become defiled because of sin that I need to confess my sin in order to receive forgiveness and cleansing for the One who died for me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Ask the Lord to search me for unconfessed sin.
2. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship and for the renewing of my mind.
3. Learn to be content.
4. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
5. Trust the Lord for what is about to come upon our country.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:1-11

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death is no longer master over Him.
10. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
11. Even so consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12/7/2008 11:25 AM

Interpersonal Defilement (Num. 5:5-10)

12/8/2008 9:38 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Interpersonal defilement

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Numbers 5:5-10

            Message of the verses:  “5 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7 then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.  8  ‘But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the LORD for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him.  9 ‘Also every contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the priest, shall be his.  10  ‘So every man’s holy gifts shall be his; whatever any man gives to the priest, it becomes his’”

            I have written about this earlier in my SD that was dated 8:21-08 and will copy some of what was written then to this SD.

            “The guilt offering was needed for two kinds of sins, one against “the holy things of the Lord” which can be seen in Leviticus 5:15.  “15  "If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the LORD’S holy things, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD: a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation in silver by shekels, in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering.”  The second sin the guilt offering was for was a sin against one’s neighbor and that can be seen in Leviticus 6:2-3:  “2  "When a person sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD, and deceives his companion in regard to a deposit or a security entrusted to him, or through robbery, or if he has extorted from his companion, 3  or has found what was lost and lied about it and sworn falsely, so that he sins in regard to any one of the things a man may do.”

            Those were the sins and now I will look at the ritual on how this sacrifice was to be offered.  The first process is to confession of the sin and this can be seen in Numbers 5:6-7 “6  "Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7  then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.”  Dr. Wiersbe writes this about true repentance:  “True repentance will always bring with it a desire for restitution.  We will want to make things right with God and with those whom we’ve sinned against.  Forgiveness comes only because of the death of an innocent substitute.  Isaiah 53:10 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being a guilt offering, “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”  The guilt offering was to be a bull and that bull must be worth the damage that was done and then twenty percent was added to it, for it was very costly to commit sin.”

            There are at least two things that the Lord was teaching Israel that can be seen from this section of Scripture.  The first thing being taught here is that sin is costly, and this can be seen by what it cost the persons here who commit the sin.  The second thing is that the people of Israel were about to go and fight against their enemies and they needed to in unity with each other before they would be able to fight against their enemies.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul speaks of the enemies that I as a believer have to fight against each day, and if I am to be successful in my battle against them I need to have the right equipment on, and that is the spiritual armor.  Unity is also something that is needed in the church that I attend for one of Satan’s ways of fighting against the church is to divide people in the church in order to cause trouble, where unity is the way not to have this kind of trouble.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Put on the spiritual armor.
2. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship and to have my mind renewed.
3. Trust the Lord to guide my path.
4. Learn contentment.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-11

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
11. Even so consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12/8/2008 10:08 AM 

           

The Numbering & Duties of the Merarites (Num. 3:33-37; 4:29-33, 42-4 5)

12/6/2008 10:49 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                    Focus:  The numbering & duties of the Merarites

Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Numbers 3:33-37; 4:29-33, 42-45

            Message of the verses:  I will not copy and paste these verses because of the length of them.  I also want to say that this study that I am doing does not cover every single verse in this section of Numbers and one of the reasons is that there is a lot of repeated things in this section, and I would presume that is why Dr. Wiersbe did not cover all of these verses, however there are some that he did not cover that I will attempt to cover at the end of this SD.

            The information in this section of Numbers tells how many Merarite males there were from two month and older and how many who were able to work the work that is assigned to them, which was the carrying of the heavy boards and pillars of the tabernacle as well as the bars, pillars and silver sockets into which the pillars fit.  In Numbers 7:8 it is revealed that they were given four wagons and eight oxen to aid them in this task.  They were to report to Ithamar, Aaron’s son, and they were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle.

            My God is a God of organization and there is organization in His Church, and He has gifted each believer with special gift or gifts in order to make the church that he goes to function.  Now the gifts that each believer has are not spelled out like the duties that are spelled out in Numbers to all of the Levites, but that is the responsibility of the Pastors and leaders of the individual church to help in showing what each gift is given to the believers in the church in order to minister. 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that this chapter reminds the reader of burden helping and this is also a part of the function of the Church today.  There are some burdens that believers need help with and there are some that they must bear on their own, just as seen that two of the groups had carts to help them and one of the groups had to bear their burden by carrying it on their shoulders. 

            Now I want to write about some of the verses that were not covered by Dr. Wiersbe in this section of Numbers.  In verses 38-41 of Numbers four there is a review of the numbers of the three clans who were to work in the work of the tabernacle.

            In Numbers 3:33-39 there is another review of the clan’s responsibilities and how many are numbered.  In Numbers 3:40-52 there is also given orders to Moses to number the Levites: “40 ¶  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Number every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and make a list of their names.  41  "You shall take the Levites for Me, I am the LORD, instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the sons of Israel."  Verse forty-one is the key to this section.  Now I have written about this in an earlier SD, but I think it is good to cover it here because this is where the verses are that cover this subject.  Right before the Exodus, during Israel’s last night in Egypt God intuited the Passover celebration and part of the Passover was putting blood on the thresholds of the doors so that the death angel would not come and kill the first-born of Israel like he would the Egyptians firstborn.  Because of this God told Moses that all of the firstborn of Israel belonged to Him, even the firstborn of the animals.  Now in this section of Numbers God is telling Moses that He wants all of the Levites instead of the firstborn of all of Israel and so they are numbered along with the firstborn of the rest of the tribes and the Levites come up short so this section covers how this is dealt with:  “45  "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel and the cattle of the Levites. And the Levites shall be Mine; I am the LORD.  46  "For the ransom of the 273 of the firstborn of the sons of Israel who are in excess beyond the Levites, 47  you shall take five shekels apiece, per head; you shall take them in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), 48  and give the money, the ransom of those who are in excess among them, to Aaron and to his sons.’”

           

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “When God’s work is done God’s way, in obedience to God’s truth, it will never lack God’s blessings.”  This is a quote from Dr. Wiersbe and as I have read through this section of Numbers this truth comes out, and this truth is also in the book of Ephesians, the book that tells about how the church is to function today and I want to be a part of how the church functions that is revealed in the book of Ephesians. 

My Steps of Faith for Toda:

1. Give myself to the Lord for worship and service and to have my life changed by the renewing of my mind by memorizing Scripture.
2. Put on my spiritual armor.
3. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
4. Learn contentment.
5. Ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart.

Memory verses for this week:                                             Romans 6:1-9

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into His death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For is we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin,
7. for he who has died is freed form sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

12/6/2008 11:51 AM

The Kohathites Duties (Num. 3:27-32; 4:1-20 & 34-37)

12/5/2008 11:56 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  The Kohathites duties

Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Numbers 3:27-32; 4:1-20, 34-37

            Message of the verses:  There are a lot of verses in today’s SD and so I will not copy and paste all of the verses.

            The same procedure for the Kohathites is followed just like the Gershonites, they were numbered two times and the second censes is 2750, which is the number of men between thirty and fifty years of age who are to serve in the tabernacle.  Their duties were to carry the holy objects that are in the tabernacle; however they are not permitted to use a cart like the Gershonites were to carry the tabernacle.  This is what got David in trouble in 2 Samuel chapter six when Uzzah was killed for touching the Ark of the Covenant while it was ridding on a cart.  When David finally came to his senses he followed the plan that the Lord had given in this section of Scripture and everything went well. 

            I know that there have been times when I just went through the reading of these Scriptures on my journey and did not think of them as the most important thing that I could read, however when I can read the commentary of Dr. Wiersbe and slowly read through these Scriptures they began to have much more meaning to me, for the articles that these men were carrying represent the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross, but these were the shadows of what He would do whenever He came to earth to fulfill all of the pictures that were represented in these articles that were in the tabernacle, and even the tabernacle itself.  John 1:14 says this:  “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Here is what the word dwelt means “1) to fix one's tabernacle, have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle.”

            There are a couple of more points that I would like to make about this section of Scripture, and that is the leader of this group of, the Kohathites: Eliasaph was the leader and Eleazar who was Aarons son was the one in charge of this group, the one who Eliasaph reported to. 

            There is a procedure that is followed in packing and carrying these articles and Numbers 4:1-20 explain this procedure, and if it was not followed to the letter there was a chance that one of more people would be killed for not following it. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that the reason that God made all of these procedures to make and to carry these articles that were in the tabernacle and also the tabernacle was because it was a picture of His Son and when Jesus came to earth He said that He had followed all that His Father had told Him to do, it was all done perfectly.  Now I am not perfect in the way that Jesus Christ is, but the Scriptures tells me that I am to be mature and that word can be translated as perfect, but of course not in the same way that Christ is perfect.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart.
2. Ask the Lord to guide my path.
3. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship and for being transformed by His Spirit and His Word.
4. Learn contentment.
5. Put on my spiritual armor.

Memory verses for the week:                                        Romans 6:1-9

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we to might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become untied with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that this body of might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believer that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

12/5/2008 12:38 PM

 

The Levitical Census & Duties (THe Gershonites) (Num 3:14-26 & 4:21-28)

12/4/2008 11:17 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time Focus:  The Levitical census and duties (the Gershonites)

Bible Reading & Meditation     Reference:  Numbers 3:14-26 & 4:21-28

            Message of the verses:  “14 ¶  Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, 15  "Number the sons of Levi by their fathers’ households, by their families; every male from a month old and upward you shall number."  16  So Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD, just as he had been commanded.  17  These then are the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon and Kohath and Merari.  18  These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei; 19  and the sons of Kohath by their families: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel; 20  and the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers’ households.

21  Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimeites; these were the families of the Gershonites.  22  Their numbered men, in the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, even their numbered men were 7,500.

23  The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle westward,

24  and the leader of the fathers’ households of the Gershonites was Eliasaph the son of Lael.  25  Now the duties of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle and the tent, its covering, and the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting, 26  and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the doorway of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and its cords, according to all the service concerning them.”

            “21 ¶  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 22  "Take a census of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers’ households, by their families; 23  from thirty years and upward to fifty years old, you shall number them; all who enter to perform the service to do the work in the tent of meeting. 24  "This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in carrying:  25  they shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of porpoise skin that is on top of it, and the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting, 26  and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the doorway of the gate of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords and all the equipment for their service; and all that is to be done, they shall perform.  27  "All the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their loads and in all their work, shall be performed at the command of Aaron and his sons; and you shall assign to them as a duty all their loads.  28  "This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting, and their duties shall be under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”

            This SD begins the last main point in Dr. Wiersbe’s book, “Be Counted,” and it has to do with the counting of the Levites who are to do the duties of taking care of the tabernacle.  As mentioned they were to take the place of the firstborn of all of the tribes of Israel.  There are two census’ in this section, in the first one the males are counted from two months old and older and the second one is from twenty-five until fifty, which is the one that tells how many Levites who will serve in the tabernacle.  This number had to be as large as the firstborn of all of the rest of the tribes of Israel, and there is some dispute as to what the number was, for the numbers in Hebrew are written with letters and there could have been some small error in the copying of the number, although it is only three hundred that is quarreled about. 

            The Levites are divided into the three sons of Levi, and then they are divided again in the grandchildren of Levi in order to divide the work or duties or service that each family will do.  The first group to be numbered and assigned to do the word is the male offspring of Gershon.  This census and duties are explained in the verses above.  The total number of Gershonites was 7500 with 2630 able to serve.  Incidentally David changed the age limit to twenty years old to begin serving in the tabernacle “24 ¶  These were the sons of Levi according to their fathers’ households, even the heads of the fathers’ households of those of them who were counted, in the number of names by their census, doing the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from twenty years old and upward.25  For David said, "The LORD God of Israel has given rest to His people, and He dwells in Jerusalem forever,” (1 Chron. 23:24-25) 

            The duties of this group of men was to take care of transporting the coverings, hangings, and framework of the tabernacle, and all the equipment that pertained to them and they were given two carts and four oxen to do this work.  They would report to Ithamar the priest, the son of Aaron.  “7  Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their service.”  (Numbers 7:7) 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God is a God of specific details as seen in this section, for He has made allowance in the firstborn, and He has given duties to all of the sons of Levi, which is far better than having just the random firstborn of all of the tribes of Israel doing this work.  With this been said God is interested in all of the details of my life too.  I am a priest of the Living God and I too have work to do for Him and He is interested in that work that He has ordained me to do and has equipped me to do that work through the giving of the spiritual gifts.  “10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them, (Eph. 2:1).  “12  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;” (Eph. 4:12).

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Give myself to the Lord for service and work and to be transformed in order to do God’s work.
2. Trust the Lord to guide my path.
3. Ask the Lord to search me.
4. Learn to be content.
5. Put on my spiritual armor.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:1-9

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we to might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have been untied with Him through the likeness of His death, certainly we all shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self has been crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him.

12/4/2008 12:12 PM

The Gift of the Levites (Num. 3:5-13)

12/3/2008 9:46 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  The gift of the Levites

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Numbers 3:5-13

            Message of the verses:  5  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6  "Bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him.  7  "They shall perform the duties for him and for the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tabernacle.  8  "They shall also keep all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, along with the duties of the sons of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle.  9  "You shall thus give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the sons of Israel.  10  "So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman who comes near shall be put to death."  11  Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  12  "Now, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine.  13  "For all the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. They shall be Mine; I am the LORD.’”

            Whenever Israel was about to come out of Egypt the Lord killed all of the firstborn of Egypt as the last plague against Egypt.  God spared all of the firstborn of Israel because they put the blood of the Passover lamp onto their houses.  Because the Lord spared the first born of Israel God wanted the firstborn for Himself.  God now takes the tribe of Levi instead of taking all of the firstborn, and has the tribe of Levi work in all of the duties of the tabernacle; they will be working for the sons of Aaron and will be assigned different jobs that have to due with the tabernacle.

            All firstborn males and animals had to be redeemed by a sacrifice to the Lord and this could be seen when the Lord Jesus Christ was born:  “22  And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23  (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "EVERY firstborn MALE THAT OPENS THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD"), 24  and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS’” (Luke 2:22-24). 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am not sure of the spiritual meaning of the firstborn of Israel belonging to the Lord, but I do know that because of what Jesus Christ has done for me on the cross in order to redeem me from the slave market of sin that I belong to Him, everything the I have belongs to Him in order for me to serve Him and to worship Him just as Romans 12:1-2 says:  “¶  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  2  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  I did this a lot of years ago, for the tense of the verb in the Greek means that it happens once and it is forever, yet I try to remember to renew this each day to remind myself that I do belong to the Lord for I have been bought with a price and am to glorify Him in my body. (1 Cor. 6:20)

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.     To give myself to the Lord for service and worship today and by faith, to transform my mind by the Word of God so that I will not be conformed to this world.

2.     Trust the Lord to guide my path today.

3.     Put on my spiritual armor.

4.     Trust the Lord to teach me and for me to learn contentment.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 12:1-9

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so as Christ has been raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become untied with Christ in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

12/3/2008 10:29 AM

Assigning the Duties of the Priests (Num. 3:1-4)

12/2/2008 9:55 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:           Assigning the duties of the priests

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Numbers 3:1-4

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶ now these are the records of the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. 2 These then are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.  3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he ordained to serve as priests.  4 But Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests in the lifetime of their father Aaron.”

            This begins a new section in Dr. Wiersbe’s book that will take me through chapters three and four which are chapters that are dedicated to the Levites, the men who served the Lord by assisting the priests in their ministry at the tabernacle.

            The first reference is the assigning of the priests and is verses one through four.  While studying in the book of Leviticus and in chapter ten I read about the untimely death of Aaron’s sons Nadad and Abihu who were killed by the Lord when they were offering strange fire in the tabernacle.  There is a possibility that these two were drunk and that is why they got the fire from the wrong place in the tabernacle and that is why the Lord had killed them, for they knew exactly what it was that they were suppose to do and did not do it.  In Acts chapter five there is a story of a couple who lied to the Lord and were killed.  The point is that both of these stories took place at the beginning of a dispensation and so people could get the point that God wanted He children to follow the rules that He had given them to follow. 

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that Eleazar was the chief priest over the Levites and would eventually replace his father as high priest and that Ithamar had received the offerings for the building of the tabernacle and was in charge of the Gershonites and Merarites.  These would be the assignments of these two priests.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “I began my Bible reading in the book of Revelations this morning and was reminded that I too am a priest and that means that I too have duties to perform before the Lord and one of those duties is to make intersession to the Lord on behalf of others, including my family and my church family along with the praises and requests that I have for myself.  These are important functions that all believers have as were the functions that the priests in the OT had to do.  In many ways there jobs were a lot harder than the one that I have and that is because they had to slay all of the sacrifices that pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross.  I can look back at His sacrifice and am thankful beyond anything that He did that for me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.    Give myself to the Lord as a living sacrifice to worship Him and to serve Him today.

2.    Trust the Lord to guide my path today.

3.    Trust the Lord to teach me and for me to learn contentment.

4.    Put on my Spiritual Armor this morning.

5.    Ask the Lord to search my heart for hidden sin so that I may confess it to Him.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:1-9

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, so we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

12/2/2008 10:30 AM