Thursday, August 9, 2012

Please the Lord (Num. 15:1-21)


1/4/2009 8:08 AM



SPIRITUAL DIARY



My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Please the Lord



Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Numbers 15:1-21



            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2  "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where you are to live, which I am giving you, 3  then make an offering by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or as a freewill offering or in your appointed times, to make a soothing aroma to the LORD, from the herd or from the flock.  4  ‘The one who presents his offering shall present to the LORD a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil,

5  and you shall prepare wine for the drink offering, one-fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.  6  ‘Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil; 7  and for the drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hin of wine as a soothing aroma to the LORD.  8  ‘When you prepare a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a special vow, or for peace offerings to the LORD, 9  then you shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-half a hin of oil; 10  and you shall offer as the drink offering one-half a hin of wine as an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD.  11  ‘Thus it shall be done for each ox, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the goats.  12  ‘According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for everyone according to their number.  13  ‘All who are native shall do these things in this manner, in presenting an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD.  14  ‘If an alien sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, just as you do so he shall do.  15  ‘As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the LORD.  16  ‘There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.’"  17  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18  "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where I bring you, 19  then it shall be, that when you eat of the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the LORD.  20  ‘Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.  21  ‘From the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD an offering throughout your generations.”

            Today’s SD begins a new chapter in “Be Counted,” called “A Question of Authority,” and covers chapters 15-17 in the book of Numbers.  The first division is called “The authority of God’s Word,” and under that division is the first sub-division which is what is being looked at today.  It should also be noted that I looked at the first fifteen verses of this chapter in August of 2008 and this is part of what was written then, ““The burnt offering, the meal or grain offering, and the drink offering all represented dedication to God and commitment to Him and His work.  The pouring out of the wine was a symbol of life being poured out in dedication to God.  On the cross Jesus was ‘poured out like water’ (Ps. 22:14) and ‘poured out His life unto death’ (Isa. 53:12 NIV).” 

            There are other examples of this in the NT as Paul wrote to the Philippians that he was poured out like a drink offering on their behalf and when he wrote his 2nd letter to Timothy which, was very near the end of his life, he also mentioned that he was being poured out like a drink offering.”

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that this chapter was probably written shortly after the awful events that happened at Kadesh-Barnea and that the Lord was speaking to the younger generation who would be the ones who went into the Land to conquer it after they suffered for the next thirty-eight years with their parents and it was because of the unbelief of their parents that they had to suffer. 

            Dr. Wiersbe also points out that of the five basic Mosaic offerings that the children of Israel were to offer to the Lord that the first three were offerings that were ‘sweet savor’ offerings to the Lord, but the last two, the sin offering and the trespass offering were not sweet savor offerings to the Lord because they had to deal with sin.

The burnt offering as an offering that showed that the offerer was dedicating himself totally to the Lord and Christ did this on the cross.  The meal offering represents the Lord Jesus as the bread of life, and the peace offering shows that Christ made peace for us through the blood of the cross.  “Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I am trying to memorize the sixth chapter of Romans I have been impressed over the last week or so with the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of it because of the work obedient or obedience and that is what the theme of this section of Numbers seems to be.  I realize that I have to be obedient to God’s Word and not just go off and sin because it feels good to me.  “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”  This is Hebrews 13:17 and it also speaks of obedience. 



My Steps of Faith for Today:



  1. To know my Lord and Savior better.
  2. To be content.
  3. Believe that the Lord will guide my path today.



Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:19-19



14.    For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

15.    What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it never be!

16.    Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

17.    But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

18.    and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

19.    I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.



1/4/2009 8:58 AM


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