Numbers (Program #4) – Being Formed into an Army (3 – 4)

After the children of Israel escaped the tyranny of Egypt and built a tabernacle in the wilderness according to the plan God showed Moses, the Lord set about forming an army to protect His testimony and fight against His enemies.  Members of each of the various tribes were called to serve in this army, saved one, the tribe of Levite.  To them it was given not to fight directly but to serve God in the tabernacle in a holy service and ministry.  Today God’s people are still called upon to war against His enemy and to fight to protect His testimony on the earth.  Just as in ancient time, God needs His people to minister and serve Him in His dwelling place on earth.  Another wonderful picture of a New Testament reality awaits us today from the Old Testament book of Numbers.

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2 Corinthians (Program #53) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (8)

The last four chapters of 2 Corinthians are known as Paul’s vindication of His apostolic authority.  On one hand it was something of a shame that Paul was compelled to make such defense on his own behalf.  It’s in this light that he says in chapter 11 “What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord but as if in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.” (11:17)  But in the same section just a few verses later, chapter 12 he says “All this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. Before God in Christ we speak; but all things, beloved, are for your building up.”  This apparent reversal left Paul vulnerable to the charge of being inconsistent.  Was he speaking foolishly not in the Lord or was he really speaking in Christ and before God?  The key is found in the last few words of that verse “…all thing, beloved, are for your building up.“

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Numbers (Program #3) – Being Formed into an Army (2)

A central feature of the Old Testament was the tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant.  Once built, God then formed His people into an army and arrayed them around the tabernacle in an orderly even beautiful fashion.  God’s people, properly ordered and arrayed around His testimony is a beautiful picture in His eyes.  Yet regrettably, it’s difficult to see such an orderly and beautiful picture today.

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2 Corinthians (Program #52) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (7)

The concluding chapters of 2 Corinthians are Paul’s vindication of his apostleship.  His authority, especially with the believers in Corinth had been challenged and undermined by religious men  posing as apostles seeking to  lead them away from the simplicity and purity in Christ back to the Mosaic and Judaic practices of the old covenant.  It would be easy to consider that the points Paul makes in this portion would have little or any application to us. believers in a much different time and not necessarily in the capacity of leadership.  Yet as with all the Scripture the divine revelation contain in this portion is full of meaning and shows us once again a true pattern for all of us who desire to live Christ and experience Him day by day.

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Numbers (Program #2) – Being Formed into an Army (1)

The first five books of the Bible are generally attributed to Moses and they formed a unit commonly referred to as the Pentateuch.  The fourth of this series is the book of Numbers, perhaps the most obscure among the five.  Outwardly it seems simple enough not overly inspiring for chronicles the numbering of God’s people Israel for the purpose of forming them into an army to fight for God’s testimony as they travel for 40 years through wilderness.  But if our eyes are open, our spirit set to receive God’s divine light, we can see the whole of the divine revelation express in picture forms through its pages.  Even the key elements of Christ’s ministry on earth and the ultimate consummation of the Bible, New Jerusalem are depicted here in Numbers.  Seem dubious?  Well stay tune.

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2 Corinthians (Program #51) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (6)

The church in Corinth was born directly out of the ministry and care of the apostle Paul.  Yet later, many of the believers there were affected negatively towards him because the accusations of false prophets that had come into Corinth, in an effort to draw the church away from their enjoyment of Christ and back to the Old Testament practice of law-keeping.  These ones claimed that they were the real apostles and that their knowledge and gifts far surpassed those of Paul’s.  So because many in the church were confused and no one stood up for Paul to make his case, Paul himself was compelled in the final chapters of this book to make his own “boast ” and to defend his own apostolic authority.  What he revealed to the church in Corinth in chapter 12 is some of the most remarkable speaking in all of the New Testament, for Paul himself tells of the incredible and mysterious vision that the Lord had permitted him to see in an effort to rescue the Corinthians.

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Numbers (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

The Bible, the infallible Word of God contains the entirety of the divine revelation.  This one book reveals everything that God has for man.  Nothing shall be added or deleted.  Yet within the Bible, from the first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelation, the divine speaking progresses.  Especially the books of Moses or Pentateuch as they are called, present us with all the great truth of the revelations of the Bible but in “seed form”.  Just as a mighty oak contain in a tiny seed, all it needs is proper growth and development to be fully manifested.  It’s against this backdrop that we begin today the life study of the fourth book of Moses, the book of Numbers.   As we begin a tremendous life study that will show us God’s people formed together as a fighting army, to fight for His Kingdom and for His House.

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2 Corinthians (Program #50) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (5)

At the end of 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul was compelled to make a vindication of his apostolic authority.   In the course of this defense, he described much of the sufferings and poverty that seem to be his constant companions during his ministry.  Judging his ministry by today’s common standards, it might seem to some that his work lack the Lord’s blessing.  Listen, “three times I was beaten with rods” he writes, “once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I had spent in the deep, In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers; In labor and hardship; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness.”

This kind of hardship and shortage even of the basic material supplies might seems strange to some.  How could this be the case of a genuine servant of the Lord?  But to Paul, it was quite the opposite.  For to his realization the Lord Jesus during His earthly ministry similarly suffered and Paul considered it an honor that the Lord would find him worthy to share in the sufferings.

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Leviticus (Program #40) – Devotions for a Vow (1) & (2), A Concluding Word

The conclusion of the book of Leviticus is a remarkable one. The early chapters present in great detail the offerings that depict so vividly that our Saviour Christ as the solution to every problem and barrier between God and man. Then come the festivals and the jubilee pointing us to the enjoyment and experience of God in Christ as our food, our rest and ultimate satisfaction. But then we are warned not to neglect such an all-inclusive provision and finally the last chapter presents the child of God making a devotion with a vow to live in the reality of all that God has prepared for us.

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2 Corinthians (Program #49) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (4)

Remember back to the very first problem that affected mankind in the Bible.  It was the serpent tempting the woman to eat of the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life.  Now consider Paul’s word to the Corinthians addressing the impact that those claimed to be apostles upon them as they minister different Jesus to the believers in Corinth.  Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians verse 3, “But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity toward Christ.” Paul’s fear was that the teachings of the so called apostles would have the same result as the serpent’s deception in Genesis 3, to distract the believers away from the enjoyment of Christ’s life and bring them to another tree, a tree that leads to death.

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