Numbers 4

The Lord's plan for His people was not only a plan for redemption, but also a plan for mission and service. For this work of serving Him, He commanded Moses and Aaron to number the males among the clans of the Levites between the ages of thirty and fifty years old. These were prime years of service for those who were called to be Levites.

The call to serve came not through the judgment of their peers or through proving their abilities, but through natural descent. The nature of the service depended on the clan into which a man was born. If you were a male Levite between the ages of thirty and fifty, what you did in life depended on whether you were descended from Kohath, form Gershon, or from Merari.

The male descendants of Kohath, all who were between thirty and fifty years of age, all who could come on duty to do the work in the tent of meeting, were to attend to “the most holy things.” As a worshiping people of the Lord on the move, it would be Aaron and his sons alone who would take down the veil between the holy place and the most holy place in the tent of meeting. They would cover the ark of the testimony with that veil, and then with goatskin, and finally with a cloth of blue. They would put in its poles so that the ark could be properly carried. Aaron and his sons alone would also care for the table of the bread of the Presence in a similar way with particular attention to all the holy objects for the system of Old Covenant worship.

Once the priests had prepared all of these sacred objects appropriately, the Kohathites would have the privilege and duty of moving them by using the poles for that task. They could not touch the objects themselves or they would die. They could only move them using the poles once Aaron and his sons the priests had prepared them to be moved. Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest would have charge of the oil for light, the incense, the grain offering, the anointing oil, and the general oversight of the whole tabernacle and all that was in it. This limitation on the freedom of the Kohathites was for their own safety, lest they be destroyed.

The descendants of Gershon had different duties than the Kohathites. Those males who were thirty years old up to the age of fifty were to carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the covering of the tent of meeting. They were to perform this important task under the direction of Aaron and his sons, particularly under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest,

The men of Merari between the ages of thirty and fifty, the third group of Levites, were to carry all of the frames, bars, pillars, and bases that gave structure to this movable house of worship. These men were also under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron.

These were the three groups of Levites who were numbered for this holy service, this supportive role under the direction of God's high priest. The sanctuary of God was the sacred center of the camp of Israel. Though only Aaron and his sons could perform certain functions in that sanctuary, this movable house of worship could not have been carried through the wilderness by Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar. They needed thousands of helpers alongside them. This was the way that God chose to move His house of worship through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

God did not need Levites. He chose to use them. This was a gracious blessing to them for God to give them a part in such a strategic work. Christ our High Priest has not only found our names on His list for redemption. God has prepared works of service that we might walk in them under the direction of our High Priest.

The works that the Lord has for us are not distributed based on our clan. Jesus gives His congregation gifts from heaven according to the mystery of the Lord's holy will. He has made some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Others give watch over the saints of God as those who must give an account to the Lord. Some lead the churches in manifold works of love and service. Many are called to help in a supportive role like the Levites of the Old Covenant.

Everyone has something to give. This is the way that Christ has determined to build up His living sanctuary. He has made us a body, where each member supplies some gift that comes from the Lord. Jesus does not need us to create His kingdom. His calling upon our lives is an expression of His merciful grace.

We have been numbered for redemption. We have also been numbered for the Lord's service. Thanks be to God for all His mercies.

1 Kings 2

God made a promise of steadfast love to David in 2 Samuel 7. That promise would be fulfilled. Yet the way that the Lord's good Word would work out in the lives of individual descendants of David would also uphold the importance of obedience. None of the kings of Israel had the right to presume that it would be safe to disobey the Lord's commandments.

As David prepared for his own death, he wanted Solomon to understand the necessity of following the Lord. The pathway of sovereign grace does not negate divine discipline but establishes it. Our knowledge of grace can never be an excuse for walking in sin. We cannot continue in sin under the pretext that this will be a good way to make grace abound.

Even in the days of Solomon, the Son of David would be an agent of God's justice. Men like Joab and Shimei would finally face the consequences of their outrageous actions. Loyal and merciful men like Barzillai would find their kindnesses returning even to their children.

David's days on this earth were soon completed and his son reigned in his place. Solomon proved himself to be vigorous in his pursuit of justice. Adonijah died swiftly for his subtle efforts to work through Solomon's mother to obtain David's concubine. Abiathar the priest was sent into exile. Joab was put to death even though he had fled to the alter of the Lord for refuge. Shimei was tested by the king and found wanting. When he violated the terms of the king's tolerance, retribution against him was very swift.

Solomon did all of this with words of complete confidence. He did not give any hint of fear that he was bringing trouble upon his own house. He spoke of the peace and blessing that would coming from his willingness to be strong and courageous in the cause of what was right. “King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.”

When the Son of David returns to the earth with His angels and all His heavenly kingdom, He will execute the justice of His Father as the Lord of all knowledge and power. Even now, Jesus is working out His holy purposes on the earth.

The gospel of mercy goes forth to all who will receive the Word of the King of Glory. Christ will establish His church. Nothing will stop Him. But the certainty of divine grace is never an excuse to live against the Word of the King. The church that will not repent will find her lampstand removed.

When Jesus comes for His bride, those who have hated her will not do well to begin to claim that they have done great things for God for which they deserve heaven's wages. The Lord's justice will be swift against all pretenders. Their own words will testify against them.

The Lord's mercy will be upon all who, by the riches of His grace, love Him with an everlasting love. It would be wise and good for us to live sober and upright lives today as we wait for the coming of our glorious King.

1 Kings 1

God would choose the king of Israel after David. In the prior book, Absalom had attempted to exalt himself to that role and to destroy his father, David. But now Adonijah sought to take advantage of David's old age in order to secure his position as the next in line to rule God's people.

Adonijah had some powerful allies to come alongside him in his ambition. But the kingdom of God would not be established by the power of men. David had already promised that Solomon, his son by Bathsheba, would be king.

David's promise was not just the word of a man. It was a solemn promise before God by the one man on earth who was the Lord's anointed.

David was willing to step aside immediately for Solomon. Solomon would sit on David's throne while David, the anointed of God, was still alive. Adonijah could never have that honor.

The celebration for Solomon was so great, that when word of David's choice reached Adonijah, the man who had thought he could be king lost all of his allies. The message of David had become known to many. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it.”

The issue of David's final days was that of his immediate successor. Who would sit on David's throne? That issue had now been settled. It would be Solomon and not Adonijah.

A weightier issue remained for future generations. Who would be the eternal son of David? Who was the Messiah, the Lord of the Covenant, that God had promised would come from the line of David?

Jesus warned that there would be many false messiahs. They all would want the crown, but none would choose the cross except the true Servant of the Lord.

That cross would be the only way to an eternal reign of glory. If any other man had tried to win that seat at the right hand of the Father by his own death, he would have been judged unworthy.

But Jesus of Nazareth, the chosen son of David, has risen from the dead. As Paul writes in Romans 1:3-4, Jesus “was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”

In the words of Hebrews 1:3, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Jesus is the true Messiah King. He tasted death for His people. Now we live forever in Him.

Rejoice, the Lord is King!

2 Samuel 24

Why was it so evil for David to number Israel on his own initiative? Was it an issue of pride? Was there some other purpose of God that we cannot fully understand in this account at the end of 2 Samuel?

We know that whenever a census was taken, there was to be a tax collected. Taking a census was supposed to be costly. It also took much time and effort on the part of the army. Why would David undertake such a project without the Lord's command?

Yet this census was from the Lord, though David did not know it. The Lord was angry with Israel, and he incited David against them. The census was a part of the mysterious plan of God for His people and their king.

It was only after Joab and the army had completed the census that David saw his sin. David confessed his fault before the Lord, and made a choice before God concerning the Lord's discipline that would come upon Israel. In speaking of that choice, He acknowledged the God's great mercy toward His people even in the midst of this time of discipline and death.

The pestilence from God came to an end at an appointed place in Jerusalem. It was through this strange and difficult series of events that the Lord identified the site of the temple that would be built by David's son, Solomon.

David's words on this occasion were full of important meaning. He was willing to have the hand of God come against him in order that the people would be spared.

In desiring to die as a substitute for others, he acknowledged that he was the one who was at fault. But when Christ died for us, our Savior had not done anything deserving of death. He was innocent of all transgression.

God instructed David to build an altar to stop the plague against Israel. It would be through a sacrifice to God that the mercy of God would be accomplished.

Through many episodes such as this the Lord provided us with a way to think about His saving plan for the earth. A plague of death came upon Adam's descendants because of our sin. The only way to stop that plague was to find a substitute that would be acceptable to the Lord. The King of Glory came to earth to offer up the necessary appointed sacrifice to God.

This is what Christ has done for us. He is the King. He is the Sacrifice. The plague of death has ended. For the one who believes in Him, Jesus said in John 11:25, “though he die, yet shall he live.”

Numbers 3

The tabernacle of the Lord was at the center of Israel's camp. The guardians of that tent belonged to the tribe of Levi. One family in particular among all the Levites had a special role as priests to God, the sons of Aaron, the brother of Moses. They alone could approach God in certain ceremonial ways according to Old Covenant law.

The sad story of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu is not repeated in detail here in this chapter. The simple summary tells us of the danger of approaching God in ways that were unauthorized. “But Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children.”

The remaining sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, served as the Lord's priests. The rest of the Levites had their assigned duties according to their clans. The three clans of the Levites descended from the three sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. All the males that were at least one month old were listed and numbered according to their father's houses and clans.

There Gershonites were to camp to the west of the tabernacle. They had the assigned duty of guarding the tent itself, all of the cords, and all of the skillfully woven materials.

The Kohathites camped on the south side of the tabernacle. They also had the responsibility to guard certain sacred objects: all the holy furnishings, including the ark itself.

The clan of Merari camped on the north side of the tabernacle. Their guard duties included all the frames, pillars, and bases that provided the necessary structure for the tent.

Finally, Moses and Aaron camped to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, but within the sacred heart of Israel at the leading edge of the Levites.

Moses, Aaron, and the 22,000 numbered men of the Levites not only protected the holy sanctuary of Israel's sacrificial system. They were themselves the Lord's substitute for all the firstborn males of the people of Israel. God had rescued the firstborn males of Israel from the fate that came upon the firstborn sons of Egypt.

The 22,273 firstborn males of the people of Israel were able to live, but they belonged to the Lord in a special way as His dedicated servants. God took the males among the Levites as His servants rather than the firstborn males of all the tribes. Even for the additional 273 males beyond the 22,000 of the Levites a special redemption price was required.

The Lord accepted five shekels per head for those 273. Together with the dedicated service of the males of the Levites, this was what the Lord required for the ceremonial freedom of the firstborn males of Israel.

This was the system of redemption according to the ceremonies given in the Law of Moses. Yet the true eternal freedom of the people of God required a different payment to be made. The Levites had their place and time in the plan of God. But now the Messiah, the Son of God has paid for our redemption with His blood.

The Lord required a full and exact accounting of the demands of His justice. He told us of His holiness through the lives and deaths of Aaron's sons. He reinforced the seriousness of His just demands in the way that the Levites were to guard the sanctuary. According to the picture of redemption provided through the numbering of the Old Covenant Levites, every payment needed to be made. But when the Lamb of God gave His blood for us, He gave a payment of inestimable worth.

What a great redemption price has been offered up to our heavenly Father! What surpassing worth is there in the life and death of Jesus! He alone, a solitary payment to the Father, has covered the debt owed by millions of people who belong to Him.

Revelation 13:10

Some Thoughts on the Call of God to Candy and Chet's Mom, Dorothy J. DuPont, 1937-2013

When Mom died last Tuesday it hit us all very hard. She had been sick so often over the last thirty years and had recovered every time. It was a surprise when her time actually came. Mom was called home.

During the last months of her life I was thinking about a verse from the last book of the Bible every time I prayed for her: "Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints." (Revelation 13:10)

When I think of the word call as we most commonly use it, I think of a telephone call. Candy talked to Mom once or twice a day. She is going to miss those calls very much.

Imagine a world before all our communication devices. If you wanted to hear a call you had to be near enough to a person to hear her voice with your ears.

During the last two days I have had this image in my mind of a couple of young kids playing in the woods. They both are headed to some higher point, but the way there is not all that clear.

One of them runs ahead and calls to the other, "This is the way! Come on up!" It still might be hard for the person who heard that call to discern the right path, but that voice would be a great encouragement that there was a way to go that would lead to higher ground.

When Mom talked about her faith over the years, that talk became increasingly earnest. Candy and Chet were talking with her last Monday when she woke up in the Emergency Room of Danbury Hospital. She was deeply disappointed to be in a hospital bed and not in heaven. She wanted to go. The very next day she reached the higher ground that she was longing for.

Mom learned her faith first from her own mother, Gram Hillard. I have no doubt that Gram learned her faith from her revered mother who was known as Mim. Along the way of life Mom learned more about Jesus Christ. She faced very difficult trials involving her health and life. When she stumbled, she somehow got up again, and through those struggles she saw the Lord more clearly, and she prayed.

The reason I prayed about Mom in connection with Revelation 13:10 was that I wanted her to be able to endure through this last part of her life as a woman of faith, like her mother and grandmother before her. The call of this verse is not a call to die, but a call to live, even through the most difficult times.

Endurance is admirable. This is what we need in this world that has so much sorrow. We need to stay in the faith and to keep on moving up to higher ground. What Mom increasingly saw was that the call that she heard from her mother and grandmother was the call of God in her life through Jesus Christ.

Dorothy DuPont was called to life by God. You could see it more and more clearly at the end of her life. She was stretching toward heaven in her spirit even though her body was failing. The journey of her soul was upward.

There was a second passage I wrote down and gave to Mom in addition to Revelation 13:10. This one came from Philippians 3:13-14. “... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

May God use this wonderful woman's life and death as a testimony that calls us to a better world.

Numbers 2

The Lord is a God of order. He spoke to Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, instructing them about how the people of Israel should move through the desert. They were to camp according to their tribes in four groups of three tribes each in a special formation around the holy center of Israel.

The leading tribe of the first group of tribes was the tribe of Judah, with that first group consisting of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. They were to camp on the east side, “toward the sunrise.” Our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah. Though Nahshon the son of Amminadab would lead the 74,600 fighting men of Judah, our hope is not in him. In both genealogies of Jesus his name would appear. Nahshon would lead the tribes camped toward the sunrise, but his descendant, Jesus, is the bright and morning star from on high for whom we wait. Nahshon would lead 186,400 from three tribes who would set out first on the march in the wilderness. Jesus is leading millions from every tribe and tongue and nation to a new heavens and earth.

On the south side, Elizur the son of Shedeur, the chief of the people of Reuben, Jacob's oldest son, would lead not only the Reubenites, but also the people of Simeon and Gad. They would move out in the second position after those camped on the east.

In the very middle of the line of the marching thousands of Israel would be the tent of meeting, and the Levites who had charge of the holy things. The tabernacle was in the middle of the camp at rest and in the middle of the marching men of Israel. God was in their midst.

After the tent came the tribes camped on the west, under the leadership of Ephraim. Finally, the tribe of Dan led the last group of tribes camped on the north.

Israel camped by their standards according to the Word of God through Moses. Israel marched out through the wilderness in tribal order by that same Word.

We had already heard the names of the tribal leaders. We had already considered the numbers of the thousands of fighting men from each tribe. What is new in this message of the order for camping and the order for moving out?

First we see that there are two notable positions in the camp and procession of Israel. One is in the very front of the line where the leading man of Judah sets out in front of the people of God. But the second is the position of God Himself in the midst of the Levites and the entire nation of Israel from the center of the camp.

Second it is clear that there was no way for any man in the Old Covenant to occupy both of those significant positions. No Israelite could be counted in the tribe of Judah and also serve at the center of the tent of meeting where only the Levites could serve.

We can now rejoice in this fact: that as we move out in service of God, our King and Lord is not only the best Son of Judah and leader of all Israel, but He is also the Son of God and the Temple of the Holy Spirit in our midst. He has the greatest place of honor in every sense as His church moves forward. If we rest, we rest in Him. If we serve, He is in the lead. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.

Our God is the Lord of order. He has made His kingdom so that in all things Christ shall have the preeminence.

Numbers 1

The Lord took Israel out of Egypt and led them into the promised land. He did not transport His people to Canaan directly. When God brought His nation out of bondage, He led them into the wilderness. There He spoke to them through Moses.

The Lord commanded Moses to count the people, but not each and every human being, only the males who were twenty years old and older who were able to go to war. The census was to be done company by company within the tribal structure of the Israelites.

The men of Israel were to be heads of households, leaders in warfare, and part of the fighting force that the Lord would use in bringing His people through the wilderness and into the promised land. At the head of each tribe was a leading man with a God-given responsibility. His name was listed in these records, and he was to be with Moses in the numbering of that tribe.

These men were each named by their given names that identified them particularly, but they were also named by their father's names, and by their tribal affiliations. There was a context within which their leadership was granted. Elizur, mentioned in verse 5 was not just Elizur the independent man all by himself. Elizur was the son of another man, Shedeur, his father. This was significant in terms of the way he was to understand himself and the way others were to view him. This sense of belonging was not only a family matter. Elizur the son of Shedeur was of Reuben, the first son of Jacob. He was also a part of the people of Israel. The Israelites were the people of God.

Identity was not only individual for this man. It was familial, tribal, and beyond the limits of humanity. Elizur was a part of the people of God.

You are to be a part of a fighting force, not with the weapons of this world, but under the banner of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God who died for your sins and rose for your justification. In Him you are part of the household of God. You are not just an individual. You are part of a family, a family with a mission to overcome evil with good.

Your identification with your Captain, Jesus, should be more precious to you than any other affiliation that you can imagine. Apart from Him you still have human dignity, but you do not have a true future and a hope in the eternal promise of God. But you are in Him through faith.

The leaders, we are told in verse 16, were the ones “chosen from the congregation.” How were they chosen? That was not important for us to know. Whatever the method may have been, we should see the sovereign hand of the Almighty as He worked according to His own will.

Tribe by tribe, the number of males able to go to war was determined in the presence of the leaders. Judah, the one from whom David and the Messiah would come, was the largest of the tribes. All together there were over 600,000 fighting men in Israel.

Only the tribe of Levi, the tribe of priests and tabernacle servants, was left out of the census. The Levites were to put to death any outsider who came near the holy things of the Lord in their charge. They were to keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.

Would your ancestors have been welcomed into the presence of God in that day about 1500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? Unless they were Israelites, unless they were Levites, unless they were descendants of Aaron, there would have been a point beyond which they would have traveled at the cost of their lives.

But we who were once far off from Israel have been drawn near because of our adoption into the household of God. Not only do we have the rights and privileges of the sons of God, we have been numbered among the congregation as those who have a sacred mission to go forth and to make disciples of all nations. We are a force that will not easily be eliminated, not because of our own ability or wisdom, but because of the One who died and rose again. He is our great leader and our hope. We will not deny Him.

2 Samuel 23

David's death would be recorded in the second chapter of the next book of the Bible. The ending chapters of 2 Samuel prepared us for that moment. In the previous chapter we were brought to see David's reliance upon God in the prime of his life. Here in 2 Samuel 23 the Lord included some final words of David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel.”

David was the anointed of God, the king of Israel. God spoke through David by His Holy Spirit about the glory of a king who ruled justly. To have a king who rules in the fear of God is a bright sunrise that comes upon a happy land. We have such a King over the kingdom of heaven in Jesus Christ, the Son of David.

God made an everlasting covenant with David that David's house would stand. At the time of David's own death, when he could not keep himself alive, David knew that God's promise to him was secure. This promise of God was David's help and his desire as he took his last breath. It was a promise that would be fulfilled in the final Anointed One, the Christ.

This promise would not stand or fall by the power of man. David's trust on his deathbed was not in what man could do for him. Nonetheless, the Almighty used strong men in David's life to accomplish His will for the king and for the nation. An account of David's life would be incomplete without an awareness of those men who stood beside him.

At the end of this chapter God preserved the names of the leading mighty men. The Lord had given them victory in the service of David. Three had risked their lives to give a cup of Bethlehem's water to the king. David had poured it out before the Lord as a drink offering.

David's valiant men were part of an era that has long passed away from the face of the earth. They accomplished great feats for David and for David's God, but they could not keep their own lives from death.

But now a more glorious warrior, the greatest Son of David, has appeared. He has conquered even death for us with His own death. Now He lives forever on the heights of heaven. He sends forth a river of heavenly life, the Holy Spirit, upon His church throughout the world. He is the Captain of our salvation.

Because of this great Son of God, all the promises of God are forever secure. In the words of the great singer of Israel recorded for us in Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”

We rest in peace because of Jesus. We live because He lives.

2 Samuel 22

David was growing old and would eventually die. When the end came, the great king would be remembered as a man who turned to the Lord in distress and was heard. The beautiful words recorded here also appear in the psalter as Psalm 18. They are about David, but they are also for us, for they are about Jesus Christ, who represents both David and us before God.

David knew that his victories against his enemies did not come to him by his own strength. The Lord God was his rock.

Before David was born and beyond his final days on this earth, the Almighty God of Israel knew David and preserved his life. The king faced moments of great distress, and when he called upon the Lord he was heard.

David received God's special protection in his day as the man who would be the great ancestor of a far greater Messiah King. We are kept through God's special acts of providence as are all who are united to David's Messiah and ours.

The Lord God Almighty was willing to enter into battle for David, using all the forces of this creation for the man in whom He delighted. God rescued us with something more powerful than an earthquake. We have been saved through the coming of a whole new era of resurrection when the Lamb of God who died for us was made alive again.

David's song of deliverance in this chapter anticipated the life of his great descendant. Jesus achieved His mission by His own righteousness. We have seen the consequences of David's sins throughout this book. The king's only hope came from his sinless Lord. We have been rewarded according to Christ's obedience and not our own.

How are we to be counted as the Lord's beloved? We must be united to His Son, Jesus Christ. God saves the humble, but He opposes the proud. We see our sin and humbly run to Jesus. He is the only refuge of His people. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

David's Son was also David's Lord. What gift did David or any of us have that we were not given through Jesus, our Redeemer? Yet when He won His greatest battle for us in the obedience of the cross, He did not appear strong. But there is nothing stronger than an empty grave.

Through the cross, Christ has absolutely crushed His and our enemies. He died, but yet He lives again. Now He is the Rock of Ages for millions far beyond the borders of Israel. God has shown us His steadfast love. He will shower His blessings upon all His beloved children forever. We are His offspring through faith in His Name.

When our lives come to a close, we would do well to consider God's deliverance toward us through the Captain of our Salvation. Let others boast in their own glories and achievements. We will rejoice in the Lord always.

Leviticus 27

What is the worth of a human being? How would you measure a person's value? People are made in the image of God Almighty. We know that God determined to redeem mankind, and that the Son of God became man. We know that even after Jesus came to save us, He did not relinquish His humanity. He is God and man now for the rest of eternity. People must be of great worth.

But in the ceremonial law of the Old Testament there was a valuation of persons in connection with voluntary vows made to the Lord where a male was worth more than a woman, and a mature adult was worth more than a little baby. The Lord established this system of redemption prices allowing someone to be bought back to freedom after giving himself to the Lord's service.

Under the worship laws of Israel a vow was a conditional promise made to the Lord. If the Lord would hear the petition of the one crying out to Him in worship and give what was requested, then the worshiper was bound to pay the Lord what he had promised. This system of valuation allowed a person to promise himself or some other good gift, and then to pay a redemption price instead. This practice established something essential to Biblical grace. A payment could be made to free one who was in debt to the Lord.

The Lord did not reveal the reason for different valuations for different categories of people. While it might have seemed like an insult to have a lower value, remember that this made redemption more feasible for those in that group. If someone was too poor to pay the valuation according to the Law, the Lord had a different way: “He shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.” The goal was freedom for the Lord's people, and not bondage.

A vow of a clean animal could not be redeemed or substituted. The animal had to be given up. But if someone vowed an unclean animal, the priest would determine the value. If someone wanted to redeem it, he could add a fifth to the value given by the priest. The same procedure was to be followed for a house vowed to the Lord.

A man might make a vow to the Lord of part of his land. The value was to be based on the worth of its seed with an eye to the coming year of jubilee. The priest was to value the gift and it could be redeemed by the worshiper by adding a fifth to its valuation price. The land that was not redeemed would be a holy gift to the Lord.

The firstborn of a clean animal could not be dedicated to the Lord. It already belonged to God by His work of redeeming Israel out of bondage in Egypt. An unclean animal could be bought back, adding an extra fifth to the value.

A man was not to make a vow to the Lord too lightly. The priest would establish the value of the conditionally promised payment. The only way to get that item back was to add a fifth to the amount the priest indicated. Some things could not be bought back at all. Anything set aside for destruction in the Lord's eyes could not be redeemed.

A person needed to carefully consider what he dedicated to the Lord. The worshiper was not left to his own opinion on these matters. The priest would have the final word. This system of vows made and paid before God was not a light matter.

The tithes that Israel gave to the Lord were also to be paid based on the Lord's blessing. To keep a portion of the goods that should be in the tithe required the addition of a fifth to the fair valuation of this payment. No one should presume to cheat the Lord on vows or tithes. Any substitution designed to defraud God and His priests was an offense against God.

In the New Testament era, we no longer have ceremonial regulations about any conditional promises we make to the Lord involving payments of people, animals, houses, or other gifts. We ourselves have been valued and purchased. The price set upon the people of God was not a small payment. God paid Himself for us in the coin of His own perfect righteousness. The blood of His Son was the only acceptable price according to the system of grace ordained by the Lord.

If anyone had attempted to bring a substitute in place of Jesus, that payment would have been judged as lacking in value. Partial righteousness would have done us no good in securing our own redemption. The Lord demanded perfect righteousness. We have absolutely none of our own perfect righteousness to give.

But now that we have been bought with the price of the precious Lamb of God, our Lord has been content to freely grant to us the fullness of heavenly freedom. We who were purchased by the blood of Jesus have been given the greatest liberty. Yet we are pleased to remain as the Lord's servants. We even possess all the privileges of being His sons. Our love for our Redeemer has made us eager to stay near the Lamb who gave His price for our eternal well-being. This is grace upon grace, a costly redemption, and a gift of freedom to us as the beloved children of the Lord.

Leviticus 26

Obedience was always important to our relationship with God. This was not only true under the Law, but even in a religion of grace, which is the only religion of the Bible. The only question has always been this: Who would provide the perfect obedience that would allow God to justly give all His gifts of mercy to His chosen people?

The first answer to that question was that Israel would have to do all the obedience required. If the people of God obeyed, they would be blessed. If they disobeyed they would face curses. This could not be the final answer for the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose. Because of Israel's disobedience, only the curse would have resulted.

The true answer was generously testified to throughout the book of Leviticus. All this instruction about the blood of the sacrifice pointed to another way of satisfying the justice of God which would allow Him to be merciful to His people. That way of sacrifice would require a Law-keeping substitute. That Lamb would have to win the blessings of God for us by His obedience, and then take away the debt that we owed God by His blood. This was what Jesus did.

This costly decree of God to love us through the gift of His Son as a substitute makes all idolatry especially offensive. An idol made by man could never obey God and then die for us. To worship idols after God has provided such a perfect and costly sacrifice would be very insulting and offensive. The best and first response to the provision of Jesus Christ is to rest in Him who was revealed as our Sabbath when He rose from the dead on the first day of the week.

The Lord won for us the perfect promised land through His obedience and death for us as our Substitute. This victory of heaven has become visible through His resurrection. Heaven, and the eventual heaven on earth kingdom that will come when Christ returns, is a place of fruitfulness flowing from His obedience. We can use Leviticus 26 to imagine what God has in store for His beloved children: rains in season, trees with a bountiful yield, no time of lacking where families need to wait and hope that a new crop will eventually come, no allergies or diseases that display our alienation with God and His creation, no marauding enemies or dangerous beasts; but perfect peace with God, and a perfectly secure future of divine blessing, a close walk with the Lord who lives with us and loves us, with Him as the obvious and present answer to anything that we could ever need. In short, we will have all the perfect and perpetual liberty of the sons of God.

Israel was offered these blessings for her own obedience. But how could that ever have come to the nation when the sin of Israel, and of all mankind, was so deep and obvious?

No, what we deserved as our wage for our disobedience against the Almighty was death and all its accompanying miseries. But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What was the cross like for Him? We will never know the fullness of what He faced, but we have glimpses of it as He grants us fellowship in His sufferings. See Philippians 1:29.

One way to meditate on the love of Christ for us is to consider the punishments that were due to Israel as a nation under the Law. What would happen to the nation if they would not listen to God? What would they deserve for breaking His covenant, disobeying His commandments, and treating His voice as less than one among many?

There would be inner panic, wasting disease, consuming fever, heartache, ravaging enemies, starvation, captivity, loss of all fellowship with God, drought, fruitlessness, wild beasts that attack, plagues, depopulation, and everything that would make life pitiful.

The Lord spoke to Israel about a progressive experience of deeper and deeper discipline and misery. Even this discipline would not have been enough to give people a listening ear and an obedient heart. Repentance would have to come as a gift. But how could the gift be given. By law? No, not by law, but by grace, by God's gift, by God's love; but also by God's justice. Christ has provided the obedience necessary for God to be both just and merciful.

If we were left to ourselves, we would not win anything but death, devastation, and hell. But this was not the Lord's plan. That's why there was so much blood in the book of Leviticus. God was preparing us for the fact that it would only be through the shedding of the blood of a perfect Lamb that we could have eternal peace and the fullness of heavenly joy.

Imagine what it was like when John the Baptist pointed to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

He is the only way for us to avoid the curses of the Law.

Best to rest in Him.

Leviticus 25

What is heaven like? There is no better way for us to answer this question than to listen carefully to the One who came down from heaven in order to secure our eternal redemption. Yet even in the Old Testament Law God provided a vision for the way life should have been in an obedient Israel. We have regulations in that Law that capture our imagination even today and stretch our minds toward the land of our true citizenship. God's plan for Israel included the celebration of what He called the year of jubilee. This great year was to be a generous helping of heavenly food for the hearts of God's people.

The year of jubilee was to be celebrated every fifty years in Israel, but even before that great year arrived, the Lord's nation was to receive a taste of great liberty in the Sabbath year. The Lord gave His people one day of rest every seven days, but every seven years He granted them one year of rest. What a gift! In that year the land was to rest as well as the farmer. To enjoy that law, Israel needed to believe that God would provide for the people and their animals as He promised.

After seven weeks of years, after seven sabbath years of rest, the final sabbath year, the fiftieth year, would come. The coming of the jubilee was associated with the third cluster of annual festivals, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, all coming in the seventh month, September and October according to the Hebrew calendar. This was an appropriate time to celebrate the fullness of liberty that will come to the Lord's people when the final trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ are raised, and we will be with the Lord of the Sabbath forever.

In the year of jubilee, liberty would be proclaimed, and land would be restored to the family of the ancient owner. Everyone would return to their clan. Who will be our neighbors in the heavenly habitations that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for us?

Jubilee was a picture of the end of God's curse. No more would thorns infest the ground or the farmer sow seed by the sweat of his brow. The fruit of the land would come forth as if by the command of God alone, and the people of God would eat the produce of His gracious bounty.

The curse was not actually stopped in Israel, so there might be some who would try to take advantage of the Lord's good plans. Because of this the Lord specified how sales of land should be priced based on the number of years remaining until the jubilee. Just as greedy transactions would mar the beauty of what the Lord was displaying before the eyes of His people, worrying about how people would eat would steal away the joy of this heavenly testimony. God would provide everything necessary so that His people might keep the jubilee.

The jubilee was not just an idea or a myth. It was to be a way of life in Israel. Therefore the laws had to consider the practical details of fair dealings. How would the land come back to the right family? What if a man could not buy back the family property? How could close relatives help out? Could the rightful owner ever get his property back? Would he have to wait for the jubilee? What if his property were inside a walled city? Would the rules be different? These kinds of questions needed to be answered in order to show forth the liberty of the sons of God in the Old Testament world while still remaining mindful of the Lord's determination that His people be both just and merciful.

Care for the poor was part of the law for the jubilee, but the poor could not always wait fifty years for aid. The people of Israel needed to help one another. A brother Israelite was not to be thought of as someone from whom you could gather interest, gaining riches in the day of his misfortune. Was he hungry? You needed to give him something to eat? The people of God had been redeemed from Egypt by God. They needed to care for the needy with that in mind.

If a man had to sell himself to his brother Israelite, it was not to be for the purpose of cruel bondage. It was a temporary arrangement for his survival only until the year of jubilee. The world might consider ruthless transactions with the poor as normal. God would not allow such things to take place in Israel.

There was a distinction between the Israelite and the people of other nations in these Old Covenant times, but this was appropriate for that era before the gospel went forth to every nation. The picture of jubilee was not given to instruct us about the best management of slavery. It was a proclamation of a coming day of resurrection liberty in Christ.

We who were slaves of sin and hell by our own moral condition have now received our liberty through the blood of our Redeemer. Long ago He had determined to be our close relation. He saw us in our desperate condition and gave His blood for our freedom. The necessary price took into account our serious offense against our eternal God.

Jubilee would never have arrived for us if it had to come by our merit. But Christ has paid the eternal price for us. Now we look for the unveiling of His promise of a new heavens and a new earth, a place of true liberty, bounty, community, and peace; a land of eternal jubilee.

Leviticus 24

God created man to live in time and space. One day we will live with Him and with each other in a renewed heaven and earth, but we will still live in time and space. He has chosen us for a particular temporal and spatial life together prior to the return of Christ. This is our training ground for eternity.

We do not live in the wilderness of Sinai centuries before the coming of the Messiah. We live in some nation of this world well into New Testament times, a spiritual era when the Apostle Peter could say in 1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is at hand.” We learn about how we should live together in godliness and sincerity in our era by making profitable use of the whole counsel of God. As the Lord's sheep who are moving toward the real Promised Land, we hear the voice of our Shepherd even in Leviticus. He knows us, and speaks to us, and we follow Him.

Our understanding of what we can expect as a community of faith over the centuries is made richer by seeing the movement from Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles in the ancient calendar of the Old Testament given to us in Leviticus 23. We also have an expectation of the greatness of the glorious life ahead of us through meditating on the year of Jubilee. See Leviticus 25. The world around us, and even many within the church, may not share this vision. We live out our brief lives in this strange wilderness with a hope that comes to us from the Scriptures and from a life of communion with the Lord. With all the confusion around us, with such irreconcilable versions of future hope in the world and even within the body of Christ, how ought we to live in the brief moments of life in the place where God has chosen to plant us? In between the annual calendar of Leviticus 23 and the generational marker of the year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, the Lord granted to Israel images of what Israel and the church were to be like as strangers and sojourners, living godly lives of self-control with a sure and sober-minded hope of a coming place and time of perfect glory.

We are to be a shining lamp as the light of the world. God used the gifts of His people to supply the oil needed so that the worship of Israel would be a shining beacon in a dark place. At just the right moment in His eternal plan, His Son, the Light of the world, came to His people Israel. He was not only their light, but a light to the Gentiles. Now the church which is His body is to reflect His glorious resurrection light, though many around us in every place and time do not have eyes to see that light. By the grace of God, Jesus shines through us. We need the continual oil of the Holy Spirit if we are to live as we should as we look for the return of our Messiah. In Him, we are a lamp of purest gold, shining with the light of heaven.

The priests in Israel were to set holy bread before the Lord every Sabbath with frankincense as a memorial portion for the Lord. The bread was to be eaten by the priests in a holy place. The New Testament church gathers every Sunday in the rest that has been won for us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We eat of the Bread of Life. We feast on the Word from heaven, and we partake in the communion of the One who gave His body and blood for us. This is a holy ordinance, and an expectation of glory that we share in as the priesthood of all who have faith. We draw near to the God of eternity, believing that He is our present help and our everlasting life. He will reward those who diligently seek Him.

We are to be a people that love the Name of God, and have been baptized in the one Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Israel, a man was to be put to death for misusing the holy Name of God. This was confirmed by the Lord in a specific case recorded for us in the days of traveling through the wilderness. The Lord used the hands of the men of Israel as instruments of justice against the blasphemer.

But when the perfect One came, the Man who was the Word of God, the leaders of Israel determined to see Him as a guilty blasphemer when He revealed Himself as the Son of God. They envied Him and hated Him. They did not receive Him as their Almighty Lord and Redeemer. But by His death He secured an eternal salvation not only for Jews but also for Gentiles who would believe in His Name.

Israel was to be a place of holiness in word and life. Can the church of Christ be less than this? Despite all our sad blemishes, we are the light of the world. We testify that the death of Jesus was for our sins. We proclaim the power of the cross when we eat together the sacramental bread that stands for our Savior's body. But we must live out our worship. We are not to walk as murderers or thieves, but as sons of the Most High God. We are to love His Name, not only in ceremony, but in the integrity of a pure life.

This is how we ought to live in our appointed place and time as those who look for the coming of the Lord. In the words of the apostle Paul in Titus 2:11-14, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

Leviticus 23

Is it too creative or speculative to suggest that the annual feasts of the Levitical calender of Old Testament Israel provide a road map for the entire New Testament era? Surely these feasts are full of meaning. Is it unreasonable to think that the annual pattern beginning with Passover and ending with Tabernacles and beyond also has an important message for Jews and Gentiles today? The only way to answer such a question is to consider carefully the use of the feasts in the Prophets and especially in the New Testament revelation.

It is undeniable that Jesus died in connection with the Passover, that he rose again from the dead on the feast of Firstfruits, that the Spirit was poured out upon the church on the Day of Pentecost, and that the church is told that when Christ returns again the trumpet will sound. The words associated with the Old Testament feasts are used in the rest of the Bible in a way that confirms an important order of events as we await the culmination of the Lord's eternal purposes. Leviticus 23 is a great chapter for the consideration of the Israelite pattern of time, and the meaning that this calendar might convey to those who are watching and waiting for the reunion of heaven and earth in Christ.

The chapter begins with the only element of the Old Testament calendar that is continued as a part of New Testament ceremonial life: the Sabbath. Even though the one day of rest in seven pattern is the same, the change of that day from the last day of the week to the first day of the week is important. Old Testament believers were looking for the coming of rest. New Testament believers do our work out of the strength of the rest that is ours in a Christ who has already come. We gather on the first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection, as believers have since the earliest years of church life.

According to the Bible, the annual pattern of Jewish life should begin with the Passover. This feast looked back on the deliverance from Egypt, but now the Passover Lamb has come, and those who are united to Jesus Christ have been rescued from sin, death, and hell.

Passover was part of the first cluster of Jewish special days. This first cluster also included the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Firstfruits. During the seven days of unleavened bread the Jews could only eat bread without leaven. In the New Testament Jesus warns His disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, meaning the teaching of these groups that on one hand put the doctrines of man-made religious tradition above the Word of God, and on the other hand denied the power of God and rejected the clear teaching of the Scriptures. Paul told the churches in Corinth and Galatia that a little leaven in the church will soon leaven the whole lump. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 about their boasting in sin. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The death of Christ is associated for us with an unleavened lifestyle of dedicated holiness, sincere love, and commitment to the truth.

The third feast in this first cluster is firstfruits. This is the dedication to God of the very beginning of what will be a much larger harvest. It took place on the day after the Saturday Sabbath; the Sunday after the Passover. Jesus rose from the dead on that day. He was presented to His disciples as the firsfruits of a much larger resurrection from the dead. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” The remainder of the resurrection comes in fullness at the return of Christ. Until that time, the church is receiving the firstfruits of the Spirit, since we have Christ in us, the hope of glory.

The second cluster of festivals has only one feast, and it takes place fifty days to the day after the Sabbath associated with the Passover. On that Day of Pentecost in the year of the death and resurrection of Jesus, a great harvest of souls began with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Jerusalem. Pentecost was a harvest festival, with the harvest continuing until the end of a long period of growth. Pentecost is the beginning of a great season of planting, watering, and gathering. In New Testament times, the church lives in the age of Pentecost. There is already a holy convocation above in the heavens as those who have lived their days below go to be with the Lord awaiting the next moment in the plan of God.

The sign of that moment is in the final cluster of festivals, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets, and then the Day of Atonement, where there is a final reckoning concerning sin, and then the grand culmination of the calendar in the joyous celebration of Tabernacles. The day will come when the Son of God, who tabernacled with us here below and then put on a better resurrection temple, will dwell with His people forever as we live forever in the glory of resurrection. Until that day comes we should proclaim the message of Christ and remember the poor and the stranger as the church moves throughout the earth.

These were the appointed Old Testament Feasts of the Lord. They have a story to tell for all who are being gathered up in the Lord's Pentecost. One day the trumpet shall sound, and then the Lord will judge, and we shall be together with Jesus forever.

2 Samuel 21

Joshua entered into a covenant agreement with the Gibeonites in the days when Israel was taking over the land of Canaan. See Joshua 9. Centuries later during the reign of David there was a famine in the land for three years that was brought about by Saul's unfaithfulness to the promises that Joshua had made so long ago. God is very serious about our duty to keep our covenant commitments.

Psalm 15:4 says that the righteous man “swears to his own hurt and does not change.” Man can always find a loophole, but God reserves the right to disagree. This severity of justice is also a part of the mind of Christ. David was willing to follow God's Word both in mercy and in judgment.

The justice of God is not irreconcilable with His great kindness. The two have met for us in the cross of Christ. Consider these amazing words from Romans 11:22, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”

Israel's duty of faithfulness required the death of seven of Saul's descendants. Yet that needed to be accomplished without the violation of other promises that David had made. When justice was accomplished, the remains of the men who had died were honorably buried, and God healed the land. We place our hands over our mouths.

The removal of the plague of sin and death upon the earth required more than the death of seven men. The severity of God's eternal justice upon the elect needed to be atoned for by the precious blood of the only Son of God, Jesus. Nothing else could have ever satisfied divine justice. Now we cannot simply place our hands over our mouths. We must boast in the cross of Christ, by which we have been crucified to the world and the world crucified to us. And with thanksgiving to God, we must keep our word, even if it hurts.

David was growing old. How does anyone do that well? The answer may vary depending on the condition of the person in question. Remember that back in the days of Joshua, Caleb was able to conquer a territory in his eighties. See Joshua 14:10-11. Most of us cannot live up to that standard.

If we do not have the strength that we had forty years ago, we can ask the Lord to give us more wisdom than we had in those days. The lusts of sinful youth are very unattractive in the elderly.

David needed to stay away from the battlefield, lest others die protecting him. There were giants among the enemies of Israel. The king needed to fight and win God's battles in different ways than he had in the past.

Jesus, the Son of David, died in the prime of His sinless life. Yet even His death was more full of wisdom and power than the most valiant deeds of the mightiest warrior. Now our great Messiah lives and reigns over us forever. Old age will never be a problem for Him.

If we are willing to be conformed to Him in the wisdom and power of His death, He will keep His covenant promises to us very faithfully, and we will reign with Him in His resurrection. Then the words of Isaiah will be most delightfully fulfilled in us, and “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.”

2 Samuel 20

Both Judah in the south and the remaining tribes of Israel in the north had sought the return of David to Jerusalem after the death of Absalom. But David's kinsman in Judah were more fervent with their words regarding the king than were the leaders of the other tribes. Given the opportunity to follow Sheba, the son of Bichri, the northern tribes, called “Israel” here, defected to Sheba, whom the Bible calls “a worthless man.”

Joab took advantage of this moment in order to murder Amasa, whom David had put over all the army in place of Joab. One of Joab's men turned the soldiers away from focusing on Amasa's dead body. He shouted out these words: “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab.”

With this message uniting their loyalty to Joab with loyalty to David, Joab was able to lead the army in pursuit of Sheba. Trapping Sheba and his men in a walled city, Joab was prepared to do whatever was necessary to defeat the man who would have led Israel away from David. As the providence of God unfolded, Joab would have the head of Sheba, but not by his own sword. A wise woman in that city persuaded the people to turn against Sheba in order to save their lives. These events were recorded for us, so that we might understand how it was that Joab remained in charge of the army even after the king had announced that Amasa would take Joab's place.

Joab was loyal to David, but his loyalty did not extend to letting the mind of David govern his own mind. David did not order the murder of Amasa. That came from Joab's soul. Joab found a way to accomplish his own purposes and still profess his loyalty to David. He was able to lead others back to the king and to be useful in defeating the king's enemies, but there was something lacking in Joab's way of obeying the king. There was too much of Joab in his life and too little of David.

We are called to follow Jesus in a different way than Joab followed David. We have the mind of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit. We are to yield to our Lord's wisdom in every way. He will execute justice according to His holy plans. He calls us to mercy today even toward those that we might consider to be our enemies.

The words of Paul in Philippians 2 show us what it means to truly follow a King who defeated His and our enemies through His own death and resurrection. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” If we want to be fully loyal to Jesus we must love as He loves.