Blog Archives

11 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #21)

Numbers (Program #21) – Fighting (2)

We all know the story of Israel’s forty-year long journey in the wilderness.  Their journey, though unnecessary long, wasn’t aimless or without a goal.  They had a definite destination, the good land, the land of Emmanuel, today’s Israel.  This land as we have seen before, is a type and even a picture of Christ, of our Christ, who is our goal and destination.  But as we’ve seen, God also has an enemy who opposes Him and frustrates His people, bringing in a kind of warfare in the spiritual realm.  The book of Numbers touches this warfare repeatedly.  Today we come to chapter 22 where the tactic employed by Satan against God’s people Israel changes dramatically,  This program is full of much insight.  We really pray that the Lord would shine in this word today.

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08 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #18)

Numbers (Program #18) – Journeying (11)

In Numbers chapter 20, the people of God were journeying through the wilderness on their way to the good land.  But water was scarce and the two million Hebrews with their substantial flocks and herds were suffering.  As might be expected, this cause people to complain and contend with Moses.  The attitude of the people brought out frustration and even anger on the part of Moses who had seen the Lord’s own anger and judgment brought upon the people for their previous rebellion.  But Moses’ dealing with them in this case, brought in God’s judgment once more.  Only this time not upon the people, but upon Moses.

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06 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #16)

Numbers (Program #16) – Journeying (8-9)

Rebellion.  Of all the evils and sins of mankind none carry greater consequence nor evoke a more serious reaction from God.  That’s because the target or object of all rebellion is authority which comes from and signify God Himself.  God’s people Israel were caught up in acts of rebellion against God and His deputy authority on many occasions.  The book of Numbers records the accounts of several progressive stages of rebellion ultimately resulting in God’s judgment and wrath being poured out in a very sobering display.  The on-going and progressive rebellion of Israel in the wilderness is again our topic on our life study from Numbers.

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05 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #15)

Numbers (Program #15) – Journeying (7)

After many positive and wonderful miracles given to them in the wilderness, following their escape from Egypt, the children of Israel found themselves in the midst of escalating turmoil.  This turmoil would eventually results in serious rebellion among them, bringing in God’s judgment.  It was here however, in the midst of this turmoil that the Lord inserts chapter 15 in the divine record in the book of Numbers.  This chapter reminds God’s people of what they have previously learned regarding their need for the offerings and for keeping the Sabbath.  But just as the lessons depicted in the story of the Old Testament can be applied to our situation in the New Testament so does this reminder regarding the experience of Christ, typify by the offerings and the Sabbath have an application to us today.  We will look at these types in our program.

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02 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #12)

Numbers (Program #12) – Journeying (2-3)

Once God’s people were properly arranged according to their families and rated around the perimeter of the tabernacle, God’s presence overshadow them as a visible cloud.  His presence also filled the Ark of the Covenant within the tabernacle.  These two items provided guidance and leading to the children of Israel.  When the cloud was taken up, the people prepared to load up the tabernacle and their personal possessions to follow the cloud in a general way as their guide.  But it was the tiny Ark that became their particular leading, leading them through the treacherous wilderness and finding the appropriate resting places.  A forty-year journey under the guidance of the cloud and the leading of the Ark

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01 Mar 2022 Numbers (Program #11)

Numbers (Program #11) – Journeying (1)

Both Romans and Galatians in the New Testament talk about being led by the Spirit.  It is safe to say that all serious Christians desires the Lord’s leading.  But to be led by the Spirit is not that easy because the Spirit is abstract even obscure to us at times.  Most often we find ourselves not really under His leading at all but wondering somewhat aimlessly trying to find Him.  There is a wonderful picture of being led by the Spirit that we can learn something from in the Old Testament book of Numbers.  It’s here that the Lord led His people Israel through the wilderness by means of being a visible cloud to them during the day and by being a cloud of fire at night.  We will see just what this cloud and fire mean to us as believers on our program today.

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20 Feb 2022 Numbers (Program #2)

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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08 May 2021 2 Corinthians (Program #50)

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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