We start the book of NUMBERS today!
Numbers is the 4th of Moses' 5 books. And this is the one that I have looked forward to as the hardest book of all to read in the podcast! In this book we will see that unbelief hinders God's blessings for Israel. HC Mears says, “Numbers might be called the Wilderness Wanderings,” because it chronicles the journey. And “Numbers might be called the book of the March and the Roll Call. ... It might, too, be called the Book of Murmurings, because from beginning to end it is filled with the spirit of rebellion against God.”
“Leviticus dealt with the believers' worship— Numbers deals with the believer's walk. In Leviticus we see the believer’s privileges— in Numbers the wilderness is the drill field.”
Important lessons from the Book of Numbers:
*We must trust God, not people.
*God will supply all we need, including food, meat, water, leaders, and land.
*We must worship God according to his instructions.
We turn to PSALM 25.
This is our first acrostic poem. Verse 14 is translated as ‘secret’ by older translations which followed the KJV, but is better translated as ‘friendship/friend’. Here we read of the privilege of an intimate relationship with the Lord. I am reminded of a few years ago when things were not going well for me in relation to the leaders of my organization. Psalms like this were very comforting to me.
Translation notes:
Often it may seem to you that the Psalms shift quickly from praying directly to God to talking about God. But that may not be the case. Hebrew can use the third person (‘the Lord/He’) when talking directly to God. One might do this in rather old-fashioned English to formally address a king as ‘His majesty’ or a president as ‘Mr. President’. This is why in the podcasts I sometimes modify the text to make it clear that the whole Psalm is a prayer, like this:
8 [You Lord are good and do//The LORD is good and does] what is right;
[you show/he shows] the proper path to those who go astray.
9 [You lead//He leads] the humble in doing right,
teaching them [your/his] way.
In today’s reading of Psalm 25 from the GNT, I made modifications as above in verses 8-10,12, and 14-15.
We turn for the second time to LUKE 17.
Yesterday in 17a Jesus taught about the importance of forgiving others, the importance of believing fully and being humble servants. Then we heard of the healing of 10 men who had a contageous/dreaded skin disease.
Translation notes:
21 No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is [here in your midst.//within you.]”
22 Then he said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will wish you could see one of the [future] days [when I rule as the Son of Man//of the Son of Man], but you will not see [that//it].
23 There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, over there!’ or, ‘Look, over here!’ But don't go out looking for [that//it].
24 As the lightning flashes across the sky and lights it up from one side to the other, so [it will be on the day that I, the Son of Man return.//will the Son of Man be in his day. ]
25 But first [I//he] must suffer much and be rejected by the people of this day.
26 As it was in the time of Noah so shall it be [at my return as the Son of Man.//in the days of the Son of Man. ]
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