GN-DBRP_067 NUM.1 PSA.25 LUK.17.20-37

NUMBERS 1:
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:

1. We must trust God, not people.
2. God will supply all we need, including food, meat, water, leaders, and land.
3. We must worship God according to his instructions.

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.

LUKE 17b:

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.

GNT 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:]
Ps. 25:8 [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.]
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Luk. 17:21 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. ]

NLT Translation notes:
Luk. 17:3 So watch yourselves! “If your fellow believer sins, rebuke [him//that person]; then if [he repents//there is repentance], forgive [him/0].
[I don’t mind some gender sensitivity, but NLT goes overboard here.]
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our [our level of believing in God//faith].”
6 The Lord answered, “If your [belief in him is tiny, just as tiny as// had faith even as small] as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you!
15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting [over and over again//0], “Praise God!”
19 And Jesus said to the man, “[You may stand//Stand] up and go [now/0]. [It is because you believe fully in Me that you have been healed.//Your faith has healed you.]”
22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the [I—/0] Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it.
24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when [I—] the Son of Man [come/comes].
26 “When [I return as//0] the Son of Man [0/returns], it will be like it was in Noah’s day.
30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when [I—] the Son of Man[, am//is] revealed.
37 “Where will this happen, Lord?”i the disciples asked. Jesus replied, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows [clearly that//there is] a carcass [is somewhere//0] nearby, so [the signs that indicate the end will be obvious//so these signs indicate that the end is near].”

Check out this episode!