Zelophedad’s Daughters And The Inheritance To Desire

Numbers 27 and 36 have at their core the covenant inheritance promised to Israel by the LORD in Canaan.

 

Israel’s salvation from slavery in Egypt is the school-master to bring us to Christ. God’s people are saved by grace through faith at the Red Sea – their justification by God was pictured in the sprinkled blood of the lamb slain for them the night the Destroyer passed over them and onto Egypt. God gave them His Ten Commandments and the rest of the case law at Mount Sinai for sanctification.

 

God called unto Himself a people to live in His place under His Word. The land of Canaan was to be the place where God would once again walk and talk with man, where Jesus would be born and live! God walked and talked with us again as in the Garden of Eden! It is no accident that the Apostle John has the New Jerusalem on the new earth a mega-city about the size of Australia with the Garden in the centre of it, the Tree Of Life and the River of The Water Of Life.

 

Every family had a place in the coming inheritance. Zelophehad died in the 40 years wandering in the desert. He had no son to be heir. It looked as if his family of five daughters would miss out on the promised inheritance. So they went to Moses and the tribal leaders and the Assembly of elders and spoke clearly and simply. God gave those five daughters all a place – made them all inheritors of property among their father’s relatives.

 

This passage as part of the Law helps us today to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ more fully: In and through Christ, God has called unto Himself a people to live in His new place that Jesus has gone to prepare under His Word.

 

Our inheritance in that new place depends on Jesus and His promises. Our religion will never be good enough to merit us a place, but Jesus has won for His own such a place – a wide and spacious place.

 

Jesus is the Gate to paradise. Coming to Him our Lord and Saviour just as the terrorist on the cross did when he said: “Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” Jesus told that man who had just before been reviling Him: “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” TODAY – that today finished in just in a couple of hours at 6pm. That Passover Sabbath began at 6.00pm on Good Friday. It was a double Sabbath, being the weekly Sabbath and the Sabbath of a Passover feast day. Remember the word ‘sabbath’ means ‘rest day’, not ‘seventh day’. Our rest now is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the coming kingdom and not in this present world. That’s why the Apostles began to gather together for worship and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on Sundays.

 

The inheritance in Canaan brought the people of ancient Israel real freedom. The land was vested not in the crown (as in Australia), but in the family and tribe. Families and tribes had the political advantage over us today in Australia as ordinary citizens. Their land could not be resumed at the will of the civil government. If an ancient Israelite did not want to sell his property to the government (ie then a king), the government could not resume it legally. They had to use persuasion, not coercion with their people!

 

The inheritance Jesus brings us will bring us no less a freedom than ancient Israel. Our freedom is like theirs too, in that it is freedom to do good, to live according to His Word, and not to do what we want when we want irrespective of His Word.

 

This is the inheritance that brings peace and well-being. “Where there’s a will, there’s relations!” is an old saying. For Zelophehad’s daughters there were relations too. They came with a problem – the Tribes might lose their inheritance bit by bit if heiresses married outside the Tribe. God’s answer in Numbers 36 brought peace and well-being for the daughters and their relatives. No tribe’s inheritance would be lessened by following God’s Word.

 

What inheritance do you desire? Is it the good inheritance that Christ Jesus brings those who come to Him?

THE DOOR TO PARADISE – Thoughts On The Day of Atonement Leviticus 16

The Day of Atonement was the one day of the year when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for his family first and then for himself and the people. The Day of Aronement was like the gate to the Feast of Tabernacles, which was at the end of all the harvests for the year. The Feast of Tabernacles is parallelled in the New Testament by the Marriage Feast of The Lamb. In fact the three great feasts of the Old Testament are parallelled by the three great everts surrounding Jeus Christ – Passover (HIs death and resurrection), Pentecost (His sending of the Holy Spirit and the three thousand – the first fruits of the harvest of the world) and Tabernacles (the Marriage Feast of the Lamb – at the end of the ingathering of the harvest of the world!).

The Day of Atonement and the Feasts are like a pattern that reveal the true meaning of Jesus the Messiah. They are pattern or shadow – Jesus is the reality that casts the shadow, the reality behind the pattern.

The Day of Atonement was like a gate, a door you had to go through before you reached harvest end and the Feast of Tabernacles – when ancient Israel  tabernacled with God for a week in remembrance of the 40 years in the desert. For us, Christ’s atonement is the necessary door to prardise, the door into the very presence of God, into eternity!

Paradise is the place with God, not the place without Him!

The door to prardise is not religion or commitment or spirituality. The door to paradise is Jesus Christ Himself. It’s a person not a thing or a deed I can do. Jesus called Himself the Gate – for His sheep to go out and in and find pasture. John 10⁷

The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament has much to say on this point of Jesus as our High Priest offering a once for all time sacrifice for our sins.

THE PARABLE OF THE VINE AND ITS VINEYARD from Psalm 80

Psalm 80

John 15:1-8

THE PARABLE OF THE VINE AND ITS VINEYARD

Verses 1-7 have the refrain: “Restore us. O God; make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.”

Asaph calls God The Shepherd of Israel!

Asaph was the Levite of the tribe of Gershom who with Heman the grandson of the Prophet Samuel of the tribe of Kohath and Ethan of the tribe of Merari were the great musicians King David put in charge of the music in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. Asaph wrote 12 Psalms in the Bible – Psalms 50, 73-83.

To Asaph it looked like God was asleep or angry and sullen. Enemies surrounded Israel and prayer was not being answered. Asaph found that this parable of the vineyard gave him courage and faith to look beyond circumstances and to know and trust God. He prays again this time without despair, but with hope!

THE GOOD SHEPHERD WHO CAN RESTORE

• The Shepherd of Israel who led Joseph like a flock – remember the man Joseph (the son of Jacob by Rachael) enslaved, imprisoned, raised up to save not only Israel and his family but all the nations around Egypt! God did it all, as Joseph testified.
• God raised Joseph to honour before his brothers. Joseph honoured his brother Benjamin. Joseph = his sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
• The God who restored Joseph and through him preserved Israel has the ability, power and authority to save Israel – as He did through Moses too.
• The resurrection of Jesus should give us an even greater confidence in God. Jesus in His death has atoned for us – we have assurance now that our sins no longer separate us from God. The curtain is torn in two!

THE GARDENER WHO PLANTED HIS PEOPLE

• The parable: God brought the vine, cleared the ground and planted it in His vineyard. The vine grew and covered the mountains.
• The parable gives Asaph understanding and hope in a time of despair. It is God who had broken down the vineyard’s walls and is allowing all nations to pluck the fruit. God has left Israel. The Glory has departed because of their sins! This is the answer to Asaph’s question.
• In the midst of despair, Asaph also remembers that God has given His people His Messiah David. David is the son God had raised up for Himself.

THE SON HE RAISED UP FOR HIMSELF

• In His last Passover talks, Jesus called Himself the Vine and His Father the Gardner and you and I the branches. How glorious that we are in Him tonight as we eat and drink in memory of Him.
• In the midst of a broken world, we too have reason to hope in this parable. It is more gloriously fulfilled in Jesus the son of David. God has raised up for Himself a Son! Rest in the death of Christ for the removal of your sins. Hope in His resurrection for your resurrection.
• Hope in the God of resurrection who can raise up His church again while we are yet in this present age. Resurrection hope is not just for the life to come. It is for this life too!
• Eat and drink the Lord’s supper in this sure hope in which you stand.

Exodus 14 – Salvation Always Was By Grace Through Faith!

The people of Israel were saved by God’s grace through faith unto the good works of the Ten Commandments.

Notice the history of Exodus. God saves Israel from slavery in Egypt before they receive the Ten commandments and all the case law in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The people follow the Word of the LORD through Moses His prophet out into a trap – the sea on one side, the desert one another and Pharaoh and his army on the third. God opens up the way of salvation for them through the Red Sea. The people are saved by grace through faith!

The Ten Commandments were given to an alreasy saved people! Their purpose is sanctification, not justification!

Salvation by keeping the Law is a perversion of legalism – such as the Pharisees fell into. Legalism looks to the outward marks of sanctification to be  the marks of justification. In the Pharisees’case: circumcision and keeping all the food laws as well as other outward signs, were taken as proof of salvation. Therefore the circumcision party amongst the early Christians criticised Peter and later sought to make all gentile converts be circumcised and keep all the food/case/customary laws of the books of Moses. (Acts 11:1,2 and 15:5) Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees was their hypocrisy in nullifying the clear Word of God. (Matthew 15:7-9,16-20) The Pharisees added to the Word of God and so subtracted from it. Legalism is a present danger for all Bible-believing people.

Thoughts On The Vision Of Jesus In Revelation 1

Tumultuous times! Both the apostle John and Ezekiel lived in such times – when the world suffered great mayhem, murder and misery on a grand scale. John saw the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and some millions of Jews killed in the War of the Jews under Emperors Nero and Vespasian. Ezekiel lived through the three deportations  by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon around 600BC and all the resultant loss of life and property in the resistance to the Babylonian invasion and control. Daniel went through the same things with Ezekiel – though Daniel lived in Babylon and Ezekiel lived some 80.4 kilometers south east of Babylon.

John has drawn much of his imagery in Revelation from both Ezekiel and Daniel. Both Revelation and the book Daniel are apocalyptic books – dealing with revelation, or dealing with the telos/end of things. Both reveal the Son of Man – see the similarities between Daniel 10:4-14 and Revelation 1:10-19.

See the pattern of things – the pattern of the man with the sword!                                     The Angel guarding the way to the Tree of Life Genesis 3:24; the commander of the Lord’s army who met Joshua at Gilgal Joshua 5:13-15; the Word of God Hebrew 4:12; and here in Revelation 1 and 19 Jesus is revealed as the one who can open up the guarded way to the tree of life.

Revelation 19:11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.  12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.  13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Ezekiel 1:26-28 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Stars and sun – remember Joseph – the deliverer of His people!

John fell at His feet – Jesus raised him up by hand! Daniel fell at the Son of Man’s feet and He lifted Him up.

There is not a one-to-one correspondence between these things, but there is pattern. Life is not ruled by chaos. Look for pattern in what appears chaotic. Look to the pattern-maker and to what He is revealing.

Thoughts on John 8:48-59 – Jesus’ Claim To Be God = Mad – Bad – Or God

John 8:48-59, Exodus 3:1-15

Jesus – Mad, Bad Or God

To people who had believed in Him but had turned away because of His hard sayings. 8:31

A Samaritan – not a true Jew!

Demon-possessed – evil and under satanic control!

CS Lewis regarding the claims of Jesus about Himself: Jesus – Mad, Bad, or the Son Of God!

Faith in Christ is a rational faith. It is not against reason that you believe. You can look at the claims of Jesus Himself. You and I can stand with Luke back in the first century – is Jesus who He says He is or is He a charlatan or is He mad? All the Apostles except John died terrible deaths testifying to Jesus Christ as God’s Son our Saviour! Who convinced them? They were not con-men – conmen are in it either for riches or power.

The Promise:

• If Anyone Keeps My Word He Will Never See Death! Jesus to the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with Me in paradise!” Luke 24:43
• We experience death, but will not see death – ie death be our final reality!
• Remember Jesus taught His disciples that He would go up to Jerusalem and that the Jewish authorities would put Him to death.
• Death is swallowed up in victory – we are delivered from eternal death unto eternal life – life to the full!
• Keep His word! Be faithful to Him as He is to you!
• We also see death in a different light. The Apostle Paul said: 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

The Glory:

• My Father … Your God … Is The One Who Glorifies Me.
• Jesus does not honour Himself! Self-glory is no true and worthwhile glory!
• Jesus gives their God and their ancestor Abraham as those who will testify for Him! Abraham rejoiced at the thought of the day of Christ!
• Jesus charges these devout people with being unacquainted with their God. If they truly knew Him they would honour those He honoured! Never be surprised at what religious people do – be they devout atheists or devout whatever, even professed Christians. Our great problem is not religion, but wrong religion! In the world we will have anger and persecution and mis-understanding.
• I know Him! What a claim!

The Claim:

• Before Abraham Was Born, I Am!
• Jesus claimed quite openly to be God. People who make such claims are usually mad or bad, mentally disturbed or con-men. There are countless people today in both categories.
• I AM – the personal Name of God.
• Jesus’ teaching is no novelty but the very substance of Abraham’s religion and faith – before Abraham was Jesus is!
• The witness of Jesus’ life – at Nazareth and later
• The witness of Jesus’ miracles
• The witness of Jesus’ teaching
• The witness of Jesus’ resurrection
• Pilate knew that Jesus was not mad nor was He bad! He wanted to let Jesus go.
• Who do you think Jesus is! This question is the point of faith. We come to it and either stop or go on!
• Go on!

Thoughts On 2 Samuel 12 – Old Testament Parables Sunday October 30th 2011

2 Samuel 12:1-13

The Parable Of The Ewe Lamb

The parable that obliged David to condemn himself – just like the parable of the vinedressers. Matthew 21:33-46

The grace of God is evident and paramount in this history. Without God’s gracious work in his heart, David would have been like Saul and murdered Nathan. By God’s grace, David didn’t, but turned to God, confessed his sin so that his repentance became as notorious as his sin!

A Believer’s Hypocrisy

• David God’s Christ, the King of Israel. David stood for godliness, justice, fairness, equity!
• Adultery and murder, with lies. David involved the whole Palace in collusion and hypocrisy – at the very centre of God’s peoples heart and life.
• Devastating effects of David’s hypocrisy – within his family – sons and cousins and nephews; within the civil service and leadership of the nation. Eg: moral rot with consequent violence, injustice, social disorder and uproar, self-serving people being promoted above good governance people.

The Story That Cut

• A simple story of injustice and cruel disregard for those unable to defend themselves. It stirred David to anger, real anger at such pitiless and callous treatment of one of his people.
• David was God’s Christ – he was the protector and defender of God’s people. It was his role to restrain evil and promote what was good – and he tried with all his heart and might. David wanted his reign to be the opposite of Saul’s – to have a different end!
• “You are the man!” Nathan’s words cut through his pride so that he was willing to lose face before his court and admit his guilt. David’s repentance became as notorious as his sin! Nathan was a faithful prophet and friend!

 The Heart that Hearkened

• By grace David is saved through faith and that not of himself. It was the gift of god, not of works, lest David should boast. God saved David unto good works – the Ten Commandments!
• David saw the evil of his sin in a way he hadn’t. Before he had excused himself, now he does not. “I have sinned against the LORD!” David thought he had sinned against his neighbour. He thought that that wasn’t as bad as against God.
• God forgave David’s sin. David had to suffer the results of his sin in his family and nation – the sword will never depart from your house.
• In God’s grace and mercy, the sword of judgment was the means of David’s salvation and ours – the sword took Jesus’ life. This sword judgment was overcome in Jesus’ resurrection! The sword has now departed from David’s house – an eternal salvation overcoming an eternal judgment! Hallelujah! David’s greater Son died that we born in sin might live and not die as this babe of David and Bathsheba!