Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

Major Colin said he likes my notes and he will let me know when he proposes to have me give the talk in church and we will proceed from there. I pray I can present it so it appears relevant to the folk I share it with at Salvation Army.

 

[MartyMuppets]

And as for the book Leviticus, it is a fascinating account. It contains all the instructions for the animal and grain sacrifices God gave to His people Israel after delivering them from their slavery in Egypt through His faithful servant Moses.
These sacrifices didn't really have any power at all to take away the guilt of their sins but they served as signs pointing towards God's future sacrifice of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ to take away their sins. The New Testament says somewhere that without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and all the blood shed by those bulls, goats and sheep were really symbolic of the blood shed on the cross by Christ. Only He could ultimately serve as the guilt removing sacrifice when He died and rose again for His people throughout all time. That's why the New Testament also says that God in His great patient love had previously left all the sins of His loyal followers unpunished before Christ's atoning death. They were saved on the same basis of faith in Christ like we Christians are today. (I really should try to memorize where these verses of Scripture exactly are one day)

In fact Jesus Himself is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Probably because out of all the animals that were used in the Old Testament sacrifices, what could be more harmless or innocent to people as a sheep or a tiny lamb especially? And He was pure and innocent. He never sinned Himself, so His innocence makes Him perfectly eligible to bear the blame of the sin of the world.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Leviticus is also full of practical instructions for the common-sense concern of the health of the Israelite people. God shows how keenly interested He was in the well-being of His people physically, as well as their spiritual health.
He gave guidelines for the priests about how to recognize signs when someone had a contagious disease and to quarantine them to halt the spread of the plague. Until they recovered they were to be set apart from the community. Other hints were to recognize mildew in houses and clothing and to destroy any such contaminated items to help hinder disease as much as possible. Anyone who came into contact with a corpse had to wash his clothes and bathe heavily for a week to avoid potential germs associated with a dead body.
God even warned them not to eat the meat of certain animals for they could make them sick too. Some of them we eat safely today such as the pig, for we have refrigeration and other refining processes to cleanse all the germs that hang around such filthy animals who roll in dirt and mud all day. But the Isrealites didn't have such things. So God cared enough to let them know that it was better for them not to eat such meat.

How wonderful God is to care about our bodies and souls so immensely.

 

[MartyMuppets]

One other thing I thought I'd comment on about Leviticus is a tragic account in Chapter 10.
Moses' brother Aaron and his four sons, Eleazar, Ithamar, Nadab and Abihu had all been previously consecrated to God to serve Him as priests before the Israelite community. It was their responsibility to officiate over all the sacrifices the people offered for their sins and to mediate between God and the people.
But unfortunately we are told at the beginning of Leviticus Chapter 10 that Nadab and Abihu each took his censer, put fire and incense upon them, and offered unholy fire before the Lord. And the Lord sent fire to burn them both to death immediately. Somehow Nadab and Abihu defied God's strict rules when they offered their fire before the Lord. Somehow it was unholy. Perhaps the coals may not have been properly prepared or may have been taken from an altar dedicated to a god of the enemies of Israel.
Their penalty does seem very harsh, but God had to be strict about what was holy and what was unholy for His own honour among the people, whether it was a deliberate violation or an unfortunate accident.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I do so hope Nadab and Abihu only made a mistake. Even though they had to bear the physical consequences for it they will be with God today for their hearts were right with him. Otherwise they will be eternally banished from his presence for their wilfull defiance of what He had commanded.

In either case though it served the purpose of warning Aaron and his surviving sons and their descendants of the priesthood family line to be very careful as they went about their service for God. Or else they too would die. Because the priests were only fallible humans like anyone else, inevitably throughout the course of history one or two did occasionally slip up and were struck down. But God welcomed them all if they were genuinely reverent into His wide, loving arms.

 

[MartyMuppets]

And what can I say about Proverbs? It is one of those books of the Old Testament that falls under the classification of wisdom literature. It is a composition of several authors writings but a main feature are the proverbial sayings of King Solomon, son of David who succeeded his father as the monarch of Israel.
The things written in Proverbs descibe the sensibility of following God's ways of honesty and morality and warns about the consequences in this life of following the bad pathways. There are no historical narrative parts at all and you need to read and meditate upon the text to understand that wisdom is truly following and serving God.

That's the best way I can describe the Book of Proverbs. I'm nearly finished another book and I'll say something about it next.

 

[muppet baby]

Book of Daniel

Hi Marty i am sorry that it took me this long to reply to this thread but i am i am loving all the posts that you have put into it .

The book of Daniel is really great that is what i am studying now, with a group of Ladies on Wednesday mornings .

I am loving the parts about the furnus even more , God is the one two lord i see more than ever now .
I love the way that God has shown his power though the entire book .
Then finally how the king finally found who the Lord is and his power i really don't know how to say it better .
i Hope that this Makes sense lol

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Keep up the good work Marty! Really enjoyed your last posts!

 

[MartyMuppets]

Thank you Michelle and William.
I've recently finished reading through Judges. That's the account of Israel's history after Moses' successor Joshua began the conquest of the promised land in the book that bears his name. After Joshua was dead the Israelites grew lax in their obedience to God's strict command not to make treaties with the people of Canaan. They were to exterminate them without pity and smash their idols and temples but they slowly began to intermarry with them and adopt their evil practices including sacrificing their own children to the heathen people's gods.
Therefore throughout the book of Judges there is a constant pattern of God giving His people over to the oppression of foriegn kingdoms, Israel repenting and crying out for deliverance and God raising up a warrior known as a judge who defeated the enemy power and freed Israel. Israel would serve God faithfully while the judge was alive, but after his death they eventually forsook God for the wretched Canaanite idols once more and the cycle began anew.
I shall talk in detail about some of these accounts in the near future.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Judges Chapter 4 tells how the Israelites again committed evil in God's sight after their judge Ehud was dead. So God sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, ruler in Hazor for 20 years. Jabin's army commander was Sisera and he assisted Jabin in cruelly oppressing Israel with 900 chariots of iron.
A prophetess named Deborah summoned a man named Barak and told him God was raising him up to be deliverer of His people. With armies drawn from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, God promised Barak He would grant him victory over the forces of Commander Sisera. Barak said he would only go providing that Deborah would accompany him. She said she would, but because Barak did not have faith enough to obey God's orders and trust His promises without making this condition, he would not get full credit for the victory, for God would deliver Sisera into the hand of a woman.

And so it happened when the armies met that God helped Israel by making Sisera and all his soldiers fearful and panicky so that they could not defend themselves adequately. But while Israel was slaughtering their enemies, Sisera jumped down from his chariot and fled on foot to the tent of a woman named Jael who was the wife of Heber the Kenite. He assumed this would be a place of refuge for there were peaceful relations between King Jabin of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite.
Jael met Sisera and welcomed him in, covering him with a rug. He asked for a drink of water but she opened a skin of milk and bundled him up to encourage sleep to his already weary body. He told her to guard the entrance and to say nobody was here if anyone came asking.
However when Barak came pursuing Sisera Jael led him in and showed him the man he was seeking. There before Barak's eyes lay Sisera dead. While he was asleep Jael had crept up to him with a hammer and tent peg in her hands and banged the peg right through his temples and into the ground pinning his body there. Talk about a splitting headache huh!