WHAT I'M LEARNING IN THE BIBLE.... (PART 3)

NUMBERS 31 1-11: MOSES’ LAST ASSIGNMENT was mobilising of the army of Israel to go to war against the Midianites, to take VENGEANCE FOR God for using feminine seduction to draw the hearts of His people away and thereby positioning them against Him.

12-18: Dealing with the outward manifestation of a SIN will not be as effective as dealing with the real cause or SOURCE OF THE SIN. Moses was angry with the army of Israel because they spared the women of Midian, who were the ones that lured them into sin against God in the first place. They had to be killed in order to forestall a re-occurrence.

19-20: SELF PURIFICATION for the army of Israel after the war, a 7-day exercise.

21-23: PURIFICATION OF OBJECTS: Only the items which can endure fire, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead shall be put through fire for purification. The ones that cannot should be put through the water.

25-31-47: Another of GOD’S RECOMMENDATION FOR SHARING: He commanded that the booty gained from the war with the Midianites be divided into two and that the army who went to war took one half while the whole congregation of Israel shared the remaining half. Then to cater for the Levites who did not fall into any of these two categories, God instructed that one out of every 500 of the army’s booty be given to the High Priest as a heave offering to the LORD, while one out of every 50 of the booty accruing to the congregation be given to the Levites as their own portion. Isn’t the LORD simply wonderful and so thoughtful?

48-54: The APPRECIATIVE HEARTS of the LEADERS of the arm of Israel; without being prompted, they came on their own to offer a thanksgiving offering to God after conducting a head count and discovering that NONE of the soldiers whom they took to war died in the battle.

Friday, February 15, 2008

NUMBERS 30 1-2: A MAN is bound by his VOWS. In other words, the word of a man is his bond.

3-5: A WOMAN’s VOW, on the other hand, is subject to the ratification of her father (if she is not married) or that of her husband (if she is married) for it to be valid in the eyes of God.

6: God recognises that women are more prone to spontaneous EMOTIONAL REACTION in the heat of the moment than men, and this could lead to them making rash utterances, hence His provision for a review of the vow of a woman by her father or her husband for it to be valid. Unfortunately, men do not have this privilege, and therefore must be very very cautious in making a vow before God if they do not have the will to fulfil it. (Compare Ecclesiastes 5:1-6)

9: A WIDOW or a DIVORCED WOMAN is bound by her vows because she does not have the covering of a man to ratify it. 10: However, if the WIDOW’s or a DIVORCED WOMAN’s VOW was nullified while she had a husband, then it is no longer binding on her.

14-15: By DELAYING TO NULLIFY HIS WIFE’s VOW immediately if he does not agree with it, only to do so a day after or much later, a man will end up bearing the guilt and the consequences of the woman’s failing, and she will be absolved of all blame.

WHAT I'M LEARNING IN THE BIBLE.... (PART 2)

NUMBERS 32 1-3: SELF DETERMINATION is very essential for the expression of self and fulfilment in life. The children of Reuben and Gad saw what they wanted – a good pasture for their large livestock – in the land of Jazer and Gilead, and they went to Moses to seek his permission to allow them settle there, as there was no point for them to go further with the congregation across the Jordan when they had already seen all they needed for sustenance before the Jordan.

9: DISCOURAGEMENT, either external or internal, can prevent one from making the necessary move to take possession of what God has given one.

11: NOT FOLLOWING GOD WHOLLY, that is with unflinching dedication, can also prevent one from ATTAINING THE PROMISE. It halted a whole generation of Israel from attaining what had been given to them by Divine Promise many years before they were even born.

15: TURNING AWAY FROM God can lead to Him abandoning one in the wilderness (the vicissitudes of life), and this might lead to the destruction of the person.

6-33: There is a PRICE TO PAY FOR GETTING WHAT YOU WANT. In the case of the children of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, it was patiently enduring the castigation of Moses and resolving to go with the army of Israel across the Jordan to fight the battle that would make them the sole occupants of Canaan. 39: For there to a POSSESSION, there must first e a DISPOSSESSION. The children of Machir had to fight and dispossess the Amorites before they could possess their land.

WHAT I'M LEARNING IN THE BIBLE.... (PART 1)

NUMBERS 33 Rameses was THE STARTING POINT for the children of Israel on their way out of Egypt to the Promised Land.

3b-4: What a contrast of fate! As the Israelites were marching out of Egypt, their land of bondage, with boldness, the Egyptians were all downcast and in great mourning burying their dead firstborns! Only God can wreak such CONTRAST OF FATE when a former downtrodden slave can saunter confidently while his hitherto haughty master looks on morosely.

38: AARON died at 123 on mount Hor on the first day of the fifth month (Jewish calendar) in the 40th year of the journey of the Israelites.

50-53: God’s charge to the people of Israel on WHAT TO DO WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND of Canaan; they were to be dispossessed and driven out of the land, and their engraved stones, moulded images and high places destroyed.

54: God instructed a DIVISION of the land BY LOT as an inheritance among the families, and then a PROPORTIONATE ALLOTMENT of the land to each family according to their sizes.

55: The consequences of NOT ELIMINATING ALL THE INHABITANTS of the land/territory one is to take over. The remnants will eventually constitute irritants in one’s eyes, thorns in the flesh and a source of harassment to the person. This is also applicable to one’s habits after being born again. Those habits/indulgences that one did not get rid of will constantly be the Achilles’ heels that the devil will use to get one to fall.

THE PROCESS OF CREATION

Genesis 1:2-5

2. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep... 3. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

EXPOSITION

The above passage captures the process of creation. For there to be a creation or production of something, there must first be a CONCEPTION of its image (imagination) in the mind of the creator/producer. It takes an imaginative mind to create. God is the Father of all dreamers, that was why He could see the light in the confusion, the formlessness, the voids and the darkness that was upon the deep.

The second step in the creative process is SPEAKING IT FORTH. Words are substance. And the creative power of the spoken word cannot be over-emphasised. APPRAISAL is also one of the processes of creation. God didn’t just stop at the appearance of the light. He appraised it, saw that it was good. But He did not stop there, He went ahead to DIVIDE the light from the darkness, thus FINE-TUNING even the good product He had created to make it better.

Another creative step derived from the above passage is IDENTIFICATION. After "refining" Light from darkness (that was the first refinery activity in the book!), God gave each a name or an identity, calling the light Day and the darkness, Night.

What makes a day? According to the last part of verse 5, the evening and the morning made the very first day in world history. Surely that calls for some meditation and, perhaps, re-orientation if you believe otherwise.

Shalom!

THE POWER OF SAYING

 Genesis 1:11-12,20,24

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good…. 20. Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 24. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.

EXPOSITION

The grass, the herb and the trees were all in the earth, just as abundance of living creatures were in the seas and the land. But all these did not surface until God called them forth.

The same way greatness, success and virtues abound inside all of us, but until we put our Godlike nature to bear and call them forth or speak them into being, they will remain dormant, undiscovered and unused potentials.

What a waste!

Starting from today, why not let us cultivate the habit of calling to manifestation the greatness that lies within us? As a cherished friend of mine said yesterday, “we have to say it to see it!”

So stop whining about what is and start saying what you want to see.

This may sound like a cliché but it is nevertheless the truth.

To Your Greatness!