1 – Numbers 35:32-34 (ESV) ³² And you shall accept no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. ³³ You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”

RAF: Once a nation can suspend this most basic concept, other corruptions must inevitably follow. It is at this point that the value of human life is first devalued in society. To let a murderer live, and not maintain that human life is so precious that it cannot be rightly punished apart from the death of the murderer, is to make man less than the image bearer of God. First, it says the innocent victim’s life is worth less than the life of the one motivated by hate. Second, it says society has deemed man is not really that special at all. His death is now put on par with other material and petty crimes.

No one can argue that the way the death penalty in our own country is carried out (i.e. its inordinately long process and racially imbalanced application) is horrifically distorted. Yet the more we abandon it altogether, the more fundamentally flawed we are in the way we view humankind, and what that means to God Himself.

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1 – Numbers 28:1-8 (ESV) The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.’ ³ And you shall say to them, This is the food offering that you shall offer to the Lord: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering. ⁴ The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; ⁵ also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil. ⁶ It is a regular burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. ⁷ Its drink offering shall be a quarter of a hin for each lamb. In the Holy Place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. ⁸ The other lamb you shall offer at twilight. Like the grain offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you shall offer it as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

RAF: What is interesting here, is that the whole nation (“the people of Israel”) is charged with making sure the daily sacrificial duties which are to be carried out by the Levites – is done. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure the Leadership does not abandon their main responsibilities. This then, even when by their own demands the Leadership is asked to pay attention to some other “needs” the Congregation might deem desirable. As congregants, we are to be vigilant that our ministers give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. See: Acts 6:4.

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1 – “ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.” (Leviticus 24:1-4, ESV)

RAF: It is the both the high privilege and the sacred duty of ministers to attend the house of the Lord, so that there is light. In other words, the ministry of the Word, opened and expounded that men’s souls may have the light of God’s Word illuminating them at all times. Whenever this is abandoned, the essentials are plunged into darkness:

a. The altar of incense; our prayers and petitions are to be illuminated by God’s Word that we might pray aright, and see its significance before God.

b. The table of the “shew-bread” – where the testimony that Christ is God’s Bread for us come down out of heaven, our soul’s sole sustenance.

c. The Ark of God’s Covenant. Then, behind a veil, but now, open to our full view. Here, God has made known His sworn faithfulness, and it is here where mercy covers our sins – where the blood of the Lamb is seen, and full and free forgiveness reigns while we fellowship with God.

Take away the light of God’s Word, and these three are obscured in total darkness. How powerful are Paul’s parting words to Timothy – “preach the word”.

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Leviticus 19

1-2:” And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

RAF: What follows, follows on this principle. In other words, God is going to give a series of charges that demonstrate the acts of loving one another in the society of God’s people. But such charges are not random, they issue from God’s own holiness. These are predicated on His nature. They are a means of living with one another in the same attitudes which God holds toward us. It is most instructive.

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1 – ““If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally and the thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord’s commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt,” (Leviticus 4:13, ESV)

RAF: We must realize that there are times when God’s people as a whole will slip into sin over time. The condition of the Church in a city, a region, even a nation can slid into sin in a general way. The law here regarding the sacrifice for such an occasion bring to mind the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation. In all but two of the 7, the group as a group had taken on a particular sinful bent. Thus the need even now to avoid movements and trends and fads within the Church. Sectarianism can lead us to such places as well. Once we have broken off into our “purer” group, the group atmosphere becomes the test of orthodoxy more than the ongoing vitality of intimacy with the Lord, and fidelity to His Word.

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1 – “You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” (Exodus 31:14, ESV)

RAF: This seems strange doesn’t it? first, because REST has to be commanded. And secondly, that failure to use this rest should be punished by death. But Scripture elsewhere affirms the necessity of both. First, that in refusing to rest, man makes himself to be his own god. He is above God, not recognizing that all came from Him and that He ultimately is to be relied upon and seen as the provider of all things. To fail to rest is to refuse to acknowledge God as God, and that He has made all things, and that we are to look to Him, trust Him and not imagine everything in life depends upon us and our own efforts. Nor are we to be so greedy, that we are not satisfied with what can be obtained in the normal appointed course of work. But secondly, this weekly rest is shown to be a type or shadow of the “rest” to come, which is the heaven obtained not by works, but by resting in the finished work of Christ. And this is what cuts a man off from the household of faith – not to rest in the finished work of Christ. To try and obtain justification before God by effort, rather than by faith alone. It speaks to the very heart of the Gospel.

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1 – Gen. 35:² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.

RAF: It appears the presence of foreign gods here would be related to verse 29 of the previous chapter where the Shechemite women and children were taken captive.

2 – “While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. Jacob had twelve sons:” (Genesis 35:22, NIV)

RAF: As Jacob did nothing upon the news of the rape of Dinah, so he did nothing here either. The unresponsiveness of fathers to the sins of their children is a recurring theme throughout Bible. This pattern will be repeated in Eli, Samuel and David – each time with disastrous results. We must learn that no response is in fact a response, and does not clear us of responsibility. Doing nothing in the face of evil, whether at home, or in society, is to give tacit approval.

Note sons: For this sin, though Jacob took no action here, Reuben lost the position of the firstborn among his brethren. Sin unaddressed by human hands, will still be addressed by God. Non “gets away with it”. God is a God of justice.

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I’m off to get in touch with my inner Pig.

Hope to be back on line Thursday – July 10th.

See ya!

1 – “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:4, ESV)

RAF: We are not called to a “blind faith” as is assumed by some. We believe in a God who is as obvious as the physical universe He created to reveal Himself. And one who inserted Himself into the affairs of men. One who walked among us, and whose history is as documentable as our own, since it is bound up with our own. It is THIS Jesus we are asked to believe in. That we might have certainty.

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1 – “ And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” (Mark 10:13-16, ESV)

RAF: Children have their part in the Kingdom as well. They are not to be treated as though they have no spiritual life or cannot enter in. We are to bring them up in the things of the Lord. To teach them to see the world through Biblical eyes. To know god made them, in His image, for Himself. That He is their creator and God. That there are spiritual realities. That they were born in sin alienated from the life of God and that they need reconciled to Him. Hoe good He is. How He has provided for them and cared for them. We do not wait until they are older, we begin right away to steep them in the truth of Christ.

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