My apologies for this coming late! For perspective purposes and not to confuse anyone, this blog was supposed to happen yesterday before Randi sent hers this morning.
Today's reading is from:
Numbers chapter 19 and 20
Luke chapter 1: 1-25
Psalm 56: 1-13
Proverb 11:8
I am only going to address Numbers Chapter 19. I will explain at the end why.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron! That should be enough right? The Lord said it, so I am going to do it! Well not so fast how many things do you wrestle with each day? Things that we know the Lord wants us to do, yet for one reason or another we don't! In these two chapters I find people quickly read through them because to us in 2018 it's a lot of blah blah blah, red heifer burnt offerings, unclean people, 7 days, 7 times, on the 3rd day etc….. that is enough to make your head spin. Yet instead of understanding what it all means (which takes time) we just want to get on with it and read the easier stuff, words we can handle, words and concepts we know and understand. Wait a second isn't that what we do in our own spiritual walk? We want what's easy. God's word is completely useful for teaching, guiding, rebuking, warning, and enlightening US yes US! Let's break down Numbers 19 and the sacrifice of the "Red heifer". In our society we have reduced our attention span to a twitter mentality of 140 characters or less, anymore you will lose the reader. Well here you go Numbers 19 in 140 characters or less: Burn a "red" heifer outside of camp, sacrifice the heifer with fire from cedar wood and mix the ashes with water to be sprinkled using a hyssop branch, then use the mixed water of cleansing, anyone who is unclean and does not cleanse themselves will be cut off. Now do you have a better understanding of Numbers 19? Maybe a little. Let's see how we can unpack this a little.
Red heifer: a reddish-brown cow, no more than two years old which had never had a yoke on it to be sacrificed as part of the purification of Mosaic Law. The purpose of the red heifer sacrifice was to provide for the water of cleansing, another term for purification from sin. After the red heifer was sacrificed, her blood was sprinkled at the door of the tabernacle. The blood of the heifer with no blemish being sacrificed and its blood cleansing from sin is a pointing us to the blood of Christ shed on the cross for the believers' sin. He was without blemish just as the red heifer. As the heifer was sacrificed "outside the camp" in the same way Jesus was crucified outside of Jerusalem: "And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood" (Hebrews 13:11-12)
Using Cedar and Hyssop: These were medicinally used to heal and give us freedom. just like John 19: 28-30 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), I thirst." 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up His spirit.
It was also used in Exodus 12: 22: during the Passover. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
Do you see how all of these are starting to fit together? We have not ever scratched the surface of the depth and orchestration God uses through His word. If we do not take the time out to study God's word and spend time flipping between the old and new testaments connecting them together we miss vital information which will help our faith, knowledge, and understanding of God's word grow. We live in dangerous time when even the church twists the word of God to fit into our lifestyles, desires, agendas, and even our sin. I only wanted to focus on Numbers chapter 19 because there is so much richness to discover. You see how long this blog is and I did not even address the whole chapter.
Dear Lord please help us put aside our foolish ways, our narrowmindedness and our desire for self, and open our eyes to see You and Your plan that You have laid out in Your Holy scriptures.
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