March 8
Numbers 27:1-29:40
Our walk of faith is a fine line. We must rest upon the truths established from the past, verified in His Word, the Bible, yet, at the same time, we must always be in a state of expectation, as we never know when there will be a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit. We must not allow ourselves to become stale, predictable, living in a stupor of religiosity. A.W. Tozer wrote, "One characteristic that marks the average church today is lack of anticipation. Christians when they meet do not expect anything unusual to happen; consequently only the usual happens, and that usual is as predictable as the setting of the sun.... We need today a fresh spirit of anticipation that springs out of the promises of God. We must declare war on the mood of nonexpectation, and come together with childlike faith. Only then can we know again the beauty and wonder of the Lord's presence among us." Churches and individuals must keep their walk fresh. We must beware of singing the same worship songs, reciting the same prayers, staying in the same, "safe" books of Scripture. We must open our hearts to the Lord and allow a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
We read once again of the many feasts of the Lord in Numbers 28-29. Interestingly, when the Temple was eventually built in Jerusalem, the people would gather for eight days in celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, as described in Numbers 29:12-38. During the first seven days of the feast, the priests would go down from the Temple Mount to the Pool of Siloam (which means "Sent"), fill large water jugs, carry them back up and pour the water onto the steps. This was done to remind the people how God provided water out of the rock to sustain their forefathers in the wilderness. On the eighth day, there was no procession or pouring out of water, to emphasize that now in the Promised Land, they were in the land which was well-watered and filled with milk and honey, as God promised them. Roughly 1400 years after this was written in Numbers, and 1000 years after the first temple was built, now during the time of the second temple, we read Jesus' words, as He was in Jerusalem on the eighth day of the Feast of tabernacles, as we read in John 7:37-39, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." How many missed Jesus, ignored His words, simply because they were in a religious stupor, unable to receive anything fresh, as they remained in a spirit of nonexpectation.
At the same time, we should never ignore the past, and the promises stated clearly in Scripture. Luke 3:23-38, gives us the genealogy of Jesus, biologically, through His birthmother, Mary, while Matthew 1:1-16, gives us the genealogy of Jesus legally, through His step-father, Joseph. Realize, when the second temple was incinerated and destroyed in 70AD, with it, all of the genealogical records were destroyed. The genealogy of the Messiah had to be known and verified, as many of the prophecies surrounding the Messiah were clearly written in Scripture (He had to come through the lineage of certain men, and had to be absent from the lineage of certain cursed men). We know that Jesus came the first time to save us from our sins, and will come a second time to establish His kingship on the earth. Anyone who rejects Jesus, if they want to stay true to Scripture, finds themselves in an impossible situation, as their choice is rendered unable to be verified due to lack of evidence. Again, we must stand on the truths of the past, but expect God to still move freshly through us.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: