⁵³ But the Levites will camp around the Tabernacle of the Covenant to protect the community of Israel from the Lord’s anger. The Levites are responsible to stand guard around the Tabernacle.” (Num 1:53)

²⁵ As he [Paul] reasoned with them [Felix and Drusilla] about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. (Acts 24:25)

⁷ Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Prov 1:7)

¹⁶ Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem,
a firm and tested stone.
It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.
Whoever believes need never be shaken.” (Is 28:16)

²⁴ “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (John 5:24)

¹⁴ For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, (Greek I must soon put off my tent [or tabernacle].) (1Pet 1:14)

¹⁶ Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? (1Cor 3:16)

¹⁹ This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. ²⁰ Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Heb 6:19-20)

Observation:

Okay, this is a fascinating study.  There is so much scripture all tied in together.  I tried to pull in just a few and I will try to paint a vivid picture of what God had planned from the very beginning.  Imagine the Israelite people: they have seen the Lord’s anger up close and personal.  God wiped out thousands of people because of the whole golden calf thing.  Then they all get together and work hard to build God a house (the Tabernacle, which later became the Temple).  God had to put guards around His home in order to protect His own people from His anger!   Very few people were allowed to enter the Tabernacle, let alone the most Holy place; inner sancuary; Holy of Holies and those who did were purified by intense rituals and still had to fear the wrath of God.  Then, years later, along comes Jesus.  A man from Nazareth (the armpit of society) who was so perfect he did not have to go through any purification rituals and who death actually physically ripped the curtain separating the inner sanctuary in half! Fear of death and condemnation was forever banished for those who place their belief in Him!  For those who choose not to believe and who choose to live their own ways, there is fear (for example: Felix and Drusilla).  Not only does God not have to place guards to protect us from Himself, but we now become HIS HOME!  We are His Temple!  There are no purification rituals, no fear of instant death, no protection from the wrath of God.  He lives IN US!  The fear we feel leads us to run to Jesus; it is the foundation of all wisdom.

Application:

I fall way short of tying this all together in one short paragraph.  But what fun it was to search through all of scripture and see how God planned this from the very beginning!  I strongly recommend it.  The Word of God IS alive and will speak directly to your very soul as the SPIRIT living inside you, in the MOST HOLY PLACE, guides you.  Just read through the above scriptures and ask God to speak to you.  He WILL!

Prayer:

*sigh* Thank you for dragging me to my Bible this morning so you could speak to me through your word.  Thank-you God for your most awesome plan for humanity.   You are truly amazing.  I can feel “your glory fill the temple” inside me, almost as if I will burst trying to contain it.  It is a true honor to be your home; your dwelling place.  It is an honor I know I am absolutely not worthy of.  Thank-you, Jesus, that I don’t have to fear your wrath.  You took all of God’s anger upon yourself so that he couldn’t even look at you.  You were punished so severely and now I don’t have to fear; for I did fear and it drew me to you and that fear became the foundation, the rock, which my life is built.

Psalm 13

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
² How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?³ Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
⁴ Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.

Observation:

Read this.  Really read this.  Read it from your own perspective.  Read it as you were crying out to God and these were your own words.  Now tell me that the writer of these words was not depressed; did not feel absolute despair; did not feel as if God was taking a trip to Hawaii and left him to deal with his problems on his own.  Tell me that because he felt this way, he lacked faith.  David, the author of this outcry, was a man after God’s own heart.  He was a man of faith, yet he suffered greatly from depression.   As a matter of fact, if you really study the Bible, you will see that most great people of faith suffered from depression or anxiety at some point in their lives.  So why then, do so many “Christian” people and organization perpetrate the lie that it is because of LACK of faith?  I myself have been told that God has healed me and then when I continue to have symptoms, it is because I lack faith or because there is unresolved sin in my life.  That’s BULLSHIT, and a very destructive lie directly from the enemy.  Did David lack faith when he said, “BUT I trust in your unfailing love.  I will rejoice [despite the fact that I feel horrible and I can't feel Your presence anywhere in this universe] because you have rescued me.”  He goes so far as to “sing to the Lord” in the midst of his pain and anguish.  How can it be a LACK of faith to believe God is good, even when you don’t FEEL Him?  David hadn’t felt the goodness of God in his life “forever”!

Application:

This verse has been very close to me for many years.  It has been a comfort to know that I am not alone.  I have cried these words and felt this kind of despair for so long, it really does feel like “forever”.  I have cried out to God these same words (stronger, even) and not heard of felt a thing.

I recently went to a conference on depression called, “Breakthrough: Journey out of Depression”.  I have struggled with depression and anxiety since adolescence and have read many books by Christian and secular authors.  This was the best I have ever seen of combining the Physical and Spiritual together.  I have always believed we are 100% spiritual beings AND 100% physical beings and there is no way to separate the two.   Luckily, I am on the mend and I feel better than I have felt for many years, but I continue to study and learn.  I am continuing to arm myself with tools that will help me if/when I struggle again.  Gary H. Lovejoy, Ph.D. and Gregory M. Knopf, M.D., who put on the conference, have the best tool out there.  I strongly recommend their book, “Light on the Fringe” to anyone who has depression, who knows someone with it, or who works with people who have it.  It is the one tool I have that makes sense from a medical view as well as a spiritual view.

Please visit their website www.depressionoutreach.com It has some wonderful tools, their book, and a great video on how the brain works.  There are many psychologists and doctors who believe the way they do.  I have been seeing two of them for the past 5 years, and I am very grateful to them.  It was a pleasant surprise to see the clinic they work at listed in the appendix of the study guide!

Prayer:

Father, thank-you so much for bringing hope into our lives.  Thank-you for giving us tools to live a life of righteousness and faith, even when we don’t feel it.  Thank-you for people like Drs. Lovejoy and Knopf, who listen to You and share what You have taught them.  I pray that people who suffer from depression will find Your light and Your joy as I have, and not guilt that will drive them deeper into despair.  Thank-You for loving us so much.

You close your eyes and sigh deeply.  When you open your eyes, the city is gone.  Jesus is gone.  Wait, you feel Him near you.  As you slowly turn toward that light that was leading you away from the city, you feel Him more.  He is that Light.  You know it now, but you grieve for the vision you have lost.  The funnel has again been placed around you sight and you can only see the path illuminated ahead of you.  You have a new excitement, a new love for the Light.  You know where it is leading you and you are excited to get going.  You follow the light, not even looking to your right or left.  You know if you follow the light, you will find the city, you will be with Jesus!  The path is clear and clean and well illuminated.  You are enjoying the journey.  The vision of Jesus is close in your mind and it is feeding you along the way.  He is your sustenance.  He is your Joy.

¹⁵ When this offering is given to the Lord to purify your lives, making you right with him, the rich must not give more than the specified amount, and the poor must not give less. (Ex 30:15)

Observation

I continue to find it awesome that even before Israel was a nation, the rules God set for them all pointed to Jesus.  In this passage, He was talking of a silver coin to be given in ransom for their lives; in order to make them right with Him.  But it was a flat fee.  It didn’t matter how rich or how poor, the fee was the same.

Application

When Jesus fulfilled the law, he became the “silver coin” (along with a bunch of other metaphors).  He became the flat fee entrance to God.  It doesn’t matter how rich or how poor we are; if we’ve sinned greatly or minimally.  We can’t do more to make our spot “secure” and we can’t do any less.  Jesus is all we need.

That doesn’t mean we don’t strive to do more, it just means our entrance fee is paid for.

Prayer

Thank-you, God for planning our world way at the very beginning.  You knew what you were doing and even though it appears to be all “going to hell in a hand basket” You are in control.  Thank-you, Jesus for paying our entrance fee, even though it cost so much more than a silver coin.

³¹ “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. (Mat 12:31)

The Story of Ananias and Sapphira

¹ But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. ² He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.

³ Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. ⁴ The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

⁵ As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. ⁶ Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.

⁷ About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. ⁸ Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?”

“Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.”

⁹ And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.”

¹⁰ Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. (Acts 5:1-11)

Observation

As Christians, this passage can be very disconcerting.  Why would God, who is merciful and loving, strike these two people dead without even an opportunity to ask for forgiveness?  What was their sin?  Did they die because they didn’t give everything to God?  No, they died because they LIED to the Holy Spirit.  They knowingly conspired to lie.  It was not an accident.  “With his wife’s consent” leads us to believe that they had discussed this prior to taking the money to the Apostles.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all spoke of the unpardonable sin in such a way that indicates they knew what it was.  They didn’t need to elaborate or explain; they just simply stated it as fact.  I believe Ananias and Sapphira knew exactly what they were doing and went ahead and gambled on their lives.  Their sin was in trying to take for themselves the glory that was due to the Holy Spirit.  This is blasphemy.

Application

How does this apply to our lives today?   Let’s say a coworker performed some heroic action and I took credit for it.  I did not specifically say anything negative or demeaning about  my coworker, and I continued to be her friend; but in taking credit for her actions, I got the glory for what she did.  What if that action led to a promotion?  Did I deserve that promotion?  No, the other nurse did.  I injured her good name and her future purposefully and knowingly.  This is a form of blasphemy.  This is what Ananias and Sapphira did to the Holy Spirit; they tried to take credit for themselves.

Blasphemy is still a sin, no matter who it is against.  To take credit for someone else’ work is punishable by law in most parts of the world.  It is a big deal.  I don’t believe you can do it without knowing it.  You can not take credit for something on accident.  In my example above, I either did or  didn’t perform a heroic act.  Peter’s question to Sapphira “was this the price of the land” is a yes or no question.  There is no wondering “did I just blaspheme the Holy Spirit?”  This is black or white; yes or no; there is no gray.  If you find yourself afraid of committing the unpardonable sin, then you haven’t done it.  You will know.

Prayer

Lord God, I don’t even pretend to know all about You.  You are so far above my thoughts.  But thank-you for speaking to me through Your word.  Thank-you for giving me the assurance that through Jesus I am assured of forgiveness for all the sins I am capable of doing.  If I should ever be tempted to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, I am confident that because You live in me, I will know exactly what is at stake.  I can never accidentally hurt You.    Help me to also overcome any temptation I my have to hurt those around me by taking credit for their actions.

¹ One day as Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. ² They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?”³ “Let me ask you a question first,” he replied. ⁴ “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human?”

⁵ They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. ⁶ But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us because they are convinced John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they finally replied that they didn’t know.

⁸ And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Observation

The people who asked Jesus this question did not do so out of an earnest desire to learn the truth.  They were trying to trip Him up.  They thought about the answer they were to give and how it would effect their ultimate motive.  Jesus knew they were not sincere seeker of truth.  He did not feel the need to expand upon His answer in any way or justify Himself at all.  He didn’t argue with them or try to make them understand His point of view.  He knew it would do no good at all.  He did not waste His time.

Application

Occasionally we meet people who are hostile towards our faith in God.  They ask questions; sometimes in the guise of truly wanting to know.  But they are just trying to trip us up.  They want us to say something that will make them feel better for not believing the way we do or give them ammunition to refute our beliefs.  They are not truth seekers, but journalists.  They want to pick out the parts of our words that justify their ends.  We should not feel compelled to answer these questions.  How do we know the intention of the person asking the questions?  God will let us know.  As we draw closer to Him, we can hear His voice and learn His emotions.  We will know if we should engage in a theological debate or not.  Sometimes a person may appear outwardly hostile, but they are really seeking the truth.  God can help us differentiate.

Prayer

Lord, teach me to know when to talk about my faith in You to other people.  I don’t want to miss any opportunities to share You with unbelievers, but I don’t want to cast pearls before swine either.  Jesus knew Your heart and He knew when to engage.  I want to know Your heart the way Jesus did.

³⁴ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” Luke 13:34

Observation

Jesus knew Jerusalem.  He was there in the beginning.  He knew her more intimately than any of the learned scholars could ever know.  He felt joy of her birth and the pain of her continual betrayal.  Jesus compares her to babies who need protection and refuse it from Him.  In Hosea, she is his wife and prostitutes herself out to other men.  When Jesus utters these words, I can imagine Him replaying in His mind all of her rejections.  He is not angry, but sorrowfull.  Perhaps He sheds a tear.  She has broken His heart over and over again and yet He still loves her and will die to save her.

Application

How many times have I told Jesus that I want to know Him more?  I sing it in song, I pray it before starting the day, I tell Him I desire to know His heart.  Yet, I dislike reading the Old Testament.  It is so full of pain and betrayal.  I feel like screaming at the Israelites for their treatment of God.  The choices seem so clear when I read it, because I know the end of the story.  But, as I am reading the Old Testament, Jesus is showing me His heart.  He is showing me what He felt watching history unfold.  If I truley want to know Him, I must feel the pain and sorrow He felt.  I must relive the history He endured.  But He will be there with me; sharing His heart, his pain, His reasonings, and help me apply them to my life today.  He will show me how to not repeat their mistakes and how to live like those who remained faithful to Him.  He will be my guide and I will be His companion as He reveals His heart to me.  This is what I have asked of Him.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank-you so much for enduring the pain, not just of your death, but the pain of our betrayal and rejection.  Thank-you for saving us even though we broke Your heart.  Thank-you for sharing Yourself with me.  Help me to understand Your heart as I read through Your word.  Help me to apply it to my life to make me more like You.

¹⁶ “Say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,^[a] ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction, ¹⁷ but I will rescue you from those you fear so much. ¹⁸ Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’” Jeremiah 39:16-18

Observation

Ebed-melech was an eunuch.  Basically, he was a neutered, black man under the kings service in Israel.  He was a foreigner, who had once saved Jeremiah’s life by getting the king to pull him out of the cistern he was thrown into.  He even had enough empathy to give Jeremiah rags to put under his armpits to protect him from the ropes used to haul him up. God took a brief moment in the middle of proclaiming the coming destruction of the land, to give Ebed-melech reassurance that he would be safe because of his faithfulness.

Application

God is so wonderful.  This passage reminds me how personally involved in our lives He is.  Yes, He is the Judge and can destroy nations, but he takes time to individually be a part of our lives no matter who we are.  If we remain faithful to Him, He will keep his promises to us.

Prayer

God, help me to know how intimately involved you are in my life even if things around me seem to be falling apart.  Help me to be obedient to You, even when I feel I would be justified in doing something else.  Please forgive the times I don’t listen to Your sweet, small voice telling me which way I should go.  Amen.

¹⁴ She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. ¹⁵ “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

¹⁶ “Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). (John 20:14-16)

Observation

Imagine this scene: Mary is upset because she just watched a very good friend, the man who saved her from a life of prostitution, suffer brutality and die a painful death.  She went to put spices on his body, and probably to talk to him in private as we sometimes do at peoples’ headstones.  He wasn’t there.  Now she’s doubly upset.  She’s probably looking at the ground trying to hide her swollen eyes.  As she turns to leave the tomb, her shoulder bumps someone.  She probably doesn’t even look up, or if she does, she sees the man through a haze of tears, wet hair, and internal anguish.  She doesn’t expect it to be Jesus.   She pleads with the man to tell her where he has taken the body.  It isn’t until he says her name and speaks to her that she recognizes who it really is and turns to him with joy.

Application

I love this little scene.  It is a scene that I believe is played out many times in all of our lives.  Some circumstance in our lives gets us down.  We are in dispair.  We look, but do not see, our surroundings.  We live inside our self pity and see everything through darkly painted glasses.  When we do look, we expect to see more suffering, more pain.  We are not looking for goodness and so we do not see it.  Then a common person bumps shoulders with our daily existance.  Someone we are not expecting to see.  Maybe an acquaintance we barely know, or the lady behind the counter at the grocery store, or a man in recovery at church, or a bum on the bus.  They are commonplace in our lives; people we pay little attention to.  They are “just the gardener.”  We may project our anger on that person.  We think this person must in some way have contributed to our suffering.  What we do not realize is this person was sent by God to be an encouragement, to be a light in the darkness, to be His representative in our dark lives.

When Jesus speaks to us through His sent one, we can choose to turn and embrace Him with joy like Mary did or we can continue to brush past Him with head down lost in our own world of despair.

Prayer

Lord, often times I pray that I will be an encouragement to those who need a touch from You.  Many, many more times I have been encouraged and blessed by the most unlikly sources.  Thank-you for sending me your angels.  Help me to always see You when You call my name.  Forgive me the times when I have been so absorbed in my own pain that I fail to look up and see You calling out to me.

Scripture: They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad.So their property will be plundered, their homes will be ransacked. They will build new homes but never live in them. (Zephaniah 1:12)

Observation: Here is another example of people who do not believe they need God. How many times have we heard people speak flippantly about God; as if they know about Him but don’t believe He is relavant in their lives.

Application: The Israelites were founded BY God. THey were His own special people, yet when they did not have hardships because God blessed them, they were quick to push Him aside until He was inconsequential in their lives. What we have done is no different. We live in the most blessed nation in the world. As generations come and go, we have moved from total dependance on God to flippancy about His very existance. Most of us will say we believe in a higher power, but cannot say that it has any real effect on how we live our lives. What does it take to turn a nation back to God? For Israel, it took disaster, calamity, sorrow and profound loss. Then they would turn to God and ask for His help. I hope it doesn’t take that to get us to turn away from our own provision to God.

Prayer: Lord God, I can see the Israelites sin so plainly because it happened do long ago. Please help me to see my own sin and be able to turn to You. Help us as a nation to find you again. I prauy that there does not have to be a great calamity before thid happens. I love you, Lord, and I know that whatever happens, You are sovereign and Your ways are just.