March 11, 2012
Let’s open our Bibles to Numbers 21. This comes to mind because of what our brother said about the Children of Israel singing in Exodus 15. That is a type of the Lord in His death: the enemy followed them in vain. It is precious to know the enemy is slain. In Numbers 21, we get another picture of death with the brazen serpent. In this case, Israel had sinned and Moses had made a serpent like those that were biting them. Those who looked upon it became well. Read v.17a. We have had the privilege of looking on Him this morning. But here there is another cause for Israel to sing: read v.17b. This is a contrast to Exodus 15, where the enemy was on the outside. Here the enemy is on the inside. The Lord has dealt with the enemy, so we have cause to sing, “Spring up, O well” in one spirit, and render worship and praise. Israel worshipped the Lord for what He had done. We remember in Revelation the glory and position He has now. Well might we sing!
Hymn 215 - Happy they who trust in Jesus Prayer
We have come to the last chapter of 2 Samuel, and it is a sad one: we are going to read a story about David disobeying the Lord.
2 Samuel 24
The Lord was angry with Israel and felt they needed to be punished. So He allowed David to sin. David wanted to know how many men of war there were in Israel. Why did David want to know this? He wanted to know how strong an army he could have. The more men you had, the stronger the army. But is God’s strength based on the number of soldiers an army has? Remember, with Gideon, the Lord had a victory with only 300 men. God doesn’t need a lot of soldiers to win a battle. Our lesson for today is that our strength is in the Lord and not in what we have.
David told Joab to number the people. Joab questioned David, “Why do you want to do this? The Lord can help us with few men.” But David didn’t listen to Joab, and had him number the people. When the numbers were in, they had counted 800,000 soldiers in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah. Altogether there were 1,300,000 soldiers. That is a lot of men! The Lord had blessed David: he had all those mighty men that we read about in previous chapter and all of these soldiers.
Right after David numbered the people, he realized how foolish he had been. It is nice to see that as soon as he realized this, he confessed his sin to the Lord. We can do this to0, and the Lord will forgive us.
Unfortunately, because David sinned, there needed to be a consequence. God gave David the choice of three consequences:
If you were David, which one would you have chosen? David chose the third. David thought it would be better to be plagued by the Lord, Who had mercy. 70,000 people died from the plague. Once the plague stopped David offered a offering to the Lord.
From today’s chapter we can learn that our strength, help, and provisions come from the Lord. There is nothing that we can do by ourselves.
Luke 10:23-42
What we read last week was addressed to the seventy preachers, but vv.23-24 were privately spoken to the disciples. Jesus reminded them how much they were privileged: they were watching the transition between law and grace, and seeing Him reveal the Father. Many prophets and kings wanted to see this time. Many - like Isaiah - prophesied about the time of grace, but they might have thought, “This grace sounds really nice, but we don’t have it now.” They were under the law.
Speaking of the law, we have a lawyer today, who jumps up and asks, “What can I do to inherit eternal life?“. This man saw eternal life as something that he had to earn. That’s the law for you. He had studied the law, but Jesus was bringing grace and truth to the world.
We think of everlasting life as something that we receive. John 3:15-16. If we are saved, we have the life of God. That life is eternal: it never started, and it will never end; just as God never started and will never end. When we are saved, we are just “plugged in” to that life. There is “life” mentioned in the Old Testament (Psalm 133:3b, Daniel 12:2), but that life is a life here on earth. That was the life this lawyer was looking for; not the eternal life that Jesus came to give. However, the Lord took him up on his own basis; “You want to earn life that goes on forever? Well, you were told what to do at Sinai.” “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” (v.26) As Jesus says later on, “This do and thou shalt live” (v.28). That is the life of the law.
The lawyer had a good answer: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (v.27). That’s a good summary of the law. And who can say that they’ve kept the Ten Commandments? Brother Norm once knew a Jewish man named Sam who felt that he had; but if we’re honest, we’ll admit that - based on the Ten Commandments - we’re all doomed. If we are truly good, and have perfectly kept all the commandments (and no one has or can); we won’t have heavenly eternal life. We’ll just keep on living down here.
This lawyer wanted to justify himself, though, so he asked Jesus another question: “Who is my neighbour?” We can’t justify ourselves, we’re only justified by faith. However, this question gave the Lord the opportunity to tell one of His most famous parables.
“A certain man went down.” That’s the history of mankind. God created man at the top - he didn’t have to climb up, as the evolutionists tell us - and man has fallen spiritually. This particular man was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. His back was to the center of worship, while his face was toward a cursed city. What happened? We’ll, he fell among thieves who stripped him, wounded him, and left him half dead. In the Garden of Eden, man was left stripped, wounded, and a dying creature. That was all a fault of Satan, The Thief.
Hymn - Jesus loves the little children
Prayer