Randy Green's Blog, page 395

A Clarion Call – Part 5

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.

I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.

This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.

Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.

Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.

If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.

Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.

Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?

A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...

A Clarion Call – Part 5

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.

I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.

This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.

Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.

Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.

If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.

Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.

Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?

A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

A Clarion Call – Part 4

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

Snowballs plummeting down a mountain slope? You are wondering what all this has to do with 2 Timothy 3, aren’t you? Well, my daily living brings me into contact with a world full of folks who are living according to the patterns and behaviors expressed in the first seven verses of 2 Timothy 3. We are indeed in the last days, and the reality smacks me in the face daily.

Alas, but the folks who display this to me—and I don’t mean the non-Christians because they are expected to act this way—but the Christians who display the behaviors and attitudes enumerated by Paul, they haven’t a clue that they are replicas of the devil’s kids, and often down to the most minute detail! They might have had a born again experience several decades ago, but they still live in a spiritual nursery, lying in a spiritual crib, and crying to be fed and have their diapers changed.

Babies in the crib, you realize, don’t know they are babies in a crib. They don’t know the difference. They are only behaving naturally. In rebirth we become newborns in a crib. We need spiritually mature mom’s and dad’s to rear us to spiritual adulthood, else we remain spiritual babes in a crib for decades until the Lord brings us home. And what a wasted life that is!

Here’s the problem we face today—and let me be quite frank about this, as a prophet speaking the truth in love. What happens when the Christian community is parented by babies in a crib? What happens when “capricious children will rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4) and “women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:12)?

Isaiah’s words pronounced God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Israel’s sin was that she deserted the Lord her God by ignoring His Word and doing what seemed right in her own eyes. So the Lord left her to her own devices. Since the Lord established adult male leadership, the first thing to transpire when God’s Word is rejected is for women and children to be the rulers.

Voilà! the good ol’ USA of today! And the behaviors and attitudes Paul enumerated in 2 Timothy 3 are the norm in our society too. For example, once upon a time in a faraway land—not! I was just funning you a bit. Not long ago in our society it was normal to consider our actions in terms of society and the neighbors.

If I wanted to blast the stereo, I knew it was wrong to do so in the middle of the night or with it so loud that it disturbed the neighbors. The same applied if I wanted to have dogs. If the dogs barked they needed to stay inside, or else I needed to train them not to bark. If I wanted to build a patio out the back door or repair an automobile engine in the driveway, I knew better than to do so at 2:00 AM.

Let’s pause here and betake ourselves to the prayer closet for a fine time alone with Jesus. See you in our next study.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

A Clarion Call – Part 3

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

When I was born again I chose not to read books about the Bible, but to read only the Bible. Accordingly I read the entire Bible in my first year of rebirth. It was the King James Version because I grew up on it and knew that version was accepted by everyone as a good translation. After that I read through the Bible every year at least once, and most years at least twice. For half of those years I read through the Bible three and four times a year.

So I’ve read the entire Bible over one hundred times now. This doesn’t include reading portions of the Bible as quoted in commentaries and other books. Nor does it take into account reading the Greek New Testament six or seven times and the Hebrew Old Testament considerably. Neither does it include Bible reading where I spend time with Jesus in prayer, and meditate on portions of the good Word of God while sitting at His feet.

I don’t state this to gain clout, or as a status symbol. I don’t win any brownie points for reading the Bible! I read the Bible because it is spiritual food. The new life we receive when we are born again needs to be fed, just as our natural bodies need natural food daily, even thrice daily, to stay healthy and grow.

So I note my Bible reading to tell you that I have stopped thinking in terms of the evening news, or in terms of movies and TV shows. I don’t see the world the way most folks I encounter see the world.

This is readily apparent to me in most of the conversations and comments I share with others. Most of mankind is under the mind control of the evil one. Man has lost the reality of the Bible and gone to feeding in the scorched earth pastures of the world and its prince, the devil.

Daily I am beleaguered by worldly behaviors and thinking, yea, even by Christians, self-professed Bible-believing Christians. These kind folks do things and say things contrary to the express teachings of the Bible, and they haven’t a clue they are being anti-biblical because they are conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).

When a Christian doesn’t feed daily on the spiritual food of the Bible, eating all the food God places on the table from Genesis through Revelation, then he is malnourished, anemic, spiritually enervated. The world and its thinking dominate him and make it even harder for him to read the Bible or schedule time to be alone with Jesus.

This has a snowball effect, rolling down the mountain at increasing speeds and growing bigger with each revolution, until all that exists is the snowball. The snowball is the old way of life, the sin nature which focuses on self and enjoying its own pleasures.

Snowballs are fun when we have a handful of snow in our mits. But a humongous uncontrollable mass of snow plummeting down the mountain slope? Now that is an entirely different matter! We will continue our study tomorrow. Greet Jesus and allow Him to refresh you today.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

A Clarion Call – Part 2

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.

The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.

As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.

I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.

I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.

So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!

This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.

And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

A Clarion Call – Part 1

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].

Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.

The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days has been and continues to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.

The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that now is the last days. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.

Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.

You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.

Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.

Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

An Army of Phinehases – Part 6

NEWS FLASH!!!  Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes   is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “ Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace…because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’” [Numbers 25:10-12]

The Lord is holy. If man is to be in a relationship with Him, we have to be holy also. This means we cannot live to please self and do our own thing. We cannot worship and serve other gods…or money…or sex…or fame. We have to worship and serve the Lord alone. We have to practice fidelity to one Spouse, the Lord.

The pubescent Israelites didn’t do this. The only alternatives then were either for the Lord to leave and give man his way, or else for the Lord to stay and send man away. Putting sinful man to death removed the sin and maintained God’s holiness. It sent sinful man away so that the Lord could stay (answer to question 4).

The final question (#5) is, “How can a mere man make atonement for other men?” Answer: in just the way Phinehas did, viz., by following the Word of God and judging sin accordingly. The sin wasn’t atoned for in the case of the sinners. They weren’t atoned for: they were judged and condemned! The sin was atoned for in the case of the Israelites who weren’t committing the sin.

Sin in the camp of Israel required that the camp of Israel be judged. So the plague from the Lord struck the camp of Israel. So long as this fraternizing with the enemy continued, the rest of the Israelites were susceptible to being entangled in the devilish web. Phinehas put an end to the fraternizing by his bold act. No other Israelites volunteered to fraternize any longer, considering the consequences!

Ergo, Phinehas atoned for the sin by terminating its practice, as well as by judging the offenders according to the Word of God. The operative phrase is “according to the Word of God”. The Law of Moses was the legal code for the Israelites while they inhabited the Promised Land. It was given at Mount Sinai and went into effect forthwith. God gave them His Law in preparation for having their own country. He was the King of Israel.

We Christians today are not Israel in the Promised Land. The Law of Moses wasn’t given to govern us: the New Testament was. However, we still learn spiritual truths about God from the Lord’s picture stories in the Old Testament, so we continue to study it. However, let’s not be overly eager and go to executing sinners!

In the Church today we need an army of valiant Phinehases to combat the Gospel of Affluence which pervades the Christian community. Alas, but what we have seems to be a nursery full of wimpy Zimris. If you want to know what a Zimri is, read Numbers 25 and see. If you want to enlist in the army of Phinehases, report to the Lord in prayer. Think I’ll do so now. Want to join?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

An Army of Phinehases – Part 5

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace...because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’” [Numbers 25:10-12]

So how was the sin of the pubescent Israelites atoned for? It happened like this:

Phinehas grabbed his spear and followed the dufus Israelite into his tent. Inside the tent Phinehas pinned both the Israelite boy and the Midianite girl to the desert floor with his spear, like a shish kabob. Then the plague on the Israelites was stayed.

You see, the Israelites judged the sin in their camp, so the Lord no longer had to do so. If we judge our own sins, we won’t have to be judged.

And this brings us back to the five questions we itemized at the start of this study. We just narrated how a mere man can turn away God’s wrath (answer to question #1). The mere man simply did what the Word of God commanded to be done. The Law of Moses was already given to the Israelites to govern their national existence. It afforded the answers for holy living and judging society accordingly.

This Law commanded the Israelites to follow the doctrine of separation: no intermingling with the heathen peoples of the world. The Law also forbade idolatry: no worshiping other gods. The priests were assigned to be God’s judges in Israel. Phinehas the priest judged the lawbreaker guilty and executed him according to the Law.

How can a mere man have God’s jealousy? Just the way Phinehas did. He didn’t get mad at the dufus Israelite for personal reasons and exact his personal revenge. Rather, Phinehas recognized from the Law that the Lord loved the Israelites as His own bride.

The Lord was betrayed by His bride, when the Israelites slept with the daughters of foreign gods and then worshiped those gods. This aroused the Lord’s righteous jealousy. So that is what God’s jealousy is (answer to question #3). When Phinehas acted on behalf of God’s jealousy, he displayed God’s jealousy (answer to question #2).

Because the Lord is always faithful, He never steps out on those with whom He is in covenantal relationship. The Lord expects the same in return. When His people play spouse-swapping and intermingle with the heathen gods, they forfeit any claims to being God’s people and willingly join the camp of the enemy.

The word “holy” means that God is the one and only. For a man to be holy means that he sides with God against all other gods or anything else. When a man doesn’t do so, then he is no longer holy and God cannot abide with him.

Yikes! That didn’t spell good news for those pubescent Israelites, did it? We’ll learn the specifics in our next study. Off to the Lord I’m going now.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...

An Army of Phinehases – Part 5

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “ Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace…because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’” [Numbers 25:10-12]

So how was the sin of the pubescent Israelites atoned for? It happened like this:

Phinehas grabbed his spear and followed the dufus Israelite into his tent. Inside the tent Phinehas pinned both the Israelite boy and the Midianite girl to the desert floor with his spear, like a shish kabob. Then the plague on the Israelites was stayed.

You see, the Israelites judged the sin in their camp, so the Lord no longer had to do so. If we judge our own sins, we won’t have to be judged.

And this brings us back to the five questions we itemized at the start of this study. We just narrated how a mere man can turn away God’s wrath (answer to question #1). The mere man simply did what the Word of God commanded to be done. The Law of Moses was already given to the Israelites to govern their national existence. It afforded the answers for holy living and judging society accordingly.

This Law commanded the Israelites to follow the doctrine of separation: no intermingling with the heathen peoples of the world. The Law also forbade idolatry: no worshiping other gods. The priests were assigned to be God’s judges in Israel. Phinehas the priest judged the lawbreaker guilty and executed him according to the Law.

How can a mere man have God’s jealousy? Just the way Phinehas did. He didn’t get mad at the dufus Israelite for personal reasons and exact his personal revenge. Rather, Phinehas recognized from the Law that the Lord loved the Israelites as His own bride.

The Lord was betrayed by His bride, when the Israelites slept with the daughters of foreign gods and then worshiped those gods. This aroused the Lord’s righteous jealousy. So that is what God’s jealousy is (answer to question #3). When Phinehas acted on behalf of God’s jealousy, he displayed God’s jealousy (answer to question #2).

Because the Lord is always faithful, He never steps out on those with whom He is in covenantal relationship. The Lord expects the same in return. When His people play spouse-swapping and intermingle with the heathen gods, they forfeit any claims to being God’s people and willingly join the camp of the enemy.

The word “holy” means that God is the one and only. For a man to be holy means that he sides with God against all other gods or anything else. When a man doesn’t do so, then he is no longer holy and God cannot abide with him.

Yikes! That didn’t spell good news for those pubescent Israelites, did it? We’ll learn the specifics in our next study. Off to the Lord I’m going now.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86

An Army of Phinehases – Part 4

NEWS FLASH!!! Acts: Volume 8 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes is now available from CreateSpace (paperbacks) and Kindle (eBooks). Click on the link to the right of this page to go to Amazon and place your order.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “ Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give him My covenant of peace…because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’” [Numbers 25:10-12]

Balaam squeezed some demon juice from his brain and fed it to the Moabites and Midianites. Let them bedeck their lovely lasses in alluring attire, then dispatch them to the camp of Israel to seduce the puberty-afflicted Israelite boys…of all ages! That’ll get them worshiping Baal, and force the Lord to kill them.

So bedecked became the Midianite femme fatales, and off  to the camp of Israel they went. Straightway the camp was filled with pubescent Israelites, ambling along with Midianite sirens on their arms…and into the tents they went.

No sooner were they in the tents than a plague from the Lord struck and killed 24,000 Israelites. Balaam’s plan seemed to be working to a T. Why, even after all this, some clueless dufus Israelite actually walked out in front of Moses and the leaders of Israel, as they were praying to the Lord at the tent of meeting on behalf of the Israelites. This dufus had a Midianite lassie on his arm, and he was the son of an Israelite leader! He called out to dad in front of all Israel’s leaders,

Hey, Dad. I’m taking my new girlfriend back to the tent to play and have fun. So stay away a while, okay?

Then off to the camp on the south side the two went. Moses and the leaders had to place an order for a crane to come and lift their jaws off the desert floor! Such temerity, such chutzpah was beyond belief. No one could be that anile…could he?

The son of the high priest, Phinehas by name, knew what the situation demanded. Thousands of Israelites were dying by the minute from the Lord’s plague, and all because dufuses like this boy sinned with heathen women.

The job of the priest was to intercede with the Lord on behalf of the Israelites. The Lord was in the process of judging the Israelites for their sin. In order for the priest to petition the Lord to cease and desist, first the sin had to be atoned for.

So how was sin to be atoned for? Well, the wages of sin is death, so the Lord put them to death. To stop the plague, first the Israelites needed to stop sinning, and secondly those who sinned needed to be put to death.

We’ll find out tomorrow how this was accomplished. For today let’s muse on what we’ve already learned. The prayer closet is a good place to do so. See you there.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86