Reading 1 – Num 24:17-19

“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city” (Num 24:17-19).

Balaam’s prediction concerns the rise of David and the Davidic kingdom. The “star” refers to David — who struck down the Moabites (Num 24:17; 2Sa 8:2) and the Edomites (Num 24:18; 2Sa 8:13,14; 1Ki 11:15,16; 1Ch 18:12,13). Thus, under David, Israel prospered and the nations round about were subjugated and often had to bring tribute (eg, 2Sa 8:2,6).

But, the prophecy cannot be exhausted at this point, for David did not completely destroy Moab and Edom, with the result that later writers would be free to use this imagery to speak of the one who would come and deal ultimately with the enemies of God.

The use of the term “star” does more than point to a ruler; it also connects that ruler with heaven. The birth of Jesus was connected with heavenly signs (Mat 2:2), and one of his titles is “the bright Morning Star” (Luk 1:78-79; Rev 22:16) — used in connection with his descent from the line of David. When he returns from heaven to conquer the enemies of God, and to set up God’s kingdom, his advent will be accompanied by other signs in the heavens (Mat 24:29,30; Mark 13:24,25).

Reading 2 – Pro 17:3

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart” (Pro 17:3).

“In the work here mentioned the object is to clear away the dross whether in the fining of metals or of human hearts, but the proverb does not suggest that there is a perfect analogy. Rather does it imply a difference. Metals may be purified by men with fining pot and furnace, but the heart can only be tried and cleansed by God. The process of fining is far more complex and wonderful than anything that can be effected with metals. It is not merely a matter of removing dross, but something quite new has to be introduced; new hopes, new desires and in fact ‘newness of life’ ” (Islip Collyer, “Principles and Proverbs”).

Reading 3 – Eph 5:20

“Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything” (Eph 5:20).

“Be thankful. Be intensely thankful. Be continuously thankful — every moment. We can never be thankful enough: we just do not have the physical and mental capacity to be as thankful as we should. No matter how bad or sad our circumstances may be, there are always grounds for more thankfulness than we are humanly able to feel or express. Being thankful has many practical values. It is wholesome. It is healthy. It is therapeutic. It refreshes and clears and invigorates the mind. It wonderfully flushes out the rubbish and the petty cares. It is an automatic antidote to much foolishness and fleshliness. No one can be thankful and lonely at the same time; or thankful and angry; or thankful and self-pitying — not if it is true, deep, spiritual thankfulness. Thankfulness is a powerful incentive to do what is right, and to resist what is wrong. It is a major ingredient of our love for God. It is a wonderful remembrancer — keeping the mind fixed on God and His goodness. ‘Give thanks ALWAYS for ALL things’ — for the ‘bad’ as well as the ‘good,’ for all is part of a deep and wise Divine Purpose that is training us for Eternity, and leading us to Life” (GV Growcott).

Reading 1 – Lev 22:20,21

“Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf” (Lev 22:20).

This prohibition is elaborated upon in Deu 15:21; 17:1: any would-be offering which is lame or blind or has any obvious flaw must not be brought. Likewise, the prophet Malachi warns, “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong?” (Mal 1:8,13,14).

Of course, in the fulfillment of the “type” or “prophecy” of the Law of Moses, the only sacrifice that was absolutely perfect and without defect was the Lord Jesus Christ, who “offered himself unblemished to God” (Heb 9:14; cp 1Pe 1:19).

“When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering… it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable” (Lev 22:21).

And as the offering should be, so also the OFFERER should be! The one who comes into the presence of the LORD to offer sacrifice must also be above reproach, even as regards interpersonal relationships: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Mat 5:23,24).

Of course, in the ultimate sense, such verses as these are reminders to us that — no matter how well we may prepare ourselves — we are NOT perfect: we have many defects and blemishes, and were it not for the one perfect, all-encompassing sacrifice of Christ, for all people and all time, we would be utterly without hope. Flesh cannot boast of itself in the presence of God; it must humbly and thankfully take hold of the One who is truly without blemish, seeking through him for the forgiveness which it so desperately needs.

Reading 2 – Psa 126:5,6

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him” (Psa 126:5,6).

“Blessed are they that mourn (now), for they shall be comforted” (Mat 5:4). No one but the Master can so touch the heart and spirit of man, and convince us that our consolation shall be infinitely sweeter than any bitter affliction. Our thoughts are transported from the days of the Psalmist to those of the Roman occupation, when God’s people wept in the long night of Zion’s captivity. In their bondage they cried to God for a deliverer, and He heard them. But God’s timetable again called for a sowing in tears before there could be a reaping in joy: “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

From the hill of death, as the shadows lengthened, a little group trudged their forlorn way to a new tomb carved out of a hillside. There they deposited their precious burden; the hungry earth reclaimed its own. The “seed” was planted and watered with their tears, and they returned in sorrow to their homes. Daylight came, and night, and day again, and behold… a stirring! The annual miracle of sowing and reaping found its counterpart in a “harvest” of the highest order. God gave the increase, the “seed” sprouted and grew, though man knew not how.

“A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. Ye now therefore have sorrow,” he had told them. “But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:21,22).

Into the city they ran, with a song of joy on their lips and in their hearts. It is a “harvest song” of thanksgiving which has never ceased from that day to this, no, nor ever shall. It is a song passed from one to another, sung by each new generation with a wonder that is always fresh. It is a song of joy to gladden the heart of the weariest disciple with the prospect of a day when all tears shall cease (Rev 21:4), and the sorrowful sowing of the “night” will be only a memory.

Reading 3 – Luk 5:12,13

“When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (Luk 5:12,13).

The man was “filled” with leprosy (v 12); but Jesus was “filled” with compassion (Mar 1:41)! He reached out his hand: the heart of compassion moves the hand of power!

And he touched the leprous man: “Whatever touches any of the flesh [of the sin offering] will become holy” (Lev 6:27). But both Elijah and Elisha contracted “defilement” by touching the dead (1Ki 17:21; 2Ki 4:34). Jesus, however, was a High Priest “touched” with the feelings of our infirmities (Heb 4:15), yet he was not defiled in the least.

Moreover, by his touch he REMOVED the defilement from others!

Reading 1 – Lev 27:30

“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD” (Lev 27:30).

Originally, the fathers gave tithes voluntarily (Gen 14:20; Heb 7:4). Under the Law of Moses, tithing was compulsory, but in Christ it should be treated as it was by Abraham and Jacob (Gen 14:20; 28:22), and probably by others. Using an analogy from the Law — about not muzzling the ox who treads out the grain — Paul encourages giving to support and aid preachers of the gospel in their work (1Co 9). And again he writes, “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Gal 6:6). But nowhere in the New Testament is tithing commanded.

Reading 2 – Psa 141:4

“Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies” (Psa 141:4).

It was at a special religious feast at Hebron that Absalom solicited and received support, and proclaimed himself king — rebelling against his father David (2Sa 15:7-12).

This suggests Jesus’ wariness at the social invitations offered him by the Pharisees, whose intent was to watch him closely and if possible catch him off guard (eg Luk 14:1).

To share the close friendly “table” fellowship of certain sorts of men is to become, first by small degrees and then more and more by wholesale lots, like them. In certain social settings, the general standards of courtesy forbid men to express exception to what they see and hear, which at other times they would resolutely shun. And so, almost subconsciously, “bad company ruins good morals” (1Co 15:33) — and the best of men, unless they are constantly on their guard, tend to turn into the sort of people which mere formality “compels” them to put up with. How dangerous such “polite” associations with worldly men can be!

Reading 3 – Luk 10:19

“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” (Luk 10:19).

This promise can be understood either literally (cp Mark 16:18; Acts 28:3-6), or figuratively — the serpent being symbolic, and “Satan” (Luk 10:18) being indicative of unrepentant Capernaum (Luk 10:15). Perhaps both ideas have their place. However, no matter which, the words of Jesus are obviously based upon Gen 3:15. The “seed of the woman” has power to crush underfoot the serpent, and he has committed that power also to his servants.

Symbolically, in their own lives now, his followers must “tread upon” the subtle “serpents” of their own natures, thus overcoming the pull of the flesh by the power of Christ’s spirit. And in the future, they will be empowered from on high to tread underfoot, without harm, both literal serpents… and the political and religious institutions of which the serpent was the symbol.

The promise of Gen 1:28, that man will have dominion over the earth, and over the living creature that moves on the ground, is fulfilled in the first instance by Jesus himself (Psa 8:2,6,8), and secondly becomes a promise to all believers in him, that ultimately all things will be put in subjection under their feet. The promise to the seventy here in Luk 10:19 was the down-payment, or pledge — the first installment, as it were, upon the complete fulfillment of these great and precious promises.

Reading 1 – Num 1:18,19

“They called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, as the LORD commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai” (Num 1:18,19).

This was for the purpose of taking a census of the whole congregation. A census was the means by which the place of each individual would be legally fixed within the nation. Why would such a thing be necessary?

The whole nation might be properly ordered in regard to the sanctuary and divine worship (Num 2:32,33). In the encampment itself, each tribe would be fixed in its relation to all other tribes, and each family within a tribe would be fixed in relation to all other families (Num 2:34). The fighting men needed to be organized, in the event of battles upcoming. The proper order might be observed in the coming invasion and settlement of the Promised Land (Jos 13:31-33). Each tribe would need to be situated in its own inheritance once they reached the Promised Land.

The principles embodied in this census are carried over into the LORD’s instructions for His ecclesia in New Testament times — where “everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1Co 14:40).

Reading 2 – Psa 143:2

“Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you” (Psa 143:2).

The first phrase means, ‘Do not enter into legal proceedings with your servant’ (the same phrase occurs in Job 9:32; 14:3; Ecc 11:9; 12:14). God DOES enter into strict judgment with those who are NOT His true servants (Mat 5:26; 18:34) — but not with those who are His believing and obedient servants (Mat 18:27). This is David’s humble acknowledgment of being at fault (and his request for mercy) in his lapses of faith.

Since Jesus had committed no sin (John 8:46; 1Pe 2:22-25), it was not possible that he could be held bound by the bands of death (Acts 2:24). In his case, then, the judgment or condemnation upon all men — leading to death (Rom 5:12) — must of necessity give way to blessing and reward.

Similar language — to the effect that all men are under “sin” — occurs in Psa 51:5; 130:3; and is quoted by Paul in Rom 3:9,20,23; Gal 2:16. (Also see Job 4:17; 9:2; 14:4; 25:4; Ecc 7:20.)

FOR NO ONE LIVING IS RIGHTEOUS BEFORE YOU: In this phrase, the key word is “living”: “No man LIVING can be justified!” Even Jesus must die so as to destroy, completely and finally, the latent power of “sin” that dwelt within him. And so even the perfectly righteous man — who never committed any sin — could not be “justified” so long as he lived: his work was not finished until his sacrificial life was sealed by a sacrificial death.

Reading 3 – Luk 11:5-7

“Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him’ ” (Luk 11:5,6).

“The friend who came on his journey with ‘nothing’ refers to the disciples whom Jesus had sent out on their journey with nothing (Luk 9:3). When He told them to ‘eat such things as are set before you’ (Luk 10:8), he did not just mean they should not be picky about their food. He used the same word in Luk 11:6 to describe how the faithful friend ‘set [food] before’ his visitor. As they travelled around, the disciples were to be received in the way he was describing. Those in that early brotherhood of believers who received and supported them were to do so knowing that these brethren were in their turn responding to human need, and they could be fellow-helpers in the gospel’s work by showing hospitality. John says just the same: ‘Because that for his name’s sake they went forth [alluding to the great commission to go into all the world], taking nothing of the Gentiles [ie the unbelievers]. We therefore ought to help receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth” (3Jo 1:7,8)” (Duncan Heaster).

*****

“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything’ ” (Luk 11:7).

“The Lord will one day come to us at midnight, and the unworthy will not open to Him (Song 5:2, etc). And right now he stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20). The rejected will know what it is like to stand knocking at the Lord’s shut door and be unanswered (Mat 25:10; Luk 13:25). He surely intended us to make such links within His teachings. The message is quite clear — those who can’t be bothered to respond to the knocking of others, who refuse to feel for others in their desperation, are the ones who will then come to know just how that feels, as in ultimate spiritual desperation they hammer at the Lord’s door. From this it surely follows that in our response to the desperation of others, we are working out our own eternal destiny” (DH).

Reading 1 – Num 11:10,11

“Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the LORD, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?’ ” (Num 11:10,11).

“Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith. If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test. Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not [1Pe 1:7]: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him’ [Job 13:15], is heaven-born faith. The Lord afflicts His servants to glorify Himself, for He is greatly glorified in the graces of His people, which are His own handiwork. When ‘tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope’ [Rom 5:3,4], the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues. We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress; nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed. The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered by the trials through which His vessels of mercy are permitted to pass. Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights” (CHS).

Reading 2 – Pro 7:2,3

“Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart” (Pro 7:2,3).

“That is the final object of all good writing. Much that is written on paper is destroyed without even being read. Even commandments written and engraven on stone have been neglected until the stones have crumbled into dust. But when the commandments of God are written on human hearts, the final object of writing has been achieved. Words written on paper, parchment or stone, or words spoken by inspired lips have then been received by the senses, understood and approved by the intellect and the thoughts expressed have been, in some measure at least, woven into the character” (Islip Collyer, “Principles and Proverbs”).

Reading 3 – Luk 21:8

“Watch out that you are not deceived” (Luk 21:8).

“We must fervently pray God to free us from our illusions and delusions. He sometimes does it roughly, but it is wholesome and beneficial. How we tend to make special rules and exceptions for ourselves, and give new, excusing definitions to sin and folly! But God’s holy laws are impartial for all, and wisdom will not seek to bend them for personal gratification or self-justification. We must seek the divine blessing of… impartiality and honesty in our necessary, constant self-examination. It is grimly interesting and amusing to see how deceptive our minds can be, and how contrary to our true and larger well-being” (GVG).

Reading 1 – Num 19:7

“After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening” (Num 19:7).

In the offering of the red heifer, as a means of cleansing from the defilement of death, the priest becomes so much associated with the sacrifice, that he becomes unclean himself. Thus the lesson is taught: to remove death, he must first become subject to it (Rom 8:3; Heb 2:14).

“The ashes of a slain heifer applied to a man defiled by death, was a curing of death by death. This is precisely what has happened in the antitype: Christ, ‘through death, destroyed that having the power of death, that is, the devil’ (Heb 2:14). How could he do this if he had not in himself the power of death to destroy by dying? He has destroyed death. But in whom? In himself alone as yet. Believers will obtain the benefit by incorporation with him at the resurrection: but, at the present time, the victory is his alone. The fact is plain to everyone. Some who admire Christ are horror-struck at the idea of his having been a partaker of the Adamic condemned nature — a nature defiled by death because of sin. Their horror is due wholly to too great a confinement of view. They fix their attention on the idea of ‘defilement’ without remembering that the defilement was undertaken expressly with a view to removal.

“We must have God’s revealed object in view. The power of death was there that it might be destroyed. If it was not there, it could not be destroyed. This is the mischief of what may be truly called the Papal view. By denying that Jesus came in the very dying flesh of Adam, it changes the character of the death of Christ into a martyrdom or a punishing of the innocent for the guilty: instead of being what it is revealed to have been — a declaration of the righteousness of God that He might be just, while the justifier of those who have faith in it for the forgiveness of their sins (Rom 3:24-26)” (RR, Law of Moses 264,265).

Reading 2 – Pro 14:1

“The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down” (Pro 14:1).

“Perhaps this has a meaning even on the most material plane. Some women take steps to improve their houses as time goes on, while others let everything go to ruin. We have even heard of people breaking up some of the woodwork of their houses and burning it through foolish indolence or still more foolish anger. On a slightly less material plane we have noticed the extraordinary difference between the woman who builds a home of confidence, unselfishness and love and the one who pulls a home to pieces by suspicion, jealousy and a generally negative attitude. On a higher plane still, the saying is true of the corporate woman formed through the ages. Those who desire to be constituent members of the bride to be, must be wise. They must build the house and not pull it down” (Islip Collyer, “Principles and Proverbs” 134).

Reading 3 – Gal 5:22,23

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22,23).

Love is THE ‘fruit’ of the Spirit. Love is the basis of every other aspect of Spiritual fruit. Therefore, there are not nine separate fruits; rather, there is ONE fruit, in eight separate manifestations:

JOY is love exalted.

PEACE is love in repose.

PATIENCE is love enduring.

KINDNESS is love in society.

GOODNESS is love in action.

FAITHFULNESS is love overcoming.

GENTLENESS is love in submission.

SELF-CONTROL is love under discipline.

Reading 1 – Num 33

“This serves as a summary of the whole journeyings during 40 years from Egypt to the Jordan. Omitting the starting point in Egypt, and the final camp by the Jordan, there are 40 camps listed. Quite a number are not found elsewhere in Scripture, and some today cannot be definitely located. But that is not surprising. Pilgrims and travelers do not leave the kind of remains that archaeologists can use to make specific identifications. In many cases, the names given were supplied by the Israelites themselves, being derived from some small local peculiarity or crisis in their wanderings. These names, therefore, can provide a hint as to the circumstances of the Israelites at the various points of their wanderings. The chapter divides them into four stages: (1) from Egypt to Sinai (vv 1-15); (2) from Sinai to Kadesh (vv 16,17); (3) from Kadesh to Kadesh again — the 38 years of wanderings (vv 18-36); and (4) from Kadesh to Moab and the Jordan (vv 37-49). The chapter concludes with the final instructions and exhortation of Moses on the plain of Moab (vv 50-56)” (HP Mansfield, “Christadelphian Expositor”).

Reading 2 – Pro 24:33,34

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man” (Pro 24:33,34).

“The worst of sluggards only ask for a little slumber; they would be indignant if they were accused of thorough idleness. A little folding of the hands to sleep is all they crave, and they have a crowd of reasons to show that this indulgence is a very proper one. Yet by these littles the day ebbs out, and the time for labour is all gone, and the field is grown over with thorns.

“It is by little procrastinations that men ruin their souls. They have no intention to delay for years — a few months will bring the more convenient season — tomorrow if you will, they will attend to serious things; but the present hour is so occupied and altogether so unsuitable, that they beg to be excused. Like sands from an hour-glass, time passes, life is wasted by driblets, and seasons of grace lost by little slumbers.

“Oh, to be wise, to catch the flying hour, to use the moments on the wing! May the Lord teach us this sacred wisdom, for otherwise a poverty of the worst sort awaits us, eternal poverty. Like a traveller steadily pursuing his journey, poverty overtakes the slothful, and ruin overthrows the undecided: each hour brings the dreaded pursuer nearer; he pauses not by the way, for he is on his master’s business and must not tarry. As an armed man enters with authority and power, so shall want come to the idle, and death to the impenitent, and there will be no escape. O that men were wise betimes, and would seek diligently unto the Lord Jesus, or ere the solemn day shall dawn when it will be too late to plough and to sow, too late to repent and believe. In harvest, it is vain to lament that the seed time was neglected” (CH Spurgeon).

Reading 3 – John 6:45

“It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ [Isa 54:13] Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me” (John 6:45).

“The people of God are ever anxious to learn. They have no time for or patience with foolishness. They do not want to be amused, or excited, or entertained — they want to be taught. They are ever eager to learn more about God and His Word — what He has said, and what He has done — the marvelous and beautiful kaleidoscope of divine and human events from Adam in Eden to John in Patmos. They never have time hanging on their hands. They never have ‘nothing to do’ — the pitiful bane of empty, infantile minds. All the spare time in their busy, active lives is given to study and meditation on the wonders of the Word. They begrudge time spent — even necessarily — on present, passing things: though, in love and faith, and stumbling, slow-learning patience, they realize that these things too, if necessary, can equally be a service to, and communion with, their loving Father” (GV Growcott).

Reading 1 – Num 21

Jesus expressly connects this parabolic event of the brazen serpent (Num 21) with his own death:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-16).

In making comparison between those former Israelites and those to whom he was then speaking, Jesus was plainly intending to stress two points of resemblance:

The first — between the “snake-bitten” then and the “sin-bitten” now — is easy to grasp because we remember the role played by the serpent in the garden. Because sin entered into the world through the first couple’s acceptance of his suggestion, the serpent became the fitting symbol of sin. He was in fact the true Bible “devil” (Rev 20:2): the teller of lies and the deceiver of men. By extension, then, the Bible “devil” now dwells in each of us because we bear the condemned nature of Adam, a nature susceptible to the rebellious thinking first seen in the serpent.

So, Jesus says, this generation is dying because it is bitten by “sin”. He scarcely needed to say that every generation since Adam has met or will meet the same fate. We are born of the flesh, “born in sin”, and dying just as surely as the Israelites fell in the wilderness — unless a divine miracle brings us back to life.

Thus the way is prepared for the second intended comparison: between the serpent lifted up on the pole and Christ “lifted up” on the cross. The serpent was the symbol of sin, and therefore the serpent on the pole was the symbol of sin conquered. When Jesus spoke of himself being “lifted up”, he unquestionably meant his own crucifixion (John 12:32,33). His crucifixion was to be the defeat of sin.

This of course implies that in some sense “sin” was attached to Jesus. But we err if we call him a “sinner”:

“He committed no sin” (1Pe 2:22).

“He has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Heb 4:15).

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46).

How then did Jesus the sinless man partake of “sin”? How could he — with any reasonableness — be symbolized by a serpent? Paul gives the answer:

“For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. And so he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3).

Jesus was associated with sin because he possessed “sinful flesh”: a nature susceptible to sin. The death of Jesus accomplished in full what the setting up of the brass serpent had done in part. It condemned sin, or the serpent, in human flesh; it destroyed it; and it provided a focus for the faith of those who needed forgiveness and deliverance from their sins.

No individual Israelite in that day was able completely to destroy (by his own will and strength) the “serpent” or “devil” (“diabolos”) in his bosom. And neither can we! But one special member of the human race, with a nature just like theirs (and ours), totally subdued the evil desires of the flesh in himself, and finally took that serpent-nature that inevitably tended to sin and impaled it — lifeless and powerless — upon a tree. What a wonderful picture of our redemption is that serpent of brass!

Reading 2 – Pro 15:1

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Pro 15:1).

“We have read many times that ‘A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.’ We know that the proverb is true. We may desire that wrath should be turned away, the stirring up of anger may be the last thing in the world that we should want, yet when the occasion comes how many of us can find the soft, healing words? How many can resist the temptation to use grievous words if we chance to think of something which we consider apt and telling, and which in any case gives relief to the feeling of the moment?” (Islip Collyer, “Principles and Proverbs”).

What dangerous fires of hatred are kindled by words spoken in haste! That’s why taking time to think about what we should say is so important. Restraint can bring peace to many an ugly situation, as is illustrated by this story: An old Englishman was greatly loved because of his positive influence. One day an angry young man who had just been badly insulted came to see him. As he explained the situation, he said he was on his way to demand an apology from the one who had wronged him. “My dear boy,” the elderly man said, “take a word of advice from an old man who loves peace. An insult is like mud; it will brush off better when it is dry. Wait a little, till he and you are both cool, and the problem will be easily solved. If you go now, you will only quarrel.” The young man heeded the wise advice, and soon he was able to go to the other person and resolve the issue.

How often the tongue pours fuel on a fire that would go out if left alone! “Do not be rash with your mouth… let your words be few” (Ecc 5:2). Perhaps you have a problem with someone and have decided to “tell him off.” Why not wait? It’s easier to brush off mud when it’s dry. And pray for the one who offended you. It may dry the mud a little faster.

Reading 3 – Eph 1:7

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7).

The simple truth of the transaction of redemption is contained in the key passages that equate redemption with the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14). What has been forgiven cannot also be paid for. The sacrifice of Christ, the culmination of a life of perfect obedience and dedication, was the price paid for our salvation. That is to say, it was necessary that Christ give himself as a suitable basis for the declaring of God’s righteousness in offering mercy to sinners. But God’s offer requires a corresponding “payment” on the part of those who would accept it. Since they are to be redeemed out of death, they must repudiate that which brought death, which is the world and sin (Rom 6:1-7, for example). They must live sober and godly lives, repudiating all iniquity, as a special people belonging exclusively to God (Tit 2:14).

Reading 1 – Num 13:31–14:4

“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’ That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert!’ ” (Num 13:31-14:1).

Spiritually, they did “die in Egypt”, for they never completely left. Physically, they died in the wilderness, short of the Promised Land (Num 14:28,29) — all that generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, perished before reaching the land God had promised to them.

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” ‘Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt’ ” (Num 14:3,4).

Egypt was the symbol of sin and bondage (Joh 8:34; Rom 6:16; Tit 3:3; 2Pe 2:19). It had held their fathers in bondage, until death, and now although this generation was “free” of Egypt — physically — it still held their souls, their minds, and their hearts in bondage; and they would never really escape!

“One bold push forward, and their feet would tread on their inheritance. But, as is so often the case, courage oozed out at the decisive moment, and cowardice, disguised as prudence, called for ‘further information,’ that cuckoo-cry of the fainthearted” (J Sidlow Baxter, “Explore the Book” 1:179).

Reading 2 – Pro 10:22

“The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it” (Pro 10:22).

Does this mean that there will be no trouble in life for those who are blessed by God? Of course not! It means that — while there will inevitably be troubles in life for EVERYONE — the special spiritual blessings that come from God will never add more troubles to those which must come.

“Material blessings, however real and desirable they may be, always bring an accompaniment of sorrow. It is a blessing to live as a human being, but ‘man is born to trouble’. It is a blessing to have good parents, but the better they are the sadder it is to lose them, and go they must. It is a blessing to have health and strength, some say the greatest of personal blessings, but the strong man who has never ailed feels most keenly the loss of strength when his time comes. It is sad for a man to be cut off in his prime while still he had seemed capable of doing good work, but it is still sadder for him to live on until all powers have failed. Yet in merely human life it is one end or the other for all of us. It is a great blessing for a man to find a ‘help’ ‘meet for him’. The Proverbs express this thought more than once. ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.’ Yet from this blessing arises the most poignant sorrow that a human being can experience, for the years pass by like the turning of the pages of a book, and the time of inevitable parting is only a few leaves further on.

“It is a great blessing to have children, yet all parents experience the addition of sorrow, for even if the children all live, even if they are strong, virtuous and fortunate, they have nevertheless entered an evil world, the way cannot be all smooth for them and parents must share their troubles and anxieties as long as life may last. So even at the best there is an addition of sorrow and too often we do not experience the best. Disease and death or folly and misfortune so often add to the sorrows of parents.

“If we wanted to imagine a human being who should be free from all such pain, we should have to think of one without blessings, without friends or companions; one leading an animal life and finding it hard work to live at all. He would have no real sorrow because he had no real joys, and death would not be an enemy, because life had never been a friend.

“Sometimes we have seen the close of an unusually serene and happy life. It seems that nearly all possible blessings have attended. Husband and wife have spent an ideal married life and have grown old together without any serious failing of their mental powers or any of that hardening angularity which so often mars the last chapter. They have grown mellow with the advance of years, and when nearly all of their generation have passed away, they have lived feebly on, commanding the love and respect of all who knew them. Then one day the messenger of death has arrived, hastening as if to make up for delay. One of the lives is taken by disease and the other nickers out through the shock of parting. ‘They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death were not divided’, as we heard quoted over the grave of such a pair. A sympathetic observer remarks on the sadness of the end. The one spared by disease could not survive the shock of separation after so many years of close companionship, and so quickly followed to darkness and silence. It is rightly described as sad, and yet it is the best that human life has to offer. It is far more sad to be torn in two while there is still sufficient strength to survive the shock and so live on. Saddest of all perhaps for life to become so painful that death is a release…

“It is so with all ordinary blessings of life, but not with the special blessing offered by God to all who will hear His call. Spiritual riches which can be ours even now, bring no conclusions of disgust or sadness, nor any fear of being robbed. They will not save us from the sorrows of human life, but they will help us to bear the pain. They do not arrest the process of decay in the dark streets of a Gentile city, but they give us hope of a better city to come” (Islip Collyer, “Principles and Proverbs” 191-194).

Reading 3 – Luk 23:11

“Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate” (Luk 23:11).

The KJV calls these soldiers “men of war” — a phrase which is true enough to the original text, but is especially apt, as an example of supreme irony! What “men of war” they were! Courageous and unrelenting in their mockery of a man who could not — or, more precisely, would not — defend himself!

We cannot help but remember that an earlier Herod — father of this one — had sent his “men of war” out to the village of Bethlehem, where they seized the babies from their mothers, and butchered them (Mat 2:16)!

The world has such “men of war” today — they may be seen executing innocents and raping young women, stealing from the poor, and polluting themselves with every vice, in the “third-world” backwaters of the world… whose sole claims to legitimacy are cheap uniforms and deadly weapons, who serve men every bit as vile as the Herods.

May the true “Man of war” return soon, riding on a white horse, and leading the armies of heaven, to destroy once and for all such would-be “men of war” (Rev 19:11-14)!

Reading 1 – Num 29; 30

The second cycle of feasts took place in the seventh or sacred month — seven being the sacred number, and that of the covenant. It began with new moon’s day when, besides the daily, and the ordinary new moon’s offerings, special festive sacrifices were brought (Num 29:1-6). Then on the 10th of that month was the “Day of Atonement,” while on the 15th the feast of tabernacles began, lasting seven days. All these feasts had their appropriate sacrifices.

The laws as to sacrifices appropriately close with directions about “vows” (Num 30). In all the ordinances connected with the sacred seasons, there is evident the symbolic significance of the number seven — alike in the feasts themselves, in their number, their sacrifices, and in that of the days appointed for holy convocation. Indeed, the whole arrangement of time was ordered on the same principle, ascending from the Sabbath of days, to the Sabbath of weeks, of months, of years, and finally to the Sabbath of Sabbath years, which was the year of Jubilee. And thus all time pointed forward and upward to the greatest “Sabbath,” or sacred rest, that remains as the hope of God’s people (Heb 4:9).

Reading 2 – Pro 21:31

“Victory rests with the LORD” (Pro 21:31).

Or, as KJV, “Safety is of the LORD.”

“Hold fast. All present things will pass. God never changes. The Truth never changes. All evil is temporary. All good is eternal. The present is but for a moment. The future is forever. Regardless of the sorrow, the disappointment, the griefs, the losses, the betrayal of those we trusted, the pettiness of those we respected, the antagonism of those we looked to for friendship, the weakness of those we looked to for strength — still all is as it should be, all things are working together for good. All we need to do is hold fast in faith, in unwavering assurance, in calm confidence, yea, in thankful joy and cheerful rejoicing. The dross is a mountain: but the gold is but a handful. All we see at present is the mountain: the gold is there, and will endure when all else is gone. Just leave it all to God to work out in His time — and labor and pray every moment that you may be part of that which at last endures” (GVG).

Reading 3 – John 2:9,10

“And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now’ ” (John 2:9,10).

Natural life is usually what is pictured by the Preacher in Ecclesiastes: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’ ” (Ecc 12:1). “The days of trouble” describes life lived on a material level… which can be more and more of a struggle as the years go by, and physical and mental ailments and weaknesses and afflictions take their toll. And we discover, sadly, that — physically speaking — the “choice wine” came first, and we hardly realized or appreciated it until it had all been drunk.

But when we go to the wedding feast with Jesus, we discover that the “best wine” of our lives will be the last served! And, together with Christ, we will BE that “wine”! The grapes of life, harvested and crushed, the juices extracted… and through the fermentation process bringing forth a new life — more glorious and rewarding — in him.

As the old song goes: “Come with me; the best is yet to be. The last of life for which the first was made!” Except, in this case, “the last of life” will never end. The “best wine” with Jesus goes on and on… and on and on….