Bamidbar, In the Desert
Numbers 1:1 to 4:20
Haftarah: Hosea 2:1 to 22
Psalm 47 or 68
Apostolic Writings/Newer Testament/B’rit HaChadashah: John 20:19 to 31
Today (Wednesday My 12th) is the 44th Day of the Omer – 6 weeks and 2 days, so we pray:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. On Iyyar 28, 5727 the city was taken.
As we start a new book (Numbers, which in Hebrew Bibles is called, Bamidbar”) we also have a new Government, which was announced yesterday evening. Please remember to pray for David Cameron, our new Prime Minister. Please pray also for the family of Lady Amelie Jacobovits, the widow of the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Immanuel Jacobovits. She passed away early this week.
In our Parsha this week we are told that the Levites were chosen to serve in the Mishkan (Tabernacle – the word means “place of presence”) in place of the firstborn. By rights it really should have been the firstborn who served; however after the golden calf incident they were replaced by the tribe of Levi. While it may at first look like an immense privilege it was also extremely hard work being a Priest (nothing new there, then!). They were the ones who had to dis-assemble, re-assemble and carry the Mishkan as well as serving in it. They had no time to look after crops or animals, so were paid from the increase and tithes of the people. This is the basic idea of a Clergy Stipend as we now have it. It is not designed to be a salary, but to replace the salary a serving person is being denied because of their work for The Almighty. The Levites didn’t (or shouldn’t have) become wealthy; they merely had their needs met. In the same way Clergy shouldn’t become wealthy while serving; they should have their needs met. Please pray for the finances of your local Church / Congregation, for CMJ and other Missionary Societies as they seek to meet those obligations.
The Haftarah begins, "The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea [shore], which can be neither measured nor counted." This of course is poetic in that there are hundreds of millions of grains of sand. However it is a continuation of the promise made by The Almighty to Abraham our Father that he would be the Father of the nation which we now call, “Israel”. Israel, of course, is the Land as well as the People.
The passage tells us that when the Messiah reigns on this planet there will be unity. Even the houses of Israel and Judah will be united. The old saying, that where there are 2 Jews there are 4 opinions still holds true today. So when Yeshua returns there will be agreement. Agreement between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim; between Orthodox and Reform; between Torah Observant Messianics and Jewish Christians; between French Jews and English Jews (that takes a little more believing!) This of course echoes what Yeshua prayed, and what He taught. He prayed, quoted in John chapter 17, that we – Believers – would be ONE, just as Yeshua and the Father are ONE. He taught in John chapter 13 that the world will know that we are His followers if we have love for each other. The flipside, of course, is that if there is no genuine love, then the whole world will know for certain that the person is not a true follower of Yeshua.
When He returns, though, it won’t all be sweetness and light, as we read in the Psalm. When he returns He will scatter His enemies. The 2 key words here are important. The Hebrew here for “enemies” is איב, oyabe, which means a hated one. The word “scatters” in Hebrew is פוץ, putz, which literally means to smash to pieces. It would seem that, when He returns “Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild” has been forgotten (not that He ever existed!). He will come again as a King, brandishing truth. It is a shock for some, to see that The Almighty can and does have those whom He hates, and that He will smash them. The flipside of this is found in John chapter 3 verse 16. Here we see that because of His love, The Almighty acted so that everyone who has an active belief will not be destroyed, but will have life eternal.
We ARE on The Almighty’s side – or, rather, He is on ours.
Quick “plug”. Rev Alex Jacob, CMJ’s Director of Advocacy and Evangelism, has a book which has recently been published. Titled, “The Case for Enlargement Theology” it provides answers to “Replacement Theology” and other forms of Successionism. Available through CMJ at just £14.99 including P & P. Or buy a copy at CMJ Conference (see CMJ website for dates &c) and get Alex to sign it! Very seriously, this book has been long awaited and will be a useful resource for us all, and as a gift / loan to a Vicar / leader whose view of Israel is “lacking”.
Shabbat Shalom