July 15

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR JULY 15, 2024: EXODUS 24, 2 THESSALONIANS 2, PSALM 68:19-27                        EXODUS 24 God allowed the elders and priests to be closer to Him than the other people, but Moses alone was permitted the closest position. This closeness appears to be related to their leadership roles. In the new covenant through the work of Jesus, we are all invited to the closest nearness: “Come close to God and He will come close to you” (James 4:8). 

Moses, God’s chosen instrument of communication, reported all God told him. The people unanimously committed to obeying these laws. Realizing how forgetful all people are and the impermanence of his life, Moses wrote the laws down. We reap the blessings of Moses’s diligence doing this. Then, as sometimes happened during these pre-temple days, he built an altar that stressed the significance of this event and his desire to offer a sacrifice to God. Half the blood of the offering was sprinkled on the altar and half on the people. Moses shouted, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words,” Jesus, however, later instituted a new and better covenant: “This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The statement about “seeing” God is hard to understand due to what John 1:18 says: “No one has seen God at any time.”  Perhaps the word “appearance” means something less than the full reality. The reference to God’s hand might mean this sighting is somehow figurative, since God is a spirit (John 24:4) and invisible (Col. 1:15). Sapphire is connected with visions of heaven experienced by Ezekiel (Eze.1:26) and John (Rev. 21:18). Blue will be big in heaven.

God then invited Moses back up the mountain to give him stone tablets of the law. The tablets (at least the second edition) along with Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna were later kept in the Ark of the Covenant as physical reminders and proof of God’s provisions for His people. The Ark was eventually placed in the Temple where it remained until at least the exile into Babylon in 586 B.C. The fact Moses took Joshua at least part way with him no doubt signaled to Joshua and to the others that Moses was preparing him to assume the leadership of Israel. 

2 Thessalonians 2 Remember that Paul only had three weeks with the Thessalonians, and he feared that there might be details of the second coming of Jesus that were concerning them. His admonition to them not to let people deceive them totally applies to folks today. Let’s be careful with our understanding of this upcoming event. An important term appears in the fifth chapter of the previous letter and verse 2 of this one: “day of the Lord.”  That day seems to be defined in verse 1 as referring to the day 1) Jesus descends from heaven and 2) believers are gathered to him. This was described in some detail in 1 Thes. 4.  As Paul told the

READING FOR JULY 15, 2024 CONTINUED: 2 THESSALONIANS 2, PSALM 68:19-27             Thessalonians, we don’t need to worry about missing it. It will be 100% visible to everyone: “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Rev. 1:7). We do need to be ready by being saved: “Those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thes. 2: 20).

Paul says the day of the Lord will not take place until apostasy takes place first, and the lawless man is revealed. Let’s first address apostasy: falling away from faith. Jesus’s half-brother Jude provides us a helpful warning about this: “Contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”                                                                                                           What are some features that mark this following away or apostasy according to Jude? 

  • Any belief or practice that deviates from “the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints.”  In other words, anything that contradicts the Bible. It was/is true then, today, and tomorrow. 
  • Any belief that suggests God’s grace permits us to act in ways the Bible calls sinful or indecent.  
  • Any belief saying Jesus isn’t the only truth and that He isn’t totally our Lord: our ultimate authority. 

Who is the “man or lawlessness” or as sometimes called the Antichrist?

  • The title lawlessness would tend to support a person who advocates for bullet two above.
  • Someone like Satan: deceptive, distorter, liar, and empowered to perform supernatural signs. 
  • He will emerge, be unrestrained for a time, be revealed for who he is, and be eliminated by Jesus. 

PSALM 68:19-27 David begins by blessing God for what He has done and what He will do: 

  • He bears our burdens each day (not something we often consider). 
  • He has saved us (which means we were once lost before receiving Jesus). 
  • He provides an escape from death (which comes to us when we believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ). 
  • He will shatter the head of His enemies (from the Gen. 3:16 prophecy about Satan and Jesus: “I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel”).

Then David describes a parade, although not your typical fourth of July parade:

  • Singers led the parade. 
  • Instrumentalists followed close behind, including young women playing tambourines. 
  • Then there is a break in the parade to again bless God, this time for bringing forth Israel. 
  • The tribe of Benjamin is marching. (Here David gives a nod to his predecessor Saul’s tribe.)
  • Then the leaders of Judah (David’s tribe), Zebulun, and Naphtali represented all the other tribes.

Maybe there should times of more festive praise in Yorktown, when we consider all that God has done and will do for us. A parade is so public and so positive, not hidden away within four walls. There could be a mass choir, followed by loud instruments (especially tambourines), and followed by representatives from each body of believers in our fair town marching to city hall.