READING FOR SEPTEMBER 16, 2024: NUMBERS 2, ACTS 6, PSALM 97 NUMBERS 2 Our information about God comes from two sources: General revelation, which is the natural world, and special revelation, which is the Bible. General revelation teaches us lots about God, even when hiking in Marrow’s Meadow. The Psalmist says it this way: “The heavens tell of the glory of God; And their expanse declares the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2). This structure of His creation enables us to predict to the second when the sun rises and sets. So, what does this tells about God?
Before answering, let’s look at God’s directions for church meetings from His special revelation: “The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:32); and “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly way” (1 Cor.14:40). Thus, God who brought unbelievably precise order to the universe also desires that even our worship be expressed in orderly ways. (It would be fun sometime to use this chapter as the basis of one of our services.) Throughout the Bible, God brought order to His people, even as our sin often opened the door to disorder, as we did in the Garden in Genesis 3. This chapter is definitely one of those places where God reasserts His order on His people. No ad libbing please.
God in His sovereignty and wisdom decreed that the Hebrews camp together in these ways:
- The Camp of Judah on the east side of the tabernacle: The tribes of Judah (74,600 men), Issachar (54,400 men), and Zebulun (57,400). This camp leads when traveling.
- The Camp of Reuben on the south side of the tabernacle: The tribes of Reuben (46,500 men), Simeon (59,300 men), and Gad (45,650 men). This camp goes second.
- The Camp of Levites will be in the middle and only includes the tribe of Levi.
- The Camp of Ephraim on the west side of the tabernacle: The tribes of Ephraim (40,500 men), Manasseh (32,200 men), and Benjamin (35,400 men). This camp goes third.
- The Camp of Dan on the north side of the tabernacle: The tribes of Dan (62,700 men),
Asher (41,500), and Naphtali (53,400). This camp goes last.
FLAGS
“The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own flag, with the banners of their fathers’ households” (Num. 2:2). We don’t know what they looked like, but Jewish scholars have suggested some of 12 flags had emblems derived from Jacob’s blessings in Gen. 49. For example, Jacob’s blessing to Judah: “Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub.“ Of course Jesus is the ultimate Lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5). LET‘S WAVE HIS FLAG WITHOUT SHAME.
READING FOR SEPTEMBER 16, 2024 CONTINUED: ACTS 6, PSALM 97 ACTS 6 The Holy Spirit baptized and filled the Apostles. Thousands were being saved. Miracles were happening right and left. The Jewish Council decided not to stop the Gospel. So, was everything going perfectly with the church? Of course not. They weren’t in heaven yet; this is real life on earth. It turns out the Greek (Hellenistic) Christian widows were getting ignored in the distribution of food, but the Israelite Christian widows were not. The 12 apostles said that they can’t help out because their higher priority was prayer and teaching the Bible. This is a good point for all members and leaders of churches. Prayer and Bible teaching appear a higher priority than helping widows. Some denominations seem to switch those. Their great solution? They picked seven men to take charge of helping widows; this is the office we usually call deacons. They developed criteria for this position that should serve as a model for all helping ministry leaders: good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom. These apparently are qualities that can be observed and evaluated. (Some folks might mistakenly cry, don’t judge.) Remarkably, most of the men chosen appear to have Hellenistic names. This shows how serious they were about addressing the discrimination. Church growth continued.
The chapter ends by singling out one of these deacons: Stephen. He was performing amazing miracles. This induced opposition from Jews outside of Israel. Stephen experienced just what Jesus promised: “Do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12). Once again, a Christian was brought before the Jewish Council to defend the faith. There’s a current Face- book posting widely liked that says Jesus never called his followers to defend the faith. What a blessing Stephen didn’t have Facebook. The best thing about Stephen, though, was his attitude: “They saw his face, which was like the face of an angel.” Spirit-Filled Indeed.
PSALM 97 This Psalm reminds us the Lord is actively governing everything at this moment. He’s not on vacation until the second coming. He’s not unaware of all the troubling situations in our individual lives and the global village. Because of this, regardless of how things appear to us, we can rejoice and not be so stressed. Wouldn’t it be great if we knew the leaders of all countries were righteous and just at their core? Unfortunately, we know it’s likely the opposite. But that much higher authority, the God of Israel and Yorktown, is righteous. He’s also no boring weakling but is fire, smoke, and lightning—capable of melting mountains. (In fact, today there was an earthquake in Los Angeles.) The Psalmist said all the world has seen His glory. Paul said the same: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made” (Rom. 1:20). Let’s hate evil, love the Lord, praise His name, and rejoice in Him.
