“But the angel said unto him, ‘Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’ ” Luke 1:13-17
Fathers
Children, Their Fathers, and Their Grandfathers
“Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.” Proverbs 17:6 (KJB)
Do Not Keep Them From The Children
“Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.” Psalm 78:1-8 (KJB)
The Defense
“And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.” Acts 26:6-7 (KJB)
The apostle is now standing before the King of Israel. I cannot help but think that as Paul stands there he could be thinking of one day standing before Jesus, the King of kings, and giving an account of his life.
Now as he stands before King Agrippa he is giving his own defense for the Jews accusations against him. Some of the same accusations brought against Jesus. False charges are always charged by those who have no true rebuttal against the faithful.
Paul has been told by the Lord that he would go to Rome (Acts 23:11). Is he worried? I really doubt it. Is he fearful? He is trusting the Lord for His defense, and deliverance and trip to Rome.
Agrippa was a man who was educated in the Jewish religion, and the apostle used that to defend his own ministry and words. If you will remember our Lord said that some of His disciples would stand before kings (Mark 13:9). Of course in that reference it is dealing with the last days. Just a thought here: the last days began with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; possibly even the birth of Jesus.
Let us who are in Christ continue in the faithfulness of the word of God and the gospel of Christ Jesus. Lord God Almighty keep us in Your powerful hands to always be faithful. Give us boldness through the filling of Your Spirit, that in and through all things we might walk with You.
The Superior Goodness of God
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.” Matthew 7:7-11 (KJB)
Some will note that I changed the question mark to a period. Why? I believe it to be a statement from Jesus and not a question, though I know His questions often make very loud statements. I noticed too that the New King James, as do other translations use an exclamation mark; which might be even better.
My thoughts today are on verse 11 solely. No father of earth would be so mean, ugly, and hateful as to give their child a serpent rather than a fish, or if they were hungry give them a stone rather than bread. I am speaking of Dad’s who care for their children; not the deserters, who care for no one but themselves.
Even though we are evil, we are still kind to our children, and sometimes to others. The goodness we see of people around us doing “good things” should be a reminder to us of the superior goodness of our heavenly Father.
He loves us even when we are unlovely, unloving, and downright hateful (John 3:16). He loved us so much that even though we were His enemies He sent His Son to die for us (Romans 5:8).
O my; how the goodness of God is so far superior than any goodness we have.
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him! — Bad as our fallen nature is, the father in us is not extinguished. What a heart, then, must the Father of all fathers have towards His pleading children! In the corresponding passage in Luke (see on Luk_11:13), instead of “good things,” our Lord asks whether He will not much more give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. At this early stage of His ministry, and before such an audience, He seems to avoid such sharp doctrinal teaching as was more accordant with His plan at the riper stage indicated in Luke, and in addressing His own disciples exclusively.” Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary
Will you call on the name of Jesus today? Will trust the One who is truly the one who describes Goodness?
They Pitched by Their Standards
“And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they.” Numbers 1:54 (KJV)
“And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses: so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers.” Numbers 2:34
The book of Numbers is rightly titled. It is the numbering or counting of the people, and organizing them in their encampment in the wilderness as they journey. That is clearly noted as we read the first few chapters of this book of the Law.
When we read in the noted verses above we need to realize that when it says to us “the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses” that it is dealing with the matter at hand; that is the counting of the people, and in chapter two their placement in their camp in proportion to the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
The number of men 20 years of age and above; and not counting the Levites; was 603,550 men. We see a great mass of humanity in the wilderness. With women and children this number could easily reach 2 to 3 million people total. And these “did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses.”
In reading these two chapters and the setting up of their encampment you should also note the position of the Tabernacle with the position of the tribes. The Levites; the caretakers, spiritual leaders; were in the midst of the camp with the Tabernacle in the midst of them. That is just where GOD wants to be; in midst of the lives of His people.
GOD has made it possible to be right in the hearts of His people through the death, burial and bodily resurrection of His Son Jesus. All of these journeys, the Tabernacle, the Ark of the covenant, etc. are pictures of the Christ, the Son of God. He desires to be the center, very being of your life.
Listening to His Story
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. Psalm 44:1 (KJV)
How often do we pay attention to the history of the past? We often hear some people say things like “History is written by the people who won the wars”. Only a one sided story in other words, and in many cases that may be the truth.
I love reading the Word of God. It is about GOD. It is about our beginning, and our end of this life. It is His story. It is about God working to call a people to Himself. It is about God delivering a people from sin, its condemnation, and the wrath of God upon sin, and upon His own Son whom He sent to be the Redeemer of mankind.
Someone might ask, “What if “Our fathers” were wrong, or just flat out told a lie?” Do we have no confidence in our fathers of the faith? We cannot however, only believe because of what the fathers have told us in Scripture. We must believe because we too have heard God for ourselves. We have seen Him move. We have seen Him work changing the lives of people who came to Him. Beginning with ourselves we see the change.
It is often because of His story from the past that we are led to believe Him today. His story from the past is His story still today. The history we speak of is usually of what happened in years past. The story of God, and His salvation is His story that lives today, and into the future.
Listen to what the faithful “Fathers” have told us; then we can believe the faithful Father today.
God’s Word Today 081212
In this post today I am attempting to post daily. My post will be from Scripture, the Word of the LORD. These be come from my reading of God’s Word for the day it is posted. Hear the word of the LORD.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; the which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the LORD hath sent unto you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke Me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto Me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. Jeremiah 25:1-7 (KJV)
I will be finishing up the study of Elijah when I can get my thoughts to putting it down in print form.
-T.A.
The Fire and Hammer 