Sat.’s Devo - Being Kingdom Minded

Read: Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20; Luke 9:7-27; Psalm 72:1-20; Proverbs 12:8-9
God gave them instructions about the feasts many times because they were rehearsals to point to the specific times the Lord would meet with his people. I’ve gone through these before but I will remind us again. Passover was celebrated by sacrificing a lamb to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt and slavery. Jesus fulfilled this when he died on the cross to deliver us from our sins and slavery to the devil. Unleavened Bread started the week of Passover and lasted a week. They were to rid their houses of yeast which stood for sin. Our Unleavened Bread starts the day we come into the kingdom of God through Jesus. We begin our journey of sanctification where we remove the sin from our lives and are conformed into the image of God. It was fulfilled when Jesus went down to Hell during his burial and set the captives free and took the keys of death, hell and the grave. First fruits was celebrated at the end of theses feasts and it was to celebrate the first grains of wheat. It represents the harvest of souls and was fulfilled when Jesus rose from he dead as the first fruit taking many souls with him that had died.
Fifty days later is Pentecost where they would count the seed of the first fruit and then harvest the barley crop. It represented the harvest of the church and was fulfilled at the first Pentecost after Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus had promised them the Holy Spirit. He was given first at this Pentecost.
There are threes more feasts at in the fall but the only one in today’s reading is the Feast of Tabernacles. It was celebrated over the fruit harvest - the olive and the grape (the oil and the wine). It represents the day Jesus returns to set up his earthly tabernacle.
God gave them rules he knew they would need in the future. He even talked to them about kings before they had them because he knew they would have them one day. Notice that he told the kings to be sure they didn’t take horses from Egypt or have many wives or have much gold and silver. Solomon was guilty of all three of these things (1 Kings 10:28, I Kings 11:1,4).
Every king was to write out the law in their own handwriting and read it every day. They were to learn of the Lord and walk in His ways.
In Luke, the people were speculating about who Jesus was. Jesus asked his own disciples and Peter said that he was the Christ of God. Jesus told them not to tell anyone and then told them all the suffering he was going to go through. He was not only talking about the suffering he was going to go through but also theirs. His last statement was, “some of you who are standing here will not taste death before you see the kingdom of God.” I’m sure they didn’t realize that the kingdom of God was coming to earth on the day of Pentecost when the church was birthed. None of the disciples could fathom that the kingdom of God was coming to earth in them!
Lord, help us to live the kingdom of God in our hearts. We do not want to be turned away by “glory, gold and girls” or things that tickle our senses. We want to be wholly sold out for your kingdom.