Thurs.’s Devo. - God’s Grace

Read: Numbers 8:1-9:23; Mar 13:14-37; Psalm 50:1-23; Proverbs 10:29-30
God told Moses to make sure Aaron set up the lamp stand where the light would go in front of the menorah. This reminds me of what David wrote in Psalms about the Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It goes before us just as the cloud went before the people and led them. The same cloud lit up like a fire at night. The Word is a shield and a light.
Now it was time to cleanse the Levites for service in the tabernacle. They were to lay their hands on the head of the bull and transfer their sin into it, then it would be killed as a burnt offering. They would take the place of the first born and be a picture of the redeemed of the Lord.
It had been a year since they came out of Egypt and it was the time of their first Passover when they had placed the blood on their doors so the Lord wanted them to make this a yearly celebration to remember what He had done for them. The Levites were to officiate the feast but some of them were ceremoniously unclean because they had touched a dead person. Moses went to the Lord who is gracious and kind and he made a way for them. He told Moses that if a Levite was out of town or was ceremoniously unclean, he could wait until the next month at the same time and observe the Passover. God is always looking for mercy over judgment even in the Old Testament. He didn’t change from Old to New, he has always been the same loving gracious Father. We are now living in a dispensation of God’s grace but he has always been gracious and kind. God even allowed Gentiles to celebrate the Passover if they wanted to.
Passover represents the death of Jesus and our salvation. God’s salvation has always been available to everyone the Jew and the Gentile.
In Mark, Jesus told his disciples what would happen in the end of the ages. There would be an abomination that would happen in the holy place that would be a sign for those who are left to run to the hills. This will all happen after the Church has been taken and those left have had to endure the tribulation. This will be hard times that the earth has not seen yet. We are not in those times. We are getting closer but we will not endure the tribulation. These scriptures are for the people who will be left. Jesus tells them that they won’t know the day or hour that he would come. For us, Jesus is not the thief that comes unexpectantly. I Thessalonians 5:4 says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” It goes on to say that it is because we are the children of light.
Lord, thank you that your ways are a refuge for the righteous and we will never be forsaken.