Sat.’s Devo- God’s Providence

Read: 1 Chronicles 2:18-4:4; Acts 24:1-27; Psalm 4:1-8; Proverbs 18:16-18
Today we are still reading about Judah’s line. We start with Caleb’s line who was Judah’s grandson. This is not the Caleb who brought back a good report of the land of Canaan. As we read his genealogy we see how out of one man, Judah came cities and multitudes of families.
Chapter three begins David’s lineage of kings. David had six sons in Hebron where he reigned seven and a half years. He reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years and had 13 more. Amnon was David’s firstborn and the one who everyone thought would be the next king. But he was born in Hebron which was a picture of the old covenant. When David moved to Jerusalem after six years it was a picture of the Church moving from earthly mode to heavenly mode. It happened 6,000 years after the earth was created. We are now living in “Jerusalem mode”. That means that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places while we walk on the earth. David’s forth son born in Jerusalem would be Solomon. He would be his successor. He had to be born in Jerusalem, the city of God. The number four stands for “heavenly rule”. On the forth day, God made the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night.
In Acts, Paul is safely living in Herod’s house awaiting his accusers. I can’t imagine how mad they were to find that he had safely made it to Rome and they had to travel five days to bring their charge. They were fueled by pure hatred.
When they gave their charge they said that Paul had come preaching a doctrine that they didn’t agree with and caused dissection among themselves… like the Romans cared!
When Paul gave his defense he said that all he did was to come to Jerusalem to pay his tithes and he didn’t cause any kind of disturbance or evil. He plead innocent. Then he explained that the real issue of their hatred was the issue of the resurrection of the dead which he believed in.
Felix had heard about Christians and wanted to wait until Lysias, the one who had brought Paul to Caesarea came back from where he had gone. Felix wanted to hear what he had to say about the matter since he saw it first hand. So, Paul was sent back to his safe quarters with visiting privileges. Paul was a Roman citizen so he had a huge advantage over his accusers. They should have thought about that!
Lord, it is so easy to see how you orchestrated Paul’s life and the lives of the patriarchs. Help us to see that you are orchestrating our lives in the same purposeful way. Your plan is the goal and it will prevail all the schemes of the enemy.