Wed.’s Devo - Hope Comes in the Morning

Read: Numbers 15:17-16:40; Mark 15:1-47; Psalm 54:1-7; Proverbs 11:5-6
Moral is extremely low in the camp. The people have been told they will never enter the promised land and are doomed to 40 years of wandering till they die.
Inspire of them, God keeps giving Moses instructions for their children who will enter in. They are to always give the first portion of their harvest of wheat to the Lord. If they unintentionally forget this law and realize it, they can make up for it by offering a female goat to remove their sin. If they willingly refuse to bring their first fruits to the Lord, they will be cut off from the community and suffer the punishment for their guilt.
When they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath, he was taken outside of the camp and stoned.
God told them to make tassels to wear at the bottom of their clothing. They were to be attached with a blue cord. They were to be a constant reminder to follow God’s commands. As the threads of the tassels brushed their feet when they walked they would remind them to walk uprightly. The Holy Spirit is our tassel that brushes against the thoughts of our mind and quicken us to walk uprightly.
“Korah” which means “ice or bald” was a Levite from the Kohath family that attended the most holy job of the tabernacle. We know by Korah’s name that his heart was cold and he had no covering over his head so he was exposed to all sorts of sin. Korah conspired with Dathan and Abiram who were Ruebenites. He was suppose to be a spiritual leader but he abandoned that because of his jealousy of Moses. Korah played the part of Satan who rebelled against God before creation. He like Korah had been jealous of God’s worship and led one third of the angels with him in the rebellion. They and their families were sent straight to hell just as Satan and the angels. The fear of God was reestablished in the camp.
These three families had been offering their own incense to the Lord, so their incense burners were taken and beaten flat and overlayed on the altar as a warning of anyone else who dared offer their own incense to the Lord.
In Mark, we find Pilate, a known hater and killer of Jews ready to sentence Jesus. He took Jesus apart from the crowd for questioning but the only question Jesus would answer Pilate was whether he was king of the Jews. Pilate knew that the Jewish priests had arrested Jesus out of envy. He also knew that Jesus was innocent, so he was in a dilemma as to how to handle the mob. He brought the worse person out of jail and stood him beside Jesus for the crowd to choose. Much to his dismay, they chose Jesus to be crucified and Barabbas to be released. Pilate turned Jesus over to his guards to do the rest.
They took Jesus, dressed him as a king and made sport of him. They scourged him till he was unrecognizable. Then they nailed him to the cross, played dice for his clothes and mocked him as he hung between two thieves.
Jesus referred his disciples to Psalm 22 as he quoted the first verse, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” The whole song describes what was going on at that moment. At Jesus’ last cry which was “It is finished,” (not given in this book), the veil to the temple was rent from top to bottom as a picture that now all can come before the throne of God.
Joseph of Arimathea went and begged for Jesus’ body and put him in his tomb. They rolled a stone in front of it so the disciples couldn’t steal his body and claim he had risen from the dead like he said he would do.
Just like the people in Moses’ day, the followers of Jesus went to bed hopeless.
Lord, let this remind us that in our lowest times, resurrection comes in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. Your loving-kindness is new every morning. Thank you for the morning.