Mon.’s Devo- God’s Ways

Read: Leviticus 9:7-10:20; Mark 4:26-5:20; Psalm 37:30-40; Provers 10:6-7 Aaron and his sons offered sacrifices to cleanse themselves of their sins before they offered sacrifices for the people. Then they offered the peoples’ sin offering, burnt offering, grain offering, and peace offering all according to the instructions God had given them. *** When Moses and Aaron were finished they blessed the people again and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community. Fires blazed from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. The people shouted with joy and fell on their faces to the ground. Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons offered ‘strange fire’ to the Lord. They put coals of fire in their incense burners and put incense in them. It seems that they conjured up their fire like the pagans did getting their fire from Satan and not from God’s altar. The offering of incense was designated only to the high priest and entailed entering into the Holy of Holies so God blazed forth his fire and burned them up. *** Aaron was speechless so Moses told Aaron’s cousins, Mishael and Elzaphan to take their bodies outside the camp. Moses told Aaron and his sons that they could show no signs of mourning for his sons or God’s anger would strike the whole community of Israel. Their relatives and the people could grieve for them. *** The priests were never to drink alcohol before doing their priestly duties or they would die. (Makes me wonder if Mishael and Elzaphan were drunk.) *** Moses told Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar to take what was left of the grain offering and eat it at the table of shewbread. And then they were to eat the sin offering by first lifting it up before the Lord. Eleazar and Ithamar burned it outside the camp instead. Moses was very upset with them for letting this happen but Aaron explained to Moses that his sons had offered their sin offerings and yet they were killed for their sins. They didn’t want to eat the sin offering on this tragic day. *** So why did God overlook Aaron’s disobedience and not his son’s. Moses, acting as God had compassion for Aaron who had already lost two sons. Since God didn’t impose his wrath on them, Moses forgave them also. The hearts of the first two sons was one of arrogance and dishonoring of God’s ways, the heart of the last two sons was grief and sadness. *** In Mark, Jesus continued to give parables explaining the Kingdom of God. He used illustrations of seeds being planted in the ground and the plant growing and producing fruit and shelter. When he was alone with his disciples he would explain the meaning of the parables. *** One evening, Jesus told his disciples they were crossing the lake to the other side where the Gentiles lived. Jesus slept in the bottom of the boat when a storm blew up. The disciples woke Jesus afraid of impending death. Jesus got up and rebuked the storm. This storm was an omen of the place they were going. They were met first with the demons protecting the principality of the land they were about to enter. This was their fear tactic and intimidation to make them turn around and leave. Jesus could not be intimidated by his old enemy, Satan. *** They arrived in the area of the Gerasenes which means “reward at the end”. They were met with the man carrying the principality of the whole region. He had entered into a man who lived in the tombs. No chain could contain him and no person could subdue him so he lived in the caves and howled like an animal as he cut himself with sharp stones. *** The man saw Jesus and ran to him. The demon inside of him cried out for mercy because he recognized who Jesus was. Jesus told the evil spirit to release the man and asked the demon what his name was. He replied it was “Legion” meaning “many”. It was the name used to describe a Roman regiment. He had a whole army of demons inside of him. *** The spirits begged to enter a nearby herd of 2,000 pigs and Jesus agreed. The pigs ran over the cliff and drowned in the water below. The men who had been watching over the pigs ran into town and told everyone what had happened. A crowd from the town came to meet Jesus. They saw the demoniac sitting, clothed and in his right mind. The story was too much for them to comprehend so they told Jesus to leave. The man who had been delivered begged to go with Jesus but Jesus told him to go home and tell everyone his testimony. So the man went to the Ten Towns of that region and gave his testimony. Things would be different the next time Jesus came back; the people would be begging him to stay. Lord, your ways are higher than our ways and your thoughts than our thoughts. We trust in your plan and your wisdom. May we rest in peace today as we live in you. In You we live and move and have our being.