Mon.’s Dev- Rejected By His Own

Read: Numbers 30:1-31:54; Luke 4:1-30; Psalm 63:1-11; Prover s 11;20-21 Moses gave them God’s laws about making vows. Once a vow was made, there was a grace period of one day from the time the husband, or father learned of it, to nullify it. If he didn’t, then the vow stood. We can thank God for this statute. God is our Father and Jesus is our Husband. When we make vain promises and vows or even curses, they can nullify them for us. How many foolish vows have come out of our mouth that the devil would love to take them as binding and yet, Jesus in his mercy nullifies them for us. That doesn’t excuse us for talking vainly without thinking. There may come a time when our foolish vows stand to teach us a lesson. *** God told Moses to take revenge out on the Midianites for leading the Israelites into idolatry. They were to attack and kill all. One thousand warriors from each tribe were sent to fight the Midianites. The Levites carried the Ark into the battle and blew the trumpets of war. They won and brought back much plunder. Moses was most upset when he saw that they brought back the women who were the ones who drew their men into idolatry. He had them kill all women who were not virgins. They dispersed the plunder giving the Levites their share. The Israelites did not lose one person in the battle. *** They cleansed all the instruments of war with fire and water. and them men stayed outside the camp for seven days to purify themselves from touching death. *** The generals brought the plunder of gold to the Lord as a gift. *** In John, Jesus left his baptism and went straight to the wilderness led by the Spirit. There he fasted for forty days and was tempted by the devil. When he became hungry, Satan tried to tempt him to turn the stones to bread. Jesus answered him with the scripture, “Man does not live by bread alone.” *** When that didn’t work, Satan took Jesus up and revealed all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He promised to give them all to him if her would worship him instead of God. Jesus answered, “The Scripture say You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” *** Next, Satan quoted scripture to him. He took him to the highest point of the Temple and challenged him that if he was the Son of God to jump off. The Scriptures say that God’s angels would catch him and not allow him to be hurt.” This was Satan’s tricky way of getting Jesus to tempt God. Jesus didn’t fall for it he answered, “You must no tempt the Lord your God.” Satan left until another opportunity came. *** Jesus returned to Galilee full of the Holy Spirit and power. He taught in the synagogues and his fame spread. When he came home to his own home town he had a message he needed to proclaim. He went to the synagogue as usual and stood up to read the scripture for the day. He took the scroll of Isaiah and found the place where it said what he came to proclaim. He read his mission, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” *** Then he sat down and when everyone looked at him he added, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” When they questioned how someone they had known all their lives could say something like that. He answered that a prophet was never recognized in his own country. He then told how there were many widows who were suffering in the famine during the days of Elijah but God sent Elijah to the city of Sidon to bless a widow there. And there were many lepers in Israel, yet God sent Elisha to heal Naaman the Syrian. This really upset them because the point he was making was that God healed Gentile people instead of Jews. They threw Jesus out of the city. They planned to throw him over a cliff but he walked right through them and left the city. Jesus was foretelling how the gospel would be rejected by the Jews and accepted by the Gentiles. Lord, may we not miss our visitation from you because you come in a way that is not how we are looking for you to come. Thank you for the revival that is here. May we nurture it and let it spread.