Tues.’s Devo- Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Read: Numbers 15:17-16:40; Mark 15:1-47; Psalm 54:1-7; Proverbs 11:5-6 God told them to give him the first cake they made from the dough of their harvests each year. That is the same as saying to give God the first of your labors. Put him first in everything. *** What if they, as a whole forgot to do something God had required and then realized it. The whole community was to bring a bull, a grain offering, a liquid offering and a goat. All of this would bring them forgiveness from God. If it is a person who unintentionally sins, he must offer a goat which was the sin offering, to be pure. *** We are all guilty of doing things that we later realize was offensive to God. God requires us to acknowledge and confess it, then ask forgiveness and do whatever God tells us to do to make it right. *** But, if the people brazenly violated the Lord’s will, they had to be cut off from the community. They had to suffer the guilt of what they had done. Sin separates us from God and other believers. When we see this separation happening, we must ask ourselves why and repent. *** We get an example of this with the man who was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day which was a blatant violation of the law. They had to take him outside the camp and stone him to death. Can you imagine having to throw stones at a person till he died. What did that do to the people throwing the stones? Hopefully, it put the fear of God in them, which would be the point. *** They were told to make tassels and attach them with a blue cord to the bottom of the hem of their clothing. This was to be a reminder to obey the Lord’s laws. That twisted cord with all the strings were to remind them of each law and how they all worked together. *** Korah, one of the Levites conspired with Dathan, Abiram, and On against Moses and Aaron. They influenced 250 of the elites of the community and other Levites to unify with them. They had gotten tired of submitting to Moses and Aaron who, in their opinion, acted like they were more important than them. They challenged Moses and Aaron’s authority. Isn’t this the whole reason the Pharisees and religious leaders hated Jesus so much? Power is a vicious spirit if it is in the wrong hands. *** When Moses called Korah and his friends to a meeting, they refused to come. They also complained that Moses took them from Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey and brought them into the wilderness to kill them. They accused Moses of treating them like slaves and for not fulfilling his promise to take them into another land filled with milk an honey, fields and vineyards. They accused Moses of fraud. *** What a deception they were under. Nothing they said was true. Egypt had been the land of slavery where the Pharaoh treated them with contempt. and was far from a land of milk and honey for them. *** God settled the matter by telling them to each bring an incense burner filled with incense and God would make the decision. Their incense was not a sweet aroma and God wanted to kill them all, but Moses cried out for the people. He begged him not to kill them all for one man’s oppinion. God had mercy on the people and the ground opened up and swallowed Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their families alive. The pit opened up and hell received them. Then it closed up. Wow! *** The people heard their screams and saw the fire that burned up the 250 that had followed them. Eleazar, the priest picked up all the incense burners and hammered them into sheets and put it on the sides of the altar of burnt offerings to be a reminder to the people of Korah’s rebellion and what happened to them. *** In Mark, Jesus is before Pilate and you can see how much Pilate wants to be on Jesus’ side, but Jesus is not helping him much. Pilate knows Jesus is innocent and thinks he has a way of getting around sentencing him. Every year he releases a prisoner from jail. He probably picks the least dangerous one to release, but this year, he chose the worse, thinking surely they would choose Jesus over Barabbas. But, the crowd has been brain-washed by the priests and they choose to release Barabbas and crucify Christ. *** Remember, in the first Passover, the lamb had to be inspected to see if it had no blemishes. Jesus was examined first by the Pharisees, and now by the Roman government. The religious government had to lie to bring a guilty sentence against him, and now the Roman government could find no fault in him. Pilate complied because he was too weak to stand against the crowd. *** Jesus was mocked and persecuted and led to be crucified. A stranger carried his cross to Golgotha which means “The Place of the Skull.” It was named that became the rock looked like a bald head. Remember the Nazarite had to shave his head at the end of their vow and place it on the fire. This is the picture. *** They crucified Jesus at nine in the morning the exact time they would bind the Passover Lamb to the altar at the Temple. This lamb would stay there until they finished offering everyone’s lambs on the altars. This lamb would then be slain for the whole nation at three that afternoon. At the end of the ceremony the priest would say to the people, “It is finished. Next year in Jerusalem.” He said this at the exact time Jesus uttered, “It is finished.” Jesus was the Passover Lamb who was slain for the whole world. *** At noon, the sky became dark for three hours and if you want to know what happened during that time, it is explained in Psalm 18. Jesus quoted from Psalm 22 as a reference for them to remember the song and realize it was being fulfilled before their very eyes. *** When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple was torn from heaven to earth and now we are all invited into the presence of the Lord. The Roman officers who had mocked him, now proclaimed that he was indeed the Son of God. *** Jesus was placed in Joseph’s tomb. Joseph’s tomb in the Old Testament was also emptied and his bones were taken to the Promised Land. This Joseph’s tomb would be emptied again and Jesus would go to his promised land. *** Lord, your ways are so past ours. Thank you for all the rejection, mocking and shame you had to endure to take our rejection and shame from us. Thank you for enduring the humility of the cross.Thank you for the greatness and power of the resurrection.