Fri.’s Devo - The Kingdom of God

Read: Leviticus 9:7-10:20; Mark 4:26-5:20; Psalm 37:30-40; Proverbs 10:6-7 Aaron and his sons were finally ordained and ready to do their first service as priests. They were to offer a sin offering and burnt offering first for them selves and then for the people to make atonement for them. Everything went well as they offered they offered their offering. Then they began the offerings for the people beginning with the sin offering, then the burnt offering, then the peace offerings. Moses and Aaron took the blood into the tent of meeting and when they came out they blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat they had put on the altar. The people fell on their faces in worship. *** Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu each took their censers and put fire and incense on them and offered it to the Lord. This was not what the Lord had told them to do. The fire came out and consumed them and they died right there. *** Moses gave them a word from the Lord, He said, “Among those who are near to me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.” Aaron found peace in that. *** Moses had Aaron’s two nephews, Mishael and Elzaphan, carry out the bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of the camp. The people were commanded not to be angry about what the Lord had done but they were to mourn their deaths. *** What the Lord says next makes me wonder if Aaron’s two sons had been drunk. He told Aaron that he and his sons were not to drink any wine or strong drink when they came into the tent of meeting or they would die. They were to be holy and teach the children of Israel to be holy. *** Moses told Aaron and his surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar to take what was left of the unleavened grain offering and eat it in the holy place. They were to eat the breast and the thigh in a clean place with their families. First, they were to wave them before the Lord. *** Later, Moses asked about the goat of the sin offering and found that they had let it all burn. Moses was extremely mad because they were suppose to eat it to bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them. Aaron told him that they offered their sin offering and burnt offering, but after what happened they weren’t so sure the Lord would have approved if they ate it. Moses understood. *** In Mark, Jesus gives two parables to explain the kingdom of God. It is filled with seed or people that God scatters in the earth. They grow by themselves and multiply until the time of the harvest. He compares them to mustard seed. It is the smallest seed, but it produces the largest plant with large branches that brings shade and housing for many birds. *** In the next story, we have an example of what these parables mean. Jesus told his disciples to go to the other side of the sea. On the way there was a huge storm and they woke Jesus up thinking they were going to drown. He rebuked the wind and told the sea to be still. The wind stopped and the sea became calm. Then he asked them why they were so afraid. They marveled at what had just happened. *** When the reached the other side they immediately met a man insane with demons. Jesus rebuked the demons and sent them into a herd of two thousand swine who ran and jumped over the side of the hill. The herdsmen ran into the city and told the people what had just happened. They ran out to see for themselves and there was the demon-possessed man clothed and sane. This made them afraid of Jesus and they begged him to leave. The now sane and delivered man begged Jesus to take him with him but Jesus sent him home to tell the people there what God had done for him. 
 *** This man was the seed that began very small. No one wanted to be near him before, but now he would become a great evangelist who would spread his seed to many and the next time Jesus returned, the whole city would welcome him with open arms. *** Lord, may we be like the seed that produces a mighty tree that others can find hope and healing in our testimony.