Tues.’s Devo - The Mountains Leveled

Read: Leviticus 27:14 - Numbers 1:54; Mark 11:1-25; Psalm 46:1-11; Proverbs 10:23 There were laws about dedicating things to the Lord as a holy gift. If is was a house, then the priest would determine its value in proportion to its seed and how close it was to the next jubilee. Taking all this in mind, the priest would set a price. If the man changed his mind and wanted to buy it back, it would cost him the price plus 5%. *** The house in the Hebrew means “family.” The year of jubilee stands for the last day. The value of the lives of your family are determined by its seed and how much it gave of itself to the Lord. Joshua proclaimed that for him and his house, they would serve the Lord. They would have been estimated at a high price. This does not determine salvation but rewards. But, it a person decides to buy back its house for himself, then he will lose his reward. *** In verses 28-29 it talks about things and people, man or beast that is devoted to the Lord. If they are devoted for destruction from mankind, there is no way to redeem them. They must die. He is talking about those who are created for destruction like Pharaoh in the Exodus. They can not be saved. Their fate was determined from the foundation of the world. (If you have trouble with that, read Isaiah 45. *** Even the tithe can be redeemed back, for a price. *** On the second year, the first day of the second month, God told Moses to do a census of all the people from twenty years old and older of each of the tribes that can go to war. The tribe of Judah had the most which is no surprise, but the tribe of Dan came in second with 62,700. Sadly, we will see Dan dwindle to the smallest tribe because of the idolatry it became involved in. It is not even mentioned in the list in Revelation. I see the tribe of Dan as the Judas Iscarot of the tribes. *** The Levites were not to be counted since they kept the Tabernacle and camped on the inside keeping guard over the testimony. *** In Mark, Jesus was coming to Bethphage and Bethany and sent two of his disciples ahead telling them exactly what to do. I love when God is that specific with me. *** He told them to go to the village and immediately they would find a colt tied. (It must have been super obvious because these were men. Lol!) He even told them what to say in case someone questioned them about it. The disciples followed Jesus’ instructions and came back with the colt. *** They threw their own cloaks on it to make a comfortable saddle for Jesus to sit on. Others along the way threw they cloaks or their palm branches they were waving on the ground so he could walk on them. They were rolling out the green carpet and praising him as the Messiah. They were actually singing the Hallel which is in the Psalms. *** When they came to Jerusalem it was late, but Jesus went and checked out the temple before he went to Bethany with his disciples to spend the night. *** The next morning they headed to Jerusalem and Jesus stopped to notice a fig tree with leaves. It was not time for fruit but Jesus cursed it and said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” *** When he came to the Temple, he drove out the sellers and the money-changers like he had done the year before. He proclaimed that his house was to be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but they had made it a den of thieves. This just made the chief priests want to kill him all the more. *** That evening they passed the fig tree again and it was completely withered to its roots. The fig tree represented the hypocrisy of the Temple. Jesus explained that they could bring down mountains when they believed in prayer. *** But when we pray to bring down mountains, we are to forgive them so our sins will be forgiven. *** Lord, we pray that the mountains of society that are in the hands of evil people will be brought down. We forgive the ones who have been used by the devil to rule over us in terror and oppression. We pray that they will repent and come to salvation but that their power over us will be broken and their kingdoms shattered. We pray that the mountains will be leveled and godly people will serve as a dedication to the Lord.