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March 5

Reading 1 - Leviticus 11

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In this chapter, God is giving rules for healthy living, but he is doing it in a way that can be understood by the people to whom he is talking - the mark of a good teacher. If he had been making these rules for us in our day, I am sure he would have couched them in different terms, as our medical understanding is more advanced. These rules are for their continued health. It shows God's inspiration. We can look on them and see the reasons behind them - with even a simple understanding of germs and infections - but no-one there could have known this. These rules must therefore have come from God.
Peter Cresswell
Whatever other implications there are, there is a principle at stake here. Israel are being taught yet again the principle of standing apart from evil. Just like the clean and unclean foods, they were clean on the midst of the unclean nations. We must learn the same lesson and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
Peter Cresswell
Chapters 11 - 15 show Israel that in so many elements of their lives it was impossible for them to be ritually clean for long. The Levitical priesthood had shown its shortcomings and was now marred. Now the people are being shown that they also are unclean in so many ways. Thus the details of the consecration of the priesthood and the laws relating to uncleanness go together to show that the Law of Moses was not able to cleanse a man so that he could stand in God's presence guiltless.
There are standard presentations of the significance of the clean and unclean beast and I suspect that you are already aware of the significance of these things to a greater extent than I am anyway so I will not go into that aspect.
11:44 The whole of the law concerning uncleanness was so that Israel appreciated that they were to sanctify themselves to holiness because their God was holy. This is picked up - 1 Peter 1:15 as something that we must have clear in our minds if we wish to please our Father.
Peter Forbes
:29 The word translated 'mouse' 05909 only occurs six times in Scripture. The other places are 1 Samuel 6:4,5,11,18 Isaiah 66:17.

The animal that Israel were to avoid as unclean, it seems, was the carrier of the plague the Philistines suffered when they had taken the ark. By the time of the prophet Isaiah - around the time of Hezekiah - the people seem to have taken the mouse, and the pig - another unclean animal - and built up some form of perverse worship around those animals. Given the infrequent mention of the 'mouse' in Scripture one would have thought it easy to conclude that it's use in worship was banned. So Isaiah shows us a clear blatant violation of the laws of uncleanness where Israel are giving special powers, maybe like the Philistines did, to the mouse whereas it is Yahweh who brought the ark back to Israel, not the mice.
Peter Forbes

:44 In all this language about uncleanness we learn that Israel were to 'sanctify; themselves and 'be holy'. These ideas are presented by Peter as instructions to us

:44 sanctify yourselves 1 Peter 3:15
:44 be ye holy for I am holy 1 Peter 1:16

So it is only when one realises the 'uncleanness' of flesh that one can appreciate the need to sanctification and holiness.
Peter Forbes

Reading 2 - Psalms 110, 111 & 112

To Listen
110:2 - This whole Psalm points forward to Jesus, as we know from its New Testament appearances. Acts 2:34-36, Heb.1:13, 10:12-13. Here in verse 2 of the Psalm, God is connecting the stretching forth of the rod - surely this is Moses - Ex. 7:19, 8:5 etc. and yet here the rod is coming from Zion - the dwelling place of the saints - the Lord Jesus Christ, who will save us with his rod - Mic.7:14, Matt.28:18-20.
Peter Cresswell
111v.1 - We know from scriptural comment that David was 'a man after God's own heart'. We each have a desire, I am sure, to emulate that very situation. Here is a phrase that says it - that we might praise God 'with our whole heart' - that is, that our heart might not be divided betweeen the praise of God and the praise of our own desires. David, on this occasions and others [Psa.9:1, here, 119:2,10,34,58,69,145, 138:1] clearly believed that he had reached this ideal.
Peter Cresswell

Psalm 110 The promise of the son to David and David bringing the ark to Zion are closely related. This is probably the most quoted Psalm in the New testament. It has it's origins in the time when David brought the ark to Zion. For at that time David officiated as a priest after the order of Melchisedec in the way that he gave bread and wine to the people (1 Chronicles 16:3) and wore priestly garments (2 Samuel 6:14) and offered sacrifices (2 Samuel 6:17). At this time David 'sat before the Lord' (2 Samuel 7:18)

Psalm 111 :10 Fearing God and wisdom are seen to be linked even before the days of the Psalmist Job 28:28 - where Job is speaking - sees wisdom being manifest in a fear [respect] of God. Solomon continues this theme [Proverbs 1:7 9:10 Ecclesiastes 12:13]. This 'fear' is manifest in the way that we live. Israel were encouraged in the same way - Deuteronomy 4:6 tells them that keeping the law demonstrates this kind of fear / respect.

Psalm 112 In saying :5 'a good man sheweth favour' and :9 'he hath dispersed �' which is quoted in 2 Corinthians 9:9 we see part of a fundamental principle - Generosity to others is giving to God - Proverbs 19:17
Peter Forbes

Psalm 110 - In 2 Samuel 7:18 we learn that David 'sat before the Lord'. This Psalm shows that David was invited by God to sit before Him. It a small way David's desire expressed Psalm 27:4 is fulfilled.

111:9 The way that He 'sent redemption' is to be seen in sending Jesus for Mary pick up 'holy is his name' Luke 1:49 and thus, by the holy spirit says this Psalm is speaking about Jesus.

112:6-8 Show way in which problems will not trouble the righteous 'he shall not' is the repeated refrain which is contrasted with :10, speaking about the wicked 'he shall'.
Peter Forbes

110:6 In speaking of wounding heads we see an echo and fulfilment of Genesis 3:15 So we see that Scripture clearly links the destruction of the serpent power with the exaltation of Jesus as a priest.

111:10 We might think that 'the fear of the Lord �' is language of Solomon (Proverbs 1:7 9:10) but is has it's origin - in principle - in Deuteronomy 4:6 and the Psalmist develops it here. The one who fears the Lord will keep His commandments and thus will be 'wise'.

112 - Remember we looked earlier (Psalm 32) at 'blessed is the man. Here we have another example of a man who is blessed. Here are all the blessed man references (Psalm 1:1, 32:3, 34:8, 65:4, 84:5, 12, 94:12)
Peter Forbes

Reading 3 - 2Corinthians 3 & 4

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3:5, 4:7 - We have here (and in the intervening verses) a clear description of where our strength lies. It is entirely in God, and we must never feel that we are sufficient in ourselves. We need to use our 'treasure in earthen vessels' to this end. We need to abide in him - John 15:5. See also 2Cor.12:9, Phil.2:13, 4:13.. Moses said he was not sufficient - Ex.4:10, but look at God's answer - v.11-16. Jeremiah said the same - 1:6, and again is given power - v.7-10. The same is given to the disciples - Luke21:15.
Peter Cresswell

3:12 The 'plainness of speech' contrasts the 'dark speeches' of the law of Moses.

4:1 Whereas the thunders and lightning at the giving of the law of Moses caused even Moses to 'fear and quake' (Hebrews 12:21) the ministry in Christ we 'faint not' because of the mercy we have received.
Peter Forbes

ch 3 - As comment a number of times when talking about 1 Corinthians this year we have seen that the Corinthians were undermining the authority of Paul. 'Ye are our epistles' is another of Paul's rebuttals of this attitude. If Paul was not an apostle and did not preach the true gospel then, implies Paul, you as those I taught the gospel, are not true believers.

4:4 The God of this world is materialism - it blinds us, as it did the Corinthians, to the value of the gospel and leads us to be deceitful and be deceived. Eve was deceived because the god of this world appealed to her.
Peter Forbes