Two Stories, One Message No. 6

Rebellion of the Levites

Numbers 16: 1-11

Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers and tomorrow put burning coals and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”

Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

Continue reading: verses 12-50

Sinners are Rebels 

All of humanity - past dead generation to the yet to be last generation - are sinners, having inherited the fallen nature of Adam and Eve.

God has offered his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and made him alive again to serve as High Priest up in heaven before God, doing atonement for those who believe.

God's mercy is mediated through him. In him you can be born again, a new creature with a new heart and spirit. Everyone is invited to receive mercy that you will be one again with God.

Are you willing to join him before the Father?

Two Stories, One Message No. 5

Naaman Healed of Leprosy

Old Testament: 2 Kings 5: 1-19

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”

“Go in peace,” Elisha said.

Continue reading: verses 20-27

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

The New Testament: Matthew 18: 21, 22 (NIV)

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Continue reading: verses 23-35

Epilogue

The Old and New Testaments - the two witnesses [Read: Deut. 17: 6; 19: 15; Rev. 11: 3] - tell many stories; one story in the OT will teach one truth, which the NT may also teach with another story.  As two witnesses, the OT and NT establish the truth.

Both the Naaman story and the parable of the unmerciful servant teach forgiveness of sins of those who come to God, whose mercy is greater than his judgment.

Now, dig for minor truths in the couple of stories we mentioned above that the Bible has been telling us for hundreds of  years.

Two Stories, One Message No. 4

God Decides to Free the Israelites from Captivity
Exodus 3: 1-10
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Continue reading: Verses 11-22

The Black Man's Story in America
Martin Luther King Jr. Had a Dream

Click for the link: http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/08/24/us/100000002404675/a-divided-dream.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes

 

Two Stories, One Message No. 3

Pharaoh's Dream and Joseph

Genesis 41: 1-14 NIV

When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.

In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”

So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.

Continue Reading: Verses 15-40

One Special Dream of so Many

Of the many dreams that God gave I remember just now one peculiar dream. In it my wife and I went to live in a home we don't own. But in the end the stranger's home became our own.

When we migrated to Canada we lived with our daughter, her husband and her two children. Three months after we arrived the couple got into an argument with angry words spoken. It could have been just an ordinary spat of any married couple but this one ended with the husband threatening to kill my daughter and subsequently his banishment.

At that time, police officers were called and the incident ended with the husband taken to custody for a few hours and was told not to go near the house, the wife's workplace and the children's school. He was also not to communicate directly or indirectly with her. Later he was arraigned before the court. Until now the case is pending and awaiting trial as he opted to plead not guilty.

The incident was on the 20th of February and up to this time, August the 24th, the husband has not set foot again in his home. In fact my daughter already has elected to separate from him but keeping custody of the children.

In between they have since sold their two homes and my daughter got us a rented condominium unit where we now live with her two children to which we act as guardians. But she lives apart from us, for in the interim she got a better job than the last one, renting a room, as her work is one to two hour commute.

The husband got himself an apartment, too, where he lives alone.

We now live in a home that we virtually own sans papers. I might add that there are indications that my daughter will permanently live separately from us. In fact, she told my wife that the apartment is hers.

But this is another story to be told.

Two Stories, One Message No. 2

God Provides Elijah with Food and More

1 Kings 17: 1-11, NIV

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

Continue reading: verses 12-24

Eternal Life Begins now for God's Children

Fifteen years without a gainful work. But God provided for my and immediate family's food, clothes and shelter. I am much more than content.

At the end of this period, God gathered my family in an alien land - Canada, where a new chapter will be written on my life's book.

But of course, the work that I do now - preaching the goodness of God - is an interesting and more productive work than any work I had before.

My work now involves much more than preaching. It entails living what God has shown through his Son, Jesus Christ. It's a challenging work but God through his Spirit provides the daily grace and strength needed for small and great accomplishments.

Eternal life is living God's way, where Christ trail-blazed - a path of righteous living. Death becomes just a temporary rest between the now life and the resurrection life. God through Christ has told us of this powerful message. He's such a good story-teller.

Experiencing it gives me eternal joy and complete gratitude to a great God. Will you join me?

Epilogue

Lastly, this is how the Bible should be read and understood: The Old and New Testaments are two stories but with only one message. What has been will be again. There's nothing new under the sun.

All that men do are vanities until they live what God appointed them to do.

Two Stories, One Message No, 1

Let's follow the story of Elisha fighting his enemies. The following passage is found at 2 Kings 6:8-18, which is lifted from the New International Version.

What's the message? God fights for Elisha literally with chariots of fire, which is a host of angels, doing the battle.

Elisha Traps Blinded Arameans

 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”
The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Today, how will God fights a battle for his children?

God fights the same way as he did at the time of Elisha. Most of us cannot imagine this to be so. But this is actually the case.

Be assured that God will work out all circumstances toward our good. [Read Romans 8:28-39] Trust him for he is always willing and eager to show us how he loves us. That's how he grows our faith, heightens our hope and nourishes our love for him and for our fellowmen.

Presumed Saved

Many take for granted that they are saved from the Day of the Lord's judgment. Are they not baptized into Christ? Did they not professed their faith in God by believing in his Son, Christ Jesus? Have they not remained faithful until now? - they go to church on every worship day! Have they not abided in his words by reading and studying the Bible?

Has not God promised salvation to everyone who professes loyalty to him?

                    It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel            
              are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On
              the contrary “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words,
              it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children 
             of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 

                    For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and 
              Sarah will have a son.” Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the
              same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had  done anything
              good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:  not by works but
              by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as  it is written:
              “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9:6:13

The child promised by God is Christ Jesus, whom he loves. Those joined with him as they live amongst men will also be loved by God. With God's grace and strength they will have victorious lives. They are the "Jacobs', whose lives are blessed due to their obedience to God. 

Who are the "Esaus" whom God hates?  They are those whom God knows [Read: God's foreknowledge] will not be following his Son, whom he anointed to save them. They have knowingly spurned what God has appointed to lead them into battles with the devil and his kingdom, the world. The latter will certainly prevail over them and it will lead them into an inexorable destruction by God's hand on the last day.