Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Today’s Scripture Reading

Numbers 24:1–20 (ESV)

¹ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. ² And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, ³ and he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, ⁴ the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered: ⁵ How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! ⁶ Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. ⁷ Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. ⁸ God brings him out of Egypt and is for him like the horns of the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries, and shall break their bones in pieces and pierce them through with his arrows. ⁹ He crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.” ¹⁰ And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. And Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them these three times. ¹¹ Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, ‘I will certainly honor you,’ but the Lord has held you back from honor.” ¹² And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell your messengers whom you sent to me, ¹³ ‘If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the Lord speaks, that will I speak’? ¹⁴ And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days.” ¹⁵ And he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened, ¹⁶ the oracle of him who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered: ¹⁷ I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁸ Edom shall be dispossessed; Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly. ¹⁹ And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!” ²⁰ Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction.”

Today’s Quote:

The Star from Jacob and the Scepter from Israel point forward to Christ Himself, who is the fulfillment of these wonderful words. To say this is not of course to minimize or call in question earlier and partial fulfillments of the prophecy. Noth is right when he says, “It is highly probable that what is conceived of here is the future glory of King David and that it is the historical emergence of David that forms the background of this discourse,” some three hundred years after this time. But as Wenham observes, “traditional Jewish and Christian interpreters have seen another and fuller realization of these prophecies in the Messiah.” Thus early in history, therefore, the gospel was proclaimed in prophecy—not to Israel, but to the Gentile nations. One can only marvel that such clear vision should have come so anciently, and through such a man! – The Preacher’s Commentary

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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Today’s Quote:

Three promises were based on God’s call for Abram to leave his land: (a) a great nation, (b) a blessing for Abram, and (c) a great name (v. 2). These promises would enable him to “be a blessing” (the second imperative, v. 2). Based on this obedience were God’s three promises to: (a) bless those who blessed him, (b) curse anyone who would treat him lightly, and (c) bless the families of the earth through him (v. 3). To bless or curse Abram was to bless or curse Abram’s God. Unfortunately God often had to use other nations to discipline His people because, far from being a blessing to the world, they were usually disobedient. The third promise takes on its greatest fulfillment in the fact that Jesus Christ became the means of blessing to the world (Gal. 3:8, 16; cf. Rom. 9:5). The Bible Knowledge Commentary

Today’s Scripture Reading:

Genesis 49:1–27 (ESV)

¹ Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. ² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father. ³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. ⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch! ⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. ⁶ Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. ⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. ⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. ⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? ¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. ¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. ¹² His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. ¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. ¹⁴ “Issachar is a strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds. ¹⁵ He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor. ¹⁶ “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward. ¹⁸ I wait for your salvation, O Lord. ¹⁹ “Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. ²⁰ “Asher’s food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. ²¹ “Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns. ²² “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. ²³ The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, ²⁴ yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), ²⁵ by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. ²⁶ The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. ²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil.”

Supplemental Quote on Genesis 49:9-10 – The scepter is an ornate staff or rod that is a symbol of royal authority. A lawgiver is the one who issues statutes. With these words, Jacob predicted that a royal line would rise from Judah’s descendants. Shiloh is an obscure word, probably meaning the one “To Whom It Belongs.” That is, until the One to whom all royal authority belongs comes, the tribe of Judah will always have a lawgiver in its ranks (Is. 9:1–6). Shiloh, like Seed (3:15), is a name for the coming Messiah – The Nelson Study Bible

Today’s Reading: Genesis 3:1-19

Genesis 3:1–19 (ESV)

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. ⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” ¹⁶ To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” ¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Today’s Quote:

“Yet the greater curse upon the serpent is upon that old serpent, the devil. To Satan the Lord God promises, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Here is the initial messianic prophecy of the Bible. “The traditional Christian interpretation … is that it is the first direct expression of the gospel. It recognizes the essential conflict between Satan and the Lord and indicates that this conflict also will involve the people of God and the followers of Satan (cf. Jn 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1 Jn 3:10). The seed of the woman is a clear reference to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus (cf. Gal 3:16, 19; Rev 12:1–5), who came ‘to destroy the works of the devil’ (Heb 2:14; 1 Jn 3:8). The protevangelium prophesied that Christ would deliver a death blow to Satan but in so doing would suffer death himself” – KJV Bible Commentary

Beginning Monday, November 30th we will be publishing a daily Advent devotional reading and thought to go along with our theme  of “The Stars of Christmas”. This devotional is designed to keep us focused in this busy time of year on the One whom we celebrate. To receive this devotional in your inbox enter your email address and click follow in the space provided on the right of this page. The devotional can also be seen through my twitter and facebook feeds. You can follow me on twitter and facebook by scrolling down on the right side until you see the follow buttons.

http://bible.com/59/heb.13.15-16.ESV Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

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“These commandments are the fundamental statements of a good and wholesome society as ordered by the holy and righteous God. Though believers today are not under the Law (Rom. 6:15), they are under obligation to abide by the holy standards represented in the Ten Commandments.” – Dr. John Hannah