Isaiah 55

 Today I can't write about this chapter because its promises are just so real today. Nothing has changed in my life things are just as chaotic and my family is just as sick, yet God. God has promised so much and today I read this and know, He's got me and it's going to be okay. 

Consider these words:

1“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

2Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and you will delight in the richest of fare.

3Give ear and come to me;

listen, that you may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

my faithful love promised to David.

4See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

a ruler and commander of the peoples.

5Surely you will summon nations you know not,

and nations you do not know will come running to you,

because of the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel,

for he has endowed you with splendor.”

6Seek the Lord while he may be found;

call on him while he is near.

7Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

12You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

13Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,

and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord’s renown,

for an everlasting sign,

that will endure forever.”

Leviticus 27

 Every value was to be set by the Sanctuary Shekel according to verse 25. This may seem to be a little side note without much difference but it was. Years ago, companies would sometimes run company stores. These stores took credit and script. Script was paid to the employees who could exchange it for things at the company store. The problem was the value of script was never as high as cash and therefore kept the employees in debt to the company store. The practice was finally made illegal in the United States in 1938. God never wanted anything like this every value was set by the one standard, His. 

Side note, Tennesse Ernie Ford sang an interesting song about it. This link gives a history. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tennessee-ernie-ford/sixteen-tons 

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Mark 4

Again this week I will share my sermon notes as rough as they may be for our look into Mark.

 Mark 4:1-3, 35-41

Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Resting in the Storm

Mark 4

As we begin today’s message, we find Jesus by the seaside again and the crowds have become so great he begins teaching from a boat. From this boat, he is going to begin to teach the word. An interesting note here is that this section of teaching begins with Jesus teaching the parable of the Sower and his explanation to the disciples is that the seed is the word of God.

If we should consider that Jesus is sowing from the sea onto the shore and the seed is going into the soil.

Side Note: If you want to know what kind of heart you have the answer is found in how you receive the Word of God.

Hard – No impact

Rocky – No Depth

Weedy – Worldly Concerns

Good – Good Soil - Growth happens

What happens to the seed tells you the condition of your heart.

How you receive will directly affect your faith for later we learn Romans 10:17 “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Next: Three of the four parables all address seeds. Jesus we will see in verse 34 that Jesus explained the parables to his disciples. If anyone should have faith it was them.

I want to note the third parable about the Growing Seed:

Mark 4:26-29 “He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

It shows there is a time to rest/sleep and trust. This parable teaches us trust that the seed will do what God intended it to.

However, it will also mirror what is about to happen.

Now we come to the passage we read today.

1.   Jesus tells his disciples that they need to go over to the other side and went to sleep.  

2.   A storm came

3.   Disciples woke up Jesus – They wanted help

4.   Jesus rebuked the storm then the disciples

5.   The disciples were afraid.

a.   Though we can assume the discples were afraid when they woke Jesus up the text doesn’t say they are, they aren’t really afraid until they see the miracle.

What changed?

        Now they were confronted with the question? What do we do with Jesus?

He isn’t just a good teacher or a miracle worker, this is God power.

Just a side note: Mark loves to use parallel teaching. We see this lived out at the end of Mark 16:8 when the women learn Jesus has been raised from the dead, they are afraid according.

There will come a time for every person who comes face to face with the truth about Jesus. There will be fear. Fear because Jesus calling us to surrender. As CS Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity, ““I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

There comes a time and I think as Christians in this world it is more than once when we have to have the fear of God in us. The fear that we are still trying to be god in our own lives but Jesus, the God of the universe the controller of the wind and waves is here and we need to surrender again some part of who we are.

But let’s go back and look at this again in light of who Jesus truly is.

1.   Jesus said Let’s go to the other side.

If God says that something is going to happen it’s going to happen.

God says We’re going there; we’re going there.

Side note: I don’t like this because Jesus said we would suffer, and I don’t like it. However, Jesus does promise that it will be worth it and in Romans 8:28 we are told he will work everything to good.

But note, Jesus didn’t say let’s sail gently to the other side to the disciples.

If the disciples understood that Jesus was God then they could have followed his example and sleep.

Jesus gave a parable that after sowing the farmer slept and that is what Jesus is doing. He is sleeping and trusting.

2.   The storm came

The disciples are up and panicked.

It is very possible that their very activity made the effects of the storm worse.

We do that sometimes. We see trouble and instead of trusting God we try and fix it. We get the word the expert will be in tomorrow, but no we can’t wait we have to fix it ourselves and often make things worse.

The show Home Improvement, Tim Taylor, played by Time Allen, was always trying to fix things and give them more power. It of course never went right. When it comes to our lives we are too often just like Tim the tool man Taylor and believe we can not just fix it but make it better. Except it isn’t funny when we wreck our families, ruin our relationships and do things that we may end up paying for, for the rest of our lives.

The Disciples problem is seen when they wake Jesus, they call him “teacher.”

They didn’t see him as Lord, as Master or as God. They saw Jesus as just a teacher.

Until they saw Jesus as more they failed.

Until you see Jesus as more than just a God teacher and until you’re willing to submit to him as CS Lewis said, you “fall at his feet and call him Lord and God,” then you are going to fail in life.

The problem in our lives is that we are afraid of the wrong things. We don’t have the fear of God and we are afraid of the communist, the other political party, radical Islam, the economy failing, war, our boss, or if our kids are going to eat their vegetables.

If the disciples would have really understood who Jesus was they never would have been afraid. They would know they were going to survive.

3.   Jesus stilled the storm.

Jesus always had the power to stop the storm. He could have prevented it, but he didn’t?  This storm showed the disciples what kind of faith they had. NONE>

I want to say again I don’t like this but Jesus said we would suffer. However, Jesus does promise that it will be worth it and in Romans 8:28 we are told he will work everything to good.

The storms in our lives are an opportunity to see what kind of faith we have and to strengthen it.

If the disciples would have had faith and people in the other boats would have yelled over in fear what example would it had been if they yelled back, It’s okay Jesus is here and he said we would make it.

By the way, after the day of Pentecost this is exactly what happened. The struggles they faced confirmed their faith and actually can strengthen ours.

At this time, not so much.

For us we need to remember that storms will come, but remember Jesus is with us.

Psalm 41:1-3 says Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them—they are counted among the blessed in the land—he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.

We need to remember God is with us we don’t need to be afraid.

Isaiah 51:12-16 “I, even I, am He who comforts you.

Why should you be afraid of mortal man,

of a son of man who withers like grass?

But you have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens

and laid the foundations of the earth.

You live in terror all day long

 

because of the fury of the oppressor

who is bent on destruction.

But where is the fury of the oppressor?

The captive will soon be freed;

he will not die in the dungeon,

and his bread will not be lacking.

For I am the LORD your God

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

I have put My words in your mouth,

and covered you with the shadow of My hand,

to establish the heavens, to found the earth,

and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

 

There is a song that says that Jesus sometimes calms the Storm but sometimes he calms his child.

 

I would say that more times than not Jesus is interested in calming us than the world around us. If we are calm in the storm then we have nothing to fear.

 

I don’t know where I remember hearing a story of men at sea in a storm and all the passengers were afraid except one. Someone asked why he wasn’t afraid. The person pointed to a grizzled old sailor out walking the deck, perfectly calm and the person said, “I figure when he gets scared that’s when I should.”

 

The good news is the person we can point to: Jesus is never scared so we don’t have to be (there were times he was distressed and concerned but never do we see Jesus afraid).

 

Jesus calmed the Storm but what he really wanted was to see faith in his disciples.

 

The difference between the Jesus and the disciples here is that Jesus didn’t let the environment dictate what was in his spirit.

 

The storm brough chaos and that is what we see here in the disciples.

 

Jesus wants our faith to grow so that we don’t mirror our environment, but we mirror Him.

 

Perhaps when it seems like God isn’t doing anything, if Jesus is sleeping as it were. Maybe we should be resting too.

 

Note: Jesus wasn’t just sitting down all the time, he worked and there is a time for us to work also. The key is to know when it is. When they got to the other side there was work to do and the disciples missed out on the rest they could have gotten by focusing on the storm and not resting in him.

 

If you face a situation you can’t fix and God hasn’t given you directions or seems to be doing nothing perhaps you aren’t supposed to.

 

Consider Elijah:

 

1 Kings 17:1-6 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan.  And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

So Elijah did what the LORD had told him, and he went and lived by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook.

 

Disaster was all about and Elijah did: nothing- he trusted God.

 

So who are you looking to? Jesus or the coming Storm (there is always a coming storm in this world)

 

Trust Jesus who can calm you in the storm and promises to take you to the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 44

 I'm amazed how at times in the Bible Reflections the portion of Scripture from another book goes so in tune with what is before when I didn't plan it. Yesterday we read the blessing and punishments that came with the covenant and the promise that even in punishment God would never forget Israel, but would rescue her. Today we read a Psalm where all of those things are expressed. It is a great reminder that God is faithful.  

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

Leviticus 26

 In these rewards and Punishments, we would like to think there is nothing for us as we are part of the New Covenant in Jesus. Yet the principle that God rewards the faithful and punishes the disobedient is still true. The promises are great especially the one in Romans 8:28 that God will work all things together for God for those who trust in him. Side Note: Not everything is good for us in fact some things are downright horrible, but God will turn it. The most radical punishment other than being rejected by God is found for believers in 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul says that those who take the Lord's Supper unworthily will be sick and could die is quite harsh. God hasn't changed. He still rewards the faithful and punishes the disobedient but even his punishments today are given with the hope that we will return to him just as he wanted Israel to do. 

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Leviticus 25

 As I looked at this chapter and at my post I remembered a quote from What's Wrong with the World― by G.K. Chesterton,  “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” This is also true about the social system that God set up for Israel. They never followed it faithfully. The years of resting the land were not followed, resulting in 70 years of exile in Babylon. The Year of Jubilee was also not faithfully celebrated resulting that often Israel looked more like its pagan neighbors in their financial dealings. 

I also notice that God commanded that they were to sell to the poor at cost but though I am sure that they did give some away there isn't a command for that. The command was not to make a profit off the poor. This with the ability to get food from the edges of fields and trees meant that no one in Israel should have starved but they also could keep their dignity. The system wasn't designed to make them dependent on one person or group. Christians follow this principle today. 

Isaiah 54

"No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me" (vs 17).

I have seen this promise posted on the internet, on posters, on t-shirts, and on plaques. However, I have looked around and the forces of our enemies still win. It seems the weapons of our enemies (the devil and the world) are very effective and often prevail. So is this promise false? Was it to someone else? What is going on?

First, this was a promise to Israel. However, I do agree that since this is a promise to future Israel it could apply to us. However, the question I might put back is, When? When is the time that all of the enemies will fail? As I see it it will be when Christ comes in final glory. This doesn't mean that it is useless to us today as long as we have the correct perspective. There may be a temporary victory but just because a boxer is knocked down doesn't mean the fight is over or they will win. I'm not a boxing fan so I can't give you an example but I know it's true. As a fan of history, I can say that there are countless examples of strategies that brought temporary victory but didn't allow the person to prevail. They may have gained significantly in the short term but ultimately lost. They won yes but they didn't prevail.

We may lose a battle. We may lose our lives for Christ, but the enemy of our soul can not prevail. In the end, we win! 

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Leviticus 24

 

God repeats here that a person is to be treated the same by the law no matter if they are a native or a foreigner. No privilege is given to either. This causes me to think that the privilege of diplomatic immunity we give to diplomates and foreign visitors is not Biblical. Yes, I understand the need in the world for this but if we are going to do things Biblically then Ancient Israel couldn't have had "modern diplomatic relations" with the world around them. However, from all I read God wanted Israel to be separate, unique, not like everyone else. We can't demand our governments act this way, but perhaps we need to be this way in our churches. Yes, you are welcome but in church, we worship and serve God and anything else isn't allowed.  

In this chapter, God also makes it clear that the priest is supposed to see that the lampstand is always attended to. The light was never to go out. As many commentators have said, God's light is always to shine in the darkness. 

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Mark 3

 

Mark 2:23-28

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.  The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?  In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

 

The Disciple and Sabbath

Mark 3

Though this week we are looking at Mark 3 to understand the lesson the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us through Mark is to being in last part of Mark 2.

However, before we start there we need to talk about Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath, a day of rest, was one of the Ten Commands that God gave from the mountain. God repeated it multiple times in the Law he gave from the Tent of Meeting.  

Side note: Mountain commands are for all, Tent of Meeting to the Jews (though the principles are good for all).

Sabbath was a day of rest. God gave it to the people to keep them holy and to remind them and keep them from being like Egypt.

The Law provided a Sabbath not just for the people but for the land (Leviticus 25:4). The people never followed this, but God required it of them and sent them into Exile (Jer. 25, 2 Chronicles 36:21, Daniel 9:2)

When they returned they started to go back to the old habit of not keeping the Sabbath, but the preachings of Ezra and Nehemiah called them back.

There were some major exceptions one was during war, the other was for the priest doing the work of God or someone on a mission for God.

In fact Jesus will talk about not just an exception for Sabbath but the exception for those on a mission from God. He will talk about David eating the unleavened bread of the tabernacle that was to be only eaten but the priest (1 Samuel 21).

By the time of Jesus, the religious leaders had developed guidelines to help keep the people from breaking the Sabbath, they were called the Melachot. They were 39 rules that we designed to keep someone from breaking the Sabbath.

The Melachot were paths, guardrails to keep the people safe.

Example: The paths/guardrails around geysers at Yellowstone.

In the Law God gave permission for those that were hungry to be able to take grain or fruit from the fields or trees but only enough to satisfy their hunger.

In the passage read, The disciples are hungry and pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees look at Jesus and expect him to criticize the disciples.

The Melachot command was that there were to be no tools used for reaping. So they weren’t braking the Law, as the law allowed for the hungry to do this and in reality they weren’t even breaking the Melachot. Jesus, however, touches on something more he is saying to the Pharisees that what they are seeing is like David. This isn’t wrong because they were on a mission from God.

1 Samuel 21, David, Saul, and Doeg (dough egg) the Edomite.

There will be a parallel played out here.

Then Jesus makes the statement: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

1.   Sabbath was a gift from God

2.   The Sabbath wasn’t God 

“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

1.   Person of Suffering (elevating suffering greater than keeping man’s law)

2.   Son of Man – Equated in Daniel with the Messiah

3.   Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Mark 3:1-6 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

This is where we will begin to see a Parallel with the story of David fleeing from Saul.

Like Saul after David, the Pharisees were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.

Jesus had seemed to make it clear that elevating suffering was okay on the Sabbath. They were hoping to catch him doing just that. The Melachot clearly said that a physician was not to use their hands do any work.

Church Father Athanasius of Alexandria said, “In the synagogue of the Jews was a man who had a withered hand. If he was withered in his hand, the ones who stood by were withered on their minds… The Savior ploughed up their minds with words, he first softened the up in advance with words so as to tame the wilderness of their understanding asking, ‘It is permitted to do good on the sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?’”

I have to agree with Athanasius these Pharisees were also the ones who were sick.

They like Saul were seeking a reason to destroy Jesus. They didn’t care about the man or his suffering.

Jesus as Athanasius pointed out tried to break up their withered mind by asking a question which was easy.

The problem was if they answered correctly that doing good was the whole purpose of the Sabbath then they would have nothing to accuse Jesus with. They were more interested in finding a way to discredit Jesus than obeying the commands of God.

They had in a very real way, made the Sabbath god rather than to obey God.

It was like the selfish child or adult knocking over the game board and saying, “I may have lost but at least you didn’t win.”

Jesus is rightly upset. These people who were supposed to be followers of God have rejected God.

Jesus then tells the man to stretch forth his hand. Athanasius here says by do it this way Jesus is saying, “I am not touching you so that they may not bring a charge against me.”

Which they couldn’t. Jesus didn’t break the law didn’t even break the Melachot.

Jesus did good on the Sabbath, He brought life.

The Pharisees? Did evil on the Sabbath- plotted to kill

Here is the interesting parallel. When Saul confronted the priest after David was given help. Saul called for the death of the ones who obeyed God’s law. Saul sought the death of God’s anointed priest. His own people wouldn’t do it so Saul had Doeg (dough egg) the Edomite kill God’s anointed priest. Now the Pharisees are working with the Herodians (those who were trying to, support Herod, also an Ebonite) to kill Jesus, God’s anointed one.

Lesson:

1.   Don’t be so intent on your purpose that it causes you to disobey God.

2.   Accept the gift of Sabbath.

3.   Let Jesus be Lord of your Sabbath (and others)

Psalm 43

"You are God my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

Send me your light and your faithful care,

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy mountain,

to the place where you dwell" (vs 2-3).

The psalmist starts out by saying that he is putting his trust in God and is confused that his enemies are winning. I notice that then he asks God to send His light and to guide the psalmist to God. I see here that the psalmist is realizing that he might not be where God is. Yes, he is trusting God, but he is admitting that he might not be where God wants him to be. 

I consider that there are times when my motives may be right, but my actions are all wrong. The truth is God allows us to face the consequences of bad actions even if our attitude is right. The problem is often not that we may rely on our intentions to protect us, while not doing the work of life both physically and spiritually. God wants us to be mature, and this means doing the preparation work needed. 

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Leviticus 23

 "Wherever you live" these words are in verse three of this chapter and are a reminder to Israel and to us that our life for God isn't only to be lived out among our own but also when we are way. Years ago, I was part of a group that didn't allow its members to go to movies. Though I thought it was an extreme position, I knew this was where I was to be. I heard others say that when they were away in places where no one knew them, they would go and see good movies (yes, there are some out there). I had the opportunity but never did. I'm not bragging, I just realized that I had made a commitment and that commitment wasn't dependent on whether or not I would be caught. How much more should we all be committed to God. The danger of course is that acting differently opens the door for possible persecution, which Jews and Christians have faced. However, God says if we are going to follow Him we have to do it if it's easy or hard. For most of my life, I have lived where it is easy, I pray as it becomes more difficult I will have the courage to continue to stand as I do you also.  

Leviticus 22

 

God was telling the priest that if they weren't clean and ready they should stay away from the holy things. If we aren't in the right place today we can find that we might take lightly the things of God. For myself, I believe there may be times when because of something I struggle with or feel the best thing to do would be not preach on Sunday or teach a class maybe even not write. There are times when the world around us may cause us to become as it were unclean. The first thing we need to do is to get it taken care of. A great example of this in the New Testament is when Paul warns the Corinthians that if they take communion with a wrong attitude in their heart it may bring sickness or death. It sounds harsh but God is serious about what is in our life. Does God make us sick? Maybe, but if he does or if it is the attitude in us that causes the issue ultimately what matters is that we try to take the things of God seriously because there are consequences. 

Isaiah 53

 "Who will believe our report?" This is an interesting question as many refuse to believe the report of Jesus. This to Christians is a very clear picture of Jesus, yet those who don't want to believe see something different. The truth is many times we believe what we want to believe. The tricky thing for Christians is to allow God and His Word to direct us without changing it. The amazing thing about Christianity is that so many have embraced it without changing it. Yes, there are some things that we may see a little different than some in the past but reading the early church fathers one can see that we still hold to the same truths. On a side note: we can also see that the problems we face aren't new they may be called something different but humans have the same issues we always have.

So who has believed? I have and I hope you have also.

Leviticus 21

 An interesting note here is that the commands given here are to the "priest the sons of Aaron." In other places in the Pentateuch, they are referred to as “the sons of Aaron the priests.” What is going on why the change and what is God saying. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers says that the reason this is said the way it is to remind the priest that it isn't by their merit that they got to become priests it was through because of who they are related to. In many places including America, the idea that being born into a family gives you privileged status sounds wrong. Normally I would agree, however, when we consider that ultimately what is being seen here is a picture of Jesus and the church it makes perfect sense. Christians don't become part of God's family and God's priesthood due to their own merit. We can not do anything to deserve it. Jesus can and did. It is because of our relationship with him, that Christians can become what John says "a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father." 

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