DEUTERONOMY 16:1-17:20
REMEMBRANCE #8 (Deut 16:3): He suffered and was afflicted for you so you could come out of bondage into His marvelous freedom. ("bread of affliction")
REMEMBRANCE #9 (Deut 16:12) God expects us to rejoice in our new Life.
THREE APPOINTMENTS WITH GOD: (1) Passover - salvation. (2) Pentecost (baptism in the Holy Spirit. (3) Feast of Tabernacles (death to SELF and assumption of responsibilities in the Kingdom.
Don't plant any trees near God's altar: 1 Thess 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil." Since their world thought of trees as places of worship, they weren't to plant them close to where actual worship took place. Don't do things that even look bad.
QUALIFICATIONS FOR A KING: These take on significance because there is leadership in the Kingdom of God. What is God looking for?
V.15 - one from among yourselves. Don't bring someone in from the outside.
V.16 - Does not think like an Egyptian, especially when it comes to warfare. (An Egyptian is a "gentile", or a person without Christ in the world.)
V.17 - Shall not amass possessions for security. His treasure shall be the Lord.
V.18-19 - Shall obey the Word in the fear of the Lord.
V.20 - Shall not be self-important and lose touch with the brethren.
RESPONSE: Do you know what BONDAGE is? First of all, all bondage gets it power from the fear of death. (Heb 2:14-15) So deliverance from bondage must begin in Christ. Secondly, before we are born again, because of being "sons of Adam", we were in bondage to sin, to the devil, and to our own flesh. So we needed redemption from all three (book of Romans). Thirdly, because creation is subject to corruption, we are in bondage to what I call "humanness" or "infirmities" (Rom 8:26; 15:1; 2Cor 11:30; 12:5, 9, 10; Heb 4:15). This infirmity is "the inability to achieve results". It is human frailties and limitations. 2 Cor 3:17 says that "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" - freedom from those human limitations and inabilities to achieve results. And so, the Spirit of God can change us in spite of our humanness! Yay! God is not limited by our humanness - He has brought us into the freedom to obey Him. We are free from sin and death absolutely. (We only sin because we want to.) We are free from the devil and as our flesh dies off, we are free in those areas too. (I think the flesh is a life-long battle.) Now you understand why we should REJOICE in our new life.
LUKE 9:7-27
STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO JESUS IS: V.9 Herod didn't know and he was a ruler! V.18 ff "the people" didn't know but had guesses. V.20 Peter finally figured it out! ALMOST. "the Anointed of God" is only part of the answer, because he still hadn't understood the suffering, rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Suffering, rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection: These are terms of discipleship - to be applied DAILY. "Lose" your life, or waste it!
RESPONSE: I didn't really understand all that when I first came to know Jesus. I might have backed off in fear. Instead, I came to love Him before He ever made me understand the whole Truth about discipleship. I was a slow learner - and because I fought the Truth, I suffered needlessly. You see, when you are joined to Jesus, "you can come hard, or you can come easy". But, praise God! Even though I feel like I am being dragged naked through a briar patch at times, at least I am pressing forward, toward Jesus. Like the Apostle Paul has said, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" (Phil 3:10)
PSALM 72:1-20
THE KINGDOM PSALM - Occasion: Solomon's ascension to the throne. Prophetic of Jesus' Ascension to the Throne . He will have dominion "from sea to sea". All will pay homage to Jesus: Wilderness: the most uncivilized. Tarshish: the most distant. Sheba: the most opulent. "All kings" and "all nations".
"AMEN AND AMEN." Conclude the Exodus portion of Psalms, just as two "amen's" concluded the Genesis portion (Psa 41:13). Genesis 41:32 says that a "double" means "it was established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass".
PROVERBS 12:8-9
The man of v.8 is "despised" rightfully so, because of his perversity. The man of v.9 is "despised", meaning he is of low estimation because of a lack of worldly display, not because of anything he has done wrong. Respectable mediocrity is better than boastful poverty.
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