Exodus 25
LORD wants willing offering to build tabernacleverses 1-9
And the LORD spoke to Moses saying
Speak to the children of Israel – that they bring ME an offering
of EVERY man that gives it WILLINGLY with his
heart you shall take MY offering
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them
gold – silver – brass – blue – purple – scarlet – fine linen
goat’s hair – rams’ skins dyed red – badgers’ skins – shittim wood
oil for the light – spices for anointing oil and for sweet incense
onyx stones – stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate
And let them make ME a sanctuary
that I may dwell among them
ACCORDING to all that I show you AFTER the
PATTERN of the tabernacle – and the PATTERN of all the
instruments thereof – even so shall you make it
People are to make an Ark of acacia woodverses 10-16
And they shall make an ARK of shittim wood
two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof
and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof
and a cubit and a half the height thereof
And you shall overlay it with pure gold
within and without shall you overlay it
and shall make upon it a crown of gold round about
And you shall cast four rings of gold for it
and put them in the four corners thereof
and two rings shall be in the one side of it
and two rings in the other side of it
And you shall make staves of shittim wood
and overlay them with gold
And you shall put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark
that the ark may be borne with them
the staves shall be in the rings of the ark
they shall not be taken from it
And you shall put into the ark the TESTIMONY which I shall give you
People are to make a cover for ark: Mercy Seatverses 17-22
And you shall make a MERCY SEAT of pure gold
two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof
and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof
And you shall make two cherubim of gold
of beaten work shall you make them
in the two ends of the mercy seat
And make one cherub on the one end
and the other cherub on the other end
even of the mercy seat shall you make
the cherubim on the two ends thereof
And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high
covering the mercy seat with their wings
and their faces shall look one to another
toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be
And you shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark
and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you
And there I will meet with you
and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat
from between the two cherubim which are upon
the ark of the TESTIMONY
of all things which I will give you in the
commandment to the
children of Israel
People are to make a Showbread table of acacia woodverses 23-30
You shall also make a TABLE of shittim wood
two cubits shall be the length thereof
and a cubit the breadth thereof
and a cubit and a half the height thereof
And you shall overlay it with pure gold
and make thereof a crown of gold round about
And you shall make to it a border of a handbreadth round about
and you shall make a golden crown to the border
thereof round about
And you shall make for it four rings of gold
and put the rings in the four corners that are
on the four feet thereof
over against the border shall the rings be for
places of the staves to bear the TABLE
And you shall make the staves of shittim wood
and overlay them with gold
that the TABLE may be borne with them
And you shall make the DISHES thereof – SPOONS thereof
COVERS thereof – BOWLS thereof
to cover withal – of pure gold shall you make them
And you shall set upon the TABLE showbread before ME always
People are to make a lampstand with six branchesverses 31-39
And you shall make a CANDLESTICK of pure gold
of beaten work shall the candlestick be made
his shaft – branches – bowls – knobs – flowers
shall be of the same
And six branches shall come out of the sides of it
three branches of the candlestick out of the one side
three branches of the candlestick out of the other side
three bowls made like unto almonds
with a knob and a flower in one branch
three bowls made like almonds in the other branch
with a knob and a flower
so in the six branches that come
out of the candlestick
And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds
with their knobs and their flowers
And there shall be a knob under two branches of the same
and a knob under two branches of the same
and a knob under two branches of the same
according to the six branches that
proceed out of the candlestick
Their knobs and their branches shall be of the same
all of it shall be one beaten work of pure gold
And you shall make the seven lamps thereof
and they shall light the lamps thereof
that they may give light over against it
And the tongs thereof – and the snuff dishes thereof
shall be of pure gold
Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it – with all these vessels
Moses was given pattern by LORDverse 40
And look that you make them after their PATTERN
which was SHOWED you in the mount
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. (5068 “willingly” [nadab] means to impel, to volunteer, to present spontaneously, or to offer freely)
DEVOTION: How hard do you work for your money? Is it fair of the LORD to ask you to give HIM a portion of your money each payday? You worked for it. You earned it. It should be yours. Right? Wrong!!!
The children of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt. They had very little. All that they had in the wilderness was from spoiling the Egyptians when they left the land. The Egyptians were willing to give them money to get rid of them. They didn’t want any more plagues in their land.
Here is the LORD asking the people for an offering. HE gave a list of things that HE wanted the people to bring for the offering. HE was specific. HE never just gives general instructions. HE always tells the people exactly what HE expect of them and they are then responsible for their reactions.
The LORD showed Moses a Tabernacle in heaven. Moses came to earth with this Tabernacle in mind. The LORD wanted him to build a Tabernacle just like the one he saw in the mountain. Moses was commanded to gather the material for this Tabernacle.
The LORD chose the method of a voluntary offering to gather the material for this Tabernacle. The LORD is asking Moses to tell the people of the need for material for this Tabernacle. This offering was announced but there was no requirement.
If people offered their gifts freely, they were to be taken. The list was long. The need was great. But the offering had to come from the heart of the people. It was not to be one that was demanded of them. It was a love offering.
That is the same type of offering that should be taken today. All offering that are taken in churches or by parachurch ministries should be voluntary. The offerings should be given freely. They should be from a heart that is glad to give back to the LORD. The New Testament even states that offerings should be given cheerfully.
When the offering plate is passed in church there should be a smile on the faces of those who are giving. They are giving a thanksgiving offering to the LORD for HIS provision of salvation. No Christian organization should ever require a certain about be given to it. I have been told that there are some churches that send their pastors out to tell the people how much they should give to the church. That is not a willing offering. That is not the way the LORD works. HE wants HIS people to give because they are thankful for all HE has done for them.
Each Christian has to answer to God concerning his giving. Each church is responsible for the way they present the need. No church should say that if the people give the LORD will give them double back. There should never be a promise that people should give to get from the LORD. They should always give because they are saying thank you for all HE has done for them.
We will all stand before God with our checkbooks. What will our checkbooks say regarding our giving to HIM? What will our hearts say about the time we give? Are we giving cheerfully?
CHALLENGE: Remember that all our possessions belong to the LORD. HE gives us the ability to work. However, our work is not paying us, the LORD is. HE gives us all that we need. Pastors have to remember that they are not paid by the church, but by the LORD. Their messages have to be pleasing to HIM, not the congregation!!!
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 8 And let them make ME a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. (4720 “sanctuary” [miqdash] means a consecrated place where the deity dwells and where sacred objects are kept and worship takes place, a holy place, chapel, tabernacle and its precincts, or chapel)
DEVOTION: The LORD had the children of Israel build a tabernacle in the wilderness and later a Temple in Jerusalem, so that, HE could physically dwell with them. Remember the LORD is omnipresent so HE could be in heaven and in their sanctuary at the same time.
HE wanted to live among the people because it was a Theocracy at that time. HE was the ruler of the nation. HE was the one who gave them instructions when they came into HIS presence. HE also warned them when they were not being obedient to HIM.
Later after the Tabernacle was built the LORD had HIS glory come into it to show HIS presence to the people. The people understood that HIS presence was with them during their travels through the wilderness.
Fellowship is what the LORD wants to have with us as well today. HIS presence is within believers through the ministry of the third person of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit indwells all believers.
There is a difference between the external presence of the Godhead in the Tabernacle and the Temple and the internal presence of the Holy Spirit in individual believers.
If you have made a genuine commitment to the LORD because of the blood of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit is given to you for the rest of your life. HE will never leave you or forsake you. HE will correct you if you are practicing sin. HE wants a clean vessel to live in.
Each day HE is working with you to give you strength to overcome the wiles of the devil. While you are living on this earth you will be battling three types of temptation.
There is the temptation of the world through the media you use each day. There are websites that the LORD doesn’t want you to look at. There are things that HE doesn’t want you to say on places like Facebook and other media sites.
There is the temptation of the flesh. Our personal sin nature is still working in us to encourage us to not listen to the LORD. Our human nature is still working to keep us from growing in the LORD.
The third area of temptation comes from the devil. There are evil angels all around us daily. Satan uses whatever he can to cause us to doubt the LORD and our relationship with HIM.
CHALLENGE: Remember you have a promise from the LORD regarding HIS presence with you once you make your commitment. HE never breaks HIS promise. You can depend on HIM.
:20 And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. (3742 “cherubim” [kâruwb] means 1 cherub, cherubim (pl). 1a an angelic being. 1a1 as guardians of Eden. 1a2 as flanking God’s throne. 1a3 as an image form hovering over the Ark of the Covenant. 1a4 as the chariot of Jehovah (fig.). [Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship])
DEVOTION: Our fascination with angels has grown in recent years, along with our interest in the supernatural world in general. We used to think of angels as the cherub faces that accompanied our depictions of Cupid, but now we associate them with magic and other kinds of paranormal phenomena. Witness the current fascination in our culture with Harry Potter!
Biblical angels always inspired awe and fear. That is why they started off with the statement, “Do not fear!” when they appeared to people. That is one reason that Satan often appears as an angel of light when he appears to and tempts people in order to deceive them (2 Corinthians 11:14). The depictions of angels here as God’s messengers atop the ark of the covenant was to help remind the people that God always has His servant angels to help His children follow Him and do what is right. In addition, the angels function to help men in their praise and worship of the LORD (Luke 2:14).
Unfallen angels do not deserve, nor do they want, worship. They are typical servants in the sense that they merely carry out the orders and wishes of their master. This is to be an illustration to us as well of how we are to go about serving. We are not to seek our own glory, but rather the glory of the LORD.
CHALLENGE: Don’t minimize the role of angels today. We do not know all that they are up to, but that does not mean that what they are doing is not important in God’s plan.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 22 And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with your from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment unto the children of Israel. (1696 “commune” [dabar] means speak, talk together, declare, converse, or promise)
DEVOTION: The LORD is talking with Moses. HE promises to continue to talk with him. There is going to be a ongoing relationship with the LORD and Moses.
Here we find that the LORD is going to communicate in a future tabernacle with the children of Israel. HE give special instructions and wants them to be followed.
Meeting with the LORD was something that Moses did on a regular basis for instructions. Now there is going to be a tabernacle where they will meet to talk about what future standards the LORD is going to give the children of Israel.
There has to be a place to worship the LORD in the midst of the camp for the children of Israel to realize that God is with them and is going to lead them and protect them.
This tabernacle was shown to Moses when he met with the LORD for the forty days and forty nights. He saw the pattern in heaven. It is interesting that there is a place of worship in heaven with the Godhead being the ones who are worshiped.
One of the characteristics of the holy of holies is the mercy seat that is protected by a class of angels that we were introduced to in the Garden of Eden. There were two cherubim that would not let Adam and Eve back into the Garden because of their sin.
The mercy seat was where the blood was taken to show the relationship between the children of Israel and their forgiving God. HE wants us to offer sacrifices today that are not animal sacrifices but sacrifices of our body as a living sacrifice. There are other sacrifices in the New Testament we are to offer to the LORD. I have given a list before but if you need the list let me know.
CHALLENGE: God wants to meet with HIS people in a designated place and on a regular basis. Meet with the LORD regularly.
: 40 And look that you make them after their pattern, which was showed you in the mount. (8403 “pattern” [tabniyth] means likeness, form, similitude, figure, construction, shape, copy, reproduction, or image.)
DEVOTION: God had a purpose for every item in the Tabernacle. It was a place of worship. Each piece of furniture was used to show the presence of the LORD. The priests were to enter the holy place to offer service to the LORD on a daily basis. The High Priest was to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year to make atonement for the children of Israel with the blood of the lamb that was slain.
All these were a picture of Jesus Christ and what HE was going to do in the future to become our substitute in the presence of the Father on the cross. HE died on the cross to make atonement to the Father for our sins.
Once we made a commitment to HIM we were forgiven and the Father from that point on looked at us through Jesus Christ. HE saw that we were declared righteous because of the sacrifice of HIS Son Jesus Christ.
There is a temple in heaven that we will see when we look at the books of Isaiah and Daniel. Each of these men entered into the presence of the LORD. They saw what was going on all around us each day. They saw the battle between the angels that fell with Satan and the good angels that were fighting with each other.
Our bodies become the temple of God in the present. We need to offer them as living sacrifices each day. Too often we try to get off the altar of sacrifice and do our own thing. That requires the LORD to correct us.
Moses saw the Temple on the mountain. The children of Israel worshiped in a manmade Temple on the earth. Our bodies are the present temple of the Holy Spirit which should be used to worship the LORD every hour of every day. Our commitment needs to be genuine if we are a genuine believer.
CHALLENGE: Worship is the LORD and each of us getting together to have fellowship. How is your fellowship today?
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Offering to the LORDverse 2
Give willingly with heartverse 2
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Offering to the LORDverse 2
Make a sanctuaryverse 8
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD (Jehovah)verse 1
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead – God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Cherubimverses 18, 20, 22
Cherubverse 19
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Willing offering to the LORD from heartverse 2
List of things accepted for offeringverse 2
Meet the LORD in tabernacleverse 22
Commune with believersverse 22
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Mosesverses 1-40
Shown a pattern for tabernacle
Children of Israelverses 2, 22
Offering to the LORDverses 2-7
Make a sanctuaryverse 8
God gives instructions for tablernacleverses 9, 40
Arkverses 10-16, 22
Mercy seatverses 17-23
Table of shittim woodverses 23-30
Candlestickverses 31-39
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
DONATIONS:
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QUOTES regarding passage
9 The most important word about the sanctuary was that it was to be built according to the “pattern” God would show Moses. The word “pattern” (taḇnîṯ) comes from the verb bānāh (“to build”). This word signals the fact that typology is present, for this is only a “model” or “pattern” of the real thing (see v.40).
The word “tabernacle” (miškān) appears for the first time here of its 139 OT occurrences. It is from the word “to dwell” (šāḵan) and is the place where God dwells among his people (cf. 29:42–46; Lev 26:9–12; Ezek 37:26–28; and in the NT, Rev 21:2–3). (Kaiser, W. C., Jr. (1990). Exodus. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Vol. 2, p. 453). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
Whenever God does a work, He has a plan for that work, whether it’s building the tabernacle or the temple (1 Chron. 28:11–12, 18–19), a local church (Phil. 2:12–13), or the individual Christian life and ministry (Eph. 2:10). God warned Moses to make everything according to the pattern revealed to him on the mount (Ex. 25:40; Heb. 8:5).
The earthly tabernacle was a copy of the heavenly tabernacle where our Lord now ministers to and for His people (Heb. 8:1–5; 9:1). The Book of Revelation mentions a brazen altar (6:9–11), an altar of incense (8:3–5), a throne (4:2), elders/priests (vv. 4–5), lamps (v. 5), a “sea” (v. 6), and cherubim (vv. 6–7), all of which parallel the main furnishings of the earthly tabernacle. It’s a basic principle of ministry that we follow the pattern given from heaven, not the pattern of this world (Rom. 12:2). (Wiersbe, W. W. (1998). Be delivered (pp. 133–134). Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub.)
25:9 tabernacle. The Pentateuch records 5 different names for the tabernacle: 1) “sanctuary,” denoting a sacred place or set apart, i.e., holy, place; 2) “tent,” denoting a temporary or collapsible dwelling; 3) “tabernacle,” from “to dwell,” denoting the place of God’s presence (as well as other titles); 4) “tabernacle of the congregation, or meeting”; and 5) “tabernacle of the testimony.” (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ex 25:9). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
Ver. 9. According to all that I shew thee, &c.] That is, the sanctuary was to be made in all respects exactly according to the view of it that Moses now had upon the mount from God, and which he was to communicate to the workmen for their instruction and direction; after the pattern of the tabernacle, and of the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it: and by the pattern is not meant an idea of it, impressed on the mind of Moses, or a picture of it which was shewn him, but a little edifice representing it in all its parts, a perfect model of it: and so Maimonides says, Tabnith, the word here used, signifies the structure and disposition of anything, i.e. the form of it in a four-square, in roundness, in a triangle, or in any of the like figures, see Heb. 8:5 and so David had, by the spirit, a pattern of the temple, and which he gave to his son Solomon, to build according to it, 1 Chron. 28:11, 12, 19. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 1, p. 463). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
Amos 9
Israel’s sin must be judged, but God offers hope of restoration.
INSIGHTGod reveals a warning of judgment on Israel through visions to Amos. One vision is a plumb line which God says He will hold up against the “wall” of Jerusalem, and it will be demonstrated that the wall is leaning and will fall (Amos 7:7-9). Another vision is of summer fruit in a basket which, left unattended, will rot and be good only for throwing out (chapter 8). Famine, military conquest, and pestilence are among the consequences of judgment. Israel does not repent and judgment comes, but Amos holds out the promise of eventual restoration. (Quiet Walk)
THE NAMES OF THE DEVIL
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Ephesians 2:2
What does the Bible tell us about the devil? First of all, let us consider some of the names that are applied to him in the Scriptures. He is referred to as “Satan,” and the word Satan means “adversary.” He is also referred to as “the devil,” and devil means “slanderer.” He is also described as “Beelzebub,” which means that he is the prince of the devils. He is described as “Apollyon” and as “the angel of the bottomless pit.” He is called “the prince of this world” and “the god of this world.” He is described as “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). He is referred to as “the dragon,” as a lion, as “Lucifer, that old serpent,” and, perhaps one of the most significant names of all, as “the evil one.”
Now you will often find in the New Testament that whereas in the King James Version the word “evil” is sometimes used, it is probably true to say that it should be “the evil one.” Sometimes you will find “wicked” when it should be “the wicked one.” There are those who say that when we pray, “deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13), it should be, “deliver us from the evil one.” And when John, in the last chapter of his first epistle, says that the “whole world lieth in wickedness,” he is undoubtedly saying that the whole world lies in “the wicked one” (1 John 5:19).
In the same way in John 17 when our Lord prays in His high priestly prayer, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil,” it should be translated “from the evil one” (verse 15). It is a most important term–the evil one.
A Thought to Ponder: The devil is referred to as “Satan,” and the word Satan means “adversary.”
(From God the Father, God the Son, pp. 116-117, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
To the Looking Glass
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:23-25)
The Word of God is not a magic mirror, but if we seek real truths concerning ourselves, the biblical looking glass can bring great blessing. He who reads or hears the Word but does not believe or obey it is “a forgetful hearer” (v. 25) who is deceiving himself. It is these who merely “behold” themselves in the Word. The Greek word used here for “beholding” and “beholdeth” means “looking from a distance”—standing erect, as it were, while posing before the mirror. The man who “looketh into” the Word, on the other hand, “and continueth therein” being an obedient doer of its work is the one who receives eternal blessing. The Greek word here for “looketh” conveys the idea of intense scrutiny, requiring the one who is looking actually to stoop down in order to see. In fact, it is often translated “stoop down.”
As we allow the mirror of God’s Word to evaluate and correct our lives, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Yet, this is only a token of what we can experience in the future. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Now we can see ourselves in the written Word. When we see the living Word, “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
I know that the temptation to skip prayer for other “more productive” activities is not new. It’s just incredibly easy now – distractions are literally at our fingertips. And nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to praying for (and before) preaching. (p. 19, Saving Eutychus by Gary Millar & Phil Campbell)
So how do we strike that balance of avoiding manipulation and making sure that our preaching isn’t simply blandly conveying information? I think we find the answer to this question in that little phrase Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 4. He says we are to commit ourselves to “the open statement of the truth.” But ‘open statement’ is a bit weak here. The Greek word he uses, according to Louw and Nida, means “to cause something to be fully known by revealing clearly and in some detail – ‘to make known, to make plain, to reveal, to bring to the light, to disclose, revelation.’” (p. 29, Saving Eutychus by Gary Millar & Phil Campbell)
THE DEVIL IS A PERSON
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
John 8:44
The second thing that the Bible tells us about the devil is that he is a person. This is most important at the present time, because it has been the fashion for at least a century not to believe in the devil as a person. This is true not only of those who are unbelievers but also of many who call themselves Christians. They say they believe in the power of evil or an evil influence or a kind of lack in us, but they have a feeling that to believe in a personal devil is to be very much behind the times. But that is thoroughly unbiblical, because the Bible teaches us that the devil is a person.
For myself, there is one proof that is more than sufficient in and of itself, and that is the accounts we have in the Gospels of the temptations of our Lord. Now obviously our Lord’s temptations came from somewhere, and when people say that temptation to evil is something that arises solely from within and from a certain lack of power or positive qualities in us, they have no explanation to offer for the temptations of our Lord. It was a person who tempted our Lord, and our Lord addressed him as such; it was the devil who spoke to Him, and He spoke to the devil (Luke 4:1-13)–not an influence, but a person. Furthermore, we find the same thing in the book of Job in the first chapter, where the devil appears quite clearly as a person and addresses God. And God addresses him.
The biblical teaching is in no doubt at all about this. Our Lord, turning to certain Jews one day, said to them, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). How often you find the phrase, “the wicked one”–for example, “then cometh the wicked one” (Matthew 13:19).
A Thought to Ponder: It was a person who tempted our Lord, and our Lord addressed him as such. (From God the Father, God the Son, p. 117, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
Obadiah 1
Edom is judged because she has acted with violence toward Israel.
INSIGHT
Esau and Jacob were brothers. Esau was the father of the nation Edom, and Jacob was the father of the nation Israel. Therefore, in a sense, the nations Edom and Israel are brothers. A day comes when Assyria wages war against Jerusalem. But instead of joining Israel, heir brother, in the fight against Assyria, Edom joins Assyria and fights against their brothers in Jerusalem. Because of this breach of loyalty, God pronounces judgment on Edom through the prophet Obadiah. God offers no hope for possible restoration or deliverance for Edom. Her fate is sealed. Edom is destroyed as a nation.
(Quiet Walk)
Like the Most High
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:14)
These are two of the “I will’s” of Satan—or Lucifer—as he aspired to usurp the throne of God as ruler of the universe (see Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-17). Not content to be “the anointed cherub,” the highest of the angelic hierarchy (Ezekiel 28:14), he wanted to be God, and this monstrous pride became “the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6) so that he is now “fallen from heaven” and will soon be “brought down to hell” (Isaiah 14:12, 15).
Lucifer, of course, is not the Creator, for he was “created” (Ezekiel 28:15) himself. It would seem therefore that for him to rationalize his ambition to be like the most High, he must somehow persuade himself that he is like the most High—that is, that God is a created being like himself and thus can be defeated. He only had God’s word that he had been created by Him, and he evidently chose not to believe what God said (just as do multitudes of men and women today).
He, like they, chose rather to believe that the eternal cosmos had somehow created them all by its own powers. The great cosmos (call it Mother Nature, perhaps) has “created” spirit beings, as well as men and women, and all the worlds inhabited by them. In this scenario, the true Creator God is viewed as only one of many. Therefore, He is vulnerable to defeat—or so Satan evidently believes.
Thus, Lucifer became the first evolutionist, and this great lie by which he deceived himself became the basis of his later deception of Eve and then of the founders of all the varied pantheistic religions of the world, as well as modern evolutionism and New Age philosophies. Nevertheless, God is still on His throne, and “the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings” (Revelation 17:14).
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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