1-13 - Rewards for Obedience
First, a prohibition: No idols or carved images or figured stones, because "I am the LORD your God...."
Rewards for obedience:
- Rains in their season
- Good harvests
- Peace in the land
- Safety from dangerous animals and enemies in the land
- Victory over enemies
- Grain in storage
- "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people....I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect." A promise already fulfilled.
- Terror on you: consumption and fever
- You will sow your seed in vain
- You will be struck down by your enemies
- I will punish you sevenfold
- I will break your proud glory: your work will be fruitless.
- Wild animals will kill your children
- I will send pestilence among you
- Though you eat, you will not be satisfied
- You will eat the flesh of your children
- I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols
- I will abhor you
- The enemies who settle your land shall be appalled at it
- I will scatter you among the nations
- Your land will get the rest you did not give it, with your enemies living there
- Will be faint of heart in the lands of your enemies
- Will flee, even with no one pursuing them
- Will languish in the land of your enemies
- I will not destroy utterly in the land of their enemies - for I am their God
- I will remember my covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham
- I will remember the land
- Explicit vows and amount of offering, according to their worth?
- Adult male: 50 shekels
- Adult female: 30 shekels
- Male 5-20 years old: 20 shekels
- Female 5-20 years old: 10 shekels
- Age one month - 5 years: 5 shekels of silver for male; 3 for female
- If unable to pay, priest will assess the value
- Priest will assess value of animals brought in exchange for another
- Value of houses consecrated will be assessed by priest
- Details regarding assessment of consecrated land, in light of year of jubilee
- Firstlings of animals cannot be consecrated: they are the LORD's
- Nothing or no one marked for destruction can be redeemed or ransomed
- Those who wish to redeem their tithes must add one-fifth to them
Psalm 31:14-24
14 - But...I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God."
18 - Let the lying lips be stilled that speak insolently against the righteous with pride and contempt. Verse for our times?
Acts 23
1-11 - Paul before the Council
- Claims to have a clear conscience
- Ananias, the high priest, orders him to be slapped
- After initial negative response, and realizing Ananias is the priest, Paul shows respect for his position
- Cleverly sets Sadducees in audience against the Pharisees by speaking of the resurrection from the dead
- Pharisees defend him!
- He's taken back to the barracks
- That night, the Lord promises he will testify of him in Rome. "Keep up your courage!"
- 40 men promise not to eat nor drink until they kill Paul. A foolish vow, it seems. How humiliating it must have been to break it, as I'm guessing they did.
- Paul's nephew learns of the plot and warns him; Paul sends him to tell tribune of the plot
- Tribune immediately sends Paul, accompanied by 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen, to Caesarea to Felix, the governor
- Letter from tribune (Claudius Lysias) to Felix: This man deserves a fair trial
- Felix promises Paul a hearing "when your accusers arrive."
- Orders him confined under guard in Herod's headquarters
1 comment:
Comment from my sister Yvonne on Leviticus 26:14-46: We as a nation have forgotten the awesome character of a just God.
Reply: That is pretty sobering, isn't it? And when you consider the history of Israel that follows, you see all this coming to pass. If I remember correctly, cannibalism became a reality before Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, when they were under siege from the Roman (?) armies. Or maybe that even happened somewhere in the Old Testament. I hope I'll remember the details of this warning as I read further along in their history.
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