Amaziah - Employer of the Year

So actually the vast majority of this lesson was spent in a little summary of the last term for our benefit and our new member's... (welcome to the world of blogs Paul...)

Theeen after that we got to Amaziah. I'm gonna be honest and say that after reading 2 Kings 14 my memory still hasn't been jogged, soooo from reading 2 Kings 14 then.

So Amaziah was a king of Judah, the son of Joash. His contemporary in Israel was Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz. They didn't like each other much, and decided to battle at Beth Shemesh (even though Jehoahaz originally didn't really want to do it - "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as wife'; and a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Glory in that, and stay at home; for why should you meddle with trouble so that you fall-you and Judah with you?" [2 Kings 14:9+10]. - basically Jehoash is saying that he could easily beat Amaziah, so what's the point?! Which I suppose is one way to make someone angry enough to fight you...). And yeah, Israel did win, just like Jehoahaz had said... he took all the gold and silver from the house of the LORD and the king's house, broke down a lot of the wall of Jerusalem. But he didn't kill Amaziah, actually Jehoash died before Amaziah. He just ruined Judah.

I'd forgotten to say that before this battle, Amaziah had taken revenge on the people who killed his father (but not their children, like it says in the Law: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; but a person shall be put to death for his own sin."). God describes him as doing the right thing in the sight of the LORD, but not like David did, just like his father did...there were still high places, and the people were still bad. And he killed lots of Edomites- which is why Jehoash includes that in his taunt.

Amaziah is assassinated by people in Jerusalem.

So I'm gonna read Chronicles now, and see what that says.

Chronicles says he did what was right, 'but not with a loyal heart' - so his heart wasn't REALLY in what he believed and did. He numbered the people... and then decided to hire 100,000 mighty men from Israel. We said that meant he didn't trust God to help him the battle. A man of God actually comes and tellls him not to do it because God isn't with the Israelites...and so Amaziah dismisses the Israelite troops, and then goes on to kill all of those Edomites. The dismissed troops are angry and raided Judah's cities and killed lots of people.

And Amaziah brought back gods from Seir and bowed down to them... and a prophet comes to tell him that God's angry. But Amaziah doesn't really seem to listen... and goes to war with Israel.

And that's it =)

Jehoahaz and Jehoash – The Evil Continues.

This is Eilidh on Kirsty's account.

Jehoahaz and Jehoash – The Evil Continues.

Sorry for the delay guys…

So Jehoahaz was the son of Jehu, and Jehoash was the son of Jehoahaz.

So back in December when we actually had the lesson, we compared Jehoahaz and Jehoash. So the basics, they were both Kings of Israel. Jehoahaz: ‘he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel to sin.’ – 2 Kings 13v2 … and Jehoash: ‘he also did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.’ – 2 Kings 13v1. Jehoash didn’t learn from his father’s example and made Israel to sin. In Verse 4 Jehoahaz asks God for help, and God helps him, but he still did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam. Israel’s worship was still sin as their worship was Asherah – wooden image. ‘and the Asherah also remained in Samaria’ – 2 Kings 13v6.

Both Jehoahaz and Jehoash were given the opportunity to see the hand of God, but they didn’t respond. v23 ‘but the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, no has he cast them from his presence until now’

The lesson that we get from Jehoahaz and Jehoash is that we can appear to do right things in our life but still leading an evil life. In the world people only really remember God when they need help, like Jehoahaz did. We should remember God at all times, not just when we need help.

What is acceptable to have as our entertainment in our lives?

Do we want to follow the ways of Jehoash and Jehoahaz? Or in the ways of God?


It’s a bit short, but I can’t remember some things, which is completely my fault. If anyone else (Debbie who was there) can remember anything else that we talked about. Leave a comment (:
Eilidh.

Joash and Jehoiada - The Dynamic Duo

So who is the biggest influence in your life?
We reckoned it was our parents, maybe siblings, and Uncle Norman's said his was his wife =).

So what was the point in asking that?
Well it says that
'Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.' [2Kings 12:2]
So obviously Jehoiada's influence in Joash's life was pretty huge.
Just a little recap - Joash was the grandson of Athaliah, the horrible granny who killed her 70 grandchildren, APART from Joash, who was hidden by Jehoiada in the house of the LORD. She clearly wasnt a very good granny, because a)she killed them all and b)she didn't even notice she'd missed Joash out!

So Jehoiada was good for Joash, he influenced him in the right way. BUT he was an old guy, and he died...
'Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them' [2Chronicles 24:17]
Now these guys weren't so good, and Joash definitely didn't benefit from listening to their advice...
'Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass' [2 Chronicles 24:18]
So that wasn't so good...
We were reminded of Rehoboam, that guy with the fat pinky, who listened to the advice of his peers rather than those that served with King Solomon, who had been good at least SOME of his life. And the advice of the young men, who'd always been used to prosperity on their part, and not really bothered thinking about how life was for everyone else, was that King Rehoboam should be really harsh on the people. Which ended in the people rebelling against Rehoboam. That was when the Northern Kingdom was formed, wasn't it? ... *checks* yeah, it was, they all rebelled against the house of David, and then when Jeroboam came out of hiding they crowned him their king instead of Rehoboam. So there you go, listening to his buddies rather than the older men didn't help him any.
NOT that all young people are just layabouts, we know that Timothy, for example, was a good guy. And actually thinking about it, I'm sure that was because of his mum's and grandma's influence, yeah?
'when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.' [2Tim 1:5]
Timothy had listened to the right influences, and because of this he could be a good influence for the people in the ecclesia.

So, lesson for us?

• We should listen to the right influences
• We should then use that influence to change our lives
• ...and the lives of those around us, our peers...
• ...so that if our original Jehoiada dies or goes out of our lives somehow, we still have good influences to rely on in our peers, who learned from the same Jehoiada.
• And we can ALL help each other in this =)

So what about Joash, he was good until Jehoiada died, was he a good king overall? Well we reckoned he was sort of middling possibly - he's influenced greatly by the people around him, so perhaps we didn't really take time to form proper opinions of his own? Maybe he did though, we can't read people's characters.

But it was what he did last that mattered, just like in our lives. In the New Testament somewhere that I can't find right now, it talks about how even if we've been good all our lives and then turn our backs on God and do evil, our goodness is no longer of any importance. If we die with our backs on God, we can't rely on His mercy.

And that works two ways - if we've been evil all our lives and then repent and get baptised and try to do good, our evilness is forgotten. Jesus' sacrifice has washed those sins away, and we concentrate on being the best we can for God. And because of this, we CAN rely on God's mercy.

This doesn't mean that it just doesn't matter if we sin or not, of course it does! It's our attitude that's the important thing - if we THINK we can sin without it mattering then that's like turning our backs on God. It's getting that balance between recognising God's mercy and realising that no sin of ours can EVER bigger than His mercy in forgiving us. BUT we are horrible people, we need to recognise that too, and try even harder to be better for Him because of this. It's also incredibly hard to explain, and I'm not managing too well...

ANYWAY we've found out that its what we're doing NOW and what we WILL do in the FUTURE that are the important things.

So. We're in the last days. What are you doing NOW?

PS that last days bit? WELL.. the EU is now a legal entity, as of the 1st December, so it is now classed as a nation. By some definition somewhere.

[Rev 17:16,17]

'16 And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 17 For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled'

The beast, that was Rome, right? So the 10 horns were those 10 nations that originally came out of Rome and formed Europe (the Vandals, the Goths, and those other ones). Well now they're being 'of one mind', yeah? The harlot, I can't remember what we said about her, Uncle Norman knows.. but that's being fulfilled just now too. Bits of Revelation and other prophecies are coming true all the time, we really are in the last days.... so what are we doing about it?

Jehu

Quick summary of what we did today with Kenneth

1 Kings 19:15-18-

Elijah who is on Mount Horeb is told to...

• go back to Damascus
• anoint Hazael king over Syria
• anoint Jehu king over Israel
• appoint Elisha to be prophet

but he only does two of the tasks, he returns to Damascus and he appoints Elisha, and then it's Elisha who does the anointing. Were Elijah's tasks passed on to Elisha when he was anointed??

Now this is all happening in the days of Ahab, that evil guy with an evil wife and an evil daughter who then went over to Judah's line and messed around there as well... but she got killed.

Jehu was the commander of the army. We read 2 Kings 9 ourselves and wrote down bits about it, so I'll share mine.

• Elisha sends sons of the prophets with oil to Ramoth-Gilead
• they find Jehu and go to an inner chamber
• THEY (not Elisha) anoint him King with the oil
• Jehu told to strike down the house of Ahab, so that avenge on Jezebel the blood of servants
• Dogs will eat Jezebel
• Jehu conspired against Joram
• as Jehu approaches, Joram sends out a messenger but he doesn't return and sticks with Jehu. Joram sends another, and the same happens again
• Jehu shot Joram with an arrow and pierced his heart
• they threw him on the plot belonging to Naboth - (to give context, Naboth and all his sons are already dead)
• Jezebel gets pretty. her people with her throw her out the window and she gets eaten by dogs.

I often find it difficult to remember things until I can visualise it properly, wh

ich is why it was great when Jon sort of acted out the bit when Joash aged 7 is anointed and Athaliah bursts in yelling TREASON!! because now i can always remember that. And today, Kenneth sort of acted -told the story well. In some of his words...

Elijah is all depressed and has been sent up to Mount Horeb. He gets these tasks he has to do.. 1, head back to Damascus. 2, anoint Hazael king over Syria. 3, anoint Jehu king over Israel. 4, appoint Elisha.

Dum de dum, he appoints Elisha. Elisha gets the sons of the prophets - I wonder, could these be any of the prophets that were hidden in the caves?. Elisha says, 'right, ru

n! you gotta go to these people and pick out Jehu from among them. Take him to another room and tell him this, that the Lord is appointing him King over Israel! and use the oil you've got, pour it over his head. and then flee!'

This all happens, and Jehu goes back to his people, who are asking "what was all that about" and Jehu is like "you've set me up. come on, what was that really about?" - and his guys are saying "no, no, really, we didn't do anything! what is it??"

and Jehu shrugging his shoulders,, he's just casually saying "they said they had been sent by a prophet. and - well.... you know, i'm King in Israel."

and then all the guys in the room shout for joy!! Lay down their cloaks, this guy is the new KING!! They gather up a load of people and head over to Joram's place - he's the current King of Israel, but has just been injured in battle against Hazael king

of Syria and so they've carried him back to Jezreel to try and get better. Joram doesn't come out to meet Jehu as he approaches, he sends a messenger on horse

back to say "Thus says the king, 'Is it peace?'", but he doesn't return to Joram, he sticks with and joins Jehu's people.

"What! What's he doing??"

So Joram sends another guy. and the same happens again. Why are they all sticking with Jehu?

Ahaziah of Judah (Joram's... what is it... ah, Joram of ISRAEL is Uncle to this Ahaziah of JUDAH. It's confusing, because there's a J(eh)oram and an Ahaziah in both Judah and Israel.)

I'll explain that actually. Maybe easier drawing a picture.

So, I've circled the people I'm talking about.

Anyway, Joram and Ahaziah get ready and come out to meet Jehu at Naboth's property.

2 Kings 9 ²²And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?"

This I imagine to be like today's "So's your face." "So's your mum", Jehu is just insulting Joram's mum Jezebel.

²³Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahaziah, "Treachery, O Ahaziah!" ²⁴And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot.

Ahaziah ran away, but Jehu chased him and some of Jehu's people shot him at the ascent of Gur. Ahaziah kept going on to Megiddo and died there.

After this, Jehu goes back to Jezreel on his horse and sees Jezebel at a window, she's made her eyes all pretty. He goes near and shouts up "Who is on my side? Who?" and a couple of eunuchs with her look out the window - Debbie said its like they're saying "Me!"

"Who is on my side?".. pop their heads out... *Pop* *Pop* .. "Me?"

and Jehu tells them to push her out. and SPLAT goes Jezebel. What God said became true

¹⁰And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her."

³⁵But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶When they came back and told him, he said, "This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, 'In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, ³⁷and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.'

Jehu was incredibly influential and powerful, it seemed like a lot of people were listening to him. Either he was doing what the people wanted and therefore they were supporting him, or they were scared of him because he was a commander and now King. They listened to him and followed him.

Nearer the start of the lesson I'd asked if Joram had any sons- they'd be pretty mad if they didn't get to be King and some commander got to instead... so we looked at the start of 2 Kings 10. Here it says that Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria, but sometimes this can mean sons & grandsons etc. In some places Jehu is called 'Jehu son of Nimshi, son of Jehoshaphat'; and in other places just 'Jehu son of Jehoshaphat' when reeeally it's saying 'grandson of Jehoshaphat'. So can we apply this to Ahab's 70 sons - some of them being Joram's sons?

Ahab's 70 sons were killed, and Ahaziah of Judah's 42 were killed. These two guys were such bad influences that all the sons had to be killed as well.

All in all... Jehu did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, he wiped out Baal from Israel (also by getting a load of the Baal worshippers in the house of Baal together and then killing them all), but he didn't take away the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan... and ³¹But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.

So on our David - Ahab scale, we've put Jehu around the middle between those two.

Ahab; Athaliah & Jehoram & Ahaziah

Right, well seeing the blog hasn't been updated in a fairly long time, I decided to share some of the notes that I have taken.

Please other people add notes or thoughts as well...

On the first of November, we looked at Ahab. I Kings 16:29 He started reigning in Israel in the 38th year of Asa King of Judah (who was a goodie). Ahab was the opposite, he was very evil, the worst King they'd ever had. he married Jezebel who was the daughter of the King of the Sidonians. and you can remember he's called Ethbaal King of the Sidonians, because Eth-baal: they worshipped Baal. and pretend he had a lisp. Ethbaal, see?

Ahab worshipped Baal and made an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which was built in Samaria. in the third year of Ahab's reign, Elijah shows himself to Ahab. he'd recently been in hiding - Jezebel had been cutting off the prophets of the Lord, and Obadiah whose was over the household hid 100 prophets, 50 in 2 caves, and had been feeding them bread and water. The famine was SEVERE but Obadiah still got them bread and water, he's a nice guy.

One day Obadiah and Ahab go out to find water and grass and save horses and mules before they die. they go their seperate ways, and Obadiah stops when he finds Elijah. Elijah says to tell Ahab that he's here,, but Obadiah knows he'll get killed (this is in 1 Kings 18). Eventually Obadiah goes and tells Ahab, and Ahab comes to see Elijah. they get all the prophets 'who eat at Jezebels table' on Mount Carmel - 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah, and Elijah by himself. They get 2 bulls - one for Baal's prophets, and one for Elijah. They cut each bull into pieces, and lay it on wood, but don't put fire on it. Baal's prophets keep calling out to their god to get him to light the fire,but nothing happens. When Elijah does it, he first gets the prophets to fill 4 jars full of water and pour it on the offering and the wood, and this is repeated 3 times. Elijah calls to God, and (1 Kings 18:38) "Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench."

In chapter 21, Ahab wants Naboth's vineyard because it's beside his palace and would make a good vegetable garden for Ahab, but Naboth refuses v3 'but Naboth said to Ahab, "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers"'. Naboth understood inheritance. He had sons (note - this is not included in I Kings 21 v 13 where it says 'they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones' - you have to look at 2 Kings 9:26 which reads 'As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons-declares the Lord- I will repay you on this plot of ground'. This is a type of Christ, Jesus understood inheritance, and the sons of Naboth (those waiting to inherit it) are like the faithful who are in Christ. That inheritance is not lost in Israel however, because God will preserve it.

~~

Next lesson I had (I missed Ahaziah&Jehoram) was named 'the soap opera' - Athaliah, Jehoram and Ahaziah. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab & Jezebel,, and she was incredibly evil. Her parents obviously had an influence on her for they were both evil, but it doesn't have to be like that you can change it - Athaliah's daughter Jehosheba was good and married a priest (we only looked at that quickly at the end of the lesson - I think that's going to be looked at more next lesson).

The marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah sounds more of an arranged marriage - 2 Chronicles 21:6 'And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife...' (ESV) and in the King James it reads 'for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife'. Jehoram made high places in the hill country and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem 'into whoredom and made Judah go astray'. He killed all his brothers who were better than himself, who he could've learnt from. So... because of all this, the Lord brought a plague upon his people, his children, his wives and all his possessions. There was direct intervention from God - 2 Chr 21:16 'And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the anger of the Philistines and of the Arabians who are near the Ethiopians'. You read often in Scripture of direct intervention from God to teach someone a lesson, like when God was angry with Solomon and brought adversaries against him.

God also gave Jehoram an incurable bowel disease and he died two years later when they fell out. The people of Israel seemed pretty glad he was gone, they didn't make a fire in his honour and they didn't bury him with the rest of the kings. (verses 19 & 20).

We ran out of time as usual, and didn't even get to the 'juicy' bit where Athaliah kills everyone, except her grandson Joash who is hidden away in the house of the Lord. And 7 years later, Jehoida the priest has entered a covenant with the commanders of hundreds - Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael, Azariah son of Obed, Masseiah and Elishaphat - and they gathered all the Levites from all the cities of Judah (this is in 2 Chr 23) and the heads of fathers' houses of Israel and they all went to Jerusalem. Joash who is only 7 years old is crowned king of Judah.. and suddenly granny Athaliah comes into the house of God and yells "TREASON!" when she sees her daughter who has gone against her, her son-in-law against her, her grandson crowned king, all these people rejoicing... the people can't kill her in the temple, but they chase her and eventually she is killed.

Nehemiah travelled between Jerusalem and Babylon,, where does he fit in all of this? I have no idea. Oh, he's not anywhere near. He's when it's the Persian empire. Hmm. Well, we started to look at Nehemiah, how Nehemiah talks about inter-marrying, and how Solomon was loved by God, but 'foreign women did make him to sin' (Neh 13: 26). The people he visited were losing their identity, he'd pulled out their hair when he saw they'd married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. The Jewish people could not even speak their own language, they were going to the language of these of other people.

It's about who you're influenced by, we have to be careful who we spend a lot of our time with, not people who will lead us astray. Even though people can call themselves Christadelphians, its not calling themself a Christadelphian that makes it alright to date and then go on to marry them... it's how they are, you have to find out what sort of person they are and if they are on the same path as you. A while ago meetings would disfellowship someone who married outside the meeting, and so people in this situation - their other half would get baptised but maybe their heart wasn't true. And they'd come along to the meeting for a bit, but eventually both of them would grow away from the meeting. So we have to choose carefully who are friends are and not be influenced badly by them.

Any other thoughts...?

The Bride of Christ - Picture for Marriage

This week we started off by trying to find the phrase "the bride of Christ" in the bible. After spending a few minutes looking for the phrase, we actually found that it wasn't there. hahaha! But the idea of the phrase is there.
So we looked at a couple of passages where this idea occurs. But first we looked at the concept of marriage.

Gen 2 v 24

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

So we discussed how it can be difficult to see how this joining of the flesh (sex) is a picture of Christ and his bride. We then looked at the steps of marriage

• Attraction
• Going out (Fall in love)
• Engagement (Choose to love)
• Become one mind
• Marriage
• Become one flesh

ps in case you don't understand - the fall in love and choose to love was a very very interesting point brought up by Gab Bauer at the glasgow central fraternal - on ephesians. 'Phileo' seems to be the physical, first love attraction - the falling in love. 'Agape' seems to be a conscious decision to keep loving the person - choosing to love. (jamie wants me to put that that paragraph was by me - debbie)

Becoming one mind is crucial for becoming one flesh. This is why this is harder for one believer and one believer to be married. This parallels with the picture of Jesus and his wife

John 10 v 30

"I and my father are one"

and

Galatians 3 v 28

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus."

So we are preparing now to become one then. So now is the time for us to become one in mind with Jesus and God to prepare us for the marriage supper of the lamb. Which is mentioned in the following passages

Revelation 19 v 1 - 9

1. And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
2. For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
3. And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.
4. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
5. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Rev 21 v 1 - 12

1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
10. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11. Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12. And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

Once we've become one in mind (which we can't do properly until the kingdom) we will no longer
have the desire to sin - we will have 'divine nature.'

2 Peter 1 v 1 - 11

1.Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Make Your Calling and Election Sure
3. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
4. by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
5. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,
6. and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,
7. and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
8. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
10. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
11. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

this wasn't by me

Illustrations for NOW: Tabernacle Part 2

Just a carrying-on point from last week - we have to remember that the Bible doesn't actually say anywhere what the standards of the children of Israel were (the Eagle, Ox, Lion, Man thing). Sometimes we can find allusions to the relation between Reuben and Man, Dan and Eagle, Judah and Lion, Ephraim and Ox, for example in Gen 49v9:

Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Yeah so those verses (what Jacob said to Judah before his death) could allude to Judah having a lion as his 'standard', but nothing is stated anywhere...But it's a pretty cool would-be-nice =) [Apparently Josephus, a historian from Jesus' time, referred to the whole Judah-lion, Reuben-man etc thing, but even was about 1000 years after (I think) so that's not proving anything]. If you're wanting the chapter where it talks about the formation and the standards, it's Numbers 2.



We looked at who went where when the camp moved off too. The Ark moved first, and then the tribes, with Levites carrying bits of the tabernacle, went too, something like this:
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun
GERSHONITES (with tabernacle)
Reuben
Simeon
Gad
KOHATHITES (with Holy things from tabernacle)
Ephraim
Manasseh
Benjamin
Dan
Asher
Napthali

Some of that may be wrong, but I'm in a hurry cause Kirsty wants the blog before the end of the week.. so can you please correct me in the comments? =) merci =)

Layout of the Camp
The priests and Levites probably stayed either in the middle of the camp, or at the corners (between the tribes, if they had kinda equal parts along the sides (so each side was split into 6, and the tribes had 3 of them, and the Levites had little boxes in the corners.) We thought the in the middle (between the Tabernacle and people) was a little more likely, because Levi means 'Join' - so they were kind of joining the people and God's worship together?

And a little flashback to the whole tribes thing - Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who got a tribe each - this was because Jacob had chosen Joseph to be his firstborn, and firstborns got a DOUBLE PORTION (*click!*)

The tabernacle walls were above man height, so with not being able to see in, and the Levites being between the people and Tabernacle, the people were really quite separated from the Tabernacle. This is a nice little type for us - we can't SEE what's going on in heaven with Jesus and God, but that doesn't mean it's not there and it's not happening. The people weren't allowed to enter the Tabernacle, so their worship was in their everyday lives - following the Law in everything they do (it covered all the everyday stuff like food and washing too). So our worship isn't just a Sunday thing, it isn't saved for when we go to the meeting, it's to be a central part of our lives, just like the Tabernacle was in the MIDDLE of the camp. The priest would meet the congregation at the door to take the sacrifices to be burnt and do the judging etc. Jesus IS the door (He actually says 'I am the door') so we don't need a priest to come and meet us anymore - He is every role in one, and through Him WE can access the Most Holy (which before ONLY the High Priest could enter once a year.. that's pretty special!)

The Tabernacle wasn't a particularly grand structure, it wasn't showy - from the outside it was a bunch of skins, nothing special to look at. Our worship doesn't have to be grand and spectacular either, but it does have to always be with us, wherever we travel.

So why are we looking at the Tabernacle? Is it just a nice wee brain walk or is it meaningful to us? WELL. Heb 9:19-23 helps us on that
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23 ¶ It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
This is all about everything that went on under the Law (the sacrifices etc) which includes the Tabernacle (which was where everything went on and also was a big part of the Law). The tabernacle is a 'pattern of things in the heavens'(23) - the tabernacle gives us an idea of the order of things in heaven, God's dwelling.