God Answers!

I serve a faithful God.

I have been feeling a little dry spiritually, so yesterday, I took a prayer walk.  During my time with the Almighty, I asked Him to give my kids a kingdom spark.  A faith boost.  More motivation to seek Him and less motivation to pursue the world's distractions.

A few hours later, I noticed that my daughter had made a comment on social media about the goodness of God.  This was followed by an excited comment by my son, agreeing with her wholeheartedly.

Here is what happened.

My daughter was on her break at work.  She happened to strike up a conversation with an Asian woman who turned out to be a missionary from the Philippines.  My daughter was very blessed and encouraged by the conversation, and proceeded to give a $20 donation to the missionary.  The lady accepted the donation gratefully and offered my daughter a handmade bracelet.

After work, my daughter went over to my son's place of work and told him what happened.  His eyes got as big as saucers, and he proceeded to tell her what happened to him that day.

A missionary from Thailand had stopped by his work and had a conversation with him.  He told her he was blessed by the conversation, and offered her a donation of $20.  She accepted the donation gratefully, and proceeded to offer him a handmade necklace.

Sometimes God answers prayers immediately.  Other times, He asks us to wait.  This was an example of an immediate answer.

A reminder of God's faithfulness

At the end of the day, both kids came home with more than a spark for the Kingdom.  My daughter is even more excited about her upcoming mission trip and prayer internship, and my son is now making active plans to pursue missionary training.

Coincidence?  I think not.

God's Manifest Presence

This was not written by me, but was a devotional I came across this past week from a ministry in Israel.  The devotional was written with the weekly Torah portion in mind, from Leviticus 9.

Manifestation of God’s Presence: Aaron Begins His Ministry

 

“This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.”  (Leviticus 9:6)

 

On the eighth day, the day following an entire week of purification, Aaron and his sons began their ministry by offering the required sin offering, burnt offering and fellowship offering.

 

After Aaron had done all that the Lord had commanded through Moses, he stretched out his hands and blessed the people before stepping down from the altar.

 

But the people were not only blessed once.  Moses and Aaron blessed them again after they returned from the Tent of Meeting.  At this, the fire of God came upon the offerings and consumed them.

 

“Then Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting, and when they came out, they once again blessed the people.  Then fire issued from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offerings and the fat portions on the altar.”  (Leviticus 9:23–24)

 

With this remarkable manifestation of the Glory of God, the people felt such an awesome experience of being in the presence of the Lord that they shouted for joy and even fell down on their faces!

Sadly, this incredible time of worship was followed by sorrow because of a tragic incident in which fire from the presence of God also came in judgment.

 

The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who had just a short while earlier been instructed on the Temple service, changed the pattern of worship given to them by God through Moses.

 

In perhaps a grandiose, irreverent or drunken display of their ministration before the people, they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord (maybe offering incense at the wrong time) and, therefore, they perished:

 

“So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”  (Leviticus 10:2)

 

After reading about the spectacular event of God's fire consuming the offering and other miraculous, supernatural events in the Bible, some of us long for a dramatic manifestation of the Shekhinah glory of Adonai; however, we must keep in mind that the experience of the Israelites at this time was out of the ordinary.  

 

The fire of God did not consume the offering on a daily basis.  The people continued their worship, sacrifices, and offerings even when they did not “feel” anything special and nothing exceptional happened.

 

Likewise, our spiritual life should not be a pursuit of supernatural, dazzling encounters; neither should we think something is amiss in our relationship with the Lord if we are not continually riding an emotional “high.”

 

Just as a marriage relationship should not require continual thrills to stay committed, so should our hearts remain steadfast in our relationship with the Lord even when there seems to be no fresh fire.

 [This is not to say that the Lord will not give us supernatural manifestations today.  He can and He does, according to His sovereign will and purposes]

Yeshua Feeds Thousands and Thousands

Nothing is in scripture by accident.

Did you ever wonder why Yeshua fed 5000 people, and then shortly thereafter, fed the 4000?  Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the 5000.  Matthew and Mark both record the 4000.

God's numbers mean something.  Always.  I've said that my favorite number is seven - it happens so many times in scripture and it represents completeness.  But what can we learn from these giant Catering-By-Yeshua events?

The feeding of the 5000 took place near Bethsaida, to an all-Jewish crowd.  The number 5 represents God's grace and mercy, which He poured out first on the Jewish people.  The number five can also represent the Pentateuch - the first five books of scripture. 

(Note: see update #2 at the end of this post) 

Yeshua, our Bread of Life, is transforming the Mosaic Law into something much bigger, greater, and more nourishing.  After the meal, there were twelve baskets left over.  Twelve is a very Jewish number!  Twelve tribes of Israel.  Twelve apostles. 

The Greek word used for basket here is kophinos, which was a small, personal-sized basket that was used by the Israelites.  The Jewish people observed cleanliness laws carefully, and large community baskets were out of the question.

Fast forward to the second Great Catered Event.  Yeshua had just been to Tyre and Sidon and was traveling in the Decapolis - in other words, He had a very Gentile audience.  He had just "thrown the crumbs to the dogs," so to speak, when he healed the Gentile woman's daughter who had been demon-possessed.

When He fed the 4000, He was foreshadowing the salvation of the world.  The number four represents the four corners of the earth, symbolizing all of creation.  Seven baskets:  seven represents completeness, His plan of salvation for all of mankind. 

Even the Greek word for basket is different:  spuris.  This type of basket is huge!  Picture an Indiana Jones movie -  when Indy runs from his enemies, this would be a basket he could hide in and put the cover on it. 

In the same way, the grace and mercy of the Lord will be (and is being) poured out abundantly on the entire world.

But notice the order:  First to the Jew, and then to the Gentile.

Romans 1:16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (or Gentile - the word helene actually means anyone "Hellenized," or a non-Jew).

God's order of things has not changed.  Pray for opportunities to be a blessing and a witness to your Jewish friends.  If you don't have any, pray for some!  Bless Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).

UPDATE

I heard a sermon this morning on the feeding of the 5,000. (This is over nine years after I first posted this). There are so many truths to be taught from this account, but one thing that caught my eye today was those twelve baskets of bread left over.

As I mentioned above, the gospel is to the Jew first. But as I considered the twelve leftover baskets, I was reminded that the gospel is also last for the Jews. Remember, twelve is a very Jewish number.

Let me’ splain. 

The good news of the Messianic kingdom began at Jerusalem. It has, since then, traveled mostly in a westward direction and has reached the farthest parts of the earth.

That good news is on its way back to Jerusalem and will culminate there when the Messiah returns and reveals Himself to His brothers.

Could those symbolic twelve baskets of leftovers have been set aside (figuratively) as a promise that Yeshua’s lost brethren will someday feast on the Bread of Life?

Food for thought.

UPDATE #2

Something I learned a day after posting the first update regarding Hebraic thoughts regarding the number five...

The number five is considered to be “the numeric expression of a group, gathering its divergent parts into a complete unit.”  (Jewish Wisdom in the Numbers, p 89)

Whoa.  What kind-boggling thing has been taking place during the last 150 years? The regathering of the Jewish people, of course, to their God-given homeland.