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The relationship humanity has with rules, is I think one which generally wants to buck them. The speed limit is to be nudged according to need, bedtime to be feigned as forgotten, ‘no’ taken as a maybe and ‘yes’ as a ‘what else is there?’
Continue reading “Rules and Twinkling Lights”
Understanding when the books of the Bible were ‘penned’ helps us understand the events, stories and intended meaning so much more… including helping us discern what is past, present and still yet future.
I gave a brief little Bible overview in a small group setting this week, and a friend asked if I’d write it down for her – which was of course my great delight. So here it is…
Continue reading “Hindsight is a different beast – Bible overview”
Jesus was wrapped and laid down two times – once each at the book-ends of His physical time earthside.
They wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.
They wrapped Him in linen cloths and laid him in a tomb.
I have a speculation regarding the number 40 in the New Testament… My speculation is this.
Continue reading “40 something”
I knew the number 7 came up a lot in the Bible, but not HOW much… or that it’s use often was part of a pattern (but not always) . Of the 513 in the Bible, lots are referring to repeat events – for instance the 2 seven day festivals which span over a 1000 years in the Bible get quite a few mentions. smile emoticon
Why does it matter? Because He is still working the end of the story.
My chart wont be without errors, but I distilled it down to approx. 110 different and significant uses of 7. And out of THAT, several distinct things happen.
For
instance:
# Every single period of time that has something to do with purification is
measured by lots of 7 days.
# Every single time there is a ‘sprinkling’ (also for purification) – it is
done 7 times
# Over and over and over, significant things are completed/finished in 7 days.
The
“7’s” (and multiples) in the Bible most often thought of would be…
# Creation – the first week – the last day being the Sabbath.
# Forgiving 70 x 7
A
favourite of mine which is often missed/glossed over…
# There were six lots of 7 generations between Abraham and Jesus.
A
few more perhaps not so easily thought of…
# 70 years captivity in Babylon
# The menorah in the tabernacle/temple having 7 lamps
# 7 day feast of unleavened bread
# 7 day feast of Trumpets
# 7 Feasts of Israel
# Marching around Jericho for 7 days with 7 priests and 7 trumpets, and on the
last day, 7 times
And
the 7’s in Revelation…
• Spirits before Gods throne
• Lampstands – churches
• Stars – angels
• Seals
• Lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes (which are the 7 spirits of God)
• 7 angels with 7 trumpets
• 7 thunders
• 7000 killed in an earthquake
• Dragon with 7 heads (hills – kings)) and 7 crowns
• 7 last plagues
• 7 bowls of wrath
And the rest:
• He blessed the 7th day
• Vengeance 7 times over to Cains killer if killed
• Seven pairs of animals on the ark
• God sent the rain 7 days after telling Noah to enter it
• Seventh month the ark rested on Mt Ararat
• Sent the dream of 7 cows and heads of grain to pharaoh
• Resulting in 7 years abundance and 7 years famine
• Jacob’s family of SEVENty
• Seven days between Nile turning to blood and frog plague
• Seven day feast of unleavened Bread
• Sacred assembly on 1st and 7th days
• No manna – so as no work on each 7th day in wilderness
• God created Sabbath to be 7th day – day of REST – Jews, animals, slaves and foreigners to all rest
• Servants set free in 7th year
• Land to be rested each 7th year
• SEVENty elders to accompany Moses to worship
• The Lord called Moses into the cloud of His glory on the mountain to receive the Law on the 7th day of the cloud
• Seven lamps on the lampstand
• Priestly garments to be worn seven days after succeeding Aaron – and to be anointed in them
• Seven days taken to anoint Aaron and his sons – same seven days to consecrate the altar
• If an anointed priest sins – the guilt offering sprinkled seven times
• If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally – the blood of the bull is sprinkled seven times
• Anointing oil sprinkled seven times on altar
• Woman unclean for 7 days after a sons birth – double after a girls
• Separated from community for multiples of 7 days with a rash
• Pronounced clean on 7th day or multiples thereof
• Same procedure for articles and homes
• Ritual cleansing for diseased person (on multiples of the 7th day) includes sprinkling 7 times
• Anointing oil sprinkled 7 times for cleansing
• Same as above for men with unusual bodily discharge
• Impurity of period lasts 7 days
• If a man lies with her during that, he is unclean 7 days as well
• Seventh month holds 3 final feast days
• Seven weeks after Firstfuits to Weeks
• Tabernacles lasts for seven days in the seventh month
• To live in temporary shelters for the seven days o Tabernacles
• Seen lots of seven years to the 50th – the jubilee
• No work in the 7th year of the land – God will provide enough as in the 7th day in the wilderness with the manna
• Punishment for refusal to listen and continuing sin – seven times over
• Bowl of offering weighed SEVENTY shekels each day of the Tabernacles consecration
• Uncleanness lasts 7 days
• 7 animals to be sacrificed
• 7 bigger nations to drive out
• Debts cancelled
• Celebrate WHERE the Lord chooses
• Read the law aloud every seven years in the year of cancelling debts
• Jericho (on 7 days of Unleavened Bread) – 7 priests, 7 trumpets, march once for 6 days then on the 7th, 7 times
• Punishment at hands of Midian for 7 years
• Ruth paralleled to being better than 7 sons
• Ark captive by Philistines 7 months
• God stuck 70 from Beth Shemesh for breaking His command and looking into the ark
• Davids infant son dies on the 7th day
• Seventy THOUSAND killed because of David’s pride
• Third level of Temple 7 cubits wide
• 7 years to build the temple
• 7 pillars in temple
• Elijah send Ahab to look at the sea 7 times
• God reserves 7000 who don’t bow to Baal
• Ahab’s battle completed on 7th day?
• The boy Elisha brought healing to sneezed 7 times!!!
• Elijah sends Naaman to wash in Jordan 7 times
• Another famine 7 years decreed by God – Shunammite provided for
• Joash hidden in temple till rules at age 7
• Levites on a 7 day roster at temple
• 7000 talents silver in temple
• David rules in Hebron 3 years and 33 in Jerusalem. (Total 40 – same number as days of purification to bear a son. JESUS – SON OF DAVID)
• 700 cattle and 7000 sheep sacrificed as they entered into covenant with God
• 70 years captivity for all the years the land had not been given its rest. (490 years without its rest?)
• Ezra returns to Jerusalem in 7th year of Artaxerxes reign
• Job – 7 sons (3 daughters), 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, mourning period 7 days, 19 From six calamities he will rescue you;in seven no harm will touch you. Jobs friends told by God to sacrifice 7 each bulls and rams. Job ha 7 more sons (3 more daughters)
• God’s word flawless and compared to gold refined 7 times
• “Our days may come to SEVENty years” David
• Wisdom has seven pillars
• God will break the Euphrates River into seven streams
• Tyre will be forgotten for SEVENty years
• The sun will become seven times brighter – like the light of seven full days
• Ezekiel sat with those at Tel Aviv seven days and then the Word of the Lord came to him
• SEVENy elders in Ezekiels vision
• Israeli will burn the weapons of those they defeat for fuel for seven years
• Will tale Israelites seven months to bury the dead in the valley of Hamon Gog
• Seven steps on the Ezekiel temple north and south. Section 7 cubits wide, 70 cubits wide
• Seven days making atonement at Ezekiel temple – then be accepted.
• Priest waits seven days after contact with death in Ezekiel’s temple
• Ezekiel’s vision – 1st and 7th days unintentional sin offerings. (14th day Passover)
• Nebuchadnezzar deranged for 7 years
• SEVENTY sevens decreed between Daniels vision. Also 62 sevens. Also one seven .Jesus will raise 7 shepherds (and 8 commanders) to rule
• Zechariah – 7 eyes on a stone (7 eyes of the Lord).
• 7 lamps and channels on gold lampstand
• 7 loaves and 2 fish (as in pairs on Noahs ark) Then 7 baskets leftover
And if you make it this far… another intriguing thing is how often the number “3” shows up in sync with “7”.
Miss 6 has to dress up as a “Town Person” for the Pre Primary nativity play… remembering my trusty Jewish Prayer shawl tucked away under the bed (I mean – who doesn’t have one?) I decided she could wear this for her costume. (Certainly beats having to figure out a camel!!)
Continue reading “Grafted in”
When I was a young teen, the topic of the second coming/the rapture/the tribulation/end of days was a hot and common topic in the church. It does still come up, but much less than years ago and mostly I think viewed with suspicion and there-goes-a-fruit-loop-ism these days. Suspicion is good if it makes you look for Bible truth, and so is there-goes-a-fruit-loop-ism for the same reason, but mostly I think it’s I’m-havening-a-nice-life-don’t-interrupt-me-ism or maybe a case of no-one-ever-told-me-Jesus-is-coming-back-ism. Or maybe fear.
Continue reading “Trumpet sounds”
Been thinking on Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
An idea I’ve not actually done with Teen Team at church was to ask them each to bring a collection of items that represent themselves, their personalities, attributes, interests. The kinds of things they’d want their children and grandchildren to know were important about them.
Continue reading “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh #1”
Every night that I go outside, I find myself looking up at the moon and saying “Hullo Lord”. Not because I’m mistaking the moon for Him, or heading into some weird form of worship, but because the moon is a great reminder to me that He has set many ways to communicate with us, and in a sense the moon is one of those.
Continue reading “Passover-Easter-Communion series 1/8”
If you lived and worked in two different time zones, you would obviously need to keep track of the time in both places. The calendar we are used to is not the same as the calendar spoken of in the Bible. Because of this difference most of us are unaware of the days on which many recorded Biblical events happened, or the days on which God set His “appointed times” (moed).
Continue reading “Passover-Easter-Communion series 2/8”