"The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself" (1689 Baptist Confession, I.9). Scripture illuminates Scripture, and one portion of the Bible must be interpreted through other portions. The full sense of Scripture is not manifold but one, just as Author Himself is one. I always have that principle in mind as I …
Counted, centered, guarded, assigned, cleansed, consecrated, blessed, spoken, purified, and equipped. Over the course of these first chapters of Numbers, God has been doing all of these things to prepare His people for leaving Sinai. And, now, Israel actually marches out. Israel spent nearly a year at the base of the mountain of God. For …
Here is an extended quote from G. Campbell Morgan's teaching on Luke 8:19-39, concerning Jesus calming the storm on the sea. The next thing that we observe is the concern of the disciples. They did everything they could before they woke him, and do not forget that they were not novices. They knew how to …
Going on a journey requires planning and preparation. Since Exodus 19, the people of Israel have been camped at the base of Mount Sinai, and these opening chapters of Numbers have been about Yahweh preparing His people to leave and enter the Promised Land. Chapters 1-7 moved from broad to specific, focusing first on the …
Continue reading Equipped: The Passover, the Cloud, & the Trumpets | Numbers 9:1-10:10
During the last two years of his life, Seneca wrote a series of letters to his friend Lucilius, in which he gave his friend moral counsel. They are often published as "Letters from a Stoic" today. Interestingly, Seneca was an advisor to Nero and very likely could see the pattern of untimely deaths among those …
Continue reading Saving Time: A Reflection on Seneca’s First Letter
My soul longs for your salvation;I hope in your word. Psalm 119:81 ESV A new stanza is begun with this verse, wherein each line begins with the Hebrew letter kaph. And the psalmist begins with his soul: My soul longs for your salvation. In Hebrew, soul (nephesh) is not only the spiritual component of a …
Continue reading My Soul Longs for Your Salvation | Psalm 119:81
As we have noted, Numbers 1-10 is about God preparing His people to leave Sinai and to enter the Promised Land as His instruments of judgment upon the Canaanites and receive the promises that Yahweh made to their ancestor Abraham. The first six chapters focused on the people themselves as the LORD counted, centered, guarded, …
May my heart be blameless in your statutes,that I may not be put to shame! Psalm 119:80 ESV In the last two verses, the psalmist focused on the insolent and the godly. In 78, he prayed that the insolent would be put to shame because they wronged him with falsehood. In 79, he prayed for …
Last week, we came to one of the climatic moments of these opening chapters of Numbers. Remember that everything in these first ten chapters is about preparing Israel to leave Sinai and enter the Promised Land, where God will fulfill His promise to Abraham and also use them as His instrument of judgment upon the …
Continue reading Spoken: The Dedication of the Altar | Numbers 7
Translated Scripture is Scripture. That is a beautiful Christian doctrine that we do not meditate on enough. The Bible, of course, was originally written in Hebrew and a bit of Aramaic for the Old Testament and in Greek for the New Testament. Even though we acknowledge that no translation can perfectly capture the original languages, …
B. C. Newton 