SabbathTiming

           The title of this week’s Sabbath reading portion is B’har, or “On the Mount”. This reading portion comes from Leviticus 25, and the title is taken from verse 1: “And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai (meaning "thorny"), saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD…in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD…” (Lev. 25:1-2, 4).  Why is it important to know that these words were spoken to Moses “on the mount”? One reason may be that it was on Mount Sinai, one of three summits in this range, that the LORD established the foundational precepts for His people to know and follow including the Ten Commandments. It is from the high place that the LORD delivers His truth with power.

  Last week, we saw the LORD reveal the secrets of the sabbath day. This week, the LORD again begins His discourse about the sabbath. This time, the sabbath becomes the foundation for a longer time period and those longer time periods provide specific works, blessings, benefits, miracles, and far-reaching prophetic implications. The Sabbath has now been incorporated into a group of seven years. The seventh year of rest for the land was to restore and strengthen the fields and vineyards so that they would yield even greater produce, but also even more. In the Spirit, we see other things associated with the seven-year grouping of time. There is fruit that is produced during the six years before the seventh year sabbath rest for the land (v. 3). However, the Hebrew root word for sabbath year, sabat, also contains the meaning “produce of the sabbath year.”. There is a kind of produce that is associated only with the seventh or sabbath year that is different from the fruit of the six years before. This seventh-year produce, or increase (v. 7) is called tebua/bo in Hebrew, and means: “income, gain, revenue, profits, result, gain resulting from wisdom/enter into, come in, bring near, gather, place of entrance, of a bride entering the house of a husband, intimacy, to be brought into the barn, entering future times.” As we can see in the root meaning, the “produce” of the seventh year has a prophetic meaning for a time in the future, and also refers to the bride entering the house of her husband. Believers in Messiah/Christ are called “the Bride of Christ” and are waiting to be joined to Him for the marriage supper of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus (Rev. 19:7-9, Rev. 21:1-2). This is connected to the meaning of sabat Sabbath as we see above. We will see more about this later.

We can also see the prophetic importance of Israel keeping this seventh year sabbath rest for the land. In Hebrew, the word for “land” is eres (see above), which can mean a local field, or extend to nations, and then extend further to the land of all living, and then extend even further to encompass the world. This seven-year sabbath that some consign to a religious ritual, and others ignore completely, when obediently observed by the people of God, can have world-wide impact. The seventh-year sabbath is so important to the LORD that, in order to counter the doubts and reservations of His people, He made this promise: “And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?’ Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.” Lev. 25:20-21).

Can we begin to see why the sabbath is such an important foundational principle to God that He commands us to keep it holy?      

In this same chapter of Leviticus, the LORD reveals another spiritually powerful block of time based upon the Sabbath and the Sabbath year described above: “And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet (sopar/sapar - trumpet, ram’s horn, clear sharp sound/to be pleasing, be beautiful, goodly, comely, be bright, glisten, shine forth as the dawn) of Jubilee (yobel/yabal - ram’s horn, trumpet, cornet, the signal of silver trumpets, loud noise, joyful sound/to lead away, to be brought, to carry away, to flow)  to sound (abar - pass over or through, pass beyond, to emigrate, to leave one’s territory, to die, to depart, to go over to someone’s side)…on the Day of Atonement…throughout all your land (eres - see above, includes “the world”. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee (see above) for you;  and each of you shall return (sub - turn back, return, go back, come back, restore, refresh, renew, repair, out of a place, to anyone or place) to his possession (ahuzza - includes the meaning of a possession by inheritance), and each of you shall return to his family (mispaha - family, tribe, nation, clan, kind, genus)…For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce (see the meaning of tebua/bo above) from the field.” (Lev. 25:8-10, 12). We who know Jesus Christ as Savior have an inheritance in Him, and we have been made part of the family of God (Jn. 1:12, Gal. 3:26-29).

The idea of Jubilee in the fiftieth year, based on multiplications of the sabbath, is to cancel debt, and to return/restore all property that was sold in debt back to the debtor. If one of the brethren sells himself to another brother because of a debt obligation, he cannot be treated as a slave, but as a paid servant. He can only serve the owner until the year of Jubilee when he then can return to his own family and his property which he inherited from his fathers. (Lev. 25:39-43). Jubilee sets free, cancels debt obligations, and restores inheritances and families that money/debt has encumbered. Jesus taught us to pray a prayer to our Father that included the idea of Jubilee: “And forgive us our debts (opheilema/opheilo - that which is owed, justly or legally due as a debt, offense, sin/owe, be bound, be guilty, be indebted, to fail in duty), as we forgive our debtors (opheiletes - one who owes another, a debtor, held by some obligation, one who has not made amends to an injured party, penalty, punishment, a sinner, a transgressor).” (Mt. 6:12). The idea of monetary debt and forgiveness of debt extends to spiritual debt, or sin, as well. So we should not be ignoring the Jubilee.

As the spiritual stronghold of Mammon (mamonas - of Chaldee origin, the personification (idol) of riches, wealth and the confidence in them in opposition to God - see Mt. 6:24) began to rule the economy of the world, the command of a Jubilee Year faded away from practice (we are a people of debt, greed and unforgiveness), although men have tried to restore the idea of a Jubilee year according to scripture. In another reading portion from this sabbath, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied the Word of the LORD against this Mammon idol: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD…Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.” (Jer. 17:5, 7). The sins or debts of Judah had been engraved deeply with a pen of iron with the point of a diamond on their hearts, the LORD said, and the LORD promised to give their wealth and all of their treasures in which they trusted as plunder to others, and His people would “let go of your inheritance (nahala - possession, property, inheritance) which I gave you.” (v. 1, 3-4). The idea of Jubilee also carries a deep prophetic meaning according to the Hebrew words used above, and we will begin to seek out that prophecy.

The numbers involved in the Day of Atonement announcement of the coming Jubilee Year, have a meaning to reveal to us. In the 49th year, when the announcement is made, the Hebrew letters that represent the number 40 + 9 are the letters mem (“chaos, massive waters”) + teth (“a snake, to surround, to twist, to coil”). By the 49th year God's people have become wrapped in the chaos and destruction of the coiled snake of debt/sin and the bondage to debt/sin and unforgiveness. That snake is constricting us more and more tightly. Then, on the Day of Atonement a mighty sound rings out, a trumpet blast in that 49th year that announces the liberty of Jubilee to come in the 50th year. That atoning blood (of the sacrificed Messiah/Christ) sprinkled on the heavenly mercy seat achieves the redemption of our debt to God and to each other. The Day of Atonement, which is treated as a Sabbath, in this case in the 7 X 7th Sabbath Year, brings the warfare that is part of the meaning of “sabbath/sabat which includes the meaning “put an end to, exterminate, destroy, remove, cease to be”. The number 50 connected to the Jubilee year is represented by the Hebrew letter nun, which means “offspring, multiplying life, descendants, the Heir to the Throne”.

In another portion from this Sabbath’s reading from Jeremiah 32, the prophet Jeremiah, knowing that the LORD has already prophesied that the Babylonians would conquer Jerusalem, which had been under siege for 18 years, and take its inhabitants captive, became the kinsman redeemer of his cousin’s land. The LORD promised Jeremiah that this would not be a waste of his money, but would be part of a prophetic restoration. The inhabitants of Jerusalem would be returned to the land from captivity (this would be according to a timetable based upon the Sabbath), and the land that Jeremiah had paid to redeem would once again be returned to the possession of his family, and all of the land would be inhabited again. He placed the redeemed deed in an earthen vessel to be preserved until that future time (see 2 Cor. 4:7-10).

 

This was a Jubilee prophetic promise. Paul wrote of our Jubilee promise in Christ: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (Rom. 8:16-17). Here is the Jubilee assurance of our eternal inheritance with the Heir to the Throne, Jesus, the Son of God. It is vital to us that Jesus is both the Son, and the Heir because our inheritance comes through Him. He is also our kinsman Redeemer, like Jeremiah, Who bought back with His own body and blood our lost inheritance, which we lost to debt/sin. The debts were canceled in the Jubilee of the Messiah/Christ, and the inheritance was restored as in Jubilee. That coiled snake of chaos that binds us has been exterminated in this extension of the power of the Sabbath.

Before we leave the prophetic meaning of the Jubilee of God, we saw above in Lev. 25, that on the Day of Atonement, which is a sabbath, the trumpet is to sound in order to announce the coming Jubilee. As we saw above, "sound" is the Hebrew word abar, which includes in its meaning "pass beyond, to emigrate, to leave one's territory, to depart, to go over to someone's side." Those who are in Jesus Christ know of another great departure from our present territory to go over to Another's side. Paul wrote: "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord...the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. 4:15-18). In another place, Paul wrote: "...we shall all be changed...for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Cor. 15:51-52). The sound of the trumpet signals the change of our form and our location in order to join Christ's side. This is also a Jubilee for us as we are liberated from the bonds of earth and flesh and into an incorruptible form.

There is more that could be said about the meaning of the Sabbath year, and multiplications of the Sabbath year that impact the fulfilment of the prophetic word of the LORD, particularly in Daniel's timetable of the Messiah/Christ. However, let this be a call to return to the true meaning of the Sabbath and its importance to us in every way. To reduce this powerful tool of God, used to restore His people, to a set of religious rules, or to ignore its meaning altogether in order to substitute our own thoughts and desires is a great shame. Isaiah wrote: "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa. 58:13-14).

If you would like to know more about the sabbath day, sabbath year and Jubilee year, you can join with me in prayer: "Our Father, I want to have a deeper and true understanding of Your Sabbath, which you gave as a blessing to us. Forgive me when I have chosen my own pleasures to pursue on Your Sabbath instead of praying, believing and standing in the miraculous promises of the Sabbath not just for myself and my family but for the eres world. Your prophetic timeline and end time events, including the return of Christ, revolve around the Sabbath. Fill me with Your Spirit and teach me Your Word so I can walk in Your ways. Jesus, You are Lord of the Sabbath, and Your Lordship is of great and mighty things. Show me, great Lord, the great things of the Sabbath, in Jesus' name I pray. AMEN."

Inheritance

The title of this week's Sabbath reading is Ki Tavo, meaning "When you come in", based on the words that Moses spoke to Israel "It shall be when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance..." in Deut. 26. The Israelites were about to cross over the Jordan River from the eastern direction into the land promised to them by God. The situation changes for the people of God when they come into their inheritance, and there are important principles for us to learn, as we also come into an inheritance when we become followers of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote of our being "...heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..." and spoke of "...the glory which shall be revealed in us", and "...the glorious liberty of the children of God...", having "the firstfruits of the Spirit". (Rom. 8:17-23, excerpt). In another place, Paul wrote: "In Him (Christ) also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." (Eph. 1:11-12). We who have received an inheritance from God are called to function at a different level. We will see this in this Sabbath's readings also, because we have "come in". The first thing the Israelites were to do when they arrived in the land was to bring an offering to God. This offering was not to be from what they had brought with them from Egypt, and it was not be what they had planted and grown themselves, nor accumulated during their journey. The LORD commanded: "...you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land your God is giving you...and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide...". (Deut. 26:2). This offering was to come from what they found already growing in their new land, from their inheritance given to them. However, a declaration was to accompany this offering. The one bringing the offering must say before the priest: "I declare today to the LORD my God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us...My father was a Syrian (Aramean), about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which You, O LORD, have given me." (v. 3-10). Then the offering is set before the LORD and He is worshipped, "So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house..." (v. 11). In the third year in the land, the Israelites were to begin bringing the tithe they had laid aside of all of the increase they have received. The offering of the tithe (a tenth) was also to be accompanied by a declaration ending with "I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You hve commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, 'a land flowing with milk and honey'." (v. 13-15), excerpt). As the people further proclaimed that the LORD was their God, and that they will walk in His ways, His commandments, and His judgments, and obey His voice, the LORD makes a proclamation in exchange: "Also today, the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken." (v. 17-19). All of these declarations are made in conjunction with the giving of tithes and offerings to the LORD, and, as we read, the LORD proclaims amazing things over His people in return. Those amazing things sound very similar to what Peter wrote to the Church of believers (see 1 Peter 2:9-10). I must ask myself, then, what I am declaring, if anything, as I bring my tithes and offerings to the LORD. We can see that making a declaration of the Lord's deliverance and inheritance to us is to be a powerful, appropriate, even a commanded, part of our giving. I have received an amazing inheritance from Him. When I bring something to the LORD, I should be declaring that inheritance. An inheritance that first found me in sin, oppression, bondage, darkness, and death, as the Israelites were in Egypt, and brought me into that place of glory that Paul wrote about above - even to the sharing of Christ's own inheritance from His Father! Isn't this worth a declaration or two? The LORD has promised here in Deuteronomy 26 that if I make my declaration while giving to Him, He will make a declaration or proclamation to me. We should be aware that there are expectations of a people "when they come in", and have received their miraculous inheritance. God has given them and us a guideline to guarding and keeping the inheritance that they, and we, have been given. In Deuteronomy 28, another portion from this Sabbath's reading, Moses brought to the Israelites the Word of the LORD: "...if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments...the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth." (v. 1). This is the same declaration that the LORD made to His people previously in Deut. 26. This is part of their inheritance of the land, if they obey. On top of that, the LORD declared: "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God." (v. 2). The LORD then told them of all of the blessings that will manifest in their lives, including the fruitfulness of their own bodies in children. Enemies would flee from before them. "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments...and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you...and the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath (see Jesus' words in Jn. 8:23), if you heed the commandments...and are careful to observe them." (v. 2-13, excerpt). Observing the commandments and voice of God preserves and guards the inheritance which the LORD has given to His people. His intentions were not to bring them to the land, and then set them on their own without His counsel. As we continue in this Sabbath's readings, we will find that this is just the beginning of the expectations, proclamations and miraculous manifestations that God has in store for His people to whom He has given an inheritance. The inheritance includes, as Paul wrote above, the LORD's inclusion of His people in His own glory. This Sabbath's reading also includes specific portions from the prophet Isaiah: "Arise (qum - rise up, stand, come on the scene, be established, raise up, give effect to), shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness (hosek/hasak - darkness including destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness; the dark place of Hades, dark as withholding light, to be surrounded with darkness) shall cover (kasa - overwhelm, hide, conceal, spread over, clothe) the earth, and deep darkness (arapel/arap - thick darkness, heavy or dark cloud, gloom, night, darkness dropping down) the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you...Surely the coastlands shall wait for Me...to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you...And they shall call you 'The City of the LORD', 'Zion of the Holy One of Israel'." (Isa. 60:1-2, 9, 14). The inheritance of glory is not for our sake alone, but in order that the Gentiles and the nations will glorify the LORD also. The inheritance of glory given to us, if we will rise up and stand in it, is the only light that will be available to a world and its people who have been totally swallowed up in a natural and spiritual darkness, even the darkness of Hell. To understand and obediently walk in our inheritance from God through His Son, has grave importance to the world. Paul also wrote of our inheritance as sons of God: "For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing (apokalypsis - a disclosure of truth, appearance, of something previously withdrawn from view but now made visible to all, lighten) of the sons of God...because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption (phthorah- destruction, perishing from defilement, eternal misery in Hell) into the glorious liberty of the children/sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now." (Rom. 8:19, 21-22). We see Paul's teaching again in the Sabbath reading for this week in another selection from Isaiah regarding our salvation inheritance's effect on creation and other people: "...the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing...They shall see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God...Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing (see also the words of Jesus in Mt. 11:2-6). For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water...A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it...And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa. 35:1-2, 5-8, 10). As the ancient order of weekly Sabbath readings was established many generations ago, we can see that the miraculous inheritance from God of the Promised Land by the Israelites also promised and was joined to an even greater inheritance, which would include other people as well. It is an inheritance that transforms from the deep darkness of Hell into the light of God's Glory through Jesus Christ. This is an inheritance well worthy of guarding and keeping as God instructed His people to do with all diligence. If you would like to learn more about this precious inheritance from the LORD of Glory, you can pray with me: "Dear Father, You have promised in Your Word that the whole earth will be filled with Your glory. You have given Your people an inheritance of shared glory with You through Your Son, Jesus. As You gave the land to Israel, You called them to be Your holy people set high above all nations, declaring the inheritance You gave to them as You delivered them out of Egypt and bondage, and into holiness and liberty. I have also received an inheritance of salvation through Your Son, and I declare how You delivered me from deep darkness and death into Your kingdom of marvelous light and glory. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can diligently obey Your Word and Your voice in guarding this inheritance received from You. All creation waits eagerly, and depends upon seeing Your people walk in this inheritance. I thank and praise You in the name of Jesus. AMEN."

Remnant

Often our eyes become focused on the horrible events happening across the world. Right has become wrong, and wrong has become right, and often it seems that the Church is silent. However, this week's Sabbath reading, titled Pinchas, which is the Hebrew version of the name Phinehas, focuses our eyes on something else - the faithful "remnant" of God. No matter how far astray God's people had gone from Him, He assured us in His Word that He always had a remnant, or preserved remainder, who continued to worship Him, remain obedient to Him, and accomplish great things in His name. We will see the qualities that make up the faithful remnant from this Sabbath's reading. From Number 25, we read that the congregation of the children of Israel had begun to join with idolatrous Moabite women. As they joined themselves to these idolators, the Israelites began to worship the Moabite god, Ba'al, instead of the God of Israel. In last week's entry, we read that Balak, the king of Moab, and also the Midianite people, sought out a soothsayer named Balaam, to get him to curse the Israelites for a reward. God did not allow Balaam to curse His people, but Balaam, we find out later in scripture, told the king of Moab how he could destroy God's people from within the congregation by sending the idolatrous Moabite women into their midst (see Num. 31:16). The Israelites would then leave the worship of their God and turn to the false god, Ba'al, Balaam promised the king. Jesus warned the Church that this kind of strategy is still being used to try to destroy the Body of Christ from within, turning the Church away from the Word of God to embrace the lies of men and devils (see Rev. 2:14-15). Once we fall for a lie, we fall period. This is what the Israelites experienced. As they joined themselves to the Moabite women, they also joined themselves to Ba'al: "...the women of Moab...invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to (samad - to fasten to, attach oneself to, to combine with) Ba'al of Pe'or, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel. Scripture later tells us that the god Ba'al also required the sacrifice of living children in fire (see Jer. 19:4-6, Jer. 32:35, 2 Chron. 28:1-3). As a result of their idolatry, a plague broke out among the congregation of the children of Israel. One man dared to bring his Midianite woman in front of Moses and the weeping congregation standing before the tabernacle. "When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel and the Midianite woman, into the tent, and thrust both of them through...So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand." (Num. 25:6-9). The LORD said: "Phinehas...has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My Zeal. Therefore...behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;... to him and his descendants... a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel." (v. 11-13). Phinehas, out of the whole congregation, acted in zeal (qana -jealousy) for God. God allowed the zeal of Phinehas to satisfy His own, and the plague was stopped. A remnant is zealous for God. However, we are not zealous with natural javelins hurled into flesh and blood. The remnant of the new covenant in Christ is a remnant of the Spirit of God. This remnant does not use natural weapons, but spiritual weapons against spiritual powers, and that warfare begins within ourselves, through our obedience. By this spiritual warfare, we "make atonement" for many. This warfare is so powerful that it pulls down evil spiritual powers and strongholds over whole nations (2 Cor. 10:3-6, Eph. 6:11-18). Although this is spiritual warfare, it comes from the same place of zeal within the remnant as the zeal of Phinehas. The remnant is not here to gaze in horror at the trainwreck of wickedness in the world, but to spiritually act in the zeal of God. In another portion of this Sabbath's reading in Numbers 27, five daughters of Zelophehad (meaning "first born"), were denied their father's inheritance because they were not numbered among the men of Israel. As a result of that omission, they came before Moses and stood for their deceased father's inheritance saying: "Our father died in the wilderness; but he was not in the company of those who gathered together against the LORD...Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son?..." (v. 1-4). Moses brought the issue before God and the LORD agreed with Zelophehad's daughters, and commanded that they should receive the inheritance in their father's name. Not only did they inherit, but it became the commandment of God that if a man died with no son, his inheritance should go to his daughter(s) (v. 7-8). A faithful remnant brings an injustice before God, and not only causes the injustice to be changed for themselves, but, as a result of the power of God's righteousness, for many others at the same time. In the same manner, the faithful remnant of the new covenant also stands in the inheritance of the Father's Firstborn Son, Jesus, not only on their own behalf, but on the behalf of many, even all creation (see Rom. 8:16-21, Eph. 1:11-14, Gal. 3:26-29). In another portion from this Sabbath's reading, the great prophet of Israel, Elijah, became overcome with fear and with bitterness against the people of Israel, believing that only he was left to defend the LORD before a wicked, and idolatrous queen and her false prophets (1 Kings 19:10, 14). In bitterness he prayed that he might die, that he had had enough! (1 Kings 19:1-4). It was wrong for Elijah to despise the people, because he was unintentionally despising the remnant in the midst of the people. Although he was a prophet, Elijah was unaware that God had kept a remnant for Himself among the people. God answered Elijah: "Yet I have reserved ( sa'ar- remain, remnant, survive, spare, keep over, to leave as a gift, reserve) seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Ba'al, and every mouth that has not kissed him." (v. 18). The LORD then commanded Elijah to anoint Elisha to be prophet in his place (v. 16). Elijah was to be removed from his position, and, in a miraculous way, he would be called home to God. In the first chapter of Isaiah, the LORD reveals His Word to the prophet regarding the nation of Israel's evil ways and rebellion against God (v. 2-4). As a result, the nation had been stricken with terrible spiritual wounds (v. 5-6). The nation was desolate in the sight of God, with this exception: "Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah..." (v. 7-9). In our despair over rampaging sin and violence, we tend to forget about the remnant of God, and its purpose. However, God does not forget. Their presence in a nation can act as a restraint against total destruction, as the LORD revealed to Isaiah, above. In this case, the LORD directed the remnant into repentance. Would they obey and heed the LORD for the sake of the land? Phinehas made atonement for the people by the zeal of the LORD. In this example From Isaiah 1, atonement could be made by the remnant only through repentance. Do we understand the responsibility and the grace of God given to His remnant? Paul had to remind the smug and prideful Gentile Church that God had a remnant in Israel which He had not forgotten, beloved for the sake of the fathers, called to receive salvation, and that He would keep His promise that "All Israel shall be saved." (Rom. 11:5, 26, 28-29). The hidden remnant in Israel that Paul recognized would act as a seed of salvation for all Israel. Micah 5:7 describes His remnant as being "...like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass..." in the midst of many peoples. God always has a remnant in the earth, although we may not always see or know them. The remnant stands with and for the LORD, and brings changes to the earth. If you would like to know more about being part of the remnant of God, you can join me in my prayer: "Heavenly Father, You have called a remnant in Your Son, Jesus, led by Your Holy Spirit, to stand in the earth among the people and the nations. Show me how to walk as part of Your remnant, zealous in the Spirit, but not warring against flesh and blood, standing for the name and inheritance of our Father, not to consume it upon myself, but for the benefit of many. In these challenging times, help me to pray for the remnant so that we will walk in obedience, wisdom, truth, and revelation. I ask these things in Jesus' name. AMEN."

Inheritance

My Mom repeatedly told me over the course of many years of her concern to leave something for her kids after she was gone. She didn't have much in life, but she wanted to leave something for her children, to be divided equally. The Bible also talks about the desire to leave an inheritance:
"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous."  Prov. 13:22
When we were kids, my Mom went to church and was a participant in the church activities, and we kids went to the traditional Sunday School. After we became adults, she no longer attended church regularly, but she certainly believed in God and Jesus.
Later in her life, I would sometimes bring my Mom to church with me, and she always enjoyed it, especially the music. She loved the pastors and congregation.
One year, shortly before Mother's Day, my Mom had a brain aneurysm that ruptured. It left her in a coma, with the doctors telling me that there was no hope for life or recovery. They sometimes showed their annoyance with the family's decision to give Mom every opportunity to recover. They viewed these decisions as being unrealistic, and prolonging of my Mom's suffering. My pastors and church faithfully prayed for her, and made trips to the hospital. The rest of the family were also always very supportive of Mom throughout the situation, and were involved in the medical decisions. 
After six weeks, my Mom miraculously woke from the coma, but the doctors now informed me that all tests and scans showed that my Mom was irreversibly brain damaged. In fact, they actually used the distasteful term "vegetable" to describe her. The hospital lawyers went to court to have my father made her legal conservator, since she was mentally incompetent. Contained in the hospital's documents to the court were the doctors' sworn affidavits attesting that the extensive brain damage they had discovered in my Mom was permanent and irreversible. My Mom, by necessity, went into a nursing home, where she began to show slow improvement. The staff there, who thought she would not live long when she first came in, called her their Christmas miracle.
About three years later, my Mom appeared before the same court and judge that had established the conservatorship. Throughout her life she had always been well groomed when she went out in public, and this occasion was no exception. There she sat, with her make-up on, her hair done, wearing her jewelry, dressed immaculately, having a conversation with the judge. She told him about her daily routine, how she lived independently, and did all her own cooking, and housework. The judge listened in amazement, and asked her many questions. He said that in his career he had sadly signed many conservatorships for unfortunate people, but this would be the first time that he had the happy privilege of ending a conservatorship. He could see that my mom had recovered, and no longer needed it.
The doctors were right in one small way- my Mom did pass away, but it was twenty years later at the age of 91. She had lived to see three great-grandchildren born.
So did my Mom leave that inheritance that she had always wanted to give to her children? Well, probably not the kind of inheritance she had been picturing. It wasn't an inheritance of money and possessions, but she left an even greater inheritance. She left an inheritance of miracles. Her husband, her children, her grandchild, and her great-grandchildren, witnessed with their own eyes that God does perform miracles. Hopefully this legacy of miracles will continue to be told to many generations yet to come. It cost Mom a lot of hardship to leave us with that inheritance, but our experience that nothing is impossible with God (Lk. 1:37), and that God heals, saves, and delivers from trouble (Ps. 34:17), is an inheritance more valuable than gold or silver (Acts 3:6). Money gets spent, possessions wear out, but the first-hand knowledge of God's unlimited love and power towards us, will never fade away, and will be treasured forever:
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Mt. 6:19-21
Scripture teaches this also about our special inheritance:
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."   Rom. 8:14-18
Like the good man spoken of in Proverbs, our Father has prepared an inheritance for us. It is the same great inheritance that He has given to His Son, because we are His children also.

"You are the God who performs miracles; You display Your power among the peoples." 
                                                                                                         Ps. 77:14

If you have not yet had a miracle experience, I'm sure my Mom would be happy to let you believe and be encouraged by hers, until you get a miracle of your very own.

Our inheritance from our Father is one of miracles!!


"God of Miracles"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpdGTzRXk64