Right now, I’m reading “Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch, I just started “Organic Church” by Neil Cole, I’m reading “The Horse and His Boy” by C.S. Lewis with my kids, Jeremiah for my Wednesday Donut Bible Study, and selections from John for some discipleship.
I think the first two will fall by the wayside when I close on my house tomorrow.
It’s time to quit reading and start doing.
Levites from Libya
Is. 66:19 ¬? ‚ÄúI will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations‚Äîto Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.
Is. 66:20 And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels.
Is. 66:21 And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.
I read this and I am just amazed.
I get goosebumps and tears in my eyes.
Libyans, Lydians, and Greeks, and other people from the nations WILL BE SELECTED TO BE PRIESTS AND LEVITES.
In the 8th Century B.C., God tells the world that He is going to bust out of Abraham’s ancestry and out of the tribe of Levi and call priests from the nations. That blows me away. I don’t know why. I already know and experience GOD living IN me, so why am I so blown away that we are made into Levites.
I guess because that would have been such a crazy thing for Isaiah to say to the Jews then. That would be like saying I’m going to turn these druggies on the street into the elders and preachers of megachurches. awesome.
It's not about their Honor, but about their Focus
“The world was not worthy of them.”
(Heb 11:38 NIV)
I looked this up, and got some stuff reversed. I thought it was saying that the world didn’t deserve to have these people on it. Like these people were so good that they shouldn’t be here.
It looks like it’s a little different with the Hebrew words. It almost looks like it could be, “the world did not receive praise from them” or “The world was not comparable to them or meriting reward from them”
So that makes me think about things in the world that I give praise to, that I honor and reward with my attention, passion, or time. I’m ashamed to say that the hour I wasted this morning on Youtube was fruitless, but got my early morning attention today.
I don’t think the answer is the stoic, unemotional lifestyle we see from old Jesus movies, but I also wonder if our joy will quadruple when we put it on things that ARE worthy of our praise, honor, and time. I wonder, if I wasn’t ripped off into thinking that a 320×240 pixel movie could be exciting, would I savor the exciting-albeit simpler-aspects of normal life?
A Hut in a Field
Isaiah 1:8 The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege
One time when I was in Central Asia, I went with a friend up to his mother’s house in a village in the mountains. We could look out and see for miles and miles. We looked out over this one big field, I think it was a vineyard. In the middle was a little broken down wooden thing. I asked him what it was.
In the harvest time, there are fields and fields of ripe fruit to harvest and process. They do it all by hand, with minimal machines and minimal automation. They also have minimal security-fences are often made of piles of stones or boards marking a boundary but operating mainly on the honor system (which is a joke in Central Asia!). At the time of the harvest, that little broken wooden thing is a shelter. It’s fixed up a bit and becomes a sturdy place to put a cushion to sleep on and to have a little roof for shade. It’s not fancy or sturdy, but when inhabited by the OWNER OF THE VINEYARD it provided security to the whole place. When inhabited by the OWNER OF THE VINEYARD it helped make the entire vineyard fulfill it’s purpose. When inhabited by the OWNER OF THE VINEYARD that little junky shack was the HQ and base of all operations for that vineyard
But at the end of the harvest, when the fruit is gone, the OWNER OF THE VINEYARD leaves too, and that little wooden deal shows that it really wasn’t sturdy or strong, but it was just what the OWNER needed for that time.
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