One Year Bible Readings and Commentary for Tuesday, March 6th
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Sound the Trumpets
As you have seen, the Lord has used several furnishings in the Tabernacle symbolically to inspire the Israelites' worship of God. Today, we are introduced to the trumpets. The trumpets had many purposes to signal something significant was happening. Importantly, the trumpets were used to prepare the Israelites to pick up the Tabernacle and move. The trumpets called them to organize the Israelites to move toward the Promiseland. Remember there were thousands of Israelites in the camp so this was very helpful in rallying everyone at the same time.
The trumpets were also used as a call to many other important activities including: gathering for festivals, calling the priests to the tabernacle, times of celebration, and a call out to God to help them in battle. The trumpets remind us that God is a God of order and not disorder. God promises to go before us, but we must be in tune with His voice in the ways he has given to us.
The Israelites Begin Their Journey to Promised Land
Israel was now on their way to the Promised Land. Previously, their journey had been from Egypt and slavery; now they set out from the Wilderness of Sinai and were on their way to Canaan and liberty. Guzik
Though the Israelites had been thoroughly trained and prepared for this journey it didn't mean it was going to be easy. The desert of Paran was a desolate place not too far south of the Promised Land and would become a staging area for an eventual attack.
The People Complain to Moses
It only took a few days for the Israelites to start complaining.
We might think it strange that a people so blessed could still complain. God did so much in and for Israel; yet they still murmured against Him. They were still in the wilderness and their circumstances were not easy, but nothing good came of it when the people complained. Guzik
Instead of thanking God for his delivering them from Egypt, they found reasons to complain. It angered God. The fire burned on the edges camp as a symbol of God's judgment. The Israelites turned to Moses for help and God relented. This shows the powerful relationship Moses had with God.
Their first complaint was being tired of eating manna all the time. Some of the foreigners among them mixed in with the Israelites caused a rabble amongst them. Instead of being grateful for being delivered from Egypt, they complained about not having the food they had in Egypt. What a short memory they had?
As the people of Israel claimed to remember their supposedly good life in Egypt, they sinned with ingratitude, selective memory, and twisting the past to justify their present complaints. Guzik
Meanwhile, Moses had his own meltdown with God. How could he please all these people? Why did the Lord create such a burden to weigh him down? He got so overwhlemed that he basically told Lord to take him out of his misery.
The Lord had mercy on Moses and told him to appoint seventy elders from the people, who would help bear this burden with him. Significantly, the Lord told him he would take some of the Spirit he had given Moses and give it to these leaders. It showed how full of the Holy Spirit Moses was that it could be spread among 70 other leaders.
As for the meat, the Lord gave them meat alright. Not just one day. Not just two days, but for a whole month until they gagged. It reminds us of the saying, "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it!"
Having all of these events happen so close to Passover was significant because there would be Jews in Jerusalem from all over the world. Meanwhile the priests and teachers of the Law did not want to do anything to Jesus during this time. Interestingly they feared the people, but not God!
Mary Anoints Jesus
In John's gospel we learn that the woman who anointed Jesus with the perfume was Mary. the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Jesus had raised her brother Lazarus from the dead and this was her response in gratitude to him. As we learn about the perfume and alabastar jar that held it, we realized this was an extravagant act of worship and sacrifice for Mary.
When a guest arrived for a meal, it was customary to anoint the guest’s head with a dab of oil. Here, this woman went much farther than the customary greeting. She poured the entire contents of an alabaster flask of very costly oil on the head of Jesus.
Mary did this without a word. We gather that her sister Martha was quite the talker, but Mary was a doer. She didn’t announce what she was going to do, and she didn’t describe it as she did it. Nor did she explain it after she did it. She simply did it. Guzik
Jesus was so touched by her act of selflessness and sacrifice that he said that whenever the gospel was shared, her act of anointing him would be told. Jesus knew that the gospel would last long after he was gone. He wanted Mary's act of faith and love to be a model for his future followers. While the disciples were indignant about the money that was spent on the perfume, Jesus rebuked them telling them that his time was limited and it was appropriate for her to honor the Son of God while he was still in the world.
As Jesus sat down for the Passover meal, which we know call the Last Supper, it was then that Judas arranged to betray Jesus. Jesus knew it was Judas and allowed it to happen, as he knew it was all part of God's plan. You can only imagine how Judas felt when Jesus said that the betrayer was sitting at the table with all of them. And then to make matters worse Jesus says, "It would have been better for them that they were never born!"
This is a great psalm recording David's contrite heart and sorrow over the adultery he committed with Bathsheba and also ordering the murder of her husband Uriah. We see the depth of his sadness and also how much he missed the presence of the Lord in his life. We see even the greatest king of Israel made mistakes, in this case horrible mistakes.
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