PASTOR ANDREW MORGRIDGE

 

We ended last message looking at the contradictions in the society and the church system saying emphatically that God expects us to still intercede despite this. How this is possible are the things I want to address.

Last week we entered the Holy of Holies and looked at the dressing of the High priest. Emphasis was laid on the chest – the breast plate.

The Breastplate

The breastplate was square, and also embroidered with gold. On it were twelve different, sparkling, precious stones, set in gold, with the names of the twelve tribes engraved in them.

Precious stones are the most beautiful products of the earth and often they have an immense value. Here, unlike those on the shoulders, every name is engraved in a separate precious stone.

The former were of the same type, but here we have twelve different stones. Those symbolized the nation as a whole; with each name engraved on a separate stone.

Note Precious stones set in gold – that’s how God sees His creation – since our jurisdiction goes beyond Israel – the Church.

(2) Still confirming caring for one another to escape judgment

(a) The Jubilee inclusion Lev 25:9

The biblical requirement is that the Jubilee year was to be treated like a sabbatical year, with the land lying fallow, but also required the compulsory return of all property to its original owners or their heirs, except the houses of laymen within walled cities, in addition to the manumission of all Israelite indentured servants.

Leviticus agreed that the Jubilee existed because the land was the possession of Yahweh, and its current occupiers were merely aliens or tenants, and therefore the land shouldn’t be sold forever.

Midrashic sources argue that the Jubilee was created to preserve the original division of land between the Israelites tribes, as evidenced by the rabbinical tradition that the Jubilee should not be imposed until the Israelites were in control of Canaan.

Leviticus also states that the Israelites were servants of Yahweh, which classical rabbis took as justification for the manumission of Israelite slaves at the Jubilee, using the argument that no man should have two masters, and thus, as the servants of Yahweh, the Israelites shouldn’t also be servants of men.

(b) The fasting inclusion Lev 23:27

Fasting is not just an event. It is a lifestyle of self denial.

Fasting shows dependence on God.

(c) Forgiveness is also found in the woman of Tekoa – 2Sam 14.

Atonement – in harmony with someone. Atonement implies you have been forgiven.

According to Justice Oputa “Justice is not a one way traffic. It is not justice for the appellant only. It’s not even 2way traffic. It’s a 3-way traffic; Justice for the appellant, the deceased, the society whose social norms and values have been broken and desecrated by the criminal act.

Derived from Taqa – 3 meanings

(i) Thrust a weapon into someone (Judges 3:21)

(ii) Drive locusts into the sea (Ex. 10:19)

(iii) Blow a horn or trumpet (Josh 6:4)

(iv) Clap hands in joy – Ps 47:1 or in a pledge Job 17:3

The name Tekoa means Trumpet, the instrument that unites people at a sudden impulse. Jer. 6:1

Root meaning of pitching a tent so that it does not fall

Rev 1:6 – The spirit of David shall revive at the end. This goes beyond PRAISE to the lifestyle of David – The Spirit is the real person.

(3) Dead to self.

Then there is also the death to self that makes you to serve those with contradictions, also found in the High priest doing atonement.