OT DAY 240 - Compassionate and Justice God (Please click here for English podcast)

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

        
          But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
         slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

                                  Psalm 86:15

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Numbers 35:1-36:13)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers 33&version=ESV

“The cities that you give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities. 7 All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be forty-eight, with their pasturelands. 8 And as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, shall give of its cities to the Levites.”
9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. 12 The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. 13 And the cities that you give shall be your six cities of refuge. 14 You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. 15 These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.
                             Numbers 35:6-15

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     The book of Numbers ends with two chapters showing God is a compassionate and justice God. Compassionate and Justice are so difficult to go together. Let's learn and follow the example of our compassionate and justice God to be compassionate and justice. 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     The asylum cities are six of the forty-eight cities where Levites live. Presumably the Levites are there to manage a local worship centre which is in itself a telling fact. Often the Old Testament is negative about local worship centres and assumes that Jerusalem is the only proper place of worship. Yet people will need local places of worship. If six of the Levitical cities are asylum cities, it implies that people involved in worship ministry are also involved in the administration of justice; they are to see that the asylum system works in a proper fashion so that people who go there really are under God's protection, but also that God is involved in resolving the case…

     The book's last chapter returns to the five feisty women…Like many decisions, the one concerning the women's case involves several principles that need to be safe guarded, and the men point to one that was not taken into account earlier. When the five marry, implementing the idea that they can inherit imperils the allocation of the country to the twelve clans. So they need to be required to marry within their clan.    

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.95-96.

       The cases of the asylum cities and the five women might not be able to apply to this modern world. What is important is the principle: God is compassionate and justice.

       If you are closer and closer to God each day then you would also be compassionate and justice. Right?  

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead us to follow your good example that we can be more and more compassionate and justice.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you agree that our God is a God of  compassionate and justice? How can compassionate and justice go together? Have you experienced that before?

2. Could you be more compassionate and justice? How?

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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