Sing & Gather

In back of the whole thing. I look through the verses that we've chosen, we're going through a semi septennial twice and 7 years cycle of readings. Why do we do this? Dearly church? And most likely went through this same or similar cycle of readings. Jesus taught his disciples for about three, three and a half years, which is half of a seven-year double cycle. So if you think about what that means, Jesus would have taught his disciples one entire Torah cycle. And what did they teach? They taught Torah. The five books of Moses, they went through it in three and a half years. They read the readings from the prophets. which is the half to run after, I mean some the Fulfillment, the

completion. So you read the Bible verses from the Books of Moses. and then as Jesus did in the, in the synagogue in Nazareth, East it up and read from the scroll of Isaiah that have to run and it closed the Torah reading for the day and they had a very finessed Kind of teaching style then they all knew what they were going to be reading. They all knew I was going to be taught. They knew the scriptures, but they didn't know where the teacher was going to go with it. And some people have accused me of that here.

Guilty as charged on. Yeah, well I know where I'm going. At least I think I know where God is taking me but in Nazareth they were pretty astute. They understood what he was saying? And when he told him that there were, they wanted him to heal in there town and he said, no, I'm not going to heal here. And he talked about the, the Widow and the, the leper, the not. Now I'm on the general and then he said, he was moving on and they knew where he was going because they were very astute. And when he began to teach, they knew he was accusing them. I'm not being God's people and that made them angry and that's why they tried to kill him but that's buried in the text. So it's kind of hard to get that out. Unless you follow what the method of teaching that they used to use them, but we're using the same cycle. And so I'm going to be reading from the prophet which is the completion of the Torah. The Torah is like we live in a fallen world with all kinds of problems and God is still here, and that's good, but the prophetic reading promises something more. Something more and that's what we've been talking about all day these miracles. Something more. And so we talkin about the song of Moses. How many songs of Moses are there? At least three. Four or five. We'll get there and then we'll read one of the songs which is arguably another song of Moses innocence. And I'm going to make a reference to Psalm 104. For those of you who remember, my teaching on Berea, my apologies in advance, and then some New Testament verses The New Testament. Bottom line here is. Praise God for what he's doing. Praise God, for the Miracles, he has performed. Praise God, for his salvation. Praise God, for everything. He's done. The Exodus Jesus on the cross, everything, Praise Him for everything.

Everything. And what's left? Gather. So these are the two main themes of the week, this singing a great song and what that means and to gather in the Harvest Gathering what God wants gathered in. So begin, if you don't know Hebrew, I apologize. But Hebrew kind of goes from the right to the left. And this is the first word in the Bible. It's bereshit that's like a bee. And it goes this way, bereshit. And so, all we have to do is see the the first word and we go. This is like a one-way sign go this way. I'm sorry. Go that way. I was going the wrong way. Go that way. Like a one-way sign like a one-way street sign is only one way to go. When you encounter the Bible forward, go forward in your reading, the Bible and this this letter B, also teaches us an interesting thing, you can see that it's closed on the top closed on the right and closed on the bottom. So that actually teaches don't worry too much about. What's up there? If you spend too much time trying to figure out what's up there, you're not where you're supposed to be, you're supposed to be reading it this way forward. Go forward in your life, don't go backward, don't go up, don't go down, go forward in your life. You don't have to worry about what's before you. But we know what's before be what's before be? Hey. What's, before bait? Aleph, aleph, bais gimmel. That's the Hebrew aleph bet. From which we get the word alphabet in a comes before B. And so on and you don't have to worry about what's down there. Because all you have to do is go this way. So in a very short time, we've taught about God created where created in His image was supposed to read forward in the Bible forward in our lives. We don't need to worry about. What's up there? What's behind the past? We don't need to worry about what's down there. We just need to move forward in our lives. What a wonderful little word. First sheet, bereshit in the beginning. God created. In the beginning. That's one way to read the word. The other way to read the word is for the first ones. In the first, for the first ones God, created the first ones.

Adam and Eve for Adam and Eve. God, created the heavens and the Earth. If nothing else happened, that's why I created it all. But we were also born And so we can read into this that for the first fruits. God created Christ is the first fruits resurrected from the dead where the first fruits. So you could say, God created for his first fruits. Which happened to be you and me. Praise the Lord.

That's a lot on one word.

Before he created. Okay, we're not supposed to talk about that right before. Here I am violating my own principal. Not that unusual.

I'm I'm not alone a whole lot of people have asked this question. They don't worry so much about what's happens. What happens like, or what? Hell is like, but they think a lot of it before. God created the did he did he did he know what he was doing?

And a lot of people believe you didn't a lot of people believe, God had no clue. So he did a creation and he checked out and saw what it would fail or succeed and it failed. So I created again at garbage. This is garbage. God knew what he was doing before he did a single thing, he knew where he was going, he knew we would say he knew That would be a need for salvation. He knew he would die on the cross one day. He knew he would be resurrected, he knew he would Ascend to Heaven. He knew there would be a marriage Feast of the Lamb. He knew all this before he created a single thing. Before he created. So before he created,

That the teaching goes that he was wondering, how should we create shall we create entirely by Mercy? Or shall we create an entirely by Justice if we create by Justice? No one is going to be able to stand. Everyone's going to be struck down. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us this And yet. We're Not Dead.

Why not? Cuz he didn't create but just us alone. Barbie created by Mercy. Anyone could get away with anything they wanted. They could kill each other. They could do whatever they wanted there, be no problem. There be no. No issues Mercy's. No good. If you have mercy without Justice, you don't have real Mercy.

You have a lie. so, it said, We will create by both, we will create by merge with mercy. And with Justice, we will create with good and we will create with evil. We will have this balance between good and evil. Why good and evil? Because there needs to be a concept that if you do the right thing, there could be a reward. And if you do the wrong thing, there could be a punishment.

Do I have any parents in here? Who disagree with that principle?

No, I'm so surprised. We don't have any purely merciful parents in here.

Reward or the absence of reward, maybe not punishment. But the absence of a reward and then, shall we create with the idea of establishing our kingdom? Or we shall, shall we create with the idea of destroying the evil?

Are there any balance this Justice and mercy, good and evil are in balance and why is this? Well, if you get behind the whole thing, you kind of have to say good is the presence of God.

And we would say, okay well then the opposite, the antonym. A presence is.

Absence of God. Is there any place God isn't? So, that's impossible.

Evil is not the absence of God evil is the awareness, the non awareness of God's presence. If you aren't aware, got his present in your life, that's evil. If you're weird, God is present in your life. That's good. So, evil is the non awareness of God's presence. We should be aware all the time that God is present, we should expect him to be present in our lives. We should expect instruction from him. May be very quietly spoken but it should be expected. Evil is the non awareness of God's Presence, Mercy and Justice. So, here's a, here's a challenge in the Hebrew. It's just, it's just the way it is. Shall we create with Mercy or Justice? Well, the connector there is

It's easy word to say. Yep means and Orbitz. or then, or so, or

or, or, or

Right. Or, or Mercy and Justice, it can also be read Mercy or Justice, Mercy than Justice, mercy. So Justice Mercy, but Justice and all these are true. All these connectors are valid. It's not the one is, right? And the others are wrong, they're all correct. And that's okay. One of my

Most, I don't like it. Translations is the law was given through God, but mercy, and Grace was given through Jesus Christ. And they they imply by that, that God was a vengeful God in the Old Testament and Jesus changed all that. No. and, What God did in the Old Testament. Jesus did in the New Testament.

it's not, but it's and I have the caveat that because some people say there's nothing new in the Old Testament is just commentary on the Old Testament and I appreciate that idea and there's value to it. But, and I mean, but Maybe I'm very confused now.

But where was I going?

Nothing new in the New Testament. There are new things in the New Testament.

It. It there's some radically different things that happened in the New Testament that are not in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not just a commentary on the Old Testament. There are new things. There's many new things in the New Testament, but new may not be mean what we think it means. Completely, we'll get there. So we were talking about the establishment of God's kingdom or the destruction of evil. Moses has two songs recorded in the Bible. This is the first Deuteronomy 15 and they had just come from Egypt. And this is in almost every old understanding of the of that song. Are they? They stack the words like interlocking bricks? Never tried to knock down an interlocking, brick wall.

It's kind of hard. It's a wall if you? Yeah. If you drive into a wall with your car, it's not a good thing. It might stop you. Write Deuteronomy 15, here's second song. Deuteronomy, 32 low, they're not interlocking. You can see this just by looking at the text. I mean, it's pretty crazy. You're looking through the problem going. That's different.

That's different. And you look at these two things and you go what's different? What's different is a Deuteronomy 32? The scholars teach. This is about the destruction of evil.

This is about the establishment of God's Kingdom. God, establish his kingdom at the sea. And Moses said, so, He called it a kingdom in the song. But at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses says it's coming down, evil is going to be destroyed and that's good news right here in Dayton. No, I'm not that guy. I'm not that kind of justice. So, here's one of my favorite talmudic stories. Where is one of the greatest rabbis of all time? Probably third, maybe of, all of the talmudic scholars, roughly second-century, 120, 130 140 ad. He's well-known, he's well recorded throughout the talmud rabbi Meir had some unruly men who are giving him great trouble. The Hebrew word is born. He had a lot of Bohr's giving him trouble, why it's boring? I don't know, but it's I think it's a cool word and he he said, one day let those Sinners be consumed from the Earth. But the wicked will be no more. I want them dead. God. Get them dead. Now we pray. This prayer sometimes. Which might not be a good prayer to pray. We're supposed to pray for our enemies. We're supposed to love our enemies. We're not supposed to be vindictive and angry and hostile in violent and want them dead. It's not good. So, Rabbi Muir's wife. Now, you kind of have to remember when they were reading is 148 G, this isn't, this is before they had Val marks, so they didn't know what connected the letters and they were various spellings, you could use different letters to spell different words and all the, all the words were smashed together with no spaces. So when you're looking at Hebrew, that's smashed with no, no telling you how to pronounce it, you're reading it and you're going. What is this? What word might this be and so Rabbi mirror said, Sinners, be consumed and his wife. Maria Albury is a pretty famous woman. She is revered as having even though Rabbi mere has is one of the greatest rabbis who ever lived his rulings are considered higher than his women.

I should hear a Alleluia or so. And and men should also say, praise God. Sometimes my wife is more right than I am. There we go. We've got a repentant sinner in the row.

I'm kidding, Joe.

His wife. Maria. Read the verse differently. Let's Sims be removed from the Earth. And let the wicked men. Be no more. And so she told him, pray for these guys, that you don't like pray for these enemies that are messing with your head that are bothering. You pray for them that they and Below no longer Wicked. If if they repent and are no longer Wicked and sin, no more sins will be removed and wicked men will be no more and so he prayed for them and they repented This is Mercy and Justice. He wanted Mercy for himself and Justice against the Sinners. She wanted Mercy to Prevail over all. I love that story. Tally, words, the things that link these verses with the Torah to the haftorah, the Books of Moses to the prophetic. Are called the tally words are linked words. The words that come up means more, we're going to be having some songs today. Some, Psalms means more, I thought it was used more than this. It's only used 57 times in the Bible, all in the Book of Psalms and apparently, it's a particular kind of song. Apparently, it's a accompanied song like with trumpets and liars and everything else. It isn't just a song, it might be a big deal song. So the 57 times, it's used might be big deal. So, we're going to be reading one of those today sheer, which means, song schirra, which means song or sing, where is the root kind of and all the sheer raw? She wrote all those things are related, LeConte means to gather to glean. In the Harvest to gather in the Harvest Asaf is to gather another word which will come across. So those are the connectors that's how we get from the Books of Moses to the prophetic. And that's also how we go from those books into the New Testament. So we go through the Septuagint, to figure out what Greek words, work with this. Why do we do this? We do this very simply because this is an ancient cycle. Number one. Number two, When you begin studying this you realize in three and a half years, you've covered everything you can possibly cover. With some nuance and you're going to cover it again with different nuance. And next three and a half years and after that you're going to cover it again and with more nuances. So it just it's kind of like does your church have a Bible study on financial management

Yeah. When does schedule? once every three and a half years, at least, could you tell me when it is? I'd have to figure that out. If you come every year every week you'll get it, you'll get everything you need in 3 and 1/2 years. Anyone who's been through Torah study, raise your hands. If you're even remotely in agreement with this idea that you get everything you need within about three and a half years. okay, we have like three people

I failed to make my point.

Should have been a resounding.

So here is the Torah than Moses in the people of Israel sang. This song to the Lord sing I will sing To the Lord, for he is trained gloriously. The Horse and Rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength. And my song, he has become my salvation and this is my God, and I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him all. That is glory and mercy and praise the Lord. God is a man of war. Kind of shifted from Pure praise here, beginning to imply some justice going on. The Lord is his name. And we know that Pharaoh's Army was thrown into the sea, and every year, at Passover atsuko pesach. We we we remove the drops from the wine. to remember that, all these people died, All these plagues took place. It's sad, but it had to happen. And I I would be remiss if I didn't, I didn't quote this first who is Like You O Lord among the gods. Make a mocha Bailey Madden. I, this is in response to pharaohs me. Yahweh who is the Lord. I don't know who he is.

So Moses says, who is like unto thee O Lord no one is like you.

Pharaoh wasn't aware of the presence of God. Ignored, it Moses wasn't. So here we are back on that same principle. Psalm 98. it begins with pure joy, pure Mercy, pure Glory, pure good stuff to the Lord, a new song that word new Is cut. Like hot. Shah.

I'll tell you more about that later for he has done marvelous things his right hand in his holy arm of work salvation for him, his right hand and His holy arm at work salvation forms. That's written that he did the plagues with a finger. But by his arm, he brought them out. So bringing them out of Egypt, took more of his strength, might power, whatever, then all the judgement on the gods of Egypt, judged all the gods of Egypt. With his little finger kind of like, but when he brought them out, he brought them out with his whole arm. His arm have work salvation form. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the side of the nation's, he is remembered. His steadfast. Love has said, and faithfulness, and met to the house of Israel. All the ends of the Earth have seen the salvation of Our Lord, Make a Joyful Noise unto the Lord. All the Earth Break Forth into joyous Sound song and sing praises. All good stuff. Second part, sing praises to the Lord with the larval, are in the sound of the melody, with trumpets in the sound of the horn, Make a Joyful Noise before the king, the Lord, let the sea Roar and all the feels it the world and those who dwell in it, let the rivers clap their hands. So this begins with people praising God.

And then nature joining in. All of Nature's joining in the sea is roaring. You can hear the sea roar like a shofar blast and the rivers will clap their hands. You ever been by a river or by the ocean and her. If you listen long enough, you'll hear a lot of them. Water when it hits water. Kind of sounds, just like that. It's beautiful to think that Nation nature joins in. Let the hills Sing For Joy together before the Lord. All good. Why should they do this? Because he comes to judge the Earth.

That doesn't sound happy.

He will judge the world with righteousness of the people's with Equity. It is happy But we have to think about why it's happy. It doesn't seem happy, God is it when someone says all the Old Testament just teaches that God is a angry judge and the New Testament teaches that God is a loving man. A loving person in the yeah. You're right. But you don't understand. God isn't that simple? He's not. It's both and it's the have to go together. If they don't go together, you got neither one. Mercy and justice for God to be a merciful god. He must also be a just God. He must be So that concludes that part of the sermon. when the people of Israel thought they said to one another, what's that?

That's what they said.

Mama.

That's why it's called Mana.

What's up? How do we know it means what's that? Because they didn't know what it was.

They said, what's that? We don't know what that is. And he says, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. Now, is this bread like bread? Can they eat it like bread? Apparently, they can, they can cook if they can bake it, they can or what they can do. Different things with it. They can do all kinds of things that tells you all those instructions later, they can eat it like bread, they can do all kind, I can make pancakes with it.

What's it taste like? Well don't know. My favorite joke of the of the year now is Mariah. She said Frosted Flakes.

She's right. That's right in the Bible.

I said it was probably like a Eggo waffle tasted, like an Eggo waffle. I don't know. I have fun and God said Gather it LeConte gather at each. One of you. As much as he can eat. You shall each take an Omer according to the number of persons that is each of you has in his tent. But if you didn't, if they didn't take enough, they gotten over if they took too much, they got a number. And Brian was saying it's kind of like Commandments. With training wheels. If you don't do it, right, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, Commandos with training wheels. I love it. so, We're going to talk about beating out the grain between the Euphrates in the Wadi of Egypt. Now, what did I say about the prophetic readings?

They're the completion or the. It begins with a F. Fulfillment of what?

Of the Torah. So, the Torah is giving us bread from heaven. And the prophetic reading is talking about beating out the grain all the way from Euphrates, all the way across the Egypt, which is pretty much the known world. At the time. Beat out the grain, all over the world Gather in the Great Harvest. Gather this all in, you will be gathered. Wait, you're Gathering the Grain and you will be gathered. Wait, are we the Harvester or are we? The Harvest Ed? Yes, where the harvested grain and where to become the Harvesters to bring in more green, more green, more bread. for the world war bred for The world's for, for us for God. One by one people of Israel. On that day, a great shofar will sound now, on that day. When you read on that day in the Bible, General, it means that day. It doesn't mean any old day. It means the day when the Lord comes through, save and redeem and judge, it's going to be a great and terrible day, great day. if you love the Lord and you're walking according to what he's telling you to do, and I'm not saying strictly, I'm saying humanely He will recognize your feeble attempt to honor him and he will honor you. On that they're great shofar will sound and the lost. Even those who are lost in Asher. Asher is Euphrates. Ariats Asteria. The big Kingdom of Assyria, I sure will, and also those scattered throughout the land of Egypt. And they will worship out of my, the lord of the most. Holy name of God on the Holy Mountain in Jerusalem.

Gathered. Janitor.

Gather the manor.

God will beat out the Grain and you will be gathered. And you will be gathering. I would never have connected, Manor. With the final Harvest.

Before I thought of this. It's a promise of the final Harvest. You could almost say man is a prophetic promise of what's coming. In the far distant. Hopefully not too far distant future. Gather don't scatter. Jesus continues to teach. These are all Jesus verses Jesus put a child beside him saying whoever receives this child. In my name, receives me, whoever receives me, receives him who sent me John, ask someone was casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him. He wasn't with us and Jesus said, don't stop him. He was not against you is for you. Those who are not with me, or against me those who do not gather with me or scattering I want you to be gathering with me. Gather in the people. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Help them to see the Lord help them to recognize God is in your life that the Living God isn't some way present with you. Record, help them to recognize that, God is present, help them to recognize.

Did not knowing god is present, isn't a very good thing.

They know he's present but they kind of ignored sometimes.

Do not stop him for No One. Who does a mighty work in my name? Will be able to speak evil of me. The one who is not against us, is for us. Amen.

I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will not lose his reward. We are the body of Christ, whatever we do. For him. He will recognize and we will receive some reward. Hey man.

New Brit hadasha. So we read. Haha. Shah of the New Testament readings. Every week, this comes from Jeremiah 31:31. I had no idea when I got into this movement, that that's where it came from. I really didn't. And I would ask people and they go, I don't know, I don't know what that means. I don't know.

well, I was reading one day and Hebrew, that's the only way I've come across it and it's in Jeremiah 31:31, which is emblazoned on John shuffles, license plates in case you forget the verse

Is this? Always has been New. Covenant means new. Or renewed, I lean toward the renewed, not just new replacement for the old, but renewed expand more, Fuller, understood appreciated. So I think this is a key thing to understanding the new song. And earlier we we went back to

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Same word. Hot Dog Shoppe. I heard a song from heaven like a sound of Rushing Waters and like the sound appealing Thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpist playing on their hearts, they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living beings and the elders and no one could learn sing the song except the hundred and forty four thousand or whatever. That number is who have been ransomed from the world. I don't know what that song is but I know, I will know how to sing it when it's sung.

I know, I will know how to sing it when it's song. This is revelation 14, very next, chapter Revelation 15, 234 I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Those defeating the Beast its image and then the number of his name. We're standing by the sea of glass holding Hearts, which God had given them. Sounds a little bit like this.

They were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, great and wonderful are the things you have done O Lord. God of Heaven's armies. Just and true, are your ways King of the Nations? You did Rob hey, who will not fear and glorify your name because you alone Are Holy. All Nations will come and worship before you for your righteous Deeds, have been revealed. This is the same song.

of Exodus 15 of Deuteronomy, 32 of Psalm 98, It's the same song. It's like an ongoing continuous how to show renewed expanded song but it's not always necessarily completely different. I've actually got into an argument at a Bible study know Rob those aren't the same song Those are different songs. This is a new song, no one knows the words. There's these are the words. Who agrees with them?

Who thinks I might never mind.

I don't know. The Lord is coming. This is a picture of Lucy and Ethel and I apologize if you not read The Chronicles of Narnia, but a little bit on it, when is a lion, a great lion, who created the world of Narnia and he defends the world of Narnia against any wrong.

The White Witch or whoever she is, can't can't look at him because he is so good and he knows she knows. He will destroy her easily. If anything goes wrong and the people of knowing you're who trust him, trust him and they know he's a good

God, kind of in the Fable that this book is about.

But Lucy's talking with mr. Beaver, one time she's going to meet a slang for the first time. And she says what he's a he's a man. Isn't he? And and Mr. Beerus's. No no. He's a lion. And she says, but he's you know to tame right? She goes, no, he's not tame.

At all.

But he is good. when we think of God as a tame God, we do not understand. We do not appreciate. The death of those who will die, who have died. Because of evil because of their rejection of him. We do not understand if we think God is a team. God, he's not, he's a wild. God powerful. Very good.

Hi.

Reflecting on this this week, this this picture kept coming to my mind. The Lord is coming.

Not a lion, not a slam. The Lord is coming. He's coming. Why does he have to come? He's coming to seek and save and redeem the Lost.

In this life and I think even in the world to come in some sense, I don't understand that he's coming to restore and to renew our lives. If we have wounds, if we have sicknesses, if we have diseases, if we have any problems, he's coming to help us with those things. He's coming to gather in his Harvest. He's gathering in the Harvest and to heal the nation's, he's coming to bring it into death and two evil. He's coming to establish his new Heaven and new earth. And he's coming to place his word in US, Written on our hearts. We will not need teaching because his word will be in us, even more than it is. Now, it is in us, but it will be even more in us when he comes. He's coming to forgive and even forget, the Bible says our iniquities, our shortcomings, and even our sins, he's coming to dwell with us in our midst, and he's coming to establish his physical Kingdom on Earth. He's got it all covered.

We don't have to do anyting.

Nope. What's left for us? We have to allow him to encounter us. We have to recognize God is present.

When we recognize God is present.

We kind of have to. Be with him. In some way.

I can't explain that. I can just say allow him to encounter you. He will encounter you.

Pray that you will recognize his presents. We need to receive him as our Lord Savior and King. If you haven't received Jesus as your lord, good idea to do that.

If you need someone to talk to and pray to about that, who is willing to be available? Raise your hands, several people. So if you want to share with someone you need to meet the Lord, any of these people including me consider what he's done. He's done many things throughout the history of the world. People say God didn't do that much, you know, recently. Okay. What would the world be like without? Christ, without Christians.

I don't think it would be here.

So, the world exist. Because of us. God created and God in doors in allowing creation to continue because we're here doing some of his work. Speak the truth. In love his truth in love speak it. Speak the truth but speak the truth in love. When you're when you're sharing something with someone ask yourself. What's the fruit of this conversation? Going to be? If the fruit is good, it's good. If the fruit is not good, it's not good. It's pretty simple speak. The truth in love

Make sure that. Good fruits. Going to be possible know that you are part of his Harvest and Sharon bringing in his Harvest. Be his ambassadors and his emissaries. And celebrate and sing about him and celebrate and sing to him. And that's it. That's the whole thing for the week.

Any questions?

Good love you all. Thank you very much.

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