Weekly Pursuit – Week 3 of July
Verses:
1 Tim. 1:18 “This charge I commit to you,…according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might war the good warfare.”
Excerpts:
The book of Numbers as a whole reveals the need of God’s chosen and redeemed people to be formed into an army to carry out the holy war. In order to be formed into a holy army, God’s people must first be numbered according to maturity in life. God’s chosen and redeemed people were also built up into one body. [Then] they journeyed with God.
[They] had the presence of God, signified by the cloud in the day and by the fire in the cloud at night, [and] the Angel of Jehovah took the lead. The title the Angel of Jehovah is a particular title of Christ in the Old Testament. In their journey the children of Israel were moving, walking, and living with Jehovah, the Triune God. This is a type, a picture, of our living as Christians today. Day by day we are moving, walking, and living together with the processed and dispensing Triune God. [They] passed through the great and terrible wilderness. In this wilderness we have all kinds of trials and sufferings, but we also have the divine care and supplies. The children of Israel passed through forty-two stations to enter into rest in the good land promised by God.
As a priestly army, God’s chosen and redeemed people fought together with God and for God. If we would fight together with God and for God today, we must first move, walk, and live with Him and also pass through many things in the wilderness. Only in this way can we be qualified to fight together with God. (Life-study of Numbers, msg. 50)