For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Rom. 9
We are physical beings. God, though He created all that is physical, is a Spiritual Being. So how does a spiritual, eternal Being communicate His plan to physical, time-bound people? He gives us physical representations of spiritual concepts. This goes along with what I talked about yesterday, where the physical requirements of the Law are merely representations of the spiritual conditions of our hearts. The Law was never about the physical acts. The physical acts of the Law were only important to His people because they are the physical representation of God’s true children. These are the “children of the promise” Paul refers to in verse 8. The promise is Jesus Christ who, being both fully man and fully God, bridges the gap between the physical and the spiritual. This is something the Jews’ physical connection to Abraham cannot do.
Num. 3-4
Describe the work of the Levites. How would it feel to belong to God as a Levite? As the Israelites are to the rest of the world – God’s chosen people – so the Levites are to the rest of the Israelites. They, too, are a chosen subset. God said, “I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine” (Num. 3:12). They represent the redeemed – those who were passed over in Egypt because they were covered by the blood of the lamb. Thus, the Levites represent us, as God’s redeemed.
The truth is, we do belong to God in the same way that the Levites did. Their job was “to do the work of serving and carrying the tent of meeting” (Num. 4:47b). Consider that God’s tabernacle and everything in it, like the more permanent temple, is a representation of Jesus Christ. In that sense, the tabernacle is the gospel message. Isn’t our job to do the work of serving and carrying the gospel message, which is embodied in Jesus Christ, God’s Son?
Ps. 26
Can you pray this prayer? If not, what needs to change? Only Jesus can pray this prayer, because only Jesus led a genuinely blameless life. So to me this is another example of David’s Messianic prophecy. But it goes beyond simply describing Jesus’ life and deliverance from death. It shows that, because of Jesus’ life and deliverance from death, David and all of us who put our trust in the LORD can pray this prayer through Him. Together, we make up that “great congregation” (vs. 12) whose feet have been placed on the level ground of Christ, our rock, and who praise the LORD.