Date of message: 17 January,
2004 Issue
125
Subject: Sanctified By The Word
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
Let us do a quick summary of what we had learnt so far with regards to
kosher foods and read what the Lord told Moses to teach the people in
Leviticus 11: 3 & 9: -
3. Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves
and chewing the cud - that you may eat
9. These you may eat of all that are in the water; whatever in the water
has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers - that you may
eat.
Four principles have been laid down for the children of Israel for them
to distinguish between kosher and non-kosher food and each principle has
a spiritual equivalent. We had reviewed those principles over the past
two weeks and it bears repeating here.
" Having cloven hooves - Rightly dividing the Word of the Lord
" Chewing the cud - Meditating on the Word of the Lord
" Have fins - The Word will teach us to stay away from danger
" Scales - Even though we may be too slow to run away from danger
and get caught, we are still protected from within. Such is the mercy
of the Lord.
The Lord is really gracious towards us. I have not seen this before but
He showed me one more principle recently from the same chapter in Leviticus.
This is found in Leviticus 11: 32: -
"Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be
unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever
item it is, in which any work is done. It must be put in water. And it
shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean."
It is amazing; earlier in the chapter we are given instructions on what
to avoid and then up comes this verse and it tells us that even if the
children of Israel were to come into contact unintentionally with any
dead animals, they were to wash themselves in water and remain unclean
until the evening.
Why unclean until evening? Would not the person or that thing that had
been contaminated be clean immediately after a good wash? Why then must
there be a wait until the evening? The day starts for the Jews at sunset
and it has to do with how God recorded for us His creation. Genesis 1:
3, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31 tells us, 'so the evening and the morning…'
Man counts the day from daybreak (although officially the day starts at
midnight) and it ends in the night signifying what he can achieve during
his waking hours. But God always chooses to look at the opportunities
ahead and improves on them. For Him, it is always from darkness into light.
And why water? God chose water as the cleaning agent and rightly so. To
date no one has found a better cleaning agent than water. Granted that
alcohol and spirit-based products are good cleaning agents but we need
to recognize that without the water, these liquids would not have come
into existence as well.
Water in the Bible always symbolizes the Word of the Lord. The apostle
Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 5: 25 - 26: -
25. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and
gave Himself for her,
26. that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by
the word.
Each day we need the word of the Lord to sanctify and cleanse us. We have
been washed (the Hebrew word is actually translated as bathed) in the
precious Blood of the Lamb and what further action we need daily is the
sanctification of our walk with Him. Therefore whenever we fall into sin,
we will go to the Word of the Lord and allow the Word to sanctify us.
Jesus, in His high priestly prayer on the night He was betrayed, prayed
for His disciples and for us in John 17: 15-17: -
15. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that
You should keep them from the evil one.
16. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
The word of God can sanctify us (keep us separate from the world) and
we should run to it each time we blew it. How does the Word sanctify us?
The written word of the Lord basically confirms what the spoken word tells
us and they point us to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Therefore
we need to be reminded that all our sins have been forgiven when Jesus
hung on the cross and thereafter there is no more condemnation for us
who believe.
The children of Israel had to wash and then wait until evening to be declared
clean. But for us, praise the Lord, we are washed in the Word of the Lord
and immediately we are clean; there is no more need for the wait. The
Word of the Lord tells us that Jesus died and when He rose from the dead,
that day became a new day for all mankind. Our clean state begins immediately
and it is permanent.
My friend, have you received the Lord Jesus into your life? I encourage
you to do so without further delay - invite Him into your heart and He
will immediately come into your life and make it His throne. It is not
a difficult thing to do; all you need to do is to believe and receive
Him and you will immediately join the ranks of being children of God the
Father. Jesus died for us so that we can have His eternal life as an exchange.
Because He died and took away our punishment, we need not go through that
again; otherwise that would tantamount to a double jeopardy. Our Father
is a Righteous God and He will honor His Covenant with His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord.
My friends, one day, after all the Christians have been taken home to
be with the Lord, and should you by any chance be reading this article,
be assured that Jesus loves you so much that He already demonstrated His
love for you on the cross. He died that we may have life in abundance.
Pray this simple prayer to invite Jesus into your heart and immediately
you will experience His peace coming your way.
Our Heavenly Father, thank you that You loved us so much that You sent
Your only Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, to die for all our sin and
to be raised from the dead so that we can be forgiven of all our sin and
now we are set free. You did this for us even before we were born; such
was Your love for us.
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into my heart and for giving me the Holy
Spirit to be my Friend and my Guide. Thank you that the Holy Spirit is
with me constantly reminding me of my very special position as a child
of God the Father. Thank you that as Your child, I can now start enjoying
all Your blessings for my life - Divine Healing, Divine Health and Divine
Life in You. Thank you also for the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit
brings along with Him and for imparting those gifts into my life.
Thank you Lord Jesus for what You had accomplished for us on the cross
and because You were raised from the dead for our justification, I am
now eternally forgiven of all my sin, greatly blessed among all men, a
highly favored child of God, deeply loved by the Father and completely
protected in the Lord and in the most precious name of Jesus Christ, Yeshua
Ha' Mashiah, I pray. Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal challenges but that you can
obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your
own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together?
You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father,
for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith.
It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these
blessings right now; you do not need to wait until you reach heaven and
there is more from where they come from.
And, my friend, continue to exercise the gift of praying in tongues and
with the usage, more gifts of the Holy Spirit will be imparted to you.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24-26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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