Daily Dose of Hope New Hope

Daily Dose of Hope
May 28, 2024
Day 3 of Week 9
 
Scripture:  Numbers 1-2; Psalm 64; Hebrews 11
 
Welcome back, everyone, to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that goes along with New Hope Church’s Bible reading plan. Today, we start the book of Numbers, we spend some time in a Psalm, and we continue with the book of Hebrews.  Let’s get started!
 
Let’s start by talking about the book of Numbers.  Keep in mind, God’s people were in Egypt for over 400 years.  God has been camping with them at Mount Sinai for over a year, teaching them how to relate to him and to one another.  Remember, God is forming a set apart people and it hasn’t been easy.  Now, he is planning on taking them on a long journey toward the land he promised their ancestors.
 
Before they leave Mount Sinai, however, God orders a headcount, a census of sorts, to number all the people.  This is what we read about this morning.  Spoiler alert:  all of these people will die (we will get to that in later chapters) and then God will count the next generation.  All this counting gives the book its name – Numbers.  Beyond the counting, the book of Numbers will teach us about the Israelites’ difficult journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. 
 
Keep in mind, we are only in year two of the journey.  If you know much about Israel’s history, they wandered in the desert for forty years.  Why so long?  Well, that’s what we will learn over the next few weeks.  Also, take a moment to look at a map.  It really isn’t very far at all from Mount Sinai to the promised land of Israel.  So, y’all, they really did simply wander. 
 
Let’s move on to our psalm.  I know we haven’t spent a lot of time on the psalms.  I hope you are still reading through them or even singing them, as that is how they were originally meant to be communicated.  Today’s psalm is a Psalm of David.  It’s a psalm of safety and protection.  David goes into the lies and schemes of his enemies.  They think they know better.  They think they have the upper hand.  But what they will soon discover is that God always has the upper hand.  God will avenge him and the enemies will be defeated.  It’s obvious that David is speaking these words from experience.  Can you relate?
 
Hebrews 11 is a great chapter.  It could be called the “Hall of Fame of Faith.”   The chapter begins with these two famous verses, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”   The author is writing to a group of Christians whose faith was waning.  They were dealing with a great deal of persecution and adversity and many were beginning to drop out of the faith.  So, the author begins this passage on the importance of faith.  Faith isn’t something flimsy, but it’s strong and provides a solid foundation for our lives. 
 
Then, the Scripture says, “this is what the ancients were commended for.” The author begins to tell stories about real human beings who had this kind of intense, life-changing faith:
-He speaks of Abel, who because of his faith brought God the better offering than Cain.
-He speaks of Enoch (the great, great, great, great grandson of Adam) who lived a very righteous life that honored and pleased God. It was because of his faith that he sought to please God and he was one of only two people who did not physically die but was taken directly to heaven.
-He speaks of Noah, who had significant faith to build a massive ark just because God told him to. The people thought he was crazy. It was only because of his tremendous faith in God that he persevered and we know the rest of the story.
-He speaks of Abraham and Sarah. He really spends some more time on them.
 
Keep in mind he is speaking to Jewish Christians so these are amazing fathers and mothers of the faith. He wants to remind them, look---there are others

Daily Dose of Hope
May 27, 2024
Day 2 of Week 9
Scripture: Leviticus 26-27, Psalm 112, Hebrews 10
Welcome to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church five day a week reading plan.  If you can believe it, we have made it to the end of Leviticus.  I would love to hear some of your big takeaways.  Let’s get right to our Scripture for today.
Leviticus 26 is a chapter of blessings and curses.  If you obey the covenant, you will be blessed.  If you don't obey, things won't be so good for you.  But we tend to think of things in terms of individual obedience.  These blessings and curses were for the nation of Israel as a whole.  If the entire nation was faithful and obedient, then the rain would come and the land would be fertile.  This did not mean that one faithful man would get rain on his land and his unfaithful neighbor would experience drought.
So what is the application for us today?  I think this chapter hints at how we have a tendency to forget God in times of prosperity.  When life is good, when we are getting along with our spouse, when the bills are all paid, when there is plenty of food on the table, we don't focus much on God, despite the fact that he is the one who has provided us with all these good things.  It typically is when things are really hard that we go to God and plead for help.
This chapter also speaks to another truth.  When we find ourselves in sin, we can confess to God and receive forgiveness.  While we aren't the covenant community of Israel, we are individual Christ-followers who have a unique relationship with the living God.  Because of Jesus, we can go boldly before the throne of grace and ask for forgiveness for our individual sins.  I don't believe the blessings and curses apply to us like it did the ancient Jews but we still reap what we sow.  Thus, when we have messed up, we need to fall on our face before a holy God and ask for restoration.
And now, let’s talk about the final chapter of Leviticus.  To make a vow meant to make a promise to God voluntarily; it was not done in response to a rule or any kind of divine requirement. Someone might make a vow to dedicate their child to God during a time of crisis, or possibly out of extreme gratitude, or even out of a sense of calling.  This did not mean their child would work in the tabernacle (that was for priests), but they followed these guidelines as a way to consecrate their child to God. People were assigned a value based on age and usefulness to society as a whole.  We could probably spend a lot of time talking about why women were valued less than men but for now we will have to settle on this-it was a different culture, a different time, in a highly patriarchal society.  While we don't assign monetary value to individuals (thank goodness!), we certainly do consecrate ourselves and even our children to God. The word consecrate simply means to make something sacred by dedicating it to God.  As Jesus followers, we are called to consecrate our whole lives to God. This means our whole life, every single part of our existence, is dedicated to the Lord and his work in the world.
Let’s talk about Hebrews 10.  The author of Hebrews is speaking about why the New Covenant is so much better than the Old Covenant.  He starts off by saying that the old law was simply a shadow of the good thing to come. He reiterates the sacrificial system and its inability to deal effectively with sin.  Then, we hear a quote from Jeremiah 31, a prophecy made 600 years before the time of Christ.  At a time when all seemed dark and hopeless, God promised a new covenant that would be written on the minds and hearts of people rather than tablets and scrolls.  
This new covenant, God promised, will eliminate the constant sacrifices at the temple and God will truly remember their sins no more. And it’s the very Spirit of God that testifies to this! It’s the Holy Spirit that assures

Daily Dose of Hope
May 26, 2024
Day 1 of Week 9
Leviticus 24-25; Psalm 81; Hebrews 9

Daily Dose of Hope
May 23, 2024
Day 5 of Week 8
 
Scripture:  Leviticus 21-23; Hebrews 8
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading plan.  We are getting close to the end of Leviticus.  Stay the course!  We are almost there. 
Our first chapter in Leviticus discusses the rules for priests. As the people's representatives before God, they were held to some pretty hefty standards regarding holiness.  The high priest, as the one person who walked into the holiest of holies (where the presence of God dwelt) one day a year, had even stricter lifestyle guidelines to which to adhere.  While I am sure it was an honor to be a priest, it was also a heavy responsibility. 
 
Christian leaders are also held to a higher standard than the average churchgoer.  There is something special but also a bit fearful when we lead others in the faith.  In our context, a leader's character is critical.  Paul details the requirements to be an elder in the early church; it meant being a person with high integrity.  Church leaders are supposed to be good examples to the flock they guide.  Check out I Peter 5:2-3.  Too often, we have seen public Christian leaders fall from grace, damaging the lives of all those involved in their scandals and damaging the Kingdom at the same time.  Your leaders need your prayers.  It can be a stressful and heavy load.  Pray that they can walk close to God even when (especially when) things are tough.
 
Chapter 22 concludes the section that details the rules concerning priests.  "Keep my commands and follow them...I am the Lord, who made you holy and brought you out of Egypt..."  What was the priests' motivation to follow all these various rules that God instituted regarding the priesthood, including what they could eat, who they could marry, how they could behave when a loved one died, etc.?  This was the God who led them out of slavery in Egypt!  God was their deliverance and that motivated their faithful service. Of course, our motivation is different. We probably don't think much about the Israelites being delivered out of Egypt, but we do find motivation in the cross.  We serve a God who voluntarily died for us so that we could be reconciled to a holy God.  His amazing love is our motivation for Christian service.
 
Our last chapter of Leviticus for today details the appointed feasts that God instituted for his people.  These were national celebrations, during which the people of God renewed their allegiance to God.  For the most part, the religious feasts coincided with the agricultural seasons.  I do hope you have read through the chapter and gotten a feel for the religious festivals.  I would suggest you pick one or two and do some deeper research online. These are fascinating! God truly cared about his people, their well-being, and their dedication to him. 
 
What's interesting to me is that the Sabbath is considered the primary, foundational religious festival.  I guess I've never looked at Sabbath that way, but it was the most celebrated feast (once a week) and it was the basis of all the other feasts.  It was so important that it was included as part of the ten commandments.  The reason I picked this particular feast on which to focus is that we as a society truly struggle with it.  How many of us take one day every single week and set it aside for rest and focusing on God?  I'll be very honest-I am terrible at this!  Since Sunday is a work day for me, I've always said that Friday or Saturday is my Sabbath.  However, it's very tempting to simply work through these days too.  It needs to be done, right?  As I sit here and think about how Sabbath was the foundational religious feast, I'm really convicted.  While I'm not legalistic and I do believe that things are different on this side of the cross, I still think that God designed us to take times for rest.  When

Daily Dose of Hope
May 22, 2024
Day 4 of Week 8
 
Scripture:  Leviticus 19-20; Hebrews 7
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading plan. 
Let’s start with Leviticus, chapter 19.  This includes a list of various laws that illustrate a lifestyle of holiness.  These are laws that demonstrate that being holy isn't simply about how we interact with God but itis most seen in how we live our lives in community.  Holiness indicates separation; the Israelites were to be separate and behave differently from the cultures around them.  While holiness was often seen as religious piety, how they obeyed and worshiped God, it is clear from this chapter that God also saw holiness as being lived out in how people cared for one another. This valuing of human life separated the Israelites from the people around them. 
As Christ-followers, we often think that holiness is something that was required of God's people long ago.  But living a life characterized by holiness is still an important attribute of God's people.  In Romans 12, the apostle Paul urges us to offer our whole selves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  In I Thessalonians 4, Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to live holy lives.  I Peter 1 says to be holy is all we do.  
What are we to make of this?  How does this connect to the Old Testament passage we just read? As previously mentioned, God was forming a holy nation, a people that behaved and looked different from the pagan nations surrounding them.  In the same way, God calls us to behave and look different from the people around us.  If we are blending so well into the culture around us that people don't know we belong to Jesus, then we've got a huge problem! I want to be clear, as Jesus-followers, we aren't supposed to separate ourselves from the world.  We need to be in the world to shine the light of Jesus, to be in the world but not of it.  We are to seek a life that reflects the holiness of Jesus Christ; to live with integrity and Godly values, to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, to love and care about others.  These things will naturally separate us from our surrounding culture and people will take notice.
Chapter 20 is filled with some very serious regulations.  Most, but not all, are related to sexual relations.  The penalty for sexually deviant behavior was usually death (although there isn't a lot of evidence that the death penalty was actually carried out as a result of these offenses).  To our twenty-first century, post-resurrection sensibilities, this all seems very severe.  But I have to keep returning to this point: God was forming a holy people, a nation that was so very different from the pagan cultures around them, a group of people who valued the God-given gift of creation.  Anything that even slightly resembled the pagan people groups around them, things like child sacrifice, incest, or the occult, was absolutely detestable to God.  His people were set apart.  God still calls us to be set apart. While we have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ, we aren't supposed to abuse our freedom.  There are still standards of behavior for God's people.  It was never the plan for us to blend so nicely into our culture that no one would know who and whose we are.  How are you set apart?  What kind of changes may you need to make to live a life characterized by holiness?  Spend some time in prayer today.
Let’s move on to Hebrews 7.  In this chapter, we see that the ideal qualities of a high priest are found in Jesus and Jesus alone.  What are the qualities?   First, the ideal high priest exemplifies holiness. Jesus is totally holy and without sin.  Second, he was set apart from sinners.  He is blameless, innocent and free from any kind of moral contamination or weakness.  He did not need to constantly make sacrifices on behalf of others.  Rather, he was

Daily Dose of Hope
May 21, 2024
Day 3 of Week 8
 
Scripture:  Leviticus 15-17; Psalm 31; Hebrews 6
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the daily devotional and podcast that complements New Hope Church’s daily Bible reading plan.  I know that we are getting into some of the drier parts of Leviticus.  Stay with me.  God will honor your dedication.
With that, let’s get into our Leviticus passage for today. The first chapter we read deals with abnormal male discharges and normal and abnormal female discharges.  What a fun chapter!  According to the law, when a woman had her monthly period, she was unclean for seven days.  Whatever and whoever she touched would also be considered unclean.  At first, I had a tendency to be put off when I read this.  What do you mean a woman is unclean because she's on her period?  She has no choice in this matter!  But after I thought about it a bit, I wonder if this wasn't a time of respite for women.  In a world where they worked constantly caring for children, cooking, and cleaning, there was one week a month during which they removed themselves from the world and got a little break.  Other women probably stepped up and cared for their families.  Then, they would care for the children of these other women when it was their time of the month.  What initially appears punitive may in fact be healing and restful. 
Chapter 16 details what is called the Day of Atonement (the contemporary name for this Yom Yippur).  This was the one day of the year in which the high priest would enter the most holy place, also called the holiest of holies, in which God's presence dwelt.  He had to engage in some pretty elaborate purification rituals and sacrifice many animals in order to atone for the sins of the people.  While we may see this task as an honor from our modern vantage point, the reality was that this was a pretty scary time for the high priest.  He had to do everything just right.  He was going to be in the presence of the Lord and if he didn't follow instructions properly, there was always the risk of being killed, which was what happened when something unholy came into contact with the holy.  This was serious business.
I just can't read this chapter without thinking about Jesus.  Why?  Because when the high priest went into the holiest of holies, probably shaking in his boots, his rituals and sacrifices atoned for the sins of the people for one year.  Then it had to be done again the next year and the next and the next.  Besides that, there were sacrifices that had to be done on days in between to atone for other individual sins.  Because humans are sinful and mess up a lot, these acts of atonement were a constant in the lives of the Israelite people.  Jesus put an end to all of it.  Jesus was the "once and for all" sacrifice that ensured all these other rituals and sacrifices could cease.  The perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God, voluntarily sacrificed his life on a cross so that our sin could be atoned for forevermore!  And now, we don't have to be scared to enter the presence of God.  God welcomes us boldly to his throne of grace.  We may still be a broken mess, but God doesn't see that.  Rather, he sees the atoning work of Jesus.  The blood of Jesus covers us and that makes all the difference.
Chapter 17 begins what scholars call the holiness codes for the Israelites.  These are the everyday ways that they were to seek holiness, to be set apart from the surrounding cultures and nations.  On the surface, it looks like this chapter is more instructions on where to do their sacrifices and what food to eat, but it is really about not sacrificing animals to demons (the goat idol), violating the first and second commandments. 
 
Apparently, the sacrifices made in open fields rather than the tent of meeting tended to be for the purposes of idolatry.  This was about worship of the one true God.  It's easy for us to say that we don't sacri